Cup of Coffee: September 5, 2024

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

And away we go.

And That Happened 

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Cubs 12, Pirates 0: Cubs pitchers Shōta Imanaga, Nate Pearson, and Porter Hodge combined to throw a no-hitter. Imanga was pulled at 95 pitches after seven innings. The best part: according to Craig Counsell, Imanaga didn’t know he had a no-hitter going. As for yanking him: If it was after eight, sure, you send him out there, but to complete a no-hitter at the point he left the game would probably have required something pushing 120 pitches. Maybe more. That wasn’t happening, and Counsell was quite clear that yanking Imanaga was his call and it was pitch-count related. Otherwise, Dansby Swanson hit a two-run homer and had an RBI double and even just that was enough, but Chicago scored ten more anyway.

For those who care about such things: Chicago's previous no-hitter was also a combined one, with Zach Davies, Ryan Tepera, Andrew Chafin and Craig Kimbrel pulling it off on June 24, 2021. The last Cubs no-hitter at Wrigley Field was by Milt Pappas against the Padres on September 2, 1972. That’s the one where Pappas was one pitch away from a perfect game when Bruce Froemming called ball four on a full-count pitch to Larry Stahl. Umpires. Amirite?

Phillies 4, Blue Jays 2: We notice things when they happen and we don’t notice things when they don’t happen. That’s why it just seems like Kyle Schwarber hits a leadoff home run in every game. To be sure he hits a lot of them — the one he hit here was his 13th of the year, and that ties a major league record held by Alfonso Soriano — but it’s not EVERY day. Just to be sure, though, anyone caught throwing Schwarber a strike in the first inning should be fined. Kody Clemens and J.T. Realmuto also went deep and Cristopher Sánchez struck out seven in seven innings to pick up his tenth win. Philly has won four in a row and nine of 11.

White Sox 8, Orioles 1: Holy crap the White Sox won. Honestly, part of me thought they’d just lose every game for the rest of the season as some sort of protest cum performance art kind of deal, but nah, the streak ends at 12. Nicky Lopez, Andrew Vaughn and Dominic Fletcher all homered and Jonathan Cannon pitched one-run ball into the sixth inning. Chicago still needs to go 11-10 the rest of the way to avoid matching the 1962 New York Mets at 120 losses and that’s almost certain not to happen, but with an off-day today at least they can savor this one until tomorrow evening.

Reds 12, Astros 5: The last time Spencer Arrighetti started he pitched shutout ball for nearly eight innings. Here he gave up nine runs in two-thirds of an inning on six hits and three walks. Jonathan India led off with a homer, Elly De La Cruz had a double and a single in the first, and Tyler Stephenson and Amed Rosario each drove in two runs in the opening frame. Imagine being one of those people who gets stuck in traffic and rolls into the game in the second only to see it’s already 9-0. Fun thing: Brent Suter pitched the final three and a third innings and picked up a save per the silly three-inning save rule despite the blowout.

Marlins 4, Nationals 3: Jake Burger’s tying single in the eighth forced extras and then Xavier Edwards knocked in the Manfred Man for a 10th inning walkoff win. Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore had a no-hitter going into the sixth but that was well forgotten an hour and a half later or so.

Rays 9, Twins 4: It was 0-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth when the Rays broke off eight runs to basically decide things. Yandy Díaz hit a two-run homer that inning. Taylor Walls had a two-run single and José Caballero had an RBI single in the inning. The Rays also scored on two fielder's choices and a thrown away pickoff attempt by Louis Varland, who gave up all eight of the runs while recording just one out in the inning. After the game Varland said, “A lot happened. It's how it goes, I guess?" The phrase you’re looking for is “so it goes.” And really, since you’re the one who got murdered, Louis, someone else should be saying it about you.

Mets 8, Red Sox 3: Jesse Winker hit a first inning grand slam and Boston nearly tied it up with a three-run thing inning, but the Mets put up four more in the eighth — three of which came on bases-loaded walks — to secure their seventh straight win. One of those run-scoring walks came from Kenley Jansen, who had loaded the bases up to start the inning. Rich Hill then came in in relief and walked the first two batters he faced. Age was not well-served in Queens last night, I tell you what.

Atlanta 5, Rockies 2: A lot of teams jumped out to early leads last night and this game was no different as Jarred Kelenic hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the first. Michael Harris II was 2 for 5 with a double and a run scored and Jorge Soler had an RBI. Charlie Morton was solid. Atlanta maintains its half-game lead over the Mets for the third Wild Card.

Royals 4, Guardians 1: Seth Lugo played stopper, allowing just one run over seven, and Tommy Pham hit a tie-breaking three-run homer as the Royals broke their seven-game skid. Royals manager Matt Quatraro was also back in the dugout after missing a couple of games due to the death of his mother.

Cardinals 3, Brewers 2: Pinch-hitter Luken Baker singled home the Manfred Man in the top of the tenth. The Cardinals other two runs both came in the first thanks to two bases-loaded walks from Colin Rea. A lot of that going around last night. Milwaukee had lots of chances, but they went 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position. Not one they’re really gonna wanna think about too much.

Rangers 10, Yankees 6: On Tuesday Wyatt Langford hit a walkoff grand slam. Here he had three hits, drove in two and scored three times. The Yankees had a ninth inning grand slam of their own here — Trent Grisham — but they were down by eight when he did that. Aaron Judge went homerless for his ninth straight game. The Yankees are 40-41 in their past 81 games. Thanks to that rare White Sox win, over Baltimore, they didn’t lose any ground and they remain a half game back of the O’s.

Angels 10, Dodgers 1: Yet another early outburst, with the Angels plating five in the first thanks to a two-run single from Anthony Rendon and a three-run homer from Mickey Moniak. Niko Kavadas and Taylor Ward homered in the second and sixth, respectively, and the Halos plated three more runs on three eighth inning RBI singles. Griffin Canning allowed one run while pitching into the seventh. The was only the Angels second win over the Dodgers in their last 14 meetings.

Padres 6, Tigers 5: The Tigers took a 5-0 lead by the top of the fourth but Jackson Merrill hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth, Manny Machado tied it up with a two-run single in the fifth, and then Fernando Tatis Jr. singled home the Manfred Man in the tenth to walk it off. Detroit had walked Luis Arráez to get to Tatis and after the game Tatis said he “took that personal,” but c’mon, setting up the force outs/double play and avoiding a high-contact, low-strikeout hitter for a guy who has played just one game since June and is still probably a bit rusty is just the right tactical call there. Viva ballplayer motivation techniques, though. Yu Darvish got the start for the first time since May 29 but he was no great shakes, allowing three runs on four hits in two and two-thirds. Six Padres relievers combined to pitch six scoreless innings to close out the game.

Mariners 16, Athletics 3: Mitch Garver and Luis Urías both drove in four runs — Urías had a homer — as the M’s rolled and snapped a four-game losing streak. George Kirby allowed two over six and struck out nine. Víctor Robles went 3-for-4, knocked in three and scored three times. Randy Arozarena also scored thrice and knocked in a couple.

Diamondbacks 6, Giants 4: Zac Gallen pitched six hitless innings, striking out eight, but he needed 100 pitches to get that far so history wasn’t happening. No combined history either as the Giants picked up a couple in the seventh off of relieer Kevin Ginkel. Arizona had a 4-0 lead before that thanks in part to homers from Eugenio Suárez and Pavin Smith and then added a couple of runs in the eighth for insurance. Needed insurance, as the Giants attempted a ninth inning rally but it fell a couple short. The Snakes go for the sweep this afternoon.

The Daily Briefing

Giants, Matt Chapman agree to a six-year extension

You tend not to see major transactions in early September — and you almost never see in-season deals from a Scott Boras client — but the San Francisco Giants and third baseman Matt Chapman agreed to a six-year, $151 million contract extension late last night.

Chapman’s current deal, a three-year $54 million contract through 2026, allowed him to opt-out this winter (and after both 2025 and 2026), but now he’s signed through 2030. There’s no deferred money and he has a full no-trade clause.

Chapman’s 2023-24 offseason was a tough one, as he didn’t get signed until March 1, after spring training had begun. But he parlayed what was basically a stop-gap deal into what will end up being a seven-year commitment in all thanks to a fantastic 2024 campaign in which he’s hit 22 homers and has posted a 121 OPS+ while playing the best third base in the game.

Now we get to see if the Giants will use this offseason in an attempt to build something in a win-now mode around Chapman or if they’ll continue to do the “let’s do just do enough to shoot for like 83 wins” thing that has sort of been their signature over the past several years.

Elvis Andrus to retire 

Elvis Andrus was released by the Diamondbacks at the end of Spring Training and he has not played at all in 2024. In a recent interview with the Dallas Morning News Andrus strongly implied that he was done, but now we know he’s done-done, as the Rangers announced yesterday that he will officially retire as a Ranger this Friday. He’ll be at the game in Arlington against the Angels and will throw out the first pitch.

So, among other things, we can now definitively judge whether Atlanta won the Mark Teixeira-for-Andrus-and-Jarrod Saltalamacchia trade.

[Editor: Let it go, Craig]

Fine.

Andrus, who was signed by Atlanta out of Venezuela in 2005 made his major league debut for the Rangers on his 21st birthday in 2009. He enjoyed a 15-year career, playing for Texas through the 2020 season. He was traded to Oakland before the 2021 season and then had brief stints with the White Sox and Diamondbacks. For his career he hit .269/.325/.370 (86 OPS+) with 102 homers and 347 stolen bases. In his best season, in 2017, he hit .297/.337/.471 (105 OPS+) with 20 homers and 88 RBI.

Andrus was second in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2009 and was an All-Star in 2010 and 2012. He was one of the key players on the Rangers’ 2010 and 2011 pennant-winning clubs, he led the league in sacrifices three times, and in sacrifice flies once. He was a solid defensive shortstop in whom the Rangers had enough confidence to sign him to an eight-year $120 million deal early in the 2013 season.

He also had a hell of a lot of fun messing with teammate and close friend Adrián Beltré:

Happy retirement, Elvis Andrus. You had a nice career.

When soccer stars try to understand baseball

Over at FanGraphs Michael Baumann has a fun article up about how, earlier this summer, multiple men’s and women’s Premier League clubs visited ballparks while in the United States for offseason friendlies. Between trying to figure out the rules of baseball and, in one case, being called on to throw out the first pitch, America’s Pastime proved to be both confusing and daunting for the players of The Beautiful Game:

I figure baseball players would be better at understanding soccer given that youth soccer is a fairly big deal in this country now compared to the way it used to be. Put ‘em in front of a rugby or even a cricket match, however, and I feel like it’d be every bit as challenging.

Other Stuff

Great Moments in Take Your Daughter To Work Day

Several years ago, when my daughter Anna was maybe 12 or 13, she asked me if she could write something for HardballTalk. I told her, sure, go write something up and I’ll check to see if it’s appropriate and if so, I’ll run it. She said no, she wanted to sit at my computer with the CMS open and write and post something without me seeing it. Anyone who is familiar with Anna’s written work knows that such a thing would’ve been a very bad idea, so I said no and the matter was dropped.

Not all parents are as cautious:

The best part is that this was not something that came to light immediately after the 13 year old grabbed the skull drill. It was only revealed months later when one of the surgeons who was in the room at the time finally informed hospital management about it. If I’m honest, I’m struggling with the delay here. I mean, yeah, some 13 year old kids are precocious and like many I do believe that the children are our future, but we should place at least some limits on them.

Honestly, the craziest thing about all of this is that, per the article, the guy who had a kid literally perform brain surgery on him can only expect to receive a maximum of 20,000 Euros in damages if his lawsuit is successful. And here I thought tort reform had gone too far in this country.

Jim Riswold: 1957-2024

I’m not the sort who usually makes a point to mourn people in advertising, but Jim Riswold, who passed away last month, is an exception. Why? Because he’s the guy who came up for the ideas for the Spike Lee/Mars Blackmon Air Jordan Commercials and the “Bo Knows” campaigns, featuring Bo Jackson:

Even one of those would have cemented that guy as a legend, but he did both. AND he did the Tiger Woods “Hello World” campaign too.

In 2000 Riswold was diagnosed with cancer and quit the ad business altogether to become a full-time contemporary artist, pursuing that for the final 24 years of his life. Which, frankly, makes him a legend two times over.

Rest in peace, Jim Riswold.

WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. CHRISTMAS IS IN OCTOBER.

From Venezuela:

This would be hilarious if he wasn’t doing this to hide the fact that he has committed a coup by rigging an election, arrested thousands of dissidents and political opponents, and put an arrest warrant out for Edmundo González, the man who international observers believe actually won the election.

In which I’m reminded why I’m not on Substack anymore

The other night former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who still has a show of some sort for some reason, interviewed a man named Darryl Cooper, whom he described as “the best and most honest popular historian in the United States.”

This Darryl Cooper fellow then proceeded to speak at length about how Winston Churchill was the “chief villain” of World War Two. He argued that Hitler only wanted peace after he invaded Poland, which he did not think would cause war, but that Churchill stubbornly refused to make peace. He then argued that everything that happened after that — including the Holocaust! — was merely an accident and a function of Hitler, an inherently reasonable man who has simply been misunderstood by history, being left with no choice due to Churchill’s intransigence.

I don’t really care that Tucker Carlson talked to this guy because Carlson is basically irrelevant now, he himself is a fascist, and it is thus not surprising that he spends his time on whatever eighth-rate platform he’s on to talk to Nazis and Nazi apologists. What I do care about is that the Nazi apologist Darryl Cooper runs a Substack newsletter that has over 10,000 paid subscribers at $50-60 a pop, that this newsletter gives him an income of upwards of half a million bucks a year, and that Substack takes a 10% cut of that.

It’d be distasteful enough if Substack merely hosted such horribleness on the same basis any publishing platform neutrally hosts whatever its users write. But Substack doesn’t just host this stuff. It pushes its more popular newsletters in front of readers via its recommendation system and its social tools, and in doing so it helps spread this toxic shit in a significant way. And, because of its basic business model, Substack has a strong financial incentive to do so.

I get annoyed when Beehiiv drops emails or screws up the billing and I’m somewhat concerned that Ghost or wherever this newsletter ends up will have hiccups and annoyances of their own. But I will scuttle this whole damn ship before I’d ever consider tithing to Substack again. They can dress this kind of thing up however they want to, but we are what we do and what they’re doing is downright horrible.

Oliver Cromwell’s head

Yesterday in the comments Simon and DLF briefly discussed Oliver Cromwell, with DLF mentioning that, after The Restoration, Cromwell’s body was disinterred, and posthumously hanged, drawn, and quartered after which his head was displayed on a pike for several years. His head, by the way, has its own Wikipedia page.

As both an anti-monarchist and someone who appreciates, on an intellectual level, a thorough act of historical vengeance — especially when it’s occasioned by an epically-named law like “The Act of Indemnity and Oblivion” — that whole episode has long been of great interest to me. And that’s before you get to the part in which some of my ancestors in colonial New Haven, Connecticut had a hand in hiding three of the regicides when they went on the lam. Great stuff!

Anyway, Simon and DLF’s discussion caused me to kill some time yesterday in an English Civil War/Cromwell/Restoration Wikipedia hole. Which, in turn, caused me to read one of the funnier Wikipedia sentences I've seen in some time:

In addition to being descended from some of the founders of New Haven I am — far more recently — descended from some people who worked as roofers. So now I’m trying to imagine one of my uncles bitching about how his boss made him remove a human head before he could get to shingling. “And then the bastard made me put the head BACK UP there,” my uncle would exclaim as he took a long pull on a Miller High Life from a pull-tab can.

Maybe the most fun part of all of this is that the anti-Royalist New Haven founders from whom I am descended are on my father’s side. The roofers, on my mother’s side, were actually descended from Royalists who were forced to flee England in the 1650s and then, 120 or so years later, were Loyalists who were forced to flee the United States. They probably woulda loved to have been handling Cromwell’s head when it was up on the roof of Westminster Hall, at least on some unconscious genetic level.

In closing: it’s OK to behead kings, but you had better be sure to have an escape plan in case everyone loses their nerve a decade later.

Have a great day everyone.