And That Happened

Yesterday, July 1st, was my 13th wedding anniversary. Without going into too much detail, allow me to say that I had better things to do than watch the evening box scores roll in, so today's recaps may be a bit more abbreviated than normal.

Orioles 7, Royals 5: On July 1, 1995, as I was saying "I do" to Mrs. Shyster, Tom Gordon was getting rocked by a White Sox lineup featuring Ozzie Guillen, Tim Raines, and, John Kruk. Gary Gaetti and Vince Coleman figured prominently for the Royals. The lessons here: (1) I really couldn't think of anything interesting to say about the Roylas-Orioles game; and (2) I've been married a long time.

Rays 3, Red Sox 1: The Sox only draw two walks for the second night in a row. Meanwhile, the Rays' confidence grows stronger and stronger. The more I see of these guys, the more they resemble the 1991 Braves to me. As a fellow traveler to many a sabermetrician I'm supposed to be smarter than this, but I'm just going to say it: good defense, good pitching, and no fear goes a long damn way in this league, and that describes the Rays pretty well right now.

Phillies 8, Braves 3: Morton. Carlyle. Acosta. Ohman. Boyer. Ring. Those are the names which strike fear in lineups that dare oppose the Atlanta Braves.

Nationals 9, Marlins 6: For as much as we all kinda wish he'd disappear, Elijah Dukes is turning into a pretty darn useful player. June line: .291/.395/.481. Last night 3-5, 3 RBI, 3 R.

Rangers 3, Yankees 2: The Yankees have been utterly vexed by the Rangers' mighty pitching staff. Joba, on the other hand, needs to find a way to throw strikes, because this 90+ pitches in four innings business just isn't going to cut it. No one reasonably expects him to be an ace yet, but he should at least be expected not to be a drain on the bullpen and everyone's patience.

Twins 6, Tigers 4: Nate Robertson seems not to have gotten the "Tigers no longer stink" memo, as he's still pitching like it was April (4 IP, 11 H, 6 ER).

Rockies 4, Padres 0: Aaron Cook throws a 78-pitch shutout which lasts 1:58. The Padres, it seems, aren't even trying anymore.

White Sox 3, Indians 2: Yet another excellent Cliff Lee performance (8 IP, 6 H, 1 ER) is wasted by the Tribe, as Joe Borowski does his thing (i.e. coughs up a lead in a critical situation) in the bottom of the tenth to hand the game over to Chicago.

Mets 7, Cardinals 4: Wright and Delgado power a 14 hit attack as the Mets bounce back to beat the Cardinals.

Pirates 6, Reds 5: A wild one in the Queen City, as the teams score five of the games' 11 runs in extra innings. Matt Capps blows yet another save -- he's been doing that a lot lately -- but vultures a win as David Weathers gives up two in the top of the 11th.

Angels 5, A's 3: Seems that Garret Anderson (2-4, decisive HR) was only mostly dead.

Brewers 8, Diamondbacks 6: Seeing Randy Johnson get smacked around like this (3.2 IP, 8 H, 7 ER) is like watching Ali vs. Holmes.

Giants 2, Cubs 1: Matt Cain had been struggling, but he figured something out last night, blanking the Cubbies over 8 innings (8 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 10K).

Dodgers 7, Astros 6: The Dodgers scored almost as many runs last night as they have in the past week.

Mariners 7, Blue Jays 6: The Mariners treated the Blue Jays pretty poorly considering it was Canada Day and all.