Curveballs for Jobu

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

Today's honorary bay boy is Damian Rolls and he's happy the Rays are in first place.

Today's roundup of yesterday's games comes just before tonight's games. But I have an excuse this time. I had to drive up to Baton Rouge today and my window to steal the Internet is limited. Also, today's Jobu is in honor of a good buddy of mine who welcomed his daughter into the world today so no "your sister jokes" or "dick jokes" in this post. Which is really going to handcuff me, let's get to it...

Rays 1, Yankees 0 (11). The Rays overtook the Yankees for first place in the East in the most meaningless divisional race ever. It really doesn't matter which teams finishes first. The slight edge in home field advantage in the ALCS is cancelled out by the fact that the Rays get nervous when more than 40 people show up to a home game. Reid Brignac hit the pinch hit, walkoff homer in the 11th to spoil CC Sabathia's 8 shutout inning gem. I hope not getting that win doesn't cost him the Cy Young. That was written in my sarcasm font.

Padres 6, Rockies 4. The Padres clearly don't read this blog and therefore don't subscribe to my theory that the Rockies are incapable of losing in September. The Pads halted the Rox 10-game winning streak and regained a 2.5 game lead over the Rox and stayed up a half of game over the Giants. For the good of my theory, I choose not believe this game took place. New blog favorite Troy Tulowitzki hit a three run bomb that I will allow to stand though.

A's 3, Royals 1. Just thought I'd mention this game happened for anyone who doesn't live in Kansas City or Oakland. You're welcome.

Phillies 11, Marlins 4.
Braves 4, Nationals 0.
The Phils and Brave beat up on their NL East brethren but it's Philadelphia that remains a game up on Atlanta for first place. Werth, Utley, Chooch and Greg Dobbs homered for the Phils. Greg Dobbs was of the pinch hit variety because why would he be in that lineup. Derek Lowe tossed 8 shutout innings for the Bravos striking out 12. The Billy Wagner struck out the side for the save. I didn't believe any of that either until I remembered it was against the Nats.

Reds 7, Diamondbacks 2. Jay Bruce went 3-4 with 2 home runs and is now hitting .353/.423/.741 since August 1st. The Reds a really good young, cheap core of players and this might be the changing of the guard in the NL Central. Face it, the Cardinals won't have any payroll flexibility after they sign the Arch over to Pujols soon and that team ain't getting any younger. The Cubs are the Cubs. And the Astros and Pirates? Well maybe if they combined teams, they could finish 3rd.

Curveballs for Jobu

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

Today's honorary bay boy is Billy McMillon and he's here to remind you he was no Mike Stanton.

Alright gang, week one of the new NFL season has just a pair of Monday Night Games to go but there is still plenty of good baseball to talk about. I realize you probably have fantasy football fever and can barely get your eyes to focuse but try to stay with me as we take a quick spin through some of yesterday's games...

Rockies 4, Diamondbacks 2. Rox ran their winning streak to 10 games and sit just 1.5 games back in the NL West. Jason Giambi provided the heroics hitting the walk-off 2-run homer coming off the bench to pinch hit. Everything is turning up Rockies in September and I don't think there is a team in the National League that would want to meet them in the playoffs. New blog favorite Troy Tulowitzki only went 1-4 which makes me a little sad.

Rangers 4, Yankees 1. Cliff Lee pitched 8 innings of 1 hit ball to complete the sweep of the ALDS preview. I didn't see it anywhere on the news but I assume there is mass hysteria and rampant punching of the panic button in the streets of New York. Yankees 3-4-5 hitters combined to go 0-10 with 3 strikeouts or 0-11 with 4 strikeouts if you want to count Lance Berkman's pinch hit failure. Neftali Feliz struck out the side for his 36th save of the season and appears to be Austin Jackson's only competition for AL ROY.

Marlins 6, Nationals 5. Mike Stanton continues to provide some entertainment for the dozens of Marlins fan that tune in once a week to watch their team. The 20-year-old rookie slugger is only hitting .251/.318/.529 but hit his 19th and 20th homers in his 320th and 321st plate appearance. That could translate into 40 home runs next season. And what we know about chicks digging the long ball, the Marlins might see a spike in attendance to the low hundreds next year.

Blue Jays 5, Rays 4. Jose Bautista failed to hit a home run and it's getting to a point where that is news. Adam Lind did hit a home run rewarding fantasy patience with his disappointing mediocrity all season. I say next season we swap the Blue Jays with Pittsburgh and see what happens. The Pirates will still get their top 5 draft pick but the Jays might win the National League Pennant.

Brewers 2, Cubs 0. Yovani Gallardo basically won this game by himself. Gallardo pitched 7 shutout innings and hit the game winning RBI double in the 4th inning. Casey McGahee hit an insurance solo shot in the 8th inning but this was all Yovani. Blake DeWitt and his .340 OBP lead off for the Cubs and went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts. Kosuke Fukudome and his .378 OBP went 1-3 with a walk in the 3-hole. Just sayin.

Giants 6, Padres 1. Blog favorite Buster Posey went 2-4 and hit his 13th homer of the season. He raised his line to .324 /.369/.509 and would get my NL ROY vote if the BBWAA would give me one but they don't think too kindly of my strongly worded emails and violent threats. Loosen up guys. The Giants and Padres are back in the old virtual tie and the NL West race has me strangely aroused. It's time for more counseling.

Cardinals 7, Braves 3. Albert Pujols swung the bat with great vengeance and furious anger going 2-5 with 2 home runs and 2 strikeouts. His 39th home run of the season should put the final nail in the Triple Crown possibility coffin.

Curveballs for Jobu

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

Today's honorary bay boy is Kazuo Matsui and he's here to remind you that Hideki Matsui (no relation) is still productive sometimes.

Hey kids, I'm doing some late night house keeping so I can concentrate on the first week of my fantasy football leagues. I'm also very busy studying for a fantasy hockey draft that will probably never happen. All of my old Jobu rules apply, so let's get to it...

Rockies 2, Diamondbacks 1. Rox continue to get top bill, extending their winning streak to 9 with a perfect September. Ubaldo Jimenez went 6 innings surrendering a run while striking out 8. Colorado remains 2.5 games out of first in the West while the Padres and Giants duel it out. New blog favorite Troy Tulowitzki went a disappointing 0-4 and CarGo only saw action as a defensive replacement.

Rangers 7, Yankees 6. Another one run game in the ALDS preview series and the Rangers won again. The Rangers used all of their relief pitchers last night and resorted to beer and cotton candy vendors to close the door on the Yanks. Doug from section 112 was especially effective tossing 0 innings of 0 hit ball.

Reds 5, Pirates 4 (10). Joey Votto went 1-3 with a solo shot. There won't be a Triple Crown winner this season. Unless Pujols has a falling out with Tony La Russa and CarGo gets to play the rest of his games at Coors Field. The MVP voting should be interesting though and whatever the outcome is, I'll disagree.

Angels 7, Mariners 4. Hideki Matsui went 1-1 with a home run and a pair of walks. Coming into tonight's game, Matsui was hitting .381/.500/.524 in September. With the Angels a mere 10 games out of the West, Matsui picked a great time to get hot. Thanks for costing the Angels the 12th pick overall next year, jerk. King Felix gave up 4 earned in a messy start dooming his Cy Young chances. He's still the best pitcher in baseball but at 11-11, good luck sir.

Royals 8, White Sox 2. The Royals offense, inspired by the Pat White signing, unloaded all over Edwin Jackson. Wilson Betemit and Kila Ka'aihue both went 3-4 and Kyle Davies even scored a win. Royals 2016!

Braves 6, Cardinals 3 (12). Jason Heyward went 1-4 with a home run while Albert Pujols went 1-3 and didn't hit a home run. Who's the Pujols now, Pujols?

Twins 1, Indians 0. Something funny. I'm tired.

Curveballs for Jobu

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

Today's honorary bay boy is Jeff Clement and he's here to remind you that he was taken 4 picks before Troy Tulowitzki. Oh, and he's a Pirate now.

Hey kids, looks like I'll be in charge of Jobu for the foreseeable future. Uncle Derwood suffered a crippling injury to both hands in an unfortunate soup can opening incident. We're trying to decide whether to put him on the 15 or 60 day DL. In the meantime, you're stuck with me at the helm which means plenty of highlights of poor relief pitching. Let's get at it...

Rockies 13, Diamondbacks 4. The Rox won their 8th straight and will continue to get top billing until they lose. They're only 2.5 games out in the NL West and I will switch my allegiance to them in the wake of the demise of the Angels. Troy Tulowitzki went 3-3 with 2 home runs and a double while raising his line to .327/.394/.567. If the young short stop can stay healthy for a full season, he will join the ranks of players who get snubbed on MVP votes. *cough*Chase Utley*cough*

Rangers 6, Yankees 5 (13). The playoff series preview ended in dramatic fashion with Nelson Cruz hitting the walkoff home run in the 13th inning. After a rough 3 innings from C.J. Wilson, the Rangers employed 300 relief pitchers to finish the game off. Derek Jeter went 1-7 but made close to $140,000 for the game. I can't wait for the Jeter hot stove bidding war. It's going to be fun to watch the Yankees bid against sanity.

Marlins 3, Nationals 1. Number of brawls: 0, number of fans in attendance: 37.

Phillies 8, Mets 4. I didn't even realize the Mets were still fielding a team. Roy Halladay gave up 4 earned runs but won his 18th of the season inching him closer to the Cy Young. Chase Utley went 1-5 but the hit was a home run. I still don't think he's healthy.

Rays 9, Blue Jays 8. Jose Bautista continued his assault on baseballs hitting 2 more home runs (46). Adam Lind hit his disappointing 21st homer of the year. It would be interesting to see how good the Jays could be if they played in any other division and stopped leading off with Dewayne Wise. But Yuni Escobar threw the ball in the general direction of first base allowing Evan Longoria to score the go ahead run on an error in the 9th inning.

Giants 1, Padres 0. In what will be the most compelling race down the stretch, the Giants slid by the Padres for the old virtual tie for 1st place in the West. My money is still on the Rockies due to their inability to lose in September. Blog favorite Buster Posey: DNP.