Looking at the NL slate today.
Rockies 2, @Braves 3 – Gerald Laird‘s two-out single in the 8th inning scored Ramiro Pena from second to break a 2-2 tie and Craig Kimbrel did the rest, striking out the side in the 9th for his 13th save. For Kimbrel, it was his 21st time facing 3 batters and striking out all of them, tying him with Armando Benitez for the second highest career total, trailing only Billy Wagner‘s record 32 games.
More after the jump.
Cardinals 3, @Reds 5 – Todd Frazier‘s 3rd inning 3-run jack opened the scoring and put Cincinnati ahead to stay. In a 9-day span in 1992, the Reds twice beat the Cardinals while allowing 3 runs or less on 10+ hits, all singles. This game was the first time since.
Brewers 9, @Marlins 5 – A homer fest in Miami as Giancarlo Stanton, Garrett Jones and Mark Reynolds all went deep twice, while Carlos Gomez added 3 doubles. It’s the second time this season and third time since last season that a losing team has had two players with exactly two of each of Hits, Runs, RBI and HR. Before then, that had happened only once since 1914 when the Angels edged the Brewers 6-5 with a come-from-behind walk-off win on 6-27-80. Sixteen days later, those same Brewers won 4-0 in Toronto as Gorman Thomas recorded 3 doubles and 4 hits, the last time a Brewer center-fielder had done that until Carlos Gomez’s game here.
Dodgers 2, @Phillies 0 – After one of the worst outings of his career, Clayton Kershaw was back in form with 6 innings of two hit ball. The bullpen did the rest, retiring the last 9 Phillies in order. For Philadelphia, it was their 5th home shutout loss of the year, the first time that’s happened in the first 50 games of a season since 1941.
Nationals 3, @Pirates 4 – Pedro Alvarez‘s two-run blast put the Pirates up 4-0 in the fourth inning. The Nationals clawed their way back but finished a buck short, leaving 12 men on base, including six over the final 4 innings. Charlie Morton picked up his first win of the season, after a majors-leading six losses. He’s the thirteenth Pirate starter and fourth this century to lose his first 6 decisions of the season, with 6 of the other 9 coming between 1952 and 1959.
Cubs 1, @Padres 11 – Tim Stauffer made his first start in 13 appearances this season and pitched 5 shutout innings, allowing just two hits and lowering his ERA to 1.90. For his career, Stauffer has posted a 2.92 ERA in 81 relief appearance, but only 4.12 in 71 starts, with his best season mark of 1.85 coming in 2010, his only season as a swing-man with 7 starts and 25 relief appearances.
Twins 2, @Giants 6 – Tim Lincecum allowed 5 hits and 6 walks over 6 innings but managed to contain the damage to just two runs to pick up his 4th win, as the Giants moved to 12 games over .500. Lincecum seems well on his way to posting a 3rd straight season of 30 starts with an ERA+ below 80. Only Livan Hernandez has 3 such seasons in a career, never mind consecutively. Brandon Hicks belted his 8th home run and raised his batting average to .200 exactly. With a current 111 OPS+, Hicks is on pace to demolish Joe Morgan‘s .230 mark in 1983 for lowest qualified batting average by a second baseman in a 110 OPS+ season.
And a couple of AL games
Yankees 5, @White Sox 6 – In a see-saw affair New York went ahead 3-0 on a first inning Brian McCann home run, saw that lead disappear, and then went ahead again in the 7th. But, the bullpen couldn’t hold it as, after a Dayan Viciedo single, Adam Dunn connected off David Roberston for the walk-off win (both Viciedo and Dunn hit 0-2 pitches). For Dunn, it was home run number 8 for the season and the 10th walk-off shot of his career. With over two-thirds of the season still to play Dunn has already passed 80 home runs and 200 RBI for his age 32 to 34 seasons, the fourth White Sox player to do so, all of them in this century.
Red Sox 0, @Rays 1 – The Rays win in walk-off fashion for the second night in a row as Boston’s losing skid reaches 8 games. Chris Archer tied his career best, whiffing 11 Red Sox batters in 6 innings. After Andrew Miller issued a one-out walk to Desmond Jennings, John Farrell brought in Burke Badenhop to face yesterday’s hero Sean Rodriguez. Joe Maddon responded with a lefty pinch-hitter, rookie Cole Figueroa in just his 8th career PA. After Jennings stole second, Farrell could have walked Figueroa to keep the double-play in order and instead pitch to righty Yunel Escobar. But, he didn’t, resulting in Figueroa’s walk-off double, his first XBH and first RBI.
