well, that was tidy. carpenter's curveball snapped, is'hausen started to get the feel for his fastball back, and jim edmonds drove the ball twice. all's well with the world. particularly good to see edmonds turn on a pitch; 77-mph curveball, but still. cortisone's a wonderful thing. it'll be won'fuller yet when we see edmonds' bat catch up with a fastball. that'll keep 'em from walking albert three times ev'y game.
izzy started out like he was gonna limp through his inning on the same off-speed crutch that got him out of monday night's jam. he opened the inning with a fastball that missed badly, got ahead with a couple of curves, but then spotted a fastball right on the corner for a called strike three -- perfect location. that seemed to break the ice; he pounded 10 fastballs / cutters in a row, got sanchez out with one and was around the plate on all six to jason bay; got as high as 93 on the gun. one more fastball on the inside corner to get ahead of burnitz 0-1, then finally back to the breaking stuff; he eventually retired burnitz on a 2-2 fastball. all three outs with that pitch; y'all can stop booing now.
carp's on another one of those runs where nobody can hit him; 10 hits and 1 run in three starts spanning 22 innings. he actually carried a no-hitter into the 6th yesterday; i jinxed it. so sue me. he has thrown at least 97 pitches in each of his four starts this year and is averaging 105 per outing, which alarmed me when i noticed; still only april, after all. but he threw almost as many pitches last april (102 per start) without consequence, so i guess never mind. carp batted for himself in the top of the 8th with a man in scoring position and two out, having thrown 89 pitches already, including 22 in the previous half-inning -- the last of which had carpenter slipping awkwardly at the end of his delivery. if the bullpen weren't so unsettled, maybe tony pinch-hits there. but then again maybe not; he likes to ride those starters. in any case, he didn't have the luxury today; he rightly left carpenter in the game, and pittsburgh battled him for another 21 pitches in the bottom of the inning, though they went down in order.
when your mvp and cy young winners are at the top of their games, it can make up for a lotta mediocrity and worse.
assorted this n that:
- cardnilly live-blogged yesterday's game; a good read, check it out.
- i missed this yesterday, but matt morris got mashed tuesday night in arizona -- 7 runs in 5.2 innings.
- also left over from yesterday: nate silver ranked albert as the most valuable property in baseball on espn's page 2. duh.
- another albert tidbit: mike carminati calculated which players in baseball history are/were likeliest to homer in four consecutive at-bats. pujols ranked just 19th on the list, behind such noted sluggers as dave staton and mike busch. manny ramirez, a-rod, adam dunn, jim thome, barry bonds, and ryan howard all were likelier bets.