Maikel Franco breaks up no-hit bid, later hits tying home run off Aroldis Chapman
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.
Have a day, Maikel Franco.
The Philadelphia Phillies rookie third baseman didn’t look a bit intimidated or over matched in two critical late-inning at-bats on Wednesday night, the results of which proved to be the difference in Philadelphia 5-4 come-from-behind victory.
WIth two outs in the seventh inning, Franco came to bat against Cincinnati Reds starter Mike Leake with his team on the wrong side of a no-hit bid and took care of the situation, lining a clean single to center field.
In the minds of many Phillies fans, preventing a no-hitter was probably enough to win them over for the evening, but he wasn’t done there. With Philadelphia trailing 4-0 in the ninth, they put together a rally against Leake and Red closer Arodlis Chapman, which positioned Franco as the tying run. Incredibly, he came through with a three-run homer that sent the game to extra innings and moved him into a rare group.
And make no mistake, it was a no doubter.
Very impressive. But it could have been easily forgotten had Philadelphia gone on to lose.
They didn’t, so it won’t be. The winning run scored in the 11th when Cincinnati pitcher Ryan Mattheus couldn’t handle Freddy Galvis’ grounder, allowing Cody Asche to race home.
A good night for the young Fightins’.
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PIRATES COMPLETE SWEEP IN SAN FRANCISCO
The Pittsburgh Pirates got a small bit of redemption against the San Francisco Giants this week after dropping the win-or-go-home NL wild-card game to the same Giants last October. With a 5-2 victory on Wedesdany, Pittsburgh completed a three-game series sweep while pushing the Giants losing streak to five.
As has been the case throughout the series, Pittsburgh won with contributions from all over the roster. That includes starter Francisco Liriano, who tossed seven innings of one-run ball while adding a hit with the bat. Jordy Mercer connected for his second home run, which gave Pittsburgh its first lead in the fifth. In the ninth, they added three insurance runs on Francisco Cervelli’s RBI single and Jung Ho Kang’s pinch-hit two-run double.
The victory is Pittsburgh 11th in 13 games and moves them to a season-best five games over .500. They are six games behind the division-leading St. Louis Cardinals.
For San Francisco, the losing comes on the heel of taking over first place from the Los Angeles Dodgers for the first time on May 29. They’re now 2 1/2 or three games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, who ….
The Giants will get a day off to regroup on Thursday before traveling to Philadelphia for the weekend.
[Listen up! We’ve got Rays star Evan Longoria on this week’s StewPod]
SONNY GRAY CARVES UP TIGERS
On a day with several impressive pitching performances, Oakland A’s right-hander Sonny Gray topped the list in a 6-1 victory against the Detroit Tigers.
In eight scoreless innings, Gray allowed just two singles while striking out seven and walking one. In the process he lowered his season ERA to 1.65 over 82 innings. That means he’s been darn near untouchable, and his 7-2 record for the 22-33 A’s backs that up. He’s been the one steady force in a season that’s traded toward lost.
Actually, there is one more driving force for Oakland. That would be outfielder Billy Burns, who’s now hitting .328 in his rookie season. He provided the biggest hit in Wednesday’s win with a bases clearing triple in the second.
LANCE MCCULLERS GOES THE DISTANCE
Speaking of dazzling pitching performance, Houston Astros rookie Lance McCullers was in Sonny Gray’s zone, tossing a complete game in a 3-1 win against the Baltimore Orioles.
In his fourth career start, McCullers needed just 107 pitches to go the distance. He fanned 11 and allowed just one run on four hits. He even got a vote of confidence from manager A.J. Hinch, who visited him in the ninth hoping to find his young right-hander anxious to finish what he started.
He wasn’t disappointed.
”I went out wanting to leave him in and asked him how much he had left in his tank and he said he had plenty left,” Hinch said. ”And I told him: ‘Good because he’s going to finish it. This was his hitter to get, his game to get.”’
Finish it he did with a game-ending strikeout of Chris Davis. With the win, McCullers improves to 2-0 with an outstanding 1.88 ERA.
The Astros moved to 34-20 and opened up a six-game advantage in the AL West.
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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
