TWiB Notes -- April 14 thru 20

[Frayed Knot]

-- They're off and slugging in Philly where the 11-4 Giants are in for a series.

Philly scores three in bottom 1st, Gants counter with Six in top 2



-- Braves are up 2-0 in their opening game in Toronto



-- Nats will start the week in Pittsburgh while the Marlins host DBacks, both of those series start on Tuesday.

[Frayed Knot]

Spencer Strider made his first start for the Braves since his 2024 season ended one year and 11 days ago on account of [CROSSOUT]a sprained mustache[/CROSSOUT] an elbow injury.

Somehow his elbow surgery sidelined him for 53 weeks while NYM pitchers all need two full years. Must be the vegetarian diet. Or, y'know, a deal with the devil.

But anyway: 5 innings, 97 Pitches! 2 ER, 5 H, 5 K, 1 BB, 1 HR. Braves trail 2-0, bottom 7th in Toronto

[batmagadanleadoff]

Jorge Lopez, released by the Mets last season after throwing his glove into the stands following a Mets loss was suspended by MLB for throwing at several Pirates and insitigating one of those baseball scenes where all of the players clear their benches to slow-trot onto the field and stare at each other for a bit and then probably trade recommendations about where to get the best chili in town.



[media=youtube]ehyFBlpWcSI[/media]

[Frayed Knot]

So Lopez throws gloves, throws at hitters, and tries to get guys to throw punches.

He's just not throwing a baseball very well at the moment: 10.57 ERA; 1.696 WHIP



Apparently a couple of Nats had been hit the previous game so he took it upon himself to retaliate.

The HBP of Bryan Reynolds might have been OK/call it even. But that one he sailed over McCutcheon's head, not so much.

The only guy who seemed to be looking to mix things up on either side was, perhaps not surprisingly, Tommy Pham who's with the Pirates this year (so far anyway).

[Frayed Knot]

Phis & Giants wind up splitting their four game series.

SF romped to two wins (over Taijuan & Nola) while the Phils scratched out their two.

[Frayed Knot]

Could have done without the daily dose of leadoff walk, but otherwise well done Edwin.

[Frayed Knot]

Aaron Judge goes 1/4 plus a walk tonight (no, it was a single) which causes his BA to plummet down to .400 and sends his OPB crashing down to .518

[Frayed Knot]

Cubs led the DBacks 2-1 heading into the bottom of the 7th at Wrigley this afternoon ... and held on to win 13 - 11

- first the Cubs tacked on 5 in bottom 7th to lead 7 -1

- Snakes came back with TEN in top 8 for an 11 - 7 lead

- Cubs then counter with six in the bottom half



HRs ARZ: E. Suarez (GS); Gurriel Jr. (3R), both obviously in the 8th

HR Cubs: C. Kelly (2 - 2R & Solo); Happ (GS); K. Tucker (2R); S. Suzuki (Solo)



It's like one of those days where the wind was blowing out at Wrigley, but for only about a 45 minute span.





Arizona became only the fourth team to lose a game in which they scored ten or more runs in one inning.



ARZ 8th: Single - Single - Single - Grand Slam (4) - =#FF0000]Line Out - BB - Single - WP - =#FF0000]K - IF Single (1) - =#0040FF]Double (2) - BB - 3R HR (3) - =#FF0000]Line Out

[Frayed Knot]

1-0 Dodgers in bottom 8th in Texas

deGrom: 7 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 7 K, 1 BB

Yamamoto: 7 IP, 0 R, 5 H, 10 K, 0 BB



Tommy Edman led off the game with a HR





JdG on the short end of a 1-0 game. I think I've seen that movie before.

[Frayed Knot]

Cool!



I briefly tuned into the Yanx/TBR game prior to our tilt and quickly saw the Yanx turn 3-1 lead into a 6-1 lead in the top of the 4th. No point in following that one, I thought.

Turns out the Rays countered with three of their own in bottom 4 but it stayed 6-4 until the 9th when the Yanx made it 8-4 ... so even if I had been following I would have

stopped again. So imagine my surprise when I just now found that the Rays tied the game with four in the bottom of the 9th and then got the 'only in the Manfred-era'

two-run leadoff HR in bottom 10th for the win!



Double Happiness!!

Braves currently tied early in their game vs the Twins so a TH condition still possible.

[Frayed Knot]

SD's Luiz Arraez, the second batter of tonight's SNB game, bunted and ran HARD into Houston 2Bman Mauricio Dubon covering 1st and went down in a heap.

It's been at least 10 minutes now and the medics are just now loading him onto a stretcher, complete with neck and back braces, and now on a very slowly moving cart for transport off the field and eventually out of the stadium.

[Frayed Knot]

Arraez, being evaluated further in Houston Methodist Hospital, is “stable, conscious, responsive, and able to move his extremities.” according to a statement released by the Padres.

[Frayed Knot]

In other Sunday news:



- the Marlins scored 1 in the 7th, 3 in the 8th, and 2 in the 10th to beat the Phils in their series finale.

Never hurts to have an extra game cushion (+2) when starting a series against your nearest rival.



- Reds thumped the Orioles 24 - 2

Reds scored 0 - 1 - 7 - 2 - 2 - 0 - 3 - 5 - 4 on 25 hits plus 11 walks ... ouch!

Charlie Morton was the starter for Baltimore

[whippoorwill]

Frayed Knot wrote: Arraez, being evaluated further in Houston Methodist Hospital, is “stable, conscious, responsive, and able to move his extremities.” according to a statement released by the Padres.

Yay!

[batmagadanleadoff]

Kodai Senga is leading the NL in Wins and in ERA.



Clay Holmes is third in K/IP and is the only qualified pitcher yet to give up a HR.

[MFS62]

No mention of the "lost home run" by Judge because of the lack of a good video replay in the minor league ballpark the Rays call home?

Then I'll happily mention it.

Oh, wait!

I just did.



Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

The 1st place Mets now have a four-game lead over the second place Phils. No other 1st place team has a lead larger than 1.5 games -- and only one team at that -- the Cubs.

[Frayed Knot]

4/22 (almost 23)

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: 4/22 (almost 23)

Posted like that in a prior week, too. The event I posted about happened on Sunday (4/20) , so I posted it in that week's thread, even though my post was in the new week.

You wouldn't put a book about World War II in the Korean War section of a library if the book was written in 1952.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Frayed Knot wrote: - Reds thumped the Orioles 24 - 2 Reds scored 0 - 1 - 7 - 2 - 2 - 0 - 3 - 5 - 4 on 25 hits plus 11 walks ... ouch! Charlie Morton was the starter for Baltimore

The Reds have a lot of great pieces and may be for reals this season if they can fill a few hole-type things. Presumably, Christian Encarnacion-Strand will eventually turn a corner, but it is an open question as to how long they will wait for him.



It will also be interesting to see if this is the end of the road for Ground Chuck, who is off to an impressive 0–5 start.