MLB Review/Game of the DAy: 4-3-2024
Milj
Toronto Blue Jays @ Houston Astros 8:10 PM E.T.
04-2-2024 Recap:
Another day of baseball and another East Coast game being postponed due to subpar weather conditions. The Mets have already gotten a couple of games postponed and this just adds to the idea that Northeast teams need to have retractable roofs. This is more so needed during these early Spring months when the weather is typically unpredictable, and also volatile at times. I know it would cost the commissioner a bit of coin, but at least teams won’t have to worry about Mother Nature peaking over every game. That’s all the complaining I have for today, time for some recaps. A couple of notes from across the league, great showing yesterday from Zac Gallen of the Diamondbacks. Their ace pitched six shutout innings recording six strikeouts along the way. This came against a Yankees lineup that has picked apart good pitching thus far. Outstanding effort by a formidable pitcher. Another key happening from yesterday was the awakening of Bryce Harper. I noted in my blog from 4-1 that Bryce had been hitless thus far in the year. He must have read my blog and decided to go out there and hit three tanks. He is an impressive player who always seems to be playing with an edge to him. Overall, solid effort from the Phillies against a surging Reds team. Newcomer starter Spencer Turnbull got through five clean innings while striking out seven. The Phillies have all the talent in the world to make noise and this effort from Bryce might act as a launching pad for this squad.
Now for my GOTD recap, I unfortunately came a run short and have faced my first GOTD loss. But hey, that is baseball and you certainly cannot win them all! My goal is now to beat my two game streak, and that starts today. Anyhow, the Brewers are a very tough team to predict as they seem to find a way to squeeze wins out of games. Key hits when they needed to go along with key pitches at the right times. The Twins tried chipping away at a 3-0 lead with runs in the fourth and seventh inning, but it wasn’t enough to scare off the undefeated Brewers. Yelich has had a great start to 2024, hitting a cool .400 with two tanks. He is critical to the success of this team because he now finds himself the veteran on a very young Brewers team. Whenever these two teams play it seems to be a slug fest of quality pitching and timely knocks, I should have known the Brewers had more than meets the eye.
4-2-2024 Game of the Day:
Without further delay, for today’s GOTD we have a firecracker of a matchup with the Blue Jays running it back in Houston for another matchup. The Astros have had a surprisingly slow start to 2024 as both the offense and defense try to find their legs. So far the series is split, with the Astros winning the no hit bid from two days ago and the Blue Jays winning a pitching duel last night, 2-1. Who will come out on top in the rubber match? The pitching matchup is interesting in this one, Chris Bassitt is always fun to watch because of how many pitches he utilizes. For a new baseball fan, watching Bassitt maneuver through this Astros lineup should be fun to watch. Slow start to begin the year for him but he takes his craft very seriously so expect a bounceback effort from the Bassitt hound. On the flip, the Astros are wheeling out Christian Javier to hopefully build off of a quality start against the Yanks. The pitching duel is an odd one with two guys with two completely different styles. I give the edge to Bassitt to rebound and show the quality that he possesses. On the offensive side of the ball we have a great story to tell. These teams are home to some of the most prolific hitters of baseballs in the league. Vlad Guerrero Jr. on the Blue Jays and Yordan Alvarez on the Astros are just a couple of names amongst a large collection. An interesting note, despite the Astros slow start, they have a considerably higher team batting average (.276) than the Blue Jays (.196). This tells me that the Astros are due for some serious positive regression as the offensive numbers translate to wins. With that last note, I reveal my GOTD pick for today, the Houston Astros. I foresee this offense doing enough to win their first home series of the season.
GOTD record: 2-1
Excited to watch some ball after work today, always great to look forward to. As a side note, I am going to start posting more reels on our Instagram page @hottestoftakes. My goal is to bring more information to you, I can’t type nearly as much as I want to so hopefully by adding the reels I can get more out. Look forward for those and as always, hope you have a great day and have an opportunity to watch some games!
