No NBA or NHL Finals last night as they took Friday Night off to let all the men in the world have a date night with their neglected wives or girlfriends from the past month or so. I on the other hand watched the movie Red with Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and Mary-Louise Parker (as well as others) on our new 51" TV. Fun movie and Malkovich's character was hilarious, I recommend it to people who enjoy action movies and even to people who enjoy comedies (which is pretty much everyone!) since it is a good laugh as well.
I did catch some baseball as well last night as I saw the Red Sox finally break their 4 game losing streak vs. the Oakland Athletics 8-6 by coming from behind late. The Texas Rangers rolled over the Cleveland Indians 11-2 last night behind Josh Hamilton's HR as he went 3 for 4 before being removed for a pinch-hitter as the game was out of hand. Alexi Ogando continued to impress in his first season as a starting pitcher going 8 strong innings allowing 4 hits, 1 run and 1 walk while striking out 6 lowering his ERA to 2.20, good enough for 3rd in the AL behind Beckett and Weaver. And speaking of Weaver, he was on the mound as well last night as the Angels defeated the New York Yankees 3-2 as Jered went 7 innings allowing 3 hits, 2 runs, 4 walks, while striking out 8 while Jordan Walden came in throwing 100 mph and striking out 2 for his 13th save of the season. Pittsburgh outlasted Philadelphia 2-1 in 12 innings last night as the Phillies wasted a dominating start from Cole Hamels who went 8 innings allowing 1 hit, 1 run and 3 walks while striking out 4. Jose Tabata had the walk-off hit for the Pirates after Xavier Paul singled and stole second. Josh Collmenter continues his dominance as a great looking rookie for the Arizona Diamondbacks as he shuts out the Washington Nationals 4-0 last night. Collmenter is now 4-1 with a 1.25 ERA on the year after going 7 innings allowing 3 hits and 1 walk while striking out 5. The Dodgers-Reds game was close the whole way but the biggest story there was Rafael Furcal once again getting injured, leaving in the 3rd inning with a side injury. Furcal, the table setter for Ethier and Kemp is very important to the Dodgers offense but just cannot stay healthy.
Also going on right now are the Women's College Softball World Series. These games are thoroughly enjoyable to watch as the level of play is outstanding. After coaching JV softball last year while student-teaching in Rhode Island, I really got a feel for the sport and how pitcher dominating it is. If you have an ace, you can really do damage in these World Series since they play with winners and losers bracket. Arizona state, the #1 overall seed won a thriller last night to join Alabama in the semi-finals by beating Florida on a walk-off hit in the bottom of the 7th. The Florida pitcher was being squeezed in the strike zone and continued to light up "k-zone" but not get the calls and after 140 pitches in relief, she gave up a bases loaded lightning shot that hit off the third baseman. The action continues today on ESPN at Noon EST.
The French Open Women's Final was this morning and it saw Li Na defeat defending champion Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 7-6 becoming the first Chinese player to ever win a major. Na will become the world's #4 player after the victory here and her win could really change women's tennis forever as China starts to become tennis crazed. Should be interesting to watch for the next few years to come.
Biggest Winner of the Night: One of the games I didn't mention in the MLB section because of how dominate and how unusual it was for him to be so dominate. Jason Vargas of the Seattle Mariners shut out the Tampa Bay Rays 7-0 behind a complete game shut out by Vargas who allowed 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out 4. He bounced back from an awful 3 innings 6 earned run start last time out to lower his ERA from 4.50 to 3.96 on the season. And don't look now but the Seattle Mariners are looking like the real deal out west, watch out Rangers!
Biggest Loser of the Night: New York Mets bullpen. Jonathan Niese was cruising along then the Met killer, Chipper Jones, who named his son Shea after how much he loved playing in the Mets old stadium cranked another HR against the arch-rivals. Niese retired the next 2 batters in the 8th before being replaced by Jason Isringhausen. The rest is normal as Isringhausen walks a batter, throws a wild pitch then an error by Jose Reyes allows the tying run to score. Okay no big, tie game... then comes in Francisco Rodriguez (K-Rod) our closer, and what does he do? Gives up a solo home run to Eric Hinske and then a 2-run double to Freddie Freeman to blow the game and the Mets lost 6-3.
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