So it’s Sunday afternoon and I’ve decided to watch some baseball and chronicle it for you, our loyal OTBB readers. Since it’s my blog and I can do what I want, I’m jumping right into the middle of these games, without knowing what happened before. Don’t worry, it’ll still be entertaining.
5:24- Royals 7, Angels 1. Fernando Salas is facing Eric Hosmer and the announcers just said that the top of the LAA order is coming up in the bottom of the inning. Pujols has already homered in this game for LA’s only run. Hosmer is battling up there with 2 strikes and 2 outs and 2 runners on. Hosmer is such a strange hitter. There’s no reason why he doesn’t hit for more power but he’s been a 10 homer guy for a couple of years now. I really believe that his fortunes will dictate the team’s. If he becomes a monster in the middle of the order, it’ll be that much easier for Salvy Perez, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, et all to produce. Of course, Hosmer just K’d. This game is going to the bottom of the 6th.
5:29: Yordano Ventura is on the hill against Erik Aybar. Ventura left his last start with a thumb cramp, but he’s in the 6th here with just 74 pitches. The announcers just said that the Pujols homer is the only hit he’s surrendered. Wow. He’s also pumping 95 to Aybar and just got him to pop up.
Trout now. 98 on ball one. 96 on ball two near his head. Trout just turned 98 right around for a single into center and Yordano just awkwardly stared down Trout all the way around first. Trout didn’t know why, but there’s a chance Ventura was just amazed. I think we’re at the point with Mike Trout that we all just recognize that he’s best player and move on but we miss out on the incredible little things he does. That single was really really impressive.
Case in point, Trout just scored from first on a Pujols single to center. AND THE BENCHES HAVE CLEARED! Trout and Ventura just got into it after Trout slid across home. I have no idea what Yordano was so heated about but the players are just now headed back into the dugout with nothing going on. Trout is pretty confused about what got under the pitcher’s skin and Salvy Perez jumped in between them pretty quick.
In other news it’s now 7-2 with Matt Joyce coming up.
5:37- Ventura has now missed on his first 3 pitches post fracas. He’s lost focus. No idea what’s going on with him.
Now the announcers are talking about something the Angels might have yelled at Yordano 2 innings ago.
Now Pujols is thrown out trying to steal third on a 3-0 count to a left handed hitter down 5. What is going on in this game?
5:39- Ventura just watched a groundball to first without covering and cost a hit. And now he’s hurt. Grabbing his right calf. He’s now being removed from the game. What a crazy 6th inning. I’m going to switch games with the pitching change.
5:41- The A’s are leading the Marniers 3-1 in the 6th but Seattle is threatening with 2 on and 1 out and Seth Smith at the plate. Smith, who came over from the Padres this winter, has been swinging great and just rocked at grounder at first but Ike Davis made a diving play and flip to the pitcher for the out. Now it’s second and third for Robinson Cano.
Cano hasn’t missed a beat since joining Seattle and he’s definitely the core of this Mariners team. Other guys, like Nelson Cruz, have shown that they’re much more willing to come to the northwest since Cano’s arrival and that’s exactly what you want when you give a guy a big money 10 year deal. The Mariners are poised to be a lot better than people expect this year.
It’s been 2-2 for a while now and Cano keeps fouling balls off. Great AB.
Just as the announcers discussed that Cano hans’t seen a curve in this at bat, Jesse Hahn flips one up there. Cano absolutely ropes it and Josh Reddick can’t handle it in right and it drops. It was hit so hard that it handcuffed Reddick and it bounced off his glove and chest before hitting the ground. Reddick will take an error on that and Cano won’t get credit for the 2 game tying RBIs. But that’s very much an error that only a player with the ability of Cano can create. There should be a way to quantify that.
5:50- Nelson Cruz walked. Kyle Seager is up with men on first and second and 2 out against Hahn.
Seager singles. There was a play at the plate and Cano didn’t slide for some reason but he beat the swipe tag and is safe. 4-3 Seattle now and the A’s make a pitching change. I’ll change games.
5:52- They’re in the 10th in Texas with the Astros hitting against the Rangers. The teams are tied at 4.
Shaun Tollison just got Jake Marisnick to fly out and Jose Altuve to ground out on 9 straight fastballs. George Springer now. First pitch changeup.
Springer has yet to hit a homer this year but he hit 20 in only 70-something games and was on pace for nearly 50 over the course of a full season. He fits right in with Houston and their all homer and strikeout offense. Springer, aptly, just K’d.
5:56- The Rockies are leading the Cubs 5-3 in Colorado in the 6th. Jordan Lyles is on the mound for Colorado and he’s facing some guy I don’t recognize. The guy just hit a smoking liner to DJ LeMahieu at second that DJ made a great play on.
Another tough name to spell, Arismendy Alcantara is up. Alcantara has no hits this season but I think he could be a key piece for Chicago even though he’s overshadowed by the Cubs other big time prospects. Alcantara is very versatile and can fill in all over the diamond. He just struck out though.
6:00- Back to the extra inning Astros/Rangers game. 1 out in the bottom of the 10th.
There’s one out and a runner on 1st base but Rougned Odor just got hit by a pitch and now the Rangers are threatening. Apparently that’s the third HBP in this game. Carlos Corporan is now the hitter. Wow the Rangers are bad.
Corporan just flew deep to right, that’ll move Carlos Peguero over to third and now runners are on the corners with 2 out.
Shin-Soo Choo is up now. Sean told me the other day that Choo looked old and couldn’t catch up with a fastball anymore. I think that Choo’s stellar contract year in Cincy was an aberration but I don’t think he’s as bad as he’s looked in Texas. The problem is that this Rangers team is a long way from contention and Choo isn’t the type of player to fix that. He’s more a really good complimentary piece on a good team. A top of the order spark and a capable right fielder. The Prince Fielder- Choo core that Texas is trying to go with is really unlikely to produce much going forward. This is a tough team to fix for a couple years.
Choo has been fighting up there this AB though and he’s closing in on 10 pitches. The winning run is on third and Choo now has a full count after the billionth 2-2 pitch from Tony Sipp just missed.
Choo walked; great great great AB, so Leonys Martin will hit with the bases loaded and we get one of those rare no on deck hitter situations. The game will either end with Martin’s AB or the inning will. Thought: the Rangers are pretty left handed heavy between Martin, Choo, Fielder, and Odor.
Martin fell behind 0-2 but just launched a ball to right! George Springer just took back a walkoff grand slaw! What a catch! Wow! I’ve seen some awesome stuff in the last hour.
This game is going to the 11th.
6:14- Keone Kela is in the game for Texas. I like this guy. He’s under the radar nasty.
Kela is facing Jed Lowrie and just missed badly on an 86 mph slider before giving up a single to right.
Luis Valbuena is up now. Did you know, he was the Astros opening day 3 hitter. It’s true, look it up. Valbuena had a really good spring and just swung out of his shoes on that one. Then he grounded into a 5-4-3 DP and now there’s 2 outs and none on.
Evan Gattis is up now. He’s 0-4 today and he’s hit terribly this season so far. He’s another of Houston’s boom or bust type hitters. As I wrote in my preview, they could set record for team homers and team K’s this year.
Kela just threw a nasty curve ball and Gattis struck out. Not that surprising. Elvis Andrus, Adrian Beltre, and Prince Fielder up next for Texas. (Andrus is hitting third????)
6:23- Luke Gregerson is the pitcher now and he got Elvis Andrews to softly line to short. Andrus’ contract is a major reason why Texas is in the position it is. While he’s certainly not a bad player, the $100+ million they owe him is completely out of concert with his production and has handcuffed the team elsewhere. Couple that with the money owed to Prince Fielder and whatever it’ll take to resign Adrian Beltre after this season and you can see why Texas has some issues.
6:28- Fielder has grounded out and we’re going to the 12th.
I’ve now seen all 5 AL West teams in the last hour.
6:31- Phil Klein is in for the Rangers. This is already his 5th appearance of the season. Yet I have never heard of him.
6:32- Readers, I have been called away on other business and my running notes must stop. Klein just walked the leadoff man so I’m thinking this game might see some action but, fortunately, our intrepid editor Ari will copy the link to the Box Score of this game below so you can see what happened. Thanks, Ari! Thanks for following along readers!
Editor’s notes: Max–here is your goddamn box score; colons are things that exist on keyboards; having not seen the game I can tell you that Robbie Cano did not slide because, obviously, that was the best decision given all the variables that only Robbie Cano could comprehend–do not question Robbie Cano; “its” and “it’s” have different meanings; please stop writing running game logs; goodnight.
-Max Frankel
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