And That Happened

Phillies 8, Marlins 7: First place. Homers from Howard, Ibanez and Victorino and a go-ahead single from Placido Polanco in the eighth put the Phillies in the catbird seat for the first time since May 30th.

Pirates 5, Braves 0: The Pirates have allowed more runs than any team in baseball this year, yet the Braves have scored just one run in eighteen innings this series. No offense to the Pirates intended, but if you get your ass handed to you by the Pirates pitching staff the way the Braves have these past two games, you don’t deserve to sniff the playoffs, let alone contend for them.

Orioles 6, Yankees 2: And while it’s nowhere near as bad getting beat by the resurgent Orioles, Yankees fans have to be feeling much the same as Braves fans this week. Jake Arrieta (6.1 IP, 8 H, 2 ER) stifles the Bombers as CC Sabathia is denied his 20th win as the Orioles take another from New York.

Rays 14, Red Sox 5: Five homers for the Rays, who break their losing streak and pull to within one and a half of the Yankees. The bad Dice-K showed up and nibbled. David Price did his usual “walk a lot of guys and pitch relatively inefficiently yet still get the win” thing.

Tigers 9, White Sox 1: The winning streak ends, and how. Freddy Garcia — who has been a Tiger killer lately — had to leave the game early with a bad back. Someone should have told him that when you go out tiger hunting — in case of accidents — you should always bring your mum.

Twins 10, Royals 3: That’s the thing about the Twins: no matter how much the Sox have surged, Minnesota has surged right along with them and have always seemed to take advantage of Chicago’s missteps. Delmon Young and J.J. Hardy combined to drive in seven.

Rockies 4, Reds 3: A three-run bomb from Carlos Gonzalez helps the Rockies win their fifth straight. I had previously all but handed the MVP to Joey Votto, but Gonzalez has thrust himself into the conversation with his — and his team’s — white-hot run of late.

Padres 2, Dodgers 1: But the Rockies are going to have to catch the Padres for that to happen, I think, and that’s hard when Mat Latos pitches like this (7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 10K).  The Dodgers, by the way, are snoozing their way towards the end of the season. Nice career and everything, Joe Torre, and we’ll see you in Cooperstown soon, but you need to go.

Giants 6, Diamondbacks 3: Tim Lincecum helps the Giants keep pace, mowing down 11 batters while giving up three runs through six and two-thirds. Homers from Huff, Sanchez and Burrell.

Brewers 4, Cardinals 2: Trevor Hoffman gets his 600th save. Great for Hoffman, who has definitely seen some bad times this season. Oh, and home plate umpire Bob Davidson ejected a fan in this one, which is something you don’t see every day. I’d be inclined to rip Davidson because he’s almost always wrong about everything, but word buzzing around the Internets last night was that the fan who was ejected was being abusive to Yadier Molina all night and was probably drunk. It’s a shame that the ump had to take care of his good-for-nothin’ ass instead of an usher or other ballpark personnel.

Astros 7, Cubs 3: Carlos Silva’s return didn’t go too swimmingly (5 IP, 9 H, 6 ER). Nelson Figueroa gets the win. Why don’t I remember him coming to Houston, though? I mean, I know I saw him in Mets camp down in Port St. Lucie, and I remember the Phillies picking him up briefly, but the Astros? In some ways it’s been a very long season.

Blue Jays 8, Rangers 5: Two homers for Vernon Wells, as the Jays take it to the reeling Rangers. The way all the other first place teams are playing lately, I should probably just call a Twins-Phillies World Series right now.

Mets 4, Nationals 1: Mets starter Dillon Gee took a no-hitter into the sixth in his major league debut. It’s been eight hours since this game ended and I’ve already heard too many “Gee!” puns. Next person who does it is gonna get fined.

Indians 6, Angels 1: The Angels look so lifelike lying in that box. Still, when I go, I’d prefer to be cremated, because ceremonies like this are so awkward. Oh well. Let’s go to the widow’s house. I hear there will be cold cuts and casseroles.

Mariners 7, Athletics 5: Compared to how they’ve been going, a seven run night for Seattle is equivalent to [tapping calculator keys while wearing green eye-shade . . .] 125 runs.


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Michael Caragliano
13 years ago

Wanna trade places? The update guy on the station I work for used “Chillin’ like a Dillon” in the morning update. When I told him, “What, no “Gee Whiz” comment?”, he said- with a totally straight face- that one never occured to him.

True story, Kent!

Dan in Philly
13 years ago

Every team goes through a cold spell.  The Phils got swept at home by the Astros just a week ago.  Chin up, Braves dude.

BK
13 years ago

About the Brewers/Cards game:

Davidon is out of line for ejecting that fan.  I’ve been to a lot of ball games… fans get drunk, it’s a fact.  Most of the time other fans do a good job of self-policing abusive and excessive behavior, and will get an usher if necessary.  If that fan was spouting out obscenities, than an usher should have been aware and dealt with that fan, not the umpire.  There is no authority given to umpires to interact or discipline fans who are not on the field. 

Fans also heckle players.  Also a fact of life at ball games.  I enjoy heckling a little too, especially hot heads like Molina who stir up their own share of trouble.  My guess is the Umpire got tired of listening to the guy and ejected him, or the guy shifted his heckling to the umpire and he took it personally.  Either way it is not his right to eject the fan.  It sets a precedent that is detrimental to the focus of the umpire and the game.

hdarvick
13 years ago

When Nelson Figueroa (Mets 2008-2009), after a decent Spring, was cut by the comedy team of Wilpon & Minaya on the last day of Spring Training and put on waivers, he was picked up by the Phillies (April 7th) because they had 3 or 4 pitchers on the DL and needed a relief pitcher/spot starter. They kept him on the team as long as they could but when Chad Durbin came back, even though Figgy was 2-1 with a 3.46 ERA, he was put on waivers and was picked up by the Astros on July 21st when Houston was 38-56 in 5th place. The Astros went 27-17 and are now 65-73 in 3rd place. They have won 4 of Nelson’s 5 starts. He’s 3-1 with a 2.75 ERA. Overall, Phillies & Astros, Figgy is 5-2 with a 3.03 ERA. He’s gone at least 5 innings per start (7 innings in one start) and he’s only 36!