And That Happened
White Sox 10, Blue Jays 6: “The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.” Carl Sandburg said that about fog. “It was worse than when it rains. With the lights, it made it really really bright. It was weird.” Adam Dunn said that about fog. Which may not be as good as what Sandburg said, but Dunn hit two homers so he has that going for him, which is nice.
Reds 6, Cubs 2: Fog on the north side too, but this time it didn’t inspire any poetry that we know of. It did feature Brandon Phillips driving in six runs, though, and the way some people love RBIs I’m sure they’re composing some epic verse about Phillips’ clutchiness or what have you. The Reds have beaten the Cubs 17 of the past 20 times they’ve faced them and 10 straight times at Wrigley Field.
Red Sox 10, Rays 8: Fisticuffsmanship! Well, more like a violence-free, bench-clearing shuffle no one’s heart was really in after John Lackey drilled Matt Joyce in the back for flipping his bat after he thought he had hit a second home run off the Boston starter (it was foul). Boston won this one despite blowing a 6-0, 8-7 and a 9-8 leads, the first of those it enjoyed in the first inning, the second and third of which it enjoyed in extras. This one was over in a crisp five hours, 23 minutes.
Brewers 6, Marlins 1: [CTRL-V]: [Pitcher] tossed [number] shutout innings against the Marlins. [highlight, CTRL-V: “Yovani Gallardo”] [highlight, CTRL-V: “eight”].
Orioles 4, Angels 3: The O’s got two runs in the sixth before the game was halted due to monsoons and such for two hours and change. That was all the scoring that would happen, though. I sorta feel like Mother Nature didn’t want a lot of baseball played last night. Maybe She had some TV to catch up on.
Rangers 6, Indians 3: Well, those Indians sure are doing what they can to derail Terry Francona’s Manager of the Year campaign. Eight straight losses for The Tribe, who are now tied with the Royals for second place in the AL Central. Eighteen days ago they were in first place.
Diamondbacks 5, Dodgers 4: This was not one for fans of stellar bullpen work. Brandon League was handed a 3-1 lead in the ninth and surrendered four runs, all on singles, two of the infield variety. Heath Bell came in to close it out for Arizona, and ultimately did, but not before allowing a homer and allowing the Dodgers to get runners on the corner with nobody out. He still got the save, though, and someone will one day say that Bell knows what it takes to lock down games in the ninth inning or some such.
Padres 7, Braves 6: A late rally falls short for Atlanta. San Diego beat up Julio Teheran and Jason Marquis stymied his old mates. Well, not his old mates since he last played for Atlanta a decade ago, but you know what I mean. Jason Heyward was 13 then. He hit two homers last night. Will Venable drove in three.
Royals 3, Tigers 2: Break up the Royals. Kansas City wins its sixth in a row, as Tigers hitters not named Miguel Cabrera could do nothing against Jeremy Guthrie and four Royals relievers. Doug Fister pitched a complete game loss. You don’t see a ton of those these days.
Mariners 3, Astros 2: Hisashi Iwakuma continues to roll right along, upping his record to 7-1 and lowering his ERA to 1.79 after seven innings in which he allowed only one unearned run. Indeed, he hasn’t allowed an earned run since May 26.