Running 2011 Baseball Thread, Vol. I: Dedicated to spnited

4 scoreless for The Man. 4Ks, 0BB. 2 hits. That might be it.

Edit: No one up in the bullpen. He's only at 48 pitches and was on a 4 inning/60 pitch limit tonight.

 

He's certainly a happening again.

 

@nathanfenno Nathan Fenno
Going back to Strasburg's minor league rehab, his last 17 strikeouts have come swinging. #Nationals

 

He threw a two-seamer on the first strike to Kemp last inning that just may have been ... The Ultimate Pitch.

It bore in from inside middle to nearly skimming his balls.

 

Jonathan Papelbon argues otherwise.

 

Oh, man, Lilly raised the art form tonight. They were actually booing him.

 

Speaking of going to sleep at a ballgame, the Yankees-Orioles game is finally starting. After a 4-hour rain delay. In front of about two dozen fans.

 

I love checking the attendance numbers every once in awhile and with the home stretch acoming, I think some of those numbers are surprising.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/current_attendance.shtml

 

How the hell are the Marlins drawing 18K a game? There's no way 18,000 people a game are going to that hellhole, not even when the Mets and Phils are in town. And don't give me season ticket holders. Who the hell has Marlins season tickets?

 

The one that caught me was the average attendance rise/drop of each team. The Dodgers have lost the most fans, which isn't too shocking. But they've lost nearly twice as many fans (8,000) as the second worst drop (the Rays, with slightly more than 4,100).

 

His comeback may not rate the attention that Stephen Strasburg's did, but Dustin McGowan returned to the bigs for the first time since 2008 last night, pitching four innings out of the 'pen for the Jays in last night's blowout against the Red Sox. He had two shoulder surgeries and one knee surgery since his last appearance in July, 2008.

I could see him as the Jays' closer, a position that urgently needs to be addressed, but from all I read they see him returning to rotation and maybe even making a start this season. Gregg Zaun hinted the other day that Brandon Morrow might be a candidate for the closer's job down the road.

Also returning to the bigs, former O's first-rounder Adam Loewen who was a call-up after a solid season as an OF at AAA Vegas.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/mlb/bluejays/article/1050144--jays-loewen-completes-unlikely-major-league-comeback