And That Happened

Mets 1, Phillies 0: My God, how the Mets go out of their way not to help their best player win games. Two hits to back him up, and I’m guessing that Carlos Delgado had to be begged to come in from third on that throwing error. Two of Santana’s four wins this season are of the 1-0 variety. Chan Ho Park (6 IP, 1 H 0 ER) deserved a better fate, but he is way back of Santana in the cosmic justice line.

Royals 9, Mariners 1: If you’re the Mariners, you gotta look in the mirror after this one and ask yourself what you’re made of. The Royals threw their two worst pitchers at them in Ponson and Ramirez, and they were still shut down. They should be glad that Trey Hillman didn’t throw Kyle Farnsworth out there for further humiliation. Oh wait . . .

Cubs 6, Astros 3: The Cubs scored two runs on Ivan Rodriguez passed balls. This never would have happened if Ivan Rodriguez was still alive.

Rockies 11, Giants 1: Bad night for 90s legends, I guess, as the Big Unit is lit up to the tune of seven runs on eight hits in just under six innings, stalling him at 297.

Indians 9, Red Sox 2: Victor Martinez has been a beat so far this year (.398/.466/.655, current 15 game hitting streak), and last night was no different (3-5, 2B, HR 4 RBI).

Braves 8, Marlins 6: I’m not sure what the question is, but Graham Taylor ain’t the answer. He was torched for eight runs — only four earned, but still — in less than three innings, and that, as they say, was that. And it’s not like the Marlins didn’t have their chances. Derek Lowe was lit up himself, and the Braves only managed one extra-base hit, and even that didn’t plate a run. Jorge Cantu was involved in all six of the Marlins’ runs, driving in five and scoring the sixth.

Cardinals 4, Pirates 2: Pittsburgh has dropped eight of eleven since sweeping the then-hot Marlins April 20-22. At present, that looks like it could be their high water mark for 2009. Pujols went 4-4 with a homer. Just another day at the office.

Brewers 15, Reds 3: No shutout = no win these days for Cincinnati, and this was certainly not one of those. Ryan Braun had a grand slam and two other RBIs. Bronson Arroyo road ERA: 1.69. Bronson Arroyo home ERA: 16.34. Mercifully, his next start is against the Diamondbacks in Arizona.

Rays 4, Yankees 3: A three-run double by Teixeira in the eighth kept this one from being ugly for the Yankees, but a Carlos Pena homer in the 10th inning does them in. I can’t help but think that the Yankees would have won this one if they had simply slapped the Rays around a bit.

Dodgers 10, Nats 3: 13-0 at home. All of the game stories are talking about “the most wins at home to start a season” which seems like a step beyond meaningful as far as records go. Too much like “most consecutive errorless night games on artificial turf” or something. What’s important is that they’re winning. If they dropped one at home and ripped off ten on the road, I’d find it more significant than if they won the next five at home and went 5-6 on the road, wouldn’t you? More importantly, Clayton Kershaw is now seriously back on track, with his second excellent start in a row.

Diamondbacks 3, Padres 1: Justin Upton is on a roll lately, hitting two homers and driving in three. Jake Peavy struck out 12 to no ultimate avail. He’s taking on the distinct smell of a guy who will break out and go 10-1 down the stretch for a contender a la Doyle Alexander or Randy Johnson back in the day.

Rangers 3, A’s 2: If you’re a struggling starting pitcher, the A’s lineup will cure what ails you.

Blue Jays 13, Angels 1: Yesterday I wrote about the Angels’ best-in-league rotation ERA. Glad I didn’t hold that one over until today. Sheesh. Halladay is now 6-1.

Orioles 4, Twins 1: I’ve never been a fan of the unbalanced schedule for a number of reasons, and one of those reasons is that a team tends to only have one road trip to a given non-division ballpark a year, with that series often taking place early in the year. That stinks because (a) I like variety and want to see teams play one another more often; and (b) if there’s rain, they’ll go through stupid backflips to get a game in even when they shouldn’t due to the difficulty in scheduling makeups. That’s what happened here as the teams had to sit though hours of rain delays for what was ultimately a truncated game.

Tigers vs. White Sox: Postponed: While rain is a real downer for baseball, you may be interested to know that it is cherished in other parts of the world and in other endeavors. For example, in Botswana, the Setswana word for rain, “pula,” is used as the name of the national currency, in recognition of the economic importance of rain in that desert country. I’m guessing they’re not big on baseball in Botswana.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

14 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
tadthebad
14 years ago

Stealing from the world?  You HAVE gone over to the dark side. 

Got that Cubs hat yet?

Mike
14 years ago

Jersey Matt and Craig – I was watching the Mets game, and Delgado actually didn’t slow down rounding third at all. He’s just, you know, real bad at running.

And man. No runs off of Chan Ho Park. Maybe John Kruk was right about hitters taking it easy because they know their best man is on the mound.

Craig Calcaterra
14 years ago

Jersey Matt and Mike:  To be clear, I didn’t watch the game and I wasn’t commenting on Delgado’s actual running. It was a joke meant to underscore the notion that Santana has pretty much been on his own all year, and that even in this game his one run came in a less-than-assertive fashion on the part of his offense (as opposed to, say a double with a man on or something).

J.W.
14 years ago

Statement I never expected to make: come Friday, Alex Emmanuel Rodriguez will be the most beloved member of the Yankees organization.

Statement I fully expected to make: Come Monday, Alex Emmanuel Rodriguez will probably once again be the most hated member of the Yankees organization.

Kelly F.
14 years ago

“More importantly, Clayton Kershaw is now seriously back on track, with his second excellent start in a row.”

I have to take exception to the adjective, “excellent,” there. I think it’s more appropriate to describe his start as adequate. After all, one run in five innings is good, but he did throw 99 pitches with a lot of three-ball counts.

SomeCallMe...Tim
14 years ago

As a Kershaw owner in my Fantasy league, I’d like to second the hesitancy to get excited about a win against the Nats, particularly since it was at home. Kershaw pitches twice on the road next week and I have a very bad feeling about those starts (but will probably roll the dice with the kid anyway).

APBA Guy
14 years ago

The Beloved A’s are playing down to the level of expectations set by the management that threw their extra ining game this weekend. As I said at the time, how will they face their players after that game? Allowing first Gio Gonzalez and then Danan Eveland to pitch when you had a hard-fought 7-4 lead is unforgiveable.

The resulting 8-7 loss while 3 relievers sat on the bench, whose highest individual ERA was 2.90, sent a clear signal to the players that management doesn’t care. So why should the players?

Last night’s game was a perfect example. The few people in the ballpark were there mainly to see hometown boy Scott Feldman. He’s from Burlingame, about 4 minutes south of SF airprot, and pitched well for College of San Mateo, about 4 minutes south of Burlingame. He still comes back to CSM to work with the coach and the kids playing there. Very quiet, very thankful, downright impossible not to like.

Anyway, the A’s are one of only two teams in the majors with less than 10 wins, the Nationals are the other. Pretty impressive company.

And after 5 weeks, they still insist on batting Jason Giambi third, he of the .200 BA and 1 HR, instead of 7th. Ryan Sweeney is hitting leadoff despite being a natural 6 hitter, because the A’s have no leadoff hitter. ANd the usual suspects are already injured, and figure to remain so (Ellis, Duchscherer, Chavez, and Garciaparra).

Pathetic.

Jersey Matt
14 years ago

Right on about Delgado scoring and it appears as if you didn’t even watch the game.  After the play, the awful Howie Rose (ugliest man on radio) talked about how infrequently Delgado scored from first.  I hung my head in shame.

Listening to it on the radio was painful.  Something like watching Leon Lett attempt to return a fumble for a touchdown but only this time Carlos “Leon” Delgado made it.

He … could … go … all … all … all … th … th … the … way.

Greg Simons
14 years ago

“This never would have happened if Ivan Rodriguez was still alive.”  LOL! Great line, Craig.

I hope you don’t miss another day anytime soon, because then we’ll miss out on punchlines like that.

Terry
14 years ago

While you’re right about the A’s offense, Scott Feldman has not struggled since moving from bullpen to rotation, quite the opposite.

Alex K
14 years ago

I find it interesting that after Teixeira hit a pop up in the 10th his words of frustration in the dugout were gosh darnit.

tadthebad
14 years ago

“This never would have happened if Ivan Rodriguez was still alive.” 

C’mon, Craig.  I know from where you lifted that line.  Still appropriate, though.

Jeff O
14 years ago

Re: Royals and Mariners.

Er, Farnsworth pitched the ninth.  So, Ponson, Ramirez, Farnsworth.  Pena has a broken hand so he wasn’t available.  Bwhahahaha

JeffO

Craig Calcaterra
14 years ago

Jeff—I don’t know how I missed Farnsworth pitching the ninth. Sometimes the box scores start to blur to me as the hour gets late.

Tad: While Simmons uses that line a lot, I think it has been used ten thousand times before, so I’d like to think that I’m stealing from the world rather than just one guy. wink