Take 2 Roundup: Games of Sun 2/24/08

[Sykes25]

[size=24:f458ae640a][b:f458ae640a]TIGER BULLPEN ROARS[/b:f458ae640a][/size:f458ae640a] and [size=18:f458ae640a]Morris leaves in first, pen holds on for the shutout[/size:f458ae640a]

<img src="http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/images/baseball/stratomatic/1986/story_photos/jack_morris_2_150x224.jpg " align="left" border="1" width="150" height="224" style="margin: 0px 10px;" /> Normally when Tigers starter Jack Morris is slated to start, and you see a boxscore showing a [url=http://www.sportingnews.com/baseball/1986/scores/boxscore.php?id=1280]Tigers 7-0 over the Royals[/url], one woul assume that Captain Jack took control and sailed to an easy victory. Not the case on Sunday night, as the Academy Award for [b:f458ae640a]"best performance without a win"[/b:f458ae640a], goes to Detroit RP Dave LaPoint. Dave hurled 6 shutout innings of relief when Morris left 2 batters into the game with a blister on his pitching finger. Since the Tigers scored 3 runs in the bottom of the second, the drunk scorekeeper credited the win to Bryan Kelly who went 1 1/3 directly following Morris. Chuck Cary gave LaPoint the 9th inning off by throwing one shutout inning himself to end the game. Royals starter Bret Saberhagen could not believe it. "Wish I could get that kind of relief for one inning, never mind 8 1/3 innings. When asked about the official scorer giving Kelly the win, LaPoint had this to say, "A win for the team is a win for me. I'm not upset. At least I got my first hold of the year! I have nothing to be embarrassed about".

[b:f458ae640a]Speaking of being embarrassed...[/b:f458ae640a] One Phillie relief pitcher has been put on suicide watch tonight. In what was an extremely close and exciting ballgame, the [url=http://www.sportingnews.com/baseball/1986/scores/boxscore.php?id=1272]Astros beat Phillies 15-5[/url] after exploding for 10 runs in the top of the 12th inning off Larry Andersen. The game was tied after 9 innings, and after both teams exchanged runs in the 10th, things looked like they would remain tight for the rest of the game. Larry had other things in mind. Larry had been experimenting throwing underhand in an effort to keep hitters "offbalance". He tried to execute this in the game figuring to keep his arm fresh in case he was needed to pitch 45 innings of extra baseball. Well that didn't work out as he allowed 12 of 13 hitters he faced to reach base. Even Astros closer Dave Smith got in on the action by smacking a triple off Andersen. Astros starter Mike Scott was seen after the game talking to his GM and asking him to look into getting Larry to join the Astros for next season. "I like this guy's spirit. He would be a good fit for our club. Maybe when he's washed up too, we could ship him to Boston for a prospect or something."

[b:f458ae640a]Last note on embarrassment for the night...[/b:f458ae640a] In the [url=http://www.sportingnews.com/baseball/1986/scores/boxscore.php?id=1275]Cardinals 8-1 rout of Padres[/url], the lone Padre run came off the bat of Padres starting pitcher Dave Dravecky against
Bob Forsch. Padre pitchers have combined for 4 home runs so far this year. 2 by Dravecky, and 2 by the team's closer Craig Lefferts. Those 4 home runs are more than the combined totals of all Cardinal second basemen, short stops and third basemen for the season thus far.



[i:f458ae640a]photo: SN Archives[/i:f458ae640a]