Yesterday’s early games produced a fair amount of drama and excitement as two star closers came up short. The Braves got to Brad Lidge in the ninth inning of their game against Philadelphia, turning a 3-2 deficit into a walk-off 4-3 victory. Meanwhile the Mets’ Francisco Rodriguez was blasted for a solo home run by Bengie Molina in the tenth inning of their game against the Giants.Â
More seriously, David Wright was forced to leave the game after being hit in the head by a Matt Cain fastball. Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda was also struck on the head by a comebacker on a day that reminded us all of the dangers of this non-contact sport. Hopefully there are no repeats of those incidents in today’s early games.Â
18.05. Royals @ Tigers – Davies (4-8), Galarraga (6-10)
18.10. Giants @ Mets – Sanchez (5-10), Pelfrey (8-8)
18.10. Nationals @ Reds – Lannan (8-9), Lehr (2-0)
18.35. Angels @ Orioles – O’Sullivan (3-1), Guthrie (7-12)
18.35. Rockies @ Marlins GM 1 – Cook (10-4), Volstad (8-9)
TBD. Rockies @ Marlins GM 2 – De La Rosa (10-8), van den Hurk (2-1)
18.38. Blue Jays @ Rays – Rzepczynski (1-3), Garza (7-8)
19.05. Red Sox @ Rangers – Tazawa (1-1), Nippert (3-1)
19.05. Astros @ Brewers – Oswalt (6-4), Looper (10-6)
19.10. Indians @ Twins – Laffey (6-3), Blackburn (8-7)
19.15. Padres @ Cardinals – Richard (6-3), Lohse (5-7)
19.20. Pirates @ Cubs – Ohlendorf (10-8), Harden (7-7)
21.05. White Sox @ A’s – Danks (10-8), Cahill (6-12)
21.10. Dodgers @ D-Backs – Wolf (6-6), Petit (2-6)
21.10. Yankees @ Mariners – Chamberlain (8-2), Fister (0-0)
All times are in BST. Â
There are plenty of games to choose from right through the British evening. The Tigers, Brewers, Cardinals, Cubs, White Sox, D-Backs and Yankees all go into the day with series sweeps on their minds.  The Cubs have made light work of the Pirates so far in their series, but St Louis have kept their 4.5 game lead in the NL Central thanks to wins over the Padres. The other Chicago team are in a similar position, winning their games but failing to made any headway due to the division leader, in this case Detroit, matching their results.Â
The Yankees have taken the first three games of a four-game series against the Mariners. Joba Chamberlain will start at Safeco Field looking to complete the sweep and take the Yankees’ latest winning streak to six games. That run has further increased their lead in the AL East over the Red Sox and Boston’s hold on the AL Wild Card is far from secure either. The Rangers will jump over them for the lead in that race if they are able to win the series decider between the two teams today. The Red Sox have their young Japanese pitcher Junichi Tazawa on the mound and need him to carry forward the confidence of earning his first Major League win last time out.
The Rays are still firmly in the AL Wild Card race as well. They’ve got Matt Garza toeing the rubber in a series decider against the Blue Jays today, while the Twins and Indians are also tied at 1-1 with one game of their series left to play. Nick Blackburn is the probable pitcher for Minnesota. He had a terrible 1.2 inning start last time out against the Royals, torpedoing my fantasy team’s ERA in the process. The question now is, do I back him to make amends today or condemn him to the bench? Twins manager Ron Gardenhire is showing faith in him, so I guess I should too.
With the D-Backs taking two from the Dodgers, the Giants and Rockies are looking to pounce while also keeping up their lead in the NL Wild card race. The Marlins are just two games behind the Rockies for that postseason slot and they will meet in a classic double-header today due to yesterday’s game being rained out. Rick van den Hurk was scheduled to square off against Aaron Cook, but he has now been moved back to the second game of the day, which will start approximately 30 minutes after the first game finishes.
All the above games can be followed via various resources on MLB.com (Gameday, Gameday Audio and MLB.tv). ESPN America will broadcast the Royals-Tigers game live at 18.00 and the Yankees-Mariners at 21.00. The Sunday Night Baseball game is Phillies versus Braves at 01.00.
Good news on Koroda, according to the LOS Angeles Times he underwent a CT scan that came back negative. Simply put he’s got a concussion and that fortunate. Wright had underwent a CT Scan after yesterdays game and that two came back negative. Both of them will be ok.
The bigest test for both of them will be when they return as it will be interesting to see if they can over come the fear of getting hit. I’m also concerned about the mental states of the Matt Cain, and Rusty Ryall who were the other players involved in the incidents. I wonder if they will be able to over come their own fears of hurting someone.
One of the most famous incidents involved Herb Score and Gil McDougal, back in 1958. Score was a brilliant young pitcher with the Cleveland Indians, who had struck out 500 batters and won 36 games in his first two years. One night early in the season the Indians were hosting the Yankees and McDougal came up to bat and hit a line drive through the middle that ricocheted off of Score’s face, hitting him square in eye. Score would suffer a detached retina and a fractured skull and would miss an entire year. When he did return he was never the same player in part because he never could overcome the fear of getting hit.
What people seem to forget was that Gil McDougal wwas never the same after that incident either. All the joy and passion he had for the game vanished in that one instance. He actaully wanted to quit on the spot, but was persuaded to keep playing. He would retire two years latter. A shadow of himself.
Both were very scary incidents, so the news sounds very promising. It’s certainly the sort of thing that can shake you up when you are involved in such an incident. Frankly, it’s a bit of a miracle that pitchers aren’t hit more often.