Joey Votto needs to step it up. I have him on my fantasy team.
Yeah, I’ll likely watch the game today at 12:30 pm on MLB Channel. While I do my live fantasy football draft at noon.
So the Reds have 4 with Arizona later this month. 7 games left with the Cards and 6 with the Pirates in late September. Plenty of opportunity to do or die. I’ll be rooting for the Pirates, but for the Reds vs. the Cards.
Votto is batting well enough for average and getting on base, but he’s not homering like he should, and with the way the Reds lineup has shaken out, he’s also very often not presented with RBI opportunities as he often has empty bases to look at.
So, what is the consensus on the Braves/Nationals kinda, sorta, but not quite brawl last night? Who thinks the pitch that hit Harper was intended to hit him?
Nats say: Of course it was intentional, Harper had homered earlier in the game and did kinda admire it for a few seconds.
Braves say: Not intentional, Teheran likes to pitch inside and has hit a team high 10 batters this season, and besides, in a 1 run game, are we really going to put a guy on base?
As a Braves fan, I’m obviously biased, but even I think it was intentional. Freeman of the Braves had been hit in exactly the same spot a few innings earlier, and Harper was a little too of his homer in his earlier at-bat. And besides, it’s Harper. Who doesn’t want to plunk him, really?
I will confess to being as pleased as a little girl with an ice cream cone when Harper struck out on a 99mph Kimbrel fastball for the last out of the game. 
Of course the pitch was intentional. The Braves have to say it wasn’t intentional unless they want Teheran to get suspended for a start. I guarantee that Bryce Harper wanted no part of getting rushed by McCann and El Oso Blanco, though, so probably best for him that the spat stayed at “not quite brawl” levels.
And yes, watching Harper flail at a Kimbrel pitch around his eyes to make the last out was deeply satisfying.
So, yeah: Beltran’s bunt was controversial enough that there’s an article up on the website explaining it. (It was Beltran’s idea, not Matheny’s.)
Since I can’t read a box score to save my life, having come to the game of baseball mostly as a grown-up, who gave up the three runs in the sixth that made the A’s vs. Reds game today a live contest?
Looks like it was Bailey. He went five and a third and gave up five runs and no one else gave up any, so it had to be him.
Huh. Guess he fell apart in the top of the sixth and Dusty didn’t pull him until after the three runs had scored.
Yep. Here’s the inning play-by-play.
The Reds have scored the third most runs in the National League. What “batting woes”?
Cardinals/Dodgers. I can’t watch because of the on-going tiff between TWC and CBS. But MLB Gameday has Crawford doubling, then a 7 minute delay because of an injuder pitcher. Da fuck? Can someone watching tell me what happened? Did Crawford bean the pitcher with the hit, or what?
Cardinals pitcher Shelby Miller got hit on the elbow by a line drive and had to leave the game. 
Uh…game is on FSW, dude.
Shut up.
:o
That’s not what the Dodger home page said.
Over the last seven days, Joey Votto has a slash line of .545/.688/.818. What exactly are you wanting him to step up to?
For the season, it is .323/.438/.512. Is that really disappointing to you?
Braves finish off sweep of Nationals. 12 game win streak, 151/2 game division lead. They go undefeated on a three city road trip. Back to the Ted for a weekend series with the Phil’s. Good times!
Scary, but so far it sounds like x-rays are negative and it’s just a bruise. Here’s hoping he can make his next start. If not, I guess it’s Carlos Martinez or Michael Wacha time again. Although with the way Westbrook has been pitching (and again tonight) it might be time for one of them anyway.
Woah. Woah. Whoooooooooaaaa…
Where are the homeruns?
Wow, really?