Another day, another Walk Off Home Run. This time in extra innings, Hunter Pence delivers the fatal blow to the Milwaukee Brewers. The second time in three days a Houston Astro has walked away with the coveted HRoD award.
The funny thing here is everything in the game was just a little weird, or more to the point, predicated on poor execution. The Astros were lucky to even get to extra innings. Eric Gagne had a horrible ninth to blow the save with a game tying walk Lance Berkman. Gagne’s line 1 IP, 2HA, 3BB, 2ER, 0K.
Hunter Pence wasn’t really any better before the 12th as he nearly had himself a Golden Sombrero as he was 0 for 5 with 3 strike outs to that point. Even if you look at the video, the swing was everything you teach your kids not to do: His hips fly open, he has poor weight transition and appears to lose his balance. It was the case of the ball hitting the bat, not the bat hitting the ball. It seems the MLB has given up the embedding of video (no more menu to try), but I highly suggest taking a look at the video. Crappy swing or not, Hunter Pence you are the HRoD Honoree!
Yesterday was one of those days that was filled with meaningful Home Runs. There were 27 Home Runs in total, two walk-offs (Burrell, Schumaker), three multi-Home Run games (Uggla, Pence, Bautista) and the first of the year from Khalil Greene (Hooray…finally, the last stone cutter on my entry this year).
But sometimes meaning takes a whole different point of view, as it does with today’s honoree, Miguel Tejada. Tejada was special in the sixth when he smacked a two run Home Run against the Brewers to tie the game at 4-4. First, his Home Run was the first of three consecutive by the Astros (Berkman, Lee) last night.
But more importantly, on a night when every Astros Home Run raised $10,000 (courtesy of Citgo) to fight Muscular Dystrophy, Tejada fulfilled a promise to a young MD patient he made earlier that day. Miguel when meeting 8 year old Jacob Scott prior to Friday’s game told the young man that he would hit a Home Run for him.
The Astros, in addition to the back to back to back jacks, had two Home Runs courtesy of Hunter Pence. 5 Home Runs. $50,000 for MD research. Good job, boys.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Ryan Howard untied a 2-2 ballgame with one swing and the Phillies went on to beat the visiting San Diego Padres.
The win put the Phillies in sole possession of first place in the NL East.
Around the League:
Brewers 4 Cubs 3
The “Kerry Wood as closer” experiment might be just about over for the Chicago Cubs.
Wood blew a 3-1 ninth inning lead and his third save in seven opportunities and visiting Milwaukee beat the Cubs 4-3 - wasting another great start by Carlos Zambrano. Wood now has an ERA of 18.00 against the Brewers in three games at Wrigley.
You get the sense that it’s only a matter of time until Carlos Marmol is the closer for the Northsiders.
Rays 4 Orioles 2
They’re on the cusp of history in Tampa Bay … as the AL East-leading Rays beat the Orioles and moved to four games over .500 for only the third time in their 10+ year history.
The Rays have never been five games over .500.
Maybe there was something to dropping the Devil.
Tigers 8 Yankees 4
The Tigers completed a three-game sweep of the the Yankees in New York.
Don’t look now, but since the Tigers started 0-7, they’ve gone on a 14-8 run. And they’re now in a three-way tie for second place in the AL Central, only 1 1/2 games behind the Chicago White Sox.
It’s about time, you big, fat, wonderful vegetarian.
Milwaukee Brewers’ 1B Prince Fielder hit his first Home Run of the season yesterday, and it was a beauty in St. Louis. After doubling in the tying run in the eighth inning, Fielder came up again in the top of the tenth. In his 54th at-bat of the season … Fielder finally looked like the man that hit 50 Homers last season.
Before Fielder’s post-game press conference, Joe Dillon jokingly yelled “Prince had steak and eggs for breakfast!” He didn’t. It looked like Fielder used Dillon’s bat to hit the Home Run.
Before you blame Fielder’s vegetarianism for his slow start, keep in mind that he warmed up slowly last season as well. And then he went HR-crazy in May 2007.
The worst part about that Home Run is that Fielder did it with his pants long enough to stretch under his heels.
Which means we’re probably done seeing Fielder wearing the Babe Ruth knickers he sported a few weekends ago.
Unfortunately, it was in a losing effort for the Cubs, but nothing anyone else hit yesterday can beat Kosuke Fukudome’s game-tying Home Run in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Brewers.
I was at the Cubs’ home opener yesterday and Fukudome’s eye at the plate is everything it was advertised to be. The first pitch he saw he hammered for a double, followed by a walk, a single and that blast.
By the way, Brent Musburger did a fine job announcing baseball.
Thanks to Awful Announcing for the original clip … which MLB already took down. I replaced it with a view from the section next to mine.
Every season since 1997, Major League Baseball has had Interleague Play.
But since the AL and NL have a different number of teams, there’s always a bit of a necessary imbalance when it comes to scheduling. Add to that the doubling up of games between the geographic rivalries … and you get a Grade A Mess. There’s always potential for some contending team to be at a competitive disadvantage to another team in its division … because of the resulting imbalance in strength of schedules.
Players and managers and owners gripe about it …
What’s not fun is when they’re all contenders and your competition doesn’t have to play the same competition you do. If you play the top teams in the AL and everybody else doesn’t, it’s pretty unfair. Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves OF (2007)
The unbalanced schedule is not good for baseball … Some teams are getting a so-called lesser opponent, and other teams are playing powerhouses. Art Howe, former Oakland A’s Manager (1999)
I believe in my heart that last year the reason why we didn’t win the division is we didn’t play very well in the Interleague games and the Diamondbacks did. Dusty Baker, former SF Giants Manager (2003)
I used to be for it, but I’m not for it anymore. It’s too easy for discrepancies George Steinbrenner, NY Yankees Owner (2003)
Let’s see who gets the shaft this season … based upon 2007 MLB Won-Loss records. We’ll start in the National League Central …
I think we’re going to hear a lot of bitching this season about the Cubs’ feeble 2008 Interleague schedule.
In advance of the Mitchell Report being published, there was a lot of talk this offseason about teams possibly shying away from players who had been associated with performance enhancing drugs.
Don’t count the Milwaukee Brewers among them.
Because with the Brewers’ signing of free agent outfielder Mike Cameron last week, the Brewers have acquired three players (since November 2007) who have either tested positive for PED’s or have been alleged to have purchased them.
In 2008, the Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals are going to do something that no baseball team has done since 1991.
They’re going to break out the Powder Blue Uniforms. Mind you - they’ll be only occasionally be used as home alternate uniforms, but that’s a feat in and of itself. I don’t think anyone’s ever worn the powder blue in their home stadium before.
The Royals will be wearing blue shirts (with white pants) while the Blue Jays will go completely retro and bust out the baby blue from head to toe. The Jays will also bring back their old logo, a pullover jersey, and their old two-color cap. I have one of those hats. I love it.
There’s no word yet as to how often the Royals and Jays will do this in 2008, but the vibe is that they’ll do it enough that they petitioned MLB to add the uniforms to their regular cache of kits.
The St. Louis Cardinals have worn powder blue throwbacks in road games twice (2005 vs Tampa Bay and 2007 vs Milwaukee).
Considering that we’ve hardly seen powder blue for the last sixteen seasons (and the fact that no one under the age of 21 likely has any memory of powder blue baseball) let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit the teams that dared … to wear blue.
Prepare yourselves for a trip when the blue wasn’t just in the azure sky over the field. And watch out for lots of polyester pullovers and stirrups.
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