Royals 9, Blue Jays 6: Toronto Drops Series to Kansas City Juggernaut

If you are wondering whether or not this dropped pop up led to runs, know that it totally, totally did.

Not great. The Blue Jays came back from a 4-3 west coast road trip -- which, given the way the Blue Jays play out west, is an unassailable triumph -- only to lose two out of three to the perennially, deservedly lowly Kansas City Royals, a team which I have not yet forgiven for 1985, when they had the audacity to come back against an obviously superior Blue Jays team in the American League Championship Series and deprive Toronto's best-ever baseball team the championship it so richly totally didn't deserve because it couldn't beat Kansas City in the ALCS. I was six.

Rather than focus on the negative coming out of last night's s-show, however, I would like to take a moment to point out that J. P. Arencibia hit his twentieth home run of the season, tying John Buck's all-time team-high mark for catchers, leaving him only four behind Eric Hinske (lol)'s Blue Jays rookie record of twenty four. Should we also note that Jose Bautista went 2-3 with a double and two walks, and at this point should pretty clearly win the AL MVP this year and actually might because of Ellsbury/Pedroia/Gonzalez vote splitting? Let us also note that E5, who has been absolutely tearing it up in the second half, is having the weirdest year ever: how is it even possible to hit 13 HR and 31 2B and only have 42 RBI? That is legitimately shocking. I was no less shocked when it was demonstrated at Drunk Jays Fans (which has been so much better this season than last, you have no idea) that E5 is basically the fourth-best DH in the league, and the three guys who are better cost a comparative fortune. He is an enigma, this E5.


But the final word today goes to Brett Cecil, whose countenance here speaks to last night's awfulness.

Hwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh?

KS

Blue Jays 4, Royals 3: Brett Lawrie Homers and Triples; Jose Bautista Homers and Owns

Call it two.

It's probably crazy to like anything from last night's Blue Jays win over the Royals more than the Brett Lawrie solo shot in the seventh that put Toronto in front for good, but here I am thinking about Jose Bautista's two-run homer in the fourth more than anything else. Luke Hochevar started the inning by plunking Yunel Escobar, who got a little heated up about it. Escobar was probably in the wrong: there really isn't any reason to think there was anything intentional about what had just happened. But Escobar didn't like it. And so after Jose Bautista ripped a ball off the facing of the third deck in left, Bautista lingered for a moment at the plate, staring at Hochevar, and, indeed into the very souls of the haters. It was clearly an act of backing his dude up, even if his dude was wrong and is, to many (though not to me), quite unlikable. Jose Bautista is the best, man. Not unlike Eli, he did it.


Also it is worth noting that this was the first time Ricky Romero wasn't awesome in like six weeks. I'm going to let it slide.


KS

Attn: Phillies

I don't care if you win the World Series.  I don't care if you win the next ten World Series.  Because on one day in August, you let this man, THIS HEAD CASE, THIS FRUSTRATING HAND LICKER who need 46 PITCHES to get out of the second inning beat you.  THIS PERSON, who WILLINGLY POSED for THIS PICTURE beat you. 

And that is a stink that's going to linger.  

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You're goddamn right we will.

TIM LINCECUM, Giants Win 2-1

Good eye, ump. (h/t @8thInnWeirdness)

Tim Lincecum is an unstoppable beast. If he was on the Phillies or the Yankees or the Brewers or the Astros, or any other team with an unstoppable offense, he'd be 32-1. He does everything amazingly, even with a...let's say..."questionable" strike zone, as seen above. He'll give you 8 innings and less than two earned runs, all you have to do is give him two to three runs. Sometimes, he'll even bust out his own RBI single that ends up making the difference in the game. Tonight was pretty special.

Carlos Beltran had two hits, including his first home run as a Giant. That was pretty cool. And even though Brandon Belt made a huge baserunning error that culminated in an inning-ending double play, he had three hits, including a triple, and a stolen base. Good thing he was batting seventh! Note to Bruce Bochy: don't bat your hottest, best, and most patient hitter seventh. It's sort of an "unwritten rule."

A series split with the Padres to stay two games back. I'll take it. The Astros come to town tomorrow for a four-game series, and hopefully they won't walk all over the Giants QUITE so much this time around.

Royals 6, Blue Jays 4: But I'm Not Trying to Hear That Right Now

Patience, my pets. Patience.

When I turned the game on last night, the Blue Jays were down 6-0. Brandon Morrow was out of the game, and Bruce Chen yeah Bruce Chen was totally carving up the Blue Jays lineup. I turned it off, thinking I had all the Blue Jays news I needed. Not so! Much to my surprise -- to everyone's surprise, I think -- the Blue Jays shipped Aaron Hill and John McDonald to Arizona in exchange for Kelly Johnson. The way the story goes, the Diamondbacks came calling for Johnny Mac, looking for his smooth-as-silk glove work no doubt, and Alex Anthopolous was pretty much like, " . . . so I heard you liked underperforming second basemen?" and Kevin Towers was like "not really, we've got one of those already" and then AA was like "Aaron Hill is the underperforming second baseman you are looking for, not Kelly Johnson" and Kevin Towers was like "Aaron Hill is the underperforming second baseman we are looking for, not Kelly Johnson," and the deal was done. I don't know anyone who has taken any pleasure at all in the lingering demise of Aaron Hill, who used to be straight-up awesome, but now can't hit a thing, and, what's more, isn't fielding the position well at all, as in, the guy isn't getting the ball out of his glove on double plays. It's awful, and makes me feel bad. Kelly Johnson is also bad, but better, and John McDonald has already indicated he wants to come back in the offseason. Here's how Eric Seidman summarized the deal at Fangraphs:


On the surface, this deal seems completely about the 2011 season, and under that guise it makes very little sense for the Diamondbacks. They downgraded at second base in a more significant way than they upgraded at shortstop, and potentially lost out on better compensation picks in the process. This is a head-scratcher.


I'm with Eric Seidman on this one. This is not a major deal in any way for either team, but I can't see how this makes any sense for Arizona, and I say that as a guy under no illusions on the subject of Kelly Johnson. In a minor way, Alex Anthopolous has totally done it again. The only thing that concerns me is how Jerry Howarth is handling all of this. That guy loves John McDonald like . . . like I don't even know, man. He just loves that guy.


KS

70-58

Giants Don't Get No-Hit, Lose 7-5

Ump: "Hey, maybe you should learn to win, asshole."

The Giants have a terrible call go against them, Matt Cain gives up his first home run in 80+ innings, and after that, it's academic.

For the first five innings or so, it looked like the Giants were going to get no-hit at home against the noxious Mat Latos, so it's a great thing that didn't happen. The whole first half of this game was one of the Giants' patented "find new ways to lose/squander every available opportunity" games. Aaron Rowand grounding out to kill a bases-loaded situation where Latos had just walked three Giants in a row. Three massive, ridiculous Giants errors. Aaron Rowand hitting an infield popup with a runner on third and one out, which would have brought the Giants within one run. The Giants wasting leadoff runner chances. Going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Aaron Rowand swinging at pitches that bounce in the other batter's box. Hmmm...I'm seeing a common theme here.

Oh yeah: Aaron Rowand started against a right-hander because Nate Schierholtz is injured. Yep. Also, Carlos Beltran was activated today, but didn't start, because he can probably only bat left-handed and refuses to bat righty-on-righty. Beltran did show up for a pinch-hit appearance with a couple of runners on, and promptly popped up to the infield.

Late in the game, the Giants scratched and clawed to tie it up, which is the most that they've looked like the first-half Giants since...well...the first half. Ramon Ramirez promptly coughed up a double, a nearly-disastrous sac bunt, a single, a wild pitch, and another single to lose the lead and the game in the top of the ninth. But the Giants were out of this game in the top of the first inning when they fell behind 1-0 and everyone in the park knew it but them. It's heartening to see that they didn't just roll over. Maybe if they hadn't had those three errors! Maybe if that blown call hadn't gone in favor of the Padres! Maybe if Miguel Tejada's pinch-hit liner in the eighth hadn't been right at the third baseman's glove! Maybe if Aaron Rowand wasn't completely worthless! Sometimes it's just bad luck I guess. It's really hard to tell when the Giants are a hard-luck team, or just a bad team. Pretty much indistinguishable at this point. The rallying cry from the Giants community is "They're bad, but they're not THIS bad." That's...that's not a good rallying cry.

The Giants fell to two games back today, because the Diamondbacks were able to snap their losing skid against an inferior team. Say, that sounds like something that the Giants should try! Whoops!

69-58

The 2011 New York Mets Summarized In One Paragraph

"Judge Jed S. Rakoff’s barb in court late Friday afternoon -- when he thanked the lawyers involved in the suit against Fred Wilpon for giving him tons of paperwork because “otherwise I would have had to watch a Mets game, which would have been a very painful process” -- quickly filtered back to the team’s clubhouse at Citi Field. In fact, at least two people in uniform expressed somewhere between disbelief and disgust, not taking too kindly to the quip at their expense."

- by Adam Rubin, ESPN.com  

After crossing Item # 392 - "Zing the owners of a Major League Baseball franchise" off his bucket list, Jed Rakoff moved onto Item #393 - "Clone a theme park's worth of extinct dinosaurs from DNA extracted from fossilized mosquitoes."  

From Grant Brisbee to Carson Cistulli to Me to You, Dearest Baseball Feeler

Is that a bat in your stance or . . .

Over at NotGraphs, FanGraphs aesthete-in-chief Carson Cistulli links to a piece by Grant Brisbee in which many animated .gifs are used to demonstrate how baseball is awesome, and I urge you to go see. "Five Different Things Baseball Players Can Do With Their Bats" is the finest thing to emerge from the baseball internet in literally days. The above image is not from the piece itself, but is instead just Aaron Rowand doing that thing he does, which calls to (my) mind that thing that Reed Johnson does, where he steps out between pitches, sets the head of the bat in the ground, the knob resting atop his cup (you heard me), whilst he adjusts his batting gloves. I have always thought of this position as the tripod; only now does it occur to me that it could also be described as the reed johnson, if you follow me. That I can find no images demonstrating this position is even more disappointing to me than it is to you, so don't start.

KS

Blue Jays 1, Athletics 0: Yussssssssss

Goodness me it is another dinger

Although I loathe Gregg Zaun as an analyst/commentator/smug bro, I shared his pre-game reservations about Luis Perez getting the start in the Blue Jays' series finale against the A's yesterday. Perez had been that rarest of birds: a Blue Jay who was reliable out of the bullpen. We don't have guys like that. Let's just . . . let's just go with that. Why push it? Obviously anybody who can be a starter should be, as there is vastly more value there, and I totally get that, but I, like Gregg Zaun, was like oh man this could be rough today. It was, however, not! Perez allowed but a lone hit, and worked out of a bases-loaded jam, and Casey Janssen, who should pretty clearly be the closer, didn't allow a hit in his three innings of relief. Blue Jays bats didn't do a whole heck of a lot better through the first six, though, with only two hits and no runs to show for them, but in the top of the seventh Jose Bautista hit is MLB-leading 36th home run of the season, no big deal. With two outs in the top of the ninth, Bautisa tripled, too, which was immaterial in the outcome of the game and so can only be read as a direct response to the continued, senseless hateration on the part of the haters, in my view.

What it do, Butters. What. It do. 

This is his "OH-it-is-another-dinger" face

The men of the hour . . . too sweet to be sour? Yes. Exactly that sweet.

That is how you end your west-coast swing, friends. On to Kansas City, where Romero and Morrow and maybe even Cecil will cut a swathe through that "lineup." (I hope.) 


Finally, I would like to note the extent to which Jerry Howarth had no time for Gregg Zaun's inanity  yesterday, and cut him dead in the middle innings. Here is what happened (quoted from memory, and you know how that goes, but still):


JH: Jammed on that pitch.
GZ: You know what I say, Jerry. It must have been jam, because jelly don't break no bats.
JH: I have heard you say that before, yes.
GZ: (chuckling) And does it make any more sense to you now?
JH: In Milwaukee today . . .


Jerry Howarth is a cool, cool killer. His pleasantness and good-natured love of the game of baseball can make you loose sight of that sometimes. And then he murders you, live on air. Yes sir. Let's admire this one. 


KS

68-58

67-58

Brandon Belt Can't Do It By Himself: Giants Win 6-4 in 11

Bochy showed remarkable restraint not striking Runzler dead right there.

For once, the Giants almost lost a game due more to terrible starting pitching and worse luck than a completely anemic offense. After taking a 3-0 lead in the second inning behind a Brandon Belt home run, pinch-starter Dan "Herp de Derp What's a Strike Zone" Runzler gave up four runs in the third inning, then got yanked. It was real bad. The only thing worse was the Giants' luck. Baserunning gaffes, screaming line drives belted directly into Astros gloves, errant pickoff throws that bounce directly back to the second baseman, a wandering strike zone, Giants leadoff hitter reaching base in seven straight innings with no runs scored, and on and on.

It was only a monstrous home run by a Pablo Sandoval (who, until that point, had been 0-for-5 on that day) that allowed the Giants and their poor shellshocked bullpen a way-too-hard-fought win and, for the first time in seemingly forever, brought them within a game and a half of the Diamondbacks. It shouldn't have been like this. They shouldn't have been avoiding an Astros sweep today. An eleventh-inning win over the Houston Astros should not feel like a victory over the 1927 Mecha-Yankees. But such is the state of the team at this point. The Giants take the day off tomorrow to watch the D-Backs rough up the Marlins, then return home for six games against the Padres and Astros. If they take two of those six games, I'll weep fat tears of unimaginable joy.

Belt had four hits today, so it's a good thing he was sent down to Fresno all those times. Really took him to another level.

Athletics 5, Blue Jays 1: More Humiliating Than The Score Would Suggest

Add a little zest to your home-run trot with a vibrant yellow!

The A's took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when guy who exists only to field the ball John MacDonald booted a sure-fire double play ball. Young Henderson Alvarez totally kept them in it through his six innings of work, only to see the bullpen (Jessie Litsch and the improbably named Rommie Lewis) give up three runs in the bottom of the eighth, just in time to make the ninth inning pretty much meaningless. I hated this game.


Other reasons for hate: Adam Lind left the game after being hit on the wrist by a pitch, and Jose Bautista was a late scratch with neck stiffness (from watching his major-league-best 35 home runs leave the yard? arguably, yes). 


Anyway. One more game in Oakland and then it is off to Kansas City. Everything will be cool in Kansas City.


KS

Giants Are a Bag of Butts, Lose 7-5

"What the dicks is this thing for?"

The first Astros batter of the game, the amazingly awesome Jose Altuve, hit his first career home run, a stand-up inside-the-park job, and it was game over from there on out. To the Giants' credit, they did not get shut out...a rare feat these days. In fact, they scored nearly three runs above what their second-half total has been thus far. The downside is that they have now used up all their runs for the coming homestand, which features another FOUR GAMES against these titans of offense, these unstoppable mashers, the Houston Astros. Also, Brandon Belt went 0-for-4, so we're never going to see him again.

Jonathan Sanchez is unable to start tomorrow's game, so the Giants will be getting swept behind the fearsome arm of whoever-the-hell, and we can put 2011 to bed. The Giants manage to keep pace with the Arizona Diamondbacks by no fault of their own, and it's clear that the NL West is full of despair and ruination and not a whole lot of good baseball. Just kidding, the Diamondbacks are a pretty solid team this year and only getting better in the future, and that is just the worst thing to realize late at night.

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Athletics 2, Blue Jays 0: Curse you, Rich Harden

Call it two.

So, not only are the Blue Jays very considerately doing most of their run-scoring on this west-coast road trip before I turn in for the night, they have also taken to doing their significant non scoring early, too. Last night, for instance, they loaded the bases in the first with nobody out, but left the bases full on strikeouts by Lind, Encarnacion and Rasmus. Josh Willingham hit a two-run shot in the bottom of the inning, and that was it. Brett Cecil only allowed those two runs in his seven innings, and Rich Harden gave up no runs on just two hits in his seven. Didn't miss a thing! 


I must note however that my two-day tolerance of Gregg Zaun has ended. He's awful. The whole problem here is that Pat Tabler, who along with Buck Martinez makes up the Blue Jays' horrible TV commentary duo, doesn't make all the road trips, which means sometimes Alan Ashby goes off radio duty and does TV, TV that is still unworkable because of Buck Martinez swallowing his tongue on every home run call and reading promos in a way that suggests he is sounding out a foreign language. So the TV is still a dud, and then you get Gregg Zaun telling aimless, self-indulgent stories on the radio, and all of a sudden you might as well be following along on Gameday. It's brutal.


KS

Giants Get Dominated by Worst Team in Major League Baseball, Lose 6-0

Yep. (tippin' mad hats to Bay City Ball)

Three more Giants turned up injured today. That's not a joke.

The Giants keep finding new ways to lose. Aubrey Huff tried to score in a scoreless game, ending an inning and killing a rally. The Giants give up three runs after having two outs on a couple of spectacular errors by Mark "Hey I'm Starting at Third Base I Guess" De Rosa and Aubrey "Herp Derp Whoops M'Glove" Huff.

I knew the Giants were losing today when I saw their HILARIOUS lineup. The Diamondbacks were likely to lose today in Atlanta, and this was a huge punt of a lineup. Hey man, it's really rough when you have to write nine guys into a lineup and only have ten healthy players. I mean, what kind of idiot would put Brandon Belt in a lineup, am I right?

I have been saying it for days, but the Giants are going to lose this series. They may take one of three, but I highly doubt it. I've never seen a team look so thoroughly defeated as the Giants do right now, and there's no way in hell I blame them. Imagine you have a box of 25 adorable puppies, and your job is to make sure that nothing bad happens to the puppies. But every day, when you get to work, between 2 and 10 of the puppies have set themselves on fire. You'd go crazy by like day three.

Watching a Giants game is exactly like staring at a smoldering pile of puppy corpses. That wounds the soul after a while.

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Please to Enjoy Today's Episode of The Dugout

Hey all, I've written an epic episode of The Dugout and Part One is up today over at With Leather!

http://withleather.uproxx.com/2011/08/the-dugout-sfinal-destination

Take some time to Facebook or Tweet this thing, because that would be awesome.

Blue Jays 7, Athletics 0: You know what, I think I like this west-coast road trip.

Three-hitter. No big deal.

Not only are the Blue Jays winning out west, they're scoring most of their runs before I go to bed, which is simply outstanding. Last night, to go along with Ricky Romero's three-hitter (9 IP, 2 BB, 6 K; no big deal), Lawrie singled in a Rasmus double, E5 singled in a Bautista double, and Rasmus hit a two-run shot all before bedtime. It was exquisite. Also I have heard and read reports that further runs were later scored! 


KS

Tim Lincecum Has the Nerve to Allow One Run, Giants Lose 1-0

YOU SICKEN ME.

You would think I wouldn't have to keep writing permutations of that headline, but here we are. Not a lot to say about this one, but that's what happens when

1) You're facing a LHP that lefties are hitting over .400 against so you put every available right-hander in your lineup.

2) The Number 2 and Number 6 spots in your lineup are filled by Orlando Cabrera and Miguel Tejada.

3) The rest of your lineup has Aaron Rowand, Aubrey Huff, and Chris Stewart.

4) You pinch-hit Mark De Rosa over Brandon "I Killed Bruce Bochy's Dog While I Was Nailing His Daughter and Looking at Called Strike Three" Belt.

The Diamondbacks were losing, but now they're in a rain delay. Will the game get called? Will the Diamondbacks pull off another come-from-behind win? Who gives a crap, the Giants have a series in Houston to lose.

Blue Jays 5, Mariners 1: Sorry Brandon Morrow hit you in the face, Caspar Wells.

His face. 

Brandon Morrow almost certainly didn't mean to do it. He was just busy allowing only three hits while striking out twelve in six innings, and one kind of got away from him. At 97 MPH. Entirely his fault. Entirely. 

What more is there to say, aside from how it is awesome that E5 continues to tear it up, that Colby Rasmus hit one out, and that maybe Adam Lind is back to being a guy who can make teams pay for shamefully pitching around Jose Bautista? Well, there is this, too: over at Notgraphs, Navin Vaswani gets all worked up about the Blue Jays, and about Canadian fans traveling to Seattle, and how everything is either awesome or could someday be awesome. I like the spirit in which that piece is written. I also like that it includes the following .gif of Brett Lawrie and Jose Bautista:

There is a very real chance that what we are seeing there is the least cool thing, and yet who can resist it? 


KS

Giants Win Nailbiting Blowout, 7-5

"Mmmmm...gritty...grizzled gamer...oh yeah, that's the stuff."

Amazingly, the Giants scored a bunch of runs. Mostly on sacrifice flies, but hey, horribly cursed offenses can't be choosers. Matt Cain pitched 8 brilliant innings with one unearned run, 9 strikeouts, and one walk. Then Bruce Bochy stuck in Dan Runzler, the one and only young guy that he's ever had faith in, and the Braves promptly scored four runs and brought the tying run to the plate.

Bruce Bochy is a quandary that's been dredged through a batter of a head-scratchers, dipped in "what is this i don't even" sauce, and then wrapped in bacon. Brandon Belt went 0-for-3 with a walk today, and he's almost definitely sitting out tomorrow's game. Bochy has been confirmed as hating an at-bat he feels is "too passive." Belt looked at six pitches in his third plate appearance, and the last two could have/should have been called balls. They weren't. That doesn't matter to Bruce Bochy. He probably turned to Ron Wotus and said, "Why isn't this asshole hacking at everything? That's what the bat's for. Swinging at everything." In Bochy's mind, the game they play isn't "base"ball, it's "swingball."

And Bochy probably gave Belt the stink-eye pretty good, because in Belt's next plate appearance, where he could have picked up a sacrifice fly for a run, he swung at the first pitch and popped it up just past the infield. You could almost hear Bochy yelling, "Too aggressive, you idiot!" And so it goes for anyone under 35 in a Bruce Bochy lineup. He doesn't believe in career minor league numbers. He doesn't understand how small sample sizes work. He doesn't understand the benefits of OBP over batting average and RBI. The only things he believes in are "the hot hand" and "swinging the bat well" and "knows how to win ballgames" and "been there before" and "he wears his hat like a pro" and a million other intangibles that mean nothing to anyone but him and, presumably, Brian Sabean.

So I've never understood why, given how Bochy has historically treated young players, he's brought Runzler in so many times in a non-mop-up capacity. Maybe Runzler forged a birth certificate and convinced Bochy he was born in 1968.

But anyway, a win paired with a Diamondbacks loss. I'll take it. Matt Cain is amazing. Tim Lincecum pitches tomorrow. I hear he's pretty good, too. Hammerin' Mike Fontenot was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles today, so with all the injuries we can keep our fingers crossed for the glorious return of Number Three Hitter Mike Fontenot.

I'm ready for Houston, how about you?

65-57

Justin Verlander expressed in his purest physical form

Blue Jays 13, Mariners 7: The Raveled Sleeve of Care

damn it is #35 haters

Such is my shaken/shook state that even after a six-run, bat-around first inning last night, I still had serious doubts. Half an inning later, it was 6-3, and it felt like we were already losing. Had I not then gone immediately to bed, and stayed up for the Mariners' next three-run inning to pull even, I don't know man, I don't even know. Fortunately, the Blue Jays kept hitting, and between Hill homering, Lawrie going 3-4, and Jose Bautista going 2-2 with a HR and three walks, everything was, in the end, cool. Pretty unassailable work from the 'pen last night, too, with Perez and Camp allowing only one run in  six innings of work (wow, six innings out of the bullpen, ye gods that's hideous). The bullpen is much changed these days, too, with Jon Rauch on the DL and Trevor Miller, uh, gone forever. 


Hey also, Alan Ashby is doing TV this road trip, so it's Howarth and Zaun on the radio, and while I am still far, far, far from a fan of Gregg Zaun, he's clearly getting better. Like, when he is on I am not necessarily overcome by hate or anything anymore. As much.


KS

Corpse of Giants Roster Shows Signs of Unnatural Life

Bruce Bochy will never be able to feel another emotion.

The Giants lost 2-1 in 11 innings. Great, who cares, whatever. Jonathan Sanchez was starting a game the day after a soul-crushing loss and Beltran and Romo were headed to the DL. A loss was academic tonight.

The real meat of today's story is that the lineup was released and everyone was like LOLWUT because Sandoval was at 1B and Huff was in LF and Belt was in RF and an adorable kitten was Pitcher's Helper. (FanGraphs indicates the adorable kitten is leading the majors in mewling, but Shane Victorino is close behind.) The stories started tumbling hard and fast out of Atlanta: Keppinger out, getting an MRI on his wrist; Schierholtz out, possible broken foot; Rowand out, strained intercostal. The Giants must have gotten off a plane that later crashed during last year's playoffs, because 2011 has been a string of calamities bordering on the Lovecraftian.

In the third inning, Jonathan Sanchez sprained his ankle fielding a bunt, because OF COURSE HE DID. Everyone in the ballpark started watching for bolts of lightning or dangling safes or frayed electrical cords left perilously close to puddles of water. The Giants were no-hit through six innings by a guy major his second MLB start. No one expected anything different.

But something strange happened. The Giants showed immense gumption, much more than anyone could have expected. After Sanchez gave up a run, the Giants pitching staff and defense shut the Braves down inning after inning after inning. Cody Ross blasted a huge home run to prevent the no-hitter and the shutout. The Giants made the Braves' bullpen work. They got as many hits as the Braves, but couldn't quite manage the big one. Both Brandon Belt and Aubrey Huff made game-saving plays in the outfield. It was fun. It was more competitive and exciting than it had any right to be, and Brooks Conrad got to be the hero with a ground-rule double and the winning run in a bit of poetic justice.

If I'm the Giants, I have to believe they're pleased with themselves even in a loss. They won't just roll over and die, even when their roster is reduced to Aubrey Huff and a whimsical tea cozy. However, having said that, the Phillies let Lyle "DFA'd From the Pirates" Overbay drive in all three Diamondbacks runs against Roy Halladay and lost at home, putting the Giants 3.5 games out. But fiddle-dee-dee, tomorrow is another day. I'm certain that tomorrow will bring more injuries, and I'm equally as certain that Aubrey Huff will be the only member of the Giants roster to not sniff the DL this season. Sabean will have deals in place for Posada, Damon, and Alfonso Soriano by the weekend.

It's really amazing that the Giants have done as much as they have after all that has happened to them this season. If they somehow, somehow manage to make it to the playoffs...that's nothing short of miraculous. It's important to remember that the G-Men should probably have a W-L record more closely resembling the Mariners or Astros than being within spitting distance of first place. This was the best possible loss today. That's something, at least.

Mariners 6, Blue Jays 5: Great Job, Bullpen

Jon Rauch, ladies and gentlemen.

Home runs by Thames, Lind, and Lawrie were not enough to overcome a middling start by rookie Henderson Alvarez and, after two solid innings of Jesse Litsch, the horror show that is the back end of this bullpen. Back-to-back home runs by Mike Carp and Caspar Wells off of Trevor Miller and Jon Rauch in the bottom of the eighth have vaulted the Blue Jays into a first-place tie for the most blown saves in the league, twenty. Blown saves. Twenty of them.


In other news, MLB.TV is really awesome. I watched a little of the free game of the day, and man, if they ever figure out the blackout situation, I am in. Don't tell MLB, but I would pay twice what they are currently asking to make that blackout free. The way you can flip around to highlights from other games, all picture-in-picture stylee? It is almost too much. On the topic of highlights for a moment, good for Jim Thome, who hit his 600th home run last night, which you can see here, and good for the Brewers infield, who turned a triple play that is awesome even by the standards of triple plays, which you can see here. When you see the super slow motion, you see that Matt Kemp definitely got his hand up and over that tag, but you can hardly fault the umpire for missing it in real time.


To recap the most important news of the day, though, this bullpen is killing me. 


KS

64-57

Braves Beat Brian Wilson, 5-4

/metaphor

The Giants played a good game, but Brian Wilson blew a two-run lead in the bottom of the ninth. For once, the blame rests solely on two people: Brian Wilson, for being an awful pitcher who relies almost entirely on luck and generous calls in pressure situations, and Bruce Bochy, for sending Wilson out to begin with, and not putting in Jeremy Affeldt to face the left-handed Freddie Freeman with two outs and the bases loaded, still up by one run. Affeldt was warmed up and ready. Wilson was not well enough to pitch yesterday. I called the blown save the second the ninth inning began. A Brian Wilson at 100% I have little to no confidence in. A less-than-100% Brian Wilson is just willfully driving your team's bus off a cliff. I get needing to stick with your players so they don't lose confidence, but you're in a pennant race.

Well, you were in a pennant race. This is the night the Giants lost a playoff berth. Mark it down. The players were visibly losing confidence by the day and they needed this win in the worst way. I say it again: in the worst way. I don't see them bouncing back from this, even though the Diamondbacks will almost certainly be humbled by the Phillies in the coming days.

This is terrible. This has ruined everything.

Blue Jays 5, Angels 4 (F/10): Baseball is The Greatest and I Love It

Walk-off E5

Right in the middle of yesterday's really, really awesome game, Tom Henke was on the radio with Jerry Howarth and Alan Ashby, and he was pretty much just telling stories. The best was the one about his only at-bat in the major leagues, which came right at the end in St. Louis. Joe Torre was the manager at the time, and he must have got into some kind of strange predicament with either the bench or the bullpen, because he had to send Henke to the plate in the eighth to hit for himself, and then come out to pitch the ninth. It was cold, and Torre didn't want Henke's arm to get cold, so he told him to just go up there and take three pitches and get ready to pitch the ninth. "But I got a little stubborn up there," Henke said, and he fouled off eight pitches before flying out to right. His hands got so cold, though, that he didn't have any feel for the ball at all when he went back out to pitch, and ended up walking the bases loaded before getting out of it. "I understand what happened, Tom," Torre calmly said Henke after the game. "But when I tell you to take three pitches, you take three pitches."


Baseball stories.


Also there was a game, a rad one! The Blue Jays came into the ninth trailing by a run, but with Frank Francisco on the mound, which is the equivalent of losing by like a million. The man made no effort to keep Bobby Abreu anywhere near first, or, after he stole second, second, which was even more galling. But Brett Lawrie and J. P. Arencibia caught Abreu in a rundown between third and home, which then turned into a rundown between first and second -- don't try to do too much out there, Mark Trumbo -- and the Blue Jays headed to the home half of the inning still trailing by just that lone run. Colby Rasmus very nearly tied it up with a double high off the wall in centre, which brought Lawrie to the plate, fresh off his head's-uppery earlier in the inning. He took a pretty funny looking strike -- home plate umpire David Rackley had a miserable day out there, and it hurt the Angels probably more than it hurt the Blue Jays, so I am not saying that out of some kind of loathsome homerism --  to make the count 3-2 before ripping a double of his own to tie it. 


One way your team can greatly increase your enjoyment without actually being all that good is by performing well in extra-inning games, and the Blue Jays I believe came into yesterday's game 10-3 in games that go beyond nine. I am very pleased to report that this trend continued. Escobar and Bautista drew walks (also Bautista went 3-4 with a HR and a BB, and is back on top of the WAR leaderboards, haters, so just forget it) before Adam Lind, who is unbelievably bad right now, popped out, and E5, who has been incredible lately, knocked in Bautista to win it. 


Just tremendous stuff, man. 




Also I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to extend a most sincere "what it do" to Angels first base coach Alfredo Griffin, of whom we here at Baseball Feelings are the official sponsor, in the admittedly somewhat limited Baseball Reference player page sense. He was, is, and forever shall be awesome. He was probably all, "Hey Bobby Abreu, steal a couple of bases here," and then Bobby Abreu was probably like, "sure thing coach; I am inspired not just by your words but by the baserunning heroics of your playing days" and Alfredo Griffin was like "back." I only had the game on radio so I don't know if that's what happened but I'm pretty sure.


Finally, if you were wondering what Tom Henke looks like in 2011, know that Tom Henke in 2011 looks exactly how you would think Tom Henke would look in 2011. As seen here, in 2011:

I absolutely despise those hats, by the way, and I wish I could get excited about the rumours of a redesign coming next season, but whatever they come up with I'm going to end up wishing they'd just go back to the uniforms from the late 80s/early 90s, which were clean and simple and should have been left more or less alone forever. They could go to those tomorrow and look great. They're not retro; they're classic. Look how great Romero looked in a 1992 uniform when they wore those last year:

That just looks like baseball right there, you know what I'm saying? 


Anyway. The Blue Jays are out west this week so I will pretty much have to take it on faith that ballgames are being played because I'll be in bed. Perhaps I will listen to them the next day! Got to make the most out of that twenty dollars I have given MLB.


KS

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Why? Why not?

This Picture, Man

Gaze on it.  Drink it in.  You don't need context.  All you need to do is see the symmetry, see the balance and understand; this is the picture that defines the 2011 Mets. 

In all things, balance.  For every 5-game winning streak, a five-game slide of such awfulness, such ineptitude, must come that it can only be termed "a colossal butt."  For every month where Jose Reyes has looked like the best player in the game by a wide margin, a month where he sits.  For every replacement player that has turned out to be a pleasant surprise (Justin Turner, Miguel Tejada, Scott Hairston, Lucas Duda) a player that has been injured or traded, in turn necessitating the replacement (Daniel Murphy, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran).  For every Mike Pelfrey start where he looks like the Brandon Webb clone he seemed destined to be, five starts where he looks like a scared shitless cat, frantically licking at his paws after watching another long-gone dinger.  But it's ok, they were never meant to contend anyway, where they, Pelf?

At the end of April, the Mets swept the Diamondbacks in a three-game series at Citi, in the midst of a six-game winning streak.  Now, the debt has been repaid, and balance has been restored.  Before the year is out, another five-game streak will come, and when all is said and done, the Mets will finish 81-81, no better or worse from where they embarked in early April.  It is the way of all things in this, the fairest of seasons.  


Maybe Pelfrey was right.  The Mets knew that they were out of the race from the start, with the Phillies as loaded as they are, and the Braves exploding out of the gate.  Is it possible that they vowed early on, that if they were destined to be a .500 team, that they would be damn near the most entertaining .500 team to play the game?  

Hat tip to Bill for pointing this image out to me, and to SBNation for hosting it.  

Brandon Belt Activates Beast Mode, Giants Win 5-2

"Ayo is this aggressive enough for you?"

At one point this season, after Brandon Belt was sent to Fresno for the umpteenth time, Bruce Bochy remarked something along the lines of, "He's too passive at the plate. I'd like to see him be more aggressive." Just for the record, the average player on the Giants sees barely over 3 pitches per at-bat. Opposing pitchers regularly make it to the eighth inning against the Giants with well under 100 pitches thrown. Pablo Sandoval, a dude who has a reputation for swinging at anything thrown toward the plate and several things thrown to first base, sees by far the most pitches of any everyday Giants player. All of these things are unacceptable from a major league lineup. Brandon Belt methodically works counts with a discerning eye. It is what he does. But Bruce Bochy has basically gone on record as saying, "Man I wish that kid would hack more. Veterans hack at things. You ever watch an Aaron Rowand at-bat? He swings three times and sits down. He swings so hard, you guys. That's a veteran professional ballplayer right there." And then he laces his fingers together behind his gargantuan head and dreams of grit, and sand, and toughness, and above all, those sexy intangibles.

So Brandon Belt got a start today, and he struck out and grounded out, and you could feel Bruce Bochy already drafting a text message to Brian Sabean reading "gotta snd belt back 2 frzno" but then Belt stepped up and was like SHAZAM and cranked a deep first-pitch home run to dead center that was blasted so hard you could hear Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad scream "FUCK" immediately after the crack of the bat, louder than I have ever heard a baseball player scream the word "FUCK." It rang majestically throughout the nearly-empty Joe Robbie Or Whatever Stadium and CSN Bay Area had no qualms showing the replay three times in rapid succession with unadulterated audio, because that's how awesome it was.

WHACK. "FUCK."

CRACK. "FUCK."

KABLAMMO. "FUCK."

So that was pretty awesome. Also awesome? Belt's next time up, he worked the count full and then hit the first home run that lefty Michael Dunn has ever given up to a left-handed batter. Ever. Earlier I suggested that Belt would have to hit four dingers to get Bochy to give him regular starts. He's halfway there now. He has as many home runs this season as either Miguel Tejada or Aaron Rowand, in fewer than a third as many plate appearances.

That sound you just heard is the Baby Giraffe being unleashed. Stay hot, Brandon. Your career may depend on it.

Tim Lincecum. Giants Win, 3-0

"You have wounded me, sir. You have cut me to the quick."

Tim Lincecum. Maybe the Giants will only win every fifth day from now on, but that's cool because Tim Motherfu*king Lincecum. Note to Giants pitching staff: if you really want to win ballgames, throw a three-hit shutout. Idiots. Tim Lincecum has given up one ER in his last three starts. Tim Lincecum.

The most tantalizing news stories of the day all happened outside of Joe Robbie Or Whatever It Is Stadium. Andres Torres, not Carlos "I Ain't Played in a Week" Beltran was placed on the DL, thus allowing the Giants to turn on the Bench Signal and shove Brandon Belt onto a 6AM cross-country flight. Bochy was quoted as basically saying "I'll give him five or six at-bats, and so help me, if he doesn't hit at least four home runs he's never playing again." Belt starts today against a decimated Marlins team, so pray for vengeance.

Did I say "decimated Marlins team"? I did! Immediately after the loss yesterday, the Marlins released Wes "Sugar Shane" Helms and optioned Logan "I Haz Twitter" Morrison to AAA. Morrison is one of the few baseball players who says exactly what he's thinking to reporters, so everyone hates him. He's second on the team in HR and third in RBI so why not ship him off to Louisiana? That'll teach him! /loses 40 of next 50 games

So the Marlins have a far weaker team for the series finale today, but Mike Stanton remains. That dude wins ballgames all by himself. My prediction: Stanton hits five walk-off homers in this one, Giants lose the series. Diamondbacks sweep a triple-header, Giants finish today 4.5 games out of first place.

The final tidbit of news is Barry Zito. Last week, Zito was asked to fake that he had re-injured his foot so they could hide him on the DL while they tried to figure out which disastrous fifth starter they were going to stick with for the rest of the year. In Zito's second "rehab start" last night in Fresno, he wrenched his leg or his knee or his likely-fake-but-now-really-injured foot and had to be helped off the field. If you believe in karma, this is what it looks like. I feel bad for Barry Zito, who with any other contract would be the lovable-goofball underperforming fifth starter, but instead is history's second-greatest monster, behind only the reprehensible Jimmy Carter.

Zito's injury reportedly came when he stumbled attempting to cover first base on a grounder, so the only thing that would make this justice more poetic would be if he slipped in a puddle of Brandon Belt's tears.

Blue Jays 11, Angels 2: Baseball is Crazy, Man

Ricky Romero, unflapped.

Just crazy! Yesterday I was pretty sure I was about to sit down to a pitcher's duel between Jered Weaver, who is having the best season of any pitcher in the AL who isn't Justin Verlander, and Ricky Romero, who has been very good and of whom I am fond, so I was ready to go. Then it turned out that the Blue Jays decided to give a bunch of guys the day off against the Weaver and his wacky arm slot and release point, sending the following obviously awful lineup out there to get slaughtered:


Escobar
Thames
Encarnacion
Lind 
Arencibia
Teahan
Lawrie
Davis
McDonald


Gadzooks! On top of that, Romero missed with ten straight pitches -- nine of them fastballs -- in the first before escaping the inning with a helluvtimely double play. It did not look good. I seriously, seriously considered going outside. 


But, no problem, Romero settled in and allowed only one run on two hits over seven innings, and the Blue Jays bats just ripped Weaver to shreds, no big deal. Encarnacion hit one out in the first. Lind hit a grand slam in the fifth, an inning that went so amazingly that even Mark Teahan got in on it. Every Blue Jay in the lineup -- in that lineup -- had a hit yesterday. Against Jered Weaver.


Baseball, man.


KS

64-55

Angels 5, Blue Jays 1: Bless you, Vernon Wells.

I've got to think this went even better than he'd hoped.

This is definitely worth watching, if you haven't seen it yet: the Toronto crowd gives Vernon Wells a warm welcome (home, sort of); Vernon steps out of the box and acknowledges the crowd, and proceeds to rip a first pitch slider over the centre field wall that Vernon used to, you, fly into awesomely. I was genuinely pleased to see that the kind of ridiculousness that dogged Vernon during too much of his time in Toronto -- yeah he's a stand-up guy who plays through injuries and puts up big numbers when he's not hurt and is awesome in the community and is the team's union rep and actually nobody has a bad word to say about him in the least but he had the audacity to sign a contract J. P. Ricciardi was fool enough to offer and he himself was not fool enough to decline and so we shall boo this man -- was nowhere to be seen here, and everybody was just like, "Hey, it's Vernon! Boy, he sure played here long time, and is second in pretty much everything in Blue Jays history to Carlos Delgado! Let's all clap a minute!" Because that is the right thing to do.


Vernon did a fun little interview with Aaron Hill that the Fan 590 played before today's game, and in addition to talking about how nice the reception was and how awesome it was to hit that home run, he also mentioned something I was not aware of at all: according to Josh Hamilton (whose memory might be hazy, actually, so take this for what it's worth), Toronto is the roughest left field to play in in the AL; the fans just wear you out. Now, this to me seems absurd. Worse than Boston? Or Chicago? Or New York? Anyway, this is what Josh Hamilton says, Vernon reports, and Vernon also said that he gets it now. He said he heard it pretty good for all innings last night. He also noted that it was "awesome," unsurprising from a guy who, as you no doubt recall, knows from heckling.

"Dear Mr. Dork, Here is your ball! Can you please tell me what gas station you work at, so when you are pumping my gas I can yell at you!!! Now sit down, shut-up and enjoy the game. Your favorite centre fielder, Vernon Wells"

Anyway, good for Vernon, who will be lucky to get another hit all weekend given how terribly his season is going, and good for everybody, really. Except the Blue Jays, I guess, because Brandon Morrow got touched up early and the bats never really got going. 


But Vernon!

KS

Fools Flail in Florida, Flounder Facing Fish: Giants Lose 2-1

Unable to hit base hits, Aubrey Huff resorts to droppin' 'bows.

Bases loaded? The Giants will get you out of that jam. Men on second and third, one out, infield back, tying run on third? Never fear, pals, the Giants are at the plate!

Matt Cain had one bad inning, and Giants pitching allowed two earned runs. Two! No climbing out of that chasm, no sir. This is a team that has angered the gods. Odin has stomped on them with his hobnailed boot, and Zeus has given them a big old blanket party.

So terrible. So unwatchable. See you all at 7:05 EST.

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