For many baseball fans, last night wasn't a great night to watch baseball, as blowouts predominated early on. But, because of the beautiful game that is baseball, only three of them continued in their lopsided fashion, with the best of them highlighted by a homer from Micah Owings, the best-hitting pitcher in baseball, whom teammate Conor Jackson said had the "best pop" of anyone on the team. And all of them showed something about the winning and losing teams, proving that any baseball game is worth watching, even when it doesn't seem exciting.
The biggest and boringest of them all was the Cubs-Brewers game--and before irate Chicago fans tell me how much they love to see their team rack up the runs, is it really all that much fun? Seems to me these affairs are like Mike Tyson fights of yore: exciting for a minute or two, but then all over. The Cubbies pounced on Jeff "Soup" Suppan, scoring six runs on him in the first, and licking their spoons for more. Soup managed to stagger through two more innings before getting yanked in the fourth, giving up 11 runs in the process. Hope he wasn't on your fantasy team. The next few pitchers managed to stanch the bleeding, until Derek Turnbow (when he's good, he's very very good, but when he's bad he's horrible), who coughed up six more runs in a mere two-thirds of an inning. Geovany Soto, a rising star among NL catchers, was the offensive monster here, with two three-run jacks. Final score: Cubs 19, Brew Crew 5.
The next most boring game was had between the once-hapless Pirates and the sometimes-mighty Mets. With Oliver "On Again, Off Again" Perez on the hill, Pittsburgh held back for one frame before pouncing on him for seven runs. It was an ignominious combination of errors and walks, with the Metsies seeming lackadaisical. They never seemed to muster up much moxie, and ended up on the short end of the 13-1 score. Hidden in here, perhaps, is the amazin' Pirates, whose 11-16 record is probably five wins better than what anyone would have given them for the month of April. The Mets, my pick to take the NL East, seem to be returning to their hot-and-cold 2007 form, which doesn't bode well for their postseason chances , or Willie Randolph's future.
The last game supposedly not worth watching was the Dodgers-Marlins, which was a good game until Torre's boys cracked it wide open in the seventh and eighth. Scott Olsen, who'd pitched fairly well in his previous starts, lost his first of the year, finally getting chased in the fifth after giving up four runs on seven hits and two walks. Not a horrible line, but the Marlins' pen let the game get out of hand when Logan Kensing, Taylor Tankersley and Matt Lindstrom conspiring to cough up six runs in a mere two-and-one-third innings. By the time the dust cleared, Florida had also fallen by a 13-1 tally.
And yet early or late leads do not always lead to blowouts--though the latter are, for obvious reasons, much rarer comeback situations. Witness the D-backs, whose quondam ace Randy Johnson let the dogs out against Houston by allowing six runs in his first two innings. But such is the resilience of a vet like the Big Unit, and the get-up-and-go spirit of baseball's best team, that he knuckled down to put up two more scoreless frames, while the D-backs responded by scoring five of their own in the same period. Houston scored one more to widen the gap to two, but with one aboard and two out, D-backs manager Bob Melvin called upon his secret weapon: pitcher Micah Owings. Though Cecil Cooper countered the move by bringing in Dave Borkowski to relieve Wesley Wright (yes, a pitching change to counter a pinch-hitting pitcher), Owings showed he couldn't care less who was on the hill and blasted a two-run jack to the opposite field to tie the game. Bolstered by this effort from a not-so-unexpected area, the D-backs went on to win, 8-7.
Another surprising team, the Royals, tried to perform a similar miracle after falling seven runs behind to Texas in the second inning. The score stood at 9-1 in the seventh inning when Trey Hillman's KC squad hung a five-spot to narrow the gap to 9-6, on the strength of old-fashioned timely hitting and a two-run shot from Emil Brown. Even after the Rangers countered with two runs in their half of the seventh, the Royals kept hitting, scoring again in the eighth and twice in the ninth before closer CJ Wilson finally managed to sew things up, with the Texas team on top, 11-9.
What do these sorts of games tell us? Well, first, the Cubs and Pirates are forces to be reckoned with, the former much more so than the latter, since Chicago earned 16 of its 19 runs, while the Metsies handed Pittsburgh nine of theirs. But, to recycle that much-used cliche (hey, sportswriters can save the planet, too) it ain't over 'til it's over, and the teams that recognize that are as important to recognize as the teams that give up with a wide deficit, or give up some, or all, of a big lead. Arizona is good, and we all know that, but Kansas City showed its strength, too, even as Houston and Texas showed their bullpen weaknesses.
Wins and losses will tell you a lot about a team, but the way they earn those is also important. So, even if it's a blowout, keep watching and see how your team--winning or losing--reacts. Just as in any adversity life throws our way, and just as your parents always told you, how people react in times of crisis will tell you more about them than anything they do in times of prosperity.
