Kris Bryant steals run, Cubs victory with ninth-inning hustle
Take a look around the league with Big League Stew’s daily wrap up. We’ll hit on all of the biggest moments from the day that you may have missed, while providing highlights, photos and interesting stats.
Chicago Cubs rookie Kris Bryant has yet to homer through his first 19 career games, which is pretty surprising considering he hit 43 homers in 138 minor-league games last season and nine during the Cactus League this spring.
But it doesn’t matter one bit to the Cubs. Not as long as Bryant’s contributing positively to the cause in other categories, and that’s exactly what he’s done. Some of those categories don’t show up directly as stats either, though they certainly help. We’re talking about especially about his patience and above all his hustle.
There hasn’t been a ground ball yet that Bryant didn’t hustle trying to beat out, and that ended up leading directly to a Cubs run, which helped secure a 7-6 victory on Friday night.
With the Cubs already leading 6-3 in the ninth, Bryant hit a grounder to shortstop that looked like a routine out. However, busted it up the line, beating the throw from Jean Segura by half a step. Bryant was originally called, but replay showed Bryant’s foot tapping the bag first. This allowed Addison Russell to score the critical run.
In the bottom half, Milwaukee rallied for three runs on Ryan Braun’s home run and actually put the winning run on base before closer Hector Rondon shut the door.
Bryant’s hustle was the difference. In a game Chicago hit four home runs, it was that extra effort that earned the most important run and one extra victory could loom large five months from today.
Yeah, he’s the real deal.
TIGERS WIN ON WALKOFF ERROR
This Tigers-Royals rivalry is pretty fun. In a crazy back-and-forth game started by ace David Price and Yordano Ventura, the homestanding Tigers ended up with a 6-5 victory thanks to a walkoff throwing error by Royals reliever Yohan Pino.
The ending actually came pretty quick. After Anthony Gose doubled leading off, Ian Kinsler laid down a sacrifice bunt that Pino should have allowed third baseman Christian Colon to field. Instead, he made an ill-advised play and even more ill-advised throw, which sailed past first baseman Eric Hosmer.
Kinsler was credited with a hit, his fourth of the game. The error was charged on the throw because of the run scoring from second.
Earlier, the Royals had rallied from a 4-0 deficit against Price to take the lead in the seventh. Price was ultimately forced from the game after Alex Gordon’s go-ahead single. While covering the plate, he stepped on Gordon’s bat and tweaked his hamstring. Preliminary reports are encouraging, but hamstrings can be tricky to deal with. We’ll be keeping an eye out for updates on Saturday.
In the the meantime, the Tigers have leapfrogged Kansas City into first place in the AL Central. The teams will meet again on Saturday and Sunday.
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TORII HUNTER TURNS BACK THE CLOCK
The Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians are two teams going in opposite directions, which are opposite of the directions everybody anticipated them going.
With a 9-3 victory on Friday, the Twins have now won eight out of nine to move within a game and a half of first place. Cleveland, on the other hand, has lost nine of 13. They’re a full eight games behind Detroit.
Leading the way for the winners was 39-year-old Torii Hunter, who had four hits and finished just a triple shy of the cycle. Hunter launched a solo home run off Trevor Bauer in the fifth, which extended Minnesota’s lead to 4-2 and answered a high and tight pitch from Bauer earlier in the at-bat.
One inning later, Hunter hit his second double, which cleared the bases and put the game away. He had one more chance for the cycle in the ninth, but settled for a four-pitch walk.
Mike Pelfrey picked up his third win on the hill, pitching seven innings of two-run ball. He’s 3-0 with a terrific 2.62 ERA.
JERED WEAVER HURLS FIRST SHUTOUT SINCE 2012
Concerns about Jered Weaver’s decreasing velocity were temporarily put on hold on Friday night. The 32-year-old right-hander played the role of a crafty ace, shutting out the Houston Astros on six hits in the Angels 2-0 win.
The shutout was Weaver’s first since Aug. 6, 2012. He didn’t walk a batter and retired 19 of the last 21 Houston batters. But the new concern will come in the fact that he needed 120 pitches. That’s a heavy workload for a pitcher whose durability has become a concern, but he looked no worse for the wear on Friday.
Weaver’s outing was particularly important on the heels of Thursday’s disappointing loss. In that game, closer Huston Street blew a 2-0 ninth-inning lead. On Friday, Weaver did what aces do, and that’s handle business himself.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
