MLB

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If one team actually played the game perfectly (which would mean the other team couldn’t, quite), baseball would be dull. Tonight, in the first of a weekend series against the Royals, the Twins produce a dull second inning and eight other exciting ones as they hoist themselves over .500.

Kevin Slowey starts for the Twins. In his last outing against the Indians, he was masterful and he has assembled a pretty 3-0 record, though the journey there has required some nail biting.

Like fellow Orioles fan/writer Lawrence Barreca said, the Felix Pie experiment is coming to an end in Baltimore, luckily for us Oriole fans.

Like Lawrence, when Pie was acquired for LHP Garrett Olson and minor leaguer Henry Williamson, I was anxious to see an exciting experience with Pie.

Because I follow the Minors, I knew a lot about Pie. I knew he was a consistent .300 minor league hitter, but never really got a legitimate chance to log any at bats with the Cubs.

As the Mariners end an unexpectedly successful month of April, with great contributions from unexpected players, taking inventory of the team’s success is a much easier process.

Jarrod Washburn, perhaps the most noted turnaround story, went 3-1 with a 3.42 ERA. Washburn has fared pretty well in April as a Mariner. In two of his three previous seasons he ended the first month of the season with a sub-4.0 ERA.

However, this is the first time he's also had a winning record. And that includes 2002, he went 18-6 with a 3.15 ERA and finished fourth in the Cy Young voting.

Some people—many people—will see that I have selected Roy Campanella as the second subject of my series and object that his story is far from “forgotten.”

I would reply that they are wrong.

The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated their neighbors from San Diego on Thursday 8-5, in a game which could be described as a knife fight—only both sides were using butter knives.

Each side tried to give away the game. The Dodgers,with yet another ineffective start from James McDonald; and the Padres, with a shaky bullpen and a magic bullet of a throw from rightfielder Brian Giles that eluded every glove in it's path to allow Casey Blake to bring in the eventual winning run.

P.O.W. is our weekly tribute to those players who have had a tremendous week. We are currently in our MLB schedule at thesportspa.blogspot.com, so these articles will showcase the best hitting and pitching performances of the previous week.

I chose to focus solely on offense this week since so many players had great weeks. These, in no particular order, were the best offensive performances of the past week in my eyes.

In the second edition of the Jordan Schafer PlayerCast, I will profile the three-game series against the St Louis Cardinals.

I will include pivitol at bats (runners on, leading off, etc.) and his statline for the series.

Statlines will be AB/H/BB/K/R/RBI/SB/pitches seen.

Game One (4/27/2009)
(batting eighth)

Before I get started, hat tip to Todd Civin for giving me the idea for this one. I was suffering a particularly bad case of writer's block. Now I feel like I'm on a springboard back to spewing out four or five articles a week, nothing out of my ordinary.

This is something I have pondered on my own but not until now decided to write about. How much does Boston owe to (the great) state of Minnesota? I mean, seriously.

That photo is Dave Niehaus getting elected into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.  How did he get there? 

Because he's probably one of the best broadcasters ever.

Dave Niehaus' journey started in April, 1977, when he called the Mariner's historic first pitch...

30. Washington Nationals

The Washington Nationals showed their true, weak colors in April, going 5-16.

But they have a surprisingly good offense. Ryan Zimmerman continues to crush the ball, hitting .289 with five homers. Adam Dunn has six homers and a .310 average. Nick Johnson has made an admirable return, with a .338 batting clip.

However, the pitching is what's killing this team. No starter has an ERA below 4.44, and the bullpen is the worst in the majors. Last night's 9-4 loss was no exception when the bullpen blew a lead late in the game.