The Morning After on TSE - 6.25.2007

In what was billed as the match-up of potential All-Star starters and Cy Young favorites, Jake Peavy and Josh Beckett squared off yesterday afternoon in one hell of a game at PetCo Park in San Diego. We're obviously in the post-game here and the Red Sox came out as your winners, taking 2/3 from the NL West-leading Padres and building their lead in the AL East above 10 games for the first time since A-Rod cheated on his wife. Beckett was brilliant in 8 innings, mixing in his fastball with his curveball (a welcome change, if you're a Sox fan) and got out with his MLB-leading 11th win.

All this talk about great pitching got me thinking: It's been quite a year for pitching in Major League Baseball. At press, there are 10 pitchers with 9 wins or more. There are 11 pitchers with ERA under 3.00. Felix Hernandez, Curt Schilling, and most recently Dustin McGowan have all thrown complete game one-hitters. The icing on that cake has been Mark Buehrle and Justin Verlander, who have thrown the only no-hitters of the year.

And it's not as if offense is down this year. A-Rod and Prince Fielder are both above 25 dingers, 18 players have 50 or more RBIs and 37 players are batting above .300. Sammy Sosa hit his 600th home run, Griffey, Jr. is going to do it later in the season and Frank Thomas is one away from jacking number 500. And it goes without saying that Barry Lamar Bonds is going to break the all-time mark in the very near future (and I'm okay with that). All told, this may be one of the most statistically excellent years in recent baseball history on both sides of the ball (if one can use that metaphor for baseball).

The NBA Draft is coming up this week so I imagine that will take up a lot of space on this small portion of the Internets. Enjoy.