Curveballs for Jobu

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

Today's honorary bat boy is Kurt Bevacqua

And so ends the Derwood in Columbia, Tennessee experiment. The last five days have been a blur, and by 'blur', I mean the last five days have been excruciating. If you've never been to Columbia, you really should go. They have trees, and roads. And coming January, 2011: a Bojangles. Anyway, it's good to be back in the Jobu cockpit, though MTD, as always, did solid work in my absence.


Orioles 3, Whitesox 2 (10). So Baltimore is 6-1 since hiring Buck Showalter? How long have I been away? Jesus. Brian Roberts hit his first home run of the season leading off the 10th, and the O's are just 21 1/2 games back of Toronto for the AL's seventh playoff spot.

Astros 10, Braves 4. Top prospect Mike Minor's debut (6 IP, 3 ER, 5 K) in an Atlanta uniform was overshadowed by Kyle Farnsworth's 694th appearance (1/3 IP, 4 ER) and Peter Moylan's 36th-to-last appearance (0 IP, 2 ER) as Houston snapped a 4-4 tie with a six-run seventh.

Rays 6, Tigers 3. This has a lot to do with my bitterness towards the 2006 AL Division Series and the fact that the first round of the playoffs is a ridiculous best-of-five, but I'm really glad Detroit stinks.

Diamondbacks 7, Brewers 4 (10). It's been a rough second season in Milwaukee for Trevor Hoffman. The HOF closer has had plenty of scoreless outings, but he's also had plenty of outings like Monday-1 IP, 3 ER, 2 BB. That's the eighth time Hoffman has allowed two or more runs in a game in 2010, or what we at Offbase like to call the Dave Righetti Corollary.

Cardinals 7, Reds 3. Randy Winn: DNP

Curveballs for Jobu

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

Today's honorary bat boy is Joe Orsulak.

Diamondbacks 6, Nationals 1. This series is definitely living up to the hype. Joe Saunders won his second consecutive start since being traded from Anaheim, tossing a complete game, five-hitter at the mighty Nats. In other Arizona news, right-hander Juan Gutierrez was placed on the 15-day DL with terribleness in his arm, while manager Kirk Gibson said Aaron Heilman was now the leading candidate to be the closer and the leading candidate to blow the next save opportunity.

Royals 3, Athletics 2. Kansas City, building for a playoff push in 2022, got another home run from Alex Gordon, his third in five games, and moved a game ahead of Cleveland for sole possession of fourth place in the AL Central.

Mets 3, Braves 2. That's the Kyle Farnsworth we know and keep our distance from. In his first game with the Braves since being dealt from Kansas City, Farnsworth blew a one-run lead in the seventh, then Jeff Francoeur hit a go-ahead home run off Billy Wagner in the top of the ninth to win it for New York.

Orioles 6, Angels 3. Luke Scott said after the victory Tuesday that new manager Buck Showalter's arrival had "kind of been a hyped event." Kind of. 16,723 showed up to see Showalter win his first game as new O's skipper and Scott hit his 19th home run to pull Baltimore within 22 1/2 games of fourth-place Toronto.