Russell Martin hits a three-run homer off Lance Lynn in the bottom of the third as the Pirates extend their lead to 6-1 over the Cardinals. That gives Martin 13 home runs on the season, six of them against the Cardinals. He’s 14 for 44 against them with nine extra base hits and seven walks, a walk and a hit coming so far tonight. Lynn’s late season woes continue.
I like the Twins trading away Justin Morneau more now that I see who they are calling up:
The Twins have called up catcher Josmil Pinto from Class AAA Rochester.
Pinto, 24, batted .309 with 15 homers and 74 RBI between Rochester and Class AA New Britain this season. He also posted a .400 on base percentage and .482 slugging percentage.
The Twins have flown Pinto to Texas in time for tonight’s game against the Rangers. He will wear No. 43 – the number worn by longtime coach Rick Stelmaszek before he was let go following last season.
He will be the third Pinto to make an appearance in MLB. Josmil is a catcher who can hit, so with Joe Mauer behind the plate, there wasn’t really room for him on the roster. With Morneau gone, and Joe suffering from a concussion, the Twins might decide it’s time to move Mauer to first, opening a slot for Pinto. Go Josmil!
Ichiro Suzuki had some fun with a Chris Davis fly ball in the ninth inning:
In today’s ninth inning, with a runner on base, Chris Davis lifted a deep fly ball to right field. It was extremely high, and while it initially looked like a routine out, Ichiro kept drifting back, back, back. Occasionally, he would turn his body as if preparing to either play the ball off the ball or making a running leap at the fence. He always seemed to be tracking the ball just fine, but he never seemed sure he would have room to make a play.
“I was just having fun,” he explained. “I’m a professional, so it’s good to get things excited. Obviously the result is the most important. If you look like you’re going to get it and it goes over the fence, obviously the fans wouldn’t be excited about it. But if the fans thought, ‘Oh no!’ and then you make a play, I think humans want to come from a bad place to a good place, in general. So that’s all it was.”
I saw the play, and it was pretty clear from Ichiro’s movements the ball was not going out. Ichiro was clearly messing with the fans, increasing the drama of the moment. Off the bat, it looked like it might go out.
The Angels may get to drop “of Anaheim” from their name when they sign a new lease deal. That would make things easier for listing the team, as they would fit into the “Location Nickname” format everyone else uses. I will miss referring to them as LAnaheim, however.
Teams used to change their nicknames often, especially early in the 20th century. This franchise has always been the Angels, but they have trouble deciding on a location. I suspect at some point in my lifetime they’ll be the OC Angels.
The Yankees lead the Orioles 1-0 in the middle of the eighth inning. Ivan Nova is pitching a great game, having allowed two hits and one walk. So if Ivan pitching to the score, or are the Yankees scoring to the pitcher? They picked up CC Sabathia Friday night; he didn’t pitch to the score, the Yankees offense bailed him out. So maybe when some thinks a hurler pitched to the score, he was actually getting bailed out. 🙂
Robinson Cano homers in the bottom of the eighth to give Nova a cushion, as New York now leads 2-0. Nova has thrown just 89 pitches, so I assume he’ll at least start the ninth.
Update: Nova goes the distance for a shutout as the Yankees win 2-0. Both his complete games came this season against the Orioles.
Update: Yankees are still valiantly holding on in their fight to remain alive.
The Pirates just acquired Justin Morneau from the Twins:
Morneau, 32, hit .259/.315/.426 (102 OPS+) with 17 home runs in 127 games for Minnesota before the trade. He’s been a homer machine in August, posting a 129 OPS+ with nine of those 17 long balls this month. Morneau is owed roughly $2.5 million for the remainder of the year and will become a free agent this winter.
This was a salary dump, with Alex Presley as a throw in to the Twins. Alex has posted decent minor league numbers throughout his career, but never made it in the majors. He seems like the definition of a AAAA player.
The Pirates appear to be convinced that the power Justin showed in August is real. He slugged .543 this month, but he is still an out machine. The power comes at a cost of a .293 OBP. I’d rather see Pittsburgh go for someone with a great OBP, since they already have Garrett Jones and Pedro Alvarez, who supply power while spending a ton of outs. I’m not sure this really helps.
Jim Palmer has a very different take on pitcher injuries than Tom Seaver. Here’s Seaver:
“Take a look at all of them, Marichal, Jenkins, Spahn, what do you think made them successful?” Seaver asked. “They conditioned their arms by pitching more, not less, starting from when they signed their first contract. Jenkins threw 300 or more innings half a dozen (actually five) times. Same with Palmer, Carlton and Marichal. I keep going back to that (July 2, 1963) Marichal-Spahn game when they both pitched 16 innings and threw almost 500 pitches between them.
“Neither one of them had any adverse aftereffects from it.”
He’s arguing from his own biases. He was successful working lots of innings, so today’s pitchers should do the same. Palmer, a contemporary of Seaver, understands things were different back in the 1960s.
“Back in my era,” said Jim Palmer, who pitched for the Baltimore Orioles from 1965 to 1984, “do you think Matt Harvey would know he had a torn ligament?”
It was a rhetorical question. Throwing a baseball at high speeds is an inherently unnatural act, and pitchers have always gotten hurt. But this is an era of such heightened caution that Harvey said he was shocked to learn the severity of his problem after a magnetic resonance imaging exam Monday. He felt no pop, no shooting pain. Years ago, he probably would have just kept pitching.
Harvey would have pitched badly, and he would have just been a flash in the pan. For every Tom Seaver, there is a Mark Fidrych, who was not babied, and only had one good year.
The Orioles try to extend their lead on the Yankees as Baltimore sends Scott Feldman against Ivan Nova. Feldman owns a 4.56 ERA since joining the Orioles, but pitched better over his last three starts. He does walk a few too many batters, however. Nova’s big step forward came from cutting down on home runs allowed, just five in 100 1/3 innings this year.
The Cardinals and Pirates continue their NL Central battle with Lance Lynn and A.J. Burnett on the hill. The winner of this game is guaranteed to finish the three game set at least tied for first place in the division. Lynn has struggled a bit since the start of June, posting a 4.77 ERA. None of his three-true outcomes are that bad, so it may just be a string of bad luck. He’s allowed a .357 BA with runners in scoring position in that time. Burnett is having his own troubles in August, with great TTO numbers, but a .343 BA with runners in scoring position. Looks like the key for both pitchers is to hold batters to walks and singles, and never allow two in a row! 🙂
The Indians need a win as Scott Kazmir faces Anibal Sanchez and the Detroit Tigers. Kazmir isn’t lights out this season, but his comeback is successful it that he is a very useful pitcher. He got his walks under control, but does allow a high number of home runs. Sanchez leads the AL in ERA, but will likely be at the low end of innings for ERA qualifiers. We’ll see how the low ERA compares to the great innings and more wins of his teammate, Max Scherzer when it’s time to vote for Cy Young.
The White Sox face an old teammate as John Danks takes on Jake Peavy in Boston. Danks is getting hammered by home runs, having given up 23 in just 117 innings. Peavy is showing great control since joining the Red Sox, walking just five in 32 2/3 innings with his new club.
Finally, the Rays and Athletics continue their battle for the top spot in the AL Wild Card race (and a possible division title) as Alex Cobb faces Sonny Gray. Cobb blows batters away, with 92 K in 100 1/3 innings. Gray is even better, with 30 K in 28 1/3 innings.
Enjoy!
Randy Knorr criticized Bryce Harper‘s lack of hustle on a ground out Friday night:
Hat tip, Hardball Talk.
The two critical moments involved two of their biggest stars: Ryan Zimmerman, who allowed the eventual decisive run to score on an ill-advised throw in the top of the eighth, and Bryce Harper, who had a couple of questionable swings in a huge spot in the bottom of the eighth and then failed to hustle down the first-base line upon grounding out to kill the rally.
“The thing about Bryce right now that’s tough: He gets frustrated,” said bench coach Randy Knorr, who had to take over for an ill Davey Johnson mid-game. “I don’t think he does it intentionally, but he’s gonna have to start picking it up a little bit, because we’ve got everybody else doing it. He gets frustrated at times and it just comes out of him. It’s something we’ve got to fix.”
I happened to see that play, and when the bobble happened, I thought Harper had a chance to be safe. He was not running as hard as he should have been, however, and the play was not close. There’s no guarantee he would have been safe, but running his hardest would have put more pressure on Daniel Murphy to make a perfect throw.
What’s interesting is that Harper has now been criticized for hustling too much (on the play where he crashed into the wall in Los Angeles) and not hustling enough. Basically, Knorr is right. Harper needs to find the right balance, where he doesn’t go so hard he takes himself out of the lineup with an injury, but learns to control his frustration that so that he doesn’t take his team out of a game. Harper does seem to learn from his mistakes. He is so good that we forget he’s still maturing emotionally. The Washington staff appears to treat these as teachable moments, which may be the right approach with Bryce.
Pete Kozma is suffering the slump to end all slumps. He has not collect a hit since early August, going 0 for 27 in his last 12 games with five walks., eight strikeouts and one GDP. For the month of August, he collected just three hits and eight walks. The slump is worse than that, however, as it goes back to the start of June. In that time, among players with 200 PA, he owns the lowest BA, the lowest OBP, and the lowest slugging percentage. It’s the triple crown of bad! To add insult to injury, his slugging percentage is actually lower than his OBP, basically indicating he has more walks than extra bases.
Should the Cardinals be surprised by this? Kozma’s minor league batting numbers were poor. Yet, St. Louis gave him a full-time job based on a great end to the 2013 season. It’s a classic mistake, rewarding a small sample size because it led to a good outcome. What I find most interesting is that the Cardinals didn’t prepare for this. They should not have seen Kozma as their shortstop of the future. I suspect they don’t have a better option at the position right now, and at least Pete catches the ball, but not well enough to make up for his lack of offense. Right now, he basically gives St. Louis a second pitcher in the lineup, putting pressure on the rest of the batting order. Maybe they should have competed with the Tigers for Jose Iglesias.
Although George King wants the Yankees dead, New York isn’t giving up that easily. The beat the Orioles 8-5 Friday night, catching one of the three teams they need to pass to win a wild card. They gained in all their races, as the Royals, Indians, and Rays also lost. The Yankees are now tied with Cleveland, 4 1/2 games out of the second wild card slot. A win on Saturday puts the Yankees ahead of the Orioles, meaning at worst they would be tied for the first spot out of the wild card race (third among not division leaders). At that point, they really only have one team to pass, which I think George would agree is quite possible with a month left in the season. 🙂
It was a good night for Suzukis as Ichiro Suzuki homered for the Yankees and Kurt Suzuki homered for the Athletics. Ichrio’s two run shot in the fifth gave the Yankees a lead they would not relinquish, while Kurt’s three run shot was the only mistake Davis Price made in an otherwise well pitched game.
Losing Miguel Cabrera again didn’t stop Detroit from pounding the Indians, the Tigers winning 7-2 in a rain shortened game. Andy Dirks went 2 for 2 in Miguel’s place, so it was just like having the slugger in the lineup. 🙂
The Royals ended their winning streak as Mark Buehrle pitched seven shutout innings. Toronto managed just four hits, but three of those went for extra bases.
So everything worked in the Yankees favor Friday night, which should have them singing!
Yasiel Puig goes four for five in the lead-off slot for the Dodgers two days after Don Mattingly benched his rookie star in the middle of the game. He doubled and scored a run as the Dodgers trounced the Padres 9-2.
Garret Jones missed the cycle by a triple as his time off (not considered a benching by the manager) also brought Jones’s bat back to life.
The Dodgers are now 54-23 with Puig in the lineup, a .701 winning percentage.
Puig wasn’t even the offensive star of the game, as Adrian Gonzalez hit two two-run homers to drive in four.
Win Arizona losing, the Dodgers now lead the division by 10 1/2 games. This may be one of the great in-season turnarounds of all time, in both terms of change in the standings and regressing to the mean. In June, even with the Dodgers at the bottom of the division, these teams looked fairly evenly matched, so much so that any of them could win. Now it’s the Dodgers and a bunch of also rans, which is what many thought the division would look like at the start of the season.
The Day by Day Database is up to date.
The Pirates go up 5-0 on the Cardinals as Garrett Jones singles in a run in the fifth. He drove in the first three runs with a home run and a double, so he needs a triple for the cycle. Clint Hurdle gave Jones three games off to work on his batting, and so far it paid off in a big game.
Roch Kubatko reports that the Orioles acquired Michael Morse of the Mariners:
The Orioles completed a trade with the Seattle Mariners today for first baseman/outfielder Michael Morse, according to an industry source. The clubs haven’t announced the deal.
The Mariners will receive a minor leaguer in return for Morse, according to the source. Still waiting for more details.
Morse is expected to join the Orioles in New York.
Morse is not hitting well this year, but the AL East should provide ballparks for his power.
The Cardinals made a waiver deadline deal for John Axford. Axford still strikes out a high number of batters, nine per nine innings, but that’s way down from his previous dominant years. For a pitcher with a high K rate, he also allows a lot of hits. In other words, Axford allows a high BABIP, and that seems to be consistent through his career except for his stellar 2011 season. We’ll see how much he helps the Cardinals. The Brewers will get a player at a later date.
Shelby Miller faces Francisco Liriano as the Cardinals and Pirates play for the NL Central Championship with six game in the next ten days. They are then finished for the season. Miller owns a 4.04 ERA on the road, and fared poorly against the Pirates this season. He’s 0-3 with a 4.08 ERA, giving up four home runs in 17 2/3 innings. The Pirates are 7-12 since a walk-off, extra-innings win against the Marlins. The starters own a 4.81 ERA in those 19 games, Liriano posting two excellent and two bad outings in that time. The Cardinals are 12-7 in that time.
Cleveland finds themselves 6 1/2 games behind the Tigers as they visit Detroit. Zach McAllister takes on Rick Porcello. McAllister allowed just two home runs in 39 1/3 innings since the All-Star break, about half the rate of his pre-break pitching. Detroit did rough him up in two starts this year. Porcello, too, brought his home runs under control after the break, helping him to a 4-1 record and a 3.77 ERA since the mid-summer classic.
Finally, Tampa Bay and Oakland battle for wild card supremacy with David Price facing Jarrod Parker. Price has been devastating on the road, with a 6-1 record and 2.78 ERA, despite allowing 10 of his 14 home runs when he’s away. Parker will vie for pitcher of the month in August with a 1.93 ERA in the month so far. He’s walked just seven batters in 37 1/3 innings, helping him to a 4-0 record.
Enjoy!
George King really doesn’t like the Yankees chances down the stretch.
The soon-to-be dethroned defending AL East champions open a 10-game homestand tonight at Yankee Stadium against the Orioles and by the time the Red Sox finish a four-game deal next Sunday, One East 161st Street in The Bronx will be the world’s largest funeral parlor.
Given their injuries this season, the Yankees actually played really well this season. To still be in the wild card race at this point is quite an accomplishment. I suspect many fans will be disappointed if the team doesn’t make the playoffs, but most should be happy with a winning record and a team that performed well despite injuries to their best players.
Patrick Saunders discusses the idea of turning Wilin Rosario into a full-time first baseman:
The idea seems plausible enough. Convert power-hitting catcher Wilin Rosario into the Rockies’ full-time first baseman of the future. Freed from the physical and mental burdens of life behind the plate, Rosario could become an even more potent offensive force.
The Rockies seem to me more interested in using Rosario as a part-time first baseman to keep his bat in the lineup when he’s not catching. The biggest reason against making Wilin a full time is his OBP. While his slugging percentage is over .500, his OBP sits just above .300. He did not have a high OBP in the minors, so there’s no reason to believe he’s going to develop one in the majors. First basemen should be complete offensive players. Talk of moving Buster Posey or Joe Mauer makes more sense since they are multi-dimensional hitters. Rosario is a catcher who has an offensive strength. The Rockies are probably better using him once in a while at first, and trying to develop or acquire a great hitting first baseman.
Chris Davis needs 15 home runs to set a new American League single season record for long balls in a season. With two days left in August, Davis will need a big September to reach that level. Fifteen from Sept 1 on, however, is well within the range of possibility. In the last 20 years, six players hit at least 15 homers from Sept 1 on. Most recently, Troy Tulowitzki reached that level in 2010. Albert Belle hit the most, with 17 in 1995, tying Babe Ruth for the most home runs in September. The odds are long right now, but history shows the big month is possible.
The Day by Day Database is up to date.
The Braves beat the Indians 3-1 Thursday night to sweep the series and continue their hot pitching in August. The team is now 18-7 on the month as they continue to cement their NL East title. The hurlers pitched outstanding ball, currently holding a 2.52 ERA in the month as they approach the end of August. They’ve struck out 207 while walking just 65.
Bryce Harper homered for the Nationals in the fourth inning of their game versus the Marlins. That gives Harper 41 for his career, tying him with Alex Rodriguez for the third most home runs through age 20. Mel Ott leads with 61, and Tony Conigliaro is second with 56, so Harper would have to have quite a month of September to reach either of those formerly young stars.
Of course, if Harper did go on a 20 home run tear, the Nationals would have a better chance of making the playoffs.
It appears Miguel Cabrera suffered from abdominal discomfort, not a hip injury. That should be good news for the Tigers.
Torii Hunter hits a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth, and the Tigers salvage a win in the series against the Athletics, 7-6. They came into the inning trailing 6-3, but the aptly named Grant Balfour walked two batters in the inning. He had Victor Martinez down 1-2 with two on, but Victor delivered an RBI single to set up the Hunter homer. It was his 16th home run of the season, equaling his total from last season.
The homer also saves Max Scherzer from a second loss. He allowed six runs in five innings, one of his worst starts of the season.
The Royals beat the Twins 3-1 earlier, and they gain on the A’s in the wild card race rather than the Tigers in the division. They are six games behind Oakland, but 8 1/2 back in the AL Central.
Miguel Cabrera left the Thursday afternoon game against the Oakland Athletics with a hip injury:
Cabrera, who leads the majors in batting average and RBIs, was thrown out at second base while attempting to leg out a double in the fifth inning.
The All-Star third baseman limped off the field after the inning-ending play, clearly favoring his left hip, and was replaced by Don Kelly at the start of the sixth inning.
Cabrera can’t run, and I’ve seen quite a few instances in the last two weeks where he hit an apparent double, only to stop at first base. The Tigers are down 6-3 in the sixth inning and in danger of being swept by Oakland, so I can understand Miguel taking a chance going to second. If this is serious, however, the Tigers will be in a bit of a hole come playoff time. The A’s are showing this Tigers team can be handled.
Via Hardball Talk, Mike Matheny did not have a good press conference after the blowout loss to the Reds:
It was a shame for the Cardinals to waste the exceptional rookie Michael Wacha in four impressive innings of relief work. This extended gig essentially knocked the potentially valuable Wacha out of the Pittsburgh series. Then again, his four-inning stretch could prepare Wacha for a possible start next Tuesday. We’ll see.
Some press box observers believed Wainwright had a problem getting loose during the pregame warmup; he seemingly took some extra time to stretch.
The relevant parties denied this after the game.
The increasingly and bizarrely petulant manager Mike Matheny resorted to spitting out one-word answers and tapping impatiently on the interview podium in a childish response to reasonable postgame questions.
We should remember that Mike still suffers from the concussions that ended his career as a player. Stress brings on those symptoms. Having to answer questions about the use of his ace could very well induce that stress. I’m not saying that Matheny should be cut any slack here. There may be times, however, that he’s not able to face the press due to his condition, and he should apologize and let someone else speak for him.
Bartolo Colon stands between Max Scherzer and his 20th win as the Athletics finish their series with the Tigers. Colon comes off a two week vacation due to a groin strain. At his age, two weeks of rest should help him stay fresh for the rest of the season. Scherzer is 14-1 in his last 18 starts, his only loss coming in his single non-quality start in that time.
The Orioles need a win against the Red Sox as they send Chris Tillman against Jon Lester. Tillman needs two more wins this year to double his career total entering this season. He does give up the long-ball, however, with 26 homers allowed in 2013, 19 of those with the bases empty. Lester has only made nine of his 27 starts at home in 2013, but is 4-0 with a 3.64 ERA in Boston. It seems the Red Sox have not used him to his strength this year.
Enjoy!
Craig Calcaterra comments on B.J. Upton‘s home, which is for sale:
Word is that the ventilation is great, provided by ceiling fans with baseball bats for blades which, in keeping with the owner’s habits, cut swiftly and silently into the humid night air
Ouch.
Wednesday saw seven blowouts, which I define as any game won by five runs or more. Interestingly, two teams that are very good at winning blowouts were spanked yesterday. Detroit lost to Oakland 14-4; they are now 28-13 in blowouts, the third best record in the majors. The Cardinals fell to Cincinnati 10-0; they are 28-14 in blowouts. Atlanta owns the best record at 24-9, with Boston second at 28-12. Great teams win games big, and these four are among the best teams in the majors this season.