The Day in Sports: September 13, 2005

Hello again my two remaining readers! Two posts in two days, it's a Festivus miracle!

Anyways, I'm switching up the format again. I'm just going to throw all of the recaps into one post every day. These posts will be labeled "The Day in Sports," and if I'm feeling really saucy, it may someday get changed to TDiS, because acronyms are the coolest. The idea behind this (and I say that as if you care) is to streamline the process of posting a little bit so that I can A) add more posts, especially posts with my worthless-but-riveting opinions, and B) be more funny and less journalismy (yeah, I made that up ... that's how cutting edge I am) with my recap posts. So here goes.


MLB: Nationals 4, New York Mets 2

The Nationals opened a three-game set against the last place Mets last night with a 4-2 victory. Reliever Hector Carrasco got the spot start for the Nats, as Frank Robinson continues to search for someone who resembles a Major League pitcher to take that fifth spot in the rotation with Ryan Drese (who barely resembled a Major League pitcher, himself) out for the year. Carrasco went four innings, giving up two runs on three hits.

Washington used a three-run third inning against Tom Glavine (10-13) to get a lead they wouldn't give up, and, somehow, Cristian Guzman went 2-for-3 to bring his robust batting average up to .204. Guzman has now been batting over .200 for five straight games, the longest such stint for him since the end of June. Ouch.

Gary Majewski (4-3) got the win in relief and Chad Cordero notched his 45th save.

The Nats had lost five of six before last night's win, and they have fallen to four games out in the Wild Card standings with 17 games remaining.

Esteban Loaiza (10-10, 3.79 ERA, RHP) goes against Kris Benson (9-7, 4.00 ERA, RHP) tonight at 7:10 at Shea Stadium.


MLB: Orioles 4, Texas Rangers 3

After an exciting first half that had the Orioles as much as 14 games over .500 and the subsequent disastrous stretch that saw the team fall all the way to 10 games below the break-even mark, a four-game winning streak has put the team in a position where going 9-9 to finish out the season would leave them with an identical record to last year.

John Maine had the best start of his Major League career, going 6.1 innings and giving up two runs on just two hits (both solo homers) to record his first ever quality start (for those that aren’t sabermetrically inclined, a quality start is when a pitcher throws six innings or more and gives up three earned runs or less). Maine’s ERA now sits at 3.27.

He didn’t get the win, though, as Chris Ray (1-3) came in for a third of an inning and gave up a double that scored the game-tying run, which was charged to Todd Williams. Ray got the win because Luis Matos came through with a game-winning RBI double in the top of the ninth inning.

Walter Young, the big (and that’s an understatement ... he’s officially listed at 6’5”, 322 lbs., but looks closer to 350) designated hitter, hit his first Major League home run in the seventh inning. Young went 2-for-4 and is now batting .400 since being called up (4-for-10 with three walks).

C.J. Wilson (1-7) gave up the Matos RBI double in the ninth inning and took the loss for the Rangers. B.J. Ryan worked the ninth inning for the O’s to record his 33rd save, and his fourth in as many days.

This afternoon it's Erik Bedard (6-7, 3.75 ERA, LHP) pitching for the Orioles against another Rangers pitcher you've never heard of and was meant to be a reliever until every Rangers starter ever sucked big time, Juan Dominguez (3-4, 4.20 ERA, RHP).

Bedard has struggled a bit recently, going from 5-1 to 6-7 and only recording four quality starts in his last 10 outings, which still makes him light years ahead of any Rangers pitcher in the past five years. Yes, that includes you, Chan Ho.

The O's look to complete the sweep at this afternoon in Texas at 2:05.