It’s fairly perplexing the success the O’s starting pitching has been having, but I believe a major part is they are the beneficiaries of great defense behind them, and a lights-out bullpen. If they get a few runs on the board and hand over a lead to the bullpen, this team is virtually unbeatable. They’re a ridiculous 46-10 when scoring first.
Beckett is probably gone for the rest of the year, and Maholm definitely is, so the Dodgers picked up Kevin Correia from the Twins to bolster the rotation, going to a six-day cycle which is known to do wonders for Ryu’s production, as well as Greinke’s. If Haren can start repeating his last performance, we will be firing on all cylinders.
If.
Lots of extra baseball the last couple of days. There were five extra-innings games yesterday, including the marathon 19-inning game between Boston and the Angels, and there have been three so far today, with the Tigers and Blue Jays currently approaching the two-games-in-one mark at 18 innings.
The Orioles should have saved up a few runs from the last couple of days to use today. They got beaten 8-3 by St. Louis, but the series win was their sixth in a row, and their sixth in seven since the All-Star break.
And the Tigers and Blue Jays made it to 19. Toronto used every relief pitcher they had (and used a starter as a pinch runner.)
I wonder if there have ever been two straight days with 19-inning games before?
They just said on Sportscenter that it’s a first.
So, apparently Bryce Harper put his foot in and dragged it on the Braves logo in the dirt behind home plate while walking to the batter’s box and some of the Braves fans on my Facebook are crying bloody murder. I dunno about y’all, but aren’t you just asking for an opposing player to do that when you put your logo on the dirt behind home plate?
Second question, when the Braves suddenly start become the fauxrage kings of baseball?
Honestly, who gives a shit about stuff like that? And for that matter does anyone really hink Bryce Harper gives a shit, or was out to deface some promotional paint on the field? Jesus.
Is it just me or are MLB egos getting really brittle? (And yeah, it seems to be the Braves quite a lot.) You don’t like what the guy does, man up and strike him out.
I would also point out that I’ve seen the tape and I’ll tell you, if that’s an attempt to screw up someone’s logo, it sure was a bad one. It’s the kind of thing where you’d have to be kind of insane to be sure it was a deliberate act, like the kind of people who watch newscasts and become convinced every twitch and movement the newscasters make is a secret message just for them.
The whole “outrage” over the Harper thing is retarded, like so many of these little violations of the unwritten rules. Baseball is apparently populated at all levels, from players to managers to commentators to fans, with children.
I think it’s because of the number of talking heads who will defend whatever the next level of “unwritten rules” is. There’s always some ex-player who will argue that it’s totally fine to kill a player and every member of his extended family if he takes more than 11.2 seconds to trot around the bases, so the idiots on the field and in the stands get validated and everything escalates. Because if it’s okay to kill the entire extended family for a homerun trot of over 11.2 seconds, surely it’s okay to level entire neighborhoods if someone looks at somebody funny!
It seems to me that the unwritten rule police are against anything that is in the slightest bit fun. A person stares at their home run a second longer or hits a bunt while a no-hitter is going on - why is that so upsetting? It adds a bit more flavor and excitement to the sport? Well, I guess we can’t have that happening - gotta out No Fun the No Fun League or something.
My Lord, some of these baseball talking heads would have a conniption after seeing the celebrations that soccer players engage in after scoring a goal.
I have heard many people say, over the years, that baseball is a children’s game 
Yes, but only because it’s soccer. Soccer is the anti-baseball.
Some folks might be interested in this, and it didn’t seem necessary to start a separate thread.
A valuable baseball card collection apparently emerged on a recent taping of Antiques Roadshow:
This sounds like the team that eventually became the Braves. This team had some ties to the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team. Some of the same players and organizers moved from Cincinnati to Boston in 1871 to organize a team there. This version of the Red Stockings belonged to the National Association - a league that preceded the National League (which was founded in 1876). This collection seems like a treasure trove for baseball historians.
That whole outrage over the Atlanta logo reminds of the NFL outrage when Terrell Owens “desecrated the star” at the Dallas Cowboys stadium.
After a 19-inning game yesterday where Detroit’s bullpen pitched 13 innings, Justin Verlander went out in the second inning of tonight’s game. And Kansas City has moved past them into first place.
The top 3 records in the majors right now belong to California teams, and my boss (a huge Angels fan) raised the possibility the other day of having 4 of 5 make the playoffs this year. I assume that’s never happened before, but does anyone know any differently?
As far as i can tell from this page, the most is three, in 2002 and 2006.
The Orioles clobbered the Yankees 11-3 today, but Manny Machado had to leave the game with a knee sprain. They don’t know yet how serious it is, but i hope he doesn’t have to miss too much time, because he’s been on fire over the last month or so. J.J. Hardy is also currently out with a finger sprain, so Baltimore is missing the whole left side of its infield.
The Royals were 8 games back on July 21!
Since then, they’ve gone 16-3, including 9 out of their last 10. I’d really like to see them make the playoffs.
Dodgers now up 5 full games on the dog-assed Giants. The New Kid On The Block pitched a gem last night against the Braves.
And he got two hits to boot. Followed by some solid bullpen work. So far I’ve heard that Correia will be doing spot starts and that the Dodgers will be going to a six man rotation. Anybody heard what they’re going to do, or is Mattingly just going to play it by ear?