MLB 2015 Season

[JohnBM01]

It is perfectly natural to fear the Toronto Blue Jays at this point. Toronto may doggone well take the AL East unless the Blue Jays somehow cool off while the Yankees get on some kind of hot streak. But at this point, this is Toronto's AL East to lose. They are too powerful at this point, peaking at the right moment.

If you haven't heard, Vin Scully will be calling Los Angeles Dodgers action for the 64th(?) ...and final season next year. Vin Scully is one of the finest voices in any sport. I sometimes like watching Dodgers baseball just to hear Vin Scully and his witty and unique commentary. Go until you can't go any longer. Atta boy, Vin!


September is right around the corner. But for tonight, many of the teams will be playing this final night of August 2015. Good luck to all of your teams.

 

[JohnBM01]

The Houston Astros lost their latest series at the Minnesota Twins and now return home. So the Astros returned to Minute Maid Park to host the Seattle Mariners as part of a three-game set. The starting pitching matchup was Vidal Nuño (SEA) against Dallas Keuchel (HOU). We handled ours- like, 8-3 handled ours. "Kid Keuchy" remains unbeaten at home and is the first AL pitcher to 16 wins (according to Yahoo! Sports). Keuchel picked up the win while Nuño took the loss for SEA. Our series continues tomorrow night.


Congraulations to Monday's other winners, including the Cincinnati Reds' 13-6 smashing of the Chicago Cubs up in the northside of Chicago and the Mets defending home turf against Philadelphia 3-1.

 

[Barra333]

If only he wasn't so streaky when he was with the Reds...and not also a horrid 3rd baseman. The DH position fit him perfectly in the American League when we traded him away some years ago. He is on a crazy run this season.

He didn't exactly light it up with the Blue Jays from day 1. I read the other day that he actually cleared waivers a few years ago. Him and Bautista turned into beasts in Toronto, especially given how little they did with their previous clubs (Bautista was completely anonymous with the Pirates before being traded north).

 

[JohnBM01]

The Astros failed tonight, losing 7-5 to Seattle. So tomorrow night's game will be a Rubber Game to determine the series winner. The big difference in this one was a two-run homer by Logan Morrison of Seattle in the Top of the 8th. Both collected nine hits, and Seattle made two errors. Winning for SEA was Logan Kensing and a Save from Tom Wilhelmsen. It was Pat Neshek who lost for HOU.


Congratulations to Tuesday's other winners, including Detroit taking down Kansas City 6-5 in KC.

 

[Barra333]

Edwin's streal is no more. He mustered up a walk and an RBI, but the hit column had a goose egg. In other news, the Blue Jays won 5-3, despite being out hit 9-6.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

How in the hell does Detroit manage to lose to everyone but beats the division leader?

 

[JohnBM01]

It was 8-3 here in Houston as Seattle took the SEA at HOU series. So the Astros have lost back-to-back series now. We get tomorrow off before having a second chance at taking down the Minnesota Twins at home this weekend after having lost that series last week at the Twins. Carson Smith won for SEA as well as a Save for Tom Wilhelmsen. Pat Neshek was HOU's loser. Here is a discouraging statement: the AL West leading Astros are winless in September so far.

As I mentioned, the Astros' next series is against the Minnesota Twins here in Houston. The Astros better turn things around, or this seemingly magical season will just be yet another lost cause.


Congratulations to Wednesday's other winners.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

KC killed the Tigers yesterday. That's what I expected to happen.

 

[JohnBM01]

My Astros were idle tonight, so I figured I'd give a little rundown just to discuss the goings on elsewhere.


* It was 15-1 as the Washington Nationals hammered the Atlanta Braves by two touchdowns (with two PATs). The winner for WSH was Jordan Zimmerman, and the ATL loser was Matt Wisler. This is a four-game set between these two.

* The Royals put a hurtin' on the visiting Detroit Tigers with a 15-8 victory. This is an AL Central match between 1st Place KC and last-place Detroit. KC put up 20 hits in this one compared to Detroit's 14. Picking up the win for KC was Chris Young. For DET, Kyle Ryan was the losing pitcher.

* In Denver, the Colorado Rockies hosted the seemingly free-falling San Francisco Giants. The Rockies won 11-3 at home. COL saw Chris Rusin pick up the win while SF's Ryan Vogelsong took the loss. I wish Tim Lincecum well, as he will be done for the season to get hip surgery.

* 6-4 was the score as the Chicago White Sox took down the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis. On a busy night of college football, former Notre Dame QB Jeff Samardzija took the win for the CHW White Sox along with a Save from David Robertson. Casey Fien was the losing pitcher for the Twins.


Congratulations to the other Thursday winners.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

Getting blown out is a new Tigers past time. I'm not shocked that they lost.

 

[Barra333]

It was 15-1 as the Washington Nationals hammered the Atlanta Braves by two touchdowns (with two PATs). The winner for WSH was Jordan Zimmerman, and the ATL loser was Matt Wisler. This is a four-game set between these two.

Notable from that game - Bryce Harper went 0-0 with 4 runs scored and an RBI.

 

[Blitz24]

Notable from that game - Bryce Harper went 0-0 with 4 runs scored and an RBI.

He really worked hard for that. Atlanta didn't give him a single pitch.

 

[JohnBM01]

Time to start another series. And this time, it's my Astros hosting the Minnesota Twins. We lost a series the last time we hooked up. Tonight in Houston, we the Twins 8-0. George Springer was back in the Astros' lineup to try to contribute. A two-run jack by Colby Rasmus was a contributing factor, but a bigger one was by Hank Conger's Grand Slam in the Bottom of the 4th. This is win #74 for the Astros, and helping make this happen was Collin McHugh getting the win for HOU. MIN's losing pitcher was Mike Pelfrey.

I took so long to post this because I wanted to get the pitching winner and loser info in, and Yahoo! Sports was being b:censored:y connecting me to that data. Anyhow... we won. The Saturday game will apparently be shown on MLB Network. And after this series, another Astros game will be televised this coming Monday on MLB Network when we're at the Oakland Athletics.


Congratulations to all other Friday winners, including both of Chicago's MLB teams winning in blowout fashion, and a big win for Baltimore in Toronto.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

Cleveland just killed Detroit last night. That says something since Detroit usually owns them.

 

[Blitz24]

Matt Harvey just pissed off all Mets fans after succumbing to his agent's demands and said he will have a hard 180 IP cap. Mets were operating on a soft cap. He has thrown 166.2 IP already. 13.1 IP left for him on the season so he cares more about himself than the team.

 

[Patrick]

He wants dat cash money.

 

[Blitz24]

He wants dat cash money.

He also proves that he cares only about himself to announce it this late in the year and the entire fanbase will look at him as a self-centered, selfish individual.

 

[GTPorsche]

Not the entire fanbase. Just the selfish ones. Matt Harvey has no reason to potentially destroy his arm and his career just because fans want a championship. It's only his first season back from Tommy John surgery. He can't be unlimited in his pitching.

 

[JohnBM01]

The Minnesota Twins picked up the win 3-2 at my Houston Astros tonight. Tomorrow's finale is a Rubber Game to determine the series. The MIN winner was Santana along with a Save from Kevin Jepsen. Luke Gregerson lost for HOU. So we got a Rubber Game here in H-Town.


Congratulations to Saturday's other winners, including Detroit's blanking of the Cleveland Indians in MoTown. That series will go to a Rubber Game.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

I think it would be better in the long run for the Mets to have Harvey on the hard cap. The team looks to be a viable playoff team for the next few years (as of right now), and they'll need him to be healthy in the next few seasons to have a legitimate chance of going deep in the playoffs.

 

[GTPorsche]

It wasn't an issue, and wasn't brought up with the team until last month when the Mets had gained first place and were playoff bound. It's not like they just decided to bring this up now.. it's just making headlines now.

Dr. Andrews knows what he's doing when he recommends innings limits for pitchers coming off of TJ Surgery. 4 pitchers previously came off of TJ and had no inning limit. 3 of them needed a 2nd TJ surgery and it killed their career.

With the pitching staff the way it is now, they could just as easily move Harvey to a late inning relief role, and be no worse off with the starting rotation. Niese is the more concerning part of their SPs. They should be rolling with a rotation of Syndergaard, DeGrom, Colon, Matz, Verrett at this point in the season if they want to use Harvey in the playoffs.

 

[Blitz24]

It wasn't an issue, and wasn't brought up with the team until last month when the Mets had gained first place and were playoff bound. It's not like they just decided to bring this up now.. it's just making headlines now.

Dr. Andrews knows what he's doing when he recommends innings limits for pitchers coming off of TJ Surgery. 4 pitchers previously came off of TJ and had no inning limit. 3 of them needed a 2nd TJ surgery and it killed their career.

With the pitching staff the way it is now, they could just as easily move Harvey to a late inning relief role, and be no worse off with the starting rotation. Niese is the more concerning part of their SPs. They should be rolling with a rotation of Syndergaard, DeGrom, Colon, Matz, Verrett at this point in the season if they want to use Harvey in the playoffs.

Boras statement and Anderson's statement may have come earlier in the year, but Matt Harvey confirmed it yesterday after saying he wanted a soft 180 IP cap and pushed the Mets to leave him in for almost every start. Now the Mets have to save face. If the Mets weren't in a pennant race (and this is the Mets, they've only made the playoffs in back to back seasons ONCE in franchise history) they aren't going to take this year for granted. A lot of fans saw the move as selfish because of the situation currently happening. If the Mets weren't in the pennant race the fans would understand, but since they are, they are unhappy and at this moment are probably not against trading Harvey, who is the only one of their quintet of pitchers represented by Boras and is the one who has been always brazen about his choice of words.

 

[JohnBM01]

Last series involving the Twins, we lost in Minneapolis. This time here in Houston, we took the series thanks to an 8-5 victory today. So we take two out of three to get our Jade (75th) win of the 2015 season. Dallas Keuchel was the starting pitcher for the Astros and was the winner for the Astros on this day, and his win comes with Luke Gregerson logging his 26th Save of the season. MIN's losing pitcher on this day was Trevor May (unintentional rhyme- honest!).

Up next for the Astros... we're out on the road to entertain the Oakland Athletics starting tomorrow afternoon.


Congratulations to all other winners from Sunday, including the Miami Marlins taking down the New York Mets on a walk-off sacrifice fly and the Reds doubling up the Brewers in Cincinnati.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

I'm actually happy with the Tigers loss because Verlander didn't suck. He actually did well, but in typical Tigers fashion, the offense forgets how to offense.

 

[JohnBM01]

So the Astros and the Athletics hooked up today in Oakland, California, USA. A lot of offense was scored, but the 10-9 win went to the Oakland Althetics. The A's put in work on this Labor Day thanks to a win by Felix Doubront and a Sean Doolittle Save. Mr. No Hitter earlier this season, Mike Fiers, was the HOU loser. HOU is now 75-63. OAK is now 59-79. We'll do it again tomorrow night to continue the series.


Congratulations to Monday's other winners.

 

[Blitz24]

Nationals were winning 7-1 against the Mets. Then their bullpen came in. The Mets move 6 games ahead of Washington with their 5th straight win over the Nationals following an 8 to 7 come from behind victory.

 

[JohnBM01]

Before I talk about how my Astros did, let me just say that I enjoy coming here to GTPlanet and sharing my mind with you all in the Sports forums and elsewhere. I enjoy these discussions. You all are awesome folks to be around. Now on to the pulse of Astros Nation...

The Houston Astros failed again on Tuesday. This time, losing 4-0 at Oakland. We're failing at the wrong time of the season and at the wrong moment with the Texas Rangers surging and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (our next series opponent) closing in. Scott Kazmir faced his former team and ended up getting the loss for HOU. Meanwhile, OAK's winner was Sonny Gray. Astros stuck on 75 wins. Has Midnight struck on HOU?


Congratulations to Tuesday's other winners, including however the heck the New York Mets managed to come from behind and beat the Washington Nationals in Washington, D.C.; further overrating the Nationals.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

It took 13 innings, but the Tigers beat Tampa Bay with an 8-7 victory.

 

[GTPorsche]

Nationals were winning 7-1 against the Mets. Then their bullpen came in. The Mets move 6 games ahead of Washington with their 5th straight win over the Nationals following an 8 to 7 come from behind victory.

I nearly gave up on watching the game... and then Drew Storen happened.

 

[Blitz24]

I nearly gave up on watching the game... and then Drew Storen happened.

I keep saying that the Papelbon trade was a nightmare for Washington. Not because he wasn't a good player but because Storen has some mental issues that seem to surface outside of closing games.