Though Derek Lowe could’ve been excused if the Paul Lo Duca stories were distracting him (self-recognition being a muddafucka), a big night from the Rox’s Brad Hawpe (above, 3 for 4, 2 RBI’s, HR, the game winning hit on a single that barely eluded the glove of Julio Lugo) put a halt to L.A.’s 11 game winning streak. Almost as brutal as Lugo’s mistimed dive of Hawpe’s hit was a blown rundown moments later that accounted for an insurance run scored by Matt Holliday. In the words of that great Harry Shearer tribute artist Vin Scully, “the Western Division, like that accordion, has closed up even more.” We’re on the brink of mid-August and the (fucking) Rockies are only 3 games out of first place.
With tonight’s 5-4 loss to the Royals, the Red Sox have now dropped 4 straight — to Tampa Bay and K.C. There’s been some yippity yap on the radio tonight about Jonathan Papelbon’s latest failure, with one verbose observer alleging that Javy Lopez is setting up right over the heart of the plate long prior to Papelbon’s delivery (whilst ‘Tek will slide his glove into target-mode far later). I’m gonna watch the replay of this one later to determine for myself whether or not there’s validity to this claim (I have to admit, it sounded great for bitch-fest radio), but Manny didn’t exactly cover himself in glory with his work in LF during the bottom of the 9th.
Even John Franco thinks the “C” looks stupid on Mike Sweeney’s jersey.
Karl Ravech, deeply troubled by Miguel Tejada flipping the bird in Toronto yesterday afternoon, seemed to be pushing for MLB to pull the plug on the Orioles SS’ consecutive games streak. “Those are the people who pay your salary,” seethed Ravy. Geez, bad enough that Toronto are on the hook for A.J. Burnett, who knew they were paying Miggy as well?
If you’re not already willing to click on the above link, consider this : Roch Kubatko is so in touch with the cultural zeitgeist, his most recent Baltimore Sun blog entry features a McLean Stevenson joke.