Todd Frazier stays red-hot, hits walk-off grand slam for Reds
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.
If we couldn’t convince you earlier on Wednesday that Cincinnati Reds third baseman Todd Frazier was worthy of starting the All-Star game at the Great American Ball Park, perhaps his performance later that evening did the trick.
Coming off a two-homer game Tuesday night in Detroit, Frazier muscled up for two more home runs in an 8-4 victory, including a 13th-inning walk-off grand slam off Tigers closer Joakim Soria.
That’s four home runs in two games and 22 on the season for Frazier, which ties him for second in MLB along with Bryce Harper. We don’t just need him in the All-Star game, we need him representing the home Reds in the Home Run Derby.
Of course, Frazier couldn’t do everything on his own. The Reds also got career nights from Jay Bruce (five hits) and Brayan Pena (four hits). Unfortunately, they were batting directly after Frazier, otherwise this game may have been over a lot quicker than 1 a.m. ET.
This all played out in a game started by David Price and Johnny Cueto, which was later interupted for 1 hour, 14 minutes by Mother Nature.
The true result: Mother Nature wins again.
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KING FELIX OUTDUELS MAD-BUM TO EARN 10TH VICTORY
The pitching matchup of the night on Wednesday was also one of the most anticipated pitching matchups of the entire season.
On one side, you had World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner representing the San Francisco Giants. For the homestanding Seattle Mariners, it was former Cy Young Award winner Felix Hernandez.
It looked good on paper. It played out even better before the 34,844 in attendance at Safeco Field and those watching on television.
For 15 of their combined 16 innings, the two studs traded zeros on the scoreboard. For 4 1/3 innings, Bumgarner was actually perfect. Mark Trumbo ended that with a bad-hop single that Brandon Crawford recovered and threw for an error. The only breakthrough came in the sixth inning when Mike Zunino, Austin Jackson and Robinson Cano went single-triple-double, producing two quick runs.
The Mariners held on for the 2-0 victory, with Hernandez throwing eight scoreless on four hits to pick up his AL-leading 10th victory. Bumgarner, for his part, was credited with a complete game despite taking the loss. He allowed those two runs on just four hits.
A true pitching duel if there ever was one, and a much-needed win for the still scuffling Mariners.
MICHAEL PINEDA DOMINATES IN YANKEES’ BOUNCE-BACK WIN
After dropping two straight in Miami, the New York Yankees’ four-game series with the Marlins shifted to Yankee Stadium on Wednesday.
Unfortunately for the Yankees, their offense seemed to still be in Baltimore following their weekend series. After combining to score three runs in Miami, they mustered only two runs against Jose Urena and company.
Fortunately for the Yankees, they had Michael Pineda doing some heavy lifting. He held Miami to a Christian Yelich home run and two walks over 6 2/3 innings and that’s it, which allowed them to escape with a 2-1 victory.
[On this week’s StewPod: Should fans really pick the MLB All-Stars?]
Pineda struck out nine, but struggled a bit with his efficiency and worked into numerous deep counts. That prevented him from working deeper in the game. The Yankees bullpen bridged the gap to victory, with Chasen Shreve, Justin Wilson and Dellin Betances securing the final seven outs.
Betances, who’s filling in for Andrew Miller as closer, was called on to get five outs. He struck out two, including an overpowering strikeout of Giancarlo Stanton in a power-vs.-power matchup.
PIRATES SHUTOUT STREAK ENDS, WINNING STREAK CONTINUES
It was bound to happen. On Wednesday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates allowed a run (two runs, actually) against the Chicago White Sox. But don’t worry, Pirates fans, the Jolly Roger was still raised following a 3-2 victory.
Pirates pitching entered with three consecutive shutouts, including two against those same White Sox in Pittsburgh. Overall, the streak spanned 28 scoreless innings, including the final 10 innings of their weekend series against Philadelphia. On the flip side, the White Sox hadn’t scored in 25 innings dating back to Sunday’s loss against Tampa Bay.
Needless to say, the matchup didn’t look good on paper. It looked worse when Pittsburgh scored three runs in the first inning, but the White Sox were able to make it interesting against Jeff Locke in the sixth inning on Melky Cabrera’s RBI double and Avisail Garcia’s RBI single.
From there, though, Pittsburgh’s bullpen started a new streak, silencing the White Sox for three innings and extending the Pirates’ winning streak to seven.
Want to see more from Wednesday’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
