I hope to revive this headline on May 9th, 10th, and 11th.
Zach Jackson got the win today despite a disastrous sixth inning in which he gave up home runs to those terrifying sluggers Doug Mirabelli and Khalil Greene. On the bright side: Jackson's other two innings were scoreless. On the bright-in-Ned-Yost's-universe side, Jackson laid down a sacrifice in his one plate appearance.
Dave Bush started and gave up one run, two hits, and struck out four in his four innings of work. Jared Fernandez and Derrick Turnbow pitched the eighth and ninth, allowing nothing worse than a Jack Cust RBI double.
Some of the better offensive performances: Damian Miller went 3-for-3, Geoff Jenkins went 2-for-4 with a double and Jeff Cirillo went 2-for-2 with a walk. Interestingly, Cirillo came into the game at second base. He's played 34 games in his career at second, but it looks like almost all of those were late-game switches or emergency situations: those 34 games only account for 33 2/3 innings. Given that Cirillo is a lock to make the team, I like seeing him at second base--that makes it less likely that Yost & Co. will feel the need to use a roster spot on a no-hit middle-infield type.
As I write this, the MLB game story just popped up.
Tomorrow, the Crew will take on the Rockies at 2:05 CT. Since Helling and Sheets are both rehabbing, I haven't the foggiest idea who'll start. Maybe Dennis Sarfate?
Later tonight, be sure to watch Team USA vs. Team Korea at 9:00 CT. Korea looked really, really sharp last night, holding the Mexican offense to virtually nothing and wasting so many quality pitches that Rodrigo Lopez had to be pulled after three innings. It doesn't seem like Korea really has a shot at beating the monster Team USA, but I get the sense that team doesn't make any mistakes, and they might just capitalize on what's left of Team USA's spring-training mentality.
I'm not Korean, and I don't think I know more than a couple people who are, but I can't help but think...Go Korea!