Prof: Scout found the gif the other day and immediately sent it to me in a message to let me know that was our Monday Opening Image. It’s now a new obsession. I think we’ll be seeing it a lot around here, it’s amazing.
Also, Scout chose all of today’s musical selections so if you like something, you can give him the ol’ hat tip.
White Sox 5, Red Sox 2 – Scouts: Reynaldo Lopez out dueled Rick Porcello, stifling the Red Sox offense, holding them to two runs and six hits over 6.1 innings.
Orioles 3, Blue Jays 13 – Prof: Part of me wanted to not write a recap of this game, but merely post this video instead:
But you guys deserve more than this, even though if we’re honest that’s really all that’s needed.
The Grandy Man – remember when the Mets left him for dead, and Toronto scooped him up? – went 4-5 and six RBI, and Randal Grichuk went 3-5 with an RBI of his own. Hard to believe that Baltimore scored first in this clown show (Trey Mancini hit a solo dinger). So now the O’s return to Birdland to get their tailfeathers plucked by the Red Sox before meeting up with the only team that is possibly more pathetic than they are, the Miami Marlins. Should I go to that game? I think I should; what up Big Buckin’ Chicken!??!
Spiders 9, Tigers 2 – Scouts: Corey Kluber continued his dominant season, on the road to a likely Cy Young award. Kluber is the first to 10 wins and baffled the Tigers to the tune of 5 hits over 8 innings.
Padres 3, Marlins 1 – Prof: I’m just gonna say it. This was a boring ass game, y’all. Boring. Look at the Marlins who completely bombed at the plate: Starlin Castro (duh). Justin Bour. J.T. Realmuto. Lewis Brinson (again, duh). Ouch. The Padres didn’t need Eric Hosmer to hit a two run homer, but he did.
Mariners 5, Rays 4 – Scouts: Seattle keeps on winning. Of course it helps that they have faced the Rays in 7 of their last 9 games which is just bonkers if you ask me. We will see what Seattle is really made of starting right now. They will face the Angels, Red Sox, Yankees, and Red Sox once again over the next two weeks.
Cardinals 3, Reds 6 – Prof: Oh, wow, Cincinnati had a thirteen game losing streak against St. Louis! Not any more, though! Thanks to an offensive volley in the third and fourth innings, the Reds squeaked by the Redbirds. And there wasn’t even particularly one player or another who were on fire. My small child Scooter Gennett drove in two, while a few other Reds players (including Eugenio Suarez and Tucker Barnhart) had one RBI a piece.
Brewers 3, Phillies 4 – Prof: Brewers, why?
The Brewers were briefly in the lead, at Citizens Bank Park, then the bottom of the fifth happened. This is how the Phillies took the lead and kept it: J.P. Crawford hit a single. Phils player was safe on a Travis Shaw error. The pitcher (Zack Eflin) had a fielder’s choice and moved Crawford and Knapp over. Then Dan Jennings walked Hernandez, which brought Crawford home. Ugh, and it just devolved from there. No matter, the Brew Crew are still knocking on the door of 40 wins, which gives them I believe a two game lead on NL Central rival Chicago.
Angels 5, Twins 7 – Prof: Happy, dear friend, did you enjoy your angel meat? Since it took until today for you to be able to consume it, I am going to assume that it’s a dish that needs to be braised slowly for optimal deliciousness. Can you tell me about Jake Cave? I don’t think I’ve heard of him before. He went 3-4 yesterday. For Los Angeles of Anaheim, Minnesota was able to give Mike Trout that ultra fetching headwear, the Platinum Sombrero.
Pirates 7, Cubs 1 – Scouts: Anyone remember Ian Nova? Well, he held the Cubs to a single run over 5.2 and the bullpen held the rest of the way. Meanwhile the Cub’s bullpen had a disastrous 6th inning, allowing 5 players to touch home plate.
Astros 8, Rangers 7 – Prof: Woof. Stex, I need to know your thoughts on this game. Mine are that there’s no reason why it should have come down to the ninth inning between these two teams. I know there’s a rivalry and rivals always bring their best to each other, but for George Springer to win on a balk? Maaaaaaan.
D-backs 8, Rockies 3 – Prof: More division rivalry games as the Gritty Snakes defeated the Purple Dinos on Sunday. Ketel “20 Original Hits! 20 Original Stars!” Marte smashed a homer in the first inning to get this gritty party started. Paul Goldschmidt doubled, tripled, had two RBI and probably was completely forgotten about by anyone east of the Mississippi while doing so.
Royals 2, Athletics 3 – Scouts: Matt Chapman hit a solo homer in the 8th that broke the tie and gave the Athletics the win. Honestly, the most interesting thing in this game happened in the stands.
Giants 2, Nationals 0 – Scouts: Max Scherzer made one mistake, and it resulted in a two-run homer to Brandon Crawford. The Nats on the other hand, only managed 3 hits off of Derek Holland and company.
Braves 2, Dodgers 7 – Prof: This west coast swing was not good to the Braves. To add insult to injury for Atlanta, Anibal Sanchez had his hotel room broken into and a bunch of his stuff stolen. Anyway, let’s talk about this particular game, shall we? Who is Max Muncy? What is Max Muncy? WHY IS MAX MUNCY? (Did anyone else see Infinity War? lol) The Dodgers third baseman has been on fire lately, and he hit his third home run in as many games. Freddie Freeman continues to be on pace for yet another MVP caliber season. Let’s all hope and pray his wrist makes it through the year intact.
Yankees 0, Mets 2 – Scouts: Todd Frazier was the sole source of runs in this one, with a two-run shot in the 5th. The Yankees, much like the Nats were held to just three hits by a vastly weaker team.
Fan Interference 
Although the stats don’t bear it out, there’s a perception among Nats fans that the team is an offensive juggernaut when Adam Eaton is in the lineup. He returned from the DL on Saturday, and the Nats won 7-5, and yesterday he sat, and Brandon Crawford his own self (he of the Hornsby-esque .422 average since May 1) had more hits than the Nats did.
This was the weekend for the Nats’ annual “Dream Gala” black tie fundraising event, meaning an early start on Saturday and a late start on Sunday, and the Nats just didn’t seem to have much energy to do anything in the batter’s box Sunday. Things got so bad that Hunter Strickland was even able to retire Bryce Harper for the first time in his career, getting him to ground out in the 9th, a plate appearance that had much less action than the last time these two saw each other.
Daniel Murphy was spotted in the clubhouse on Sunday, and is traveling with the big club on their coming road trip, which will have them playing in AL ballparks by AL rules over the next five games, so perhaps DM will DH.
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So you’re saying they partied a little too hardy Saturday night?
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I know Daniel Murphy is a fine ballplayer, but I loathe the little cracker homophobe anyway. Go away and open a cake shop, Daniel.
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Yeah, he’s rather a bit of a Neanderthal in that regard, and he’ll be someone else’s Neanderthal next year.
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Face it, OG. Just on demographics you would expect a majority of our young baseball players to be a Trump-addled lot. The step from that into outright homophobia is not large.
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Hey, Prof. The problem is that Dallas Keuchel has hit a pretty ugly rough patch. Not entirely sure, but there are two schools of thought. One is that he is very vulnerable to umps who don’t think that riding slider that drops to the outside corner is a strike. Very necessary pitch for his success, given his relatively low velocities and velocity differentials. The other is that he is tipping pitches. He is checking videos to see if that might be true. I know for one thing that his pitch movement is still great – that ball is all over the place as it crosses the plate. But if you go back and look at the videos from his disaster against the Mariners last Tuesday, they are waiting on that inside two-seamer and they give it a long ride. As to the rest of the team, the good news is that the hitters are getting more consistent. Unfortunately our boy Jake is back on the bubble, but the rest are hitting. Harris Vultured the win – which you never like to see, but it happens.
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Keuchel seems to me to be rattled a smidge more lately. Perhaps it’s because of getting bad calls, idk. Every pitching staff has to have that one guy who gets all the crap calls no one else gets, I guess it’s Keuchel’s turn this season.
Still impressed by Charlie and glad he’s finally healthy and happy.
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Baltimore: where pitchers go to die. I can’t believe Cobb has been this bad.
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Everything goes to die in Baltimore. Pitchers, squirrels, elephants, prisoners.
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Hi, I’d like to introduce you to a man named Roger McDowell, you might know him from such flops as the Braves rotation circa 2012.
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Prof is right about how boring a Feesh game can be, and usually is. Once again I cruised through the I-95/SR-836 interchange and westbound on the Dolfeen with no perceptible increase in the usual traffic flow about ten minutes after the game ended. I assume the Padres made it to the airport with no difficulty despite the construction at the LeJeune Road exit.
It has quietly transpired that the Feesh are now sitting Brinson against “tough”: (Jar Jar’s word, not mine) right handers so he sat on Saturday, pinch hitting and reaching first on an error by the turd baseman, then dying at second with a case of tying run disease in the bottom of the ninth. When the sun came up this morning red through a scrim of volcano dust from Guatemala, the Feesh lay at the bottom of the trench at nineteen under five and fourteen out.
The Giants and Boomgarner are coming in tonight. Do I hear twenty under and fifteen out?
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Jake Cave is an organizational depth fourth outfielder who joins and leaves the bigs in response to pitching exigencies and Buxton’s sore toe. Yesterday was nice because at the end of likely short journeyman career it will be the proud cover of his memory scrap book.
Further down the developmental line Ivan had another BP session today. After I got him to swing over two of them he shortened his swing and at lest made contact. I haven’t told him yet that if he doesn’t elevate his swing the stat heads will be giving him a hard time. I shouldn’t wait too much longer, as I mentioned earlier he is damn near three years old.
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Slacking there, palie. He won’t be fit for AAU travel ball at this rate.
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I’ll try to step it up, especially considering that he’s a big boy that I project as a power hitting corner outfielder – 1st base – DH type (diaper size 6! – and yes you are correct it doesn’t smell like ice cream).
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That just means he’s tough, Happy. 😋
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But also sweet, sometimes it does look like ice cream.
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Reports are surfacing the Shohei Ohtani will be having TJS. Bummer for all baseball fans and I’m guessing it puts a real dent in any chance the Angels had of keeping pace for a wild card slot. Looking at the AL standings it’s pretty clear who the play off teams will be, the only drama will be the Sawks/Borg and Spacemen/Seamen battling for their divisions.
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We can’t have nice things 😦
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I wondered how long it would take. They should have made him either a pitcher or position player and left it at that. Babe Ruth would have blown his UCL a year after coming to the Borg if they had tried to market him as a curiosity (which, let’s face it, is what the Angels were doing) instead of assessing his greatest strength and going with that. That nonpareil slimebag Artie Moreno takes another bath, which of course just breaks me bleedin’ heart.
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We can feel bad for the young man. He was following an unwise dream as young men are wont to do and probably would not have signed with anyone unwilling to accommodate it. Here’s hoping that when he comes back from the TJS that he will make that choice for himself.
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Here is the gif in a much larger version for your viewing pleasure. I don’t know about you, but personally I just can’t get enough of it
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Stex, you’ve heard plenty of Aggie jokes, haven’t you?
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