Archives › Matthew Pouliot
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Alex Rodriguez takes seat again, yet Curtis Granderson is even worse
Oct 12, 2012, 12:54 AM EDT
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Alex Rodriguez was removed for a pinch-hitter for the second straight game Thursday and rightfully so. Yet A-Rod hasn’t been the Yankees’ worst performer through four postseason games. That title goes to Curtis Granderson. Granderson went 0-for-5 with three more strikeouts in Thursday’s loss to the Orioles. He’s 1-for-16 with nine strikeouts in the series,…
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Way too much Justin Verlander. Detroit’s ace held down the A’s for the second time in five games Thursday, pitching a complete-game shutout and striking out 11 as the Tigers won 6-0 to move on to the ALCS. Verlander fanned 22 in his two starts, setting a new record for strikeouts in a Divisional Series.…
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Austin Jackson doubled in Omar Infante in the third and then scored on a wild pitch as the Tigers jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the A’s in the deciding Game 5 of the ALDS on Thursday. Verlander has limited the A’s to a two-out double in the first and a two-out walk in…
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Champ Summers, who played for six major league teams in an 11-year career that ended in 1984, died Thursday after a 2 1/2-year battle with kidney cancer, his wife told the AP. Summers had a truly unusual career. After serving in Vietnam, he was signed at 25 and reached the majors for the first time…
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Plenty of writers have blasted the Nationals for shutting down Stephen Strasburg. Many of them were likely looking forward to doing it again if only his postseason rotation replacement, Ross Detwiler, would have obliged them by getting lit up and taking a loss as the Nationals were eliminated today. Detwiler, of course, had other ideas.…
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Eight-time Gold Glove winner Scott Rolen had a nice little two-month resurgence for the Reds this summer, but he couldn’t keep it going in September and October. Now, with his contract up and free agency looming, he’s leaning towards retirement at age 37, USATODAY’s Bob Nightengale reports. Rolen has been plagued by shoulder problems for years, and…
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Justin Verlander‘s Game 1 start against the A’s was easily the best of his postseason career. In allowing one run over seven innings, he picked up his fourth win in nine starts and lowered his October ERA from 5.57 to 4.96. Now one wonders if he might need to be even better in Thursday’s decisive…
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The A’s had four hits in eight innings Wednesday and then doubled their total in the ninth. Pouncing all over Jose Valverde with their season down to its last three outs, the A’s scored three runs to beat the Tigers. In so doing, the A’s left Jim Leyland with a major dilemma: who does he…
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Raul Ibanez will be the subject of tomorrow morning’s headlines, but Orioles starter Miguel Gonzalez owned the Yankees on Wednesday night. The rookie right-hander struck out eight and walked none in seven innings at Yankee Stadium. The one run he surrendered was the result of Adam Jones taking two steps in on a Derek Jeter…
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Because it certainly worked out tonight. After going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts against Miguel Gonzalez, Alex Rodriguez was pulled from Wednesday’s game in the ninth. As you’ve probably heard, Raul Ibanez hit a game-tying homer in his place and then delivered the game-winner three innings later, giving the Yankees a 2-1 ALDS lead over the…
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Tigers starter Max Scherzer has cruised through four innings Wednesday night in Game 4 of the ALDS, striking out five and throwing a modest 46 pitches with Detroit sporting a 2-0 lead. Austin Jackson singled in the Tigers’ first run in the third inning, and Prince Fielder delivered a solo bomb in the fourth to…
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Momentum, if such a thing exists in baseball, favors the Giants. Thursday’s matchup, Matt Cain vs. Mat Latos, would likewise seem to favor the Giants. And yet the Reds are still the better bet to win Thursday’s series-ending Game 5. – The Reds have home-field advantage. It didn’t count for much the last two days,…
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The 2012 Giants hit 70 percent of their homers in road games. In the postseason, it’s now 75 percent. Angel Pagan, Gregor Blanco and Pablo Sandoval all went deep in Wednesday’s 8-3 win in Cincinnati, giving the Giants their first homers since Buster Posey hit one in Game 1 in San Francisco. The Giants also…
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Thought to be out for the season after July surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome, Chris Carpenter came back to go 0-2 with a 3.71 ERA in three starts at the end of the regular seasons. On Wednesday, he picked up his first win in almost a year by shutting out the Nationals for 5 2/3 innings in…
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With four teams combining on just 16 hits and five runs, Tuesday’s games were all about the pitching. Facing elimination, the Giants and A’s survived thanks to the strength of their rotations and bullpens. Tied 1-1 for most of the day, the Giants tried emptying their bench as a means to score a run in…
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The Tigers possess MLB’s first Triple Crown winner in 45 years in Miguel Cabrera and a second premium bat in Prince Fielder, but the offense as a whole is really quite average. And even average seems kind given its performance so far against the A’s in the ALDS. Shut out in Tuesday’s loss, the Tigers…
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As costly as it was, Scott Rolen‘s second error of the NLDS, which scored the go-ahead run as the Reds lost in 10 innings, isn’t reason alone to stick him on the bench against San Francisco’s Barry Zito in Wednesday’s Game 4 in Cincinnati. But it doesn’t need to be. In Todd Frazier, the Reds…
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When he’s not winning games as a reliever, Chris Davis is pretty much known as a home run guy. He hit three of them in a win over Toronto on Aug. 24, and he homered in six games in a row coming down the stretch, helping the Orioles lock up a wild card bid in…
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I’m not going to go all “blame A-Rod” here. The fact is that baseball’s active home run leader wasn’t half bad on Monday night. He lined into a double play in his first at-bat, but that as just bad luck: the ball was scalded. He had a clean single his second time up. Of course,…
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Jordan Zimmermann spent some time as the NL ERA leader this season, and while he did have a hiccup in August, he bounced back to go 3-0 with a 2.61 ERA in his final five starts of the season. Overall, he was 12-8 with a 2.94 ERA that ranked seventh in the league. Which is…
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Rather than go back to their ace on short rest, the Giants plan to start Barry Zito against the Reds if they extend the NLDS to four games, manager Bruce Bochy announced Monday. The Giants picked Zito over Matt Cain even though it would be a do-or-die situation. Down 2-0 in the best-of-five series, they…
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Former All-Star third baseman Mike Lowell has been linked to the possible managerial vacancy in Miami and has also gotten some mentions as an option for Boston, but he told CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman that he’s not ready for such a gig. “It’s not for me right now,” he said. Two years into retirement, the 38-year-old…
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Offense’s disappearing act leaves Giants on cusp of elimination
Oct 8, 2012, 1:16 AM EDT
The stunning thing about the Giants’ success this year was the way the offense fueled the team in the second half, even with All-Star Game MVP Melky Cabrera gone due to suspension. The Giants ranked third in the NL with 380 runs scored in the second half. Only the Brewers (392) and Nationals (383) were…
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Bronson Arroyo baffles Giants as Reds cruise to 2-0 series lead
Oct 8, 2012, 12:57 AM EDT
After 13 years in the bigs, Bronson Arroyo finally has a postseason victory to his credit. He was nearly perfect for seven innings Sunday in combining with two relievers on a two-hit shutout as the Reds topped the Giants 9-0. The Reds will take a 2-0 series lead with them as they go home for…
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CC Sabathia managed to avoid taking any losses during the Yankees’ all too brief postseason runs in 2010 and 2011, but he couldn’t sidestep the criticism The game’s highest-paid pitcher, he was far from an ace in amassing a 5.84 ERA in 24 2/3 innings the last two Octobers. Sabathia’s 2012 postseason got off to a…
