Curveballs for Jobu 4/22/11

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy is Mickey Hatcher.



[Hatcher 1991 Score, autographed, Estimated value: 9 chin hairs]


Reds 7, Diamondbacks 4. There have been plenty of jokes written about Cincy starter Mike Leake and his arrest for stealing $59.88 worth of t-shirts from a Macy's, and here's one more: Leake really lifted the Reds to a win Thursday, didn't he?

Anyway, Leake allowed three earned runs in seven innings and improved to 3-0. Now it's off to theft classes....wait, what the hell are theft classes?

Theft class teacher: "OK, listen up. That t-shirt on display at the department store? You have to pay for it, people. Think you can get away with pumping gas and then driving off? They will take your license away from you and then you will not have a license. Go ahead, try and steal that giraffe from the zoo. THEY WON'T LET YOU."

Whitesox 9, Devilrays 2. Lastings Milledge: DNP.

Dodgers 5, Braves 3 (12). LA may only be 12-12 and may have just been put in control of by this guy



but Matt Kemp is certainly enjoying himself late in games. Kemp hit his second walk-off home run in five days, a two-run poke off C(-h)rist(h)ian Martinez in the 12th, that coming after Kemp had whiffed three times against Atlanta pitching. LA took three out of four from the slumping Braves, who have lost 11 of 16 since a 3-1 start. Rod Barajas Watch: 0-for-4, season: 11-for-58 (.190 BA).

Mets 9, Astros 1. Humberto Quintero: 0-for-3

Twins 3, Orioles 1. Jim Thome hit career home run No. 591 and the Hrbeks got seven shut out innings and nine strike outs from Scott Baker.

Cardinals 5, Nationals 0. Kyle Loshe is bringing back memories of his 20never season with his performance so far in 2011. Lohse, who on baseballreference.com ranks just ahead of Willard Nixon in all-time pitcher rankings, tossed a complete game, two-hit shut out at Washington, and in 31 1/3 innings (four starts) has allowed 21 base-runners and struck out 22. And for those wondering what is wrong with Albert Pujols, the answer is: less and less each day. Pujols hit his fifth home run in seven games to back Lohse and send the Cards back over .500 at 10-9, which in the NL Central is good enough for a first-place tie.



Other games, but down here....

Mariners 1, Athletics 0
Royals 3, Indians 2
Marlins 9, Pirates 5
Phillies 3, Padres 0
Redsox 4, Angels 2 (11)

Curveballs for Jobu 4/17/11

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy is Bo Diaz.




Yankees 5, Rangers 2. After getting identical, 4 1/3 inning, 5 earned run performances from Phil Hughes and Ivan Nova the previous two nights, NY got six shutout innings from Freddy Garcia Saturday. Mark Teixiera and Robinson Cano each hit a two-run home run to help Garcia, though EIGHTH INNING GUY Rafael Soriano tried to give up a 3-0 lead and almost did, but Adrian Beltre's potential go-ahead, three-run home run landed just foul. Apparently, Soriano's worst outings this season have come in cold temperatures, which is a really good sign for the Yankees if they make the post-season because it never gets cold in New York in the fall.

Indians 8, Orioles 3
Royals 7, Mariners 0
What in the name of Cory Snyder and Bob Hamelin is going on here? Both the Tribe and Royals are 10-4 and leading the AL Central after Saturday victories. In other news, none of the three other teams in the AL Central are ahead of Cleveland or Kansas City in the standings.

Braves 4-4, Mets 2-0
Now that the Metropolitans have lost seven consecutive games and are 4-11, it's a good time to start a new Countdown to Unemployment, this time for Terry Collins. We'll set the countdown at 30 days.

Devilsrays 4, Twins 3. All anyone can talk about is how poorly the Redsox have played, and maybe it's because of the high expectations in Boston, but the Twins have stunk, too. Minny led 3-1 heading to the bottom of the eighth until Matt Capps gave up a run in the eighth and Joe Nathan allowed a pair of runs in the ninth to drop the Hrbeks to 4-10. And I could've sworn I saw Casey Kotchman working in the produce department of the Ingles down the street from my apartment, but apparently he was batting seventh in the Tampa lineup and playing first base, getting his first hit of 2011 and walking twice Saturday.

Cardinals 9, Dodgers 2. Rod Barajas: 1-for-3

Reds 11, Pirates 2. Cincy snapped a 2-2 tie with a seven-run fifth inning, and in other innings, Jonny Gomes continued his assault on the Gomes family record books. The outfielder, who came into Saturday's game with a 166 OPS+, hit two home runs and drove in three more runs against Pittsburgh, which is still reeling from a September, 1995 loss to the Cubs.


Brewers at Nationals ppd moldy hot dog, section 304
Marlins at Phillies ppd Antonio Alfonseca



Other games, but down here....

Astros 5, Padres 3
Cubs 8, Rockies 3
Giants 5, Diamondbacks 3
Angels 7, Whitesox 2
Athletics 6, Tigers 2
Redsox 4, Bluejays 1