1721

Man, 22 CGs? Super-workhorse, Jim Palmer.

— Alan

1722

Ha! Ha! Burnett was inconsistent until he was ready to leave the Marlins when he went ona winning streak before badmouthing himself off the team. He was unimpressive as a Blue Jay until the season before he could walk out of his contract where he suddenly gets good. When is his contract with the Yankees up?

1723

My favorite argument against pitcher wins this year is Ivan Nova’s W-L record. Hilarious stuff.

1724

So Velez joined the Dodgers in I think June and has not gotten a hit. He’s 0-33 but they keep sending him to bat. Dammit I could do that!!! Pick me!! :)

1725

So the Mariners flew cross country last night and are spending their scheduled “day off” playing a makeup game against the Indians. According to the radio announcers, there are maybe 800 fans in the park. And its raining, with a good chance the makeup game will be rained out.

So why are two teams that are both officially out of it doing this? Because the Indians very badly want to finish second, apparently.

1726

Struck him out looking! Mo gets #602.

1727

Sadly, his 5-year, $82 million contract runs through 2013.

1728

My friend who blogs for the Dodgers keeps calling him Eugenio-for-33 (or whatever the right number is).

1729

Nuthin’ sad about that. Yankees please stick with him.

— Alan

1730

I love my Twins community blog. The headline for the 6-4 Yankees loss:

“Yankees 6, Twins 4: Twins Lose Split-Squad Road Game”

1731

Lackey gives up 8 in game 2 and fails to get through 5 innings. In fact, the fans were booing him until Francona came out to pull him, at which point they started to cheer. Yeeouch.

Lucky for the Red Sox, they’ve already scored 11 themselves. They might outscore the Giants and Rams at this pace.

1732

I didn’t want to jinx the Giants, but it looks like they’re very much back in the playoff race now. They’ve won 8 in a row and are starting a series against the Dodgers tomorrow. Kershaw vs Lincecum again, hopefully the outcome is much different this time around. Should be a good one.

1733

I’m rooting for Kershaw, although I’ll be amazed if he beats Lincecum three times in a season. Both teams have been scoring a lot of runs lately. Looking forward to it.

1734

I don’t know if there is enough time left for the Giants. They aren’t going to make up that 5.5 games in the division in the 10 or 11 games remaining and they’d have to jump ahead of the Cardinals and Braves to make the wildcard.

But at least this last week or so will be interesting given the close wildcard races right now.

1735

I’d write the Giants off, too, except that they have a 3 game series against the Diamondbacks. If they sweep that then it’s only 2 games they need to make up.

1736

Looking at the wildcard standings, I think I may have written things off too soon. They have tightened up a bit and I hope that they can go down to the final weekend. I’d love to see the Giants overtake the D’Backs, and will hold my nose to see the Cards overtake the Braves. I’m indifferent about the AL wildcard, though.

1737

Its a very tough road ahead for the Giants, but not impossible. Getting within 3 games before the DBacks series on Friday is key. Then sweeping the DBacks, in Arizona. Not easy at all.

Maybe the Wild Card is in play too for the Giants, but they would need to hope for both the Braves and the Cards to collapse.

1738

So last night the Cardinals put the wraps on winning 3 of 4 games in Philadelphia against the Phillies. Awesome job, if maybe too late.

The guys hit the clubhouse, and Tony LaRussa is trying to do his postgame press conference while also trying to watch the Rams on MNF (he’s gotten to be good friends with Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo–guess they can tell you where to find the best pasta on The Hill in STL).

While all that was going on, Atlanta and their 3 game wildcard lead was in the bottom of the ninth in Florida, beating the Marlins 5-4. Two outs. Kimbrel, the Braves ace closer, with an 0-2 count on Emilio Bonifacio. Bonifacio hits a chopper to Chipper at third…and Larry Jones booted it. No worries. 1 on, 2 outs, get Omar Infante out and the Braves keep their 3.5 game lead in the wildcard. Plus…the Braves unloaded Infante to the Marlins in the offseason for Dan Uggla. Certainly they know how to pitch the guy they used to have, right?

Wrong. Kimbrel tries to sneak a fastball on the inside corner to Infante, but the ball drifts back in over the plate and Infante hit it about 430 feet. Marlins win on a walk-off, Braves lead is now 2.5 games.

Gettin’ interesting!

Cardinals clubhouse reaction to Atlanta game last night.

1739

And no offense to Cheesy, but the Cards get to play the Mets the next few days, so they’re probably going to get a few more wins this week to keep the pressure on.

1740

Hey now, but they just took 2 of 3 from the Braves.