[Editor’s Note: Sportscolumn Blog welcomes Jackson Govatos as the lead baseball blogger. Jackson’s daily feature, The Full Count, will take you through the five baseball stories you need to know.]
1. Davies domination: The Braves avenged Pedro Martinez’s 200th win on Monday with a little pitching of their own. Kyle Davies, the Braves 22-year-old right hander, pitched a complete game with only 1 earned run. This was the second complete game by a Braves pitcher in four days, which is unheard of for a team with a 5.64 ERA. Andruw Jones provided most of the offense for the Braves, with 2 homers and 4 RBIs. He now leads the NL with 22 RBIs and has 7 home runs. Tonight it will be Glavine vs. Hudson to decide the series.
2. Indians crush Orioles: The scoreboard at Camden Yards had a lot of action Tuesday night, and most of it was for the visitor. Cleveland, after scoring 10 runs against Detroit on Monday, put up 20 hits in a 15-1 slaughter. Grady Sizemore and Victor Martinez both hit homers for the Indians, and Jason Johnson allowed one run and picked up the win. Cleveland now leads the majors in runs scored.
3. Big Unit comes up small: Given a four run lead after the first inning, Randy Johnson could not get anything going in a pitiful seven earned run effort. He only lasted 3.1 innings, as Toronto ripped him for 9 hits and two homers. Troy Glaus, one of Toronto’s offseason pickups, had his first stud performance with 2 homers and 3 RBIs. Despite home runs from the Yankees’ Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, and Alex Rodriguez, they lost 10-5.
4. You want some offense? We got some offense here for you: In what would look like a pitcher’s duel on paper, Milwaukee and Houston combined for 25 runs in a crazy game. Through 7 innings it appeared that Houston would cruise, as they led 11-2, but the Brewers went wild with 8 runs in the 7th and 8th innings. Somehow, Houston held on for a 13-12 win. Morgan Ensberg went yard twice, and Craig Biggio picked up his first homer of the year for the Astros. Brad Lidge got the save despite allowing 2 runs in 1.2 innings of work. The win improved Houston to a .500 all-time franchise record. They had not been .500 as a franchise since the 12th game in the 44-year-old franchise’s history.
5. Venezuelan embassy relocated to MLB pitching mounds: A record 7 Venezuelan pitchers started on Tuesday, setting a new record for the country. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the previous mark was five on August 17, 2004. Carlos Silva and Kelvin Escobar, both Venezuelan, pitched against each other (Escobar picked up the win).
