And That Happened

Mets 7, Dodgers 3:  Jordany Valdespin with a walkoff grand slam. See, good things happen when he doesn’t try to bunt.

Reds 1, Cubs 0: Mat Latos tossed seven shutout innings and Broxton and Chapman finished it off. Tough luck for Jeff Samardzija, who struck out eight in six innings, but he’s gonna have to get used to tough luck pitching for these Cubs.

Blue Jays 6, Orioles 5: The first extra innings loss for Baltimore in over a year. That covered 17 instances of free baseball. Oh well, luck comes and goes. Well, maybe it wasn’t luck: the winning run came when Jim Johnson walked Maicer Izturis with the bases loaded, but still.

Cardinals 4, Nationals 2: The sweep. Stephen Strasburg had a rough first inning, but then he settled down and kept his team in the game, only to watch as Washington whiffed and ran its way out of a couple of would-be rallies. Strasburg’s record now stands at 1-4.

White Sox 3, Indians 2: Alex Rios hit a two-run homer to help the Chisox earn a split. I’m not sure who let Zach McAllister leave the Columbus, Ohio he and I are so accustomed to, but he walked five and allowed five hits in five and two-thirds innings. Come back home, Zach. We’ll go get some  paella at Barcelona and then some Jeni’s ice cream, maybe, and we’ll never make you lave Franklin County again.

Rockies 6, Braves 5: I left for an early dinner reservation just as Fredi Gonzalez sent Jordan Schafer home on a botched squeeze play while up 5-3 and one out in the ninth. I figure that Gonzalez was tired of seeing the Braves hit the ball all over the ballpark without any of his own input and felt like he had to justify his existence by managing the hell out of that little situation.  If he had let Coors Field’s nature take its course I’m guessing one of the next two batters could have or would have hit the ball in the air to score Schafer anyway, the game wouldn’t have been tied after nine and the Rockies would not have been able to mount this comeback win.  And yes, if you think this is just some long distraction enabling me to overlook the fact that Craig Kimbrel coughed up two runs in the ninth, well, you’re right.

Astros 10, Mariners 3: Baseball has 162 games and rarely does any one game matter or even mean anything all that much. But dudes, you just got scorched by the Astros. Three homers for Houston, which has four wins against Seattle in six meetings this year. The Astros have won only seven overall.

Diamondbacks 3, Giants 2: Brandon Crawford his a homer in the ninth to tie it, but Arizona won it on a sac fly and is now 5-0 in extra innings games this year. The new Orioles or something.

Red Sox 6, Athletics 5: David Ortiz had two hits and an RBI. Stephen Drew hit an RBI triple. Boston has won nine of 12. Oh, and the Red Sox sent Alfredo Aceves down to Pawtucket after this one, so it’s like a total exorcism of that 13-0 loss the other night.

Tigers 7, Royals 5: Jose Valverde comes back and gets a save on his first try out. Victor Martinez drove in two. Welcome to 2011.

Rays 3, Yankees 0: Alex Cobb was dominant (8.1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 7K), allowing only three singles. Not sure what beat writers do in games like this when there’s really only one thing to talk about. I only have to write, like, three or four sentences. They have a whole story to fill. Maybe they can just CTRL-V “Alex Cobb” over and over again like the restaurant scene in “Being John Malkovich” or something.

Pirates 5, Phillies 3: Roy Halladay allowed only one hit and struck out eight in six innings and Ryan Howard and Chase Utley hit big booming homers. That used to mean an easy Philly win, but we’re a long way from 2010. Brandon Inge came and hit a pinch hit RBI single to tie it in the eighth because of course he did. Then Starling Marte tripled in a run in the ninth as part of a four-run Philly bullpen failure.

Rangers 11, Angels 3: Texas with a nine-run fourth inning put this one away pretty early. Nelson Cruz with a three-run homer. Lance Berkman drove in four. Yu Darvish wins the Run Support Award for the night. The pitchers in the Angels part of the box score look like a list of names from the witness protection program.

Padres 2, Brewers 1: I suppose Milwaukee had to lose eventually. I didn’t think Edinson Volquez would go seven innings without walking anyone eventually, but I’ll be damned if he didn’t.


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