Baseball Island 2020

[pauwoo]

In which the NL & AL Central broke free from their MLB bondage and started their own league to be played on an island located near the end of the Aleutian chain.

The Texas Rangers (because… freedom!) decided to join them. And the Colorado Rockies did too.

Houston wasn’t invited.

The newly formed Island League Baseball (ILB) will begin play on July 23rd, playing out a 64-game season using the 6x6 [league redacted] set-up. 6 of the 12 teams will qualify for the playoffs and the winning team will receive an all you can eat King Crab feast courtesy of one of the commercial fishing outfits located on the island.

For our purposes here, I’ll report on the Texas Rangers, whose Skipper, Chris Woodward, is said to be something of a King Crab connoisseur. For my own purposes, I’ve allowed the Rangers to bring in 4 new relievers who all hail from the great state of Texas. They are CL Ryan Pressly, RP Will Harris, RP Carson Smith, and RP Colin Ponche. My assistant has confirmed that each of them will be OK with wearing our hideous Sunday Home Kit when it is required. On Sunday’s. At “home”.

[pauwoo]

The baseball prognosticators over at BNN, with the help of a gigantic abacus, have turned in their preseason predictions. They see Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Minnesota as the class of the league and have us sneaking into the Democratic League playoffs on a sub-500 record. I don’t think that they’re qualified to work an abacus, I’ve seen no credentials that would indicate otherwise, and have tossed their predictions in the trash. Besides, based on the calculations I ran on my trusty TI-Nspire™ CX II graphing calculator, we should run roughshod over this league and will likely go undefeated.


We have Ronald Guzman. Ronald Guzman hits bombs. He’s also a proficient Dolly Varden fisherman.

[pauwoo]

We’ll kick things off with a 2-game series against the Minnesota Twins. They’re all 2-game series by the way… we’ll play four 2-game series against our division rivals and two 2-game series against those goofballs in the other league. Quick hits, man. It’s all about quick hits.

1 of 64: Kenta Maeda (0-0, 0.00) @ Corey Kluber (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 7-6. Willie Calhoun went 4 for 4 with a HR and 3 RBI and Todd Frazier hit a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 9th to secure an opening day victory for the Rangers that was nearly blown in the top of the 9th when RP Will Harris, a recently acquired Texas native, allowed three Minnesota runners to plate. The Rangers tied it up in the bottom of that frame when Willie Calhoun hit a run-scoring double, setting us up for Frazier’s late-game heroics. Fun Facts: Robinson Chirinos got called for a catcher’s interference in the top of the 9th that loaded up the bases, Shin-Soo Choo got hit by a pitch because he was crowding the plate and was too slow to get out of the way, and we had two players, Joey Gallo and Todd Frazier come 1 K short of a golden sombrero.


Willie Calhoun earns our Ranger of the Day Award for his hitting outburst. He’ll get a handful of Halloween candy that Skipper, Chris Woodward, found in his suitcase after we arrived on the island. It’s mostly Good N’ Plenty though… so, I can see a scenario where he tries to trade it for some Caribou jerky with one of the locals.


Elsewhere: Abreu and Boyd Fight, Get Suspended: Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox and Matthew Boyd of the Detroit Tigers will be on the sidelines for a few days. They have been suspended for 5 and 6 games respectively by the league office for causing the bench-emptying free-for-all at the recent White Sox-Tigers game at Guaranteed Rate Field. That’s just silly – especially in a season of this length… you gotta keep your head, lest it be kept.

Record: 1-0

Up Next: Minnesota, again.

[pauwoo]

Guzman showed up to the ballpark with 6 freshly caught Dolly’s and proceeded to whip himself up a fresh batch of ceviche as his pregame meal. Two things – first, I’ve never heard of Dally Varden Ceviche and I’m not sure that it’s safe, and second, the smell in the clubhouse was nearly unbearable. This is a worse offense than cooking up some fish sticks in the microwave of a crowded employee breakroom. I’d have meted out some punishment for his clubhouse faux pas if not for the fact that the rest of the team took an early and elongated BP today.

2 of 64: Jose Berrios (0-0, 0.00) @ Lance Lynn (0-0, 0.00)
Loss, 6-4. Miguel Sano basically beat the Rangers by himself – 2 for 5, 3-run homer, and 5 RBIs for the Minnesota first baseman. Turns out the extra batting practice didn’t do us much good as we were only able to muster 4 total hits in the game (two of which were homers) and suffered through our second blown save of the season, this one charged to Rafael Montero’s account. Guzman, who wasn’t feeling his best during most of the game, was hit in the thigh by Rich Hill in the bottom of the 3rd – he didn’t charge the mound though because he’s a gentleman and Rich, like the Goooooz, is also 6’5” tall. A couple of lumberjacks, those two.

Nobody earned our Ranger of the Day award because we don’t give that out when we lose. I did, however, hear through the grapevine that Willie is in possession of a few sticks of homemade caribou jerky. Turns out that when you’re on an island way out in the Bering Sea, Good N’ Plenty’s have a lot more value then they do when you’re in the lower 48.


Elsewhere: SP Dallas Keuchel, who was born in Tulsa, pitched a complete-game, 3-hit shutout and fanned 5, while teammate, Danny Mendick, went 2 for 4 with a double, a jack, 6 riblets, and a couple of runs to lead their club to an 8-0 win over the Detroit Tigers. Chicago secured the mini-sweep in their first series of the season and are one of five teams to do so with KC, the Cubs, Colorado, and St. Louis joining the festivities.

Record: 1-1

Up Next: We’ll travel to the northeast part of the island to face off against the 0-2 Cleveland Indians. Which is fine. We’d rather face off against Detroit who already has a -18 RDiff after two games. But, we don’t make the schedule, we just play it.

[pauwoo]

After the loss we took last night, I packed up my untrustworthy TI-Nspire™ CX II graphing calculator to send it back to the manufacturer. Clearly, I received a defective unit. And, no, I did not read the manual – I’ve been busy practicing my cornhole toss for an upcoming tournament I entered against the 11 other GMs. I’m at the point where I’m dropping in Air Mail every time I toss the bag… look, I don’t like to toot my own horn, but I’m a lock to take the top spot on the podium at the end of the tourney. I have it on good authority that Milwaukee’s David Starnes is a formidable cornholer and that he dropped a double deuce to win last year's competition.

3 of 64: LHP M. Minor (0-0, 0.00 ERA) versus RHP C. Carrasco (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Win, 7-3. A big 2-run homer from Robinson Chirinos in the top of the 5th put us up early by a score of 5-1 and we’d pad it a bit more from there as we secured our second win of the season in dominating fashion. Guzman put his first ball out of the park, we’d hit 4 two-baggers as a club, with one of those being the second for Willie Calhoun, and turned three sweet double-plays that should make tonight’s BNN highlight reel. Fun Fact: CF Danny Santana put our first Golden Sombrero of the 2020 campaign on the board tonight. It’ll be hanging on the hook outside his locker until someone else reaches for the stars and takes it from him.


Robinson Chirinos was awarded our Ranger of the Day designation for his 1 for 2 performance that included a 2-run homer, 2 runs, and a walk. He’ll receive a small can of smoked salmon, half a box of Ritz crackers, and some cream cheese that may or may not be expired.


Elsewhere: 3B Cheslor Cuthbert, of the Chicago White Sox, went 4 for 6 with 3 RBI, 2 runs, and a walk during his clubs 8-7 win over the Minnesota Twins. Nellie Cruz hit his first HR during the game for Minnesota. The big fella is just warming up.

Record: 2-1

Up Next: We’ll still be in Cleveland’s section of this Aleutian paradise…

[pauwoo]

After the game last night, at the seeding event for our upcoming Cornhole tournament, a completely out-of-bounds Pittsburgh’s GM, Derek Shelton, caused a fracas when he accused Kansas City GM, Mike Matheny, of gaming the ranking system to get himself a better draw. What came after that was a 2-minute long donnybrook that featured twelve grown men throwing haymakers with all their might and catching nothing but air. That we completely gassed ourselves out after only 2 minutes is a sure sign that we all need to go a bit easier on the breakfast bacon and maybe go for a jog every now and then.

4 of 64: Kyle Gibson (0-0, 0.00) @ Aaron Civale (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 5-1. The Ballad of Willie Calhoun is just getting started. Your boy went 3 for 5 with a double, a jack, 3 RBI, and a run to lead us to a hard-fought, 5-1 victory over the still winless Cleveland Indians. Gibson put in 6.2 innings of work and fanned 8, and Shin-Soo Choo flexed our Sunday kit with pride during a 2 for 4 performance that included an RBI and a run for the good guys. Fun Fact: Joey Gallo is in 3rd on the strikeouts table after four games with 9 so far in 2020 – only Adam Engel (10) and Trevor Story (11) have more so far this year.


Willie Calhoun, for the second time this year, wins our Ranger of the Day Award as he finished with the line I posted above and came only a triple short of hitting for the cycle tonight to continue his torrid start to the 2020 campaign. He’ll get my copy of last month’s Glamour Magazine as his reward – I finished all the relationship quizzes in ballpoint ink but let him know that if he can find some whiteout, he can just erase my answers and take them again himself.

Record: 3-1

Up Next: 2 games @ Chicago White Sox.

[pauwoo]

Texas Rangers (3-1, .750, 2nd Freedom Division) @ Chicago White Sox (4-0, 1.000, 1st Freedom Division)
That we’ve navigated our first two, 2-game sets with a winning record is something of a low-key surprise. Back-to-back sets against Minnesota & Cleveland, two of the leagues most highly touted clubs, wasn’t the most welcome of scheduling scenarios for a club like ours. This is not to say that I don’t believe in my club, I do, and it’s also not to say that I’m backing away from my championship prediction, I’m not… it’s just that we’ve only recently come out of the storming phase and haven’t yet fully achieved a state of norming on par with the league’s best & brightest. Winning, however, has a tendency to speed that process up a bit, and a 2-game set against one of the poorer, albeit hot, clubs in the ILB looks an awful lot like an opportunity to put that theory through its paces.

5 of 64: Jordan Lyles (0-0, 0.00) @ Gio Gonzalez (0-0, 0.00)
Loss, 9-2. Nomar Mazara made a mockery of our pitching staff – 3 for 4, 2 jacks, 5 RBI, and 2 runs – and Gio Gonzalez had the ball on a string over 8 innings of work. He would only allow 3 hits and 2 runs during the start and fanned five batters. In all, Chicago blasted three balls out of the park, with two of those coming off our starter, and, while we hit two of our own (Willie(!) and Guzman), we were unable to keep their pace and ended up getting left in the dust. To underscore how complete this shellacking was – Chicago put nine on the board tonight and left 10 runners stranded. This will just be one of those days that you put in the rearview as quickly as possible and move on like it never happened. Maybe these White Sox are the real deal, maybe I shouldn’t put so much stock in the preseason predictions, or, maybe we’re just not as good as I thought.


Elsewhere: Lorenzo Cain, of the Milwaukee Brewers, went 2 for 3 with 2 dingers, 3 RBI, 2 runs, and 2 walks in his clubs 7-5 win over the Colorado Rockies. One of those homers, a 2-run shot, came in the bottom of the 8th and broke a 5-5 tie to put the Brewers up for good. They improved to 3-2 after the win while the upstart Rockies failed in their bid to make it 5-straight and, instead, fall to 4-1 on the year. Pittsburgh & Cincinnati both lost their 5th straight tonight – they have a -18 & -17 RDiff so far, respectively. Meanwhile, Chicago, the team that destroyed us tonight, boasts a +31 RDiff and has recorded 4 of their 5 wins on the road.

Record: 3-2

Up Next: We’ll get a chance to mete out some small measure of revenge when we close out this 2-game set against the White Sox tomorrow.

[pauwoo]

Texas Rangers (3-2, .600, 2nd Freedom Division) @ Chicago White Sox (5-0, 1.000, 1st FD)
After last night's debacle, I retreated to my quarters, a hastily converted barracks left behind when the US Military abandoned the island during the Clinton Presidency, with the intent of vegging out in front of the tube. Unfortunately, when I flipped it on, I found that the White Sox organization made sure that the set in my room was broken. Well, not broken exactly, it’s just that the only channels I have tuned successfully are in Russian. But, as it turns out, the joke was on them as I fully enjoyed my mini binge of old Schastlivy Vmeste re-runs that, really, are every bit as good as the American, Married With Children, sit-com it was based on. In short, I skirted my GMing responsibilities in favor of a sit-com I struggled to understand knowing full well that getting a win against the White Sox today is basically just coin toss no matter what I do with the lineup… so, we’ll ride this wave where it takes us and deal with the result accordingly.

6 of 64: Corey Kluber (0-0, 4.50) @ Lucas Giolito (1-0, 3.38)
Win, 2-1. Guzman, who paid a visit to a local island salon today and came out of it looking like a young Phil Lynott, delivered the opening salvo for us in the top of the 3rd with a solo shot off Golito – but, that was our only hit until the top of the 8th, with the ballgame now tied, when Santana, who’s hitting a paltry .083 so far this year, hit a two-bagger, and then was erased when he got caught trying to steal 3rd. Fortunately, Elvis Andrus brought Matt Duffy in from 3rd on a SAC FLY in the top of the 9th to put us up 2-1… and that’s where we'd leave it. While the fans in attendance and those watching on TV didn’t get much in the way of offense, they were treated to a nice little pitcher’s duel that our guy won despite turning in the, um, less-good performance of the two. We’ll take it and about 50 more just like it – please & thank you.


Elsewhere: Daniel Murphy, of the recently re-kitted Colorado Rockies, went 4 for 4 with two, two-baggers, 3 RBI, and a run in his clubs 9-5 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. With our hard-fought victory over the White Sox and Colorado’s win here, two of the three undefeated teams are undefeated no more with only the much-reviled St. Louis Cardinals remaining perfect after they swept the Reds over two games, winning the second of those tonight by a score of 9-5. In other tilts, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals pitching staffs completed team shutout’s in their victories against the Cubs and Twins, respectively.

Record: 4-2

Up Next: We’ll get a much-needed day of rest before heading to Kansas City’s compound on the island for a couple of games. They’re 3-3 so far but should probably be more like 1-5. I expect to beat them in both of those contests.

[pauwoo]

Jon Daniels, Chris Woodward, Big Little Willie Calhoun, Ronald Guzman, and I went in on the cost of a halibut charter to fill our first day off with some rest, relaxation, and fishing. In the future we will check the weather forecast before embarking on a fishing trip in the Bering Sea – it seems that the combination of 12-ft swells and a severely limited supply of Dramamine tablets is a recipe for disaster when your fishing party has underdeveloped sea legs. Let’s just say that our team nutritionist will have her work cut out for her and that I’m not confident that we have enough coconut water to help replace our lost electrolytes.

On a brighter note… Guzman, whose only purposes in life are hitting bombs and catching fish, landed an 84-lb halibut that will be beer-battered and fried at our earliest convenience.

An Owner Compliant… I got a reminder from my boss, who doubles as the owner of this rag-tag outfit, about the goals he established for me at the outset of this campaign – one of his top priorities for me is that I “upgrade” our talent at first base. This meddlesome son of a biscuit thinks he knows a little something about baseball. I disagree, I’m not doing it, and he can’t make me. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a bazillion times – Guzman hits bombs and he’s not going anywhere on my watch.

He's also our club's most proficient Dolly Varden fisherman.

So, to throw the old geezer off the scent, we completed the following deal today: The Rangers and Pirates have been engaged in a little wheeling and dealing. They have just concluded a trade with 29-year-old 3B Matt Duffy and 25-year-old LHP Brett Martin going to Pittsburgh in exchange for 28-year-old RHP Edgar Santana and 28-year-old 3B Erik Gonzalez.


More of a scenery swap than anything else… but, I’ll sell it to Ray Davis as the first step in gathering some of the pieces I’ll need to land him that elite first baseman. Plus, as an added bonus, Gonzalez's FG reminds me of former SuperSonic, Ray Allen.

[pauwoo]

Kansas City Royals (3-3, .500, 4th FD) @ Texas Rangers (4-2, .667, 2nd FD)
First, I was wrong… as it turns out Kansas City will be making the trek to our compound instead of vice versa. I guess that’s what pairing too many beers with too many Cod N’ Chips platters will do to a GM who’s stuck on an island in the middle of, literally, nowhere. But I digress… On to more important items – the opening round of our GM-only Cornhole tournament was postponed today after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of an island further down the chain – a stay of execution for my peers, no doubt. Our game against Kansas City, despite the all-island tsunami warning, will go on as planned because baseball is the most important thing in the world and nothing shall interfere with its continuation… I’m told that, according to the ILB’s 117-page tsunami guidelines, our equipment manager will be charged with bringing enough water wings to the game to outfit our entire roster and staff should a water polo match break out as the wave makes its way ashore. For my part, I’ve stashed myself some scuba gear in the visitors’ clubhouse just in case an opportunity to do some underwater whale watching presents itself.

7 of 64: Jacob Junis (1-0, 3.38) @ Lance Lynn (0-0, 3.00)
Win, 5-4. Kansas City would get to Lance a little bit early in this one – they touched him up for a run before going dormant again, and, for our part, we managed to make it back to higher ground in the bottom of the 4th when our hunka-hunka-burning love, Elvis Andrus, sent the equalizer over the fence off Junis, who, up to that point was virtually unhittable. KC would come alive once more, however, as they barked in a run in the top of the next frame, but we’d bite back with a 4-run bottom of the 7th that would put this one just out of reach for the upstart Royals club. They’d give it the ol’ college try, of course, pulling themselves to within one off a Hunter Dozier hit 2-run triple, but it was too little too late as RP Walt Harris was able to strike out the only batter he faced to input this W into the permanent record. Ronald Guzman, in an effort to support our owner’s assertion that we need to upgrade his position, went 0 for 3 with 3 Ks. The kid’s not doing me any favors. Helluva fisherman, though.


Robinson Chirinos earned our Ranger of the day award for his 2 for 4, 2B, HR, and 2 RBI performance today – he’ll receive one voucher good for the happy meal of his choice at the local island McDonald’s which, if the way it looks is correct, has been closed since the early-90’s. I mean they still have an advert for Jurassic Park cups on the drive-thru menu…


Elsewhere: Shane Bieber, of the Cleveland Indians, can’t sing a lick, he’s pitchy, doesn’t enunciate well, and has yet to master breathing from his diaphragm… fortunately for him, he’s pretty good at throwing a baseball and put that skill on display today over 8.1 innings of shutout baseball where he only allowed 2 hits and fanned 14 clueless batsmen. The performance was enough to help his club secure a much needed 1-0 win over the Chicago White Sox. Cleveland is now 2-5 after the win and, as a result, we are now tied with the White Sox for 1st in our division.

Record: 5-2

Up Next: If all goes according to my master plan I’ll waltz my way through the first round of the GM-only Cornhole tournament in the morning before we meet up with the Royals again – dispatching them in our building with a level of scorn and contempt we usually reserve for the Tigers.

[pauwoo]

Kansas City Royals (3-4, .429, 4th FD) @ Texas Rangers (5-2, .714, t-1st FD)
The first round of our GM-only cornhole tournament was, once again, postponed. This time, instead of a tsunami warning, karaoke night at the only bar on the island was the culprit. I managed to get my name called twice – the first, an Elvis-tinged cover of Danzig’s ‘Mother’, may have been my finest hour. That one got a nice pop from the crowd. We’ll get KC’s Danny Duffy tonight – he struggled his first time out in a 7-0 loss against the Detroit Tigers where he was crushed early & often and gave up five runs in only 4 innings of work. He doled out 5 free passes in that one too, so when he wasn’t busy serving up meatballs, he was treating the Tigers to some world-class hospitality. Let’s hope he is as charitable with our lineup tonight – we’d like to stake our rightful claim to the top of the pops, and, focusing on the part of that equation that we can control, a win here is a must.

8 of 162: Danny Duffy (0-1, 11.25) @ Mike Minor (1-0, 4.05)
Win, 7-3. KC’s Brett Phillips would draw first blood against us here – a 2-run blast off Mike Minor, who prior to that jack was looking unhittable. We’d strike back in the bottom of the 3rd when Danny Santana hit a 2-run double off Duffy, who by that point had already doled out 3 free passes… and we’d really start to open it up when Big Little Willie Calhoun put a 2-run moonshot over the fence to extend our lead to 5-2. Minor settled in nicely – he went 6.1 innings, fanned 6, and only allowed two runners to plate – Santana would hit another run-scoring double, Guzman put a two-bagger on the board (his first of the year), and we’d tally three stolen bags before this one was in the books. This is the result we expected against KC – a 2-game mini sweep for the good guys, our second one of those in four tries this season. Jesse Chavez, pitching in his 4th game of the year, allowed a run and 3 hits during an inning of work… he's pitched 4 innings for us this year, has allowed 7 hits, 3 runs, and 3 walks while only fanning 2 batters. Not great. His K%-BB% is -4.8, his BB/9 at 6.8, and he has an RA/9 of 24.8 – basically, we need this guy to tighten up.


SP Mike Minor gets the nod for the Ranger of the Day Award… his 6.1 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, and 1 HRA day earned him a slightly used trucker-style snapback cap from one of the island’s commercial fishing companies that only has a faint smell of salmon. Pretty much brand new, you ask me.


Elsewhere: The Chicago Cubs’ Kris Bryant went 2 for 4 with 2 homers, 2 RBI, and the 2 runs that come with them during a 12-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, who despite looking so good on paper, find themselves toiling with the riffraff, mid table in the Justice Division. The Brewers trotted out 9 different hurlers, including their starter, for reasons unknown… most only pitched to two batters, which makes me wonder how I forgot to toggle the 3-batter minimum rule when I was setting up this save.

Record: 6-2 (the White Sox won tonight as well, so we’re still tied with them at the top of the table… which is bunk).

Up Next: We’ll head to Detroit’s corner of this island paradise (if a barren ladscape of wind-blown tundra is your idea of paradise, that is) to complete our first pass through the Freedom Division – at 5-3 they are looking better than they should and have won their last three games in a row. We’ll put an end to that silliness tomorrow, or you can get your money back. And you got my Ron Popeil styled guarantee on that.

[pauwoo]

Detroit Tigers (5-3, .625, 3rd FD) @ Texas Rangers (6-2, .750, t-1st FD)
This will mark the second time I’ve misread the schedule, packed my bags, and headed into the office to meet the team at the bus… turns out we’re at “home” for this one. Up is down, left is right. After starting the season off on the wrong end of a mini sweep against the Chicago White Sox, where they were outscored 20-2 over two-game, Detroit has been nearly unbeatable. They’re 5-1 since that unfortunate start with their only loss coming in extras against the Cleveland Indians, and, most recently they swept Minnesota who is supposed to be one of the top clubs in our league. On paper, Detroit doesn’t give you much to worry about – in practice, however, the story they’ve been telling doesn’t look anything like the preseason synopsis that our analytics department turned in. They’ve been winning with balance – ranked 2nd or 3rd in nearly every category with only base running, where they’re ranked 1st, and Home Runs, where they are ranked 4th, being the outliers. Could be a tough series – shouldn’t be, but it could.

9 of 64: Daniel Norris (1-0, 0.00) @ Kyle Gibson (1-0, 1.35)
Loss, 8-5. Detroit came out like a live dog – Cameron Maybin hit a leadoff jack to put the Tigers on the board and Victor Reyes scored on a Ronald Guzman error (I’ll be getting a call about that one). Not even 20 minutes into the game and we’re already catching stiff jabs and check hooks as two more would get across, a run-scoring double from Christin Stewart followed by a run-scoring single from Niko Goodrum, and just like that, before we’ve even taken a hack at it, we find ourselves in a 4-0 hole. We’d trade zeroes until the bottom of the 3rd – a SAC FLY broke the ice and a run-scoring double hit by Erik Gonzalez would cut the lead in half – but, went dormant again while Detroit kept piling it on. They’d put their 5th run on the board in the top of the 5th frame, 2 more in the top of the 7th, and hang on for the win as we attempted to get ourselves back in it with three late runs. Too little, too late – we weren’t ready, they sensed it, and took full advantage. Detroit hung 8 runs on us, with 16 hits, a double, and three home runs. Gibson saw 5 runs plate, two of those he had a hand in, Chavez gave us 1.2 innings, fanned three, but let another get across, and Rafael Montero gave up a couple more before anyone in the pen would find a way to shut the Tigers down.


Elsewhere: The Chicago Cubs went gonzo on the Colorado Rockies in a 15-9 win that included a 3 for 5 day from Anthony Rizzo with a double, a homer, 6 RBI, and 2 runs, and got 2 jacks and 4 RBI from Willson Contreras. They survived a disastrous start from Lester in this one – 3.1 innings, 5 earned – by taking advantage of an even worse start from SP Yency Almonte – 2.2 innings, 5 hits, 7 earned. Also, a total of 5 pitchers combined to shutout the Chicago White Sox, in a 3-0 win for the Kansas City Royals. This is what that looks like…



Record: 6-3

Up Next: Detroit, again.

[One Great Matrix]

Can I see the standings?

[pauwoo]

Originally Posted by One Great Matrix

Can I see the standings?

Through 9/23...

[pauwoo]

There has not been any noteworthy accomplishments, unless Eddie Rosario hitting three dingers for Minnesota against Detroit counts.