Scouts: I am so very ready for this long weekend coming up ahead. It’s been a very long past few weeks and I’m ready for the break and the rest. You know, It’s quite amazing how much longer the season feels when your team is a gigantic dumpster fire and all you can do is sit back and watch it burn.
White Sox 4, Yankees 5 – Scouts: A three run comeback that was punctuated by a walk-off home-run by Neil Walker.
Nationals 5, Phillies 4 – Scouts: Max Scherzer struggled for the first time in a long time, but that’s okay because his good buddy Anthony Rendon bailed him out with a two-run shot in the 9th, and the Nats are suddenly looking like the team we all thought they were.
Blue Jays 5, Orioles 12 – Scouts: I’m not really sure what is going on here, the O’s are scoring runs in bunches and winning ball games. When Chris Davis of all people goes 3-5 with 3 RBI, you know you done messed up.
Marlins 7, Red Sox 8 – Scouts: Oh Miami. You just had to go and Met things up. Score 5 in the 8th to take a 3 run lead, you give that up immediately. Score another in the 9th to take another lead, and an fielding error ends the ballgame.
Brewers 7, Reds 9 – Scouts: Anthony DeSclafani picked up the win despite a shaky performance, but it was just enough to hold back the Brewers who really can’t afford to lose games like this one.
Twins 1, Spiders – Scouts: Carlos Carrasco struck out 11 on his way to his 16th win on the season.
Rays 5, Braves 9 – Scouts: The Braves picked up 4 in the 5th and 4 more in the 8th to get themselves a 4.5 game lead in the East. The win ended a 8 game winning streak for the Rays.
Dodgers 8, Rangers 4 – Scouts: Manny Machado continues to be worth everything the Dodgers paid for him and more, driving in 4 runs en route to the Dodger’s 4th consecutive victory.
Oakland 4, Astros 3 – Scouts: Man this has been a great series. Oakland moves to a game and a half of Houston when they broke open the tie in the 9th off a ground-rule double by Nick Martini.
Tigers 2, Royals 6 – Scouts: Maybe the Tigers should have called out to work sick today. Jakob Junis pitched a complete game, moving him to 4-0 against the Tigers, who just can’t seem to figure him out.
Pirates 2, Cardinals 5 – Scouts: Jack Flaherty is still pushing for that Rookie of the Year vote, giving up just a single run over 7 dominant innings.
Rockies 3, Angels 2 – Scouts: Kyle Freeland has been quietly having a Cy Young type season. The lefty picked up his 12th win, lowering his ERA to 2.90, best among lefty starters in the NL.
Mariners 1, Padres 2 – Scouts: Seattle gave it a pretty good run, but they are now 5.5 games out of the Wild Card, and 7 back of the division, and losing to teams like the Padres sure isn’t helping matters. Jacob Nix dominated over 8.1 innings allowing just a solo home run to Nelson Cruz.
D-Backs 0, Giants 1 – Scouts: This one remained scoreless until Bruce Bochy tabbed Gorkys Hernandez to pinch-hit in the 9th. With Steven Duggar on second, Gorkys delivered a walk-off single to left to put this one to bed.
Mets 1, Cubs 1 – SUSPENDED – Scouts: Here is one you don’t see every day. This one was all tied up in the 10th, when the rains came. After a 53 min delay, it was decided to just pack it all up, and pick up where we left off tomorrow. Gameplay stopped on a 2-0 count to Michael Conforto with 0 outs.
Fan Interference 
Scherzer’s final line last night was 5IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 5K, 0 BB, 1 HBP; other than giving up a couple of home runs (his main weakness this year) the big problem was his pitch count, which got to 99 in those five innings, helped along by a couple of 10 or 11 pitch at-bats. If I had a vote for Cy Young, I’d cast my vote for Aaron Nola, who’s not only out-pitched Scherzer head-to-head these last two games, but has made the Nats look positively overmatched.
The Nats owe last night’s win to a solid bullpen effort and poor play aplenty from the Phils. The Nats scored their first two runs on a ground out – runners at 2nd and 3rd, Wieters hits a ground ball to first, Carlos Santana fields it, steps on first, throws wildly to home trying to get Rendon, chaos ensues, and Zimmerman scores from 2nd on the play. After the Nats scored three more in the 9th, helped by another throwing error, the Phils got one back on a Wilson Ramos one out double. Vince Velasquez, who’s paid to pitch, was inserted to pinch run for Ramos, and on a routine fly ball to center, Velasquez tagged up; he made it to third safely, but he left second early, and after a Nats appeal and video replay confirmation, the game ended on the TOOTBLANniest of all TOOTBLANs.
At 67-66, the Nats sit six games back of the 2nd wildcard with 29 to play. I suppose one could say they still have a faint pulse, and I may have seen a sicker dog than this get well once or twice, but I think the Nats will be playing spoiler more than anything else down the stretch.
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Just think what they could do with a real catcher! (Hint. Hint.)
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The Feesh matched the Beanbags TOOTBLAN for TOOTBLAN until Riddle threw the game away in the bottom of the ninth. As Vonnegut wrote, so it goes.
The beeg news is that The Bust is coming off the unabled list this weekend. It’s time to remove the patches from the lineup and reinstate the hole.
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As of today, I have shifted to hate-watching our games, which means I yell disparaging things at the donkeys when they come to the plate and all cheering has become sarcastic. Pray for paper.
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You need 20 more with 29 to go. With your boys playing sterling 300 ball it can happen! Look see You’ve almost caught the White Sox! I don’t think you have to play the Twins too many more times. You can do it!
The AL Central makes history with THREE ONE HUNDRED LOSS TEAMS!!!
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Let’s lose, Ti-gers! clap clap Let’s lose, Ti-gers! clap clap
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The Feesh just gave up 11 runs in the 7th inning to the Beanbags, who coasted to a 14-6 win. Talk about the roof caving in. More tomorrow. I have to stop laughing at the hapless Marlins MLB beat commentator, Joe Frisaro, who a couple of days ago posted a blog entitled “Young Arms Cause for Optimism in ’19?” Well, you’ve got to feel for the guy. He’s trying to make a silk purse out of a Townsend’s Big Eared Bat’s ear.
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