The MVP of Friday was Josh Collmenter, who threw a complete game shutout and had 3 hits as well.
The MVP of Saturday was Masahiro Tanaka, who threw 7 IP of two-hit ball and struck out 8.
The MVP of Sunday was Adam Jones. He’s been absolutely on fire lately, and went 4-5 yesterday with a HR and 5 RBIs.
Standings, as ever, 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. Also, hit any picture to make it bigger and more readable.
April 20
Another week of IBC action also began a new set of series: Panama at Korea, USA at Taiwan, Dominican at Colombia, Mexico at Netherlands, Australia at Italy, Cuba at Venezuela, Japan at Canada and Puerto Rico at Rest-Of-World.
Korea started the action with a 9-1 win over Panama, taking advantage of an 8-run 4th inning.
In Taiwan, Team USA again steamrolled a hapless opponent, routing Taiwan 13-0 with home runs by Matt Kemp (his 5th) and Paul Goldschmidt (his 3rd) along the way with Matt Harvey going 8.1 IP with 8 Ks and only 6 hits given up. Late in the game, Joe Maddon sent Josh Donaldson up to pinch-hit for Evan Longoria, “just so that I have something to do today.” He also put in Sean Doolittle to end the game after Harvey hit his pitch-count.
Nelson Cruz homered twice and Adrian Beltre and Starling Marte also hit round-trippers in a 11-1 Dominican win over Colombia, but Jose Bautista had to leave the game after getting hit by a pitch. His diagnosis was pending.
The Netherlands’ funk continued, as they lost to Mexico, 4-2. After beginning the season 9-0, the Dutch had gone 4-6.
In Nettuno, the Italians found themselves down to the Australian, 5-4, going into the bottom of the 9th. Three Grant Balfour strikeouts later, and it was over. Ned Kelly O’Shaughessy, of course, celebrated by drinking some of the local wine.
Later, in the Western Hemisphere, Jhoulys Chacin had a heck of a game as Venezuela beat Cuba 8-0, giving up only 4 hits over seven innings of work.
Up in Toronto, the Canadians upset Japan, 3-1, on the strength of a 2-run HR by Justin Morneau in the first inning and a nice performance by Shawn Hill and the Canadian bullpen.
A 3-run 8th by Team Rest-Of-World tied up the game with Puerto Rico at 3-3…. and that would be all until the bottom of the 10ths, where Jonathan Albaladejo walked Jabari Blash with the bases loaded for a walk-off walk and a 4-3 Rest-Of-World victory. Edwin Rodriguez could be seen with his face in his palm as the winning run walked across the plate. What a way to go.
(GO BELOW THE JUMP FOR MORE)
It was a light day of action yesterday, but John Lackey was the best of the bunch. The Cardinals P went 7 scoreless innings in St. Louis’ 4-0 win over the Brewers, striking out 8 and giving up 5 hits.
Standings, as ever, after the jump:
Collin McHugh only pitched 5.2 innings yesterday, but he struck out 11 hitters during it! So, he’s the MVP of Yesterday.
Standings after the jump:
You may have trouble seeing it in my crummy phone camera picture there, but it says up there that the evil laser-eye-shooting killer from tonight’s episode of Arrow was last seen at Gantner and Yount.
Obviously, somebody in the Arrow writing room is a fan of the Brewers teams of the 1980s.
(Also, a requisite link to the Green Arrow installment of Bizarre Baseball Culture.)
Chase Utley of the Phillies is the MVP of Yesterday, as he stole a base, hit two home runs and 3 RBIs, and went 3-3 in Philly’s 6-5 loss to the Mets.
Standings after the jump:
I’ve added Pitcher List to the list of links. While it’s mainly a site that focuses on pitchers in fantasy baseball, I like it because it has a LOT of GIFs of the nastiest pitches of the previous day of baseball.
Jorge Soler of the Cubs had 3 hits yesterday, two of them homers, for 4 RBIs. He’s the MVP of Yesterday.
Standings after the jump!
The latest Wisdom and Links is up at “Hall of Very Good”. In it, I answer some burning questions and have a gratuitous image of penguins.
The MVP of Friday was Joey Votto, who went 2-3 with a walk, 2 HR, 4 RBIs and a stolen base!
For Saturday, it was Jimmy Nelson of the Brewers, who struck out nine and gave up only two hits in 7 IP.
And for Sunday, it was Miguel Cabrera, because he had four hits, two of them homers, for 4 RBIs.
The Baseball Continuum 