2010 MLB Season

[Neal Pomea]

Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals leads baseball in walk-off game winning home runs since September 1 2005, his first game in the majors, and he did it again last night against the Phillies. This is sweeter than it would have been to beat them on opening day, when the team sold more tickets to Phillies fans than locals.

[papsrus]

To kick off what will likely be a tough series against a red-hot Twins club (seven straight, 9-1 in last 10 -- against weaker clubs, but still.)

Jeremy Hellickson, the Rays' top pitching prospect, is going to be called up Monday to start versus the Twins. According to Joe Maddon, everyone in the rotation will be moved back a spot and a corresponding roster move will be made Monday to make room for him. He won't be joining the rotation full-time; this is merely a one-time start. ... (Update: Topkin is stating it's likely Hellickson will be sent back to Durham after his start.)

[Matthew]

See where ARod isn't in the starting lineup today. Hmmmmmmmmm.....

[Chalupa]

Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals leads baseball in walk-off game winning home runs since September 1 2005, his first game in the majors, and he did it again last night against the Phillies. This is sweeter than it would have been to beat them on opening day, when the team sold more tickets to Phillies fans than locals.

Well considering that they lost to the Phillies 11-1 on opening day he would have had to hit at least 3 more. I do like Zimmerman. Unfortunately for him he plays on a crappy team albeit one that plays well against the Phillies.

[ghost of miles]

See where ARod isn't in the starting lineup today. Hmmmmmmmmm.....

My guess is that Joe wants to give him a day off for both regular rest and a break from the 600 craziness. Makes it likely he'll finally hit the mark during the upcoming homestand... but we're also resting Gardner, too, and we've got Berkman at first and are DHing Tex. Giving away a bit much for the rubber match of a series with our biggest rival right now, considering that A-Rod's bat is replaced by Pena's.

Papsrus, I didn't know you guys had another hot ace in the pipeline. TB's pitching is already awfully scary-good.

[ghost of miles]

My guess is that Joe wants to give him a day off for both regular rest and a break from the 600 craziness. Makes it likely he'll finally hit the mark during the upcoming homestand... but we're also resting Gardner, too, and we've got Berkman at first and are DHing Tex. Giving away a bit much for the rubber match of a series with our biggest rival right now, considering that A-Rod's bat is replaced by Pena's.

Case in point: Shoppach's RBI single that Tex most likely would have caught and that sent Berkman tumbling.

[papsrus]

My guess is that Joe wants to give him a day off for both regular rest and a break from the 600 craziness. Makes it likely he'll finally hit the mark during the upcoming homestand... but we're also resting Gardner, too, and we've got Berkman at first and are DHing Tex. Giving away a bit much for the rubber match of a series with our biggest rival right now, considering that A-Rod's bat is replaced by Pena's.

Case in point: Shoppach's RBI single that Tex most likely would have caught and that sent Berkman tumbling.

He failed to pick up a throw on the short hop from Cano that cost them an out, too. Kind of a lazy throw by Cano (is there a reason he's not planting and throwing? He's done that twice now.) But Teixeira would likely have snagged it.

Shields' change-up looks very good today. The Yankees are going fishing on that thing ... so far.

[ghost of miles]

Yes, it's looking very good for the Rays today... we can't seem to buy a hit off Shields, and I can't imagine that we'll nail Soriano two games in a row, even if we manage to put a couple of runs up on the board and hold TB off at the plate. Some commenters over at PA bugged that Joe chose to rest A-Rod and Gardner today and put Berkman at first--sentiment is, why not wait and do it tomorrow or Tuesday against Toronto? A good chance we leave town only one up on you guys instead of three.

Edited August 1, 2010 by ghost of miles

[ghost of miles]

Yet another notable 9th-inning moment from the Rockies.

[ghost of miles]

Bad call by the ump on A-Rod's pinch-hit third strike--see pitch 7:

Called third strike

Instead of first and second the inning's over. Of course with Pena on deck the inning was probably over anyway... I think TB's got this one in the bag, Papsrus. Shields really tied us in knots today with his changeup.

EDIT: Shields departs in the 8th having K'd the Yankees 11 times. Talk about having our number!

Edited August 1, 2010 by ghost of miles

[Patrick]

Nice to see Kerry Wood up to his usual tricks, fortunately not in an Indian uniform...

[ghost of miles]

Nice to see Kerry Wood up to his usual tricks, fortunately not in an Indian uniform...

Incredibly, Chad Gaudin bailed him out of it. All to no avail, though, as NY lost anyway. Congrats to TB, hope we can hold onto the division lead. TB-NY season series now breaks down as:

TB 6-5, 59 runs scored

NY 5-6, 58 runs scored

[papsrus]

All about Shields today. Fastball, curve and that killer change-up. He was locked in.

Maddon's saying now on the post-game it was the best game he's ever seen him pitch.

Was a little nervous when they ran Qualls out there in a pressure situation, especially when he fell behind 3-0.

[ghost of miles]

All about Shields today. Fastball, curve and that killer change-up. He was locked in.

Maddon's saying now on the post-game it was the best game he's ever seen him pitch.

Was a little nervous when they ran Qualls out there in a pressure situation, especially when he fell behind 3-0.

Yep, that was a key moment, and then he got Berkman to hit into a double-play. Ballgame pretty much over at that point. If Berkman walks or singles there then we have first and second with one out and Tex/Cano coming to bat.

And Shields did throw a really great game--best he's had against us all year so far.

Edited August 1, 2010 by ghost of miles

[Patrick]

Not that anyone cares outside of Toronto and Cleveland (and possibly not even there), but another nice second career start from an Indians kid (Geanmar Gomez, 5IP, 2ER), and nailbiter save by Chris Perez. Geanmar's debut was 7IP, 2 unearned runs against Detroit.

Tribe does okay against the Central and sub-500 teams elsewhere, but otherwise gets their brains beat in.

Roster now includes only 2 players over the age of 30 (Travis Hafner and Shelly Duncan).

[Chalupa]

Bad call by the ump on A-Rod's pinch-hit third strike--see pitch 7:

Called third strike

Instead of first and second the inning's over.

I'll grant you that pitch #7 was a ball but, take a look at that graph again. Pitch #1 was fouled off for strike 1. Pitch #2 was a ball. Pitch #3 which was a called BALL was actually was STRIKE 2 according to that graph. Pitch #4 which Arod swung and missed for strike 2 should have been strike 3. So really Arod should have been out 3 pitches before the ump's 2nd bad call.

[papsrus]

Bad call by the ump on A-Rod's pinch-hit third strike--see pitch 7:

Called third strike

Instead of first and second the inning's over.

I'll grant you that pitch #7 was a ball but, take a look at that graph again. Pitch #1 was fouled off for strike 1. Pitch #2 was a ball. Pitch #3 which was a called BALL was actually was STRIKE 2 according to that graph. Pitch #4 which Arod swung and missed for strike 2 should have been strike 3. So really Arod should have been out 3 pitches before the ump's 2nd bad call.

I didn't get that chart. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong. The called strike three was an inside pitch. That chart makes it look outside.

It seemed too close to take though.

[Chalupa]

Forget for a minute that those pitching charts/graphs/etc. are highly subjective. According to it, pitch #7 was way inside and called for strike 3 when it should have been ball 4. However if we're going strictly on where the pitches landed according to that chart, pitch #3 was a strike. That means that pitch #4, which Arod swung at and missed, should have been strike 3. So it's really a moot point that according to that chart the ump blew pitch #7, IMHO.

BTW, Edwin Jackson has a 7.24 ERA since his 149 pitch no-hitter. The guy the White Sox traded for him - Daniel Hudson - held the Mets to 3 hits and 1 run today in 8 innings. Just saying.

Edited August 1, 2010 by J.H. Deeley

[ghost of miles]

I was watching the at-bat live and pitch 7 looked easily like an inside ball, especially from the overhead angle--that's why A-Rod complained to the ump. It was clearly (from the TV angles, anyway) a bad call. Yes, #3 was a close one, but A-Rod might not have been as inclined to go after #4 if he'd been at a 1-2 count instead of 2-1.

Really not that big a deal--umps miss ball/strike calls all the time, and NY was destined to lose this one... Shields was just pitching too well. And (if the PA posters are right, which is a big if), Shields had been getting that inside pitch called for strikes a few times before... batters/teams have to adjust to the way the ump's calling the strike zone. (It was A-Rod's first AB of the game, so maybe he wasn't as tuned in to how the zone was getting called.)

[ghost of miles]

Another reason that today's game matters--it's looking very likely that the wild-card team will be from the AL East. As Dan has pointed out, the wild-card team will likely face Texas and Cliff Lee twice without home-field advantage in the first round of the AL postseason. If New York and Tampa Bay end up tied after 162 games, the first tiebreaker will be their series record against each other--a category in which TB now leads, 6-5. TB also has a good head of steam on category two, intradivision record: they are 27-14 after today, while NY is 23-14, four behind in the wins column.

And again, I'm not counting Boston out by any means. Not only are they not 10 games or more back as of August 1, they're only 6.5 back, with lots of opportunities to gain ground coming up in the final two months against both TB and NY.

[Chalupa]

Yeah, going against a team w/ home field advantage AND Cliff Lee twice in a 5 game series ain't good. You can thank Ruben Amaro, Jr. for that potential predicament.

[Tim McG]

Giants SWEEP the hated Dodgers!!!

Death to Dodger Blue!

[Neal Pomea]

Indians apologize for not having ace pitcher to trade to contender this year

[papsrus]

So Balfour was injured wrasslin' around with pitching coach Jim Hickey.

[ghost of miles]

So Balfour was injured wrasslin' around with pitching coach Jim Hickey.

It has been the year for goofy injuries--Morales breaking his leg when he jumped onto homeplate after his walkoff HR, Chris Coghlan tearing his knee while he was pieing Wes Helms, and now this incident with Balfour. Bizarre.