A lot of this happened last night.

Florida inexplicably went and replaced their manager, Fredi Gonzalez, yesterday and Edwin Rodriguez stepped in as interim manager. I still don’t understand why this happened, but I guess we’ll have a new manager next year.

23 June

NPB
Hanshin Tigers (9) at Hiroshima Carp (4). I was really hoping that Hiroshima would have a better showing coming off of some relatively solid interleague play. He’s on the wrong team, but Toritani had himself quite the night (4 H, 2 RBI). Go Toritani! The Carp record drops to 26-37-2, still in fourth.

Saitama Seibu Lions (8) at Rakuten Eagles (10). Remember when Rakuten had no offense to speak of? They’re lucky to have won this considering that Darrell Rasner only went 3.2 innings and gave up five. The Golden Eagles are now 31-35-1 and they’re closing in on fourth.

MLB
Kansas City Royals (1) at Washington Nationals (0). I hope Strasburg doesn’t end up one of those pitchers who never gets any run support from his team. Washington has been seriously struggling offensively of late, so I’m not too surprised, but it’s a waste of a quality start. Strasburg K-Kount (see what I did there?) is up to 41. The Nationals record is down to 33-40.

Florida Marlins (7) at Baltimore Orioles (5). Even though their winningest manager in franchise history was fired, the Marlins were still able to show up, offensively, and dominate the birds. Gaby Sanchez has been quietly making a case for Rookie of the Year with his offense while Chris Coghlan is definitely back to his old self, hitting 0.317 since his season low of 0.146 in April. That’s good enough to put his average at 0.280 now. The Marlins record improves to 35-36 while Baltimore drops to 19-52.

San Diego Padres (5) at Tampa Bay Rays (4). So frustrating. They’re still tied for second, but Shields’ loss to San Diego extends their losing streak to three. Maddon needs to sit down with his players, hash this out, and get them back on course, pronto. The Rays are now 42-29 on the season.

This is what I think happens to Min after reading these baseball posts.

Only the NPB had games (as far as teams I care about) yesterday, leaving me with little to do but think about how excited I am to see Strasburg pitch today and hear about Stanton’s performance in Philadelphia. Can’t wait until tonight. Until then…

7 June

NPB
Orix Buffaloes (21) at Hiroshima Carp (10). What in god’s name happened here? Only two of the seven pitchers Hiroshima sent out to the mound managed to not give up a run. This game was UGLY, featuring five home runs by Orix and two by Hiroshima catcher Yoshiyuki Ishihara. The Carp record is 22-34-1, which, remarkably, puts them in fourth, somehow.

Rakuten Eagles (0) at Yomiuri Giants (1). Darrel Rasner is really starting to pitch like he wants to keep his job. Nice work, Darrel, but the Rakuten record falls to 28-30-1 in fifth.

MLB
No games (from anyone I care about)

Sayonara!

The Rays were the only MLB team I follow with a game yesterday, which they promptly went ahead and blew.

24 May

NPB
Saitama Seibu Lions (0) at Hiroshima Carp (3). Eric Stults is really starting to bring it all together. His second win comes against a tough first place Seibu team. Hiroshima’s record improves to 19-27-0 in fifth.

Rakuten Eagles (0) at Chunichi Dragons (3). Can’t totally blame Rasner for this one, especially not when the Rakuten bats are silent. He turned in a quality start, after all. Rakuten is now 21-28-0 in fifth.

MLB
Boston Red Sox (6) at Tampa Bay Rays (1). Wade Davis has really been knocked around since his first few starts. The loss puts Tampa Bay at 32-13, only 5.5 ahead.

After embarrassing the team, acting like a primadonna, insulting the manager, and making everyone involved look bad, Hanley Ramirez either apologized to his teammates or the team has decided not to make a fuss about it, because he was back in the lineup last night doing fairly well. Thank god that’s over. The Marlins are rarely in the news, but I don’t want them in there because of this.

19 May

NPB
Hiroshima Carp (8) at Orix Buffaloes (2). Eric Stults notches his first win as the Carp manage to come out of their ten-games-under-0.500 hole for a day. Their record rises to 17-26-0 at a manageable 10.5 games back. That was sarcasm.

Yokohama BayStars (3) at Rakuten Eagles (2). Darrell Rasner actually tosses a great game against Yokohama, but the runs he gives up are just enough to combine with an unearned for the loss. Rakuten falls to 19-26-0, tying them with the 19-26-1 Fighters.

MLB
Tampa Bay Rays (10) at New York Yankees (6). Wade Davis and the powerful Rays offense combine to push this game increasingly out of New York’s reach. The lead rises to four games as Tampa Bay moves to a 29-11 record.

New York Mets (3) at Washington Nationals (5). Liván Hernández continues his dominant streak as he holds down the Mets for Drew Storen to come in for the win for Washington, boosting them out of their five game losing streak. The Nats record increases to 21-20 in third place.

Baltimore Orioles (3) at Texas Rangers (4). Guthrie puts together quite the game, but the Orioles bullpen can’t hold on, giving them their 28th loss.

Florida Marlins (5) at St. Louis Cardinals (1). The back-to-back shutout is prevented, but that doesn’t mean that Aníbal Sánchez didn’t have electric stuff last night. Florida’s off-field woes stayed off-field as Hanley went 3-5 with an RBI and the rest of the team contributed as well. Florida’s 22-19 record is good enough for second, but with the Nats breathing down their necks can they hold on against Adam Wainwright tonight?