And That Happened

Yankees 8, Phillies 3:  All I heard all day yesterday was about how totally Roy Halladay owned the Yankees so, like, look out Yankees. Then he gives up six runs on eight hits in six innings. All of which goes to show you why I’ve laughed off every editor who has ever suggested that I do single-game preview pieces. It’s baseball. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Neither does anyone else. And that’s why it’s wonderful.

Rangers 3, Marlins 2: Mike Stanton makes his home debut for Florida. Unlike Strasburg, he does not inspire a sellout. Shocking, I know. He also goes 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, but we knew that would happen soon enough given his strengths and weaknesses. As for the outcome: If I had a nickle for every game I’ve seen end on a pinch-hit RBI triple by the backup catcher, well, I’d probably have about ten cents. Though I couldn’t for the life of me tell you when I got the first five. Oh, and Josh Johnson continues to be totally sick (7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 7K). Watch out Ubaldo, here comes Josh.

Cardinals 4, Mariners 2: Jeff Suppan returns and gives up a run in four innings. He actually hit for himself in the bottom of the fourth, doubled and came around to score. He didn’t come out to start the fifth inning, however, despite having a lead and having thrown only 73 pitches, most likely because he was gassed, so no W for him.

Twins 9, Rockies 3: Rare: Matt Tolbert hit a home run for the Twins. More rare: Todd Helton hit a home run for the Rockies. Well, maybe not more rare in the aggregate, but I was more surprised to see it in the box score than I was to see Tolbert’s. And not entirely because I give less than a nanosecond’s thought to Tolbert in any given season.

Red Sox 6, Diamondbacks 3: Dustin Pedroia had a couple of hits and scored three runs. Not quite a laser show yet, but after a rough May he’s heating up in June. And hey look: close play at first, Jim Joyce calls the runner safe . . . you make the call! OK, forget it, Joyce got the call right.  I promise we media people will stop talking about this thing sometime before October.

Royals 15, Astros 7: Aviles! (4-5, 4 RBI); Bentancourt! (3 RBI). You can’t stop them, you can only hope to contain them!  In all seriousness, readers will pile on any positive comment I make about the Royals’ bats for the rest of the year, likely ignoring the fact that they’re a basically respectable offense, all things considered.

White Sox 6, Pirates 4: Ninth loss in a row for the Pirates. Mr. Rosenthal says that John Russell is toast.  Mr. Olney says that’s not true. I don’t know who’s right and who’s wrong on that, but given how quick Buster is to jump in and harsh everyone’s buzz each time a fun rumor comes out these days I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that he was never asked to be anyone’s wingman back when he was at Vanderbilt:

Dude: Hey honey, I saw you from across the room and just knew I had to talk to you!

Buster [interrupting]: Actually that’s not true. He’s had a crush on you for weeks and is just now getting up the nerve to say something to you.

Dude: Um, yeah, so, I was wondering if you’d like to go out this Saturday. I know this great little Italian place . . .

Buster: That’s not true either. He has never been there. One of the seniors in our frat said it would make him look classy to take women there. Oh, and the car he plans to pick you up in is not his. It’s his father’s. And by the way, I don’t find your friend all that attractive, so I’m not going to pretend to be interested in her while my friend tries to hit on you.

Dude: Wait! Baby! Come back! I don’t even know this guy! [to Buster]: Thanks. I hope you’re proud of yourself.

Buster: [on dance floor; doing white guy overbite dance to Foghat song, surrounded by the honeys]

Tigers 7, Nationals 4: Ryan Raburn had two hits and drove in four. Magglio Ordonez had four hits. Max Scherzer struck out nine. John Lannan demonstrated that the Nationals probably have the greatest disparity between their top pitching talent and their bottom pitching talent than anyone in the league.

Mets 7, Indians 6: Johan Santana and the Mets were down 4-1 entering the fifth, but then the bats woke up, the Mets put up a five spot and then held on for the win. The Tribe’s ninth inning rally fell short, but Shelley Duncan hit a two-run homer which will make my six year-old daughter happy when I tell her today. Of course, my daughter still thinks that Shelley Duncan leaving the Columbus Clippers and going to Cleveland meant that he did something wrong and is being punished, so she might not really understand. Not that’s she’s wrong about that.

Dodgers 12, Reds 0: Big romp, blah, blah, blah, but the craziest thing about this game was that Hiroki Kuroda came back out to pitch following a two-hour, twenty-four minute rain delay.  He hadn’t yet gone five at the time, so was Torre just trying to get him the win, or is it that Torre owns stock in Dr. James Andrews’ medical practice?

Rays 10, Braves 4: The Braves’ Chris Resop was doing great down in AAA and had a contract provision which required that he be called up by June 15th or else he could opt-out. There was a fair amount of speculation as to whether Atlanta would trade him before then, but they didn’t, the Braves called him up and he pitched last night. Whatever teams held off pulling the trigger on a trade are to be commended, because he got shelled in relief of what was, at the time, a winnable game. Not the Braves deserved to win. They committed four errors. They stranded 14 runners. They only lost one game to the Mets, but if there was any justice in the world they would have lost two games in the standings last night. Just blah.

Brewers 7, Angels 1: Corey Hart continues his torrid pace. He hit a three-run double, giving him 35 RBI in the last 30 games. Dave Bush allows one run and seven hits in seven and change for his first win since late April.

Orioles 4, Giants 1: Jake Arrieta gave up one run on three hits over seven innings, winning his second in a row to start his career.

Athletics 9, Cubs 5: One of a handful of games which featured long rain delays. Derrek Lee probably wishes it never got underway, as he had back-to-back errors, allowing four runs to score in the fourth. Fans booed Lee and then gave him a sarcastic cheer when he next made a play without an error. Which is total horsesh–, but the way.

Padres 8, Blue Jays 2: Some worker had to change the sign last night to read “We have gone 1 game(s) without an earthquake interruption.” Aaron Cunningham was called up when Matt Stairs went on the DL and last night he hit a grand slam. Shades of Gehrig and Pipp!


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Jeff V.
13 years ago

A redesign is one thing Craig but your new page overthere won’t even let me browse without signing in.  Honestly it kept redirecting me to a login page as I was trying to read about the redesign.

Craig Calcaterra
13 years ago

That’s a glitch, Jeff. We’re working on it. HBT is not going to become a registration site.

Jeff V.
13 years ago

Thanks for the quick reply.

DonCoburleone
13 years ago

Good call on the Royals offense.  I keep getting burned by them when I spot start guys against them in my fantasy league…  Seriously though, Butler is a very good hitter and then outside of him you’ve got a bunch of guys who are at least average offensively – Callaspo, Aviles, Podsednik, Guillen.  Their pitching on the other hand is Greinke, Soria, and……..  and…….  BAAAAAAARRRRRRRFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!

kardo
13 years ago

While talking about HBT anyway, I might mention that the link in your signature does not actually link to HBT. The www. part should be removed.