And That Happened

Braves 4, Mets 1: Johan Santana struck out 11 Braves, but they nickled and dimed him for three runs in the first and then Chipper Jones knocked one out off him in the seventh. Chipper’s career may be on death’s door, but he could wake up in 2027 and hit a home run off the Mets. It’s just what he does.

Rays 4, Twins 2: Jeremy Hellickson gets called up, makes his major league debut, allows two runs on three hits over seven innings while bearing one of the hottest teams in baseball and then is promptly sent right back down to Durham. I bet he’ll be on a bus this afternoon, telling the other Durham Bulls about how you never handle your luggage in the show, somebody else carries your bags. About how you hit white balls for batting practice, the ballparks are like cathedrals, the hotels all have room service, and the women all have long legs and brains.

Indians 6, Red Sox 5: I’m not linking to video of Carlos Santana’s knee injury, nor do I even want to think about it. I watched the play once — won’t watch it again — and I couldn’t tell based on my one viewing of it if Santana was out of position or messed up in the way he took that throw. All I can think is about how, as I watched him hit multiple times in Columbus this year and once in Cleveland, that the guy was born to have a bat in his hands but never looked quite right behind the plate. I hope he makes it back and proves me wrong next year.

Blue Jays 8, Yankees 6: An ineffective A.J. Burnett watched the Jays make like the Gashouse Gorillas and do a conga line around the bases in the fifth inning and Alex Rodriguez went 0 for 5, but I’m sure this was somehow Joba Chamberlain’s fault. Six doubles for the Jays in that 5th inning, by the way, two of which came off the bat of Travis Snider.

Reds 4, Pirates 0: Travis Wood toyed with the Buccos, shutting them out on two hits over seven innings. Miguel Cairo continues to play decidedly un-Miguel Cairolike baseball, getting two RBI and keeping his average at a cool .300 on the season.

Brewers 18, Cubs 1: I accidentally closed out of the page with the box score so I can’t be 100% certain, but I’m pretty sure this one ended with the mercy rule being applied in the fourth inning and Lou Piniella talking his players out for ice cream afterwards, telling them that the point of the game is to simply try your best.

Astros 9, Cardinals 4: I didn’t watch any of this game, but based only on the box score I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Tony La Russa overthought the matchups with his bullpen and once again pulled his best reliever out of the game in order to go with an inferior one that God Almighty himself wouldn’t put into the game in that situation. If that’s what happened, I’ll take it one step further and guess that La Russa did not accept any responsibility over this afterward and instead said something like “God Almighty doesn’t have access to my super secret pitching charts and assorted genius goodies.”  Welcome to St. Louis, Jake Westbrook (6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 7K).

Athletics 6, Royals 0: If you polled 100 casual baseball fans I wonder how many of them would be able to tell you the first thing about Trevor Cahill. Whether it’s because he’s on the west coast or because he’s an Athletic I’m not sure, but I’m guessing the number is small. A shame too, because the kid is something else. He three-hit the Royals last night, moving to 11-4 on the season and lowering his ERA to 2.72.

Padres 10, Dodgers 5: Chase Headley had four hits including a three-run bomb and Will Venable homered and drove in four. The Dodgers matched the Padres in the hit department with 14, but hit into double plays, stranded runners and generally played like a team that looked like it’s nine games out of first place. Which it is.

Nationals 3, Diamondbacks 1: I’m trying to think of anything more annoying for an opposing fanbase than to have the local nine get totally flummoxed by Livan Hernandez but I can’t think of a thing. He just throws his slop up there and — when the slop is working — you just can’t do anything with it despite it looking like you should be able to totally crush the guy. It was working last night (7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 5K).


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Jim G.
13 years ago

Craig,
Piniella was out of town attending a funeral. His poor uncle did him one final favor. Trammell had to spring for ice cream on his bench coach’s salary. Does Rhyno really want to take over that team?
And if the Crew would have spread some of those runs through the Houston series, they could have a 4 game winning streak going.

Pat M
13 years ago

Carlos Santana actually was in perfect position when his leg got destroyed. He blocked the base with his left leg and maybe extended a little too far out to receive the throw but was still able to make the tag while his knee was being buckled in all sorts of wrong directions. It just seemed to be an unfortunate collision, as Kalish thought he could slide through Santana rather than try to avoid him, and they both ended up paying – Santana with his season, and Kalish with the out.

Nato Coles
13 years ago

Couldn’t agree more about Livan Hernandez’s demoralizing effect.  He’s never pitched for a team I like… he’s never PITCHED for a team I don’t like!  But somehow… gahhh.

Dennis
13 years ago

If the Rocks win the first game against the Giants tonight, key that erie music they play in the “Jaws” movies whenever the shark starts moving in for the kill.  It’s what the Rockies do.