It's the first Monday of June and, well, there wasn't much on-the-field baseball to enjoy. There were just five games on the schedule, with the Yankees and Tigers representing the only games being played outside of California. For the most part, all the attention will be on the draft. Still, we've got work to do ...
Monday's scores
- Yankees 7, Tigers 4 Game 1 (box score)
- Tigers 4, Yankees 2 (box score)
- Angels 9, Royals 6 (box score)
- Padres 11, Braves 4 (box score)
- Giants 10, Diamondbacks 3 (box score)
Giants win fifth straight
After an extended stretch of bad baseball, the Giants are back on track. Their win Monday was their fifth in a row and got them back to .500 at 30-30. Further, they are now just 1 1/2 games back in the incredibly winnable NL West. Oh, and Mark Melancon is back from injury and Madison Bumgarner is coming back on Tuesday. Things are really looking up in the Bay Area.
Monday, the Giants were actually down 2-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth, but responded with a seven-spot. Andrew McCutchen got things started with his fifth homer of the year:
Padres J. Teheran Pitching: J. Pirela: Ball, Ball, Ball, Ball, Pirela walked Luiz Gohara relieved Julio Teheran H. Renfroe: Ball, Pickoff attempt, Ball, Foul, Pickoff attempt, Ball, Strike (foul tip), Renfroe doubled to left, Pirela to third F. Reyes: Strike looking, Reyes grounded out to catcher
Brandon Crawford followed with a homer of his own and it was on.
On the Diamondbacks' end, it looked like they might have righted the ship in going 5-1 last week, but note that it was against the Reds and Marlins. They could still very well be broken.
First round of MLB Draft
The first round of the MLB Draft was completed Monday night and it was the reason for the weird schedule. The Tigers took studly starting pitcher Casey Mize out of Auburn with the number one overall pick -- so he gets to stay a Tiger! -- and here's the full draft tracker for the first round.
Severino pins tail on the Tigers
Yankees ace Luis Severino kept rolling against the Tigers in Game One of a day-night doubleheader.
Severino, who entered the day with a 2.31 ERA and a 4.38 strikeout-to-walk ratio, held the Tigers to four hits and a run over eight innings. He did so while fanning 10 batters and walking none. Pretty good afternoon, all total.
Severino has now held opponents to three runs or fewer in 12 of his 13 starts, and to two runs or fewer in 10 of those 13. The only time he's been touched up this season came in his third start, when the Red Sox plated five runs in five innings. Other than that, he has been excellent all season.
If Severino can keep it up, he'll find himself under consideration for the Cy Young Award.
Tigers even doubleheader, Stanton and Fiers re-stoke old fires
Things got a little saucy in the second game of the double dip, as Mike Fiers hit Giancarlo Stanton with a pitch and Stanton was pretty angry (video here). There's history. Fiers was the one who hit Stanton in the face a few years back. Stanton got a measure of revenge with this shot next time up:
.@Giancarlo818 with the crush-job and staredown. 👀 pic.twitter.com/7zD6HsY1FP
— MLB (@MLB) June 5, 2018
Fiers and the Tigers would have the last laugh, taking the second game of the doubleheader, though.
Marte's big day
The Angels were down 5-2 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, but they just kept coming and took the lead for good in the eighth inning. No surprise, but it was a Mike Trout single to take the lead. They added some insurance after that, too, for good measure.
The star of the game, however, was first baseman Jefry Marte. He went 4-for-4 with a home run. It was just the second game of his career with four hits. Coincidentally, the other four-hit game on his game log sheet also included a home run. We guess the term "career day" doesn't apply in this case, then, but it was still quite the effort.
The Angels move to 33-28 on the season, four games out of a playoff position (though it's too early to pay too much attention to that).
Padres bury Braves with seven-run inning
The fifth inning got ugly in Petco Park for the Braves. Take a look:
- J. Teheran Pitching:
- J. Pirela: Ball, Ball, Ball, Ball, Pirela walked
- Luiz Gohara relieved Julio Teheran
- H. Renfroe: Ball, Pickoff attempt, Ball, Foul, Pickoff attempt, Ball, Strike (foul tip), Renfroe doubled to left, Pirela to third
- F. Reyes: Strike looking, Reyes grounded out to catcher
- F. Galvis: Galvis hit sacrifice fly to right, Pirela scored, Renfroe to third
- C. Spangenberg: Ball, Strike looking, Ball, Spangenberg tripled to right, Renfroe scored
- R. Lopez: Strike looking, Ball, Lopez singled to left, Spangenberg scored
- C. Richard: Strike swinging, Ball, Ball, Strike swinging, Ball, Ball, Richard walked, Lopez to second
- T. Jankowski: Strike looking, Jankowski doubled to deep right, Lopez scored, Richard to third
- E. Hosmer: Ball, Strike looking, Hosmer doubled to deep left, Richard and Jankowski scored
- J. Pirela: Ball, Foul, Ball, Pirela doubled to center, Hosmer scored
- Peter Moylan relieved Luiz Gohara
- H. Renfroe: Strike swinging, Strike swinging, Ball, Renfroe grounded out to third
Yikes.
For whatever reason, the Padres own the Braves in Petco Park. The Braves have now lost 15 of their last 17 in that ballpark. Yikes again.
Quick hits
- The Yankees aren't happy with ESPN.
- The Dodgers will promote LHP Caleb Ferguson.
- The Tigers signed RHP Junichi Tazawa to a minor-league deal.
- Veteran righty Jake Peavy will hold a workout for teams in June.
- The Yankees recalled OF Clint Frazier from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for their doubleheader vs. Detroit.
- Braves starter Julio Teheran left Monday's start with a left thumb contusion.