Monthly Archives: September 2012

All to play for

Leave a reply

It’s the final Sunday of the 2012 MLB regular season and, after all of the thrills and spills from yesterday, we’re sure to be in for even more drama today.

Matt Kemp’s pair of home runs helped the Dodgers to a 3-0 victory over the Rockies yesterday and they still have an outside shot at the one remaining playoff place in the National League after the Cardinals were beaten in extra innings by the Nationals.

Meanwhile in the American League all five playoff places are still to be settled.

ESPN America’s coverage takes us directly into that race, firstly via a Rays-White Sox match-up and then with the A’s taking on the Mariners (the latter game will be joined in progress once the first comes to an end).  The Angels and Rangers will play a double-header after their game on Saturday was rained out.

All times are in BST.

18.05. Kansas City at Cleveland (Hochevar - McAllister)
18.05. LA Angels at Texas (Greinke - Darvish)
18.07. NY Yankees at Toronto (Hughes - Alvarez) *BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
18.10. Philadelphia at Miami (Hamels - Eovaldi)
18.35. Boston at Baltimore (Stewart - Saunders)
18.35. NY Mets at Atlanta (Mejia - Medlen)
18.35. Cincinnati at Pittsburgh (Cueto - Rodriguez)
19.10. Tampa Bay at Chicago White Sox (Price - Quintana) *ESPN America
19.10. Houston at Milwaukee (Lyles - Fiers)
19.10. Detroit at Minnesota (Sanchez - Hendriks)
19.15. Washington at St. Louis (Detwiler - Lynn)
21.05. Seattle at Oakland (Ramirez - Milone) *ESPN America
21.05. San Francisco at San Diego (Lincecum - Volquez)
21.10. Colorado at LA Dodgers (De La Rosa - Beckett)
21.10. Chicago Cubs at Arizona (Rusin - Collmenter)

00.05. LA Angels at Texas (Santana - Holland)

UPDATE: Initially I missed the fact that the Yankees-Blue Jays game is being broadcast on BBC Radio. The post has been updated above to take this into account.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above. 

Thrilling final weekend

Leave a reply

As if the race for the playoffs was not exciting enough on its own, the Cincinnati Reds’ Homer Bailey decided to throw a no-hitter into the mix for the final weekend of the 2012 regular season.

Bailey’s no-no on Friday night, the seventh no-hitter of the season, was a great fillip for a team that could have been forgiven for slightly going off the boil heading into October, with a play-off spot already secured and with their manager Dusty Baker resting from his recent mini-stroke.

As for the team that was no-hit, fans of the poor old Pirates will probably feel it sums up their plight.

Dreams of a miraculous playoff place after going 34-19 combined during June and July have been replaced by a 17-37 August and September and the never-ending nightmare of their miserable losing-season sequence. You would be a hard-hearted baseball fan – or at least a die-hard fan of their opponents, the Reds and Braves – to not hold out hope that the Buccos might just win their final five games to give the long-suffering fans in Pittsburgh a .500 record to cling to over the offseason.

The St. Louis Cardinals’ 12-2 win over the Nationals last night has just about won them the final playoff place in the National League; however things are much less certain in the American League. The five pre-midnight U.K. time games on Saturday all take us into the AL postseason race.

All times are in BST.

18.07. NY Yankees at Toronto (Pettitte – Romero)
21.05. Tampa Bay at Chicago White Sox (Moore – Sale)
21.05. Detroit at Minnesota (Verlander – Walters)
21.05. Seattle at Oakland (Vargas – Straily)
21.05. LA Angels at Texas (Santana – Holland)

Starting at the top, the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 11-4 last night after dropping the series opener 6-0 on Thursday, leavng them one game ahead of the Orioles at the top of the AL East. Andy Pettitte has calmly slotted back into the rotation after his injury absence, while Toronto’s Ricky Romero will be desperate to put in a good performance as his extremely disappointing season comes to an end.

It’s all about the division title in the AL Central, as the loser in the White Sox-Tigers battle will not have a Wild Card spot to fall back on. Detroit has a one-game lead in the standings after losing 4-2 to the Twins on Friday.  They will aim to bounce back from that missed opportunity by sending Justin Verlander to the mound for his final regular season start of 2012.

As for the White Sox, their 3-1 win over the Rays last night firmly keeps them in the race. Today’s game brings together two excellent young left-handed pitchers, although the Rays’ Matt Moore appears to have hit a wall in his last three starts. With Tampa Bay trailing in the Wild Card race by three games, they need Moore to deliver a strong performance today.

The AL West division gets more exciting by the day.  A couple of weeks ago it seemed a given that the Rangers would win the division and the A’s and Angels would be battling for a Wild Card spot. Friday’s results – the Angels beating Texas 7-4 and the A’s getting the better of the Mariners – still leave the Rangers three games ahead in the standings, but with two further games against the Angels and then a three-game set against the A’s to close the season out, Texas knows that they need a precious win or two to make them safe.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com, while ESPN America is concentrating on College Football today. 

BGB Fantasy League 2012 Week 24

Leave a reply

We now know which two teams will be battling for glory after the thrills and spills of the BaseballGB Fanatasy League championship semi-finals.

 

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

OPS

W

SV

K

HLD

ERA

WHIP

Score
NE Riverkings 23 3 23 4 .255 .646 3 7 73 0 3.23 1.18 3
Richie’s RBI’s 29 6 29 3 .266 .771 5 3 36 2 2.59 0.96 9

 

We begin with an upset as the Riverkings, who were second in the regular season standings, were dealt a 9-3 loss by the RBIs. Hill, Aoki, Cespedes and Moss helped the RBIs take five out of six offensive categories while Jered Weaver won both his starts and Lance Lynn also turned in a nice outing. Parnell contributed a win and two holds. Butler and Solano were the pick of the Riverking batters, while Wright homered twice and Carlos Gomez helped take steals after swiping three bases. Hellickson picked up a win and 13 strikeouts, while Motte collected five saves and struck out 10 in a big week for the St Louis closer.

 

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

OPS

W

SV

K

HLD

ERA

WHIP

Score
Orpington Isotopes 17 3 19 5 .233 .633 3 1 48 2 4.15 1.30 3
The Wright Stuff 25 3 16 11 .254 .700 2 3 55 3 4.19 1.23 8

 

The RBIs will be taking on the Stuff in the final after they defeated my Isotopes. Aramis Ramirez homered and was one of six players to swipe a base, including Everth Cabrera who stole four. Trout had a rare cold week with the bat but still scored six runs and Revere crossed home plate five times. On the mound, Romo, Hernandez, Myers and Bailey took care of saves and holds, whille Travis Wood racked up 16 strikeouts and Latos, Kendrick and Wainwright helped take WHIP. Luis Cruz was my top hitter for average in an otherwise poor offensive week, with McCutchen driving in five runs. Belisario picked up two wins in relief and Tillman and Parker helped take ERA.

 

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

OPS

W

SV

K

HLD

ERA

WHIP

Score
SWAT* 32 3 20 2 .248 .694 2 9 42 1 3.76 1.33 4
Weston-Super-Sox 23 4 24 4 .295 .772 1 2 36 5 2.68 1.19 8

In the consolation playoffs, the Sox ran out 8-4 winners against SWAT, taking five offensive categories along the way thansk to De Aza, Jennings and Prado. Cook, Grilli and Herrera combined for five holds while Burnett picked up a win, 15 strikeouts and helped take ERA and WHIP. SWAT took runs thanks to a big week from Adam Jones, while Estrada and Medlen each recorded wins and the bullpen of Johnson, Nathan, Reed and Robertson racked up an incredible nine saves.

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

OPS

W

SV

K

HLD

ERA

WHIP

Score
Iron Men 26 8 30 10 .304 .893 1 4 15 4 5.65 1.81 5
Chatham Anglers 25 7 30 2 .271 .768 1 1 20 3 5.96 1.41 6

 

Iron Men’s failure to meet the 20 inning minimum has cost them a place in the consolation final, as they would have otherwise defeated the Anglers. Instead, Chatham ran out 6-5 winners despite failing to win a single offensive category even with a monster week from Miguel Cabrera (nine runs, four homers 10 RBIs). On the mound for the Anglers, Gio Gonzalez notched his 20th win of the season and Storen had a hold and a save. Iron Men had four-homer weeks from Sandoval and Howard, while Braun stole five bases.

 

The final matchups of the season are as follows:

CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL:

Stuff v RBIs

THIRD PLACE:

Riverkings v Isotopes

CONSOLATION FINAL:

Sox v Anglers

SEVENTH PLACE:

Iron Men v SWAT

Please note all matchups run up to and including the final regular season games on October 3.

Final full week of 2012 regular season

4 Replies

This is the final full week of the 2012 MLB regular season – incredible, I know, but it’s true – and we have early games to enjoy on 4 of 5 days.

The five games from Monday to Wednesday all include at least one team in the thick of the playoff race, while there are plenty of important games on Thursday as well.

It’s a little unclear from the BBC Radio schedule which game will be broadcast on 5 Live Sports Extra onThursday. Iindeed, some weeks recently the schedule hasn’t included any baseball initially, only for a game to be aired on Thursday after all.

The schedule currently states that Nat and Josh will provide coverage of the Brewers-Reds game and that’s how I’ve marked it on the list below. However, the show is scheduled to start at 18.30 which would be almost one hour into the game. They will go on air following a World Twenty20 game so it’s probable that they will be flexible with their choice of MLB game depending on when the cricket comes to an end.

All times are in BST.

Monday 24 September

18.05. Milwaukee at Washington (Estrada – Zimmermann) *ESPN America
21.05. Toronto at Baltimore (Alvarez – Johnson)

Tuesday 25 September

19.10. Cleveland at Chicago White Sox (Kluber – Liriano) *ESPN America

Wednesday 26 September

18.10. NY Yankees at Minnesota (Sabathia – Deduno) *ESPN America
23.35. LA Dodgers at San Diego (Capuano – Richard)

Thursday 27 September

17.35. Milwaukee at Cincinnati (Peralta – Arroyo) *BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
18.05. Kansas City at Detroit (Mendoza – Fister)
18.10. Pittsburgh at NY Mets (Correia – Dickey) *ESPN America
19.05. Oakland at Texas (Blackley – Harrison)
20.10. Chicago Cubs at Colorado (Volstad – Chacin)
20.35. Seattle at LA Angels (Iwakuma – Haren) *MLB.com Free Game of the Day
20.45. Arizona at San Francisco (Corbin – Zito)

Friday 28 September

No early games.

 All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The early games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above, while the full ESPN/ESPN America schedule can be found on their website.  BBC 5 Live Sports Ex can be found on digital radio, digital TV and on the BBC.co.uk website (coverage on the website is only available to UK residents). The complete schedule for this week’s MLB games can be found on MLB.com

Great Britain’s WBC hopes still alive

Leave a reply

Great Britain kept their World Baseball Classic hopes alive on Saturday afternoon with a 12-5 victory over the Czech Republic in Regensburg, Germany.

After a chastening seven-inning 11-1 loss to Canada on Thursday, Team GB knew it was time to win or go home against the Czechs and they proved that they were not prepared to end their time in Germany just yet.

They jumped out to an early 6-0 lead against starter Jan Blazek and while the Czechs showed plenty of battling spirit, Great Britain were always able to keep a distance between themselves and their opponent from them on, in part due to a strong starting outing by Jacob Esch (IP. 6, H. 5, R. 2).

From the Czech’s point of view, they may now regret starting with Blazek rather than Alex Sogard. Sogard pitched in Double-A Stateside this season and showed his quality in 3.2 innings of one-run ball in relief of Blazek.

Manager Andrew Berglund had to share out the pitching innings in one way or another and GB scored runs off Marek Minarik and Jan Homolka in the later innings, so it’s quite possible it wouldn’t have made a difference.  However, both teams were desperate to get off to a strong start after losing their opening game in the tournament. Team GB did just that against Blazek and they never looked back.

Whilst Esch’s starting performance, B.J. Hubbert’s use of some ‘oppo-boppo’ (a solo home run to right-centre) and Albert Cartwright’s 3-for-5 day at the plate caught the eye, veteran GB fans would have found it particularly enjoyable to see GB veterans like Aeden McQueary-Ennis (2-for-5 with 3 RBI), Alex Smith (securing the last four outs on the mound) and Brad Marcelino (a good pinch-hit at-bat in the ninth inning ending with a line-out to the right-fielder) also getting some playing time in such a big event.

Richard Klijn, who has been part of the GB set up through the youth programme and onto the senior squad, is another Team GB regular playing his part in this event and he made four nifty fielding plays at second base against the Czechs.

Klijn did commit an error as well as part of a somewhat sloppy seventh inning and it is little mistakes like that (add on Sam Wiley twice being caught out at third base as two other examples, although to his credit he did go 2-for-4 at the plate) that can be so costly against better teams.

Such slips are always likely to occur when you are stepping up and competing at a higher level than you normally play at. Everything happens just that little bit more quickly and it’s all part of the learning curve. You only improve as a player when you challenge yourself against better competition and players like Klijn will benefit greatly from the experience of this tournament, including the experience of playing alongside some of his new pro-league teammates.

Whilst the Czech Republic’s impressive September of baseball is now over, Great Britain remain alive and will play again on Sunday at 13.00 BST. Their opponents will be the loser of the Saturday night clash between Canada and Germany and either team will be tough to beat.

Team GB understandably will be the firm underdogs, but they say every dog has its day and Sunday might just be the turn of the British bulldog to cause an upset.

Sunday’s game can be watched live online at www.worldbaseballclassic.com.

Team GB’s WBC adventure begins on Thursday

3 Replies

At 18.00 BST on Thursday 20 September, Team GB will get the World Baseball Classic Qualification Pool 2 under way with a game against Canada in Regensburg, Germany.

We’ve been waiting for this moment ever since it was announced that the WBC was expanding and Great Britain would be one of the 12 new entrants.

The roster has been announced.

The team has arrived in camp.

The Regensburg ballpark is looking great.

Team GB merchandise is available from the MLB shop.

And the official WBC Twitter account confirmed on Tuesday that all games will be available online.

We’re all set to go!

The four-team group includes Great Britain, Germany, Czech Republic and Canada, the latter being the previous WBC entrant who failed to gain a victory in the last tournament (2009) and therefore has to qualify to get back to the main event, which will take place in March next year.

The team that wins the group will go on to the main WBC, joining three other qualifiers who will earn their place in similar qualifying tournaments (one which starts on Wednesday in Florida and two more that will be played in November in Panama and Taiwan respectively).

The teams will play each other in Regensburg using a modified double elimination format competition. It’s a ‘modified’ double elimination format in the sense that the second pair of games (Games 3 and 4) already have one of the participants set. The standard format is for the winner of Games 1 and 2 to meet in Game 3, with the losers of Games 1 and 2 meeting in Game 4.

However, Games 3 and 4 will both take place on Saturday and the organizers understandably wanted the host nation to be playing in the evening (i.e. Game 4). So, the Czech Republic will play in Game 3 and they will face whichever team matched their result from Game 1 (i.e. if the Czechs win their Game 2 against Germany, they will face the winner of Game 1), while the Germans will play in Game 4 and, again, play the team that matched their first (Game 2) result.

It’s difficult to predict with any confidence who will come out on top as it’s a wide open tournament.

Among the Europeans, the recent European Championship results would rank Germany first, followed by the Czech Republic and then Great Britain. However, Team GB have a significantly stronger roster for the WBC while the Germans and Czechs are predominantly sticking with the same players. Great Britain’s manager Sam Dempster and his coaching staff have the task of helping the new players to gell quickly with the Euro holdovers, whereas their European counterparts should benefit from the greater continuity. Canada’s team has a mixture of pro players and it will be interesting to see how they match up against the European teams.

More importantly, anything can happen in such a relatively short tournament. No team proves that better than the Czech Republic. They nearly gained a surprise win over Germany in the recent Euros, before losing to Great Britain in their next game and then pulling off a shock victory against the Netherlands. As in MLB, a strong pitching performance and some timely hitting – or conversely an off-day by your starter and missed chances with runners in scoring position – can decide a single game even if ordinarily there would be a notable difference in talent levels between the two teams.

Team GB have as good a shot as any of the four teams of winning the event – despite their disappointing European Championship performance – but Sam Dempster’s team will know the importance of getting off to a good start. An opening loss to Canada would really put the pressure on, but if they can win that game then the group will really open up for them.

Italy and the Netherlands have just finished their traditional battle for supremacy in the European Championships – the former defending their title – and they are already assured a place in the main WBC event next year. Hopefully there will be another team there flying the flag for European baseball as well.

And you never know, it just might be Team GB.

BGB Fantasy League 2012 Week 23

Leave a reply
The first round of the BaseballGB fantasy league playoffs were full of drama. But which teams made it through to the semi-finals?
 
 
 
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Orpington Isotopes 22 10 36 6 .284 .921 6 2 50 4 3.50 1.23 11
Iron Men 17 2 12 5 .189 .530 6 1 49 2 4.26 1.29 0
 
We begin with a big week for my Isotopes, who fell a win shy of a clean sweep against Iron Men. McCutchen and Rickie Weeks each hit three homers to spark an offensive sweep, while Rizzo went deep twice and drove in nine runs and Marte swiped three bases. On the mound, Parker won both his starts, Kuroda had a win and 16 strikeouts and Mamrmol and Thayer took care of saves and holds. It was a tough week for Iron Men, who saw most of their hitters in a collective slump aside from Braun and Miguel Montero. Six different pitchers collected wins, with Hamels, Estrada and Milone all pitching well.
 
 
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Weston-Super-Sox 24 1 7 8 .246 .643 1 2 35 3 3.51 1.32 3
Richie’s RBI’s 24 13 38 5 .286 .884 2 5 29 0 1.29 1.00 8
 
Four wins in offense and pitching helped the RBIs defeat the Sox 8-3 as the team which finished 6th in the standings knocked out the 3rd place side. Granderson had a four-homer week, while Salvador Perez, Moss, Cespedes and Zimmerman all went deep twice. On the mound, Weaver and Hughes each picked up wins while the closing duo of Soriano (four) and Rodney (one) took care of saves. AJ Burnet, Wei-Yin Chen and Hanson helped the Sox take strikeouts while Cook and Herrera took care of holds. Offensively, the only category the Sox took was steals, thanks to Cargo, Jennings, Hosmer and De Aza.
 
 
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
SWAT* 28 8 24 2 .238 .757 3 3 61 3 3.93 1.40 5
NE Riverkings 22 6 29 3 .250 .734 4 4 66 2 4.12 1.23 7
 
The Riverkings, who finished top of the standings, survived a scare to defeat SWAT 7-5. Dan Haren’s win on Sunday proved to be a turning point in this matchup, as the win and nine strikeouts helped swing those categories in the favour of the Riverkings. Motte’s save in the Cardinals’ 12-inning win against the Dodgers made the difference in that category. Offensively, Jackson, Butler and Wright helped take RBIs, average and steals. SWAT had power from Pence and Encarnacion, while Pedroia and Beltran helped take OPS. On the mound, Robertson racked up three holds and Griffin, Harvey, Kershaw and Medlen took care of ERA.
 
 
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
The Wright Stuff 23 5 16 6 .211 .602 3 5 77 1 3.72 1.13 6
Chatham Anglers 41 12 45 5 .355 .988 1 4 26 6 3.94 1.65 6
 
Finally, the Stuff and Anglers finished all square, with the stuff advancing due to having the better record (8-3) when the two sides faced off in the regular season. The Stuff had the better of the pitching, with Peavy, Kendrick and Scherzer picking up wins and racking up strikeouts, with Latos and Wainwright also racking up double-digit strikeouts. Offensively, Everth Cabrera, Alexi Ramirez, Trout and Bruce helped take steals. The Anglers took the five remaining offensive categories thanks to a three-homer week from Miguel Cabrera, while Hunter and Posey went deep twice and a red-hot Chris Nelson helped take average and OPS. Benoit and Casilla took care of holds and Gio Gonzalez picked up another win, but the Anglers fell agonisingly short of advancing.
 
This means the playoff matchups for week 24 are as follows:
 
Championship:
Stuff v Isotopes
Riverkings v RBIs
 
Consolation playoffs:
Sox v SWAT
Iron Men v Anglers

Nine early MLB games this week

1 Reply

This working week’s schedule of early MLB games is a little unusual.

We have a game each on Monday and Friday, typically days of the week where you only occasionally see day-games being played, whilst we come up empty on the most popular weekday for daytime baseball over the last two seasons, Wednesday.

This is in part due to the time of year.  Monday’s game from the heart of the AL Central division battle is an example of teams needing to squeeze games in as the regular season draws to a close, while it’s probably the case that some games that could have been moved to the daytime on Wednesday are being played in the evening to allow as many fans as possible the chance to come out and support their team at this crucial part of the year.

All times are in BST.

Monday 17 September

19.10. Detroit at Chicago White Sox (Fister – Quintana)

Tuesday 18 September

No early games

Wednesday 19 September

No early games

Thursday 20 September

17.05. Minnesota at Cleveland (Vasquez – Kluber)
18.05. Oakland at Detroit (Milone – Sanchez) *ESPN America
18.45. Houston at St. Louis (Norris – Kelly)
19.20. Cincinnati at Chicago Cubs (Arroyo – Berken)
20.40. San Diego at Arizona (Richard – Skaggs)
20.45. Colorado at San Francisco (Pomeranz – Zito)
21.05. Milwaukee at Pittsburgh (Fiers – Rodriguez)

Friday 21 September

19.20. St. Louis at Chicago Cubs (Carpenter – Volstad) *ESPN America

MLB isn’t the only important baseball being played this week. The World Baseball Classic qualifier groups 1 and 2 are taking place in Florida and Germany respectively.  There’s still no official word on any TV coverage of the Group 2 games, which includes Team GB, and that suggests we’ll be out of luck; however the MLB.com Media Center guide does include some WBC qualifiers on the list, including Great Britain’s game on Thursday against Canada, so it’s possible they will be available to watch online.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The early games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above, while the full ESPN/ESPN America schedule can be found on their website.  BBC 5 Live Sports Extra can be found on digital radio, digital TV and on the BBC.co.uk website (coverage on the website is only available to UK residents). The complete schedule for this week’s MLB games can be found on MLB.com.

Drama everywhere on Sunday evening

Leave a reply

We have a big evening of high class drama in store on Sunday.

No, not Downton Abbey. It’s the third from last Sunday of the 2012 MLB regular season and the race for playoff places gets more intense by the day.

No team encapsulates that better than the Los Angeles Dodgers. Clayton Kershaw should have been pitching for them today in a match-up against Adam Wainwright and the St. Louis Cardinals. However, a hip injury has sidelined the Dodgers’ ace for today’s game and, depending on the results of a trip to a hip specialist this week, could see him shelved for the season.

It would be a huge blow for the Dodgers, coming alongside the losses of Chad Billingsley and Ted Lilly, but they have remained in the playoff race despite an indifferent recent run of results and their walk-off victory yesterday shows that there could still be some magic left at Dodger Stadium this season.

All times are in BST.

18.05. Tampa Bay at NY Yankees (Moore - Kuroda) *ESPN America
18.07. Boston at Toronto (Lester - Morrow)
18.10. Cincinnati at Miami (Latos - Nolasco)
19.05. Philadelphia at Houston (Halladay - Lyles)
19.10. LA Angels at Kansas City (Haren - Smith)
19.10. NY Mets at Milwaukee (Young - Peralta)
19.10. Chicago White Sox at Minnesota (Peavy - Diamond)
19.20. Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs (Locke - Volstad)
20.05. Detroit at Cleveland (Porcello - Jimenez)
20.05. Seattle at Texas (Beavan - Harrison)
21.05. Baltimore at Oakland (Wolf - Straily) *ESPN America
21.05. Colorado at San Diego (White - Werner)
21.10. St. Louis at LA Dodgers (Wainwright - Fife)
21.10. San Francisco at Arizona (Vogelsong - Corbin)

01.05. Washington at Atlanta (Gonzalez - Minor) *ESPN America

Elsewhere, the other team in L.A. was on the other side of a walk-off result on Saturday, as the Kansas City Royals hit back-to-back jacks off Ernesto Frieri to put a dent in the Angels’ playoff push.

The Houston Astros also showed that teams sitting a long way out of contention can still have a major impact on the race for October. The Phillies went into Houston on Thursday riding a seven-game winning streak and Minute Maid Park looked like being the perfect launching pad for the visiting team to really force their way into the playoff mix. Instead, Roy Halladay will take the mound today trying to help his team salvage a sweep from the four-game series.

With plenty of other exciting match-ups on the line-up, not least the day’s opener between the Rays and Yankees, it should be another evening where the only problem for baseball fans will be knowing where to look for the next big moment.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above. 

Great Britain’s European Championship comes to an early end

Leave a reply

Team GB signed off from the 2012 European Championships today in Rotterdam with a 6-2 victory over Russia; however it was a winning end to a disappointing tournament.

The victory came in a playoff game to determine the 11th and 12th placed positions in the final table.

Thanks largely to 5.2 good innings by Cartmel Valley’s Ben Pearson on his senior team debut and Matt McGraw’s inside-the-park home run, the Brits earned their second win of the event and were able to avoid the wooden spoon.

Sadly that came too late to avoid relegation back to the European B Pool. Team GB will need to progress through a qualifier next year if they want to get back to the Euros and make amends in 2014.

The disappointment of this campaign shouldn’t lead to too much pessimism about that task. The difference between winning and losing group games in the Euros often comes down to fine margins.

That was best shown by Great Britain’s second game victory over the Czech Republic.  Team GB played brilliantly, led by a superb pitching performance by Greg Hendrix, and they deservedly ran out 6-1 winners. Yet in their previous game the Czechs had pushed eventual Pool B winners Germany into extra innings, only narrowly losing 4-5, and in their game after the loss to GB they went on to produce the shock of the tournament with a 3-2 extra inning win over the Netherlands.

Great Britain’s defeat in their fourth game against Belgium was perhaps the most frustrating as they twice took the lead but were unable to hold on, against a team that ordinarily they would back themselves to beat.

While the Belgium loss largely sealed Team GB’s fate, dropping the tournament opener 3-1 to France was a real hammer blow that immediately put the team in a difficult position, just as Team GB’s opening victory against Spain served to set the tone for a second placed finish back in the 2007 Euros. They had their chances to get the better of France but it wasn’t to be and that made qualification an uphill struggle, one that this time around they were unable to overcome.

But each new tournament gives all involved some important experiences to learn from and added motivation to make the next event more successful. That’s what Sam Dempster and his coaching staff will be focusing on and, with the World Baseball Classic qualifier rapidly approaching, some of those involved in the Euros will get an immediate chance to get back out there and to provide baseball’s contribution to this glorious summer of sport for Great Britain.

Check out the Team GB page on the BBF website for Bob Fromer’s excellent game reports from the Euros.