And That Happened

White Sox 3, Twins 0: Mark Buehrle threw seven and two-thirds shutout innings. And the game came in at two hours four minutes. Knock me over with a feather. Most underrated pitcher of the past decade?

Cubs 7, Giants 0: Great pitching all-around for the Chicago clubs last night. A two-hit shutout for Randy Wells. Once you adjust for the fact that it came against the Giants, it’s worth, oh, a 9-hit, 3-run performance, which is still very, very good.

Diamondbacks 5, Rockies 1: The Diamondbacks win their seventh straight and open up a five game lead in the west. Given that the Giants don’t seem to have a first gear let alone an extra one, is this thing over?

Phillies 3, Reds 2: Cole Hamels looked really, really good in his return from the DL (6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 7K, 0 BB). He got the no decision, but it was the right call by Manuel to pull him when he did. The pen was rested and there’s no sense taxing that arm now when it will be needed in October. Shane Victorino’s two-run homer in the eighth was the big blow. Yonder Alonso, sadly, didn’t have any opportunities for adventure down at third base for the Reds. Placido Polanco did for the Phillies, though, and he let a run in on a throwing error, so take that Alonso-haters.

Mets 2, Marlins 1: Mets 5, Marlins 1: A four game winning streak for the Mets. These two came behind nice outings from R.A. Dickey in the first game and Dillon Gee in the second.

Indians 2, Athletics 1: Tough luck loss for Brandon McCarthy, who struck out ten and gave up two runs in eight innings. But David Huff was sharp himself, shutting out the A’s on three hits over six and then letting four relievers seal the deal.

Yankees 3, Orioles 2: I think New York has been in Baltimore for seven or eight weeks now. A two-run homer for Nick Swisher. David Robertson gave up his first home run all year, but it ended up not mattering. Six strong innings from Freddy Garcia.

Blue Jays 7, Rays 3: Johnny Damon hit two homers, but Jose Bautista hit one and his teammates played better and they won, so that makes him more valuable. At least I think that’s how that works. I’m actually kind of confused about it all.

Royals 9, Tigers 5: The Royals rapped out 18 hits, pummeling Max Scherzer. Kansas City is only 17 and a half back!

Astros 7, Pirates 4: Wandy Rodriguez struck out 13 and Carlos Lee hit a three-run homer. Probably worth noting that since the Pirates little mid-season surge ended they’ve actually been no better than the Astros.

Dodgers 4, Padres 1: A complete game for Clayton Kershaw. Three hits for the now-contrite and perhaps not-as-hurt-as-he-initially-let-on Andre Ethier.

Mariners 5, Angels 3: A two-run eighth inning homer by Mike Carp puts the M’s over the top. Sadly, the Angels did not have Trout available to counter Carp. And if you think I’m not gonna beat that one into the ground in the coming years, well, you’re just not familiar with my work.


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MikeS
12 years ago

I don’t think you can call Buehrle underrated.  He does well enough without compiling sabremetric stats that he gets plenty of notice from the stat heads trying to figure out why.  He racks up 200 IP/year like clockwork.  He has a no hitter and a perfect game.  He does things that please all baseball fans – controlling the running game and picking people off are sort of lost arts.  He works gloriously fast and it all makes him a joy to watch.  There are a couple articles a year published about his unique skillset on just about every baseball website so I don’t think you can call him under appreciated.

I will say he’s just about the most unique pitcher in baseball for all these reasons and because he does it all with an 88 MPH fastball.

Jim G.
12 years ago

Hopefully Trout lasts longer than Salmon.

Karl
12 years ago

Sounds a little fishy to me. Probably a Pisces working for scale.