O-o-T-S -- Weekend Edition

[Frayed Knot]

Nats, once up 9-zip on the Braves, are holding on to a 9-8 lead and the Braves have the first two on in the 9th against Clippard.
And now Ross Ks for out #1

[Edgy MD]

10-9 Braves!!

[Frayed Knot]

And Bourne triples in two runs and the Braves are up 10-9
I don't know who I should be rooting for here, but it is nice to see the Nats start to run into bullpen problems lately.

[Frayed Knot]

And now Danny Espinosa HRs off Kimbrel to tie it with one out.

[Frayed Knot]

Phils and Marlins both lost, so the eventual winner of the Nats/Braves game (currently tied and headed for bottom 10) gains a full game on everyone in the division.


Yanx down 1-0 in the 3rd in Oakland after losing last night. I think that was Oakland's first win over the Yanx since like 1991 or something but it did spawn comparisons of the payrolls; you know, the one where the entire A's lineup doesn't add up to one ARod bi-monthly take-home pay or something.

[Frayed Knot]

Braves eke out the win with the help of a Zimmerman error and a passed ball followed by a bloop over the drawn-in infield on account of those first two miscues.
Chad Durbin then did what the nominal closers failed to do, toss a 1-2-3 inning for the save.



Other 1st-v-2nd matchups this weekend included the Tigers, behind Verlander, drawing to within a half-game of the ChiSox with a 4-2 win.

And Anaheim is leading Texas in mid-game although they're six games back so could only make a small dent unless they sweep.


- Thome passed Sosa to take over 7th place in career HRs by hitting his 610th

[Ceetar]

Yanks lose, after their "swing as hard as we can in case we hit it" offense nets two to tie. walk-off loss.

[Frayed Knot]

Yanks lose, after their "swing as hard as we can in case we hit it" offense nets two to tie. walk-off loss.

I didn't stay up for the end of this, which sounds like it spared me first the frustration of watching the Yanx tie it with two swings of the bat while the A's were leaving scoring chances on base all night (14 LOBs in total) but then I missed the part where I get to watch the Yanx walk off the field with heads hanging.


Oakland's actually having an interesting season out there. Five games over .500 after hitting a low of eight games under on June 1st, they're almost certainly not going to win their division but they are right in the mix for the WC race to the point where they might actually be buyers at the trade deadline.
And they're doing all this with a line-up that's half anonymous, especially to those of us in the east:
Last night they trotted out:
CF - Coco Crisp (2012 salary ~ $6 mil)
2B - Jemile (younger and considerably smaller brother of Richie) Weeks (<500K/min wage)
RF - Josh Reddick who they got for dealing Boston their closer - who promptly got hurt (<500K/min wage)
LF - Yoenis Cespedes, their high-priced Cuban import over the off-season. Looks so far like it's money well-spent. ($6.5 mil this season as part of a 4-yr/$36mil package)
RF - Seth Smith, off-season deal with the Rox ($2.4 mil)
1B - Brandon Moss, 32 combined ABs with Pirates & Phils over last two seasons. Called up last month (<500K/min wage)
3B - Brandon Inge, Tiger cast-off. (2012 salary is $5.5mil but I'm sure Oakland is only paying min wage)
SS - Erik Sogard, Who? (<500K/min wage)
C - Kurt Suzuki ($5 mil -- no wonder they want to trade him)

So that's about $23mil for their starting nine hitters last night, or about equal to either of the Yanx corner infielders and maybe $90mil or so less than the hitters the Yanx usually trot out.

Meanwhile their pitching staff is entirely under 30 except for like two relievers and they've now held the Yanx to just 5 runs over two games (3 of the 5 via HRs of course) and have the lowest staff ERA in the AL.
Last night Tom Milone, one of the guys they got from the Nats in exchange for Gio Gonzalez, shut the Yanx out for seven innings.

[Ceetar]

My take on the Yankees is that they have a lot of "swing as hard as you can" guys that are perfect for their park (like Ike's go-ahead HR last night would've been out there) but usually works fine in other parks too. (Except Jeter who is mostly a squib single because the ball takes weird bounces and for some inexplicable reason infielders don't play in. Probably because he's also really good at flicking the pitches into short outfield. They probably should pinch in at the corners. anyway.) And since the entire lineup is full of them and there is no pitcher because they play by kiddie rules, the odds are in their favor that they'll get that one big damaging blow they need. This is why they lose when they don't hit home runs, or only hit one-run home runs because the opposition doesn't walk anyone.

[Frayed Knot]

Ceetar wrote: This is why they lose when they don't hit home runs, or only hit one-run home runs because the opposition doesn't walk anyone.

Well, the Yanx draw more than their share of walks and hit plenty of HRs with runners on (they have 6 Grand Slams, for instance, despite only 17 total hits with the bases loaded).

Basically what they've got is a lineup full of guys who are at the stage of their careers where they are now strictly HR swingers. It works despite the lower BAs they're accepting (esp ARod. Martin, Andruw) because everybody in the lineup plus several of the bench players all do the same thing so they know someone will eventually come through even if it takes two strike-outs in the interim.
I mean look at freakin' Ibanez; the guy's 40 years old, is hitting .240, but has nearly 50% of his hits go for extra bases.

Their runs scored as a result of HRs pct is up over 52% at this point. It's like dealing with a line-up full of idiot savants.

[Frayed Knot]

The Cubbies ran into a spot of trouble yesterday.
It was a scoreless tie in StL until the bottom of 7, when ...

** Germano Pitching **
Freese - infield single
** Russell replaces Germano **
Jay - Bunt pop-out
Craig (pinch-hitting for pitcher) - Double
Furcal - Single
Schumaker - Triple
Holliday - Walk
Beltran - Double
Molina - Int Walk
Berkman - Pop Out
** Corpas replaces Russell **
Freese - Double
Jay - Double
Craig - Double
Furcal - Walk
** Mather replaces Corpas **
Schumaker - Double
Holliday - Double
Beltran - K, but reaches on a wild pitch
Cruz (pinch-hitting for Molina) - K

That's 12 runs on 3 walks and 10 hits, including a record seven doubles.
Final score: 12-0

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Oaktown pitchers are pitching like somebody stuck a firecracker up their butt in the last month. And Cepedes totally owns Hughes. Hilarious considering MFY could have signed him at the end of last season. First time the A's have taken 3 straight from the Janks since 06. Incidentally we're gettin so much coverage of the A's here this year, I feel I know the team intimately.

[Ceetar]

Frayed Knot wrote: Ceetar wrote: This is why they lose when they don't hit home runs, or only hit one-run home runs because the opposition doesn't walk anyone. Well, the Yanx draw more than their share of walks and hit plenty of HRs with runners on (they have 6 Grand Slams, for instance, despite only 17 total hits with the bases loaded). Basically what they've got is a lineup full of guys who are at the stage of their careers where they are now strictly HR swingers. It works despite the lower BAs they're accepting (esp ARod. Martin, Andruw) because everybody in the lineup plus several of the bench players all do the same thing so they know someone will eventually come through even if it takes two strike-outs in the interim. I mean look at freakin' Ibanez; the guy's 40 years old, is hitting .240, but has nearly 50% of his hits go for extra bases. Their runs scored as a result of HRs pct is up over 52% at this point. It's like dealing with a line-up full of idiot savants.

sure, they do draw walks, but when they don't they lose. It's no surprise they were only okay in the cold weather and once summer got here they got hot as hell (And oh look, Oakland ain't hot?) with the ball carrying more in the summer. With the weather cooling off in Sept/Oct and their old fogies wearing down after a whole season...struggles on the horizon?

[Frayed Knot]

The Second Spitter wrote: Oaktown pitchers are pitching like somebody stuck a firecracker up their butt in the last month.

Yup!
Three straight Oakland rookie starters (Griffin, Milone, & Parker) have held the Yanx to a total of 3 runs on 18 hits and one walk over 22 innings.
In Saturday's game, another rookie (Doolittle) got his first ML save by K-ing Teixeira, Cano & Jones consecutively following a leadoff 9th inning single from ARod.

[ashie62]

Professional hitting afterthought Jason Kubel , who Twins would not re-up..

Has 20 hr 70 rbi for the Dbacks

[Frayed Knot]

The A's didn't go with a rookie pitcher today (just the opposite actually - Bartolo Colon), and they didn't totally shut the Yanx down like the first three games (MFY jumped out to a 4-0 lead), but that didn't stop them from completing the four-game sweep!!

They even flipped the tables on the Yanx by chipping away at the Yanx early lead with three runs against Sabathia including 2 HRs.
After 6.2 IPs by Colon, three Oakland relievers held the Yanx scoreless on 3 hits over 5.1 IPs.
Then a Seth Smith one-out HR in the 9th off Soriano tied it.
Then a Coco Crisp two-out single in the 12th won it.


Hey, if I'm going to be miserable over our sweep then I'm going to balance that by reveling in the agony of someone else's.

[Edgy MD]

Wish that worked out to an even balance, but yeah.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I have to say, when the Mets are playing like shit I lose almost interest in baseball and miss too many events worth celebrating like this.

Onto Seattle, MFYs!

[Frayed Knot]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I have to say, when the Mets are playing like shit I lose almost interest in baseball and miss too many events worth celebrating like this.

I tend to also - that's why I like to pick out a few events that I do know about just to keep my mind on the sport but off the local mess.

Like:
Miggy Cabrera hitting his 300th yesterday as part of the Detroit Tiger sweep of the Chicago Venturas which vaulted them into 1st place AL Central
There were actually lots of sweeps this past weekend, including Boston losing three to Toronto and crashing back into last place.