MLB The Show 21: No Strike League

[theu715]

This is a closed league. We're just using this page for updated stories and league news.

Opening Weekend is officially here for the newest league season. The No Strike League has rallied 8 teams who will battle it out over the coarse of 3 games series against each team. The first pitch of the season came from Carlos Rodon of the White Sox as they came out for a windy day against the Tampa Bay Rays and Tyler Glasnow.

Rodon came out firing in the first inning but Nelson Cruz blasted a HR over 430 feet to put the Rays on the board. Rodon would get into trouble over the next couple innings, but would strand runners on 2nd and 3rd and bases loaded with 1 out. Rodon gave up some more hits, but was able to go 6 innings for his team. Glasnow was dealing for the Rays, going into the 9th with a 1-0 lead and with 1 out gave up a bomb in a 1-2 count to Gavin Sheets to tie the game.

In extra innings the Rays scored 1, but the Sox came right back to tie it. Finally in the 15th inning Wander Franco and Austin Meadows went back to back to give the Rays a 5-2 lead and Andrew Kittredge locked it up from there.

The next game was another tight pitching matchup that saw the Phillies battle against the Dodgers. Scherzer pitched into the 5th allowing a solo HR to Bryce Harper, but the powerful Dodgers offense couldn't get things going against Zack Wheeler. Wheeler would pitch a complete game shut out striking out 10 and making an early case for the Cy Young.

With day 2 of opening weekend here, it'll be interesting to see how the games play out tonight. Stay locked in here for daily (hopefully) updates on the biggest games and stats going on around the league.

[theu715]

While day one of the opening weekend brought some great pitching matchups, day two had big expectations and did not disappoint. The Toronto Blue Jays matched up with the Houston Astros with all eyes on Justin Verlander coming a year layoff. Verlander was dominant throughout striking out an incredible 19 in 7 innings! It was a record setting pace, but Dusty Baker didn't want to risk leaving his work horse out there past 7 innings in his first game back. When asked about the decision after the game Baker said, "we're in this for the long haul. Every game matters, but if we make it to the post season without Justin, that hurts our chances. I felt good about our pen and they didn't disappoint." The bullpen picked up where Verlander left off and closed out the game for a 4-0 win after Kyle Tucker blasted a grand slam off Jordan Romano in the 9th.

While the final score may have looked a little worse than the game was, it was definitely a pitchers duel to that point. Defending Cy Young winner Robbie Ray matched Verlander with 7 innings and 16 K's. To say these two starters were dominant would be an understatement. I asked Romano if going out for the extra inning hurt him in the 9th and he said it definitely didn't. "I was feeling good and pounding the zone. They got a few guys on and I made one mistake to Tucker and he made me pay. This is the major leagues and you can't do that. I'll be better next time." The Jays will definitely look to bounce back the next time out and it's unlikely we'll see that potent offense held in check for too long.

Here's hoping that day 3 sees an uptick in action around the league and if it does, we'll be there to cover the action.

[theu715]

The season is slowly rolling in and day 3 brought us more great action between the rival Dodgers and Giants. San Fran sent their ace Kevin Gausman out and the Dodgers sent Walker Buehler to the hill. Both starters came out sharp in the first inning, but in the second Evan Longoria blasted one to LF to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.

The Dodgers threatened in the third after Belinger hit a double into the gap. Gausman didn't seem to like something he heard from the dugout after that and nailed Trea Turner with the next pitch. The move backfired though when Beli and Turner pulled off a double steal. Gausman got a pop to first and looked like he was going to get out of it unscathed, but Longoria's gold glove caliber defense made an error that allowed both runners to score and give LA a 2-1 lead.

Things were quiet until the 6th though when Mookie Betts fired up the crowd by smashing a hanging slider into the outfield seats in left. The next inning it looked like LA was going to pull away though as Belinger came through again with a screaming line drive that the CF couldn't make a play on and went all the way to the wall for a 2 run inside the park HR.

With things looking bleak in the top of the 8th, down 5-1, Wilmer Flores hit a HR to cut the lead to 3 off Jake McGee, but that's as close as it would get. LA sent Trienen out for the 9th and got a quiet 1-2-3 and that was your ball game. Dodgers win 5-2. We'll see you all tomorrow in the No Strike League.

[theu715]

Detroit vs LA
It was a busy day in the No Strike League as we saw a plethora of games going on. There was some early action between the Tigers and the Dodgers that saw some good pitching at the start. The game was scoreless until the 5th inning when Jaimer Candellaro hit a single up the middle to drive in the first run of the day. The Tigers were threatening to open it up more but the the Dodgers went to their pen and shut down a bases loaded moment for Detroit.

The Dodgers didn't wait long to answer back and in the bottom of the inning Mookie Betts stayed in MVP form driving in the tying run. LA kept the pressure on and scored one more in the inning to take a 2-1 lead. Both pens held strong until Jonathan Schoop blasted a solo shot in the 8th inning bringing it to 2-2. Detroit felt like this was there moment in the game as LA's pen began to fold and strung together multiple base hits to build a 5-2 lead. Unfortunately LA couldn't answer back in the 9th going down 1-2-3.

After the game I caught up with the manager of the Tigers and asked him how it felt to lead his team to victory after the recent birth of his first child. "It's been a bit of a whirlwind man. All I remember was a lot of screaming and breathing, next thing I know there's this baby there and I haven't slept much since. It was good to be back out here with the boys, but my wife, she's the real hero here." Well, we're glad to have you back as well. Tell the wife congrats for us.

Toronto vs Chicago
In an afternoon affair the Blue Jays and White Sox mixed things up. Both teams looking to pick up a win. Both starters kept it close into the 7th inning when Teoscar Hernandez hit a 2 run blast to put Jays on the board. With his club grasping to make something happen, Cesar Hernandez went deep and tried to fire up the White Sox, cutting the lead to 2-1.

Cavan Biggio got Toronto going again though lacing a ball off the top of the wall that just missed getting out of the park and legged out a triple. Bo Bichette would drive him in to help build back up the Toronto lead. Chicago kept fighting and used Gavin Sheets to pinch hit again. Earlier in the year he had a clutch HR against Tampa Bay with 2 strikes in the bottom of the 9th and in this spot, he smoked a ball into the OF for a triple. Toronto would hold it together though with their closer picking up a save over 2 innings.

The Jays were fired up and left a clearly dejected White Sox team struggling to figure out how to pick things up from here.

Tampa Bay vs Houston
Finally, in the night cap we had pitching duel between rising young stars Shane McClanahan and Luis Garcia. Each starter found himself in a tight spot in the second inning but both men showed poise beyond their years to get out of the jams. McClanahan pitched 7 innings allowing a few hits and striking out 10. Garcia gave up a few hits as well, but got out of multiple spots where he had runners in scoring position. His night was cut short in the 5th though when he had some hamstring soreness. Dusty Baker felt like it was better to proceed with caution and go to the pen here.

The move seemed to pay off as Jimi Garcia pitched 3+ innings in relief giving up no runs. Both teams were dead locked at 0-0 going into extra innings. The Rays couldn't get anyone home in the top of the 10th and shut down Houston too. In the 11th inning, Tampa Bay missed a golden opportunity to score a run after a leadoff double couldn't wasn't deep enough into a gap to get Ji Man Choi home from second. This would come back to bite them as Houston sat down the next three batters and then walked it off with 2 outs in the bottom of the inning off a Jose Altuve bloop single to center improving to 3-0 on the season.

I caught up with Dusty after the game and he had this to say, "it looked like it wasn't going to be our night with Luis coming out early. I think he'll be ok, but man o man did Jimi pick us up or what?! We needed that from him and I know he's earned a day or two off. I'm proud of our guys for showing some heart out there. We've got a special team. I've coached a lot of teams and I'm just saying, there's something special about this group." We will see Dusty, only time will tell.

[theu715]

Games in the No Strike League continue to roll along and yesterday saw three games go down. Philadelphia was busy playing a split team double header. Their first game of the day brought a first to the No Strike League and hopefully the last time we see it.

Houston fell behind 1-0 early on and the Phillies pitching started strong. In the fourth inning Philly started to string together some good at bats and wound up with the bases loaded. This is where things got weird though. The Phils got a big hit that drove in 3 more runs to put them up 4-0. After that, the Astros just walked off the field. The fans, announcers and even the Philadelphia players were in disbelief trying to figure out what was going on. I asked Dusty Baker what happened as the team was trying to get out of the stadium and all he could say was that he had no comment. Shortly after there Ken Rosenthal tweeted out that a source told him that as many as 15 Astros players had come down with COVID and the league told them to get off the field immediately. Word is that fans will be given a full refund. Here's to hoping we don't see moments like this again.

From there the Phillies took to the field again against the White Sox. Chicago has started off to a rough 0-3 start and were looking to get their first win of the year and they had a tough task as Ranger Suarez was dealing over 8 innings allowing 5 hits 2 runs and 10 Ks. He gave up a rbi double to Adam Engel in deep RF in the 3rd inning. Next inning Bryce hit a 2 RBI Hr in the RF stands giving Philly the lead 2-1. Freddy Galvis hit a solo shot to go back to back and it looked like they may pull away. Both teams continued to pitch well though and Chicago kept fighting like the warriors they are. Adam Engel used his speed to lay down a bunt and sneak in a runner from third, but that's all they could get in the inning. Hector Neris shut the door in the 9th and the Phillies are now sitting atop the standings at 3-0. The White Sox fall to 0-4 and many are wondering if Tony LaRusso's health will hold up to that type of start.

The night cap brought us a late game as the Tampa Bay Rays hosted their first home game of the season against the Toronto Blue Jays. Both offenses have been struggling to put runs on the board this year and this game was no exception. Alex Manoah had a no hitter going into the 6th and was pulled by Charlie Montoya and the no hitter became no more by a opposite field double against the shift for Ji Man Choi, but as always the Rays could do nothing with it. On the other side of ball Robinson Chirinos was back on the mound for the first time in a year and a half as he came off Tommy John surgery. Chirinos was dominant, taking a perfect game into the 8th inning before allowing a seeing eye single past third baseball Joey Wendle. He'd get out of the inning striking out his 20th batter and both pens sent the game into extras. A baserunning blunder killed the 10th for Toronto and a passed ball for catcher Danny Jensen allowed Brett Philips to move up to third base and the Rays would walk it off on a sac fly to right center in that same at bat. Tampa Bay moves on to 2-1, but every game they've played has gone to extra innings. It'll be a rough season if the offense can't get going.

That'll do it for yesterdays action and we're looking forward to more games today.

[theu715]

It was a relatively quiet day in the No Strike league as we saw only two games take place over the coarse of the day. The first game of the day saw the Tigers battle it out with the White Sox. It was a quiet start early on with both pitchers getting some easy outs.

In the 4th inning the White Sox hit a towering fly ball that looked like it was going to get out. Instead of giving them an early lead the ball was robbed at the wall. They didn't let the play get them down and hit a ground rule double on the next hitter. Detroits pitching would clamp down though and strand the runner at second. The bottom of 4th Jonathan Schoop was sitting fastball and got one about a foot above strike zone and crushed a 440 foot bomb to left field to put the Tigers up.

Detroit kept the pressure up in the 5th with a double and single by Derek Hill to make it 2-0. Chicago appeared to have some momentum, but ran themselves out of the inning with a strike em out throw em out double play. Schoop would add on with his second HR of the game and Chicago would run into another strike em out throw em out double play.

Spencer Turnball would allow a leadoff single in the 9th to get the pen warming, but that would be it. Turnball gets the complete game shutout and the Tigers win 3-0.

Later in the day the White Sox took the field again against the Giants. I caught up with La Russo before the game. He was clearly worn out and unsure of what to do to get the team going. "These guys are adults. If they can't get ready for a big league game, I can always ship em back to the minors. Ask Yermin how fun that was last year." Interesting response and one that clearly fired them up. It was a high scoring back and forth game, but ultimately Chicago picked up their first win on a walk off HR by Yasmani Grandal.

Looking forward to more action today and heading into the weekend.

[theu715]

Over the past few days the No Strike League has been experiencing some blackout restrictions in some local markets causing a lack of reporting. We've done some digging in the mean time and pulled out some pretty interesting stats from around the league, but before we get into that, here is a recap of the action from yesterday.

In one of the more bizarre occurrences we've seen in years, the Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers played a day/night double header, but players were forced to hope on private jets to travel quickly from one park to the next. I spoke with Kevin Cash prior to the games and he pointed out something his team was doing to prepare for this. "We've sent a few of our key relievers and the starter of game 2, Tyler Glasnow up to Detroit yesterday. We figured with the high powered offense Detroit can employee, we're going to need some fresh arms, but also not tax those guys with all the travel." Well, it should be interesting to see how that played out.

In game 1 the Tigers strung together 3 hits to drive in the first run of the game against Shane Baz by a Eric Hass RBI single. The rookie starter would settle in from there pitching 6.2 innings allowing only the one run. Not to be outdone was Casey Mize for Detroit. The Tigers' rookie starter would pitch into the 8th inning allowing only two hits, but a lead off double by Choi, who would be pinch run for by Margot would come around to score the next AB on a double from Arozzarena. Tampa Bay would would get one more that inning on a ugly Cruz single that was knocked down by Goodrum deep enough off the infield for Arozzarena to score from second. The Rays would got out of a jam in the 8th and then Pete Fairbanks came on in the 9th for a quick 1-2-3. Tampa Bay took a tight game 1, 2-1.

Both teams hoped on their jets to head back to Detroit and it looked like Glasnow was ready. He came out throwing nothing but fastballs in the first and looked like he was going to get a quick inning until Johnathan Schoop hit a line drive shot into the left field pen. Glasnow would keep things quiet until Schoop came up again smashing a curve ball just below the zone over the left centerfield wall. Kiermaier gave it a courtesy attempt, but I don't think he got that close. As usual, the Rays' bats were pretty quiet until the 6th inning. When Cruz and KK got on with infield singles. Zunino was sacrifice them over and Joey Wendle would drive them both in to tie the game up at 2 a piece. Tampa Bay would add 2 more the next inning on a triple by Arrozarena and a single from Cruz.

Glasnow would stay strong on the hill pitching 7.2 with 10 K's, allowing just the 2 runs from Schoop. Andrew Kittredge would come on to get the last 4 outs, getting a big K vs Schoop with a runner on base in the 8th. It wasn't a smooth 9th though as Kit allowed a solo HR to Hass before getting the last 2 outs and give the Rays a 4-2 win.

With those HR vs Tampa Bay one would think Schoop is probably leading the league in HR, but after taking a closer look, all that did was bring him within range of the early MVP candidate and league leader in HR, Bryce Harper.

Here are your top 3 in some key offensive categories around the league.
HR: Harper (7), Schoop (5), multiple players (3)
RBI: Harper (11), Cruz (8), Schoop/Bryant (7)
AVG:Harper (.500), Schoop (.478), Anderson (.400)
So far Harper is looking like the early candidate for the MVP and possibly even a run at the Triple Crown.

Here are some of the top starting pitching numbers around the league as well.
K's: Cease (24), Chirinos (20), multiple starters (19)
ERA: Glasnow and Lynn (1.00 w/2 games pitched), multiple starters (0 w/1 gm)

Relievers
Saves: Kittredge and Leone (2), multiple (1)
K's: Kopech and Crochet (10), multiple (7)
From a pitching standpoint it'll be interesting to see how the season plays out with most teams making their way through their rotation for a second time now.

We've had a fun season so far, so stay tuned to see how things shake out from here.

[theu715]

Baseball in the winter? Who would've ever expected it? That's what we have here in the No Strike League. For the owners who kept their teams playing, they're seeing record attendance and merchandise sales. TV numbers are up in those markets as well, so I think everyone would say it's been worth it to this point.

Early in the season we saw the Astros jump out to a hot start, while the White Sox and Giants struggled to pick up any type of consistency. Pitching has been dominant in most games, but we've seen some slugfests scattered in. As of late, the Giants have been one of the hottest teams in the league, getting over .500 and into contention for a playoff spot. They'd look to stay hot as they faced off in three games against the top two teams in the league, the Phillies and Rays.

One of the biggest storylines heading into this game was whether or not Gausman could quiet the hot bat of Bryce Harper. Harper has been destroying pitchers to this point. The Phillies jumped out to an early lead in the second against Gausman, but he would settle in from there. San Fran would get on the board and take the lead 2-1. They'd add another one in the 6th to make it 3-1. Wheeler pitched a CG, but gave up all 3 ER. Gausman went 7.2 striking out 11 and walking 3 as he tip toed his way through the lineup. The strategy seemed to work against Harper who went 0-2 drawing 2 walks. The game ended in the 9th with Tyler Rogers on the hill when they got Jean Segura in a rundown for the final out. The Giants picked up another win and would head into their game against Tampa Bay red hot.

Tampa Bay and San Francisco would play a double header where runs were definitely hard to come by. In game one rookie Shane McClanahan would match up with Anthony deScalfani. Both pitchers were dominant in a windy affair in San Francisco. Somehow Brandon Belt took a slider away to the deepest part of the park to put the Giants up 1-0. Tampa Bay would finally get things going with a lead off bunt single by Kiermaier. KK advanced to second on a past ball. Two sac flies would tie it up for Tampa. The Giants loaded the bases on a couple singles and a sac bunt that the Rays tried to turn 2 on and got nothing. With 2 strikes they'd do another sac bunt to take a 2-1 lead and followed that with another sac bunt attempt that turned into the final out of the inning. Tampa Bay brought the go ahead run to the plate in the 9th after Brett Philips got on, but Joey Wendle flew out to end the game. San Fran stays hot heading to game 2.

Game 2 was no different from game 1 and Yonny Chirinos and Logan Webb were dealing. Tampa Bay continued to make good contact, but the ball hasn't been carrying for them in a while now. Chirinos was the one shining brightest in this game. He went 8.1 striking out 15. The game saw a power outage in the 7th, but it didn't affect either pitcher. Webb dealt into the 9th as well and the game would head into extras with nothing happening until the 15th inning when Joey Wendle hit a walk off HR giving the Rays a 1-0 win.

Here's how things are looking around the league after the most recent games.
Rays 6-2
Phillies 6-2
Astros 3-1
Giants 6-5
Tigers 3-3
Dodgers 1-2
Blue Jays 1-5
White Sox 1-7