Wasted was a fine game by Rick Porcello (seven innings, five hits, two runs). Wasted were Al Albuquerque's three perfect innings of relief, and Daniel Schlereth's scoreless eleventh. Even Brayan Villareal's three strikeouts in the twelfth.
Because Villareal in the 13th gave up a leadoff single to Michael Brantley, tried to pick him off, and threw the ball down the right field line. (Maybe he'd been watching highlights of the 2006 World Series.) Brantley goes to second, Asdrubal Cabrera bunts him to third, and -- can you see this coming? -- they walk Shin-Soo Choo and Carlos Santana to load the bases, and the next guy blasts one deep. Which is exactly what happened. Orlando Cabrera hit one past Austin ... Jackson for a single off the center field wall. Winning run scores.
After the game, Anthony wished Villareal into the cornfield.
Usually it takes forty games to pretty much know what you have.
Twenty-seven have been played in 2011, and we already know what we have.
Wherever they go after tomorrow's game, it won't be anywhere near post-season regardless of how many teams Commissioner Allan H. "Bud" Selig adds to the playoff setup.
Not with The Strikeout Brothers -- Jackson and Raburn -- one-two in the league at the top of the batting order. Not when opponents start walking Miguel Cabrera with first base open. Not when the situational hitting is a repeat of Brennan Boesch's twelfth inning AB. Game tied, Miguel on second with a leadoff double, he swings at the first pitch and pops up to first.
What we have is the 2008 team, of which great things were expected, who finished dead last.
Six days after a future so bright that I had to wear shades.
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Fifty years ago today, Willie Mays hit four home runs in one game, against the Milwaukee Braves at County Stadium.
April 30, 1961 sticks in many fans' minds from the all-time list of players who've hit four in one game. It's been done fifteen times.
As of today, there have been 269 no-hitters. Since that list is longer, individual dates might not be so memorable. So it's easy to forget that, on April 28, 1961, Warren Spahn no-hit the Giants in the opener of the weekend series that ended with Mays' four-homer day.
One date on the no-hitter list that remains memorable is April 30, 1967. Tigers in Baltimore, Steve Barber walked ten, and the go-ahead run scored on an error by Mark Belanger. Stu Miller got the last two outs. Zero hits off two pitchers, and a win. Today you can look all this up, but I remember it all because it was Sunday, the Tigers were televising and, in the pre-MLB-TV days, if there was a game on, you planned the day around it.
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