Sadly, the excellent Indiana versus Kentucky will be going on hiatus this fall, as the two sides could not agree on where to play the games. I wrote about it at BT Powerhouse, and I’ve already got feedback on Facebook that says the article “did a cruddy job reporting the whole situation.”
I’m not in the mood to get into drive-by arguments, so click here to see for yourself.
I really, really thought that the Mets were going to promote Jeremy Hefner and give him an opportunity to start a big league game, but that apparently is not going to happen… yet.
Today the Mets made a roster move by sending the combustible Chris Schwinden back to Buffalo and calling up utility man Vinny Rottino, who was playing left field in AAA while batting .317/.360/.442 with one home run, eight walks and 15 strikeouts.
Rottino is 32 years and has been in the minor leagues forever, although he has had brief stints in the bigs over the years. The most recent was with the Marlins last season, but he also had 25 plate appearances with Milwaukee from 2006 to 2008. He seems to be a classic Crash Davis-type quadruple-A player. He even played catcher for two innings in 2006 with the Brewers, although Rottino will probably play some first base and corner outfield if he gets in a game with New York.
Chris Schwinden has failed to get through five innings for the second time in two big league starts this season, and it’s become unclear if he’ll get a chance at another. After Schwinden allowed five runs on two Chris Johnson home runs in yesterday’s 8-1 loss to Houston, Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog said, “Chris Schwinden should not make another start. It’s that simple.”
Schwinden allowed two walks and six hits while striking out one batter in his short outing. Ruben Tejada continued his hot hitting with two doubles and a single out of the lead-off spot, while Jed Lowrie continued to pound the Mets with three hits of his own. Johnson has been in danger of losing his job as Astros third baseman, but he had a wonderful day, with four hits and six RBI.
Houston ace Wandy Rodriguez mowed down the Mets through seven innings with five strikeouts, two walks and just one run allowed.
Meanwhile, Mets manager Terry Collins wouldn’t say for sure if Schwinden or someone else would start the next time Pelfrey’s old spot in the rotation came around.
See, what did I tell you guys? Nothing to worry about! Okay, I’ll admit that by midway through the second overtime in last night’s 2-1 Rangers win over Washington, it felt like the entire universe hinged on the outcome. Overtime playoff hockey is just that intense. I’m not sure if I would have woken up this morning if the Rangers had lost. In fact, I don’t think I would have gone to sleep. Probably would have just wandered the streets of Manhattan, muttering to myself.
Good thing Marian Gaborik finally ended his goal scoring drought with 5:19 left in the third overtime. If he hadn’t the game might have lasted forever. The way Alex Ovechkin’s golden chance bounced off the post in the first overtime and later on the way Mike Rupp’s open net opportunity was blocked by his own teammate Brian Boyle, you’d think that everyone had conspired to keep the game going as long as possible.
“It was about will,” Gaborik said about the victory, “We wanted to win this game, and it feels great to get that winner.”
Hockey is often a tough sport to analyze. There aren’t of stats to discuss like in baseball or basketball and the sport isn’t as complicated as what goes on in a football game. A lot of times the game comes down to which way the puck bounces, or which goalie is hot, or maybe even who “wants” it more.
I’m still trying to figure it out for myself, but I was surprised to see that Joe Fortunato over at Blueshirt Banter wrote a post explaining how important Game 3 is tonight.
If the Rangers go into Washington and get a win over the Capitals, the Rangers would have a 2-1 series lead which would guarantee them at least coming back to Madison Square Garden tied at 2-2. A loss, on the other hand, would give the Capitals a 2-1 edge in the series with Game 4 looming in Washington.
You don’t need me to tell you how much different those two scenarios are from one another. Essentially, if the Rangers win Game 3 then all the pressure is on the Capitals, if the Rangers lose, then all the pressure is on them.
Sure, any playoff game is important, but trying to make Game 3 more important than any other game is kind of counterproductive. Back in the Quarterfinals against Ottawa, the Rangers won Game 3 to supposedly regain the momentum that they lost from the Game 2 defeat. However, the Rangers ended up losing the next two games to come within one loss of elimination.
Well, what a bummer. Jon Niese finally had a bad start, and the Mets just could not catch up. Today Houston ace Wandy Rodriguez is on the mound versus New York non-ace Chris Schwinden.
I wrote about last night’s game at The Daily Stache. I also previewed today’s matinee.
With one month of Major League Baseball in the books for 2012, it’s soon going to be time to bust out the monthly awards. Over at ESPN New York Adam Rubin discusses Kirk Nieuwenhuis’ chances of being the first Met to win National League Rookie of the Month since Justin Turner was honored in May of 2011.
There’s certainly a strong case to be made for Nieuwenhuis. The Mets lead-off man leads all qualifying NL rookies in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. However, Cincinnati shortstop Zak Cozart has two more runs scored, three more doubles and one more triple than Nieuwenhuis. Matt Carpenter, the corner infielder for St. Louis, leads all NL rookies with 14 RBI despite having 20 less at-bats than Nieuwenhuis.
Of course, the Rookie of the Month is not just an award for batsmen. There are plenty of pitchers eligible as well, but only six NL rookies have pitched more than 10 innings. Of those, only reliever Rafael Dolis of Cincinnati and Arizona swingman Wade Miley have an ERA under four. Dolis has eight walks and only two strikeouts in his 13.2 innings, so Miley appears to be the only realistic candidate, especially because of his recent insertion into the Diamondbacks rotation.
Miley is a talented lefty who has only allowed any runs in one appearance this season. In his two starts, Miley has allowed no runs in 12.1 innings while striking out 13 and walking only three. Overall, he’s got a 3-0 record with a 1.29 ERA and 0.81 WHIP in 21 innings pitched. Those are obviously very strong numbers for any sort of pitcher, so someone will have to decide if Nieuwenhuis’ strong start is more worthy of being honored.
If it was up to me, I’m not sure who I would give the award to. Both Miley and Nieuwenhuis are helped by absurd BABIP numbers, but Nieuwenhuis has played more of a full-time role. Only 12.1 of Miley’s 21 innings have come as a starter, while Nieuwenhuis has been in the lead-off spot for a majority of his 88 plate appearances. I guess I’d have to give it to Kirk. Let’s hope whoever is in charge of this stuff agrees.
Last night in Miami, the Knicks lost to the Heat 104-94 in a game that wasn’t as one-sided as Game 1, but was still considered a loss because the Knicks scored less points than their opponents. This time around the Knicks trailed by “only” nine points heading into the fourth quarters, so it wasn’t really a blowout. Plus, New York shot 49.4% from the field and grabbed 31.6% of available offensive rebounds in a pretty competent offensive effort. Carmelo Anthony led the way with 30 points and nine rebounds on 12 for 26 shooting, while Amar’e Stoudemire dropped in 18 points and seven rebounds while going 6 of 9 from the field.
Unfortunately, the Knicks were still lacking on the defensive end and they allowed Miami to shoot 52.1% from the field, including 9 for 21 from three-point range. LeBron James made “only” 8 of 18 field goals and had 19 points with nine assists and seven rebounds. Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade each shot over 50% and score 20-plus points.
It seems almost too fitting that guys with first names like Jed and Bud would be heroes for the Houston Astros, but that’s what happened last night at Minute Maid Park.
Houston shortstop Jed Lowrie hit a single up the middle off of Manny Acosta in the bottom of the eighth to score Jordan Schafer and give the Astros a 4-3 lead. Acosta was only pitching in the eighth inning because a minor Frank Francisco injury pushed Jon Rauch to the ninth. Terry Collins reckons that Francisco is suffering from dehydration, so in a way, the Mets lost because Francisco didn’t hit the cooler enough.
“You’ve got to keep yourself hydrated,” Collins said. “Everybody thinks they drink one of those little things of water and it’s going to do it, but it doesn’t.”
Anyway, Bud Norris kept the Mets from scoring runs for most of the evening. The promising young righty struck out seven batters and walked just one in 6.2 innings while allowing three runs and seven hits. Through six innings, it looked like Norris might have a truly spectacular night in store for us, but things unraveled in the seventh.
With the Astros up 3-0, David Wright and Ike Davis got the inning started with singles, and then each moved up a base on Mike Baxter’s fly to right field. Andres Torres, in his first game back from injury (Zach Lutz got sent down) hit a chopper between first and second that was misplayed by non-regular first baseman Matt Downs. The “hit” allowed Wright to score from third and gave the Mets the opportunity to score more runs. Although Thole grounded out weakly, Lucas Duda followed with a walk to load the bases. Then, the beloved rookie Kirk Nieuwenhuis lined a single into right field to tie the game and end Norris’ outing.
Saturday’s 100-67 New York Knicks loss to the Miami Heat was incredibly embarrassing. LeBron James outscored the entire New York starting lineup 32-30 while Carmelo Anthony was completely shut down by the Heat defense. The “star” forward for New York scored just 11 points on 3 for 15 shooting while the team shot just 35.7% from the field overall.
Heading into Game Two, the New York perimeter defense takes a big hit because Iman Shumpert tore his ACL in the second half of Game One and will require six to eight months to recover. The good news is that the Knicks still have their most important defensive player, Tyson Chandler, ready to play. The bad news is that he is still not feeling well because of the flu. While playing through the illness in Game One Chandler went 0 for 3 from the field with zero points, three rebounds and zero blocks in 21 minutes. He somehow managed to turn the ball over seven times.
With Baron Davis suffering from a tight back, the Knicks are looking at major point guard problems. If not Toney Douglass, it looks like it will be Anthony running the point, which could result in really bad things if he can’t shake the Miami defense. I suppose Anthony can’t play much worse offensively than he did in Game One, but it will be even tougher for him to get a decent jump shot if he’s starting from beyond the arc instead of just outside the paint.
Inside Yolk 