HotCuts & Bridges

There weren't any afternoon games on today's slate but I did get a text about baseball at 13:31 central daylight:  BrewCrew HotCut. I am at my parents' place watching the Diamondbacks visiting the Cardinals.  My uncle is here watching the game, too.  It's 1-0 St Louis, bottom eight—end of eight.  Trevor Rosenthal will reprise his eighth inning role of flawless out-getter.  Cecil had put a couple of men on but Rosenthal fanned Pollock; got Peralta 4-2; then fanned Goldschmidt on an unchecked swing after a pretty bad ball-strike call on a pitch that went as strike two. Earlier in the game Luke Voit sent a screamer right back at Robbie Ray, who took the liner clean off the side of his head.  ScuZzer caught the ball at third before it landed, retiring Voit 1-5.  But Ray was hurt, bleeding, writhing.  It was scary and the replay was sickening.  Rosenthal throws a ball past Lamb at 101 m.p.h. and this game is over.  He went two innings and...

At 9:34 central daylight I got a tip from my 'Cut man: Toronto HotCut.  The game, at first blush, looked innocent enough: Marcus Stroman and the Blue Jays hosting Sean Manaea and the Oakland Athletics.  I write to you from the bottom of the eighth, where the Jays trail 4-3.  Stroman lasted only 4 and 2/3rds innings pitched not because of the career-high six walks he issued but because he got thrown out two pitches after John Gibbons was thrown out and then within second his battery mate, Russell Martin, was also tossed.  I watched that sequence on replay, after reading an account of Stroman charging at home plate umpire Will Little. I have observed over the course of the season that Will Little has irritated plenty of players and managers with his ball and strike calls.  I've watched at least a couple of games where Little had both teams upset with him.  So I am not surprised he is the umpire in the thick of this.  Per Buck Martinez on the RSN TV fee...

Among the last words I heard early this morning as I tried to go back to sleep, "Jean Jean, the hitting machine!"  That was approximately 1:50 central daylight as the Mariners were able to score two runs in the bottom of the 13th to best Boston.  The first run—the tying run—scored on a Doug Fister wild pitch.  Segura's walk-off infield single brought in the winner. No word yet on the HotCut as of 9:38 central daylight. At 9:53, the 'Cut has landed:  NolaCut. * Later.  We are bridging, Bronx style .  Reds at Yanks.  Through six-and-a-half innings it's 4-2 Yanks and it's the only game in town.  Two games start in thirty-nine minutes.  That means this game needs to move pretty slowly the rest of the way, especially with the home team leading.  The Reds need to make something happen. Or, the Yankees would have to churn some clock by sending many men to the plate.  They have scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh.  ...

We talked on the phone this morning.  I called you yesterday, we spoke for only a few minutes.  You called me back today at 8:48 central daylight as you were driving into work (easy everyone, I'm pretty sure he was using a hands-free setup).  You promised a HotCut delivery 'later on'. At 10:02 central daylight, I got the delivery.  Seattle HotCut.  It is Drew Pomeranz for Boston visiting King Felix Hernandez and the Mariners tonight from the Pacific Northwest.  This is Felix's first HotCut of the year; it is the fourth for DrewPom. Long before that it will be the Cubs and the White Sox from Wrigley Field.  I hope to bring you some of that action.  Yoan Moncada now, ya hear ! Willson Contreras has homered off of Carlos Rodón and the Cubs lead the White Sox 3-0 after one inning in the Crosstown Series.  Contreras now has 16 homers (half are against St. Louis) and he is becoming a real force for the Cubs, per Pat Hughes on the CubCast. In...

At 9:48 central daylight you declared, "It's the Gut vs the Toad!"  That would be Bartolo Colón, now of the Minnesota Twins, matched against Hyun-Jin Ryu of the Los Angeles Dodgers.  That game begins at 21:10 at Chavez Ravine.  A nickname The Gut for Colón is self-explanatory is self-explanatory, if you watch him work.  The Toad sobriquet for Ryu I will briefly attempt to explain.  It harkens back to when Ryu first showed up at a Dodgers Spring Training workout .  As I remember it, there was a report from that workout that Ryu had difficulty keeping up with his teammates in completing the workout.  I slapped the 'Toad' label on him in part as a reference to George Steinbrenner's slam of the late Hideki Irabu when The Boss called Irabu a " fat pussy toad " after a Spring Training play in which Irabu failed to cover first on a ground ball hit to the first baseman. Toads, most of which are nocturnal, are asleep right now but there is some day baseba...

It's Cards-Cubs, Sunday Night Baseball.  José Quintana and Michael Wacha.  Marp reaches on a Báez error, E-4.  Pham goes 9 on a Heyward catch that Cradio described as awkward.  It's 19:13 central daylight.  Fowler goes 9, too.  Gyorko, 0-for his last-7, takes a strike.  Gyorko doubles to the wall in left but 7-6-2 Schwarber relays to Russell who gets Marp at the plate, not close it seems.  With two outs, Marp was running with the pitch so how does he get thrown out? No score after one inning.  While driving in Illinois south of Quincy today, we approached a draw bridge over the Illinois River.  It dawned on me that the bridge I've dubbed either an extension bridge or a suspension bridge—defined as the slate's sole active game, which so happens to have gone into extra innings—is a game that its teams have played to a draw.  It should be called a Draw Bridge. Grichuk homers, staking St. Louis to a 2-0 lead.  He has homered in...