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 Young Lovin: 2 oz vodka, 2 oz Fanta® orange soda, 1 oz ginger ale, 1/2 oz Rose's® grenadine syrup, 1 splash lemons. More of a drink than a shot but, hey, it has orange Fanta in it. I'm not sure what happened last night but my eyes burn. I really hope I wasn't talked into drinking vodka through my eye hole. Anyhoo, the shot of the night has nothing to do with high school girls and it's in honor of Chris Young.

Chris Young, the hitter, went 3-5 with a double, a home run, 5 RBI and a stolen base. He also struck out once and only saw 19 pitches in his 5 at bats. Just when I thought I couldn't get any nerdier, I'm developing a weird fascination with pitches seen. I'll be over in a minute, Baseball-Reference. The Diamondbacks crushed the Dodgers 12-5, proving what I always say, "Kirk Gibson will one day manage the Diamondbacks to a 12-5 win over the Dodgers." Sometimes I'm really specific.

Honorable Mention: Mat Latos
Chris Young, the pitcher, was just placed on the 60 day DL. That guy loves the disabled list. Luckily for the first place Padres, Mat Latos is turning into an ace. Latos pitched another gem last night going 8 shutout innings giving up 4 hits and striking out 7 without allowing a walk. The 22-year-old ran his record to 9-4 with a 2.62 ERA and an impressive 138 ERA+. The Mat with one 't' bothers me a litle though.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Off Base Percentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy: Juan Berenguer




Royals 2, Angels 1. Lefty Joe Saunders was good-8 IP, 1 ER-but the Anaheim bullpen was not-Brian Fuentes blown save, Scot Shields blown nose. KC has won six of eight and is nine games back in the Central on July 3, the closest to first the franchise has been on this date since the 2003 team was in first place, 2 1/2 games up. Wilson Betemit: 1-for-4, single.

Reds 12, Cubs 0. Solid day for the Cubbies. The offense picked up a pair of singles against Bronson Arroyo (6 IP), then Cincy exploded for nine runs in the seventh off Ryan Dempster and a little leaguer named Zach.

Diamondbacks 12, Dodgers 5. The Kirk Gibson era got off to a nice start as Arizona rolled over Hiroki Kuroda (1 2/3 IP, 6 ER) and Jeff Weaver (1 1/3 IP, 3 ER). Any time Jeff Weaver is prominently involved in an embarrassing loss, I'm delighted.

Whitesox 5, Rangers 3. KenHarrelsonVoice™ returns:

"The bad guys led 3-1 after six, but the Sox got a little bingo goin' in the seventh, tell you what. Like the ghost of Scotty Pods, Gordo started the inning with a duck snort, attaboy Gordo. Then Juan, the crew's pick to click, singled. Alex and Pauly drove in runs and all of a sudden the good guys were tied. Ninth inning, bad guys have hard throwing Neftali Perez in the game, but the Sox have Kotsy on the roster for a reason: ninthinningbigtime. Kotsy drove a double into the gap, scoring two and the Palehose took their first lead. Bottom 9? He gone! Wimpy's pick to click, Andruw Jones didn't play."

Double 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.

I was stuck in Baton Rouge for the past two nights and had some difficulty "borrowing" the Internet from neighbors so I owe you guys a couple of shots. Plus I'll have one up later. What are we waiting for? Let's get drunk.

June 30th

Wednesday's shot of the night was King's Gold: 2 oz Crown Royal® Canadian whisky,
2 oz Goldschlager® cinnamon schnapps. And it's in honor of Felix Hernandez.

All King Felix did was throw a 2 hit shutout against the Yankees while striking out 11. A-Rod, Capt'n Jetes and Teixeira all struck out twice as Derwood invented new profanity. Just disturbing stuff. Derwood thought he was getting off the hook since I didn't have online capabilities but he underestimated my desire to toast to Yankee failures.

Honorable Mention: Vlad Guerrero
The Shot of the Night giveth and taketh away. Just as I was enjoying the Yankees' failures, Big Daddy Vladdy laid his vengeance upon his former team, my beloved Angels. Vlad went 4-4 with 2 home runs (1 grand slam) and 5 RBI. Hideki Matsui went 0-3 with a walk and a strikeout and I drank myself to sleep.

July 1st

Last night's shot of the night was a Gut Buster: 1 oz Bacardi® 151 rum, 1 oz Bushmills® Irish whiskey, 1 oz Hennessy® cognac, 1 oz Aftershock® Hot & Cool cinnamon schnapps, 1 oz Aftershock® Cool Citrus mint schnapps, 1 oz vodka. I got hammered reading just that. Who is drinking that? Anyway, it's in honor of Buster Posey.

Posey went 2-4 with a home run but he gets toasted for getting the 800 pound gorilla off of his back. That's not a metaphor. The Giants finally traded Bengie Molina and his .284 wOBA to the Rangers, opening the door for Posey to take his rightful spot as the Giants everyday catcher.

Honorable Mention: Yadier Molina
In my attempt to make this the Molina'd shot of the night ever, I give you Yadier Molina's 0-4 night. And he did that on a mere 9 pitches. Dude just loves to catch. To put that in context, Blake Hawksworth (Cardinal pitcher, for those of you who aren't his parents) saw more pitches in his 2 at bats than Yadier had all game.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Off Base Percentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy: Gene Tenace



Yankees 4, Mariners 2. With apologies to Andy Hawkins, the Yankees finally have their first true ace since Ron Guidry. C.C. Sabathia went eight innings, his sixth consecutive start pitching at least seven (all NY wins), and Robbie Cano and Alex went deep, the last of which was a two-run go-ahead tater in the bottom of the eighth to avoid a horrifying three-game sweep.

Indians 6, Bluejays 1. OK, this is starting to get a little ridiculous. Five consecutive wins for the Tribe? Did Rachel Phelps take away the hot water in the clubhouse again?

Astros 6, Padres 3 (10). Luke Gregerson doesn't walk many hitters. He recently had a 110-batter stretch without issuing a free pass and walked just four in 39 1/3 IP heading into Thursday's game. Then Humberto Quintero and Oswaldo Navarro happened. The pair drew consecutive, two-out walks in the 10th off Gregerson and Michael Bourn followed with a triple to lift the 'Stros.

Athletics 8, Orioles 1. Trevor Cahill pitched seven innings of one-run ball to beat Baltimore for the second time this season. Cahill is unofficially the 407th pitcher to pull off that feat in 2010.

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Not Chase!!!

Chase Utley will miss 8 weeks after having thumb surgery. I can only assume the thumb was ripped off by Big Foot in a scrum that Chase dominated.

I've kind of come to terms with Chase not getting MVP votes but this will definitely cost him the Gold Glove. And for that I'm...

:(

And I hate emoticons.

In other site news, I'm stuck in Baton Rouge and both the Internet and AT&T hate me. It will be a miracle if I can publish this post. I'll be back in New Orleans tomorrow and I'll catch you up on the Shots of the Night and any missed Sombreros.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Off Base Percentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy: Jamie Quirk



Astros 5, Brewers 1. The last time Wandy Rodriguez faced Milwaukee he allowed 10 earned runs in four innings last August 14. So, basically blog enemy Carl Pavano's 2007 season. Rodriguez had no such Irabu this time around, pitching seven solid innings and adding a squeeze bunt RBI in the sixth.

Rays 9, Redsox 4. I'll tell you who had a great night on the mound: Manny Delcarmen. Trailing 3-1 in the eighth, Delcarmen threw 14 pitches, allowed four hits, five earned runs and walked a batter. That, my friends, is how you bridge the gap to Ramon Ramirez.

Indians 3, Bluejays 1. The Tribe will be a part of Jobu every day until they lose. Wednesday's win was Cleveland's fourth in a row as The Aaron Laffey is a Starting Pitcher in the Major Leagues Experiment finally provided some encouraging data. Laffey, who allowed 11 earned runs in 5 1/3 IP in his only two starts of the season, pitched six innings and won for the first time since last August.

Royals 7, Whitesox 6. They may have to send the rubber-padded truck and get me into the jacket without the sleeves for saying this, but the Kansas City Royals aren't that bad. KC won for the fifth time in seven games, opening up a tight game with a four-run seventh, three off Tony Pena, the crew's pick to click. Zack Greinke allowed six earned runs, but his eight innings marked the 14th time in 17 starts he's gone at least six.

Mets 6, Marlins 5. All that matters is that Bernie Williams played both the U.S. and Puerto Rican anthems on electric guitar before the game.

Mattel's Major League Baseball

Pay particular attention to:

1. The pick-off attempt at :40
2. The pitch out and pick-off attempt at :45