Happy Sunday. We have an early game today, 1:30 Eastern.
We seem to have fallen into the old pattern of being unable to score. Baseball isn’t fun to watch when the offense can’t do anything. On an inning-to-inning basis, watching a team that can’t score is tough. Losing 10-9 is a little easier on the system, at least until the end of the game.
And it isn’t that they aren’t hitting in scoring position, they have a .260/.327/.362 with RISP, which isn’t much different from their .249/.321/.380 overall line. The lack of power is still a thing.
And, with Springer and Santander not hitting at all, it’s tough to get offense going.
There is a roster move today. Tyler Heineman has been put on the seven-day IL with a concussion. Ali Sanchez has been called up. And Josh Walker has been DFAed. Heineman has been so good, we’ll miss him. Sanchez is hitting .253/.324/.440 in 28 games and he’s thrown out 29% of base stealers.
Concussions are scary things; I hope Tyler is ok and recovers quickly.
At Sportsnet, David Singh has a story about Alec Manoah
Manoah is currently throwing bullpen sessions every Tuesday and Saturday, with some getting as high as 40 pitches. He’s working on finding the feel of his repertoire and establishing consistency with his location. Manoah described the process as “fun” and added that he has a new appreciation for pitching mechanics.
But that doesn’t mean we’ll see him anytime soon. Maybe August.
Yimi Garcia’s absence opens a hole in the bullpen. Thankfully, Yariel Rodriguez has been excellent and has bought himself a setup spot.
I’m almost ready for Rodriguez to take Hoffman’s spot. Hoffman has been giving up way too many home runs. FanGraphs tells us that 29.4% of his play balls have left the park, which is the worst mark in baseball for pitchers with 20 innings or more.
Yesterday’s Umpire Scorecard was roughly as good as one could expect, but I’ll be happy when we get to challenge a bad call.
Today’s lineups. We get to see Sanchez right away, with Kirk sitting with the day game ater night game.