Exegesis For A Sunday

"Never confuse movement with action." -- Ernest Hemingway

Sox Stay In First Is Short

Hopefully, they enjoyed it while it lasted. One day, was the duration of the Sox stay in first place as they were dumped 7-2 by the A's yesterday after the A's accumulated six runs and eight hits in the first three innings off Sox starter Jon Garland (8-8). In the meantime, the Royals were finally able to overcome the intimidating Devil Rays by a 6-2 margin to move the Royals back to a half-game first place lead when Rookie Jimmy Gobble allowed one run in his second major league start, and Carlos Beltran homered and drove in three runs. Gobble has allowed just one run in 12 1-3 innings in the majors so far.

According to the Sun-Times, the White Sox might move to a four-man rotation in the final six weeks of the season. The decision will be influenced by how the bullpen develops and the progress of Dan Wright, who has struggled in the role most of the season. The Sox have a 15-game stretch ahead before the next day off, mostly against the likes of Anaheim and Texas (14 times) with Wright scheduled to start Tuesday in Anaheim in the second game of a four-game series. Wright is 0-5 in 12 starts and is listed in the bullpen.

If you need further proof that Billy Koch is either the Armandogeddon or the Jose Mesa of Chicago, check out his numbers: A 5.63 ERA and 11 saves, 4 blown. The last time manager Jerry Manuel was foolish enough to put Koch in the game for a save opportunity was well over a month ago, July 4th, when he entered the 9th with the White Sox ahead of Tampa Bay, 3-1 and preceeded to surrend a three-run homer to Carl Crawford to create 4-3 loss out of sure victory. (Nota bene: Jose Mesa, also dropped from the closer's role for ineptitude, has a 16.20 ERA since the All-Star break. If he finishes 15 more games, his $5.5 million contract for 2004 becomes guaranteed.)

Carlos Lee had five home runs and 12 RBI in his last eight games, batting .444 (16-for-36). Over the last 23 games, Lee was hitting .356 (36-for-101), with 10 homers and 28 RBI. Paul Konerko was batting .412 (14-for-34) with four homers and 14 RBI over his last nine games. In his last 20 games, he was hitting .373 (28-for-75), with six long balls and 20 RBI.

Today's game, which ends the White Sox homestand and promises to be a pitching duel similar to Friday night's when the A's rookie sensation Rich Harden, 3-0 in his first 4 starts with a 1.33 ERA takes on White Sox ace and AL ERA leader, Esteban Loaiza (14-5, 2.30).

Marlins Stay Even With Phillies

Pat Burrell, who has been painful to watch all season by hitting .196 with 14 home runs and 41 RBIs, is suddenly 4 for 7 since he bleached his hair blond. Yesterday, Burrell hit two huge home runs to help the Phillies come back to beat the Giants in 10 innings, 8-6. Just for the record, this wasn't what the Marlins ordered.

The Phillies clubhouse buzzed afterward. Relief pitcher Dan Plesac called it the biggest win of the season. The last time Plesac gave up a run was June 4th, almost two months ago. Since then, he's thrown 15 scoreless innings and has struck out 16 while walking just two. "I really think this is a game we can build on," Plesac said. "I really do. I think this game is going to turn us around. I think this is the game that gets us over the hump.". That's a long cry from "You Gotta Believe" but no one in Florida wants the Phillies to start getting excited. Before Philadelphia starts planning its ticker tape parade however, it should be pointed out that it's only been a two-game stretch for Burrell. Since the All-Star break, he's still only hitting .254.

The Marlins have won 14 of their past 18 games, during which time the starters have compiled a sparkling 2.60 ERA. They've hit only four home runs this month, and three of those were in one game. Yesterday, Mark Redman dominated the Brewers for the third time this season, striking out seven and walking one in eight innings as the Florida Marlins defeated Milwaukee, 7-1, Saturday night. He's 3-0 against Milwaukee, allowing only 22 hits in 25 innings. Hey, look at that. A pitcher who can dominate the Milwaukee Brewers.

Mike Lowell went 3-for-5, scored two runs and drove in another as the Marlins improved to 7-1 record against Milwaukee this season. So we know they can beat the Brewers. After today however, they go back to playing Major League teams when the Dodgers come to Florida. The Dodgers are on a 6 game winnings streak but before anyone starts shivering in fear, it should be remembered that prior to that, they'd lost 11 of 14. Being a Dodger fan is like riding a perpetual rollercoaster.

Piazza Almost Back To Normal

On Friday night, Piazza's first game behind the plate with the Tidewater Rehabs, Richmond leadoff hitter Jesse Garcia stole second base on the first pitch. Piazza's throw one-hopped to the shortstop side of the back. Last night, for the second straight game, he bounced a throw to second base in failing to nab a base-stealer.

But not all news is bad news and Piazza is having a good time making Cow Ripken jokes. The Virginian-Pilot reports:

"The crowd was decidedly pro-Piazza, giving him hearty ovations for both at-bats. And Piazza, who spent nearly 15 minutes signing autographs down the first-base line before the game, seems to be relishing the minor-league atmosphere. The Tides’ promotion Friday was an appearance by the ZOOperstars!, whose big act is Clammy Sosa, a costumed character who typically eats either a grounds-crew member or a bat boy, then spits him out adorned in only boxer shorts.

Asked about Clammy Sosa, Piazza said, “We pitched around him to get to Cow Ripken. I’m out there between innings and they’re rolling tires, running kids across the plate, clams eating people,”he said. “I was waiting for the (dizzy) bat race.”

Yeah. Fun times down in the minors.

Speaking of fun times, hopefully, this will be the final rant on the disease known as Armandogeddon. He's been my whipping boy all season long and its been a fun ride, but after today's game at Yankee Stadium, he's finally out of New York, at least until a postseason meltdown, so the opportunity may not be back.

Armando Sucks, Reasons #411 and #412:

We hear it every time. "Oh, Armando will do much better once he's in the National League," they swooned when he was traded from Baltimore. "Oh, Armando sucks but once he comes to the Yankees he'll be a new man," they gurgled when the Yankees defied logic on a faint hope, getting him from the Mets. And now we hear it again, "Oh, the change of scenery will be good for him now that he's traded from that barbaric media scene of New York to the warm clutches of the fuzzy teddybear Seattle polite media scene."

Bzzzzt! And the only reason Armando choked down his postseasons in Baltimore was because there is an insane, diabolical amount of pressure in that media-frenzied burg of Baltimore? Bzzzzt. When he's finished humiliating himself in Seattle and this ridiculous sideshow tour of The Terminal Choke has finally ended, can we finally stop making excuses for him? Would you want to have to rely on him to finish out your game or hold a lead in a big game?

Armando leaves each team like a jalopy with a string of tin cans tied to its fender: Loud and Ugly.

Armando should pitch in someplace like Milwaukee or Cincinnati where they are already numb to failure and maybe there he will thrive. No hopes for the postseason, no important games to melt down in. No disappointment. He can pitch to Clammy Sosa and Cow Ripken in between potato sack races and eating hotdogs and listening to Dominican merengue music. Armando Heaven instead of Armandogeddon. If only all the world's problems were so simple.

It was quite a conundrum watching the Yankees-Seattle game Friday night. On one hand, hating the Yankees as I do, the normal response would have been to root for the Seattle Mariners, which I did. But what to do when Armando came in to pitch the bottom half of the eighth? I felt compelled to join the loud chorus of boos from the 52,793 fans. When Armando flounders, it's as though the theory of gravity is being reaffirmed. How can you root against it?

Armando redefines the role of set-up man to that of mess-up man.

Last word on the Godzilla-Ichiro clammer: In Godzilla's Revenge, Ichiro (Tomonori Yazaki) is a latchkey kid with a very active fantasy life. Because he is the smallest kid around, the bigger kids (especially a boy named Gabera) bully him, and he goes running home to an empty house, because his mother works nights. Fortunately, his neighbor is a kindly inventor/toymaker, who allows Ichiro to hang around the workshop and think up great names for his new toys. The toymaker is kind of scary-looking, enough so that one of our fellow viewers felt the need to observe that she doesn't know for sure what Japanese child molesters look like, but if she had to pick one out of a crowd, this would be the guy. To the film's credit, this particular avenue of plot development is left unexplored.
When Ichiro is left unsupervised he pulls out his make-believe radio and calls Monster Island. But then the radio, at least in Ichiro's disturbed little mind, actually transports Ichiro to the island via a mysteriously deserted airplane. Once on the island Ichiro watches stock footage of Godzilla fighting a Gimantis (courtesy Son of Godzilla) before the young lad falls down a hole. A vine is dropped down the hole, and Ichiro climbs out to find that his benefactor is Minya!

Just thought a little historical background might be useful.

The Dominican Thin-Skin Train

The parade is getting longer. Climb aboard the Dominican Thin-Skin Express. Now Raul Mondesi thinks the Yankees mistreat Dominicans.

"Only Soriano and me. Where we from? The Dominican Republic. Why didn't they do that to Giambi when he was hitting .120? He was there batting third, third, third. He found his way, and now he's fine."

Yeah. The Yankees are racist against the Dominicans. Yanqui go home. That's why they traded Armando Benitez to Seattle. Because Armando's Dominican and Jeff Nelson is...not. Look at this! First, that renowned segregationist Joe Torre showed Mondesi no respect by pinch-hitting for him just because he had 10 hits in his last 60 at bats, (.166) and then they trade him! Dominican-haters, those Yankees! Where's Pedro when the overwhelming bias against Dominicans rears its ugly head yet again?!

C'mon. How many times do such ridiculous claims have to be made before they realize how idiotic and out of touch with reality they sound? From Pedro to Sammy, and now, to Raul, this anti-Dominican irrationality really makes one wonder. Is there really so much anti-Dominican bias or are these guys just a little too sensitive? Pedro says sportswriters wanted a nice white face winning the Cy Young last season. Sammy and Pedro both made the outrageous claim that the media wouldn't have made such a big deal out of Mark McGwire busting a corked bat out all over the field, not like they swarmed poor Sammy anyway. Now Mondesi thinks he and Alfonso Soriano are getting pissed on by the Yankees.

To his credit, Soriano wants no part of it and rejected Mondesi's bias claim. "No, no different," the Yankee second baseman said. "Unless they do that to him. They don't do it to me. I'm comfortable here."

Maybe its the memory of the oppressive, ruthless Dominican dictator, Rafael Trujillo, who was assassinated in 1961. As Mario Vargas Llosa noted, though Latin America has never been in short supply of dictators, Trujillo's was the "most emblematic of dictatorships," particularly in scope and grotesqueness. He was virtually unparalleled for his brutality, corruption and human rights abuses. "Trujillo created an opera in his real life. He was the director and the Dominican people were the actors."

These incidents of Dominican protests make me wonder if their own operatic paranoid solidarity might one day cause a strike by Dominican players in Major League baseball.

Race To Last

You don't often think about it, but for bottom-dweller fans, like in Queens, Milwaukee, and San Diego, there is an exciting sort of inverse pennant race going on. The race for last place in the National League. Moving along at an 8-15 clip since the break, the Mets are within striking distance of the Padres and the Brewers for the title of the National League's Worst. As of last night, the standings stand as follows:

San Diego 45-73 .381 -----
Milwaukee 45-71 .388 1
METS 48-68 .414 2

The Mets have a 7 game homestand against the Giants and the Rockies coming up while San Diego get to play in Atlanta and Florida. The Padares will meet the Mets in San Diego for a key three game series after that. The Brewers meanwhile, will have to lose to the Pirates and the Phillies to keep pace.

The Mets have really been hurting themselves lately with victories. They've won 4 of 6 on a road trip to Houston and Arizona that they'd hoped would be absolutely sinister. Compounding matters, since the All-Star break, Roger Cedeno and future Hall of Famer Jose Reyes are tearing it up. Cedeno is hitting .342 with 8 doubles and Reyes is hitting .340 and has stolen 7 bases without getting caught. Jason Phillips is hitting .325. Go figure. It's almost as though these Mets are trying to stay out of last place!

Big pitching matchups today : The Dodgers' Kevin Brown against the Cubs' Mark Prior; the Mets' Al Leiter against Arizona's Randy Johnson; Oakland rookie Rich Harden (3-0 in four starts) against the White Sox' Esteban Loaiza, the AL's ERA leader; and the Phillies' Brett Myers against Giants ace Jason Schmidt.