1. Vroom, vroom: The NY-Mets collected 20 hits and drew seven walks against the Tigers in a 16-9 victory on Wednesday night. Angel Pagan (his name is good and evil personified) and Daniel Murphy each had four hits and four RBIs. The defense did its job, too, holding Detroit to three Jason Hanson field goals.
The Mets, who have compiled 30 runs the past two games in the Motor City, might be channeling the ghosts of the '86 champions. Those boys could hit. How better to explain their offensiveness lately? Over the past four games, the Mets have accumulated a team-record 52 runs, along with 69 hits.
The only one of five Tigers pitchers to escape unscathed was Don Kelly (who is not a pitcher). The utility man with the 1950s name tossed a perfect third of an inning, getting the last out of the ninth after spinning this "curveball" to Scott Hairston.
2. Arm abusers? Because of a limited bullpen, St. Louis Cardinals cognoscenti Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan let right-hander Chris Carpenter throw 132 pitches in a 5-1 victory at Baltimore. Carpenter swears he felt as strong at the end as he did the beginning ? which is key, because throwing pitches while tired is a surefire way to get hurt. He says he wasn't tired. It's just that he's thrown 590 pitches combined in the past five starts.
3. Sign this, swing at at that: Phil-in starter Vance Worley had a clubhouse guy ask Dustin Pedroia for an autograph and then he goes out and shuts down the Red Sox in a 2-1 victory for the Phillies. Philly goes for the World Series in June sweep today.
4. Pitchers with clam sauce: Ricky Nolasco > Guillermo Moscoso in a confrontation of pitchers whose names sound Italian, but aren't. Nolasco pitched a five-hitter in Florida's 3-0 victory at Oakland.
5. Hey, Chicago, whaddya say?: I was going to complain about manager Mike Quade taking out Ryan Dempster in the ninth when he had a shutout going on 83 pitches, but the Cubs came back to beat the Giants 2-1 anyway, so I don't care anymore.
6. Cleveland rocking right now: And ... the Cleveland Indians are in first place on the last day of June after winning 6-2 at Arizona.
7. He was a quarterback in college? A.J. Pierzinski hit a tie-breaking sacrifice fly about 150 feet, but Seth Smith's throw home was too hot to handle for Chris Iannetta, and the White Sox squeaked by with a 3-2 victory at Colorado.
8. Try again, Nats: The Washington Nationals obviously need to change managers again. Davey Johnson's boys were swept in his first series as skipper, falling 1-0 at Los Anaheim after the offense refused to score for Jordan Zimmermann.
9. Because it's the Yankees: You should know that A.J. Burnett and the Bronx Bombers beat the Brewers 5-2.
Follow Dave on Twitter ?�@AnswerDave ? and engage�the Stew on Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment