Wednesday, May 7, 2008

And That Happened

Whether I'll get very far down the box scores this morning is an open question. I went to see Steve Earle and Allison Moorer in concert last night, and let's just say that there were pre and postgame libations involved. Great show, though, even if he is a Yankees fan.

White Sox 7, Twins 1: Gavin Floyd takes a no-no into the ninth. This after giving up three runs and taking the loss against these same Twins in his last start. Baseball, she is a funny game.

Red Sox 5, Tigers 0: Floyd wasn't the only one throwing bullets last night, as Wakefield blanked the Tigers for eight innings. OK, maybe it's not entirely accurate to call Wakefield's pitches "bullets." Don't look now, but the Red Sox now have the largest margin of any team in baseball at three and a half games.

Marlins 3, Brewers 0: Floyd and Wakefield weren't the only ones throwing bullets last night, as Scott Olsen blanked the Brewers for eight and two thirds. I've never seen Olsen pitch. Are they "bullets?" Probably doesn't matter against the Brewers, whose starting eight have the following batting averages: .192-.233-.267-.257-.303-.217-.226-.284.

Indians 5, Yankees 3: Joba came into the game in the eighth to do that thing he does. Instead, he came in and did that thing that, I dunno, Aaron Heilman does, coughing up the lead on a couple of walks and a home run.

Rangers 10, Mariners 1: What's got into Sidney Ponson lately? He's now 2-0 with a 1.33 ERA after going seven strong last night.

Braves 5, Padres 3: Where would the Braves be without Jair Jurrjens? He went six innings, striking out eight and giving up a single run. Chipper remains white-hot (.426/.481/.739), but it was Mark Kotsay of all people providing the spark last night (2-4, HR, 2RBI and a pretty damn good catch in center that Mac says saved at least one run).

Pirates 12, Giants 6: I think I read something like three different Nate McLouth features yesterday. He obviously let the press go to his head (3-5, 2 HR, 3RBI). On the season he's .333/.417/.652, and giving people in Pittsburgh a reason to go out to the ballpark.

Dodgers 5, Mets 4: The other day, Willie Randolph said that his team felt better on the road right now because of all of the heat the fans in Shea are giving his boys. Well, they're now 2-3 on this trip. If they drop today's game to the Dodgers, expect Friday night in New York to be quite the love-in.

2 comments:

Eric Toms said...

Steve Earle is an honorary Canadian, he is ( in relative terms ) popular up here.

I've seen him many times, most recently on the Revolution Starts Now tour ( with his wife Allison opening ). He is one of my faves and has been for decades. I don't like to admit this but I'm even ok with the protest music ( which typically I can't stand ). Just took the Washington Square CD ( yes I'm old, a CD ) out of my truck.

I think his acting in The Wire was pretty lame though.

Unknown said...

Hmmm...Wakefield definitely doesn't toss 'bullets'. 'Musket Balls', perhaps, since they have no spin and follow a trajectory of their own choosing...

As for Joba, well, I'm glad we got this out of the way...his appearance of infallibility was only going to create issues for him eventually (actually, he looked off last night, Michael Kay kept pointing out that he was throwing mostly dueces...something was up, but they left him in for some reason). As Joba said a few weeks back, "I'm not perfect." When the people in this game who manage to succeed only 30% of the time (hitters) or fail 30% of the time (pitchers) are considered the top performers, well, that tells you something about the level of difficulty. Now that he has his first earned runs in Yankee Stadium out of the way, Joba can get back to throwing gas...