MLB Daily: Nationals Pitching Remains Lights Out; Brandon Phillips Awesome Flip
By Mike Cardillo
Welcome to MLB Daily on a Friday. We did it. We made it another week. Give yourself a pat on the back …
Go Beard or Go Home: Dallas Keuchel lowered his ERA to 2.17 after a 12-strikeout shutout vs. the Yankees in Houston. Ned Yost will have a tough decision for American League All Star Game starter — assuming he doesn’t pick the resurgent Joe Blanton, which I wouldn’t rule out entirely. Right now I’m still all-in on Chris Archer, but Keuchel is making it interesting. Realistically whomever starts the game — a wholly ceremonial honor — likely comes down to which pitcher is on the right amount of day’s rest to start.
Complicating matters is both teams could be in first place by mid-July — the Astros are sort of the big story in baseball so maybe that gives Keuchel the nod. Archer (2.01 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 194 ERA+) and Keuchel (2.17/0.96/184) are almost statistical mirrors across almost all categories, save for the Rays starter advantage in strikeouts (123-95). If you figured the AL All-Star starter was going to come down to Archer, Keuchel or maybe Sonny Gray you’re a smarter man than me — and likely from the future.
Pitching counts: The Nationals won their sixth straight on Thursday, upping their mark to 40-33. Are the Nats going to get to 100 wins? Probably not, but that doesn’t matter too much unless you bet on them before the season began. Slow start or not, the Nationals are playing now as everyone expected thanks to a great starting staff which hasn’t allowed an earned run in 41+ innings after Doug Fister’s seven scoreless vs. the Braves. Max Scherzer goes tonight with a chance at making all sorts of baseball history, including an attempt back-to-back no-hitters which has only been done once before.
Great starting pitching was expected of Washington and works wonders during the 162-game regular season. The question now is do the Nats throw everything in this year and add Ben Zobrist? Maybe make a run at Aroldis Chapman?
Highlight Reel: Brandon Phillips made this impressive backhand flip look way too easy.
This & That: Jacob deGrom pitched eight scoreless innings vs. the Brewers and it led to the #deGrominant trending in New York. Oh happy day. The Mets will use a six-man rotation for the time being. Hopefully a couple of their starters can hit, too. … The Futures Game rosters were announced on Thursday. … Oakland won again, moving out of last place in the American League West. … Say what you will about the Cardinals, but St. Louis is 48-24 — that’s five more wins than the nearest club, Houston. … The Twins placed Byron Buxton on the DL Friday morning due to a thumb injury.
[Weekend Work]