First to Home: June 23rd MLB News and Notes
June 23, 2017
Diamondbacks Roll: The D-Backs were able to go into Colorado this week and take two out of three from the Rockies. In the series the Rockies young pitching got exposed, as Arizona outscored the Rockies 30-12 in the series. With the Rockies’ recent hiccup and the Dodgers success over the past week, LA now find themselves atop the division followed by Arizona and Colorado both 1.5 games back.
Paul Goldschmidt MVP?: Goldschmidt has been dominant over the past week, inserting himself into the MVP conversation (like every year) after he went 11-23 with 11 RBI’s over his last five games. His season line is now a monstrous, .335/18/64 and he is slugging at a .620 clip.
Jose Quintana: Quintana has really struggled this season after a very strong season last year. The White Sox plan on being heavy sellers at the deadline in hopes of further bolstering their strong farm system. On Thursday night Quintana went 6 ⅔ innings of no run 5 hit ball with 9 strikeouts; these are the types of performances the White Sox hope to see in the next few weeks from Quintana in order to sell him to a contender at his peak price.
Brewers/Travis Shaw: After a 4-2 win on Thursday, the Brewers again showed they are a legitimate contender this season. They are now 1.5 games up on the Cubs in the NL Central. The success of Travis Shaw is further solidifying that the Milwaukee Brewers got the better end of the deal with the Red Sox, in which they traded away reliever Tyler Thornberg (who is getting season ending surgery). Shaw has been a monster in the middle of their lineup and continued his success with a 3 hit 3 RBI game Thursday.
Yankees Struggles: The Yankees are now 1-8 over their last nine games after the Angels thumped them 10-5 on Thursday. After a surprising first third of the season, could the Yankees be returning to reality? Over their past nine they are surrendering 6.2 runs per game.
Robinson Cano: Robinson Cano finally seems to be breaking out of his slump after a breakout performance Thursday where he went 2-4 with 2 HR’s and 6 RBI’s. If Cano can get hot the Mariners could become the favorite for the second wildcard.
Dodgers: The Dodgers just set a franchise record hitting 15 Home Runs in a series for the first time in their team’s history. Cody Bellinger, Yasmani Grandal, and Corey Seager all had multi home run games in the series.
Written by Paul McGovern
