Live blog: Keep up with the day's best action
Welcome to Friday, which means lots of things. For Major League Baseball, it means all 30 teams are in action, many of them starting up new series for the weekend.
We’re set to see some great ones this weekend, too. In a battle for first-place that will certainly have pine tar on the mind of many, the Yankees visit the Royals with Michael Pineda on the hill and George Brett presumably in the ballpark or at least with the Royals in spirit. Nationals–Padres is a late-night treat, just as Pirates–Cubs as the lone day game is a nice matinee.
Probably the biggest series, though, comes in St. Louis. The Cardinals bring in the best record in baseball while the Tigers are the four-time defending AL Central champs and sit with a 21-14 record at present. This is also, many might recall, a rematch of the 2006 World Series. And 1968 … and 1934!
Anyway, the Friday matchup Shane Greene against Carlos Martinez, both of whom seem pretty unpredictable heading in. We do have a nice pair of elite hitters in Matt Carpenter (.322/.387/.612, 22 extra-base hits in 30 games) and Miguel Cabrera (.328/.437/.568, 8 HR, 26 RBI).
Miguel Cabrera’s Tigers and Matt Carpenter’s Cardinals square off. (USATSI)
Anyway, welcome to The Eye. As is the normal drill, we’ll be updating this thing with recaps, milestones, highlights, injuries, news and rumors throughout the day. Stick around and keep refreshing or back later — maybe even Saturday morning, when you’ll find the completed effort.
Friday’s MLB action (all times ET) (Full scoreboard)
Pirates (Jeff Locke) at Cubs (Kyle Hendricks), 2:20pm
Angels (Jered Weaver) at Orioles (Wei-Yin Chen), 7:05pm
Diamondbacks (Chase Anderson) at Phillies (Chad Billingsley), 7:05
Giants (Madison Bumgarner) at Reds (Jason Marquis), 7:10pm
Brewers (Kyle Lohse) at Mets (Bartolo Colon), 7:10pm
Braves (Julio Teheran) at Marlins (David Phelps), 7:10pm
Indians (Bruce Chen) at Rangers (Wandy Rodriguez), 8:05pm
Yankees (Michael Pineda) at Royals (Chris Young), 8:10pm
Rays (Jake Odorizzi) at Twins (Phil Hughes), 8:10pm
Blue Jays (R.A. Dickey) at Astros (Dallas Keuchel), 8:10pm
Tigers (Shane Greene) at Cardinals (Carlos Martinez), 8:15pm
White Sox (Carlos Rodon) at Athletics (Jesse Hahn), 10:05pm
Red Sox (Clay Buchholz) at Mariners (J.A. Happ), 10:10pm
Rockies (Eddie Butler) at Dodgers (Clayton Kershaw), 10:10pm
Nationals (Jordan Zimmermann) at Padres (Odrisamer Despaigne), 10:10pm
Milestone Watch
Longest active hit streak: It’s still Wilson Ramos and he’s now to 16 games.
Possibly more to come later.
Daily Awards
Throwback photo of the day
According to the Chicago Historical Society, this photograph of #WrigleyField was taken exactly 100 years ago today pic.twitter.com/de8vYU1ZOE
— Wrigley Field (@WrigleyBlog) May 15, 2015
More to come.
Injuries, News & Rumors
HEYMAN: There’s a lot of info from all around the league in Jon Heyman’s weekly Inside Baseball column.
Mariners/Red Sox: An initial report Friday (Gordon Edes) said the Red Sox offered the Mariners Jackie Bradley Jr. for Charlie Furbush, but the Mariners declined to do the deal. Edes has since reported that Red Sox GM Ben Cherington denied the report.
Padres: Melvin Upton Jr. (formerly B.J.) is ready to begin a rehab assignment (utsandiego.com).
Phillies: Third baseman Maikel Franco has been called up from the minors.
Looking Ahead to Saturday’s MLB action (all times ET)
Not enough day games for our tastes, but that only means more time spent outside enjoying (hopefully!) nice weather before coming in to watch the games at night, right?
Braves (Alex Wood) at Marlins (Mat Latos), 1:05
Rays (Alex Colome) at Twins (Trevor May), 2:10
Tigers (David Price) at Cardinals (Tyler Lyons), 2:15
Pirates (Gerrit Cole) at Cubs (Jon Lester), 4:05
Angels (Matt Shoemaker) at Orioles (Bud Norris), 7:05
Diamondbacks (Archie Bradley) at Phillies (Jerome Williams), 7:05
Blue Jays (Marco Estrada) at Astros (Scott Feldman), 7:10
Yankees (CC Sabathia) at Royals (Danny Duffy), 7:10
Giants (Ryan Vogelsong) at Reds (Mike Leake), 7:10
Brewers (Matt Garza) at Mets (Jacob de Grom), 7:10
Indians (Danny Salazar) at Rangers (Colby Lewis), 8:05
Nationals (Max Scherzer) at Padres (Andrew Cashner), 8:40
White Sox (John Danks) at A’s (Jesse Chavez), 9:05
Red Sox (Rick Porcello) at Mariners (Felix Hernandez), 9:10
Rockies (Jorge De La Rosa) at Dodgers (Zack Greinke), 9:10
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