Major League Baseball: 2013 Season

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I hope the Mets decide to play a game (win or loss) in 9 innings. Last night was a nightmare that I'd rather not go through again to stay up that late.
 
Blitz24
I hope the Mets decide to play a game (win or loss) in 9 innings. Last night was a nightmare that I'd rather not go through again to stay up that late.
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:lol:

Think it's time for us to replace Kennedy, can't seem to figure out how to pitch anymore. Rookies are showing him up.
 
The St. Louis Cardinals beat my Astros 9-5 last night in St. Louis. When I first saw the score, STL led 6-0. Sorry we didn't do the NL Central a favor. HOU will try it again Wednesday night in St. Louis.
 
New York sweeps San Francisco as the Giants get to see what they dealt away, Zack Wheeler, dominate them in a 7-2 win to complete the 3 game run.
 
Blitz24
New York sweeps San Francisco as the Giants get to see what they dealt away, Zack Wheeler, dominate them in a 7-2 win to complete the 3 game run.
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Best. Reaction. Ever.

McCovey Chronicle (Giants SB Nation blog):

This all feels artificial. It's too scripted. You -- yes, you -- have your own personal Wizard of Oz, sitting behind a curtain, pushing the buttons, controlling the events that shape your life and personality. Right now, he or she is being obnoxiously blunt. Maybe he or she is a temp, and the finesse will come with experience. Right now, it's too on the nose, too obvious. A recap:

Matt Cain couldn't finish an inning, possibly because he's hurt.

Zack Wheeler pitched brilliantly, shutting the Giants down.

Wheeler could have matched up against Barry Zito. There aren't any metaphors to find there. "Former top pick shuts down team that traded him," isn't an omen. That's just a drag. Wheeler could have struggled through a few innings, getting the win but looking very much like a young pitcher. He could have dueled with Cain in a pitcher's duel and come out ahead. I probably would have taken that for an omen, but apparently it can get more omeny.

It had to be Cain and Wheeler. It had to be at the end of an embarrassing sweep. And it had to work out just the way it did. Here's Cain's injury history:

day-to-day once for hamstring soreness
day-to-day four times for contusions
two weeks in spring training because of elbow inflammation (2011)
That's it. Cain has thrown 253 games in the majors, and that's the extent of his injury history. He's never missed a regular-season game.

Yet on the exact day Zack Wheeler comes to town, this happens:

[TWITTER]No surprise after that first inning, but I’m told there have been in-house discussions about Cain’s health in recent days.[TWITTER]

Before we start running around like someone threw a beehive in the shower, note that nothing's official. Cain says he's okay. Bochy says he's okay. There were in-house discussions in 2011, too, and Cain was just fine. When Bruce Bochy walked to the mound with two outs in the first inning, Cain mouthed something like, "You gotta be (expletive) kidding me," so it's not like he feels so broken that he knew exactly why Bochy was coming out.

Even the idea of what could be ailing Cain is nebulous. We're quick to think "shoulder" or "elbow" because baseball fans are used to preparing for the worst with pitchers, but considering Cain's velocity and up-and-down stuff, I don't think that has to be the case. Could be a back, a knee, maybe an ankle, blisters ... there are a lot of maladies that can mess with a pitcher's command.

But Matt Cain couldn't finish an inning. And on the other side, Zack Wheeler was dominating. Good fastball, good breaking balls, looks like a franchise pillar, everything looks good.

That's too obvious, universe. Writers are taught to show, not tell. Right now, you're telling. It's killing the effect.

Nothing that's happened so far in this season would have been a deal breaker when you were selling your soul last year. Regression, broken pitching, ex-prospect knife-twists, arrests, injuries, Puig ... nothing would have been a deal breaker. We would have accepted that debt gladly.

That doesn't mean this is easy to watch. Doesn't mean it's easy to take. We were expecting a contender. We got a death spiral.

*******
​

Dumbing it down: The Giants were swept and humiliated by the Mets, they signed Jeff Francoeur, the prospect who got away shut the Giants down in the same game that Matt Cain couldn't get out of the first inning, and news leaked that one of the Giants' pitchers was arrested for some horrible stuff.

They're going to give away fedoras soon, you know. So it all evens out.

*******
​


Jeff Francoeur is coming.

*******
​
The Giants scored two runs. These runs were like the seedling plant in WALL-E, offering hope for the distant future, ruining the perfection of Wheeler's debut against the Giants. If Wheeler pitched the shutout, that would have been a groundhog's shadow telling us to prepare for a 40-year winter.

Instead, hey, maybe it's awful instead of hopless.
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The horrible news about a Giants' pitcher that is about to break?

Police: Chad Gaudin Groped A Woman On A Gurney In An ER
 
The Reds finally decided to score some runs and win a game today. Last night was especially frustrating, though. Cingrani had one bad pitch (and unfortunately after a walk) that led to a 2 run homer. Other than that, he was dealing, piling up 10 k's in 7 innings and only giving up those 2 runs. Naturally, we looked lost on offense (aside from what should have been an inside the park home run by Derrick Robinson where he was called out (and clearly safe on the replay)), providing him with 0 runs of support and a loss. Regardless, I must say he has been extremely helpful to the team each time Cueto has gone down injured.

I still don't know how this team is going to do during the second half of the season. The pitching is there, but that offense either puts up 14 runs or gets shut out. I hope that if we don't make the playoffs, that the Pirates avoid the second half meltdown they've recently experienced and beat out the Cards for the division. I'm not holding my breath.
 
I predicted we'd get swept at least once on this eight-game road trip. And... I was right. We failed 5-4 at St. Louis. When I first heard the score, we were leading 2-1 in the Top of the 5th. The Cardinals then decided to play baseball and send my Astros to Tampa Bay with an extended losing streak. The Astros will be off on Thursday. Our final series before the All-Star break will be at Tampa Bay for a three-game weekend series.

The Astros will need to get it together by playing their best in Tampa Bay if they expect to get back in winning graces. Wins have been tough to come by, but the Astros still have plenty of season left to turn things around and show improvement. That is... unless they don't want to have a worse record than Miami- and even the Marlins have shown improvement lately while the Astros are still stuck in neutral in winning baseball games.

Unless the Astros can show some sort of improvement, more of us will be ready for Texans' football while the Astros continue to flounder, poor TV distribution of Astros games with a certain TV network, low payroll and all. Yay, us...
 
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Yet another 🤬 blown save. Bull:censored:.

Edit: good grief. Well I guess we owed them some. LOL
 
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So the Tiger's v. White Sox game today was a bit irritating. First Sale intentionally throws a pitch at Prince Fielder, nothing happens, not even a warning. Then Putkonen throws at Ramierez, intentionally for sure, and is immediately thrown out of the game. I agree Putkonen should have been thrown out for intentionally throwing at someone, but Sale should have been tossed to and so should have Ramierez for charging the mount.

The Tigers were by no mean innocent, but the fact that the White Sox had zero repercussions for doing essentially the same thing is BS. I'm glad Chicago finds new ways to make me hate their city.

Oh and Phil Coke shouldn't even be in the majors, he's a terrible pitcher, although Detroit loves to have awful pitchers at the end of their games for whatever reason. I really think that's what will prevent them from getting to the World Series this year.
 
Joey D
So the Tiger's v. White Sox game today was a bit irritating. First Sale intentionally throws a pitch at Prince Fielder, nothing happens, not even a warning. Then Putkonen throws at Ramierez, intentionally for sure, and is immediately thrown out of the game. I agree Putkonen should have been thrown out for intentionally throwing at someone, but Sale should have been tossed to and so should have Ramierez for charging the mount.

The Tigers were by no mean innocent, but the fact that the White Sox had zero repercussions for doing essentially the same thing is BS. I'm glad Chicago finds new ways to make me hate their city.

Oh and Phil Coke shouldn't even be in the majors, he's a terrible pitcher, although Detroit loves to have awful pitchers at the end of their games for whatever reason. I really think that's what will prevent them from getting to the World Series this year.
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I didn't see the replays, but how positive are you that Sale was intentionally trying to hit Fielder? Sale isn't exactly a control pitcher and Fielder isn't exactly a small target.

Just reiterating, I didn't see it so for all I know it was a 0-0 fastball at his head.
 
Villain
I didn't see the replays, but how positive are you that Sale was intentionally trying to hit Fielder? Sale isn't exactly a control pitcher and Fielder isn't exactly a small target.

Just reiterating, I didn't see it so for all I know it was a 0-0 fastball at his head.
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It was a 0-0 fastball up high, it hit Fielder in the upper part of his shoulder. It was also right after Cabrera had an 8 pitch (?) at bat and then knocked a homer, so I'm guessing Sale was fairly annoyed.

If you're interested in the video, you can see it here:
http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=28809929

It seemed more intentional than Putkonen's throw since Putkonen tried to throw behind Ramierez, but it was still clear that it was done intentionally.
 
There was *almost* a no-hitter in Tampa Bay. Even though Tampa Bay beat Minnesota 4-3 today, TB's M. Moore had a no-hitter going through about six innings until Minnesota broke that up with a double. But again, the Rays got the win. Up next for Tampa Bay... my Astros. Yep. The Houston Astros will have some Rays problems this weekend at Tropicana Field starting on Friday.
 
Joey D
It was a 0-0 fastball up high, it hit Fielder in the upper part of his shoulder. It was also right after Cabrera had an 8 pitch (?) at bat and then knocked a homer, so I'm guessing Sale was fairly annoyed.

If you're interested in the video, you can see it here:
http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=28809929

It seemed more intentional than Putkonen's throw since Putkonen tried to throw behind Ramierez, but it was still clear that it was done intentionally.
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Thanks.

I watched it, I don't think it was intentional. You can see by Sale's body language that he was mad at himself. He was going up and in and it got away from him. It's not surprising for a pitcher to lose composure after losing a long a battle with one guy, then facing Fielder.

I've also never heard of a pitcher hitting the next hitter in a lineup after a home run, either. If anything, pitchers get all pissy when a guy hits a bomb, flips their bat, and does a super exaggerated victory lap around the bases - but it that case, they'll throw at the individual and not his teammate.

Throwing behind a guy later is stupid. You should just be glad that it didn't end up a brawl with suspensions.
 
Seems our pitchers can't throw anything that won't leave the park anymore. Absolutely disgraceful.

Edit: yay a win.
 
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The final series before the All-Star Break are either about to start or will continue. My Astros will try to take down the Tampa Bay Rays (good luck...) in Tampa Bay this weekend. Here are some of the many series this weekend:

* Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays
* St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs
* Toronto Blue Jays at Baltimore Orioles
* New York Mets at Pittsburgh Pirates
* Kansas City Royals at Cleveland Indians
* Texas Rangers at Detroit Tigers
* Milwaukee Brewers at Arizona Diamondbacks
* San Francisco Giants at San Diego Diego Padres
* Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Seattle Mariners
* Chicago White Sox at Philadelphia Phillies (only Interleague series this weekend)

Remember- these are not ALL of the series. But still, good luck to all your team(s) this weekend. Enjoy your weekend baseball, folks!
 
My man! Capuano with 8 strikeouts and no walks in 7.1 innings! Not bad for a guy who was supposed to lose his spot in the rotation this week.
 
The Astros took Game 1 of 3 with a 2-1 victory. For most of the game, I noted we led 2-0. TB didn't get blanked as they somehow picked up a score in the Bottom of the 9th. All that matters is that you win. Astros did just that. It sure gets over the sting of losing in a two-game set in St. Louis. This game was the Major League debut for pitcher Jarred Cosart of the Astros. And in his debut, he picked up the win along with a save from José Veras. Cosart went 8 innings giving up only two hits. He issued three walks and struck out two. Tampa Bay's loser was David Price. Astros win their 33rd game of the season.


Congratulations to all other winners from today's games and tonight's games.
 
So the Phillies-Chisox game got rained out last night and they've scheduled a doubleheader today at 3:05 pm and 8:05 pm.

Guess what the Philadelphia weather forecast for today is?

If you guessed "probably rain", you'd be correct.
 
I read just now that José Altuve signed a four-year extension to keep him with the Astros until 2017. I hope this 5'5" or 5'6" dude can continue to deliver for the Astros. Houston takes on Tampa Bay in Game 2 of this 3-game set later this afternoon. Jokingly from The Bleacher Report, this is the "Juice Wars." You know, we play at Minute Maid Park, and Tampa Bay plays at Tropicana Field. But again- HOU at TB later today. Hope your team(s) do well today and tonight as well.
 
We got a Rubber Game, as my Astros failed. The score was 4-3 even as the Astros were leading 3-0. Tampa Bay outhit us 8-6. No errors from either team. Tomorrow afternoon will be our final game before the All-Star Break activities begin. Will we get to 34 wins or be stuck on 33? That question will be answered tomorrow afternoon.

Good job to everybody who didn't fail.


UPDATE
In some other games...

* The Twins FINALLY beat the Yankees. It was a 4-1 victory for the Twins after the long winning streak NYY has had over MIN. So I guess the longest winning streak over one team is now OAK over my Astros.
 
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I can only hope so for Mr. Cosart and the Astros. With the numbers he reportedly put up in his debut, I can only hope he can continually and consistently pitch solid. I think I heard he was quickly optioned to Triple-A Minor League (our affiliate is the Oklahoma City Redhawks, but the Astros' Triple-A team used to be the Round Rock Express, which has since been the Texas Rangers' Triple-A team) after his first Major League game. Maybe they want to get Cosart a lot more experience before trying to become any serious threat in the Majors.
 

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