Morning Rundown: Josh Palacios late game success continues
Big pinch-hit three-run home run creates added separation in Pirates win
Death, taxes, and Josh Palacios with a big hit in late/close game situations?
They all seem about equal when it comes to certainties at this point in the season after watching Palacios hit yet another pinch-hit home run after the Chicago Cubs cut the game to 5-4.
Palacios now has 10 home runs on the season, and while his overall season numbers don’t look great, there is no denying his work when the game is on the line.
Those runs became even more critical after David Bednar allowed a two-run home run to Dansby Swanson in the bottom of the ninth.
Four of his 10 home runs have been in late/close situations, according to MLB.com and he also owns an insane OPS of 2.040.
Johan Oviedo pitches six shutout frames
It’s rarely pretty, but Oviedo just kind of gets the job done. Better yet, generally his starts are either really good, or really bad, rarely somewhere in between.
He walked five and surrendered four hits, but put up a zero in the most important category.
I would have to imagine that if you dig deep enough into some of the numbers, it would scream at you saying this isn’t something he can maintain going into next year, but the all or nothing approach has worked for Jack Suwinski, right?
Minor League Notes and Scores
Speaking of all or nothing, Nick Gonzales went from hitting a cycle, and then some, to going 0-4 with four strikeouts. Crazy how back and forth baseball can be, just for us to end in the middle somewhere.
Jared Jones closed out his season on Thursday, allowing two earned runs on six hits and two walks across 4.2 innings while striking out six.
Some of the numbers may not speak to how strong Jones has been this year, going from Altoona to Indianapolis in the middle of the season. He’s reverted to more of a two-pitch guy as of late, but the results really back what he’s done.
Whether or not he can do that in the majors as a starter will have to be seen next year.
Indianapolis Indians - 1 vs Rochester Red Wings - 3
Top Hitter - Canaan Smith-Njigba: 1-4, RBI
Top Pitcher - Dauri Moreta: 1.1 IP, BB, 3 K
I mentioned it yesterday, so I'll say it again today. These Pirates were literally one extra win every 30 days away from being in a legit race for a wild card spot. There are ten days left in the season and they can't be eliminated from the playoffs mathematically tonight. That's from a team that is 52-73 since sending Drew Maggi to the minors.
I'm not a fan of the 12-playoff team system, but that's the world we are in now (who knows what Manfred will do to that world over the off-season). This team, as bad as they were from early May through the All-Star break, is only playing irrelevant games now because of one extra loss per month since their hot start
The AFL roster is remarkably uninteresting. Bowen, Brannigan, Ercolani, Dombkowski, Flowers, Junker, Bins.