Crawford tagged out
1. This is Tampa Bay baseball: If you ever wanted to see an example of why the Devil Rays have always sucked, go back to their game last night. They get a good start from Casey Fossum of all people, they have a rally going and are tied 2-2 with the Twins, and then some stupid mistake occurs. This one was actually by their best player, Carl Crawford, who hit it to the outfield and motored toward third. However, his teammate got held up at third, and was then tagged out. But Crawford compounded his mistake by then heading back to second base, where he was tagged out for a double play. Tampa’s rally was killed, and then they lost in the ninth on a Justin Morneau solo homer. Is anyone actually surprised by this? But tune in Friday anyway for a fantastic pitching matchup: Santana vs. Kazmir.
2. Hammerin’ Hafner: The Indians’ Travis Hafner had a slow start to the season. However, it took him one game to regain his 2006 form. The Tribe was down 2-1 in the eighth inning when Hafner launched a deep three-run homerun, his first of the year. The homer came off the usually reliable Scot Shields of the Angels, who gave up his first runs of the year. 24-year-old starter Jeremy Sowers for the Indians had his second straight quality start, and Joe Borowski came on for his third save. Cleveland won their “home” series in Milwaukee and are 4-2 this season.
3. Three-way tie: I’ve already covered two wins by teams at the top of the AL Central. Why not go for a third? The Tigers won their third straight game yesterday in a pretty even contest with the Blue Jays. Detroit won with their usual formula: solid starting pitching (Mike Maroth had a quality start), overachieving hitting (Brandon Inge had 3 RBIs), and a great bullpen (Joel Zumaya had two shutout innings to close the game). The Tigers are now 6-3, tied with Minnesota and Cleveland for the AL Central lead. This team will be even better once Gary Sheffield actually does something. He snapped an 0-16 hitless streak yesterday and is just .125 on the year.
Player of the Day: Jason Bergmann, Nationals: 6 innings, one hit, no runs, 8 strikeouts in a surprising 2-0 win over Atlanta.
Stat of the Day: The starting pitchers in the Phillies-Mets game, Jamie Moyer (44) and Tom Glavine (41), are a combined 85 years of age. They are the oldest combined lefthanders ever to have faced each other and the second-oldest overall.
