First no-hitter of the season. Congrats to Edison Volquez.
Yes indeed. As Wikipedia notes, his former teammate and fellow Dominican, the late Yordano Ventura, was born on June 3.
Per this un-cited Wikipedia article, perhaps also banned from the clubhouse (“suspended” in the article looks like it also includes “banned”) – “The exact privileges that will be afforded for each special event is determined by the Commissioner - invariably, access to the clubhouse and related facilities by banned persons will not be permitted.” I thought that the Basic Agreement (the 2012-2016 one is here) would have something, but either I used the wrong search terms or it doesn’t.
And, Dodgers fans, what a game today with the Brewers – 2 grand slams, 1 each by Shaw and Taylor – and Jansen’s 9th save. He has now begun 2017 with 40 K’s and 0 BB’s (today 1 and 0).
Congrats on reaching 600 homers in a career, Albert Pujols! Nice touch to do it with a grand slam.
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Both games in this series have been great. First, a supreme pitching duel that went into the 12th, then less of a pitching duel as we exchanged grand slams. Gotta love those come from behind wins. Hope we can sweep today.
The great thing :dubious: about really bad baseball announcers is that even the legendarily objectionable ones like Ken Harrelson face challenges to their reign of incompetence.
Yesterday afternoon I briefly tuned in to the K.C. Royals radio broadcast on satellite. At the time, the Indians were leading the Royals 3-0, and the play-by-play guy, Mushmouth told us that the Indians’ hitter Carlos Santana had homered off Jason Hammel in his previous at-bat on the first pitch he saw from Hammel, “a fastball that caught too much of the plate”. This time, Hammel starts Santana off with a low slider, and Mushmouth immediately starts in about how Hammel’s problem all year has been that he tries to get too cute and doesn’t challenge the hitters.
Um, you were telling us only seconds ago how Hammel got burned by a home run after challenging Santana with a fastball in the strike zone! Do you not listen to the stupid coming out of your mouth?
Epilogue: Hammel went on to pitch well and got the win as the Royals crushed the Indians 12-5.
The Nats’ “bullpen” strikes again. They took an 11-4 lead into the bottom of the 9th and Oakland pulled to within 11-10 before finally losing (including a grand slam by Matt Joyce (he of the .195 batting average).
Gosh nice to see the Jays take two of the first three of the four game series they have with the Yanks. Doesn’t feel like they’re up 2-1 in the series what with the Yanks’ 17-2 drubbing of them in the first game and how the Yanks led for most of the game yesterday. I have to eat my words of an earlier sarcastic post of mine about relying on Justin Smoak, who’s actually having a fine season so far - definitely been the biggest surprise for me. Good to see Travis finally coming around and getting his batting average up there. Thank-you Josh for cutting that stupid shit off the back of your head.
Uh, the series is over. Toronto split 2-2.
Also, the 17-2 drubbling was Toronto beating Cincinnati. New York won the first game of the Toronto series 12-2.
:smack: Holy shite I’ve made a few sleepy-head posts this week :smack:
Cue Happy Gilmore quote:
“Uh, oh! Happy learned how to putt!”
Well Christ-on-a-walker it looks like Devon Travis felt his leg locking up (bone bruise to his right knee with a cartilage injury) while disembarking from a plane and is on the DL again - the 15th Jay put on the DL this season. (Wonder how that ranks among the rest.) This hits the Jays pretty hard - he was a major factor (along with Tepera, Smoak, and a rallying Bautista) in the Jays’ May resurgence. He figures he did something to his (inner) knee the same game he took a pitch off his wrist. Eight months ago, it was his outer right knee that gave him problems.
Red Sox announcer Jerry Lemy says that taking a translator on a mound visit should be illegal.
I resigned myself long ago to the notion that Travis is just one of those people whose body is not equipped to withstand playing regular baseball. There’s just some people who can go out there and twist and turn and thrown and take the abuse of the sport (and contrary to what some people will tell you, baseball is a really, really tough sport on your body) and there are some people who just can’t.
Ryan Goins is a pretty good fill-in who tends to hit better the more he plays, so this isn’t a position where the team is desperate. And hey, Brett Lawrie’s unemployed if they need another infielder. I am not exactly sure WHY Lawrie is unemployed; I know he never became the star people were hoping for, but he’s 27, can play multiple positions, runs well, hits okay. He seems like a guy who’d be awfully useful to have around. There are much worse players on MLB rosters.
This being the MLB thread would be remiss in not mentioned that Scooter Gennett had, uh, kind of a good night for the Reds. You know, pretty nice performance at the plate, what with hitting four home runs and all, you know. Not too shabby, the first time in the history of the major leagues a guy homered for the cycle. Decent performance, probably the star of the game.
Not enough eye-rolls for this one. Yes, it’s OK to pluck superstar talent from all over the world in order to make the game as fun to watch as it can be, but somehow, we’re ruining it by allowing these furriners on the mound before they can talk like us.
The beauty of baseball is that it transcends this flavor of bullshit.
Interestingly, he’s the first player in Reds history to hit 4 home runs in a game.
Most of the teams are waiting for their first. The Phillies, however, have three.
Given that it’s only the 17th time it’s been done, a lot of teams must be waiting for their first. It’s a more rare event than a perfect game.
Certainly Gennett has to be the most unlikely modern player to have a 4-homer game; I don’t think anyone would call Pat Seerey or Mark Whiten great players, but at least they were power hitters; Seerey just struck out to much to stick around long, and Whiten had bouts of injuries and ineffectivness but when he was healthy and on he could mash.
What is perhaps interesting is to note that the 4-homer game, while still awfully unusual, is becoming more frequent. We’ve had five 4-homer games (Mike Cameron, Shawn Green, Carlos Delgado, Josh Hamilton, and now Gennett) in the last 15 years, and just 12 of them in the preceding more-than-a-century. Players hit more homers than ever. So maybe we’ll see a five-homer game…