SAN DIEGO (AP) — Padres rookie right-hander Brett Kennedy wasn’t dominating
http://www.stlouiscardinalsteamshop.com/authentic-steve-carlton-jersey , just effective.“He was missing barrels,” San Diego manager Andy Green said. “There was a lot of soft contact.”Kennedy pitched six strong innings, and Franmil Reyes, Luis Urias and Wil Myers all homered to lead the Padres to a 7-0 win over the Colorado Rockies on Friday night.Kennedy (1-2) had his longest outing in six career starts, giving up four hits, two walks and hitting a batter. He struck out two as the Padres won their season-high fourth straight game while starting rookies in each of the wins.“Definitely a great feeling and definitely nice that we played great, put up a lot of runs and played some great defense,” Kennedy said. “When you can put together a game like that and get your first win, it’s a great feeling.”Reyes, who had a walk-off shot in the 13th inning Thursday night, went deep in the fourth inning. Urias added his first career homer, a two-run blast, in the five-run eighth, which preceded Myers’ long fly.“It feels great,” Urias said. “I’m so happy that I got my first homer.”With the loss the Rockies fell into third place in the NL West, but remained 1 1/2 games behind the division-leading Diamondbacks.The Padres’ bullpen, which allowed one earned run in seven innings of relief Thursday, was keen once again. Matt Stahm and Phil Maton pitched one inning each and Rowan Wick, making his major league debut, got the final three outs.Colorado didn’t have multiple baserunners aboard until the sixth inning. The Rockies were struggling so bad they asked Nolan Arenado, who has more RBIs (545) than any player since 2014 and 91 this year, to sacrifice bunt when Carlos Gonazalez opened the sixth with a walk.Arenado advanced Gonzalez to second
Paul DeJong Jersey , but he was stranded. Galvis snagged Trevor Story’s liner and David Dahl struck out.“We definitely feel like we’re better than what we’ve been doing,” Story said. “We just really had that big hit with runners on.”Kennedy was on his game.“I tried not to do too much,” said Kennedy, a Padres 11th round pick in 2015. “In the first inning I just said I’m going to make pitches and whatever happens, happens. Today it felt like the first day I was pounding the strike zone and getting some bad swings.”Kennedy doesn’t have a power arm, instead relying on location with his curveball and slider to upset batters’ timing.“He got inside enough to keep them honest,” Green said.The Rockies have gone 16 straight innings in the series without scoring against the Padres.“The last two nights we haven’t done it,” Colorado manager Bud Black said. “I think the only way that we can look at is the big picture. We’re in a pennant race, we’ve had two rough nights offensively, we’ve pitched well until the eighth inning.”Antonio Senzatela (4-5) pitched six innings and gave up a run and four hits.Galvis provided an additional cushion in the seventh when he drove in Austin Hedges with an RBI single off reliever Seunghwan Oh. Hedges reached on a one-out double.Reyes, who is only four homers off Hunter Renfroe’s team-high 17, struck again with a laser to left-center in the fourth inning. Senzatela presented a center-cut, 93 mph fastball and Reyes, a call-up from Triple-A El Paso on Aug. 4, didn’t let the mistake get by. It extended the rookie outfielder’s hitting streak to six games and he has gone deep in nine of his last 10 contests. Over that span he has four homers and a double.TRAINER’S ROOMPadres: RHP Bryan Mitchell (elbow) will come off the disabled list and get the start in Monday’s game at Arizona. Mitchell last pitched on June 6.UP NEXTRockies: RHP Jon Gray (10-7, 4.76) has seen Colorado win four of his five starts since returning from Triple-A Albuquerque on Aug. 5. Gray is 7-3 in 14 career starts against the Padres, which includes a 3-1 mark this year.Padres: LHP Robbie Erlin (3-4, 3.69) will make his seventh appearance and second start against the Rockies this year in the third contest of the four-game series. He’s pitched to a 2.61 ERA with the Rockies hitting just .205 against him. He went five innings, allowing three runs and five hits at Colorado in a start on Aug. 21 for the win. The Minnesota Twins have already traded Brian Dozier, Eduardo Escobar, Lance Lynn, Zach Duke
lex Reyes Jersey , Ryan Pressly and Fernando Rodney, seemingly with little difficulty.It won't be so easy to move their resident All-Star, batting champion and American League MVP.That would be Joe Mauer. According to Mike Berardino ofPioneer Press, the 35-year-old first baseman cleared revocable waivers last week. That means none of Major League Baseball's 29 other teams put in a claim on him.Mind you, this doesn't mean Mauercan't be traded.If anything, it's easier for the Twins to deal him. Had a team claimed him while he was on waivers, the Twins only could have worked out an agreement with that club. They're now free to trade him anywhere ahead of the August 31 deadline to acquire postseason-eligible players.This will take three to tango, however. And the Twins may be the only ones willing to show up for this particular dance.There's a question of whether Mauer would accept a move or exercise his no-trade clause. He's a native of nearby St. Paul, Minnesota, and he indicated in July he would prefer to stay where he is."These types of decisions, I think most people think of just the baseball and not the big picture," Mauer told Berardino. "I have a lot more than just the baseball part. I think I've made it pretty clear over the years where I want to be and what I want to be doing and that really hasn't changed."The Colorado Rockies, Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees are three contenders who could use an upgrade at first base. But none of the three trulyneeds one, and they may be unwilling to reach for one with a salary as big as Mauer's.He's in the final season of the eight-year, $184 million contract extension he signed in 2010, when he was fresh off winning the AL MVP award as baseball's foremost two-way catcher. He's still owed roughly $7 million of the $23 million he's making, per Berardino.That's a lot of money for a guy who doesn't bring much to the table anymore.Hannah Foslien/Getty ImagesMauer has become a decentfirst baseman in the years since he moved out from behind the plate in 2014. But he's not the same hitter who posted a .323 average and .873 OPS between 2004 and 2013. In fact, the .705 OPS he has this year is on track to be the worst of his career.Mauer isn't fundamentally broken as a hitter. He still draws plenty of walks (10.5 BB%), and he's still bucking baseball's ever-worsening strikeout trend (14.0 K%). He's also racking up hard contact at a rate that he hasn't since 2010.Mauer is thus proving he's still good for batting average (.269) and on-base percentage (.349). The problem, however, is these things aren't good for much without power.Indeed, the veteran'spoweris virtually nonexistent:Mauer's .086 ISO ranks seventh from the bottom among all batting-title qualifiers and dead last among primary first basemen.He's tallied just 21 extra-base hits all season
Evan Longoria Jersey , and just three of those have been home runs. That puts him on track to repeat his 2014 feat of qualifying for the batting title yet finishing with fewer than five homers. Before him, the last primary first baseman to do that was Jose Offerman in 1996.Of course, Mauer has rarely been a big-time power hitter. He peaked with 28 home runs in 2009, and he's never come close to repeating that. And at this point, he sure looks like an old dog who's uninterested in learning a new trick.While many hitters have found extra power by giving in to the launch angle craze, Mauer has barely changed his own:2015:3.8 degrees2016:3.8 degrees2017:5.6 degrees2018:4.5 degreesBy doing so, he's kept the bulk of his batted balls on the ground. That's not a recommended way to hit for power.Jim Mone/Associated PressAs for the fly balls and line drives Mauerdoes hit, he still prefers to send them to the opposite field. That's the toughest direction in which a hitter can try to clear the fence, and Mauer isn't getting better at doing so with age. The one opposite-field homer he has this year accounts for just 2.5 percent of the fly balls he's hit to left field.To boot, outfield shifts appear to be taking away other extra-base hits. According to Baseball Savant, he's slugging just .667 on fly balls and line drives against "strategic" outfield alignments. That's his lowest mark in the four-year Statcast era."Right now, it's probably tougher to be a hitter than any time at any point in my career," Mauer conceded to Chris Hine of the Star Tribune.If a team is going to take a chance on a hitter like this, it won't be as a $7 million experiment. The Rockies, Mariners, Yankees or whoever would have to convince the Twins to eat some money.But that might not get it done. Even if Mauer is willing to waive his no-trade clause, the Twins may not agree to eat any of his remaining salary unless they get a real prospect or two back. A Mauer experiment isn't necessarily worth that price.Ultimately, Mauer is probably stuck where he is, and maybe that suits him just fine. Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.
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