Here are three things to watch for around the baseball world Wednesday…
1. Can anyone stop the Brewers or Mariners?
The Brewers haven’t lost a game since before the trade deadline. Their last defeat was a 10-3 loss to the archrival Cubs on July 30. Milwaukee has won 11 straight games and 14 of their past 15, catapulting them into a commanding 7.5-game lead in the NL Central. The Brewers bludgeoned the Pirates with 14 runs last night in a game started by arguably the best pitcher in the league, Paul Skenes (though “only” four of the runs came against Skenes). They’ll go for 12 in a row today when resurgent ace Brandon Woodruff (2.29 ERA in 35 1/3 innings) takes on Pirates righty Mitch Keller (3.86 ERA in 137 2/3 innings) in a day game being broadcast on MLB Network.
The Mariners are on their own blistering win streak, having picked up their eighth straight win in a 1-0 victory over the Orioles last night. Deadline pickup Josh Naylor singled home a run in the top of the first inning, and that proved to be the lone run scored on either side of the box score in a brilliantly pitched duel between Seattle’s George Kirby and Baltimore’s Dean Kremer. Logan Gilbert heads to the mound Wednesday to try to secure Seattle’s ninth consecutive victory, but he’ll have a tough opponent in lefty Trevor Rogers, whose miserable partial season with the O’s last year feels like a distant memory. Rogers (1.44 ERA in 62 1/3 innings) hasn’t looked this good since finishing runner-up in 2021 NL Rookie of the Year voting. Can he quell Seattle’s momentum? A win today for the M’s and a loss for the Astros would give the Mariners sole possession of the AL West lead.
2. Health updates on star closers?
The Orioles declared closer Felix Bautista out for the season yesterday, with manager Tony Mansolino citing a “significant” shoulder injury as the cause. Just a couple hours later, the Astros placed Josh Hader on the 15-day IL with a shoulder strain — the first arm injury of his outstanding career. Both pitchers were slated to continue undergoing testing as their teams gathered additional information on their respective injuries.
With regard to Bautista, there’s obviously greater cause for concern. He missed all of the 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery and returned with good bottom-line results but diminished velocity and a walk rate near 16%. He was placed on the injured list due to shoulder inflammation late last month and has now been ruled out entirely with more than six weeks of the season yet to play out.
There’s no indication Hader’s season is in jeopardy, and until the Astros gather additional opinions, they’ll be tight-lipped on the left-hander’s outlook. It’s possible that we could get updates on one or both pitchers today, and we should certainly know more about at least one of them by the end of the week.
3. Kelly faces his old team:
The D-backs traded right-hander Merrill Kelly to the Rangers back on July 31, parting ways with a right-hander who’s spent the past six-plus seasons as a fixture in the rotation. A 2010 Rays draftee, Kelly never made it to the majors with Tampa Bay before heading to the Korea Baseball Organization and reinventing himself overseas. He’s become not just a stable big league arm but a high-end, playoff-caliber starter who’s enjoying one of his best seasons at age 36. Kelly was sharp in his first Rangers start but struggled in his second. He’ll now face Arizona for the first time since the deal and square off against longtime rotation-mate Zac Gallen.
Gallen, like Kelly, is an impending free agent whose name was heavily discussed prior to the trade deadline. The D-backs ultimately held onto Gallen, whose 5.31 ERA and huge spike in home runs allowed this season combined to tamp down his trade value. Gallen has put together two strong starts since the deadline (12 innings, three runs, 13 hits, three walks, nine strikeouts) and will look to keep building momentum against a Texas club whose offense has continued to struggle. Even with the rough season, he’s still a qualifying offer candidate — particularly if he can string together a series of strong starts to close out the year.
Brew Crew destroyed Skenes last night. He had a 1.94 ERA going into the game and it’s now 2.13. It doesn’t seem he pitches well in Milwaukee, as he had a similar outing back in June.
York – And that was the night after both Eovaldi and Crochet gave up 5 Earned Runs in 5 innings or less.
Could have to do with pitch tipping.
@Fever Pitch Guy
I gotta imagine it’s more like Pro Wrestling. It was scripted that Skenes would get hit around again in order to keep the Brewers streak alive. It’s all about drama and viewership.
Yeah he doesn’t look like the cy young winner in Milwaukee.
(But he does vs everyone else.)
To be fair, very few pitchers do well in Milwaukee these days.
Very few pitchers have to deal with a whole team mentality of taking pitches and just getting the bat on the ball and putting it in play. Almost every team has one or two players like that, but 1-9 for the Brewers is built around that mentality. Very frustrating for opposing pitchers.
Only aggressive batter is Chourio, but that is of little solace.
I would say that all of Yelich, Contreras, Vaughn, and Hoskins (when he returns) are all agressive hitters. Turang and Frelick are fairly attack approach, the rest are taking pitches and bat on ball players. It’s a good mix. They all take pitches at a pretty high level too, with the exception of Chourio.
Oh, so referring to how the game should be played
Sure, MLB Network carries the Pirates game this afternoon instead of yesterday when Skenes pitched. I know he wasn’t at his best, but Skenes and Trout are two players I would pay to see.
Sounds like an mlbtr subscriber waiting to happen.
Soto: No.
@avenger65
I’m watching the amazing game between the D-Backs and Rangers. Merrill Kelly gets to pitch against his former team. Game’s tied 1-1.
It definitely looked like “pitch tipping” during Frelick’s 1st AB. However, every pitcher gets lit up on occasion. Could be a Crew/Mariners WS. Philly, SD, Toronto and Boston have a good shot. The Dodgers pitching is a mess and Mookie is having a down year. No repeat for them.
Who knows…….not sure there is much correlation between hot clubs in dog days and couple months later for Oct playoffs. LAD likely bored/conserving best pitchers by design, so a stacked team like that could foreseeably get in a groove for money time.
A mariners – Brewers World Series would be quite interesting for one thing it would keep Bob Costas silent during the playoffs because there would be no Yankees for him to drool over.
He does need a bib in NYY games.
Mets fans, enjoy Pete Alonso’s club record for home runs while you can. He’ll be another ballplayer the Mets won’t be able to find the money for,, just like R.A. Dickey, Jose Reyes, and Darryl Strawberry.
An Ms Brewers WS would be kind of cool. Since both teams started in Seattle. Brewers were the Pilots first.
We were the first place to have the Pilots. They screwed us over and brought the team here 2 years early. We didn’t have an MLB field ready when they came. It is more in depth than that but won’t get into the details. I remember going to a few games. I had a blast and as a preteen I could not understand how they could do it. How could they give us something then take it away? I learned that if an owner or prospective owner for a team had enough money they could get the team to another city when they were ready with their ballpark and ownership groups together they could get the team brought to their city with the backing of the commissioner. We got screwed over by 2 commissioners in 2 leagues. I will always keep commissioners at arms length and never trust one. Even the most supposedly clean commish can be bought and the city they have in their sites will never have a chance. Would love to know what Stern and was it Vincent not sure who was the MLB Commish at the time we lost the Pilots. Would love to know what those commissioners got for screwing over this once fine city. On YouTube you can find a really good film on what was done who did it and why everything was a sham. This is for the Sonics.
I don’t know of many that have bad feelings about the team anymore. They just let them be and root against them. I want to root for the Mariners and not get caught up in the they used to be our team. I am basically over it and just want to root for my team to win it in 5.
To anyone under 55, the Seattle Pilots exist only in “Ball Four” by Jim Bouton. (Who pitched for the Pilots in their only season.)
Embrace this winning summer in Seattle and enjoy the Mariners’ involvement in the Williamsport game this Sunday.
@compassrose: Bowie Kuhn was the commissioner of MLB in 1969 when the expansion Pilots played their only season in Seattle before moving to Milwaukee. Kuhn was the commissioner from 1969-1984. His 15 year tenure was the second longest in MLB history to Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis’ 23 years.