(CARDINALS)—The Cardinals post all-star game drive to the playoff has been an unsteady one with a terrible turn in Colorado, where the worst team in major league baseball this year took two out of three—and wrapped up the series by holding the Redbirds scoreless, 6-0. It’s the first time in 220 games that Denver has shut out an opponent. The win left Denver 26-76.
The Cardinals, thus, helped set a major league record by ending the Rockies record run of no shutouts. The shutout is only the third time St. Louis has been shut out in the 32-year history of the Rockies. It was the second straight series loss since the break and dropped them to just one game over .500 after losing five of their first six games on the road trip and being outscored 20-1 in the first three innings.
The only win in those first six games was the middle game in the Denver series when Michael McGreevy, just up from Memphis picked up the victory. His performance was solid enough that the team decided it’s time for one of its younger pitchers to become a starter. But that meant that a veteran had to go. In this case, it was Erick Fedde, who has been a bust for St. Louis this year. He’s 3-10 with a 5.22 ERA. In his last 17 2/3 innings he gave up 26 earned runs. He’s 33-52 in eight major league seasons. The Braves have decided to pick him up. They’ll give the Cardinals some cash or a player later. Fedde will be a free agent at the end of the season.
We start the week still waiting for the Cardinals to make the blockbuster trade that various sorts experts have been predicting.
(ROYALS)—The Royals have continued to muddle along but they have gone to the free agent market to pick up former Cardinals outfielder Randall Grichuk from the Diamondbacks in exchange for pitcher Andrew Hoffman. Grichuk, who is expected to immediately improve the outfield offensively and defensively, went one-for-four in his first game with the new team. For now, he takes the roster place of rookie outfielder Jac Caglianone, who has gone on the 10-day DL with a strained left hamstring. Caglianone has struggled at the plate in his first season. Grichuk was hitting .240 with 175 AB this year. He’s a lifetime .252 hitter with five teams in a 12-year career.
Also going on the DL is starting pitcher Kris Bubic, our for 15 days with a rotator cuff strain.
The Royals did make a major commitment to the pitching staff, signing Seth Lugo to a two-year, $46 million guaranteed contract extension.
Last night, the Royals lost 10-7 to the Braves. The game is memorable because Royals pitchers tied a club record with fourteen walks. Six of those walks were dealt by Rich Hill, the 45-year old journeyman pitcher making his second start with his record-tying 14th team. He also gave up four runs and gave up two homers.
Now, the story of a man named Darrell and his record-setting day
(NASCAR)—
This is William Darrell Wallce, who goes by his middle name and more often is known as Bubba. He’s a NASCAR driver who had gone three years, 100 races, since his last victory. When he broke that string this past weekend, he made significant auto racing history.
Bubba Wallace became the first Black driver to win a major race in the 116 year history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He and Wendell Scott are the only black drivers to win a NASCAR race. Scott won one race in 1963. Wallace now has three NASCAR Cup winner’s trophies.
He only the third black driver to compete in one of the major races at the Speedway and the first since George Mack in 2002. The first was Willy T. Ribbs in 1991 and 1993
Wallace took the lead with less than twenty laps to go and held a three second lead over defending race champion Kyle Larson when a crash brought out the caution flag and bunched up the field for a restart. But he got the jump—twice—on Larson on two overtime restarts and took the checkered flag two tenths of a second ahead of Larson.
The win makes him the thirteenth entrant in the 16-driver playoff field with four races to go before that field is set. Three non-winners are in the top ten in points and could be eliminated from the championship run if three other drivers win one of those four races.
Two other drives merit special attention:
Denny Hamlin, who was on a pole-setting run, wrecked on his second qualifying lap and started dead last, 39th. He and his pit crew got him to fifth for the last restart (that’s his 11 in the picture) and he picked up two more positions third place at the end.
And the only woman racing in NASCAR, Kathryn Legge (she pronounces the first three letters of her last name) drew praise for finishing 17th, far better than her average finish this year. She was on the leader’s lap on the last restart and held her position during the wild two-lap green-white-checker flag scramble to the end.
(INDYCAR)—Alex Palou puts more points distance between himself and challenger Pato O’Ward with a win at Laguna Seca, near Monterey, California. It’s his eighth win of the year. It has been eighteen years since anybody won eight races on the INDYCAR schedule.
Sebastian Bourdais did it in 2007.
The record for most wins in a season has been set and equaled at 10. A. J. Foyt in 1964 and Al Unser Senion in 1970 are the only ones to hit that mark.
Now he has eight of those. The record is 10 by A.J. Foyt in 1964 and Al Unser in 1970.
Two wins in the last three races of the year would let Palou tie the record.
(Photo credits: Wallace speaking and winning, restart and Legge—Bob Priddy; Wallace car—Rick Gevers)