Only nine games today, with some teams making their necessary flights across North America to get to their next cities, in some cases to begin some very crucial series'. Today's events and opinions:
ANAHEIM (60-72) VS. TAMPA BAY (75-57) (ANA 2-0) - Jason Vargas was in early trouble with a bases loaded, 1 out situation in the 1st inning, but navigated past that en route to what was about the most efficient outing possible for him. He still surrendered his fair share of walks and soared into the triple digit pitch count range in the 6th inning; par for the course for a soft-tossing, nibbling LHP. That said, the Rays and their league-best offense against LHP was incapacitated by Vargas, only collecting two hits in seven innings, and despite the best efforts of the ever-wild Dane de la Rosa and Ernesto Frieri, Anaheim escaped Tropicana Field taking two of three from the Rays. Anaheim is 6-5 at Tropicana Field in the past three seasons, but negate this strong performance with their 1-9 home record against the Rays in that span; these two meet for four more games next week at Angel Stadium. Of note, Jake Odorizzi received a spot start today for Tampa Bay and pitched five innings of one run ball, ultimately receiving his first decision of the season in his fourth start with the major league club. Today's originally scheduled starter, David Price, was pushed back to face the Oakland Athletics on Friday night at the Oakland Coliseum, the two teams separated by a scant .5 games in the Wild Card race. After the Rays game ended today, the A's were in position to jump over the Rays by .5 of a game in advance of their weekend series, however...
OAKLAND (75-58) VS. DETROIT (78-56) (DET 7-6) - ...Grant Balfour blew a 6-3 9th inning lead, with a pair of four-pitch walks, a run scoring single from Victor Martinez, and a walk-off three-run home run for Torii Hunter with two outs to save the Tigers from a four game sweep at Comerica Park against the A's. For the fourth straight game, the A's jumped all over the Tigers starting pitcher, this time the impeccable Max Scherzer, and the A's took a 6-1 lead into the 6th, in addition with Miguel Cabrera departing the proceedings with an abdominal injury after the 5th. Despite the disappointing loss, Oakland still tagged 34 runs in 31 innings against the Tigers in this series, but ultimately still lost .5 of a game on the Texas Rangers these past four days and blew a golden chance to jump ahead of the Rays before Friday.
KANSAS CITY (69-64) VS. MINNESOTA (57-75) (8-1 KC) - Kansas City won their sixth straight game at Target Field from Minnesota, taking a 3-1 decision today and moving to within six games of Oakland in the AL Wild Card race. Likely still far too little far too late, but they have rebounded nicely from their seven-game losing streak and 2-5 homestand that threatened to truly torpedo their season.
PHILADELPHIA (61-73) VS. NY METS (60-72) (11-3 NYM) - Mets salvaged a home split with the Phillies and remain percentage points in 3rd place in the NL East.
MILWAUKEE (59-74) VS. PITTSBURGH (77-56) (4-0 MIL) - Pirates shutout at home by the Brewers with a chance to move back even with St. Louis in the wild card race, as they drop two of three at home to the long-forgotten Brewers. Yikes. Pittsburgh falls to a very underwhelming 6-7 over their past 13 games.
MIAMI (49-83) VS. WASHINGTON (68-65) (9-0 WSH) - Ian Desmond, Jayson Werth, and Bryce Harper all homered tonight for the surging Nationals, sweeping Miami with an effortless victory behind the flawless Gio Gonzalez. Miami is still en route to a 100 loss season. Washington is now within six games of Cincinnati in the NL Wild Card race, but with no head-to-head meetings left on the docket, the task still remains quite tall.
CLEVELAND (71-62) VS. ATLANTA (81-52) (3-1 ATL) - How predictable was this, by the way? Cleveland was swept out of Atlanta by the unbeatable-at-home Atlanta Braves, and the Indians are the absolute definition of a league average team; they feast on the lousy teams but cannot beat the teams that are better than them. Color me underwhelmed. They play the Tigers this weekend in Detroit, where their 2-4 road record is actually significantly better than their 1-9 home record against them, before their schedule eases up with plenty of White Sox and Twins down the stretch. They now sit four games out of a playoff spot in the AL Wild Card race.
BALTIMORE (71-61) VS. BOSTON (79-56) (3-2 BAL) - Pretty much a must-win game for the Orioles to stay in the division race and Wild Card race, and Chris Tillman pitched up to his All-Star label in the process. The Orioles broke a four-game losing streak against Boston in the process, and now face the Yankees this weekend, while the Red Sox move on to face last-place Chicago at Fenway this weekend.
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