Despite walking 5, Tom Glavine earned career win no. 293 last night in the Mets’ 8-1 rout of Philadelphia. Glavine (6 IP, 1 earned run, 6 hits) was aided by three double plays and the relative ease with which his teammates handled Freddy Garcia’s ineffective changeup.
One such pitch was belted over the left field fence in the 2nd inning by Moises Alou for the first of his two home runs on the evening. Alou is having a typically torrid April, and I’m sure he’d remind us that in these miserable conditions, there’s much to be said for keeping your hands warm.
Captain Red Ass had a brief night after injuring his right index finger on a foul tip. X-rays showed nothing, but the same could be said of a CAT scan of the catcher’s skull.
There was mucho speculation on SNY tonight about the Phillies’ glum demeanor and whether or not Charlie Manuel’s job is in jeopardy, with Ron Darling going so far as to suggest that if Manuel didn’t hold some kind of closed door postgame meeting, a firing would be an understandable move.
The Red Sox and Yankees each sent rookie pitchers with varying degrees of name recognition to the hill Tuesday night. Boston’s Daisuke Matzusaka struck out 10 Blue Jays, but couldn’t overcome a nightmarish 4th inning, as Toronto prevailed, 2-1. The Jays’ Gustavo Chacin wasn’t quite as awesome as King Felix last week, but the only substantial damage he suffered was a Wily Mo Pena solo HR. Back in the Bronx, the Bombers’ Chase Wright was victorious in his big league debut, allowing 5 hits and 3 earned runs over 5 innings in New York’s 8-3 win over the Indians. Alex Rodriguez connected off Jake Westrbook for his 8th HR, and Sportsline’s Gregg Doyel would surely have sneered at the reception A-Rod received Tuesday night.
Yankees fans are ingrates and boors, and most of the time that’s fine with me. Buy your ticket, drink your beer and stay up there in New York, near Mike Freeman’s house and way the hell away from me. But when Yankees fans bring their boorishness to bear on one of the most complete players any of us will ever see, OK, now I’ve got a problem.
Honestly, it’s the fickleness that kills me. If you’re going to resent Pay-Rod, Bronx Boors, resent him all the time. Resent him when he throws the ball into right field, resent him when he strikes out and resent him when he goes cold in October. Just like you did last year. Boo him when he pops out with the bases loaded in the eighth inning in snowy 38-degree weather, just like you did in the second game of this season. The second game. Unbelievable.
But also resent him when he’s hitting six home runs in the first seven games of the 2007 season, a streak surpassed only by Mike Schmidt’s seven-in-seven start in 1976. Resent him when he’s blasting a grand slam to beat the Orioles on Easter eve.