Did you not watch an out of baseball yesterday because you were so caught up in the NFL Draft coverage? No? Well, I got a recap of yesterday’s 11 MLB games anyway.
Blue Jays 5, Rangers 2: BJ’s scored three in the 9th inning off of 40-year-old lefty Darren Oliver on three hits and a walk, but only one was officially earned. Frank Francisco, who helped the Jays get out of an 8th inning jam, picked up the win in striking out three in 1.1 IP. Stat of note: the Rangers had five stolen bases, including three from Elvis Andrus.
Mariners 7, Tigers 2: Michael Pineda is the real deal, folks – he struck out the first four batters he faced, including Miguel Cabrera, and wound up with a career-high-he’ll-likely-break-again-this-season nine strikeouts in six innings en route to his fourth win. Miguel Olivo, who was the beneficiary of that Ryan Raburn blooper the other night, hit his second home run of the season. That’s fine, but you should never let Luis Rodriguez seal the deal with a three-run homer, as Ryan Perry did in the 8th inning. Clean sweep for the M’s.
Red Sox 6, Orioles 2: The Red Sox managed to save a game in Baltimore, beating the O’s, 6-2, thanks to four late runs. Courtesy of Boston’s MLB.com recap, in 17 career starts against Baltimore, Red Sox starter Jon Lester is now 14-0 with a 2.33 ERA and Boston is 16-1 in those games. The top three hitters for the Sox were 8-for-15 with five of the six ribs.
Rays 15, Twins 3: Ben Zobrist, 4-for-6 and EIGHT (8!) RBIs. I feel like I would be cheapening that output in Game 1 of a day-night doubleheader if I added anything else on it, so I won’t.
Rays 6, Twins 1: Ben Zobrist had a two-run homer to give himself a paltry 10 RBIs on the day (he outscored all but four teams on Thursday). Zobrist may have stolen the spotlight, but the Twins only managed two hits (and four baserunners) off of Rays pitching in Game 2, which was the real story.
Nationals 4, Mets 3: Livan Hernandez appears poised to revive his 16-year-old MLB career with the Nats – he threw eight great innings (two earned, five strike outs) to lower his ERA to 3.23 on the season and improve his record to 3-2. New daddy Ian Desmond hit a home run and then a triple a couple innings later to help the Nats get the go-ahead run.
Giants 5, Pirates 2: A Pirates error in the 3rd inning led to four-runs for the Giants and that was all Ryan Vogelsong would need in his first MLB start since I was graduating high school. Brian Wilson struck out the side in the 9th to pick up the save for the Giants.
Indians 8, Royals 2: Shin-soo Choo and Carlos Santana broke out of the freezer and homered back-to-back in the first inning, ultimately helping Fausto Carmona and the Tribe to an easy win. Oh, just their 10th straight at home. It’s not even the end of April yet, but I have the inkling to call the Indians contenders and not pretenders … I guess we’ll find out more when they take on the Tigers this weekend.
Cardinals 11, ‘stros 7: A nine run inning will usually do the trick. That’s what the Cardinals had in the 6th innining thanks in large part to Lance Berkman, who was 4-for-5 with five ribs on the day. The best thing that happened all day for the Astros? Carlos Lee got back above the Mendoza Line. He also managed to steal a base.
Yankees 12, White Sox 3: Bob Costas was on the call and, yeah, that’s all I wanted to say about that. The Yankees pounded out 13 hits and 12 runs to support CC Sabathia, who didn’t give up an earned run in seven innings. Nick Swisher had three hits, his first homer of the year, and four ribs. As for the White Sox, well, they’re struggggggggalin, and Ozzie Guillen just wants to talk about baseball, “[expletive] tweeting.”
Diamondbacks 11, Cubs 2: In the night-cap, the Diamondbacks allowed people willing to stay up late and give this game a chance an opportunity for an early exit by scoring seven in the first off Ryan Dempster, thanks to a J.D. Drew grand slam. They added three more over the next two innings and it was a straight-up coast job from there. The win put Barry Enright in the win column for the first time since September 2010.
Hitting Lines of the day:
Ben Zobrist, Tampa Bay Rays: 7-for-10, 10 RBI, 2 HR, 5 R, 3 2B
Lance Berkman, St. Louis Cardinals: 4-for-5, 5 RBI, 4 R, 2 HR, 1 2B
Stephen Drew, Arizona Diamondbacks: 2-for-5, 5 RBI, 3 R, Grand Slam,
BJ Upton, Tampa Bay Rays: 4-for-7, 2 RBI, 3 R, 4 BB
Nick Swisher, New York Yankees: 3-for-4, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 3 R
Elvis Andrus, Texas Rangers: 2-for-4, 1 R, 3 SB
Adrian Gonzalez, Boston Red Sox: 3-for-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI
Grady Sizemore, Cleveland Indians: 2-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 2B
Pitching Lines of note:
CC Sabathia, New York Yankees: 7 IP, 7 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W
Livan Hernandez, Washington Nationals: 8 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W
Jeff Niemann, Tampa Bay Rays: 7 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 K, W
Michael Pineda, Seattle Mariners: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, W
Alexi Ogando, Texas Rangers: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, ND
Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox: 8 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W
Fausto Carmona, Cleveland Indians: 7 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W
Ryan Dempster, Chicago Cubs: 1 out, 4 hits, 7 earned runs, 4 walks, 0 strikeouts… wow.
What to watch for tonight:
Just watch baseball tonight, okay?
