Summary for Wednesday May 30th

Ducks 1 – Senators 0 – Wow Ducks look dominant

Dodgers 5 – Washington Nationals 0 – Wow Dodgers dominate the lowly Nationals

Angels 8 – Seattle Mariners 6 – From Pitchers Duel to Slugfest. Go Figure

Kobe what is going on?… Asking to be traded…

Ducks Win 1-0 against the Ottawa Senators

• Today I caught the 3rd period again of the Ducks game. It was a no score game till then, and it went until about 5 minutes left in the game before (lemme get this right) Sammy Pahlsson made this wicked through the legs of a Senator’s defender goal. The game was pretty well played defensively by both teams from what I saw, and that goal that the Ducks scored was pretty slick. The defender was blocking the Senator’s goal keeper’s vision and the puck just got past him. Wasn’t as thrilling as game 1 because the Ducks were actually down in that game. But it was a pretty nice finish there.

• Again I’m posting about this not because I’m a hockey fan, nor do I pretend to be a Ducks fan, but because they deserve the credit. Today the top story was not the Ducks and game 2 of a “Finals” series, but back to Kobe Bryant. But I’ll get to that later, I think in a separate post. So the Ducks deserve this shout out.

Dodgers Win 5-0 against the Washington Nationals

• Dodger pitching blanks out the Nats again. Derek Lowe (my fantasy pitcher btw) pitched a great game. I’ll post his line at the bottom. But again it was the Nats, so I was expecting this.

• Russ Martin again. Nuff said. He belts a two-run home run to put the Nats away. At first it looked like it was gonna be a pitchers duel between Lowe and the National’s starter Mike Bacsik. I was thinking to myself who is this guy, but the Dodgers and Martin strike again.

• Speaking of Russell Martin , this guy has to be the starting National League catcher. Yadier Molina went down with a broken hand today (ouch), so I guess the only competition he would have is the young guy over in Atlanta Brian McCann, but I think Martin has him beat statistically there as well. I’ve been voting for him, if anyone bothers reading this you should too!

Angels win 8-6 over the Seattle Mariners

• Jered Weaver only went 4.2 innings and he gave up 5 runs. He didn’t have command of his fastball at all today. His changeup was outstanding again as usual, but this time he couldn’t locate his fastball so he got lit up. Weaver’s line (4.2 IP, 9 Hits, 5 ER, 3BB, 3Ks) Not good at all, his ERA went up and so did mine, but at least D-Lowe pitched shutout ball.

• On the flip side, King Felix Hernandez’s line was even worse than Weaver’s. What a game. Coming in everyone thought it was going to be a pitchers duel. But it turned into batting pratice for King Felix. He served up 3 Home Runs tonight. His line (6.0 IP, 9 Hits, 7 ER, 1BB, 5Ks, 3HRs). I guess it was a little better because he was able to survive longer than Weaver.

• If Jered could have lasted longer, he would have gotten the win. He just needed to get 1 more out, but he just couldn’t do it in the 5th inning when he gave up 2 more runs and got pulled. He was loosing 5-4 at the time. In the bottom of the 5th, the Angels came back with back to back walks to Willits (the “leadoff man”) and Orlando Cabrera (the “second man”). King Felix got Vlad (the “man”) down 1-2 in the count with that power curve ball of his. I was thinking to myself, he’s gonna go with the curve again because he made Vladdy look like a fool. Not many people can do that to him. But he went with the 97 mph fastball, belt high, and good bye baseball. Only one guy can do that in baseball and his name is Vladimir Guerrero. Rex Huddler brought up the same thing I was thinking of. Vlad did the same thing to Brad Penny in last year’s All Star game. 97 fast belt high and ball out of the park over right center field. That guy could have been a Dodger too… Oh well least he didn’t go directly to the enemy and I can still cheer for him.

• To go along with that, that is the one thing that differentiates the Dodgers and the Angels. Number 27 Right Fielder Vladimir Guerrero. Dodgers do not have that guy that can turn a 1 run deficient into a 2 run lead with 1 swing of the bat. Yes they have Russell Martin, and Jeff Kent, and Gonzo, but those guys can’t do it consistently and put fear in the opposing pitcher like Vlad can.

Fantasy Stats of the Day (for my Fantasy Baseball team)

I think I will set this up so that I’ll put two pitching stats and batting stats a day, one good and one bad.

(Good)

Derek Lowe (7.0 IP, 3 Hits, 0 ER, 2BB, 5Ks)

• Got the win. Lowe balances the books at 5-5

Orlando Cabrera (3/4, 2 Run Scored)

• I was thinking of Hafner here too ( 3/5 2 RBI), but I wanted to talk about O.C. owning Felix Hernandez. They said he’s 6 for 6 against King Felix this year. Wow.

(Bad)

Jered Weaver – 4.2 IP, 9 Hits, 5 ER, 3BB, 3Ks

• Already stated above

Eric Chavez – (0/4, 3 LOB)

• I think Mr. Chavez is gonna be here alot. But hopefully the young Reynolds in Arizona can take the 3B spot for good. BTW I thought Reynolds got hurt yesterday when he ran into his team-mate pitcher and had to leave the game. So I didn’t play him and what did he do. Only go 2/4 with a Home run. Talk about my fantasy baseball life… That’s how it has been this season.

Outlook for tomorrow:

• Hendrickson goes tomorrow, but I’m not sure if I want to play him. I know its the Nats an all, but he hasn’t been good for 3 starts now… Verlander goes as well tomorrow against a hot Cleveland team. They just Dice-K’d Dice K today so I’m a bit weary there too. I’ve got to play him though because Verlander has proved that he deserves to be played.