And That Happened

Reds 3, Dbacks 2: Cueto: 7IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 10 K, 0 BB. That home run he gave up to Upton was probably a blessing in disguise because if he had the shutout going, Dusty Old School probably keeps him in the game. As it was, he was pulled after 92 pitches while he still stood to be the winner.

Royals 4, Tigers 1: The zeros sweep the heroes 3-0. Last time the Royals started this hot they actually had a halfway decent season. Can they keep it up? I dunno, but this series has to give them hope. And remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

Pirates 4, Braves 3: You may be shocked to learn that Mike Hampton injured himself warming up before the game. For the first time ever, Bobby Cox's insistence on a thirteen man pitching staff pays off for him, as he trots out eight relievers to cover for the Brooksville Boondoggle (note: that's my new nickname for Hampton; I wish I would have thought of it a year or two ago so that it would have had time to stick).

Cubs 6, Brewers 3: I don't usually care for the AP game stories (it's one of the reasons I'm doing this feature) but I do like that they noticed that Dempster the former closer got the win and Wood the former starter got the save. Wood, by the way, lowers his ERA to 13.50. I don't offer that as a joke, though, I offer it as a reminder. A few years ago, during the Smoltz-as-closer era, Smoltz had one horrific outing, in which he gave up a boatload of runs. Because he only pitched one inning at a time, it took him forever to get that ERA down, even though he was dominant for the rest of the year. So what I'm saying is, as we watch Kerry Wood take on the closer's role this year, pay a little less attention to ERA than normal. Which we should be doing with closers anyway, but still.