2019 PLAYER / PITCHER OF THE WEEK #8

Final Score: Chicago 2 – Dallas 1

Win: Noah Syndergaard 4-2 (3.65)
Loss: Chase Anderson 5-3 (4.50)
Save: Aroldis Chapman #9

Final Score: Dallas 3 – Chicago 2

Win: Patrick Corbin 6-2 (2.92)
Loss: C.C. Sabathia 6-2 (2.10)
Save: Edwin Diaz #15

Final Score: Chicago 2 – Dallas 1

Win: Matt Harvey 4-1 (3.12)
Loss: Luis Giolito 4-3 (4.57)

Final Score: Chicago 11 – Dallas 1

Win: Lance McCullers 3-0 (2.33)
Loss: Dallas Keuchel 4-4 (2.98)

Final Score: Dallas 3 – Chicago 2

Win: Brent Suter 3-3 (5.40)
Loss: Dellin Betances 0-6 (7.04)
Save: Jose Alvarez #2

Final Score: Dallas 7 – Chicago 4

Win: Kevin McCarthy 2-1 (4.76)
Loss: Victor Alcantara 1-3 (6.19)
Save: Edwin Diaz #16

CJ Cron (12) opened the scoring for Portland with a solo shot off Ryu with two outs in the first inning and then an RBI double by Jose Bautista in the second inning drove home Evan Longoria to extend the lead to 2-0.

Matt Adams cut the lead to 2-1 in the ‘Coots half of the 2nd with a leadoff homer that crawled its way over the right field wall. Adams’ homer was his 5th and was a nice way to work his way back to the lineup in his first at bat over a month since being demoted to the minors.

Anthony Rendon evened things up as Kyle Freeland was uncharacteristically charitable giving up base hits (nine in 6-1/3 innings) with his 6th home run of the season. Freeland still showed characteristically good control walking just one while striking out 8, but in the bottom of the 7th with one out gave up a double to Lorenzo Cain who scored when the next hitter, David Peralta, lined one over Cron.

Ryu closed out his night with a scoreless 7th inning and finished allowing just the two runs on three hits while striking out seven and walking just one.

Steve Cishek came in and held the Lumber Jax scoreless in the 8th and then Brandon Morrow gave his team fits when he issued two walks (Cron and Michael Conforto) with none out, but then struck out Longoria and got Jose Martinez and David Freitas to pop out to the infield to end it and narrowly save the Bandicoots’ 3-2 win. It was Morrow’s 5th save of the season.

AJ Ellis and Cain for Bethesda were the only two players to have more than one hit in the game for either team.

Diaz’s 5th homer of the year almost never happened as Martini had been having a good game (2/4 with a double), but McFarland (1-2) was just too tough against lefties for Bethesda to take the chance.

Yoshihisa Hirano (2-1) got the being in the right place at the right time for Bethesda by tossing a scoreless 9th.

The Bandicoots came out lucky in this one as Alex Cobb was bashed around but good for five innings before the Bethesda manager’s stomach gave out. In five innings, Cobb gave up nine hits and a walk but somehow managed to hold the Lumber Jax to just three runs – probably in no small part due to the fact he gave up just one extrabase hit (a bloop double to Wilmer Difo in the 2nd inning).

Portland’s Jose Martinez was tops in the game with three hits (all singles), but he did not factor into any scoring and in fact struck out with the bases loaded and two outs in the 4th inning. Michael Conforto was 1/3 with two walks and an RBI. Difo and CJ Cron each had two hits for Portland as well.

The Lumber Jax led 3-2 as late as the 7th inning but David Peralta’s double high off the centre field wall off Jack Flaherty tied things up when he drove in Martini.

Gant (1-0) went six innings allowing two runs on six hits and a walk, but gave up a monumental two-run home run to Jose Martinez (12) in the first inning before settling down the rest of the way.

The Bandicoots evened things up with two runs of their own in the bottom of the first inning when David Peralta smacked his 11th of the season off Ross Stripling after Nick Martini opened the inning by reaching first base on the Lumber Jax pitcher’s lousy throw to first that pulled CJ Cron off the bag.

Stripling never made it past the sixth batter he faced as his arm gave out and he was pulled from the game and was expected to be out of action for two weeks. Anthony Senzatela replaced Stripling and had no problems in the 2nd inning but gave up a couple of runs on three hits in the 3rd inning.

Bethesda then teed off Senzatela’s replacement, Tyler Clippard, with a solo homer by Robinson Chirinos (7) in the 5th and then back-to-back shots by Nick Martini (1) and Anthony Rendon (7) in the 6th.

Michael conforto (7) and Tyler Saladino (3) homered off Tyler Thornburg late in the game to make it closer as the Red Sox reliever logged three innings to earn his first save in his first appearance of the season (uh … don’t mind the 6.00 ERA).

Buehler isolated the Bethesda damage to a double in the first inning by Nick Martini and a 5th inning double by Trevor Story but was otherwise completely in command. He walked just one while fanning six through his seven innings on the mound.

Tyson Ross was no slouch himself for Bethesda allowing only four hits over 7-1/3 innings, but he finally ran out of gas in the 8th. With the score tied 0-0, he walked Evan Longoria and then gave up a triple to Wilmer Difo. Ross then walked Jose Bautista to make it 1st and 3rd with one out. Steve Cishek entered and got Adrian Gonzalez to drive a hard grounder to Trevor Story at shortstop who then gunned the ball to the plate where Difo was tagged out by Robinson Chirinos as he tried to score. Kevin Pillar was up next and ripped Cishek’s pitch down the 3rd base line past Anthony Rendon which allowed Tyler Saladino to scamper home (he was brought in to pinch run for Bautista).

Most of the runs in this game came late. The two teams entered the 7th inning tied 2-2, but the Lumber Jax pounced on Jonathan holder for three runs in the 7th when CJ Cron smacked his 13th of the year with two men aboard. The Bandicoots returned the favor in the 8th with three runs of their own off Blaine Hardy when they played small ball and rattled off four singles off the lefty reliever.

Hernan Perez and Difo each had three hits in the game for Portland while Max Stassi had three hits (one more than he had all season going into the game) for Bethesda.

Despite getting the no-decision, Portland starter German Marquez was brilliant giving up just two runs including a homer by Ryan O’Hearn (3) over 6-1/3 innings in which he struck out 10 and walked only one.

Portland’s run in the 7th came after Jose Martinez smacked a one-out double off the centre field wall and then came around to score on a single by Freddy Galvis. Jose Bautista had a pinch hit single in the 8th for Portland but that would be all that the Lumber Jax would get as Brandon Morrow pitched a perfect 9th to nail down his 6th save.

Kyle Freeland was almost as good starting for Portland and left the game after the 7th inning with the score tied 1-1. He gave up just the one run on four singles and a walk, but had trouble with the punchout registering just a single K in the game.

The Bandicoots celebrated Freeland’s departure from the game by getting a couple of runs off Juan Minaya including a tie-breaking pinch hit homer by Ryan O’Hearn (4) and then an insurance run when Jon Jay doubled and then scored on Anthony Rendon’s single up the middle.