Friday, July 5, 2013

TGIF - Friday, July 5th, 2013


It’s Friday. TGIF.  Hope you all enjoyed your Fourth of July holiday.

Let’s start today with MLB baseball and the Marlins.  The Fish continue to play good baseball, and are now 12-5 in their last 17 games.  Yesterday, they erased a 3-0 first-inning deficit and came back to beat the first-place Braves and their all-star closer Craig Kimbrel with a ninth-inning run, 4-3.  Donovan Solano returned from the minors and came through with a pinch-hit run-scoring single against Kimbrel to seal the win and take two of three from Atlanta.  It doesn’t get any easier for the Fish, who are now in St. Louis where they will take on the Cardinals in a three-game set this weekend.  The pitching matchups in this series:

FRIDAY Jason Turner vs Jake Westbrook 7:15 pm
SATURDAY Nathan Eovaldi vs Joe Kelly 1:15 pm
SUNDAY Jose Fernandez vs Lance Lynn 1:15 pm 

After the series in St. Louis, the Marlins will return home to take on the Braves again for three-games, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  

The Fish are still the worst run-scoring team in MLB, with 276 runs in their 84 games.  Here are the rest of the bottom-dwellers:

TEAM                W-L       Runs
Marlins 32-52 276
White Sox 34-48 308
Nationals 43-42 314
Mariners 37-48 314
Dodgers 40-44 317

In the major leagues yesterday, in the American League,

White Sox 3 Orioles 2
Adam Dunn ended the game with a homer in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Rays 7 Astros 5 (11 innings)
Yunel Escobar drove in three runs, including the go-ahead score in the top of the 11th inning.  The Rays have won five of six.

Royals 10 Indians  7
The Royals overcame a 5-0 deficit, the go-ahead runs came in on a three-run double by Salvador Perez.

Yankees 9 Twins 5
Vernon Wells drove in three runs to lead the Yankees as they swept a four-game series from the Twins.

Tigers 11 Blue Jays  1
Justin Verlander threw seven shutout innings and Austin Jackson went 4-5, including a homer, with three RBI and four runs scored.  
Torii Hunter drove in three runs in the win.

Red Sox 8 Padres 2
Allen Webster earned his first major league victory.  Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz drove in a pair of runs each while Brandon Snyder and Jacoby Ellsbury connected long distance.

A’s 1 Cubs 0
Dan Straily threw seven innings of one-hit ball, striking out six.

Rangers 5 Mariners 4
Adrian Beltre went 3-4 with two homers.  

Angels 5 Cardinals 5
Josh Hamilton blasted a two-run homer to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth and Erick Aybar later drove in the game winner with a single.  Edward Mujica blew his first save of the year for the Cardinals after converting on his first 21 opportunities of the season.

Over in the National League,

Nationals 8 Brewers 5
Wilson Ramos drove in five runs, including a three-run tie-breaking homer in the seventh inning.

Phillies 6 Pirates 4
The Phils scored four runs in the sixth inning, the last two on a Carlos Ruiz single.  Ben Revere went 3-5 and also drove in a pair of runs.

D-Backs 5 Mets 4 (15 innings)
Cliff Pennington was the hero, with a run-scoring single in the top of the 15th inning.   The Mets tied the game with runs in the 13th and 14th innings, but ran out of miracles.

Rockies 9 Dodgers 5
Michael Cuddyer homered and drove in three runs.

The game between the Giants and the Reds was postponed because of rain.

Today’s games, first, in the American League,

Orioles @ Yankees 7:05 pm
Miguel Gonzalez vs Ivan Nova

Tigers @ Indians 7:05 pm
Rick Porcello vs Justin Masterson

Twins @ Blue Jays 7:07 pm
Kevin Correia  vs Mark Buehrle

White Sox @ Rays 7:10 pm
Dylan Axelrod vs Jeremy Hellickson

Astros @ Rangers 8:05 pm
Lucas Harrell vs Nick Tepesch

A’s @ Royals 8:10 pm
Tommy Milone vs Wade Davis

Red Sox @ LA Angels 10:05 pm
Felix Doubront vs CH Wilson

Over in the National League,

Pirates @ Cubs 4:05 pm
Francisco Liriano vs Jeff Samardzija

Mariners @ Reds 7:10 pm
Aaron Harang vs Mike Leake

Braves @ Phillies 7:05 pm
Tim Hudson vs Cliff Lee

Padres @ Nationals 7:05 pm
Andrew Cashner vs Gio Gonzalez

Mets @ Brewers 8:10 pm
Zack Wheeler vs Johnny Hellweg

Marlins @ Cardinals 8:15 pm
Jacob Turner vs Jake Westbrook

Rockies @ Diamondbacks 9:40 pm
Jorge de la Rosa vs Tyler Skaggs

Dodgers @ Giants 10:15 pm
Hyun-Jin Ryu vs Matt Cain

Nothing specific to report on the Ricky Nolasco trade front, but after his win over the Braves on Wednesday, his value may have gone up.  His next start is scheduled for Monday.  We’ll see what happens between now and then.  Here are all the rumors from ESPN.com:


Alex Rodriguez says he is not ready to quit on the Yankees.  Here’s the full story:


Derek Jeter thinks he is close to being cleared to begin his rehab assigment:


Buster Olney has his trade deadline previews in each league:

American League:


National League:


Here are the up-to-the-minute standings in MLB:


Here are the individual league leaders in MLB:


TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION:  Homer Bailey threw his second no-hitter in less than a year for the Reds on Tuesday.  He becomes only the third Reds pitcher in history with multiple no-no’s.  Johnny Vandermeer was the first, and his two were the only consecutive no-hitters in the history of the game.  Who was the other Reds pitcher to throw two-no-hitters?  Tell you later, alligator.   

The favorites in the pursuit of Dwight Howard include the Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, the Lakers, and now, we see that the Golden State Warriors are stepping up in their chase for the all-pro center.  Brian Windhorst of ESPN has the details:


The Lakers are preparing themselves for the reality that Howard will leave.  Marc Stein and Ramona Shelbourne from ESPNLA.com have more:


Howard has been saying all along that he wants to reach a decision by today.  Based on his past history, no way he doesn’t change his mind three or four times before tomorrow.

The Heat are listed as one of the finalists in the race to sign former #1 draft pick Greg Oden.


Bad news for the Heat and forward Udonis Haslem.  The Heat’s spiritual leader played most of the second half of the season with a torn meniscus in his right knee and will undergo surgery very soon.  The ten-year veteran expects to be ready for training camp.  I’m not going to be the one to doubt his word.


ESPN also has a rumor blog for the NBA.  CHeck it out here:


Aaron Hernandez is still in jail.  In case you missed this, I read this on the internet, so it must be true:  Hernandez is being questioned about the disappearance of Manti Teo’s imaginary girlfriend.

In what has become a yearly July 4th tradition, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut devoured 69 hot dogs in 10 minutes to break his own world record for disgusting. (I don’t know why it is even covered by ESPN) 


Over in Wimbledon, the women’s championship will be decided today between Marion Bartoli and Sabine Lisicki.  Here’s ESPN’s coverage:


Over in the men’s side, the semi-finals are set and going on, even as we speak:


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I’m selling a little over three acres in the beautiful North Carolina mountains, overlooking the New River, a quick 35-minute drive from Boone and Blowing Rock.  Click here to see some photos and feel free to contact me if you have any questions: 


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

THE ANSWER TO TODAY’S TRIVIA QUESTION: Homer Bailey threw his second no-hitter in less than a year for the Reds on Wednesday.  He becomes only the third Reds pitcher in history with multiple no-no’s.  Johnny Vandermeer was the first, and his two were the only consecutive no-hitters in the history of the game.  Who was the other Reds pitcher to throw two-no-hitters? 

Jim Maloney threw his first no-hitter with the Reds on August 19, 1965, a 1-0, 10-inning win over the Chicago Cubs.  Maloney struck out 12 but also walked 10 in the game.  His second no-hitter was on April 30, 1969 against the Houston Astros, a game in which he struck out 13, and “only” walked five.  Incredibly enough, the next night, Don Wilson of the Astros no-hit the Reds.  

Don’t miss my two “Descarga Deportiva” radio segments (for the Spanish-challenged, “Sports Jam Session”) every day, Monday through Friday, at 9:25 am and 12:15 pm on Radio Esperanza, 1550 AM or on the internet on www.miradioesperanza.com

IF YOU OR ANYONE YOU KNOW WANT TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE ON MY RADIO SEGMENTS, PLEASE E-MAIL ME FOR ALL THE DETAILS - jerry@descargadeportiva.com

Behave yourselves, and always remember that tomorrow will bring us a brand new day.  Have a great weekend!! 

No comments:

Post a Comment