There's an old saying, and variations of it, that goes "anything can happen at the ballpark". So true. And yesterday was a perfect example.
But first flash back to May 1, 1991. Rickey Henderson breaks Lou Brock's all-time steals record (unfortunately, against the Yankees). That led to the (in)famous little speech that included "Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing. But today, I'm the greatest of all time". The only thing shocking was that he didn't say, "Rickey Henderson is the greatest of all time".
That night Henderson's big day was nearly forgotten thanks to a powerful Texas right-hander named Nolan Ryan. The Rangers' current head honcho was pitching for them back then and at age 44 threw his 7th and final no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Flash forward to yesterday, April 17, 2010. Ubaldo Jimenez had one of the games of his life for the Colorado Rockies. Jiminez threw the first no-hitter in the franchise's history as he blanked the Atlanta Braves. Albeit, it was a Joe Cowley type of no-hitter, but it was a no-no nonetheless.
But how many people outside of Colorado, and maybe Atlanta, are talking about the no-no today? Probably not too many because of the Mets-Cardinals game that went 20 innings last night.
I was shocked to see the game was still going on while checking out fantasy baseball stats at about 10 p.m. EDT. I was even more surprised to see that Fox still had the game on. Can I say I was even further stunned to see the game was scoreless? The Mets, who only had 9 hits in 20 innings, finally broke through in the 19th only to have K-Rod blow the lead. But thankfully for the weary Jerry Manuel, his counterpart Tony LaRussa opted to use an outfielder (Joe Mather - as far as I know, no relation to "The Beaver") to pitch.
LaRussa got away with using infielder Felipe Lopez in the 18th, but Mather gave up runs in the 19th and 20th and was saddled with the loss (as well as a 9.00 ERA). Mather is clearly no Nick Swisher. Mets starter Mike Pelfrey came on to earn the save. LaRussa was also fortunate that there were no injuries to any of his pitchers, such as Kyle Lohse, that he used in the outfield.
Cardinals and Mets fans also have to be thankful that Kenny Albert was doing the play-by-play and didn't have to listen to Joe Buck for 20 innings.
Some other notable Saturday performances - Nats' pitcher Livan Hernandez threw his first complete game shutout in six years. After blanking the Brewers, El Duque's kid brother has not allowed a run in 16 innings (2 starts).
The Astros finally won their 2nd game, beating the Cubs 4-3, but the O's dropped to 1-11 after blowing their game in the bottom of the 9th against Oakland.
Pat Burrell has stunk in his year plus with the Rays, but drove in his first five runs of the season yesterday as the Rays won the suspended and regularly scheduled games against the Red Sox. His 2-run HR in the 12th concluded the game stopped Friday due to rain.
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