Keeping Things Interesting: April 16, 2009

The Orioles and Rangers put on a big show last night, much bigger than I could even have predicted. I pointed out in this post yesterday that, in the five games at The Ballpark, seventy-four runs had been scored. Well, you can add another 25(!) to that, as the Rangers crushed the O's 19-6. Ian Kinsler became the second player to hit for the cycle this week, doing it with 2 doubles and 6 hits. He also drove in four runs and scored five times. Needless to say, the O's pitching staff did not have a good game. The big question, though, how long will this offense keep up in Texas? Ninety-nine runs in 6 games is just insane. That'll have to come back down to earth at some point - right?

In other games, the Tigers put up another solid offensive performance, this time against the White Sox. With the 9-0 victory, Detroit is now 4-1 in Comerica. In Arizona, the Cards also showed a strong offensive game, beating the D-Backs 12-7. The Indians won their second game of the year, beating the Sidney Ponson-Kyle Farnsworth combo the Royals threw at them. Even with the loss, the Royals still find themselves at 5-4.

In New York, Oliver Perez may not have pitched like Sandy Koufax, but he did perform well enough to give the Mets their first win in Citi Field. In six innings, Perez struck out four while only giving up one run and three hits. The Brewers were also able to pull out a win tonight, beating the Reds 9-3, behind a pair of home runs by Mike Cameron. Braden Looper earned his first win as a Brewer. Rich Harden did not fare so well, though. In only three innings of work, Harden walked four and gave up five hits and four runs. He did also manage to strike out 8 Rockies (of his nine outs recorded). That probably explains how he went through 92 pitches in only 3 innings. The Giants scored three runs in the 8th inning last night in Los Angeles to take a 4-2 lead. It wouldn't hold, though, and the Dodgers would win 5-4 on a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth. The Giants are now 0-5 on the road.

Today's schedule begins in Atlanta, as the Braves finish off their series with the Marlins. Florida has taken the first two games, and hope to finish off the sweep behind the arm of Anibal Sanchez. The Braves Kenshin Kawakami will try to put a stop to that. In other games, the Pirates hope to finish off their first home series of the year with a win against the less-than-impressive Astros while the Phillies look to get back on track against the Nationals, behind the young arm of Cole Hamels. The Mariners hope to continue their hot start to the season against the Angels.

In the newly christened Citi Field, the Mets will play the rubber match against the Padres. John Maine takes on Jake Peavy in what should be a pretty good game. In Los Angeles, the Giants will trot out their $126 million man for his second start of the year. He will face the Dodgers' Eric Stults who, contrary to popular opinion, did not star in a popular Quentin Tarantino movie. Meanwhile, the Cubs will host the first game of their heated rivalry with the St Louis Cardinals at Wrigley. Adam Wainwright will take on Sean Marshall to start that series off.

The most interesting game of the day, though, has to be the Cleveland Indians vs. the New York Yankees. I don't know, but you may have read that the Yankees will be opening the new Yankee Stadium today. I guess it's a big deal. CC Sabathia will make his New York City debut in the House that NYC Built, taking on reigning Cy Young Cliff Lee. Hopefully CC will be able to get past the intense emotions and jitters of such a big debut to put on a show for the New York crowd. I'm not sure if the man can, considering his past performance in high-intensity situations, but, if he does, it should be quite the show. As much as I may not want to admit it, this matchup is the most interesting of the day.