Pirates 11-Nationals 4: The lights went out on the Nats tonight–both literally and figuratively. This one started ugly for John Lannan, and ended ugly for the Nationals overworked bullpen. Lannan lasted only 3 innings, giving up 6 runs, 5 earned, on 6 hits, walking 2 and striking out none. For the record, NL Beast called the meltdown. Manny Acta decided to employ the starter by committee approach, as Mike O’Connor pitched 3.2 in relief for Lannan. For the Pirates, Jose Bautista homered twice on the night.
Braves 2-Reds 0: Nice pitchers dual in Atlanta tonight, as Tim Hudson squared off against young Edison Volquez. Any question of Tim Hudson’s health was resolved tonight as the sinkerballer pitched a complete game, striking out 10 and walking no one. Wow. Brian McCann’s 2 run blast was all the offense the Braves needed to defeat the Reds.
Marlins 6-Padres 4: Dan Uggla homered twice, notching 4 RBIs on the night as the Marlins defeated San Diego. Mark Hendrickson got the win, going 7 innings, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits. Justin Germano got knocked around by the Fish, letting up 6 runs, 5 earned, including 3 home runs, in 5.2 innings of work.
Categories: Braves · Marlins · Nationals
Tagged: Braves, Brian McCann, Dan Uggla, Edison Volquez, John Lannan, Jose Bautista, Justin Germano, Manny Acta, Mark Hendrickson, Marlins, Mike O'Connor, Nationals, Padres, Pirates, Reds, Tim Hudson
What a way to open the roadtrip, as the New York Mets defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-2 on the backs of their superstars, David Wright and Jose Reyes, and on their most valuable player so far, Ryan Church. David and Jose each fell one hit shy of the cycle–Wright needed a triple, Reyes a home run. Church hit his fourth home run of the year and drove in three on the night, bringing his RBI total to 19.
It doesn’t get much better than this. Reyes gets on base, Church advances him, David drives in runs, and the rest of the team follows the lead. These 3 guys are key to winning, as is John Maine, who looked shaky at times, but got the job done, going 6 full innings to pick up his 3rd win of the year (surprising after his pitch count got way up there–he even had 12 pitches on just one Micah Owings at bat), and surrendering 2 earned on 6 hits, striking out 6 and walking 2. Joe Smith, Pedro Feliciano, and Duaner Sanchez combined for 3 scoreless innings in relief.
The Diamondbacks were a shadow of their usual self tonight. Owings took the loss, going 5.2 giving up 7 earned runs on 11 hits, striking out 2 and walking 3. He’s obviously banged up, as anyone watching the game could tell based on his motion. 2B Orlando Hudson had to come out of the game with a minor leg injury (he’s day to day). Here’s my observation of the D-Backs. They have a ridiculous amount of talent (especially in Justin Upton who is a phenom to say the least), but they are very, very young. Their pitching needs to be solid to carry them, and tonight it obviously was not. But this is a team that is going places.
A happy note for the Mets, LF Moises Alou made his return to the lineup, batting in the 5 spot behind Carlos Beltran. Alou went 1-4 with an RBI on a hard hit ball up the middle that could have easily been a double play ball. Weird to see the bottom of the lineup consisting of Carlos Delgado, Raul Casanova, and Luis Castillo. Those 3 combined to go 2-11 on the night, by the way.
Great win tonight for the Amazins, it’s going to be a tough one tomorrow as Mike Pelfrey takes on Snakes ace Brandon Webb.
-Jonathan Kraft
Categories: Mets
Tagged: Brandon Webb, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, David Wright, Diamondbacks, Duaner Sanchez, Joe Smith, John Maine, Jose Reyes, Justin Upton, Luis Castillo, Mets, Micah Owings, Mike Pelfrey, Moises Alou, Orlando Hudson, Pedro Feliciano, Raul Casanova, Ryan Church
BAT!
What a night down at the Bank. Pat Burrell stole the show after the Phils almost let this one get away from them. Down to their last strike in the 10th inning, down 5-4 with Chase Utley on first, the BAT smashes a ball over left field fence for the 2-run walk-off, clinching the 6-5 win for the Phils. The hard-throwing Brian Wilson gave up the four base trip to Burrell, who is putting up the best numbers of his career.
Chase Utley started the Phils scoring early with a 2 run shot in the first for his major league leading 12th home run. The Phillies scored two more on a homer by Pedro Feliz in the 4th, but they relinquished the 4-1 lead after a hit parade by the Giants in the 7th.
That brings me to the subject of Ryan Madson, who has struggled consistently this year and was responsible for letting in the tying run. He has a 5.28 ERA in 14 appearances, but he has not looked on his game at all. Truthfully, I haven’t seen strong stuff out of Madson for a couple seasons. Watch for his name to be floated around for moves later in the season. He’s simply not cutting it in Philly.
Kyle Kendrick has a solid line for the night: 3 earned runs over 6.0 innings, as well as 6 strikeouts and no walks. Can’t ask for much better from your “5th” starter. More on the pitching front: The Giants took a 6-5 lead in the 10th after Aaron Rowand, in his first game returning to CBP, connected off of JC Romero for his third homer of the season. Per ESPN:
Romero, the Phillies’ left-handed relief ace, hadn’t allowed an earned run in 28 1/3 innings, dating to last season. He pitched 12 2/3 scoreless innings this year before Rowand took him deep. It was the first homer Romero allowed in 60 appearances, spanning 45 2/3 innings.
It’s ain’t pretty breaking a streak like that, but at least he did it for good measure: Burrell’s shot in the bottom half of the first extra inning was exactly what this Phillies team is about. Expect many o’ night like this over the next five months.
Lastly, Ryan Howard was tossed in the at bat previous to PTB’s bomb. Howard was angry over a couple of calls before he was finally caught looking. On the way back to the dugout some choice words with the ump got him the boot. Howard was 0 for 5 with 3 strikeouts on the night. Clearly, he is still frustrated.
Phightins 9-3 in their last 12. That’s all for me up in Mets country.
-Greg Berlin
Categories: Phillies
Tagged: Aaron Rowand, Brian Wilson, Chase Utley, Giants, JC Romero, Kyle Kendrick, Pat Burrell, Pat the bat, Phillies, PTB, Ryan Howard, Ryan Madson, walk-off
