Major League Baseball: 2016 Season

[IforceV8]

While sucking up to the NY media Jon Niese trying to walk back his comments when he was traded to Pittsburgh and threw the Pirates under the bus saying he was not a fan of defensive shifts. He felt that the shifting hurt his ground ball rate but failed to mention that the Pirates were unable to shift any fielders into the bleachers to try and grab a few of the 21hr's he allowed in 110 innings.

BTW his first outing back with NYM, 2 IP,1 HR allowed.

 

[JohnBM01]

Game 1 of TOR at HOU = Houston wins 2-1. Game 2 of TOR at HOU = Toronto wins 2-1. Game 3 of TOR at HOU? Toronto wins. It was 3-1 tonight in Houston in favor of Canada's team- the Toronto Blue Jays. Either the Astros are running into better teams of late, or we're just not playing at full tilt. Winning for Toronto was Marco Estrada along with a save from Roberto Osuna. Collin McHugh took the loss for Houston. The Astros are now 56-51 and seeing their margin of 1st in the AL West go backwards. We either can lose this four-game series or get a series split based on how we fare against Toronto tomorrow night in the series finale.


Congratulations to Wednesday's other winners, including the Chicago Cubs winning on a walk-off wild pitch hosting the Miami Marlins.

 

[JohnBM01]

The Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays went at it one last time in this series. Your winner of this one... by a score of 4-1, Toronto. So Houston is stuck on 56 wins and falling and can't get up. Damn shame. On the Toronto side, it was former Astro J.A. Happ who won and got a Save from Roberto Osuna. Matt Fiers was the starter tonight for Houston, and he took the loss for Houston. Yay, Astros losing streak...

Up next for the Houston Astros Baseball Club... we're hosting our best friends- the Texas Rangers- to a three-game weekend series. You might as well hand Texas the AL West because we're not going to contend the way we're playing lately.


Congratulations to the other winners from Thursday, including Cincinnati roughing up St. Louis at home in a shutout win.

 

[Dolph Drago]

7-0 was the final in Cincy today. That means we took 2 of 3 from St. Louis to extend our streak to 6 straight winning series'. Amazingly, none of those have involved a sweep. Since we've won game 1 of each series, that means every loss has either been game 2 or 3. I'm stunned. Very happy, but stunned. Now we get to take on the Pirates for 3.

Edit: Just read that Jay Bruce got his first hit as a Met tonight...a 3 run jack. He had been 0 for his first 10 with his new club. Seems about right. Congrats to him.

 

[JohnBM01]

The Astros have been dropping series and falling back. Could hosting the Texas Rangers reverse their woes? So far, so good. 5-0 good, in fact. It was Kid Keuchy (what Dallas Keuchel calls himself on Twitter) who picked up the win. Martin Perez was Texas' losing pitcher.


Elsewhere...

* The Cincinnati Reds have won six straight series. No win for the Redlegs tonight, as they failed 3-2 at the Pittsburgh Pirates. Oh... and this would be a Dolph Drago vs. IforceV8 inner-forum rivalry. For PIT, it was Tony Watson who won. CIN's loser was Ross Ohlendorf.

* The New York Yankees tore apart the Cleveland Indians 13-7 in the Bronx. The winner for ken's Yanks was Michael Pineda. Josh Tomlin was the losing CLE pitcher.

* So the Yankees won their match. How did the other New York City team do? In another sort of inner-forum rivalry (Blitz24 vs. AnthonyD1993 and Joey D), it was the Tigers who won 4-3 in this Interleague match. Big bad Justin Verlander was the winner for Detroit and got a Save from Francisco Rodriguez. Losing for the Metropolitans was Noah Syndergaard.

* It was West Meets East in Washington, D.C. as the San Francisco Giants paid a visit to the Washington Nationals. What the Giants got for their troubles was a 5-1 beating. It was Gio Gonzalez who got the win. Jeff Samardzija was the loser for San Francisco.

* I'd like to wish Mark Texiera well in his retirement after this season.



Congratulations to Friday's other winners.


[UPDATE] Mis-typed a GTP member's name. Made changes.

 

[IforceV8]

I love Olendorf's old timey delivery, so does Sean Rodriguez.

 

[Dolph Drago]

Poop. The Reds lost game 1 thanks to Ohlendorf. Now we've already lost the series to the Pirates after a 5-3 final tonight. Unlike his first start back, Homer had a little trouble out there this evening. It certainly didn't help in the 3rd inning when he walked a batter, hit the next batter, then hit yet another to bring in a run, followed by a scoring single. All with 2 outs.

Odd fact: Brandon Phillips hadn't homered since May 7th, the end of a streak in which he had homered in 4 straight games, including 2 in that game alone. He FINALLY again homered tonight...twice.

 

[JohnBM01]

So the Astros and Rangers went at it again in the Silver Boot Series here in H-Town. Getting their tails kicked was my Astros to the tune of a 3-2 loss. We led 1-0 after one inning. Since... just ask Texas. The Rangers won with Keone Kela and a Save from Sam Dyson. It was Chris Devenski who was Houston's losing pitcher. Rubber Game tomorrow afternoon.


Congratulations to the other winners from Saturday.

 

[Ken]

Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez have announced there retirement. For Mark, this will be his final season. Alex, this will be his final week. Both of these announcements are a little bittersweet for me. I've been vocal in the past about the Yankees needing to cut ties with A-Rod and Tex, but it is sad to see them go. On top of the recent fire sale, the future does look bright, but not right away. I guess I can give up on this season, which was inevitable anyways. But there may isn't any real star power left. Which just seems so damn weird being a lifelong Yanks fan.

 

[JohnBM01]

The series finale between Texas at Houston was played today, and this one couldn't be settled in nine innings. Yes... nine innings didn't solve anything today. So we needed 11 innings for the Rangers to win 5-3 over the Astros. The Astros can't figure out how to beat the Texas Rangers. Still. Another series loss for the Astros as they seem to be losing their touch again. Winning for Texas was Matt Bush. Houston's losing pitcher was Chris Devenski. We are now 57-54.

Up next for Houston... we're going road tripping! Starting tomorrow, a four-game set at the Minnesota Twins followed by a three-game weekend series at the Toronto Blue Jays. Astros have GOT to get it together now.


Congratulations to Sunday's other winners, including the Mets escaping Detroit with a win.

 

[JohnBM01]

As a separate post... congratulations to Ichiro Suzuki on his 3,000th hit, which he just hit recently. It was a shot to deep right center that almost was a home run. Amazing.

 

[Dolph Drago]

Well the Reds avoided getting swept today, winning 7-3 over the Pirates. Next we take on the Cardinals (didn't we just see them?) for 3 in St. Louis. I have a bad feeling about this one...

Edit: Forgot to mention...Billy Hamilton had another 4 steals today. I've already lost count of how many 4 steal games he's had. Also Votto went 0-0...3 walks and a sac fly. Odd stat line.

 

[JohnBM01]

The Houston Astros are still on the skids after losing 3-1 tonight in Minneapolis to start this four-game set. The winner was Tyler Duffey for Minnesota, and he got a Save from Brandon Kintzler. Collin McHugh was HOU's losing pitcher. Here's the thing- if we lose this series, we will be at .500; and if we get swept at the Twins, we WILL be under .500 heading into the weekend series at Toronto. All the Astros can hope for is at least a split.


Congratulations to Monday's other winners.

 

[Dolph Drago]

Wow....just wow...

Here's a play-by-play of the Reds game tonight against the Cardinals:
Bottom of 9th, Reds up 4-0 (Cody Reed FINALLY pitches a solid game, 6 innings 0 runs, in line for his first Major League win).
Tony Cingrani comes in to finish out the game.
Yadier Molina singles.
Jhonny Peralta flies out. 1 out.
Jedd Gyorko flies out. 2 outs.
Tommy Pham walks.
Kolten Wong hit by pitch.
Matt Carpenter singles. Molina scores. Pham scores. Score is 4-2.
Stephen Piscotty singles. Wong scores. 4-3.
Matt Holliday walks.
Ross Ohlendorf comes in to replace Cingrani.
Brandon Moss walks. Tie game, 4-4.
Molina up for the 2nd time in inning, hit by pitch. Cardinals win 5-4.

Here's some advice for you supposed "Major League" pitchers...just throw the damn ball over the plate! 🤬!🤬!🤬!🤬!🤬!🤬!

 

[Sanji Himura]

Prince Fielder of the Rangers is expected to announce his retirement this week. This marks the third player to retire this week, behind Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees.

bleacherreport.com/articles/2653196-prince-fielder-injury-updates-on-rangers-1bs-neck-and-recovery

 

[JohnBM01]

Yeah, it is sad seeing a heavy hitter like Prince Fielder retire. I wish him the best in his retirement. This was just not a good year for Prince Fielder. Now it just seems like everything's come full circle to where this guy ultimately retires. Sad.

If you love Tim Tebow, can you imagine him playing... baseball? Yes- Tim Tebow is reportedly or supposedly is training to perhaps take on baseball. All I usually think about with football players trying baseball is good old Bo Jackson. Bo knows! ...but so does Tebow? Tebow knows?

Elsewhere, Colorado is currently leading Texas 5-1 in Colorado in the Bottom of the 6th. It is the only game played right now as of this post.


Good luck to all of your team(s) with the current series.

 

[JohnBM01]

The Astros have been on the skids lately, but they snapped their losing funk tonight with a 7-5 victory at the Minnesota Twins. Helping the Astros improve to 58-55 was Mike Fiers winning along with a Save from Ken Giles. For the losing Minnesota Twins, it was Hector Santiago who took the loss.


Congratulations to Tuesday's other winners, including the latest members of the 2016 60-win club... the Miami Marlins.

 

[JohnBM01]

Did Mother Nature do my Astros a favor? Or do the Twins really stink? The reason why I didn't talk about my Astros last night was because the game got rained out in Minneapolis. We were trailing 5-0 to Minnesota in the 3rd Inning until the game got rained out. So today, we had a doubleheader. In Game 1, we whacked the Twins 15-7. Doug Fister was the winner for HOU in Game 1 of the Doubleheader, and Jose Berrios was the losing MIN pitcher. Game 2 saw the Astros win 10-2. It was Chris Devenski who won Game 2 of this Doubleheader, and Tommy Milone had to settle for the loss. So the Astros are now 60-55 on the 2016 season.

Up next for the Houston Astros Baseball Club... we're going to go entertain the Toronto Blue Jays for a three-game set in beautiful Toronto. Yep. The Astros Awesomeness tour goes international. The Astros will probably have to win (or even sweep) this series to help their Wild Card cause. But of course, it ain't easy taking on the Blue Jays in their house. We'll see what we can do regardless.


We won... and congratulations to your team(s) if they won as well on this Thursday! Winners today include the Arizona Diamondbacks sweeping the New York Mets in Queens.

 

[Blitz24]

Mets have hit rock bottom.

 

[JohnBM01]

The Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays began their weekend series tonight in Toronto. We now have our 61st win of the season, winning 5-3 at the Blue Jays. Picking up the win was Joe Musgrove for the Astros, and the Save went to Will Harris. On the losing end was Francisco Liriano for Toronto. Game 2 of 3 between HOU at TOR continues tomorrow afternoon.


Elsewhere...

* A-Rod says goodbye with his New York Yankees hosting the Tampa Bay Rays. As of the time of this post, the game is tied 3-3 in the Bottom of the 6th.

* The Chicago Cubs knocked down their 11th straight win by winning 13-2 hosting the St. Louis Cardinals. Big bad Jake Arietta was the CHC winning pitcher. Adam Wainwright was STL's loser. Can the Cubbies lock down their 12th win in a row? We'll see tomorrow afternoon.



Congratulations to Friday's other winners.

 

[JohnBM01]

The Toronto Blue Jays won 4-2 today against my visiting Houston Astros. So this series is going to a Rubber Game tomorrow, and the Astros' four-game winning streak is snapped. Aaron Sanchez won for Toronto along with a Save from Roberto Osuna. Our loser was Collin McHugh. Well... we suit up and go one more time for this series tomorrow afternoon.


Congratulations to Saturday's other winners up to and beyond the time of this post.

 

[JohnBM01]

Gangsta' beat down in Toronto. We basically needed to win this series to help our Wild Card cause, and we failed to take the series. The MMA ground-and-pound takedown we suffered today was a 9-2 whacking by the Blue Jays. Helping the Blue Jays take the series was a win for TOR's Marcus Stroman. Mike Fiers was HOU's loser.

We got Monday off, but up next for the Houston Astros... we play against some more birds. The Astros are back home for a quick two-game set against the St. Louis Cardinals starting on Tuesday, then at Baltimore starting on Thursday for a four-game weekend series at the Baltimore Orioles.


Congratulations to all other winners from Sunday, including Boston's annihilation of Arizona at Fenway Park and the Mets taking the series in Flushing against San Diego.

 

[JohnBM01]

It was a little NL Central reunion for the Houston Astros tonight, as the St. Louis Cardinals came on down to H-Town. They ended up winning 8-5 and adding to the Astros' losing ways. Jaime Garcia (win) and Seung Hwan Oh (Save) combined for the St. Louis win. It was another loss for Dallas Keuchel for Houston. This brief two-game set concludes tomorrow.


Congratulations to Tuesday's other winners.

 

[JohnBM01]

We're stuck on 61 wins and have gone cold. No shame losing to the St. Louis Cardinals, but the Astros have GOT to play better even against better teams. So how did our latest fail go? The Astros lost 8-2 at home to the St. Louis Cardinals. The winner for STL was Carlos Martinez. Doug Fister was HOU's loser. We are now 61-59. If we lose our next series, we'll be under .500, so the Astros got to get it together- soon.

Up next for the Houston Astros Baseball Club... we lost a series to the Blue Jays, now the Cardinals, can we FINALLY beat one pack of birds known as the Baltimore Orioles? Four games in Baltimore coming up next. 'Stros at O's. That's next for Houston.


Congratulations to all other winners from Wednesday up to and beyond the time of this post, including the aforementioned Toronto Blue Jays taking down the New York Yankees in the Bronx.

 

[Blitz24]

Mets going to lose 5 of 6 against Arizona this year and all but make it impossible to make the playoffs. Playoffs or not, Terry Collins should be fired at the end of this year due to absolutely poor managerial decisions. He keeps putting a clearly aging Curtis Granderson out there to flail about at every pitch and make poor outs, he absolutely destroyed Conforto in making him a platoon player (because that's always a good thing to do to a 2nd year Outfielder, sit him vs. lefties so he becomes useless vs. a lefty heavy team like the Dodgers), and he cannot manage the bullpen at all. His managing skills are becoming more glaring in a season where they have lost their ace, two of their top SP are pitching wounded, they've lost both corner infielders, and their OF has no actual CF.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

The god awful Tigers bullpen has shown up again. If this team somehow makes the playoffs, they won't be going far with a pen that can't keep leads or keep close games from being a rout.

 

[Dolph Drago]

After losing 2 of 3 to both the Pirates and Cardinals, the Reds took 2 of 3 from the Brewers followed by taking 3 of 4 from the Marlins. Net gain of a game. I guess that's better than nothing. We've actually passed several other teams in the overall standings (though not the NL Central, but we are now down to only 1 game behind Milwaukee). However, it's been a tough go lately though with the injuries. Cozart, Phillips and Hamilton have all missed some playing time throughout the week, and DeSclafani left the game early a couple of nights ago after tweeking something in his leg on the basepaths. Hopefully he's okay.

Meanwhile, the Reds are going to entertain the Dodgers for another 4 games, and the Rangers come to town for 2 (both division leaders ). Following that is an off day, and then out west we go again to take on the D'backs and Angels (both cellar dwellers in their respective divisions ).

 

[JohnBM01]

The Astros hope to eliminate their losing streak. Didn't happen. Five straight losses for the Houston Astros Baseball Club. Our latest fail was 13-5 in Baltimore. I'm still not buying the "2017 World Series Champions" prediction, but this Astros team doesn't seem like any world-beaters right now in 2016. It was Kevin Gausman winning for the O's. Joe Musgrove was the Astros' losing pitcher. This four-game series continues tomorrow. Three more chances to end the losing streak... or three more chances to continually fall apart.


Congratulations to Thursday's other winners, including the Detroit Tigers snapping Boston's 6-game winning streak in MoTown. By the way... with losing ways for the Mets and Giants, something's got to give as one or the other will help their season's cause with their series. Right now as of this post, NYM is ahead of SF 4-0 in the Top of the 4th.

 

[JohnBM01]

It was a 15-8 whacking in Baltimore... by the Astros! So at least for one game, the Astros fade their losing funk of five straight losses. We were down 5-1 after one inning. The Astros managed since to ground the Orioles to get the win. This four-game set in Baltimore is now at 1-1. The Houston Astros' winning pitcher was Chris Devenski. Ubaldo Jimenez was the loser for the O's. 'Stros and O's go at it tomorrow night in Baltimore for Game 3 of 4 of this series. Be there or be square.


We didn't fail, and congratulations to your team(s) on this Friday if they didn't fail either! That even includes wins by both of Ohio's Major League Baseball Teams- the Los Angeles Dodgers getting whacked at the Cincinnati Reds and a walk-off inside-the-park home run by the Cleveland Indians hosting the Toronto Blue Jays.

 

[Dolph Drago]

An interesting win it was for the Reds tonight. We defeated the Dodgers 9-2...with most of the runs being produced by the pitchers. Yes, the Cincinnati pitchers had a couple of firsts in this one. Tim Adleman got a rare start, pitching an excellent 6 innings of no-run baseball. He also collected his first career hit. After an intentional walk to the catcher Barnhart with 2 outs, Adleman laced one to the wall for a 2 run double. Later in the game, Michael Lorenzen (who had 1.2 innings of no-run baseball himself from the pen) belted his first career dinger, totaling 3 RBI's in the process. That would be 5 runs driven in by Reds pitching. Oh, and Votto did his usual, hitting a 3 run shot and adding another bases loaded RBI walk. Those would equate to the other 4 runs batted in for the Redlegs. By the way, after batting at the rate of .213 at the end of May, Votto has upped his average almost 100 points, now up to .304. He has been on a tear.

Don't look now, but the Reds are only 17 games under .500!