Hey – someone found Rick Helling! Where was he hiding, because that guy wearing #32 for the first two months of the season wasn’t Rick Helling at all.
This is more like it – this is the kind of pitching we were supposed to be getting from Rick & Kenny. If that were the case, we might be making a push for the playoffs, instead of making a push for the playoffs in 2003 in 2001.
What more can you say about this game? Rick Helling was masterful, not allowing any runs. Craig Munroe hit his first major league hit – a home run with his family in attendance. Craig also made a really great defensive catch in right – while it initally looked like it saved a HR, it didn’t – that ball wouldn’t have gone over the fence, but it was a great catch anyway.
This was our first complete game shutout in quite some time – they were bandying around 1998 & 1999 on the TV. IT’s been something like 300 some odd games since the last one. Yikes!
Tampa’s Joe Kennedy looked really great, too – another good young pitcher they appear to have there. This was the game I thought I was going to last week, but I ended up going to Saturday’s game – a loss. Figures. :)