Phillies 8, Braves 7: Phillies in Phirst! According to the box score, Ryan Howard hit a triple in the seventh inning. I'll track down the video later, but for now I can only assume that (1) the center and left fielders for Atlanta collided on the play and were both redered unconscious; and (2) the right fielder was attacked by a crocodile as he came over to retrieve the ball. And by the way, my James Parrdon has subsided, as the Braves' junkballing rookie gave up four runs on ten hits in four and a third. Nats 1, Mets 0: At this point I am sort of hoping that Philly pulls away and that New York has to battle it out with Milwaukee for the wild card in a one-game playoff. Scientists would have to invent new equipment in order to calculate the levels of stress and anxiety such a game would would inspire among its participants.
Cubs 5, Brewers 4: Ned Yost watches this one on TV and chuckles. Another loss -- and the first NL loss for Sabathia -- but at least there was some fight in Milwaukee in this one. They rallied late, and had a chance to tie it in the ninth with runners on the corners. Prince Fielder struck out, however, and thus unsuccessfully endeth the first turn of the key on JumpStart 2008.
Marlins 5, Astros 1: Cecil Cooper has complained loudly about having to play putative home games in a stadium that so raucously favored his opponents. To make it up to him, Major League Baseball hastily scheduled this series in Florida, where the Marlins are certain to gain no advantage from any crowds at all.
Dodgers 6, Pirates 2: Chipper Jones -- who was all the rage the first half of the season -- went 73 games into the season before dropping below .400 for good. Manny Ramirez is now over 40 games into his NL career and he continues to hover over .400 himself. After this win, the Dodgers' playoff chances have increased to 99.7%.
Orioles 2, Blue Jays 0: Chris Waters, who has spent almost all nine of his seasons in professional baseball toiling in the minors, tosses a four-hit shutout. I make fun of games like these at this part of the season an awful lot, but if I'm honest, I truly love to see stuff like this. You know how these late callups go. Waters may never get another chance to pitch in meaningful big league game after the season ends. How great is it that he can now click a link on Retrosheet for the rest of his life and find a game like this one?
Reds 7, Cardinals 2: In a year in which they exceeded expectations for long, it's rather sad to see St. Louis skidding towards the finish line like this.
Rays 2, Red Sox 1: Anyone expect to see any of the doom and gloom stories about the Red Sox today like we saw about the Rays yesterday? Nah, me neither.
White Sox 6, Yankees 2: Being generous, Andy Pettitte has had, what, three decent starts since the All-Star break? Should we assume that he's retiring at the end of this season?
Rangers 5, Tigers 4: Yesterday I mentioned that the Tigers could have used Dan Petry in lieu of Dontrelle Willis. Today, following a simply stunning ninth inning collapse, I'm struck by the notion that Aurelio Lopez would have been preferable to Fernando Rodney.
Mariners 6, Royals 3: Attendance was listed as over 19,000. The fact that these two teams can draw that many people at this point in the season when Tampa Bay cannot absent a huge influx of Sox fans tells you a lot about the relative maturity and viability of the Tampa Bay market.
Rockies 10, Padres 3: Remember how exciting game 163 was between these two teams last year? Nah, me neither.
Diamondbacks 2, Giants 0: Danny Haren pitches a four-hit shutout and strikes out 12. He'll take it of course, but if he could have found a way to spread that goodness out over his past couple of starts, Arizona wouldn't be in this mess.
Indians 12, Twins 9: Francisco Liriano picked the wrong day to revert to April form (2.2 IP, 6 H, 8 R), and the Twins certainly weren't happy to see Victor Martinez revert to 2007 form (3-5, 3 RBI, walkoff homer). Two and a half back with eleven to play.
A's 8, Angels 1: You'd think that if the A's knew they had a whuppin' stick layin' around they would have broken it out a long time ago.
8 comments:
As a former Michigander, I'm sure you know that Aurelio López died a few years ago ... Wait, I see what you mean, a dead man probably could have earned a save. What status does that give to F-Rod? López was killed in an auto accident a day after his 44th birthday in Matehuala, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Did you know he was seventh in Cy Young voting in '79?
Royals score is backwards again. Are you trying to intentionally hurt us Royals fans?
Keep up the good work.
I actually did that with the Royals score on purpose to see if, like everyone said yesterday, they'd really notice.
The fact that you did actually makes me pretty happy for the sake of the Royals.
Hey, I'll have you know that we are perfectly capable of insulting our own team with references to some 'expansion' team.
Hey Craig,
As a Sox fan who went to TB for three games last year, I can tell you that there's a big loyal fanbase there. What's more, studies have shown that franchises don't see an attendance boost from a winning season until the following year.
Florida is not a bad market. It's just had two teams that have been mismanaged for so many years. Wait until next year, you'll see a big attendance and revenue boost for TB.
Sucks to be a Toronto fan. They could have the third best team in the AL the next few years and still not sniff a playoff spot in the AL Beast. Even the Os have an excellent farm system now.
I didn't see the Howard triple either but your scenario sounds legit. The real question is what would it take for a Ramon Castro triple? I think to even imagine that, the Mets would have to move back to the Polo Grounds.
APBA Guy-
Re the A's 8-1 over LA, the phrase "phoning it in" doesn't begin to describe the degree of apathy LA brought to this game. Scoscia pulled Lackey after 5 mediocre innings in which he developed not a drop of sweat, then followed him up with call-up pitchers in sequence. The A's kids got to fatten up on AAA pitching for half the game, hence the inflated hit total.
I did see Ryan Howard's triple on BBTN last night. No alligators, but the big man can do some serious rumbling after he gets up a head of steam. Of course, that takes 180 feet to do, but hey...
It's funny, the A's do have a whuppin' stick, but they only break it out for the Angels, and then only some of the time. The Angels are leading the season series 9 - 8, but have been outscored by like 20 runs because the A's have blown them out like 5 times by 7 or more runs.
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