Fan Interference

This is is ladies and germs.  The final recap of the MLB 2019 regular season.  It’s been a pretty long season, but a fun one.  I for one, however am very excited to get started on the post season.  Who’s your current favorite to take it all?  The Dodgers?  Yankees?  Astros?  The Nats and Brewers will kick things off on Tuesday, followed by the Athletics and Rays on Wednesday.  But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we still have one final day of full baseball to cover, and man, you had to watch until the last second for some of these games.

 

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Orioles 4, Red Sox 5 – Scouts: An error by the Orioles led to a walk-off win by the Red Sox.  Pretty typical stuff.  Steve Wilkerson hesitated throwing in the ball after a deflected single settled in right, and it allowed Mookie Betts to hustle around third and sneak in for the win.  But the biggest play of the day, and possibly the biggest play of the year occurred the inning prior where Stevie Wilkerson robbed a homer in one of the most spectacular plays I’ve ever seen.  Seriously, if you haven’t seen it yet, you HAVE to watch this highlight.

 

Spiders 2, Nationals 8 – Prof: Hard to believe that The Magical Land of Cleve missed out on the postseason this year. They had it all, and had every opportunity in the world to get there, but it just kinda petered out towards the end. The Curly Dubs, however, fought back from a tremendous deficit to best both the overconfident Phillies and the scrappy hard-luck Mets to get to the wild card. A lot of Washington’s success came from guys like Kurt Suzuki and Brian Dozier, who played an important role in this game as well. Suzuki and Dozier both had two RBI in this win.

Dodgers 9, Giants 0 – Scouts: LA hasn’t taken their foot off the gas all year long and they decided to stay hot in preparation for either the Brewers or Nats by completely dismantling the Giants one last time.  The win was LA’s 106th on the season, a club record, and it allowed them to finish with a 21 game margin in the division, which is just insane.

Yankees 1, Rangers 6 – Prof: Texas is moving to a new stadium next season, so this was the final final home game at the Ballpark in Arlington. It’s nice that they were able to leave it on a winning note. Lance Lynn struck out ten Yankees. Only Aaron Judge was able to score; a solo homer in the third.

 

Reds 3, Pirates 1 – Scouts: Trevor Bauer was slated to pitch the final game of the season, but fell ill, which probably was best for everyone involved.  Tyler Mahle filled in and was able to make good after a terrible final start his previous game.  Mahle allowed 3 hits over 5 shutout innings and picked up the win to close out the season.

Marlins 4, Phillies 3 – Scouts: Miami closed out the season on a high note, taking a win against Philly, thanks to homers by Starlin Castro, Isan Diaz, and Martin Prado.  For the first season of that monster contract, Bryce Harper finished with a .260 average, 35 homers and 114 RBI’s.

Rays 3, Blue Jays 8 – Scouts: 2019 was about the future for Toronto, and they have quite the promising young team, but before we can look to the future, it was time to say goodbye to a fan favorite in Toronto, Justin Smoak, who has probably played his final game for the Blue Jays.  Smoak celebrated with a pair of doubles and 3 RBI’s and one heck of a standing ovation.

Astros 8, Angels 5 – Prof: Houston ends the regular season with 107 victories under their caps. Y’all think they might be good? Gerrit Cole won 20 for the year, struck out ten, and will be fighting it out with Justin Verlander for the AL CY. You really can’t go wrong with either one of them. It’s just not fair. And then you also have the Astros’ offense – Springer Dingers and Alex Bregman doing his usual thing, and Yuri Gurriel out here dropping bombs… I pity the rest of the AL, and I think that when the Astros and Yankees meet up, it’s going to be NASTY. (That’s, of course, if the Yankees get past Minnesota. I hope the Twins can win! But we will see.)

 

Braves 6, Mets 7 F/11 – Prof: [puts on Braves homer cap] The Mets swept the Braves for the last games of the season in 1995 and look what happened then! I’ll take it! [takes off Braves homer cap] Atlanta is a bit battered and bruised these days. A lot of the big guys either sat out the entire game or left fairly early. Guys like Freddie Freeman, who sat in the second inning to rest an ailing elbow, and Ronald Acuna Jr, who didn’t play at all. Mike Soroka, whose ERA is a blisteringly hot 2.68 on the season, had a bit of a shaky beginning but got the nerves under control and ended up with seven strikeouts. New York gets the win, but they also get to go back home for the rest of the season. To be honest, though, I’m looking forward to seeing what Super Rookie Pete Alonso (although next year he’ll be a Super Sophomore?), J.D. Davis, Michael Conforto and the Orange and Blue Crew go to the NL East.

 

Tigers 3, White Sox 5 – Scouts: Tim Anderson claimed the AL batting title at .335 and Jose Abru won the RBI crown with 123 providing Chicago fans with something to look forward to for next year.  Meanwhile Detroit lost their 114th game and now get to look forward to the top pick in the draft next year.

Padres 0, D’backs 1 – Prof: A nothing game between two teams playing to pack it up and go home. Scoreless until the last possible minute, when Arizona’s Tim Locastro hit a walk-off single.

Athletics 1, Mariners 3 – Prof: Once again, Oakland makes it into the playoffs, and once again, Seattle is on the outside looking in. One of these days, the M’s will build upon the promise that they always seem to have in their midst, but I don’t know when that will be. Meanwhile, Kyle Seager (yes, Corey’s brother) hit a two run homer to jumpstart the Mariners’ offense.

 

Brewers 3, Rockies 4 F/13 – Prof: Limping into the playoffs, the Brewers are as busted and crusted as Atlanta is. Christian Yelich is out for the rest of the year, while Ryan Braun is nursing a day-to-day injury as well. Milwaukee is in the show, though, so it was ok that Colorado took this win. However, I’m sure that the Brewers didn’t want it to go so many extra innings. This loss (and the Cubs choking down in the Lou) means that Milwaukee gets the other wild card berth and will meet up with Washington.

Cubs 0, Cardinals 9 – Prof:  Satan wears red, and so does St. Louis. Devil Magic is real. Anyway, farewell to Joe Maddon, who leaves Chicago. Also, a maybe farewell to the finest utility player, probably, of all time, one Ben Zobrist. Even though the Cubs were shut out, Zo got to pitch and struck out Yadi Molina. For a brief, precious moment, all was right with the world.

 

Twins 4, Royals 5 – Scouts: Ned Yost has managed his final game in Kansas City, a game that ended in a walk-off win thanks to a Brett Phillips sac fly in the 9th.