Pepper

I'm sure most of you saw this in the Inquirer:

Opening Day Today

Pitcher Record ERA Pitcher Record ERA

Brett Myers 2-2 2.59 Kyle Lohse 7-12 4.61

Freddy Garcia (DL) 1-5 5.90 Kyle Kendrick 6-3 4.06

Cole Hamels (DL) 14-5 3.50 Fabio Castro 0-0 12.77

Adam Eaton (DL) 9-8 6.36 J.D. Durbin 5-2 5.36

Jamie Moyer 11-9 4.97 Jamie Moyer

The graphic says it all. No amount of offense can overcome the limitations of that rotation, especially with the man in the middle slumping badly.

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Texas 30, Baltimore 3. OK, that qualifies as an epic embarrassment, but here's the part that amazed me the most: Texas struck out 11 times, or 41% of their outs in this game. By the way, this was part of a doubleheader; the Rangers also won the other game. One final note: there's no truth to the rumor that after the games the entire 25-man Baltimore roster was sent down to Williamsport.

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The Yankees made a run at the Red Sox recently, closing an eleven game gap from mid-summer to only four games by the end of last weekend. That was before the Yankees faced the Angels, who put an almost Texas-like hurt on them in pounding out 7-6 and 18-9 wins in the first two games of the series. The Yanks fell six games behind Boston but picked up a game last night when Andy Pettitte won his fifth straight start. Still, a look at the rotations of the two leading AL East teams strongly suggests Boston has a big edge. The Yanks rotation features a lot of old guys, one of whom, Mike Mussina, looks cooked. Overall, the Red Sox are much deeper in the starting rotation and pen with the exception of Eric Gagne, who alone probably helped the Yankees shave four games off Boston's lead.

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Any team with Albert Pujols in its lineup is dangerous. King Albert has hit home runs in five consecutive games and the Cardinals, given up for dead by everyone including yours truly, have climbed to within a game of .500 and are only three games behind Central division leading Chicago. Lest we forget, the Cardinals climbed out of a late-season swoon last season and went all the way. While such recoveries should give hope to Phillies fans, who have watched their favorites suffer insult upon injury, the difference is between the Cardinals MVP candidate of a year ago and the Phils' MVP winner.