• The Mets beat the Marlins, 7-2. The planet’s best pitcher against a Triple-A squad — who could’ve have anticipated such a result? Uh, everyone.
• The Pittsburgh/Atlanta game was insane. The Pirates took a 9-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but the Braves tied. Then the Bucs jumped ahead in the 12th, 12-9, before allowing two runs in the bottom half and hanging on for a 12-11 victory. Xavier Nady, whom I’ve been following since he took home Cal League MVP honors in 2001 while playing for a great Lake Elsinore Storm club (Peavy and Mets left-hander Oliver Perez also played on that team, which went 91-49), knocked two homers, including the game winner.
• The Giants really stink. Good thing they’re paying Barry Zito all that money.
• The Brewers and Cubs ran a clinic on how not to close a game. Locked in a scoreless tie headed to the ninth, Milwaukee plated three runs in the top half off “closer” Kerry Wood, then watched “closer” Eric Gagne cough up three of his own in the bottom half. The Brewers scored in the top of the 10th and hung on to win, 4-3. Who got credit for the victory? The least deserving guy in the ballpark, of course: Gagne. The next time someone tries to tell you that a pitcher is good because of his won-loss record, remind them that the rules dictating how a win is “earned” don’t necessarily correlate with actually contributing to victory.
• Break up the Nationals. With Monday’s 11-6 drubbing of Philadelphia, they’re assured of finishing no worse than 2-160 this year.
• Livan Hernandez pitched well in his Twins debut. Actually, for all the grief Minnesota took in signing him, he matched Johan Santana’s line — two runs in seven innings — and got the win. Not that he’ll keep pace with Santana beyond, oh, right about now, but still…
• The White Sox seem to be a sexy dark horse candidate this season, but I just don’t see it. By my count, they’ve got about three or four good pitchers, depending on whether you believe Octavio Dotel can stay of the disabled list. One of them (Mark Buehrle) got absolutely pounded at Cleveland. Granted, the Indians will do that to a pitcher, but if the White Sox can’t win behind Buehrle, then what are they going to do when, say, Gavin Floyd toes the slab?

Good times, my friends. Good times…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

At THT, I’ve gone with the popular pick except for AL West (I chose Mariners over Angels), AL Wild Card (Indians over Yankees), and NL Cy Young (Jake Peavy over Johan Santana — there’s my Padres bias kicking in because, hey, someone’s got to have a Padres bias).

I also have the Diamondbacks beating the Tigers in the World Series. We’ll see what happens…

How about you? Any predictions you’d care to share?

Post from: Knuckle Curve

The Library of Congress has made a bunch of old baseball photographs available over at Flickr. The photo above is of Les Nunamaker, a catcher for the Red Sox, Yankees, Browns, and Indians from 1911 to 1922.

Nunamaker’s career line: .268/.332/.339. Among his 10 most comparable players are the excellently named Johnny Peacock and Clyde Kluttz, as well as “The Colonel,” Hall of Fame broadcaster Jerry Coleman.

This particular photo was taken in 1912. Little did Mr. Nunamaker realize that a century later, folks all over the world would be able to watch him playing catch on something called the Internet…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Enough about me, how about the Manager of the Year awards? The good news is, the voters got one of ‘em right. The other one? Eh, it’s defensible.

You liked Colorado’s Clint Hurdle and Cleveland’s Eric Wedge (as did I). Neither of those teams was expected to do as well as they did this season.

The Indians you could kind of see coming, but they play in MLB’s toughest division. Wedge was the clear choice here.

In the National League, things were a little trickier. Bob Melvin benefited from the fact that, for whatever reason, most folks didn’t see them as a threat coming into the 2007 season. I guess if you’re willing to accept that faulty premise, then his selection makes sense.

I think Hurdle is more deserving, but I don’t have a huge problem with Melvin. It’s not like they gave it to Willie Randolph or something.

I also think it’s kind of funny that a guy named Melvin won the award in the same year that a guy named Wedge did. Maybe Fruit of the Loom can do a commercial with them.

Like what you just read? Subscribe to Knuckle Curve and you’ll never miss another article…

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Ladies and gentleman, prepare for the insufferable. Ben Affleck has just become vaguely relevant again, and the world is a better place for it.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

You had to figure the Indians were hosed when the series returned to Fenway. On the one hand, they’ve never lost a postseason series to a team from Boston — they swept the Red Sox in three games in ‘95 and beat the Braves in six in the ‘48 World Series. On the other, the Indians historically haven’t had a lot of success in New England.

Game 7 starts at 5 p.m. PT on Sunday. Jake Westbrook and Daisuke Matsuzaka hook up in one final game to determine which of these teams advances to the World Series. On behalf of everyone who doesn’t have unlimited resources at their disposal, here’s hoping it’s Cleveland.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Heh. I suppose 11 strikeouts over eight innings qualifies.

Now we have a day off (on a Friday, so I can watch Stargate Atlantis in real time) before the series returns to Boston. That is a place the Indians did not want to go.

The good news is they’ve split in Fenway once before in this series. The bad news is, well, asking them to do that twice in the span of a 10 days might be a bit much.

If the Indians are planning to make a sacrifice to Jobu, now would be a real good time…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Again.

My favorite part of the evening came when Manny Ramirez hit a solo home run in the sixth. Boston trailed in the series, 2-1, and in the game, 7-2, when he hit his blast. Dan Shaughnessy explains the rest:

Establishing that he is classless as well as clueless, Ramírez raised his hands at home plate and admired his shot even though the Sox trailed, 7-3.

See, stuff like that is almost enough to make me root for the Red Sox.

Almost.

Still, its nice to know that Ramirez enjoyed himself in Tuesday night’s loss. I’m sure his teammates and fans appreciate that.

[Update: Albert offers a solid take over at Dejuiced.]

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Carmona:

Schilling:

First pitch is at 5 p.m. PT.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

With the Yankees, one can never shake the ominous feeling that they are just toying with their prey. Wang hasn’t faced the Indians this year; Byrd has faced the Yankees once — on August 11 at Cleveland — and I expect he’s doing everything he can to forget about that one.

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