The turnaround for the Dodgers is nothing short of incredible. Take THAT, McCourt!
That’s one of the sweetest parts of the turnaround. Too bad Fuckface doesn’t care - I’d love for this to be gnawing at his never-to-be-sufficiently-damned innards.
SILENCE, you Giants fan you…
The Big Red Machine of 1976 had seven:
Gary Nolan: 15-9
Pat Zachary: 14-7
Fred Norman: 12-7
Jack Billingham: 12-10
Santo Alcala: 11-4
Don Gullett: 11-3
Rawly Eastwick: 11-5 as the closer
Roll on, Big Blue!
You gotta love a pitcher who does so much to help his own cause.
I saw this eye-popping statistic this evening:
When the Dodgers score four or more runs while he is still in the game, Kershaw’s career record is 49-0.
Me and my big mouth.
Pirates swept in Colorado over the weekend.
I will not speak again until the Pirates record win number 82.
Reds nation greatly appreciates the three game skid that puts us at five games back now. Hopefully we can make hay against the Cubs starting tonight. Ryan Ludwick is finally back in the lineup tonight off the DL after injuring his shoulder on opening day. God that seems so long ago!
Impressive, but I bet that’s not that unusual for a teams number 1 or number 2. I know Tim Hudson has a career mark of 125-2 when his team gives him 3 runs.
So the Dodgers now have a six-game winning streak for the third time this season, and while they still have the lowest win total of any first-place team, the discrepancy is not nearly as significant as it once was. They would only be 3.5 games behind the Braves, who currently own the best record in the majors.
In today’s meaningless baseball statistic, here are the combined division winning percentages:
NL West - .489
NL Central - .520
NL East - .476
AL West - .476
AL Central - .499
AL East - .536
And here is a breakdown of a fictional race between first-place teams:
Atlanta Braves: 72-47
Pittsburgh Pirates: 70-47 (-1.0)
Boston Red Sox: 71-49 (-1.5)
Detroit Tigers: 69-48 (-2.0)
Texas Rangers: 69-50 (-3.0)
LA Dodgers: 68-50 (-3.5)
I have absolutely no point to make. Just thought it was interesting.
ETA: I said “fictional,” but I realize, of course, that those races are actually meaningful within each league.
Anybody catch the Mariners/Rays game tonight? For only the second time in history, both teams’ leadoff hitters (Seattle’s Brad Miller and Tampa’s Ben Zobrist) hit home runs in their first at-bat, and then hit a second HR in the same game.
I like this bit:
“Miller, who grew up in Orlando, said he was in attendance at Tropicana Field to witness Zobrist’s first Major League home run. Miller was in high school at the time.”
On another note, Miller was in the Mariners’ dugout on Saturday when Ken Griffey, Jr. was inducted into the the Mariners Hall of Fame. Griffey was always his favorite player, and he was born the year Junior made his ML debut. "Born: 10/18/1989 "
God that makes me feel old. I saw my first Mariners game when our current starting shortstop/leadoff hitter was 3 years old. And I’m four years older than our oldest player (Raul Ibanez). I miss Jamie Moyer (three years older than me).
ETA: Yeah, we Mariners fans have been reduced to taking pleasure in the team’s “human interest” stories for the last 10 years or so.
I went to the Cards-Pirates game a Busch tonight. Crazy game. There was just no energy in the stadium until the 6th, when the Cardinals managed to score a couple of runs. They tied in the bottom of the ninth and finally won in the 14th. I’m hoping that squeezing out this win plus the immanent return of Molina will put a little more life into the Redbirds.
Did you stick it out until the end? I was following it online but went to bed after 12 or 13 innings. It looked like there were several times each team came close to ending it.
Quite a battle still for the NL Central.
And now we’re just one game back from the Cards…
As a lifelong Dodgers fan who had given up on them back in June, I am in a state of shock and awe over what has been going on the past two months. Tonight, for the second time this week, they have come back from down multi-runs in the bottom of the ninth to win. They were behind in all three games to the Mets, but came back in each of those games. Unbelievable.
What an incredible year!
A rough week for the Bucs, but they’ve snapped their 4-game slide, and did against none other than St Louis. Memories of collapses past have been floating up at me in my dreams, but my dreams will be sweet tonight after that win. Now, to get the rubber game, take the series, and to continue to go about the business of shaking this 20-year-old monkey off our back and beating it about the face and neck with a Louisville Slugger.
Go Bucs!
Never give up! Never surrender!
I no longer worry about the Dodgers when I hit the sack early because I have to get up at o-dark-thirty the next morning. They’ll find a way to win, even without me. 
Jarred Cosart is apparently the first Astros pitcher to give up 2 or fewer runs in each of his first six starts and now has a cool 1.15 ERA after six shutout innings against the A’s. I’m officially starting to feel good about him. Otherwise, another lost season for the Astros, pretty much as expected.
Looking at the standings and magic numbers this morning, both Houston and Miami are in a strong position to be mathematically eliminated in August. While I’m sad about Houston, as I’d held out some vague hope that they’d surprise people this year (or at least finish ahead of the Angels), I am pleased with regard to Miami.
And yes, I stayed up to watch the Dodger game last night. I am amused that Vin Scully has taken to referring to Dodger Stadium as The Magic Castle.
No - I was at the game with a 7 year old who isn’t particularly interested in baseball. I think a five hour game that ends at midnight is asking a bit much. 
We left after the 10th and I fully expected to miss the end of the game as we walked back to the car.
There was another extra-inning game between the Cards and Pirates today, with Matt Carpenter going 4 for 5. Molina is back - hooray! - although he had a quiet day offensively.