bellyitcher

Sweeping the Brewers and Pirates is great, but not terribly surprising. Sweeping the Astros is a whole lot more fun.

Jimmy Journell has thrown a ball very close to someone's head in both of his appearances. Randy Flores, Al Reyes, and Julian Tavarez made things a little too interesting Friday. Angel Hernadez has to insert himself into a series somehow, even if it means saying a double play is a triple play. Morris did quite fine in his second start. No evidence of Good Matt/Bad Matt. Lots of hits, only one homeun. I like it. All the starters got on base today ('cept Matty), and Eckstein and Grudzielanek had three hits apiece.

Saturday, however, makes up for any defensive lapses, allowing inherited runners to score, walking in a run, and the price of gas. Stupendous. I'm still mad that this game wasn't on Extra Innings. It was a great game to listen to, but I have no idea how Mulder looked. We can certainly put that "Beane knew he was hurt" nonsense to bed. If Duncan has indeed fixed Mark's mechanics and The Sinker Fairy has left something under his pillow, this will be incredibly entertaining. Next up for Mulder: Friday versus Tim Hudson.

Phil Garner, though, was not impressed. Ok, Phil. If a ten-inning, 101 pitch, 5 hit, no walk shut-out is a "pretty decent" game, what is your definition of a great game? It's too bad your hitters can't do anything for Clemens, but getting batters to go after pitches out of the strike zone is what good pitchers do. Maybe Ol' Phil is of the school that thinks only strikeout flamethrowers can be dominant.