Boston heads out on the road after finishing their last 10-game homestand with a 7-3 record. They enter a tough stretch in facing teams currently in first or second place in each game until May 27. “It will be a good test,” said Red Sox right fielder J.D. Drew. “I think we’re well cut out for it. We know what we’ve got to do.” This type of schedule is nothing new for the Sox, as they have played 13 games this season against teams with a .600 winning percentage or better this year, tied for 2nd-most in the Majors. Boston is 3-10 (.231) in those contests. Look for 1B Kevin Youkilis to lead the charge offensively, hitting .394 (13-for-33) since the start of May, adding two home runs and scoring 11 runs over that span.
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Month: May 2010
The Rockies are a game below .500, and they haven’t exactly been the model of consistency this year, but there sure are reasons to be optimistic. The biggest reason for that is something that hasn’t been a strength for them for a long time – their pitching. They obviously have Ubaldo Jimenez – the second best pitcher in a ridiculous strong cast of National League pitchers so far this year. His ERA is a ridiculous 0.93, and he has been absolutely ferocious. He has lost just once, and that was in a seven inning, one run game in which his team totally let him down offensively. I expected him t be very good this year, and he has exceeded all expectations.
Wow. Just wow. There couldn’t possibly have been a better mother’s day gift for all the mothers who are baseball fans out there than Dallas Braden’s tour de force performance today. On the day that so many major leaguers were sporting nifty pinks bats and pink sweat bands, Braden dished up the second perfect game in Oakland history, and just the 19th in major league history. From a betting perspective a perfect game is meaningless unless you have a way to predict it in advance, but it’s still pretty much the most impressive thing you can see in baseball. Add in the storyline about Braden’s grandmother – his mother died when he was in school, so his grandmother raised him. He still lives with her, and today she was there to see it. Great stuff.
I don’t want to talk about the Lawrence Taylor issue much because it’s just not worth spending much time on. I just can’t resist commenting on one aspect of the case, though. It has come out today that Taylor claimed that he thought the girl was 19, not 16 – as if that was a defense he was offering. So let me get this straight, LT – your defense is that you admit that you paid to have sex with a seedy prostitute who was there against her will and was high at the time despite the fact that you are married, but that’s all okay because she wasn’t 16. Classy. So much for your claims that you didn’t do anything wrong.
I want to talk about the obvious story today – JaMarcus Russell – but before I do I just want to hit on the Red Wings’ game for a second. It’s in the first intermission as I write this, but the Wings, facing elimination, have jumped out to a 5-0 lead. More remarkable (or unexpected given the way the two teams have played up to this point) than that is the fact that the first four goals scored in the game – over a span of five minutes and 36 seconds – were all scored by Johan Franzen. Franzen is one of the best pure scorers in the league, but he has struggled with injuries this year and had been in a bit of a slump so far in the playoffs with only two goals in 10 games up to this point. This explosion, coming against a very good goalie in Evgeni Nabokov, is probably unprecedented in playoff action. It’s pretty much impossible to believe.
I really don’t understand the appeal of Tim Tebow. He’s a nice player and all, and he was a very successful college quarterback, but I don’t know why that is turning into a love affair with NFL fans unlike any other. The guy was a marginal first round pick who is only third on the Denver depth chart, and he’s far from a lock to be a long term NFL starter, never mind a star. Despite all of that, he led all players in NFL sales in April. That’s not just rookies, but everyone – including Donovan McNabb in new threads. Sam Bradford is a better player with a much brighter future, but his jersey only ranked ninth in the league. People are strange.
I have the Blue Jays’ game on in the background as I write this. Ricky Romero has struck out four of the first five batters he has faced. Regular readers will know that this isn’t the first time I have talked about this guy. He’s a youngster who is already very good, and he has a chance to be very special. I bet on him tonight, and I expect to do a lot of that until people start to notice what he is. There isn’t a lefty with a better change-up in the league. Check this guy out if you have a chance. With the rotation they have now and Kyle Drabek ready any day the Jays have a shockingly good rotation for a team that just lost the best pitcher in baseball. Fun to watch – and to profit from.
The Derby. I respect every Derby winner – it’s the hardest race there is to win – but I have certainly respected other winners more than Super Saver. He won in a glacially slow time on a surface that was perfect for him, and he benefited from pretty much the perfect trip. Despite that he was getting chased down rapidly by Ice Box, who had had a brutal trip, down the stretch. I long for the day that I get to see a Triple Crown winner (I was alive for the last two, but was sadly too young to care), but I’m not getting my hopes up at all this year – despite what Calvin Borel says.
Zack Greinke. There couldn’t be a less likely guy in sports. On Sunday Greinke allowed one run in eight very solid innings and lost 1-0. In the last two years he has a 2.17 ERA with an AL best 16 quality starts and the best ERA in baseball, yet his team has gone 18-21 when he has started. He’s 0-3 this year despite pitching very well. Just imagine what this guy could do playing for a real team. Kansas City should grant him free agency just out of mercy.
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