Start your morning off with a nice fresh cup of coffee and a roundup of all of yesterday’s baseball action and news in today’s Dugout Digest.
Recaps
GAME OF THE NIGHT! Florida 5, Atlanta 1: Should we just go ahead and hand the NL Cy Young to Josh Johnson now. After throwing a no-hitter through six innings on Opening Day, Johnson made a run at history again, coming within five outs of a no-no against Atlanta last night. He has now allowed a mere eight hits in twenty innings of work this season, which is just plain ridiculous. Freddie Freeman broke up the no-hit bid with a double down the third base line, at which point Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez quickly pulled Johnson from the game with his pitch count at 109. It would have been nice to see if Johnson could’ve carried the shutout all the way through, but Florida clearly doesn’t want to take any chances with their young ace. As if Johnson’s game weren’t impressive enough, he also managed to drive in a run with an RBI single in the second inning.
Oakland 7, Chicago 4: Another game, another White Sox bullpen meltdown. Leading by three heading into the ninth, rookie Chris Sale was given a chance to close the game out, but it wasn’t meant to be. He allowed three hits to start the inning and was quickly pulled in favor of Jesse Crain who managed to get one out, but also walked a man to load the bases. Ozzie Guillen (more on him in a second) had an itchy trigger finger though and called upon Matt Thornton, who has blown his first three save chances already, to get his team out of the jam, only to have him allow a two-run single to tie the game, making Thornton 0-for-4 on save opportunities this season. Yikes. Perhaps out of spite for Thornton, Guillen left the embattled reliever in to start the tenth inning where Thornton gave up two hits and two walks and got just one out as the A’s plated three more runs to win the game. Needless to say, Ozzie Guillen wasn’t too happy after the game and stormed out of his post-game press conference, but not before threatening to sign Bobby Thigpen out of retirement to help out his leakly bullpen.
San Francisco 4, Los Angeles 3: The Dodgers closed out a series where many feared the prospect of fan violence in the wake of a Giant fan being brutally beaten at Dodgers Stadium earlier this year. The fans managed to behave themselves, but the players didn’t quite have the same restraint. In what appeared to be some kind of retaliation for plunking Juan Uribe the previous game, LA’s Ted Lilly managed to hit Buster Posey with not one, but two pitches. The bad blood looks like it is going to be boiling all season long in this long-time rivalry.
Detroit 3, Texas 2: In their first game since losing Josh Hamilton, the Rangers suffered their second consecutive walk-off loss to the Tigers on a Brandon Inge homer in the bottom of the ninth. As our own Joe Lucia expounded upon yesterday, Ron Washington once again allowed his team to be defeated late in a close game without ever getting Neftali Feliz into the contest.
Los Angeles 4, Cleveland 3: The Angels survived another bullpen letdown and their third extra-inning game of this young season to take the rubber match from the Indians whose red-hot bats seem to have cooled off considerably now.
Kansas City 10, Minnesota 5: Francisco Liriano struggled once again, allowing seven runs on eight his through five innings of work. The Twins threatened to pull off a comeback for a little bit, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Toronto 8, Seattle 3: Jose Bautista came through with a clutch three-run homer to spark a six-run eighth inning for the Jays, simultaneously snapping the 17-inning scoreless streak from the Seattle bullpen.
San Diego 3, Cincinnati 2: The wildness of Nick Masset (1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 BB) did in the Reds in this one. The lefty reliever entered the game with one out in the eighth but allowed an inherited runner to score and tie the game. He was allowed to come back out for the ninth inning but struggled to find the strike zone, ultimately leading to a game-winning walk-off single by Orlando Hudson.
Philadelphia 3, Washington 2: Roy Halladay went the distance and stifled a ninth inning rally to pick up the win.
New York 7, Baltimore 4: A first inning three-run homer staked the Yankees to an early lead from which the never looked back as they defeated the Orioles with AJ Burnett improving to 3-0 in the process.
Milwaukee 6, Pittsburgh 0: Shaun Marcum was perfect through four innings and wound up combining with three relievers to spin a four-hit shutout of the Pirates. The Brewer offense mustered only six hits themselves, but they made the most out of them in scoring six runs.
Colorado 5, New York 4: The Mets paid dearly for not pitching around Troy Tulowitzki. With runners on second and third in and two out in the fifth, the Mets elected to pitch to Tulo and he made them regret it with a three-run homer to put the Rockies ahead 4-3. Ryan Spilborghs added a much-needed insurance run later with a solo shot of his own and the Colorado bullpen did the rest.
Chicago 9, Houston 5: Carlos Zambrano clubbed his 22nd career home run and notched his second win of the season as they Cubs and Astros traded five-run innings early on before Chicago iced the game with a three-run top of the ninth.
St. Louis 15, Arizona 5: It was a veritable bloodbath in the desert as the Cards racked up 15 runs in the first five innings. Be sure to check out the highlights for all of the fireworks, but also to check out Ryan Theriot’s embarrassing throwing error that is sure to lead blooper reels for years to come.
Tampa Bay @ Boston, POSTPONED: This one got rained out. We were unable to confirm the rumor that God made it rain so we all weren’t subjected to watching these two supposed contenders battle it out to decide who is off to the most disappointing start.
Lines of the Night
Pitching
Josh Johnson, Florida: 7.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, Game Score 82
Roy Halladay, Philadelphia: 9 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, Game Score 74
Shaun Marcum, Milwaukee: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, Game Score 72
Hitting
Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado: 3/4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 BB
Lance Berkman, St. Louis: 1/3, 2 R, 5 RBI, 1 HR, 1 BB
Matt Wieters, Baltimore: 2/3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 BB
Daily Links
Barry Bonds was convicted of obstruction in a rather confusing verdict stemming from his federal perjury trial.
Former Mets and Blue Jays All-Star first baseman Carlos Delgado has decided to retire.
Josh Hamilton apologizes for calling his coach “stupid” in the wake of his slide-induced broken arm.
The Dodgers have canceled a half-priced beer promotion as a response to the violence at their stadium earlier this season.
Yesterday was an emotional Opening Day for Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League.
What to Watch on Thursday
Baltimore @ New York, 7:10 EST: Jake Arrieta and Phil Hughes and their combined ERA of 25.18 matchup. This is a huge start for Hughes as he has become a big source of concern for the Bronx Bombers.
Phialdelphia @ Washington, 7:05 EST: Cliff Lee looks to rebound from his shellacking last time out while the Nationals will look to get their offense back on track after being held down by Roy Halladay last night.
St. Louis @ Los Angeles, 10:10 EST: The best pitching matchup of the night as the youngster Jamie Garcia and his microscopic 0.60 ERA goes up against the underrated Hiroki Kuroda and his slightly less microscopic 1.72 ERA.
Enjoy your day of baseball, folks!
