MLB - NEWS & NOTES

Crowd files in for the Pirates and Tigers, game #2.

 

MLB needs to speed up the review on the Chase Utley slide rule. God they take forever! It's like every damn slide is up for review! ugh.

 

Cubs rip Reds 9-2 for best start since 1985

CHICAGO (AP) ? From the top spot in the order all the way to the bottom, the Chicago Cubs walked all over the Cincinnati Reds.

Even John Lackey got into the act.

Lackey pitched into the seventh inning and had one of Chicago's 10 walks, helping the Cubs equal the best eight-game start in franchise history with a 9-2 victory on Wednesday night.

"This lineup's deep," Lackey said. "Looking from the other side as a pitcher, it's tough to get through without suffering a little bit of damage."

Miguel Montero walked twice and scored three times as the Cubs improved to 7-1 for the first time since 1985 and just the 11th time overall. Kris Bryant hit his first homer of the season, and Jason Heyward contributed a two-run single and a diving grab to take a hit away from Scott Schebler in the fourth.

Chicago leads the majors with 48 walks and has outscored its opponents 56-20 during its impressive start

 

Santana homers in ninth to lift Brewers over Cardinals 6-4

ST. LOUIS (AP) ? Domingo Santana guessed correctly.

The Milwaukee outfielder was thinking fastball when he ripped a go-ahead, two-run homer in the ninth inning that lifted the Milwaukee Brewers past the St. Louis Cardinals 6-4 on Wednesday night.

Santana pounded a 98-mph pitch from closer Trevor Rosenthal (0-1) with two out.

"Just looking for a heater, that was pretty much my approach," Santana said. "It felt good. It even felt better because we won the ball game."

Santana drilled an 0-1 offering 440 feet to center, the longest of his nine major league home runs.

"That's a strong man to be able to do something like that," Milwaukee catcher Jonathan Lucroy said. "It was huge."

The home run was the first surrendered by Rosenthal this season and just the 12th of his three-plus year career.

"I made a mistake over the middle that he was ready to hit," Rosenthal said. "And he put a good swing on it."

Kirk Nieuwenhuis started the two-out rally with a walk. All of the Brewers' runs came with two away.

"Timely hitting tonight in big spots," Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said. "We got the big hits when we needed them."

Milwaukee had lost five of its previous seven in St. Louis.

 

cubs look good so far. a long way to go though. nice to see their youth movement pay off in a big way. i really feel the phillies will follow that model in 16, 17 and 18.

 

Last night was a night when you almost feel bad for the other team. The Reds starter gave up a double to Fowler to start the game, struck out Heyward, then walked Zobrist, Rizzo and Bryant. How cold where the guys out in the field during that stretch! Heyward actually struck out twice in the first inning. The Cubs also aren't hitting for average right now. Bryant, Rizzo, Soler, and Russell are all batting under .215. Granted everyone but Soler has an OBP 100 points higher, but still, the fact is that they could be better.

Anyway, give the Cubs pitchers credit too. They haven't been issuing walks and they have have pitched well. Lackey had a couple bad innings to start the year, but man when he focuses in, he's been good. He's also gotten the crazy run support. But even his first start of the season when he wasn't pitching well, he wasn't walking people and had a pitch count around 90 through 6 innings, not bad for giving up 6 runs.

 

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on...stumpf-suspended-80-games-for-failed-ped-test

how dumb can these guys get? omg - they test you dopes! stop using peds!

 

some beers and hot dogs sounds about right for some afternoon baseball!

*DRINK* *DRINK* *DRINK* *DRINK* *DRINK*

 

Stretch time in St. Louis: Cards 5, Brewers 0. Jaime Garcia ties his career high with 10 strikeouts.

 

What a game for Jaime Garcia... He has a one-hitter through seven with 10 K's and only 80 pitches thrown...

Cards win, 7-0.

 

Phillies win, 3-0 over Padres.

 

awesome performance. love this trade for him already.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/how-n...g-tobacco-could-change-mlb-155514726-mlb.html

more cities are now banning chewing tobacco. wow.

 

CHICAGO (AP) ? While Trevor Story's first game at Wrigley Field was a dud, the rest of the day went quite well for the Colorado Rockies.

Chad Bettis pitched six scoreless innings, Ben Paulsen had an RBI single and threw out a runner at the plate, and the Rockies took advantage of the Chicago Cubs' shaky defense for a 6-1 victory on Friday.

Story, a rookie who leads the majors with seven homers, went 0 for 5, but Colorado manufactured runs and got solid pitching on its way to its third straight victory.

"It was a really good game all the way around," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "Wind blowing in, it's going to be tough to score by way of the home run. We played a little bit of small ball and ran the bases very well."

The Cubs, who had won eight of nine in their best start in 47 years, managed only four singles and made four errors. Third baseman Kris Bryant committed two of the errors, including a wild throw on a bunt that scored a run in the seventh.

"We had a bad day," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "It's not always going to be an oil painting."

 

Deep 6: Cards tap into power in big way
Club's six home runs sets record for Busch Stadium III

ST. LOUIS -- One of the biggest questions surrounding the Cardinals in the offseason was: Would there be enough power? For at least one night, the offense emphatically answered yes.

The Cardinals slugged a ballpark-record six homers in a 14-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night at Busch Stadium III. Matt Holliday hit his first two of the season, Aledmys Diaz and Randal Grichuk each hit No. 2 on the year, and Brandon Moss and Matt Adams homered off the bench.

"Every ball that was hit made the right sound and it hit the barrel," Moss said. "I hate to be the guy that's always complaining, but if you hit a ball like that, like we hit tonight, they should go over the fence. It's good to see us get rewarded for those, because sometimes here you don't."

 

Beltre signs 2-year extension

ARLINGTON -- The Rangers have signed third baseman Adrian Beltre to a two-year contract extension, the team announced late Friday night, and they will hold a news conference on Saturday at Globe Life Park.

A source said the deal is worth $18 million annually. The extension keeps Beltre from being a free agent at the end of the season.

The Rangers went into Spring Training hoping to work out an extension with Beltre, who is in the final season of his six-year deal. Beltre, 37, is in his 19th season in the Major Leagues and went into Friday's game hitting .310 with two home runs and nine RBIs in the Rangers' first 11 games.

Beltre is a four-time All-Star and a four-time Gold Glove winner at third base. He is 49th all-time with 415 career home runs and 51st with 2,780 hits. That means he could get his 3,000th hit with the Rangers at some point during the extension.

 

Trumbo unloads for 2 HRs, 5 RBIs in 1 inning

ARLINGTON -- Buck Showalter was heaping praise on his new slugger, Mark Trumbo, on Friday night. And that was before Trumbo unloaded for two home runs in the seventh inning of the Orioles' 11-5 win over the Rangers.

Trumbo drilled a two-run shot off starter Martin Perez to bring the Orioles within 5-3. And then, after homers by Jonathan Schoop and Nolan Reimold got Baltimore the lead, Trumbo came to bat again. This time, he connected off the third pitcher in the inning, Andrew Faulkner, for a three-run shot. That completed a nine-run frame and turned a 5-1 deficit into a 10-5 advantage.

 

Arietta's Numbers...

 

McCutchen homers, Pirates blank Brewers 5-0, end 4-game skid

PITTSBURGH (AP) ? Jon Niese made it sound simple as he talked about how he pitched.

Niese combined with two relievers on a three-hitter and Andrew McCutchen hit his first home run of the season as the Pittsburgh Pirates blanked the Milwaukee Brewers 5-0 on Saturday night to end their four-game losing streak.

Niese (2-0) won his second straight start, giving up all three hits while walking three and striking out three in seven innings. He also got 12 of his 18 outs on grounders.

"It was a matter of pounding the strike zone, following the game plan and getting good defense," Niese said. "I can't say enough about the guys behind me. They made all the plays."

The Pirates were tagged for 30 runs during their skid. Acquired from the New York Mets in an offseason trade, the left-hander Niese also notched a win Monday at Detroit

Tony Watson and Mark Melancon finished the shutout with one scoreless inning each. Melancon struck out the side.

McCutchen's solo shot off Taylor Jungmann in the fifth inning increased the Pirates' lead to 4-0 after they scored three runs in the fourth.