Loser is not just a song by mediocre band 3 Doors Down, or a terrible movie starring Jason Biggs. There were a lot of losers around the league last night. Not only did half of the teams in action lose, but several people on each of those teams are losers, including, arguably, the entire Yankee roster.
Red Sox 9, Tigers 10; The Red Sox staged a late inning rally, including Kevin Youkilis’ second home run. The only thing left to do was put in Mr. Automatic, John Papelbon. That plan didn’t work out exactly as planned. An infield single, an error, a bunt, a groundout, and a soft lining single by Placido Polanco, and the Red Sox went home losers.
O’s 5, A’s 6 (10); Blown saves, a walk-off homer, and 1 loser later, the Oakland Athletecs swept the alphabet series. Mark Ellis, mired in a rough slump, tagged the pitch from Lance Cormier off of the left field fair poll to send the A’s and their fans home happy. Lance Cormier did lose the game, but that does not make him a loser. The Associated Press feels that he is a loser. “Ellis connected on a 1-0 pitch from loser Lance Cormier”
Indians 3, Yankees 0; Wang received his first loss of the year because Cliff Lee was the opposing pitcher. Lee actually lowered his league leading ERA in this contest. The Yankees didn’t feel like hitting in this game, and they really didn’t feel like scoring runs. Their hopes of fending off a sweep rest on Mike Mussina’s shoulders today. They Yankees have already lost the season series against Cleveland.
Rays 2, Blue Jays 6; The Jays have won 6 of the last 7, and done it behind some incredible pitching. Shaun Marcum, despite not being able to spell his own name, pitched 8 2/3 innings, allowing only 4 hits, 2 runs in the 9th, and tallying 9 Ks. The Blue Jays are 1 win away from .500, and if the offense can muster any type of performance, they could be a powerful team.
TLAAofA 4, Royals 9; Jered Weaver is doing his best impression of his brother. 3 1/3 innings and 8 runs later was too much for the surging Angels to surmount.
Twins 13, White Sox 1; One night after almost being no hit, Carlos Gomez, the centerpiece of the Johan trade, provided enough offense by himself. Gomez hit for the cycle, and in reverse order! Livan Hernandez, who is the new Johan Santana of the Twins, pitched a complete game, and improved to 5-1.
Rangers 2, Mariners 0; Vincente Padilla pitched a gem, going 7, giving up 2 hits, 2 walks, and 8 Ks. Padilla has given up 1 run or less in 5 starts this year. For a guy that has lost double digit games in 5 years of his career, that is extremely impressive. And to think, we though he was a loser.
Tags: Baseball
