Game Recap, 6/11/10

Here is a quick recap of three games I was interested in:

Yankees 4 Astros 3

This wasn't a particularly fascinating match up, but it's my team so I have to be interested in it. Andy Pettite, as is his norm this season, was absolutely brilliant over 7.1 innings. He gave up only 4 hits, two earned runs, and struck out 4 while walking one. It was also a milestone win for him, as he won his 200th game as a Yankee (it was also his 8th win on the season). There wasn't much offense to speak of, as most of the damage came in the first inning for the Bombers, with Francisco Cervelli hitting a big two out RBI single with the bases loaded to give them a 3-0 lead at the time.

The Astros got a two RBI hit by Tommy Manzella in the second inning, as well as a sac fly by Jeff Keppinger off Joba Chamberlain in the 8th. The biggest out came when Chamberlain struck out Lance Berkman the very next batter with the tying run on third base. It was a questionable check swing call that got the K but hey, I'm not complaining.

Mets 5 Orioles 1

I was mainly interested in this because of the fact that the Mets are such a bad road team, yet the Orioles are such a bad team in general. Something had to give, and it was the Orioles. R.A. Dickey continued to be a revelation for the Mets, winning his 4th game with no losses after 7 excellent innings. He also set a career high with 8 strike outs. The Amazins benefited from Chris Carter's first career home run, a 3 run blast that changed a 1-0 advantage to 4-0. Although 4 runs is very much doable in today's age, it seemed like a ten run advantage against the hapless O's. Their only real threat came in the 4th when they had the bases loaded with nobody out. The result? No runs. Dickey struck out Luke Scott and Adam Jones, and then retired young catcher Matt Wieters on a pop-up. The Orioles simply cannot hit with men in scoring position. As one of the Met announcers said, even when they get hits, the runners never seem to score.

Rockies 5 Blue Jays 3 (6 innings)

This was supposed to be a fantastic pitching match up, but mother nature had other plans. Playing in a torrential downpour for most of the night, the seemingly invincible Ubaldo Jiminez "struggled" giving up 3 runs in a 6 inning complete game (the game was called after). That's a quality start, according to rules, but when you have a 0.93 ERA coming into the game, giving up more than more than one run is alarming. I saw for myself the weather they were playing in, and I chalk his struggles up to that. Of course, facing an AL line up for the first time might have had things to do with it as well. But the usually dominant Ricky Romero also struggled, giving up 4 runs in 5 innings. So count the Rockies lucky that they were able to give Jiminez his major league leading 12th win of the season. This guy might just win 25 games this year.