Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
In between recording the last two episodes of the podcast, the Dodgers didn’t lose. This week, we look at what’s been working on offense and the pitching staff in what, on Wednesday morning, was an eight-game winning streak.
We also talk about the first game in Houston, which felt like a more cathartic win than usual, especially for Clayton Kershaw in beating the Astros in his first start in Minute Maid Park since the ill-fated 2017 World Series.
All that, plus trivia on grand slams, saves, walks, and plenty of pasta talk. Enjoy!
When Cubs only hits were home runs By JohnW53 on May 22, 2021, 8:29am CDT +
As you might imagine, it s a pretty short list.
In fact, since 1901, the Cubs have won exactly
1 game with multiple homers and no other hits.
....
JUST GETTING STARTED
It happened on April 14, 1985, when the Cubs defeated the Expos, 4-2, in just their fifth game of the season, on a Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs scored a run without a hit in the first inning. Bob Dernier, leading off against David Palmer, reached first on a dropped third strike. One out later, he stole second. After Gary Matthews walked, Leon Durham grounded to the right side. The second baseman threw to the shortstop, forcing out Matthews, but the shortstop s throw to first was wild, allowing Dernier to score.
Royals Rumblings - News for May 10, 2021
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“We’re not happy, and it’s embarrassing when we don’t play the kind of baseball that we know we can play,” manager Mike Matheny said. “There should be a lot of quiet right now. Because this is something that stings. We take a lot of pride in how we go about our business, and when it doesn’t look like we want it to look, it doesn’t sit right.”
“Anytime those guys go out there, you feel like they’re just going to put up a bunch of zeros,” Minor said of the bullpen. “But I feel like the starting staff me especially needs to do a better job and give those guys a break. I feel like those guys have been going a lot of back-to-backs, throwing multiple innings, and they’re asking those guys to do a lot.”
May 9, 2021
Brandon Woodruff has quietly been one of the better pitchers in the National League since the start of the 2019 season. In 42 starts comprising 237 innings, the Milwaukee Brewers right-hander has 285 strikeouts to go with a 3.11 ERA and a 2.93 FIP. The last of those numbers is equal to Shane Bieber’s mark over the same period.
A big reason for Woodruff’s success is a repertoire adjustment he made midway through the 2018 season. As he explained in an article that ran here at FanGraphs last April, he began throwing both two- and four-seam fastballs. Neither is anything to write home about movement-wise, but paired together and sequenced well they’re a formidable combo. As Woodruff told me at the time, “It’s hard for the hitter to distinguish which one is going to be coming.”
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In this July 27, 2008 photo, Albuquerque Isotopes manager Dean Treanor shakes the hand of former Dukes manager Del Crandall after he and five other members were inducted into the Albuquerque Professional Baseball Hall of Fame. Treanor and Crandall worked together in the Dodger organization at the same time. Crandall died this week at age 91. (Jim Thompson/Journal)
MISSION VIEJO, Calif. – Del Crandall, a star catcher who played on two Milwaukee Braves teams that reached the World Series in the 1950s before managing one of the great minor league teams of all time in Albuquerque, has died at age 91.
Crandall had Parkinson’s disease and died Wednesday in Mission Viejo, California, surrounded by family, his son Bill Crandall said.