Scouts: MLB seems to have a sudden surge of quality, young talent lately. Brandon Lowe, Vlag Guerrero, John Means, Chris Paddack, Ronald Acuna, Ozzie Albies, Alex Bregman, Austin Riley, and well a whole bunch I’m unable to think of at the moment. Similar to Prof’s topic of yesterday, who’s your favorite young player that’s NOT on your favorite team?
Phillies 2, Nationals 6 (Game 1) – Prof: What do you know? They played a game in DC! One of the pitchers I was supposed to see got his start in – Patrick Corbin – who was excellent. Seven innings, eight strikeouts, and only one earned run. Gerardo Parra and Brian Dozier doubled and homered each.
Phillies 0, Nationals 2 (Game 2) – Prof: Max Scherzer did not come out rocking a Bane mask or doing his best Rip Hamilton impression, but he did not disappoint. With a bruised up face (and broken schnozz), the Nationals’ ace struck out ten in seven shutout innings. Brian Dozier continued his hot streak by hitting another home run, and the Curly Dubs sweep the doubleheader.
Tigers 7, Pirates 8 – Scouts: After losing 4 outfielders due to injuries, the Pirates finally called up prospect Bryan Reynolds. The Rookie who’s only played in 13 games above AAA made his mark immediately blasting a three run homer in the 6th that put Pittsburgh ahead for good.
Angels 11, Blue Jays 6 – Prof: takes off semi-professional cap WOOOHOOO MIKE TROUT YOU ARE THE MAN!!!! puts it back on again Mike Trout had an RBI single, a two run homer, and a grand slam in this swamping of Toronto. Rowdy Tellez kept it interesting, though, with his own multi-RBI homers.
Mets 2, Braves 7 – Prof: Max vs Matz. We’re looking into the future here, and if the Mets can get out of their own way this will be a great match up year after year. This time, Max (Fried) gets the win. Six innings, six strikeouts. The kid bounced back from a bad start to look sharp in this one. The usual from Freddie Freeman – two run homer in the first inning off Matz, while Josh Donaldson drove FF5 home in the sixth with his own mashed tater.
White Sox 3, Cubs 7 – Scouts: Wilson Contreras homered twice against the cross-town rival White Sox, including a grand slam in the first to really kick things off on a positive note.
Spiders 10, Rangers 4 – Scouts: The Spiders are on quite the offensive hot streak lately, scoring 10, 8, and 13 runs in recent games. The offense in this one came pretty early, as the Spiders picked up 5 in the first thanks to a 3 run homer by Jason Kipnis and a solo shot by Roberto Perez.
Red Sox 9, Twins 4 – Scouts: Both teams were pretty tired after last night’s 17 inning affair, but you wouldn’t know it to watch the Red Sox who tore into Kyle Gibson and Sean Poppen.
Marlins 1, Cardinals 2 F/11– – Scouts: He was supposed to have the day off. He wasn’t supposed to enter the game in the top of the 9th, and then smoke a homer 453 feet to walk it off in the 11th. But that’s just what makes Paul Goldschmidt, Paul Goldschmidt.
Rockies 6, Diamondbacks 4 – Scouts: The offense continues to chug for the Rockies, who did most of their damage via base hit this time around, rather than the long ball.
Astros 2, Reds 3 – Scouts: The Reds have lost 15 games by 1 run, so it was nice to come from behind and take one, although they had quite a bit of help from Houston. After a Nick Senzel single tied the game, Houston outfielder Michael Brantley threw a little wild to home and pulled catcher Garret Stubbs up the line. Stubbs took a desperation sweep tag, and lost control of his glove and the ball as both went sailing into the air. Closer Osuna apparently fell asleep and allowed Senzel to advance to second after being really slow to recover the ball. That allowed Jesse Winker to single in the winning run with the next at bat.
Rays 1, Yankees 12 – Prof: New York! Concrete jungle where dreams are made, but for Tampa, only nightmares. Gary Sanchez hit a three run homer, Gleyber Torres hit a grand slam, CC Sabathia won his 250th career game, and theeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees sweep the Sea Creatures.
Orioles 3, Athletics 8 – Prof: Woe is Charm City, for Bae Mancini was hit by a pitch early in this game. Wait? What’s this? His X-rays are negative and he’ll be day to day? Oh, please oh please. Baltimore needs Trey, he’s their only ope. Scoring didn’t happen until the fifth inning, when Josh Phegley hit a three run homer for Oakland and they never looked back.
Brewers 7, Padres 8 – Scouts: Milwaulkee has now lost 6 of their last 8 and almost all of them have been within 1-2 runs. Meanwhile the Padres offense has been on fire, smacking the ball all over the place. This time it was Franmil Reyes to pick up a 3 run shot in the 7th that won it for the Padres. Christian Yelich did his best to help the cause, picking up his 27th homer on the year.
Royals 2, Mariners 8 – Prof: The Mariners were just about to get swept by Kansas City, but not today, Satan. Not today. Domingo Santana hit two homers and had five RBI. That’s a good way to save face, especially against the Royals.
Giants 2, Dodgers 9 – Scouts: The Giants were simply out matched, as the Dodgers picked up their 50th win on the season. The win came at a cost however as Rich Hill left the game in the second inning with a forearm injury leaving his future up in the air. Chris Taylor homered twice and Cody Bellinger picked up his 24th on the season.
Fan Interference 
Lots of people made the same Max Scherzer joke yesterday about his pitching with one brown eye, one blue eye, and one black eye. Today, a number of people are trying to canonize him for his efforts last night, but given that he’s got two no-hitters and a 20K complete game in his career, his 7 shutout innings last night, when he himself said he was at a zero on a pain scale of 1 to 10, is just another great start from him.
Seriously, to quote Craig here:
“Over his last six starts, Scherzer now has a 0.88 ERA with a 59/8 K/BB ratio across 41 innings. He has gone six innings, struck out at least nine batters, and held the opposition to two or fewer runs in each of those six starts.”
so he’s been consistently brilliant lately, with the only difference last night being that he had the black eye.
Nats are now 16-7 in their last 23, only three games under .500 for the first time since late April, and have managed to rise to third place in the NL East, still eight back of the even hotter Braves. Fedde tonight to finish the abbreviated Phils series (weather permitting), then Strasburg, Anibal Sanchez, and TBD to face the Braves over the weekend. It would be Corbin’s turn, but he’d be going on short rest, so not sure what they’ll do that day.
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Bryan Reynolds was called up from the minors on April 20.
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I’m emerging from my time zone alienation to laud the two great performances of rookie Jordan Yamamoto and welcome Zac Gallen to the show tonight with best wishes for success.
Also, to my great disappointment the life sized animatronic fiberglass Tyrannosaurus at the British Museum still has no asshole.
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Interesting Angels game as Trout’s contribution was nearly wasted. Heaney, nicknamed Hiney by my new roommate, gave up five earned runs on four hits and four walks in 3 2/3.
Speaking of new roommates I have three. Last week I was watching the news with two of them when some clearly untrue statement by the Philanderer in Chief led me to state my lack of support for the lying idiot. No reaction. Last night I called Biden an idiot for his stupid statement regarding working with GOP senators past. And they both jumped in in agreement. I don’t know if I can live with these guys.
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Maybe they assume Trump is lying most of the time and have stopped listening but expect more from Biden ??
I do. I expect Biden to get rid of Trump and not drop dead until at least the day after his inauguration.
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Interesting to see the hot teams starting to cool off as we approach the All-Star game and emergence of teams that are lurking in the shadows. (A’s, Angels, Reds, Red Sox) Who would of expected the Marlins winning 8 games in June already?
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