@Reds 5, Cubs 4: Two 13th-inning walk-offs in 3 days? Three walk-offs in a week’s time, and 4 on the year already?
Attention, critics! Dusty Baker just did us a big favor. This game proves he means never to use Aroldis Chapman for more than one inning. Now we can shelve the topic until the stretch run, at least.
@Reds 10, Marlins 6: Those 8-run innings will get you every time. With the Fish at 4-15, the drumbeat of ’62 Mets comparisons has begun. I suppose anything’s possible, but keep three things in mind:
@Red Sox 4, Royals 3: A late comeback made 7 straight wins for Boston, their best since 2011. KC stopped the Clay Buchholz scoreless streak at 22 innings, but he went 8 IP on just 104 pitches to win his 4th straight start. The last BoSox to win his first 4 games with 7+ IP was Pedro, 2000 (5 straight). Sawx have allowed 3 runs or less in 8 straight, their longest since 2007. As a team, they have 156 Ks in 143 IP. Is this sustainable? Foes have hit .266/.782 with bases empty, but .142/.468 with anyone on.
A story told by way of recent game notes….
Saturday
@Angels 10, Tigers 0: Rick Porcello retired 1 of 11 batters, and even that GDP couldn’t save him. The 9 runs he allowed — and they were all directly off him, capped by a first-time serving of salami a la Trout — is the most since 2007 for a starter knocked out in the 1st.
Porcello threw first-pitch strikes to 9 guys, and 8 of them reached safely. With a chance to choke it off at 4 runs, he got a 1-2 count on Brendan Harris, but the light-hitting SS fouled off 3 in a row, worked the count full, and singled to restart the carousel. After a couple of infield hits filled ’em up again, Trout fouled off an 0-2 pitch and then slammed the door on the young Tiger’s workday.
Just a few seed shells tossed off as I head to the big right-handers’ rodeo in Flushing….
11 games on the schedule Thursday, 32 HRs. Teams that won the derby went 5-1. There have been 449 HRs hit so far through 450 team-games, about 6% more than the comparable point last year, with an equal rise in the HR% (per PA). Last year’s season HR% was higher than that of 1994, ’95 and ’97.
These would have reached you sooner, but I missed the cutoff man.
Tigers 2, @Mariners 1 (14): In case you didn’t stay up for the slam-bang finish (and didn’t pay your cable bill)….
Wednesday
Royals 1, @Braves 0: It had to be Frenchy, right? The ex-local hero had hacked at Mike Minor‘s first 2 offerings with 2 on and 2 out in the 4th, then got an inexplicable 0-2 fastball down the pipe — nearly the target set by Evan Gattis — and lashed it into left for the game’s only run.
Phillis 2, @Marlins 1: The Phils had left 9 men on base and were about to squander Roy Halladay’s first good shot at win #200.
Braves 3, @Nats 1: Eight straight for Atlanta, capturing the first series in what most see as a 2-team race with a chance at the sweep on Sunday. Last year, the Nats won the season series, 10-8; had that been flipped, the Braves might have avoided the wild-card game.
@Indians 1, White Sox 0: The first 3-game winner is Justin Masterson, and both he and the Tribe did it in style. Masterson’s 2nd career shutout featured strikes on 81 of 113 pitches in chill and gloom, extending his scoreless streak to 19 innings. The winning run came dramatically in the 9th, from Michael Bourn (1-out double) and Nick Swisher, whose liner on the first pitch after an IBB landed just inside the line for the Indians’ first home win after consecutive rainouts.