Wednesday, May 11, 2011 |
Pickoff Moves
Don't Make A Correia Out Of It: Dodgers 10, Pirates 3
As humiliating as yesterday's loss was, today's win was equally amusing, not least because of its unlikeliness. The offense scored ten runs for only the second time this year, while recording only their fourth win since April 25. The Dodgers haven't won a series since, and wow.Ted Lilly kept the Buccos off the board until the sixth, when Andrew McCutcheon hit a leadoff blast to nudge Pittsburgh to a 4-1 deficit, and later gave up a sac fly to Neil Walker to make it 4-2. But that was as close at the Pirates ever got, because the Dodgers got one of those back on Jerry Sands' infield single that scored Rod Barajas from third in the seventh, and then proceeded to blow the game open in the eighth against Mike Crotta (who failed to make an out) and Chris Resop (who allowed all three of his inherited baserunners to score). Resop even graciously allowed consecutive bases-loaded walks to Jerry Sands and — I am not making this up — reliever Matt Guerrier, for whom yesterday's plate appearance was his third all-time. When you're cold, you're cold.
Update: Bad me, reusing a hed.
Return Of The Offense: Angels 6, White Sox 2
A real lollipop of a win compared to yesterday, the Angels held the lead from first inning on, drubbing John Danks for three runs and never looking back. Plus, rally masks, and a game I wish I could have attended. Joel Pineiro pitched another home gem — the announcers mentioned that in his last seven home starts he has some unearthly one point something ERA. The funny part of all that was seeing Howie Kendrick penciled in as a starting left fielder; but the canny Mike Scioscia knew the groundball-inducing Pineiro wouldn't allow any fly balls to left, and so it was. No balls even found Howie, and the only ball hit to left was Alexei Ramirez' single in the eighth, by which time Howie had been safely switched back to first base.The Angels will get to face Jake Peavy in the finale, which could be great or terrible, considering. Peavy was a winner in his May 5 rehab start with AAA Charlotte, giving up five runs over seven innings, all earned.
Frank Will Try To Charm The Other Owners After All Other Options Exhausted
Good luck with that. Great story by Bill Shaikin that really gives us some more insight into why the owners would fall in lockstep behind Bud Selig on the takeover of the Dodgers, and the eviction of Frank McCourt:Among baseball's owners, McCourt appears to have what the Lakers' Andrew Bynum would call "trust issues."Josh Fisher has more thinking on the possibility of a bankruptcy filing.Some owners did not appreciate McCourt and his ex-wife, Jamie McCourt, contesting their divorce so publicly and bitterly. The revelations about all that spending on estates and hairdressers and private jets have threatened the credibility of every other owner who pledges to funnel profits back into his team.
The owners were disturbed to read that McCourt had set up a mechanism by which the Dodgers paid rent to play in a stadium they owned, millions of dollars that might otherwise have gone toward baseball's revenue-sharing plan. The owners were more disturbed to learn that the league had approved the mechanism, apparently without the due diligence that Schieffer has now been installed to provide.
The owners grew concerned when McCourt proclaimed he had stadium security under control after the Bryan Stow beating, only to see the Los Angeles Police Department temporarily take over and Selig dispatch a six-man task force. The owners do not need fans wondering whether their favorite team employs a full-time head of security, since the Dodgers had left the position vacant for four months.
The owners are astonished that McCourt needed a loan to make his first payroll of the season, even more surprised by the plummeting attendance at Dodger Stadium, all those empty seats meaning millions more dollars disappearing from the revenue-sharing pool.
One major league owner referred to it as a "fan boycott."
Labels: angels, bryan stow, dodgers, mccourts, pirates, recaps, white sox
The owners were disturbed to read that McCourt had set up a mechanism by which the Dodgers paid rent to play in a stadium they owned, millions of dollars that might otherwise have gone toward baseball's revenue-sharing plan. The owners were more disturbed to learn that the league had approved the mechanism, apparently without the due diligence that Schieffer has now been installed to provide.
We can all get in a high dudgeon about the McCourt excesses, and rightly so; but methinks that Selig doth protest too much. Things could never have gotten anywhere near this bad if he had done his due diligence, and it annoys me that he's gonna get away with it like he gets away with everything else.
I'll be relieved to see McCourt go down over all this, but I'd be Mr. Schadenfreude if Selig did too.
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