Pirates Win 9th Straight Behind Corey Dickerson's 4-for-5; Ryon Healy Belts 2 3-Run Homers In Seattle Win

Players of the Day for Sunday, July 22, 2018

American League

Healy: 2 HR, 6 RBI

Seattle took two of three from the visiting White Sox, the series ending with Sunday's 8-2 victory.

Ryan Healy socked a pair of three-run homers to lead the way for the Mariners. Healy's first blast capped a five-run first inning; his second shot (#20) came in the eighth, turning a 5-2 Mariner lead into a laugher.

Healy is batting .244 and has driven in 53 runs this season, helping the Mariners to second place in the AL West, five games behind the Houston Astros.

Seattle will have a day off Monday, prior to a two-game meeting with the incoming Giants. Game time is 7:10 pm PDT.

National League

Corey Dickerson may be one of the better-kept secrets in the majors, but after his 4-for-5 game in a 9-2 Pittsburgh win at Cincinnati the story of the Pirates' leadoff hitter may be leaking out.

Dickerson scored the first run of the rout in the opening frame, doubling on an 0-2 pitch and scoring on Gregory Polanco's two-run homer.

Dickerson: 4-5, HR, 3R, 2RBI

Pittsburgh put up four in the second, highlighted by Dickerson's two-run homer, making the score 5-0.

In the fourth, Dickerson singled and scored. He singled again in the sixth before flying out in the eighth, finishing up the game with a homer, double, two singles, three runs, and two RBI.

Batting a solid .315 (5th in the NL), Dickerson has 107 hits, scored 47 runs and is batting .391 in July, hitting safely in 13 of 16 games this month, including eight multiple-hit games.

Consequently, the Pirates have won nine straight and 11 of their last 12, sweeping five from Milwaukee and three in a row in Cincinnati. Their Sunday jaunt earned them third place in the NL Central, eight games behind division leader, the Chicago Cubs.

The Pirates will try to extend their winning streak when they open a three-game series in Cleveland, Monday, 7:10 pm EDT.

Pirates' Nick Kingham Nearly Perfect In Debut Win Over St. Louis; Ryan Healy's 2 HRs Lead Seattle Over Cleveland, 10-4

Players of the Day for Sunday, April 29, 2018

American League

Healy is heating up

Winning their second straight, the Seattle Mariners took three of four in Cleveland with a 10-4 win the in series finale Sunday.

Cleveland might have kept the game closer if they had only been able to get out leadoff hitter Dee Gordon and the guy in the nine hole, first baseman Ryon Healy.

Gordon Lashed four singles, drove in a Healy with a run and scored another, while Healy doubled and homered twice, driving in four runs and scoring three to lead the Mariners' offense.

Activated off the DL just four days ago, Healy has hit safely in all four of his starts, and has homered in the last two, with six RBI.

Healy got things going in Seattle's second, driving in a run with his two-bagger and scoring on Gordon's single. His solo shot in the sixth put Seattle up, 6-4, and his two-run belt in the eighth put the game away.

The win left the Mariners tied with the Angels - who play the late Sunday game against the Yankees - two games back of Houston, in second place in the LA West.

The Mariners get a day off Monday as they return home to host a series with the A's, beginning Tuesday.

National League

Kingham: Impressive debut

Pittsburgh's Nick Kingham made his major league debut a memorable one, accomplishing a feat only one other pitcher in the past 100 years had done.

Kingham carried a perfect game into the seventh inning to lead the Pirates to a 5-0 home win over the St. Louis Cardinals. He joined Johnny Cueto in 2008 as the only pitchers in the past 100 years with one hit allowed, at least nine strikeouts and no walks in an MLB pitching debut.

Paul DeJong ended Kingham's bid at absolute baseball immortality when he singled with two outs in the seventh. Getting Marcel Ozuna on a groundout to third finished the inning and Kingham's first assault on major league hitters.

A week ago, Kingham was throwing in AAA for Indianapolis, where he had put together a 2-1 record with a 1.59 ERA in four starts, but the Pirates thought it was time to bring him up to the big club.

They were right. Kingham fanned seven and didn't walk a batter, throwing 72 of 98 pitches for strikes.

The Pirates maintained their slim lead in the contentious NL Central, holding off the Cubs by 1/2 game. St. Louis and Milwaukee are a joint 1 1/2 off the lead.

The Pirates head out of town, to Washington, opening a series with the Nationals at 7:05 pm EDT on Monday.

Ryon Healy Homers Twice, Drives In 5 As A's Top Jays; Odubel Herrera Leads Phillies Over Braves

Players of the Day for Monday, June 5, 2017

Healy: 2HR, 5 RBI

American League

In Oakland, there isn't much to be happy about, such as the NFL Raiders being set to move to Las Vegas in 2020, and the area's baseball team, the Oakland A's, in last place in the AL West.

Whatever the mood in the second city by the bay, the baseball season is long, and only a third finished as of this date, so the A's trudge onward. Opening a three game series with the Toronto Blue Jays, the A's came up 5-3 winners with all of their runs driven in by second-year DH Ryon Healy.

Socking a pair of home runs off Toronto starter, A.J. Happ (0-4, 5.33), Healy offers some degree of hope in the future success of the A's, being that he's only 25 and has already equaled his home run total from last season (13) in fewer games (56 vs. 72) and will surpass his RBI total from 2016 shortly, as he drove in 37 last year and has driven in 33 this year.

Healy whacked a three-run shot in the second and followed up in his next at-bat with a two-run belt. Done and done. Oakland pitching did the rest, with starter Sean Manaea (5-3, 3.81) allowing two earned over six innings and a trio of A's relievers giving up just two hits and one run (Justin Smoak's 15th home run, a solo shot in the eighth) over the final three frames.

The A's host Toronto in game two of the series on Tuesday. Game time is 7:05 pm PT.

Herrera: 2 doubles, HR

National League

At 20-35, the Phillies have the worst record in the majors, but every now and then they upset another team by actually beating them. It's not that the Phillies are a bad team - though they might be - it's just that after trading away or releasing all of the good players that made them a contender in the 2000s, they've not made the effort to rebuild.

But, they do possibly have the nucleus of a future team in the two, three and four batters in their current lineup, Odubel Herrera, Aaron Altherr, and Tommy Joseph.

Each member of that trio socked home runs in Philly's 11-4 victory at Atlanta, were a combined 9-for-14 and combined to drive in eight of the Phillies' 11 runs.

Herrera had the best at-bats, going 3-for-5 with two doubles and a two-run homer, the round-tripper coming in a five-run fourth inning that put Philadelphia ahead, 9-0. Herrera, 25, had his two doubles prior to that, scoring both times, in the first and third innings.

Having been the starting center fielder for Philly the past two seasons, Herrera's position is pretty solid, with a .283 career batting average, 28 homers, 112 RBI and 45 steals. Altherr is a 26-year-old right fielder with a .295 average, nine home runs and 31 RBI. First baseman Tommy Jospeh, in his second year, is 25, and has 10 long balls and 28 RBI with a .245 average.

So, while the Phillies may not be going anywhere in particular this season, the future surrounding the middle of their batting order has a high degree of upside.

The win was in the opener of a four-game series in Atlanta. Game two is scheduled for Tuesday, 7:35 pm ET.