The Boxscore Rebellion

Jason Michael Barker

I haven't done the box score thing in a while, and while I could ramble on about the Impending Labor Action (tm), I'm starting to get a bit tired of reading about that myself, and I'm guessing you are too. So, friends, plead ignorance of the issues for a few minutes as we delve into Monday night's box scores.

Houston beat the Reds in Cincinnati 7-5 behind the solid pitching of Wade Miller, who allowed just one run over his seven innings of work. The pen tried their hardest to blow Miller's eighth straight win by surrendering four runs in the bottom of the ninth, but Billy Wagner struck out Adam Dunn to end the game and preserve the victory.

Ken Griffey Jr., little more than an injury-plagued afterthought to the Reds' season, hit a pinch-hit three-run homer in the ninth to get his team within three. You know, I don't normally put much stock in what Peter Gammons has to say when he's on Baseball Tonight, but earlier this year he made a good point about how there are tons of kids growing up today who have no idea how good Griffey really is, because lately all he's been is injured. I was one of the kids who grew up watching him in his prime -- back when the Mariners were awful, seeing Griffey play was worth the ticket price. It still brings a smile to my face to read that he homered or made a great catch.

In Atlanta, the Braves scored five runs over the final two innings to steal a 7-6 win from the Rockies and spoil a rare good outing by Mike Hampton. Talk about a big game: Chipper Jones homered in the eighth, then after Gary Sheffield homered leading off the ninth to tie the game, Chipper hit another one out to win the game.

What jumped out at me were Juan Uribe's two hits, which raised his average to a paltry .237. Has there been a worse player in all of baseball this season than Uribe? He's on pace to amass close to 600 at-bats, and despite playing half his games at altitude, he's hitting a mere .237/.282/.334. This from a player who hit .300/.325/.524 in close to 300 at-bats last season, with better than 40% of his hits going for extra bases. By the way, Mike Hampton's hitting .373/.385/.510 so far this season.

Despite giving Barry Bonds the day off, the Giants managed to scratch out enough runs to beat the Marlins. With Bonds out of the lineup, San Francisco started outfielders -- Tom Goodwin, Kenny Lofton and Reggie Sanders -- with on-base-plus-slugging marks of .598, .759 and .755 respectively. In fact, Jeff Kent was the only player in the starting lineup with an OPS of better than Benito Santiago's .792 mark.

Frankly I'm amazed they scored any runs at all, though it helped that they were facing Julian Tavarez, who has now allowed 216 baserunners in 123 innings, or roughly 1.75 per inning pitched. Tavarez didn't pitch poorly -- three runs in seven innings -- but Livan Hernandez shut the Fish down on just five hits. And he only needed 138 pitches to do it.

In what was billed as perhaps MLB's final game ever in Montreal, Bartolo Colon sent the Expos out in style with a two-hit shutout of San Diego. Colon has been a workhorse this year, on pace to pitch over 250 innings with an ERA of just 2.63 between his two stops this season. I personally don't think contraction will happen this winter, but you have to admit that Colon would look pretty good starting on opening day for the Washington Cyclones (or whatever they wind up calling the team).

We're finally greeted by the American League in the persons of Tampa Bay and Baltimore, who played to a 7-3 Devil Ray win Monday. Has anyone else noticed that one-time prospect Aubrey Huff, finally given a chance to play regularly, is hitting like many of us thought he would? After Monday's 2-for-4 he's up to .311/.358/.521 with 16 homers. The only real shame here is that they won't let him play third base. Maybe next year.

The A's beat Cleveland 8-1 behind two homers from Eric Chavez, but I got to thinking about Miguel Tejada. There seems to be some MVP sentiment surrounding Oakland's shortstop these days, and it has me baffled. Sure he's hitting .300 with 27 homers and 102 RBI's, but he also ranks #23 in the league in OPS. Yes he gets credit for his defensive position, but that still puts him behind two other shortstops (Alex Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra), not to mention a fellow middle infielder (Alfonso Soriano) and a highlight-reel center fielder (Torii Hunter), all of whom sport superior offensive numbers.

In a game they may live to regret, the Mariners dropped a 4-3 contest in Detroit despite outhitting the Tigers 12-9. Seattle left 11 runners on base, including the potential tying run on second base in the top of the ninth. Even with his pinch-hit single in the ninth, Jose Offerman is now 2-for-8 since joining the Mariners. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Who is Pete Walker? Not many fans know the answer, but the subject in question shut out the Royals on two hits over seven innings Monday in Toronto. After coming over from the Mets in May, Walker has done a serviceable job for the Blue Jays both as a starter and reliever, posting a 4.40 ERA in 94 innings. His six wins on the season bring his career total to... seven, the only other win coming back in 1995. To say he waited a long time between major-league victories would be an understatement.

Earlier in the day I made a note to myself that the Twins might struggle come the postseason because they don't hit all that many homers, and homers can make all the difference in a short postseason series. Perhaps they got the memo, because they exploded for five homers in a 7-3 win over the White Sox several hours later. Leading the romp was Jacque Jones with two home runs, followed by one each from Christian Guzman, David Ortiz and Doug Mientkiewicz. I just like typing "Mientkiewicz."

Finally, there was a strange sighting in St. Louis: Albert Pujols playing third base, instead of the recently acquired Scott Rolen. Rolen sat out his second straight game Monday with a sore left shoulder. Rolen has hit .277/.382/.492 since joining the Cardinals, but it doesn't look like they'll need him much the rest of the way. Monday's 7-2 win over Pittsburgh gave them a five-game lead over second-place Houston, and while the Astros and Reds have been spinning their wheels as of late -- 6-4 and 5-5 in their last ten, respectively -- the Cardinals have gone 9-1 over that same span and appear to be putting the division to bed.

about the author

Jason Michael Barker discovered this weekend that while all of Sheryl Crow's songs sound the same, they're still eerily catchy. Offer any suggestion for a remedy other than Enya when you write jmb@strikethree.com.

Web Strikethree.com