Shot Of The Night: A-Rod's Paying

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

We'll occasionally bring back the shot of the night when someone really causes us to drink for good or ill. Tonight we celebrate. The shot of the night is Slugger's Delight: 1 shot 151 proof rum, 12 oz Rock and Rye® liqueur and it's in honor of Alex Rodriguez.

A-Rod murdered the ball tonight for the Yankees going 4-5 with 3 home runs that laughed at the outfield wall while sailing over it. A-Rod warmed up by crushing a solo shot 412 feet off of Sean O'Sullivan in the 6th inning. The next big fly came off of Kanekoa Texeira in the 7th inning and went 419 feet. But the slugger saved his best performance for Greg Holland in the 9th. A-Rod crushed the 2-0 offering from Holland 439 feet into the Kansas City water falls. Despite my general dislike for all things Yankee, I remain a big time A-Rod supporter. I look forward to covering A-Rod's chase for history even if Bud Selig plans on turning a cold shoulder to the offensive monster.

Honorable Mention: Bobby Wilson
The hitting challenged Angels catcher somehow managed to hit 2 home runs off of Blue Jays pitching prospect Brett Cecil. Meanwhile, Brandon Wood pinch hit and went 0-1 lowering his slash line to .166/.183/.223 continuing to disappoint the Angels, his parents, scouts and yours truly. I've recently reached out to Wood's agent to see if he has any interest signing on with my Wiffle Ball team. We only pay in potato chips but we're prepared to make a very generous offer. Perhaps even sour cream.

Shot Of The Night: Adam Dunn Edition

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Look at me writing shot of the night on the actual night it was due. It's almost like I'm a responsible blogger. The shot of the night is Get 'er Done: 1 oz Grey Goose® vodka, 6 drops grenadine syrup, 1 can Squirt® citrus soda and it's in honor of Adam Dunn. Normally, I'd avoid any Larry the Cable Guy references because he's a hack and doesn't deserve the obscene amount of money he makes. But it fits my shot criteria. I beg you America to improve your taste in comedy. Please watch Louie on FX. Louie CK and Patton Oswalt are the best in the comedy game right now but I digress.

Adam Dunn hit another pair of home runs for the second time in three games. The two blasts give Dunn at least 30 homers for the 7th straight season and improved him to a .280/.369/.590 slash line. I'm starting to think the Nats were the team that had placed the proper value on Dunn when the trade deadline rolled around. Although, they did place him on waivers and he was claimed by an unknown, and most likely, National League club. I can't see him getting dealt with the current insane hot streak and I'm hoping the Nats can extend him. Because of course, I've jumped on the Nationals' bandwagon and would like to see him continue to mash while playing sub par defense at first base.

Honorable Mention: Adam Wainwright and Albert Pujols
The Cardinals duo put the hurt on the Marlins. Wainwright pitched a 2-hit shutout while striking out 7 and Pujols went 3-5 with a home run driving in 4 of the Cardinals 7 runs. Pujols is now 1st in RBI (82), and yes I know that's a worthless stat, and 2nd in homers (28) after the aforementioned Dunn. Wainwright is 2nd in wins (16), and yes I know that's a worthless stat, and 2nd in ERA (2.07). If you let my "mainstream stats" go for this post, I promise I'll get back to xFIP and wOBA tomorrow. Thanks, gotta go watch some recorded Shark Week.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Shot of the night is late because I've been fighting with insurance people all morning. And I couldn't write it last night because of all the drunken arguing I was doing. I'm pretty sure I had a Barry Bonds debate with a piece of lawn furniture. Last night's shot of the night was The Gold, The Bad, and The Ugly: 1 1/2 oz Kahlua® coffee liqueur, 1 oz Bailey's® Irish cream, fill with milk, 1 1/2 oz Goldschlager® cinnamon schnapps and it's mainly in honor of Trevor Cahill.

The Gold
The A's 22-year-old All Star pitcher threw a complete game shutout. He gave up more walks (4) than hits (3). Cahill is having a great year on paper with an 11-4 record and 2.72 ERA. But his .206 BABIP and 4.18 xFIP suggest he's not actually quite this good.

The Bad
While Cahill shutout the Royals in real baseball, I'm confident I could shut that lineup out in Wiffle Ball. If I had m good riser working that day. When you're lineup starts with Chris Getz and Jason Kendall, you know you're in for a rough day. Kila Ka'aihue: 0-1. Wilson Betemit: 1-2.

The Ugly
Brian Bannister. I really like Brian Bannister but he's not a good pitcher. He went 5 innings and surrendered 5 runs on 7 hits while walking 4 and striking out 4. Banny has embraced sabermetrics more than any other player in the MLB. So maybe he can take some comfort in knowing that his xFIP (4.85) suggests he's not as terrible as his ERA (5.95) implies.

Shot Of The Night: Mets Fail Edition

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Frankly, I'm surprised Omar Minaya didn't find a way to mortgage the future of the franchise to help the Mets finish 6 games out of first in the NL East at the trade deadline. Maybe trade Ike Davis for David Aardsma or some such nonsense? The shot of the night is late because I pick places without the Internet to do my evening drinking. The shot of last night was a New York Sour: 2 oz blended whiskey, juice of 1/2 lemons, 1 tsp sugar, red wine and it's in honor of the Mets' pitching staff.

Jonathon Niese got the ball rolling for the Mets going a deep 4.1 innings and giving up 6 earned scattering 7 hits, 3 walks and 2 homers. Niese is still young (23) and nowhere near this bad. So I'm surprised Omar didn't trade him for Jake Westbrook. Elmer Dessens would take over for Niese and pitch an effective 2.2 innings only giving up 2 earned on 4 hits, 1 walk and 2 home runs. Ollie Perez would finish off the night by imploding over 2 innings allowing 4 earned on 5 hits.

Honorable Mention: Adam LaRoche
LaRoche did most of the Met slaying yesterday. He went 3-6 with 2 home runs (both of Niese) and 6 RBI. He just missed a third home run as well. I'm surprised LaRoche wasn't moved at the trade deadline but if the Angels weren't a bizzilion games back, he probably would have been. He's still a good bet to be dealt during the waiver period.

Shot Of The Night: Walk Off Edition

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

The shot of the night waited until all of the games were over but it didn't have to. Tonight's shot of the night is a Curtain Call: 1 part Jagermeister® herbal liqueur, 1 part Midori® melon liqueur, 1 part Jack Daniel's® Tennessee whiskey. I'm pretty sure after a couple of those you'd be under the curtain or wearing it as a dress. Tonight's shot is in honor of Carlos Gonzalez.

CarGo had a pretty good night at the plate for the Rockies. He went 4-4 and also had a sac fly. Not only did Gonzalez hit the walk off homer in the 9th, the home run completed his cycle. If I wasn't so lazy to do the research, it seems like we're having an absurd amount of cycles, no hitters, perfect games, golden sombreros and platinum sombreros this season. It's probably all due to random chance but I prefer to believe it's some kind of baseball voodoo. I may also have been in New Orleans for too long.

Honorable Mention: Ryan Zimmerman
Zimmerman went 2-4 with a home run. But guess what that home run was? You're right. It was a walk off in bottom of the 9th. I should really stop putting the answer to my little quizzes in the title of my posts. I alluded it to it early in my trade roundup earlier but I think I'm jumping on the Nationals bandwagon. I can have an AL and NL team right?

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Shot of the night is back after a quick stint in rehab. It totally thinks it can quit whenever it wants now. Sorry for the shaky week gang, we should be back to normal by Monday. Tonight's shot of the night is a Big Apple: 2 oz vodka, fill with apple juice, 1 tsp green creme de menthe and it's in honor of David Wright.

David Wright had a down season last year but has already passed his WAR from last season (3.7-3.4) and seems to be back on his young Hall of Fame path. Wright went 3-4 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI, albeit in a losing effort against the D-Backs. If he needs to do some finger pointing, it should be directed at Raul Valdes who managed to go 0 innings while serving up 4 runs on 4 hits. That's right Raul, your ERA for the evening was 7∞. *sigh, 7 infinity looked so much better in my head than in HTML*

Dishonorable Mention: Andrew Cashner
Cashner was unimpressed by Raul Valdes' stat line. Cashner tossed his own 0 inning gem giving up 6 runs on 6 hits. He was then thoroughly mocked by his fellow Cub reliever Sean Marshall who gave up 5 runs on 5 hits but at least recorded 2 outs. When reached for comment/awoken from his nap, Lou Piniella said, "No, I really can't tell the difference between Dr. Pepper and Diet Dr. Pepper."

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Shot of the night is late to work again because someone was up too late playing vodka-pong. New Orleans is not a good place to hang out if you already like the drink a little. The shot of the night is obviously a No Hitter: 1 oz Jagermeister® herbal liqueur, 2-3 oz Stolichnaya® vodka, 1 can Amp Overdrive and it's obviously in honor of Matt Garza.

Garza tossed the 5th effing no-hitter of the season last night. Are hitters even trying anymore? By the end of the year, no-hitters will be all worn out just like your mom. Garza faced the minimum even though he walked one to barely miss the prefect game. Max Scherzer had his own no-hitter broken up in the 6th by a Matt Joyce grand slam.

Honorable Mention: Matt Wieters
Last year's mega-prospect showed some promising signs of life after freshly coming off the disabled list. The switch hitting catcher went 2-2 with 2 home runs and 2 walks. I, of course, left him on my DL spot on my fantasy team.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

It may seem like I advocate drinking here with the shot recipes and drinking jokes but alcohol makes you do stupid things kids. Drunk dialing, drunk texting, drunk showing up at your ex's bar. All poor decisions after 2 am. Trust me. That said, let's take the shot of the night while I try to shake off some shame. The shot of last night is a California Dream: 2 oz 1800® Tequila, 1 oz sweet vermouth, 1/2 oz dry vermouth, 1 maraschino cherry and it's in honor of Buster Posey.

I realize I need to stop gushing over Buster Posey before Chase Utley and Mike Trout get jealous but he's just so good. Posey extended his hit streak to 18 games, going 4-5 and moving his slash line to .371/.407/.579. While Posey is a blog favorite, those are MVP caliber numbers. And he's a catcher. This brings up 2 questions. 1) How bad did Tampa Bay screw up in the 2008 draft by passing on Posey when they needed a catcher? 2) Bengie Molina?

Honorable Mention: Dan Haren
While the San Francisco Poseys were beating the Diamondbacks in extra innings, the Angels were beating their GM in making trades. You can catch my analytical/non-biased reaction on the trade here (now with 300% more bias) but Dan Haren was a pretty big winner without even playing last night. He gets to go play in his native SoCal for an annual playoff contender while the Diamondbacks are trending toward Pittsburgh Pirate territory. Haren's escape from the dessert to the beach is one of the best sand moves since that hour glass got the job on Days of Our Lives.



That reference was brought to you via my grandma. I promise I don't watch soap operas. Unless you count Gossip Girl.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Sorry about shot of the night being late again but I've been in a strikeout coma. And as soon as I'm finished with this shot, I'm going back to writing about Golden Sombreros. Seriously hitters, it was cute when you used to give me maybe a 4 strikeout performance once a week. But 6 in 2 days? Anyway, last night's shot of the night was Cane and Abel: 2-2.5 oz rum, 1/2 can Red Bull® energy drink and it's in honor of Matt Cain. I'm actually proud of what I did there, screw you.

Cain threw 8 shutout innings to improve his record to 8-8. He allowed 3 hits and 3 walks but struck out 9. Cain is overshadowed by Tim Lincecum in San Francisco but I always thought he was an underrated pitcher. Turns out he's never had an xFIP under 4.22 and his BABIP is almost always way under .300. It makes him a pretty interesting case. He's either always lucky or his normal BABIP is actually closer to .275 than .300. Even when you remove fielding, he out performs his FIP every season. Can anybody smart out there explain why that is to me?

Honorable Mention: Cole Hamels
Hamels threw 8 innings of 1-hit, shutout ball but didn't get a decision. That would have never happened if Chase Utley was healthy. But luckily for the Phillies, Dom Brown should be on the way. Unfortunately for the Phillies, they'll have to move Jayson Werth instead of Raul Ibanez.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

So shot of the night is late again because I was up until 5 am talking to some random girl. I wish I had some good results to pass on to you but I don't think she believed my "I race kangaroos for a living" story. I'm afraid my drunken profession stories are getting less plausible every night. Which leads me to last night's shot, What The Hell: 1 oz dry vermouth, 1 oz gin, 1 oz apricot brandy, 1 dash lemon juice and it's in honor of Colin Curtis.

Before yesterday afternoon, I thought Colin Curtis was a professional golfer. But against my beloved Halos, he hit his first career home run. With a bat nonetheless. After Brett Gardner was ejected for arguing a call, Curtis inherited his 0-2 count and smacked a 3-run home run. As soon as I stopped swearing at my computer and wiping the tears away, I realized this is a lost year for the Angels. All of the Alberto Callaspos in the world can't save us now.

Honorable Mention: Francisco Liriano
Liriano managed to somehow shut down the Cleveland Indians' winning streak by tossing 7 shutout innings and striking out 8. Sure, he walked 4 and gave up 6 hits but it was a nice performance and led to my dismay when I realized I left him on my fantasy bench. The Indians' loss is the first since one-time manager Lou Brown passed away and, subsequently, a piece of clothing wasn't removed from the cardboard cutout of Rachel Phelps.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Last night's shot of the night was a Tiger Jack: 1/2 shot grenadine syrup, 2 shots Jack Daniel's® Tennessee whiskey, 1 shot triple sec, orange juice. Apparently, SotN's posting time is directly related to where I find my keys in the morning. Yesterday I posted this segment at 5-ish and my keys were in the bathroom. Today, we're up and at 'em before noon and my keys were merely on my bedroom floor by the door. If I ever miss a SotN, feel free to assume my keys were on the roof and I was in the hospital. Where were we? Oh yeah, the shot of the night was in honor of Miguel Cabrera.

Miggy went 3-6 with 2 homers and 3 RBI while the Tigers took an 8-6 loss to the Rangers in 14 innings. If I was a betting man (and I am, I think I bet on a Saved By The Bell movie being made last night, original cast), Miguel Cabrera would be my choice for 40+ home runs this season. In fact, Miggy might have a real shot at the Triple Crown which Derwood pointed out earlier. Cabrera now has 24 home runs and 82 RBI to go along with a .340/.418/.645 slash line. The scary part is that Cabrera is just 27-years-old and probably just reaching his peak years.

Honorable Mention: Albert Pujols
For a point of reference, let's take a look at Albert Pujols. Widely believed to be the best hitter in baseball, Pujols went 2-4 with a homer and 3 RBI last night. Pujols has 22 home runs and 67 RBI to go with a .310/.413/.578 slash line. Miguel Cabrera (3.8 WAR) is basically a younger Pujols (3.6 WAR) right now.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Last night's shot of the night was The Bad Guy: 3 oz absinthe herbal liqueur, 1 oz Bacardi® 151 rum, 1 oz Everclear® alcohol. Delicious, but I ended up tripping for 8 hours. I tried to write this post after knocking back a couple of those but it ended up just being the letter "B" 400 times. Hopefully it will go better this time around. Last night's shot of the night was in honor of A.J. Burnett.

A.J. Burnett was anything but The Good Guy last night. See what I did there? Burnett threw 43 pitches over 2 innings and gave up 4 runs on 4 hits and two hit batters. Then he cut his hands slamming a door. Yeah, I don't know how that happens either. A.J. has seen better days. Things would continue to get worse for the big righty when I called him into my fantasy baseball office to inform him of his release. Former Angel Dustin Moseley didn't fare much better replacing Burnett. Moseley pitched 3 innings and gave up another 4 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks. Chad Gaudin was the star Yankee pitcher of the night, tossing 4 innings of 4 hit, 2 run ball.

Honorable Mention: Reid Brignac
Might as well stick with the Yankee-Rays game. The Rays second baseman and number 9 hitter went 3-5 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI. His first home run led to A.J. Burnett's hand-splitting, door-shoving incident. His second home run just made Dustin Moseley feel bad about himself.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Tonight's shot of the night is Triple Ugly: 1/3 oz white tequila, 1/3 oz Jagermeister® herbal liqueur, 1/3 oz vodka. *shudders* Obviously, the shot is in honor of Bengie "Wheels" Molina.

Buster Posey who? Bengie Molina hit for the cycle tonight with a grand slam. That's right, Bengie Molina hit a triple tonight. It's actually the 6th of his career. Bengie Molina, known for his blistering speed, made it to third in a shade under 4 minutes after the Red Sox outfield spontaneously combusted. Or at least that's what I assume happened. Molina hit the slam and his triple in his final two at bats. He was pinch run for after the triple because his legs didn't make it past second base. I don't know what else to say. It's simply stunning. Bengie now has as many triples as Chone Figgins this season. On the Molina speed scale, I run a 4 which means I can see the finish line before I fall down and light a cigarette.

Honorable Mention: Barry Zito
From a former Giant to a current one. After a few ugly seasons in San Francisco following his monster deal, Zito almost got his ERA back under 4.00 last season. Tonight was Zito's best outing yet, tossing 8 innings of 2-hit, 10-strikeout ball. With the mediocre resurgence of Vernon Wells and Zito, Alfonso Soriano is now the proud owner of the worst contract in baseball.

Shot Of The Night: All Star Edition

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Tonight's shot of the night is Star Wars: 1 oz Southern Comfort® peach liqueur, 1 oz amaretto almond liqueur, 1 oz sweet and sour mix, 1 oz Sprite® soda. While Derwood sat in The Big A jinxing the American League in person, I watched the All Star Game alone from my dimly-lit bunker in Louisiana while drinking cheap whiskey. I'm living quite the life, ladies. Just like the rest of the season, the All Star Game was a pitchers duel. That said, the shot of the night is in honor of the MVP, Brian McCann.

The Braves catcher came in for Yadier Molina in the 5th inning and promptly flied out to right. But McCann would hit a bases loaded/bases clearing double in the 7th inning off of Matt Thornton to give the National League all 3 of their runs. I'm pretty sure the messy 7th inning that Phil Hughes and Thornton worked was a tribute to the Angels bullpen. In that case, well done, fellas. McCann would go on to deliver a humble speech at the post game presser while wearing his catcher's helmet frontwards. A look that John Olerud approves of.

Dishonorable Mention: I have a couple of these bad boys.

Joey Votto: Votto was the big snub from the All Star Game but got in through the Last Man In fan voting or some such titled nonsense. Votto is having a monster season for the Reds but his All Star appearance was unspectacular. He went 0-2 and saw exactly 2 pitches.

Omar Infante: DNP. The questionable All Star didn't get into the game despite being the designated player who could come back into the game after being pulled. I hear he did fulfill his utility role by sweeping up sunflower seeds and installing a new bullpen phone.

Joe Girardi: He blew through all of his left handed starters as quickly as possible and saved Alex Rodriguez for pinch-hitting duties in the imaginary 13th inning.

Corey Hart: He continued his poor showing from the second round of last night's Home Run Derby by going 0-2 with 2 strikeouts.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Last night's shot of the night was a Black and White: 1/3 oz Dr. Mcgillicuddy's® Vanilla Schnapps, 1/3 oz Kahlua® coffee liqueur. It's not a very exciting shot but there weren't many performances that drove me to drink last night. Except for maybe Jered Weaver's 5 earned run doozy. Anyway, this shot is in honor of Carlos Quentin and it seems like it would be good for breakfast.

TCQ powered the White Sox into first place in the Central by going 2-4 with a solo shot and a grand slam. Quentin has been on a serious home run tear. He's 7-13 over the past 7 games with 6 homers. That's about all he does though as the .244/.334 numbers don't really scream All Star. In other White Sox news, Gordon Beckham went 3-4 raising his slash line to .214/.277/.304. *Slow golf clap from Brandon Wood*

Wilson Betemit: DNP

Dishonorable Mention: Carlos Silva
Silva had been enjoying his resurgence in the National League until he ran into the Xavier Paul led Dodgers offense. Silva only made it through an inning and a third while giving up 6 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks. Silva's opposing pitcher, Vicente Padilla, went 8 innings and gave up 2 hits and no runs. Haha, the Cubs' offense is terrible.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Tonight's shot of the night is a Red Snapper: 1 oz Crown Royal Canadian whisky, 1 oz amaretto liqueur, 2 oz cranberry juice. I do enjoy the occasional Red Snapper or anything with Crown in it. There was an amazing pitching duel and then whatever the opposite of that is. Lets do some toasting. The honorees are Travis Wood and Roy Halladay.

Travis Wood gets the top billing tonight taking a perfect game into the 9th inning. I got to the party I was attending and put the game on just in time for Chooch to spoil both the perfect game and the no-hitter with a double. They don't call me Jinxy McGee for nothing. But the rookie Red pitcher was fantastic nonetheless in his third start. He went 9 innings and gave up just the one hit and zero runs. He also had 8 strikeouts to go with no walks to earn a no decision because he was pitching against...

Roy Halladay is never one to be outdone. Halladay went ahead and threw his usual 9 shutout innings to also earn a no decision. Halladay gave up 5 hits and 1 walk while striking out 9. I'm not sure if anybody has noticed but Halladay's WAR (4.6) is higher than CY Young favorites Josh Johnson (4.4) and Ubaldo Jiminez (3.6).

Dishonorable Mention: Scott Kazmir

I'd have to check but I'm guessing this is the worst starting pitching line of the season. Kazmir went 5 miserable innings serving up 11 hits, 3 walks, 3 home runs and 13 earned runs. I'm convinced Scioscia left him out there in hopes Kazmir would spontaneously combust. I don't see anyway that the Angels can keep running Kazmir out there every 5 days. However it happened, he's done. It's painful to watch. I've seen pitching machines at batting cages have more success getting people out than Kazmir this year. Sure, maybe it was against me and perhaps I have some poor eye-hand but still...

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Tonight's shot of the night is a National Cocktail: 2 oz rum, 3 dashes apricot brandy, 1/2 oz pineapple juice, 3 dashes lime juice. Sure it's a drink instead of a shot but I'm working of a theme here. Just drink it fast. It's in honor of Adam Dunn who has been getting plenty of love from this segment recently.

Dunn went 3-4 with 2 more home runs and 3 RBI raising his slash line to .285/.370/.593. The 30-year-old could be quite the trade bait this season if the Nats don't decide to lock him up long term. Which probably isn't a bad idea. More importantly, he provided some much needed offense for Sir Stephen Strasburg. In fact, in the last shot of the night when Dunn hit 3 home runs, I joked...

When reached for comment, Stephen Strasburg said, "Couldn't you save like one of those home runs for my start?"

Turns out Dunn wasn't all out of power yet, which leads me to...

Honorable Mention: Stephen Strasburg
I've been Internet free (which makes me surprisingly shaky) so not only did I not preview the Strasburg start but I missed the entire thing. Miss me on Twitter? Anyway, Strasburg rebounded from a couple of less than Hall of Fame starts to get his 3rd career win. Only 509 to go! Strasburg went 6 strong giving up 3 hits, 1 walk and 1 earned. He also struck out another 8. But I'm sure Evan Meek will be every bit as exciting in the ASG.

I'll catch up on some posts for you guys tomorrow, including any missed Sombreros.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Tonight's shot of the night is a Home Run: 1 part(s) Vodka, 1 part(s) Triple Sec, 1 part(s) Lime Juice, 1 shot(s) Jagermeister, 1 shot(s) Goldschlager, 1 shot(s) Whiskey. Mix the first 3 to make a Kamikaze. Then set the 4 shots up as they were bases in baseball. First base is the Kamikaze, second is Jagermeister, third is the Goldschlager and the Home Run is the House Whiskey. Welcome to the club! Vomit. Yeah, that's a rough 4 shots but I had to break out the big guns tonight. The shots of the night are in honor of Adam Dunn and Buster Posey.

I'll give Dunn the top billing tonight but you couldn't go wrong either way. Dunn went 3-4 with 3 home runs and 5 RBI. It's a good thing he's not in the Home Run Derby. Instead of Dunn for the competition, I say we plug in Omar Infante and see how many infield singles he can hit in the Home Run Derby. Everybody loves a scrappy utility player, right Bud? When reached for comment, Stephen Strasburg said, "Couldn't you save like one of those home runs for my start?"

Buster Posey shares top honors tonight going 4-4 with 2 home runs and 6 RBI. Posey's 2 homers gives him (5) more than Mauer (4) in about 150 less at bats. Which begs the age old question, Bengie Molina?

Update: This post was severely delayed by the spotty Internet service I get in Baton Rouge. Come on neighbors' unprotected Wi-Fi, get your act together.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Tonight's shot of the night is a Grand Slam: 1 1/2 oz Swedish punsch, 3/4 oz dry vermouth, 3/4 oz sweet vermouth. Swedish punsch, from what I gather, is some type of rum thing. Shot of the Night got delayed until this morning because I ended up playing drinking games until 3 am. I don't know why I think I'm still in my early 20's but, hey, when in New Orleans... Anyway, the shot is in honor of Alex Rodriguez.

A-Rod went 2-3 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI. One of the homers was a grand slam. That was A-Rod's third slam of the year and the 21st of his career. That ties him for second all time and 2 behind Lou Gehrig for first. Derwood and I had an hour long conversation the other night about Gehrig and I had to finally move him into my top 5. But that's a post for another time. I've always been an unabashed A-Rod supporter so I'd like to see him stay healthy and assault some records. I do hate the Yankees though, wanted to make that clear.

Honorable Mention: Trevor Cahill
The A's All Star surrendered A-Rod's benchmark slam.

Better Honorable Mention: Johan Santana
While Santana had nothing to do with a grand slam, he did hit a solo shot. Oh yeah, he also threw a 3-hit shutout.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Tonight we're bringing back the Big Red: 1/2 oz Irish cream, 1/2 oz Goldschlager® cinnamon schnapps for the shot of the night, even though it's disgusting. And it's in honor of Joey Votto.

I detailed Joey Votto's All Star snub earlier and the kid backed me up today. Votto went 3-4 with 2 homers and 2 RBI to raise his slash line to .318/.418/.599. If you don't believe that he should be the starting first baseman for the NL, we can't be friends.

Omar Infante: 0-4, 2 strikeouts.

Honorable Mention: Roy Halladay
Halladay threw another complete game. His bullpen management is fantastic. Halladay gave up 1 run on 5 hits while striking out 7 and lowering his ERA to 2.33. Oh, he also only threw 93 pitches. I'm not sure he's human.