Rich Harden pitched 6 2/3 no-hit innings last night. I repeat: Rich Harden did not allow a Minnesota Twin to have a base hit last night while he pitched two thirds of the way into the sixth inning. But, since it's Rich Harden, he walked five and had 111 pitches when Ron Washington took him out of the game. Feliz pitched the ninth, gave up a single, and that was that. Poop. I guess that's just the way potential combined no-hitters go. This of course grants Harden one or two more starts, which sucks. Harden was "effectively wild" which means he was bad, but pitched a good game anyway. Imagine if one of the Twins' hitters got a hold of one after one of Harden's many walks. Different game. Just don't come crying to me when Harden gives up four runs in three innings with five walks in his next start. I warned you. Onto the hits:
- Unfortunately I cannot not find any links on the matter, but Neftali Feliz pitching the ninth Monday night was a very, uh, DUMB decision. I understand he needed to be warmed up, but once the game was at 4-0, Ogando or anyone else in the well rested bullpen should of been called upon to start the ninth. Then if things got dicey, you put Feliz in to pick up that save. It's really that simple. Feliz pitched Sunday afternoon and threw 20+ pitches. Now Feliz is potentially unavailable in tonight's game, which could be a real nail biter. Ugh.
- Manny Ramirez in out to the open market! Tim Brown writes about Manny's possible destinations over at Yahoo! What I don't understand is the blatant cheap shot at Manny and fellow waiver friend Johnny Damon: "As he once followed teammate Johnny Damon out of Boston, Ramirez will follow Damon to the waiver wire, two Idiots in limbo." Uh, OK then. I don't really understand what Manny or Damon have done recently to warrant the tongue lashing (if someone does, then let me know). What's interesting id it's a pretty straight forward piece without much personal opinion in it. Oh well. He does list the Rangers as a candidate and I'm not so sure about the idea; as he notes having both him and Vlad in the lineup would require one or the other in the outfield, which isn't good. What I also don't understand is why Brown is ripping on Manny for not being productive. Yes, his home runs have disappeared. But his slash line is still great (.312/.404/.508) and he's getting on base and hitting doubles at least. I dunno, what do I know. I just write about sports for a living. He just get paid more. A lot more.
- Oh boy, Colin Cowherd said on his radio show that Cliff Lee is tanking games, and Cliff Lee didn't like to hear about that. Honestly, I don't really care. I'm not going to get worked up about Cowherd. He's a radio personality that is probably smarter about sports then he lets on. He just instead chooses to be outlandish to get people talking. See, we're talking about him right now. So success for him. He doesn't care if it's bad press or good press. I personally don't listen to any radio show that has just one man behind the mic because it lets the host go crazy without anyone to question him. See, if I were his co-host I'd be able to interrupt him in this rant and say "Colin, you ignorant slut. You are being completely moronic and off-base." But since he doesn't have me (or anyone else there) he gets to keep going. At least Norm Hitzges let's his producers or engineers chime in when he's going crazy (which is a lot of the time).
- Nick Blackburn had five strikeouts and zero walks against the Rangers Monday night. Coming into the game, he had 35 strikeouts and 27 walks. This is not acceptable. Nick Blackburn is a very, very, very, bad pitcher. Pretty much, Nick Blackburn is the opposite of this. Last night's game upset me more than any other Ranger win I can think of.
No comments:
Post a Comment