Well we have a baseball season, so time for a new topic! Was very odd watching an empty stadium last night. I could hear the trashcans banging on the TV!!
Shane Bieber of the Tribe struck out 14. Only other pitchers to ever do that were The Big Unit (twice) and Don Drysdale. Record is 15 but I didn't recognize the name of the guy.
A couple of die hard Astros fans! BTW those seats are clearly from the Dome, after it had been abandoned they sold off some of the seats
Houston Chronicle basically says the Astros/Verlander are lying about his injury and that it's an elbow and that he is done.
Meanwhile Marlins postpone their game with Baltimore due to Covid outbreak on team. 12 players/staff members.
The season is likely to be a series of events like this, it's going to be interesting to see how it's managed. They have the "Taxi" squad of players to replace those lost to "covid" injuries. As sometimes happens in sports the best team (on paper) doesn't always win, it's the team that can stay healthy for the whole season.
And then several other games are in rain delay. The Marlin thing is unbelievable looks like they will have to go very deep into their 60 man roster. And they are not that good with the first level. Strange year.
Who was it that predicted that pitchers would suffer the most from the restart....they were right! _______________ Two key Astros relievers are dealing with elbow soreness, a problem now permeating the entire pitching staff. All-Star setup man Ryan Pressly and Chris Devenski both reported sore elbows on Monday, manager Dusty Baker revealed after an 8-5 win against the Mariners, adding to a lengthy list of injured Astros arms. Both Brad Peacock (shoulder) and Austin Pruitt (elbow) remain on the injured list. Baker said on Monday that Pruitt had been shut down from throwing. Justin Verlander is on the injured list with a right forearm strain, too. __________________________________ Dodgers are in town for 2 games.
That brings the total to 11 players, I would think that the Marlins would dip into their Taxi squad to replace those players who are not going to be available for 10-14 days. But maybe not. The Commissioner said that if a team lost enough players that it was no longer competitive, they'd have to rethink what their plans would be. "A team losing a number of players that rendered it completely noncompetitive would be an issue that we would have to address and have to think about making a change," he said. "Whether that was shutting down a part of the season, the whole season, that depends on the circumstances. Same thing with respect to leaguewide. You get to a certain point leaguewide where it does become a health threat, and we certainly would shut down at that point."
What will the Dodgers do tonight? Will they have their pitchers throw at the Astros? Will they attempt some sort of confrontation? Have to wait and see. USAToday has a good article on this meeting. HOUSTON — The Los Angeles Dodgers haven’t walked into Minute Maid Park in three years, but when they enter Tuesday afternoon, their eyes won’t stop wandering until they find it, hanging above the left-center-field wall, just to the left of the train, painted in gold. The 2017 World Series championship banner. Those haunting and bitter memories will slowly start creeping back. That was their championship. That was their moment of glory. “Everyone knows they stole the ring from us." Dodgers outfielder and 2019 NL MVP Cody Bellinger said in February. Dodgers-Astros: Will LA seek revenge for 2017 World Series?
This pandemic and pause may have saved the Astros. Their biggest problem wasn't the Dodger players, it was the millions of Mexican fans here who were out for blood. There was talk of meeting the Astros at LAX or even out on the freeway. There were also thousands who had tickets to tonight's game in Houston with an eye to taking the fight directly to the Stros fans in the stands. All that has quieted down now and I hope cooler heads will prevail. This is a good time to have empty stadiums.