And That Happened

Tigers 12, Athletics 2: Lose your starter after two innings? No problem. Because the Tigers have a Hulk. Miguel Cabrera hit two homers and drove in six, starting the A’s road trip off in poor fashion.

Reds 3, Cubs 1: Homer Bailey took a two-hit shutout into the eighth over what was likely some very tired Cubs. Cincy’s magic number is four.

White Sox 3, Royals 2: Five straight wins for Chicago. And a rare win against the Royals, relatively speaking. Really: the defining characteristic of the 2012 AL Central is the leaders not taking care of business against the cupcakes.

Marlins 4, Braves 3: Atlanta rallied for three in the ninth to force extras, but Jose Reyes’ two-run single in the 10th won it. The Braves are already have a gimpy Andrelton Simmons, and now they’ve lost Paul Janish, who dislocated his shoulder in this one. PLAY CHIPPER AT SHORT, FREDI! LET HIM LEAVE THIS GAME THE SAME WAY HE CAME IN.

Cardinals 4, Astros 1:  Kyle Lohse threw seven scoreless innings. See, Philly, this is how you beat a bad, bad team that you’re supposed to beat in order to stay in the wild card race.

Brewers 6, Pirates 0: Yovani Gallardo won his eighth straight decision over the listless Pirates. Wait, that’s not right. They have list. A strong list to starboard, not unlike the Lusitania just before she went down.

Twins 6, Indians 5: The battle for fourth place has become heated! The Indians used 10 pitchers, by the way. Including David Huff, who pitched for only a minute and a huff. This is just barely identifiable as real baseball at this point.

Red Sox 7, Rays 5: Looking at the schedule back in April and I bet you though this series would matter. Oh well. Fourth straight loss for the Rays and seventh of eight.

Orioles 4, Mariners 2: Let’s play two! Or at least two games worth of baseball. Eighteen innings ended, effectively anyway, with a Taylor Teagarden RBI single and yet another Orioles’ extra-inning win.  Thanks to the Yankees being off for two straight days, the O’s have moved into a virtual tie for first.

Giants 6, Rockies 3: Six and a third scoreless innings with six strikeouts for Tim Lincecum. If he’s right come playoff time, look out National League.

Diamondbacks 3, Padres 2: After dropping six straight to the Padres at home, the D-backs finally prevail thanks to a strong Ian Kennedy start. They lost Chris Young again, however, who aggravated his quad injury. Which stinks.

Angels 11, Rangers 3: An eight-run fourth inning helped seal a necessary win for Anaheim, which keeps pace with Baltimore, remaining three back in the wild card. The Angels need some help, though. Jered Weaver won his 100th career game.

Phillies vs. Mets: POSTPONED: Been down to the corner, about once or twice. I don’t know but it’s been nice. I ain’t got no money, I can’t buy a damn thing that I might like. Let’s go down to the dime store on some moonless night and look at the rain.

Dodgers vs. Nationals: POSTPONED: And if you see us on the corner and we’re dancing in the rain. I join my friends there when I see them outside my window pane. Shadows in the rain, shadows in the rain.

Blue Jays vs. Yankees: POSTPONED: This one goes out to Yunel Escobar:

Humidity is rising – Barometer’s getting low
According to all sources, the street’s the place to go
Cause tonight for the first time
Just about half-past ten
For the first time in history
It’s gonna start raining men.

It’s Raining Men! Hallelujah! – It’s Raining Men! Amen!
I’m gonna go out to run and let myself get
Absolutely soaking wet!
It’s Raining Men! Hallelujah!
It’s Raining Men! Every Specimen!
Tall, blonde, dark and lean
Rough and tough and strong and mean