Washington Nationals manager Jim Riggleman spoke for a franchise when asked about the latest exam to be performed on Stephen Strasburg's valuable right arm. "I'm very anxious about that," Riggleman said. Thursday was a day of suspense at Nationals Park as the 22-year-old right-hander underwent his second MRI in less than a week. Read more..
With three straight wins in Milwaukee, the Los Angeles Dodgers pulled themselves back into the NL wild-card race. Casey Blake hit a two-run homer and six Dodgers pitchers combined on a two-hitter as Los Angeles beat the Brewers 7-1 Thursday for a three-game sweep. "We've been saying all along, first let's try to put something together and then we'll see where we are," Dodgers... Read more..
Padres right-hander Chris Young has thrown another simulated game as he works his way back from a shoulder injury with the goal of pitching again this season. The 6-foot-10 Young threw 55 pitches in three innings Thursday before the NL West leaders hosted the last-place Arizona Diamondbacks. Young says he felt better as the simulated game progressed. Read more..
Jordan Zimmermann has been recalled by the Washington Nationals to make his first major league start of the season against the St. Louis Cardinals. Zimmermann returned to the big leagues Thursday, just more than a year after having elbow ligament replacement surgery. He last pitched for the Nationals on July 18, 2009, and had the operation on Aug. Read more..
There's something about the Phillies that brings out the best in the Houston Astros. Wandy Rodriguez pitched seven sharp innings, Carlos Lee homered and the Astros beat the Phillies 5-1 Thursday to complete their first four-game sweep in Philadelphia in 11 years. "Houston has been a team that for years has given us problems," Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins said. Read more..
Niemann gives up seven runs in three innings vs. cross-town rivals
LLOYD ELSMORE - Three games into the Summer Series, the Wildcats were on top after they smashed the opposition. Fourty seven runs for, seven runs against. What a thing!
Simple baseball seemed to be working perfectly, well as long as the opposition promised to only score two runs themselves. Sunday morning, all that simple baseball left the Wildcats with a not-so-simple 10-6 loss, and with a simple-to-understand must win double-header next weekend.
Confidence, hustle, intensity – this is the style of game that West City is known to play, but it was lacking on Sunday as Howick's up and coming Cyclones turned the tables 10-6 on the Wildcats, dealing West City their first loss of the Summer Series.
“They out worked us, out hustled us, and got the outs they needed,” said West City Manager Ken Sommers.
This was the first time that the Cyclones (10-3) have beaten West City (10-3) with the last win coming in 2008. Howick held West City to a Summer Series-low 6 runs.
Manager Sommers threw down the challenge to his team: “We just have to get tougher and be more aggressive. Right now it's ‘welcome to some real baseball.’ I still think they're in shock that this is the level of play, and they're going to have to wake up."
That alarm is ringing loud and clear as Summer Series play will only get tougher in the next two outings. West City faces both Howick teams next week in a huge double header at McLeod Park.
West City appeared out-of-sorts for much of the morning, and left-handed starter Gordon Niemann struggled in his worst outing yet, giving up seven runs in three innings, five earned, walking two, striking out only one.
"He needs to get ahead of the hitters," Sommers said, stressing that Niemann's command should be his biggest concern. "Any time he doesn't throw first-pitch strikes and he's pitching behind, that really hurts him. When he's behind in the count, they sit on his breaking ball, his changeup."
It was an outing that was very uncharacteristic for the most consistent West City starter in the Spring Shield.
"It's frustrating for me," said Niemann, who struggled to find the feel for most of his pitches all morning. "I have a great chance to just go out there and eat up some innings. If I give up a couple runs, so what. But for me to struggle as bad as I did, that's really frustrating and that shouldn't happen."
One bright spark of the day came from 22yr old Missouri native Owen Reid, who belted the first West City home run at Lloyd Elsmore Baseball Park.
Reid sat on a 2-1 pitch from Cyclones starter Robert Brooke and knocked it over the right-field wall to reduce the Cyclones lead to 7-4 in the bottom of the fourth inning. Daniel Bradley and Daniel Lowe scored on Reid's blast.
"This match was a lot more intense than we've been playing," catcher Matt Mills said. "We didn't play our game."
Catcher Mills came in to relieve his starter Niemann to start the fourth, and finished out the game throwing a solid six innings, striking out four, and walking six.
"It's been a while since I have thrown so many [innings], but I felt good," said Mills. "I look forward to getting up there more consistency and have more of these days. The boys have to come back next week with more intensity. We haven't had a hard game in a while, and next weekend is a good chance for us to do that."
