Prof: Hey folks, I was a little under the weather last night, so today’s recap isn’t going to be quite as recappy, if you know what I mean. I’ll make it up to you tomorrow, I promise.
Scouts: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will finally be headed to the show. The much hyped prospect will hopefully provide a shot in the arm to the MLB marketing department. We know at least one person who I’m sure if super excited for his debut. Anyone else excited to have a little Vlad back in their life?
Royals 10, Rays 2 – Scouts: Blake Snell was chased in the 3rd after giving up 3 runs, 2 of which were earned. Ryan Yarbrough didn’t provide much relief however, allowing 7 runs on 8 hits in 4.1 innings. Whoops.
Marlins 2, Spiders 6 – Scouts: Jose Ramirez hasn’t gotten off to the best of starts, but hopefully all it took was a visit from Miami. Ramirez went 3-4 with 4 RBI’s and single-handedly took apart the Marlins.
Brewers 2, Cardinals 5 – Prof: Waino gets his 150th career win over division rival Milwaukee, while keeping Christian Yelich’s bat cold.
Nationals 5, Rockies 9 – Scouts: Trevor Story extended his hit streak to 12 with a triple and a single. Nolan Arenado went 2-4 with 3 RBi and David Dahl went 3-5 as the Nats weren’t able to shut down anyone in the middle of the Colorado lineup. Losing Royce Harper is not this squad’s biggest problem.
Rangers 5, Athletics 6 – Scouts: Chad Pinder continued to show his value coming off the bench, singling in the winning run as the A’s completed the sweep of Texas, moving both squads to a game over .500.
Mariners 0, Padres 1 – Scouts: Seattle continues their downward spire, at one point getting sending 19 consecutive outs to the plate as Chris Paddack just absolutely dominated them. Paddack struck out 9 and allowed just a single hit and walk over 7 innings.
Giants 4, Blue Jays 0 – Scouts: Drew Pomeranz held Toronto to a pair of hits over 6 innings as Clay Buchholz got roughed up allowing 4 runs in 5, allowing the Giants to complete the sweep.
Braves 3, Reds 1 – Prof: In this contest, Puig was most definitely Atlanta’s friend. A timely error helped Ronald Acuna Jr. to score from first base. Mike Soroka, my large Canadian lumberjack child, gets the win in this, his second start after being shut down last year. Soroka went 5 2/3 innings with seven Ks.
Phillies 6, Mets 0 – Prof: OK, so you know how people are getting heated over home run displays? Bat flips and what not? Well, it’s going to be a thing this year I think. Phillies’ Rhys Hoskins got a bug up his butt and did a slow trot after Mets’ reliever Jacob Rhame threw inside at him a couple of times. You know what? Good for him. You know I’m usually on the side of the pitcher but what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
Diamondbacks 11, Pirates 2 – Scouts: Merrill Kelly bounced back from a horrible, terrible, no good, 7 walk performance to hold the Pirates to 6 hits across 7 innings. Kelly only walked 2, and kept the damage to a minimum allowing just a pair of solo homers.
White Sox 3, Orioles 4 – Scouts: After their woopin a few days ago, my mother who watches more Orioles baseball than I do these days was lamenting over how terrible the team was. It got me to thinking. We knew they were going to be bad, but really they are MUCH better than they were last year. Or at least they feel better. Maybe it’s a case of expecations being so much lower, but it feels almost like a gift when this squad puls out a victory. Anyways, Stevie Wilkerson was granted first base on a hit by pitch, that was later overturned on replay. He then responded by hitting his first career homer. Pretty nifty story.
Tigers 4, Red Sox 11 – Scouts: The Boston bats woke up for once, driving in 11 runs on 12 hits, none of them leaving the ball park. Mookie Betts picked up a pair of hits while J.D. Martinez went 3-4.
Dodgers 6, Cubs 7 – Scouts: A pair of 3-run homers in the 6th doomed Walker Buehler and Scott Alexander, while Brad Brach picked up the win after pitching just .2 innings. Such a strange game isn’t it?
Twins 1, Astros 7 – Scouts: V-Mart, who seems to have been pitching for approximately 250 years now, is still just as good as he always was. Verlander went 8 strong innings, striking out 8, allowing just 1 run on 4 hits.
Yankees 6, Angels 5 – Prof: New York rallied from five down in late innings to get the win over the Los Angeles Mike Trouts.
Fan Interference 
The Feesh got clipped by the shift again. It’s time for them to rethink this prmitive strategem which has cost them so many defensive blarps – though of course asking Jar Jar Baseball to “think” very much is expecting rather more than is likely.
Anyway, since they were playing in Cleveland I slept late so my serotonin levels would be adequate to keep me awake for most of the game, but I was still able to see just enough of the town over the centerfield stands that I’m still a little bored this morning.
The Feesh will be mired back in their division this evening, heading east to engage the Feelies and pack their dendrites with gummy lipid plaques from those horrible horsemeat and Velveeta™ sandwiches as they continue their quest to tank like Michael Dukakis.
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I’m happy and I’m pissed…
Happy because Vlad Jr. is making his MLB debut tomorrow night against Oakland. I just hope that he will continue to work on his defense at 3rd, and I also hope he will get to do some DH-ing so as to allow Brandon Drury to also play some 3rd.
But I am also very pissed right now at the loss of one of our best starters for the season. Matt Shoemaker, who started off the season by going 3-0 with a 1.57 ERA and 24 K vs 9 walks, is now officially done for the season due a torn ACL in his left knee, suffered when he was chasing down Matt Chapman in a rundown last Saturday in Oakland.
IMO, anytime a pitcher is getting involved in a rundown, especially doing the running down part, you have failed in your execution of the fundamentals of baseball.
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Baseball is a dangerous game. Pitchers can get hurt covering first as well as running the bases or batting. Hell, why not protect everyone – outfielders get hurt chasing down liners and running into walls or colliding with each other. Infielders get hurt putting down a tag. And catchers…ye gawds. Maybe we should have designated hitters for position players to “protect” them from the vicissitudes of batting; I mean, hell, fielding is risky enough, right?
Which just goes to show you that the myth of the designated mammoth hunter “protecting” the pitcher from injuries is just one more crock of excrement to disguise the dumbing-down of the game to please the lowest common denominator sports fan.
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Shoemaker is a heartbreaker! Thought he was going to be the ace of the Angels staff but he could not avoid injury. As for injuries and pitchers, if they are an infielder of sorts they should have the same practice as all defensive players. Remember Vlad Sr. doing the Buckner in the WS? Same thing. No one can play infield without practice!
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Another episode of the Trevor Rosenthal Experience played out in the 8th yesterday in Colorado. Nats were down 6-3 when he entered, and after a hit batter, a walk, three wild pitches and a couple of singles, it was 9-3, but at least Davey let him finish the inning instead of burning a different reliever.
It’s time for the Nats to either cut bait with Rosenthal or come up with some kind of “injury” that allows him to be stashed on the IL and then on a rehab assignment in the minors. I did read yesterday that he has options, but he’s also got enough service time to refuse any direct assignment to the minors, so I don’t think a straight demotion would work here, even though I really can’t see any team signing him if the Nats do cut him loose.
11-12, and the 95th time since the beginning of 2018 that the Nats have been within a game of .500 on either side of the Strange Attractor(tm). Caps are done as of last night, so I may have to find some shows to (re)binge watch to get me through the next few months.
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If the Orioles can find someone to take Mike Wright off their hands, there’s gotta be someone willing to take on Rosenthal.
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Yeah, I’m sure someone will take a flyer on him if the Nats cut him loose, because free pitcher, but it’d have to be someone with no aspirations of playing in October, because there’s no way he’s gonna figure it out at the major league level.
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