Weekend Recap

I didn’t spend a ton of time this weekend watching baseball. I played 36 holes of golf. I watched several ESPN 30 for 30’s–since my wife was nice enough to let me spend our Best Buy gift card on a set of them. Here’s some stuff I took from the weekend before Memorial Day, when the cement is officially declared ‘hardened’ and we know what we have seen in the instances of teams, players, and organizations is for the most part; what is for the given current season.

  • Pretty good weekend for Bryce Harper. Harper had a huge triple yesterday that opened up scoring and got the Nats going in route to their 9-3 win over the Orioles. He added two hits on Friday evening with an 0 for 5 sandwiched in there. I’m going to head to Washington to visit my old frat brother/roomate on August 18th to see them play the Mets. I just hope Harper is still up with the big club at that time. And I hope Strasburg is pitching that weekend.
  • Aroldis Chapman headlines as the Reds new closer. He closed out the ballgame in dramatic fashion (does it get any more pressure-packed that the concrete jungle that is Yankee Stadium?) yesterday to give the Reds the series win in the Bronx. It wasn’t a good weekend for Jay Bruce or the rest of the offense. A big three-run home run on Saturday afternoon by Joey Votto allowed Homer Bailey to pick up the victory while we were busy grilling out. All of this came on the heels of a disappointing Friday night shutout by Andy Pettite that sent the Reds back to .500 at 19-19.
  • Lance Berkman might have a torn ACL. With the Reds a half-game back in the NL Central, the Cardinals are reeling after being swept in L.A.
  • Baseball Show Podcast coming this week. The guest of the show will be Hardball Talk Editor Craig Calcaterra. Big thrill for me, I’ve been a fan of his posts since the Shysterball days.
  • Phillies/Nats series tonight, part Philly. Definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Alright, everybody have a good Monday. There’s a few more hours and then this day is behind us with a great night of baseball on tap.