The Day in Sports: September 15, 2005

Hey folks. The recap portion of this is going to be a quick one. We focus on the future, people, not the past! (At least when there's only one game the night before.) Plus, tonight is an interesting sports night.

Recaps first, previews follow.

Nationals 6, New York Mets 5 (10 innings)

Yesterday the Nats made a statement. It’s not over. By sweeping the Mets (coupled with losses by the Phillies and Marlins) the Nationals have snuck back within 2.5 games of the now-wild-card-leading Astros.

Despite Thomas Boswell’s assertion in today’s Post that the Nationals are still in the race, washingtonpost.com apparently thinks it’s over, as (unless I’m missing something) they removed their “Nationals Wild Card Race” graphic sometime between yesterday morning and this morning.

Yesterday afternoon, Washington needed a late comeback to send the game to extra innings before earning the win in the tenth. After jumping out to a 4-1 lead early (which included a Cristian Guzman home run ... I’m not kidding ... really), the Mets erased everything and jumped on top thanks to Cliff Floyd’s fifth-inning grand slam off of Livan Hernandez. 5-4 Mets.

With one out in the ninth inning and men on first and third, a Kaz Matsui fielding error allowed Brad Wilkerson to reach first and pushed home the tying run. Then, with two outs in the tenth inning and Nick Johnson on third, Vinny Castilla singled to right field off of Roberto Hernandez (6-6) to score the game-winning run. Gary Majewski worked the bottom half to earn his first save.

Jay Bergmann (2-0) worked the bottom of the ninth and got the win.

The Nats head to the west coast to face San Diego, the sub-.500 team leading the National League West, starting tonight at 10:05. John Patterson (8-5, 2.74 ERA, RHP) will face Jake Peavy (12-6, 2.93 ERA, RHP) in a match-up of young studs. This is a three-game series.


Now on to what’s on tap for tonight.

First and foremost, the Nats play the Padres in San Diego on ridiculous west coast time, which means 10:05 p.m. on the good side of the country (the side that doesn’t have to wake up at 9 a.m. on Sunday to watch football). Meanwhile, Philadelphia and Florida play each other in Miami, which is good if the Nats can sweep the Padres and neither the Phillies or Marlins sweep, because they will gain on both teams. It’s really bad, though, if the Nats don’t sweep and either the Phils or Fish do. Meanwhile, Houston starts up a three game set at home against Milwaukee. Go Brewers.

From the “they’re still playing?” side of town, the Orioles take on the Devil Rays (marquee match-up if there ever was one) at Camden Yards tonight to start a three-game set. Tonight’s game pits drunken college students’ stomachs against cheap hot dogs, as it’s $5 College Night AND $1 hot dogs and Cokes for Fan Appreciation Weekend. (Hot dogs and Cokes will be a buck for all three games.) The pitching match-up is the Orioles leader in wins, Rodrigo Lopez (14-9, 4.82 ERA, RHP) facing young, talented, and stuck-in-Tampa Scott Kazmir (8-9, 3.85 ERA, LHP). The game is set for 7:35 p.m., but the forecast is saying it might rain.

Also tonight is the Washington Capitals preseason opener in Carolina where they will take on the (bad name at the moment) Hurricanes. As much as I’ve tried to claim indifference and say that hockey is dead to me, especially with the Caps sure to suck for years to come, I’m pretty excited for hockey’s return and am optimistic (probably unrealistically) that the rule changes will make the game fun to watch again. I’m also psyched to see Alexander (they call him Sasha in Russia) Ovechkin don a Caps uniform for the first time, because I really do think he will be better than Sidney Crosby -- for the next couple years at the very least. The game is at 7:00 p.m. I can’t find anything about it, but in ’03-’04, preseason games were streamed on the Caps Web site.

The Day in Sports: September 14, 2005

MLB: Texas Rangers 7, Orioles 6 (10 innings)

Well, I said pretty much everything that needed to be said about this game in my post yesterday afternoon. The Orioles were one out away from sweeping the Rangers and taking their fifth straight victory, when Jorge Julio struck. Julio let a 6-3 lead with two outs in the ninth become a 6-6 tie, then was replaced by Jason Grimsley, who got the final out of the ninth. Grimsley, of course, then gave up a run while getting no outs in the bottom of the tenth. Game over.

Grimsley (1-2) took the loss, and Joaquin Benoit (4-4) got the final two outs in the top of the tenth and took the win.

Miguel Tejada got his 91st RBI of the season, leaving him needing nine RBIs in the last 17 games to reach the 100 mark.

The Orioles, now 69-76, have an off day today before taking on the Devil Rays for a weekend set at Camden Yards.


Nationals 6, New York Mets 3
The Nats just won’t go away in the playoff race, as they took it to Kris Benson and the Mets yesterday, 6-3, to get back within three games of Philadelphia and Florida for the lead in the wild card standings.

Nick Johnson, Preston Wilson and Vinny Castilla provided the offensive fireworks, but Jose Guillen provided the entertainment. After striking out looking leading off the fifth inning with the game tied 3-3, Guillen tossed his helmet, some bats and a shin guard onto the field. Naturally, he was ejected, and could face a fine and a suspension.

The Nationals responded by knocking back to back dingers in the inning, the first by Wilson and the second by Castilla, to put Washington up 5-3.

Johnson added some offense, also, going 3-for-5 with two RBIs.

Esteban Loaiza (11-10) worked seven innings, giving up three runs, to get the win. Benson (9-8) took the loss. Chad Cordero, again, worked the ninth to get the save, his 46th.

The Nats and Mets close out this series this afternoon at 1:10 at Shea Stadium, with Livan Hernandez (15-7, 3.83 ERA, RHP) facing Jae Seo (7-2, 1.98 ERA, RHP).

Opinion: Jorge Julio and Jason Grimsley combine suckiness to create super-suckiness.

OK, in case you missed it, the Orioles were up 6-3 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth against Texas this afternoon. Jorge Julio, presumably in the game because B.J. Ryan had pitched in four straight games, got the first two outs but walked a batter. Then he gave up a Hank Blalock double to make it 6-4, then a David Dellucci homer to make it 6-6. He gets replaced by Tim Byrdak, who gives up a single, then Grimsley comes in and gets an out to end the ninth.

Then, the Orioles send up Newhan, Surhoff and Eric Byrnes in the 10th, so you know it's going to be a short inning. Newhan magically singles, then Surhoff sac bunts him over, then Byrnes pops out and Luis Matos grounds out. Inning over. We get to see Jason Grimsley face Mark Teixeira, Alfonso Soriano and Kevin Mench.

And that's all he saw because he didn't get any of them out. A short inning for a different reason. Teixeria doubled, they intentionally walked Soriano, then Mench singled to knock in Teixeira. Game freaking over.

How hard is this? One out before three runs = win. One is less than three. This should be easy.

This is how I'm sure it went:

Sam Perlozzo: "Hey Jorge, you've got two outs. Don't give up three runs to choke on the lead."
Jorge: "Que?"
Sammy P: "Crap."

Really I can't blame Grimsley SO much, because he was facing the heart of a tough order, but I would have liked him to make it take more than three batters, thank you very much. Not a chance. Grimsley is a model of efficiency. As are most sinker-ballers -- just in a different way.

So the question that begs to be asked here is, can you believe teams actually WANTED Jorge Julio at the trade deadline? I can't. But I sure can believe he's stuck in an Orioles uniform.

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.

All Sports: I'm back!

Sorry for the long delay, but I am back. Work has been b-a-n-a-n-a-s bananas (if you get that, you like bad music). I think things should slow down enough for me to get things going here, though, hopefully. And that means, yes, NFL coverage! (and NHL coverage ... yay).

So here's what's happened, if you've been in a coma.

The Nats playoff hopes are all but gone, as they've been in a tailspin.

The Orioles are toast, but they are still playing to keep Sam Perlozzo's job, and they've won three in a row (yay!) against Seattle and Texas (oh...). I've been searching for reasons to watch the remaining games, and here are a few:

1. Will the Orioles do well enough for Perlozzo to keep his job?
2. Sitting at 68-75, can they beat last year's record (78-84)?
3. Can Jay Gibbons get the two homers he needs to reach 100 career dingers?
4. Can Miguel Tejada get 10 RBIs in the last 19 games to reach 100 on the year?
5. Football is only on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Mystics missed the playoffs, and all the buildup for the final game was wasted because Detroit won their next to last game, so it was over before the final matchup.

D.C. United keeps winning, and they have moved all the way up to second place in the East with five games left.

Maryland football squeaked a win past Navy in their opener, then choked on a 10 point lead in the fourth quarter to #25 Clemson on Saturday. This Saturday they take on West Virginia in College Park.

The Redskins beat the Bears in week one, 9-7, but Patrick Ramsey showed that he sucked, so Mark Brunell is now the starting quarterback in D.C.

The Ravens shut down Peyton Manning and the Colts for a full half, but the offense showed why they are the team's liability, as receivers dropped passes (especially bad when into the hands of defenders) and the team ended up losing 24-7. Kyle Boller strained a toe, and now it appears that Anthony Wright will be starting for the time being.

Hockey starts in less than a month, and the Capitals are looking more and more like they are going to send an AHL team to the MCI Center to face the rest of the NHL. Olie Kolzig is back to face 75 shots a game, and superstar 2004 draft pick Alexander Ovechkin will be on the team, but other than that there is not much to be excited about. The team seemed deep in the Peter Bondra sweepstakes (if you can call it that), but it turned out his agent was using our bid to drive up the price elsewhere. Thanks, ass. Bondra will be an Atlanta Thrasher.

Meanwhile, I named my fantasy hockey team the Fig Puckers (teehee).

That's all for now. Don't give up on me and the Beltway Sports Beat yet!!