Last night was a night of first: Sean West got his first major league win and Brett Carroll hit his first major league home run. Needless to say the young ones did good, as the Fish split the four-game series.
West took a no-hitter into the seventh before it was broken up by Edgar Renteria, if you ask me, and nobody did, that is no way to treat your old team which gave you your start in the majors. But Renteria now gets his checks from the Giants so I guess it was understandable.
I love this: West made this comment after the game.
"The no-hitter was on my mind the whole time, but I tried not to think about it," West said. "As soon as you think about it, karma’s gonna take care of that hit."
Kinda reminds me of the Simpson's episode when Homer got into a little trouble and Marge wanted him to give up beer for a month. So everyday Homer rode Lisa's bicycle to work repeating the words: Don't think about beer. Don't think about beer.
Hey, it was worth a try, even though it has never worked in the past for anyone, but maybe, just maybe, there will be a first time. Naturally, as it always does, the karma train came rolling around.
I'm really starting to like Sean, not just for his pitching ability, but he sounds like a cool kid.
Oh, by the way, I was extremely happy he didn't take the no-hitter into the ninth, one of the best indicators of future arm injuries is if a pitcher throws a no-hitter early in his career. It has to do with being tired and trying to perform at more than maximum effort to accomplish the feat in the final innings while at a young age. (See Anibal Sanchez for an example.)
But the night didn't just belong to West, Brett Carroll went on a tear. Carroll ended up the game a double short of the cycle. And probably in the process cemented his spot in the lineup when the Marlins are opposing a lefty starter. (At least in the near future.)
So West flirted with a no-hitter and Carroll flirted with the cycle, in other words, just another routine Marlins win.