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At one point Thursday, the Mariners theoretically had a chance to come away with a game from their three-game set against the Marlins. As it turns out, that chance was short-lived. The Mariners were swept away, losing the third and final contest in Miami 8-4.

The game came unraveled in the bottom of the fourth. After the M’s didn’t fully capitalize on some opportunities in the first couple of innings and fell behind a run, Bryce Miller walked his fourth hitter of the evening and allowed a single off the end of the bat by Leo Jiménez to put two runners on with one out. He was able to induce a ground ball from Liam Hicks for a chance at a double play, but Colt Emerson’s throw to first was in the dirt, allowing Jakob Marsee to score from second on the play. To make matters even worse, Emerson pulled his foot from second base early while attempting to turn it, and the Mariners ended up getting no outs from the play following a Marlins challenge.

The Marlins had no mercy and laid down the consequences. A triple down the left field line off of J.P. Crawford’s glove by Otto Lopez and a Kyle Stowers single to right brought in three more runs, ballooning the Marlins’ lead to 6-1 in the blink of an eye. Just like that, the game felt decided.

Believe it or not, things didn’t get off to a horrible start for the Mariners. Thanks to a pair of walks from Marlins righty Janson Junk to begin the game, both Crawford and Randy Arozarena were on base with nobody out in the top of the first. It felt like a golden opportunity to move on from Wednesday’s shutout and put up a crooked number early. Alas, the opportunity in the first wouldn’t come to fruition. Dominic Canzone grounded into an easy 6-3 double play, and even with a runner still on third with two outs, Cal Raleigh struck out to end the early threat.

Miller ran into some trouble in the bottom half of the first. He issued a one-out walk to Lopez, which at the time was his first allowed in four starts. The next hitter, Xavier Edwards, weakly chopped a grounder to the right side in front of the plate, which Miller was able to field but unable to properly deliver to first, pulling Josh Naylor off the bag to put two runners on. Despite a tough sequence, Miller was able to work back-to-back flyouts to get out of the jam.

All in all, it wasn’t the best day from Miller. He’d strike out only three hitters over five innings, allowing nine hits for six runs (four earned) while walking four. His velocity was down across the board.

The top of the second was when Naylor would briefly take over this game — he’d deposit a bloop single right between third and short for one of the cheapest hits you’ll ever see.

After Luke Raley struck out for the first out of the inning, Naylor stole second without a throw. Junk couldn’t throw another pitch before Naylor took off again with his sights set on third base. This time, Junk stepped off and Naylor looked doomed to run into an out on the basepaths — instead, the throw to third was airmailed into foul territory on the left field side, allowing Naylor to trot home and give the Mariners a 1-0 lead.

Cole Young drew a walk and advanced to third on yet another throwing error by Junk on a pickoff attempt to first. After Víctor Robles struck out, Emerson also drew a walk and stole second to give the Mariners a chance with two runners in scoring position and two out. As I alluded to earlier though, they didn’t cash in — Crawford grounded out to end the inning on a ball that deflected off of Junk and over to the second baseman Edwards.

While the bulk of the damage came later, the Marlins did make the Mariners pay in the immediate aftermath of their missed opportunity in the second. Griffin Conine turned on Miller’s first pitch of the bottom half, a 95 mph four-seamer, for a solo homer that evened the score. Later in the inning, Hicks would deliver a double down the right field line to score a runner from first and give the Marlins the lead they would never relinquish.

The Mariners offense briefly showed some glimmers of life later on, even with the game appearing pretty much out of reach. Arozarena and Canzone both hit homers, with Dom’s being of the two-run variety.

With Thursday’s loss, the Mariners fall back to .500. It’s the 11th time this season the Mariners have been equal in wins and losses, excluding Opening Day. They are now in danger of heading into the All-Star break with a losing record; that’ll be the case unless they can earn a series win against the American League-leading Tampa Bay Rays this weekend at Tropicana Field.

The St. Louis Cardinals played the final game of their 5 games in 4 days marathon against Milwaukee Thursday night and many of us are happy to see the Brewers leave town. Jordan Walker would homer, but that wouldn’t be enough for the Cardinals to avoid losing 4 of 5 from the Brew Crew.

There was a lot of early scoring in the game, but unfortunately the guys wearing the wrong uniforms scored them. Andre Pallante has given the St. Louis Cardinals some of the strongest starts over recent weeks. Thursday night’s game was not one of them. The Milwaukee Brewers started the scoring in the top of the 2nd inning when Jake Bauers connected for a one-out single. He advanced to second on a wild pitch by Pallante and then moved over to third on a fielder’s choice. A couple of two-out RBI singles, one by Sal Frelick and the other by Cooper Pratt gave the Brewers a 2-0 lead.

The Brewers added significantly to that lead in the top of the 3rd inning. Three consecutive singles to start the inning by Mitchell, Chourio and Turang upped the Milwaukee lead to 3-0 and then, one out later, Jake Bauers crushed a 391 foot line-drive homer into the right field pen elevating the Brewers lead to 6-0.

The St. Louis Cardinals would not just roll over and let the game get too far out of hand fortunately as their bats woke up in the bottom of the 4th inning. After Iván Herrera struck out, Alec Burleson squared up a 79 mph changeup and ripped it to the wall in right-center for a double. Two batters later, Lars Nootbaar smacked a 92 mph four-seam fastball into right-center for a RBI single making it 6-1 Brewers.

Andre Pallante’s stat line for the game was not a happy one. He exited after giving up an infield hit in the top of the 6th inning allowing 8 hits, 6 earned runs while striking out 2 and walking 2. Luis Gastelum took over for Andre and pitched himself out of a jam. With two on and no outs, he got Ortiz to foul out to Herrera, struck out Mitchell (his first career strikeout, congrats) and then Chourio on a ground out to keep the Brewers from piling on more runs. That would prove to be a bigger moment a half inning later.

In case you didn’t hear, Jordan Walker joined the lineup for the All-Star Game Home Run Derby next Monday. He celebrated that Thursday night by blasting a ball 406 feet into Big Mac Land with JJ Wetherholt and Alec Burleson on base in the bottom of the 6th inning to make a game of it cutting the Brewers lead to 6-4.

The Brewers unfortunately refused to stand still and allow the Cardinals to completely grab the momentum in the top of the 7th inning as Luis Gastelum served up a 93 mph four-seam fastball to Brice Turang who launched it onto Freese’s Landing in center increasing the Milwaukee lead back to 3 at 7-4. That shot resulted in Gastelum’s exit and Gordon Graceffo’s entry to try and lock down the Brewers and keep them within striking distance. Gordon was successful in that effort. Graceffo was also the Cardinals solution for the top of the 8th inning after the St. Louis lineup failed to generate any positive motion in the bottom of the 7th inning and he again kept the Brewers from scoring.

The St. Louis Cardinals would put together a threat in the bottom of the 8th inning. JJ Wetherholt beat out an infield single to leadoff the inning, his second hit of the game and third time on base. Iván Herrera drew a tough walk off of Brewers reliever Ashby. Alec Burleson hit into a fielder’s choice, but beat out the grounder to prevent the double play which meant new home run derby entrant Jordan Walker was the potential tying run. Jordan sadly whiffed on a sweeping curve for the second out. Lars Nootbaar ended the Cardinals scoring opportunity in the bottom of the 8th with a weak pop-out. Bummer.

For the Cardinals to have a prayer in the bottom of the 9th, Matt Svanson would need to keep the Brewers off the board in the top of the inning. The first batter he faced was Jackson Chourio that ripped the 3rd pitch he saw into the right field corner for a leadoff double. Chourio would advance to third on a flyout by Turang and then score on a sacrifice fly to right from William Contreras upping the Milwaukee lead to 8-4. Prayer for no more Brewer runs denied.

The Cardinals bottom of the 9th hopes would be carried by the bottom of the lineup. They’d have to overcome the arm of the flame-throwing Abner Uribe. They would go down relatively quietly as the Cardinals watched the Brewers bus pull out of town with 4 victories out of 5 for the week.

The St. Louis Cardinals begin the last homestand prior to the All-Star Game break with the Atlanta Braves coming to town. The Cardinals will hand the ball to Kyle Leahy while the Braves will put the formidable Chris Sale on the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 7:15pm central time at Busch Stadium and the TV broadcast will be handled by Apple TV.

Craig Counsell didn’t hide his frustration with the fact that Major League Baseball did not review what he felt was Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson blocking second base with his foot during a base-stealing attempt by Cubs infielder Nico Hoerner during the Cubs’ 3-2 loss to the Orioles on Thursday in Baltimore.

Trailing by one in the ninth inning, the Cubs were trying to even the score when Hoerner attempted to steal second. 

It looked as though Henderson’s foot was in the path of Hoerner and forced him to alter his slide going into second base. 

Hoerner was called out and when the play was challenged, the umpires focused on whether Hoerner was tagged when he was off the bag and not whether Henderson was blocking the bag. 

“There is a clear blocking the bag there. It’s very clear. The reason why Nico came off the bag is because the player is blocking the bag and he has to adjust his slide,” Counsell told reporters. “Then they go to review.

“They don’t even look at the blocking of the bag when that’s what caused the player to come off, it’s kind of illogical that you don’t look at blocking the bag when it’s what caused the player to come off the bag. They can’t look at it. He did come off the bag and he was tagged, but he came off the bag because Henderson had his foot right in the sliding lane, which is illegal. 

“New York is staring at it because [the umpire] didn’t call it on the field, they don’t call it. That makes no sense.” 

The Cubs ended up losing the game as the Orioles prevented Chicago from exiting the Charm City with a sweep during the three-game series. 

Dansby Swanson and Michael Conforto were the final two outs of the game as Baltimore secured the win.

When the city of Cincinnati was founded, the Passenger Pigeon was so numerous that a passing flock could blot out the sun. By 1907, the entire species was reduced to a single bird, residing at the Cincinnati Zoo. Tonight, offense faced a similar extinction, felled by merciless pitching.

Brady Singer, the Cincy starter, sent his foes down in order in the first on just 12 pitches; Jesús Luzardo, not to be outdone, did it in five. Singer allowed a hit (double, Bryson Stott) in the second, but incurred no further damage. Jesús Luzardo, again not to be outdone, allowed a less damaging hit (single, Tyler Stephenson), and incurred no further damage.

The pitchers’ duel remained in full effect through the fourth, neither team plating a runner. Those who like offense were briefly teased in the bottom of the fifth as a runner advanced as far as third via walk, groundout, and single— but it came to naught. Three hits, two from the Redlegs and one from the Phillies, were all that the game produced through five. And the Phillies had no more through six. The Phillies were getting sent back to the dugout faster than a Cincinnati chili parlor can dish up a bowl.

Speaking of dishing, Luzardo kept dishing out Ks. He had ten through six, and the Reds batters were left as bereft as a Bengals fan after any season in their recorded history.

Kyle Schwarber opened up the seventh with a hit, singling to center. The spirits of the Philadelphia faithful began to stir. Schwarber on base, Bryce Harper coming up next. Those names spell doom for pitchers as sure as the Ohio River flows to the southwest. But it was not so tonight; Harper grounded into a double play. The fans, perhaps getting a bit stir crazy, began to chant “take it off”, that “tarps off” thing in action. The fans must’ve decided to wear as many shirts as the two teams had runs. In a noble attempt to get some shirts back on, Brandon Marsh singled, and Alec Bohm got hit by a pitch, and the Phillies had something going with two away. But it soon ended with a fly out.

The Reds opened up their half of the seventh with a baserunner too, though via the free pass. The Phillies, trying to keep the game dreadfully symmetrical, almost turned a double play with the next baserunner; an excellent play from Trea Turner ensured they were able to get one out, though they couldn’t complete the twin killing.

Singer took the mound for the eighth, fewer than eighty pitches on his ledger. He hit Gabriel Rincones Jr. with a pitch to lead off the inning, He advanced to second on a groundout. And then, in a sudden and beautiful moment, a ball from Justin Crawford’s bat found the gap on the right side of the infield. Derek Hill, pinch running for Rincones, came tearing around the basepaths. A throw was made towards home, a last, desperate attempt by the forces of big Zero to keep the score at their favored figure. It did not work. The Phillies had their first lead.

The “take it off” chants continued. Reds skipper Terry Francona may have misheard them as “take him out”, as he pulled Singer after he walked Turner. His replacement, Sam Moll, finished the inning without further incident.

Luzardo, having made it through a full 7 unscathed (2 hits, 2 walks, no runs, 11 K), was thus the winner of the duel. Jonathan Bowlan came aboard in relief and picked up exactly where Luzardo left off, putting three Cincinnatis down in order.

The Phillies entered the bottom of the ninth with their 1-0 lead, and Jhoan Duran, All-Star closer, emerging from the bullpen. JJ Bleday battled Duran across nine pitches, ultimately winning the prize of a single. Bleday then stole second, and Spencer Steer took a base on a HBP. Duran recovered with a strikeout of Eugenio Suárez, and then one of Tyler Stephenson, and suddenly the Phillies were just an out away from victory. A Noelvi Marte chopper to Bohm became an easy game-ending out. Just like cinnamon is the secret ingredient in Cincy chili, pitching is the (not-so) secret ingredient in a Phillies victory.

The Phillies are 52-42. They’ll start their last series of the first half, a trio of games in Detroit, tomorrow at 6:40.

The white-hot Detroit Tigers went for the home sweep of a three-game weeknight series against the Homeless A’s on Thursday evening, after winning the first two games in fun fashion. They made it eight wins in the past nine games with a 4-1 win to complete the sweep.

It was Framber Valdez’s turn in the rotation, and to say his season to date has been a mixed bag is one heck of an understatement. His previous two starts saw him give up four runs in six innings at home against his former Astros teammates, and six runs in five innings in Texas. His stock-in-trade is ground balls, and when he’s on he gets a lot of ‘em: for example, his June 16 start in Houston saw him get a dozen ground balls and half that many fly balls, and he gave up one unearned run in six innings.

José Suarez took the mound for the A’s as an opener. He made his debut in 2019 with the Angels, but he’s had eventful few months lately: waived by Atlanta and picked up by Baltimore in mid-January, then waived by Baltimore and picked back up by Atlanta at the end of January. He was waived again by Atlanta in early May, was picked up by the Mariners, made one relief appearance for them, and had his contract purchased by the A’s less than two weeks later. This guy gets more Frequent Flyer miles than George Clooney’s character in Up in the Air. That was a solid movie.

Valdez struck out the side in the first and got a pair of ground balls in the second, so he looked to be on-track early. Suarez stuck around for the first four outs and departed in favour of Jack Perkins, whose past few starts haven’t gone so well, so why not try an opener? He got the next two outs so the early returns looked promising for Sacramento.

That changed with one out in the third, though: Jake Rogers, starting for the injured-but-not-on-the-IL Dillon Dingler, hit his second home run in as many days, putting the Tigers up 1-0.

Meanwhile, Valdez continued looking good, retiring the first eleven batters he faced. He hit the twelfth, Shea Langeliers, but recovered to strike out Jonah Heim, his sixth strikeout in the first four innings.

The A’s got their first hit leading off the fifth, a single by Jacob Wilson. Lawrence Butler then got hit, putting two runners on; a flyout pushed Wilson up to third, and a groundout scored him to even the game at 1-1.

Hao-Yu Lee got robbed of an extra-base hit by speedy rookie Henry Bolte leading off the bottom of the fifth.

Tip your cap to Bolte on that one; being the fastest runner in the Major Leagues helps sometimes, apparently! Kerry Carpenter followed with a walk, and Zach McKinstry followed up with a two-run homer to put the Tigers ahead 3-1.

Perkins by that time was getting pretty wild; he followed the home run with a walk to Rogers and that was the end of his day.

With two outs in the top of the sixth Valdez allowed a pair of hard-hit singles to put two on, but he struck out Wilson on a beautiful curveball to end the inning. At that point Valdez’s pitch count was a tidy 76, so he came back out for the seventh and promptly went strikeout, groundout, strikeout.

Eduardo Valencia, who was brought up from Toledo today and thus made his major-league debut, pinch-hit for Carpenter leading off the bottom of the seventh. He crushed the fourth big-league pitch he ever saw 425 feet over the centrefield fence for a 4-1 lead. Welcome to the Tall Buildings, kid!

After McKinstry struck out Rogers walked, his sixth consecutive plate appearance reaching base. With two out Kevin McGonigle singled to push Rogers up to third, but Matt Vierling struck out for the third out.

Valdez was done after seven sensational innings: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 9 K, all swinging strikeouts, and that was the kind of start we were hoping to get more of from him. Also of note: nine ground-ball outs, one fly-ball out. They say good starting pitching is contagious, and Valdez finally joined the party! Kyle Finnegan came on for the eighth and gave up a leadoff single but then got a double play and a strikeout.

In the bottom of the eighth Lee singled with two out, bringing Valencia to the plate again — but instead of getting a hit, he got hit. (At this point, though, he can accurately say that he’s never not been on base in the major leagues.) With two on base McKinstry struck out, and it was on to the ninth.

Kenley Jansen was summoned for the ninth and he promptly walked the leadoff batter. After a strikeout, Wilson singled on a tough cutter to put runners on the corners and the tying run at the plate. Lawrence Butler smoked a line drive but it was right at McKinstry for the second out; some solid A’s baserunning kept that from being a double play. Tyler Soderstron then hit another line drive right at an infielder, this time to Torkelson for the third out and the victory — not to mention the sweep. YOU COULD’VE MADE THIS EASIER, KENLEY.

Final score: Tigers 4, A’s 1

Numbers and Commemorations

• Dillon Dingler, who is fortunately not going to the Injured List, has had quite a year. His batting average (and OPS) by month: April .247 (.800), May .206 (.743), June .333 (1.011). Each of those full months saw about 110 plate appearances, give-or-take a few. No wonder he’s All-Star Game bound.
• Kids, keep your non-throwing hand behind you if you’re catching. I saw Johnny Bench mention this on TV when I was a kid, and as a some-time catcher, I took this advice to heart and never got nailed on my right hand by a foul ball.
• Do you like the All-Star Game? Could you not care less? I like watching a couple of innings but get a little disinterested when they bring in a parade of fire-breathing relievers starting in about the fifth.
• Earlier today when it was announced that the Tigers brought up Eduardo Valencia, someone on our BYB Slack discussion said, and I quote, “Who the hell is Eduardo Valencia?” The prompt response from someone else was, “Your new daddy,” and how bang-on was that?!
• On this day in 1850, US president Zachary Taylor died. See, on July 4th, he ate a whole mess of cherries and “iced milk” at a big party at the under-construction Washington Monument, and afterwards he had quite the bellyache. It kept getting worse and worse, he got a fever, and died. Medicine back then really sucked.

The squad just can’t seem to get their feet right. The losing ways continued on Thursday afternoon in Detroit as the Athletics dropped their sixth straight game, falling to Detroit 4-1 and dropping their record to 41-52, which is the third-worst record in the American League. Weren’t we just in first place? How did it come to this?

The A’s tried switching things up on the mound this afternoon, going with an opener/bulk pitcher strategy. Left-hander Jose Suarez got the ball to start things off, which he did with a 1-2-3 bottom of the first including a strikeout to start the game. Suarez can thank his defense for a bit of help in that perfect inning of work, as well:

He also pitched to the first batter of the second, striking him out.

Then it was time for the bulk pitcher to enter the contest. That would be right-hander Jack Perkins. The young pitcher has had an extremely tough time in his transition from the bullpen to starting rotation over the past month-plus, so going with an opener strategy was as good as any to hopefully get him rolling. It was working well enough for the first few frames, too. Other than one mistake that Detroit backstop Jake Rogers got ahold of for a solo home run, Perkins didn’t allow a hit or walk through his first few innings of work. It looked like the opener strategy was working.

The A’s got that run back in the top of the fifth thanks to some small ball from the offense. The A’s hadn’t had much luck through the first few innings against former Astros nemesis Framber Valdez, who now dons the Detroit uniform thanks to an offseason relocation. Started with a Jacob Wilson single, Lawrence Butler was plunked by a wild curveball to put the first runner in scoring position for the A’s. A productive flyout from Colby Thomas allowed Wilson to move to third, then rookie center fielder Henry Bolte brought him home with an RBI groundout to knot things up at one apiece.

Looking for a shutdown inning, Perkins instead began unraveling. A leadoff walk preceded the second homer allowed today, with this two-run shot making it a 3-1 game. Another walk immediately after that long ball and Mark Kotsay had seen enough. He came out to get the 26-year-old, ending his day after just three innings and 67 pitches.

• Jack Perkins: 3 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 2 HR, 67 pitches

Another dud of an outing from Perkins this afternoon, but could have been worse. That was his last start of the first half and the team has to begin discussing if he should remain in the rotation when the second half gets underway next weekend. There aren’t many other better options in the system for the club to turn to right now and the coaching staff and front office will have to talk about his future role over the break. Who wants him to keep getting starts?

Right-hander Luis Medina (former starter….) came on in relief and finished off the fifth with two quick outs and had an uneventful sixth inning as well. Now it was up to the offense to get back into this game.

It looked like they might just do it, too. They managed to get back-to-back singles in the sixth from the catching duo of Shea Langeliers (today’s catcher) and Jonah Heim (manning first base) but with two outs it was a tough spot and Wilson punched out, a rare occurrence for the contact-oriented shortstop.

The A’s couldn’t manage much more for the final few frames until the ninth. Facing likely future Hall of Famer Kenley Jansen, a Langeliers walk and Wilson single brought the tying run to the plate in the final frame with just one out, but alas, Butler lined out and a pinch-hitting Tyler Soderstrom lined out to the first baseman to end the rally and end the game, sending the A’s home losers and finishing off the sweep in Detroit.

That’s six straight losses for the A’s and they just can’t buy a win right now. The opener strategy seemed to work for a bit but not perfectly. This could have been a winnable game had the offense shown up. Instead they managed just one run off of five hits and one walk while punching out 11 times against Detroit pitching. The squad is 41-52, have lost 10 of 11 and 14 of 17. This tough stretch has made it become more and more likely that the club acts as sellers this deadline season. Utterly disappointing considering how the first couple of months went.

Hopefully the A’s just didn’t like Detroit and will have much better success in Chicago, where the White Sox await to host the Green & Gold for three games, the final series of the first half. The A’s have yet to announce who will be taking the ball for them tomorrow in the series opener but it currently lines up to be Aaron Civale. We’ll have to wait on word to confirm the pitcher for tomorrow though; maybe the club goes the opener route again. Chicago meanwhile knows exactly who gets the ball for them tomorrow and that’ll be right-hander Sean Burke, who is having a great season for the resurgent White Sox with a 3.56 ERA in 14 starts (18 games). Please, A’s. Give us one more win before the first half wraps up?