And I wish I could forgive her but I do believe she meant it
When she told me to forget it
But I bet she will regret it
When they find me in the morning wet and drowned
A couple of the American League's big boppers returned to action last night. Magglio Ordonez hit his first homer as a Tiger, as Detroit roughed up Randy Johnson and the Yankees. The Yankees slipped to fourth place. Monday is George Steinbrenner's 75th birthday.
Mike Sweeney came back to go 1-3 in Kansas City's loss to the Angels. The Royals managed only 2 hits against Paul Byrd, who faced just one hitter over the minimum in pitching his first shutout since July 13, 2002. And what are the odds - it was the same two teams playing on that occasion as well. Except Byrd was then with the Royals, and tossed a 3-hitter to shut out the Angels.
Byrd's gem was the best pitching performance in yesterday's action, and rated a Game Score of 87. One is tempted to take away -5 points for Degree of Difficulty considerations - he was facing the Royals, after all. Also noteworthy was Brad Penny's 8 innings of three-hit shutout in the Dodgers 7-0 pasting of Arizona. Jeff Kent started at first base in this game.
Chris Carpenter threw 7.2 shutout innings in St.Louis defeat of the Rockies - Carpenter, at 12-4, has an excellent chance to start this year's All-Star Game. Tony LaRussa will be managing the NL squad, and his ace has a case.
The Braves, behind John Smoltz, stomped the Phillies last night. They've won 7 of 10, and lost ground in the Division, because the hottest team in the NL are the Nationals, who have won 8 of 10.
The White Sox lost their opener to Oakland, and now have another pitcher on the DL. Damaso Marte leads the team in appearances and has been one of three relievers who has actually pitched well for Ozzie Guillen.
Meanwhile, Oakland has won 22 of their last 30 and are, amazingly, just one game below .500 although they didn't gain any ground in the division last night, as the Angels and Texas (Chan Ho Park is now 8-2) both won.
Today's schedule features a double-header in Cincinnati and a major-league debut (Zach Duke of the Pirates) in Milwaukee:
AL
Cleveland (Millwood 3-5, 3.08) at Baltimore (Cabrera 5-7, 5.48) 1:35
Texas (Wilson 0-2, 7.15) at Seattle (Pineiro 2-4, 5.60) 4:05
Toronto (Chacin 6-5, 3.40) at Boston (Wells 6-4, 5.00) 7:05
New York (Mussina 8-5, 3.95) at Detroit (Douglass 1-0, 1.50) 7:05
Los Angeles (Colon 10-4, 3.02) at Kansas City (Lima 1-6, 7.81) 7:10
Tampa Bay (McClung 0-3, 8.42) at Minnesota (Lohse 6-6, 4.58) 7:10
Chicago (Garland 12-3, 3.25) at Oakland (Saarloos 4-4, 3.82) 9:05
NL
Florida (Moehler 2-6, 3.05) at New York (Benson 6-2, 3.69) 1:15
Atlanta (Ramirez 7-4, 4.75) at Philadelphia (Myers 5-4, 3.18) 1:15
Arizona (Vargas 2-4, 8.44) at Los Angeles (Lowe 5-8, 3.66) 4:05
Washington (Armas 3-4, 5.44) at Chicago (Williams 1-2, 4.91) 4:05
Houston (Rodriguez 3-3, 6.86 and TBA) at Cincinnati (Harang 4-6, 4.11 and TBA) 4:10 and 9:05
Pittsburgh (Duke 0-0, 0.00) at Milwaukee (Santos 2-8, 3.27) 7:05
Colorado (Wright 4-8, 5.50) at St.Louis (Marquis 8-5, 4.13) 7:15
San Francisco (Fassero 1-5, 4.02) at San Diego (Williams 3-5, 4.24) 10:05
A couple of San Diego newspapers are reporting that San Diego and the Yankees have made a trade. The Padres get Paul Quantrill, who will apparently be activated tomorrow, in exchange for Tim Redding and Darrell May, both of whom will report to AAA Columbus. So our Question of the Day is: does this make any sense whatsoever? The Padres bullpen has been outstanding, but their rotation has been a a little light. Both Redding (0-5, 8.94) and May (1-3, 6.69) have taken ineffective turns at being the fifth starter; rookie Tim Stauffer is winless in his last eight starts; Adam Eaton is on the DL. As for the Yankees, well, they save a little money, as San Diego is sending some cash their way.
