Going into the later innings of a couple games, we had the possibility of seeing both a perfect game and a record-breaking strike-out performance. Year of the pitcher (again)?
Reds 5, Cubs 4: Edison Volquez pitched 5 innings, striking out 3 and walking 4. Matt Garza pitched 6 innings, striking out 7 and walking 2. The former got the win, and is now 3-1 despite a 5.63 ERA. The latter took the loss, and is now 1-4 with a 4.43 ERA. Baseball’s a funny game sometimes. Jay Bruce had the big offensive blow of the game, hitting a three-run homer for the Reds.
Astros 3, Pirates 2: Lefties Wandy Rodriguez and Paul Maholm each pitched seven quality innings, but Houston got to the Pittsburgh pen for the comeback victory. One move that drew some ire from Pirates fans; right after the ‘Stros had just gone up 3-2, Xavier Paul led off the bottom of the 8th with a walk – and Pirates’ manager Clint Hurdle had perhaps his best player, Andrew McCutchen, lay down a sacrifice bunt. Paul ended up stranded at third, and the team didn’t score another run.
Rays 6, Orioles 2: James Shields kept the O’s off the board until late into the game, by which point the Rays had built up a lead that they would not relinquish. Tampa Bay outfielder Brandon Guyer hit a home run in his first major league at bat, and Johnny Damon added a bomb off his own to seal the deal in the 9th.
Braves 5, Phillies 0: Cliff Lee struck out 16 batters, walked just 1, and lost relatively convincingly to Derek Lowe (6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K). Lee K’ed over half the batters he faced, but 9 of the 14 balls that were put in play against him fell for hits. Now that’s an interesting start. Yikes.
Blue Jays 7, Tigers 4: The Phil Coke to the rotation move isn’t working out fantastically for Detroit, as he dropped to 1-5 with a 4.75 ERA in this one (even if he’s pitched better than those numbers would imply). No such issues for Jesse Litsch (6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 9 K). With Jose Bautista still out of the line-up, Adam Lind took charge of the whole home run hitting thing.
Mets 6: Dodgers 3: Andre Ethier went 3-5 to extend his hitting streak to 30 games, but that still wasn’t enough to power the Dodgers’ offense with Jason Pridie and Ike Davis going yard to New York. Rob Barajas gave Ethier an assist with his 6th home run of the year, tying him with former California players Russell Martin and Mike Napoli for the major league lead amongst catchers.
Twins 9, Red Sox 2: Sometimes the knuckler isn’t working, and you get 4.1 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 4 BB, 1 K, 1 HR type lines from Tim Wakefield. Scott Baker doesn’t throw a knuckle-ball, which is generally unfortunate, but seemed to work OK (8 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 8 K). Boston did out-homer Minnesota 2-1 (Adrian Gonzalez, JD Drew, Trevor Plouffe), so there is that.
Nationals 3, Marlins 2 (10 innings): Nice pitchers’ duel between Jordan Zimmermann and Ricky Nolasco (who K’ed 11). The Marlins came from behind a once in this one, couldn’t do it a second time when the Nat’s went ahead in extras.
Yankees 4, Rangers 1: Ivan Nova didn’t not walk or strike-out a batter until the 7th inning, but ended up giving up only a couple of hits in keeping Texas off the board while Curtis Granderson’s 10th home runs of the season gave him an early lead. The Rangers are just 3-7 in their last 10 games, and are a loss away from dropping to .500 on the season.
A’s 3, Royals 2: A battle of lefties with somewhat contrasting styles, as Gio Gonzalez brought the walks (4) and strike-outs (6) while Sean O’Sullivan brought neither (1 and 0, respectively). In this one it was Gonzalez who came out ahead. Gio dropped his ERA down to 2.68, which fits him right in with the A’s other starters (who have a combined 2.56 ERA – seems good).
Cardinals 6, Brewers 0: Jamie Garcia took a perfect game into the 8th inning, when both it and the no-hitter were broken up over the span of two batters. Completely game shutouts are still OK though, I guess (9 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K).
Angels 2, Indians 1 (11 innings): LA out-hit Cleveland 14 to 3, and yet they still had to go to extra innings to beat them by a paltry 2-1 score. That they could have easily lost this game is kind of crazy, but it happens. Despite his good start (7 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 5 K), Justin Masterson was denied his 6th win of the season, which would have tied fim for the major league lead.
Padres 4, Diamondbacks 3 (11 innings): Armando Galarraga walked 6 batters in just 4.1 IP (and gave up 3 runs), but he got a no decision because Heath Bell blew a 3-0 lead in the 9th inning. 6.1 straight scoreless relief innings from the Arizona pen is a job well done, but that run was broken at an inopportune time (in the bottom of the 11th). Tim Stauffer’s line – 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 $, 1 BB, 6 K – was, what, the 5th most impressive start of the day? Worse perhaps?
Mariners 3, White Sox 2: King Felix with the complete game, moving the M’s to having just one fewer win than losses on the year. The White Sox, meanwhile, now have twice as many losses as wins – and the majors’ worst record by more than two games.
Giants 4, Rockies 3: A Troy Tulowitzki home run helped give Colorado an early lead, but the Giants came back and scored three against the Rockies’ pen in the 8th and 9th to get back to .500 on the season. Ubaldo Jimenez only gave up one run, but I imagine Rockies’ fans aren’t too encouraged by his 5 walks.
