Phil Pfeifer was a bulldog on the mound last night and led his team to the victory over a tough TCU team that got an outstanding pitching performance from their guy, Alex Young, the second round pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Man that guy was good.
Pfeif went seven, allowed four hits, no runs, with three walks and seven K’s. Phil battled through 112 pitches, thawing 68 for strikes with 44 balls. It was an incredibly gritty performance from the future Los Angeles Dodger. Phil’s fastball was hitting 93 and sometimes 94. His slider and change up were effective. But the main thing was, Phil just battled. He showed incredible mental toughness in the game last night. Really proud of his effort. Kyle Wright came on in the eighth and ninth to record his fourth save of the season, giving up just one hit with one walk and four ring ups. Kyle is firmly entrenched as our closer now. Phil moved to 6-4 on the season. Alex Young, the stellar left hander from TCU, pitched 7.2 innings, giving up three hits, one run, with one walk and 12 K’s. He was magnificent.
But one of those three hits was a bomb to left field by Zander, that cleared the 335 foot fence and landed just feet inside the foul pole in the top of the seventh. Z has been huge in these first two games. So far, he’s been our most valuable player, though Phil and Kyle deserve some consideration right now, too. But I’d go with Zander at this point. I thought it was a brilliant move by Corbs to put Kyle in for the eighth and ninth innings. Kind of that Mariano Rivera thinking that Joe Torre used to employ when the Yankees were winning all those World Series. Rivera would come in for the eighth and ninth. Kyle has that same type of makeup and what’s amazing is that he is a freshman. He doesn’t pitch like it. Our freshmen are so talented. Along with Kyle, Jeren Kendall, the hero from game one against Cal State Fullerton and whose been stellar the last two months of the season, and the stud Will Toffey at third are both true freshmen. Corbs just keeps bringing in guys who are ready to play at the highest level of college baseball in their first seasons. It’s pretty amazing really.
Now we move on to Friday night and game three. We will play the winner of the TCU-LSU game which takes place tomorrow night (Thursday) at 7 CT/8 ET on ESPNl. Our game Friday night will be at 7 CT/8 ET on ESPN. We’ll definitely be throwing Walker Buehler against the winner of TCU-LSU. The winner of that game will be a little more short handed pitching-wise so that should help us.
We didn’t hit very well and we didn’t play particularly great defense, but Phil was superb, Kyle was brilliant in relief and Z was as clutch as you can get in the top of the seventh. We will be the home team on Friday night, so that’s good. We get to hit last if necessary. Will have more Friday morning on the matchup once we know who we’re playing.
Festus Ezeli did a terrific job last night as the Warriors closed out the Cavs in six games. Fes finished the game with 10 points and four boards. He’s setting himself up for a bright future with a young, electric group of players. I thought Steph Curry undoubtedly deserved the MVP of the series and I’m going to elaborate on that on my regular blog. The voting went 7 for Andre Iguodala and four for LeBron. LeBron had a great series and I can see him getting votes, but only one player on the losing team in the history of the NBA finals has ever won the MVP and that was Jerry West in 1969. To me, it would have been a travesty if LeBron had won it, but it’s almost a bigger travesty that Iguodala did. I’ll compare the numbers on my regular blog.
David Price on the hill tonight for the Tigers at the tough Johnny Cueto and the Cincinnati Reds. DP is now 6-2 with a 2.44 ERA. Cueto is 4-4 with a 2.85 ERA.
Ryan Flaherty had a huge game for the Orioles yesterday going two for four with three RBIs, and hitting his third home run of the season, a solo shot. The Birds hit eight home runs against the hapless Philadelphia Phillies, in a 19-3 blasting. The Birds moved to 33-31 on the season and are just two games back of the AL East leading Tampa Bay Rays, who are at 36-30.
The Tigers lost to the Reds last night in the unusual two home two away game series the Tigers and Reds and some other teams are playing this week. The Tigers lost 5-2, and dropped to 34-31 on the season and four back of the KC Royals, who are at 36-25.
The A’s won their third in a row yesterday, winning 6-5 over the San Diego Padres at San Diego. The A’s will host the Padres tonight and tomorrow. Sonny pitches Friday night at home against the LA Angels. Sonny is 8-3 with a 1.60 ERA. He leads the majors in earned runs average. That’s spectacular. The A’s are 28-39, 10.5 back of the Stros. They have their work cut out for them, but have shown signs of being the baseball team people expected them to be at the beginning of the season.
The Pirates won again though Pedro didn’t play against a left handed pitcher. They hold him out some against lefties. The Pirates beat the White Sox 3-0, and moved to 37-27, six back of the Cardinals, who are 43-21. The Cardinals could be in some serious trouble now though with this FBI investigation into alleged hacking into the computer system of the Houston Astros for information on players, ect. Looks like a pretty serious issue. The Pirates play at the White Sox tonight and tomorrow night. Hopefully, Pedro can get the start in both games. John Danks, a lefty, throws for the White Sox tonight, so hopeful manager Clint Hurdle will give El Toro a shot.