Over a month into the season, the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals have never faced off. That was until Friday, when the Cubs defeated their NL Central rivals 12-3 for the first game of the 2021 campaign.
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Aaron Nola pitched six innings of one-run ball and left with a one-run lead after centerfielder Odubel Herrera robbed a would-be home run from Isan Diaz to end the sixth.
"What I said was taken out of context," West said two weeks ago when we spoke again. "I never said it wasn't important. Health and safety is all that matters. I just said that some of the people could have died from something else. I took a little heat from that, from the league office. But I never said it wasn't serious. It is serious. I can take it. I'm a big boy. People take shots at me a lot."
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An Angel Stadium crowd of 15,154 rose to its feet in anticipation of an Ohtani pinch-hit appearance, but it took a good 10 seconds for the two-way star, who was scheduled for an off day, to pop out of the dugout, eliciting a huge roar.
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One day after Doolittle's return to Nationals Park, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo joined the Sports Junkies and reflected on what the reliever meant to the organization.
"There's no such thing as a fastball count now," Zimmerman said. "Two years ago, they got mad at [Padres shortstop Fernando] Tatis for swinging at a 3-0 pitch. Ten years ago, you used to take on 3-0 because you'd get a fastball as well on 3-1 and 3-2. Now, you're not guaranteed a fastball in any count. I've seen 3-0 sliders. It's all changed with starting pitchers. I'm not going to take a first-pitch fastball now to get a guy's pitch count up when I will get behind 0-1. That might be the only fastball that I see in that at-bat. Velocity has gone through the roof, but that doesn't mean it's harder to hit. If you make mistakes in the middle of the plate, your fastball is going to get hit.
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"When he was walking through the back tunnel, and there were other people there, too, for a couple pitches, I'm like, 'All right, keep it there.'"
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