September 6, RatCut: This HotCut Was All About the Pitchers.

I have seen the last of the early action.  Brandon Phillips went 4-3, Chris Hatcher on the mound to close it out for Oakland, the A's over the Angels 3-1.  It is 17:49 central daylight; sixteen minutes until first pitch in Pittsburgh, a game against the Cubs, something we like to call the HotCut.  Quintana and Cole in that one.  The Cubs hold a four-game lead in the NL Central, Milwaukee and St Louis in a virtual tie for second place following Milwaukee's loss today in Cincinnati.

Four games are in the books.  I listened to half of Angels at A's.  Nothing really stands out—Jed Lowrie has 42 doubles, though.  I could hardly believe that.

Q

José Quintana delivers to David Freese.  The count runneth full.  Continuing on a theme from yesterday, there aren't many fans in the stands in Pittsburgh.  Freese fouls off another pitch to the right.  It's quiet there.  I have the game on ballpark sound.  Freese looks at an inside offering, he's rung up.  That pitch was inches off the plate, he says in the dugout, to anyone who'll listen.  He holds his hands about yay far apart.  José Osuna follows up with a groundout but Sean Rodríguez rips the first pitch he sees—a hanger—into left.  Here's Jordy Mercer, .734 OPS.  Quintana's breaker clocks in at 76 mph, I guess that's a curve—it would be an unusually slow slider.  I'll see how Brooks has it classified when I type this up.

There are two outs.  This is the bottom of the second inning, there is no score.  Mercer FC 5-4, Bryant opting for the easy out, inning over.  Smoke starts a-risin' from the engine as the Cole Train starts slowly making its way down the track....

'Cutch

He's been quiet lately.  Here, he leads off the bottom of the sixth in Pittsburgh, there's still no score.  A full count begets an Avila visit to the mound.  Quintana is unsure of how to put McCutchen away.  Another foul.  He singles to right center on the tenth pitch of his at-bat.  Quintana has thrown 89 pitches.  David Freese stands in.  Héctor Rondón warms.

I took Hugo out into the backyard, made tea, got floss.  Quintana induced a 6-5-4 double play and then another grounder to find his way out of what was nearly a messy inning.  He'll be done for the night now, having thrown 105 scoreless pitches.

Cole

The top of the seventh inning ends with a Jason Heyward flyout to right.  Cole had walked Ian Happ but was otherwise clean in the inning.  José Osuna impressed me by getting his body in front of an Alex Avila smash to first, Avila 3-U.  Cole is at 90 pitches.  I suspect he will be back out there for the eighth.

Cole is through eight: 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 8 K, 108 pitches.

Top 9

Rizzo walked, Leonys Martin ran for him, stole second.  Then Alex Avila hooked a Daniel Hudson delivery over and into a major gap within a strange defensive shift Pittsburgh has deployed.  The right fielder was playing in right center; the second baseman was in shallow right.  Avila put the ball in the right field corner and easily made third for a go-ahead triple.  Wade Davis will be out shortly to try and finish this off.

Wade Davis

Freese is in the hole.  He can't lay off 91 diving away, he tries to check his swing but it's a lost cause.  He's out on three pitches.  I guess that's a cutter.  Josh Bell skies a ball to shallow left.  Báez has it.  Davis has two outs on six pitches.  Here's Jaso.  It's impossible to have a more open stance—his stance is open 24/7.  His front foot, on a tiptoe, is practically out of the batter's box.  He steps out of his shoes as he swings through strike two.  A foul.  97 misses just up, just away.  The sixth pitch of the at-bat is pretty straight and right in Jaso's wheelhouse, but he doesn't touch it.  Ballgame.

The Cubs win the QuietCut, 1-0.