Just watched the ten inning game Red Sox (in the ugly ass green uniforms) squeak by the Orioles in 10. The Orioles collapse this year totally sucks as I had them as a team on the rise.
In a dive bar in Chicago. Yup, drunk guy next to me well over the age of 65 talking about the 85 Bears.
White Sox at home in this unseasonably cold winning 8-4 while Cubs losing to the Reds 6-2
Yanks hang on to win against lowly Rockies. A rain delay did not help things. Off to Angels next.
Judge 2-4 with a RBI.
.397
Was his last name Swerski?
Yankees won the rubber game in Colorado, thus denying the Rockies their first series win of the season. Colorado is now 9-44, a winning percentage of .170.
Colorado lost against today, so are 9-45. That’s the 1/3 way of the season, so at this rate:
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They would go 27-135, obviously by far the worst record of all time. No, the 1899 Spiders don’t count.
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They would score just 519 runs and allow exactly twice as many, 1038. No team has ever allowed twice as many runs as they scored or even come close. The -519 run differential would be the worst of modern times by a country mile.
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Somewhat amazingly, they would NOT be the lowest scoring team in the majors. The Pirates would be, though of course Coors Field is a lot easier to hit in than PNC Parlk.
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They would allow 6.46 runs per game, far, far more than any other team.
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They are on pace to go 10-71 in away games.
I did a very cursory search, and it looks like 5 teams have won 9 out of 10 games at some point this season, and 3 others have won 8 out of 10. The Rockies have won consecutive games once, and their best 10-game record is 2-8. (They do have 2 separate 3-8 runs, so I guess there’s still hope?)
They’ll get a little better. Incredibly, despite being outscored 2-1, their Pythagorean projection says they’ve been unlucky. And there’s a point at which your way under replacement level guys get replaced.
Last night, Padres starting pitcher Stephen Kolek allowed six runs in the top of the first inning, facing 10 batters and throwing 38 pitches.
Kolek ended up pitching 5.1 innings and recorded the win, as San Diego came back to beat the Marlins, 8-6.
The season is only 2 months old, but…
"After signing a record $765 million contract in December as a free agent, Soto is batting a measly .224 with eight homers and 25 RBIs in 55 games during a turbulent first season with the Mets.
The four-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger winner was 0-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout Wednesday in a dreary performance that matched the weather. He was booed by a sparse crowd at Citi Field, where only a few thousand fans were on hand for a hastily rescheduled game."
The only thing keeping New York sports radio from talking about Soto 24 hours a day are the Knicks. The biggest complaint I hear is the perceived lack of effort. It’s hard to justify not running out close plays when you are in a slump.
Judge is down to .391 going 0-2 last night as Yanks beat Angels 1-0.
Lots of strong starting pitching in this stretch. Yanks have opened a legit least in the AL East, 7 up over the Rays. It helps a lot the Red Sox lost 5 straight.
Today is an off day so the Yanks can travel to LA, it is a long way from Anaheim.
Noah Cameron, 25-year-old rookie pitcher for the Royals, made his 4th career start last night and got his second win in a 3-2 victory over the Reds.
In his 4 starts, he has pitched 25.2 innings, allowing 13 hits and 3 earned runs. He’s 2-1 with a 1.05 ERA. His only loss was a 1-0 decision against the Cards. With even average run support, he should be 4-0; in his 4 starts, KC has scored 3, 0, 1, and 3 runs.
Doesn’t really mean anything.
Even batting .224, he’s an above-average hitter because he gets on base and hits dingers. He’ll be fine. Vladdy Guerrero isn’t tearing it up either but he’s STILL significantly better than the average hitter.
For guys like that, this is how they do when they’re in a slump - they’re still helping to win baseball games. Then they go on a tear and destroy the league for two months. Both will be fine and will be MVP candidates in multiple seasons.
Offense is low again, down to 4.3 runs per game across the league. In the AL it’s only 4.1.
The Blue Jays just played a series in which they only scored 4 runs in 3 games, and they won two out of three. Watching them and the Rangers hit was honestly painful. Neither team looked like they had a clue. I’m not saying the pitchers didn’t execute, but look at the who-are-those-guys who one-hit the Rangers yesterday. It wasn’t exactly Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax.
Stanton is coming back. Despite his excellent postseason, he’s either injured or in a slump most of the time. He isn’t the future of the Yankees- Ben Rice is. If they must bring Stanton back, let them platoon him with Rice at DH.
I get that the Yankees are paying him a ton of money and it’s hard to not play a guy getting that much dough, but there is no way to insert Stanton into the lineup that doesn’t make the team worse both now and in the long run.
Things get tricky when it comes to Stanton. It should be easy to make the argument that he has value against left-handed pitching (.951 career OPS) but last year he wasn’t very good in that role (.705 OPS). Fluke? Who knows.
And, of course, Playoff Stanton is a thing (.964 career OPS, inluding a 7 homer barrage last year.) On the other hand, both of his elbows might fall off at any given moment so I wouoldn’t be surprised to see a medical retirement before the season is over.
I’ve heard nothing in a while about the “new” bats that made the headlines in the sports pages almost every day. Are players still using them, and if so - are they as effective now as they were in March/April?