Pirates 5, Reds 2: The Pirates faced the Reds in the NLCS in 1970, 1972, 1975, 1979, and 1990. That may as well be a million years ago. Right now, though, you can bet that Pittsburgh is taking special joy in making sure that someone besides them are going to finish in last place.Cubs 10, Braves 2: You don't need me to tell you that the Braves have had a frustrating year, but this strikes me as Bobby Cox just getting tired of watching this awful team: "Braves manager Bobby Cox was ejected by third base umpire Joe West in the top of the fifth. Cox never left the dugout but complained when West halted play for the lights to be turned on after Braves reliever Vladimir Nunez warmed up."
Cubs 8, Braves 0: Chipper Jones was scratched from game 2 of the double header with a stomach virus. They make me sick too, Chipper. They make me sick too.
Twins 4, Yankees 2: I was reading various Yankees blogs which were following this one in more or less real time, and I can't get over how similar the entries were. Everyone is saying that it looked the Yankees were mailing it in, seemingly eager to get on the plane and end this godforsaken road trip they've been on. People talk a lot about teams that need to learn how to win. Maybe the Yankees need to learn how to lose.
Red Sox 8, Rangers 4: After Tuesday night's near-debacle, you have to figure that no one felt comfortable when it was 8-0 entering the 8th. When Texas put up four runs that evening people had to feel positively queasy.
Orioles 6, Indians 1: Jeremy Guthrie used to be an Indian. In fact, he was their first round pick in 2002. Never made much of an impression for the Tribe, however, and was waived after the 2006 season. Given a chance to pitch in Baltimore, he put up a 125 ERA+ last year, and is even pitching better this year. Especially recently, He's 7-1 in his last ten starts, and has now won four in a row, and in those four games he has only allowed four runs on 16 hits in 29.1 innings pitched. In a year where Cliff Lee is the only guy from the opening day rotation who is either present or has been worth a damn, Guthrie sure would have been nice to have around, no?
Mets 12, Nats 0:
Manny Acta: What's our record since the break, Randy?White Sox 4, Royals 0: No Royal walked in this game. In fact, the Royals have only walked 294 times this entire year. That's more than thirty fewer walks than the next worst team in the category. At that pace, they'll finish with 397 walks this season. There have been teams with worse walk totals in recent seasons -- last year's Mariners team, for example -- but not many.
Randy St. Claire: 8 and 17
Manny: 8 and 17. How'd we ever win 8?
Randy: It's a miracle.
Manny: It's a miracle.
Cardinals 6, Marlins 4: The last two NL teams to win the World Series battle for their playoff lives. Troy Glaus goes 4-4 and drives in some insurance late to seal the deal for St. Louis, who is 10-8 since that throttling by the Brewers back in late July and 14-13 since the break.
Blue Jays 4, Tigers 3: A Vernon Wells grand slam in the third holds up.
Astros 6, Giants 2: Barry Zito chalks up loss number 15. He may have eight or nine starts left. Which means that back spasms, dead arm or something else vaguely debilitating is going to land him on the DL unless he can string together a couple wins soon, because there's no way Sabean lets his nine-figure pitcher lose 20, is there?
Dodgers 7, Phillies 6: Nomar wins the game with a dinger in the bottom of the ninth. From the game story: "Garciaparra's teammates hoisted him off the ground in celebration after he crossed home plate." He was then immediately placed on the 15 day disabled list, suffering from altitude sickness.
Rockies 6, Diamondbacks 5: Two outs in the ninth, bases loaded, Dbacks down by a run, and Adam Dunn at the plate, but Dunner grounds out to end the game. Reds fans nod in solemn recognition.
Brewers 7, Padres 1: CC Sabathia's ridiculousness continues (7 IP, 9 H, 1 ER, 8K). The Brewers have indicated that they aren't going to be in the Sabathia derby this offseason, but even if they hadn't said it with words, they have said it with pitch counts: 97, 122, 110, 106, 124, 109, 103, 114. Egregious? Certainly not. But if you really cared about his stamina, wouldn't you maybe take him out an inning or two early when leading a punchless team like San Diego by several runs?
Rays 3, A's 2: Eric Hinske goes 3-3 with an RBI, but the fact that Carlos Pena seems to be heating up a bit -- he hit his third homer in seven games -- may be more important to the Rays in light of all of their injuries.
Mariners 10, Angels 7: Some of criticized K-Rod this year by saying that his record-pace of saves has been padded by a lot of easy, three-run lead in the ninth opportunities. Hey, those aren't always gimmies, as Rodriguez blows this three run lead in the ninth against the worst team in baseball. Then, when the inning is over, he blows up at the home plate umpire Gerry Davis over balls and strikes and gets ejected. Just a bad day, I suppose. He should be careful, though. I just read a book about a guy who had one bad day, and the results were not pretty.
10 comments:
Hey, Craig, just wanted to make a quick note. Today and tomorrow, the Red Sox are teaming with WEEI (local sports radio station) and NESN for the 7th annual Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon. Funds collected are given to the Jimmy Fund which benefits the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The Red Sox have been connected to this charity since the days of the Splendid Splinter, and last year alone the radio-telethon raised over $3 million. Dana-Farber is a world renowned cancer treatment institute, and its dealings with kids afflicted with cancer takes the main focus of the event. Truly, Dana-Farber does God's work. I had a friend who until his end endlessly praised the work of Dana-Farber. Another friend of mine beat cancer, thanks in large part to Dana-Farber. Whatever one's feelings about the Red Sox as a baseball team, this charity is well worth any donation. In years past (and I assume this year as well), none other than George Steinbrenner would contribute large donations to the Jimmy Fund via this radio-telethon. If you have the time, check out weei.com or nesn.com and make a pledge. Kids with cancer is just about the worst thing in the world...we can help the cause. Thank you.
The Cox ejection was weird.
There was some dispute about when the lights were turned on and whether each team would get the same number of "lit" innings.
Yeah. I think it's safe to say Cox is frustruated.
total choke job by Chris Young cost AZ at least a tie and probably a win. 2B/3B, 1 out and he can't put the ball in play. Nearly any ball in play scores 1 run and ties it up. Pathetic
CC's second half ridiculousness reminds me of Randy Johnson's 1998 second half ridiculousness with Houston. ...And we know how Johnson then performed for the next four years. I'm just saying...
I agree with Dre. The part that had Diamondbacks fans "nodding in solemn recognition," was the Chris Young strikeout two batters before Dunn. The kid's defense is outstanding, but I cringe whenever he comes up to the plate, especially when the manager insists on batting him (and his .298 career OBP) second in the order.
APBA Guy-
I saw the look on Francona's face when he sent Lester out for the 8th. The kid had a shutout going, but the Sawx bullpen had been abused by TX the night before. So out goes Lester. He gets 1 out and is charged with 3 runs when he's relieved by Embree, who promptly allows an HR to the first batter he faces. Still, Sawx get the W and only Lester fantasy owners are enraged. Francona does a masterful job managing 2 wins in two games when the team surrenders 20 runs.
On the other end of the offensive spectrum, Carlos Pena's HR was a monster, landing at the base of the left center luxury boxes at the Mausoleum. Having been dismissed by Billy Beane as "uncoachable" (and he seemed to be at the time) he takes great pleasure in showing up The Great and Fabulous Beane whenever he can.
Still, without Crawford and Longoria, the Rays are nobody's idea of an offensive juggernaut. yet the AAA's have scored only 2 runs in each game against the Rays, so their pitching and defense may carry them until late Sept when their two stars return.
K-Rod had a small reason to be upset - Davis's strike zone was very inconsistent and he missed at least one pitch to Miguel Cairo, which cost him a walk and a resulting run. But Davis had been inconsistent all night for both the Angels and the M's.
I'm worried that Rodriquez is tiring. His velocity was 89 - 91 last night, which is low even for this year (he's been sitting at 91 - 93). He couldn't locate his slider. I'm going to post something about this on my blog in a bit, but I wonder how much the Angels should rest these guys in the next month and a half.
Scocia needs to take a page out of Francona's textbook. Tito managed his team beautifully down the stretch, giving regulars time off so they would be rested in October. In the meantime, Gagne was getting lit up and Sox fans were ready to jump off the Tobin, a common occurrence this time of year.
Embree was relieving for the Sox? Have you been fooling around with the flux capacitor again?
APBA Guy-
Tad-substitute Timlin for Embree and you've got it. Thanks for the catch.
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