Chase Anderson flirts with no-hitter as Diamondbacks shut down Giants
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.
San Francisco Giants pitchers may have cornered the market on no-hitters, but that doesn’t mean others can’t at least flirt with one. On Friday night at AT&T Park, Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Chase Anderson did just that and very nearly flipped the script on San Francisco, taking a no-hit bid into the seventh inning only to lose it on Buster Posey’s comebacker that deflected off his leg.
Anderson would go on to finish the inning before turning it over to Arizona’s bullpen, which continued the dominance and held on to the 1-0 victory.
Matched up against World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner, Anderson didn’t necessarily approach the game like a pitcher with little margin for error. He was aggressive and not afraid to hit bats, as his two strikeouts would attest, which worked to his advantage. He only allowed three baserunners overall.
Bumgarner held up his end too, allowing one run on nine hits over eight innings. Ender Inciarte knocked home Wellington Castillo with the lone tally with a second inning single. Castillo had three knocks, including the game’s only extra-base hit, a double.
With the win, Anderson improved to 2-1 while lowering his ERA to 2.82. Bumgarner fell to 7-3 and lowered his ERA to 3.16.
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PIRATES SCORE ONCE, WIN IN 13 INNINGS
An early shower from Mother Nature guaranteed a long night in Pittsburgh. The Phillies and Pirates bats then took things to an entirely different level, failing to produce a run until Starling Marte’s walkoff single in bottom of the 13th.
The two sides actually combined for 24 hits, so it wasn’t as if the offenses were non-existent. It just took a really long time to put two hits close enough together to produce a run. The winning rally consisted of Chris Stewart, Pittsburgh’s final available position player, reaching on an infield single. Stewart advanced to second on Gregory Polanco’s one-out ground out, and then scored when Marte’s single squirted through the middle of the infield.
The 1-0 victory was Pittsburgh’s first walkoff winner of the season. This was also the third game in MLB this season to enter the 13th inning scoreless. The home team has now won all three times.
There’s also this.
Close enough.
DAVID PRICE TOSSES SHUTOUT, MIGUEL CABRERA HOMERS FOR TIGERS
The Detroit Tigers ran a two-man show Friday night at Comerica Park, and that’s all they needed to knock off the Cleveland Indians, 4-0.
Left-hander David Price went the distance on his third career shutout, holding Cleveland to seven hits while striking out eight. Price needed just 93 pitches to complete the effort, which is qualifies this as a Greg Maddux special. Maddux tossed 14 career shutouts in less than 100 pitches, which doubled the next closest guy on this rare list dating back to 1973.
[On this week’s StewPod: Should fans really pick the MLB All-Stars?]
Price also went the distance in his last outing against the Chicago White Sox, giving him back-to-back complete games for the first time since 2013.
As noted, Miguel Cabrera provided the offense, cracking a 450-foot three-run homer in the sixth and RBI double in the eighth. He’s hitting .330 on the season with 43 RBIs.
BARTOLO WINS NINTH GAME, GOES HITLESS
New York Mets right-hander Bartolo Colon has been making more headlines for his improved hitting than his consistently solid pitching of late. In fact, Colon actually had a three-game hitting streak coming into Friday that started immediately following his 42nd birthday.
That is definitely headline worthy. However, what many might not realize is that Colon has also been racking up wins. He entered with eight, which was good for second in MLB, and then made it a league best nine after tossing innings of two-run ball in the Mets 5-3 win over the Atlanta Braves.
The win ties Colon with Felix Hernandez, who was rocked on Friday, and Gerrit Cole. Colon allowed six hits while striking out three, but did not record any hits of his own. That streak is over, but the Mets get a big victory that extends their lead in the NL East to 1 1/2 over the Washington Nationals.
On the Braves side, Alex Wood took the loss after allowing four runs in 6 1/3 innings. Nick Markakis had three chances with the bases loaded, but failed to deliver by grounding out three times. That included a game-ending inning double play with the winning run aboard.
Want to see more from Friday’s slate of games? Check out our scoreboard.
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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
