Game 147: Braves 5, Nationals 1

post from Capitol Avenue ClubCapitol Avenue Club on 16 September 2012 11:48:55 PM. © Capitol Avenue ClubCapitol Avenue Club

Source: FanGraphs Game MVP: Mike Minor, 59 game score Least Valuable Brave: David Ross, -.099 Most Valuable National: Ian Desmond, .083 Least Valuable National: Danny Espinosa, -.159 Big plays: 3rd – (ATL) Chipper Jones RBI single for a 1-0 Braves lead, .114 4th – (WAS) Danny Espinosa grounded into inning-ending double play with two on, [...]

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Show #201: Two Sweeps Mark the Braves Week

post from Atlanta Baseball Talk on 16 September 2012 11:20:04 PM. © Atlanta Baseball Talk

The expanded Post Season Hope Meter. We play Trust or Mistrust? The Dan Struggla Meter.[...]

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Couple caught having sex in Yankee Stadium
bathroom

post from Bronx Baseball Daily on 16 September 2012 11:15:39 PM. © Bronx Baseball Daily

[...]

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Padres 12, Rockies 11: How Do You Lose On A
Walkoff At Home!

post from Purple Row on 16 September 2012 10:01:30 PM. © Purple Row

SAN DIEGO, CA - SEPTEMBER 16: (L-R) Everth Cabrera #2 and Will Venable #25 of the San Diego Padres celebrate defeating the Colorado Rockies 12-11 at Petco Park on September 16, 2012 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images)

I'm still trying to figure out how a road team can win in walkoff fashion, as the Padres did on Sunday at Coors Field. It totally defies everything that I thought I knew about baseb ...

Wait, what's that? This game was played at ... Petco?

No way.

Not going to believe it. That many runs haven't been scored at Petco Park in history, combined.

I'll just keep writing.

So anyway, how does a team lose on a walkoff hit at home? Is that just the curse of the 2011-12 Rockies? (Speaking of which, this has all been just one long season, right? One that takes place during two calendar years, like the NBA?)

Anyway, there was some cool stuff that happened in this game, so I'll just write about that ... AFTER THE JUMP, that is.

Join me.

Alex White hit a three-run homer for the Rockies in the second inning, giving him his second long ball in consecutive starts. He also became the second player in the Ubaldo Jimenez trade to homer ~~at Petco Park~~ this year, with the other being Drew Pomeranz, of course. In the next inning, that number grew to three players in the Ubaldo Jimenez trade to homer ~~at Petco Park~~ this year, as Matt McBride hit a two-run shot off of Padres starter Andrew Werner to put the Rox up, 5-1. It was McBride's first career home run. Way to go, Matt.

San Diego would go on to score 10 unanswered runs from that point on through the seventh inning, but I won't write about that. What I will write about is how the Rockies stormed back from an 11-5 deficit to tie the game in the top of the eighth, as Josh Rutledge put the cap on a six-run inning with a grand slam off of Nick Vincent, proving once again that having two first names will get you nowhere.

The Rockies blew a chance to take the lead in the top of the ninth and eventually lost on a Yonder Alonso RBI single, but, again -- I won't write about that. Instead, I'm going to write about more cool stuff, like Rob Scahill pitching two scoreless innings. That was pretty awesome. Also, Chris Nelson's 3-for-5 day and Andrew Brown's 2-for-3, two-walk day were pretty cool as well. Jordan Pacheco was not cool, neither at the plate (0-for-5) nor behind it, but -- you guessed it -- I'm not going to get into it. Because, like I said ...

I JUST WANT TO WRITE ABOUT COOL STUFF, and not about how the Rockies lost on walkoff hit, even though they were playing at home.

58 - 87

Games Back: 24.5

Streak: Lost 2

Games Left: 17

Source: FanGraphs

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Orioles win their 82nd game and salvage series in
Oakland...

post from Oriole Post - Baltimore Orioles Analysis & News; The World of Baseball and Beyond on 16 September 2012 10:01:24 PM. © Oriole Post - Baltimore Orioles Analysis & News; The World of Baseball and Beyond

Today, the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Oakland Athletics, 9-5, and clinched their first winning season since 1997.

After losing the first two games of the weekend series, the Orioles rebounded on Sunday as Matt Wieters hit two homers, Endy Chavez plated in two runs and Chris Davis?s eighth-inning homer put the game away late.
Baltimore?s J.J. Hardy, Mark Reynolds and Robert Andino also drove in runs.

According to Roch Kubtako of MASN Sports, the Orioles had lost 16 out of 18 games on the road in Oakland ? an astounding piece of information. That should tell you how huge Sunday?s win for them was on the left coast.

Randy Wolf ? in a spot start ? pitched four strong innings, giving up two runs; meanwhile, Brian Matusz earned the win as pitched two clutch relief innings. Jim Johnson earned his 43^rd save, coming in for an ineffective Pedro Strop.

Oakland took an early 2-0 lead; however, the Baltimore offense came through for the pitchers on the mound.
With their win, the Orioles (82-64) still trail the New York Yankees by a game in the American League; meanwhile, they hold a 2 ½ game lead over the Los Angeles Angels for the final wild card spot.

They could not afford another loss in Oakland, and they head onto Seattle for yet another important series.

Afterwards, they head back east to face the Boston Red Sox on the road to finish out the road trip.
Baltimore had rebounded from a close loss on Friday and a miserable one on Saturday due to one bad inning. Although they didn?t look great overall this weekend (blowing scoring opportunities, loading the bases, confounding pitching at times), the Orioles are still in a fairly strong position and still control their destiny. I?ve got a feeling they still make the playoffs; however, they will probably face Oakland out west in the wild card game.

>>> Read More

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LIVE: TCB Podcast Episode 58 - Matt Dominguez Is
A Beast

post from The Crawfish Boxes on 16 September 2012 09:01:16 PM. © The Crawfish Boxes

Podcast Start Time 7:05 p.m. CT

Hosts: Tim De Block, David Coleman, Sean Feist and Brooks Parker

Houston Astros Topics:

Managerial search including: Bo Parter, Dave Martinez, Larry Bowa, Tony DeFrancesco, Tim Bogar and Brad Ausmus
Matt Dominguez up for TCB boiling pot honors this week
Minor League playoffs including Lancaster JetHawks and Tri-City ValleyCats
Player development contracts with Astros affliates
And for the third week in a row bringing up Delino DeShields because he's awesome.

Let us know if there's anyone you would like to see the Astros interview for the managerial position.

The archived show can be found at: http://www.mixlr.com/crawfishboxes/showreel

Intro music by Alan Read.

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If you have any comments or questions in regards to the podcast you can email the show at SBN.crawfishboxes@gmail.com. If you have a question please be sure to include your name and where you're from. Also big thanks to those of you that have rated us on iTunes we really appreciate the feedback.

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Vogelsong Losing Grip on Postseason Spot

post from The Giants Baseball Blog- A San Francisco Giants Blog and Fan Website on 16 September 2012 08:01:13 PM. © The Giants Baseball Blog- A San Francisco Giants Blog and Fan Website

The Giants kicked off this road trip in exceptional fashion, sweeping the Rockies in Colorado before taking the first two in Arizona. Things didn't go so well in the trip's finale though.

After a really exceptional game on Saturday night, the Giants couldn't carry it over to Sunday's get away game vs. the D-Backs. Ryan Vogelsong's struggles carried into a 7th consecutive start, as the right-hander managed to strike out 5 of the first 6 outs he recorded, but his pitch count again hiked up over 60 by the third inning and finished up at 88 in 3.1 innings. Again, the 33 year-old again hit a wall right around the 50-60 pitch plateau and it's been the same thing that's been haunting him in his recent starts. He looks crisp to start games, with his fastball in the low-90's with movement, but after he gets into his stretch, it's a whole other story. His ERA is now up over 10 in his last 7 starts, and it this point, with only a couple starts left in the regular season, the Giants may be asking themselves if he's worthy of a postseason roster spot. I never thought I'd be saying it, but with the way Zito has thrown in September, and the way he's come through in big games for San Francisco this year, he may have the upper hand at being that 4th starter should the Giants reach postseason. I mean, just look at the last two games, were we saw Zito shut down the D-Backs and out-duel Wade Miley, compared to the way Vogey struggled vs. the very same lineup the following day. These last few starts will be telling, but I don't think you can ask Vogelsong to take the ball in a playoff game with the way things have been going for him.

Despite not being able to get Vogey back on track, Bruce Bochy has to be pleased with the 5-1 roadie. The Giants didn't get Xavier Nady back in time for the Arizona series, but it didn't really matter, as the offense just continues to step up in big situations. They got one real big swing off the bat of Hunter Pence in the opener Friday night, a grand slam that was part of a 2-3 effort from the Giants new right fielder. I know he hasn't hit for quite the average we were hoping for after the trade, but there hasn't been a better Giant at getting runners in from scoring position than Pence since he dawned the Orange and Black. In Saturday's game, it was Buster Posey who came up with the big two-run jack to put the Giants ahead, and we all know what happened after that. Game two ended up being one of the better games I've watched in a while, as both Zito and Miley where on their games and pitching beautifully, and it took a near perfect effort in all areas by the Giants to pull that one out. They got the big hit from Posey, the excellent start out of Zito and some terrific defense down the the final out. No, they weren't able to get Vogelsong back on track this trip, but just about everything else went the Giants' way.

Now, with their lead in the West at 7.5 games, the Giants embark on their final home stand of the regular season, and I know San Francisco fans are hoping they can celebrate a division win at AT&T Park. They'll have a pretty good shot at doing it too, as they get the Rockies for four, the Padres for three then the D-Backs again for three. Despite their loss, the 'magic number' in the West fell another game Sunday, thanks to St. Louis beating LA, so if LA keeps tumbling and the Giants keep surging, they could have this thing locked up by next weekend.

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Open Thread 9/16: Nationals at Braves

post from Talking Chop on 16 September 2012 08:01:12 PM. © Talking Chop

Atlanta goes for the sweep of Washington at 8:05 PM ET on ESPN Sunday night baseball. Gio Gonzalez takes on Mike Minor. Braves lineup:

Just an off day for Martin Prado, while Brian McCann is available to pinch-hit but not catch.

Atlanta goes for the sweep of Washington at 8:05 PM ET on ESPN Sunday night baseball. Gio Gonzalez takes on Mike Minor. Braves lineup:

Just an off day for Martin Prado, while Brian McCann is available to pinch-hit but not catch.

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Fish Cap: Miami Marlins 4, Cincinnati Reds 5 (11)

MIAMI, FL - SEPTEMBER 16: Chris Heisey #28 of the Cincinnati Reds ducks his head to avoid a tag from Carlos Lee (L) of the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park on September 16, 2012 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Jason Arnold/Getty Images)

Source: FanGraphs

Attendance: 24,983

Hero Of The Game: Jose Reyes (.238 WPA)

Goat Of The Game: Carlos Zambrano (-.320 WPA)

Play Of The Game: With a runner on second and two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Jose Reyes doubled which allowed Austin Kearns to score and tied the game at 4. (.333 WPA)

Trying to win three games in a row for the first time since the beginning of July, the Marlins battled back to tie the game before Carlos Zambrano gave up the go ahead run in the eleventh, as Miami was unable to win game three of the series.

Cincinnati got on the board first against Ricky Nolasco in the top of the second. Todd Frazier and Dioner Navarro both singled, setting the Reds up with runners on first and third with one out. Didi Gregorious then singled to right field to give the Reds an early one run lead.

Reds starter Mat Latos and Nolasco had both settled in, until the Reds scored another run in the fourth. Navarro and Gregorious both singled to begin the inning, and following a Latos sacrifice bunt, second baseman Brandon Phillips hit a ground ball to third base that allowed Navarro to score and gave the Reds a 2-0 lead.

Offensively, Miami was able to cross the plate twice against Latos in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs, Giancarlo Stanton and Carlos Lee both walked before third baseman Greg Dobbs hit a ball well to right field for a triple that tied the game at two.

Cincinnati continued to add on against Nolasco, as they put up another run in the fifth. Navarro singled to center field to allow Joey Votto to score, giving the Reds another one run lead.

Nolasco went five innings and gave up ten hits and three runs while striking out four and not issuing any walks.

Ryan Webb replaced Nolasco in the sixth, and gave up a run to a Reds lineup that for some time consistently scored runs without Joey Votto. Brandon Phillips singled and stole a base with one out, and two batters later, Ryan Ludwick singled to give the Reds a two run advantage.

Miami, despite being shut down by Latos throughout the early innings, was able to tie the game after scoring a run in the bottom of the seventh and eighth. Carlos Lee doubled and scored on a ground ball off the bat of Donovan Solano in the seventh, and Austin Kearns singled and scored on a Jose Reyes double in the eighth to tie the game at four and chase Latos out of the game.

After Webb, Miami's bullpen kept the Marlins in the game, as Daniel Jennings, A.J. Ramos, and Chad Gaudin, Mike Dunn, and Steve Cishek all pitched well in relief.

Carlos Zambrano entered the game to pitch the 11^th, and got into some trouble. Chris Heisey led off the inning with a single, and Zambrano subsequently walked Joey Votto. Ryan Ludwick then singled to give the Reds a 5-4 lead.

Jonathan Broxton worked around a two out walk to Donovan Solano and shut the Marlins down in the bottom of the 11^th, allowing the Reds to salvage a game of the three game series.

The Marlins will look to bounce back on Monday when they play the first of three games against the Braves at Marlins Park.