narf!

It was awfully nice to see Jason Marquis not on the mound tonight for any reason.  Back spasms, religious observance, benching for benching’s sake, flat-out replacing, I really don’t care.  I’ll take it.  Marquis pitching in the juicebox when we need to be getting wins is something to be avoided at all costs.  Similarly, it was even nicer to see Narvie get a start, even if he did get some crap calls by a guy who has repeatedly established that he has no business being a major league umpire.  If there’s a All-Crap Umpire Crew (along the lines of the All-Ugly Team), I’d have to think Angel Hernandez is calling balls & strikes.

Context considered, Narvie really didn’t do badly.  Yea, he was only good for only four innings, but also for only two earned runs, two walks, and six strikeouts.  Since half of his outs came from that particular home plate ump, I’m not sure if that gives Narvie more or less credit.  You know there were some calls that should have resulted in strikeouts, but also some that should have resulted in something else; I’m not sure if those categories would even out.  The six Ks, however, give him enough credit for me to say Narf! and award him a blue star for his efforts.  Hope to see ya next year, kid.

Hello, David Eckstein!  I bet you were just itching to get that home run out, right?  I nearly ran over a pack of Boy Scouts with my large car en route to getting myself in the house quickly so I could see a replay and the ensuing events.  Forget driving under the influence, I might maybe ought to get a DD for when I listen to baseball.  Add that to two singles (3-5) and a nice part in the rundown of Jason Lane and he looked darn nice tonight.  It’s probably too quick to render judgment, but I’ll fearlessly announce that those 33ish games off did our little Dave some good.  One shiny silver star goes to The Shortstop Who Could.