Is this Cliff Lee’s last start? I really don’t think it will be. I think he has one more after this one.
First inning
Phil Hughes is 10-1 and will likely the make the all-star team. The M’s are not good on offense. This should be interesting. Russell Branyan’s first at-bat since his return …. is a soft looping single to left — just what everyone was expecting. But he’s stuck there.
Cliff Lee shows that he is human by giving up a solo homer to Nick Swisher. Lee threw him all fastballs – all at 91 mph, but the last one was out over the plate and Swisher drove it left. Lee has given up four homers this season. That ties the number of walks he’s given up.
Second inning
The M’s answer as Jose Lopez doubles down the left field line just past a diving Chad Huffman (yeah, I hadn’t heard of him till today either) and then Franklin Gutierrez singled to center. Curtis Granderson bobbled the ball a few times allowing Lopez to hesitate twice and then take a whole bunch of little steps home to score. Gutierrez did not get an RBI on the play.
Later in the inning Guti has some sort of mental mistake as he takes off on steal of second but then lets up right before the base and is thrown out, snapping his streak of 12 straight steals. Tie game 1-1.
Well that’s it, the apocalypse is upon us. Cliff Lee walked a hitter. What’s next? A gigantic meteor hurling toward earth? Lee then gave up a single to Curtis Granderson – basically destroying any trade value he had. But he manages to get the aforementioned, but still unknown Huffman to ground into a 5-4-3 double play.
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