Posts Tagged Toronto Blue Jays
April 5, 2008 at 3:44 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chad Cordero, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, Franquelis Osoria, half-assed retractions, Houston Astros, Justin Duchscherer, Kansas City Royals, LaTroy Hawkins, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, predictions, Rickie Weeks, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals
It didn’t take all that long for the final undefeated team to take a loss in the 2008 Major League Baseball season. The Kansas City Royals had their hopes of a 173-0 season dashed on Friday night when they were edged out by the Minnesota Twins, 4-3. Lefty John Bale, making his first Major League start since September 18, 2003, kept his then-unblemished team in the game by allowing four runs in 6 1/3 innings. Unfortunately for Bale and the Royals, Minnesota’s Scott Baker was a little bit better. The Twins righthander threw 6 2/3 innings of 3-run ball, allowing seven hits and walking none while striking out two.
When Baker departed, he turned the game over to the capable back end of the Minnesota bullpen. Pat Neshek and Joe Nathan joined forces to record the final seven outs of the game while only allowing one hit, enabling the Twins to hang on for the win.
The Royals fall to 3-1 following the loss, and are now tied with the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers for the best record in baseball.
The Detroit Tigers find themselves on the other end of the spectrum after losing their fourth consecutive game to begin the season. A.J. Pierzynski led the charge against the Tigers today, delivering a three-run home run and driving in a total of five runs to lead the Chicago White Sox to an 8-5 win. The White Sox improved their record to 2-2, while the Tigers fell to 0-4.
A quick look at the remainder of Friday’s games after the jump.
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April 4, 2008 at 5:49 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged 173-0, Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Doug Davis, Ervin Santana, Franquelis Osoria, Gary Sheffield, Johnny Cueto, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Major League Baseball, Mean Girls, Mike Hampton, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Skip Schumaker, St. Louis Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals, Xavier Nady
The Kansas City Royals completed their season-opening sweep of the Detroit Tigers with a 4-1 win at Comerica Park on Wednesday afternoon, leaving the team as the only one that has yet to suffer a defeat in the young 2008 Major League Baseball season.
I’d like to say that I saw this coming — I could point to my AL Central preview post to show that I at least thought Kansas City would be competitive this year — but this pesky “I shall make a prediction for every game of the MLB season! What a great idea this is!” documents my small amount of faith for the Royals in this opening series (I had them winning on Wednesday, at least). Also, I picked the Detroit Tigers to win the division in that post, and to win it all in this one. So, any way I try to spin it, I still coming out looking like a jackass. Suffice it to say, once again, I was wrong. (What a credibility-building statement. Did I really need to throw in “once again”?)
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April 3, 2008 at 4:18 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged Al Reyes, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Daniel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers, Eric Gagne Disease, Florida Marlins, fortune cookies, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, manipulative rainfall, Matt Garza, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, predictions, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals
A day ago, I pointed out what I thought was an interesting pitching matchup in Wednesday’s Tampa Bay-Baltimore meeting. The game was to involve two pitchers who had previously dominated the opposing team — Matt Garza for Tampa Bay (3-0, 2.16 ERA in three starts vs. Baltimore) and Daniel Cabrera for the O’s (6-0, 3.04 ERA in 11 starts against the Rays). I speculated that pitching would likely be the key to the game, even calling it a “sleeper” matchup.
Well, I was wrong. Neither pitcher made it past the sixth inning — Cabrera was gone after four — and neither factored into the decision. Cabrera was particularly awful, relinquishing six runs on six hits in the four innings. As he often does, Cabrera also struggled with his control, walking five batters while only striking out a pair.
Garza’s line wasn’t much prettier. He got the hook after tossing 5 1/3 innings of 5-run ball. He allowed six hits and walked two batters while striking out three. Despite his poor outing, the former Twin left the game in a position to pick up his fourth win in as many starts against the Orioles.
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April 2, 2008 at 3:26 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged April Fools' Day, Boston Red Sox, Colorado Rockies, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Daniel Cabrera, Ed Montague, ejections, Florida Marlins, foolishness, Houston Astros, Jon Garland, Josh Hamilton, Larry Bowa, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Major League Baseball, Mariano Rivera, Matt Garza, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Pedro Martinez, predictions, Robbie Andino, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, YouTube
It wasn’t the day’s biggest story — the derailment of Pedro Martinez’s return due to a leg injury earns that distinction — but on April Fools’ Day, it seems appropriate to focus on the day’s wackiest story.
Enter Larry Bowa.
The high-strung former Phillies manager, now a third base coach for Joe Torre’s Los Angeles Dodgers, was thrown out of Tuesday night’s Giants-Dodgers game for arguing with third base umpire Ed Montague.
“What was he arguing?” you may ask. And then you might venture guesses such as balls and strikes, a close play at third, or whether a ball hit down the line was fair or foul. All are fairly common arguments, after all.
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March 31, 2008 at 5:47 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, bad ideas, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Opening Day, persistence, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, predictions, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals
Well, I’m down to 1-2 following Washington’s dramatic 3-2 win over the Braves on Sunday night. With Monday’s slate of games fast approaching, I decided to err on the side of caution and just throw out my quick and dirty picks for Opening Day. In the future, I’ll probably briefly feature at least one of the day’s scheduled games before making my picks. But, in the interest of saving time, I’m just going to bust out the picks and then take about a seven hour nap. If you’re looking for MLB-related content, though, I’ve recently written preview pieces of each of the six divisions, and will probably culminate that series with my playoff/World Series picks on either Monday or Tuesday.
Here it goes.
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March 25, 2008 at 3:21 am · Filed under MLB ·Tagged AL East, American League, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Major League Baseball, MLB Preview, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, torn rotator cuff, Toronto Blue Jays
With less than six hours to go before the start of the 2008 Major League Baseball season, I figured it’d be a good time to get going on the Official Merrill Park Superstar 2008 Major League Baseball Season Preview™.
There’s a big difference between this and my analyses/projections of college basketball (and to a lesser extent the NFL) in that I put a lot more faith in my own judgment — the “eyeball test” ESPN’s college hoops talking heads frequently make reference to — than I would with college basketball and pro football. Here’s my ever-so-complex explanation for why I do this: I feel I have much greater knowledge of baseball than basketball and football.
Why? Well, there are several reasons. However, I’m the type of person that tends to learn through experience. And, of the “big four” sports, the one I have far and away the most experience playing is baseball. I started playing little league when I was about 10, probably younger, and continued playing in rec leagues well into high school, before my torn rotator cuff finally made playing full seasons a near impossibility.
Still, I played baseball in some capacity for at least eight years — likely more than half that time with a significant arm injury — and thus, that’s the sport I feel I have the greatest knowledge of, just from firsthand involvement. (For the record, basketball would be second on that list, albeit a distant one — my best days were behind me as soon as everyone else but me started growing in middle school.) It also helps that baseball is the most visible mainstream sport, what with its 162-game schedule. So, not only have I had the greatest amount of firsthand experience with the national pastime, but I’ve also surely seen far more baseball than any other sport. And I’m not even going to get into sharing an apartment with members of my school’s baseball team last year. You should get the point by now, assuming you haven’t just scrolled past this, perhaps in a fit of rage that had you shouting “GET TO THE FUCKING POINT!” at your screen.
SO…with all of those opening pleasantries out of the way, we can almost get to said point. Just one more thing to note: even though I say I’m less reliant on formulas and numbers when it comes to analyzing baseball, that certainly doesn’t mean I disregard them altogether.
OKAY. On to the preview.
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Merrill Park Superstar 