Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Quickie Sports Chowdah Update- Cole Powered, Hammels and Phillies Pen Combine For No-Hitter; Kelly's Heroes- Joe Kelly Gets First Win in Boston Uniform


MLB- Cole Hammels started it and former Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon sealed the deal.

Early in the game, it seemed more of a question of how long would Phillies starter Cole Hammels last, let alone when the Braves would get their first hit as Hammel's pitch count rose early.

The Phillies got on the board with a RBI sac fly from Ben Revere in the top of the 3rd while Jimmy Rollins had an RBI triple to give Hammels some run support. What made this an unlikely no-hit bid was that the Braves got five baserunners on via the walk and had driven up Cole's pitch count to 108 pitches as he left the game after 6 innings with Philly up 2-0, so at the time it wasn't even a sure thing Hammel's would get the win, let along the no-hitter remaining intact. However, Philly was able to break the game open against Atlanta starter Julio Teherán thanks to a 2-out bases loaded triple from Ben Revere to clear the bases and give the Phils a 5-0 lead.

Meanwhile, relievers Jake Diekman and Ken Giles came out of the Philadelphia pen in the bottom of the 7th and 8th innings respectively and sent the side down in order.

In the top of the 9th, it was once again Ben Revere who was providing the Phillies with the offense with a 1-out RBI single. With the bases loaded, Ryan Howard drew a walk to bring the second run of the inning to put the Phils up 7-0.

For the bottom of the 9th, closer Jonathan Papelbon got pinch hitter Jose Constanza to fly out to left, Chris Johnson to ground out to first and Phil Gosselin to line out to first to complete the no-hit bid.

This is the fourth no-hitter of the 2014 MLB season and the first that wasn't from an NL West club [the other three this year belong to Clayton Kershaw and Josh Beckett of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants- NANESB]




BOSTON RED SOX- With any realistic postseason aspirations for the defending World Series champions pretty much gone by the time the calendar flipped from July to August, the final month of the 2014 Red Sox is basically an open tryout for a shot at the 2015 roster. While the rosters expanded on September 1st, some of the names called up from Pawtucket [Christian Vasquez, Brock Holt, Rubby De LaRosa, Mookie Betts, Anthony Ranaudo, etc etc- NANESB!] are already names quite familiar to some of the Fenway faithful thanks to trades and injuries.

However depleted this iteration of the Red Sox are, Red Sox Nation naturally wants to see Boston do their part to extinguish the already dimming playoff hopes of the New York Yankees and had a chance to do exactly that when Red Sox starter Joe Kelly would go up against New York rookie Shane Green.

After Brock Holt lined out to open the game up, Mookie Betts singled and Green walked David Ortiz to put runners on first and second with only one away. Yoenis Cespedes then brought home Betts on an RBI double while Big Papi moved up to 3rd. Napoli then hit a sac fly deep enough for Ortiz to lumber home on to give Boston a 2-0 lead. Daniel Nava was then hit by a Green pitch before the inning ended with Will Middlebrooks caught looking at strike three.

The Yankees started off their half of the first with Ellsbury, Jeter and Brett Gardener going down in order. In the top of the second, Green appeared to have settled down some- after allowing a leadoff single to Xander Bogaerts, Green got David Ross to strike out, Brock Holt to line out to right and Betts to line out to center.

For the 3rd, Big Papi led off with a flyout to left, but Cespedes quickly followed that up with a single to left and Napoli was walked afterwards to put two runners on with Daniel Nava in the batters box with only one out. That set up this beauty



With only 1 away, Nava put the Red Sox up 5-0 with a homer that travelled 375 feet to right field. This was immediately followed by Middlebrooks striking out looking for out number two. But the scoring would continue as Bogaerts belted a solo homer into the Yankees bullpen to make it a 6-0 Red Sox lead.

The Red Sox would go on to cruise [relatively speaking- NANESB!] against the Yankees, winning by a 9-4 final. Joe Kelly would throw 6⅔ innings, allowing three earned runs and striking out six in what would be his first win since being traded to Boston by the Cardinals. Tommy Layne and Koji Uehara would come out of the bullpen and only alow one more run from the Yankees. Bogarts would go 4-5 with a homer and 2 RBI while Daniel Nava would go 2-3 with a homer and 3 RBI.

Wednesday night's game will have the Yankees Hiroki Kuroda [9-8; 3.88 ERA] going up against Anthony Ranaudo [3-0; 4.50 ERA]. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN [for some inexplicable reason- NANESB!] and first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 ET. The Yankees come into Wednesday night's game nine games out of first in the AL East and five games out of the final wild card spot.

RED SOX WEST OAKLAND ATHLETICS- The Oakland A's weren't done wheeling and dealing just yet, as it turns out. On Sunday, the Oakland A's announced they had acquired DH Adam Dunn from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for Nolan Sanburn and cash considerations. Dunn had also announced that he would retire at the end of the 2014 season, making this pennant chase his last.

With the White Sox, Dunn was batting .220 with 20 homers and 54 RBI this season. Upon arriving in Oakland, Dunn made an immediate impression in his first at-bat, belting a 2-run homer in the bottom of the first in the Labor Day game against Seattle which the Athletics would go on to win by a 6-1 final. However, not all is well with the A's....who were the runaway favorites to cruise to the AL West pennant earlier this year. Oakland has only won two of their last nine games- all of them against AL West opponents- and were shut out for 29 consecutive innings in a pivotal 4-game series against the Angels.

Since 2000, Dunn has hit 461 homers in his career with the Reds, Diamondbacks, Nationals and White Sox- only David Ortiz and Albert Pujols have hit more.

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