And That Happened

Red Sox 13, Rays 5: Scott Kazmir is throttled for nine runs in three innings, and just like that, we're tied. Virtually, anyway. Now we see if the Rays have the same kind of bounceback in Tropicana Field as they did in Fenway last week.

Cubs 6, Astros 1: Houston can complain about the venue all they want, but at some point they have to hit the damn ball and play a close game before claiming that the knucklehead scheduling truly cost them anything.

Nationals 7, Mets 2: It's not a collapse when you don't have as far to fall, but sitting only .5 up on the Phillies right now can't be too comfortable.

Yankees 4, White Sox 2: Mariano Rivera passes Lee Smith and moves into second place on the all-time saves list. That and some emotion-filled full houses in this last week in Yankee Stadium history are about all the Bombers have to play for.

Indians 3, Twins 1: Minnesota can't make up any ground on Chicago, as Cleveland rookie Scott Lewis extends his career-commencing scoreless innings streak to 14.

Dodgers 8, Pirates 2: L.A. is taking all of the drama out of this race. At least Brad Penny is still around getting beat up in garbage time to give us something to talk about (1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER). Oh, and Juan Pierre hit a home run for the first time since September 18, 2006. That was within a couple of days of the time my son took his first steps. He's in preschool now, and I have a hard time catching up with him.

Padres 11, Rockies 5: There ain't much to cheer about in San Diego, but at least there's Adrian Gonzalez (3-4, HR, 4 RBI; .279/.362/.506).

Rangers 11, Tigers 8: I was chatting with the Daily Fungo's Mike McClary yesterday, who told me that Dontrelle Willis was going to start. He openly wondered whether it was because Dan Petry wasn't available. Open question as to whether Peaches wouldn't have done better than D-Train (5 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 4K). Of course, when these two teams get together, there's about a 72% chance that the score is going to be 11-8 in one direction or the other anyway.

Royals 3, Mariners 0: When I first typed this I accidentally inverted this score to show the Ms winning it. Quick show of hands: how many of you would have noticed if I had kept it that way? But let's not be totally dismissive here. Kyle Davies was impressive (8 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 8K) and Soria got his 38th save for a team with only 66 wins. It would be even more impressive if Seattle had put together even a AAA-quality lineup for this game.

Diamondbacks 3, Giants 1: If Bochy really wants to get Lincecum the Cy Young this year he would have sent him out last night on one day's rest. No way Brandon Webb can do that.