Alright, even though I said that J-Rod the Washburninator pitching well would probably throw me into shock, it doesn't really. I just hope he went out to dinner and caught up with his friends on the Angels *before* today's game.
Many momentous things happened today (that is, Wednesday 4/5), you know.
* Washburn went 7 IP, 0 BB, 7 K and only gave up two runs in that time. He of the lovely blue eyes apparently also had some lovely change-ups that totally 0wnz0r3d his former teammates. Good for him.
* George Sherrill got his first career save.
* In winning the game, the Mariners won their first series of the season. The last time they did that was 2002.
* Tim Salmon, who almost didn't make the roster this year, hit another home run.
* Ken Griffey hit his 537th career home run and now solely holds the place of #12 all-time. Next up is Mike Schmidt's 548 mark.
* In the same game, Bronson Arroyo hit his first career home run. A huge 417-foot home run. In addition, he did a decent job pitching (6.2 IP, 3 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, although he gave up homers to Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez).
* Jimmy Rollins extended his hitting streak to 38 games. Tom G has some corollary numbers about Jimmy Rollins that are pretty interesting.
* Ryan Franklin came into the game and didn't suck. In CBP, he pitched two innings, walking two, giving up one hit and no runs, striking out none, but -- and this is most important -- of the 7 batters he didn't walk, only 1 hit a fly ball, and the other 6 hit grounders. Nice job, dude. Keep it up. Well, I mean, keep the ball down. Just throw strikes, son.
* Pujols is having a field day in CBP still, though, and has already hit 3 homers in two games.
* Zach Duke started for the Pirates today, and while he didn't get a win, at least he didn't get a loss. He came out with the score tied at 2 (though it should have been 2-1 if not for an error by Jumpin' Jack Wilson), and Damaso Marte choked up a run later on. Whack-o-Mac, who they traded to the White Sox for Marte, was 1-for-5 today with an RBI, although he struck out to end the game in the 11th inning, too.
* Speaking of the CLE-CWS game, former Phillies outfielder Jason Michaels is 6-for-13 already with the Tribe for a team-leading .462 average.
* Just as J-Rod was getting revenge on the Angels today, the A's got revenge on the Yankees today, pounding them for a 9-4 win. A Milton Bradley triple and a Robinson Cano error opened up the Oakland skies to crash in on the Yankees bullpen for 5 runs in the 8th inning. Good for them.
If the Nippon Ham Fighters beat the Softbank Hawks (as I write this they're up 2-0 in the second inning, Darvish Yu pitching against Tsuyoshi Wada), they'll be tied for first place. Holy crap. Maybe I *should* be a little more optimistic about them this year.
Tomorrow is Bret Boone's birthday. Did you know that he shares a birthday with Bert Blyleven, Kenny Williams, and legendary catchers Ernie Lombardi and Mickey Cochrane? Neither did I.
Also tomorrow, most teams are sending out their 4th or 5th guys in the rotation, so some fun stuff could happen. Will Jason Marquis hit a home run off Cory Lidle? Will Gil Meche make it past the third inning? Will Kris Benson be able to keep his mind on the game? Will Carlos Silva actually walk anyone? Will Pedro's poor little toes make it through a whole cold cold evening? Stay tuned. Or don't.
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