Monday, May 30, 2011

This Week in 2001 (Week 8)

Once again, the regular Friday morning event is pushed to Monday. Still, here's what happened ten years ago, ending last Friday:


Monday, May 21: It's another slow Monday -- six games this time, more than last week's three, but still, not a whole lot happens. Curt Schilling nets his complete game, though, leading the Diamondbacks over the Giants 4-2. In ten starts, he's 7-1 with a 2.99 ERA and 84 Ks in 75.1 innings.


Tuesday, May 22: In a battle of two of the hottest teams of the season to date, the Twins just squeak one past the amazing Mariners. The Twins, who had scored 8 in the third, add four insurance runs in the eighth to go up 12-7. The M's then proceed to score four off of Eddie Guardado and Latroy Hawkins in the top of the ninth, and the game ends, 12-11, when Mark MacLemore strikes out with Tom Lampkin representing the tying run at second base. The Mariners (32-12) now lead the AL West by 10 full games, while the Twins (30-13) take a 1.5-game lead over Cleveland in the Central.



Wednesday, May 23: Jeff Brantley: former star closer, future mediocre color commentator. Today, he's pitching his last career game, entering for the Rangers in the 7th and permitting 2 runs in 2 innings to help the Devil Rays beat the Rangers 10-6. Now sporting a 5.14 ERA, he'll be released after about a week of inactivity. With the win, Tampa Bay is still just 13-32.


Thursday, May 24: Jon Lieber (who you might remember as being on the way to his one big, 20-win year) throws a one-hit shutout against the Reds (one walk, two strikeouts) as Chicago beats Cincy 3-0. Cubs leadoff hitter Eric Young goes 3-for-4, but is caught stealing for the sixth and seventh times this season, against only eight steals; the Reds' leadoff hitter, Deion Sanders, goes 0-for-3 to drop his season line to .159/.229/.250 (it might turn out that a great athlete can't take three seasons off from baseball and still be a passable MLB player; who knew?).


Friday, May 25: Kerry Wood throws the Cubs' second consecutive one-hit shutout, in an entirely different style from Lieber's: two walks, fourteen strikeouts. The Cubs win 1-0 over the Brewers and now have a six-game winning streak, and sit just half a game behind St. Louis for first in the Central. Meanwhile, Boston's Hideo Nomo, who threw a no-hitter in his first start for Boston, might actually outdo that today, as he also throws a one-hit shutout (0 BB, 14 K) leading the Red Sox over the Blue Jays 4-0.


Saturday, May 26: Mark Buehrle, in his first year as full-time starting pitcher, throws his first career complete game and shutout, holding the Tigers to 3 hits and 1 walk with 6 strikeouts as the White Sox win 8-0. Chris Singleton goes 3-for-4 with three runs scored for the Sox.


Sunday, May 27: The Dodgers and Astros take each other to 12 innings, and the vast majority of the action comes in the final inning. Tied 2-2, a Lance Berkman home run scoring Luis Vizcaino puts Houston up 4-2. Then, rookie Roy Oswalt -- who pitched a scoreless 11th in relief, but walked two along the way -- walks two more and tosses in a single through the first out of the 12th, at which point he's replaced by Octavio Dotel. The next batter, the Dodgers' Marquis Grissom, singles to center, scoring the tying run, and an error by Berkman (who, yes, is playing center field) scores Adrian Beltre with the winning run, 5-4.

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