April, 2008 | The Baseball Zealot

Illinois pitchers take no-hitter into the 9th; defeat St Louis 9-2

This will teach me to leave a game early…

I got to the park early today so I could see the boys practice.

The game had a auspicious beginning as starter Nick Chmielewski walked the bases loaded in the first. To his credit, he got out of that jam.

Unfortunately for reasons beyond my control, I had to leave early. But not before seeing, Dom Altobelli crack a homer to left center. That made it 3-0 Illini.

But boy oh boy, I sure wish I had stayed. I had 1400AM on listening to the game. Going into the ninth inning, the Illini pitching (four of them at that point) had yet to give up a hit.

But it was not meant to be. With Ben Reeser on the hill, the no-hitter was broken up by St Louis’ leadoff man J.D. Dunn with 0 outs in the ninth. St Louis went on to score two runs but that was no match for Illinois’ 9 tallies.

Nick Stockwell led off the second with a homer his second of the season. He was 2 for 4 with 2 rbis. Kyle Hudson was 2 for 5 with 2 runs ensuring that he would stay at the .400 mark. He swiped 3 bases increasing his total to 15.

Final Score: Illinois 9 St Louis 2

I was able to get some photos taken. You can see them here. Most of them are before the game.

Way to go, Illini!

2008 MLB Predictions Part III: More Awards Winners

This is Part III of our 2008 MLB prediction series. We finish up the awards picks.

2008 AL Reliever of the Year

	Prediction	Comment
Brando	Soria
Shawn	Jonathan Papelbon
DonS	K-Rod
Todd V		“Could care less”
Nicky V	K-Rod
Teddy Ballgame	K-Rod
TBZ

2008 NL Reliever of the Year

	Prediction	Comment
Brando	Maybin, Moyban The Braves reliever whoever he is
Shawn	Takashi Saito
DonS	Wagner
Todd V		“Same as AL”
Nicky V	Wood	“Woohoo!!”
Teddy Ballgame	Coco Cordero
TBZ

2008 AL Rookie of the Year

	Prediction	Comment
Brando	Jacoby Ellsbury
Shawn	Daric Barton
DonS	Joba
Todd V	Joba Chamberlain
Nicky V
Teddy Ballgame	Alexi Ramirez
TBZ	Ellsbury

2008 NL Rookie of the Year

	Prediction	Comment
Brando	Hiroki Kuroda
Shawn	Michael Bourn
DonS
Todd V	Jair Jurrjens
Nicky V
Teddy Ballgame	Johnny Cueto
TBZ	G Soto

2008 AL Manager of the Year

	Prediction	Comment
Brando	Mike Scioscia
Shawn	Joe Girardi
DonS	Scioscia
Todd V	Jim Leyland
Nicky V	Leyland
Teddy Ballgame	Mike Scioscia
TBZ	Leyland

2008 NL Manager of the Year

	Prediction	Comment
Brando	Joe Torre	He’s finally out from under George’s big thumb
Shawn	Bobby Cox
DonS	Yost
Todd V	Bobby Cox
Nicky V	Piniella
Teddy Ballgame	Dusty Baker
TBZ	Randolph

Tomorrow is our last installment of our prediction series for the 2008 season. Stay tuned for that cuz we’ll have some off the wall and interesting prediction questions (and probably answers).

DODGERS DELWYN

Pinch hitter Delwyn (everyone calls me “PeeWee”) Young delivered in the bottom of the 9th with a two out infield hit. Rafael Furcal scored from secondbase as Giants secondbaseman frantically tried to throw out the blur that was Young streaking toward firstbase. Durham’s throw was late and by the time firstbaseman Rich Aurilia threw home, a hustling Furcal was under Benji Molina’s swipe tag with the winning run.

San Fran had taken the lead in the top of the 7th, but beleagured reliever Brad Hennesey spit it right back out when Furcal got him with two RBI’s in the bottom of the frame.

Two Japenese imports figured in the decision, Saito got the win and Yabu picked up the loss.

It was interesting earlier in the game when Bruce Bochy removed pitch count challenged SF starter Matt Cain in the bottom of the 6th, in a nothing-nothing game, Cain had thrown 114 pitches. Wisconsin native lefthanded reliever Jack Taschner was brought on to face Juan Pierre with the bases loaded and two outs. Joe Torre went with the book, sending Matt Kemp up to pinch hit, even though Taschner was much more effective against righties than lefties last season. Of course, Matt Kemp struckout, where are you Bill James?

JOSH PUTZ TEX WIN ON THE BOARD

Joseph Jason Putz, last year’s winner of the Rolaid’s Relief Man of the Year Award, turned Mariner fans’ stomachs a little when he served up a spicey meatball to Josh Hamilton. Hamilton, a former #1 pick of the Devil Rays and a former bad boy, took Putz far & deep into the Seattle sky over the rightfield wall for a two run dinger that gave the Rangers a one run 9th inning lead.

Seattle had taken the lead off Joaquin Benoit, scoring three runs, mostly due to two Texas fielding miscues. After recapturing the advantage, C.J. Wilson was brought on for the Rangers to close things out. Things didn’t go smoothly for C.J., as he got the first two batters before Yuniesky Betancourt doubled into right center (his 4th hit in five at bats), bringing up Ichiro. Suzuki grounded to Michael Young to end it.

Illinois hosts St Louis for their "official" home opener April 2

…which means this time, you’ll have to pay to get in. But first…

At this moment

Illinois is leading Southern Illinois in the top of 8th, 5-2. Daniel Webb has gone 3 for 4. Brandon Wikoff and Ryan Hastings both have two hits. Wikoff came into game hitting .397 so he may have cracked the .400 mark joining Kyle Hudson.

Billy Barrett, who so far this season allowed 13 ER in 6 1/3 innings did a solid job. He held the Salukis to two runs in six innings.

Go Illini!

Next Game:

	Game #21	Tues 4/2 6:05pm
Record: 13-7	vs University of St Louis	at Illinois Field, Champaign, IL

On Wednesday, Illinois has their first (scheduled) home game against the University of St Louis Billikens. We had two makeup games last week at Illinois Field.

Billiken? What’s a Billiken? Other than the fact that it’s a good luck figure, it’s a debated issue and there are multiple versions of the story. I won’t go into it here but you can read about it at SLU’s website.

If you can make it out for the game, rumor has it they will be giving out schedule magnets. Woo hoo!

See you at the ballpark!

Opponent:	University of St Louis
Nickname:	Billikens
Conference:	Atlantic 10 Conference
Head Coach:	Darin Hendrickson (1st year)
Hometown:	St Louis
Current Record:	11-12
Baseball Program website:	Link
Players to watch:	IF Mike Beal is hitting .344 and Tom Pinnell has 13 rbis with his .321 average.
Team Fact:	Coach Darin Hendrickson is an alum of SIU Edwardsville.

Update: Illinois’ Mike Sterk pitched the last 3 innings to get the save. Illinois beats Southern Illinois 5-2!

Roof Brothers get some press

MSU baseball fan Tom T sent me this link to an article about the Roof brothers currently on the MSU baseball team. It was written by Casey Kruth from The State News which is the independent paper that covers Michigan State University. It’s a nice piece that details the reuniting of Eric and Jonathan Roof.

“When I signed he was talking to a lot of schools,” said Eric, who played at St. Catherine Community College in Kentucky in 2006 and came to MSU before the 2007 season. “But, once I signed and I knew I was going to come here and play, I kind of wanted him to come along.”

2008 MLB Predictions Part II: Award Winners

This is Part II of our 2008 MLB prediction series. Today, we start on our picks for the MLB awards.

2008 AL MVP Winner

	Prediction	Comment
Brando	Robinson Cano
Shawn	Derek Jeter
DonS	A-Rod	“Still a punk”
Todd V	Vladimir Guerrero
Nicky V	Ordonez
Teddy Ballgame	V Guerrero
TBZ	Guerrero	“if he stays healthy”

2008 NL MVP Winner

	Prediction	Comment
Brando	Hanley Ramirez	“He can do it all and who looks at defense when they’re voting”
Shawn	David Wright
DonS	Prince Fielder	“Should have been in 2007”
Todd V	Chipper Jones
Nicky V	Howard
Teddy Ballgame	Howard
TBZ	Prince Fielder

2008 AL Cy Young Winner

	Prediction	Comment
Brando	Dice-K
Shawn	Dan Haren
DonS	Jered Weaver
Todd V	Justin Verlander
Nicky V	Verlander
Teddy Ballgame	Lackey
TBZ	Lackey

2008 NL Cy Young Winner

	Prediction	Comment
Brando	Johan Santana	“National League hitters won’t know what hit them”
Shawn	Jake Peavy
DonS	Webb
Todd V	Dan Haren
Nicky V	Martinez	“Wow, nice comeback”
Teddy Ballgame	Cain
TBZ	Santana

2008 AL Homerun Leader

	Prediction	Comment
Brando
Shawn	Arod
DonS	Ortiz
Todd V	Manny Ramirez
Nicky V	Hafner
Teddy Ballgame	Ortiz
TBZ	Arod

2008 NL Homerun Leader

	Prediction	Comment
Brando	Mark Teixeira
Shawn	Fielder
DonS	Fielder	“Unless the vegetables get him”
Todd V	Adam Dunn
Nicky V	Howard
Teddy Ballgame	Fielder
TBZ	Fielder

2008 AL Batting Champion

	Prediction	Comment
Brando
Shawn	Miguel Cabrera
DonS	Ichiro	“Best player in baseball”
Todd V	Ichiro
Nicky V	Ichiro
Teddy Ballgame	Ichiro
TBZ	Ichiro

2008 NL Batting Champion

	Prediction	Comment
Brando	Hanley Ramirez
Shawn	Pujols
DonS
Todd V	Chipper Jones
Nicky V	Hanley Ramirez
Teddy Ballgame	Todd Helton
TBZ	Pujols	“if he doesn’t have season-ending surgery”

Tomorrow, Part III with more awards predictions.

LET’S PLAY TWO

Even this hardcore White Sox fan would have liked to have been on the corner of Clark & Addison yesterday for the unveiling of Mr. Cub’s statue. The rain was pouring down, but it didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of those who were on hand to honor Ernie Banks. Some of the present were Hank Aaron, Billy Williams, Ferguson Jenkins, Ron Santo, Minnie Minoso, Mrs. Caray, Mrs. Brickhouse, Illinois Governor Rod Balogojevich, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

Hank Aaron gave a very nice talk about Ernie, telling us all, what we pretty much already knew, about being enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame, his two NL MVP’s, being an NL All Star 14 times, hitting 512 home runs, and more home runs as a SS than anyone else in NL history. But all the stats don’t tell the whole story, not by a long shot, not when you’re talking about Mr. Cub.

Soon it was time for Mr. Cub to take center stage. Despite a raspy voice, due to a cold, there he was, with that ever present twinkle in his eyes, happy to be there. Ernie was always happy to be there. Banks commented on how fortunate he was to have played all his games for the Chicago Cubs, at Wrigley Field, and under God’s natural light. He never bemoaned the fact that he didn’t have the opportunity to win a World Series. Ernie has always been a winner, and maybe being a winner has more to do with what’s in your heart, than winning and losing. So here’s to you Mr. Cub, LET’S PLAY TWO!

3/31/08 Linescore of the Day: X marks the Spot

Xavier Nady: 4 for 7, 2B, 2 HR, 4 runs, 4 rbis

Don’t you just love looking at boxscores from opening day? Seeing those garish batting averages like .750 or .500 0r .000. Or ERAs like 54.00 or 40.50.

Xavier Nady got a good head start on 2008. With his 2 homers, double and single, he could go 0 for 4 in the next 4 games before his slugging percentage dips below .500.

More importantly, his second homer in the 12th put Pittsburgh ahead for good to defeat Atlanta.