I didn’t watch this game, but Gerrit Cole outpitched Mike Foltynewicz, and a better team beat a worse team. Folty can take some small consolation from the fact that he kept the Bucs in the park: it was only the fifth time in 13 starts that he gave up no home runs. In general, if Folty can cut down on his home run rate (currently 1.6 homers per nine innings), he can probably be a decent starting pitcher. Last night, he nearly was, until he ran into some bad cluster luck in a nightmare sixth inning, giving up four runs on a walk, two singles, and a double.
(The final run came after Folty had already been yanked, as Jose Ramirez gave up a Grybo. Also, who is Jose Ramirez? Baseball-reference reveals that he’s a 26-year old with 23 1/3 career innings pitched and an 8.82 career ERA. I don’t even remember hearing his name before.)
The team announced home games will start at 7:30 next year to avoid traffic. So everyone who thought there was a problem is feeling pretty stupid now.
If attendance next year is like this year there won’t be a traffic problem either.
Zing!
It’s hard to get too excited about Rob Whalen because of what the scouts say about him, but all the guy has done is pitched well:
AA: 2.49 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 101.1 IP, 94 K
AAA: 1.93 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 18.1 IP, 18 K
And he’s 22. I hope they give him a few starts to see if he can stick, and after all, who else you got? 4 short weeks ago, they didn’t have room for Tyrell Jenkins in the rotation, and he currently stands as our #2 starter. That’s what trades, injuries, and ineffectiveness can do quickly.
All Whalen has done is outpitch everyone. No pitcher has burned through the levels in our minors since Kris Medlen.
I thought the narrative was to arrive early and enjoy the mixed-use awesomeness of WFF’s super fun environment?
Allard through 5 IP for Rome, 10K, 1H, 1BB, 0R
I finally wrote up Matt Kemp. New thread.
That little scamp Adam Frazier had an adventurous night, including a couple big hits that helped lead the Pirates to a 5-3 victory over the Braves on Tuesday night in Atlanta. The Braves retook the lead, 2-1, on a Nick Markakis single in the bottom of the fifth, but the Bucs broke through with four runs off the hard-throwing Foltynewicz in the sixth.