Will have a full blog tomorrow, but wanted to report today on David Price and Sonny Gray, who both had stellar performances on opening day for their respective teams.
DP went 8 2/3 for the Detroit Tigers in their 4-0 opening day victory over the Minnesota Twins giving up five hits, no runs, with 0 walks and 5 K’s. David threw 101 pitches of which 75 were strikes and 26 were balls, phenomenal almost to the pitch a 3:1 strike to ball ratio. David’s catcher, Alex Avila, even said David is even better than that, though it was a pretty awesome performance by DP. Tigers are 2-0 after defeating the Twins yesterday, 11-0.
Sonny was as good as DP if not better. He had a no-hitter going through seven innings before giving up an eighth inning single with no outs, but finished by going eight, giving up one hit, 0 runs with one walk and three K’s in the A’s 8-0 victory over the Texas Rangers. It was masterful. Sonny was trying to stay calm during the potential no hitter, as he came up to manager Bob Melvin and asked him about his walk-up music when he went to the mound. Melvin told him to that nobody wanted to talk to him because they were all focused on the no-no. Sonny kept it loose, but his manager and his teammates, who were all passionately behind him, were nervous. Sonny was bringing it 95 some, 93 consistently, and his change up and curve were terrific. David was throwing it consistently 92, he hit 93 quite a few times and got to 94 once. David is not throwing it high 90’s like he was two to three years ago, but he’s become such a better pitcher. He’s got an awesome cut fastball that comes in at around 90, a nice change-up that comes in at 85 or so, and his curve ball has become terrific. He’s just awesome as is Sonny. So exciting. A’s moved to 2-1 yesterday with a 10-0 victory over the Rangers. They lost on Tuesday night. Pedro had a double and an RBI last night, but the Bucs lost to the Reds 6-5. Bucs now 0-2 on the season and play Reds at Cincy in the third and final game of their set today. Ryan Flaherty is the starting shortstop for the Orioles which is very exciting. Haven’t kept up with Ryan as much, but will. Mike Minor is on the disabled list for the Braves, but the Braves, which were predicted to have a tough season, are 3-0 and playing very good baseball. They traded stellar closer Craig Kimbrell Sunday, but Jason Grilli, who was a stud for the Pirates two years ago, looks like he could be quite a closer for the Braves. Very interesting how the Braves have started out with three victories on the road over the Marlins.
Our Dores lost Tuesday to Lipscomb, 3-1, which was disappointing, but are still No.1 in the SEC and No.1 in most national polls. We host Ole Miss for a three-game set beginning tonight at the Hawk. First pitch is at 7:30 PM ET/ 6:30 PM CT and the game will be televised by duh U-ESPNU. Carson (5-1, 2.25) will be on the hill for us tonight vs. left hander Christian Trent (5-2, 3.83). Tomorrow night Walker Buehler (3-0, 2.76) faces right hander Brady Bramlett of Ole Miss (4-2, 2.17). Saturday Jordan Sheffiled takes the hill for us (3-0, 2.66) vs right hander Will Stokes (0-3, 5.40). Corbs said this is a young Ole Miss team which lost some older players off their College World Series team last year, but they are dangerous. They’ll get better and better. We’re now 27-7 and 10-2 in the SEC and Ole Miss is 16-17 and 5-7 in the conference. Tomorrow night’s game is at 7:30 PM ET/6:30 PM CT on SEC Network + on the computer, and Saturday’s game is @ 3 PM ET/2 PM CT on the SEC Network.
Will have more tomorrow with a breakdown of tonight’s game, Brandt happenings at Augusta National (he’s even after the first hole with Charlie Hoffman, Russell Henley and Justin Rose leading at -3, and they are all well ahead of Brandt), more pro baseball, any basketball and football news, and tennis and golf for our college teams.
One note on basketball which is excellent news. Josh Henderson was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA. So happy for Josh. He’s a tremendous person and I think he can be a heckuva player for us next year. With us a little thin in the front court with only Damian and Luke (who took a violent elbow against Stanford, so hoping he’s OK) and the two incoming freshmen bigs, we need Josh for his size and his scoring and rebounding ability. Really happy for Josh and that is going to help the team.
A lot more tomorrow.
