Your day after wrap & recap

The notables from yesterday’s action in baseball….

Cleveland Indians 4, Anaheim Angels 0
The Cleveland Indians have won 8 games in a row. This is about as unlikely of an occurrence as you’ll see in baseball all season long, but they’re doing it. Matt LaPorta and Asdrubal Cabrera homered again, and Mitch Talbot threw eight shutout innings resulting in his second win of the year. Last night was little Tyler Chatwood‘s MLB debut for the Angels, and it didn’t go great.

Los Angeles Dodgers 6, San Francisco Giants 1
When Clayton Kershaw pitches against the Giants, it’s the Clayton Kershaw show. There’s just no two ways about it. He’s absolutely nasty. He went 6 and 2/3 striking out 7, including making Buster Posey look silly a few times. Madison Bumgarner was less than average once again. Before the game the two teams gave a heartfelt speech for the fan who was injured in the attack by anonymous Dodger fans. The champs are reeling right now, getting their lone run on a Pat Burrell home run in the 9th, his fourth of the season.

Oakland Athletics 2, Chicago White Sox 1 (10)
Kurt Suzuki hit the game winning home run in the top of the 10th, made possible by a mis-played fly ball in the top of the 9th by Juan Pierre. Dallas Braden and Mark Buerhle locked up in a really nice duel and the South Siders wasted a good outing by their ace. Matt Thornton has now blown three saves. Jesse Crain picked up the loss and Brian Fuentes picked up the save for the A’s. The A’s pitching has been spectacular in the first 10 games of the season, leaving them at only 5-5.

Tampa Bay Rays 16, Boston Red Sox 5
Just when you think the Red Sox are about to get momentum going, they lay an egg on national television again. I watched a lot of this game on ESPN, but it wasn’t much of a contest. Johnny Damon and Sam Fuld were all the Red Sox could handle, and Fuld nearly hit for the cycle but decided to double one more time than he needed two in laying out a four hit attack and making a great diving catch in the outfield. Ben Zobrist, John Jaso, and Reid Brignac got in on the act for the Rays–and the Red Sox even threw Tim Wakefield out there for a couple of innings. Carl Crawford has his average up to .163 now. Jeremy Hellickson was not spectacular, following up his 10 K performance with only one strikeout but earning his first win to even his record at 1-1.

St. Louis Cardinals 8, Arizona Diamondbacks 2
Ageless Lance Berkman homered twice, and Jon Jay hit a pinch hit bomb following up one of Berkman’s, while Albert Pujols went 1 for 5 and saw his average rise. Kyle McClellan earned his first victory of the year going six innings. Melvin Mora and Justin Upton had multi-hit games in the losing effort.