MLB 2015 Season

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Nine innings weren't enough for the Astros and Tigers to settle their differences. So in 11 innings, the Tigers won 6-5 against my Astros. We failed thanks to a walk-off jack by James McCann of the Tigers. The series continues tomorrow night. Who knows? This COULD be an ALCS preview if both teams make the playoffs and advance this far.


Congratulations to all other winners from Thursday up to and beyond the time of this post.
 
I just wanted to make light of two different feats for this post.

* The LAD at SF series ended up with San Francisco taking all three games in the series by blanking the Dodgers in all three games. San Francisco outscored the Dodgers by the same margin Matt Cain beat my Astros in a Perfect Game years ago- 10-0. It was 2-0 (Tuesday), 4-0 (Wednesday), and 4-0 (today) that San Francisco beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in this series. I would imagine it isn't often a series sweep is done with a shutout in all games in the sweep.

* I read that Jacob deGrom for the New York Mets retired 23 straight batters and struck out 11 in today's game against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Mets split the series against the Cardinals with their 5-0 win today. Nice job of pitching by deGrom.

Just wanted to mention these things from today's/tonight's action.
 
Brewers P Will Smith got ejected after throwing four pitches in a relief effort for a foreign substance on his arm. The Brewers lost to the Braves in a 10-1 blowout. At the time of Smith's ejection, it was a 2-1 game.
 
The Astros have failed in back-to-back games. 6-2 was the score as the Detroit Tigers win again at home.


Congratulations to Friday's other winners. Too bad my Astros aren't among today's/tonight's winners.
 
At least the 'stros haven't dropped 6 in a row like the Redlegs. Our pitching has been horrendous. And next to no hitting.
 
It really doesn't help that the two best assets that the Reds have (Cueto and Chapman) are often in the trade talks. I think they should keep them if possible and trade them now if they won't keep them on the roster next year.

As for the Tigers, that game could have gone either way until the Bullpen of the Astros gave up 3 runs. I was shocked that the Tigers' bullpen didn't allow a run.
 
It was 3-2 in Detroit as my Houston Astros got themselves a win. So we're playing in MoTown for either a series split or a lost series. Sweep avoided. The cool thing for the Astros was that we pulled our first Triple Play since 2004. It came late in the game as the Astros were leading 3-2. *cue Charlie Sheen* WINNING for the Astros was Lance McCullers with a Save from Luke Gregerson (his 11th). The losing pitcher for the Detroit Tigers was Kyle Lobstein.


Elsewhere...

* The other Texas team had themselves some fun at the expense of the New York Yankees. A 10-run 3rd(?) inning was the key in Texas running away and running over the Yanks 15-4. The visiting Rangers' winner was Nick Martinez, and the NYY loser was C.C. Sabathia.

* Blitz24's New York Mets fared... somewhat less well. The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the visiting Mets 8-2. A.J. Burnett picked up the win for the black and yellow boys while the blue and orange boys saw Matt Harvey took the loss.

* At lovely Progressive Field in Cleveland, Buckeye State pride was on the line when Ohio's two Major League Baseball teams clashed. Dolph Drago's Cincinnati Reds failed today 2-1 at Cleveland, but the Reds had a very cool Double Play where pulling the double involved this slick almost sidearm toss to throw out an Indian at 2nd Base. It's still a sad day for Reds Nation. Or for some, yet another sad day for Reds Nation.

* The Philadelphia Phillies went out to Washington, D.C. and hammered the Nationals 8-1. Cole Hamels won for Philadehlpia while Stephen Strasburg took the loss for the Washington Nationals.


Congratulations to all other winners up to and beyond the time of this post from Saturday's games.
 
AnthonyD1993
It really doesn't help that the two best assets that the Reds have (Cueto and Chapman) are often in the trade talks. I think they should keep them if possible and trade them now if they won't keep them on the roster next year.
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This could be true. As professional as these guys are, I can't help but think it isn't distracting hearing about trade talks. They know it's going to happen sooner or later. I do think that we will have them until at least through the All Star Break, if anything just so they can still be Reds during our hosting of the game. It's just unfortunate that our team is in such shambles the year we do get to host it. Oh well.
JohnBM01
* At lovely Progressive Field in Cleveland, Buckeye State pride was on the line when Ohio's two Major League Baseball teams clashed. Dolph Drago's Cincinnati Reds failed today 2-1 at Cleveland, but the Reds had a very cool Double Play where pulling the double involved this slick almost sidearm toss to throw out an Indian at 2nd Base. It's still a sad day for Reds Nation. Or for some, yet another sad day for Reds Nation.
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Yep, another sad day. At least our pitching was solid this game (bullpen giving up the go ahead run aside, per the usual). Losing skid now at 7 games...
 
JohnBM01
* The other Texas team had themselves some fun at the expense of the New York Yankees. A 10-run 3rd(?) inning was the key in Texas running away and running over the Yanks 15-4. The visiting Rangers' winner was Nick Martinez, and the NYY loser was C.C. Sabathia.
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It was a 10 run 3rd, a 3 run 6th, and a 2 run 7th. That was the Rangers's scoring yesterday. However, most of our starters was pulled by the 7th, but it was still respectable that the Yankees still got four on the board.
 
It's cool that we play on the day of the Indy 500 in Detroit. Both the Astros and Tigers were all revved up today. In an offensive shootout, we managed to survive today with a 10-8 victory at AnthonyD1993's Detroit Tigers. I say "survive" because the Astros led 10-7 heading into the Bottom of the 9th. A big key for the Astros was in Preston Tucker hitting a three-run jack in the Top of the 6th to tie the game at 7. Three more runs for Houston followed by one more for Detroit completes the story. So we split this four-game series with the win. Houston's winner was Joe Thatcher along with another save from Luke Gregerson. The loser was Alex Wilson.

Up next for the Houston Astros Baseball Club... we'll try and entertain the Baltimore Orioles at in Baltimore. So we go from Midwest to Mid-Atlanic. 'Stros 'n O's.


Congratulations to Sunday's other winners.
 
Happy Memorial Day, everyone. Heading into today's and tonight's games, here is a standings update. How is your team doing so far? Find out here (Source: Yahoo! Sports):


--- AMERICAN LEAGUE ---
AL EAST: Tampa Bay (24-21), NYY (22-22), BOS (21-23), BAL (19-22), TOR (20-26)
AL CENTRAL: Kansas City (28-15), MIN (25-18), DET (26-19), CLE (20-23), CHW (19-22)
AL WEST: Houston (29-16), LAA (22-22), TEX (21-23), SEA (20-23), OAK (16-30)

--- NATIONAL LEAGUE ---
NL EAST: Washington (26-18), NYM (24-21), ATL (22-21), PHI (19-27), MIA (18-27)
NL CENTRAL: St. Louis (28-16), CHC (24-19), PIT (21-22), CIN (18-25), MIL (16-29)
NL WEST: Los Angeles Dodgers (26-17), SF (25-20), ARI (21-22), SD (21-24), COL (17-25)

--- OTHER OBSERVATIONS ---
Win Percentage...
...Best Win Percentage: Kansas City (.651)
...Worst Win Percentage: Oakland (.348)

Records...
...Best Home: Los Angeles Dodgers (19-6)
...Best Away: Houston (14-6)
...Worst Home: Oakland (5-14)
...Worst Aaway: Philadelphia (7-17)

Streaks...
...Longest Winning: Cleveland (6 straight wins)
...Longest Losing: Cincinnati (8 straight losses)

Current 10 Game Stretch...
...Best 10-Game Stretch: Cleveland, Washington, and San Francisco (8-2 each)
...Worst 10-Game Stretch: New York Yankees (1-9)


Having said this... good luck to all of your teams as the season continues.
 
Yankees rocked Kansas City pitching for 11 runs in one complete inning of work. This breaks them out of their two week slump, and it marks the second time in MLB history that a starting pitcher to give up that many in one complete inning of work, and it also marks the eighth time in history that a pitcher gave up four homers before recording four outs.

In case you were wondering, here is the Yankees' first sixteen at bats, and the result:

  1. Brett Gardner - Double
  2. Chase Headley - 2 run HR
  3. Alex Rodriguez - Single
  4. Mark Teixeira - Walk
  5. Brian McCann - 3 run HR
  6. Garrett Jones - Fly out
  7. Stephen Drew - Groundout
  8. Didi Gregorius - Hit by Pitch
  9. Slade Heathcott - Single
  10. Brett Gardner - 3 run HR
  11. Chase Headley - Infield Single
  12. Alex Rodriguez - Walk
  13. Mark Teixeira - Strikeout
  14. Brian McCann - Walk
  15. Garrett Jones - Single
  16. Stephen Drew - 3 run HR
 
Here's a situation for the ages:

Craig Kimbrel on the mound in the bottom of the ninth in a tied game. Runners on first and third, two outs. Do you face Trout or walk him and face Pujols?
 
Mets forgot how to baseball this weekend. Pitching went away and they were swinging at everything you had to think they were desperate individuals at a singles bar.

Even more bad news. Third baseman David Wright has been diagnosed with spinal stenosis. If found to be true then not only is his season over but his career could be as well. Only the Mets could have a hamstring injury end up being diagnosed as a career ending ailment.
 
Schwartz
Here's a situation for the ages:

Craig Kimbrel on the mound in the bottom of the ninth in a tied game. Runners on first and third, two outs. Do you face Trout or walk him and face Pujols?
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Trout has youth on his side, so I would rather face Trout than face Pujols. I can imagine that either scenario is going to turn out bad. Here is Pujols's career vs Kimbrel:

Albert Pujols vs Kimbrel (Career)
4 for 5 with 3 singles, 1 Double, 3 RBI and 1 Strikeout. That translates to a .600 Batting Average, .600 On Base Percentage and .800 Slugging percentage.
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Here is Mike Trout's career vs. Kimbrel:

Mike Trout vs Kimbrel (career)
1 IBB
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Random Baseball Video for your upcoming Wednesday:

July 3rd, 2014 was the date that Toronto played Oakland in this bizarre game. Top 2nd with the bases loaded, a seemingly simple line drive to first base lead to a 3-2 double play. However one minor detail let slip everyone's attention except Toronto's manager. He noticed that the first baseman also tagged out the runner at first, thus removing the force at home, at least that's the theory anyway...

 
It happened! The Reds won a game! Skip Schumaker came off the bench and hit a walkoff double to bring in the winning run in the bottom of the 9th, giving the Reds a 2-1 victory against the Rockies tonight. Interestingly enough, it was Marlon Byrd who crossed the plate for both of our runs in the game. Michael Lorenzen pitched an excellent game, though did not come out of it with a decision. Still, it was nice to see us finally win a game again after failing 9 straight times.
 
I didn't follow last night's contest in Baltimore basically because I was sucked into playing "Elliot Quest" on my OUYA and not looking up Yahoo! Sports for any game updates. Anyhow, Astros got themselves their pearl (30th) win of the season with a 4-1 victory. An early run by Baltimore resulted in Houston scoring four unanswered runs to make today's game a Rubber Game in this series. It was Scott Feldman who picked up the win along with a Luke Gregerson getting himself another Save. The loser for Baltimore was Chris Tillman.

I'll be sure to chime in on who wins this Rubber Game of HOU at BAL in a later post.


As of this post, Texas is getting OWNED in Cleveland- currently 12-1 in the Bottom of the 7th for Sanji Himura's Texas Rangers. Also getting hammered are the Cincinnati Reds, currently losing 6-1 in the Middle of the 7th in Cincinnati to the visiting Colorado Rockies.
 
JohnBM01
As of this post, Texas is getting OWNED in Cleveland- currently 12-1 in the Bottom of the 7th for Sanji Himura's Texas Rangers.
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Again, I stressed this in my pre-season expectations post, this would be a rebuilding year. To be honest though, Jon Daniels should give some serious thought about getting rid of Josh Hamilton again. His stat line yesterday:

Josh Hamilton
1 for 4 with a single
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Mets finish off sweep of Philadelphia with a 7-0 win today. Normally Lucas Duda hitting 2 HR would be the main story but it's not. Not even close today. Mets P Noah Syndergaard went 7.1 IP, 6 K and 6 H. He also hit 3 for 3, one of which was a HR. The first Mets P to hit a HR since May 29th, 2012, when Jeremy Hefner went yard vs. the Phillies as well.
 
Plenty of offense for the Astros, but not enough to win. So we failed 5-4 and lost our series at the Baltimore Orioles. We outhit the O's 11-10. Chris Davis went yard twice to put the Astros away. Brad Brach was the BAL winner including a save from Zach Britton. The loser for Houston was Tony Sipp.

Up next... after a day off tomorrow, we'll be hosting our 2005 World Series champions- the Chicago White Sox- for a three-game set in Houston- the Chicago White Sox. Let's hope none of the games last six or eight hours like that one World Series game here in Houston. I am also hoping everything will be okay considering the rough weather in Houston recently.


Congratulations to all other winners from Wednesday. From the games I mentioned in my last post, it was a 12-3 win for Cleveland over Texas in Cleveland, and 6-4 Colorado beating the Cincinnati Reds in Cincy.
 
No Astros baseball today. However last night, I saw a highlight video showing off all of Jose Altuve's 214 hits from the 2014 season. I am so compelled that 5'5" Jose Altuve plays bigger than his short size. It is great seeing a fellow like Altuve play hard and make solid contributions to his team. The 214 number? Yeah- it's significant because it is the record for the most number of hits by an Astro in franchise history. This was when Altuve passed Craig Biggio for most hits in a season in franchise history. This boy can play.

The 2015 Houston Astros still surprise me. People still wonder how long my Astros can sustain this great form. Is this team for real? Or are the Astros Cinderella before Midnight strikes? For now, they are currently 30-18 on the season and lead the AL West by 6 games over Seattle (who are 23-23 currently).


If you wish to assess your team, you're free to do so. Otherwise, congratulations to Thursday's winners up to and beyond the time of this post.
 
Sanji Himura
Trout has youth on his side, so I would rather face Trout than face Pujols. I can imagine that either scenario is going to turn out bad.
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It's a wonder why he faced Pujols when Pujols has those statistics off him.
 
We couldn't handle our business hosting the White Sox tonight in nine innings, so we went into extras. The Astros ran out of gas and offense after the Chicago White Sox hung three insurance runs on Houston to win 6-3 in 11 innings. Dan Jennings and a David Robertson Save made up the winning combo for CHW. HOU's losing pitcher was Josh Fields.


We failed, but congratulations to all who DIDN'T fail tonight. That includes the Reds picking up a nice win at home against the visiting Washington Nationals and Colorado winning in Philadelphia even though their no-hitter bid was broken up.
 
Weather is terrible here in the Houston/Galveston area. However, it was a sunny day for the Astros as we won 3-0 hosting the Chicago White Sox. Dallas Keuchel went the the distance striking out 11 White Sox in the complete game shutout. He got the win for HOU. Jose Quintana was the losing CHW pitcher. Rubber Game tomorrow here in H-Town.

And in case you don't know, "Keuchel" is pronounced like "kai-kuhl."


Elsewhere...

* Also winning 3-0 was Tampa Bay in Baltimore. Erasmo Ramirez was the TB winner as Brad Boxberger got the Save for the Rays. The loser for the Orioles was Wei-Yin Chen.

* Omnis' Miami Marlins drowned Blitz24's New York Mets 9-5 at Citi Field. Not a good Saturday afternoon in Flushing as the Marlins took care of business for a second time in this series. They could sweep if the Mets fail tomorrow. Mike Dunn won along with a Save from A.J. Ramos. Hansel Robles took the loss.

* R1600Turbo's Arizona Diamondbacks sobered up and beat up the Milwaukee Brewers 7-3 today in Milwaukee. The Brew Crew are stuck on 16 wins- the worst record in the league at 16-34. Part of the overall damage Arizona put on Milwaukee was because of two jacks by Paul Goldschmidt. Goldy went platinum for the D-Backs in this game. The Snakes won with Jeremy Hellickson and a Save from Randall Delgado. For the losing MIL Brewers, it was Kyle Lohse who took the loss.

* It's back-to-back wins for Dolph Drago's Cincinnati Reds as they won 8-5 against the Washington Nationals. As Stephen Strasburg was put on the disabled list for the Nats, the offense worked just fine as J.J. Hoover picked up the win along with a Save from Aroldis Chapman. The Reds are assured at least a series win. A sweep would be huge for Cincy. Losing for the Nationals was Casey Janssen.


Congratulations to all other winners from Saturday.
 
Man. We must have ticked off the Chicago White Sox after winning 3-0 yesterday, because the White Sox hammered my Houston Astros 6-0 today here in Houston. The White Sox took this series while the Astros failed to score. So the White Sox will leave Houston with a series win. A fellow John, John Danks- was the CHW winning pitcher. It was Roberto Hernandez who took the loss for HOU. Today's fail by the Astros was the 20th loss of the season as we are now 31-20 on the season.

Up next... our home stand continues as we host the Baltimore Orioles pay a visit to Minute Maid Park for a four-game series. Every game except the series finale will be at 8:10 PM EDT.


Congratulations to all winners up and beyond the time of this post, even including whomever wins the Sunday Night game between Detroit at the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. And among the winners... Blitz24's Mets taking down the Miami Marlins at home and Dolph Drago's Reds sweeping the Washington Nationals in Cincinnati.
 
Not sure what got into the Reds this series. How exactly do you lose 9 in a row, win a game, lose one, then sweep a division leading team??
 

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