O's vs Braves, rubber match

[SteveA]

Cole Hamels, making his first start of the season, vs Keegan Akin.

Battle of lefties, and both teams sit some LH hitters who usually play:

1. Ronald Acuna Jr. (R) CF

2. Freddie Freeman (L) 1B

3. Marcell Ozuna (R) LF

4. Travis d'Arnaud (R) DH

5. Dansby Swanson (R) SS

6. Adam Duvall (R) RF

7. Austin Riley (R) 3B

8. Tyler Flowers (R) C

9. Ozzie Albies (S) 2B

 

1. Hanser Alberto (R) 3B

2. Jose Iglesias (R) SS

3. Ryan Mountcastle (R) LF

4. Pedro Severino (R) C

5. Renato Nunez (R) DH

6. DJ Stewart (L) RF

7. Pat Valaika (R) 1B

8. Austin Hays (R) CF

9. Andrew Velazquez (S) 2B

[SteveA]

Update on the chase for the AL Batting title:

Tim Anderson .377
Jose Iglesias .374
DJ LeMahieu .363
no other qualifier over .333

Iglesias doesn't show up on lists because he doesn't yet have enough plate appearances to qualify.

To qualify at the end of the season, he needs, 58 more plate appearances.

If he gets 5 PAs in every 9 inning game and 4 PAs in every 7 inning game, he would get exactly 58 plate appearances.

(If he falls a few plate appearances short of the target, he would still win the batting title if adding that # of 0-for at-bats to his stats would still leave him with a higher batting average than the next highest guy).

[SteveA]

In 2018, the Orioles faced 18 teams and won the season series from 2 of them:  Atl (2-1), and Mets (3-1).

In 2019, the Orioles faced 20 teams, and won the season series from 1 of them:  the Angels (4-3).

This year, there were only 9 teams on the Orioles' schedule.  They have already won the season series from 2 of them:  Washington (4-2), and Philly (3-0).   This game will determine the season series with Atlanta.   In addition, the Orioles could still win the season series from Tampa (up 3-2 with 5 remaining games) and Boston (up 4-3 with 3 games remaining).

[SteveA]

Akin whiffs Acuna to start the game.   Got him looking on an inside fastball that was clearly a strike but had Acuna backing away.

[SteveA]

A walk, a deep flyout, and a hit are bookended by strikeouts of Acuna and Swanson by Akin in the 1st.

[Yossarian]

Iglesias keeps on hitting.

[SteveA]

Akin strikes out the side in the 2nd!   5 Ks in the game, 4 in a row.

[SteveA]

Wow, 3 straight 3 pitch Ks for Akin!   If it happened in the same inning it would be an "immaculate" inning which I think has been done less than a hundred times in MLB history.

[SteveA]

SIX straight strikeouts for Akin.  

[Yossarian]

Akin may be a keeper

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, SteveA said:

Wow, 3 straight 3 pitch Ks for Akin!   If it happened in the same inning it would be an "immaculate" inning which I think has been done less than a hundred times in MLB history.

Twice by what former Oriole?

[SteveA]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

Twice by what former Oriole?

Gausman?  I remember one.

[ChuckS]

Best strikeout stuff from a LHS we’ve probably seen since Erik Bedard. 

[HowAboutThat]

So I’m not sure I remember correctly, but I think that I recall that Hyde Was reluctant to use Akin at all, and then said that he would only be used out of the bullpen.
I don’t know who overruled him, but I am very glad he was overruled.

[Yossarian]

2 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Twice by what former Oriole?

Jim Johnson?