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Features This Day In Baseball: 7 August 2005
All pitchers are liars or crybabies.
-- Yogi Berra

Alas, the schedule and pitching matchups didn't co-operate. Toronto fans won't be enjoying a Chacon-Chacin matchup this weekend. But at Shea Stadium, we have Zambrano-Zambrano going today, which is a nice consolation prize.

Yesterday, Greg Maddux held the Mets to 4 hits and 2 runs over 7 strong innings. He also singled for the Cubs first hit of the day, and stole a base (7th of his career.) So you can all guess what happened...

Cubs lose! Cubs lose!

The A's beat Jose Lima and the Royals senseless, while the Angels were losing to (gulp!) Mark (Lurch) Hendrickson and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. And so we now have a dead heat atop the AL West.

San Diego has gone and won three in a row, crawling back to .500 - they go for the sweep tomorrow over Washington and their best pitcher (Jake Peavy) will be taking the ball against Lord Voldemort himself. Don't the Padres realize that they have a chance to make history?

Having come charging from the gates of oblivion into the NL Wild Card lead, the Astros have suddenly lost three straight. The other contenders, however, are not taking advantage - instead they seem to be rearranging their own places in the race. The Cubs are fading as the Mets come on; the Nats are falling while the Phillies charge... well, not charge so much as stumble ahead.

Roger Clemens will try to break off the current Astro skid tomorrow, while the NL's other clear Cy Young candidate, Chris Carpenter, goes for his 17th win in the Cards' rubber match with the Braves.

The Marlins are still hanging around the edges of the race, as well. Carlos Delgado went on the DL yesterday but as he's already missed nine games with his bad elbow, he's actually eligible to return as early as this Friday. Of course, Miguel Cabrera is practically an offense all by himself.

Today's games

AL
Cleveland (Elarton 7-5, 4.54) at Detroit (Johnson 7-9, 4.19) 1:05
New York (Leiter 1-3, 6.03 or Mussina 10-7, 4.05) at Toronto (Towers 8-8, 4.53) 1:07 Baltimore (Ponson 7-10, 6.12) at Texas (Young 8-7, 4.94) 2:05
Oakland (Haren 9-7, 4.27) at Kansas City (Hernandez 8-9, 4.49) 2:10
Boston (Wakefield 10-9, 4.23) at Minnesota (Mays 5-6, 4.62) 2:10
Seattle (Harris 0-0, 0.00) at Chicago (Garland 15-5, 3.40) 3:05
Tampa Bay (McClung 2-6, 7.08) at Los Angeles (Colon 13-6, 3.61) 4:05

NL
San Diego (Peavy 9-4, 3.31) at Washington (Loaiza 6-7, 3.62) 1:05
Florida (Willis 14-7, 3.03) at Cincinnati (Ortiz 6-7, 6.30) 1:15
Milwaukee (Ohka 6-6, 4.07) at Philadelphia (Padilla 5-10, 5.19) 1:35
Los Angeles (Weaver 9-8, 4.52) at Pittsburgh (Wells 6-12, 4.86) 1:35
Atlanta (Sosa 7-1, 2.57) at St.Louis (Carpenter 16-4, 2.26) 2:15
Houston (Clemens 10-4, 1.45) at San Francisco (Tomko 7-11, 4.75) 4:04
Colorado (Wright 6-11, 5.75) at Arizona (Vargas 4-6, 5.09) 4:40
Chicago (Zambrano 8-4, 3.24) at New York (Zambrano 5-9, 4.19 ERA) 8:05

Posted by Magpie on Sunday, August 07 2005 @ 11:00 AM EDT.
This Day In Baseball: 7 August 2005 | 5 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
jmoney - Sunday, August 07 2005 @ 05:18 PM EDT (#124917) #
Sad article. Shades of Rush Limbaugh's "Black Quarterback" screed against Donovan Mcnab. But that's American radio for you. That sort of braindead hatespeak is oh so popular.
[ Reply to This ]
GregH - Sunday, August 07 2005 @ 10:02 PM EDT (#124922) #
"But at Shea Stadium, we have Zambrano-Zambrano going today, which is a nice consolation prize."

Apparently starting pitchers with the same surname has only happened once before in MLB history.

To make it even stranger, both Zambranos wear #38 and have the same number of career wins coming into tonight's game.
[ Reply to This ]
Mick Doherty - Sunday, August 07 2005 @ 10:23 PM EDT (#124923) #
Apparently starting pitchers with the same surname has only happened once before in MLB history.

That seems exceedingly unlikely -- I know the Niekro brothers started against each other, as did the Forsch brothers, the two Bobby Joneses and the two Bob Millers, I think. With all the Johnsons, Smiths (I'm thinking Zane vs. Bryn for one), Browns, Joneses, Millers, etc. I'll bet this has happened dozens of times.

[ Reply to This ]
GregH - Sunday, August 07 2005 @ 10:35 PM EDT (#124925) #
"That seems exceedingly unlikely"

I agree - I am just repeating what was said on espn radio in the pre-game show. It was said several times.
[ Reply to This ]
Magpie - Sunday, August 07 2005 @ 11:32 PM EDT (#124928) #
I'll bet this has happened dozens of times.

I think I actually remember the Underwoods, not to mention Jim and Gaylord Perry.

But I'll bet it's the first time both names began with Z.

[ Reply to This ]
This Day In Baseball: 7 August 2005 | 5 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.