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A sweep! A sweep! Four in a row now, and we’ve escaped sole possession of the basement. We’ve come way back from our horrific April to be one game under .500, which is impressive given we haven’t gotten our main team back. I was at this game, and dodged some raindrops. :)
Chan Ho Park came back today and pitched pretty well. Was nice to see him come out and be really sharp. It was odd, though the move we made to activate him from the DL – sending Hank Blalock to AAA. I was surprised by that move, yet I understand it at the same time. HE wasn’t hitting here, so he needed to get back and get “in shape” hitting wise so he can come back better later this year. We did lose Raffy in the middle of the game though which is NOT good – while he’s listed as day to day, it doesn’t sound promising, and it’s equally as annoying because we just got Park back, and Juan should come back on Friday if all goes well.
Chan Ho Park looked sharp his first four innings, and then labored in the 5th – that’s probably due to his not having pitched in awhile. Chris Michalak looked really great, as did Todd Van Poppel, who combined to throw 4 shutout innings.
No home runs, but a nice even offense scoring five runs. Herbert Perry, our new regular third baseman (for now, anyway) had a nice day, going 3 for 4 and was robbed out of 4 for 4 on a spectacular play by Tigers CF Jose Macias.
Additional game notes are available here.

A big 7 run inning fueled this one. I was scared starting the game off because I hate playing against knuckleball pitchers. They either eat you up, or you score a ton against them – which is what happened this night. Steve Sparks didn’t have anything in the second inning, and we had something like five consecutive hits against him, scoring a total of 7 that inning. Arod had two home runs this night – which is always good. :)
Dave Burba was his usual give up runs in the first inning pitcher – I really wish he could start in the second inning. ;) John Rocker gave up a two run home run, but other than that pitch, our relief pitching was good, earning Irabu another save. I don’t like to give up six runs, but when you get 10, I’ll take the win.

Boy, what an awesome game! I actually felt bad for the Tigers starting pitcher. Both he and Kenny Rogers went the first 7 innings before giving up any runs at all. In fact, Kenny went eight and gave up nothing. Jeff Weaver got in a little bit of trouble in the 8th inning and gave up two runs. I’d say 5 hits and two runs over eight innings is an awesome start, but Weaver got the loss because Kenny (& Hideki Irabu) were just that much better.
Ranger pitching allowed only eight scattered hits through nine innings, and no runs at all. I really wish I would have been there for this game, as it was not the kind of pitching performance you get in the AL all that often!
Not much more to say about this one – it was all Kenny Rogers! :)

This was a day game, they’re always tough for me, as I do listen at work, but I can’t pay a lot of attention to them. However, this time it didn’t matter – the show belonged to Joaquin Benoit. He went 6 innings, giving up just one run on four hits. He looked great, and our bullpen was lights out for the final three frames. Rocker, Seanez, & Irabu combined to give up nothing at all, which was great to see.
We didn’t get a lot of offense either, but today we got all we needed. We split with the White Sox, which is about what I figured would happen. One could always hope for more, but I’ll take 2-2 against a division leader (well, almost). :)

I didn’t get to see much of this game – Wed is my bowling league night, and I neglected to record the game. Got to see us try and come back late, but that was about it. It’s a loss, although Mike Young played good.

Crappy, sloppy game. Got to talk to some nice folks up from Houston in the stands, though. That was nice. :)