You can always tell when the Yankees aren’t playing the Red Sox, because that’s when they have time to dig through Dominican birth certificates and wave them around in front of Miguel Tejada’s face.
Tejada, perhaps drawing on experience from the Mitchell report, wisely used the the international signal for “not guilty” by getting up without a word and walking out on the interview. Nice to know he can be so classy at his age.
The last game of the series between the Cardinals (11-5) and the Brewers (9-6) was what I’d hoped the whole series to be like. Ah well, one game out of three isn’t bad, right?
The star of the game for the Brewers was Prince Fielder, whose lack of power so far this year was beginning to cause concern over his vegetarian diet. Apparently, Fielder wanted to make his first homerun meaningful, which he did when he blasted off on Brad Thompson (1-1) in the top of the 10th to give the Brewers the lead.
The Cardinals star of the game was either Kyle Lohse, who continues to be amazingly awesome, or Kyle McClellan, the young reliever who got out of the mess in the 8th that Randy Flores had created.
Brian Shouse (1-0) picked up the win and Eric Gagne (S 4) came in to hold the Cardinals scoreless and prevent the sweep in the bottom of the 10th.
I look forward to more games like this over the year, but it won’t happen this weekend as both teams move on to new opponents. The Brewers travel to Cincinnati where Ben Sheets will take on Bronson Arroyo at 7:10pm EDT. The Cardinals stay home and host the Giants at 7:15pm CDT. Matt Cain starts against Todd Wellemeyer.
We’re back from our spring break trip to the city of Houston. Can you believe it’s only been more than two weeks since our last podcast? This season already has the old familiar feeling.
This week on the podcast, we talk about how all the teams are doing so far. You definitely won’t want to miss our newest feature, the Inaccurate Reenactment, where Jonny does a horrible Dusty Baker impression, and I do an even worse Bronson Arroyo one. I like to think that we’re expressing an inner character rather than thinking that we’re just horrible voice actors.
Yes, I know the final game of this series has already finished as I type this, but I feel compelled to document the Reds (6-9) continued suckage.
The Cubs (9-5) defeated the Reds handily, basically ending the game after they batted in the first inning and score 4 runs off of Josh Fogg (1-2). Somehow, Fogg pitched a scoreless second before completely imploding in the third (5 earned runs with no outs recorded). My guess is that the Cubs wore themselves out in the first and needed a rest before their second wind.
Carlos Zambrano (2-1) pitched 7 innings for the win. I think Zambrano wouldn’t have lasted that long, but Dusty’s “Swing first, see if it was a strike later” approach to batting is beginning to take hold with the Reds.
With Fogg ineffective again, it’s easy to look at AAA where Matt Belisle and Homer Bailey are both pitching lights-out ball. Is a change coming? After the game, Baker had this little gem of wisdom to share about possible changes to the team’s roster:
For those Astros (6-9) fans who were teetering on the ledge because of their team’s poor start, last night’s game should offer some solace. Roy Oswalt (1-3) didn’t suck!
RoyO was pretty good, actually, leading his team to a 2-1 win over the Phillies (7-8) and Kyle Kendrick (1-2).
Interestingly, it wasn’t the waste of roster space struggling Jose Valverde brought on to get the save. I think he has his nose in the corner after royally blowing a save earlier this week. No, it was Doug Brocail (S 1). It’ll be interesting to see how long Valverde’s after-school suspension lasts.
The two teams finish their series today with Brandon Backe going against Brett Myers.
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