Major League Baseball: 2014 Season

[Patrick]

Well, no teams seemed to want to take a chance on him anyway until he had a few more starts.

 

[Blitz24]

Well, no teams seemed to want to take a chance on him anyway until he had a few more starts.

That and the Phils had no way to get rid of that contract.

 

[JohnBM01]

The penultimate month of regular season baseball is upon us. There is still plenty of hope and time to make a playoff push. Here are the standings heading into today:


--- AMERICAN LEAGUE ---
AL EAST: Baltimore (60-47), TOR (60-50), NYY (55-52), TB (53-55), BOS (48-60)
AL CENTRAL: Detroit (58-47), KC (55-52), CLE (53-55), CHW (53-56), MIN (48-59)
AL WEST: Oakland (66-41), LAA (64-43), SEA (44-65), HOU (44-65), TEX (43-65)

AL WILD CARD (Top 5 only): Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (64-43), Toronto (60-50), SEA (56-52), NYY and KC (55-52 each)


--- NATIONAL LEAGUE ---
NL EAST: Washington (58-48), ATL (58-51), MIA (53-55), NYM (52-56), PHI (48-61)
NL CENTRAL: Milwaukee (60-49), STL (57-50), PIT (57-51), CIN (54-54), CHI (45-62)
NL WEST: Los Angeles Dodgers (62-47), SF (58-50), SD (48-60), ARI (48-61), COL (44-64)

NL WILD CARD (Top 5 Only): San Francisco (58-50), Atlanta (58-51), STL (57-50), PIT (57-51), CIN (54-54)


Keep pushing! At the moment, I'm sure there aren't any teams officially eliminated from playoff contention- even including teams with horrid records (like my Astros). Anything can still happen in the crazy world of baseball.

Good luck to all of your teams moving forward.

 

[Barra333]

Keep pushing! At the moment, I'm sure there aren't any teams officially eliminated from playoff contention- even including teams with horrid records (like my Astros). Anything can still happen in the crazy world of baseball.

Good luck to all of your teams moving forward.

Don't get too down John, the Astros aren't even the worst team in Texas right now .

I hope the Blue Jays can keep rolling! I will be seeing them play the Red Sox and Yankess at least once each at the end of this month.
Just looked at the schedule, the Blue Jays' last three games are at home to the O's. That could be a huge series!

 

[Blitz24]

Miami could probably pass Cincinnati.

 

[Dolph Drago]

Miami could probably pass Cincinnati.

It wouldn't surprise me. Our offense struggled enough with Votto and Phillips in the lineup. It can't do squat without them. Too bad too, since our pitching (well...starting pitching at least, along with LeCure, Broxton, and Chapman (the rest of the bullpen is horrendous this season)) is solid.

 

[JohnBM01]

We won 3-1 over the Blue Jays tonight. The only time I checked into the game, it was 1-0 in favor of Toronto. The Astros tied it up in the Bottom of the 4th. The eventual game-winning homer was cashed in by Gregorio Petit. It was his first-ever home run, and that homer was a two-run jack in the Bottom of the 8th. The Astros somehow managed to bang in three runs to pull ahead and win. This win makes the series level at 1-1. Game 3 of 4 of this series is Saturday night.


My Astros didn't fail, so congratulations to everyone else to didn't fail today or tonight.

 

[CodeRedR51]

We gave up a 4-0 lead to fail 9-4. Go us.

 

[JohnBM01]

Game 3 of 4 in the TOR at HOU series went to the Houston Astros- an 8-2 victory for the Astros. Chris Carter went deep. M. Singleton had some home run action, but of a different kind. He ended up going for an Inside the Park home run, which originally was an out at home plate before the Astros challenged the play. So after this win, we're assured either a series win or a series split depending on what happens tomorrow afternoon. Back-to-back wins for us now. The roof was open at Minute Maid Park as skies cleared beautifully here in Houston. It's the first time the roof opened for an August game since one game back in 2004. Summer can be pretty brutal in Houston, in case you didn't know. Oberholtzer won his fourth game of the season (he's 4-7 now) for HOU, and knuckleballer R.A. Dickey was TOR's losing pitcher.


Elsewhere...

* There was almost a rare double no-hitter at Citi Field. Blitz24's New York Mets won at home 4-2 against the San Francisco Giants. Kung Fu Panda (Pablo Sandoval) broke up the no-hitter in the 6th or 7th inning. Jake Peavy had a Perfect Game going after six innings... until Daniel Murphy happened. If both pitchers had no-hitters going into the 9th, it would have been the first time there has been a double no-hitter since May 2, 1917; and both pitchers in that game had no-hitters through 8 innings. Anyhow, the game ended 4-2 in favor of NYM.

* I saw the inning where the Boston Red Sox had issued as many as five or six walks to the New York Yankees at Fenway Park. The Yanks ended up winning 6-4.

* It was 8-3 in favor of the Oakland Athletics at the o.co Coliseum against the Kansas City Royals.

* MLB Network had a live look-in to the game between Cincinnati at Miami. They couldn't handle their business in nine innings, so they went to extras. Omnis's Miami Marlins won 2-1 over Dolph Drago's Cincinnati Reds in 10 innings thanks to a walk-off base hit by Yelich. So I can imagine our Dolph Drago being completely unimpressed yet again. Oh, and as I read the Marlins' Facebook fan page, there will be 12K Christian Yelich bobbleheads given out in tomorrow's game.

* Jim Thome signed a one-day contract so he could retire as a Cleveland Indian. He's spent the better part of 22 years in Major League Baseball. I wish Thome well in his retirement.

* Spare some thoughts in loving memory of former Atlanta Braves broadcaster Pete Van Wieren, who died at the age of 69 today.


Congratulations to all other winners from Saturday.

[UPDATE] Edited the SF at NYM details; edited TOR at HOU details (Singleton, not Springer)

 

[Dolph Drago]

G
* MLB Network had a live look-in to the game between Cincinnati at Miami. They couldn't handle their business in nine innings, so they went to extras. Omnis's Miami Marlins won 2-1 over Dolph Drago's Cincinnati Reds in 10 innings thanks to a walk-off base hit by Yelich. So I can imagine our Dolph Drago being completely unimpressed yet again. Oh, and as I read the Marlins' Facebook fan page, there will be 12K Christian Yelich bobbleheads given out in tomorrow's game.

I didn't see the game tonight. Another 1 run loss, eh? Lovely...

 

[Blitz24]

Elsewhere...

* There was almost a rare double no-hitter at Citi Field. Blitz24's New York Mets won at home 4-2 against the San Francisco Giants. Kung Fu Panda (Pablo Sandoval) broke up the no-hitter in the 6th or 7th inning. Jake Peavy had a Perfect Game going after six innings... until David Murphy happened. If both pitchers had no-hitters going into the 9th, it would have been the first time there has been a double no-hitter since May 2, 1917; and both pitchers in that game had no-hitters through 8 innings. Anyhow, the game ended 4-2 in favor of NYM.

7th inning, 2 outs.

David Murphy ? Come on, you know that it's Daniel Murphy on the Mets (David Murphy plays for Cleveland).

Since July 2nd,
Jacob deGrom has 5 wins, 0 losses and a 1.04 ERA. All 3 of those are tops for SP in that time span with at least 20 IP.

 

[JohnBM01]

We downed the Toronto Blue Jays today here in Houston to take the series three to four. Today's win was a 6-1 victory for the Houston Astros. The first score I read was 1-0, Toronto. Houston basically put up six unanswered runs to win this game and this series. This win marks our 47th victory of the season. We are now 47-65, I believe.

Up next for the Astros is a road trip which has us doing Interleague action. This next series should be interesting- a series with two teams 15+ games under .500- my Astros at BobK's Philadelphia Phillies for three. It's a quick road trip. Then after that, we're back home to host KM964's Texas Rangers for three games followed by a three-game set here in Houston against Justin's Minnesota Twins.


Congratulations to all other winners from Sunday, including games concluded before and after this post. I made quite a few edits from my post prior to making this post.

 

[JohnBM01]

No Astros today or tonight. So what I figured I'd do is just assess the team a bit.

The 2014 season for the Houston Astros Baseball Club has them currently at 47-65 and 4th in the AL West. At this pace, the Astros may likely surpass last season's depressing 51 win total. The Astros have NEVER lost 100+ games in franchise history until their 2011 season. That season, they finished 56-106. The 2012 season saw them finish 55-107 in their final National League season. And just last year, the Astros debuted in the American League with a 51-111 finish. The future seems bright as long as the Astros can keep up their winning spirit. All they need the rest of the way is four wins to tie their win total from last season, and obviously five to surpass it. The Astros have played 112 games so far out of a 162 game season. How many more the Houston Astros can win the rest of the way will be interesting to watch. I want to believe the 2014 Astros could match or better that 63-win promotional challenge. But in the game of baseball, you never know from game to game how consistent a team will be and if they'll show up consistently.

Besides the team, I'm obviously impressed with the likes of José Altuve, George Springer, Dexter Fowler, J. Singleton, L.J. Hoes, Dallas Keuchel, and others. Tony Sipp has been pretty good as a closer. I do still sort of miss the days when we had Brad "Lights Out" Lidge closing for the Astros.

A realistic long shot for the Astros this season would be the Astros contending for an AL Wild Card. A hot streak for the Astros followed by lots of help from other AL contenders would give the Astros an outside chance at an AL Wild Card. But again... LOTS of help would have to come Houston's way for this to happen.

Other than that, this season does give the Astros hope for the future. If they can build upon their successes so far, this team will possibly return to some sort of relevance other than being the butt of everyone's jokes.


So that's the pulse of Astros Nation from my perspective. Anyone want to assess your team(s) at this point? Before I go... I wish Paul Goldschmidt well in his recovery. I read he's out for 8 weeks with a hand injury. He's provided great service for the Diamondbacks this season.

 

[Patrick]

Skaggs has no ligament damage and will be back this season. Thank god.

 

[Sanji Himura]

So that's the pulse of Astros Nation from my perspective. Anyone want to assess your team(s) at this point? Before I go... I wish Paul Goldschmidt well in his recovery. I read he's out for 8 weeks with a hand injury. He's provided great service for the Diamondbacks this season.

Since you brought Goldschmidt into the conversation...

The real victim in all of this mess is Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates. He got pegged intentionally by Arizona in retaliation for Goldschmidt's HBP that caused his hand injury. McCutchen is expected to miss a month because of a torn oblique. When McCutchen was pegged, the Pirates were leading 5-1 in the 9th. His only crime? Having the same relative value to the Pirates compared to Goldschmidt.

This isn't the first time that Kirk Gibson used this sort of thuggery to enforce the "Unwritten Rules" of baseball this season. When the Diamondbacks were playing the Brewers, a Brewers pitcher unintentionally hit one batter and a breaking ball sailed too close to the head of another. Gibson's response? An intentional peg of Ryan Braun by Evan Marshall, who was later ejected. The sickening part was the cheers that he got from the Arizona dugout from Gibson.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/latest-incident-shows-why-diamondbacks-170734362.html

Last year, Ian Kennedy pegged both Yasiel Puig and pitcher Zack Greinke in the head with pitches. Greinke's HBP was in retaliation for Greinke's own plunker of a Diamondbacks batter in the previous inning.

So no, I don't feel sorry for Arizona. They got their pound of flesh and their wallets should be lighter for it in about 24 hours by Bud Selig if not outright lengthy suspensions for Delgado and Gibson both.

 

[Patrick]

Garrett Richards with his first career complete game shutout. We get Kershaw tomorrow now.

 

[CodeRedR51]

The sickening part was the cheers that he got from the Arizona dugout from Gibson.

Come to a Brewers game here, when he comes up to bat the entire crowd boos him, every single time. And you can probably guess why.

 

[Sanji Himura]

Come to a Brewers game here, when he comes up to bat the entire crowd boos him, every single time. And you can probably guess why.

I was just saying that as a neutral fan with no love for one team over the other. The point is that I understand that there is rivalries in baseball, and there are "Unwritten Rules" that managers like to follow, but Gibson is wrong to allow pitchers to become hitmen just because there was an unintentional HBP. It puts the player's health at risk for serious injury, plus it could get real serious when the hit batsmen suddenly decides to charge the mound.

McCutchen decided to be a better man and take out his frustration on a defenseless bat rather than start a bench clearing brawl. That is why the Pirates are respected right now, compared to the Diamondbacks regardless of the reason.

 

[Blitz24]

Since you brought Goldschmidt into the conversation...

The real victim in all of this mess is Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates. He got pegged intentionally by Arizona in retaliation for Goldschmidt's HBP that caused his hand injury. McCutchen is expected to miss a month because of a torn oblique. When McCutchen was pegged, the Pirates were leading 5-1 in the 9th. His only crime? Having the same relative value to the Pirates compared to Goldschmidt.

This isn't the first time that Kirk Gibson used this sort of thuggery to enforce the "Unwritten Rules" of baseball this season. When the Diamondbacks were playing the Brewers, a Brewers pitcher unintentionally hit one batter and a breaking ball sailed too close to the head of another. Gibson's response? An intentional peg of Ryan Braun by Evan Marshall, who was later ejected. The sickening part was the cheers that he got from the Arizona dugout from Gibson.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/latest-incident-shows-why-diamondbacks-170734362.html

Last year, Ian Kennedy pegged both Yasiel Puig and pitcher Zack Greinke in the head with pitches. Greinke's HBP was in retaliation for Greinke's own plunker of a Diamondbacks batter in the previous inning.

So no, I don't feel sorry for Arizona. They got their pound of flesh and their wallets should be lighter for it in about 24 hours by Bud Selig if not outright lengthy suspensions for Delgado and Gibson both.

McCutchen's injury is confirmed to be a fractured rib, NOT a torn oblique.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Tonights game is going just about how I expected it to.

Also, Texas with a 16-0 win over Chicago.

 

[JohnBM01]

Another Astros loss. Yay. The score in Philadelphia was 2-1 in favor of the Phillies last night.


[UPDATE] This game took 15 innings until the Phillies eventually won.

 

[CodeRedR51]

3 runs on 12 hits, 11 players left on base.

This is why we lose games.

 

[JohnBM01]

Losers again. Philadelphia beat my Houston Astros 10-3 last night in Philadelphia. Tonight is the finale of this Interleague series before heading back home to take on AL opposition again.

 

[JohnBM01]

I'll be damned... we got swept by the Phillies with a 6-5 victory in Philadelphia. Three runs in the first inning followed by a two-run jack ultimately wasn't enough to keep down the Phillies. Damned f:censored:ing shame. Screw Troy Tulowitzky talking about his Colorado Rockies sick and tired of losing (they lost 6-2 at home to the Chicago Cubs today); I'm sick and tired of my Astros losing. Absolute bulls:censored: to be ahead only to eventually lose. Damned m:censored:f:censored:ing shame.

Oh, well... back home to host the Texas Rangers for a three-game weekend set. The Astros didn't win any games on this brief three-game road trip, so we're stuck on 47 wins and have a 47-68 record.


Pat yourselves on the back if your team(s) won today or tonight.

 

[CodeRedR51]

We got swept by Kansas City. 2-7 in our last 10 games.

 

[JohnBM01]

The Houston Astros and Texas Rangers likely aren't going to win the AL West this season. So this is all about Lone Star State pride. Friday night saw the Astros win 4-3. When I first saw a score, Texas was leading 2-1 in the Top of the 7th. I read on MLB Network's bottom line that José Altuve had to leave the game in the 6th inning with some neck trouble. Still, we managed to win to get the sting of getting swept at the Philadelphia Phillies out of our system. Oberholtzer was the starting pitcher, but got a No Decision. It was José Veras who got the win with a Save from Chad Qualls. Neal Cotts was the loser for Texas.


Elsewhere...

* Congratulations to the Arizona Diamondbacks on getting their golden (50th) win of the season. They won 5-3 in Phoenix against the Colorado Rockies. They improve to 50-66. The Snakes play at lovely Chase Field, and it was Chase Anderson who picked up the win for Arizona. Tyler Matzek was the Colorado loser. Colorado's losing ways continue as they are now 45-70.

* Atlanta snapped their losing funk by winning 7-6 hosting the Nationals. Combining on the Braves' win were Ervin Santana and a Craig Kimbrel Save. Stephen Strasburg lost for the Washington Nationals.

* One-run loss. Again. The Reds can't buy a break seems like. Cincinnati lost 2-1 hosting the Miami Marlins. Both teams collected seven hits and no errors. Winning for Miami were Nathan Eovaldi and a Save from Steve Cishek. Mike Leake lost for Cincinnati.

* The Phillies were done disgracing my Astros, so they welcomed the New York Mets. The Mets returned the favor by beating them 5-4 thanks to the solid pitching of Bartolo Colon and a Save from Jenrry Mejia. A.J. Burnett had to take the loss.


Congratulations to all others who didn't fail on Friday.

 

[JohnBM01]

The Astros won 8-3 tonight hosting the Texas Rangers. We defeated the beastly Yu Darvish in the pitching duel as Scott Feldman picked up the win for Houston. Texas collected 10 hits and made one error. The Astros cashed in 12 hits. This is win no. 49 for the Astros to improve to 49-68. This series' finale is tomorrow afternoon. The probables for tomorrow are Nick Martinez (TEX) vs. Dallas Keuchel (HOU). We do have to head up to the Texas Rangers one last time(?) in our next road trip, but the Astros have a chance to sweep the Rangers here in Houston unless the Astros just don't show up at all or beat themselves.


After my Houston Texans failed miserably at the Arizona Cardinals, it's at least refreshing to know at least another Houston team won tonight. Congratulations to all other winners from today's baseball games.

 

[CodeRedR51]

We put up a 9 spot in the 8th tonight.

14-4 decimation of the Rockies.

 

[Blitz24]

Tyler Skaggs will undergo Tommy John Surgery. Announced just now.

 

[JohnBM01]

The Texas Rangers were NOT swept today. We lost 6-2 here in Houston. Up next is a three-game set here in Houston against the Minnesota Twins. The fun begins tomorrow night.


Congrats to Sunday's other winners.