Game 104 - Cincinnati Reds at Atlanta Braves

April 30 at Turner Field in Atlanta, GA
Fox Sports Ohio

We'll start with a shot of Turner Field, which would have to be considered at Not Quite Capacity

And I also have a question & possible solution for the Braves.

Q: Kelly Johnson is your cleanup hitter?!

S: Perhaps it's time to find another cleanup hitter.

* Big day for Mike Leake, who tossed eight innings of two-hit, shut out ball in the Reds' 5-1 win. In his last two starts against Atlanta, Leake is 2-0 and hasn't allowed a run in 14 innings. Leake also hit one of Cincinnati's four solo home runs

* You know who else had a big day? Color commentator Chris Welsh, who said "lightning in a bottle,", "a hard-throwin', right-handed Texan" and "old country hard ball" in the same inning. Good work, Chris!

Game 103 - St. Joseph's at Monmouth

April 29 at MU Baseball Field in Long Branch, NJ
espn3.com

Let's start with color commentator Gary Kowal, who I like to call The Central New Jersey God of Baseball Phrases:

"Back in his natural habitat"
"Pitching to contact"
"You can't teach size"
"Some electricity in Yunginger's pitches"
"Caught in no-man's land"
"Playing with a purpose"
"All hands on deck"
"Deuces wild"
"A plethora of relief arms"
"Stinging the ball"
"Put it in your pocket"

The Ivan Ackerman of college baseball teams

Like Ackerman, St. Joseph's always seemed to do the wrong thing on Wednesday, always.

The Hawks made five errors, hit two batters, threw a wild pitch, balked once, walked six Monmouth hitters and struck out 12 times at the plate. Adam Yunginger had seven of those strike outs in six strong innings as Monmouth won its fourth straight, 7-0.

Game 102 - Houston Astros at San Diego Padres

April 28 at Petco Park in San Diego, CA
ROOT Sports

Color commentator and former Astro Alan Ashby's favorite word just might be "intriguing". He finds several things intriguing, whether it's how well Marwin Gonzalez will play in the absence of Jonathan Villar, or pitcher Roberto Hernandez's approach as a hitter. I was compelled (another word for intriguing) to find out how many times Ashby was going to say the word during Tuesday's broadcast and the answer turned out to be: a whole bunch.

Houston is playing well - after a 14-3 victory the team is 13-7 and four games up in first place in the American League West - so Ashby is pretty excited. Here are his Baseball Phrases just during the opening of the broadcast:

"Timely home run"
"Just good old fashioned pitching"
"There's more than one way to win a ball game"
"On a road trip for the ages"
"Developing the confidence that builds a winner"
"Another chance to keep finding ways"

And it continued during the game:

"Pure scald right at the first baseman"
"Initially made quite a splash"
"Dead red"
"He looked like a spark plug ready to go"
"Oppo style"
"Nose to the grindstone"
"Day at a time"
"Tack on time"

The Astros had 17 hits Tuesday, including huge days for the top three in the order: lead off man Jose Altuve had four hits; Luis Valbuena added three and George Springer homered and drove in five runs. It's the best 20-game start for the franchise since the 2006 team started 14-6.

Nicknames that aren't really nicknames

Ashby - "Ash"
Color commentator Geoff Blum - "Blummer"

Webb Bobo All Stars

Let's welcome San Diego relievers Kevin Quackenbush and Odrisamer Despaigne.

Game 101 - Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees

April 27 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, NY
YES Network

It was a surprisingly light night for Michael Kay Nonsense (MKN), though obviously as Andrew Miller was about to come into the game in the ninth Kay said "it's Miller Time". But I did want to point out one item from the broadcast.

YES has its SCOUTING REPORTS of each starting pitcher, and here was Adam Warren's:

1. "Run Support". Then Ken Singleton mentioned how Warren received a ton of run support the last time he pitched, which was last Wednesday against the Tigers.

2. "Taking care of business". Singleton then talked about how Warren has a degree in business from the University of North Carolina and the Yankees would like Warren to take care of business.

3. "'Heeling' power". This was simply about Warren winning his first 19 decisions at UNC.

This isn't a SCOUTING REPORT. This is Facts About Adam Warren.

I put together a new scouting report of Warren:

1. "Walk this way". Warren walked four batters in his last start.

2. "Garbage disposal". One of Warren's chores as a child was to do the dishes and put the uneaten food into the garbage disposal and the Yankees are hoping he disposes of tonight's opponent.

3. "Montana man". Warren once visited the state of Montana.

* The New York bullpen has been fantastic so far in 2015 and that continued Monday. It was the best of Warren's seven career starts (5 2/3 IP, 5 H, career-high 6 K), but the right-hander left with the game tied 1-1. Justin Wilson (one perfect inning to pick up the win), David Carpenter (1/3 IP, 1 BB), Dellin Betances (1 IP, 2 K) and Miller (1 IP, 1 H, 1 K) combined for 3 1/3 scoreless in a 4-1 victory.

* Brian McCann ripped a go-ahead, solo home run to right that put New York ahead 2-1 in the sixth. It was McCann's second home run and first since April 12 against Boston.

Nicknames that aren't really nicknames

Tropicana Field - "The Trop"

Game 100 - Minnesota Twins at Seattle Mariners

April 25 at Safeco Field in Seattle, WA
ROOT Sports

Saturday night in Seattle was all about Minnesota's Eduardos.

Eduardo Escobar ripped his first home run of the season, a solo blast in the second that pulled the Twins even at 2-2, and Eduardo Nunez drew a bases-loaded walk for the Twins' first run and added a double and an RBI-single in the fifth to put the visitors ahead for good in an 8-5 victory.

The Night of Eduardo also helped introduce a new segment here at 300 Game Season: the Season of Eduardo.

We'll be building a handy reference list through the 2015 season of every Eduardo (also Eddie, Ed and Edward) at every level of each of the 30 professional organizations.

Nicknames that aren't really nicknames

Play-by-play man Dave Sims' nicknames for Nelson Cruz - "Big Boy", "Nellie"

Game 99 - Lancaster Barnstormers at Sugar Land Skeeters

April 25 at Constellation Field in Sugar Land, TX
espn3.com

The Atlantic League got its season underway this weekend, and these two teams are together for a rematch of last season's championship series. Lancaster won that best-of-3, but the first set of 2015 has gone Sugar Land's way.

The Skeeters got a tying solo home run from Denny Almonte in the fifth and the go-ahead solo shot by Beamer Weems in the sixth to win 2-1. Both were lead off shots against starter and losing pitcher P.J. Walters, who spent five years in the big leagues with three teams, with Weems taking the first pitch he saw from the right-hander and smacking it over the left field wall.

Lancaster had taken a 1-0 lead on Blake Gailan's third-inning RBI-single that hit first base umpire David Frame and halted the game briefly while Frame was attended to. Skeeters' starter Matt Wright, who also serves as an assistant pitching coach (independent league baseball!), allowed just that one run and he and five different relievers teamed up to hold Lancaster scoreless over the final six innings.

Beamer!

Weems, who added a double on Saturday, also became our first Webb Bobo all star from the independent ranks.

Independent League baseball: Major League Baseball Phrases

A nice night of phrases and complete nonsense (cn) for the broadcast team of Ira Liebman and Brett Dolan.

Liebman

"Smooth as silk"
"Big, fat pitch"
"Ran out of real estate"
"Behind the dish"
"Big, fat count"
"Hopefully the rain, rain goes away and won't come back for another few days" (cn)

Dolan

"Hitter's paradise"
"That's when they made a lot of hay" (cn)
"Old timey windup"
"Backdoor variety"
"Mother nature cooperating"
"The hat went flying, the hair went poof" (cn)

Game 98 - Clemson at Georgia Tech

April 25 at Russ Chandler Stadium in Atlanta, GA

Clemson was six outs from a win on Friday before Georgia Tech scored three times in the eighth to win 4-2. Saturday, the Tigers pulled even in the series, thanks to an unlikely power threat.

Eli White came into the day with just one home run, but the sophomore shortstop tripled that total against Cole Pitts, taking the slumping right-hander deep twice in Clemson's 11-3 victory. White added a triple and reached base five times out of the lead off spot, while No. 2 hitter Steven Duggar drove in four runs.

Nice day for the top two in the Tigers' lineup, who had combined to go 3-for-14 with two walks (both Duggar's) in the previous two games against Tech and Georgia.

Meanwhile, a difficult senior season continued for Pitts, who hasn't won in five decisions and saw his ERA balloon to 6.17 ERA in nine starts.

Clemson junior Zack Erwin struck out seven in seven strong innings to pick up his fourth win. Tech catcher A.J. Murray belted a long, one-out home run in the sixth - his team-high 10th - that was just the second ball to clear the batter's eye in dead center field at Russ Chandler (Florida State's D.J. Stewart hit the other last April 12) and drove in another run with a double in the first, but the southpaw had little trouble with the rest of the Yellow Jackets.

Erwin delivers a third-inning pitch


Nicknames that aren't really nicknames

Clemson

Tyler Slaton - "Slate"

Georgia Tech

Ryan Peurifoy - "Pure"
Kel Johnson - "Kel-Johns"

Game 97 - New York Mets at New York Yankees

April 24 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, NY
YES Network

I was going to make this more of a eulogy to Carlos Beltran's offensive skills; how they've passed on to a better place and how we should remember the good at bats. But too many good things are happening with the Yankees lately.

1. Mark Teixeira's ability to drive the ball appears to be fully back.

Teixeira was one of the team's top run producers from 2009-2012, but wrist injuries drained his power and really seemed to make his baseball life miserable. It's only April 24, but Teixeira has a .673 slugging percentage and 11 of his 12 hits have gone for extra bases, including his 6th and 7th home runs, both towering, two-run shots off Mets' starter Jacob deGrom in a 6-1 win.

Another thing that is back is my ability to type Teixeira without misspelling it three times and then checking Baseball Reference for the correct spelling and then still misspelling it. I need a Mark Teixeira poster on the wall so I can just refer to it whenever I need to.

2. Michael Pineda is quite good.

It's an odd thing to look at the Yankees' starting rotation and see three pitchers 26-years old or younger (Pineda, Masahiro Tanaka and Nathan Eovaldi) and they're actually good pitchers (my apologies to Jeff Johnson, Wade Taylor and Dave Eiland). Pineda may be the best of the bunch. He probably had his best start as a Yankee on Friday (7 2/3 IP, 1 ER), mixing in a filthy slider with his usual good fast ball and a change up that seems to get better each start.

3. The Jacoby Ellsbury/Brett Gardner tandem at the top of the order has the potential to be really, really good.

For this team, Ellsbury is the perfect lead off hitter and I think Gardner is the perfect No. 2 hitter. I really wouldn't want either of them in any other spot in the lineup.

If they continue their hot starts (Ellsbury has a .294 AVG and .395 OBP after a 2-for-5 night and Gardner's at .304/.396 after his two-hit night), there should be plenty of opportunities to drive in runs for Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Brian McCann as soon as I finish my time machine and travel back to 2010 and bring Brian McCann back with me to 2015.

Michael Kay: I don't like listening to you speak

It wouldn't be a Yankees broadcast on the YES Network without Kay making me long for the days of Phil Rizzuto talking about cannolis and the bridge and his wife, Cora. Those were simpler times; Kayless times.

Kay not only said "Subway Series" 11 times, but also:

"Just a tour de force for Ellsbury"
"The flags are flopping every which way"
"Injuries have really bedeviled him the last couple years"
"Buzzworthy"
"Shell-shocked"
"That says something about the stomach of this team"
"Major League debut on the Broadway stage"
"It gives it a little sexiness"
"That ball's ticketed for the right field corner"
"Wheeling and dealing"
"Pushed the envelope"
"Baptism by fire"

I can't begin to describe the euphoric feeling I get when Yankee games end and Michael Kay leaves me alone for the rest of the night.

Game 96 - Clemson at Georgia Tech

April 24 at Russ Chandler Stadium in Atlanta, GA

It's hard for me to recall the events of Friday's ACC series opener without thinking about Tyler Slaton's night. Now, things started off fine for the Clemson center fielder - his sacrifice moved runners up to second and third in the second inning and the Tigers would eventually score their first run, and he also singled to open the fifth.

Nothing really went right for Slaton after that.

Glenn Baston followed that fifth inning single with a double to deep center field and Georgia Tech executed a beautiful relay: Daniel Spingola (CF) to Connor Justus (SS) to catcher A.J. Murray and Slaton was gunned down at the plate. Clemson would go up 2-0 and still led 2-1 when Slaton was hit by a Jonathan King pitch to start the seventh. After a pair of outs in the air moved Slaton to second and ended King's night, reliever Matt Phillips served up a single to Eli White. Again Slaton came charging for the plate and this time Spingola took care of it himself, throwing a strike to the plate to nip Slaton and end the inning.

To cap a truly bizarre night for Slaton, he struck out swinging for the final out of a 4-2 Tech win.

* The Yellow Jackets picked up that win, thanks in large part to closer Zac Ryan, who came in with no one out and a man at first in the eighth and recorded six consecutive outs for the well-earned victory. They also won because of a three-run, eighth-inning rally that began with a throwing error by Batson at third base.

That ended Matthew Crownover's night, but the junior left-hander pitched well once again. He came into the night leading the ACC in ERA (1.21) and wins with seven, then he tossed seven innings and allowed two runs (one earned) while fanning nine. Taylor Vetzel relieved and allowed a single to Murray and later threw a wild pitch to send the runners to second and third with one out. First baseman Andrew Cox gambled on Thomas Smith's chopper in what looked like an attempt to get Matt Gonzalez streaking for home, but Cox never got close to catching the ball and Gonzalez and Murray scored the go-ahead runs. Later, Ryan Peurifoy blooped a single down the right-field line to make it a 4-2 game. A truly miserable inning/finish for Clemson, which was six outs away from a win with its ace on the mound and instead fell to 11-10 in league play.

Our first ejection!

A 300 Game Season first as Tech coach Danny Hall was ejected following a stolen base call that went Clemson's way in the fifth. Cox beat the throw to second and was rewarded with the steal, but Hall didn't agree. The Tech skipper also was violent in pointing at second base several times and eventually was thrown out by third base umpire John Haggerty.

Haggerty out on the outfield grass where it's safer

The 300 Game Season All Star Team

We added our second member on the team Friday in Atlanta.

(* all of the names and statistical and biographical information is a work of fiction and should be taken fictionally).

Tyler Clayton
#16 - Dwayne County Astros

Clayton, a nine-year old outfielder, is his team's leader in fouled bunts (8) and number of times forgetting his hat for both practices (3) and games (2).

* As an eight-year old in 2014, accidentally swallowed over four ounces of infield dirt after diving for various practice ground balls.