And That Happened

Rockies 6, Mets 2: Two outs, runners on second and third, a base open and Troy Tulowitzski at the plate. I hate intentional walks, but I understand that a lot of managers would walk Tulowtizki in that spot. Especially to bring up Melvin Mora. Boy did that ever bite Jerry Manuel in the ass! Grand slam for Mora, game basically over.

Padres 8, Pirates 5: Sometimes I wonder if, on a road trip, Pirates players ever consider walking away from the team hotel and defecting like they were Soviet ballet dancers or something. I’m pretty sure there’s a U.N. resolution somewhere that covers the dire situation in which they find themselves and would counsel that the home team provide them asylum.

Diamondbacks 8, Brewers 2: Adam LaRoche, Miguel Montero, Mark Reynolds and Stephen Drew went back to back to back to back in the fourth inning.  All four came off Dave Bush, by the way, who apparently is unaware of certain settled concepts.

Phillies 2, Dodgers 0: Matt Kemp was on the bench again because, according to Joe Torre, he wanted to run out the lineup that had scored 15 runs the night before. Maybe he would have been better off somehow finding a way to bench Roy Oswalt, because I think the opposing pitcher had a lot more to do with it.

Yankees 7, Rangers 6: The Yankees got to Cliff Lee enough to keep it close, but then they really got to Frank Francisco and Neftali Feliz to secure a comeback win after being down 6-1. Good to see Mariano Rivera close it down a day after a blown save. Fragile young closers like him need to get right back on that horse after falling off, you know, lest they get all erratic and nervous.

Marlins 9, Nationals 5: Mike Stanton went 5 for 5 with two doubles a homer and four RBI.  OK, now that that’s out of the way, allow me to observe that between Washington, Miami and Atlanta, the NL East has to be the most humid and disgusting division in baseball, weather-wise. I can’t think of any division that—in the aggregate—plays in more oppressive, swampy heat. Baltimore gets ugly, of course, but it’s offset by a couple of domes and northern teams in their division. Same with Kansas City. Texas sucks, but lovely Anaheim, Oakland and Seattle temperatures more than offset it. Philly and New York don’t nearly outweigh the awfulness of D.C.-to-Miami weather. These are the things I think about when I’m on the 1,356th straight day of sitting in air conditioning.

Braves 8, Astros 2: My Mets and Phillies friends told me “beware of late-season Billy Wagner!” They kinda have a point. Still, the Braves gotta score more than two runs in regulation before they can really start worrying about their closer blowing one here or there. And hey, if Wagner had locked this one down then Brian McCann wouldn’t have had that grand slam, and the grand slam was great fun.

Cardinals 6, Reds 1: Hit this one up as it ended yesterday. The Reds, ironically, were the ones who ended up gettin’ told.

Athletics 5, Mariners 1: Dallas Braden turns in his second best performance of the year, going the distance and allowing a single run. Three doubles and three RBI for Mark Ellis, who hit into a triple play on Monday. This is important. This means something.

White Sox 6, Twins 1: John Danks has been pretty incredible lately. Last night: 8 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 7K. The dogfight in the AL Central continues.

Red Sox 10, Blue Jays 1: Two homers for Bill Hall and bombs from J.D. Drew and Adrian Beltre as well.

Orioles 3, Indians 1: Buck Showalter is The Doormat Whisperer. Brad Bergesen with a complete game two-hitter.  Only complaint: with 13 hits and three walks, the O’s really should have scored more than three runs.

Angels 2, Royals 1: Bobby Abreu walks off with a bomb off Jesse Chavez who, for reasons known only to Ned Yost, was pitching in a critical situation. Great starts by both Zack Greinke and Jered Weaver, each allowing only one run on six hits in eight innings.

Tigers 3, Rays 2: Detroit salvages one as Matt Garza, sadly, does not no-hit the Tigers again.

Giants 5, Cubs 4: Pat Burrell had a couple of big hits and a nice defensive play on a relay throw from left field. At this point he should probably petition to have his time in Tampa Bay just expunged from his record, no?

Programming Note: I’m going to be gone tomorrow for what is, as far as you know, some important business. As such, there won’t be any “And That Happened.” Please try to find a way to muddle through the day . . . somehow.


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James
13 years ago

Re: the Pirates game recap: why didn’t North Korean soccer players do this in South Africa?

Brad Johnson
13 years ago

I decided today that I dislike watching Kemp play. He might be the most flamboyant showboater in the bigs now…

Brad Johnson
13 years ago

I can’t wait for tomorrow’s write up of the ridiculous Phillies game I just finished watching.

James
13 years ago

Regarding Kemp – the irony is that he’s frankly, pretty awful.  If you’re going to showboat, especially on defense… you really should be able to back your showboating up.