Game Notes from Tuesday, August 28 |

Not enough time in the day….

@Rangers 1, Rays 0: After missing a start, Yu Darvish returned with 10 Ks and his first scoreless game since April. The game turned in the 4th, in the span of two batters:

Tampa had the bags full and 1 out, but the Rangers turned a nifty 3-6-1 DP on Jose Lobaton. Then Ian Kinsler opened the home half with his 16th HR, his 3rd off James Shields in 33 ABs. Shields had faced the minimum until that point and allowed just 2 other singles in his 7 innings, but he took his first loss in a month as the Rays lost their 4th straight.

Tampa dropped a 1-0 decision for the 2nd straight Tuesday and for the MLB-high 4th time this year, all in August. Texas won its 3rd 1-0 contest, more than any team save the Seattle Felixes.

Braves 2, @Padres 0: Kris Medlen‘s scoreless streak reached 28 IP, and he’s 5-0, 0.66 in 6 starts. Chipper Jones drove in the first run with his 547th career double, tying Manny Ramirez for #26 on that career list and tying Robin Yount for #29 in Total Bases. Dan Uggla quenched an 11-game RBI thirst with his 16th HR.

Medlen joined R.A. Dickey and Ryan Dempster as the only pitchers this year with 3 straight scoreless games of 7+ IP.
In his first save chance in 24 days, Craig Kimbrel struck out 3 in his usual 1-inning stint, giving him 12 such games this year. Kimbrel set the record last year with 13 such games.
The southpaw Andrew Werner continued to look like the best pitcher ever to come out of the Frontier League. For the 2nd time in a row, he allowed 2 runs on 4 hits in 6 IP, this time with 7 Ks and no walks. The Brave are 24-26 in games started by a lefty.

@Orioles 6, White Sox 0: Chris Tillman improved to 7-2, yielding just an infield hit in 7 IP, and Nick Markakis hit a bases-clearing double to cap a 2-out rally in the 2nd, as the O’s beat Chris Sale for their 4th straight win and moved to 5-1 against the ChiSox.

Chicago’s other hit was an infield single in the 9th by Adam Dunn, his 7th infield hit and 40th single of the season.
You can see why Markakis has no trouble against lefties, even on a looping slider.
Have the denizens of Charm City been inoculated against Pennant Fever? The first two games of this series drew less than 25,000 combined, two of their six worst crowds this year. The weather seems to have been fine.
Philip Humber mopped up, allowing Adam Jones‘s 100th career HR. Looks like Humber is arbitration-eligible this fall and a non-tender isn’t out of the question.

@Angels 6, Red Sox 5: Alfredo Aceves worked a swift 8th with a 1-run lead, so he got the chance to finish it out. Not so fast: With 1 out, Aceves may or may not have nicked the #8 hitter, but he did let him steal 2nd, and then walked Alberto Callaspo on 4 pitches. All that did was bring up the AL’s best hitter, who also happens to be hitting .375 with RISP and .275 on an 0-2 count (AL average is .159). Then, with the game tied and a man on 3rd, Torii Hunter atoned for this boneheaded bunt with a deep fly on a badly-located 0-1 pitch, and there’s your ballgame.

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e pluribus munu

11 years ago

Thanks again, John. Looks as though Larry slipped out for a beer in the second sentence of your Braves wrap.

K&J

Reply to e pluribus munu

I thought that was merely a fantastically obvious reader participation prompt.

I’ll show myself out.

Brooklyn Mick

Haha EPM. After I posted #7 I realized what you were saying. L-A-R-R-Y…
L-A-R-R-Y!

Doug

In fairness to Aceves, (and notwithstanding the walk to Callaspo) he deserved a better fate. He jambed Trout badly, but Trout hit a seeing-eye broken bat single to drive in the tying run. In the 7th, Trout got the Angels close on a bloop to the opposite field that wasn’t caught only because the outfielder was fooled by Trout’s big cut and didn’t realize (until too late) that he hit it off the end of the bat.

But, that’s the kind of luck you get when it’s your year!

Author

John Autin

Reply to Doug

Also the kind of luck you’re eligible for when you make contact.

Reply to John Autin

And, from the Red Sox perspective, the kind of luck you get when it’s NOT your year.

From Minute Maid Park on Tuesday, where there were maybe 23 people in attendance, Giants score two runs in the top of 9th to beat the Astros 3-2. Giants drove the tying and then the winning run with pinch hitters. Joaquin Arias, hitting in the 8th slot, doubled home Brandon Belt. Reserve catcher Hector Sanchez, hitting for the pitcher, knocked in Arias with a single. Both hits were surrendered by Wilton Lopoz. Second straight tough appearance for Lopez, who has assumed the closer role in Houston. He took the loss, giving up a 9th inning run against JA’s Mets on… Read more »

Reply to K&J

Also this loss pushed the Astros to 49 games under .500. (After their Wednesday loss, it’s 50 games.)

New ownership in Houston is considering (finally) tearing out that hill and the fair territory flag poles in center field. So, there’s that.

“New ownership in Houston is considering (finally) tearing out that hill….”

I’d like to see them replace it with a different mini-golf “hazard” every week.

“There’s a line drive to left-center, and this one’s gonna roll to the wall — no, wait, the windmill has kicked it to the RF corner!!!”

Jim Bouldin

The windmill being the mini-golf hazard or the center-fielder?

bstar

The Braves have now won Kris Medlen’s last 17 consecutive starts, dating back to May 29, 2010. The Braves won Kris’ last 11 starts in 2010, but Medlen didn’t start a game last season as he didn’t get back from TJohn surgery until late 2011. According to Elias, his is the longest team win streak for the same pitcher since Chris Carpenter won 19 straight starts for the Cardinals in 2005.

John, I know you’re talking about Chipper Jones getting his 547th double, but for some reason his name isn’t showing.

Reply to Brooklyn Mick

The “some reason” is my error — thanks for the correction.

Meanwhile, the Tigers continue their impressive drive toward mediocrity, under-achievement, frustration- and head-scratch-inducement and highest ratio of $/win. This is impressive.

Reply to Jim Bouldin

Frustration, yes. But the last part is hyperbole. The Yankees’ 2012 payroll is about $74 million more than Detroit’s ($210mm-$134mm), according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/?page_id=162

The BoSox & Angels also have higher payrolls than Detroit and have been even more frustrating, by any objective measure.

OK, change “highest” to “high”. And I can’t see how the Angels have been even more frustrating, given that they have a similar record but play in a much better division. However, I’m willing to substitute the Phillies.

Jim, in the big picture, both the Tigers and the Angels will be seen as big disappointments if they don’t make the playoffs. We can parse the degree of disappointment if the need arises.

I still think the Angels are the leaders in our Disappointment Derby simply because they stand 1.5 games farther out of a playoff spot at the moment.

Daniel Longmire

Are any of those aforementioned teams really more disappointing than the Marlins? They came into the season with a new ballpark, name, uniform, manager, closer, shortstop and durable starter, plus a $44 million boost in payroll. Then they proceeded to trip out of the gate, had one good month (May), and then lost 17 out of 20, destroying any excitement in their fanbase. After that, they ripped apart what they just built, and are simply playing out the string at this point.

Not to mention the teams that were expected to be OK but have turned out to be terrible, e.g. Cleveland.

Whoa, Reds are the first team to 80 wins, who would have guessed that?