At Least Somebody Was Having Fun.

I may need to work on reading facial expressions. When I watched Jonathan Van Every pitch in tonight's game, I thought that he looked embarrassed. Turns out I was wrong:

"It's something you can tell your kids about: I pitched in the major leagues. It was cool. I'm glad I got the opportunity but I wished it was under better circumstances."

I am glad that he has a sense of humor though:

"I didn't show them all my stuff. I left some in my back pocket."

I hope that he gets a print of that photo as proof.

Uncle.

Sometimes when you get one-hit by a guy with a salivary gland problem and your, supposedly, great pitching staff can't seem to figure anything out, you have to turn to the guy on your roster with the most experience in losing. And so we look to Jason Bay for advice and he tells us:

Tea for Four.

Ok fine. I never really believed the weather folk that they've got on NESN who claimed that Bigelow tea was Terry Francona's green tea of choice. It seemed like a giant put-on, worthy of a guffaw or two. Apparently, I was wrong.

Better Late Than Never: Cleveland.

Anthony Reyes gets the start tonight. He arrived in Cleveland last year after a July trade with St. Louis. He can throw a mid-nineties fastball, a slider, and a good change-up. He has command issues, though. He falls behind too many batters and gives up too many walks. He is able to get right-handed batters out pretty well but struggles with lefties.

Fausto Carmona gets the ball on Wednesday. After having a break-out season in 2007, Carmona started off his 2008 season okay. But then he strained his hip (I don't know what they mean by that) and when he got back he wasn't the same pitcher. In his single start against Boston last season (after the injury) he gave up four runs on five hits, with a walk, and a hit batsman, in a single inning. So far this season, Carmona seems to be more akin to the 2008 version than the 2007. His control seems to have gone away, resulting in more walks. And he's getting hit hard, four starts, five home runs. He is back to getting more ground outs, though.

Swinging Bachelor.

The bachelor life may not be agreeing with Jason Varitek. Seemingly desperate to get out of the house, Varitek spent his Sunday morning hanging out with the local little league. He offered a semi-confusing pro-education message that they should "take care of their school" and tossed out the first pitch. (I kid because I love.)

This One Goes to Eleven.

The Pirates hired a new pitching coach in the form of Joe Kerrigan over the winter (who is actually good at his job) and have, consequently, gotten themselves off to a nice little start. This hadn't been the case in Pittsburgh for quite awhile, for proof of which you only have to look as far as Jason Bay. Bay was so excited at the prospect of nine wins in a row that he just couldn't hold it in:

"I was in the shower talking and I said to someone, ‘I don’t know how many 9-0 homestands you’ve been part of, but not me.’”

Let the slash fiction writing commence. It's not my thing, so I don't know who you'd pair him with but to each her own.

Seriously: I can't imagine what he's up to now that they've stretched it to eleven games.

Welcome to Cleveland.

All I've got. Or, at least, all I've got time for right now.