And That Happened

Padres 6, Mets 5: I watched this one, as did many of you I’m sure. Allowing the winning run on a three-base error followed by a balk ain’t exactly starting things off in the new park with a bang, is it? I gotta say, though, I love the fact that those guys in the restaurant behind the chain link fence in right can just get right up in Ryan Church’s face and taunt him as he’s trying to make plays out there. I predict that we will have (a) a beer splashing incident; followed by (b) the installation of Plexiglas by the time the All-Star break rolls around. My overall TV impressions of Citi Field: OK, I guess, but they did get a little cutesy out in right, didn’t they? And is it just distorted on TV, or is that out of town scoreboard really at blimp level?

Dodgers 11, Giants 1: Orlando Hudson hits for the cycle, which is always fun, but I’d personally rather be Andre Ethier, who hit two homers rather than just one and drove in two more runs than did Hudson. Randy Johnson sees his ERA shoot north of 11, which is not fun at all if you’re interested in seeing history. 300 seems very far away at the moment.

Phillies 9, Nationals 8: The Phillies win one for Harry the K.

White Sox 10, Tigers 6: Signs that I may be on the Internet too much: I read the recap of this as I was putting these together last night and saw the thing about Konerko and Dye each hitting their 300th homer and thought “wait, didn’t that happen a couple of days ago?” Than I realize that, no, it was earlier in the afternoon and it just seemed like days ago, because I’ve probably read the same amount of online content that most people read in a week since then.

Cubs 4, Rockies 0: Ted Lilly and three relievers handcuff the Rockies, allowing only one hit. In Colorado’s defense, it was 36 degrees, delayed, and rainy, and I’m guessing that there aren’t a ton of places to get comfortable in the visiting clubhouse in Wrigley Field.

Pirates 7, Astros 0: I’m not going to spend much time this year talking about how these games impact my fantasy teams, but do know that I needed this start from Zach Duke very very much, and because I got it, I don’t feel nearly as stupid for trading Xavier Nady away to get him. Probably doesn’t matter, though. John Lackey’s injury and the presence of Nick Blackburn and Jonathan Sanchez — who I have named “the arsonist twins” — have pretty much sunk me already.

Rays 15, Yankees 5: I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Wang isn’t yet all the way back from last year’s injury (1 IP, 6 H, 8 ER). I’m also going to go out on a limb here and note that if the Yankees find themselves running Swisher out at first base and Ransom out at third very often, it’s going to be a long damn season. Finally, I’m going to out on the farthest limb of all and say that if Swisher is your most effective pitcher of the night, you’ve got some problems.

Orioles 10, Rangers 9: Sure, they may have been outslugged, but how about Andruw Jones (2-3, HR, 2B, 2 BB, 3 RBI)? It’s almost as shocking to see him hitting well as it is to see arguably the best defensive player in my adult life at DH, probably out of necessity.

Royals 4, Indians 0: Is Zach Greinke on his way to pulling a 1972 Steve Carlton? Well, not if he continues to throw 100 pitches in five innings, but he could definitely be one of those guys who win 20 for an otherwise bad team. With a four run lead entering the ninth, this would have been a nice night for Trey Hillman to have given Joakim Soria a rest. And he tried. But Ron Mahay didn’t have anything and the Mexicutioner had to come in to save his bacon.

Blue Jays 8, Twins 6: Everyone pitched in to this lousy performance by the Twins’ staff. From Kevin Slowey allowing five runs on thirteen hits to Luis Ayala and Matt Guerrier allowing the Jays to pull ahead for good, it was a sold all around effort. Well, knuckleballer R.A. Dickey didn’t help: he allowed no runs in the ninth, which leads me to think that he should probably be the Twins’ all-time pitcher. Unless management doesn’t feel like winning and being awesome and everything.

Reds 7, Brewers 6: Yovani Gallardo vs. Edinson Volquez should have been a pitchers’ duel, but they gave up thirteen runs on ten hits and eight walks. Volquez won by process of elimination. The game went 3:28, and from the looks of the boxscore, it was probably a pretty brutal affair.

A’s 8, Red Sox 2: Jon Lester gave up 10 hits and six earned runs in six innings. He picked two guys off of first base in succession, but the key to winning in this league, son, is to keep ’em off the bases to begin with.

Cardinals 2, Diamondbacks 1: Brian Barden hit his first career home run — the game winner — against the team that drafted him. Todd Wellemeyer gave up one run on seven hits and struck out four in seven innings. The Cards are 6-2, and it’s about this time every year that I start wondering why I discounted them so completely before the season began.


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Pete Toms
14 years ago

Did the Mets debut @ Citi not sell out?  That’s the impression I got from the boxscore I read.  If that is the case it is obvioulsy not good news for the Wilpons….anybody see any empty seats on the broadcast?…anybody at the game?

Jason @ IIATMS
14 years ago

Was chatting with a friend who was at Citi last night…. he said while the stadium is beautiful, it was deathly quiet due to the inordinate amount of “suits” there.  And most of them wanted to leave by the 5th. 

I suspect it will be alot of the same at Yankee Stadium, too.

Doug
14 years ago

Not only was the Reds game pretty brutal to watch, but FOX Sports Ohio who was carrying the game decided to switch to The Best Damn Sports Show with 1 Out in the bottom of the 9th inning.  Because clearly, people want to see that….

ElBonte
14 years ago

I’m sure it’s better in person, especially when compared to Shea, but the stadium doesn’t show that well on TV.  It’s a bit plain, and doesn’t seem to be able to decide whether it’s retro (oh boy, another brick backstop) or not.  Its shape also looks a bit contrived with the unnecessary outfield wall angles and multiple seating levels and platforms.  It just doesn’t seem to have any true personality, instead the designers seem to have tried to create some and missed the mark.  My wife commented that there’s going to be a lot of regret as to how it turned out in a few years; I think she’s spot on.

APBA Guy
14 years ago

John Lester, he of the 3.21 ERA in 2008 but also No 1 on the Regression Hit Parade (due to innings overload), showed why he may not repeat his breakout year.

He had excellent velocity, consistently 94-95. But he had spotty command. The Beloved A’s simply ignored his breaking stuff (I only counted 2 for strikes)and waited for him to elevate his fastball.

Lester was consistently ahead in the count. But after the first inning the veteran A’s lineup (Cabrera, Giambi, Garciaparra, Holliday, Cust) could see that he’d elevate at least one fastball in each sequence. They’d wait for that one pich then pounce on it. Giamb: double on 0-2 fastball up. Cust: HR on an elevated fastball. Nomar: HR on an elevated fastball.

Braden kept the Red Sox off balance with an assortment of pitches mainly down in the zone, while featuring a newly perfected change up.

Still, he had two balls caught at the base of the wall. When the weather warms up 5 degrees, those two are out.

BTW, Nomar’s ball was scorched, and both of Gumby’s hits were to the opposite field. Giambi is cavorting around the field like he’s 21 again, and yes, he was pulled late in the game after a lot of baserunning.

ElBonte
14 years ago

I forgot about the total lack of foul territory in the outfield.  Most stadia with that feature had it by necessity due to being crammed between a couple of city streets.  From the aerial shots, it doesn’t look like that’s the case with $iti field (thanks kranepool, I like that one) but they tried to give it that feel.  Methinks the ballboys down the line will be getting plenty of work this year.

Bob Timmermann
14 years ago

Craig,
You forget that Dodgers fans had almost been like the Jews in the desert traveling to the Promised Land with the cycle.

It had been 39 years.

Guys like Chad Moeller had hit for the cycle in the interim.

Of course, it’s not as bad as the Mets and no-hitters.

Astro Blaster
14 years ago

Well, I’m really glad that at least your fantasy team could benefit from my real-life team’s offensive ineptitude.

Craig Calcaterra
14 years ago

Blaster: yes, that is what it’s all about, isn’t it? grin

Doug
14 years ago

Not that it matters all that much, but the KC – Cle final was 4-2, not 4-0.

My Indians are still scuffling, nonetheless.

TLA
14 years ago

Konerko and Dye going for 300 homers in the same game with back-to-back jacks was pretty cool.  Craig, in your surfing of more web content than the average household, have you seen whether this (teammates reaching same hitting milestone in back-to-back at-bats) has ever happened before?  Seems like the type of trivia that is right up Jayson Stark’s alley.

Alex K
14 years ago

No distortion, the out of town scoreboard is that high.  You need binoculars to read it.

Tom
14 years ago

TLA,

On Sportscenter last night, they showed a graphic that said no teammates had hit a milestone home run (300, 400, 500) in the same game (let alone back to back).  They only went back to 1900, but I don’t believe there were any 300-HR teammates back then.

Patrick
14 years ago

The Jays have a damn fine lineup, it’s a shame they play in the division they do. On another note, I find it odd that in the few comments I’ve left on this site I have commented on the Twins opponents. I’m a Twins fan by the way. Oh well, they usually don’t really start playing until June anyway.

Craig Calcaterra
14 years ago

Ozzie’s prime basically ended with my childhood.  But he was clearly the best I’ve ever seen, which is why I used the “adult life” qualification.

Todd
14 years ago

I assume you were not an adult while Ozzie was playing, otherwise what you said about Andruw Jones is completely wrong.