So, What Did I Miss? Write Your Own Recap, Again. (4/17/16)

Author by indaburgPosted in Baseball

Yesterday’s experiment worked so well, I decided we should try it again, but this time I am outsourcing the recap to some Indians in New Delhi. I am told it is much more cost effective than having us Americans do it. Direct any complaints to scout.

Y’all did a great job, and I still have a million boxes to unpack. I will do a few teams–the ones I know we don’t have any fans posting (people invite your friends!), but the rest, do your own damn recap! I don’t know what I missed. So how do I know I missed it if I don’t know what I missed? Ugh, you know what I mean! Help a sister out. I didn’t get cable and wi-fi until 4 pm. Pretty please. 🙂 I asked nicely, see? I bought two shower curtains but I still haven’t put mine up. The kids got a Batman shower curtain–I did put that one up. It looks cool! The kids are going to freak out when they see it.

This is our jam: Darkness! No parents! Super rich! Kinda makes it better.

I know this isn’t a Rays blog, but since I am a super fan, and I write these things, they’re up first. I don’t always write about them first. I make an effort not to, in fact, because this is not a Rays blog and I try to be somewhat fair. I am a baseball fan first and foremost, and I am aware my biases affect how I see things. In any event, because of the debacle on Friday night, I wanted to write the follow-up. The Rays came back energized Saturday night, looking like a completely different team, beating the White Sox 7 – 2. It was the best I have seen them look all season.

I wasn’t expecting much from Saturday night:

“…they had been shut out in their previous 19 innings, and scored once in their past 27, in losing three straight, and would be without catalysts Logan Forsythe and Kevin Kiermaier.”

Erasmo “No Quality Starts” Ramirez is the Rays best pitcher at the moment. I mean, he is pitching really well, however, if Erasmo Ramirez is your best pitcher, your team might have a problem. One simply does not allow Erasmo to face a line-up a third time. Last night was the first time the Rays had a lead first in a game. It was the most runs they had scored all season, and it was the first time the starting pitcher has recorded the win. It has been a really rough start.  This is not a team like the Braves or Twins. They were supposed to be good. Eff you, PECOTA. We have hopes and expectations. Baseball, you’re so cruel. The cruelest mistress I have ever known.

I did notice that it was a large crowd, almost a sell out, on television, and they were loud and lively. I texted my friend at the game. She said the atmosphere was electric. The team just seemed really energized. Here’s a narrative: the events of Friday lit a little fire under this team. Come on baby, light my fire.

Jim Morrison attended St. Petersburg Junior College, SPJC. I’d like to think he would have been a Rays fan. Because really, y’all should be. 😉

Of course, if they come out flatter than a pre-pubescent girl today, then forget that narrative. That’s what’s nice about narratives. You can just make them up as you go along.

Steven Souza Jr., who hit a fan with a foul ball through a gap in the netting that was only 1.5 baseballs wide on Friday night, looked especially focused, going 2 for 4 with a run scored.

As for the fan, the 63 year old woman is in stable condition at Bayfront Hospital in St. Petersburg. She is responsive and has suffered facial fractures. She took the foul ball to the face in the second row next to the Rays’ dugout. I have sat in those seats many times, thanks to some friends of mine. My thoughts are with the fan. Souza says he plans to visit with the fan–he has been in communication with the husband.

“Anything I can do to encourage her,” Souza said. “I know if it was somebody in my family I’d like that, so I’d like to do that for her.”

He was a player I really had no opinion of one way or another, but seeing how concerned he is for a fan–I am very touched. Consider me a big fan now. I will no longer mock his horrific outfield routes (aka the Misadventures of Steven Souza Jr.)

Anyone who complains about the new netting, here’s a refreshing can of STFU. I chilled it for you. I would rather provide safety for the fans. We didn’t sign up to die when we go to a game. And don’t give me the “pay attention to the game” crap. I keep fucking score on a scorecard. I am paying attention. All it takes is one moment of inattention to get hurt–reaching for a hot dog, getting up to allow another fan to their seat, buying a beverage from a vendor, or blinking involuntarily to moisten your eyeballs if you are close enough to the field. You do blink, right? I have sat behind netting many times. You forget it’s even there.

The Rays have fixed the hole, which was there to allow photographers a view. I know the area. There is a well there for photographers. That gap was there to allow the photographers a view of the field without the nets, a place where they place their long lens. The primary question I have: do the Rays settle with the fan out of court or let her sue them? I would just settle.

As for my broken people, Logan Forsythe and Kevin Kiermaier, they feel “okay.”

Seriously, that is what the headline says. I would have said, they feel great because they are supposed to be in the line-up today. Kiermaier complained of a strong headache after the collision which… hmmm. Ugh, okay. Sigh. He passed the concussion protocol, but… I am unconvinced. (I worked at a stroke center when I was in the ER-Brains ‘R Us. Brains…Brains….) I suppose the Rays really dodged a bullet with that one although I would still make KK rest. Kiermaieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer played football in college and he needs to remember that this is not football. (My laptop did that to Kiermaier’s name –my ‘e’ key got stuck, but I am going to leave it because it is making me laugh. It looks like I am yelling his name–KHAN!!!!! KIERMAIEEEEEEEEER!! Yes, more coffee, great idea! That is just what I was thinking.)

Last night might have been better because Chris Sale wasn’t pitching. Danks is no Chris Sale. Prior to that, the Rays had to deal with Sale and Carrasco on Cleveland. Batters facing those pitchers tend to look like a fool, boy. They throw that speedball by you. Okay, enough Rays chatter.

I watched some of the Dodgers last night, and I saw Scott Kazmir get rocked. Rock the Kazmir, rock the Kazmir…

I want that red beret.

Poor Scott. I like the former Skeeter. My dad’s favorite team, the Dodgers, fell to the Giants, 4 -3. Why the Dodgers? First team to integrate and Fernando Valenzuela. I have seen Fernando pitch live. I am such a lucky duck. 🙂 I was truly raised right. Not the best pic, but this is my dad in his Dodgers jacket that he wore everywhere:

IMG_0009 (1) - Edited
Central Park in the fall with his girl. Brain cancer.
IMG_0016
This is one is for my ladies, or any non-hetero male visiting. Dad was a hottie.

Mr. Cueto looked great, stymieing the Dodgers. He pitched a perfect game into the 5th inning. He pitched 7 1/3, allowing 7 Ks, 2 BB, 1 ER, 3 H. A quality start for you, good man.

As far as I know, there are no Mets fans posting other than me. I do think we have a Cleveland fan who visits, but since I like the Metsies, I’ll do a brief recap for them. They lost to Cleveland 7 – 5, in spite of Granderson, Walker, and Cespedes going yard. And in spite of me hanging up a shower curtain in his honor, the Dark Night is not pitching well this season with an 0 – 3 record, although win-loss record is a horrible way to assess pitchers, so I sincerely apologize for that transgression. I suck. My apologies to Bob Friend.

Here is a better way. He pitched 5 2/3, allowed 6 H, 5 ER, struck out only 4 while walking 3. That K/BB ratio is no way to go through life, son. What is the matter with the Dark Knight? Darkness, no parents? But being super rich, and all those cool toys, that’s gotta cheer you up a little, right? You’d think all the endorphins from working out so much would have elevated Bruce Wayne’s mood a bit too, but maybe that just works for me. Anyhow… the odd thing is he held them hitless through 5 innings, and then he vomited all over the place. Uh, Harvey, not Bruce Wayne. We’re talkin’ baseball… Kluszewski, Campanella.

Say hey.

Alright, I have a million boxes to unpack. I hate living surrounded by boxes. I want to have them unpacked by the time the Rays game begins at 1 pm. I think I can do it. Yes, more coffee! So, what did I miss? Same assignment as yesterday. A recap of your team and a song (or 2 or 3!) to fit the mood, por favor. Gracias, amigos y amigas. The comments make for such a pleasant break. I actually like this format a lot–Write Your Own Recp. The interaction. I think I will make it a regular feature. On the weekends, I usually have more time to do these recaps, but during the week, on my custody nights with the kids, time will be scarcer. This format will work great. You guys are all great writers. It’s the reason many of us stuck with HBT: the writing in the comments.

86 thoughts on “So, What Did I Miss? Write Your Own Recap, Again. (4/17/16)”

  1. After Jim Morrison gets done lighting your fire, can you use it to light my team on fire? When COPO said they were 3-52 with RISP, I was expecting *approximately to come after it… and then he kept revising it upwards. Eff. Em. El. I understand that this is something that will balance out in the long run, but the Yanks’ offense is getting to the point where I can use it to illustrate Sequence of Returns risk to clients approaching retirement.

    Kiermaier’s still have headaches? Passing the protocol or not, they’ve gotta be safe with him. Supposedly Forsythe was available for pinch-hitting duties last night, so hopefully that’s another indicator that he’s more battered than broken.

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    1. Yep, he c/o strong headache. Fuck the protocol, rest him. Treat that brain like porcelain. As their team nurse, my recommendation.
      He gets hit in the head again so soon after that hit, it won’t be pretty.

      Hell no, I like somnambulant Yankees. 🙂

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      1. they don’t even need to look at yer fancy books to know that, they can look at belt, or mauer, or John Jaso Jingleheimer Schmidt. those guys kept going down. and jaso Can’t go behind the pate anymore.

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        1. I only have to talk about the career of Justin Morneau (cries). He went from one of the best players I’ve seen in my life to sad shell of a ballplayer in a few short years. Thanks, concussions! Eff you, too, brain injuries!

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        3. Joe Mauer works, too. Why do you think he’s not a catcher anymore? Relegated to first base for the rest of his career. Because he kept getting bashed in the head.

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        6. I once hit myself so hard in the back of my head when I was home alone (who makes steel metal bunk beds and why?!) I clocked myself changing sheets on the bottom on a piece that jutted out. I blacked out, vomited when I came to, and had a fever later on that night. You are not thinking straight. It never even occurred to me for a second, “I should go to the hospital.” I thought, “Oh, I am coming down with something. I should rest and sleep.” When someone is hit in the head, you have to think for them.

          That hit to the head explains a lot, huh.

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    2. Alright, since you are a friend, I will suggest one way of lighting a fire under your team. Give your slumping hitter flowers:

      If it is good enough for Cutch, it is good enough for pinstripes. He singled and scored.

      Children are wonderful. 🙂

      (Note: I figured out a work around if you are REALLY motivated to embed an MLB video in your comment. When you click that little blue arrow, instead of copying the link, save the video. In other words, download the file. Create a youtube account. Upload that video to youtube. Post the URL in your comments. That is how I got that video to appear. I already had a youtube account so the whole thing took less than 3 minutes. What took the longest was uploading/processing the video. Let’s see how long before MLB takes the video down…)

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  2. The Nats continue to take advantage of the good fortune of their April schedule filled with teams not expected to contend; they’re 9-1 and already have five game lead in the East. We’ll find out how good they really are in a couple of weeks, as starting on April 29 they have a ten game road trip where they play the Cards, Royals, and Cubs

    I didn’t see much of the game last night, as NHL playoff games involving the Caps will always trump April baseball in a head to head matchup around here #BecauseItsTheCup; I hope such sentiments don’t get me banned from this place. From what I could tell when watching during intermissions, it was another fast start for the Nats (3 in the top of the first), another home run for Harper (he loves hitting in Citizens Bank Park) and a well-pitched game from Scherzer. Moreover, to use a phrase frequently invoked at that place we used to hang out, Scherzer helped his own cause with a two run double after the Phillies walked Espinosa to get to him with two outs. I personally don’t think pitchers batting is a concept that’s long for this world, so it’s nice to see things like that happen when they do.

    Speaking of Danny Espinosa, I just saw this in my Twitter feed:

    Absent Ben Revere, the Nats still really don’t have a leadoff hitter, so unless Espinosa gets going soon, perhaps we’ll see Turner up, playing SS and batting leadoff before too long.

    Enjoy your Sunday everyone.

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    1. You forgot your song, sir?

      You are not banned.

      I fly a Bolts flag all the time on my vehicle. Let’s go Light-ning (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap). 🙂 I hear J.T. Brown is now out for the rest of the play-offs, and Stamkos is already out with the clot. Not good, even though we’re up 2-0 on the Red Wings. Baseball will always trump hockey, but it keeps me from dying in the winter.

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      1. My apologies for the lack of musical accompaniment to my post. I had thoughts of “She’s A Rainbow” in honor of Scherzer and his heterochromia iridium, but decided on something with a more local flavor:

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  3. The Barves jumped on Feesh beginner Tom Koehler for six runs in 3.2 innings, tattooing the hapless hurler for nine hits including four doubles. You can’t exactly say Koehler had nothing – his aim was pretty good, right down the middle of the plate for the most part. Adeiny Hechavarria and Justin Bour homered for the Rainbow Warriors but it wasn’t nearly enough. Oddly, it was the boolpen that pitched five point one scoreless innings once Koehler had been sent back to the Tyrrell Pyramid for a reset. The Iron Giant, meanwhile, went one for four with four strikeouts. Nothing to be concerned with here, folks – Mickey Mantle did that all the time, remember? Afield, Hechavarria boehnered a throw to first in the fourth inning which, if you followed the crumbs, led to an unearned run and a wicked witch on food stamps.

    The Feesh are now 3-6 to open the season, totally weenless at home so far, and even the Barves are creeping up n them. Today, Jared Cosart, who also got shelled last time out, sallies forth against Julie Chacin (or whatever her name is) to see if the Feesh can ackcherley win at home.

    Meanwhile, Fat Fredi’s seat has cooled down enough so that the three sunnyside up eggs next to him remained uncooked by the end of the game. On the other hand, Jar Jar Baseball is getting nervous because, clearly, HE is not happy:

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    3. Pretty much what OG said, except from the Barve side. There are a few Atlanta-centric things that I will add, though.

      First – thank the Lord for Mallex Smith. I know he wouldn’t be in the bigs unless Inciarte hadn’t gotten injured because they want to keep their young guys hidden in a box somewhere down in Gwinnett or Rome, but at least he’s fun to watch sometimes.

      There’s an issue with hammies on the Braves team, btw. Becks got pulled last night for the same issue. Um…. Inda, when you’re done being the Rays’ nurse, can you moonlight in Atlanta as a trainer?

      I still hate Bud Norris.

      Finally, Jason Grilli is the sweatiest man in baseball. He goes out there and five pitches in looks like he’s been on a three day hike through the Andes or something. I mean, he sweats like a boxer at the end of a hard won prize fight. Is it because he’s nervous? Does he run a marathon before he comes out to the mound? It’s just gross to me.

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        1. So demanding. I said further down the page that it’s a lazy Sunday morn and posted a lazy Sunday morning song! And I posted one for the Brewers’ recap! But if you insist that I choose a song for the Braves, I will comply to your wishes, oh benevolent demi-ruler. (Just wait still Scout gets back, I’m going to tattle on you.)

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        3. Bite me.

          Nothing hurts me more than the Braves, so I guess it really is true love. Well, nothing except the Cubs.

          Torn between two lovers, feeling like a fooooooool…. loving you both, is breaking all the ruuuuuuuules.

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        4. My team pains me. Oh, the pain I felt Friday night. Seriously, I felt sucker punched I thought baseball couldn’t hurt me so bad anymore. I’m not 14 years old. She is such a bitch, baseball.

          The Cubs make you wanna leave the one you’re with and start a new relationship with them, this is what they do…

          You harlot, you. lol

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        5. Oh no you don’t. I’m a faithful woman in every aspect of my life…except with baseball. But even then, I’ve been true to the Braves and Cubs all my life, or at least since 1988. 🙂

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        6. You cheat on your team with another team in the same league? At least I have the decency to pick teams in different leagues, and I always reassure my Rays, “You are my number one baby. That other team, the Mets, they’re just for fun, a little fling on the side. If I have to pick, it’s always gonna be my one true love. My Rays.”

          My goodness! For shame. For shame. And back then, they were even in the same division! How did you live with yourself?! 😉 Tramp! Hussy! Homewrecker!

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        8. Oh, hell no. That was for that hussy Professormaddog31 and Trader Joe Maddon. Left the ones they were with to start a new relationship with the Cubs. That’s what those Cubs make people wanna do. Not me though.

          I’m true to my team. Well, I do have a side relationship with the Mets, but the Mets are just a fling. The Rays know they are my #1, and I’m bi-league, so the Rays are totally cool with it. I even let the Rays watch. They watch me watch the Mets play. It’s very odd. Complicated.

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        9. Trader Joe Maddon?

          I can’t tell if that’s funny because you are being serious, or if it’s funny because you aren’t.

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        11. That doesn’t really help me figure out if you know the difference between “trader” and “traitor” though.

          I remember a LOT of Cardinal fans had trouble with those two words when Heyward signed with the Cubs…

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        12. Okkkkkkay. It was a silly play on words. Trader Joe. Like the store? http://www.traderjoes.com/

          Get it? Get it? Trader = traitor? Trader Joe, where you can get 2 Buck Chuck. The store that is owned by the brother of the guy who owns Aldi? It made me chuckle. I did it on purpose.

          Uh, you should know that I know the difference between trader and traitor. I also know the difference between your and you’re (you are). And it’s (it is) and its. And there, their, and they’re (they are). Let’s get that all out of the way.

          Please don’t ever compare me to a Cardinals fan… sigh. Cardinals fans are MORANS (sic). I can take almost any insult but that. Compare me to a Red Sox fan, even. Slappy’s pretty cool.

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  4. I didn’t watch the Jays/Red Sox yesterday, except for the first half inning, in which JD tripled and scored. Apparently David Price still knows how to pitch, and my boys are still working on perfecting the art of striking out, showing equal preference to swinging at strike three and merely watching it go by. This is for the swinging strikeouts…

    Actually, my evening was spent doing something much more important than watching baseball (GASP! Heresy!!!). Last night I attended the finale performance (out of eight performances during the week) of the musical “Beauty and the Beast” at my kids’ high school. My daughter played three separate roles, and has been crazy busy for weeks, but the end result was well worth it, with six performances during the week for the local elementary and middle schools, capped off by sold out public performances on Friday and Saturday evenings. They have been working hard for weeks to put this together and it went flawlessly. Now, as she says, she can concentrate on schoolwork again… not that her marks have suffered at all; she has a 95 average so far in 9th grade. Actually, they will perform it one more time, in May, at the Provincial Drama Festival at one of the local universities.

    Now out of consideration to my FI family members, I will NOT post a video of Celine Dion singing “Beauty and the Beast”. You’re welcome!

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    1. I will NOT post a video of Celine Dion singing “Beauty and the Beast”.

      Hockey talk will never get you banned. Celine Dion will. Permanently banned! We need SOME standards around here. 😉 Congrats to your daughter! What three parts did she play? I have children, but I admit, I owned Beauty and the Beast well before children were an idea. The bookish Belle spoke to me, although the whole Stockholm Syndrome thing–well, I just overlooked it. The movie came out during Disney’s Renaissance and the music–oh, the music is fabulous. Be Our Guest, Gaston, and yes, even that sappy title track.

      I prefer the Angela Lansbury sweet version of Beauty and the Beast with her elderly voice cracking 10,000,000,000 : 1 to Celine Dion’s bombastic, ridiculous version:

      That is how you sing that song, Dion. I cannot listen to Celine Dion, I am sorry. I’d rather listen to Justin Bieber if I am going to pick “Death by Canadian Music.”

      Ah, I love doing theater. I miss it. I was, believe it or not, an extremely, painfully shy child, and drama club–well, this crazy person you know now, you can thank a drama teacher for this. She saw something in this loony. I preferred musical theater (duh) but Antigone was one of my favorite parts. I understood her well. I hated my uncle so much.

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      2. ‘Burgie… she played a villager in the opening scene and the mob scene, and a cheese grater in the “Be Our Guest” sequence, but she really rocked it as one of the three “Silly Girls” that were always fawning after Gaston. She is anything but shy on stage, and taking both voice and dance lessons certainly have helped.

        Hey, love the pictures of your Dad above… in the second one he looks like Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky of “Starsky and Hutch”).

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        1. Oh, the 3 Silly Girls, lol!! So freaking adorable!

          Thank you. Dad would have fit in well with this crew. My dad was such a ham in pictures! I have one of him from the early 70s rocking a brown leather sleeveless fringed vest with no sleeves and he was shirtless, ROFL. And his pose, with his leg up… it was hilarious. I was like, “DAD!!!” You gotta love the 70s…

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        2. Daddy Burgie DID look like Starsky! He’s even wearing adidas! 🙂 (I love Starsky and Hutch, don’t even get me started)

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    1. also, i haven’t clicked on you home run posts, I don’t know how you acquire players, but as I understand many fantasy games have dollar values assigned to players based on past performances. If this is the case and wm. Josh Reddick can be had for cheap, he may give you some cover. He hit 32 in 2012, and seems healthy and in a much better place mentally this year, he hit his third yesterday off chris young (grain of salt). I am not saying he should be your first pick or anything.*

      Sonny pitched OK. I missed much of the game due to soccer (baseball was at 9 am, I don’t know what the final was, even though I am one of the coaches, because I think the “umpire” and the other coach were making up rules. I didn’t press them because they are between 7 and 8). (I know, weak excuse, huh @nbjays)

      still the royals are annoying because they don’t strikeout. they just foul pitches off and get pitch counts high, and they don’t even mean to, they just don’t want to strike out.

      *don’t ever take advice form me unless you are facing prison time, that is the only place I know my shit,

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      1. You mean lefty’s HR pool thingie? You just pick a player you think is gonna hit a home run this week. If he doesn’t you are eliminated from that pool. You also have to pick a player you get to keep for the season. Why, I dunno, it’s confusing. He thinks it makes sense, but it only makes sense in his nutty head. Just go pick someone who hits good. No dollar values.

        *don’t ever take advice form me unless you are facing prison time, that is the only place I know my shit

        Duly noted. First person I call when I make my west coast tour of ballparks and get arrested for trying to kidnap Mike Trout to bring him back to the Rays. “I swear, occifer, I only drunk these many dranks. How many fingers I has? Oh, way more than that.”

        Likewise, don’t ever take advice from me unless it involves farting. I am the queen of gastrointestinal disorders.

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  6. Lazy Sunday mornings require Lazy Sunday Music.

    OG gave us a Feesh-centric recap of the Barves game, regardless of the win the Barves still Barved. That’s really all I gotta say about that. A Brewers’ recap will come shortly, in it’s own comment. 🙂

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    1. I haven’t been lazy this morning, ackcherley. After dashing orf my enervated recap of last night’s entropic fiasco, I overcompensated by cutting up some slightly expired steak to augment the morning feeding of my four houndlings of the Apocalypse, then for myself, wife and sole lingering offspring in the nest, making buttermilk crepes with a fresh sliced strawberry and toasted almond filling o’erhanced with a pureed strawberry, ricotta, plain Greek yogurt and heavy creme sauce laced with a bit of sherry, honey and a tad of nutmeg.

      Now, I’m retiring to the viewing room to watch Randolph Scott in Buchanan Rides Alone, the film that inspired Kurosawa’s Yojimbo which, in turn, inspired Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars.

      Lazy?

      Au contraire. Ambitious to a subduction zone.

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      1. Randolph Scott! I love that guy. A long time ago, I determined that if we could film biopics of baseball players and choose any actor to play them, my biopic of Harry Leroy Halladay II would be played by Randolph Scott. I still think it would be the best baseball biopic ever.

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    2. I haven’t been lazy. I have put away about 900,00 boxes, folded just ’bout every bit of article of clothing I own, wrote this post, responded to your comments, about to make another pot of coffee, and I think I have time to check out my new fitness center at the apartment complex before the game. That Geocities Kitty link is about the rate pace.

      I will then have earned my right to relax during the game, a refreshing beer in hand, lay about my new shanty and get a good buzz on. 😉

      Great song.

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  7. jim morrison famously went to another school, whose host city already had a baseball team.

    Also, I used to ride “the big blue” bus to school everyday. It was the nickname of the Santa Monica bus. “The big blue bus.” because they were/are blue. But just regular size.

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    1. Ah yes, the People’s Respublick. Have they repealed that free ATM rule Tom Hayden instituted back in ’99? (Obviously, I haven’t been in Santa Monica in a very long time.)

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      1. i was drinking in santa monica in the 90s, then we decided to go to venice. we parked the car on a side street and decided to cut across the RAND parking lot . it was I dunno, 9 pm on a weeknight?, as we are traversing the the empty stalls, 4 or 5 extended vans pull in at a high rate of speed and park near 3 construction trailers in the lot. About 25-30 people get out of the vans, a few mill around, others go quickly into the trailers.

        i think that’s were they saved reagan’s brain.

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  8. Today, it’s the rubber match between the Pirates and the Brewers. We know the Brew Crew won the first match, and the Pirates won yesterday. As Inda mentioned in the comments, Cutch got his first home run of the season yesterday off of the weak pitching of the Brewers.

    Taylor Jungmann isn’t a good pitcher, but he tried. The score was naught-naught until the fourth, when the Bucs’ bats woke up from hibernation. It ended up 5-0 Pittsburgh when it was all said and done. There’s really nothing to say; bad pitching, bad at-bats, bad everything for the Crew. It just wasn’t their night.

    Today, though? No Braun in the lineup, so there goes a threat. My small child Scooter bats second. As ridiculous as that sounds, on this team it makes sense. That’s how terrible they are this year. But it is also a sign of how much Gennett has improved this season. ❤ my boyyyyyyyeeeeeee.

    Because I look at the Brewers’ lineup and only recognize maybe three names at any given time, I offer this as the Brewers’ song in today’s recap.

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  9. I’m pretty low energy this morning but the Twins torrid 2 game winning streak deserves something. I can’t think of much so I went generic

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    1. I hope you don’t mind, Happy, but I fixed the link in your comment so it would just embed the video straight away. 🙂

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      1. Don’t mind at all, thanks. I was disappointed when it didn’t embed for me. What needed to be fixed, take out the bing search stuff?

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  10. Jake Arrieta took the mound for the Cubs yesterday.

    You know some how managers will mentally give their pitcher a limit before the game starts, if they give up X number of runs, the manager will pull them out of the game. That number gets flipped for Arrieta.

    Saturday, Arrieta struck out eight and walked one. He threw 100 pitches and batted in the bottom of the eighth, but Maddon decided not to let him finish the complete game. Maddon said his cutoff was five runs. When the Cubs got up 6-0 in the eighth, that was it.
    “You have to draw that line in the sand at some point,” Maddon said.

    Arrieta now has 23 consecutive quality starts, 3 away from tying Bob Gibson’s record. His ERA during this stretch is 0.91. He’s also working on a nice little 48.2 inning scoreless streak at Wrigley, which is the longest such streak in the history of the ballpark. You have to go back to last July, specifically Cole Hamels no-hitter, to find the last time Jake gave up a run at Wrigley.

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      1. He’s taken a somewhat similar career path as Jose Bautista.

        I saw a lot of Jose when he was with the Pirates. He was not anybody special at all. Then he got flipped to Toronto (for a PTBNL you’ve never heard of) and now he’s Jose Fucking Bautista. Who he is now is most certainly not who he was.

        Arrieta is much the same. Who he was in Baltimore is most certainly not who he is now.

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        1. Some guys just plain pitch better in different places. I’m always interested in the people who actually pitch well at Wrigley, which as we all know is a hard place to pitch consistently. And then there’s the organizational philosophy of pitching – sometimes it’s counteractive to how that person pitches, and they just can’t get along. I mean, Max Scherzer in Arizona is a great example. Did he pitch well there? I barely even remember him in a D’Backs uniform. And then he went to Detroit, where he was able to be Max Scherzer, and that’s working all right for him.

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        2. Yes, they pitch better in different places, but it’s always as simple as “plain pitch better in different places.” Scherzer studied and changed his approach. It didn’t happen because of a simple change of scenery. He is one sharp cookie–very bright man, and he evolves. Now, I’m not talking Coors Field vs. Citi Field–park factors being relatively equal.

          I don’t think Arrieta was a simple change of scenery either. I agree with you on the organization philosophy. I think with Arrieta, it’s a combination of an organizational approach and his willingness to change and learn. I think he would have done well with the Rays, too. Jim Hickey is the pitching whisperer. Reading about Arrieta, (http://baseball.playerprofiles.com/sampleplayerprofile.asp?playerID=9173) he seems the type who learns and adapts. He was overweight once. You see the way he looks now? He’s a beast.

          These aren’t your grandfather’s Cubs. Or your father’s. Be very thankful.

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    2. Also, Arrieta has signed an underwear modeling deal with some company I’ve never heard of but one of my Cubs loving friends blasted me with shirtless photos of a bearded Jake and said something to the effect of “It’s been nice knowing you, I’m going to go die now.”

      Of course the beard ruins the effect for me, personally, but hey, man. Whatever boats your float. 😛

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        6. I understand. As a nurse and a former personal trainer, I assess the entire body from head to toe immediately. The training is impossible to turn off–it is so ingrained in us.

          I don’t mind his beard. It’s groomed. It is the Duck Dynasty/Santa Claus type beards that disgust me.

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  11. Johnny Cueto retired 13 straight Dodgers before Yasmani Grandal doubled with one out in the fifth. He threw 7.1 innings of three hit ball and was in command throughout. After a poor second half and a very shaky spring, Johnny is looking like the pitcher who has the second lowest ERA in MLB over the last five years (one guess who’s first).

    Corey Seager came into the game without a homer and he gave way to Charlie Culberson @ SS on Friday night. In the eighth inning last night, he went to a 3-2 count against tough lefthander Javier Lopez and then he smoked a home run to left centerfield that shows why so many people are excited about him.

    Only a matter of time before Corey is a Millionaire.

    More encouraging news for the Dodgers as Yasmani Grandal looks fully healthy now, smacking another double to lead off the ninth inning against Santiago Casilla. I’m counting the days until Hunter Strickland yoinks the closer job from Casilla, but he settled down and closed things out last night.

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    1. Casilla, nee Jario Garcia, is anothere one of those new place guys. He was DFA’d by the A’s in before 2010. he was not someone I would trust with high lev innings. He was well liked, and the fans never even got on his case, he was a 6th inning guy, maybe 7th or 8th if there was a stressed bullpen.

      but the giants picked him up and he has been quite good.

      he is old, though, so I imagine he is due to slow down.

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