And That Happened

I'm back from West Virginia. It was a nice trip. With no Internet to occupy my time I found myself doing strange things like reading books and getting a good night's sleep and stuff. Unsettling.

Baseball consumption, obviously, was at a minimum. I only watched one game -- Sunday night's White Sox-Angles tilt -- and relied on the Beckley Register-Herald for supplemental coverage. On Sunday morning, for example, after flipping past no less than three columns dedicated to hunting, I was able to find last Wednesday's late box scores. I love Beckley, but how I came out of that town with my baseball fandom intact is a mystery to me.

Brewers 5, Nationals 2: I know this is Saturday's box score, but I feel I have a greater connection to this game because the Register-Herald had a full-page story on Brewers' starter Seth McClung that day. Why? Because about nine years ago McClung graduated from a high school about 60 miles away from Beckley, and that's the sort of attenuated fame that passes for news back where I'm from. On the Beckley fame scale, it pretty much goes (1) Morgan Spurlock; (2) Chris Sarandon; (3) that astronaut who flew the Challenger on its last successful mission; and then a bunch of guys like McClung.

Marlins 7, Mets 3: The dreaded vote of confidence accompanies the latest in a string of crappy Mike Pelfrey outings and here the Mets sit 6.5 games out, having lost seven of their last ten. I tend to over think this kind of stuff, but let me throw this out there: the meeting yesterday was to provide the appearance of "getting past" Willie's stupid racial comments, and rather than provide him with any real security or confidence, the real result of the meeting is to hasten his departure by allowing the team to cite terrible performance and terrible performance alone as the reason for the axing.

Orioles 6, Yankees 1: Forget the eighth, who's gonna pitch the seventh?

Blue Jays 7, Royals 2: Eight straight losses, and in those losses the Royals have scored 16 runs. Eight of which came in a single game.

Rays 7, Rangers 3: Scott Kazmir is a fair pitcher (7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 10K, 0 BB). The Rays have the best record in baseball, by the way.

Phillies 20, Rockies 5: You know, giving up 20 runs is pretty humiliating, but I'm not sure it's any more humiliating than having Jamie Moyer ring you up seven times.

Cubs 3, Dodgers 1: Ryan Dempster has been pretty fantastic since being turned back into a starter. Kind of makes you wonder why more teams don't try to turn relievers into starters more often.

Braves 7, Diamondbacks 3: Atlanta finishes their 11-game homestand 8-3. Overall, they're 22-7 at home, and 6-16 on the road. They've got a series at Milwaukee and another at Cincinnati before coming home to face the Marlins and Phillies. If they're going to make a run at the fish and separate from Philly, now's the time to show they can do it, entering those series even or ahead, not limping their way through the next couple only to even up against division foes.

White Sox 6, Indians 3: I watched about six innings of this one and, man, I can't recall seeing a lineup for a would-be contender look this bad in a long time.

Angels 1, Tigers 0: The Angels were beat in a walkoff blast on Sunday night, so they turn around and do the same on Monday. Well, a bases-loaded walk isn't exactly a "blast," but you get the idea. It's always something with the Tigers. One day they can't get anyone out, the next day they are shutout on five hits over 12 innings.

Red Sox 5, Mariners 3: Remember last fall when Dave Cameron over at U.S.S. Mariner called Bartolo Colon the "Hidden Gem of Free Agent Pitchers?" Like a lot of other things, he may have been right about that too. I'd say it's a 100% probability that people in the Red Sox front office read U.S.S. Mariner, and I'm guessing Cameron knows that. You have to figure, then, that given Colon's performance last night came against Seattle (7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER), Cameron was watching the game with mixed feelings, wondering if he gave anyone any ideas.