Merrill Park Superstar

Even less to add than my usual nothing may be more like it. Sorry, but my brain is pretty much fried from the two basketball games tonight. I caught the final inning of Chicago’s win over the Tigers that put Detroit at 0-5. This was especially unfortunate since I apparently missed Dontrelle Willis apparently throw five of the shittiest one-hit innings in Major League baseball history. His final line: 5 IP, 1 H, 3 ER, 7 BB, 0 K. Yes. Seven walks and zero strikeouts. This is the guy I felt would make the difference in an October series with the Red Sox. I feel stupid.

That reminds me, I also happened to notice that Ken Rosenthal picked the Atlanta Braves to win the World Series. Even with the team I picked to win it all struggling to win at all, that prediction is just ridiculous to me. Their bullpen sucks and they haven’t significantly improved last year’s team, which was good, but surely wasn’t winning any championships. You could argue that shedding Andruw Jones was addition by subtraction, but seeing as how he was replaced with Mark Kotsay, you would be dead wrong. And, again, does anyone expect that starting rotation to remain healthy? I think Mike Hampton just hurt his shoulder again trying to raise his hand.

Oh! I also saw Jonny Gomes make a fool of himself in the second inning of the Rays-Yankees game by going into a home run trot on a hard-hit ball that bounced off the upper part of the wall in right field at Yankee Stadium. Rightfielder Bobby Abreu quickly recovered the ball and fired it to second base. At about the point when he was dead between first and second bases, Gomes noticed, “Oh shit, I guess it wasn’t a home run!” He made a half-assed effort to rush back towards first base, then just gave up and was tagged out. It was not his finest moment.

In the bottom half of the inning, Gomes was charged with an error in, yes, right field, when he simply failed to catch a routine fly ball hit by Hideki Matsui. Though he didn’t actually drop the ball or make contact with it, the play was so disgraceful that the official scorer at Yankee Stadium felt obligated to give him an error anyway. This was also not Gomes’ finest moment.

Fast-forward to the fifth inning. Gomes steps to the plate with his team holding a 2-1 lead. There’s one out and runners at first and second. Andy Pettitte is one well-placed ground ball away from getting out of a jam, and Gomes is just one poorly-placed ground ball from probably not seeing a whole hell of a lot of playing time in his immediate future. So what happens next?

Gomes hits a three-run homer to make it 5-1 Rays. And much, if not all, is forgiven.

Tampa Bay went on to win the game by a 6-3 score, with Troy Percival pitching a perfect ninth to notch his first save as a Ray.

Oh, and at about the same time, Eric Gagne pitched a perfect ninth for the Brewers to pick up his first save. No need to get excited, he did it against the Giants.

Okay. That’s about all I remember from today’s slate of games. The box scores, provided by the Bush bashers at Yahoo! Sports, will hopefully tell the rest of today’s stories:

• Milwaukee Brewers 5, San Francisco Giants 4
• Tampa Bay Rays 6, New York Yankees 3
• Chicago Cubs 9, Houston Astros 7
• Toronto Blue Jays 10, Boston Red Sox 2
• St. Louis Cardinals 5, Washington Nationals 4
• Cincinnati Reds 4, Philadelphia Phillies 3
• Minnesota Twins 6, Kansas City Royals 4
• San Diego Padres 4, Los Angeles Dodgers 1
• Chicago White Sox 5, Detroit Tigers 3
• Atlanta Braves 11, New York Mets 5
• Oakland Athletics 6, Cleveland Indians 1
• Baltimore Orioles 6, Seattle Mariners 4
• Florida Marlins 7, Pittsburgh Pirates 3
• Arizona Diamondbacks 7, Colorado Rockies 2
• Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 2, Texas Rangers 1

MERRILL PARK SUPERSTAR vs. the NL CENTRAL updated standings:
St. Louis Cardinals (4-1) .800
Milwaukee Brewers (4-1) .800
Cincinnati Reds (3-2) .600
Merrill Park Superstar (43-34 [Saturday: 8-7]) .565
Chicago Cubs (2-3) .400
Pittsburgh Pirates (2-3) .400
Houston Astros (2-4) .333

SUNDAY PICKS:
New York Yankees over Tampa Bay Rays
Boston Red Sox over Toronto Blue Jays
Florida Marlins over Pittsburgh Pirates
Philadelphia Phillies over Cincinnati Reds
Seattle Mariners over Baltimore Orioles
New York Mets over Atlanta Braves
Milwaukee Brewers over San Francisco Giants
Kansas City Royals over Minnesota Twins
St. Louis Cardinals over Washington Nationals
Chicago Cubs over Houston Astros
Colorado Rockies over Arizona Diamondbacks
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim over Texas Rangers
Oakland Athletics over Cleveland Indians
San Diego Padres over Los Angeles Dodgers
Chicago White Sox over Detroit Tigers