And That Happened

Pirates 3, Giants 1: Despite all of the gum-flapping, Zito went out there and pitched a perfectly respectable five innings (5 H, 2 ER, 5K). Unfortunately for him, his teammates couldn't get anything going against the Pirates. Reported attendance: 9,788, though that's probably more a function of rain in the area than the low-wattage matchup.

Reds 9, Cubs 0: I had read enough about Joey Votto's exploits by mid afternoon yesterday, so we won't dwell on it here (note: the box score indicates a 21 MPH wind, so let's not get too enthusiastic about all the homers). How about this: Edinson Volquez: 7 IP, 4 H 0 ER 10K. Yeah, he walked six guys, but he was pretty great otherwise. Here's a question: how does a game with 21 hits, 11 walks, and six pitching changes come in at under three hours? This one did somehow.

Indians 3, Yankees 0: The Cliff Lee sample size continues to grow, yet he continues to dazzle (7 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 7K, 0BB). He's now 6-0 with a 0.81 ERA and has only walked two dudes in six starts. Not bad for a "fairly sucky pitcher."

Mets 12, Dodgers 1: Talk about spreading it around: half of the Mets' RBIs came from the combined efforts of the likes of Angel Pagan, Marlon Anderson, Raul Cassanova, and John Maine. Maine pitched a little bit too (8.1 IP, 4 H, 1 ER). As for the Dodgers, you know you had a bad day when Chan Ho Park turns in your team's best pitching line (3 IP, 0 ER, 3K).

Braves 5, Padres 2: And just like that the Braves have won five straight (home series against the Reds and Padres can do that for a team), and now find themselves in a four team logjam around the top of the NL East. Worth noting: despite all the injuries and gray hair, the Braves have the best offense and, surprisingly, the best staff in the division thus far, which leads to them also having the best Pythagorean record as well. If they can get anything from John Smoltz going forward, they could be sitting pretty.

A's 6, Orioles 5: APBA Guy is no doubt smiling at the extra-inning heroics from Mark Ellis.

Marlins 6, Brewers 2: Milwaukee starts May 1-5. Ryan Braun (.762 OPS) and Prince Fielder (.769) ain't gettin' the job done, but there is plenty of blame to spread around.

Blue Jays 6, Rays 2: Shaun Marcum pitched a shutout for 109 pitches. Unfortunately for him, he threw one more, giving up an RBI double that put the kibosh on his shutout. He still won, though, so it's all good. The Rays bullpen gave up five of those six runs, which is the sort of thing a lot of people were predicting about them before the season began.

Royals 9, Angels 4: Another solid outing for Zack Greinke (7 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 8K). I'm sure Rany Jazayerli or someone has gone over this before, but I wonder how much of the action in that arm of Greinke's is attributable to that sabbatical he took in 2006 and the time he spent coming back in the bullpen in 2007? Instead of the close to 400 innings he would have pitched in his age 22 and 23 seasons had he been healthy, he instead pitched 128.1.

Twins 13, White Sox 1: Carlo Gomez hits for the cycle. Good for him, but I've always thought that if I were in his position I'd trade the requisite single for another homer.

Rangers 2, Mariners 0: Vicente Padilla makes the Mariners look foolish (7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 8K). After only scoring one of Ponson the night before, Seattle really needs to break out today, because it's really not cool to be stymied by Ranger pitching.

Rockies 4, Cardinals 3: Tony La Russa normally gets criticized for making multiple pitching changes in an inning, but he probably should have made even more than he did in the Rockies' 8th as three relievers -- Kyle McClellan, Randy Flores, and Jason Isringhausen -- combined to cough up four runs and the game to Colorado, wasting seven innings of shutout ball by Adam Wainwright.

Tigers 10, Red Sox 9: On Tuesday night, Joba Chamberlin proved fallible. Last night it was Papelbon, who gave up two runs in the ninth to blow the save. He had help, though, in the form of a Julio Lugo error and a bunch of not-all-that-hard-hit balls just goin' to the wrong place. This one took almost four hours, by the way.