He was injured running to first base in Monday night’s game.
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RHP John Lackey (6-2, 2.88 ERA) starts for the Cubs against Phillies RHP Vince Velasquez (5-2, 3.67) on Wednesday afternoon. A quality start against the best team in baseball would at least be something that could be built upon. He allowed one earned run and struck out 10 in six innings.
Morgan passed this first survival test, but despite the look in his eye Morgan shrugged off the seeming urgency to pitch well or else.
The next two innings would be crucial to a young pitcher who could well be straddling the line between staying in the majors and being shipped down to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs to try to figure things out in Triple A.
Phillies manager Pete Mackanin followed through with his plan. “They do a really good job with treating us so I’m trying to make the most of my time here and keep a positive attitude and try to have fun with the other guys that are down here”. They dropped two of three to the Rockies, Giants, Brewers and Padres, but they have yet to be swept in a series or incur a losing streak of more than three games.
Tonight will be the second time in his last three starts that Hendricks will face the Phillies.
Mackanin kept going, and at one point, stood up from the chair behind his desk and pulled a Charlie Manuel, showing some hitting mechanics to the press. Dexter Fowler to third. In the 9th inning, the Cubs managed to get runners at first and third with two outs with David Ross up at the plate.
The Cubs loaded the bases and appeared to have Morgan about take a standing eight count, but he rallied to strike out Javier Baez and Addison Russell, avoiding further damage.
Heyward’s third homer of the season, a shot to right in the fourth, padded the lead to 3-0. I’ve said this many times, but I can’t teach you how to ride a bike. “After that the settled down”.
Of course, you can chalk up the runs the Phillies got in the bottom of the ninth to Cubs manager Joe Maddon being overly protective of starter Jon Lester.
Lester yielded four hits while striking out nine. Cubs 6, Phillies 0.
PHOENIX – Desmond Jennings had three hits, including a home run, and Tim Beckham also went deep to power the Tampa Bay Rays past the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-4 on Monday night. Odubel Herrera heads things up with 66 hits, 32 runs and 18 RBI. The 2006 NL MVP started for the first time since a fan threw a plastic beer bottle at him after Saturday’s game.
Heyward’s.277 batting average on balls in play ranks 129th among 176 qualifying big league hitters, according to FanGraphs, so he has reason to believe his luck will turn soon enough. Then they swing at the first pitch and they’re underneath the ball. No. …
In the American League, Baltimore leapfrogged Boston to the top of the AL East division by beating a faltering Kansas City, Texas bolstered its lead in the West by edging state rival Houston and Cleveland’s winning streak hit six with victory over Seattle. “The first eight innings and then the ninth. No secret there. We’re in a pretty good position to roll the dice on some pitching upside and hopefully hit on a few guys”.
“(Maikel) Franco needs to quit pulling off the ball”, Mackanin said. Bryant had a pair of doubles and an RBI and Rizzo drove in two runs.
The Phillies having lost nine of their previous 11, Mackanin used.234 hitter Freddy Galvis in the three hole, hit Ryan Howard No. 5 and gave Carlos Ruiz a start.
After a long rehabilitation, he struggled at Lehigh Valley in 2015 but still got a call to the majors in June. Hendricks has won both of his starts against the Phillies, posting a 2.30 ERA in 15 2/3 innings.
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“Our hitters make the same outs, the same way, over and over”, Mackanin said.
