And That Happened

Sorry for the lack of blogging yesterday. It’s probably been two or three years since I’d had a day in court as contentious as yesterday. There were something like seven lawyers involved. People arguing back and forth. Objections on top of objections and, to top it off, a judge who isn’t the biggest fan of my case. One of the lawyers opposite me was a former boss, so that was fun too. All of that is the sort of thing that makes for a long, long day, so by the time I got back from court the part of my brain that produces wit, snark, and opinion was working off of a backup generator. Punting the rest of the day was probably the best move under such circumstances.

When I got home I pitched a wiffle ball to ShysterBoy, drank wine, and watched a pretty bitchin’ Star Trek episode. As of 10:30 or so I was back to full speed, so I was able to get down to business. This kind of business:

Yankees 5, Indians 2: In going so deep into the game, Joba Chamberlain finally becomes the eighth inning pitcher everyone seems to want him to be. If he wants to keep the critics happy after Mariano finally retires, he is going to have to go to complete games. And this one makes eighteen straight games without an error for the Yankees. So who’s gonna be the first guy to draw everyone’s fire by identifying all of the balls where Jeter didn’t get close enough to even risk an error, let alone threaten a competent play? Rob Neyer? Tom Tango? John Dewan? James Click? Mike Emeigh? Onion?

Pirates 8, Mets 5: New York’s bullpen flashes back to 2008 and blows a 5-0 lead. Andy LaRoche continues his good hitting — his line for May was .330/411/.457 — going 2-4 with a triple and three RBI.

Astros 4, Rockies 1: Why didn’t anyone inform me that Miguel Tejada was batting .353? Don’t we have a communications protocol around here? I can’t be expected to make sound command decisions if my crew is hiding things from me. Look, I trust you all as officers. You’re all fine men and women. But if I continue having to find this sort of thing out myself we’re just going to go a “report everything” regime in which I take all discretion out of your hands. I hope it doesn’t come to that. Now carry on.

Marlins 7, Brewers 4: Jorge Julio came in in the sixth inning with a can of kerosene in one hand and a match in the other, and then Ken Macha sprayed the conflagration with hairspray when he brought Todd Coffey in.

White Sox 6, A’s 2: That’s four in a row for Chicago, and 10 of 13 overall. Gavin Floyd pitched well enough to win (7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 8K) but his teammates scored too late to allow him to claim the W. I imagine that it is exactly that sort of disrespect that is causing all of these pitchers to refuse trades to the White Sox. I could go into brutal detail regarding how bad the A’s are playing these days, but commenter APBA Guy does such a better job of it than I do, that I suppose I should leave it to him.

Reds 5, Cardinals 3: A win is nice, but losing Edinson Volquez in the second inning due to numbness in his right hand and/or a reaggravation of his back injury (unclear from early reports) is not good at all.

The Orioles Game: Paul Blair goes 3-4 and both Frank Robinson and Merv Rettemund drive in two as Baltimore wins Game 5 and thus take the 1970 World Series from the Cincinnati Reds. The real hero of this game was probably Mike Cuellar, though, who gutted out a complete game, giving up three runs and atoning for his short, ineffective outing in Game 2. Still, the story of the series had to be Brooks Robinson’s play at the hot corner. He’s a once in a lifetime talent down there, folks, and this is coming from a guy who watches Clete Boyer play whenever he gets the chance. Wait, what’s the problem? In yesterday’s comments, you guys said you wanted good stories about the Orioles irrespective of whether anything good happened in the previous night’s game. Isn’t this what you were talking about?

Orioles 1, Mariners 0: Fine. Rich Hill shut out the Mariners for 7, giving up only two hits and Jim Johnson and George Sherrill handled the other two innings to seal the deal. The Orioles would probably like to play the Mariners all the time, as they have won nine of eleven against them.

Diamondbacks 3, Dodgers 2: Hiroki Kuroda is back after missing almost two months with an oblique strain. I hate those. I much prefer my strains to be perpendicular nor parallel. Anyway, he gave up two runs and three hits in five innings, but got nothing from his offense by way of support. The L.A. bullpen threw five wild pitches, which is always fun.

Phillies 5, Padres 3: Adrian Gonzalez (hey, I can spell it right!) hit his 21st, but it wasn’t enough as Joe Blanton was in rare, effective form. OK, he’s won three in a row, and his last start was really impressive, but I’m not prepared to take him out of the liability column just yet.


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Andrew @ TLC
14 years ago

The last time the O’s won 1-0 on the road was May 13th, 2004 against the White Sox. Put in that context (for what it is), it makes last night’s defeat over the totally inept M’s (they led off the game with a triple and stranded Ichiro at third on 2 pop-ups and a ridiculous “let’s swing at EVERYTHING” approach from Adrian Beltre) seem rather impressive. Or at least more impressive.

Jason B
14 years ago

What no nice things about the Blue Jays, on their day off?!?  I mean, it’s only like the second day in the last fortnight that they didn’t lose. How dare you good sir.  How *DARE* you.

*Picks up the toaster and hops into the bathtub*

Adam
14 years ago

If I flash back to my son’s years in Little League, I think they had a rule when he was 8 that if you walked three guys in a row, the next hitter could not be walked no matter how many pitches he saw.  The Indians could have used that rule last night, as we had to sit through watching them walk 7 guys in TWO innings.  One of those was an intentional walk to Texeria to load the bases for A-Rod.  Really, Wedgie?  I guess it worked out, because after A-Rod ripped a 2-run single, Texiera was thrown out rounding second.  As to Joba’s catch, it was both amazing and hilarious—full body dive that looked like Shamu going through a hoop.  They cut to Petite and Sabathia in the dugout laughing so hard Petite had to cover his face with his cap.

mike in brooklyn
14 years ago

Yesterday’s Enterprise!  Best TNG episode.  Ever.  (Personally, after the Mets fell behind, I watched the episode where Worf’s kid comes to live with him.  NOT one of the best.)

Peter
14 years ago

Really is a fantastic episode – I was watching the new movie again last night, and that’s re-watching beautifully too.

When someone DOES generate that list of missed ground balls (and you know they have to) I hope we’ll be getting a link.

Jake
14 years ago

George Washington was a “pretty bitchin’” leader too…

APBA Guy
14 years ago

Craig- thanks for the compliment. I would have commented on the A’s game earlier but I have been sitting in stunned disbelief since Geren ran Santiago Castillo out in the 8th again with the predictable results.

Last night’s bottom third of the A’s order:

Ryan Sweeney, .645 OPS
Aaron Cunningham .245 OPS
Jack Hanahan   .581 OPS

Sweeney and Hanahan are playing excellent defense. But still…

Grant
14 years ago

Wow. I am stunned that the Brewers gave Jorge Julio of all people a job.

Adam Lipkin
14 years ago

Actually, the Mets bullpen (the aptly-named Putz, in particular) blew a 5-3 lead.

TC
14 years ago

Joba also had a very nice diving (well, floating) catch to start a double play in the 5th, I think. 

In Phils’ news that is more fun than Blanton, today’s starter is a 5’10” kid whose name translates Tony Bastard.  So that’s exciting.  Even better if he’s any good.

Ross
14 years ago

I’ve been waiting for the Bastardo Era for a year, and I’m not a Phillies fan.  Just the thought of the FCC doing everything they can to keep themselves from administering fines to every affiliate who televises a Phillies game while Bastardo is on the mound just makes me smile.

Jeff V.
14 years ago

I always enjoy hearing about Cuellar. 

You opened the door to whole weekend coverage of the O’s in yesterday’s ATH when you did a whole weekend recap of Wieters.

johnnynebraska
14 years ago

What, nothing nice to say about Wieters’ spectacular calling of the game behind the dish, or how perfectly coiffed Buck Martinez’s hair was up in the broadcast booth?  No love for the O’s!

Kidding!  Rich Hill and the O’s had no business winning this game.  It was really all because that Seattle team is spectacularly bad, tremendously bad – I had no idea they were that bad.  Hill struck out Beltre with Ichiro on third in the first inning on a pitch that Wieters had to stand up and move to catch.

The only run came when Adam Jones hit a rocket to left that Balientien completely misjudged.  I mean, I’ll take it, and I’ll gladly take the nice things you had to say about the O’s, but wooooo boy….

Craig Calcaterra
14 years ago

Adam: good point.  5-3.

Johnny: There is no “opening the door” here. This isn’t a court of law. If I want to be capcricious and unfair, no man will stop me!  wink

Greg Simons
14 years ago

Craig, as long was get plenty of witty, snarky opinions from you today, yesterday will be forgiven.

Craig Calcaterra
14 years ago

I’ll do my best, Greg.

And that earlier comment was meant for Jeff, not Johnny. Maybe my brain isn’t back at full speed yet.