Yet Another OOTP6 Dynasty, Year 2: One Flew Over the Pale Hose

[cknox0723]

Originally Posted by cknox

After a ground ball out, Carlos Pena cracks his third single in five innings, but Rondell White goes down on strikes and things are looking up.

They are somewhere in the clouds after the bottom of the inning, which starts with the top of the order. It ends with the bottom of it. Ramon Vazquez kicks it off by beating out a slow ground ball to the left side, and then Adam Kennedy turns on a hanging curve and hammers it past the Northeastern alumnus Pena and into the right field corner. He ends up with his eighth double of the year, and our third base coach Pasqua plays it safe and holds Vazquez at third. "Buddha" Ordonez takes a slow walk to first, and then we begin to careful chisel out the 'W' in 'victory'.

Slowly...slowly...Frank Catalanotto hits a hard ground ball into the hole that shortstop Adrian Beltre makes a nice play on, but his only out is at second. Detroit pitcher Perez is removed at that point, but his pitching line is not, as Raul Gonzalez singles home Adam Kennedy for his third run batted in of the day. After a Frank Thomas walk, Eric Munson hits a sharp ground ball to second that takes a funny hop on Omar Infante, who gets too flustered by that to make a play. Yorvit Torrealba brings an abrupt end to the inning by hitting a ground ball that Infante isn't flustered by, but it's seven to one and we can't possibly blow this one. Really.

But even if we could, we certainly can't blow an eight-one game. Ramon Vazquez lashes a one-out double in the very next inning, and Adam Kennedy singles him home haste post haste. Loaiza is perfect in the seventh, and our poor, much-maligned bullpen, due for a good outing, gets two solid innings from Akinori Otsuka to finish it off. Appropriately, or maybe not, Detroit's twenty-seventh out is Ivan Rodriguez swinging through some sweet, delicious, sharp, melted cheddar. Yummy.

Our wins aren't supposed to happen this way, but it's as tasty as that melted cheddar cheese every single time.




DET 1 CHW 8

WP: E. Loaiza (2-1) - 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 6 K
LP: B. Perez (1-2) - chased in the fifth, charged with seven runs altogether

Esteban Loaiza, Pitching Cyborg: For all of the crappy movie plots out there, one about a pitching robot from Tiajuana who captures border jumpers in his spare time might actually be reasonable. Especially since it could be advertised as 'Based on a true story!' Esteban Loaiza has allowed nine hits, five walks, and one run in his last sixteen innings. He has fanned nine and won both games. Fifteen runs of support has helped but the man has pitched damned well and even though it was oh so easy to hate him last year, I don't want this ride to end. So let's oil you up again, Esteban!

[cknox0723]

18

a day after making five errors to gift-wrap a win for clint nageotte, oakland used three two-run extra base hits to buoy a seven-run bottom of the eighth comeback against gil meche and chad zerbe of seattle. reliever chad durbin was credited with the win, his first in the big leagues in six years.

if joe roa can get the moniker "the pied piper" (albeit probably a year too late), i propose cleveland right-hander jake dittler should ditch his perverse-sounding last name and call himself "jake fiddler." on second thought, that sounds more suited for another perverse scenario, but the man pitches well enough, he can go by whatever the hell name he wants. after fifteen scoreless innings to start the season, two singles and a mike sweeney fly ball got the royals in the books as the first to tally a run off the fiddler, who then tossed five scoreless as his 'mates notched four off of wilson alvarez. even david riske couldn't blow a three-run lead to kansas city (that's first-place kansas city to you), and dittler's started three and won three this year. have i mentioned his numbers in the career wins and age column are exactly the same -- 24? now, about that last name...

the yankees lead the league in wins with 10 and in batting average, with an improbable .307 team mark. they also boast the league's leading batter.

it is not derek jeter, who is at .390 and having a hell of a bounceback after hitting a career low .262 in 2006. it is not perennial .300 hitter randy winn, who is off to a hot start and hitting 80-some points higher than he usually does. it is not "godzilla" matsui nor the highly-compensated mr. rodriguez, who is getting just two hits every nine at-bats thus far -- and, if you're curious, still contributing as much offensively as anyone on the pale hose save the scintillating adam kennedy. and magglio ordonez and ramon vazquez. boy, the hose have some hitters, don't they?

erm, anyway, catcher trey lunsford is hitting .424, highest in the american league. the 27 year old hit .207 in 140 at-bats last year, and .250 in 450 a.b.'s the previous year -- in double and triple-a. class, this concludes today's lesson -- and what did we learn? anyone can hit anything in 33 at-bats -- except julio lugo, who couldn't hit the broad side of a ****ing barn if you gave him one of those nuclear target-guided missiles and the authorization to push both the buttons.

19

aaron cook gave up eleven hits to san diego in his third start of the season, but the friars didn't cross the plate until the fifth, and ironically enough, even then that run wouldn't've scored without a leadoff walk to the pitcher adam eaton. that was the first and only run cook gave up en route to a 6-1 victory for his club, and it's also the only run cook's given up so far this season. it seems new pitching coach quincy dejack may have a few aces up his sleeve, what with the miracles he's worked so far for the 10-4 colorado club.

manny ramirez played a decisive role in boston's eighth victory of the year, hitting an eighth-inning grand slam off troy percival that put his team up 10 to 9 for good. it was the first game this season in which percival had been touched up for a run.

a five-run eighth inning capped off by a two-run single by backup catcher ramon castro gave arizona the lead and ultimately a 13-9 win in milwaukee. anthony gwynn had his finest day as a pro, going five for six with his first major league round-tripper and four runs batted in, more than doubling his season total.

[canadiancreed]

ahh the pale hose. such beautiful posts, full of prose and colour and more sarcasm than is legally allowed in most countries. Suc a beautiful thing.

On a side note did yuo ever get my PM?

[cknox0723]

Originally Posted by canadiancreed

ahh the pale hose. such beautiful posts, full of prose and colour and more sarcasm than is legally allowed in most countries. Suc a beautiful thing.

On a side note did yuo ever get my PM?

you never fail to make me laugh, creed. your presence around these boards has been sorely lacking recently. change that, will ya?

i don't think i got a PM from you anytime recently, anything I need to know? feel free to re-send if you like.

and thanks for the reply, i was gettin' lonely. though i have a hunch that's going to change with this next game.

[cknox0723]

game xiv - cle (6-8) @ chw (3-10)

last year: bartender...jack. magglio walks us off the field in the bottom of the tenth after joe roa bails out p.j. bevis in the ninth. how very, very, very interesting.

p.s. - we claimed raul gonzalez off waivers at this time last year. nice pickup for 50 large, GM!

this year: j. beckett (1-1, 3.59) vs. j. rauch (0-1, 7.45)

If you're Jon Rauch, what makes you come to the stadium for a game like this? It's a foregone conclusion that we're not going to score any runs against Josh Beckett, and our six foot, ten inch friend is only so far from going back to Charlotte. An 0-2 record ain't gonna help his case much. So what can he do, except throw a no-hitter?

Apparently Rauch feels the answer is to nibble at the strike zone and keep the ball out and up, because he gets three straight fly balls out to Magglio Ordonez to make for a quick first inning, and then another two outs in the air in the second. Ordonez has five put-outs by the end of the third, and incredibly enough, Vazquez and Kennedy have singles while the whole of Cleveland's lineup doesn't. It's a trifle frustrating that their base-knocks came two innings apart, but this isn't a game we're destined to win, anyway.

But don't tell that to Jon Rauch. Two infield pop-ups make for quick outs in the top of the fourth, and then "Odysseus" Gerut bounces one to Frank Thomas. Twelve up, twelve down, and he's hardly even laboring. I can understand why centerfielder Corey Patterson or shortstop Angel Berroa might have trouble -- they're free swingers, Rauch doesn't exactly have pinpoint control, and he's standing about five stories tall out on the mound. But Shannon Stewart and Jody Gerut can both really hit, regardless of the pitcher, and this is not Greg Maddux or even an enigmatic guy like Rick Ankiel here.

But we have seen this before, down to a T -- Rauch threw five shutout innings in the first major league start of his career last May 27th, and he got credited with the win when Frank Thomas, pinch-hitting in the pitcher's spot, broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth with a jack to left. We added to that lead in the eighth inning, with the ribbies going to Joe Borchard and Miguel Olivo. Shingo Takatsu (remember him?) cleaned up Kiko Calero's mess in the ninth, getting three straight fly ball outs, and the world was introduced to the newest wunderkind. a link, for the curious and the not-so-weary.

And as Rauch faces the chance of being sent down to triple-A, he's upping his own ante some eleven months later. Ben Broussard leads off the fifth with a simple three-hopper to second. Shannon Stewart lofts a fly ball out to Magglio, who squeezes it before it strikes the green, green grass for the sixth time today.

Fourteen up, fourteen down. He's more than halfway there. Good thing he came to the stadium today, huh?

[Vris]

Originally Posted by craig

Fourteen up, fourteen down. He's more than halfway there. Good thing he came to the stadium today, huh?

d00d, I'm on the edge of my seat. I predicted this in last year's thread!!


oh, and go bump your ftb before I do.

[cknox0723]

Originally Posted by Vris

d00d, I'm on the edge of my seat. I predicted this in last year's thread!!

don't fall off the chair!

Originally Posted by Vris

oh, and go bump your ftb before I do.

i will by the time dawn falls, you have my word. and for those wondering just what the heck he's talking about, follow this link if you dare. and ask me a question, while you're at it!!

[cknox0723]

Originally Posted by cknox

Fourteen up, fourteen down. He's more than halfway there.

Then suddenly, with two outs in that fifth inning, it all slips away. Rauch gets behind one of those real hitters, Ray Durham. Ball one in the dirt, ball two just off the outside edge, ball three somewhere in Urbana. The consummate professional Durham takes a fastball right down Broadway for a strike, but Rauch still needs to make a good pitch to get the pressure, that ugly monkey, off his back. He doesn't. He bounces one in the dirt and the perfect game is no more.

Rauch is flustered, frustrated with himself, perhaps wondering if things are just going to fall apart now, no matter what he does. Another walk ain't going to help the situation, but sure enough, Rauch falls behind Angel Berroa. Just as he was getting outs earlier in every fashion possible, now he's missing the strike zone all sorts of ways -- just inside, up and in, away and in the dirt, up high. Berroa tosses away the bat after five pitches as well, having received a free pass. Joe Crede digs in next, and wouldn't you know it, Rauch's first pitch is actually hittable.

A little too much so, as his changeup is up in the zone, and Crede clobbers it into the left field corner. It's Joe Crede, so it doesn't go Out of the Park (TM), but the only way Frank Catalanotto's going to keep our former third sacker from getting a double is if he pulled a pair of Wile E. Coyote's jet-powered shoes from his back pocket.

At least Catalanotto doesn't fall over a cliff before getting the ball back into the infield. But upon getting the ball back, Jon Rauch looks as though he's been chasing the Roadrunner. Can't say I can blame the guy -- two runs on one hit? How often does that happen? I guess as often as allowing three runs on two hits, but after Josh Beckett blasts a ball over the heads of Catalanotto and Gonzalez, that's what we're looking at. Mercifully, Corey Patterson swings at the first pitch, which was apparently rolled up to the plate, and hits a slow ground ball to short. Ramon Vazquez charges the ball neatly, bare-hands it, and fires a shot to first, not a half-second too soon. Out number three, finally.

But it's too late. Thomas, Munson, and Torrealba don't get the ball out of the infield in the fifth. Rauch strikes out sweet-swinging catcher Vic Martinez to start the sixth, but then hands out a free pass to "Odysseus" and comes too far up and in on mediocre keystone man Ben Broussard. Somehow, though, he gets that fly-ball-to-the-right-side mojo working again, retiring a pair of solid hitters in Shannon Stewart and Ray Durham to keep the game three-zip.

I let Rauch lead off the bottom of the frame, fully cognizant that Vris will be chasing me with a torch and a pitchfork if I pinch-hit. See here and here for proof! Sadly, he ends up hitting the ball further than Vazquez or Kennedy, so it's another quick inning. Not so for the Cleveland seventh, as Joe Crede settles in with one out and hits a ball to about the same spot as his two-run two-bagger in the fifth. Amazingly (!) he ends up with another two-base hit.

Then, a ray of sunshine. Eric Wedge calls Josh Beckett back to the dugout, even though he's only thrown 58 pitches through six. Guess he's hoping to get him back in the saddle for the second game of their next series in Minnesota. And why not? Pinch-hitter Scott Spiezio swings at a pitch in his eyes and pops it out to center field. Kennedy, Vazquez, and Gonzalez all converge -- and all point to each other as the ball falls to the ground. The only thing that prevents me from going out and somehow getting myself ejected is that Joe Crede has to hold at third, since he figured, like everyone else, that the ball would be caught. Shoulda known better, Joe. Though with the top of the order coming up for the Tribe, it'll probably only be a fleeting moment of consolation, like ice cream.

Except it's not, or maybe it's a really big banana split. Corey Patterson swings at a lousy pitch for about the tenth time today, and hits a pop-up ninety feet in the air and forty feet behind second. Raul Gonzalez lets off a firecracker and whoops like a monkey as he settles under the ball and then lets off a firecracker home, holding Crede at third. Victor Martinez lets off a stringed firecracker of his own on Rauch's 1-0 changeup, but holding the string at the other end is Ramon Vazquez, who flips the ball high in the air as he jogs off to the dugout. Somehow, it's still three-nothing, and with Brian Meadows coming on and the heart of the order coming up, it's now or never to get Jon Rauch the win he so deserves.

[CTSoxFan]

Come on guys get one for the Power Forward!

[cknox0723]

Apparently the time would be now to get Jon Rauch that win...if only we had nine Magglio Ordonezes and Frank Catalanottos in the lineup. Our corner outfielders start the bottom of the seventh with back-to-back line drive singles into center field, but then our other outfielder, Raul Gonzalez, pops out into left-center. Frank Thomas follows with a slow ground ball to opposing first baseman Broussard, who pivots and tosses it to second, and the only reason the Tribe don't get two to end the inning is because shortstop Berroa slips and falls after dragging his right foot across the second base bag. There's a moment of trepidation in the Tribe dugout as Berroa is prone and in pain -- Pokey Reese might have to play, the horror! -- but then he bounces up sprightly enough, and all is well for the Clevelanders.

Until Berroa's a step too slow to snare a shot off the bat of the next batter, Eric Munson. Pokey Reese would have snatched that one, and so, too, would have Angel Berroa had he not been stepping gingerly to favor his knee. Or maybe he just has the range of Jeter. Either way, Ordonez jogs home to get us on the board, Frank Thomas hustles into third and beats the throw from Corey Patterson, and now we've got the tying run on base.

Then Meadows hits the dirt with his first pitch to Yorvit Torrealba, and it sneaks by catcher Vic Martinez. The Big Hurt hustles home and doesn't even need to slide -- something still left in those old legs, huh? -- and Munson moves up to second. Base hit ties the game now!

But of course we don't get one of those.

"One-and-oh to Torrealba, Munson with a slight lead off second. Martinez setting up on the outside half as Torrealba waves the bat around up by his ear. Meadows to the stretch. He kicks his leg, the pitch...fastball, a swing and Torrealba crushes it to left-center! Patterson going back...at the track, at the wall...but that ball is OUTTA HERE! A two-run home run for Yorvit Torrealba, and the White Sox take a four to three lead!"

Is Yorvit Torrealba the coolest freakin' catcher ever, or what?

[ifspuds]

YORVIT!

I'm always up for a good Yorviting.

[cknox0723]

Meadows' day is done at the point, a move I will never quite understand. It was apparent he was not at top form when he gave up hard line drive singles to "Buddha" and "Dressing" to start the frame, and even more so when Eric Munson, a man hitting an ugly .150, knocked a hit three batters later. If your right-handed middle reliever can't even finish a full inning when he's not at his best, why bring him in to begin with? I suppose I'm guilty of it, too, though.

Either way, Raffy Betancourt fans Enrique Wilson, pinch-hitting for our boy Rauch, and we head on to the eighth needing six outs to get him that win. Jorge DePaula is the man on the spot in the eighth.

Jorge DePaula?

Sure, what the hell, right? Odds are he is due for a good outing sometime, and with yesterday's off-day allowing us to skip him in the rotation, may as well use him and give our beleaguered bullpen a rest.

It's a nice thought, but Jody Gerut quickly hammers home the fact that it's nothing but a nice thought with a leadoff single to right. Then Schizo Jorge disassociates himself from Bad Jorge, firing a 2-2 hunk of cheddar right past Ben Broussard for out number one. Shannon Stewart gets a good whack at the first strike he sees, but Ramon Vazquez goes a long way into the hole and throws an improbable strike across the diamond to nip the speedy left fielder by a step. What did I tell you -- was DePaula due, or what?

However, he still needs one more out, and instead of coming close to that, he walks Ray Durham on four pitches, putting the tying run in scoring position. And wouldn't you know it, he leaves a fastball up to Angel Berroa, and balky knee and all, he reaches out and lines it past a lunging Vazquez. The fleet-footed pinch-runner Pokey Reese scores from second and the grand experiment may not have failed, but it wasn't exactly a rousing success. Not too keen on watching DePaula blow the game, particularly to Joe "Double-A All-Star" Crede, I take a page from Eric Wedge's illogical managerial manual and bring in Kiko Calero from the bullpen, haste post haste. He misses high with a ball, then another -- should have gotten him warming up sooner. With the count 2-0 and the game slipping away like so many others, Calero kicks and fires another fastball, this time bringing it down in the strike zone -- but right out over the plate.

But it's Joe Crede. He takes one of his big, looping hacks, whacks a drive out to left, and for a moment, it looks as though Frank Catalanotto won't need to chase after it. But he gives it a go anyway, and ends up slowing down just in front of the warning track and triumphantly squeezing the ball up over his head with both hands, and the inning is over. Our lead may be gone, but we haven't thrown this one away completely, like so many others.

Betancourt and erstwhile starter Fausto Carmona put their heads together to survive the eighth, with Raul Gonzalez making the third out to strand two. In the top of the ninth, Calero retires Alex Escobar to leave Corey Patterson wanting, but Proven Closer (TM) David Riske pitches a perfect bottom of the ninth and on to extra innings we head.

[Vris]

Yorvit is the man. I love heroes like that. Too bad DePaula sucks.

[cknox0723]

Originally Posted by Vris

Yorvit is the man. I love heroes like that. Too bad DePaula sucks.

like i have said many times, you are wise beyond your years, sir. i have said that, yes?

the real question is, wtf was i thinking bringing in schizo jorge in the eighth inning of a one-run game? we could have been without his unique take on pitching for over a week; instead, i have to get all cute with this "pitch him in relief, he's due!!!" line of thinking. way to go, manager!

don't worry, i'll make up for it, someday. and we haven't lost yet. maybe that day will be today!

p.s. - almost forgot...

Originally Posted by ifspuds

YORVIT!

I'm always up for a good Yorviting.

i have no idea what that means, but you made me laugh, spuds. gracias.

[cknox0723]

Joe Roa, Proven Closer (TM) or whatever the hell he is, takes the bump for the top of the tenth, replacing Kiko Calero in part because I don't want to push The Mercurial One for another frame, and in part because I pinch-hit Brian Anderson in the pitcher's spot last inning. Roa's first pitch is a meatball, and Ben Broussard hoagies it into right field for a leadoff hit, leaving me to wonder if this is going to be the third game this week that Roa's going to give away. But then "The Pied Piper" settles back in, struggling to control his splitter but actually making it drop. A pop fly and then two ground balls, and the inning's over.

David Riske, a true Proven Closer (TM), makes quick work of Enrique Wilson and then strikes out Ramon Vazquez. But Adam Kennedy hasn't been much for quick innings this year, and this at-bat's no exception.

"One and one to Kennedy. Riske to the stretch, and the pitch -- fastball, swung on and hammered DEEP to the opposite field. Stewart turns, giving chase, but that ball thumps off the wall and Kennedy will ease into second with his ninth double of the year."

Suddenly Magglio Ordonez has a chance to win it, so Eric Wedge goes to left-hander Scott Eyre...and then signals for him to intentionally walk "Buddha." But even odder, with left-handed Frank Catalanotto up next, Wedge goes for broke, bringing in right-hander Armando Benitez, the last man in the bullpen.

Frustratingly, it works, as Catalanotto gets himself out by swinging at a fastball down at his ankles and only managing a weak hack to short.

Joe Roa completes a unique enough feat pitching the top of the eleventh, one I would normally expand on in more depth than a few lines, but maybe another time. He runs the count full on Joe Crede to start the frame...then strikes him out on a splitter. Same for right fielder Bellhorn, same for Corey Patterson -- three full counts, three strikeouts. Wonder how it'd feel to be on the business end of an inning like that.

In the bottom half of the eleventh, Benitez overpowers Raul Gonzalez and whoever else is at the bottom of our lineup at this point, with Yorvit Torrealba making the final out of the frame. Joe Roa's pretty much gassed after two innings and 30 pitches -- OK, not really, but I would've hated to see him blow the game after pitching well for the first time all year -- so I insert Akinori Otsuka in for Torrealba and tell Miguel Olivo to go get the gear on.

And millions thousands dozens of Pale Hose fans swooned and fell at my feet, in awe of my brilliance.

[cknox0723]

after three days, finally, here is your resolution to our fourteenth game of the season. i suspect you will like it, unless you are a sadomasochist. but even if that is the case, i like how a few of the sentences actually made sense, so you might still have a reason to read.

[cknox0723]

Aki Otsuka, "My Japanese Love Machine," isn't quite so lovable when he's tossing batting practice fastballs over the outside half, but Victor Martinez home runs are about as common as the new moon, and his long drive to right just ends up as yet another Magglio Ordonez putout. Otsuka throws some saki past his counterpart Benitez and then befuddled German-Texan Ben Broussard. Benitez gets our infielders to give his infielders some practice in a perfect bottom of frame number twelve, but Otsuka records his third straight strikeout by whiffing Shannon Stewart to start the thirteenth. Ray Durham takes a good poke at a 2-1 fastball and drives it to left-center, giving me a moment of pause, but fleet-footed young'un Brian Anderson chases the ball down somewhere near Soldier Field or Sears Tower or whatever else is in Chicago. Waveland Avenue, but that's on the other side of town.

Anyone ever read Kinsella's Iowa Baseball Confederacy? One of my favorite books. It features a trip back through time to a two-thousand, six hundred and fourteen inning game between a semipro team and the WORLD CHAMPION 1908 Chicago Cubs. I'm getting that feeling now; I get it in every long extra inning game, and there's been a lot of 'em in the one-plus years of the Pale Hose.

Angel Berroa pops out to shallow right-center to end the thirteenth, the eleventh straight Cleveland batter retired. The heart of our order's up for our heroes in the bottom of the thirteenth. But what if they're not our heroes?

Originally Posted by W.P. Kinsella

This does put everything in a different perspective. I've assumed I had some connection, however tenuous, with the Confederacy. Now I'm being told that if the Confederacy wins, I lose.

The only reason we're in this game is because the AI botched up their bullpen, wasting Fausto Carmona and Scott Eyre and not having the temerity to use the starters Cliff, Lee or Bartosh. Double-switching like fools in love, losing Jody Gerut for a pinch-runner and eventually having Alex Escobar up in a key situation. They're Garry Kasparov, I'm that IBM supercomputer "Deep Blue", even though I'm just some dumbass with a keyboard.

Despite all that, Benitez pitches on. Magglio Ordonez swings at his first pitch in the bottom of the thirteenth and hits a three-hopper to short. Frank Catalanotto steps in. Benitez is laboring like a harnessed mule, but you wouldn't know it. Fastball...pop...strike one, outside corner. Slider...boing.

You may be wondering, "Boi -- wait, boing?? What the --"

Yeah, I don't know, sometimes I can amuse myself in the strangest of ways. Anyway, with the count oh-and-two, the third pitch from the man they call 'Mando doesn't go boom or bang or pop or hiss. It crackles.

Off the bat of Frank Catalanotto, back past Benitez, and into center field. We have a baserunner. We have a chance to win. We have...Raul Gonzalez.

I have a developed an unhealthy attachment for Gonzalez, who has a wonderful array of skills and has done everything he can do take advantage of the one and only he chance he's ever gotten to play major league ball. But he has his limits. He doesn't have the bat speed to handle a screaming fastball. Benitez may be fatiguing, but our center fielder's played about a thousand innings today himself. He takes a weak hack at the first heater, too late to do anything but cool himself off a little. Somehow he's going to have to do more on the next pitch. Benitez sets, pumps his pistons forward, and dead-eyes a dart. Somehow Gonzalez slithers his bat around at the proper angle to connect with the slider, but he gets on top of it, rolling a funny-looking two-hopper to the left side. Angel Berroa eats it up, flips it to second baseman Durham for one...and that's all. Catalanotto breaks it up with a good slide, as the line goes.

And then there was Miguel Olivo. I almost wish we could lose the game right here, instead of going through the torture of another long inning, stranding runners and coming up empty and then sweating bullets as our bullpen fails. They will fail, you know, they always do, and that's why every time Mark Buehrle loses, a kitten dies somewhere and I cry. I cry, because we can lose a game so many other ways, so why did Mark Buehrle have to get charged with this one? Well, not this one specifically, but --

"Benitez to the stretch. Gonzalez has a three-step lead off first as Olivo settles in for his first at-bat in three days. Martinez setting up on the outside half. Benitez toes the rubber...he kicks his leg, the pitch -- fastball, swing and a drive! DEEP TO LEFT! STEWART DOESN'T EVEN TURN AROUND! YOU CAN...PUT IT ON THE BOARD...YESSSS!!!"

Yes. Yes, you can. Put a two-game winning streak on the board while you're at it, too. You want a hot streak? We've doubled our season win total in the last two games. How many teams can say that?



CLE 4 CHW 6 (13)

WP: A. Otsuka (1-0)
LP: A. Benitez (0-1)

That... was pretty cool, huh? Even if I may be some supercomputer (on occasion) compared to the AI, Kasparov did beat "Deep Blue." No matter the breadth of my managerial skills (and trust me, they ain't much), we're still seriously undermanned. And that, folks, is why I was just about screaming that last bit of play-by-play as it went down so improbably. Oh joy and rapture, thy name is Pale Hose.

[BadluckinOOTP]

[Vris]

How many teams can say that?

Only teams as good as yours Craig. Congrats!

[ifspuds]

MIGUEL!

Doesn't have the same ring as YORVIT! but it'll do on this occasion. Go Pale Hose!