Wasted / Willie, Spahn, and Barber

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.

Oye Como Va

We really showed those Cleveland Indians how the game should be played, didn't we?

Two three-run leads allowed to get away, and then four in the ninth on a walkoff grand slam by Carlos Santana. 

How WAS that royal wedding? Just as entertaining, I'll bet, and with a happy ending.

Other than gift-wrapping the game and handing it over, the evening was notable for the presence of three Cabreras in uniform: Miguel for the Tigers, and Asdrubal and Orlando for the Tribe. 

7-2 Mariners In The Ninth

Blah blah blah blah RABURN yadda yadda yadda CABRERA blah blah blah blah NO HITTING yadda yadda yadda LEYLAND yack yack yackitty yack THE OFFENSE MUST DO BETTER blah blah blah VERY DISAPPOINTING blah blah blah MY GOODNESS yadda yadda yadda NICE AREA ... 


A suggestion for viewing tomorrow night's game in Cleveland: TIVO the royal wedding and watch that instead. 


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Speaking of our first place friends from across the lake: I have the game on; they're beating the Royals 7-0 and have hit four home runs in the first four innings. Their lineup consists of guys only Fantasy League players and people like me have heard of, and they don't have trouble winning. 

Give Me A Break

If you can't win at least two of three from the Seattle Mariners at home, regardless of who they pitch, you don't deserve post season and have no business thinking about it.

Their second, third, and fourth hitters: Chone Figgins .180, Milton Bradley .216, Miguel Olivo .217. Hitting sixth, Jack Cust at .177. 

Those numbers, in tonight's box score, reflect two days of fattening their averages on Tiger pitching. 

When Justin Smoak hit a three run homer in the first inning, off Justin Verlander, I knew they were doomed and turned the game off.

So I missed the six run ninth. Five hits, a wild pitch, and the night's fourth error. Ryan Steelglove clanged one at second. It doesn't matter where he is; the ball finds him like iron does a powerful magnet. Placido Polanco (.389, one error in 57 chances this year), where art thou?

Please pray for the Tigers. Pray to St. Despairia, the patron saint of managers who have to write Ryan Raburn's name into the lineup at any position except DH. 

Marination

When they play the Mariners, on the radio each time:  "Not hitting ... four home runs all year ... bottom of the league in every offensive category ... five guys hitting under .200 ..." 


None of the above have kept them from scoring ten, and now seven (tonight) runs against the Tigers. 


If they hit against Tiger pitching every game, they'd be fine. 


The theme of tonight's game -- futility -- was established in the second inning, when a Miguel Olivo fly ball clanged off Ryan Steelglove's mitt and into the bullpens for a home run. 


Nice catch, Ryan. In the MLB headlines and on the highlights again, and again for the wrong reason. 

One Degree Of Separation

How can you get from the Cardinals' outfield to the international border between the United States and Canada in two people?

Start with Cardinals' outfielder Jon Jay, one of those rare players who has two first names, each the same length, and both of which start with the same letter. 

John Jay was the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from 1789 to 1795. 

While Chief Justice, he negotiated Jay's Treaty with Great Britain which, among other things, defined the border between British North America and the Northwest Territory. 

After the Revolutionary War, British forces continued to occupy six forts in the land lost to the new American nation, including Fort Detroit. Per the treaty, they retreated to their side of the water boundary that now separates Michigan from Ontario, and Port Huron from Sarnia. 

So, when the Cardinals play, and Jon Jay comes up, you get to think about American history. And that's how you learn history.

Yes, It Can

Max Scherzer shut the Pale Hose down on four hits and two walks over eight innings. 

Jose Valverde came in for the save, and the South Siders were thus broomed out of town, losers of nine out of their last ten, and losers the last nine times they've played the Tigers. 

There is nothing to like about the Chicago White Sox. Not their manager, any of their players, their uniforms, the ball park, or their radio announcers. Everything about them reminds me of a dip in Lake Huron ... in December.

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The Reds are playing the Cardinals in the Sunday night game, and the news here is that the Yankees or Red Sox aren't. 

This pairing makes the game available in three places on the AM radio dial: 1000 (ESPN WMVP Chicago), 700 (WLW Cincinnati) and 1120 (KMOX St. Louis), and bless the Cardinals' hearts for putting the games back on KMOX that can still be heard 40 states at night even with all the HD hiss.