Thursday, October 11, 2012
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraI turned on the Cardinals-Nats game just before 1 p.m. I had baseball on my television and did not leave the house -- heck, didn't leave my little den here -- for the next 12 hours and change. Two walkoffs. It was absolutely glorious. I'm half-tempted to petition Major League Baseball to expand the playoffs even further so we can have even more games packing our October afternoons and evenings.
OK, maybe not. But as the man sang, it was a good day.
Yankees 3, Orioles 2: Raul. Ibanez. What else can you say? All you can do is to grab the New York papers and see which miserable misanthrope columnist decides to turn this into a story about A-Rod sucking instead of a story about a two improbable bombs from an improbable hero. That'll tell you everything you need to know.
Athletics, Tigers 3: The Tigers took the 3-1 lead into the ninth and had Jose Valverde on the mound. Who had absolutely nothing, and Coco Crisp hit the walkoff single. Mercy, mercy me. Detroit may be bumming at the moment, but the Tigers do have Justin Verlander, so it's not time to jump out of a window yet, Tigers fans.
Cardinals 8, Nationals 0: Like I said yesterday, don't blame the Strasburg shutdown. The Nats being down 2-1 has been a total team effort.
Giants 8, Reds 3: If I would have told you beforehand that Barry Zito was going to walk three dudes in the first inning and be pulled before the end of three, you would not have predicted a Giants victory. But as everything else that happened yesterday shows us, baseball is freakin' ridiculous. A deciding Game Five today.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com