Baseball
Last night Jered Weaver threw a no-hitter, blanking the Minnesota Twins 9-0. He walked one and struck out nine.
The most amazing part of it as I watched it unfold was that one of my best buddies and resident Angels fan MJ Lloyd (of Halo Hangout and Off-Base Percentage) called it earlier in the day. Above are the text messages to prove it.
Read more about it at the OC Register Angels blog, and give MJ a shout out on twitter for his Nostradamus-like prediction. Well played my friend.
Couple of things here, boys and girls. And yes I saw Justin Verlander close it down today–and knew he had it when he struck out a Rajai Davis (forever a footnote on the wrong side of a trivia question) who is riding the interstate as far as his batting average goes.
It’s been a pretty epic little sports Saturday. The Derby, which I missed. A bunch of NBA games down to the wire, which I also missed. A 5-time Major winner in Golf passed away early this morning. Oh yea, and that shithead closer that pitches for the Reds finally reared his ugly head just as I was starting to like him.
Happy Saturday all.
He might no longer be known only as ‘Lights Out’, but he’s now an immortal piece of baseball history. Last night, Francisco Liriano no-hit the Chicago White Sox. He did this against a team I told you would be one of the biggest offensive forces in the entire sport this year.
Liriano did it with the opposing pitcher on the mound being Edwin Jackson, a pitcher who joined the no-hit club last season. He threw 123 pitches, 66 for strikes, and walked six. The final out of the game was a liner from Adam Dunn into shortstop Matt Tolbert’s glove.
A few years back, Liriano looked like he was going to become one of the most dominating pitchers in the sport for a better part of a decade. As they so often do, dreams got derailed. But for one night Liriano was everything he’s ever been and then some, and he’s now part of history.
Roy Halladay was a Jay Bruce walk away from going 27 up, and 27 down. I could do like I usually do and post all kinds of links, and even in a regular loss I would have done that. But I’m not going to do that.
I have no problem in saying it was one of the finest performances I’ve ever seen on the pitchers mound. It came against my favorite team, in the postseason. There’s not a lot else you can say. I’m not going to hang my head, and I’m not going to act like it’s more than it was. It was one game to begin a postseason series.
I still love my boys. This is part of the journey. There will be brighter days. I know from my time playing this great game that this happens on a given day. They went up against a guy throwing 6 or 7 pitches for strikes on both sides of the plate. There isn’t a lot you can do and your chances are mathematically eliminated when a guy doesn’t make a mistake.
There are a lot of songs I thought of that fit for this team after game one. I almost went with REO Speedwagon, but I’ll probably save that for elimination. This Blink 182 song really fits well with where this young Reds team is at. This is all part of the big picture. This was part of destiny. There will be a brighter day. This taught some of these young guys a lesson to witness it and be part of it. But there will be a brighter day.
This is the sports Gods’ way laughing at me.
Of course this would happen to a team I root for; scratch that. A team I live for. It’s not your fault, Reds. It’s my fault. This is what I get for sacrificing other areas of my life to put you on a pedestal. This is me being taught some kind of cruel lesson. There aren’t fans like me in the Rangers fan base. You saw how things went for them today. This is the baseball Gods telling me to simmer. To get wrapped up in something else.
I cannot believe that my favorite team in my favorite sport in my favorite season of all time just went out and got no-hit tonight and I watched the whole thing unfold. I’ve waited over half of my life for this; and this is what happens. Maybe if I hadn’t been waiting half my life, I’d be celebrating a win right now.
Life is funny sometimes. Baseball is definitely funny. I’m really sad right now.
The national talking heads everywhere are laughing at us. Only my team would come out and get no-hit, zip zip zip for 9 innings in their first postseason appearance in 15 years.
Props to Johnny Gomes; who is worthless, and Edinson Volquez for sealing this thing from the get-go. In 27 years, I’ve yet to see my Reds get no-hit, and I’m glad you all saved it for tonight to serve us this nice tasty cake.
As for you Philly fans, eat shit. I maintain that even after you sweep our Punch & Judy quartet you will not win a title this year. And the Eagles are a mess!
I was wrong for believing in the Reds. This series won’t have a game four and when I go to Cincinnati on Sunday I’m going to say goodbye to the 2010 Reds.
Last night, Matt Garza became the first Tampa Bay Rays pitcher to throw a no-hitter; and the first pitcher in my recent memory to be a member of my fantasy team and accomplish the feat while in the lineup.
Garza was the fifth pitcher this season to throw a no-hitter. Folks, we are playing 1992 baseball again, and it’s trending towards being an even lower scoring season then that.
Matt Joyce hit a grand slam in this game to account for the first scoring in the 6th inning.
-Reds start the weekend off with a big 10-3 victory in Cincinnati, coupled with a St. Louis loss to Zack Greinke (what goes around comes around), the Reds are now a half game in first place and have won four straight.
Drew Stubbs drove in four runs, Jay Bruce doubled twice, drove in a run on a sac fly, walked, and scored three times, and Scott Rolen homered.
-Love the green hats. Irish heritage day at the ball park is pretty cool in the fact that we get to see the green hats.
-I like the Reds chances tonight against Justin Masterson. In fact I like their chances to get a sweep this weekend if LeCure pitches decently this evening. Do you remember the Friday night back in June of 2008 that the Reds hung the first loss of his career on him? Here’s the box score from the 3-1 final that evening against the Red Sox.
-Big talk around the league is Edwin Jackson throwing 149 pitches for a no-hitter last night against the Tampa Bay Rays despite walking 8 batters. I’ll say this, the guy was throwing 95 MPH in the 9th after 140 pitches. Now we know why he was somewhat coveted.
-I’m going to a wedding in Parma, Ohio this evening. Gotta run. GO REDS. I’ll try and update the twitter later if you wanna hear my thoughts on the evening’s action. Look out though.
It wasn’t that long ago that Jason Heyward was the biggest news in baseball for his Opening Day home run in his first at-bat. Now, he’s played in a no-hit ballgame. He just happened to be on the wrong side of that ballgame. Jon Lester needed 130 pitches and a strikeout to finish what he started last night. When the dust settled he had thrown the 18th no-hitter in Red Sox history. It took 2 hours and 30 minutes on the dot and took place in front of a crowd of 37,746.
It’s a great culmination for Lester who just over a year ago faced uncertainty in his professional career, battling cancer. It also just adds to another great chapter in recent Boston baseball; and sports fortune.
Most teams are lucky to get a no-hitter per decade. The Red Sox now have them in back to back years, with Clay Bucholz firing his own last season.
The lone home run of the game was his catcher, Jason Varitek. The biggest scare of the game, a looper hit by Jose Guillen, was saved by growing young superstar outfielder Jacoby Elsbury.
“It’s something I’ll remember for a long time,” said Lester. “He (Terry Francona) has been like a second dad to me. He cares a lot about his players. It’s not just about what you can do on the field.”
So what’s next for the Red Sox and Boston in general? I mean really. How the sports Gods have shined upon this city in the past 5 days and past 5 years. The one thing is it came against the Kansas City Royals, so it’s only really half a no-hitter. An asterisked no-hitter. Calm yourselves chowda heads. I kid.
Recent Comments