Sunday, July 31, 2011

The Pain pf Contending

OH, boffins, the pain! Yet another Sunday where I sulk for hours until I can muster up the will to post something positive about this afternoon's game.

It's not hard to come up with positive stuff, but the pain is much worse now that we're a "contender." It's like the difference in pain of walking on crutches with a bum knee, and walking without crutches and carrying your cousin on your shoulders too. Your cousin - he represents the extra weight of being a contender. The crutches - that is the cushiony prop of saying "we're building for next year."

Things did go right today. Just fine, in fact. Good Fausto showed up. Well "Good" as in "Not Bad" Fausto, but not any sort of ace. He never really melted down or anything, just slowly gave up 4 runs over 7 innings. Lots of ground-ball outs but only 2 strikeouts.

Tony Sipp came in (he worked last night too) and gave up a run. What's going on, Tony Sipp? Joe Smith came in after that to give up none runs but seems like the #bullpenmafia is teetering a bit. One thing's for sure we're not seeing Chris Perez and his beard enough. But there aren't many save situations comin' around the bend either.

The top of our order was hot shit today. Brantley got his hit. Kipnis - first MLB home run! w00t!

Asdrubal was on fire, going 3 for 4 and a walk. Another double! Also got some air playing defense behind Smith, with a nice grab in the 9th.


Santana also keeping in his groove with 2 more hits, one of them a TRIPLE. He got his first just a couple weeks ago on July 18, a game in which he played FIRST BASE just like tonight. He's gotten 8 hits in his last 6 starts.

Matt LaPorta...he's so wishy-washy. One night he's the hero and the next night he can't see the ball worth shit. I actually want LaPorta to do well...so we can use him in a trade to get someone who is a little more solid. I'm not haytin' on the dude...I am just tired of being teased by him!

Fukudome got his first hit JUST LIKE I SAID HE WOULD in last night's post. I said so! It was a double, even. He walked. And struck out. But he also made an excellent play in the outfield, which is something I'm sure we were all wondering about.

Man, we struck out a TON today. Twelve times! Against a guy with a 5+ ERA and a bunch of relievers.

Ten guys LOB too. Back up in to the double-digits.

Hey did you see Zeke today? Came in to pinch for Kearns (I know, right?) and got a double! His average is the same as Fukudome right now hahaha

Today's lineup also included Jason Donald, who was here for a bit last year. He played some nice-nice at 3rd and went 0 for 2 with a walk. Then they hit Hafner for him, heh.

Neither Lonnie nor Lou did anything in the 9-hole, except Lou did catch a guy stealing. While Santana lost a stealer in the 8th.

Our guys are not doing so hot with stealing lately. Brantley and Asdrubal both got caught today. I can see why we're trying to get runners in scoring position (cuz we need to SCORE) but they keep getting caught and then we've wasted the talent of the top of our order. Brantley has been caught 5 times this season so far! Yowza!

Anyway, I am exhausted from all the trade talk and the contender talk. Exhausted from these close games. We need to get our win on, get ourselves a little padding and welcome August with open arms. When we've got Ubaldo Jiminez and Shin-Soo Choo hangin' out. We could use a little more Pronk and maybe a little Grady if he can be bothered. And there's always more room for as much Asdrubal as we can muster.

Tomorrow we play against the Red Sox (ooOoOooh!) for 4 games. I fuckin' hate the Red Sox, possibly more than the Yankees, and we need to win. Forget contending, forget anything else for now. Let's just beat those stinky Sox. Seriously.

See you tomorrow at 7:10 PM!

Radio Chatter:
"Ichiro Suzuki treats the base-on-balls like a virus."
- Tom Hamilton on the difference between Suzuki and Fukudome and their OBP

"Santana and Lou Marson have missed a double and a home run by a combined total of about 3 feet."
- Mike Hegan

"Fukudome made that play look easy, and it was anything but."
- Tom Hamilton on Fukudome's play in the 8th

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