Game Hero, 28 - 39

Mike Lamb

4 for 4, 1 run, 3 RBI 4th homer of the year, and fifth double .315 WPA at Fangraphs Plus, no nasty defensive mishap 7 hits in two days First four-hit game since June 24, 2006 First 3-RBI game since July 4th of '06

You know me, I'll always take a 4 for 4 game with three ribeyes over 7-2/3 innings of one-run ball. So Wandy is denied the Game Hero despite pitching his best game of the year by Game Score, by innings pitched, and by just about any other measure as well.

One of JD's pregame keys for Wandy was to "stretch it out" as Rodriguez had gone all of five innings in each of his last four starts. Two of those starts had actually been pretty good, but pitching behind in the count had doomed Wandy to an earlier exit than he might have deserved.

With the bullpen sweating blood lately, a start tonight in which Wandy took us deep into the game was, if not a necessity, at the very least a much appreciated luxury.

And The Rodfather responded with an efficient outing in which he walked none and went to a three ball count on only two

After throwing 90+ pitches in three of his four five-inning starts, Rodriguez needed only 102 to get through the 7-2/3.

It was a performance worth writing about, even if it wasn't quite great enough for Game Hero.

*       **       **       **       **       *

Don't know if you saw Will Carroll's column at Prospectus in regards Adam:

What confuses people is that the obvious pain has little to do with the severity of an injury. Everett has a broken fibula, an injury with a known healing timetable and a solid track record of normal recoveries, especially since the bone does not bear much weight. Somehow though, the appearance of the injury made people look away from the facts. I didn't see any bone sticking out in the many video replays, nor did I see any special precautions being taken as he was carted off the field. Reaction to an injury tells us a lot, but an x-ray tells us even more. Everett should be back in the normal four to six weeks.

*       **       **       **       **       * During the game JD had mentioned that four of our last six losses had been by one run, and while I forget exactly what it was that Mike Greenberg had said this morning, I do remember slapping the steering wheel in response to it, and exclaiming, "we lost 2 of three to the A's, but it was a good series for us, and definitely not a step back from the victories over the Pale Hose this past weekend."

I'm like that, I really do say "Pale Hose" when talking to myself in morning traffic.

Anyway, in keeping with this theme of improved play, note that the team has set and now tied its season-high in hits with 16 in back-to-back games.