Indians 17, Rangers 7: Yesterday I mentioned that Lonnie Chisenhall was sorta having a nice year. Well, add on a 5 for 5 night with 3 home runs and 9 RBI onto that. This is the dude that the Indians decided needed to sit behind Carlos Santana at third base, by the way. First base, third base. Who cares? Just get his bat into the lineup all the time.
Orioles 4, Red Sox 0: Bud Norris allows only three hits in eight innings and the O’s got all of their runs on homers. The Sox have lost six of seven.
Mariners 3, Rays 0: David Price strikes out ten dudes but he could’ve struck out 18 and it wouldn’t have mattered given that he got no run support. That’s 13 of 14 in the loss column for Tampa Bay. The Mariners finish their little southeast road trip with a 6-1 record, including a win in a makeup game in New York. Of course, beating the Yankees, Braves and Rays isn’t a tall order these days.
Pirates 6, Cubs 2: Andrew McCutchen hit a homer and drove in three runs. The Cubs just had a sweet homestand but stink on ice on the road, so enjoy the next nine out of hotel rooms, Chicago.
Blue Jays 5, Twins 4: Edwin Encarnacion hit a three-run homer to give the Jays the lead for a while and then, after the Twins tied it up again, Kevin Pillar drove in the winning run in walkoff fashion. Kendrys Morales went 1 for 3 with a walk. Not bad for a guy who should be as rusty as a pre-oil-can Tin Man.
Dodgers 6, Reds 2: Have a game Scott Van Slyke. Two homers and four RBI for the Son of Andy. The key here, though, is that Yasiel Puig stayed healthy through the game. Im taking my kids to the getaway day game on Thursday afternoon and he has to be in that game or else it’s gonna be trouble. Or, at the very least, I’m going to have to convince the kids of Zack Greinke’s awesomeness. Whatever.
Editor’s Note: Hardball Talk’s partner FanDuel is hosting a one-day $35,000 Fantasy Baseball league for Tuesday night’s MLB games. It’s $25 to join and first prize is $6,000. Starts at 7:05pm ET on Tuesday. Here’s the FanDuel link.
Braves 3, Rockies 1: Six and two-thirds solid innings for Gavin Floyd and two RBI hits for Chris Johnson. Floyd has pitched pretty well for the Braves, but this was his first win. Which, given his layoff for surgery, means it was his first win in two years.
White Sox 6, Tigers 5: Adam Eaton, don’t ever change. Here’s what he said after this one:
“South Siders, we’re grinders. We’re going to try to do the little things right and grind games out. I think that was as close to a boxing match as you can get. Grinding it out, and I wouldn’t have a baseball game any other way. I think that’s how it’s supposed to be played.”
(a) he’s been a “South Sider” for 45 games and he’s from Springfield, Ohio; and (b) while he’s right about this being a boxing match, the big hit here was Jose Abreu’s two-run homer. I guess you can still call it “grinding,” but usually we refer to small ball and stuff as grinding, do we not? Oh well. He’s happy, so we’ll let it go.
Angels 4, Athletics 1: Garrett Richards allowed only one run over seven innings. But the most notable thing was a would-be Mike Trout homer being overturned into a double on replay and Mike Scioscia coming out to argue about it afterward, which you’re not supposed to do. His beef after the game was that the replay evidence was not definitive. Which, having watched it several times myself, I tend to agree. But it’s not like the umps on the field can do anything about it. They do what the man on the other end of the headphones tells them to.
Nationals 9, Giants 2: Five runs batted in for Ian Desmond, who had a single, two doubles and a triple. He swung for the fences on his final at bat in the ninth trying to get the cycle and then slammed his bat down when he flied out to left because of Nattitude, I presume.
Astros 4, Diamondbacks 3: Jose Altuve had three hits, including an RBI double, and Jarred Cosart pitched six solid innings. And Bo Porter did the old “put your pitcher in left field for one batter, then bring him back to face another batter” thing with Tony Sipp. After the game Kirk Gibson said it was all well and good unless someone had hit one to the pitcher. My life’s goal: to see this play happen, but with a two bouncer to the LF/P, who then fires a rocket home and guns down a runner. I mean, they have good arms by definition, right?
Yankees vs. Royals: POSTPONED: Last time I was here it was raining. It ain’t raining anymore. The streets were drowning, waters waning. All the ruins washed ashore. Now I’m just looking through the rubble. Trying to find out who we were. Last time I was here it was raining. It ain’t raining anymore.
