Prof: Happy Good Friday to those who celebrate, and happy and good Friday to everyone everywhere. Nothing but good, positive, Girl Power Friday vibes. Let’s do this.
Orioles 6, Rays 5 F/11 – Scouts: A nice little gift for a special Scout’s birthday. The O’s blew a 3 run lead only to rally and come back for the win in the 11th. Chris Davis even came in and got a pinch hit! Joey Rickard doubled in Davis for the win and oh what day of days.
Phillies 2, Rockies 6 – Prof: The Rockies are starting to warm up finally. Ryan McMahon hit two homers and had five RBI, while Kyle Freeland pitched six clean innings with seven strikeouts.
Diamondbacks 4, Braves 1 – Prof: The part of Prof’s recap will be performed by Michael Jordan.
Scouts: Yuck. Luke Weaver completely shut down the Braves, holding them to 4 hits and 1 walk and well no runs. Just nasty. Adam Jones, however whom no one wanted this off-season for reasons passing any logic or understanding continues his tear going 1-3 with a RBI and 2 walks. Jones has been lowered to 4th in the order and is batting .320. Miss ya buddy, so happy for you.
Giants 2, Nationals 4 – Prof: It’s about time. Patrick Corbin gets his first win in a Nats uni, going eight innings with a one-hitter. Congrats, SomeGuy. The Giants just seem toothless and sad these days. I love to hate them but it feels bad to just basically forget they exist. They need to be better so I can freely hate. Come on, Giants, y’all have a responsibility.
White Sox 7, Tigers 9 – Prof: GOOD NEWS HISTORIO AND SPARTY! Your guys broke their five game losing streak! Nicholas Castellanos had three hits and two RBI, and Miggy had an RBI single to put them ahead of Chicago.
Blue Jays 7, Twins 4 – Prof: NBJays, your guys went on a tear in the fourth inning. Justin Smoak hit a two run homer, then Eric Sogard hit a three run double. To rub it in even more, Teoscar Hernandez hit a solo homer in the eighth inning. Ken Giles gets the save. (As an aside, who else screws up his name, too? I always read it as TEO-scar, not TE-Oscar. And then I think of Scar from “The Lion King” but in a Blue Jays uniform. Yes, friends, that’s how my brain works.)
Mariners 11, Angels 10 – Scouts: I hope you like offense, because this is how you get offense. Neither starter, nor bullpen did a good job in this one with R.J. Alaniz and Jake Jewell performing particularly poor, combining for 1.2 innings pitched and 8 runs allowed. Woof. Meanwhile, 5 homers were spread across 29 hits. The most entertaining inning came in the 7th, when the Angels responded to the Mariner’s 3 runs with 7 of their own.
Reds 4, Padres 1 – Scouts: Joey Votto, Tucker Barnhart, and Jesse Winder all homered while Tanner Roark was able to hold back the Padres just long enough to turn it over to the bullpen.
Royals 6, Yankees 1 – Prof: What a world we live in, that Kansas City, a team filled to the brim with guys you couldn’t name even if they wore signs with their names on them, beats the Yankees, a team chock full of bonafide superstars and amazing players. The Royals have a second baseman named Adalberto Mondesi. I always think it’s RAUL Mondesi and then feel bad because that’s his dad and he’s also retired. The Royals also have a fellow named Dozier but it’s Hunter, not Brian, and I get confused every time I do a write up. Anyway, all this to say that the Yanks have no business getting smoked by Homer Bailey of all people, and now New York and KC have nearly identical records. What a world, indeed.
Dodgers 3, Brewers 1 – Prof: HOMERPALOOZA. Cody Bellinger, Max Muncy, and Christian Yelich all went yard. That was it; that’s the show. There’s no shame in losing by two to a hot hitting team, especially when you are also a hot hitting team, and I have a feeling we’re going to see this match up again in the playoffs later in the year.
Fan Interference 
Yesterday shoulda/coulda been Corbin’s third win with the Nats, rather than his first. He’s gone six or seven innings in each of his four starts, and given up only seven earned runs, but the bullpen pissed away his win twice, and also pissed away a late lead taken after he left his other start.
He was dominant yesterday, but tired in the 8th, when the Giants scored their first run, to make it 4-1. Kyle Barraclough got the last out in the 8th, setting the stage for another round of “What Reliever Is Davey Gonna Use Now?”
The Nats could’ve made it easy on their manager. Joe Ross, who’s been rotting in the bullpen since April 9, was warming up, and the Nats had runners on first and third with none out in the bottom of the 8th; if they push across one more run there, it’s no longer a save situation, and Sean Doolittle can get a needed day off.
It wasn’t to be, though, and even though Joe Ross was rested and ready (and pretty damned effective last time he pitched), Davey opted for Doolittle in the 9th. He gave up three singles and a run, but managed to get three outs and the Nats had another victory.
So, they’re off to Miami for the weekend, standing at 9-8 (3rd place, NL East), with Sanchez, Scherzer, and Strasburg lined up to face a Marlins team that hasn’t scored since Monday. Doolittle and Barraclough are almost certainly unavailable tonight, and Doolittle shouldn’t pitch until Sunday, situation be damned; in fact, if I were in charge, I wouldn’t even let Doolittle fly to Miami till Saturday night. It’ll be worth tuning in tonight just to see if Davey remembers he has Joe Ross, and Wander Suero, and Trevor Rosenthal at his disposal, to see if he can’t piece together whatever innings Sanchez can’t finish.
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Yeah, Corbin has been let down by y’all’s bullpen almost as much as Braves starting pitchers have by theirs.
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Nats’ bullpen has been hot garbage, especially in the 8th, but weirdly enough, if all their games ended after 7 innings this season, they’d be 8-7-2 rather than 9-8, so it hasn’t affected their record much.
Of course, later in the season, when the overworked guys are on the IL, it may have a much bigger impact.
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Hey, you’re getting an Easter/Passover vacation in Macondo, bubbelehs. Conratulations! Help us usher out the snowbird season and clear our roadways. This Feesh offense is lethal (to attendance) but there’s some decent peetching here.
I think the Gnats are gonna face Urethra at some point. Wear bubble wrap.
Also, speaking of Easter, just a note: you might not know what a Matamata is, but it’s a South American turtle that looks a bit odd due to its X-treme camouflage, breathes through a snorkel and feeds by suction:
This time of the year, the males develop open sores on their hands and feet. You know what these are called, don’t you?
Right! Stigmatamata.
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Prof, Greiner got his first big boy HR. I figured you’d be happy to know it.
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