Seven starters went out with ERAs under 2.00, including three matchups (see pregame ERAs). Some corrections occurred.
@Marlins 9, Braves 0 / Jose Fernandez (1.99) vs. Alex Wood (1.54) — The reprise of last week’s bedazzler was a one-man show. Wood’s night headed south in the 2nd: He fanned trying to bunt up a runner from first, and that man never got home despite a 2-out double. Back on the hill, Wood got two quick outs and two strikes on Christian Yelich, then triple, single, Giancarlo. In the 5th, he caught Stanton looking to strand a pair, but three knocks after a leadoff walk sent him off in the 6th, and the hits kept coming.
Dome, sweet dome for Jose. He’s now 12-0, 1.00, in 19 Miami starts; never more than 3 runs allowed, and that just twice. The 2nd inning was Atlanta’s only serious threat tonight, as just two more reached base in Fernandez’s time. He took a seat after fanning the side in the 8th, the last two with six straight strikes.
- Jose has two straight games with 8 IP, 4 baserunners. One other such pair since last year began, by Jordan Zimmermann.
- Wood’s ERA nearly doubled, to 2.93. Per B-R, he’s tried 9 sac bunts in his short career, with 2 SH and 6 Ks. Yeesh.
- 7 of Stanton’s 8 HRs have come with someone aboard. He’s seen far more ducks this year, as Miami’s OBP from the #1-2 spots is up from .293 to almost .360
- Last year’s 31-year-old Miami rookie, Ed Lucas, was called up today and singled in his first three trips.
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Athletics 9, @Rangers 3 / Scott Kazmir (1.62) vs. Martin Perez (1.42) — Red-hot Derek Norris ended Perez’s null string with two outs in the 1st on a 2-run double, after a 4-pitch walk to Yoenis Cespedes. Norris came in 11 for his last 22, and he doubled his pleasure with another 2-out, two-bag RBI his next trip. A big 5th finished Perez, and the 8-run clunker more than doubled his ERA. Kazmir faded in the home 5th, after a long layoff watching his mates circle the bases, but he still threw strikes and picked up the win; he has 7 walks and 35 Ks in 38.1 IP.
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@Reds 3, Cubs 2 / Alfredo Simon (1.30) vs. Jeff Samardzija (1.53) — Samardzija’s had little help this year, but he made his own luck tonight. You can’t walk Billy Hamilton leading off — steal, wild pitch, flyout, run. But grooving a fastball to Billy has its own perils, apparently. Hamilton reached in all four trips, as Samardzija had 12 runners in his 5.2 IP, and gave up a key triple to Zack Cozart (.148) which led to the winning run.
- Alfredo Simon (6 IP, 2 R) is intriguing. He didn’t stick in the bigs until age 29. The O’s tried him in both roles, but let him go after two weak years. Reds got him at 31, and he gave them two good years in long relief. Now back in the rotation, he’s gone 6+ IP on 2 runs or less all five times out.
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Brewers 5, @Cardinals 4 (11 inn.) / Lance Lynn (3.30) vs. Kyle Lohse (2.38) — Twenty and seven, six and one-half games ahead, eleven and one on the road.
Tyler Thornburg silenced the Cards for two sudden-death innings, fanning four and shaving his ERA to 1.83 in the last year-plus, while for the second straight night, Khris Davis shrugged off a regulation oh-fer with a key extra-base hit in extra time.
The Redbirds were flying early. The receiver who helped Lohse revive his career still has his number: Yadier’s 3-run blast in the 1st, with two outs and a base open, made him 10 for 17 off the ex-Cardinal, with 3 bombs in their last 5 game meetings. But Lohse went on tilt after that, whiffing 8 in the next five stanzas, and raked back some of his chips with a tying 2-run hit after a pitch-around walk. Carlos Gomez homered for a 4-3 lead in the top of the 7th. But even the Fresh Prince slips up sometimes: Will Smith’s month-long string of 11 scoreless innings died when he walked Peter Bourjos to start the home half and the Cards pulled even on Allen Craig’s triple.
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Mariners 6, @Yankees 3 — CC handled Robby all three times, including a big out with the bags full in the 5th. But the next pair nipped him for 3 two-out runs, and the 5-hit frame inverted a 2-run Yanks lead. That whole megillah began with an obvious overturn; those “let’s keep it moving, I’m freezing out here” calls won’t hold up any more. Dellin Betances pulled CC from the fire in the 6th, but then he got burned with two outs in the 7th.
Chris Young earned his first Seattle win with a typical Chris Young start: Over 100 pitches in less than 6 IP, a few walks and a HR. Fernando Rodney made the 9th exciting as usual, but he fanned Jeter and Beltran to end it with two aboard.
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Tigers 4, @White Sox 3 — Beautiful. Bryan Holaday’s perfect 2-out bunt gave Detroit a lead in the 9th, cashing in a 3-base error by RF Dayan Viciedo. It also picked up rookie Nick Castellanos, who had just whiffed to complete a rough oh-fer (three Ks, once with bags full to end the 6th). Holaday added his first career steal, but you can only ask so much from the baseball gods.
The Sox jumped up 3-0 on Justin Verlander (2.18 at game time), but Detroit squared up with four straight 2-out singles in the 6th.
- Most scorers would have given a triple on the ball Viciedo missed, don’t you think?
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@Royals 10, Blue Jays 7 — Salvador Perez led the home nine back from a late 5-2 deficit, plating four with long hits in the 7th & 8th, each off a fresh reliever. Toronto ran through four bullpen arms in those innings, but results went from bad to worse, as has been their wont, with tonight’s bullpen-torch tally reaching 8 runs.
- Country Breakfast, feelin’ his oats: Billy Butler took third on a flyout, came home on a wild pitch.
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Mets 6, @Phillies 1 — But was his mother a mudder? If there’s frost on the ground or water, water everywhere, it’s a good bet Jon Niese is on the hill for New York. Conditions tonight ranged from damp-dreary to deluge, but Niese just kept putting one clay-weighted cleat in front of the other for seven steady innings, trimming his ERA to 2.20.
Not so Cole Hamels, who bogged down in the 4th with four walks, the last one to Niese to force in a run. With Hamels due up in the home 5th, Ryne Sandberg tried to nurse him through the top half, although he’d slogged past 100 pitches and filled up the bases again. Ruben Tejada took advantage with a 2-out bingle, now 10 for 23 with 7 walks in those spots. Tejada also doubled and scored the first run, his first XBH in three weeks. (Were Ryno a fan of The Maltese Falcon, he might have concluded that Cole’s prior Mets tussles “have not been such that I’m anxious to continue them.”)
- Niese has drawn 26 walks in 262 trips, best walk rate in the last 30 years by a pitcher with 200 PAs. Last pitcher with a better rate was Jon Matlack, another Mets lefty (57 walks in 541 PAs).
- Daisuke Matsuzaka gave 2 hits in his first game this year, none in his last five, covering 6.2 IP with 10 Ks.
- How perceptions can differ: Recent NY papers were full of how David Wright has been hitting in bad Citi luck. I’ve seen almost every Mets game, and to me it’s a typical Wright slump: long swings and uppercuts, fly balls and whiffs. He did hit a couple that might have been over or off the wall in most parks, but to these eyes, his slump is his own.
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Nationals 4, @Astros 3 — Adam LaRoche drove in the lead run in the 9th after tying it in the 8th, and the Nats won their first game since the news of Bryce Harper’s upcoming long absence. Some thought in spring that LaRoche might wind up as the odd man out, with Ryan Zimmerman needing a non-throwing position. But he’s suddenly more needed than ever, leading them in runs-RBI-HRs-BA-OBP-OPS+, and now their only lefty power bat, with Harper laid up.
- Josh Fields took the loss, after starting the 9th with a 4-pitch walk to Denard Span, who promptly stole second. Oops.
- Rafael Soriano walked two in the 9th, but kept his ERA spotless through 10 games.
- George Springer’s 2-run hit put the Astros ahead in the 3rd, but he whiffed in his other three trips and committed his 4th error in 13 games.
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@Giants 6, Padres 0 — Yusmeiro Petit started with nine up, nine down. Remember September 6?
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Monday Morsels
Brewers 5, @Cardinals 3 (12 inn.) — Khris Davis was having a bad night: Oh-for-five, four whiffs, twice stranding full sacks. But redemption can come in an instant: Seth Maness tried to paint outer black with a 1-2 pitch, but Davis just flicked it into the RF corner, and wound up with a go-ahead triple. That came two pitches after Matt Holliday’s wise decision to let a long fly land foul, which would have scored the lead runner from third.
- Not pictured, a key play in the 10th: After Holliday’s leadoff double, Peter Bourjos tried to bunt him over, but Holliday got caught between bags. St. Loo has butchered the basepaths this year, leading the majors with 14 outs on bases, 28th in taking extra sacks, last in baserunning WAR.
- Davis has 31 strikeouts and one walk this year.
- Milwaukee is 10-1 on the road.
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Athletics 4, @Rangers 0 — Yu Darvish is 1-7, 4.89 against Oakland; 29-12, 3.09 against all others. Sonny Gray is 9-4, 2.41 in his 16 starts. He’s gone 8+ innings three times in his first 18 career games. Just two others have done that since 2011: Jose Quintana (4 games), and Darvish.
- Many doubted that Josh Donaldson could repeat last year’s 149 OPS+ and 8-WAR performance. He’s on track to surpass both marks. Here, he ranges behind second base to rob the Prince.
- As a rookie three years ago, Robinson Chirinos threw out only two of 23 base thieves. He’s much improved now, cutting down 5 of 12.
- Here’s the glove and arm by which Leonys Martin racked up 1.7 dWAR and 14 outfield assists last year.
- I wonder how many overturned calls so far have been on a runner returning to first?
- Johnny Bates, Woody English, Cass Michaels, Paul Schaal, Erubiel Durazo, and ____ _____. Which player from this box score completes the list?
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Padres 6, @Giants 4 — Backup catcher Rene Rivera banged home five runs with go-ahead hits in the 4th and 5th innings, and the Padre bullpen set down 11 of 13 SF batters. Rivera’s long trey was the club’s first blast in six games. Alex Torres and Nick Vincent rescued Tyson Ross when he was cornered with one out in the 6th, starving the Panda and tracking down the suddenly sluggerish Brandon Hicks.
- San Diego leads the majors in relief ERA at 1.94, and have stranded 84% of inherited runners.
- Two hits for rookie Jace Peterson, another unique first name.
- I guess he wore this one because “TOEJAM” was in the laundry.
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- 20th road game in Rox history with 8+ extra-base hits in regulation. They have 73 such games at home, even though they often lose one time at bat.
- CarGo’s not running as well as I remember.