Toronto-Tampa Bay series being played at Disney Sports Complex in Orlando http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/story.html?id=ee79e3d7-00e9-48e4-b519-5ef9434b5acb&k=22851 Florida native Jesse Litsch will seek his third win of 2008 on "home" turf tonight when the Toronto Blue Jays visit the Tampa Bay Rays in the first game of a special three-game midweek series at the Disney Sports Complex in Orlando. The Rays, who are based in St. Petersburg, hosted a similar series with the Texas Rangers at Disney last season and won all three games.
back to back nights Red Sox starters is a late scratch. Last night was Beckett and tonight Daisuke gets scratched 2 hours before game.
Dodgers score 10 in first inning off Redman and Rockies leave him in! Now in 7th and they haven't managed another run off him. 5 shutout innings after that. But he's over 100 pitches now so that's probably his last. Mark Redman pitching: Rafael Furcal: Strike looking, Ball, Ball, Foul, Furcal grounded out to shortstop. Juan Pierre: Ball, Foul, Foul, Foul, Pierre singled to center. Matt Kemp: Strike looking, Strike looking, Ball, Pierre to second on wild pitch, Ball, Pierre stole third, Kemp hit sacrifice fly to center, Pierre scored. Jeff Kent: Kent singled to right. Russell Martin: Ball, Ball, Ball, Martin walked, Kent to second. James Loney: Strike looking, Ball, Ball, Ball, Strike looking, Loney walked, Kent to third, Martin to second. Andruw Jones: Strike looking, Ball, Ball, Strike looking, Ball, Jones walked, Kent scored, Martin to third, Loney to second. Blake Dewitt: Foul, Strike looking, Dewitt singled to left, Martin and Loney scored, Jones to second. Brad Penny: Penny singled to center, Jones scored, Dewitt to second. Rafael Furcal: Strike looking, Furcal doubled to deep right, Dewitt scored, Penny to third. Juan Pierre: Strike looking, Ball, Strike swinging, Pierre hit by pitch. Matt Kemp: Kemp homered to center, Penny, Furcal and Pierre scored. Jeff Kent: Ball, Kent grounded out to second. End of Inning (10 Runs, 6 Hits, 0 Errors)
every dodger scored in the first inning! You know, I shouldn't be surprised. Hurdle is infamous for doing this to pitchers. He doesn't want to waste bullpen arms so he lets guys get torched. When I went to Coors Field last season to watch Colorado-Pittsburgh, Hurdle did this to Fogg. The fans were screaming for Fogg to get yanked and Hurdle allowed Pitt to continue to tee off on him.
in other stupid moves that carried over to this season, we have Chris Young still leading off for the D-Backs. Career OBP of .303 and generally a poor hitter aside from his big power. Sounds like a guy you'd bat 6th or 7th. Since he has speed, though, he must lead off. Last year he had 32 homers and 68 RBI. This year he has 6 and 13. Wonder why? There's no one on base when he goes deep (and he doesn't have many non-homer RBI because he's a lousy hitter). It doesn't really get much dumber than to bat a guy with no plate discipline and big power leadoff. I guess if Dave Kingman had speed, Melvin would've batted him leadoff.
I just mentioned Dave Kingman as the stereotypical guy. Funny thing is, Young's average and OBP match up to Kingman's career numbers very well. Nice.
A career OBP of .303. In one whole season+. Your "no plate discipline" comment is flat out wrong. The guy has posted strong OBP numbers throughout his minor league career and is walking alot this year. His OBP is .339 despite only hitting .224. I'm glad that you've determined that a 24 year old is a poor hitter outside his power because he's been hitting .200 for a month.
As it seemed over the weekend, Smoltz's shoulder is hurt - he's been put on the DL ("a severely inflamed biceps tendon and inflammation of the rotator cuff in the right shoulder").
My point is he shouldn't be leading off. 205 career games. .303 OBP. You figure it out. And if we're going by "one who season", it was .295. He led off for an entire season and got on base 29.5% of the time. It's not smart to lead off a guy who doesn't get on base. Maybe he'll eventually develop into a guy that gets on base, and then he'll be a good leadoff hitter.
biggest surprise in baseball may be how awful Bronson Arroyo has been. Remember when it was considered a steal for the Reds? He's now 1-4 with an ERA of almost 9. He's been tatooed in basically every start. Worse than Barry Zito. Maybe time for the pen for him too.
something that carried over from the second half of 2007: Eric Gagne being awful. 9 saves, 5 blown saves, 6.14 ERA. He had actually strung together a few decent performances before imploding again. He lugged out his gascan against the Astros and set the infield on fire. That included walking a run home. Brewers lose in 12 after Hunter Pence (0/5 to that point) hit a 2 run walkoff.
Braden Looper tonight (in Coors Field): 2/2 with a double, a run, and an RBI. Cards knock out Redman and lead 5-1 after 3.
Mauer doubles to break up the no hitter. Floyd promptly pulled, because he was only in there that long because of the no hitter.
