When talking about the Red Sox-Dodgers trade from this weekend, there's a factor that people are overlooking when discussing dollars: the prospects that the Red Sox traded to the Padres before the 2011 season to gain the services of Gonzalez. One of those prospects was a young pitcher named Casey Kelly, who made his major league debut last night against the Braves. Kelly's debut really couldn't have gone any better. He threw six shutout innings against one of the top offenses in the National League, leading the Padres to a 3-0 win. Kelly allowed only three hits and two walks in his debut, striking out four Atlanta hitters. The Padres have slowly but surely turned their year around, and the future is looking pretty bright in San Diego.
Game of the Night: Blue Jays 8, Yankees 7 (11 innings). The Yankees led this game 6-3 after five innings, and a solid effort from David Phelps looks like it would be rewarded with a win. The Blue Jays got a run in the seventh to make it 6-4, and with Rafael Soriano on the hill in the ninth, the outcome looked like a done deal. Until, of course, Colby Rasmus hit a three-run homer off of Soriano to give the Blue Jays a 7-6 lead. They brought in their closer, Casey Janssen for the save…and he allowed a game-tying solo homer to Derek Jeter. It's never easy. In the 11th, Derek Lowe walked Mike McCoy, then had a pickoff attempt awry, sending McCoy over to third base. He scored on an Adeiny Hechevarria groundout to give Toronto an 8-7 lead, and Darren Oliver shut the door in the 11th to give the Jays a solid comeback win.
Pitching Lines of the Night: There was one hell of a pitchers duel in Minnesota, that's for sure. In Seattle's 1-0 win over the Twins, Felix Hernandez threw a complete game shutout, allowing five hits and one walk, tallying five strikeouts and a crazy 18 groundouts in the game. Liam Hendriks was nearly as good for the home team, throwing a complete game of his own and allowing just the sole run on three hits, walking three and striking out six. In the A's 3-0 win over the Indians, Brett Anderson allowed two hits over seven shutout innings, walking two and striking out five. Daisuke Matsuzaka was good for the Red Sox in their 5-1 victory over the Royals, allowing just one unearned run on five hits in seven innings, walking two and striking out six.
Hitting Lines of the Night: The Brewers destroyed the Cubs 15-4, with Ryan Braun going 4/6 with three runs, five RBI, a double, and a homer, and Aramis Ramirez going 3/5 with four RBI, a double, and a pair of homers. The Rangers edged the Ryas 6-5, with Adrian Beltre going 3/3 with four RBI, a walk, a double, and a homer. In a losing effort for the Yankees, Robinson Cano went 2/4 with a walk and a pair of solo homers. The Rockies thrashed the Dodgers 10-0 in Josh Beckett's debut, and Tyler Colvin went 2/4 with two runs, three RBI, a triple, and a homer.
Other Games: The Cardinals edged the Pirates 4-3, dealing AJ Burnett his first home loss of the season and increasing their lead to three games over the Pirates in the NL Wild Card race. The Orioles edged the White Sox 4-3, winning yet another one run game. The Reds edged the Diamondbacks 3-2 despite another solid start from Tyler Skaggs.
Today's Games: Chris Sale starts for the White Sox in Baltimore. Jake Westbrook takes on James McDonald in Pittsburgh. Tom Milone ventures out of his comfort zone, and travels to Cleveland to take on Zach McAllister. Stephen Strasburg starts in Miami against Ricky Nolasco. James Shields will take on Yu Darvish in Arlington. Justin Verlander starts for the Tigers in Kansas City. Matt Cain starts for the Giants in Houston. The newly impressive Hisashi Iwakuma will start for the Mariners in Minnesota against Scott Diamond. Chris Capuano starts for the Dodgers in Colorado. Potential Cy Young winner Johnny Cueto starts for the Reds in Arizona against potential Rookie of the Year winner Wade Miley. Clay Buchholz takes on Jered Weaver in Anaheim. Kris Medlen starts for the Braves in San Diego.
Enjoy your day of baseball, everyone.
