Frayed Knot

At the same time, I like that Rosario didn't take it for granted that his (2nd HR) was gone and instead busted it out of the box with a possible triple in mind if it stayed in the park.

Rosario off de la Rosa - can anything else smell so sweet?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Hey! He made it seven! Barely! And he wound up at 102 pitches which is a shade under where you'd like to be thru 7 (7 x 15 = 105). It's just a shame he wasted all those throws early in the game to where he needed the quick innings just to get back down to average.

I think Keith (and, maybe to a slightly lesser degree, Ron) might blame infield shifts as the cause for global warming, poor hygiene, and middle east unrest.

It's the extra Y that shows the sort of professional polish I've come to expect from Hahnnie. That's what earned it the rim-shot. The Rays tabbed Sergio Romo for the first ever start of his 11 year/589 appearances ML career yesterday (Sat). And the experiment worked so well that they're planning to do it again ... Today! Now of course he only threw one inning/18 pitches in this new reliever then starter experiment Tampa is using, but that 1st start one day/next start the next day thing has got to be a first, and I'm thinking that the last pitcher to start back-to-back games might be Wilbur Wood? Today's game is a 4:00 start, in Anaheim, vs Ohtani

With 18 games in the next 17 days, backup catchers are going to play. Ashie62 wrote: When did Clay Buchholz become unhittable? When the blue and orange became his opponent.

I don't want to go around automatically handing out free passes to 8th place hitters almost regardless of the count. Hell, it was the 4th inning in a tie game with 2 outs and one runner aboard, hardly a critical situation. Terry used to do that almost as a reflex and what you wind up doing is turning over the lineup more often and assuring that the opposition starts the next inning with the top of the lineup instead of the pitcher, something which likely increases their chances of scoring the next inning at least as much as you might decrease it with the IW - although once you toss in that Corbin was actually out-hitting Murphy going into the game (Corbin = .263 and hit over .300 in 2016) even the best case scenario is hardly a given. More than one runner on? OK. Later in the game? Sure (although then they'd likely PH). Facing a better 8th place hitter? Yeah maybe. But unless the count were already 3-0 (or maybe 3-1) after the SB, I'm not going to want to make a habit of running from the JR Murphys of the world, a guy who essentially is Anthony Recker* w/half the HR rate * Recker, btw, is current hitting quite well for AAA Reno [.327/.431/.673 over 55 ABs] in the Arizona system - so he and Murphy are essentially battling for end of the bench jobs in Phoenix

I don't have any reason for concern, nor do I think this has anything to do with Alonso. If this newer, slimmer version of Smith proves even passable in a corner OF spot then it makes him slightly more valuable and maybe also makes him the first choice to be called up if (should I say WHEN?) another OF goes down as opposed to some AAAA guy off the waiver wire along the lines of the Val Pascucci/Travis Taijeron model.

bmfc1 wrote: Given how Sandy mocked him all winter, I'm surprised that he was able to make it all the way to RF. The alleged "1B of the future" is now OF depth? For a team that presently needs OF depth while having many options at 1B, why not?

Call me a dreamer, but I'm betting on Plawecki returning.

Nice that we're not seeing Greinke, the guy originally scheduled for Sunday. I think the DBacks manager is fraidy scared of Thor.

Frayed Knot wrote: ... and as I'm typing Puig hits into an inning-ending GiDP with the tying run on 3rd !!! 4-3 Nats, heading for bottom 8 and this is/was a Scherzer game too, so if the Trolley Dodgers could pull this one off ... Dodgers have scored twice in the 9th to take the lead as Nats' closer Doolittle has definitely done little: single, single, double (the revitalized Matt Kemp) and has yet to record an out (OK, now he has) 5-4 LAD, runner on 2nd, 1 out

Centerfield wrote: And Dyson was absolutely fucking out. I usually don't get bent out of shape over close replay calls that don't get overturned. But this time it showed -- particularly via one of the several angles but really on al of them -- that Dyson's leading arm was CLEARLY forced sideways by the force of 'Drubal's tag before his hand was anchored to the base which c/would have prevented that. I was shocked at that one.

Centerfield wrote: Pitch to Murphy the first time, I get it. The second time, that mistake is on Callaway. Once the SB created the open base, it was already a 1-2 count to a backup catcher with 400 ML ABs spread over pieces of six seasons, a career 630 OPS during that time, and a .259 OBA for this season (prior to tonight). I didn't have a problem pitching to him. Especially seeing as how it was still just the 4th inning, I don't like to go adding baserunners to chase outs that early.

Braves won, Marlins lost (played the Braves), Phils won (scored 2 in the 8th), Nats lost the first of two but are winning the 2nd (4-3 in the 8th) but the Dodgers have runners on ... and as I'm typing Puig hits into an inning-ending GiDP with the tying run on 3rd !!! 4-3 Nats, heading for bottom 8 and this is/was a Scherzer game too, so if the Trolley Dodgers could pull this one off ...

WIN IT FOR HARRY AND MEGHAN!!!

Nimmo - Cabrera - Flores They could be heroes, just for one day.

They's gettin' two out hits, we's ain't.

Yeah, that they opted for Nido over the 33 y/o Lobaton isn't a surprise. That they picked this particular shy-on-OFs moment to do so doesn't have an obvious cause but it gets Nido a few more weeks of ML play under a veteran influence before settling back in as the Vegas catcher while Plawecki & Mesoroco cover the ML side.

G-Fafif wrote: The Dodgers have claimed Erik Goeddel off waivers from the Mariners. Transactions: 5/17: The Dodgers sign Tyler Goeddel to a minor league contract 5/18: The Dodgers claim Erik Goeddel off waivers from the Mariners 5/19: The Dodgers activate Erik Goeddel* It's been a very Goeddelian week for LAD * he's in the game now

Edgy MD wrote: No, I don't think Gonzalez has to be perfect at all. They gave him, and regularly give him, a huge margin for error. All he has to do is bunt it hard. If it had to be perfect, there would have been a play and he would have just beat it out. And so if the bunt was a little less perfect by say being a bit further off the line and therefore closer to the fielder he might not have just beaten it out.

It was a perfect bunt by Gonzalez and, like the booth said, a good time to do it. But the thing about him is that, even with the shift on, with his speed the bunt almost has to be perfect.

Edgy MD wrote: Collin Gowgill is playing International League ball with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. Which, considering the state of the weather lately in the eastern third of the country, Cowgill is probably dealing with the rain, the ballpark, and other things.

Lamb's double wrecked deGrom's scoreless innings streak, but I'll take that exchange: run in but 2 outs and bases empty vs 2nd & 3rd w/1 out even though still scoreless. Meanwhile, Mets have 4 hits and Conforto with 3 of them.

Despite only allowing one hit that was not a very clean bottom of the 1st by the Arizona pitcher, apparently disproving the old adage about Cleanliness being next to Godleyness.