And That Happened

Mets 2, Yankees 1: Yesterday I cracked that Mariano Rivera, who was asked to throw out the first pitch by the Mets, would likely throw the last pitch in the “Yankees likely victory over the Mets.” Shows ya what I know. The greatest closer in the history of baseball came into the ninth with a one-run lead and promptly gave up a ground rule double and two singles. Those, along with a Brett Gardner error, gave the Mets the 2-1 walkoff win. Matt Harvey gets the no-decision, but he struck out 10 in eight shutout innings.

Braves 7, Blue Jays 6: The Braves are representative of the disturbing, destabilizing  growing inequality between rich and poor in this great nation. Except instead of money, they have catchers. Two homers for Brian McCann, one for Evan Gattis.

Nationals 9, Orioles 3: Two homers for players developed by the Braves are the new inefficiency. Adam LaRoche goes yard twice and drove in four. Roger Bernadina and Tyler Moore went deep too. Davey Johnson said he wouldn’t shave until the bats woke up. Now, despite the Nats’ biggest offensive day in a month and a half, he’s saying he won’t shave because he doesn’t want to jinx it. OK.

Rockies 2, Astros 1: Jose Veras, like Mariano Rivera, couldn’t stop the opposition in the ninth. That’s the first and last time anyone makes even the vaguest comparison between Veras and Rivera. Michael Cuddyer had three hits, including an RBI single in the ninth, driving in Troy Tulowitzki, who had doubled just before.

Reds 8, Indians 2: If this was the NBA or NFL some commentator would say the Indians are being “exposed” in recent days. Thankfully the baseball season is so long and varied that such analysis is poppycock. Eh, who am I kidding someone is going to say it anyway, even if it’s just a rough patch for Cleveland. The Reds rapped ten hits off Zach McCallister. Xander Paul was 3 for 4 with a couple driven in.

Pirates 1, Tigers 0: We’re blacked out of Pirates game here in Cbus, so the girlfriend couldn’t watch this. As we were going to bed she checked the score online and found that it was still 0-0 in the tenth inning. I said “wow, who’s pitching?” She said “Jose Ortega, so they’re probably going to lose soon.” It came one inning later on a Neil Walker bomb. Now, if someone would just explain to me why Pirates games are blacked out here in Cbus. Rick Porcello, like Matt Harvey, got a no-decision despite eight impressive shutout innings.

Twins 6, Brewers 5: A long day at work, but a good one for Aaron Hicks in this 14 inning affair. He scored the winning run on a sac fly, doubled and homered in this one. Earlier he made a leaping grab at the center field wall to rob Carlos Gomez of a home run. And what did you do yesterday? Play 15 games of minesweeper, have lottery fantasies and read baseball blogs? Well, heck, if so you actually had a pretty good day too. It’s how I spent the bulk of the years 2001-2009.

Phillies 3, Red Sox 1: Cliff Lee had thrown just 95 pitches in tying up Red Sox bats and he probably coulda finished the game, but Charlie Manuel brought in Jonathan Papelbon to close out out. Why?

“Kind of wanted to see it, if you want to know the truth,” Manuel said after the former Red Sox closer finished off the 3-1 victory over Boston on Tuesday night. “Pap likes drama. Might as well like it with him.”

Charlie Manuel: master troll.  In other news, Terry Francona comes to Boston with the Indians the other day and gets cheered. Papelbon comes to Boston with the Phillies and gets booed. Whatever, Sox fans.

Dodgers 3, Angels 0: Hyun-Jin Ryu with a two-hit shutout in this brisk, two hour, eleven minute affair.

Rays 7, Marlins 6: The Rays were down four, but no lead is safe for the Marlins. Desmond Jennings drove in the winning run with a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth to hand Miami its seventh straight loss. Our friend Old Gator informs us that the Marlins own the worst record in professional baseball in all of North America at this time, including Mexico and the minors. He further informs us that the 1962 Mets were 15-37 through 52 games. The Marlins are 13-39.

Cardinals 4, Royals 1: The 1oth straight home loss for Kansas City. The Cards are now 20-9 on the road. Carlos Beltran with a two-run homer.

Athletics 6, Giants 3: Five in a row for the A’s and 10 of 11. Giants starter Michael Kickham was tattooed. “Michael Kickham” would also be an excellent name for the lead character in a straight-to-video martial arts movie from the late 80s.

Padres 6, Mariners 1: Eric Wedge is flat wrong in saying that sabermetrics ruined Dustin Ackley. Sabermetricians hate Edinson Volquez and he ruined the M’s bats last night. So QED or whatever. Who ruined Brandon Maurer last night? I’m gonna say some combination of anarchists and the environmentalist movement.

Cubs vs. White Sox: POSTPONED: You must be somewhere in London. You must be lovin’ your life in the rain. You must be somewhere in London walking Abbey Lane.


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Jim G.
10 years ago

C’mon, Craig! Don’t Kickham while he’s down….

What did I do yesterday? I read “And that happened…” Today, too.

Dave Cornutt
10 years ago

“Papelbon comes to Boston with the Phillies and gets booed.”

They’re just giving him the reception that he’s accustomed to getting from Phillies fans… oops, did I say that?  Bad Dave!  Bad Dave!

Dave Cornutt
10 years ago

The amazing thing about the Marlins is… they were just short of 10 games behind (9.5) at the end of April, and with three days left in May, there’s a pretty good chance that they will be 20 games behind by the end of this month.  So they’re on a pace to finish 60 games behind.  Has any team finished 60 games behind since the beginning of division play in 1969?  Last night, I was looking around and couldn’t come up with one.  The woeful 2003 Tigers finished 47 games behind in their division.

Paul G.
10 years ago

After Mariano blew up I was kinda in shock for about 10 minutes.  Does not help with the sleep patterns at all!  Apparently this the first time ever Mo has blown a save without getting anyone out.  Excuse me… need to reboot my brain… Ah, there.  On the plus side the Mets bringing in John Franco to catch Mo’s first pitch was very cool.

Dave: Did a quick analysis combing through baseball-reference.com.  Since divisional play there have been 28 teams that finished at least 40 games back, 3 of which finished more than 50 games back.  (There were also some 39.5 game back teams, but I’m not in a rounding mood.)  Here’s the Top 10 Worst:

GB   Team
52   1998 Florida
51   1998 Tampa Bay
50.5 1979 Toronto
48   1969 Montreal
48   2002 Tampa Bay
47   2003 Detroit
46.5 1969 Cleveland
46   1976 Montreal
45.5 1977 Toronto
44   1986 Pittsburgh
44   1995 Minnesota

Yay!  Florida baseball! 

The 1998 Marlins were the super-awful payroll dump squad, losing 108 games in the same division where Atlanta won 106.  Tampa was not nearly as bad – 99 loses – but had the misfortune of sharing their division with a team on the short list of the greatest of all time.  Also of note, Toronto finished 40 games back for their first 3 seasons in the league.