Game 53 Open Thread: June 2, 2005

auto matted: i had this station wagon -- a chevy caprice. big brown boat. it had a deep cleft in the driver's door; a sagging headliner; speckled throughout with chipped paint and rust. the grill listed to port, only one wheel had a hubcap on it, and the odometer got stuck on 187,000 miles. it was a laughingstock, and so was i. ev'yone i knew had cars with computer chips built into them; mine had hand-cranks. but the wagon was so beat to shit nothing could slow it down; it never faltered on a 15-below-zero day, while much prettier cars were stalled and spun out all over town. the more knocks that thing took, the steadier it ran and the more beautiful it appeared to me; the more my neighbors complained about it, the prouder i was to park it in front of my house.

all which is a long run-up to praise for mattmo's performance last night--six innings of clefted-door, clanging-hubcap, rust-speckled moundsmanship, beautiful in its unsightliness. i watched daryl kile labor thru many a similar outing and stubbornly refuse to blow a gasket or bust an axle; he just kept driving. morris is the better for all the dents he's accumulated the last three-four yrs -- no point in slowing down for potholes or cattle guards or loose gravel any more. just plows straight ahead; stronger pitcher, more interesting person. that was a well-earned win last night.

bench riders of the apocalypse: imagine morris's excitement upon seeing taguchi, cedeno, and seabol in his supporting cast last night. not two hours after i blamed those three players for the cards' late-may hitting woes, all three on'm grace one lineup card -- and they go a collective 6 for 9 with two runs scored and three rbi . . . .  this is another one of those tony things that used to drive me insane but that i now shurggingly accept. i've even come to the conclusion that, of the ten or twelve games a year in which tony plays the 22d thru 25th guys on the roster as a unit (the 2225 brigade), the cardinals win five or six -- ie that tony picks more or less the right spots for these watered-down lineups. i vaguely recall that he used to do the same thing with the athletics (i lived in the east bay for about half of tony's run there). would love to know how much (if any) merit these vague impressions possess; if any baseball-addled, math-loving high school kid happens to be reading this, summer vacation's here -- perfect for sifting through five or ten seasons' worth of box scores to study lineup patterns and outcomes. talk to a teacher; line up some class credit for the project. i'll help. int'sted parties, apply in comments section . . . .

race underway: forget all those nice things i said about the brewers t'other day; cubs have now won six straight and disentangled themselves from the division also-rans; are now three games clear of .500 and gaining altitude. baseabll prospectus puts their odds of winning the division at one-in-seven this morning. the cards are at 2-in-3. it's june; pennant race officially on.

yadda yadda: dan agonistes points out that tuesday's game was the third-lowest-scoring game in the history of coors field, which is now in its 11th season . . .

suppan             chacon
4-5, 4.01          1-4, 3.28