Weekend Wrap Up (By: Jake Reagan)
Welcome back to Weekend Wrap-up & Week Ahead. The weather played as much of a factor as the teams did this weekend, let’s jump right in…
Wrap-up:
The biggest story of the weekend was clearly Big Sexy. Bartolo Colon took the mound for the Rangers on Sunday Night Baseball and was perfect through seven innings against the defending world champion Astros. Colon’s perfect game was broken up in the 8th when he walked his first batter. Justin Verlander was excellent, just like his counterpart. He went eight strong innings, allowing only one earned run, which was a homerun. Verlander also struck out 11. The Rangers ultimately came away victorious in the 10th inning, 3-1.
The Mets stayed red hot, walking off 3-2, against the Brewers in New York on Sunday. The Mets have now won an astonishing nine games in a row heading into Monday. Noah Syndergaard was stellar through 5.1 innings, striking out 11 and allowing only 2 hits. Syndergaard struck out eight consecutive hitters.
On Saturday, the Cubs and Braves played a wild one in miserable windy and wet weather in Chicago. The Cubs came away with a 14-10 victory even though they were at one point down by eight runs. Braves 2B Ozzie Albies had a day, going 3-5 with four RBIs. A total of 11 pitchers were used in this crazy April matchup.
Week Ahead:
On Tuesday, the streaking Boston Red Sox will escape the blustery Northeast and head to Anaheim to take on the Angels, with Shohei Ohtani toeing the rubber. Ohtani was scheduled to pitch this weekend against Kansas City, however weather delayed that game. David Price will be opposing Ohtani. Against the current Angels roster, Price has a .203 BAA over the course of 133 ABs. However, the aging Albert Pujols has a career .429 BA against Price over the course of 21 ABs.
On Thursday, the Phillies and Pirates renew the Pennsylvania rivalry. At the outset of the year, very few would have had this series circled. But, that was before the Phillies swept two straight series, and the Pirates were holding the top spot in the NL Central. Neither club has released their projected starter yet, but a matchup of Hoskins and Kingery versus a surging Gregory Polanco and Corey Dickerson, should make for a good offensive show in Citizens Bank Park.
Heading into the weekend, the Nationals and Dodgers, both underperforming but expected to win their respective division, meet in LA. Neither team has released their probable starters for the series yet, but if all lines up as expected, Clayton Kershaw and Stephen Strasburg could be the matchup in game one. This series could shed some light on if either, or both of these clubs are in real trouble this early in the season.
This has been the Weekend Wrap-up & Week Ahead. It may be Monday, but at least there’s another week of baseball ahead.