1. Game of the Year: Possibly the most entertaining game of the season took place on Sunday when the Atlanta Braves faced the Chicago Cubs. The Braves set a club record with 8 team homeruns, including two by both Edgar Renteria and Adam LaRoache. They scored six runs in the first two innings to knock out first time Cubs starter Jae Ryu. Braves starter John Smoltz lasted six innings, but he gave up six runs as well. The Braves were leading 12-8 going into the 9th inning, but when Chris Reitsma is in the game it’s never over. He allowed 3 hits and 2 runs in the inning, in addition to two runs allowed by Lance Cormier. The game went to extras, where an error by Aramis Ramirez in the 11th cost the Cubs the game. Ramirez was under the infield popup, but was unable to make the grab, resulting in Ryan Langerhans making it to second. Marcus Giles drove him in, and the Braves won this battle to sweep the series. Braves reliever Oscar Villarreal won the game to improve to 7-0 on the year, and if he keeps this marvelous pace he will become the first 20-win reliever in history. The Braves have now overtaken the Phillies in the NL East, and are now only 3.5 back of the Mets for the division lead.
2. The power surge continues: The homers weren’t reserved for Wrigley Field alone yesterday. Petco Park, widely believed to be the most pitcher-friendly park in the majors, was the site of 3 of the longest 4 homeruns in its history. Though Jake Peavy and Mark Mulder were pitching for San Diego and St. Louis, this was anything but a pitcher’s duel. Mulder gave up eight runs, and Peavy six as the offenses dominated. San Diego’s Mark Bellhorn hit a 438-foot shot, believed to be the longest in park history. Albert Pujols became #2 with a 436 foot blast, his 24th of the season. And one of Josh Bard’s two homers tied the previous Petco record of 434 feet. The Padres won the game 10-8, and are in a three-way tie for 3rd in the NL West division.
3. New York State of Mind: Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez has seen his share of major league teams in recent years. He has bounced around from the Yankees to the White Sox to the Diamondbacks, and now he’s with the Mets. In his first start with the team he pitched five innings and allowed three runs, but that was good enough for the victory against the atrocious Marlins. Carlos Beltran helped power the Mets offense with his 14th homerun. Beltran has been on fire recently and has hit 10 round trippers in May alone. The Mets won 7-3 to achieve their 30th victory of the season, while the Marlins have half of that total.
4. No one cares about 715: Barry Bonds finally hit his 715th homerun yesterday against Colorado, but nobody outside of San Francisco really cared. The serious overhype of Bonds by ESPN in addition to his completely untrustworthy, self-serving personality contributed to 715 becoming just another story. This is completely unlike Hank Aaron’s 715, as most sports fans can remember where they were when Hank broke the record. But every sports fan has tired out of the Bonds story, as he has taken more than a week to hit each of his last two homers. Outside of the 42,935 people that packed AT&T Park yesterday, true baseball fans care more about other stories than Barry Bonds’ homerun total. So now Bonds is 40 behind Hank Aaron’s 755, but can he break that? Unless he goes to an AL team where he can DH, the answer to that question is no.
5. Let’s go to extras: The unanticipated Houston-Pittsburgh series ended up giving us two very entertaining games. Saturday’s matchup went an incredible 18 innings, and Sunday’s contest went to extras too. Down 4-0 in the 9th, the Astros rallied to tie the game. Then, in the 10th, Preston Wilson finally ended the game and the series with an RBI single. The combined time of these last two games was 8 hours and 54 minutes.
