And That Happened

White Sox 6, Indians 3: Nice Indians’ debut for Chris Perez: He hit the first two batters he faced, walked the bases loaded and then gave up a fielder’s choice, an RBI double, a wild pitch and run-scoring single. One of the guys he hit — Alexei Ramirez — took it in the head and had to leave the game. Congratulations, Mark Shapiro and Eric Wedge! After fifteen years of respectability, you have finally brought the Indians back around full-circle to “Major League” territory, complete with Rick Vaughn on the mound.

Cubs 3, Pirates 1: Rich Harden was impressive, striking out nine and giving up only one run — while scattering nine hits — over seven innings. Phil Rogers will likely call for the Cubs to waive him tomorrow. In other news, this may have been the perfect Craig day at the ballpark: small crowd, weekday game, not too hot, good pitching, done in 2:17. Really makes me wish I was there. I can almost taste the Yuengling.

Rays 4, Blue Jays 1: Roy Halladay came back and was good (6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 7K), but not good enough. Carl Crawford hit a two-run homer, got another hit and stole a base. Pat Burrell too. The homer I mean. If he stole a base I probably would have led with that.

Red Sox 4, Orioles 0: Jon Lester was fantastic (7 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 8K) and J.D. Drew homered, tripled, and singled, driving in two. “Baltimore citizenry welcome Boston conquerors: ‘we kept your rooms just the way you left them’.” The Red Sox are 22-9 at Camden Yards since the end of 2005 and have won eight straight there.

Giants 10, Cardinals 0: Holy crap, Tim Lincecum is good (CG, SHO, 2 H, 8K, 0 BB). Clayton Mortensen hitting Aaron Roward on the knee with a pitch in the seventh was the hardest hit the Cardinals had all night.

Marlins 4, Nationals 2: Florida vs. Washington, on a Monday night in Miami, with a rain delay. It says that paid attendance was over 10,000. What do you suppose the real attendance was. Seventeen? Thirty?

Brewers 10, Mets 6: According to the Journal-Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt, Gary Sheffield was booed heavily each time he came to bat. Sheffield was traded away from Milwaukee over seventeen years ago. Sure, he left as a very, very unpopular Brewer, having called out the team’s pitchers and allegedly tanked plays at third base on purpose. Either way, though, seventeen years is a long time to hold a grudge, isn’t it? Willie Randolph was the starting second basemen and Jim Gantner was the starting third baseman on Sheff’s last Brewer club. Rick Dempsey was on that roster. Maybe they should let it go, ya know?

Royals 4, Twins 2: Luke Hochevar has had one dawg of a start since his recall on June 6th, but the others have been aces, including this one (7 IP, 2 H. 0 ER). Like J.D. Drew in the Red Sox game, Miguel Olivo came a double short of the cycle, driving in two runs.

Angels 5, Rangers 4: The Angels are starting to pull away from Texas. This saddens me because I think I may have been the only person in the free world who picked Texas to win the west before the season started and I don’t want to see them slide out of contention. Kendry Morales and Juan Rivera did the damage for Anaheim, driving in a pair each.

Astros 3, Padres 1: Roy Oswalt’s still got it (CG, 2 H, 1 ER 8K), as he continues to own San Diego.

Athletics 7, Tigers 1: Rick Porcello was beat up by an A’s offense that doesn’t beat up many, giving up five runs on nine hits. This is one of the better passages from a game story this year: “After Porcello was chased, left-hander Fu-Te Ni struck out Giambi in his major league debut. Ni didn’t know who Giambi was, and he raised his eyebrows in surprise when told of Giambi’s achievements.”

Dodgers 4, Rockies 2: The Dodgers win it on a walkoff homer by Andre Ethier, but it sure took a while to get there. The Dodgers used eight pitchers, so Joe Torre is probably going to be sore today from all of that walking back and forth to the mound.


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Levi Stahl
14 years ago

Chris Perez may have been spectacularly awful, but Mark DeRosa hasn’t had a hit for my guys yet either, so the jury’s still out—it may come down to the PTBNL!

lar
14 years ago

Gary Sheffield did call the city racist. I don’t think it’s too much to boo him.

In other news, JJ Hardy came up in his 4th at-bat a triple shy of the cycle. He smacked it to center and the CF dove for the ball and missed it. The ball bounced off of him and could’ve been an easy triple except it went right to the RF. JJ still might’ve been able to get three but Jason Kendall was running in front of him, so he only got the double. It was exciting though. Good night for the left side of the infield.

MooseinOhio
14 years ago

Apparently the Larry Dolan puzzle pieces do not have the same motivating force as the Rachel Phelps version.

Steve
14 years ago

It’s not difficult to keep hatin’ Gary Sheffield.  I assume he’s booed in every town.

Preston
14 years ago

Despite using 8 pitchers, Torre actually never had to walk out to the mound – he took the lazy route and put each pitcher in to start an inning.  And as an East Coaster who stayed up through all 13 innings, I definitely appreciated it.

APBA Guy
14 years ago

It’s no surprise that Fu-Te Ni didn’t recognize Giambi. The big man did not hit 400 HR’s lunging off his front foot and swinging at everything like he’s doing now.

The rest of the team seems to be in one of their streaks where they are actually listening to the hitting coach (who surprisingly has not been fired) and trying to play within themselves. This won’t last of course. KevinS pointed out yesterday that the starters have been reasonable. This is true. And Brett Anderson was excellent, throwing 2-3 mph faster than Porcello on avg (94-96 vs 91-93 on the fast Mausoleum gun.)But inconsistency will plague the young staff for the next few years. Keep in mind that Oakland is a severe pitchers park, and the A’s base era’s need to be park adjusted to be placed in proper context.

Still, there is no excuse for batting Giambi (.200/340/370) in the clean-up spot. He’s terrible now, and has been terrible most of the year. But sadly, the A’s have nobody at Sacramento any better.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Bay, Los Gigantes spanked the Cardinals behind Lincecum. He has learned a valuable lesson: Finish the game. After watching Brian Wilson implode too often, it’s a lesson the other starters should take to heart.

Jake
14 years ago

I dunno if I agree with you about Sheff…

If I were a Brewers fan and I heard that my third baseman was purposefully tanking throws to first to get traded, I’d boo the hell out of him until he retired, and might boo him after that if he showed his mug up there again. That is absolutely inexcusible.

If you don’t want to play somewhere, fine. Either refuse to play and give up the greenbacks, or wait until free agency and leave.

Kinda reminds me how a group of determined (and old) Browns fans booed Art Modell and his wife out of a steakhouse in Florida the winter after he moved the team to Baltimore.

Craig Calcaterra
14 years ago

But Jake, isn’t booing the guy who took your entire team away just the year before a completely different thing than booing a single player who may or may not have tanked a couple of plays nearly two decades ago?  I mean, yeah, I get the booing of Sheffield. I just wonder if 17 years isn’t long enough to hold a grudge.

Greg Simons
14 years ago

Maybe the booing of Sheffield isn’t based solely on his play as a Brewer.  Maybe it’s because he tanked it lo those many years ago AND also because he seems like a jerk in general.  Or maybe they just don’t like his violent bat whipping as he awaits the pitch.

That Browns fans story is great.

Jake
14 years ago

Craig,

I admit that I would likely spend a whole lot longer booing Modell, were I a Browns fan.

But fans have loooong memories. I can only imagine there are still pissed off people in Baltimore at John Elway. I hear they aren’t filled with JD Drew love in Philly, either. And those cats never played a single game there.

And (as an aside to the long memory point) this is not to even touch on the subject of the rabid support Pete Rose receives in Cincinnati, even to the detriment of just about every baseball team that has worn that uniform since he last took it off. How many players have been run out of town because they don’t “hustle” enough? And how many players of marginal ability have been glorified because of the myth of Pete Rose?

To Greg’s later point, though, I think I agree that it is probably a combination of the fact that Sheff seems to be a jerk publically in combination with the fact that he tanked it for the home team.

I’d still boo him on general principles. smile

Michael
14 years ago

As a Brewers fan, I fully support the booing of Gary Sheffield.  There are very few things in a sports context (and I emphasize this phrase) that are worse than turning on your own team.  This is the reason that gambling is a mortal sin in sports, after all. Add in the things he said about Milwaukee as a city and about the fans on his way out, and you have every reason to boo him.  The fun part is that for every new team he plays for and comes to Milwaukee with, this is a new experience.

YankeesfanLen
14 years ago

Should have gotten a live feed set up from KDKA.

Greg Simons
14 years ago

A: 42.

Q: How many fans will go see a Marlins-Nationals game on a Monday night in Miami, with a rain delay?

This may be the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.  Would that cause Douglas Adams to roll over in his grave or rest more peacefully?

t ball
14 years ago

Angels Rangers score should read 5-2, and yes, it is sad.

Jason @ IIATMS
14 years ago

You know how to hook me with the Major League references, don’tchya

Beanster
14 years ago

Jumping the gun on tomorrow’s edition of ATH but did the Red Sox just blow a 9-run 7th inning lead… to the Orioles??!!  Wow – that’s going to be a funky Win Probability chart.

Craig Calcaterra
14 years ago

Totally. I’m writing up that one right now.  Just crazy.