Wednesday, May 21, 2008

And That Happened

Rays 3, A's 2: Emil Brown, whose misplay of a ball in the eighth made the difference in the game, is not exactly the consummate teammate: "Brown said he tried to get low to the ground to have a better view of the ball, but that didn't work. After speaking to the official scorer after the game to tell his side, the play was changed from an error to a hit."There's nothing I can do about losing the ball in the lights," Brown said.

I have no idea if players think about this stuff, but his lobbying act added half a run to Joey Devine's ERA. Over the whole season that one run will cost him less to his overall ERA, of course, but it could still end up costing Devine some money, couldn't it?

Braves 6, Mets 1/Braves 6, Mets 2: Think the Mets are finally getting wise to that whole send-Glavine-to-NY-to-sabotage-the-franchise-then-invite-him-back-for-victory-lap scheme? Nah, probably not. I mean, if they were that sharp, they would have fired Willie Randolph already. Of course, with a twin bill like this one, that may come pretty soon.

Orioles 12, Yankees 2: It's been 16 years since both New York teams finished under .500. I doubt that's going to happen this year, actually, but I do like to give the non New Yorkers out there something to root for from time to time.

Phillies 1, Nationals 0: When you have two pitchers throwing like Hamels (7 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 11K) and Bergman were (7 IP, 5 H, 0 ER) you hate to see one of them have to lose while the other wins. Thankfully, the bullpens didn't let that happen to either of them, as Tom Gordon snatches the victory because Jon Rauch couldn't hold the lead.

Brewers 7, Pirates 2: While ShysterBall can not independently confirm this, sources close to the Milwaukee Brewers organization tell ShysterBall late this evening, in the midst of another horrid road trip, and on the heels of a sweep by the Boston Red Sox, that Brewers manager Ned Yost fired up his laptop this morning and laughed his ass off at all of the scorn being heaped on bloggers who incorrectly reported his demise. Or not.

Red Sox 2, Royals 1: From the AP game recap: "Papelbon then came in and got Butler to swing and miss at a third strike. The closer pumped his fist several times as he walked from the mound." We're reporting on the showboating now? Why didn't they do this back when Pascual Perez used to pitch?

Marlins 3, Diamondbacks 2: Hanley Ramirez is having a pretty bad month (.266, 1 HR, 5 RBI). Lucky for the fish, Dan Uggla has been a house a fire: (.429/.507/1.036).

Tigers 12, Mariners 8: If you're a Tigers fan and you see this score and you know that Verlander was pitching, you assume that the troubles continue. Except he was pretty good actually (6 IP, 4 H, 1ER, 7K, 1 BB). It was the bullpen that cratered late. Tigers fans hope Jim Leyland's profane pregame ramblings [right sidebar under "audio"] helped light a fire. (Thanks to Mike at The Daily Fungo for the link).

White Sox 4, Indians 1: The Tribe's 1-4 hitters combine to go 0-16 with five Ks and zero walks. That's the kind of thing that will cause your otherwise en fuego pitching staff to despair.

6 comments:

Dre said...

The Marlins/DBacks game was the poorest show by a home plate umpire that I can remember. Dale Scott made a mockery of the strike zone.

Anonymous said...

Nitpicking...but how did the Nats have a lead for Rauch to hold?

Jay said...

The Leyland clip is priceless...

Also, the Yankees gave up 8 unearned runs. Mussina lasted 2/3 of an inning but was only charged with one ER while giving up 7. At a certain point, can we start charging them back to the pitcher? They don't call them unearned hits...

Dre said...

rough night for Jeter, his error let all those runs become unearned... then he GIDPs, then get HBP and leaves the game

Anonymous said...

APBA Guy-

The Emil Brown saga continues. This misplay was his second of the week, as he failed to get back on Brian McCann's "double" in Atlanta. Since he never touched that ball, there was no need for lobbying the official scorer.

But his disastrous misplay sucked the wind out of the struggling, beloved A's. Not only did it add a run to Joey Devine's ERA, it added 2 to rookie starter Greg Smith. Devine had struck out 2 after Smith had put two on to open the 8th. in a 1-1 game. Having intentionally walked (more or less) Longoria, Devine had two outs and got Navarro to fly to left. Inning over. Or so we thought.

Keep in mind that all this defensive virtuosity (5 runs and counting lost due to his "defense" in the last 3 games) comes as he sports a .668 OPS, 160th out of 183 regular MLB starting position players. The A's have one OF on the DL and one rehabbing in AAA. Emil better start lobbying for something more than converting his errors to hits.

Anonymous said...

APBA Guy-

Correction in the above post: the IBB was to Pena, not Longoria. That will teach me to double check before I print. Sorry.