Goofé Dean

Watched the Cubs telecast. Joe Girardi, their color man, was in fine form: he had plenty to say early in the game about the hitting and baserunning by "Larnachs," and at the end he complimented the quality pitching from "Testa." They also televised the seventh-inning stretch (and the gray-bearded former player singing it over the stadium PA system from the TV booth), which does seem very Cubs even such a long time post-Harry Caray.

Meanwhile, looking at the weather radar (as the remnants of Beryl cut through the southern Great Lakes), I don't see how anyone is going to play baseball in Chicago this evening. Of course, on the radar picture Detroit looks like it's getting drenched as well... and yet they're playing, and on the telecast it doesn't even look like it's raining. So 🤷‍♂️

Are we watching Guardians at Tigers? Detroit has come back from 6-0 down (mid 3rd) to tie it at 7 (currently end of the 6th).

For what it's worth, I was in section 134 with my family today, and one possibly relevant thing I learned is that Larnach's bomb landed in the seats almost precisely above where Official Fried Chicken is situated in the right-center field concourse.

The Umpire Scorecard for this game is going to be a sight to see tomorrow. And it'll understate the impact of the late-inning calls, because it won't take into account that Ramirez's home run doesn't happen if not for the two blown strike calls that opened his at-bat.

Watching the home plate umpire brutally blow FOUR huge-leverage calls in your favor in the eighth and ninth is not "finding a way to win."

He didn’t? The first THREE pitches to Ramirez in the ninth were strikes—two in the zone and third a whiff. That’s been an out since, what, 1870? But the umpire kept Ramirez at the plate. No incompetent umpiring, no HR.

Did I say “in the eighth”? How about the ninth, too? Just outrageous.

Just obscene officiating in the eighth. Handed Cleveland the game. FOUR blown calls, all in Cleveland’s favor, the sole reviewable one overturned.

Seems like a perfectly appropriate subject for this series to me. Also a nice nostalgia shot for those of us who were kids rooting for the '87 and '91 teams.

Eh—details. The White Sox were rained out on Monday in (the other) Washington, so I'm going to conveniently take that as a partial success of my prophecy. Anyway, the Mariners beat the Royals, so the streak is over, and the Twins are finally free and clear in second place for the first time all season!

Here's a Twins factoid that's less exciting but more weird than the winning streak: For eight days in a row, the Twins have had the same result (and been the same number of games over .500) as the Royals. Both teams have gone LWLWWWLW since May 5, and as a result they've been effectively tied (the Twins are "percentage points ahead," meh) for second place in the division the whole time. The streak will end on Monday night unless K.C. is rained out in Seattle; the Twins have the day off. Though of course it does rain in Seattle sometimes....

It sure looked like it. Seems like Buxton would have had it, had he been in in center at the time. On the other hand, Buxton might have caught it and then smashed into the wall at full speed, somewhat like Royce Lewis did in his very short stint as a center fielder in 2022. So possibly everyone (other than Woods Richardson) dodged a bullet with that fly falling in for a not-quite-RBI double.