Fake Teams Podcast, Episode 26: Angels on the podcast

Zack and Andrew hosted episode 26 of the Fake Teams podcast on Thursday night, discussing Kris Medlen, Alfonso Soriano, Oscar Taveras and others, including drafting their fictional fantasy baseball rosters.

You can listen to their podcast in two ways:

MP3

ITunes

Jason Heyward: Looking comfortable in the leadoff role

Braves outfielder Jason Heyward had a big night at the plate on Saturday night, going 2-7 with 2 HRs and 3 RBI vs the Nationals. HIs second home run came with two out in the bottom of the ninth off of Nationals closer Rafael Soriano. Heyward recently moved to the leadoff spot in the Braves lineup, and has caught fire at the plate ever since. Since moving to the top of the order, Heyward is 30-78, raising his average from .223 to .258. He isn't your normal leadoff hitter, but he can work the strike zone and take a walk, hit for average and power as well.

He is hitting over .400 with a .700+ slugging percentage in August, so I don't see the Braves moving him out of the top spot anytime soon. Saturday's performance at the plate was his eighth multiple hit game in his last ten games, and he appears to be over his early season hitting woes.

For more on Heyward and the Braves, make sure you check out Talking Chop, SB Nation's Braves fan site.

Paul Goldschmidt: # 2 Fantasy first baseman in 2014?

Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt is exceeding my expectations for him back in spring training. I wasn't as high on him as others were, but I am a believer now. Goldschmidt went 3-6 with a HR, 2 runs and 3 RBI in the Diamondbacks 15-5 win over the Pirates on Saturday. Goldschmidt raised his triple slash line to .296-.391-.551 with 30 HRs, 80 runs, 96 RBI and 13 stolen bases in 17 attempts.

Right now, I would only rank Orioles first baseman Chris Davis ahead of him in my early 2014 first base rankings. Davis' huge year at the plate is overshadowing the season Goldschmidt is having. Besides August, Goldschmidt's worst month at the plate was June where he hit .262, but still hit 7 home runs and drove in 26 runs. He has hit at least 5 home runs in each month thus far, so he should easily hit 35 home runs this season, and could approach 40.

For more on Goldschmidt and the Diamondbacks, make sure you check out Arizona Snake Pit, SB Nation's Diamondbacks fan site.

Round'em Up

There aren't many players in fantasy baseball as consistent as Miguel Cabrera and Clayton Kershaw.

Last night, the Dodgers ace shut down a struggling Phillies lineup, giving up just 3 hits, a walk and striking out 8 in the Dodgers 5-0 win. Kershaw is now 12-7 with a 1.80 ERA, 0.85 WHIP and a 182-40 strikeout to walk rate in 190.1 innings. He has given up two runs or less in 20 of his 26 starts this season, and has given up one run or less in 15 of his 26 starts. Even more impressive is the fact that he has gone 7 or more innings in 21 of his 26 starts, and currently leads the NL in innings, strikeouts, ERA and WHIP. A second Cy Young award is in his future.

Drafting players who you know what you are going to get out of them every year helps to offset the players who are inconsistent year to year, guys like B.J. Upton in 2013, or Alex Rios in his off year. And a player like Miguel Cabrera, who I have written about repeatedly in this space over the past few weeks, because he does just about everything very well. Like his walk-off home run to beat the Royals yesterday. He is already the best hitter in the game, and I think he is doing his best to become the best hitter ever. Enjoy him while you can.

One player who was very underrated coming into the season is Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth. Werth went 2-3 with 2 runs, 2 walks, 2 RBI and a stolen base in the Nationals 8-7 win over the Braves last night. Werth is quietly hitting .335-.409-.534 with 17 HRs, 61 runs, 52 RBI and 7 stolen base in 7 attempts in his 322 at bats this season. He has multiple hits in seven of his last ten games, and I think he could move into my top 20-25 outfielders this offseason.

One Twitter follower asked me whether he should drop Starlin Castro recently, and I responded saying he should not. Well, after getting pulled from yesterday's game in the fifth inning for a defensive lapse, the Cubs could consider sending Castro down to AAA. I doubt they will, but it is an alternative they could consider to light a fire under the talented, yet disappointing, shortstop. With players like Javier Baez and Kris Bryant about a year away from the big leagues, the Cubs want to see if Castro can turn things around and be their shortstop of the future, or whether he would be better served turning things around in another organization.

Castro is hitting just .244-.278-.345 with 7 HRs, 48 runs, 32 RBI and 8 stolen bases in 11 attempts this season. Like so many other Cubs hitters, he rarely takes a free pass, walking in just 19 of his 501 at bats this season. Sending Castro down to AAA could be just what gets him more focused day in and day out.

One player who appears to have benefitted from a demotion last season is Blue Jays first baseman/DH Adam Lind. Yesterday, Lind went 2-3 with 2 HRs, 2 runs and 2 RBI in the Blue Jays 6-2 win over the Rays yesterday. Lind was demoted last May, and he hit .304 in the second half last season, and has continued to hit well this season. After Saturday's big game, Lind is now hitting .280-.351-.482 with 16 HRs, 52 runs and 44 RBI in 361 at bats this season. It appears last year's demotion turned his career around, and maybe a demotion could do the same for Castro.

More from Fake Teams:

• Streamer Report: Sunday's Streamers
• Waiver Wire: 10 Under 10%
• Roto Roundup: Sonny Gray, Eric Hosmer, Alfonso Soriano, and Others
• 2013 MLB Draft Prospect Review: Jonathan Gray, RHP, Colorado Rockies
• Low Level Prospect Review: Pierce Johnson, RHP, Chicago Cubs

With his family watching from the stands, Blue Jays starter Todd Redmond threw a great game in an attempt to secure a series win for this team against the Rays. Redmond, a native St. Petersburgian, threw six innings of six-hit, one-run ball in a solid outing, pitching into the seventh inning for the first time in his major league career. Unfortunately, Rays starter Chris Archer threw just as well--limiting the Blue Jays to a run on four hits in his seven-inning performance.

The Rays got on the scoreboard early on an Evan Longoria homer just over the fence in right field. The ball was caught by a Rays fan right on top of the fence, so John Gibbons asked the umpires to review the play. They did, but upheld their initial call for a home run. Redmond then proceeded to retire eight in a row before Longoria came back up to stroke a one-out double, but Redmond stranded him there with a couple of grounders.

For the other side, Archer was good. He retired the Blue Jays one through nine to start the game before Anthony Gose came through with a single in the top of the fourth. Archer would not allow another hit until the top of the seventh, when he made his only mistake of the game, throwing Edwin Encarnacion a breaking ball down in the zone. Encarnacion was waiting for it, having not been able to square up Archer's 97-mph fastballs, and launched the 1-2 pitch on a line to left field to tie the game up 1-1.

Redmond stepped back on the mound in the seventh, and got o a 2-2 count against James Loney before he singled to centre field, and then Yunel Escobar lined one just a couple of inches above a leaping Mark DeRosa in a hit-and-run to put runners at the corners. Redmond was pulled from the game for Brett Cecil at that point to a standing ovation from his on-looking family. Joe Maddon countered the move by bringing in Jason Bourgeois to replace Kelly Johnson. Maddon called for a safety squeeze on Cecil's second pitch, but Bourgeois missed it and Loney strayed too far from third. Loney was promptly retired on a short 2-5-2-6 run down. Cecil got Bourgeois to ground out then struck out Jose Lobaton to end the Rays' threat.

After getting a couple of flyballs to centre, Fernando Rodney threw a 98-mph fastball to Edwin Encarnacion, who hooked it deep to the left field corner. It bounced right on the yellow line marking the top of the wall and back into play, and Encarnacion had to settle for a double, missing a go-ahead homer by less than an inch. The play was clear enough to the umpires to not warrant a review. Adam Lind then flew out to harmlessly to end the inning. Sergio Santos came in and kept the score tied in the ninth, and Jake McGee did the same to the Jays in the tenth.

In the bottom of the tenth, Gibbons chose to use Brad Lincoln against the bottom of the Rays' order. After striking out Bourgeois, Lincoln threw four straight 92-mph fastballs at Lobaton, who deposited the last one in the right field stands. The homer made Lincoln walk off the mound in Tropicana Field with the loss for the second time this year--Lincoln walked Luke Scott with the bases loaded back on May 9. Jose Lobaton also got his second walkoff hit against the Blue Jays this series, having tripled off Aaron Loup on Friday evening.

Before Jose Lobaton, the last batter to walk off the Blue Jays in consecutive walkoff losses was the Indians' Albert Belle, who hit a walkoff homer against Tony Castillo on August 30, 1995 and then another one off Jimmy Rogers on the very next day. The A's Rickey Henderson also walked off the Jays on May 23 and 24, 1981.

Kevin Pillar went hitless again this game, and has now started his major league career 0-for-13. Playing left field, he had a couple of interesting plays this game. In the fifth, Yunel Escobar hit one into the left-centre field gap with both Pillar and Anthony Gose ran to catch it. Gose had it in his glove, but Pillar never stopped or peeled off and crashed into Gose, knocking the ball out of his glove. Going with the theme of the game, their two heads were a mere inch from colliding with each other. Both of them were lucky they didn't get hurt. Later in the game, Pillar and Gose came close to each other again, but this time Pillar was able to catch the ball cleanly before his legs crumpled from under him.

So the Blue Jays drop another series against the Rays at Tropicana Field. They haven't won one there since April 2007, and will have to wait until 2014 to try again. The Blue Jays' record there is now 1-19-1 since the start of 2007.

Jays of the Day! Brett Cecil (+.398 WPA), Edwin Encarnacion (+.243), Sergio Santos (+.117).

Suckage Jays Brad Lincoln (-.383), Maicer Izturis (-.164), Mark DeRosa (-.148), Adam Lind (-.136), J.P. Arencibia (-.122), Jose Bautista (-.114). Todd Redmond (-.105) had the numbers, but I can't give it to him.

The Blue Jays have tomorrow off before playing two against the Yankees on Tuesday. Esmil Rogers will take the 1:05 pm game, and Mark Buehrle will start the 7:05 pm game.

The Yankees won 9-6.  Alex Rodriguez hit a home run.  Brett Gardner hit a three run triple in the sixth inning to give the Yankees the lead for good.  CC Sabathia had another disappointing night.  I think that's all that happened, right?

In his first at bat of the game, Alex Rodriguez was hit by a Ryan Dempster pitch leading to screaming by Joe Girardi, warnings for both teams, and the beginnings of a wild game.  In the end the Yankees came away with the win, but the road there was interesting.

The Red Sox quickly opened the game's scoring in the bottom of the first.  Jacoby Ellsbury led off by drawing a walk against Sabathia.  Shane Victorino then singled on a ball that just got past Eduardo Nunez.  After Dustin Pedroia flied out, David Ortiz walked to load the bases.  Jonny Gomes then flied out to right, but it was deep enough to score Ellsbury, making it 1-0.  Victorino moved to third, and he then scored too on a Jarrod Saltalamacchia single.  CC finally got out of it by striking out Daniel Nava, but the score was 2-0 and Sabathia had already thrown a ton of pitches.

The game turned into the insanity it became when Alex Rodriguez led off in the second inning.  The first pitch Ryan Dempster threw to Rodriguez was behind him.  The next two were inside.  And on the fourth, Dempster drilled him in the back.  It was pretty clearly intentional, especially considering everything that's been happening in the A-Rod saga.  The umpire immediately and emphatically warned both benches.  Joe Girardi came out of the dugout screaming, arguing for Dempster to be thrown out of the game.  Girardi was soon tossed himself after continuing to argue.

Because of the warning, the Yankees were hamstrung if they wanted to retaliate, but for that inning, they let the offense do the talking.  Curtis Granderson doubled, moving Rodriguez to third.  Nunez then singled, scoring Rodriguez, moving Granderson to third.  Lyle Overbay's sac fly was enough to tie the game.  Chris Stewart and Brett Gardner couldn't keep the momentum going, both going down weakly.

Instead of retaliating, CC came back and threw a easy 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the second.  And in the top of the third inning, the Yankees took the lead.  Ichiro Suzuki and Robinson Cano led off the inning with back-to-back singles.  Alfonso Soriano took a Dempster pitch fairly deep to right, but the ball eventually died and was caught.  Ichiro was able to move over to third, though.  That brought Rodriguez back to the plate.  The cheers came heartily from the crowd as A-Rod grounded out, but funnily enough, the grounder scored a run and gave the Yankees the lead.

The Red Sox did get that run back in the bottom half of the third, though.  Victorino led off the inning with a double and came around to score after a wild pitch and an Ortiz ground out.  And then an inning later, the Red Sox took the lead.  Saltalamacchia led off with a double and came around to score after a Nava sac bunt and a Stephen Drew sac fly.  Will Middlebrooks added to that with a solo home run to give the Red Sox a 5-3 lead after four innings.

CC's struggles continued on into the fifth, when he allowed another run.  Pedroia hit a one-out single, followed by a ground rule double by Ortiz.  After Gomes popped out, CC walked Saltalamacchia to load the bases.  That was followed up by a walk to Nava which brought in a run.  The score was now 6-3.

It took a couple innings, but in the sixth, Alex Rodriguez got his own retaliation.  He led off the inning by crushing a home run off Dempster to cut the Boston lead to 6-4.  That seemed to wake the offense up a bit after their slight slumber.  After Granderson grounded out, Nunez and Overbay both hit singles.  After Stewart drew a walk to load the bases, Nunez had to be replaced.  He appeared to hurt himself going back to first on his single.  Jayson Nix was brought in for him.  The Stewart walk was also the end of the night for Dempster.  He went 5.1 innings, allowing seven runs on nine hits and a walk.  In the end, the Yankees should be thankful he didn't get thrown out, as he was terrible.

Drake Britton came into the game in Dempster's place.  Gardner led off against Britton, and cleared the bases with a triple.  The Yankees were suddenly back in front with a 7-6 lead.  Gardner followed that up with a mistake, as he tried to score on a grounder by Ichiro.  He was out by a decent margin.  With Ichiro on first, Cano came up next and kept the inning alive with a single.  Soriano couldn't bring home another run as he grounded into a force out to end the inning.

Sabathia came back out for the sixth.  He proceeded to walk Middlebrooks on four pitches, but fought back to strike out Ellsbury.  That would be the last batter he faced.  It was another very disappointing start from CC.  He went 5.1 innings, allowing six runs on seven hits and five walks.  Shawn Kelley came in and got two easy outs to end the inning.

A-Rod was again due up first in the seventh inning.  There was no home run this time, but he did hit a single.  Granderson then grounded into a force out at second.  Nix was due up next.  Granderson stole second during that at bat, but Nix ended up striking out.  The Yankees sent up Mark Reynolds to pinch hit for Overbay, and the Red Sox brought in Franklin Morales to pitch.  Reynolds got the best of that match up, lining a single up the middle.  Granderson came around to score to make it 8-6.

Boone Logan came in to pitch the bottom of the seventh.  He struck out Ortiz to start, but then walked Gomes on four pitches.  However, he quickly got out of that by getting Saltalamacchia to ground into an inning-ending double play.

The Yankees loaded the bases in the top of the eighth but came away with no runs.  David Robertson came in to pitch the bottom of the eighth for the Yankees.  After striking out the first two hitters, Robertson gave up a double to Middlebrooks.  Middlebrooks was able to move up a base on a wild pitch, but Houdini struck out Drew to end the inning.

A Yankee insurance run was tacked on in the ninth, thanks to some unlikely sources.  Nix reached after getting hit by pitch.  He moved up a base on a wild pitch.  After Reynolds grounded out, Nix stole third and then scored on a Stewart single.  Gardner would keep it going with a single.  Ichiro then hit a deep fly out, but Stewart was able to move to third.  Cano came up next and he too was hit by a pitch.  Despite the second inning warnings and three Yankees getting hit by pitches, Joe Girardi remained the only ejection.  Soriano couldn't make them pay and flew out.

In the ninth inning, it was time for Mariano Rivera.  Mo quickly got the first two outs, bringing Ortiz to the plate.  Mo got us all scared again, giving up a single to Ortiz and walking Gomes.  But he came back and got Saltalamacchia to fly out to end a crazy game.  Mo broke his skid and gave the Yankees a 9-6 win.

Following an off-day, the Yankees return home to face the Blue Jays in a series starting Tuesday.

Box score.Graph thingy.

More from Pinstriped Bible:

• Alex Rodriguez begins process of filing medical grievance against Yankees
• Yankees lineup vs. Red Sox; Alex Rodriguez vs. the Yankees rages on
• Yankees throwdown: Jason Giambi vs. Mark Teixeira
• Yankees Prospect Greg Bird: Time to buy into the hype?
• Pondering Derek Jeter's future with the Yankees

Sunday featured a ton of starters getting shelled but it seems that they weren't helped too much by the defense behind them. The Dodgers could directly see that their game was lost on two errors by Hanley Ramirez in the worst situation!

The Smallest Sample Size -- Game Results for 8/18/13

Photo credit: Getty Images

Tigers 6, Royals 3

A matchup between a great lineup that features the best hitter in baseball versus a soft tossing pitcher due for some serious regression turned out just like you'd expect it to. Bruce Chen (-20% WPA) gave up six runs on eight hits and a walk in five and a third. Max Scherzer (29% WPA) didn't really face much competition (.66 pLI) and cruised through eight innings, only allowing two runs on five hits. The who-can-hit-the-most-homers battle between Miguel Cabrera (24% WPA) and Chris Davis continued yesterday as both smacked dingers.

Giants 5, Marlins 6

Tom Koehler (-28% WPA) and Madison Bumgarner (-30% WPA) were both erratic yesterday and gave up the leads that their offense had staked for them quickly. Koehler walked four and gave up seven hits over five innings but was only tagged for three runs. Bumgarner walked four as well but gave up two less hits yet was charged with four runs. With a 4-3 lead, Mike Dunn (-40% WPA) melted down, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk while only recording two outs. Of course, the Giants continued the trend that was going on all game and Guillermo Moscoso (-30% WPA) gave the lead up. Jeff Mathis (36% WPA) had a 1.121 wOBA in a super small sample size of four plate appearances and had the game winning double that scored Ed Lucas from first.

Diamondbacks 4, Pirates 2

Pittsburgh had quite the rare achievement yesterday. Technically, they received two quality starts in one game! Charlie Morton (8% WPA) only gave up two runs over seven innings with ten base runners and Kris Johnson (15% WPA) pitched another six innings and gave up the other two runs on five hits and two walks. Adam Eaton had four hits in eight plate appearances, good for a 51% WPA, 42% of it coming from the 16th inning double that scored two runs to ice the game. The Diamondbacks were able to get five Shutdowns from their bullpen after Wade Miley exited and kept the game alive long enough for the clutch double.

Rockies 2, Orioles 7

Baltimore was led by tremendous performances from Adam Jones and Chris Davis and breezed through Jhoulys Chacin (-11% WPA) and the Rockies. With two homers between them, they combined for a 30% WPA and Scott Feldman (15% WPA) kept the Colorado offense from getting them back into the game.

Photo credit: USA TODAY Sports

Dodgers 2, Phillies 3

If you take Carlos Ruiz (33% WPA) out of yesterday's game, the Phillies only managed three hits and two walks but still came away with a win. Cole Hamels (14% WPA) continued his second half surge, allowing just two runs over seven innings with eight strikeouts. Ricky Nolasco tossed a quality start as well but the game was eventually lost on two Hanley Ramirez errors on routine groundballs to short. Hey, at least the Phillies scored a legitimate run for Ryne Sandberg!

Nationals 1, Braves 2

Despite the score being 2-1, Atlanta was in complete control for nearly the entire of the game. Their win expectancy only dropped below 75% after the fourth inning once, when Jayson Werth singled in the lone run for Washington. Julio Teheran (32% WPA) was lights out and tossed six shutout innings with five strikeouts. Gio Gonzalez threw a quality start with seven innings of two-run ball and nine strikeouts but the Nationals just couldn't figure out Teheran and the impressive Atlanta bullpen. It really is amazing what the Braves have gotten out of their bullpen since the losses of Eric O'Flaherty and Jonny Venters.

Blue Jays 1, Rays 2

Ice cream for Jose Lobaton! Todd Redmond only gave up one run over six innings but still posted a -11% WPA, likely because Chris Archer (20% WPA) was lights out until the seventh when he surrendered a solo homer to Edwin Encarnacion. The Tampa bullpen was excellent, recording three Shutdowns in relief of Archer's great start. Brad Lincoln (-38% WPA) only recorded one out before melting down and allowing the solo dinger (43% WPA) to Lobaton.

White Sox 5, Twins 2

The White Sox staked out their lead early and Hector Santiago (14% WPA) almost gave it away but was able to hold on for six innings of two-run (one earned) ball. Samuel Deduno (-28% WPA) was torched for five runs and eight hits through five innings. Both offenses end up being silenced after the fifth. Chicago scored five runs but only two batters posted positive additions to their win probability: Alexei Ramirez (29% WPA) and Avisail Garcia (12% WPA).

Reds 9, Brewers 1

The score speaks for itself. The Reds' win expectancy didn't drop below 98% after the fifth inning. Wily Peralta (-30% WPA) was having a nice start to the second half but has fallen off as of late, culminating in yesterday's implosion of seven runs on 12 baserunners in four and a third. The only batter that recorded a negative WPA for Cincinnati was Cesar Izturis, making him the perfect two-hole hitter for Dusty Baker. Homer Bailey (17% WPA) may not have broke a sweat all game (.27 pLI), allowing just three hits and a run with eight strikeouts over eight innings.

Cardinals 6, Cubs 1

Edwin Jackson (-11% WPA) struggled with control, walking four, allowing six hits and three runs (one earned) over six innings and could be considered a hard luck loser thanks to Adam Wainwright's downright dominant performance. Apparently not wanted to be bested by Clayton Kershaw's dominance from Saturday night, Waino (24% WPA) struck out eleven and gave up five hits and a run over seven innings. Jon Jay (19% WPA) stuffed the score sheet with two hits (double + homer) and a walk in five plate appearances.

Photo credit: USA TODAY Sports

Mariners 4, Rangers 3

Erasmo Ramirez struggled to strikeout batters but maintained his control whereas Yu Darvish struggled to keep his control while maintaining his elite strikeout rate. Three runs were tagged on Darvish (10% WPA) who walked four and allowed seven hits in just seven and a hit. Ramirez (16% WPA) gave up four hits and two runs (one earned) but just struck out two batters. The game was tied going into the ninth, but for some reason, closers continue to struggle in non-save situations. Joe Nathan (-28% WPA) earned himself a rare Meltdown (2013 30:2 SD/MD ratio before yesterday) by giving up the eventual game winning run on two hits and two walks.

Astros 7, Angels 5

The win expectancy chart illustrates that the Astros ruled the first third of the game, the Angels came back and maintained a 50% chance of winning for the middle only for Houston to come back and win the game. Jason Vargas (-3% WPA) pitched averagely, allowing three runs on ten baserunners in just five and a third but J.C. Gutierrez (-36% WPA) melted down and gave up a three run homer to Matt Dominguez that sealed the game in the seventh. Dominguez actually had himself a game yesterday, contributing four hits in five plate appearances and a whopping 48% WPA.

Indians 3, Athletics 7

Looks like Scott Kazmir may still be dealing with a little bit of dead arm. Yesterday, Kazmir (-44% WPA) gave up ten hits, two of which were homers, that led to five earned runs in five innings. Tommy Milone wasn't very efficient and lasted just four and two thirds for a -17% WPA with three runs (one earned) given up. The Oakland bullpen managed to shut down the Indians for the remaining five and a third. There was a short-lived rally in the fifth that chased Milone but otherwise Cleveland struggled to get any kind of advantage in win expectancy.

Mets 3, Padres 4

Matt Harvey, somehow, keeps lowering his FIP. After yesterday's 1.54 FIP in six innings that included two runs and six hits along with six strikeouts, Harvey now sits at an even 2.00. But because he gave back the lead and left with the score tied, he only provided 4% to the Mets' win probability. Eric Stults (-16% WPA) allowed eight baserunners in six and two thirds and gave up three runs. Offense came and went through the game but Will Venable's walkoff homer (38% WPA) that led the ninth against Pedro Feliciano was able to keep this game from becoming an extra innings affair.

Yankees 9, Red Sox 6

Ryan Dempster, inexplicably, wasn't ejected after (clearly) purposely beaning Alex Rodriguez in his first at bat. Joe Giradi quickly realized the pitcher's intentions and stood up for his controversial third basemen but to no avail, eventually being thrown out of the game. It was all downhill for Dempster after that. A-Rod scored after the HBP and six more runs crossed home and were attached to Dempster after nine hits and a walk in just five and a third (-23% WPA). CC Sabathia (-35% WPA) wasn't much better, having allowed six runs on five walks and seven hits while recording just six strikeouts but was somehow credited with a win (Kill the win).

. . .

All statistics courtesy of Fangraphs.

Mike Mulvenna is a writer at Beyond The Box Score. You can follow him on Twitter at @mkmulv.

More from Beyond the Box Score:

• The battle for the AL West
• Is Clayton Kershaw a legitimate MVP candidate?
• Reviewing instant replay
• The Smallest Sample Size 08/16/13: Walk-Off and Blow Out Friday!
• Revocable Waivers: The Hitchhiker's Guide

Jose Lobaton was a hero once again on Sunday afternoon, walking it off for the Rays for the second time this weekend. The Rays defeated the Blue Jays 2-1 and Gareth’s recap explained exactly how close yesterday’s game was.ith a Lobaton walk-off, that could only mean one thing…ICE CREAM! I can only imagine how messy the post-game flight to Baltimore was after seeing these tweets.

I told our clubhouse manager Chris Westmoreland to have a vat of ice cream on the plane for Lobaton. He earned it.

— Joe Maddon (@RaysJoeMaddon) August 18, 2013

Look what @RaysJoeMaddon just give to me OMG I need to eat this before it melts pic.twitter.com/zLUkZxHRYe

— Jose Lobaton (@JLobaton21) August 18, 2013

Per the Rays post-game notes, Jose Lobaton talked to reporters about the difference between his walk-off triple and walk-off homerun,

"It’s different. Walk-off triple, it was amazing. Walk-off homer, you run the bases like that and you know that you won the game, it was unbelievable. Something that you want to do all the time…You want to feel that every day. Hopefully this is not the last one."

He also discussed how much ice cream he got after the win, saying "I got today, I don’t know, like 10 ice creams…(Price) gave me like four, Matt Joyce gave me like five. And then while I was doing the interviews I had like 10 in my hands. I was like, ‘ah, I can’t eat it right now.’"

Lobaton wound up throwing most of the ice cream bars to the fans left in the stands after his interview with Todd Kalas.

Courtesy of Steve Carney, 620 WDAE, here’s Dave Wills’ call of Lobaton’s walk-off homerun. "It’s ice cream time!"

Our own Steve Kinsella was on hand to hear Lobaton discuss his at-bat.

After not winning a single game on their last road trip, the Rays returned home and took four of six games from the Mariners and Blue Jays. With a Red Sox loss last night, the Rays are now one game behind once again for the AL East lead. Tampa Bay still has one fewer loss than Boston, as well. The Red Sox will now travel west for series against the Giants and the Dodgers.

The Rays will now head to Baltimore for a three game series in which we will see David Price, Alex Cobb and Jeremy Hellickson take the mound.

According to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times, Matt Moore made 55 throws from 75 feet yesterday, and will continue to play catch every day until his return. Despite Moore saying everything felt great, there is still no timetable set for a possible return yet.

Desmond Jennings isn’t the only Rays player rehabbing in Port Charlotte this weekend. According to a tweet from Alexander Colome, he will also be joining the Stone Crabs on a rehab stint.

Activo - rehabbing in Port Charlotte and hoping to be back soon #Tampa

— Alex Colome (@AlexanderColome) August 18, 2013

Links:

-We’ve all heard of GTMI, but do you know what RBO is?

-Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Times talked with Joe Maddon about Wil Myersin the DH role.

-The Diamondbacks recently granted the wish of a six year old diehard fan who just wanted to be a DBacks player. Grab some tissues before watching!

-Baseballs are significantly smaller and lighter than bowling balls, but that didn’t stop this Australian second baseman from picking up a 7-10 split with two baseballs.

-The ‘Field of Dreams’ will soon be home to an independent minor league team.

-Two of my favorite columns on FanGraphs, the wildest pitches of the week and the worst swings of the week.

-Kirk Gibson sounded off on Ryan Braun’s PED usage. Braun is also being sued by a longtime friend for defamation.

-There was a brawl in the Florida State League this weekend, as recapped by Steve Carney of 620 WDAE.

All of this ice cream talk....

I just finished Ice cream heeeeee hahahhahahahajah pic.twitter.com/fBXGl4PBKG

— Jose Lobaton (@JLobaton21) August 19, 2013

The Good:

First I'll start with likely the Jays top overall prospect Aaron Sanchez. Sanchez had been dealing with a blister issue the past couple of starts and had been pulled in the first inning of his previous start due to it. Well I'm thinking after his performance this past Wednesday; he's clearly good to go. I listened to the game and Sanchez was sitting comfortably at 95 mph and topped out at 97 mph.  The Dunedin broadcast mentioned he was using far more breaking stuff than previously as well, noting that Sanchez would usually just use his fastball until he got into trouble. Sanchez went 5 strong, giving up no runs, 4 hits, 1 BB and 6 K's, and even better he got 9 groundouts to  go along with that.

I also got the chance to watch the combined Drew Hutchison and Kyle Drabek start for the Bisons. I'll start with Drabek and unfortunately I'll be updating Hutch's performance in a later section of this post. Drabek of the two looked way ahead of Hutch, he was pitching ahead, with some of the best control I've seen from him, the fastball was topping out at around 92 mph, and his curve looked great.

I was lucky this past week that the Lugnuts were on MiLB.tv and Norris was starting. To the first two batters Norris started out with a bang striking them both out swinging before giving up a long home run and then a four pitch walk. I've read Norris can lose his delivery and control (Something Norris mentions in this FanGraphs interview) and I thought this was what I was about to see,  but to his credit he ended up having a great outing striking out 8, walking one and only giving up the one run.

It wasn't mentioned on the broadcast but according to an excellent twitter follow his fastball was sitting:

@StivBators he was sitting 93-94 for the most part.

— Chad Hillman (@HillmanChad) August 16, 2013

Now the last person I expected to include in this section is Ricky Romero, his start on Saturday after watching the first inning I fully expected to put him in the Ugly section.  His fastball was 88 mph and he looked almost like he was slinging the ball. But he really found his stride by the 3^rd inning and was able to go 7 strong innings only giving up one run and more importantly for Ricky only one walk, progress.

Also a quick note from listening to Marcus Stroman's start on Saturday, this is from the Trenton broadcast regarding Stroman "best changeup in the league", yeah I'll take that, especially because I believe that was a pitch he was working on to start the year.

Now for some more good stuff, this time from the experts at Baseball Prospectus on Marcus Stroman, this comes from their "What Scouts are Saying"

"One of the most inspiring minor league pitching performances I've seen this year."

They also mention that he's ready for the big leagues right now but are still concerned over his size and durability noting:

"go back the last 25 years and you won't find a right-hander his size that's been a starter in the league for longer than three years"

Okay so there are some durability concerns along with perhaps some home run concerns but I don't care, I really want to see Stroman up in September, please!

Baseball Prospectus also had some really great things to say about A.J. Jimenez, which after seeing what the Jays have gotten out of the catcher position this year could be very important for 2014.

"The consensus among scouts that I've spoken to about Jimenez is that he is a no-doubt big-leaguer."

They mention that he's got a rocket for an arm but the big question is the bat, and whether it will be enough for him to be an everyday catcher. Jimenez will likely be a September call up; it'll be interesting to see how much playing time he's given.

The Bad:

Unfortunately along with Drabek's excellent relief/shared start for the Bisons, once again Drew Hutchison struggled. According to the few times they mentioned it on the broadcast Hutch's fastball was sitting around 90 mph and it was up in the zone. I listened to a start in New Hampshire not too long ago where Hutch was lighting up the radar gun, but the minor league guns can be unreliable, or so I've been told anyway, I'm guessing the 90 mph is closer to where he's at. He was hit quite hard in the first two innings before seemingly getting things under control and finishing much stronger in his 3^rd and final inning due to pitch count. During the in game interview Bisons manager Marty Brown did mention that he thought Hutch had figured "some stuff out" in his final inning.

I'm going to throw Deck McGuire into the "Bad" despite his complete game victory this week, which seems really odd, but right after that start Baseball Prospectus had this to say about McGuire:

"His entire arsenal is, for lack of a better word, "soft."

I think AA's has learned from his mistake with this 1^st round pick and has made a change in his drafting philosophy where he will never, ever again sign a first round pick!

We'll see if the Jays see enough in Deck to protect him for the upcoming rule 5 draft this winter.

The Ugly:

This isn't too bad but this is from Bisons manager Marty Brown in his in game interview when asked how Sierra was after being hit by a pitch:

"Mo can be a bit dramatic at times"

The Miscellaneous:

And finally some stuff that doesn't quite fit into anything else, here's a few quotes from John Gibbons from his interview on XM from Friday August 16th about Josh Johnson:

"We're not sure if he'll be back at all to be honest with you; it has been a frustrating year for him"

Gibby said the arm injury came out of nowhere for Johnson, he said Johnson felt great after his start in Seattle and that the MRI only showed a strain, but by the time he's ready to go they may be looking at "a couple of young pitchers" (so please mean Stroman here)

And finally I was fortunate enough to hear an interview while the Bluefield Jays game was in a rain delay with former Dodger GM and now professional crosschecker for the Jays, Dan Evans. Here are the highlights:

Dan Evans said he's seen each affiliate 6 times this year except Vancouver (I'm guessing because they're low on prospects), and that he saw Sanchez not too long ago and said this "hit 98, his changeup and I think curve are plus pitches".

And on Norris Evans said "a no doubt big league player for me, it's just a matter of time, we are so pleased on his progress this year"

And Finally Evans had this to say about the Bluefield team, "one of the most talented short season teams I've ever seen", Evans mentioned he was going to stay in Bluefield longer than he was supposed to just because of the talent there.

So from that, 2019 everybody!

Please accept my apologies for the lateness of this week's MMMM, as well as my inclusion of an entire section on A-Rod. I think you can at least forgive me for one of the sins?

Just quickly, I drove down to Michigan this weekend to catch a Royals-Tigers game in Detroit (since I'm huge Emilio Bonifacio fan) and then went on to Lansing to see the kids play. Comerica Park was wonderful, it had good craft beer and this wonderful thing called "bacon on a stick". Our seats were in the outfield bleachers, about 10 feet behind the Royals' bullpen, so we were able to do our best heckling. Bonifacio was playing in centre field (?) that day so it was fun watching him flub up plays, unfortunately he never got to bunt. Lansing was a lovely town--it had a very walkable downtown, a great Peanut Shop, and a market that serves craft beer by the river.

Cooley Law School Stadium, home of the Lugnuts, was a great little ballpark too. It has a bunch of great features that has kids in mind: there are giant inflatable play pens in the outfield, as well as a grass berm that lets kids roll down all game. Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, and his partner-in-crime Slavko Berkovic, were phenomenal hosts down at the ballpark. We had great time there and I introduced them, as well as a few Lugnuts, to the wonderfulness of Coffee Crisps. Blue Jays fans in the vicinity of Lansing should do their best to go and visit; you will have a good time.

Both the Jays and the Yankees have today off before playing two tomorrow. I'm not sure why that is a better plan than just eliminating the off day, but I guess players have their golfing needs.

Blue Jays Related

Kevin Pillar: From Bluefield to Blue Jays - Jays Prospects
Over at Jays Prospects, Jared Macdonald wrote up a fantastic piece on Kevin Pillar following an interview with him down in Buffalo. Pillar speaks about his journey from college ball to the major leagues and the adjustments he has had to make, facing better and better pitchers each level up. Pillar gives praise for Bluefield and Lansing batting coach Kenny Graham, and Jared reveals a promise Pillar had made to his girlfriend.

Jays' Happ, Rays' Cobb would consider headgear - Sportsnet.ca
If you're an engineer or just a tinkerer, try to invent a piece of headgear that is light and thin enough for comfort and protective enough to significantly reduce the force imparted by a five-ounce baseball going at 100+ mph. It's not trivial (obviously) but if you do you will be a billionaire.

Accepting Adam Lind - Getting Blanked
Drew Fairservice looks at Adam Lind through the lens of a rolling 10-day wOBA chart, and as expected he has had his highs and lows. What would've been nice to have on that chart is a line showing the percentage of left-handed pitchers he is facing for each rolling 10-day period. Drew concludes that Adam Lind's $7 million option, with a $2 million buyout already as a sunk cost, should be picked up for 2014. I agree--Lind is not a great player, but a $5 million price tag for someone who can hit righties well is acceptable.

A Secret, Guilty Pleasure - 500 Level Fan
No need to feel guilty! 500 Level Fan professes his admiration for Mark DeRosa. He's not alone.

Redmond's solid start spoiled in loss to Rays - Sportsnet.ca
Not a lot has gone right for Alex Anthopoulos's acquisitions from the offseason, but Todd Redmond, surprisingly, is one that has.

Interview with Tim Raines, Outfield/Baserunning Instructor for the Toronto Blue Jays - Blue Jays from Away
Blue Jays From Away spoke with Blue Jays' roving minor league coach Tim Raines. He was hired to focus on outfield work and baserunning because of what he did in his career, but interestingly enough, some Blue Jays minor leaguers are too young to know who he is and what he did! Tim speaks about his Cooperstown chances, the Expos, and his current role with the Jays organization.

Off Day Blues: Expansion Speculation - Back in Blue Network
Andrew Hendriks profiles a few players who could potentially be called up once the Buffalo Bisons' season ends. They are in the middle of a heated playoff race right now, so unless they are out of the postseason by September 1, we probably won't see all of them until mid-September.

Around the League

Uni Watch Power Rankings rates MLB's uniforms from 1-30 - ESPN
Uniform scholar Paul Lukas just published his annual MLB uniform power rankings for 2013. The Cardinals and Cubs are on top like last season, the Blue Jays are at #8 (no movement), and the Marlins and Padres round up the bottom of the rankings.

New York Mets plan to play Travis D’Arnaud even when John Buck returns from paternity leave - FOX Sports on MSN
In totally surprising and unexpected news, sources tell Ken Rosenthal that the Mets would rather play Travis d'Arnaud than John Buck. I guess no one promised Buck enough playing time to hit 20 homers.

Commissioner Bud's aware of Tropicana Field - Baseball Nation
There's a good chance the Blue Jays will have to play in Tropicana Field for a few more years yet.

Managers, GMs who must finish strong - ESPN (Insider Only)
Jim Bowden believes that John Gibbons is on the hot seat without a strong finish, but I don't think the Blue Jays will pull the plug on him after just one season, especially since he has shown that he can manage a bullpen well (at least for half a season). I hope the club knows well enough not to use him as the scapegoat.

Pacific Coast League Realigns Divisions For 2014 - BaseballAmerica.com
The Pacific Coast League will have a major re-aligning this offseason, moving Colorado Springs from the Pacific to the American Conference and sending Albuquerque the other way. The Tucson Padres will pack up their bags and move to El Paso.

A-Rod Related

The arithmetic of plunking Alex Rodriguez - Over the Monster
Ben Buchanan considers whether Ryan Dempster's plunking of Alex Rodriguez was the right thing to do for the Red Sox. That is arguable, but what's not is that home plate umpire Brian O'Nora made a mistake in not ejecting Dempster from the game when it was clear that he was throwing at A-Rod on purpose. Unfortunately, since it was a close game throughout the night, the Yankees did not retaliate and the bench-clearing brawl we all wanted to see never materialized.

New York Yankees GM 'not comfortable' talking to Alex Rodriguez - ESPN New York
Not only are they not speaking, but Brian Cashman believes that A-Rod and the Yankees are "at war." This is only getting started.

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez could have accepted a suspension for far less than 211 games - FOX Sports on MSN
According to Ken Rosenthal, Alex Rodriguez could've accepted a suspension that was "way, way less" than the 211 games handed down by MLB.

Alex Rodriguez paid for Tony Bosch's lawyer, attorneys tell "Outside the Lines" - ESPN
More A-Rod News. He apparently paid for Tony Bosch's defense attorney in February, then tried to send more money to her in April.

Teams with limited financial flexibility often have to find alternate ways to be successful. While the large- and medium-market teams can spend to contend, small-market teams such as the Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland Athletics, and Pittsburgh Pirates (to an extent) must attempt to stay ahead of the curve by finding new ways to win.

The Oakland Athletics of the early 2000s, as most know, began looking more at stats as opposed to traditional scouting means. The Tampa Bay Rays brought in Wall Street executives for an outside perspective on the baseball and business operation of the team. Recently, to a much lesser extent, the Blue Jays brought in Jamie Evans and his weighted-ball training program for pitchers - a program that has worked so well in the past.

Something being done by many teams now is platooning. When you take an average player who is good against right-handed pitchers, and take another average player who is good against left-handed pitchers, and play them accordingly, you end up with an above-average player. You are essentially turning two mediocre players with large platoon splits in to one player who is good against both right- and left-handed pitchers.

This isn't to say that platooning is a new thing at all, or even some outlandish tactic that only few teams are attempting to use. It's a legitimate strategy implemented by many teams in order to get the most out of players.

From page 173 of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball:

Platooning is an effective way of increasing a team's offensive output. A platoon featuring a lefty and righty with comparable skills (offensively and defensively) and average platoon splits will win about one extra game per season. If one or both platoon players have an unusually large platoon split, you will gain more than a win per season.

That being said, let's take a look at an example from each of the three teams mentioned above - the Pirates, the Athletics and the Rays. Small sample size alert for much of this, beware.

Platoon Examples

The Pirates - First Base

The Pirates have been using a combination of Gaby Sanchez and Garrett Jones at first base for the majority of the year.

Here are their splits against righties (all stats via Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs):

And against lefties:

You can see that in playing Sanchez vs lefties and Jones vs righties, you end up essentially turning two players with large platoon splits in to one player who is great against both-handed pitchers without losing bench flexibility. The Pirates now have a first baseman who can hit to the tune of a .428 wOBA vs lefties and a .331 wOBA vs righties.

The Athletics - First Base

Like the Pirates, the Athletics also have a platoon at first base (as well as in left field, catcher, second base...). The Athletics are easily one of the best teams in the league at utilizing platoons, and it shows in their record. Seth Smith and Chris Young share time in left field and at DH, Eric Sogard and now Alberto Callaspo share time at second base, and John Jaso (when healthy) and Derek Norris split time behind the dish.

The platoon I want to highlight is Nate Freiman and Brandon Moss at first base.

Freiman was picked in the second round of the Rule 5 draft this past offseason by the Houston Astros. He was originally drafted by Texas, but never really panned out for them. He was nearly added to the Astros 25-man roster to begin 2013, but Carlos Pena, Chris Carter, and Brett Wallace forced the Astros to place him on waivers, which is where the Athletics got him.

More Rule 5 stuff - If the Athletics ever remove him from their 40-man roster, they have to offer him back to the San Diego Padres, which is from whom the Astros took him in the Rule 5 draft.

This is what Kevin Goldstein, the Astros' Director of Pro Scouting had to say

"This is a guy who's worth taking a chance on, a guy we've like since his days at Duke," Goldstein said. "He was great in Arizona and played well for Israel as well. Right-handed guys with that kind of power are not normally available in the Rule 5. He destroys left-handed pitching, and he's a guy you give an opportunity to him in the spring and see what he can do."

Brandon Moss was also a bit of a scrap-heap pickup for the Athletics when he was signed to a minor-league deal after the 2011 season. Moss was the primary return to the Pirates back in 2008 in the Jason Bay - Manny Ramirez trade. Moss fell short of expectations, eventually slipping to the bench, then was outrighted to AAA the next season.

The point I'm trying to make here is that when you use platoons, you are not just leveraging players in to situations where they will perform better - you also happen to save quite a bit of money.

Nate Freiman is making $490k this year, Brandon Moss $1.6M. That's a total of $2.09M for Athletics first basemen this year.

Here is how they hit against righties:

And lefties:

If you were to look purely at Moss vs righties and Freiman vs lefties and adjust to a single slash line based on plate appearances by each player, you would end up with a .275/.337/.484 slash line with a .356 wOBA.

That .356 wOBA for Athletics first basemen is enough for ninth place among all first basemen, tied with Allen Craig, and ahead of the likes of James Loney, Adrian Gonzalez, Mike Napoli, and Eric Hosmer.

Adrian Gonzalez makes $21M this year, Napoli $5M, Hosmer makes $528k with just over a year of service time, and Allen Craig, on one of the more team-friendly deals for first basemen will earn an average of $6.2M over the next five years.

Again, the combination of Brandon Moss and Nate Freiman makes $2.09M this year, and they are tied or better than all of the above players in terms of wOBA.

The Rays - Left Field

The Rays have been using a combination of Sean Rodriguez ($1M) and Matt Joyce ($2.45M) in left field.

Off righties:

Off lefties:

Combining the slash lines like we did with the Athletics, Rays left fielders have hit .259/.348/.433 with a .345 wOBA, which would put them in a tie for eighth among major league left fielders. Again, you don't lose bench flexibility as you still have suitable players on the bench who could come in at any time.

How does this relate to the Blue Jays, now that we're 1000 words in? Well...I feel like the Blue Jays could improve the team with platoons. It would take quite a bit of skillful GM-ing, and I'm not entirely sure that any of it is possible, but it's fun to make lineups anyway.

It's not even that hitting has been the problem for the Blue Jays this year, it's just that I really enjoy making lineups. So here we go!

Constructing a better 2014 team

The Blue Jays have clear holes at catcher, second base, and left field, and potentially an issue at one of first base or DH as well, if Adam Lind's option is not picked up.

Here is one possible scenario that I might like to see next year. The players acquired are for the most part free-agents after this season or the next, courtesyof MLB Trade Rumors.

• Adam Lind's option is picked up and he continues to platoon with Mark DeRosa. Actually platoon. Like, Lind never bats against a lefty ever again. Ever. Again.
  • .263/.348/.485 vs L and .295/.377/.530 vs R in 2013
• Maicer Izturis is traded, Brian Dozier is acquired and shares time with and Munenori Kawasaki at second base.
  • .319/.406/.593 vs L and .227/.320/.320 vs R in 2013
  • Another potential option for second base could be Kevin Frandsen, a player who also has a large platoon split. He has hit .262/.385/.429 off of lefties this year.
• Melky Cabrera is traded, Chris Young is acquired and Nate McLouth is signed, they platoon in left field.
  • .187/.313/.355 vs L and .288/.357/.421 vs R in 2013
• J.P. Arencibia and Josh Thole platoon at catcher, with Thole getting the majority of the at bats vs righties. The problem with this platoon is that while Thole has a large platoon split, Arencibia's split is virtually non-existent.

I feel like the offense would be better than the 2013 version, and yet, I can't see Anthopoulos doing much to adjust the lineup, considering how awful the pitching staff has been. Regardless, it would be nice to see the Blue Jays platoon as much as possible, as I believe that it would lead to a more successful team... assuming something can be done about the pitching.

Since three days is more than enough time for a father to spend with his newborn son, Munenori Kawasaki has been re-activated from the paternity list and will be re-joining his team in New York tomorrow as the Blue Jays face the New York Yankees. To make room for him, reliever Thad Weberhas been optioned to the AAA Buffalo Bisons--formally, at least.

Because the Blue Jays and the Yankees play a doubleheader tomorrow, both teams are allowed to expand their active roster from 25 to 26 players. Thad Weber has already been tapped to be recalled tomorrow, so he is most likely with the team in New York City rather than Buffalo.

The player being recalled as the "26th man" does not have to wait the customary 10-day period after being optioned to re-join the major league club; however, if that player has not accrued 10 days on his optional assignment directly preceding the recall, he must be the one optioned after the doubleheaders. That means, unless someone will be placed on the disabled list, Thad Weber will be the one who will be optioned after the games tomorrow. That is good news for Buffalo Bisons fans, as they look for some help in their final push towards the postseason.

This roster expansion rule came about in 2012 with the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement between Major League Baseball and the Players' Association. The rule allows clubs to carry up to 26 players for day-night doubleheaders (one where the stadium in cleared between games and two admissions are charged) which are scheduled at least 48-hours in advance. The roster expansion helps clubs manage their bullpens better on days when two games are played.

The Yankees have not announced who they will be recalling for tomorrow.

The Yankees are off tonight before taking on the Toronto Blue Jays in a doubleheader tomorrow afternoon. The Jays are a prime example of a team the Yankees must beat to keep their streak of non-futility going. Making the playoffs is still an extreme long shot, but if they want any chance at all, the Yankees have to beat the teams they should beat, and that includes the AL East cellar dwellers.

If you're looking for other baseball games to watch, two of the teams the Yankees are chasing in the division are facing off tonight as the Baltimore Orioles welcome the Tampa Bay Rays to Camden Yards. Chris Tillman and David Price will be the starters. The Orioles are closer to the Yankees in the standings, presenting a closer target to hopefully leap frog, but the Rays are the Rays and I dislike them. Advantage: O's.

The Red Sox had to fly across the country after last night's post-midnight ending to take on the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park tonight. Jon Lester and Tim Lincecum get the start. Boston leads the AL East and they are the Red Sox, so... Advantage: Giants.

The Cleveland Indians take on the Los Angeles Angels out in California, the Rangers host the Astros in Arlington, and the Athletics welcome the Mariners to O.co.

Today may have been an off day for the Yankees but it wasn't for the constantly unfolding Alex Rodriguez drama. MLB was willing to waive the confidentiality clause of the CBA so that both sides discuss the case in public after much mud slinging over the weekend. Rodriguez's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, was presented with the offer in a letter on the Today Show, which he refused to sign after calling it a trap and publicity stunt despite publicly stating that he wanted to be able to freely discuss evidence and A-Rod's testing history. Sigh. Never a dull moment these days. Also this, because why not?

Discuss whatever you'd like. What are you watching? Have a nice Monday night!

More from Pinstriped Bible:

• The demotion of Preston Claiborne: a Shakespearean tragedy
• What can Brett Gardner get in free agency?
• Progress report on the Yankees' 2013 MLB draft picks
• Chad Curtis and tainted memories
• Baby Bomber Recap 8/18/13: Eric Jagielo has career day, three affiliates walk it off
• Around the Empire: New York Yankees News - 8/19/13
• Yankees 9, Red Sox 6: That was wild
• Alex Rodriguez begins process of filing medical grievance against Yankees

The Yankees have a day/night doubleheader today against the Toronto Blue Jays, and if they hope to scramble back into the Wild Card race, they pretty much have to sweep the four-game series. There are 39 games left in the season for the Yankees to make up a 6.5 game deficit in the Wild Card; they cannot afford to give games away to the cellar-dwelling Jays. Their worst-case in this series has to involve taking three of four. Playing mediocre ball against subpar teams is a surefire way to make the magic number dwindle.

Here's who the Yankees will send out in the first game of the doubleheader:

Today's Game 1 NYY lineup: pic.twitter.com/4Z2hKaWdwB

— Mark Feinsand (@FeinsandNYDN) August 20, 2013

Preston Claiborne returns to the Yankees as the 26th man for the doubleheader today, and he will return to his post as the Earl of Scranton after tonight. Righty Esmil Rogers pitches for the Blue Jays, so the triple lefty threat of Brett Gardner, Ichiro Suzuki, and Robinson Cano sits at the top of the lineup and Lyle Overbay starts instead of Mark Reynolds. Rogers has a 119 ERA- and 112 FIP- on the season, so they have no excuses for getting shut down by him this afternoon.

Eduardo Nunez will sit during the first game in favor of Jayson Nix so that he can receive treatment for his tight hamstring, incurred during Sunday night's victory over the Red Sox. He had an MRI yesterday that came back negative, so that's good news. The Yankees are hoping he can play shortstop in the nightcap, but they will not know for sure until later this afternoon. The Yankees are going to need all the help they can get with veteran lefty Mark Buehrle pitching the second game against the struggling Phil Hughes.

Derek Jeter will reportedly run the bases in a simulated game today, the first time we've heard reports of him running since he injured his calf. That does not mean that he will necessarily be ready to go for this weekend's series against the Rays in Tampa. The Yankees have to make sure he's healthy and not constantly on the precipice of re-injury. Hopefully, he will not be rushed back into the lineup again.

More from Pinstriped Bible:

• Joe Girardi's Binder: Yankees Starting Lineup Guide
• Would you play for the Yankees?
• Welcoming Pinstriped Bible's newest writers
• Baby Bomber Recap 8/19/13: Gary Sanchez doubles in Thunder win
• Progress report on the Yankees' 2013 MLB draft picks

Ivan Nova and Esmil Rogers face off today in the first part of a doubleheader. The second preview will come later on in the afternoon. Nova faced the Blue Jays twice in August with the previews here and here, but now there's a bigger sample size this season to look at the right hander with. If the Blue Jays needed any more bad news, it's that Nova has become dominant since he last faced Toronto. Back in April, Nova was cruising along with a 6ish ERA and a severe lack of command. Currently his ERA sits at 2.99 and his FIP is 2.81, with a K/9 of 8.97 which is the highest of his career and a BB/9 of 2.58 which is the lowest of his career.

Aside from some injuries this season and a stint in AAA Scranton, Nova has become a great number two pitcher. Just to make matters worse, Nova has a .335 BABIP this year, meaning that his ERA could actually go further down before things are said and done. He actually hasn't allowed more than three runs in a start since the first game against the Blue Jays on April 21.

Nova has simplified his repertoire to a simple fastball, sinker, and curveball mix which has produced great results. He throws the curveball a huge amount of the time when he has two strikes against the batter, especially lefties. It helps that the curveball is getting nearly a whiff on nearly half of the swings hitters take against it. He seems to try and locate down and away against righties, but doesn't exclusively throw it there:

via www.fangraphs.com

You can see his curveball is quite quick coming in around 82mph most of the time:

via cdn.fangraphs.com

Ivan Nova is pretty split neutral so the lineup I'd put out there would be:

1. Reyes SS
2. Bautista RF
3. Encarnacion DH
4. Lind 1B
5. Lawrie 3B
6. Izturis 2B
7. Gose CF
8. Pillar LF
9. Thole C

This could be bad, enjoy!

Jose Bautista came out of the first game of today's double header with the Yankees in the bottom of the 4th inning. He apparently has 'left hip soreness'. I hope it isn't serious but it seems like all Blue Jay injuries turn out to be serious. He's day-to-day, which seems to suggest he won't be playing in tonight's game.

UPDATE

Gibbons says Bautista aggravated hip on a slide at home last week vs Boston. Caught up with him today. He's getting tests.

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) August 20, 2013

Blue Jays 4 Yankees 8

Let's blame it on the Jerseys. Can't win in grey.

The game started well enough. We scored 4 runs in the second inning, batting around, from 4 hits, a walk and a hit batter. The rest of the game wasn't as much fun.

Esmil Rogers gave up a 3-run home to Robinson Cano, in the 3rd inning, to make it a 1-run game. Then Neil Wagner gave up another 3-run homer in the 6th to Chris Stewart, his 4th home run on the season. It didn't help that Wager walked Jayson Nix to set up the home run. That was pretty much the game. Thad Weber game up a couple of runs in his 2 innings of work, 1 unearned, because of Thad's own throwing error.

Rogers went 5 innings, allowed 7 hits, 4 earned, 2 walks, 4 k and the 1 home run to Cano. Gotta wonder if he is going to get the start the next time through the rotation.

On offense, other than that one inning, we didn't do much. 9 hit total. 2 each from Jose Reyes, Adam Lind and Maicer Izturis.

Josh Thole and Kevin Pillar had the 0 fors. Pillar did get his first MLB RBI. Pillar is now 0 for 17 to start his career.

Jose Bautista left the game, in the bottom of the 4th, with 'left hip soreness'. I'm guessing he is out for tonight's game too, which doesn't leave us much for extra outfielders. Forget about guessing, Jose is out of tonight's game. With Davis, Pillar and Gose playing, we can't expect all the much for offense from the outfield, but you never know.

No Jays of the Day. Reyes gets the high mark at .086.

Suckage goes to Wagner (-.415), and Thole (-.165).

The season continues to be less than fun. Off I go to find alcohol in Montreal.

Gibby told reporters that Brett Cecil will be used 'mostly' against lefties to lessen his load. That explains why he was pulled so quick this afternoon. I was surprised he was out after just the one batter.

Phil Hughes goes against Mark Buehrle in the second part of this depressing doubleheader with the Yankees. Like Nova this afternoon, Hughes faced the Blue Jays earlier in April (preview here), but unlike Nova, Hughes has had a inconsistent and mostly bad season. Hughes' ERA sits at 4.97, while his FIP is 4.71. Nothing much stands out about Hughes' stat line other than his 29.6 GB%! That number makes Hughes the biggest fly ball pitcher in the league by a pretty wide margin.

Hughes repertoire is still heavily fastball-slider, with the curveball and changeup both being thrown under 10% of the time this season. His fastball still sits mid-90's, but he doesn't really have a good off-speed pitch to keep hitters off balance, although his slider hasn't been hit too hard this season (hasn't been missed much either mind you).

Here's what all of Hughes' pitches looked like to Jose Bautista:

via itsaboutthemoney.net

If that's a little difficult to keep track of, here's the movement in a more readable chart form:

With Bautista leaving this afternoon's game with hip soreness and Hughes getting smashed by lefties here's the lineup I'd like to see today:

1. Reyes SS
2. Lind DH
3. Encarnacion 1B
4. Lawrie 3B
5. Davis RF
6. Gose CF
7. Thole C (He shouldn't have played this afternoon in retrospect)
8. Pillar LF
9. Kawasaki 2B

Enjoy the game if you haven't watched enough baseball already today.

You're not drunk or seeing things. You are indeed reading this recap's title correctly. Chris Stewart, the very same Chris Stewart who can frame pitches like the Greek Gods of old, hit a three-run home run today and gave the Yankees all the go ahead runs they would need to win Game 1 of today's double header. For the record, I called that Stewart HR. Victories all around.

Before the recap gets into how the offense continued to win the wrong way, let's talk about Ivan Nova. Nova was not his SuperNova self today. His second inning of work was shaky, especially the second inning. Adam Lind started the inning with a single. Nova then proceeded to hit the very next batter, Brett Lawrie, followed by a single by Maicer Izturis to drive in a run. A passed ball by Chris Stewart would move the runners up to 2nd and 3rd base with no outs. Josh Thole grounded out to Nova, who held the runners. The next ground out by Kevin Pillar would score the runner from third base, giving the Blue Jays a two-run lead. After Jose Reyes' single, Rajai Davis then drove in both runners with a single. Those four runs would be the only runs the Blue Jays would score this afternoon.

After the second inning, Nova settled down, get his pitches lower, and manage to go another 4 plus innings. In total, he pitched 6.1 innings while giving up nine hits and four earned runs while striking out two and walking two. With this being the first game a double header, not having to use long relief in this game was very beneficial to the Yankees. Especially with Phil Hughes starting Game 2. Good luck with that recap, Mr. Flynn. Boone Logan would come into the game in the 7th to get Anthony Gose to ground out. Shawn Kelley would follow Logan, walk the next two batters to load the bases, then finally get Brett Lawrie to pop out to Gardner. Whew. David Robertson did his 8th inning thing beautifully and effortlessly. Joba Chamberlain would do his 9th inning thing ugly and disappointingly, which lead to Mariano Rivera coming in to get the final two outs.

I have not had to write a recap in a long time. Writing about the offense use to be filled with heartache. Today it is filled with joy. In the bottom of the 3rd, Brett Gardner did what Brett Gardner does and got on base with a single. Ichiro Suzuki lined a double down the third base line for his 3,998th hit, moving Gardner to third. Robinson Cano then realized how easy the game really is and hit a three-run monster shot into Monument Park to bring the Yankees to within one run. That dinger was his 200th career home run and the second hit on his 4-4 day. Amazing what Cano can do with actually offensive protection behind him.

Alex Rodriguez started off the bottom of the 6th with a single to left field. Curtis Granderson and pinch hitter Mark Reynolds would follow that hit with some strikeouts. You might want to sit down for what you're about to read. Jayson Nix was then walked and Chris Stewart came to the plate. Chris Stewart, whose name has to be fully typed just so you do not mistake him with another Chris or Stewart, proceeded to hit a three-run home run into the left field stands to give the Yankees a 6-4 lead. What did I just type? While that Chris Stewart dinger would be all the runs the Yankees would need to win, Cano would double in Ichiro, who notched his 3,999th hit, from first in the bottom of the 7th and Gardner would sac fly Nix into score in the bottom of the 8th. Nix stole second, then took third on the error by Thad Weber. Good pitching and good offense. I've missed writing these recaps.

Game 2 of this double header will start at 7:00 PM tonight. Phil Hughes will "pitch" tonight against Mark Buehrle. The forecast is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

More from Pinstriped Bible:

• Yankees 3, Blue Jays 2: Be Nixed, Blue Jays (Game 2)
• Ryan Dempster suspended, Joe Girardi fined for A-Rod plunking incident
• Joe Girardi's Binder: Yankees Starting Lineup Guide
• Would you play for the Yankees?
• Welcoming Pinstriped Bible's newest writers

At 6:30 tonight, AMC Network aired perhaps the greatest film of all time: Sylvester Stallone's opus, Demolition Man. Nothing in this world hurts more than a missed opportunity to watch that movie, but Jayson Nix provided nearly as much excitement this evening, murder-death-killing the Blue Jays in the bottom of the ninth, 3-2.

The Yankees sent Phil Hughes to the mound to start, and Hughes - no longer content to simply give up home runs - small-balled his way to an early 1-0 deficit. Rajai Davis led off the game with a single up the middle, past a diving Eduardo Nunez. The hobbled Nunez - just back from a quad strain - looked positively Jeter-ian in his range. Davis quickly stole second, moved to third on a ground out, and scampered home on a wild pitch. Way to diversify, Phil.

Toronto rookie Kevin Pillar came into the game nursing an 0-for-17 slump to start his Major League career, and he  started the third inning in a quick 0-2 hole. Anyone who has followed Hughes' career knows where this is headed...congratulations on your first big league hit, Kevin Pillar! Davis followed Pillar's single with a single of his own, and the Blue Jays had runners on first and second with one out. Hughes fielded a sure-fire double play grounder, but tossed a wounded duck to Nunez, who made a nice play simply to get an out. The dangerous Edwin Encarnacion stepped to the plate with two on and two outs, but Hughes struck him out on a nice slider to end the threat.

Opposing starter Mark Buehrle - he of the lifetime 1-10 record and 6.28 ERA against the Yankees - didn't run into trouble until Austin Romine singled with one out in the third. Romine moved to second on a Brett Gardner ground out and scored the tying run on a two-out single from Robinson Cano. Soriano flew out to end the inning, and the Yankees failed to continue their dominance of Buehrle.

The Curse of 0-2 came back to bite Hughes again in the fifth - he completely overwhelmed Munenori Kawasaki (and his 65 OPS+) with two fastballs, and then inexplicably hung a slider. Kawasaki slapped the ball into the right center field gap for a one-out triple. He would score one batter later, on a sacrifice fly from Davis, to put the Blue Jays back on top, 2-1. Hughes would go on to finish six-plus innings of two-run ball - far better than recent-vintage Phil. Still, he did enough "Hughes" things - namely, surrendering hits on 0-2 counts - to irritate longtime Phil watchers.

For most of the game, Hughes looked set to take the loss. Buehrle kept the Yankees off-balance in that irritating, Buehrle kind of way - changing speeds to induce weak pop ups. In particular, Alex Rodriguez struggled mightily against Buehrle's junk - striking out thrice in three at bats. Buehrle came within one batter of finishing seven innings with only one run allowed.

They say the toughest batter to face with two outs in a run-one game is Jayson Nix...and by "they", I mean "John Sterling, Suzyn Waldman, and no one else on Earth." Tonight, however, Nix proved Ma and Pa Pinstripes to be a couple of baseball savants, crushing a game-tying home run into the left field stands. I could have sworn I heard Suzyn screeching all the way from my house in Pennsylvania...but it might just have been a swarm of cicadas.

The Yankees and Blue Jays traded zeroes in the eighth, and Joe Girardi surprised many in the top of the ninth by bringing in Mariano Rivera for his second appearance of the day. Rivera pitched around an Eduardo Nunez error and a base hit to retire the side.

Clearly, Girardi went for the kill in the top of the inning because he knew he had Nix waiting to end the game in the bottom half. Mark Reynolds led off the inning with a walk, only to be replaced by Ichiro Suzuki as a pinch runner. Nunez moved Ichiro second with a sacrifice bunt, and Ichiro stole third. As he stared down the pitcher, I could have sworn I heard Nix mumble under his breath, "Send a maniac to catch a maniac." Wasting no time, Nix drove the next pitch into left, plating Ichiro and winning the game.

So the Yankees sweep today's double header with a pair a stirring come-from-behind victories. It's once again fun to watch the Bronx Bombers play ball. But I'd still like to know how those damn three seashells work!

Be well, Yankee fans. Be Nixed.

More from Pinstriped Bible:

• Yankees 8, Blue Jays 4: Stewart home run boosts offense in Game 1
• Ryan Dempster suspended, Joe Girardi fined for A-Rod plunking incident
• Joe Girardi's Binder: Yankees Starting Lineup Guide
• Would you play for the Yankees?
• Welcoming Pinstriped Bible's newest writers

After leaving game one of the doubleheader against the New York Yankees in the fourth inning, Jose Bautista lands on the disabled list with a bruised left hip, according to a Barry Davis tweet. According to John Gibbons, Bautista went to get an MRI on his hip. The Blue Jays will shut him down for two weeks of treatment before a re-evaluation can be completed. This means that all three of the Blue Jays' starting outfielders, Jose Bautista, Melky Cabrera, and Colby Rasmus, are on the disabled list.

Gibbons said that the injury was sustained last week on a slide in the home series against the Red Sox. I haven't gotten a chance to look at his slides from that series so I'm not sure which one it may have been.

The corresponding move to bring someone up to fill Bautista's roster spot has yet to be made [see update below]; however Shi Davidi announced that the Blue Jays have optioned their 26th man Thad Weber back to the Buffalo Bisons. Speaking about the Bisons, they are really hurting for offense right now--they have scored all of one run in their last three games, falling into a tie for third place, 4.5 games behind first place in the division, and 3.5 games behind the Wild Card. Now the Bisons will be losing one of their outfielders, most probably Moises Sierra, the only remaining outfielder on the 40-man roster. The Bisons have already lost Kevin Pillar and Anthony Gose to the big club (all in a week), so they will have to try to push for a playoff spot with Brad Glenn, Ricardo Nanita, and Mike McCoy.

But hey--I heard Jeff Francoeur was just designated for assignment. And this time I am only half-kidding!

In game two of the doubleheader, Maicer Izturis also left the game with an apparent ankle injury.

UPDATE 1

Some quotes from the great assemblage of beat reporters:

Bautista said he hurt his hip when he pulled up while scoring a run about 2 wks ago. Thought he'd have to slide, got signal to stay up.

— John Lott (@LottOnBaseball) August 21, 2013

Bautista said no problems for about 3 days after that, then started to hurt. By today, felt he was at about 50%.

— John Lott (@LottOnBaseball) August 21, 2013

Bautista says it got worse as the week went on but today it got to the point where it was too painful to keep playing. #bluejays

— Barry Davis (@SNBarryDavis) August 21, 2013

As for when he'll play again, Bautista says he doesn't expect to be shut down for the rest of the season. #bluejays

— Barry Davis (@SNBarryDavis) August 21, 2013

Jose Bautista has a bone bruise in left hip. He'll remain with the club during his DL stint. #BlueJays#MLB

— Scott MacArthur (@TSNScottyMac) August 21, 2013

A particular tweet was surprising, though:

Jose Bautista says injury didn't happen vs Boston, happened about two weeks ago when he pulled up while scoring, jamming hip. #BlueJays

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) August 21, 2013

It seems that Bautista and Gibbons had problems communicating about exactly when the injury occurred.

Bautista on ways to treat his injury: "Just rest. There’s no surgery, no more aggressive therapy or way to heal it. It’s just resting."

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) August 21, 2013

Just to note, when Bautista is ready to play again in two weeks, he will have to rehab with a minor league club that is in the playoffs, as their regular season ends next week. Hopefully it would be with the Bisons, if Buffalo is out of it by then, Bautista can rehab with Dunedin. I guess that's good news for them!

Also, there was some news, bad news, about Izturis:

Gibbons says Izturis should be fine but he was limping in the clubhouse and says ankle is quite sore now. #bluejays

— Barry Davis (@SNBarryDavis) August 21, 2013

Sigh.

UPDATE 2

As expected, the Blue Jays have recalled Moises Sierra to replace Jose Bautista, as reported--as a fact--by Mike Wilner.

Moises Sierra will be recalled from Buffalo to replace the injured Jose Bautista. #Bluejays#Jays

— Mike Wilner (@Wilnerness590) August 21, 2013

This means that on Wednesday, the Blue Jays are likely to start an outfield comprised of Gose, Pillar, and Sierra--the same outfield the Bisons used just seven days ago. With Maicer Izturis hurt, perhaps Munenori Kawasaki would start at short too. I wonder how often four of nine starters of a minor league affiliate become four of nine starters of the major league club in the span of a week.

Blue Jays 2 Yankees 3

The good news, there is a really nice, quiet bar, right beside where the condo we are renting in Montreal is, and they have very nice beer and good food. And they put the baseball game on for me. Whoops. I slipped to the bad news without telling you before hand.

Whatever the beer I had was, I enjoyed it. I'm going to have to go back tomorrow and find out the name of it. They also did a nice sausage, which they gave us for free so I'm a big fan, I'll be back.

Yesterday we took a tour of Olympic Stadium and a ride up the tower there. Olympic Stadium might be the most depressing place I've ever visited. I monument to concrete and bad architecture. I read that the roof had 2,729 tears in just over a year. Maintenance of the roof costs about $1 million every year. It is just an amazing waste of public money. The nice man that led the 'tour' told me that they had roughly 15 events in the Big O each year. I'm pretty sure he was exaggerating.

The 'tour' was just the nice man leading us into the stadium and having us sit in seats near field level and then he told us exaggerated 'facts' about the stadium. No tour. No look around at the stadium. We weren't allowed to wander around. We didn't see anything except the field, minus the fake grass and the workers at the far end of the 'field'.

The trip up the tower was ok and the view from the top was great. I enjoyed it.

Montreal is great, I'm really enjoying the city, great food, nice folks. My lack of French really isn't a problem. People are nice. I'd say a little impatient. Several times now I've waited to let someone through a door from the other direction, only to be passed by someone behind me, shoving through the door at the same time as the ones coming the other way.

I also lost my camera here. Well, I say I lost, really it was my wife, but I'm not allowed to point that out. I bought myself a nice camera for Christmas this year, I'm not a camera buff but I thought it would be good to have a nice one for taking good pictures (does it say something about me that every time I want to say pictures, I type pitchers and then back up and fix it), and took it when we went out Sunday. My wife offered to carry it while I bought something and I should have taken it back right after, but later she left it somewhere. I'm so sad. My fault. I should have made sure I carried it, but that fact doesn't ,make me less sad.

Today was nice, we looked through old Montreal. Neat shops, great art galleries and a couple of cool churches. I'm not religious at all, but they were interesting.

Oh, this is a game recap. Ok, well we lost. We can't score. We can't bunt. We can't really do anything well. Mark Buehrle pitched about as well as you could home Mark Buehrle to pitch but we still lost. Without Bautista, Rasmus and Reyes we don't have guys that can string together enough hits to score much. And we got walked off, yet again.

Gose can't lay down a bunt when we really need one.

Jays of the Day are Sergio Santos (.171) and Muninori Kawasaki (.097).

Suckage goes to Darren Oliver (-.360), Adam Lind (-.145, 0 for 4) and Gose (-.168, 0 for 4).

Kevin Pillar had his first MLB hit, after going 0 for 17. Bautista goes on the DL. Maicer Izturis might be following him.

The Toronto Blue Jays have placed outfielder Jose Bautista on the disabled list with a bruise on his hip bone, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.

The injury occurred when Bautista made a sliding catch. Toronto initially had removed Bautista early from the first game of Tuesday's double-header against the Yankees and listed him as "game-to-game." However, the injury was deemed bad enough that the Blue Jays placed him on the DL shortly after the second game of the double-header.

Bautista expects to return before the end of the season. The Blue Jays don't need to rush him as they are in last place in the AL East and are 12 games below .500. Over 117 games this season, Bautista has hit .259/.357/.499 with 28 home runs.

The Blue Jays are also missing starting outfielders Melky Cabrera and Colby Rasmus, both suffering from their own injuries. Thus, Toronto is running out backups at all three outfield positions for the time being.

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