Tornados Tighten the Screws

Old Detroit: “L”, 4 – 3.  (.171, .262, .286;  12.7 ip, 4 er, 2.83 ERA). Going into the Mariners game last night, the W’s had a true win going on.  The hitting was mediocre, but Jameson Taillon put together 7 ip with 3 earned runs, only 1 of which was earned, and three relievers each contributed a scoreless inning.  Then JP Crawford put up Baseball Reference’s worst batting line – 0 for 5 with 2 strikeouts – and Logan Gilbert fell apart in the third inning for 2.7 ip, 3 er.  And the gate was left open for the Tornados to resume camping out in my front yard.

Crawford is now 0 for his last 16, and 1 for his last 26.  He joins Carlos Correa (0 for 10, 1 for 38) as once outstanding shortstops who may never get another hit.

Flint Hill: W, 13 – 4.  (51 PA, .289, .373, .711;  14.7 ip, 5 er, 3.06 ERA).  Tornado pitchers almost matched the Wolverines, with Nathan Eovaldi going 7.7 ip, with 2 er and 3 relievers combining for 3 ip and one more earned run.  But Carlos Rodon made up some ground by appearing to do better than Logan Gilbert:  4 ip, 2 er (plus 2 unearned runs). 

However, there’s no mistaking how much better the Tornado hitters were.  One of their shortstops, Bo Bichette, went 3 for 4 with a homer. Two of their outfielders (Teoscar Hernandexz and Austin Meadows) each hit two home runs. And the T’s gained a full half game, now trailing by only 1.5 games.

Peshastin:  W 1, L 1; 15 – 14.  (31 PA, .300, .323, .867;  2 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).  Saturday produced a Mariner at the very bottom of the Baseball Reference daily hitter list (Crawford)… and a Mariner at the very top:  Mitch Haniger, whe hit two homers and a double in 4 at-bats.  Three other Pears also homered (Ozzie Albies, Juan Soto, and Ryan Mountcastle).  

Unfortunately, the Pears took on 5 innings of replacement pitching yesterday, or they’d have made another significant advance toward first place.

DC: W, 5 – 1.  (44 PA, .256, .341, .359;  8 ip, 1 er, 1.13 ERA).  The Balk joined those gaining on the suddenly hapless Wolverines behind Jose Berrios’  7 strong innings, where the only two runs he allowed were unearned. Balkan hitters did pretty well, despite having their power limited to three doubles.  The  combination produced a 0.4-game advance toward the league leaders.

Kaline: “L”, 8 – 8.  (47 PA, .275, .383, .625;  no pitching).  The Drive got the pitching one expects from replacement players who are a daily lesson in the strengths and weaknesses of being consistently incompetent.  You know what to expect, at least.  Kaline hitters provided a lesson in the strengths of competence:  delightful, useful performances.  Like the home runs hit by Jesse Winker, Willson Contreras, Daulton Varsho, and Akeel Baddoo.  Treading water in runs-scored/runs-allowed cost the Drive 0.1 games in the standings.

Haviland:  L, 4 – 7. (39 PA, .263,  .256, .368; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).  Racking up some more replacement innings, with only Joe Barlow’s scoreless inning to slightly diminish the tide, the Dragons slid 0.4 games in the standings to end up outside the 10 games behind caution tape.  Joc Pederson went 4 for 6 with a home run to provide the highlight of the day for Dragons fans.

Canberra: L, 0 – 9. (33 PA, .133, .212, .200;  4.7 IP, 4 ER, 7.66 ERA)  I asked Ryan what he wanted me to say about the Kangaroos today.  He said it didn’t matter.  It’s not like I can say much to make it feel better.   Casey Mize staved off 4.7 innings of replacement pitching, but replaced them with slightly worse innings.  Similar things might be said about the Kangaroo hitters, except for Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who went 2 for 5 with a double, and Eric Haase who hit a pinch-hit double in his only plate appearance.  The ‘Roos lost 0.9 games in the standings, and now sit 11.2 games out.

Cottage: W 2, L (-1);  9 – 1.  (34 PA, .345, .441, .586 – Happy Edgar Martinez Day!  19.3 ip, 11 er, 5.13 ERA).  The Cheese are beginning to loom behind the Kangaroos in the race for seventh place, after gaining 0.7 games on the Wolverines and 1.6 games on Canberra.  Cottage got a ton of pitching.  Taijuan Walker and J.C. Mejia didn’t help any, combining for 10 innings pitched and 11 earned runs. But Tony Gonsolin and Ryan Weathers got most of that cleaned up with their combined 9.3 ip, 0 er.  

The Cheese did more consistent damage from the plate. Shohei Ohtani (2 doubles in 4 plate appearances) and Marcus Semien (a homer as part of a 2 for 5 day) provided the foundation for a very strong win.

Pittsburgh:  W, 9 – 4.  (31 PA, .370, .452, .554 – Happy Edgar Martinez day again!  13 ip, 5 er,  3.46 ERA.)   No Allegheys homered Saturday, but Dansby Swanson went 3 for 5 with two doubles, and Kevin Plawecki and Andrew Vaughn put up identical 2 for 4 with a double lines.  Braxton Garrett went 7 strong innings (2 er) and Wil Crowe did fine, too (5.3 ip, 2 er).  Lou Trivino had a well-placed breakdown, however, delivering a win to the Mariners with his 0.7 ip, 1 hit, 2 walk, and 1 walk-off wild pitch performance.

Bellingham:  “L”, 10 – 10. (28 PA, .462, .500, .846;   4.3 ip, 6 er, 12.56 ERA)  It feels like I am always writing about the Cascades eye-popping batting lines compiled by a sparse lineup leaving lots of room for replacement hitters.  Yesterday it was the same, except Bellingham didn’t leave very much room for replacements, resulting in a massive 10-run outburst. 

Alas, Kevin Gausman pitched like he was pitching to his Cascade teammates.  And in fact he was pitching to Cascade teammate Kevin Newman, who went 4 for 5.  Rowdy Tellez was the other Cascade standout, going 3 for 5 with two home runs.

Portland:  W 0, L 2;  3 – 12.  (37 PA, .091, .167, .182;  7.3 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).  The Rosebuds were the other team affected by yesterday’s mis-entered standings.  It’s too bad, because the 0 win, 2 loss outcome obscured the outstanding pitching the ‘Buds got from Matt Harvey yesterday: 6 ip, 0 runs, 1 hit.  And the two relievers added another 1.3 hitless, scoreless innings. 

But even with all that superb pitching, the Rosebuds would have been hard-pressed to win Saturday. They got 3 hits in 33 AB, including a Tyrone Taylor home run, plus two walks and a hbp.  Taylor, with his homer and a single, got