Friday, May 04, 2012
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraPirates 6, Cardinals 3: Erik Bedard struck out 11 men in five innings. At one point he fanned seven in a row. Overall, Pirates pitchers struck out 17 Cardinals. Pedro Alvarez went 2 for 4 with a homer. Two weeks ago he was hitting .074. Now he's at .257 and he's slugging over .600 on the year.
Marlins 3, Giants 2: The sweep for Miami. Pretty disastrous series for the Giants too, what with losing Sandoval and all. Not that this is anything new: As my friend Wendy Thurm put it yesterday: "2 years in a row, Marlins come to SF in May, Giants roll over dead and their best hitter gets really hurt."
Rays 4, Mariners 3: The Rays sweep, win their 11th of 12 and now sit at 18-8, the top of the baseball world. The Mariners: a six game losing streak.
Reds 4, Cubs 3: Hit this one up yesterday. Note: Closers who implode but don't, by virtue of a just-in-time-hook, give up that one last hit that allows the tying run to score aren't officially given a blown save. They need one, so let's call such outings "Marmols," shall we?
Phillies 4, Braves 0: I hit this one up yesterday too. Really, I don't mean to belittle Joe Blanton's three-hit shutout, but the fact is that you can't throw an 88-pitch shutout unless you're (a) Greg Maddux; or (b) you have some help from some mailed-in at bats from the opposition. I've been watching the Braves for 27 years. They are NOTORIOUS getaway day sandbaggers. I don't think they really mean to. It's just in the team's friggin' DNA.
Nationals 2, Diamondbacks 1: Ross Detwiler keeps up his good work, allowing one run over six and a third and sending his ERA down even farther below 2.00. Bryce Harper hit another double, driving in the game-winning run. The Nats are slowly but surely pulling out of their brief funk and now get a chance to face the Phillies over the weekend and see if they can truly lay a claim on the NL East.
Indians 7, White Sox 5: Jason Kipnis hit a triple, a homer and drove in four. Justin Masterson gets his first win of the year.
Royals 4, Yankees 3: Danny Duffy pitches well, Mike Moustakas drives in three. Jeter, by the way, went 4 for 5 and is hitting .404 on the year. But really, it's not like anything in this game matters as much as the Rivera news. Damn.
Blue Jays 5, Angels 0: Like Joe Blanton, Brandon Morrow threw a three-hit shutout. Took him 102 pitches, not 88. I think that means something. Maybe I'm wrong.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com