David Price

David pitched a beauty in a rain shortened game at Baltimore last night, going 6 innings, giving up only four hits, 1 run, with 0 walks and 4 K’s, and the BoSox won their sixth straight with a two game sweep of the Orioles, winning 8-1 last night in a rain out after 6 innings.

David threw 94 pitches with 62 for strikes against 32 balls. Excellent work by Dave. His fastball was good, hitting 92-94, with a lot of movement, his cutter and change up were excellent out pitches, and the BoSox knocked the cover off the ball once again. David moved to 11-8 on the year with a 4.19 ERA. David has now issued only 37 walks and has struck out 171, which is third in the American League behind Tampa Bay’s Chris Archer, who has 186, and Detroit’s Justin Verlander, who has 176. David is not throwing 96-97 right now, but his overall pitching is tremendous. His mixture of fastball, change up, cutter and a few curves are so effective. Love where David and his team are right now.

Center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr cranked a two run shot, and superb catcher Sandy Leon, who has really exploded with the bat since July and is an excellent defender, almost hit it out of Camden Yards with a 438 foot shot. It was fun to watch. Leon is hitting .383 right now. He’s not had enough at bats to lead the majors, but he might by the end of the season.

Camden Yards is a total hitters park, but David has been a major success there. In 9 career starts at Camden Yards, David is 5-0 with a 3.05 ERA, giving up only 13 walks and striking out 52. He’s something else in Baltimore. He’s something else period.

The frustrating thing about the game last night was that the BoSox have had a brutal road schedule so far and they had to play at Detroit today at 12:10 PM CT/1:10 PM ET (Bosox tied 1-1 after 5), after going to Cleveland Monday for a makeup game Monday afternoon, then flying to Baltimore for two, and going to Detroit for a four game set that started today.

 The bottom fell out of the skies in Baltimore last night and the field was flooded, but the umpires let the delay go on for an hour and 15 minutes before calling it. The Orioles had something to do with it because it’s getting closer to playoffs time and they were trying to have Boston as tired as possible for the game today at Detroit if they couldn’t win the game. Detroit would not accommodate Boston and move the game time back. Partly for competitive reasons, the Tigers are in a race for the wild card with the Red Sox though the Bosox are only one game back of Toronto in the AL East, and partly because the Lions have a preseason game tonight, and the Tigers organization didn’t want to mess up the attendance and have a traffic nightmare with the Lions playing close to Comerica Park, they would not accommodate the Sox. So it is what it is. Good news though; Sandy Leon homered in the fourth and the Sox are tied at 1 in the top of the 6th. The Sox got to Detroit at 4 AM today, so no rest for the weary.

But on the positive side, they’re so hot, maybe the just want to keep playing baseball as much as possible and get back on the field as soon as they possibly can. As “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, played by Ray Liotta in the classic movie Field of Dreams, said when he came out on the Iowa field that Ray Consella, played by Kevin Costner, built,  “I’d play this game for free.” The Bosox seem to have that attitude right now. They’ve got those kind of guys who love playing the game. It’s a special group.

Dansby Swanson

Dans had a stellar night for the Braves in his first start in the big leagues as an Atlanta Brave. Dans went 2-for-4 at the plate with a line drive single to right in the bottom of the fourth, and a shot up the middle past the pitcher for a base hit in the bottom of the 9th. It was a spectacular debut by the man. Dans also played solid short. What was so awesome about it, besides the fact that Dans was playing in the big leagues, was that his parents, his girlfriend, his grandmother, his whole family, and just a host of people from Marietta, GA. were there cheering him on. Dans is from nearby Marietta, so this is an ideal situation for him. Everybody in Turner Stadium was pulling for him. It was pretty special to watch. So proud of Dans. The Braves lost 10-3 to Minnesota, but it didn’t matter to me. Dans is in the big leagues, and the Braves are building for the future, and Dans will be a big part of that. The Braves host the Nationals tonight @ 6:10 PM CT/7:10 PM ET on SportsSouth.