And That Happened

Cardinals 7, Reds 3: Mike Leake got rocked and the Cardinals made a statement in game one of a big series. And it is only one game, Reds fans, even if it didn’t feel like it. Jim Edmonds’ Reds debut: 0 for 4. Theory: he’s a deep cover agent sent out by the Cards three years ago with the express purpose of hiding his tracks in Chicago, San Diego and Milwaukee before submarining the Reds. Very clever, La Russa. Very clever.

Red Sox 2, Yankees 1: I stand by my real-time Bard gushing from yesterday, subsequent Teixeira homer notwithstanding. Dude announced his presence with authority.

Astros 10, Braves 4: I’m coming down with something nasty. Feels like a flu. Aches all over and just general blah. Because of this I went to bed really early last night, turning this game off when the Braves were up 4-3. I’m glad I did because I don’t think I could have stood it to watch Kyle Farnsworth come into a close game, let alone blow the hell up like he did here. Single, throwing error, walk, single, wild pitch, and finally a walk for The Perfesser, and of course Peter Moylan came in and allowed basically everyone to score. If I was watching this I would have put a brick through my monitor. My guess: Farnsworth doesn’t see for the rest of the year unless there’s a minimum of a six-run spread at the time.

Orioles 3, White Sox 2: And the O’s keep rolling. Walkoff blast for Brian Roberts in the 10th. The homer came off J.J. Putz, though, not Bobby Jenks so I suppose that kept Ozzie Guillen from committing homicide last night.

Rays 6, Tigers 3: It wasn’t efficient — 115 pitches in five innings — but I suppose David Price’s 9 Ks were effective enough. Eight losses in ten games for the Tigers. On the bright side, they can safely make October vacation plans now.

Diamondbacks 7, Brewers 4: Ken Macha has been putting Trevor Hoffman into games late again, probably as a means of getting him to 600 saves before the year is out. This wasn’t a save situation — it was a tie game in the tenth — but it probably shows the folly of continuing to put Hoffman into anything close to critical spots anymore, as the Dbacks tag him for three runs.

Giants 4, Cubs 3: Carlos Zambrano returned to the rotation and, while he only allowed two runs in five innings, he walked seven dudes and one of those runs scored on a wild pitch. So yeah, there’s more to work on than just anger management.

Angels 6, Royals 4: The Angels jumped out to a 5-0 lead and held on as the Royals charged late. Bobby Abreu had three hits and drove in four from the leadoff spot. And by the way, can I tell you how much I love seeing Bobby Abreu in the leadoff spot? He was born for it — at least the latter-career, low power version of him was — and it’s nice to see Mike Scioscia finally get his mind around the fact that you don’t need a fast dude to bat first.

Mariners 3, Athletics 1: Dude: Triple play. Around-the-horn style, too, which is way more awesome than those “second baseman gets a line drive and everyone stands around confused while he randomly tags people and makes an anticlimactic throw to first to double-off a dude” kind. And hey: let’s just ignore the fact that it the throw to first was almost certainly late, shall we? The M’s had a bad enough day without letting little old things like facts get in the way of a good story.