I thought for awhile there that Kenny Rogers might have had a chance at another perfect game. He started last night’s game retiring the first 14 batters in a row. That streak ended in the bottom of the fifth when Mark Ellis doubled to left with one out, ruining the no hitter and the perfect game. Kenny has pitched well this year so far, and last night was the pinnacle of his pitching this season. He very well could have 5 or 6 runs, but our team hasn’t rallied behind his pitching. His total line for Monday night:
8IP – 4H – 0R – 2BB – 5K – 109 Pitches
Kenny was masterful. We should have won this game three to nothing, but CoCo almost blew it in the bottom of the ninth. His line was nowhere near as pretty.
1IP – 1H – 2ER – 3BB – 2K – 38 Pitches
If CoCo had blown it, it wouldn’t have been the first time. Last year CoCo blew two games Kenny pitched on the road in June. But we got the win. Offensively we didn’t have much going on. We had a double in the first inning which was a total gift, as Bobby Kielty blew it, and the official scorer gave us a double when it clearly should have been an error. Hank Blalock will take the double and the RBI, thank you very much. Dellucci had a home run in the third for the second run, and we got an RBI single from Layne Nix in the ninth for the third, and as it turns out, important run. We only had six hits total, Rich Harden was quite good, just Kenny was a bit better.
We’re back to 13-14, and are two and a half games behind the Angels at 15-11. Given how sluggish and mediocre we’ve been playing overall, this is a major surprise to be in this place at the start of May.
Yankees watch: They’re 11-15 and firmly in fourth place, 6.5 games behind the Orioles. Random thought: If the Orioles do well, hang in there the entire season, and make the playoffs, I wonder if Peter Angelos will continue to whine about the Nationals in his back yard.
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