Fire Gardy

We had three games yesterday, Brewers-Phillies, Cubs-Dodgers, and Angels-Red Sox. 

Brewers 1Phillies 3

Cole Hamels was stratight dealing from the first pitch.  He didn’t give the brewers a chance.  So, in typical Wisconsin fashion they decided if anyone was going to beat them, it was going to be themselves.  Rickie Weeks committed and error at second base that led to all three Phillies runs. It also didn’t help that Gallardo walked 5 guys.  Lidge pitched a scare ninth, 35 pitches, 2 hits, 1 walk, 1 ER, with 3ks, to close out the game.

Cubs 2 Dodgers 7

This was, in my opinion, the biggest game of the day.  Everyone seemed to agree the Cubs really needed to set the tone for this series by winning game one.  With Billingsley starting game two for the Dodgers a game one loss could prove detrimental to the Cubbies.   Ryan Dempster labored for four innings, but somehow managed to shut the Dodgers out through four.  He then loaded the bases in the fifth for firstbaseman James Loney who homered giving the Dodgers a 4-2 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.  LA tacked on 3 more runs off of Marshall, Smadrzija, and Jason Marquis.  Six of their runs came via the homerun, with 8 of the nine total runs coming via the homer.  I’m hoping Casey Blake got made fun of in the clubhouse postgame for being a little girl and hitting an RBI single.

Red Sox 4 Angels 1

By losing game one the Angels put that much more pressure on themselves to win game two.  If they can’t manage to do that, they will have to face Josh Beckett in Boston in a series clinching game. Something nobody wants to do.  Lester looked very good, giving up just one unearned run, over 7 innings of 6 hit ball. He did walk one, but struck out 7.  Lackey struggled a little but, but holding the Red Sox to 2 runs into the 7th is pretty impressive.

Today we have Tampa Bay-Chicago (1:30pm); Milwuakee-Philadelphia (5:00pm) and Chicago-LA (8:30pm).  Should be another great day for baseball.