Reds, DeSclafani Slam Cubs; Mike Leake Hurls M's Past Red Sox; Yankees' Sudden Slump

Apologies for the nearly month-and-a-half break, but personal matters (allergies, work, etc.) were overwhelming. Baseball on Deck will now return to its usual posting schedule.

Players of the Day for Saturday, June 23, 2018

American League

Leake: 8 scoreless

Seattle snapped a five-game losing streak with a 7-2 win at Boston Saturday, as Mariners' starter, Mike Leake, hurled eight innings of shutout ball before leaving after throwing 98 pitches. Reliever Edwin Diaz allowed two runs on three hits in the ninth, as the Sox spoiled the shutout.

Leake allowed just three hits and walked two, holding the Red Sox in check and in second place in the AL East, as the Yankees lost their second straight at Tampa Bay.

At 8-4, the 30-year-old, ten-year veteran is looking for his first winning season since 2015. That season he was 9-5 with the Reds and 2-5 with San Francisco for a combined 11-10 mark. Leake has been re-emergent this year with the Mariners, who continue to chase the Astros in the AL West. Seattle kept pace with the Astros after Houston defeated Kansas City, 4-3, in 12 innings. The Mariners trail the division-leading Astros by 3 1/2 games.

The Red Sox host the Mariners in the rubber game of their three-game series in Boston, Sunday, 1:05 pm EDT.


National League

DeSclafani: Grand Slam

Anthony DeSclafani socked a third-inning grand slam off Chicago reliever Brian Duensing as the Reds coasted to an 11-2 victory over the Cubs.

What made DeSclafani's slam the smash hit of the day was the fact that he was Cincinnati's starting pitcher, cruising through 6 1/3 innings, allowing three hits and two earned runs, with three Ks. While DeSclafani did walk four, he managed to pitch out of trouble well enough to leave with a six-run lead in the seventh. Joey Votto tacked on the final three runs with his eighth home run, in the bottom of the eighth.

DeSclafani, who came off the 60-day disabled list on June 5 and had missed all of the regular season until that point, improved to 3-1, winning his third straight and sending the suddenly-hot Reds to their sixth straight.

DeSclafani's epic shot was the first grand slam hit by a Reds pitcher since Bob Purkey hit one against the Cubs on August 1, 1959.

The Reds are still bringing up the rear in the NL Central, but they've taken two straight from the Cubs, keeping Chicago two games behind division-leading Milwaukee, who lost, 3-2, to the Cardinals, thanks to a pair of Yadier Molina home runs.

The series finale is Sunday at 1:10 pm EDT in Cincinnati.


Yankees Suffering Through Slump

On Thursday, June 21, after the Yankees scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning in their 4-3 win over Seattle, completing the three-game sweep, New York fell into a deep slump, going 4-for-25 the rest of that game. That began a string of bad innings and plate appearances for the team that leads the AL in many offensive categories.

In game one at Tampa Bay on Friday, the slide deepened as six Tampa hurlers combined for a five-hit, one-run performance in a 2-1 Tampa Bay victory. The Rays held them to five hits in 31 at-bats, but that was just a prelude to Saturday’s 4-0 whitewash in which the Yankees managed four hits in 29 at-bats off four Tampa Bay throwers.

The Yanks have scored one run in the last 25 innings with a combined batting average of .153 (13-for-85), including their 4-for-29 Saturday sleepwalk. The two straight losses to Tampa Bay matches their longest losing streak of the season, a stat which is hard enough to believe, but they also haven’t homered in the past two games, a very un-Yankee-like trait.

Of course, there’s a simple explanation for the sudden lack of hitting by the Yanks. It’s called youth. The oldest starter for the Baby Bombers is outfielder Brett Gardner, who is 34. Austin Romine, who spells 25-year-old catcher Gary Sanchez, is 29. Every one of the regular starters, besides 33-year-old Neil Walker, who was 0-for-3 in Saturday’s shutdown, is no older than 28 (Didi Gregorious, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks).

Two of their starters, second baseman, Gleyber Torres, and third baseman, Miguel Andujar, are 21 and 23-year-old rookies, respectively. The pair was on fire until recently and, like all rookies, they were due to cool off.

Yankee fans have reason to be a little worried. Young teams usually don’t fare well in the second half of the season, but, considering how weak the rest of the AL East is - after Boston - the Yankees look like a lock to at least be a wild card. But, therein lies the problem. The Yankee post-season could be over in just one game due to the current playoff scheme that has the two wild card teams face off in a win-or-go-home showdown.

Making matters a little more of a concern is the schedule leading up to the all star break. The Yankees only have six more home games prior to July 15. Once they’re done in Tampa Sunday, they head to Philadelphia for a three-game series, then head home for three each with Boston and Atlanta, two of the best teams in the majors. Then, three in Toronto, four in Baltimore and four more in Cleveland to finish up the first half.