Some of the fears of a HR Derby Curse were put to rest last night when runner-up Alex Rios hit his 18th home run. One game isn't statistically significant, but a HR Derby Curse isn't exactly hard science either.
Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay was bad again. He gave-up five runs in five innings of work with four of those coming in the first inning. There is always the chance he begins pitching like the ace he is, but there are just over two months left to do so.
Orioles 3B Melvin Mora left in the first inning with a recurrence of a foot issue that hobbled him prior to the All-Star Break. If he goes on the D.L., the Orioles' line-up becomes very bad very quickly. This is made even worse if rookie sensation Jeremy Guthrie's season is past midnight and turned to a pumpkin in the first inning of last night's poor start.
Speaking of pumpkins, the A's Chad Gaudin had equally putrid night. He allowed five ER in four innings of work. More frightening were the five walks and two ks. His sub-3.00 ERA does not jibe with his 4.2 walks per nine innings of work and a K/9 of 5.5. He does keep the ball in the park and on the ground, but even that doesn't seem to support a sub-3.00 ERA.
For all the success the Devil Rays have had uncovering gems, their line-up had two of those in the prime spots in the order. SS Brendan Harris hits third, and 1B Carlos Pena clean-up. One would imagine a team has already filled these order spots with non-scrap heap players.
Mets SS Jose Reyes lead-of the second half of the season with a HR. There is little chance he matches last season's total of 19, but he need only hit 7 or 8 in the second half to be the player everyone hoped he'd be when he was taken Top 5 in most drafts.
26-year-old Twins rookie Garret Jones went 2-4 at the team's DH last night. He has the power that the Twins have lacked in that role, but whether he can maintain a good enough AVG is another question. Prior to 2007, he was a .240-ish AAA hitter in two seasons. Like Geovany Soto, his third time was much better as he brought his AVG to .295
Tigers' rookie Andrew Miller took the loss last night but has been a good pitcher based on his 3.31 ERA. His K/BB of 25/17 is troubling, and what happened to the extreme groundball tendencies he exhibited in his minor league stats? 45 ground balls to 42 flyballs is not encouraging.
FBB with Tristan Cockcroft at 11AM
MLB with Jerry Crasnick at noon
FFB with Scott Engel at 3PM
NFL with Matt Mosley at 4PM