And now Nats win 8 in a row, 4th time they’ve done that.
The tarp crew at Wrigley Field totally screwed up trying to cover the field during the Giants game, the rain is pouring down and they couldn’t get the tarps laid out to cover the infield. It took three tries, and the field is a swamp.
It stopped raining after about 15 minutes…and 4 hours later, they’re still in a ‘rain delay’ while they try to return the field to a playable state.
I’m going to bed. I fully expect this game to still be in progress when I wake up.
How about these kids?
Well, they called the game at 1.16 a.m., after 4 hours and 34 minutes. As the San Francisco Chronicle said, give the Win to Tsuyoshi Wada and the Save to the Cubs Grounds Crew.
Under other circumstances, with the ground that soaked, they probably would have called the game much earlier. In this case, though, because the wet ground was a result of mistakes in getting the tarps out, they probably left it longer, because you don’t want to set a precedent whereby a team can win a game due to the incompetence of its grounds crew. I am completely certain that this was simply an honest mistake, and i don’t think the grounds crew would ever make an intentional bungle like that, but the fact is that their screwup helped the Cubs win the game.
It makes no difference for the Cubs, of course, but the loss is important for the Giants, who are still in a pennant race, and are tied for the second Wild Card spot in the National League. Bruce Bochy was pissed. Apparently, they were told that everything possible would be done to resume the game, but (again, according to the Chronicle) the only person doing anything during the last hour of the delay was one guy with a rake. The officials apparently said that there was no mechanism in the rules that allows for postponing the game.
After dropping two games in a row for the first time since late June, and losing their series with the Indians over the weekend, the Orioles are back to their winning ways, taking the first two games against the White Sox.
They are getting a really nice year from Steve Pearce, who has jumped around between Baltimore, the Yankees, and the Astros, after a few months but no actual games on the Twins roster, since leaving the Pirates in 2011.
Pearce was designated for assignment and put on release waivers back in April. The Blue Jays put in a claim for him, but he rejected it, and the Orioles picked him back up a few days later to fill a roster spot left open by Chris Davis’ trip to the DL.
While Pearce does not play every day (he’s played 76 games this year) his OPS is the highest on the team, ahead of Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, and even Nelson Cruz, who has been a great pickup for Baltimore. He hasn’t been so hot the last month, but he’s been a contributor on a team that is only just above league average in scoring.
In a lot of ways it doesn’t make much sense that they continue winning this much; they lost their star catcher (Wieters) for the season early in the year, “Crush” Davis has misplaced much of the crush, their young star infielder (Machado) has sustained a couple of injuries and a suspension, Hardy has had a down year, they still haven’t solved their hole at 2nd base, they’ve cobbled together a starting rotation out of young arms, career journeymen, and pure thin air, and yet they still just keep winning. They somehow keep coming up with someone getting hot at the plate, combined with a lights-out bullpen and they just roll on. It’s quite fascinating, really.
Somebody gave the whole fiasco the Benny Hill Treatment.
Kudos to Ironman Ryan Vogelsong for hurling a four-inning complete game.
According to the broadcasters last night, that was Vogelsong’s third career complete game. He pitched 9 innings against the Mets earlier this month; the other two CGs were both against the Cubs…in which he pitched a **total **of 10 innings.
The Giants have officially pretested the decision, citing Rule 4.12 (a)(3):
“A game shall become a suspended game that must be completed at a future date if the game is terminated for any of the following reasons…Light failure or malfunction of a mechanical field device under control of the home club. (Mechanical field device shall include automatic tarpaulin or water removal equipment)”
They’re claiming that the tarp roller meets the definition of a ‘mechanical field device’. I doubt they’ll have much success, but I guess it was really the only option open to them…though they *could *have tried citing Rule 4.16:
“A game shall be forfeited to the visiting team if, after it has been suspended, the order of the umpire to groundskeepers respecting preparation of the field for resumption of play are not complied with.”
Well, the Giants had their protest upheld.
And here’s the MLB.com story. The game will be resumed tomorrow afternoon, before the last game of the series.
Right after the Angels finally catch the A’s… Garrett Richards just went down running to cover first base in the Angels-Sox game. Non-contact injury, looked like a blown knee; he didn’t even try to stand, and they carted him off. It’s been a breakthrough year for him and he’s been their best pitcher by far; I don’t especially like the Angels, but I feel terrible for him and the team.
That really sucks for Richards, and i hope it’s not too serious, although there is almost nothing that could make me feel sorry for Angels fans.
In other injury-related news, Nick Swisher is a 33-year-old who just underwent surgery on both knees, and who is owed $30 million over the next two seasons by the Indians.
Ouch.
For the Indians, that is.
It was only arthroscopic surgery, and he should be healed by the start of next season, but i can’t see that 30 mill being good value for money over 2015 and 2016.
O’s win their fourth straight, sweeping the White Sox and going a full 9 games up on Toronto. Still 37 games to go, but barring some sort of disastrous run it looks like the Orioles are taking this thing and going into the playoffs with a high seed [knock on wood].
The curse of the SI cover comes to Little League World Series.
So Sports Illustrated puts Little League pitcher Mo’ne Davis on their cover and she goes out and gives up three runs and six hits and strikes out six in 2 1/3 innings before leaving after 55 pitches (LL Rules). Her team loses 8 - 1.
…and my Dodgers are again demonstrating that you can never have too much pitching.
This is getting interesting. And not in a good way.
Nats win 9 in a row, only the second time they’ve done that. Tonight, they have a chance to tie their record of 10 in a row. If they do, manager Matt Williams has pledged to do his impression of Babe Rut running the bases for the fans.
Man, they *gotta *win today!
This is feeling like 2012, isn’t it? Just fun to be at the park.
I’d like them to win today so they can bank a W as they go into the series against SF.
The older, fatter, slower, waddlier Ruth no doubt!
I don’t follow the AL very closely, but one thing I keep hearing this season (a certain amount of it from ESPN, which often ignores California teams, so I took it seriously) is how great Oakland is–great pitching, great hitting, good defense. Then they went out and got Samardzija and Lester and it seemed that everyone was conceding them the World Series.
So I look at the standings this morning and see that the A’s are actually in second place, behind the Angels, about whom I’ve heard just about nothing all season. Now that doesn’t mean the A’s will stay there, and their record certainly is impressive regardless of their place in the standings–but clearly it’s not quite the slam-dunk I’ve been hearing about. Have there been injuries, or are they hitting a rough patch that everyone goes through, or were they just not as good as some were saying?
It would certainly be amusing if the A’s and Tigers met in the playoffs, but in the wild card game, not the ALCS.