You just can't figure out baseball Suzyn ...

[Frayed Knot]

... you just can't!



-- San Diego was dead last in all of MLB in offense averaging barely 2.5 R/G (that's bordering on like all-time suck)
Miami's Jose Fernandez went into last night allowing a total of 13 runs over 7 starts (1.74 ERA)
So naturally the Pads smacked him around for 6 runs in 5+ innings all via 2 Jedd Gyorko HRs (2R + GS).
Gyorko was hitting .146 going into last night's game.




-- The lowly Cubs were not only down 2-1 to the Braves in Atlanta last night but were getting 1-hit in the process.
But that didn't stop them from tying it up against Craig Kimbrel in the 9th.
So in the bottom 10th after Heyward leads off w/a walk and steals 2nd, the Cubs elect to walk Justin Upton to get to Freddie Freeman.
We now bring in Garrett Morris to comment for the hearing impaired listeners out there: THE CUBS OPTED TO WALK SOMEONE WITH THE WINNING RUN ON 2nd BASE IN ORDER TO PITCH TO FREDDIE FREEMAN
Freddie predictably hit the first pitch he saw into CF for the game winner.



-- Good thing that Yu Darvish no-no was broken up by David Ortiz w/2 outs in the 9th because it would have been bullshit otherwise.
An untouched pop fly (also by Papi) was ruled an E-9 in the 7th inning when the 2B & RF took too much for granted and got their signals crossed. Making matters worse was that Texas's 2B was rookie call-up Rougned Odor* playing in just his 2nd ML game. Welcome to the major leagues kid, you just helped blow your pitcher's no-hitter.
That's now two no-hitters that Darvish has lost with 2 outs in the 9th.

* No, that's not misspelled. The 20 y/o Venezuelan apparently pronounces it along the lines of ROOG-NED OH-DOOR

[Frayed Knot]

BoSox scored 5 in the top of the 1st in Tampa off of David Price, but managed to give back the lead by the 5th inning.
They're still tied at 5-5 as the Rays bat in the bottom of the 15th having not scored in 10 innings, the Sox have been shut-out on 2 hits over the last 14 frames.

[Frayed Knot]

And the Rays win on a single followed by two straight misplays by the Sox.
9th straight loss for Boston, now 8 games below .500 and in last place on the season.

[Edgy MD]

Anybody have any ideas who is going to make a move in the AL East? Because I'm having trouble believing Toronto is for real.

I mean... Mark Buehrle --- God bless his inning-eating soul --- is 8-1/2.16. Anybody think that's sustainable?

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Does seem topsy-turvy. I just figure that some team is going to go on a hot streak, and they'll end up winning the division. In 2013, the AL East had four teams over .500, and this year it looks like they could finish with four teams under .500.

[Frayed Knot]

Heading for the 1/3 mark that division is almost upside down from what many would have expected. Division as a whole is slightly under .500 but mostly they're just beating up on each other and treading water otherwise.
Going into tomorrow: Toronto - Yanx - Balt - Rays - Sox


Other things few would have predicted at this point of the season:
At or above .500: Minnesota, Seattle, ChiSox, Miami, Rox, Brewers
Under .500: Texas, BoSox, Pirates, Nationals, Rays

[Fman99]

Baseball isn't complicated at all, John! It's simple, like the love of a fine wine, or a good book, or getting dry humped by Rick Cerone in the back of Chrysler Impala after drinking several gallons of malt liquor.

[Frayed Knot]

So the O's and Brewers are tied up in the 10th last night (after the Brews had scored w/2 outs in the 9th to tie it).
Brewers batting in the bottom half, 2-out/none on, and Three-True-Outcomes fave Mark Reynolds coming to the plate.
The kicker here is that the pitchers spot is due up next and the Crew are out of bench players. So Buck elects to walk Reynolds intentionally (none-on/two-out remember) to get to the pitcher.
Milwaukee mgr Ron Roenicke counters with today's starting pitcher Yovanni Gallardo to PH for scheduled hitter Frankie Rodriguez -- and Gallardo promptly smacks a game-winning double.

A defensible strategy for sure, but you wonder how much Buck considered Gallardo's track record with the bat [.204/.232/.353 w/12 HRs & 42 RBIs in less than 400 career ABs] when making the move.
And how often does a pitcher (or any player for that matter) get to be the final AB in one game and then throw the first pitch of the next?

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: And how often does a pitcher (or any player for that matter) get to be the final AB in one game and then throw the first pitch of the next?

Interesting. There have been some good hitting pitchers over the years, so it may not be that rare. Something for the guys at Elias to check out.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

MFS62 wrote: And how often does a pitcher (or any player for that matter) get to be the final AB in one game and then throw the first pitch of the next? Interesting. There have been some good hitting pitchers over the years, so it may not be that rare. Something for the guys at Elias to check out.

Sure, but the odds are further limited by the fact that it would have to be the next day's pitcher as the PH and have him be successful in a game-ending situation at home where the following game is home too.
So, yeah, last night probably wasn't the very first time, but it's got to be like an undercooked steak: pretty darn rare.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Following up on their 10-game losing streak, the last place Red Sox pull off a four game sweep of the first place Braves. You just can't figure...

[Frayed Knot]

Toronto OF Jose Bautista has 9-3 assists on would-be singles to RF [u:35gscqgl]in consecutive games[/u:35gscqgl] against the Royals - neither one of them pitchers.
Omar Infante (who lost sight of his hit or thought it was foul somehow and didn't run until it was too late) and Billy Butler (just plain slow) were Bautista's victims.

[Frayed Knot]

The Padres, playing at home Wednesday vs Pittsburgh, [u:3kkm86cz]managed just once during the entire game to get the ball out of the infield[/u:3kkm86cz] (I mean, that's inept offense even by NYM standards) ... and yet they won the game 3-2

They had just one hit which was a 1st-inning bunt single, and of their 24 outs (only had to bat 8 times): 10 were Ks, 9 more were infield ground/force-outs; 2 outs came on a GiDP; one via a foul out, and one via a pop-up to "Deep 2B" which somehow became a Sac Fly.
Not until the final Padre AB of the game -- a 2-out/bases-empty fly to CF in the home 8th -- did a Pirate OF touch the ball.
9 BBs (1 intentional), 1 HBP, and a Pitt error helped things along.
Pirates had 7 hits including a double, triple, and HR