Scouts: Summer is officially over and the kiddos have returned to school, which had added an additional 20+ mins to my commute. Super exciting stuff. Football is back, so now you get to hear all you didn’t need to know about everyone’s 15 fantasy football leagues. At least there’s some good news that baseball is still going, and we are starting to get really close to the playoffs baby!
Rangers 1, Yankees 10 – Prof: Edwin Encarnacion returns and mashed a dinger, while James Paxton went seven shutout innings and struck out twelve. In the sixth inning, Sir Didi, Gary Sanchez and Brett Gardner also went yard.
Phillies 6, Reds 2 – Prof: Bryce Harper has now driven in 100 RBI on the year. Scott Kingery went yard.
Orioles 4, Rays 2 (Game 1) – Prof: My forever crush is back on the field and I’m so happy! Yes, the Mighty Trumbo is cleared to play. He was only a pinch hitter, but he did go 1-1 and had an RBI. Small steps, y’all. Rio Ruiz and Anthony Santander both hit homers, as well.
Orioles 0, Rays 2 (Game 2) – Prof: This was a doubleheader because of Hurricane Dorian. No one knows when the storm might make landfall, or even where. To play it safe, the Rays and Orioles decided to play two. In game two, things didn’t go so well for Baltimore. Manager Brandon Hyde decided to sit the Mighty Trumbo, and used Trey Mancini and Stevie Wilkerson in bench roles. The losing pitcher for Birdland was Ynoa, and there’s Ynoa reason why they keep dragging this guy out there.
Mets 10, Nationals 11 – Prof: Mets gonna Met. Nats gonna Nat. Who wanted it less…er…more? Pouring it on in the ninth inning, both teams were fighting it out after a fireworks show for most of the night: Joe Panik hit a two run homer, Jeff McNeil and Brandon Nimmo hit solos; Juan Soto hit a two run homer too. In the ninth inning, Super Rookie Pete Alonso took a bite out of the ball and drove himself and McNeil home, putting the Mets up 10-4. No lead is safe in the NL East, please believe me. On any given day, three of the lousiest bullpens in baseball (NY, Washington, Atlanta) will make an appearance. Suddenly it was like the Nats couldn’t stop getting knocks. The Treat Urner hit an RBI double, then Anthony Rendon had an RBI single. A two run double and then the icing on the cake was a three run homer from Kurt Suzuki, which put the Curly Dubs on top. Not the momentum New York was looking for, and the Nats get that much closer to Atlanta for the NL East crown.
Marlins 5, Pirates 4 F/10 – Scouts: This one came down to a pair of long balls, one by Michael Rojas in the 9th to tie it up and one by Garrett Cooper in the 10th to give the Marlins the game.
White Sox 6, Spiders 5 – Prof: Cookie Carrasco might have gotten the loss, but he’s the real winner after coming back from leukemia. As far as the White Sox go, James McCann and Eloy Jimenez both homered in the eighth and that’s all they needed, folks.
Twins 6, Red Sox 5 – Scouts: Big win for Minnesota, who needs every win they can muster to stay ahead of Cleveland. Minnesota’s now won 9 of their last 10. Nelson Cruz continues to show he’s still go it, hitting his 35th homer, for the sixth consecutive season.
Blue Jays 2, Braves 7 – Scouts: Atlanta can’t rest just yet, they are only 6.5 games over the surging Nats. The next few weeks will be about staying ahead in the division while also making some tough calls on just who might make the final playoff roster cut. Mike Foltynewicz is one of those guys on the bubble, and if he can show more like he did last night, he’ll be a key piece to Atlanta’s chances. Foltz only lasted 5 innings, but was able to hold Toronto scoreless on a pair of hits.
Astros 2, Brewers 4 – Prof: Do you remember when Zack Greinke played for Milwaukee? I do. I remember because he became enemies with Ryan Braun. Also because I never got to see him pitch because every single time I’d get tickets it was an off day or they moved his start. Every time. Worse than my Julio Teheran/Braves situation. Anyway, ZG didn’t do so hot in this game, but Jordan Lyles did just enough. The Brew Crew bats did the rest: Eric Thames hit a three run homer and ZG’s old frienemy, Ryan Braun, hit an RBI single.
Mariners 1, Cubs 6 – Scouts: Chicago’s taking advantage of Milwaukee’s struggles and have moved into a pretty solid second place in the division. Although the Cardinals keep on winnings, the Cubs are nipping at their heels, just 3 games back in a race that could go either way at this point.
Tigers 5, Royals 6 – Scouts: Jorge Soler hit his 39th home run on the season for the Royals and in doing so fairly quietly became the new single season home run record holder for the club.
Padres 1, Diamondbacks 2 – Scouts: Merrill Kelly allowed just 3 hits over 7 shutout innings and made the two runs his team spotting him in the first really last. San Diego attempted a comeback in the 9th, but came up a little short when Nick Martini struck out looking to end the game.
Angels 5, Athletics 7 – Scouts: Oakland’s not dead yet. They moved into a tie with the team from Cleveland for the final wild card spot. Seth Brown provided the difference maker with a pair of triples in just the 8th game of his MLB career. Mike Trout hit number 44 on the year in the losing effort.
Rockies 3, Dodgers 5 – Scouts: Is there any hope of any team stopping the Dodgers? It’s not looking like it’ll happen any time soon. L.A. is just 9 wins shy of 100 they just keep on trucking. Russell Martin, David Freese and Justin Turner all homered for LA.
Giants 0, Cardinals 1 – Prof: Jack Flaherty went eight innings with as many Ks, but it was a solo homer from Marcell Ozuna that won the night for the Cardinals.
Fan Interference 
I’m counting my blessings this morning that I’m not a sportswriter on deadline covering the Nats, because I’d have had to shred my gamer last night and re-write the whole damn thing from scratch.
The story of the game prior to the absolutely bananas bottom of the ninth was the mistakes, both physical and mental, that the Nats made to put themselves in so deep a hole.
Max pitched five real good innings and one bad one, an inning where the Mets just teed off on him and scored four runs, and so the Nats were down 4-1 headed to the bottom of the sixth. That frame saw mental mistake number one happen, as with runners on first and second and one out, Kurt Suzuki hit a deGrom pitch to the wall in center field. Juan Soto, who was on second base, read it right and scored easily; Matt Adams, who was on first, did not, as he went back to tag up while Brandon Nimmo crashed into the wall and failed to field the ball, so Adams only made it to second on the play. Next batter Gerardo Parra hit an inning-ending double play, and a rally that could’ve been wasn’t.
The Mets went up 5-2 in the 8th, and then Soto hit a two-run shot off deGrom in the bottom of the 8th, making it 5-4. The Nats had a glimmer of hope, but Mickey Callaway brought in Seth Lugo (the Mets’ best reliever) at that point to squash those dreams, and we headed to the ninth.
In the top of the 9th, the real comedy of errors ensued, as after a Nimmo homer to make it 6-4, the Mets did some stuff, Matt Adams dropped a foul pop, an out was made, and it was still 6-4 with runners on first and second and one out when Tomas Nido hit a grounder to Trea Turner, one that looked like a sure double play. Unfortunately, Trea forgot how many outs there were and just threw to first, thinking that would end the inning. It didn’t, and the Mets scored four more after that brain fart to get to a 10-4 lead and what seemed to be an inevitable win.
The only upside to all of that was that Callaway removed Lugo from the game, figuring that even Mr. Met could get three outs before the Mets gave up six or more runs. In retrospect, he chose poorly, leading to the sad scene at 0:47 in the accompanying video above, where a young couple of Mets fans are up and out of their seats before Suzuki’s blast even lands.
Baseball, man…
Series finale at 1PM today, a Youtube-only broadcast, so I’ll be listening on the radio.
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One feel-good moment that I forgot about happened before the game yesterday, when Aaron Barrett found out he was getting recalled to the Nats for September.
He had TJ surgery in 2015, broke his arm throwing a pitch during his rehab from that (think Tom Browning/Tony Saunders) got fixed, rehabbed his ass off, pitched well in the minors this year, and got rewarded:
Not sure if he’ll be called on to help the Nats should they make it to October, but it’s a nice story nonetheless.
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