(no subject)

From the preview of today's Tigers/White Sox game:

The Tigers give the ball to Nate Robertson (4-7, 3.28), who suffered a cut on the back of his foot in Sunday's brawl with Kansas City. He picked up the win against the Royals, giving up one run and five hits in five innings.

I'm sorry, in which alternate universe did Nate pitch on Sunday and win? Oh, wait, he didn't. That's just shitty, unclear writing. What they mean to say is that Nate got the win on Friday. Oh, hell, maybe they really do think he pitched Sunday. Mike Maroth who? I do like pretending that they won that game, anyway.

Honestly, people, pay attention to what you're writing. It's only your JOB.

I am a bit worried about tonight, though. The White Sox's starter has been going crazy lately with six straight wins, and Nate's foot might screw him up. But fuck it, when he had to come out early before (incidentally, McClelland, any previous invitation to eat shit still stands), the bullpen picked him up, and they can do it again. As long as Chris Spurling stays off the mound.

As for last night:

The Astros had a doubleheader against the Pirates. They used Ezequiel Astacio for the first start and Wandy Rodriguez for the second, and won both games, 9-3 and 6-4 respectively. You may assume that Morgan Ensberg got two RBI and scored two runs in the first game, because he did. You may also assume he got another RBI in the second game, because guess what? He did. Guess how many RBI that makes? Seventy. What a stud.

I have noticed that I have not watched an Astros game in forever. Not by design, I've just been getting distracted by this Red Sox game or that Tigers game. And when I can finally sit down to watch, it's always a Clemens start, and whenever I watch him, he always gets a loss or a no decision, so I don't watch him anymore. I have also noticed that they have been doing quite well recently. I have also noticed that last year, when I did not see them play once, they got to within a game of the World Series. I think that if I am going to be a good fan, I am going to have to help them by not watching them anymore. Sigh. I'll still keep track of them the way I have been, though, that doesn't seem to be hurting anything.

Conversely, however, Bondo has gotten his message across loud and clear: I am never to miss one of his starts again if I am able to watch. I miss his last start, he gives up five runs, the bullpen shits the bed even worse, and we lose 12-9 to the freaking Royals. I watch last night's start, he goes eight innings, giving up one run and three hits, the offense jumps all over Contreras the second he weakens, and we kill the White Sox 7-1. Lesson learned, Bondo. I promise I will never miss one of your starts again if I can possibly help it.

I don't have any self-centered superstition for the Red Sox, though. Well, other than that I cannot wear my Wells #3 shirt during a game, but I figured that out a while ago. That's old news. All I know is that we won last night, freaking finally, 5-2, Manny got homer number twenty-five and managed to stay on the field for the whole game, and Schilling got his first save since 1992. Yeah, Schill!

Also, Alan Embree has been DFA'd. THANK GOD. It's about friggin' time, really. You can only afford to wait for a guy to snap out of it for so long before you have to dump him. It's a little sad to see him go, since he's one of the guys who's been around as long as I've been watching, but it was even sadder to watch him embarrass himself. I hope you get picked up by someone, Alan, but if it's the Astros or the Tigers, I will shoot myself. With a metaphorical gun, of course, but shoot myself all the same.

(no subject)

So if an inning for a pitcher is measured in outs, and a starter is pulled in the first before he gets an out, how is the game scored for his record? Hendrickson didn't even pitch a third of an inning.

Ooo, Dewon Brazelton is in. IT IS ON.

(no subject)

Well, Troy Percival is out for the season. Which makes the Farns our new closer, which stretches out our bullpen a bit. Hey, this all sounds kinda familiar. Too bad we don't have an injured ace willing to take on closing for a while while he works his way back to full strength. Hey, Dombrowski, I hear Alan Embree's available.

This is going to be very interesting. With Percival out, Ugie long since traded away, and the Farns facing some suspension time, we are going to have a stretch of games that will be very, very interesting indeed.

Speaking of interesting, today's game. I'm still in disbelief over the insanity that was the entire ninth inning.

First, though, let us discuss Nate for a second. If his foot was bothering him, he didn't show it. He gave up four hits and two runs over seven innings, and did not seem ruffled in the least by the longass rain delay in the fourth. Lovely for him to turn in a beautiful game and get a win. I don't put a lot of faith in the Win statistic in terms of evaluating pitchers - if the Win has any use, it's in comparing pitchers' records when their ERAs are close, because the number of wins gives you an idea of who gets the better support from his team - but I do like it when my boys get Ws.

Okay. So the score is 4-3 Tigers going into the ninth. The White Sox starter, Freddy Garcia, goes into the inning but promptly gives up a homer to Omar Infante. I had given up trying to watch the game after the rain delay, because I just couldn't take the unbelieveable idiocy of the Chicago announcers. These guys make Tim McCarver and Joe Morgan look intelligent and incisive. (Example: in analyzing Magglio's approach to at bats, one of them points out that Mags looks for something specific, and also that he can hit. Great. Then he elaborates: "If he's looking in, and you throw in, you're in trouble. *pause* If he's looking out, and you throw out, you're in trouble." BRILLIANT.) But when I saw this score on GameCast, I assumed, given the way the game had been going, that the top of the ninth would be over shortly and the Farns would be coming in to close it out. I decided that this was worth braving Dumbass and Co, so I pulled up the game.

Garcia is pulled. The reliever gets the first out, then gives up another run (RBI for Shelty, who also got a two run homer in the first. Is this kid for real?). He is pulled. The next reliever gives up two runs (YAY Dmitri! Capitalizing on loaded bases is FUN!). He is pulled. Reliever number forty-seven finally manages the last two outs.

"Excellent," I think, "a laugher! The Farns will take care of this game in no time!" It occurs to me that there is no bullpen guy on any of my teams whom I trust as much as I trust the Farns, and I giggle madly. Rather than recognizing my overconfidence for the warning sign it is.

The Farns, you see, has a liability. When he is on, you cannot touch him, and he has been ON lately, and that made me forget, but yes. He has a liability. Control. Sometimes he doesn't have any, and when that happens, he has a very hard time compensating. No real tricks to fall back on.

Three walks given up. Three runs scored. No damn control. He did manage two outs, but when he gave up two singles in a row, he got pulled. Craig Dingman got the last out and we won, 8-6. I never would have imagined that Dmitri's two run single would be the difference between going into extra innings or maybe just losing then and there.

And I was in shock. As I told offspeed, I was convinced that the game ended 8-7. I was so upset I hallucinated an entire extra run.

I mean, seriously, no big, we still won, he at least didn't blow the save, and everyone has a bad game (maybe the whole thing with Percy freaked him out and made him try too hard?), but that was not fun to watch.

Oh, yeah, and my other teams won too. The Red Sox finally remembered that the Devil Rays suck and creamed them 9-4 (woulda been 9-2, but, well, Halama), and the Astros swept the Pirates. Andy Pettitte rocked, the final score was 8-0, and it looks like there was a bit of excitement, which I shall copy and paste:

Taveras was called out at first by umpire Dan Iassogna on a grounder to shortstop, causing Taveras to throw his helmet in anger, and Garner also was tossed for arguing. The ejections were the Astros' first this season.

"Unbelievable. I can't understand it," said Taveras, who rarely shows anger on the field. "It should have been a fine for him, to throw me out of the game. It's 1-0 right there, and I got real excited. I shouldn't do that but that's emotions and it happens."

Garner was upset that Taveras was ejected, since helmet-tossing usually results only in a fine if it's not directed toward an umpire.

"He was safe, let's face it," Garner said. "He could have fined him rather than throwing him out of the game but he chose to do otherwise. But we got through it and made something happen that inning."

My goodness. Umpiring sure is shitty this year, isn't it?

Oh and need I even say that Moregan Ensberg has seventy-one RBI now? Yeah, I didn't think so.