Friday, September 28, 2012
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraMets 6, Pirates 5: R.A. Dickey wins his 20th, striking out 13 in the process. I don't care if wins aren't supposed to matter. It's cool. He's old and he struggled for years and he has no freaking ligament in his elbow and he seems like a pretty cool guy and all of that and I am happy as hell that he hit a milestone that, these days, is pretty rare. Also: that Travis Snider catch in case you missed it. Dear God.
Tigers 5, Royals 4: Because of events and things, I am officially no longer allowed to mention the Tigers' starting pitcher's name in print again. But suffice it to say, he did well.
Rays 3, White Sox 2: Rays playing spoiler? Bah, they could still make this dance. They have these games against the White Sox and then three against Baltimore. Meanwhile the Sox have lost three straight to fall two games behind the Tigers in the AL Central. Gettin' crazy.
Giants 7, Diamondbacks 3: Two-run homers for both Hunter Pence and Marco Scutaro and another solid start from Barry Zito. It's the most wins Zito has had in a season since he signed his gigantic deal with the Giants. And the Giants have won 10 straight of his starts.
Rockies 7, Cubs 5: Rockies sweep the Cubs behind a lot of hits and homers. I'm sorry, it's Sept. 28 and it's really hard to get it up to say anything even quasi-insightful about a Cubs-Rockies series.
Mariners 9, Angels 4: John Jaso hit a two-run homer and an RBI double and the Angels lost a game they needed to win. Which is basically all of them now, of course, but still. Oakland lost and all, and it was a chance to gain some ground.
Rangers 9, Athletics 7: Despite Mike Adams' best efforts -- he gave up three homers in two-thirds of an inning -- the Rangers prevail, splitting the series with the A's. Jumping out to an early 5-0 lead helps matters.
Reds 2, Brewers 1: John Axford couldn't hold a 1-0 lead in the ninth despite getting the first two outs. That's not some colossal failure or anything, but dudes, if the bullpen held half of the number of leads a typical bullpen holds throughout the season the Brewers would be playoff bound.
Nationals 7, Phillies 3: Gio gets his 21st win. Two homers for Michael Morse. One for Bryce Harper.
Blue Jays 6, Yankees 0: More like Ivan NoGOOD, am I right? Anyone? Eh, ok. Maybe not (4.2 IP, 6 H, 4 ER). Brandon Morrow, in contrast, pitched seven shutout innings. Three runs driven in for Edwin Encarnacion. The Yankees lead is back down to 1.
Braves 6, Marlins 2: Miami continues to sleepwalk to the end of the season. Dan Uggla drove in three.
Dodgers 8, Padres 4: L.A. is now three games back of the Cardinals, but as is the case with everyone else in that boat, you basically gotta win every game left and hope the other guys lose every game and that's just not happening.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com