It should be an exciting day in Detroit as the Yankees face the Tigers. The big match-up will be Yankees pitcher Jordan Montgomery facing legend Miguel Cabrera, Cabrera needing one hit to reach the 3000 hit milestone. According to Baseball Reference, he will be the 33rd player to reach that level. The Tigers continue their home stand over the weekend, so it looks like Cabrera will reach the goal in front of his home town fans. In his career, he poked James Shields for the most hits against any pitcher, 27.
At the same time, the White Sox and Guardians offer a good potential pitching duel as Dylan Cease takes on Zach Plesac. Cease allowed just five hits and two runs in 10 2/3 innings so far this season. Plesac comes in at two runs in eleven innings, and just one walk.
Enjoy!
Well, it was an interesting day in Detroit. With the score 1-0 (typical for this year of no hitting) Aaron Boone walked the hitless Miguel Cabrera in the bottom of the eighth to load the bases and get to Austin Meadows. Of course, the Detroit fans erupted in loud and long boos. Even better, Meadows blooped a double to make the score 3-0 and put the game out of reach in a year where three-run innings are almost always a pipe dream.
Even from a baseball viewpoint, much less public relations, Boone’s move made no sense. At this point in his career, Cabrera is a significantly worse hitter than Meadows.
Speaking of the no-offense year, I don’t know who the Yankees’ third base coach is, but he needs to be relieved of his duties. In the top of the fifth, with the Yankees down by that ubiquitous 1-0 score, he put up idiotic stop sign for D.J. LeMahieu. The situation was that LeMahieu was at third with one out when Marwin Gonzalez flied out to right field. Robbie Grossman made the catch flatfooted – if anything he was moving away from the plate – and uncorked a predictably weak throw that was way offline and barely made it to the pitcher’s mound. LeMahieu would have scored at a jog.
In a year where runs are scarcer than honest politicians, you’ve got to force what little action there is. Oh well, at least the Yankees eventually lost, which is always nice.
And this will be my final rant on the subject, but baseball did the worst thing that any sport can do. They listened to the purists. They deadened and soggied-up the ball while refusing to put in a pitch clock. The result is a bunch of those three-hour 3-1 jobs that everybody loves so much. (The purists are as bored as the rest of us with such games, but they just want to sound more purist than thou.)
For once baseball could do something smart. They could announce tomorrow that they’re putting in the pitch clock, getting rid of the humidors, and going back to the lively ball. The purists would scream, which would show that baseball was doing something right.
Okay, I realize that you shouldn’t change rules in the middle of the season. The purists might have a point there. Maybe they could announce those much needed changes for next year.
Oh, by the way. There have been five games so far today. 1-0, 3-0, 3-2, 6-2 and 6-3. (That last one is a modern-day slugfest.) If you’re keeping score at home, that’s a 5.2 run per game average. Both teams combined. Just more thrilling “action.”
I thought the same thing, pitch to Cabrera, he’s the worse hitter.