And That Happened

Mets 5, Phillies 0: It’s getting close to the time for us to break out all of that “we are all witnesses” kind of hyperbole for Matt Harvey. Not that it’s really hyperbole. He’s simply toying with hitters at this point, throwing ungodly stuff in just about every count. Seven innings, three hits, 10 strikeouts, no walks and if it wasn’t for the heat he wouldn’t have broken a sweat.

Brewers 1, Marlins 0: Caleb Gindel with the walkoff homer in the 13th. Not gonna lie: never heard of that dude before I clicked this box score. If you had asked me who Caleb Gindel was yesterday afternoon I would’ve guessed that he was lawful-good ranger in some D&D campaign involving some high school kids which has been going on for about a year or so. The kid who plays the ranger isn’t that into it, but he’s crushing hard on the girl who plays the halfling magic user so he plays every week. Sad part for poor Caleb is that no matter how much he tries to protect her, she’s really into the DM. You know, that kid who just got big into Society for Creative Anachronism and is making his own armor and stuff? And the worst part is, that kid sees all of this and tailors the campaign in such a way as to make Caleb look like a yutz at every turn. And he’s not even into the halfling! He’s just being a dick. All I’m saying is that it’s complicated. And that, um, I have no experience with anything like this whatsoever. Nope. Anyway: it’s now been 11 days since I’ve written an ATH in which I had to put a number next to the Marlins score. OK, that’s a bit misleading as they did score runs during the weekend before the All-Star break, but man, they are rolling 1s and 2s when attacking and are missing all of their saving throws.

Rays 4, Blue Jays 3: A three-game sweep for the Rays, whose roll was not disrupted by the All-Star break one bit. Homers for Luke Scott, Evan Longoria and Kelly Johnson. Tampa Bay has won 13 of 14 and now face the Red Sox with first place in the AL East on the line.

White Sox 3, Braves 1: Lots of leather here. Casper Wells robbed Reed Johnson of a homer in the eighth. Jeff Keppinger had a diving stop. Johnson smacked a liner that was snagged by Alexi Ramirez, who doubled off Brian McCann. Tons of missed chances and stranded runners for the Braves. Tons of nice plays for the Sox, who took two of three.

Pirates 3, Reds 2: Weird aggregate pitching lines: Pirates pitchers allowed only three hits but they walked seven. Meanwhile Homer Bailey struck out 12 in six and a third yet got the loss. It’s the last time the Reds and Pirates meet until September. They finish the year playing six of their last nine against each other.

Tigers 4, Royals 1: I watched Miguel Cabrera hit his first inning homer off James Shields. It’s cute how pitchers think they can bust him inside. But you know what? You really can’t. He just pulls his hands in and jacks that mother. There’s really no one like him in that regard in the game right now. Tigers avoid the sweep.

Dodgers 9, Nationals 2: Matt Kemp came back off the DL, kicked some butt, hitting a homer, a double and driving in three, got hurt on the base paths and my guess is that he’ll go back on the DL. I imagine 50 years from now they’ll be calling that “pulling a Matt Kemp.” Dodgers sweep the Nats.

Indians 7, Twins 1: Justin Masterson took a no-hitter into the seventh, having faced the minimum (his one baserunner was a hit batsman who was then caught stealing). A bloop single broke it up, but such is the way of the world.

Mariners 12, Astros 5: The M’s are hot, having won six in a row. Nick Franklin hit a grand slam and Felix Hernandez did Felix Hernandez things (6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 7K).

Cardinals 3, Padres 2: Adam Wainwright went eight innings and picked up his 13th win. I looked at the box score for this game and noticed that the lineup Mike Matheny used yesterday had OBPs of .399, .384, .376, .346, .359 in the 1-5 slots.

Athletics 6, Angels 0: Per ESPN: Bartolo Colon is the first pitcher over the age of 40 to have more than one shutout in a season since Randy Johnson did it in 2004. Per a Twitter search for “Bartlo Colon steroids” people on Twitter aren’t all that impressed. No matter: dude is on pace for 21 wins and 225 innings pitched.

Diamondbacks 3, Giants 1: The D-backs avoid the sweep—holding off an error-and-infield-single-driven would-be ninth inning rally by the Giants—and just barely hold on to their lead in the NL West.

Rockies 4, Cubs 3: Tyler Chatwood tossed six decent innings. Nolan Arenado drove in the go-ahead run on a sixth inning single and an insurance run scored on the same play via a throwing error.

Orioles 4 vs. Rangers 2: I talked to Chris Tillman for a bit at the All-Star Game. No other media member was talking to him. I asked him if he was cool with more or less being ignored. He said “Yep, that’s good for me. I like it that way just fine.” Here he allowed two runs in eight innings and got the win. And probably had to answer questions about that from the press, the poor sod.

Red Sox 8, Yankees 7: Mike Napoli with a walkoff homer in the 11th. It was bookended with his three-run shot in the third. The Yankees can take a moral victory away having scored seven runs, right? No? Eh, well, OK. But it was something seeing them score seven runs.