Live blog: Keeping up with Saturday's action
It’s Saturday, which means a full docket of wholesome, nutritious baseball! Of particular note are a clash between AL East blood rivals in Boston, a key NL Central encounter between the Pirates and Cardinals in St. Louis (Friday night’s tilt between these two teams had a September intensity to it), another match-up between the disappointing Nats and upstart Mets and a game between the two powers atop the AL Central (the Royals have taken the first two of this four-game set with the Tigers).
The headliner, though, is a game involving … the Astros? Yea and also verily: The Astros at this writing have a healthy 5.0-game lead in the AL West and against the Mariners on this fine day will be gunning for their ninth straight win. As well, their 16-7 record is backed by the fifth-best run differential in all of baseball. Of those 23 games the ‘Stros have played, just three have come against a team (the Rangers) presently projected by FanGraphs to finish the season with a losing record, so the schedule thus far hasn’t been easy.
To “bottom line” it, over at FanGraphs coming into the season they (very reasonably) gave the Astros just a 14.6 percent chance of making the playoffs. Baseball events to date, however, have raised that figure to 41.7 percent. Needless to say, that’s a significant leap forward in less than a month’s time. All of this, of course, has been achieved against the backdrop of a deep rebuild that’s seen the Astros lose 416 games over the last four full seasons.
Things change, you know.
The Astros, with good reason, are pretty happy these days. (USATSI)
Saturday’s MLB action and TV listings (all times ET) (Full scoreboard)
Yankees (Nathan Eovaldi) at Red Sox (Wade Miley), 1:35
White Sox (Hector Noesi) at Twins (Ricky Nolasco), 2:10
Pirates (Francisco Liriano) at Cardinals (John Lackey), 2:15
Brewers (Mike Fiers) at Cubs (Jake Arrieta), 2:20
Angels (Hector Santiago) at Giants (Tim Hudson), 4:05
Blue Jays (Aaron Sanchez) at Indians (Corey Kluber), 4:10
Phillies (Cole Hamels) at Marlins (Dan Haren), 4:10
Rays (Chris Archer) at Orioles (Miguel Gonzalez), 7:05
Tigers (David Price) at Royals (Edinson Volquez), 7:10
Nationals (Gio Gonzalez) at Mets (Jon Niese), 7:10
Reds (Jason Marquis) at Braves (Eric Stults), 7:10
Mariners (Taijuan Walker) at Astros (Collin McHugh), 7:10
Athletics (Drew Pomeranz) at Rangers (Nick Martinez), 8:05
Rockies (Jorge De La Rosa) at Padres (Brandon Morrow), 8:40
Diamondbacks (Jeremy Hellickson) at Dodgers (Scott Baker), 9:10
Milestone Watch
Possibly to come.
Daily Awards
Best baseball-metal fusion logo
Always a competitive category, but we have a winner …
Injuries, News & Rumors
– Brewers: Have activated CF Carlos Gomez from the disabled list.
– Red Sox: Called up C Blake Swihart and placed C Ryan Hanigan on the DL.
– Yankees: A source tells the New York Daily News that the team still intends to fight their contractual obligation to pay Alex Rodriguez a $6-million bonus for tying Willie Mays on the all-time home run list.
Looking Ahead to Sunday’s MLB action (all times ET)
As usual, it’s a full Sunday slate with plenty of day baseball …
Blue Jays (Drew Hutchison) at Indians (Trevor Bauer), 1:10
Nationals (Doug Fister) at Mets (Dillon Gee), 1:10
Phillies (Severino Gonzalez) at Marlins (Jarred Cosart), 1:10
Rays (Nathan Karns) at Orioles (Wei-Yin Chen), 1:35
Reds (Johnny Cueto) at Braves (Julio Teheran), 1:35
Mariners (J.A. Happ) at Astros (Roberto Hernandez), 2:10
White Sox (John Danks) at Twins (Mike Pelfrey), 2:10
Tigers (Anibal Sanchez) at Royals (Jeremy Guthrie), 2:10
Pirates (Vance Worley) at Cardinals (Michael Wacha), 2:15
Brewers (Jimmy Nelson) at Cubs (Jason Hammel), 2:20
Athletics (Sonny Gray) at Rangers (Yovani Gallardo), 3:05
Angels (Jered Weaver) at Giants (Tim Lincecum), 4:05
Rockies (Tyler Matzek) at Padres (James Shields), 4:10
Diamondbacks (Chase Anderson) at Dodgers (Brett Anderson), 4:10
Yankees (Adam Warren) at Red Sox (Joe Kelly), 8:05
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
