Tag Archives: Nat Coombs

MLB on 5 Live Sports Extra: Royals v Cardinals

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Mlb5XtraHlTonight’s game on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra is an interleague match-up from the Midwest between the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals.  Nat Coombs and Josh Chetwynd are scheduled to be on air from 18.30.

St. Louis (39-33) enter the game second in the NL Central, one game behind the Milwaukee Brewers, while Kansas City (31-40) are fourth in the AL Central with the Minnesota Twins quickly catching up on them.

It should be an entertaining contest this evening.  The three-game series is tied at 1-1 heading into the final match. 

A Matt Holliday home run in the eighth inning yesterday snapped a seven-game losing streak for the Cardinals as they took a 5-4 victory one day after the Royals had beaten them by the same scoreline.

The Cardinals have been the kings of the Midwest for over a decade, but the Royals are on a rebuilding mission. 

First baseman Eric Hosmer and third baseman Mike Moustakas, two of their star prospects, have recently been called up to the Big Leagues to join Billy Butler (reduced to pinch hitting duties during the DH-less play at the National League park) and Alex Gordon to form a home-grown nucleus to their batting lineup.  

Manager Ned Yost is able to throw one flame-throwing reliever after another at the opposition with ‘Tiny’ Tim Collins, Aaron Crow, Blake Wood, Louis Coleman and Everett Teaford currently holding the spots in front of closer Joakim Soria, who looks to be finding some form after a rough start to the season.

The Royals’ starting rotation is a work in progress after trading away their previous ace Zack Greinke over the offseason, but their starting pitcher today should be part of the solution.  Danny Duffy is a left-hander of much promise. 

His path to the Big Leagues hasn’t been completely smooth, he even briefly quit the game at the start of last season; however his fastball and changeup – alongside a developing breaking ball – give him every chance of being a solid Major Leaguer.  He recorded his first Big League win in his last outing against the A’s and this will be his seventh Major League start. 

As for the Cardinals, they will match one lefty with another by sending Jaime Garcia to the mound. He was a revelation in his rookie season last year and he has continued that form into 2011.  Garcia ended up with a no-decision in his last outing despite giving his team another solid start.  He struck out seven and gave up just two earned runs over six innings against the Washington Nationals.

The MLB show is preceded by Day Four of the England – Sri Lanka Test match.  It’s been a bit of a washout at the Rose Bowl and, with the weather forecast not looking good for tomorrow, it’s possible that they might be playing on for later than usual if the rain and light holds up. 

However, first pitch is set for 19.15 BST so we should be fine for joining the game without missing any of the action.

You can listen to the game via Digital Radio, Digital TV or online on the BBC website (UK residents only). Don’t forget to join up to the MLB on 5 Live Facebook group page.

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra: Texas Rangers v Minnesota Twins

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UPDATE: 5 Live Sports Extra’s schedule has now changed

This evening’s game on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra brings together two division leaders from the American League. 

Texas Rangers lead the AL West by eight games and appear primed for their first playoff appearance since 1999.  2010 has been a tumultuous year off the field for the Rangers, with a messy ownership change and manager Ron Washington being found to have taken cocaine.  However, far from being distractions, these events have brought the club together.

In contrast, things couldn’t have gone any better off the field for the Minnesota Twins this year.  All-Star catcher, reigning MVP and all-round Minnesotan hero Joe Mauer signed an eight-year contract extension over the offseason and the team finally opened a beautiful new outdoor ballpark, Target Field, replacing the much-maligned Metrodome.  The Twins lead the AL Central by 3.5 games ahead of the Chicago White Sox.

Nat Coombs and Josh Chetwynd will be presenting the action from 7 p.m. (first pitch is scheduled for 7.10).  Not only can you listen in via DAB radio and digital TV, the show is now also available online for UK residents at the BBC.co.uk website. 

The series so far

Sometimes teams can take a while to find their feet at a new home and that was a slight concern for the Twins’ division-winning hopes heading into the season as the unique nature of the Metrodome had previously given them a significant home-field advantage.

Twins fans had nothing to worry about as their team is 44-23 at Target Field and the most recent two wins have come at the expense of the Rangers.  They edged the opener 4-3 on Friday night as emergency starter Matt Fox held Texas to two runs over 5.1 innings and Denard Span singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh inning. 

The Twins followed up that success with a commanding 12-4 victory yesterday in a day game on FOX.  Jim Thome went deep twice, the first a mighty upper-deck blast to right-field, to match and then pass Mart McGwire for ninth on the all-time home run list with 584 round-trippers.  Carl Pavano pitched eight strong innings to earn his sixteenth win of the season.

Today’s starting pitchers

C.J. Wilson has been a revelation for the Rangers this season.  The former relief pitcher moved into the rotation at the start of the year and he has held onto his place in impressive style, going 14-5 in his twenty-seven starts with a 2.88 ERA. 

His one Achilles heel has been the base-on-balls as Wilson leads all AL pitchers in giving up 77 free passes; however he has counteracted this by leading the league in allowing the fewest hits per nine innings (6.67).

The Twins will turn to Nick Blackburn today as they go for the series sweep.  It’s been a difficult year for the right-hander as his ERA is a full two runs higher this season than in 2009 (6.04 compared with 4.03) and his struggles resulted in him being sent down to Triple-A at the end of July. 

He was called back up to the Big Leagues for a start against Texas on 23 August and although he took the loss, he didn’t pitch badly (three earned runs conceded over seven innings) and he followed that up with an excellent showing against the Mariners last Saturday.  Blackburn was used as an emergency reliever against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday and that didn’t go so well as he gave up the game-winning home run to Gerald Laird.  However, the Twins hope that his two most recent starts show that he has turned the corner and will carry forward that encouraging form today.

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra: Atlanta Braves v Chicago Cubs

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Mlb5XtraHlThere should be no last minute changes to this week’s scheduled game on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra.  The Test between England and Pakistan has finished and there will be no repeat of an Andy Murray final to switch to as he got knocked out of the Cincinnati Masters on Friday.

So Braves-Cubs it is scheduled to be and, subject to a rain-out, that’s what we’ll get to enjoy this evening.  Coverage starts at 19.00 with first pitch set for 19.20.  The show can be found on DAB radio and digital TV.

Nat Coombs is likely to present the show again alongside Josh Chetwynd, but Jonny Gould will no doubt be listening in and cheering on his Braves.  His favourite player, Chipper Jones, is sadly out for the season, but he does have another favourite to cheer for instead: Braves manager Bobby Cox. This is almost certainly going to be the final time Cox and Lou Pineilla manage against each other as both plan to retire at the end of the season.

The series so far

If this game, the third of a three-game series, follows the same pattern as the first two, we can expect the Cubs to take a lead and the Braves to mount an exciting late comeback.

Their comeback succeeded on Friday.  The Cubs led 3-2 heading into the top of the ninth, only for star closer Carlos Marmol to let the game slip from his grasp.  The Braves had the bases loaded, but were down to their last strike when Rick Ankiel laced a three-run triple to give his team a 5-3 lead that Billy Wagner held on to the bottom of the frame.

Cubs fans must have feared a repeat yesterday as they once again saw an early lead being whittled away.  Chicago scored five runs off the Braves’ starter Tommy Hanson and Tom Gorzelanny pitched seven innings of one-run ball to put the Cubs up 5-1 heading into the eighth inning.  Atlanta got another bases-loaded hit, this time a three-run double by Brooks Conrad, to make it 5-4.  However, Marmol quickly put his Friday failure behind him by shutting down the Braves in the ninth to level the series at 1-1 before today’s rubber game.

Today’s starting pitchers

The two starting pitchers today have had completely different journeys on their way to the Major Leagues.

The Braves selected Mike Minor with the seventh overall pick of the amateur draft last year.  He became the fourth 2009 first-round pitcher to make the Majors within less than a year of signing, joining the Reds’ Mike Leake and the Washington Nationals’ Drew Storen and Stephen Strasburg.  Minor is also the third first-rounder in a row out of Vanderbilt University to make the Majors in short measure, following in the paths of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ third baseman Pedro Alvarez (2nd overall in 2008) and the Tampa Bay Rays’ pitcher David Price (1st overall in 2007). 

Today will be Minor’s third Big League start.  The left-hander impressed in his first two appearances, going six innings each time against the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals, picking up his first Major League win last time out against the Nats.  Minor throws a low nineties fastball, a low eighties changeup and an effective curveball.

In contrast to Minor’s straight path to a Big League mound, the Cubs’ Randy Wells has taken a more unique route.

The Cubs selected Wells as a catcher in the 38th round of the 2002 draft.  He converted to being a full-time pitcher in 2004 and worked his way up to the Triple-A Iowa Cubs team, before being claimed by the Toronto Blue Jays in the December 2007 Rule 5 draft.  Wells pitched one Major League inning for the Blue Jays before being returned to the Cubs and having a strong debut season (12-10, 3.05 ERA) as a rotation regular at Wrigley last year.

Wells hasn’t quite lived up to that great form in 2010, coming into this game with a 5-11 record and a 4.44 ERA, but he has partly been a victim of the Cubs’ wider struggles (receiving two or less runs in support of his pitching in thirteen of his twenty-five starts).  Wells’ days of wearing the tools of ignorance look like being over and his fastball, slider, changeup combo should help him remain as a solid starter for years to come.

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra – Tonight’s game has changed

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Mlb5XtraHlAs my preview earlier today stated, 5 Live Sports Extra was scheduled to bring us the Yankees-Royals game at 19.00.  However, the channel has now changed its schedule so that they can broadcast the Rogers Cup final between Andy Murray and Roger Federer.

Instead of Yankees-Royals at 19.00, it will now be the San Diego Padres versus the San Francisco Giants at 21.00 (subject to when the tennis finishes, I guees). 

Wade LeBlanc and Tim Lincecum will be on the mound as the top two teams in the National League West go head-to-head at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

Nat Coombs and Josh Chetwynd will be providing the coverage.  MLB.com’s game preview can be found here.

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra: Oakland A’s at Chicago White Sox

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Mlb5XtraHlToday’s MLB game on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra is a clash from the American League as the Oakland A’s and Chicago White Sox finish up their three-game series at U.S. Cellular Field. 

Nat Coombs will be in the presenting chair once again, while Josh Chetwynd should be back after missing last week’s show due to the birth of his second child, Becca.  First pitch is set for 19.05 and the show begins at 19.00. 

The White Sox come into today’s game with just a half-game lead over the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central. 

Both teams are in good form, with the Twins having won seven straight and the White Sox putting together a five-game winning streak until that was snapped yesterday by the A’s.  In fact, the A’s victory was the first time in thirteen home games that the White Sox walked off the field without celebrating a win. 

Chicago’s General Manager Kenny Williams is known for pulling off big trades and he was expected to be active prior to last night’s non-waiver trade deadline.  While they did acquire starting pitcher Edwin Jackson on Friday, the long-rumoured deal to acquire slugger Adam Dunn didn’t take place and there’s perhaps a slight feeling of disappointment among White Sox fans that they were unable to add an extra bat to their roster.

The A’s had a very quiet trade deadline and that’s indicative of their current position.  Although they are in second place in the AL West, they are 8.5 games behind the Texas Rangers and few expect them to make a serious challenge for a playoff berth. 

Oakland have been hit hard by injuries yet again, the latest example being the $10m gamble on Ben Sheets finally unravelling this week as he heads for season-ending surgery, but they have a good group of young talent and affordable Major Leaguers.  General Manager Billy Beane believes that the current A’s will only improve next year and with a few key additions over the offseason, made possible by the large salaries of Sheets and Eric Chavez coming off the books, 2011 could see the A’s back in genuine contention for the first time since reaching the American League Championship Series in 2006.

Today’s game

The series is tied 1-1 heading into today’s game.  The White Sox took the series opener 6-1 with Lucas Harrell earning a win in his Major League debut, but the A’s fought back yesterday as Dallas Braden pitched a complete game in a 6-2 victory. 

Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez are the scheduled starters and both have been in excellent form of late. 

Floyd had a 7.00 ERA after his first eight starts, but he’s allowed only eighteen earned runs in his thirteen starts since then, resulting in a 1.90 ERA over that span.  Floyd is a righty with a typical starting pitcher arsenal at his disposal: a low nineties fastball topping out at 94 MPH, an 87 MPH slider, a good curve and an occasional change-up. 

Gonzalez is one of a number of impressive young starters that the A’s have amassed in recent years, either through draft picks or while trading away their best Major League talent.  He was actually acquired from the White Sox back in January 2008 in a trade for outfielder Nick Swisher and his trade history makes for interesting reading.  He was drafted by the White Sox in 2004, traded to the Phillies in a deal to acquire potential future Hall-of-Famer Jim Thome and then reacquired by the White Sox in a trade that sent Aaron Rowand to Philadelphia.  Gonzalez was one of two pitchers that the Phillies sent the White Sox’s way in that deal.  The other? His opponent today, Gavin Floyd.

Gonzalez made his Major League debut in 2008 and was inconsistent in 2009, but this season he is showing why the White Sox clearly thought so highly of him.  He can still be inconsistent at times and needs to reduce the number of walks he dishes out (4.2 per nine innings so far this season), but everything is going in the right direction as he gains more experience and develops his craft at the Big League level.  With a low nineties fastball, a decent changeup and an excellent sweeping curveball, he has the potential to develop into a very good Major League starter.

Unfortunately we’re not able to run a live blog this week, but we’re looking at doing one next week instead.  I will definitely be tuning in though.  Tonight’s show will be a meeting of two good teams and two in-form starters, with plenty of time to discuss all of the trade deadline moves as well.  It should be a great show, available on DAB radio and via digital TV.