Friday, August 06, 2010
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraPhillies 5, Marlins 4: Ugly game, with each team trying valiantly to lose throughout, but third base ump Bob Davidson was the ugliest part of all. He blew the call on what would have been the game-winning hit by Gaby Sanchez in the bottom of the ninth, calling it foul when it most clearly was not. Not that he'd know, because he was out of position to make the call. This crap is just inexcusable. You can institute replay to fix these mistakes or -- and this is even more nutty -- you can hire umpires who know their ass from their elbow. What you can't do is let bad calls like this stand in an age when it's possible to review and correct every single bad call almost immediately after it happens.
Twins 8, Rays 6: OK, this may have been an even bigger horsesh-- reason to lose a game than a bad call: Jason Kubel's pop to shallow left in the top of the ninth hit the catwalk at Tropicana Field and dropped for an RBI single, giving the Twins a 7-6 lead in a game they won 8-6. Joe Maddon freaked. As would I have. Then again, at least everyone knew this could happen beforehand because it's part of the ground rules of the place. No one, in contrast, would have expected that an extra-base hit would be called a foul ball for no good reason in that Philly-Florida game.
Orioles 5, Angels 4: The power of Buck compels you. The Angels have now lost all three Dan Haren starts since the big trade.
Pirates 5, Rockies 1: James McDonald shut out the Rockies over six while striking out eight. I guess that means he's still helping the Dodgers out, loosely speaking, but eventually they're going to realize that it was probably a mistake getting rid of him.
Braves 3, Giants 2: Both teams had tons of scoring chances that went by the wayside so in the end the dingers decided it. Two off Tim Lincecum -- one for Alex Gonzalez, one for Eric Hinske -- which doesn't happen very often. Jair Jurrjens wasn't anything special, allowing seven hits, five of which were doubles, and walking three. The Giants should have scored more runs off that, but that's where this recap started so we're just going around in circles now.
Red Sox 6, Indians 2: An Adrian Beltre homer and the good version of Dice-K (more valuable because it's rare!) take care of business.
White Sox 6, Tigers 4: Bobby Jenks did all he could do to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, but a two-run triple by Mark Kotsay in the 11th sealed the deal for the Chisox. There are too many good relievers in that Sox pen for Ozzie Guillen to keep using Jenks when he obviously doesn't trust him.
Padres 5, Dodgers 0: Five pitchers combine to blank L.A., and the Padres are now up two games up on the Giants. Starter Kevin Correia was rather lucky, actually, as he had no strikeouts and gave up a few warning track flies in his five and two-thirds innings.
Rangers 6, Mariners 0: Tommy Hunter bounces back from his first loss of the season to shut down the Mariners. Not that they were running at such a high velocity to begin with. The AP game story is the first time I've seen the word "embattled" applies to Don Wakamatsu's name. I don't expect it to be the last. And I presume by October it will change to "former."
Diamondbaks 8, Nationals 4: Sticking with AP game stories, this one contained a classic passage that I think says it all: "The few who showed up got to see a sometimes-stinky game filled with
four errors, a botched squeeze and a strikeout that scored a run." "Sometimes Stinky" sounds like the name of an album from some twee, overly-studied British folk duo from the mid-90s.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
“Sometimes Stinky” sounds like the name of an album from some twee, overly-studied British folk duo from the mid-90s…oh yeah, I remember them…Their name, “The Witches of Eastwick”, got them into litigation on both sides of the Atlantic, and it didn’t help when they changed the name to “The Bitches of Eastwick”.