Issue #715
The goal with The Baseball Buffet series is to provide the best daily dose of relevant baseball info in a smart brevity format (mostly short bullets, getting to the point, with quick analysis/insights.) Think of it like what baseball fans of a certain age would look forward to in their morning newspaper’s sports section each day!
⚾ Welcome! ⚾
Yesterday we had a full slate of Friday games (15). Here are yesterday’s results (link to all game box scores):
DET 13, ATH 1 - The Tigers leveraged a bullpen day and it worked really well as the Athletics scored a run in the bottom of the first, but then couldn't muster anything else the rest of the game against four Tigers' relievers. They got on the board with a Kevin McGonigle HR in the third inning off ATH SP Jeffrey Springs (4 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 5 BB, 2 K). They were up 2-1 through seven, and then erupted for seven in the eighth and four more in the ninth. Dillon Dingler went 2-6 with a grand slam in the eighth, and rookie Ben Malgeri hit his first major league HR in the ninth. Spencer Torkelson and Javier Báez had three hits apiece, as did rookie Max Clark, a major Detroit prospect, who had two doubles in his MLB debut.
CWS 6, TBR 1 - CWS SP Erick Fedde (5 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K) only allowed a solo HR to Junior Caminero in the fourth inning, his 30th HR of the year. The White Sox jumped on TBR SP Nick Martinez early and often, including four HRs: Miguel Vargas in the first, Andrew Benintendi in the second, Munetaka Murakami in the third, and Colson Montgomery in the sixth.
PIT 7, CIN 8 - PIT SP Paul Skenes struck out 7 over 4 a short 4-inning start, as he also allowed a lot of baserunners (7 H, 5 ER, 4 BB) and HRs by JJ Bleday and Sal Stewart. The Bucs scored four off CIN SP Hunter Greene (6 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K), including a solo HR by Jake Mangum in the second inning. Down 5-4 through seven, Pittsburgh scored three in the top of the eighth as they rattled off five singles against two Reds relievers. They brought in reliever Wilber Dotel but he quickly allowed three singles and two runs while only recording one out. Mason Montgomery relieved him and got one ground out, but then after intentionally walking Tyler Stephenson to put runners on first and third, Nathaniel Lowe reached on an error by Brandon Lowe (no relation) and the go-ahead run crossed the plate. Now with a lead to protect, the Reds brought in Emilio Pagán for the ninth and he got two quick outs, hit Nick Gonzales with a pitch, but then struck out Endy Rodríguez to end the game. For Pirates fans, the frustration with their bullpen this year continues.
NYY 2, CHC 0
PHI 4, BAL 6
STL 1, TOR 3
ARI 4, CLE 1
MIA 5, NYM 2
WSH 2, ATL 6
TEX 2, HOU 11
KCR 1, COL 3
MIL 6, LAA 2
SFG 0, SDP 7
MIN 5, SEA 3
BOS 9, LAD 4
Today’s Trivia Question
One of today's Birthday Boys is Adam Jones (see below), who hit 263 of his 282 career HRs for the Orioles. That ranks him fourth on Baltimore's all-time leaderboard—how many of the top four in HRs for the Orioles can you name? For bonus points, how many of the three other players can you name who rank behind Jones but still had 200+ HR for the Orioles?
(Trivia answers are provided for paid All-Star subscribers of the Baseball Buffet.)
🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉
Madison Bumgarner, Adam Jones, Gregg Jefferies
Currently active players who were born on August 1 include COL Ezequiel Tovar and ATL Dylan Lee.
Today’s Matchups
Today we have a full slate of Saturday games (15), including the following two interesting matchups (and here is a link to the full schedule):
BOS Payton Tolle vs. LAD Yoshinobu Yamamoto - an interesting matchup in this contest, with rookie Tolle (6-6, 3.32 ERA) and Yamamoto (11-6, 2.72 ERA)
TEX Jacob deGrom vs. HOU Ronel Blanco - the next game in this important AL West series, with the always interesting deGrom facing Blanco, who has not done well in his first starts of the year
Additional starting pitchers of note for today include SEA Logan Gilbert, TBR Drew Rasmussen, PIT Braxton Ashcraft, PHI Cristopher Sánchez, CLE Parker Messick, NYY Max Fried, LAA José Soriano, and DET Framber Valdez.
Baseball Quote of the Day
One of today's Birthday Boys (see above) is Gregg Jefferies, so here is a good quote from him:
"My father taught me that good hitting is a street fight; it's you against the pitcher, and I lived by that. I don't tell the little kids that it's a street fight, but I let them know it's a battle."
⚾ Enjoy the games today! ⚾
Did you know? I wrote a 600+ page book with the same title as this newsletter/blog? Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports. It is available at Amazon and most other major booksellers.
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