O-o-T-S: Week of June 15

[Frayed Knot]

It's an all NL East vs AL East schedule this week (in fact it's an all IL sked across the board) which gives us lots of rooting interests.

- Yanx are in Miami, starting with Tanaka vs Koehler. We can root along with Seawolf on this one

- Nats are at Tampa Bay where the Rays are tied w/the Yanx although I don't think anyone can figure out either squad

- Braves at Fenway where the Rod Sox are finding new ways to suck every day.

- Phils are in Baltimore. This one's less interesting than the rest although it would be nice to see the O's gain some ground in an AL East division which is just as crappy and even more cramped than ours.

[Frayed Knot]

Mets win
Nats lose in Tampa 6-1 w/Bryce Harper lining into a DP w/bases loaded to end the game - NYM increase their lead to 1-1/2 games
Braves beat BoSox (but so does everyone these days)
Marlins over Yanx 2-1
Phillies lose in Baltimore

[Gwreck]

Frayed Knot wrote: Mets win Nats lose in Tampa 6-1 w/Bryce Harper lining into a DP w/bases loaded to end the game - NYM increase their lead to 1-1/2 games Braves beat BoSox (but so does everyone these days) Marlins over Yanx 2-1 Phillies lose in Baltimore

Sure looks like triple happiness to me!

[Frayed Knot]

Apparently today is ass-kicking day in the East-v-East matches:

Braves lost this afternoon to Boston 9-4
Marlins jumped on Eovaldi and the Yanx for 8 in the 1st and hold that lead thru 4
Nationals are up by a touchdown on the Rays in the 4th
and Baltimore is putting a hurtin' on the Phils to the tune of 12-1, still in the 4th

[dinosaur jesus]

Jeff Francoeur pitches a 1-2-3 seventh for the Phillies. Hitting mid- to high eighties, striking out the first batter on a nice slider, and covering the bag nicely on a grounder to the first baseman. Small sample size, obviously, but he really does look like he knows what he's doing. As much as Frenchie ever knows what he's doing.

[Frayed Knot]

Tonight's East-v-East finals:

BoSox 9 - Braves 4

Marlins 12 - Yanx 2

Nationals 16 - Rays 4

Orioles 19 - Phillies 3

and of course we had the 3-2 game which followed a 4-3 game.
But I suppose that's good because while we haven't been involved in many blowouts (either way) this year, the Jays have had a ton of them but are being held in check so far in this series.

[Frayed Knot]

Couple of notes and oddities from last night's East-v-East showdowns (in addition to Francoeur pitching)

- Orioles hitting 8 HRs was bad enough, but it could have been even worse for the Phils had 5 of those HRs not come leading off an inning. Baltimore leadoff man Manny Machado led off the 1st with a HR, and then did the same in the 2nd! I think it was probably right around then that Sandberg & co realized that, like Terry Malloy, it wasn't going to be their night.
Phils starting pitcher Jerome Williams, who gave up 6 in the 1st, was pulled mid-batter in a 2-out/2-strike situation when his 2nd consecutive wild pitch allowed the 5th & 6th runs of the inning to score.

- The Yanx ass-whoopin' was made even more fun when you realized that the starting pitchers for the night were traded for each other over the winter.
I think it's safe to say that the ex-NYY/current Marlin David Phelps [7 IP, 2 R, 6 Hits] out-pitched ex-Marlin/current MFY Nathan Eovaldi [2/3 IP, 8 runs, 9 hits]
That bottom of the 1st wasn't baseball, it was pure porn.

- You know it's not a pitchers' night when Tampa's Alex Colome's 6 runs on 7 hits over 2 IP is only the 3rd worst pitching line of the night.
Sounds like, instead of Colome, the Rays should have opted for a hurler from 'Column B' instead.
Infielders Jake Elmore and Nick Franklin pitched the 8th & 9th for TB: 3 runs on 6 hits combined. I guess Elmore had reached his pitch limit.

- BoSox 2B Brad Holt hit for the cycle vs Atlanta getting the triple in his final AB - making him one of the rare guys who, after one of the dumber expressions used by announcers is uttered: 'Hey he's just a triple shy of a cycle!', actually goes out a gets the triple.

[Lefty Specialist]

Frayed Knot wrote: The Yanx ass-whoopin' was made even more fun when you realized that the starting pitchers for the night were traded for each other over the winter. I think it's safe to say that the ex-NYY/current Marlin David Phelps [7 IP, 2 R, 6 Hits] out-pitched ex-Marlin/current MFY Nathan Eovaldi [2/3 IP, 8 runs, 9 hits] That bottom of the 1st wasn't baseball, it was pure porn.

Kept imagining the Sterling face during that inning.

[Edgy MD]

Hey, Yankees, I'm all for you making bad deals and getting worse. You keep doing that. But try to stop making our division rivals better at the same time.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: Hey, Yankees, I'm all for you making bad deals and getting worse. You keep doing that. But try to stop making our division rivals better at the same time.

no, I'm full on Marlins in this fight. The Marlins are a non-factor in the NL East, it doesn't matter if they win.

[Edgy MD]

It certainly matters 18 or 19 times a year.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: It certainly matters 18 or 19 times a year.

and this isn't one of those.

[Edgy MD]

I didn't limit my comments to the context of one game. Thank you for your reply.

[Frayed Knot]

Nats down 5-0 in the rain in DC.
Steven Sousa Jr, who was the guy who made the catch to seal Jordan Zimmermann's no-hitter on the final day of the season last year and later was dealt away over the winter, HR'd off Zimmermann and later bunted a 2-R HR (courtesy of 2 Nat errors). Neither error was Desmond's although he did commit another one earlier in the game (on a potential DP). What a train wreck of a season he's having.


Marlins just had a run taken off the board via a replay review (one of those 50/50 calls) - so it remains 2-1 Yanx in the 8th.

[Guest themetfairy]

Pablo Sandoval won't be in tonight's BoSox game because he was caught checking out Instagram during last night's game.