Yankees 6, Orioles 2: Michael Pineda struck out 16 Orioles batters and didn’t walk a one while allowing one run over seven innings. On the season he’s 5-0 with a 2.72 ERA, and 54/3 K/BB ratio in 46 and a third innings. That’s right: he has walked only three batters while striking out over a batter per inning. Yankees win the Jesus Montero trade?
Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 3: This is more like how it’s supposed to go: Clay Buchholz pitchers well and Pablo Sandoval homers as the Sox win. Of course this is just the second time the Sox have won in seven of nine and it’s the first time Buchholz has won in six starts. The Red Sox had a clubhouse meeting on Saturday following a bunch of bad play. After the game John Farrell credited the meeting with yesterday’s results, saying “we went out and put together and very good game.” Research project for someone with more time than I have: go back and find every reference to a team having a closed-door meeting in the middle of the season in game stories and then track their collective records over the next 5-10 games and then for the rest of the season. I bet you find, shockingly, that they sort of don’t matter and that bad teams are just bad teams and talent wins and loses more ballgames then motivational meetings. In this way it’s just like your office.
Indians 8, Twins 2: Danny Salazar gave up a leadoff homer to Brian Dozier and then proceeded to retire every single other batter he faced for the next seven innings, striking out 11 of them. I guess that home run . . . motivated him?
Rangers 2, Rays 1: Between his last start and this start Wandy Rodriguez retired 35 straight batters. That’s a perfect game plus eight. We don’t give him credit for that, though, because of the tyranny of the calendar and people’s hangups about arbitrary end-points. You should all really open your minds, man, and throw off the shackles society is making you wear. Or, really man, shackles that you’re putting on yourself. If these comments interest you, I gave a TED-talk on this matter and you can see the video of it here.
Nationals 5, Braves 4: A week into the season the Braves were playing well and the Nationals were not. That dynamic has clearly and definitively reversed itself. Here’s a video representation of the NL East standings.
Agent Smith is the Nationals, obvs, except in our example there are not two horrifyingly bad sequels. There’s just one in which Agent Smith -- the far more interesting character played by a far better actor -- kicks Neo’s butt pretty soundly and everyone gets to continue living in The Matrix which, you must admit, is way better than that post-apocalyptic hellhole Zion. Reality is overrated.
White Sox 4, Reds 3: The Sox blew a lead in the top of the ninth, allowing the Reds to tie. Then they had to face Aroldis Chapman in the bottom half. Not a great set of circumstances, and the circumstances seemed even more dire as Chapman got two quick outs to start the inning. But then he gave up two straight singles, uncorked a wild pitch to put both runners in scoring position. Gordon Beckham then came to the plate and hit a walkoff single. And the best part of this? After the game, Beckham revealed that his mom’s name is “Sully.” That’s gotta be the first “Sully” who isn’t, right now, sitting on a barstool in Massachusetts someplace, explaining away “Deflategate” as a conspiracy against the Patriots because everyone’s jealous of their success.
Mets 7, Phillies 4: Forty-two is the new twenty-seven: Bartolo Colon becomes the majors’ first six game winner this year. He wasn’t necessarily sharp -- he gave up a homer to Chad Billingsley for cryin’ out loud -- but there’s a lot of margin for error when it comes to facing the Phillies. Also helping: no walks. Indeed, Colon hasn’t walked a batter in over 40 innings.
Pirates 4, Cardinals 3: Jung Ho Kang went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI. People wondered if his potent KBL bat would translate in the big leagues. So far so good: .333/.377/.521 in part time play. Mike Matheny described the Cardinals’ day: “Just one of those days we had to try and get what we could. Gave up a few, got `em back, then just couldn’t hold them in the end.” Along with “they whupped our butts,” “everything was workin’ for us” and “we’re happy to have gotten out of there with a win; that’s a good team over there,” that is the exhaustive list of managerial executive game summaries.
Brewers 3, Cubs 2: Martin Maldonado hit a walkoff single in the 11th. Earlier he hit a homer. No word on whether his mom’s name is Sully. Or whatever the Puerto Rican equivalent of Sully is. There probably is. Every region and land has their version of Sully, even if they don’t get the press Sully gets.
Angels 3, Astros 1: Garret Richards was dialing up the heat, hitting his spots and taking a no-hitter into the seventh. He walked some dudes and hit a guy to force in the Astros’ only run, but he struck out ten and looked an awful lot like the guy who led the Angels’ staff until he got hurt at the end of last August.
Giants 3, Marlins 2: Down by one in the bottom of the ninth, the Giants rallied with a single, a double a couple of walks -- on intentional, which loaded the bases, the second unintentional to walk in a run -- and then Matt Duffy ended it by singling in Gregor Blanco to win the game for San Francisco. The Giants end their homestand having won seven of ten and pull even at .500 on the season. They have 16 wins. Four of them have been walkoffs.
Mariners 4, Athletics 3: Felix Hernandez notched his 2,000th career strikeout. And he just turned 29. Only three guys have gotten to 2,000 Ks at a younger age: Bert Blyleven, Sam McDowell and Walter Johnson. Good company. Hernandez allowed only two runs over seven innings and is now 6-0 on the year with a 1.85 ERA.
Dodgers 9, Rockies 5: They had to clear four inches of snow from Coors Field before the game and the gametime temperature was 41 degrees. It dropped to 39 degrees in the ninth. I have some friends in Denver and they say it’s a lovely place to live, but I feel like the volatile snow-sun-rain-snow-frogs nature of their weather would drive me insane. Adrian Gonzalez hit two doubles and drove in four and the rest of the Dodgers’ offense clicked nicely. Which was good because Clayton Kershaw was once again rather meh. He hasn’t pitched terribly this year, but he certainly hasn’t looked like himself. He stands at 1-2 with a 4.26 ERA. Opponents have a .357 average against him on balls in play. For his career: .274. Things will even out for him, one has to assume.
Diamondbacks 2, Padres 1: Daniel Hudson made his first start since 2012. He didn’t pitch long enough to qualify for the win -- he’s not stretched out for that and this was a bullpen game anyway -- but he was effective. Nice to see a two-time TJ patient turn things around like Hudson has. Aaron Hill and A.J. Pollock homered.
Royals 2, Tigers 1: The Royals prevailed in the tenth after the game was delayed over an hour and a half in the ninth due to rain. Teams already hate playing Sunday night games because of next-day travel -- the Royals are on their way to Texas and probably just got to their hotel rooms in the last hour or so -- so I’m sure this one was annoying for all involved. I watched for a few innings. It was annoying to me too, as Curt Schilling and John Kruk are damn nigh unlistenable in the booth. Which is a shame because Dan Shulman is fantastic. ESPN really, really needs to let him fly solo. It’d be so much better.