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August 2, GrubCut: Zach Godley and Jake Arrieta.

I texted you about Charlie Blackmon's craZy-high runs total.  You had this retort:  GrubCut.

Preview

It will be Zack Godley and the Arizona Diamondbacks visiting Jake Arrieta and the Chicago Cubs tonight at 19:05 central daylight.

There is a trio of early games today, a Wednesday.  The slate begins in 55 minutes as the Tigers play the Yankees in the Bronx at 12:05 central daylight.

Robbed of Early Baseball

As it happens, Mother Nature has intervened, delaying the start of the day's first game.  We have been robbed of forty minutes of baseball, and counting.  The next scheduled start would be 13:10 cdt in Chicago, Happ for Toronto and Holland for the White Sox.  Beggars can't be choosers.

The rain looks spotty in New York but as of 13:00 the game is still delayed.

The White Sox game is underway.  Kendrys bats with two out, Justin Smoak on first....  A few minutes later, bottom one, no one out, Tim Anderson on first after singling off Happ.  Tyler Saladino, batting .203, lines out to Donaldson at third.  Is there a less promising two-hole hitter in the league?  I was wrong about Saladino.  Maybe he's in there today only because Moncada is banged up (Moncada was in a scary collision earlier this week but luckily for him he didn't get the worst of it).  Abreu walks.  Smart move, Happ.  Kevan Smith singles and the Sox third base coach holds Anderson but it sounds like Pearce wouldn't even have attempted a throw.  Someone named Nicky Delmonico bats.  He is a career .250 hitter, one hit in four total at-bats.  He is 25.  He fans.  Leury García, two outs, bases loaded.  This has to be the worst lineup in baseball.  García, 1-2.

There is no score after two innings in Chicago.  It was a mostly dull couple of innings except for when Holland threw a ball behind Rob Refsnyder (who is now a Blue Jay after being DFA'd by the Yankees).  On the SoxCast Darrin Jackson said, "You'd think he was throwing at him if he had a reason."  The benches cleared briefly in yesterday's game between these two teams so maybe some dispute continues to smolder.

In any event, I've switched to the Yankees game, now through one inning, Tigers up 1-0.

John Sterling on Didi and the Bronx slumpers, "Didi is one guy who hasn't stopped hitting."

A little later.  I took Hugo for a quick trip to the park.  It's hot out there.  Lambert International has 89° but the thermometer on the deck here reads well over 90°.  Looking around the league, the Blue Jays are 2-0 White Sox.  The Tigers are 2-0 New York.  Minnesota have gotten underway in San Diego, no score, bottom one.  I'm tuning in the Tigers broadcast.  I listened to these guys a lot early in the season but not much lately.  This pen is kicked.  I love writing a pen out of ink.

Three straight batters go backwards looking K.  Jordan Zimmermann has struck out the side in the bottom of the fourth, although even the Tiger broadcast suggested these calls were erroneous and generous...generroneous.

Bottom seven in the Bronx, it remains Tigers 2 - 0 Yankees.  With two out, Zimmermann has six strikeouts to no walks on 92 pitches.  Tanaka went six, six hits, one walk, two runs but only one of those was earned.  A Tiger replay challenge results in the third out and Zimmermann has made it through seven innings.  But now the rain is returned, a heavy rain, and the tarp has been rolled out.  "This is a heavy, heavy rain."  The game was delayed ninety minutes at its outset, the rain only light then.

Where to, baseball spinner?  

Let us go back to Chicago, where it's 4-1 Jays, two out, bottom eight.

Top 9, Donaldson crushes one, homering in his third straight, sending a first pitch strike back 439 feet in the opposite direction.  It's 5-1 Jays.  This game has been a snooZer from the very get-go.  Ed Farmer sure seems to be slurring his words.  Maybe he's just tired but it's almost like he has developed a thick lisp as the game has worn on.  Darrin Jackson sounds unaffected.

Bottom nine, where the White Sox are threatening.  Anderson, K, his third.  It's down to Saladino.  He goes 8 in a hurry.  That's it in Chicago.  Happ gets the win.

That means travel to San Diego, where Big Erv has gone six and continues to pitch in the seventh with the Twins ahead 5-2.

Same score after eight: 5-2 Twins behind Ervin Santana.  He threw 101 pitches over eight innings, striking out nine against one walk and four hits.  Phil Maton will throw the top of the ninth for San Diego.  Ted Leitner will call it.

Ervin is back out for the ninth.  He already leads the majors in complete games, with four.  José Pírela bats.  Pírela, FO 3.  Solarte also pops out to Mauer, though that pop-fly stayed in fair territory.  Wil Myers with two out.  On the 110th pitch, Myers goes 8.  Santana closes out his major league-leading fifth complete game.

And...we're...bridging.  

Tigers at Yankees is 2-0 bottom seven but it's in a rain delay.  That's the thing about covered bridges:  in most cases they are fun to look at but they aren't all that practical, and might not even be operational.  I don't know if this Yankees game will resume or not.  Or, if it did resume but only once the later slate struck up, then what difference will it have made that this game hung in abeyance?  Well, it's there, as a game, the slate is still alive, not empty.  It's a reason to stay tuned, to be on alert for the next pitch, which could occur at any moment.

Later, for sure.

It was a covered bridge; the bridge did cross over.  I am now, at 19:23, watching the top of the ninth in the Bronx.  Betances works to Mahtook, a breaking ball for a strike, 2-and-1.  The next pitch is outside and back to the screen.  Mahtook walks.  Incredibly there are still people in the stands at this game that was originally to have started over seven hours ago.  James McCann, 4-3.  To the bottom of the ninth, DET 2-1.

Warm it up, Kris.  Kris Bryant bats in the HotCut, 8.  There is no score in the 'Cut, bottom 3, Godley for AriZona, Arrieta for Chicago, at Wrigley.  RiZzo walks, Zobrist moves down to second.  Godley is playing with matches.  Schwarber now.  He bunted to get about to lead off the second.  He's batting .192.  Down to a knee, Schwarber looks bad on a tight curve in the dirt.  The Cubs have sold every other prospect in their organization, save Ian Happ.  They are all in on Schwarber and that is looking like a mistake.

Arrieta gets Goldschmidt to conclude the top of the fourth.

Through four in the 'Cut, no score.  "Arrieta and Godley have been terrific so far."

Bottom five in the HotCut, Godley deals to Arrieta.  "Nothin' but bagels so far."  The skies there threaten but no rain.  It's the same here, incidentally, thunder thunder, dry.  Arrieta, 9.  Zobrist gets into one, back back back back, 8.  To the ivy, no more.




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