Some phenomenal pitching performances Sunday, including:-Aaron Harang, a (very) early candidate for Comeback Player of the Year. After a 16-6 season in 2007, Harang completely fell apart last year, putting up another "6," but in the wrong column--he was 6-17 with a 4.78 ERA, his highest ERA since 2004. Sunday's line for Harang vs. the Pirates: 9 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K. He's now 1-1 with a .64 ERA.
-Kyle Lohse, that dirty bastard. I was confident that Lohse was only good last year because he was playing for a contract. After signing a 4-year, $41 million contract in September, I figured the real Kyle Lohse would once again stand up. In 2005-2007, he won 9, 5 and 9 games, respectively. Last year, after being picked up off the scrapheap by Dave Duncan and the Cardinals, he went 15-6 with a 3.78 ERA.
Well, Lohse absolutely mowed down the Astros Sunday, retiring 24 in a row at one point and finishing with a 3-hit shutout. He's now 2-0 with a .56 ERA. Perhaps Todd Wellemeyer will be the one to fall off the table this season?
-Erik Bedard couldn't quite post a complete game, but that's partly due to the fact that his team tallied just three hits and one run. But Bedard was still able to eke out a 1-0 win with 8.1 innings of 3-hit, shutout baseball over the A's.
-Randy Wolf beat the D'Backs with a strong 7-inning outing, allowing just two hits and one run.
-Oh, and if that's not enough for you: Johan Santana gave up no earned runs over seven innings (three hits, 13 K) but lost on account of Josh Johnson's complete game five-hitter (one run).
If we combine these six outings, here's what it looks like: 49.1 IP, 19 hits, 2 ER.
One more time: that's 49.1 IP, 2 ER. That's an ERA of .36. Good day to be on a mound.
Cubs notes
- Soriano's four home runs are more than he had in the month of April combined in 2007 and 2008.
- Game six of the season, Bradley leaves with injury. We'll wait before we panic, but groin pain never sounds good.
- The Brewers became the second team this season to walk in four runs in one inning (Atlanta did the same favor for the Phillies earlier this week).
- Did you see Prince Fielder tip his hat to Reed Johnson after he robbed him of a grand slam? That's good sportsmanship and just plain good fun.
- The last two games of the Cubs/Brewers series ended with Prince Fielder striking out with a chance to tie it or take the lead.
- The Cubs drew 10 walks on Sunday.
"Zero" watch
-The Nationals continued their love of futility, losing 8-5 to the Braves. The 0-6 start is their worst since 1998, when they lost their first seven contests.
-The Indians, on the other hand, finally found the win column with an 8-4 victory over Toronto.
