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Friday, June 05, 2009

And That Happened


Giants 5, Nationals 1: 300. My first memory of The Big Unit was watching him on TV as he pitched against the Braves on May 7, 1989. He was gangley and ineffective that afternoon, going four innings and giving up six runs and walking six guys on the second worst offense in the National League. There was nothing about him that made me think the guy would be in baseball in a year, let alone winning his 300th 20 years later. When he was traded to the Mariners the following month I thought "they gave up Mark Langston for THAT guy?" Mark Langston was an All-Star who could strike guys out. Why on Earth would Seattle give that up for this tall drink of water? Shows you what I know. Congratulations to Randy Johnson, one of the most unique and impressive talents to ever play the game.

Yankees 8, Rangers 6: Is everyone cool with Hughes to the pen and Wang to the rotation? Because I'm not sure I am, and I don't even much care about the Yankees. Wang gave up five runs on seven hits in four and two-thirds. On the bright side he only gave up one home run and struck out five, so this could just be rust which, according to conventional wisdom, is particularly hard on sinkerballers. I don't know if the CW is true in this regard, but at least Hughes is around in case Wang simply can't find it again. Compensating for Wang was Melky Cabrera, who provided late-game heroics once again, this time in the form of a two-run homer in the eighth that proved to be the game winner.

Red Sox 6, Tigers 3: Reports of Dontrelle Willis' return to form were slightly exaggerated. D-Train was cruising along fine until he was derailed in the third, when he went HBP-walk-K-walk-walk-walk. Leyland pulled him at that point -- getting himself ejected during the pitching change, which is a nice trick -- and then Zach Miner let eveyone Willis put on score and then some. To top off this craptacular series for Detroit, Miguel Cabrera hurt his hamstring running the bases and had to leave the game.

Marlins 4, Brewers 3: Josh Johnson does it all. He hits! (three-run homer!) He pitches! (7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 8K). He'll slice your onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and make mounds of Julienne fries!

Twins 11, Indians 3: After watching Fausto Carmona performance yesterday, Rob Neyer said "every time Carmona pitches he just embarrasses himself and the rest of the organization." Ouch. True, but ouch. Jason Kubel played a big hand in the embarrassment, smacking two three-run homers off of Carmona.

Angels 6, Blue Jays 5: Not that every recent Neyer subject plays to form. As Rob notes, Howie Kendrick has been terrible, but after the Angels' bullpen blew the lead in the eighth, Kendrick dropped a bunt single when he noticed Jose Bautista playing behind the bag a third, advanced to third on a Chone Figgins single, and then scored on a grounder to second that may have frozen a lot of guys at third base. He's still playing terrible baseball overall, but at least for one inning he did something right.

Pirates 11, Mets 6: Welcome Andrew McCutchen! The Pirates' new centerfielder went 2-4 with a walk, a stolen base, scored three runs and drove in another. But really everyone hit for Pittsburgh. Ramon Vazquez went 4 for 4 and Andy LaRoche had a couple of RBIs as well. The Mets hit too, but Mike Pelfrey had the worst day of his life, and there really wasn't any recovering from the nine runs he had given up by the time he left in the fourth.

Athletics 7, White Sox 0: Young Brett Anderson pitched a gem (7 IP, 6 H, 0 ER) and for once the A's bats responded. Everyone had a hit except Orlando Cabrera and Adam Kennedy. Even Aaron ".158/.200/.158" Cunningham, who hit a homer. The other day Ozzie Guilled said "if we have Beckham here, we're in trouble." Well, he's here, and he debuted with an 0-3.

Cardinals 3, Reds 1: Overheard during Chris Carpenter's 2007-2008 surgery and rehab: "Chris Carpenter: pitcher. A man whose arm is barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic starting pitcher. Chris Carpenter will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster." If you have a better explanation for 4-0 with a 0.71 ERA, I'd really like to hear it.

Rays 3, Royals 2: The Royals have dropped seven games in a row. The Rays are back to .500.

Rockies 10, Astros 3: It was going to happen eventually, so why not last night: Wandy Rodriguez was shelled (5 IP, 10 H, 7 ER). Garrett Atkins had a couple of homers for the Rockies, but really everyone got in on the hit parade.

Giants 4, Nationals 1: Matt Cain gets a rain-shortened win in the second, afterthoughty and rainy half of the doubleheader. I can only assume that there were about six people there by the time the rain started coming down in earnest.

Phillies 3, Dodgers 0: Cole Hamels spins the pitching performance of the night (CG, SHO, 5 H, 5K). The Phillies have won seven straight.

Cubs-Braves: Postponed. They'll have to schedule a doubleheader to make this one up, most likely. Doubleheaders can be hard on a pitching staff. Helps to have an extra starter hanging around for those things you know. Some guy -- maybe a wily vet -- who can just bear down and give you some innings to save the rest of your staff. Too bad the Braves don't have anyone like that. AAAAARRRGGH!
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:36am (16) Comments

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