Frankie Montas is shaping up to be the best Yankees acquisition at the trading deadline from the Oakland As since Sonny Gray.
The Houston Astros’ Triple-A affiliate, the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, sent 23 men to the plate and scored 17 runs in the sixth inning of a 21-4 win over the Oklahoma City Dodgers. This inning alone lasted 58 minutes and forced Oklahoma City through four pitchers and 108 pitches.
At some point you stop using pitchers and put a reserve infielder in to throw the ball over the plate until the other team gets tired and can’t swing anymore.
That explains the sound of trash cans banging I heard last night.
The Modesto Nuts have had some pretty wild games recently too it seems.
And a couple days earlier had a 9 run comeback win in the 9th inning.
Savannah Bananas are still the best baseball team.
Seeing Stilts get a hit was more amazing, to me.
They wasted some great scoring chances, leaving the bases loaded like that.
Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim made a spectacular catch in which he practically dived into the first row of left field seats in the top of the 6th against the Nationals. When a video is available, I’ll post it here. It was crazy.
Here it is.
After winning 3/4 against the Yankees, in New York no less, you still feel this way?
I was feeling down myself after two losses to the Orioles. Not so much since. Still, on paper it feels this team should be well ahead in the wild card. Still waiting to see the movie I was promised.
I give them 50-50 at best. The fact they got handed an extra game by an equally listless team doesn’t mean much.
Man, that’s pessimistic of you. Fangraphs (MLB Playoff Odds | FanGraphs Baseball) currently gives them 91.8%
The Dodgers just completed their 4th sweep for the month of August and are playing .700 ball. Gallo is coming along nicely for his new team, going 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs yesterday.
I refuse to feel too good about this, because this time of the year the wheels have a tendency to come off. But we got May back, so there’s hope.
There are 29 other teams whose fans would love to have this hope.
Baseball Ref is at 78, so I’m not that far off them.
It’s a pitching staff held together with twine and the team’s best pitcher looks tired as hell.
I mean, there is no chance at all the Dodgers don’t win the division and earn a bye through the Wild Card round, so why would their fans even care what happens between now and October, beyond just wanting no more injuries? They should rest their starters two out of every three days once the September callups give them the personnel to do so. Go to an 8-man starting rotation. The matter is totally decided until the NLDS begins. They are the best team since the 1998 Yankees at least.
The Dodgers have a TEAM ERA+ of 147. Has that ever happened before, at least in the live ball era? I can’t find any team even close to that. The 1971 Orioles, who had four 20-game winners? 113. The Atlanta Braves of the 1990s, a strong candidate for the greatest pitching staff ever assembled, topped out at 131. The 2011 Phillies had a famously great rotation; they got to 131. The 1966 Dodgers, who had the Left Arm of God? 127. The 1968 Cardinals, with Bob Gibson being unhittable? 117. The 1985 Blue Jays had a 128. The 1998 Yankees, the best team I can remember seeing, had a 117, while the 2001 Mariners who won 116 games also had a 117.
There have been years when the individual leader didn’t have a 147. Very, very few pitchers who have ever lived had a career ERA+ of 147, and most of the ones who did had short careers (relief pitchers, Negro League pitchers who only pitched short seasons, etc.) Here is a list of all the pitchers in major league history post-1900 with an ERA+ of 147 who pitched at least 2000 innings:
Clayton Kershaw
Pedro Martinez
Lefty Grove
Walter Johnson
End of list. If we drop it to 1000, a damn short career, we only add eight more names.
Oh, and the Dodgers also have the highest scoring offense in the majors by a wide margin and are the best fielding team. Jesus. Yeah, there’s some hope.
Truth.
Right now the only race that the Dodgers care about is the best record in the league, for home-field advantage. Their lead over the Mets is 6.5 games with 40+ games to play, so this one is certainly not over.
Bryce Harper played his first rehab game for the Phillies’ AAA affiliate, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, and in addition to selling a shitload of IronPigs #4 shirts and jerseys and really exciting the home crowd, he gave them something to be excited about by getting two home runs.
No-hitter in progress after 6 innings of Seattle pitching: The Mariners’ Robbie Ray is holding on to a 2-0 lead over the Nationals.