Tonight’s pitching matchup for Washington vs. Miami: Wang vs. Johnson.
Yes, I am 13. How did you know?
The Reds have the best record in all of baseball over the last 37 games. Interesting.
The Reds are really going to have to start manufacturing runs with some small ball. They are terrible with runners in scoring position (maybe last in the league?) and scoring by way of the long ball like they have been doing can’t last forever.
Good to see Wang back in the majors. He was part of a Yankees rotation that included another Johnson, *and *a Small. 
All they needed was a Peter and a Willie.
The Indians have fallen out of first place AND now have lost Travis Hafner for several weeks. Gonna be a tough middle of the season again.
Aroldis Chapman is the most untouchable pitcher in baseball right now, despite his weird legal issues (allegedly conspiring with the Cuban government to jail someone in order to get himself re-instated on the Cuban National team in 2008-9, and is now culminating in an 18 million dollar civil suit), or his continued speeding tickets/license suspensions within the last two years in his Lamborghini, and now some story out of Pittsburgh where his girlfriend was bound and robbed in her hotel room while Aroldis was at the game last night…(retaliation for the Cuban thing?)…
Very strange.
And Kemp is back out for an undetermined amount of time after restraining the leg and then breaking a bat over his knees in frustration.
Talented or not, I expect a bit more maturity from Matt.
…and of course the Reds lose the rubber match to the Pirates 2-1 in a pitching duel.
sigh
Wish I could get an accurate handle on my team.
Unfortunately I’ve got an all-too-accurate on my team: The Tigers suck.
Holy crap, the Mariners scored 21 runs off the Rangers tonight - 16 in the first three innings!
Sorry, I thought you were joking…the Mariners really did score 21 runs..against the Rangers???
Wow.
I would be mildly surprised if the Mariners scored 21 runs in a pickup softball game against the New York Rangers. This is crazy.
Ichiro Suzuki, I note, didn’t play today; it was his first day off this year. Ichiro is’t much helping the Mariners anymore; it’s looking increasingly likely last year wasn’t a fluke. Which is sad to me. If he can’t stay around a bit longer he can’t get to 3000 MLB hits.
Yeah, that would be easier to do if Dusty wasn’t constantly “resting” guys, or “trying to get players going”.
Today he “rests” Joey Votto (who must be exhausted from that .486 OBP over the last 7 days) and plays Mike Costanzo (because you know all this career minor leaguer needs to get him going is to start a game).
When Costanzo actually draws a walk late in the game, Dusty pinch runs for him - with Miguel Cairo. When Cueto is pinch hit for late in the game, who does Dusty send up to face the right handed pitcher? Ryan Ludwick.
When do we get to see Joey Votto? With 1 on and 1 out in the 9th, Todd Frazier (OPS about .950) due up, and Miguel Cairo on deck (OPS about .450), Joey pinch-hits for Frazier.
I want to go to a Red’s game soon, and their Hall of Fame museum this year is having a Big Red Machine exhibit that I would like to see, but it pains me to know that my money is going to pay the salary of this manager (and the GM who seems almost as clueless sometimes).
Ichiro was still leading the team in BA going into the hame. Kyle Seager was leading in BA among those who actually played in the 21 run game, hitting a whopping .265.
Don’t forget the M’s also beat the Rangers yesterday, 10-3.
Invisible Champ:
So what if he doesn’t? Surely Hall of Fame voters will recognize that his “low” counting stats are due to his late start in the American major leagues and will honor him as the hit machine he has been for a solid decade. If he’s aging out of his effectiveness, heaven knows, he’s earned the right to a tired body.
Yeah, that whole “resting Votto” thing was pretty inexplicable…especially given that today is an off day for the Reds.
cmkeller, that’s RickJay you quoted, not Invisible Chimp.
The Dodgers lose three in a row for the first time this season. They were the last team to not have done this.
To the Brewers (sob!).
In the current edition of Oddest Baseball Story of the Day, umpire Laz Diaz apparently doesn’t believe that former All-Star and Gold Glove winner Russell Martin has “earned the privilege” of throwing baseballs back to his pitchers. Story.
Jesus, that is fucked up. Hasn’t “earned the privilege”? As far as i’m concerned, making it to the Major Leagues earns you the right to throw the ball back to your catcher. There’s no reason at all that the umpire needs to keep his throwing arm in practice, but there are some very good reasons why a catcher might like to keep his arm loose during the game.
I read this book a couple of months back, and it really gave me a fuller appreciation of some of the trials and tribulations of being a professional baseball umpire. I highly recommend it. But when jerkoffs like Bob Davidson or, in this case, Laz Diaz start thinking that the game revolves around them, i lose sympathy altogether.