This is Wednesday’s game. I think it is Thursday today, so I’m just a day behind.
There was a bit of sim MLB news:
- The Mariners traded outfield Jake Fraley (hitting .263/.323/.455 in Triple A) to the Phillies For LHP JoJo Romero (3.76 ERA in 18 starts in AA). I mention this mostly because, in my OOTP game, I traded for Fraley to play CF. He had a very good finish to the 2020 season for me.
- Padres SS Fernando Tatis Jr. has a 20 game hit streak going. He’s hitting .302/.370/.566 with 36 home runs in 63 games this season. He missed some time with an injury earlier in the season.
For the second day in a row, we win without the help of a home run. We still lead the AL in home runs.
We had 11 hits and 6 walks.
Vladimir Guerrero had 3 of the hits, including a double. Lourdes Gurriel (also with a double) and Teoscar Hernandez (2 doubles) had 2 hits each. Every one in the starting lineup reached base at least once.
We scored:
- 1 in the fourth: With 2 out, Travis Shaw walked and scored on Teoscar’s double. Hernandez was thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple. Bad move with 2-out.
- 3 in the sixth: Derek Fisher led off with a walk, moved to second on a ground out. Shaw was intentionally walked. Both runners scored on Teoscar’s second double (this time he did make it to third on the throw to the plate). Danny Jansen drove home Hernandez with a single.
- 1 in the ninth: Cavan Biggio led off with a triple and scored on a single by Gurriel.
We should have scored in the first. Biggio led off with a walk and Lourdes doubled giving us runners on second and third. But Vlad popped out. Bo Bichette and Fisher each struck out.
Hyun-Jin Ryu went 5.1, allowed 8 hits, 3 earned, 2 walks (tying his second high, third time he walked 2) with 7 strikeouts. Not one of his better starts, but his record is now 8-2.
Shun Yamaguchi came in with 1 out in the sixth. Ryu had given up 4 hits and 3 runs in the inning and left a runner on second. Shun stranded the runner. Then he pitched a perfect seventh. He also got the first out in the eighth. He pitched 2 innings without allowing a base runner.
Dany Jimenez came in with 1-out in the eighth and got 2 fly outs.
Eduardo Jimenez pitched a quick ninth, 3 fly outs, getting his second save of the season. Giles has pitched a lot lately and needed the day off.
We had 3.2 perfect innings out of our bullpen.
The quote of the game was from Teoscar saying “I still think this team can play even better”.
Let’s give JoD’s to Teoscar and to the bullpen.
57 wins and 36 losses. that’s not bad at all.
Sweeps of the Yankees and Red Sox. I don’t even dream that good.
We have a four game series with the Twins at lovely Target Field (they still call it Target right?) and then there is a four day All-Star game break. The Twins are 42-51, 3rd in the AL Central, 21 games back of Cleveland (they are the class of the AL with a 63-30 record, 6 games better than the Jays).
Matt Shoemaker (3-7, 7.36 ERA in 18 games) gets to try to extend the win streak. He has a pretty tired pen backing him up. Michael Pineda (1-3, 4.23 in 7 starts) goes for the Twins. He also has a rundown bullpen behind him too.
The Twins haven’t had the same luck with injuries that we’ve had:
Homer Bailey: Torn flexor, out 7 months.
Jake Odorizzi: “Out with rotator cuff tendinitis” for an ‘unknown length’.
Rich Hill: Torn elbow ligament. 8-9 months.
Josh Donaldson: Oblique strain. 1 week.
Luis Arraez: Severe hip strain. 6 weeks.
Nelson Cruz: Torn posterior cruciate ligament. 4 months.