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INDIANS 1, TIGERS 0 - in 10 INNINGS

Carlos Carrasco got KO'ed in the first and was diagnosed with a fractured hand - relevant to those pesky October hurdles towards the World Series.  Justin Verlander twirled 7 shutout innings, but Cleveland's Johnny Bullpen outpitched him.  Wow, what a frustrating loss for both sides.

The Tigers fall to +8 over .500, one half game behind the M's.

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ENOUGH. COMEDY. JOKES.

Time to get back to winning.  This thing is right there for the taking.  Gotta take it.

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RAYS 1, BALMER 2 AFTER FIVE

As we write.  The M's are -3.0 behind both the Jays and Orioles, with about 17 to play, and need to catch ONE of them.  Dr. D's guess is that one team will lose, and one will win.  He would prefer that Tampa pull this one out.

Whoop!  Top of the sixth, Evan Longoria goes yard, Brad "Logo" Miller gets on, and then some scrub Ray doubles him in.  Rays lead!

Can anybody really doubt that Erasmo Ramirez will be able to get the ball to Alex Colome (11.8 K, 2.7 BB) from here.  Done deal, babe.

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JAYS-ANGELS

Ricky Nolasco against Francisco Liriano.  Monday-Wednesday the M's play the Blue Jays and there's no backing into the playoff spot during that series.  Three back, if the M's want in they'll have to get in the old fashioned way.  EAARRRrnnnnnnn it.

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GAME CHAT

Might see youse guys at 6 in the Shout Box below this little post.  True, the M's lost on Friday.  True, they weren't going to win the last 25 games of the season.  True, Felix Hernandez isn't going to win a Cy Young.  But also true, Felix may be our #4 starter from this point forward.  In an odd way, we're kinda hoping for such.

Here is a FanGraphs velocity chart for K-Pax.  

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paxton heat

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The last four starts, 97-95-97-95, were after he tore his nail off.  Unpleasantly, Danny Duffy now begins to rival him for hottest lefty fastball, Duffy being at 94.9 average (though K-Pax still averages 96.9 on the season).  After Duffy comes David Price #3, at 92.9 MPH average.

Last start out, Paxton wasn't able to throw his foshball.  He used 70% fastballs, gingerly finished because he's the type to fret about artificial fingernails coming off his hand at 97 MPH.  He threw 20% curves and 10% changeups.  What was interesting was that he spun eight or ten "meh" knuckle curves early on ... and then jelled.  He threw Clayton Kershaw yellow hammers the rest of the night.  Watch fer dat.

Enjoy,

Jeff