Braves are the best team in the majors right now with the Dodgers running a close second. That could be an epic matchup in the playoffs. Braves now 72-46 after taking two of three from the Marlins over the weekend. Best record in baseball. Jason Heyward looks like he’s heating up. He was four-for-five yesterday. Freddie Freeman just keeps on rolling. He was two-for-three yesterday with three RBIs. Freddie is now hitting .313 with 14 homers and 79 RBIs. He hit another deep one yesterday. Mike Minor got the win for the Braves, who won 9-4. Mike went seven, gave up six hits with four earned runs, one walk and six K’s. He threw 100 pitches with 67 strikes and 33 balls. Just over a 2:1 ratio. That’s good stuff. Mike now 12-5 with a 2.87 ERA. Braves are in a very good place right now and it doesn’t look like it’ll slow down any time soon. Very impressive. Mike’s next outing is Saturday at home against Strasburg and the Nationals. Should be an epic there. Really looking forward to that.
David pitched Friday Night for the Rays at the LA Dodgers and should have gotten the victory. Price went seven, gave up one unearned run, seven hits with one walk and four K’s. Dave threw 99 pitches, 63 for strikes with 36 balls. Not his best performance, but good enough for his team to win. The Rays had a 6-3 lead in the ninth, but the unreliable Fernando Rodney blew another save giving up four in the ninth to lose it for his team. It was very, very disappointing. The Rays got shellacked by the Dodgers the rest of the weekend. Zack Greinke shut them out 5-0 Saturday Night and Clayton Kershaw beat them 8-2 last night. Those are two former Cy Young award winners and we had our two worst starters going against them, so I knew it would be a very tall order to take one of those. But Dave and the team should have gotten the game Friday Night. Rodney is a problem. The whole bullpen except for Joel Peralta and sometimes Alex Torres is a problem. Could be the Rays’ demise there, that bullpen. They have a guy they traded for with the White Sox who will be coming in at the end of the month, who is supposedly really good. He’s an eighth inning guy, but they need to covert him or Peralta into the closer. Rodney is just not working out. I don’t know how much longer the Rays can put up with this. If they don’t find answers in their bullpen soon, it’ll cost them the chance to play in October. Rays now 66-50, tied with the Oakland A’s for first place in the wild card. Three back of the BoSox, who lost two of three from a hot KC team. David pitches Wednesday Night at home against Seattle. Felix Hernandez will not be facing him. Guy named Harang who is pretty good.
Speaking of the A’s, Sonny Gray was on the mound starting for the A’s Saturday against Toronto.Sonny took the loss 5-4, and he fell to 0-1 with a 1.80 ERA., He had been very good out of the bullpen for the A’s before they sent him back down to the Sac town River Cats, but he came back up and started this past Saturday. He gave up four hits, four runs, only two earned, with three walks and five K’s. if Sonny can keep his control sharp, he will have a very good career in the big leagues. He struggles with the balls sometimes because he throws it so hard and his ball really sinks. But he’s got another shot on Thursday at home against the Astros. It’ll be a Thursday afternoon game and I will have a full report on that. A’s a game back of the Rangers in the AL West.
Pedro has been very inconsistent. Hit a homer yesterday, his 28th, a solo shot which was his 75th RBI, but he was one-for-four with two ring ups. He committed an error yesterday and committed two on Saturday Night. Needs to regroup. Bucs got swept by the Colorado Rockies. They’re now 70-47 and head to St. Louis for three, tomorrow through Thursday. Critical series.
Can’t really comment on the football situation except to say this is a real tragedy. Hope down the road there is some good news, but not at this point for the football program, and more importantly, for the University. The victim is the real tragic figure here. This is much, much bigger than football. Many thoughts and prayers go out to the victim and her family.