Good things come to those who wait . . .Red Sox 8, Rangers 3: Morning baseball agrees with Papi (2-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI) who, after a slow start, is a couple of decent games away from the Mendoza line. Lucky for him he doesn't play for the Blue Jays or else he'd be looking for a job right now.
Braves 7, Nationals 3: Wasn't it last year that the Nats were supposed to lose a hundred and this year that they were supposed to be frisky? Tim Hudson allowed 13 base runners in 6.2 innings, yet the Nats only scored two runs off of him. Matt Diaz is now at 66 ABs without a walk, but he did go 3-4 and score a couple of runs for Atlanta.
Cubs 7, Mets 1: John Maine is something of a tough luck loser, as all of the real damage came off of Aaron Heilman and Jorge Sosa in the 8th. Not that their numbers will take that big a hit for it, as only one of the five runs scored that inning were technically earned. This is silly, of course. The first batter of the inning reached on the sin-cleansing error by Reyes. After that, Heilman hit a guy and allowed two singles. Sosa then came on and promptly allowed a three-run homer to Felix Pie. I know what the scoring rules are, but how, exactly, were Heilman and Sosa not the ones truly responsible for the damage that inning? If Mark DeRosa and Geovany Soto didn't come up hacking against Heilman it could have been seven or eight runs.
Tigers 5, Blue Jays 1: Lord knows how bad it would be for Detroit if Dontrelle Willis hadn't gotten hurt, because Armando Galarraga (2-0, 1.50 ERA, 12 IP, 10K) is the only bright spot in the their rotation right now. The other starters' ERAs (including Willis): 7.03, 4.37, 7.48, 6.33, 7.20.
Marlins 10, Pirates 4: Not to go all 2007-Diamondbacks on you, but it's probably worth noting that the Marlins, despite sitting atop the NL East with a 12-7 record, have been outscored 99-92 this year. In contrast, the Braves, despite sitting at 10-9, have outscored their opponents 103-68. My guess? Florida is merely keeping first place warm for Atlanta for a little while.
Marlins 10, Pirates 4: Not to go all 2007-Diamondbacks on you, but it's probably worth noting that the Marlins, despite sitting atop the NL East with a 12-7 record, have been outscored 99-92 this year. In contrast, the Braves, despite sitting at 10-9, have outscored their opponents 103-68. My guess? Florida is merely keeping first place warm for Atlanta for a little while.
Dodgers 9, Reds 3: Someone forgot to tell Matt Belisle (4 IP, 12 H, 7 R) that he was called up to replace Josh Fogg, not to build on his legacy. Obviously disgusted, Baker let Fogg pitch anyway and, hey, he lowered his ERA from 13.09 to 12.46. Silver lining: as previously mentioned, the Votto walk-watch is now over. Only bad news for the Dodgers: Andruw Jones, dropped to 8th in the lineup, went 0-4. How long is it before Juan Pierre makes his triumphant return to center?
Cardinals 4, Brewers 3: Second game in a row in which the bullpen lets the Brewers down. I'm just spitballin' here, but if you had a fresh Eric Gagne, you wouldn't have to run Derrick Turnbow out there.
Astros 10, Padres 3: I didn't catch SportsCenter this morning, so someone will have to tell me whether they actually showed highlights of Miguel Tejada's monster game (4-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI) or if they decided to go with footage from the ambush interview again.
Phillies 9, Rockies 5: Chase Utley homered for the fifth straight game, and the Rockies bullpen (3 IP, 5 ER) implodes. By the way, the .500 Phillies' run differential (94-88) is better than the Marlins' as well.
Diamondbacks 4, Giants 2: Last year the Diamondbacks' largest lead in the standings was five games. It occurred on August 18th, and lasted all of a day. As of this morning they have a five game lead, and unless someone else in the NL West feels like getting their crap together, things are going to get nice and cozy in the catbird seat for Arizona.
2 comments:
What is happening to Andrew Jones? I've long thought this year+ slump was thanks to a bad attitude and an unwillingness to make adjustments. But the guy was a pretty good hitter for a long time. How could he be falling this far? Is he injured? Will he turn things around? Just, wow, I'm amazed.
Also, care to explain a "sin-cleansing error"?
The idea of a "sin-cleansing error" (which I just made up this morning) is an error, like Reyes' in the 8th inning, that, while having very little to do with the subsequent runs actually scoring, absolve the pitcher who gave them up of incurring earned runs. Just as Jesus took the hit for man's evil deeds, Reyes took the hit for Heilman and Sosa's.
I'll admit that's probably a bit much.
As for Jones, who knows? Having watched him so much, I know he radically changed his swing before the 2005 season -- loading up on the power stroke -- and it helped him a lot for two years. Last year, he looked like he was overdoing it, possiby to compensate for an injury he had, but possibly because he just wasn't as used to that swing as his old one, and everything just fell apart.
I don't know if he's hurt again this year, but he seems to be flailing like he did last year.
I'm not sure if he will turn it around or not. He's always been hot and cold.
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