This Week in Baseball 7/14-7/19

Normally in this space Keith gives you the MLB week in review. But other than the All-Star shenanigans (and some truly terrible Neil Diamond singing that Fox wanted to pretend was awesome), the baseball world is mostly unchanged from where we left off Sunday. Instead, here are my picks for the games that you will want to be watching this weekend.



Friday, Pittsburgh at Cincinnati (Liriano vs Leake) The battle of the Ohio River is the game for tonight. The Pirates have swooned late in July the last two seasons, so getting off to a good 2nd half start is critical for them. The Reds are 5 back of St. Louis and 4 back of Pittsburgh, so this is a great chance to begin to make their move. At least it’s so hot in the East that there’s no need to eat any of what those in Cincy refer to as “chili.” Seriously, it’s not fucking chili at all!

Saturday, Los Angeles at Washington (Greinke vs Gonzalez) A great pitching matchup highlights this matchup of the two most overhyped teams of the offseason. The Dodgers seem to have finally found a formula that works, whereas the Nats are woeful at bat and in the field; and are thankful that the Braves have left the door open for them in the NL Least. At least Yasiel Puig and his interpreter should find happy hunting among the hordes of DC interns.

Sunday, Baltimore at Texas (Tillman vs Perez) You really thought I would fill in for Keith and ignore dem O’s? This is the rare Sunday night game that will be going up against the longest 4 hours in sports on ESPN. So watch this game, marvel at Manny Machado,and then catch the next episode of “The Newsroom” while the game in Boston should be just getting to the late innings.