Friday, May 27, 2011
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraMarlins 1, Giants 0: Anibal Sanchez with the shutout and Ryan Vogelsong took a tough loss. And at the risk of being a big jerk here, am I crazy for thinking that the articles about the Giants that have taken on a tone of mourning over the Posey injury are a bit much? It sucks. It's awful. You have to love a young talent like Buster Posey and it's not at all cool to see him get knocked out for the season. But the "it was tough for Vogelsong to take the mound" and the "with the home fans stunned and grieving" rebop is laying it on a bit thick. It's sports. Injuries like this happen several times a year. I don't recall anyone talking about "mourning" Kendrys Morales' injury last year. Or Jorge De La Rosa's. Or Stephen Strasburg's. Please move past this, people ...somehow.
Cubs 9, Mets 3: As mentioned yesterday, R.A. Dickey left this one with an injury. No word on whether there will be any rules changes about how pitchers cover first base on a grounder to the right side in the wake of all of this. For the Cubs, Carlos Zambrano pitched six strong innings and went 3 for 3 with a double and an RBI on a cold day in Chicago.
Red Sox 14, Tigers 1: I don't know about rules changes for barreling over catchers or rules changes for covering the bag, but I do know this: pretty soon we're going to have to change the rules for Red Sox games. Like, institute the mercy rule or something. Second game in a row with two touchdowns for the Bosox.
Athletics 4, Angels 3: You have a problem with authority, Mr. Anderson. You believe you are special, that somehow the rules do not apply to you. Well, when you pitch eight shutout innings, you probably have a case for that.
Phillies 10, Reds 4: In a day game after a 19 inning game the night before, you have to figure that the team who can get the most out of their starting pitcher is gonna be the team that prevails. Done and done, with Cliff Lee going eight for the Fightins and Homer Bailey leaving after four with shoulder wonkiness for the Reds. Raul Ibanez continues his May rebound by going 2 for 5 with a homer and three RBI.
Orioles 6, Royals 5: That's five straight wins for Baltimore, this one coming on a Vlad Guerrero RBI in the 12th. Vlad has hit in 11 straight games, and is at .354/.400/.476 for the month. The bigger hero here, though, was Nolan Reimold, who had four hits, two of which were homers, and four RBI.
Juan Pierre 3, Blue Jays 1: Juan Pierre drove in two runs and the third White Sox run scored on the same play as his second RBI single by virtue of a throwing error. Jose Bautista's slugging percentage slipped below .800. Gee, I sure hope he's OK.
Diamondbacks 6, Rockies 3: Miguel Montero drove in three and Micah Owings got his first win in over a year. The Diamonbacks have won nine of ten and are a mere 1.5 games out of first place. If you say you saw this coming, please stop lying.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
Instead of the mercy rule for the Red Sox, I think MLB mandated a Wakefield against Porcello matchup.