Fan Interference

Prof: Incredibly sad news to report. Rays minor league pitcher Blake Bivens’ family was murdered, reportedly by his own brother-in-law. Bivens, who plays for the Montgomery Biscuits – a double A team – was married with an infant child. His brother-in-law allegedly murdered his sister (Bivens’ wife), his own mother, and the little baby. Of course, the Biscuits cancelled their game for the evening, which was supposed to be a doubleheader. We are still waiting for news about what led to the tragic death of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs, and now there’s a family massacre. If you believe in prayer or positive intention, please send some Blake Bivens’ way. Remember what I always say – baseball is a family. Let’s be that support for this young man right now.

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Pirates 5, Phillies 4 – Prof: A bunch of people you’ve never heard of were homering and driving in RBIs for both teams. Bryce Harper was involved, but just barely. Rhys Hoskins was, too, but for a bad reason – he had an error that allowed the winning run.

Spiders 10, Tigers 1 – Prof: Sometimes it’s just not fair. The Magical Land of Cleve really poured it on Detroit and the hits kept on coming. It started out right away, with a Puig RBI double and a Kipnis 2 RBI homer right in the first inning. Adam Plutko got the win, and nine strikeouts to boot.

 

Reds 8, Marlins 5 – Prof: Curt Casali, have a night! The Cincinnati catcher homered and had a two run single and assisted as Luis Castillo pitched a quality outing – six innings, eleven strikeouts. Nick Senzel also had a great night with his own solo homer and RBI single.

Cardinals 6, Brewers 3 – Scouts: Yadier Molina continues to be one of the best players in baseball, a player that gets plenty of recognition, yet somehow never seems to be enough.  Last night, he went 3-3 with 3 runs scored, 3 RBI’s, and a pair of homers.

 

Twins 3, White Sox 1 – Prof: Marwin Gonzalez and Jonathan Schoop went yard, while Michael Pineda went five with eight Ks as Minnesota defeated the red hot Lucas Giolito and his Chicago teammates.

 

Rays 1, Astros 15 – Scouts: Justin Verlander has been on a hot streak lately, and last night things weren’t gong quite his way, and he choose to vent his frustrations towards home plate umpire Pat Hoberg, and Hoberg wasn’t in the mood to take it and tossed him in the 6th inning.  Turns out it didn’t really matter much as the Astros absolutely lit up Charlie Morton and the Rays bullpen.

Red Sox 10, Rockies 6  – Scouts: Jackie Bradley Jr smoked a pretty impressive homer and Brock Holt went 3-4 with 2 RBI’s of his own.  Also homering for the Sox was Christian Vazquez and Xander Bogaerts.

 

Athletics 2, Royals 1 – Prof: Oakland is very much a team team – by that, I mean there aren’t too many big stars on their roster, so the team is even more important. And it definitely was a team effort last night. Mike Fiers, who is enjoying a career rejuvenation in Oakland, went five 1/3 innings with five strikeouts. Marcus Semien had an RBI single in the second that put the A’s over the top early.

Diamondbacks 3, Giants 2 – Scouts: It looks like the Giants hot streak has run it’s course and they are back to being who we thought they were.  Mike Leake shut them down over 7.1 innings allowing just 4 hits and 2 runs and Adam Jones, Christian Walker, and Ketel Marte led the way for Arizona.

Rangers 2, Angels 5 – Scouts: Andrew Heaney has given up 4 runs over his last 21 innings, totaling up 30 strikeouts over that span.  Look out world!  Mike Trout continues to be one of if not the greatest player in history hitting his 43 homer on the season.

 

Dodgers 9, Padres 0 – Scouts:  The Dodgers had this game in hand so badly, they allowed Russell Martin to become the first position player in over 100 years to pitch in a shutout win.  That’s just cruel and unusual right there.  Walker Buehler who picked up his 11th win on the year struck out 11 over the course of 6 innings pitched.

Yankees 7, Mariners 0 – Scouts: Masahiro Tanaka was on his A game last night striking out 7 over 7 innings, holding Seattle to just 3 hits as part of a shut out win for the Yankees.  The Yankees continued to hit homers in bunches as Aaron Judge and Brett garner both went deep.

 

Orioles 2, Nationals 0 – Prof: This is one of the shortest road trips in sports – the hour from Baltimore to the District of Columbia. I live right in the middle of the two, so if I were taking that trip I’d probably drive down on US 50. But the Orioles probably took 95. Anyway, Baltimore had a surprisingly strong night against the hot Nats, somehow getting the best of Patrick Corbin who pitched well, but just made a few mistakes. The biggest problem was that the Nats could not capitalize on a bases loaded jam up in the eighth inning.

Braves 1, Blue Jays 3 – Prof: Josh Donaldson spent a huge amount of time in Toronto before moving onto Atlanta. The third baseman was an important player both on and off the field in Blue Jays country. So when he made his return to Rogers Centre, the Blue Jay faithful stood on their feet to welcome back an old friend. Donaldson was hitless, unfortunately, but I’m sure he was touched by the sincere emotion shown from a fanbase who truly appreciated the special player he is. As far as current Blue Jays, Justin Smoak went 2-3 with 2 RBI and Vlad Jr. had an RBI as well. Cavan Biggio went 2-3.

Cubs 5, Mets 2 – Prof: It’s good to see Yu Darvish back to his old self. He went eight innings and struck out seven – the only hiccup was a solo homer given up to Super Rookie Pete Alonso. Alonso’s blast sets the Mets’ single season home run record. He’ll probably demolish it. But alas, the Super Rookie couldn’t do it all, and the Cubs mauled the Mets. Javier Baez also hit a homer run and drove in three in victory.