And That Happened

Cubs 12, Brewers 2: The Cubs sweep the Brewers in convincing fashion, outscoring them 25-4. It’s like they’re the Pirates’ older brother or something, kicking the bully’s butt after that 20-0 beatdown.

Astros 10, Pirates 3: Of course at some point the best way to defend your little brother is to let him get his butt kicked a bit so as to toughen him up. The sixth straight loss for Pittsburgh, most of which have been ugly. Brett Myers allowed 12 base runners in six innings, yet the Buccos could still only score two runs off him.  And this has to be the last
start for Charlie Morton, doesn’t it? His earned runs allowed in each game: 8,6,5 and 5.

Angels 8, Yankees 4: I’ll concede this much: we’re several days closer to the day when it is acceptable to boo Javy Vazquez than we were when I started complaining about it a couple of weeks ago. Vazquez was hit up for five runs on five hits in three and two-thirds.

Mets 1, Braves 0: I suppose you could say that the fact the game was rain-shortened foreclosed the possibility of a comeback or something, but the Braves had ample opportunity to score before this one was called and couldn’t deliver so they don’t deserve any benefit of the doubt. Mike Pelfrey extends his scoreless innings streak to 24 and the Mets sweep the free-falling Braves.

Royals 4, Twins 3: Jose Guillen homered and drove in two, continuing his
hot start (.352/.371/.716). This would be encouraging for Royals fans if they they had any faith that Dayton Moore would do the right thing (i.e. shop Guillen while he’s hot) instead of the Dayton Moore thing (i.e. announce a new organizational strategy built around the slugging prowess of Jose Guillen).  Brian Bannister had a Brett Myersy kind of day: oodles of base runners in his 6+ innings, but only two runs allowed.

Rangers 8, Tigers 4: Pre-season optimism for the Tigers had a lot to do with the emergence of Rick Porcello last year. His last two starts: six earned runs in each of them, going four and a third innings against the Angels last Tuesday and four innings against Texas yesterday. Ten hits allowed as well, and his ERA is up to 7.91 on the season. Five RBI for Michael Young, on a three-run double and a two-run single.

Nationals 1, Dodgers 0: An exciting one for pitching perverts like me, but boring for everyone else. Scott Olsen, Tyler Clippard and Matt Capps combine to shut out the Dodgers. Chad Billingsely was great too, giving up only the one run on four hits in six innings and allowing the game’s only run scored on an Adam Dunn ground out. It was Olsen’s first victory since July 5th of last year.

Rays 6, Blue Jays 0: When the story of the Tampa Bay Rays season is told, the emergence of David Price is going to be a big part of it. Price dominated the Jays, pitching a four-hit shutout and striking out 9. The highlight of the day for the Blue Jays was Jose Molina throwing out would-be base stealers in four consecutive innings. Alex Anthopoulos, you have a Mr. Epstein holding on line two . . .

Cardinals 2, Giants 0: Combine Dave Duncan’s genius with Brad Penny’s stuff and the San Francisco Giants’ offense and this sort of thing is gonna happen once in a while. Penny is now 3-0 with a 0.94 ERA on the season.  Nine total runs were scored in this series.

Orioles 7, Red Sox 6: The O’s were down 4-1 entering the seventh, having not been able to figure out Tim Wakefield, but then the Bosox’ bullpen collapsed, with Okajima and Atchinson throwing gas on the fire. Rhyne Hughes and Matt Weiters were the 10th-inning heroes for Baltimore, each with RBI singles. The Sox made a valiant effort to come back in the 10th with RBIs from J.D. Drew and Bill Hall, but it was too little, too late. It was a 4-6 homestand for Boston.

Reds 5, Padres 4: The Reds come from behind to end the Padres’ 8-game winning streak. Scott Rolen was 2 for 3 and scored three times. Jay Bruce was 3 for 4 with two doubles and an RBI.

White Sox 3, Mariners 2: A crisp one after a 42-minute rain delay, with John Danks throwing a strong eight innings and a Paul Konerko homer breaking a 2-2 tie in the eighth. Konerko leads all of baseball with eight homers. The won all three of their games against Seattle on late homers, with Andruw Jones and Alexis Rios providing walkoff jobs on Friday and Saturday.

Athletics 11, Indians 0: Gio Gonzalez didn’t have to shut out the Indians over seven innings, but he did it anyway. Three RBI a piece for Eric Chavez, Kevin Kouzmanoff and Eric Patterson. Cleveland lost 10-0 to the A’s on Friday, so this loss bookended their 6-1 victory on Saturday quite nicely.

Diamondbacks 8, Phillies 6: Mark Reynolds had four RBI including a three-run homer and an RBI double.  Justin Upton left the game after fouling a ball off his shin.

Rockies 8, Marlins 4: The third 8-4 game of the day yesterday which means . . . well, nothing, but you just sort of notice that sort of thing when you look at box scores all evening like I do. Seth Smith hit two homers and had 4 RBI. With Brad Hawpe on the DL now, viva outfield depth.