Hail (and Rain) to Cubs for Beating Yanks’ Tanaka

May 21, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Midweek musings: New York Yankees right-hander Masahiro Tanaka had been unbeaten in his last 42 regular-season starts. He had been 34-0 in those starts in Japan and with the Yankees. So naturally facing the team with the worst record in the big leagues (that would be your Chicago Cubs), he lost 6-1 Tuesday night at Wrigley Field. Hail to the Cubs. Well, there was hail in the Chicago area Tuesday night, so close enough.

Video of Playboy Cybergirl Kimber Cox below. Credit: Playboy.com

* Speaking of Tanaka, he allowed eight hits, four runs (three earned), walked one and threw a wild pitch as his earned-run average skyrocketed to 2.39 (fifth-best in the American League).

* Speaking of ERAs, Cubs right-hander Jeff Samardzija took over the National League with a 1.62 ERA. Well, he didn’t do anything other than sit for most of the game, but Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto allowed six earned runs (eight overall) in 5 1/3 innings in a 9-4 loss at Washington. His ERA went from 1.25 to 1.86.

* Still speaking of ERAs, St. Louis ace Adam Wainwright moved closer to the lead with a one-hit, comeplete-game effort in a 5-0 victory against visiting Arizona. Something says the chances of Wainwright being a Cardinal at season’s end are slightly better than those of Samardzija being a Cardinal. Something also says Wainwright (7-1) will have slight more victories by the end of the season than Samardzija, who still is looking for his first triumph of 2014.

* Still speaking of Samardzija, he is the scheduled starter for Wednesday’s game against the Yankees. Provided that the ballpark didn’t wash away overnight.

* Speaking of Cubs pitchers who could serve as trade bait, Jason Hammel went 5 2/3 for the victory vs. the Yanks. He allowed one run on four hits, struck out six and was followed by five relievers — probably because Cubs manager Rick Renteria wanted to empty his bullpen before anyone out there would be in jeopardy of drowning.

* Adam Dunn’s three-run homer in the eighth inning gave the White Sox just enough runs to let the bullpen make the outcome — a 7-6 Sox victory — interesting at Kansas City. Pessimistic Sox fans (that’s not a redundancy, is it?) may continue to worry about the bullpen. In case there wasn’t enough to worry about already.

* Speaking of Dunn, his .394 on-base percentage is fourth-best in the AL and his 29 walks are fifth-best in the AL. Anyone looking for a power hitter with those kind of stats should contact Sox general manager Rick Hahn. Something says — even with rookie slugger Jose Abreu sidelined with an ankle injury — no reasonable offer will be refused.

* Speaking of injuries, former Chicago Bears Jim McMahon, Richard Dent and Keith Van Horne are among a group of retired players who filed a lawsuit Tuesday that alleges the NFL illegally supplied them with drugs that alleviated injuries so they could play. Simply shocking, isn’t it? Well, not that teams gave players pain-killers; but that retired players would have the audacity to want to lead normal lives after their careers have ended. Next thing you know is someone will say baseball commissioner Bud Selig and his fellow owners in the late 1990s turned a blind eye to steroid use so that Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and others could smash home runs to lure fans back to ballparks after a strike season turned folks off.

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