And That Happened

Tigers 10, Athletics 1: Austin Jackson was 4 for 6 with three RBI. Prince Fielder is now hitting .429/.527/.833. Once this team gets its bullpen figured out, man, watch out.

Diamondbacks 1, Dodgers 0: When Nick Swisher hit a walkoff homer in a 1-0 game the other day I thought to myself, “man, you don’t see that happen all that often.” Then it happened again, this time with Paul Goldschmidt hitting a game-winning single to win a 1-0 game. If it happens one more time in the next week I’m going to take it as a sign of something important and meaningful and will use the experience to examine everything I thought I knew.

Braves 9, Nationals 0: Impressed yet, Danny Espinosa and Gio Gonzalez? No? What do you need to see, then?

Mariners 4, Rangers 3: Rookie Brandon Maurer was shellacked by the Astros in his last start but tamed the Rangers in this one. Mildly unexpected stuff like this, multiplied by the thousands upon thousands of times they occur during a baseball season, is why I spend most of my energy reacting to things rather than predicting things or acting like I have some key to understanding this game that no one else has. Stuff happens. In a couple thousand games a year. Anyone who ever claims that they know what’s gonna happen in any one, or really, any small handful of games is a liar or a fool.

Red Sox 5, Rays 0: Clay Buchholz took a no-hitter into the eighth. Pity the Rays broke it up, as it puts them behind their usual schedule of getting no-hit. They’re really gonna have to work to get back on pace.

Rockies 2, Padres 1: Todd Helton’s two-run, pinch-hit homer in the seventh would’ve fallen about 10 feet in front of the wall a year ago. Hope you like the new dimensions at Petco Park, Padres. You asked for ’em.

Giants 10, Cubs 7: The Cubs threw five wild pitches while giving up four runs in the sixth. Then Shawn Camp balked in what would be the winning run in the 10th. Strong effort, fellas.

Angels 4, Astros 1: Josh Hamilton singled, tripled and homered. That and taking two out of three from Houston is a nice way to make up for Friday night’s embarrassing effort. Perchance that was the low point and now the ship is righted. Or perhaps anyone can take two of three from the Astros.

Brewers 4, Cardinals 3: This guy was probably happy after Jonathan Lucroy hit a homer in the 10th. All Brewers fans were probably happy to see Milwaukee’s 32-inning scoreless streak end in the eighth when Ryan Braun went deep.

Royals 3, Blue Jays 2: Kansas City avoids being swept with Alex Gordon’s walkoff RBI single. Ervin Santana pitched eight strong innings. Jays manager John Gibbons said this after the game: “They’re scrappy. They battle you.” If the Royals meet the Diamondbacks in the World Series the narrative-construction is going to be so thick and insufferable I’m probably just gonna give the whole thing a miss and take a vacation someplace instead.

Pirates 10, Reds 7: Michael McKenry hit two homers. The Pirates were down by five heading into the seventh and then scored ten runs in the seventh and eighth. I credit the sweet, sweet pullover jerseys and yellow caps they were wearing.

White Sox 3, Indians 1: Jake Peavy struck out 11 and gave up a lone run helping the Pale Hose break their five-game losing streak. In other news, I think after a couple years worth of using “Chisox” as this team’s third reference (following “the White Sox” and “Chicago,”) I’m now gonna try hard to use Pale Hose more often.

Phillies 2, Marlins 1: Roy Halladay gets his 200th career win. Assuming you count wins against minor league teams like Miami, too.

Yankees 3, Orioles 0: Hiroki Kuroda shut ’em out on five hits without walking a soul. The Yankees continue not to be doomed somehow.

Mets vs. Twins: POSTPONED: The wind it was howling and the snow was outrageous. We chopped through the night and we chopped through the dawn. When he died I was hoping that it wasn’t contagious. But I made up my mind that I had to go on.


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Will H.
10 years ago

Thanks for the brief bit on Nats/Braves… you would have been justified gloating much more after this weekend. Ugh.

maguro
10 years ago

“Do you think we can get a particular sports network to stop calling shutouts “complete game” shutouts.  I’m not sure there are any other kinds.”

Well, there is the kind where the team throws a shutout but no one pitcher gets a complete game, right?

Rob
10 years ago

What Maguro said.

Dennis
10 years ago

Craig,
Do you think we can get a particular sports network to stop calling shutouts “complete game” shutouts.  I’m not sure there are any other kinds.

Jim G.
10 years ago

Re: Mets v. Twins – to paraphrase the legendary Clara Peller – “Where’s the roof!?”

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10 years ago

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