And That Happened

Dodgers 7, Brewers 5: I presume that the two Andre Either home runs -- one of which was a walkoff -- will put an end to the courtesy Juan Pierre starts, but you never know with Torre. Either way, the Dodgers are in first place right now. Oh, and a note from my buddy Todd, who was at the game: "Heading to my seat, I was behind an usher that was delivering a Dodgers t-shirt to a guy already sitting. He looked to be about 26. Kind of an older frat boy looking dude with a girlfriend. As the shirt was presented to him, he pumped his arms in the air a little. I can only assume the shirt was a custom. It had "99" on the back, and above that, it proudly stated "MANRAM." Not sure what's worse: the victory arm pump or the fact that the guy is buying a shirt with 2005's joke on it.

Yankees 15, Royals 6: My guess is that Joe Posnanski won't be able to post a Banny Log following yesterday's start because he's in China and I'm pretty sure they block all Internet users there from accessing porn, filth, Bannister's line score, and anything else deemed obscene.

Blue Jays 15, Red Sox 4: Anyone trying to do a "Becket Blog" from China may have the same issue (2.1 IP, 8 R, 8 H).

Astros 3, Diamondbacks 0: There was a lot of chatter in the game story about whether this was Oswalt's best game all year or in two years or whenever, but if you go by game score, he hasn't had a start this good since April 16, 2004, when he shutout Milwaukee on three hits and struck out ten.

White Sox 13, A's 1: I'd say the five-spot in the seventh inning put this one out of reach, but this is the A's we're talking about, so that three spot in the second was every bit as much a game ender. Oakland, by the way, is thirteenth in the AL in OBP.

Mets 4, Pirates 0: "The left-hander was at 108 pitches through eight innings and had no thoughts about coming out of the game.'He was adamant about going back out there, which is always a good thing,' New York manager Jerry Manuel said." With the way the Mets bullpen has pitched lately, I think Santana would have been adamant about going back out there with anything short of a 10 run lead.

Twins 11, Mariners 8: This one got a little hairy for the Twins -- the Ms loaded the bases in both the eighth and ninth -- but Minnesota wriggled off the line.

Rockies 7, Nationals 2: Washington is only four losses worse than the Mariners, but their run differential is 53 runs worse than the the next worst team in baseball. They've lost ten in a row and are redefining the concept of stinky baseball.

Cubs 9, Marlins 2: Chicago is the anti-Nats. They're only the second best team in baseball record-wise, but they are up 50+ in run differential over their next closest rival. And that gap is likely to grow even more as the Cubs now go home to face the Reds, the Nats, and the Pirates in succession.

Giants 3, Braves 1: The knee, she is fine. Lincecum (7.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 10K) dominates the Braves after taking one off the knee last week. As for Atlanta, if before the season started you would have told Braves fans that Mark Kotsay would be hitting .300 as of August 17th, many of us would be inquiring about playoff tickets. I'm sure there are some who are now saying that they saw the Smoltz, Glavine, and Hudson breakdowns coming, but most Braves partisans were more worried about Kotsay's performance in CF than the durability of the rotation.

Orioles 16, Tigers 8: Game story: "The teams combined for 10 runs and 138 pitches in the first two innings, which took 74 minutes to play." I love baseball and everything, but the beauty of the game is that until you hit the playoffs, hardly any single game is worth all that much. I'll be honest: when I'm at a game, my mind often wanders and I'll miss pitches. When I'm at an unfamiliar stadium, I'll willingly miss out on some in-game action to wander around the place. When I go to a game that is less than riveting -- and more are like that than we baseball lovers would care to admit -- I often leave early. I guess what I'm saying here is that I wouldn't blame anyone who left this game after the 2nd inning to go gamble in Greektown or ride the Comerica ferris wheel or whatever, because no one needs this kind of ugliness in their lives.

Reds 7, Cardinals 3: The lone bright spot for the Reds this year -- Edinson Volquez -- gives up nada over seven to win his 15th game of the year and lower his ERA to 2.73.

Indians 4, Angels 3: Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez, and Josh Barfield all start rehab stints in AAA this week. Assuming the DL time helped them all get better, one has to wonder whether Buffalo won't be a better team than Cleveland until those guys are activated.

Rays 7, Rangers 4: B.J. Upton (3-5, 2B, HR, 3 RBI) comes back strong from his second benching in ten days for hustle deficit disorder.

Phillies 2, Padres 1: Nice Morgan moment in the 2nd: Jon Miller sends out birthday wishes to a nonagenarian he knows back in Baltimore. Miller notes that the guy watches all of the Sunday night baseball games but that, due to age, he doesn't watch them until the end. Morgan says something like "hopefully he can watch west coast games like this one all the way though." Miller very obviously starts to make the point that this game -- like every other Sunday night game -- starts at 8pm back in Baltimore, so the game could be coming from the Aleutian Islands and it wouldn't make a difference to his friend back home. He stops himself, though, realizing that even if he could make Morgan understand the concept in a relatively quick manner, getting Morgan to acknowledge his mistake on the air would be an impossibility, so he dropped the subject. This, my friends, is why Jon Miller is one of the best in the business. He knows his limits. Better still, he knows Morgan's.