Jason Hammel went 7 innings last night, giving up just three hits (and hitting one of his own) and striking out 8 in a no-decision. He’s the MVP of Yesterday.
It’s his second of the year.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
Corey Kluber is more than making up for a bad April, going 9 innings of 5-hit ball and striking out 12 in a no-decision.
It’s his second of the year.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
Over at “Hall of Very Good” this week, Wisdom and Links brings you the Devil’s Baseball Dictionary, the only glossary of baseball terms that dares to tell you the truth, no matter how hard it hurts. For example, if I had written it today instead of yesterday, it would have contained the following (consider this the addendum):
Jennings, Daniel: Future Ex-Marlins Manager
Loria, Jeffrey: A foolish, selfish, idiot owner who will likely be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.
Marlins: A good but sad joke.
Redmond, Mike: The luckiest man on Earth, because he no longer has to work for Jeffrey Loria.
Or something like that.
The MVPs of the weekend, in order: Kyle Lohse, Brandon Crawford, and near no-hitter thrower Shelby Miller. It’s Miller’s second MVP of Yesterday on the year!
Standings, as always, after the jump:
In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.
One of the things you realize when you think about superhero fiction too hard is that a lot of the criminals could probably become rich using their technology or skills in more legal pursuits. For example, find the right quiz show for the Riddler, and he’s rolling in dough. Captain Cold or Mister Freeze could easily make a mint if they applied their freeze-weapons toward something like refrigeration. Heck, even the people who write the comics know this, and in the 1980s they turned Lex Luthor from a supergenius with lots of high-tech inventions into a corrupt supergenius billionaire superexecutive who had made his money from his many high-tech inventions.
Which leads me to Bullseye. Bullseye’s a Daredevil villain, created by Marv Wolfman and John Romita Sr. in the 1976 and perfected by Frank Miller in his run on Daredevil’s comic book. Bullseye’s entire shtick is that he basically has perfect killer accuracy with basically everything, even harmless stuff like playing cards. He’s arguably Daredevil’s second-greatest foe (after the Kingpin), and is directly or indirectly responsible for the death of at least two of Daredevil’s girlfriends (only one of whom got better).
But, still, that shtick with the accuracy, wouldn’t you think he could make a great pitcher?
Well, there was a 2-part miniseries at the turn of this decade that basically grabbed a hold of that idea and ran with it… Bullseye: Perfect Game.
It’s a surprisingly good short look at obsession and perfection, with some nice easter eggs for fans of baseball and of comics and a great ending that I’m sort of bummed out I’ll spoil in my summary…. BELOW THE JUMP:
Tomorrow, Bizarre Baseball Culture returns!
Get hype!
Miguel Cabrera had three hits- two of them homers- and racked up 5 RBIs on the day yesterday. He’s the MVP, his second of the year!
Standings, as always, after the jump:
Corey Kluber had a game for the ages, striking out 18, walking none, and having a no-hitter through seven innings. The only disappointing thing is he didn’t go out in the 9th to try and tie or break the record.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
Throughout the year, I’ll be posting updates of a simulated league from Out Of The Park Baseball 2016 made up of national “dream teams” to determine what the greatest baseball country on Earth is… or something like that. Previous installments can be found here. This is a long post, so there is a JUMP after the first day. A glossary of storyline characters can be looked at here. Also, hit any picture to make it bigger and more readable.
May 11
Week 7 of the IBC began in Taiwan, where Venezuela was playing the Taiwanese. Taiwan had won the opening game of the series, and they’d win the second game too, 4-2. The two teams now had identical 23-15 records.
Later, the Dutch were able to tie their series with Japan with a 4-2 victory. However, veteran outfielder Andruw Jones was injured during the game, and the Dutch could only hold their breath waiting for a diagnosis.
And then… in the Western Hemisphere, there was another showdown between the baseball superpowers: USA at Dominican. It’d be Matt Harvey (4-1, 3.38) vs. Francisco Liriano (5-0, 3.05). And everyone was hyped.
At least, that was the hope. Some bad weather was going through the Caribbean, and the game in Puerto Rico between them and the South Koreans had already been delayed:
Coincidentally, Joe Maddon ran into Pedro Martinez during workouts that day under cloudy skies.
“Hey, Joe, think the game will happen?” asked Pedro.
Joe Maddon then entered into a sprawling explanation of weather systems, how rain forms, wind patterns and the differences between various forecasting models… before basically saying he had no idea.
So, go figure, by the time the game started, it was clear skies and a nice 80 degrees Fahrenheit, just in time for Matt Carpenter, Giancarlo Stanton and Andrew McCutchen to go down 1-2-3 against Liriano. Harvey was able to work around a lead-off walk to Carlos Gomez to similarly put down the Dominican in the bottom half.
That was a omen of things to come, as neither pitcher would let a run across, although both teams would threaten at one point or another. It wasn’t helping that the wind was blowing in: a would-be dinger from Stanton instead fell into the waiting glove of Carlos Gomez in the top of the 6th, for example.
That could possibly prove costly, as a Adrian Beltre single in the bottom of the 6th- made possible because of a Buster Posey passed ball on what should have been a inning-ending strikeout of Nelson Cruz- put the Dominican up 1-0. And then Edwin Encarnacion was able to bust it open with a 3-run home run, making it 4-0.
And Liriano continued to dominate, ending up going 7.1 IP with 3 hits allowed and 12 strikeouts. Harvey, meanwhile, was replaced after the 7th inning… he’d given up 8 hits, had struck out six, and given up 4 runs… none of them earned due to Buster Posey’s passed ball allowing the Dominican to open the flood gates.
Perhaps to put an exclamation point on how big that one passed ball proved to be, it was Posey who would be the last out, as the Dominican won 4-0.
In other action:
(GO BELOW THE JUMP FOR MORE)
MVP of Yesterday? Jake Arrieta. He gave up only 3 hits and struck out ten in his win for the Cubs.
Standings, as always, after the jump:
The Baseball Continuum 