In Role-Playing Games (RPGs), tanks are characters meant to draw attention and take damage from enemies. They’re often big and slow – think knights and giants – but they keep the baddies from wailing on your bards and mages. I never really play as a tank. I don’t think it’s terribly fun to be that character. Instead, I’m usually a mage, and I deploy that character to drag everyone away from me. Let me conjure fire rain while elves shoot arrows at you, other knights stab you, and other mages unleash hellish spells upon you.
Paul Skenes had what I assume was his worst start of the year. He’ll probably win the Cy Young or be really close, but this wasn’t a start to use on the ole resume. He didn’t make it through 4 while giving up 3 runs on 7 hits and walking 3, and it took him 92 pitches to do it. Michael Busch got to him immediately with a leadoff home run, and Pete Crow-Armstrong added an RBI single. Ian Happ and PCA added sacrifice flies to give more than enough offense for whatever you call Pittsburgh’s offense. Cade Horton had a fine start, and 4 relievers combined for 4 one-hit innings and Sox strikeouts.
This was a wild one. Both starters, Cam Schlitter and Zebby Matthews, were on my fantasy team this year, but thank goodness (?) I’m not in the playoffs because this didn’t go well for either. The Yankees attacked first, and they scored all 10 runs in the first four innings as they jumped out to a 10-1 lead. Matthews took it on the chin, giving up 11 his and 9 runs. Schlitter wouldn’t be spared, though, and hell broke loose in the fifth, where he walked 3 (5 total), gave up a bomb to Josh Outman, and uncorked a wild pitch that scored a run to being the score to 10-4. It got worse for Ryan Yarbrough an inning later as he showed four more to cross home plate, including a Ryan Fitzgerald (?) home run and a Trevor Larnach sacrifice fly to make it 10-8. It stayed relatively peaceful until the bottom of the ninth when Larnach popped one over the wall. But the Twins couldn’t do anything else, and the Yankees held on.
There were 17 men left on base in this one, so saying there wasn’t much offense isn’t exactly accurate. But there wasn’t much scoring. Jeffrey Springs scattered 8 baserunners over 4 innings, and Mitch Spence only scattered 4 in nearly the same amount of time. But the Red Sox couldn’t take advantage of that or a very nice start from rookie Connelly Early, who went 5.1 innings and struck out 7. The Athletics got 2 in the sixth, and that was enough on this particular evening. Boston could use so of these games they can get, too, but they remain a Wild Card team for now.
Kyle Freeland is one of those Rockies pitching prospects that shoots up lists but never really does much at the MLB level. The obvious reason is Coors Field. It had to be rough to pitch there. But there’s also just the Rockies organization, in general, and you can only blame the stadium so much. Anyhoo, Freeland went 5.2 and gave up 6 runs while striking out a whole batter. Edward Cabrera, a better pitching prospect turned MLB pitcher, went 5 innings and struck out 6. But the Rockies clawed back late. Mickey Moniak is having a comeback campaign, and he hit a three-run home run to give the Rockies their first runs for the night. In the ninth, Brenton Doyle and Kyle Karros singled before Yanquiel Fernandez hit a sacrifice fly. Tyler Freeman then got hit by pitch, and Moniak tapped an infield single that Eric Wagaman threw away, allowing Karros to score and Freeman to move to third. Hunter Goodman lined out to end it.
Another wild one, this started with a two-run shot by Kyle Teel, and then Baltimore scored 8 straight. An RBI double followed by an RBI single here. A Samuel Basallo home run there. And then Dylan Beavers did most of the damage after that with an RBI triple and a two-run shot of his own. Then things got interesting in the eighth. Miguel Vargas struck out with a man on third, but whoops, the pitch got away, a run scored, and Vargas got on first. Edmundo Sosa would later single Vargas home run, and then Andrew Benintendi hit his own two-run shot to bring the White Sox within 1. An infield single on the ninth made a vague threat, but Teel and Colson Montgomery struck out to make sure Chicago didn’t actually do anything.
I spent yesterday railing against the Pirates for being awful, and the deserve every bit of it. But today, it’s worth turning toward the Rockies. Founded in 1993, they have had 9 seasons over .500, and only once (1995-1997) did they string together 3 consecutive of them. In the last 15 seasons, they’ve had 2. Again, it’s really hard to be that bad, and in that same time, they have had 4 seasons with a winning percentage under .400. Last night was their 110th loss of the season.
