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Seeing as the NBA play-offs don’t start for another day we’ll focus on the baseball that was played on Thursday night starting in Atlanta, where the Marlins completed their sweep of the Braves with a 6-2 win. In this three game series Florida have outscored Atlanta by 14 runs and have only given up 7 runs altogether, early signs that they’re a tough defensive team. Last night was no exception with Anibal Sanchez starting on the mound for the Marlins, he went on to earn the win giving up 8 hits and the 2 earned runs in 6 completed innings. On the offensive side right field Cody Ross hit 3 for 3 on the day including a 3 run homer and a sac fly in the 6th to make the score 5-2. With this win Florida move to 8-1 at the top of the NL East and are looking like an early pacesetter in a mostly sluggish division.

In Pittsburgh the Astros took the 3 game series 2-1 with a 6-3 win despite an early Pirates run splurge. Pittsburgh were up 3-1 after 2 innings after a Nyjer Morgan ribeye triple before Houston battled back culminating in a 3 run homer by Lance Berkman in the 6th innings to take the game away from the Pirates.

The Yankees were unable to christen their new home with a first win in the first game of their 4 game series with the Cleveland Indians. In a tight pitcher’s battle the game was tied at 1 going into the 7th innings before the Indians exploded off the pitching of the New York middle relief. Again showing how weak the Yankees’ relief is the Indians scored 9 runs including a Grady Sizemore grand slam and a Victor Martinez home run. This one ended 10-2 and while starter C.C Sabathia’s numbers looked respectable (5 2/3 innings, 5 hits, 1 earned run, 5 walks and 4 strikeouts) the rest of the NY chuckers just looked grim. The loss went to Jose Veras, didn’t even get an out and gave up 3 earned runs and a walk before handing to Damaso Marte. Marte gave up the grand slam and 2 more runs and finished with an E.R.A of 27. Ouch.

On the North side of Chicago the Cardinals took the first game in their series with the Cubs, 7-4, thanks to some lights out pitching from their relievers. After going down 4-3 in the 5th thanks to a Kosuke Fukudome 3 run homer the Cardinals scored 4 runs in 4 innings culminating in a Brian Barden home run in the 8th innings. While this was happening Kyle McClellan and Ryan Franklin came on to relieve Adam Wainwright of his duties and struck out 4 (2 each) altogether without giving up a run in 3 complete innings.

The Washington Nationals managed their first win of the season to move to 1-7 at the bottom on the NL East. They did this by beating Philadelphia 8-2 at home thanks to some much needed offense. The Nats took the lead in the first innings and never looked like they were going to relinquish it, Adam Dunn homered to right to score 3 and Philly never recovered despite pulling it back to 3-2 in the 5th when Jimmy Rollins sac flyed to score Lou Marson. Washington then secured the win by scoring 4 runs in the 8th innings including two consecutive home runs into left field.

In Tampa Bay the Devil Rays succumbed to a late loss despite scoring a run in the 9th innings. In a tight game against the White Sox the Rays were down 2-0 early after Jermaine Dye hit a 2 run homer in the second and despite getting a run back in the 6th the Sox tied the game up when they went 3-1 up in the top of the ninth.

In New York the San Diego Padres consigned the New York Mets to their second loss at their new Citifield home after a 6-5 loss. New York went ahead early in this one after a Carlos Delgado 3-run homer in the 1st and kept the Padres quiet until the 3rd when they scored 5, all RBI singles including one off the bat of David Eckstein. This innings took the game away from the Mets and despite a rally in the 8th when Ramon Castro homered to score 2 the Mets couldn’t complete the fight back and gave San Diego their second road win of the season.

In Minnesota the Blue Jays ended their 4 game road series with the Twins with a 9-2 win to take the series 3-1. The Blue Jays are looking hot in the first few weeks of the season and most of this is down to their offence, which won the game for them in the 7th innings on Thursday. They were already 2-1 up going into the 7th and can thank Roy Halladay for that, Halladay is now 3-0 for the season and pitched 7 complete innings, striking out 8 and giving up only one run. However, in the 7th Marko Scutaro scored himself and Rod Barajas with a home run before Kevin Millar scored a grand slam to see Vernon Wells, Adam Lind and Scott Rolen home to see the Twins go down to their 7th loss of the season.

In Seattle the L.A Angels won the game after a big 6th innings against the Mariners to take one game off Seattle. The Angels were trailing 1-0 going into the 6th in a pitcher’s battle before catcher Mike Napoli hit a 2 RBI single in what were the winning runs. The Angels then proceeded to score another 3 to wrap this one up for their 4th win of the season and their 1st on the road.

Finally in Los Angeles the Dodgers won their 3rd home game of the season to sweep the San Francisco Giants 3-0 in their first home stand. The Dodgers were 3-2 up going into the 6th before they put their foot on the gas and accelerated from the Giants with 3 runs from a sac fly and a Mientkiewicz 2 RBI double. This one ended 7-2 in favour of Los Angeles.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 1:13 am and is filed under MLB Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.