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With 16 games played in the MLB on Wednesday it seems stupid not to talk about that instead of 3 NBA play-off games that produced little in terms of excitement. First up in Pittsburgh the Pirates completed their sweep of the Florida Marlins and in doing so gave the Marlins’ their 4th loss of the season. The Pirates were successful in this 3 game home stand because they limited the Marlins’ explosive offense, before last night’s game the Marlins had only scored 2 runs in the last 2 games and only scored 4 in this game. Architect of this was Paul Maholm, who gained the win despite giving up 4 earned runs and 8 hits in 6 complete innings, thankfully for the Pirates though their middle and late relief came through the final 3 innings without giving up a run and in the 9th closer Matt Capps earned his 5th save of the season.

In the first of two games in Boston the Red Sox won the game that had been postponed on Tuesday due to rain 10-1 thanks to some early power hitting. With another game coming up later that evening the Red Soxs wanted to keep their bullpen relatively fresh and luckily for them the gods were smiling. Rain again came down in the bottom of the 7th which would end the game prematurely but since enough innings had been played Boston and pitcher Tim Wakefield took the win. Wakefield thus became the oldest Red Sox pitcher to complete a game and now moves to 2-1 on the season, in this game he only gave up the 1 earned run (the only run of the game for Minnesota) and 5 hits while striking out 4. As for the Sox’s offense that came in quick 2 run bursts to take the game away from the Twins early. In the 1st Kevin Youkilis homered to right to score David Ortiz and himself, in the 2nd Nick Green homered over the Green Monster to score George Kottaras and himself and in the 3rd Mike Lowell
homered again over the Monster to score J.D Drew and himself. After that the game was in Boston’s hands and they didn’t let Minnesota see it adding 4 more runs in the 7th before the game ended.

In New York the Yankees created another piece of history at their new stadium against the A’s by scoring the first walk-off home run. They won this one 9-7 after a long period of extra innings as the game was tied at 7 after 9. With C.C Sabathia starting the Yankees hoped for a long outing that would spare their shaky middle relief from another outing, he gave them 6 and 2/3rds innings but gave up all 7 Oakland runs and 4 walks. Thankfully then for New York their relief kicked in and held the A’s to only 3 more hits in the next 7 and 1/3rd innings eventually leading to Jose Veras to get the win after Miguel Cabrera hit a 2-run homer into right field to score Nick Swisher in the bottom of the 14th.

In Arizona the Diamondbacks shut out the Rockies and won the game thanks to a Ryan Roberts RBI single in the 7th followed by a walk when the bases were loaded. They won this game 2-0 but most of the plaudits go to their pitching, starter Dan Haren came into this game 0-3 but hit back at his critics by pitching 7 complete innings giving up only 6 hits while striking out 9. His work was backed up in the 9th by Chad Qualls who earned his 4th save of the season despite giving up 2 hits.

In another tight game in the West the San Francisco Giants won their 6th game of the season in extra innings thanks to a Brad Molina RBI ground rule double in the 10th against San Diego. Brain Wilson was given the win after he pitched the final two innings for the Giants but starter Barry Zito did no harm to his E.R.A with a 7 innings outing that saw him strike out 5 and give up 6 hits. This win gave San Francisco a 2-0 win in a short series with the Padres and improves them to 6-8 after a couple of weeks gone in the season.

In Baltimore the White Soxs tied their 3 game road series against the Orioles with an 8-2 win. Thanks to some early hitting Chicago were up 4-0 by the end of the 3rd as Baltimore couldn’t find a way of coping with John Danks’ pitching, Danks earned the win pitching 7 complete innings during which he allowed only 4 hits and 1 earned run to improve to 2-0 on the season with an impressive E.R.A of 0.95.

In Cleveland the Kansas City Royals levelled their 3 game series with the Cleveland Indians with a 2-0 win on Wednesday night. Cleveland have looked inconsistent in the early runnings and carried on that kind of play with only 5 hits all night as the Royals pitching was dominant. Brian Bannister started for the Royals and pitched 6 complete innings giving up 4 hits and striking out 1 for his first win of the season while Joakim Soria earned his 5th save of the season by pitching out the 9th. Kansas City were ahead early when in the 1st David DeJesus hit a sac fly to right to score Coco Crisp from third before right fielder Willie Bloomquist hit an RBI single to center in the 7th to score designated hitter Mike Jacobs.

In Washingon the Nationals were subjected to a cruel loss at the hands of the Atlanta Braves thanks to a walk when the bases were loaded to lose this one 1-0. Despite this loss they still took their first series of the season beating Atlanta 2-1 and are 3-11 on the season. Jair Jurrjens started for the Braves and gave 7 and 2/3rds innings of seamless pitching during which he gave up 6 hits and struck out 4. It wasn’t him that got the win though, that went to Mike Gonzalez despite Gonzalez pitching only 1 out in the bottom of the 8th. Rafael Soriano then pitched out the 9th with the 1 run lead to get his 2nd save of the season.

In Philadelphia the reigning champions carried on their questionable form this time losing at home to the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1. The game was won for the Brewers in the middle innings when they broke through the Phillies defense to score 3. In the 5th short stop J.J Hardy hit a homer to right before in the 6th center fielder Mike Cameron hit a 2 RBI double to score Corey Hart and Ryan Braun. Despite giving up a run in the bottom of the 9th Todd Coffey earned his second save of the year to tie the 3 game series at 1 each.

In Toronto the Blue Jays levelled their home stand with the Texas Rangers at 1-1 thanks to a walk off RBI single by Kevin Millar that scored Vernon Wells in the 11th innings. The game ended 8-7 and the Blue Jays must have feared the worst when closer B.J Ryan blew a 3 run lead in the top of the 9th but thankfully their smoking hot offense came through again to keep them at the top of the AL East at 11-5 on the season.

Back in Boston the rain had stopped by the time had come to start the other game of the day against the Twins and the Red Sox duly won that one as well, 7-3. It was another quick start by the BoSoxs as in the 2nd first baseman Jeff Bailey hit a 3 run homer to score himself, J.D Drew and Jason Varitek before an innings later David Ortiz doubled to left to score Josh Ellsbury and David Pedroia. 5-0 and Boston never looked back despite giving up 2 runs in the 4th to complete a day sweep of the Twins in a rainy series.

In Chicago the Cubs failed to score against the tame Cincinnati Reds and as a result lost 3-0. Despite keeping relatively close to the Reds all game the Cubs only had 6 hits in a convincing outing by Reds starter Johnny Cueto who pitched through 7 innings and gave up only 4 hits. Francisco Cordero earned his 6th save of the season in the 9th and was helped earlier in the innings when Cincinnati put another run on the board to make it 3-0. This win ties the series at 1 each with one to play.

In Houston the Astros beat the high flying Dodgers to at least win the series and will have a chance at a sweep tonight. Houston won this one 6-5 thanks to a 2 run 8th innings that saw them retake the lead, Ivan Rodriguez won the game with a 2 RBI single to center to score Hunter Pence and Geoff Blum. Los Angeles starter Randy Wolf will be disappointed to have gone so deep into a game and not earn the win, he didn’t get the loss though, that went to Ronald Belisario who gave up the all important single in his one innings on the mound.

In St. Louis the Cardinals can thank starter Joel Pineiro for their win against the New York Mets as he earned his 3rd win of the season pitching 8 innings in the process. Two Albert Pujols RBIs set the Cards on their way and they were 5-1 up by the 5th innings in a game where the Mets’ offense was stifled. Ryan Franklin came in to pitch the final out and in the process earned his 4th save of the year.

In Anaheim the Detroit Tigers won their 8th game of the season a shootout, 12-10. In a game where quality pitching was nowhere to be found each team signalled their intent early with the Angels leading 3-2 after one innings after Kevin Morales 3 run jack. With so many runs scored it would take too long to go through all of them in a game where 10 pitcher were used with the unlucky one being Scot Shields who didn’t manage an out at the start of the 7th innings as he gained the loss after giving up 4 earned runs and 2 walks. L.A have made a slow start to the season and are only 5-9 after nearly a tenth of the season has been played.

Finally in Seattle the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Mariners thanks to some relentless scoring in the first 6 innings. Tampa were 7-0 up before Seattle got on the board thanks to a Jose Lopez 3 run homer but couldn’t find anything else where as the Rays added another 2 to see the game out easily.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 1:05 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.