The Game Notes hard drive died of a nostalgia overdose after watching music videos from the 1970s & ’80s. Je ne regrette rien….
@Rays 4, Yankees 3: In the slim annals of Yankee lead-blowing, there is no sequence as haunting as the one that put the Rays in front Monday: “Roberts steals 2B … Single (groundball); Roberts scores.”
Not enough time in the day….
@Rangers 1, Rays 0: After missing a start, Yu Darvish returned with 10 Ks and his first scoreless game since April. The game turned in the 4th, in the span of two batters:
Mariners 1, @Twins 0: I think we have our AL Pitcher of the Month.
Cardinals 8, @Reds 2: With a 17-hit fusillade, St. Louis captured the rubber game of a series in which each winner scored 8 runs, and built a 2-game lead for the 2nd wild-card. With 18 runs and 43 hits in the series, they upped their NL-best marks to 4.94 R/G and .277 BA, the highest in the Senior Circuit since 2009 and 2008, respectively.
@Rays 5, Royals 3 / @White Sox 2, Yankees 1: I went to a coronation, and a pennant race broke out! Tampa’s surge has shaved New York’s division lead to 3 games.
Giants 4, @Dodgers 1: Down by 4 in the 6th, with no outs and the meat of the order coming up, you take no baserunning chances — right?
@Rays 5, Royals 1: In his last outing, Jeremy Hellickson ran into a buzzsaw named Felix and took a 1-0 loss. This time, his mates rapped out 11 hits, including 6 knocks by the bottom third of the order, a HR by cleanup man Jeff Keppinger (stop smirking!), and a couple of extra-baggers by Desmond Jennings, who’s scored 19 Runs in his last 20 games.
It’s no secret that the 2012 Rockies have had a ton of bad luck (and bad everything else) in their pitching staff; some would say they’ve already capsized. Here’s a look at some historic aspects of their struggle.
Rays 8, @Angels 3: For the first time in their 52-year history, the Angels were swept in a 4-game series while allowing 7+ runs each game. Their record for 7+ runs is 5 straight games in 1999, all losses, but split among 2 series. The last time they allowed 7+ in 4 straight games was 2006; the last time in one series was 2000 to Toronto, but only 3 were losses.
I ran out of steam. Wanna help fill in the gaps?
@Royals 4, White Sox 2: Chris Sale, the AL’s SO/BB leader, tied a career high with 4 walks and took his 2nd loss since May 12. He used 2 IBBs to get out of jams, but he went to well once too often: After he wide-oned Billy Butler to load ’em with 2 out in the 7th, Salvador Perez golfed an ankle-high 1-2 pitch off the LF fence for the winning runs.