Thursday, September 22, 2005

The Day in Sports: September 21, 2005

Oh, the dreaded recaps. And boy are they bad. Thank goodness baseball’s almost over, because it’s been rough to be a Nationals or Orioles fan over the past few months. Let downs are the worst.

First, some news: Brian Roberts will undergo surgery on his injured elbow and is expected to need six months to recover. Six months from now is late March, so that’s near the end of spring training. It is possible that he will miss the start of next season, but there is no telling right now. Six months is a long way away. Get better, Brian!


MLB: New York Yankees 2, Orioles 1

Rodrigo Lopez (14-11) threw a quality start, but Randy Johnson (15-8) threw an even more quality start, and Matt Lawton’s two-run homer in the second inning was enough for the Yankees to beat the Orioles for the fifth straight time. With the BoSox losing to Tampa Bay last night, the Yankees (sigh) are now in first place in the American League East. I hate it that the Orioles are the ones handing them another title.

The Orioles only run came on a Melvin Mora RBI double in the sixth inning.

Mariano Rivera almost choked it away in the ninth, but he got B.J. Surhoff to fly out weakly to end the game.

On a bright note, Gary Sheffield went 0-for-4.

The loss was the Orioles 81st, meaning they would have to finish out 11-0 to reach .500.

Mercifully, the series ends tonight with Bruce Chen (12-9, 3.51 ERA, LHP) facing former-Oriole Mike Mussina (12-8, 4.34 ERA, RHP). Despite some fans telling me that they still like Mussina for what he did with the O’s, I don’t like him anymore. I would even say I dislike him. Yankees are Yankees, and they are to be hated.

Game time is 7:05 p.m.


MLB: San Francisco Giants 5, Nationals 1

John Patterson (9-6) had a rare rough outing, giving up five runs on 10 hits in seven innings in the Nationals 5-1 loss to the Giants. Brad Hennessey (5-8) got the win and provided some offense in the game, going 2-for-3 with a homerun.

Barry Bonds hit a 2-run homer in the first inning to make it 2-0, and that’s all the Giants would need. I hate Barry Bonds.

Armando Benitez came in with two men on and one out in the ninth and got the final two outs for his 18th save.

Tonight the Nationals will send reliever Hector Carrasco (4-3, 2.01 ERA, RHP) to throw against Brett Tomko (7-14, 4.54 ERA, RHP). Let’s see if the Nats can go one game without giving up a Barry Bonds homer. Please.

Game time is 4:35 p.m. Dip out of work early, stop at the CVS/Walgreens/Rite Aid on the way to the Metro, grab the big bottle of fake Excedrin, and start pegging them at Barry's fat, steroid-pumped head. I command it! (I think people on steroids end up with huge faces because just the act of chewing pumps up their jaw muscles so much ... but I'm not a doctor.)


In other news, the Capitals lost to Buffalo, 4-0, at MCI Center to fall to 0-3-0 in preseason play. Apparently Alexander Ovechkin didn’t do much in his Capitals preseason debut. Darn. That last 0 in the record, by the way, is overtime losses, the stupidest and wussiest rule in the history of sports. I’m sorry, but giving the losing team a point no matter what kind of negates the excitement of a shootout. That’s the same kind of sissy thinking that leads to the plus-minus grading scale and parents who give a bunch of presents to their child on his/her birthday, then also give one present to each non-birthday sibling. It’s my birthday. I get the Sock’em Boppers.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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C. Stone said...

WOOO SPAM!