Some random notes:
It's Dontrelle's world and we're all just living in it
- With last night's win, Dontrelle is the first 7-game winner in the majors.
- Dontrelle's shortest outing of the year so far was the 5 inning outing against the Phillies on April 30th. That was, of course, also his third complete game of the year (as the game was called after a long series of rain delays).
- The D-Train has been really disappointing at the plate (.136/.136/.136). No extra base hits at all so far. Ok, so I'm just playing here. He hasn't hit well, but he still looks good at the plate.
- Through seven starts, Dontrelle has allowed only 6 earned runs and ten walks.
- Coming into this season, Dontrelle was getting about 1.2 outs via ground balls to every one fly ball out. This year that ratio has improved to nearly 2.5 to 1.
- Dontrelle continues to lead - now by a wide margin - ESPN's NL Cy Young Predictor. Josh Beckett continues to lurk - now at third in the standings.
- Josh Beckett and A.J. Burnett received jerseys from Roger Clemens yesterday. Beckett apparently - not sure about Burnett - has decided to start collecting jerseys from other pitchers around the league.
- Juan Encarnacion has officially returned to Earth. His batting average is down in the .260/.270 range, which is probably all we can hope to expect. What's encouraging though is that Juan seems to be more patient this year - at least so far. For his career, Juan has drawn one walk for every three strikeouts. So far this season he's walked once for every two times he's struck out. That's led to a much higher (about 50 points) on base percentage compared to his career mark.
- Trade rumors continue to swirl. However, on the radio earlier this week Larry Beinfest hinted that it's too early to make a move. Encarnacion seems to be drawing more interest (if the New York papers are to be believed). The Yankees may also end up releasing Steve Karsay, which could put a relatively attractive bullpen arm on the free market.
- One of my favorite additions to the videos that they show at the ballpark this year is the clip of Napoleon Dynamite dancing. They usually show it late in the game during a pitching change. Last night some poor kid was in attendance who bore a striking resemblance to Napoleon. The camera guys caught onto this early and featured him often. The two girls he was sitting with (the guy looked like he was in high school) were pretty amused, but he was less so. Everyone wanted to see him dance like Napoleon, but, sadly, it didn't happen.
- The girl sitting behind me last night wins the official idiot of the game award (no, there's no prize). She seemed to know what was going on (at one point she explained to her boyfriend why Conine and Easley were playing for Cabrera and Castillo). But later in the game she asked why they kept showing "the Klan guys" on the jumbotron. Those were, of course, the guys who were hanging Ks to mark Dontrelle's strikeouts.
- Paraguayan heritage night was everything that I ever dreamed it would be, and more. But that's only because I never dreamed of such a thing. Seriously, I didn't find the band on my way in (maybe I was too late) and if the PA announcer hadn't mentioned what we were celebrating, I wouldn't have realized it was last night. The music and activities at the ballpark were the same.
- As you've probably already noticed, I don't really do game recaps here. I figure if you're looking for that stuff you can go to a major media outlet and get it. I'm not going to be able to put together a recap that's any better than what the AP or some other service already provides. Here's a link to one from last night's game though if you're looking for it. The focus here is more on talking about stuff that wouldn't otherwise be talked about and giving us fans a chance to talk, vent, rant, etc. I mean, c'mon - where else do you get Paraguayan heritage night and Napoleon Dynamite dance coverage?