Friday, July 08, 2011
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraIndians 5, Blue Jays 4: Carlos Villanueva threw six shutout innings. Too bad he couldn't stay in to throw more, because the Indians rallied like crazy in the ninth with an Asdrubal Cabrera RBI single and then the big shot: the Travis Hafner walkoff grand slam. That's some serious dramatics right there, babies. Almost enough to make me feel OK to call him "Pronk" again, which seemed kind of ridiculous when he was in the middle of three blah years.
Cubs 10, Nationals 9: Facepalm. actually, make that a double facepalm. The Nats had an 8-0 lead heading into the sixth inning and they couldn't seal the deal. Livan Hernandez deserves most of the blame here. Or maybe Davey Johnson. Dude just ran out of gas. Probably shoulda been pulled when the Cubs started doing a conga line around the bases in the sixth. This is one of those games that those of you who want to say that the Nats could be frisky have to deal with, because frisky teams don't lose like this very often.
Rays 5, Yankees 1: Bartolo Colon didn't have nothin' (5.2 IP, 10 H, 5 ER), so the competitive part of this game ended early, leaving everyone to focus on Derek Jeter's at bats. He got one hit, so he needs two more.
Red Sox 10, Orioles 4: One of the least fun thing about following games on Twitter: when fans of a team (in this case the Yankees), voice their displeasure at team in a totally different game (in this case the Orioles) for allegedly laying down against the the team (in this case the Red Sox) who is in a race against the team for which they root (back to the Yankees). I mean, until we see money changing hands between the Red Sox and Orioles, we have to assume that this is simply a matter of Baltimore sucking every time they visit Fenway Park, not some underhanded scheme.
Braves 6, Rockies 3: Freddie Freeman continues his rampage, hitting a three-run homer in the third inning that put the Braves up for good. The Braves themselves are on a rampage, winners of nine of their last ten. Now it's three against the Phillies -- whom they trail by two and a half games -- to take them into the All-Star break.
Marlins 5, Astros 0: Brad Hand -- who I know damn well is gonna make me break out "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" quotes at some point this season even though that's a totally hack thing to do -- shut out the Astros for seven innings on two hits.
Twins 6, White Sox 2: Phil Humber was rocked like a hurricane. And to be clear: that's bad when the Scorpions aren't involved. Joe Mauer played first base and went 3 for 5 with two RBI. Hurm.
Tigers 3, Royals 1: Remember those games where Max Scherzer used to strike out, like, eleventeen guys? Well, this wasn't one of those games -- he only k'd two -- but 'twas enough. "Twill serve. Homers for Ryan Raburn and Don Kelly, each of whom sound more like characters on "Mad Men" than baseball players.
Brewers 5, Reds 4: Rickie Weeks was 2 for 3 with a three-run homer. Zack Cozart was 1 for 3 with a run scored in his major league debut.
Diamondbacks 4, Cardinals 1: Arizona has won four of six. St. Louis has lost four of six. Justin Upton hit a big home run.
Rangers 6, Athletics 0: In light of what went down, I really don't feel like riffing on this game at the moment.
Now we get to the late west coast games where, every night it seems, someone is throwing a complete game or shutting someone out for seven or eight innings or whatever. Viva la pitching.
Giants 2, Padres 1: All Barry Zito does is win baseball games. Well, at least since he came back from the DL. Eight innings of four-hit ball.
Angels 5, Mariners 1: Jered Weaver tosses a complete game to win his 11th. Now he probably starts the All-Star Game on Tuesday. The offense he faces there will be slightly better than the bunch from Seattle.
Dodgers 6, Mets 0: Clayton Kershaw flummoxed the Mets for eight innings, shutting them out on five hits and striking out nine. The Dodgers made the most of their seven hits and two walks.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com