The offense bailed out Jeremy Bonderman yesterday, who had one of his worst starts of the season. He gave up five runs on four long balls in six innings but with another great day for the hitters, it was good enough to improve to 7-0 on the season. Tim Byrdak was also hit hard and he saw his ERA balloon from 1.72 to 3.12. That’s how it goes with relievers though. He’s had two poor relief appearances sandwiched between 12 pretty good ones but it’s those two poor ones that inflate his ERA.
Ivan Rodriguez was a man on a mission yesterday and that day off must have done him some good. He went three for five with his seventh homerun, five RBIs and three runs. The five RBIs falls one short of his career high of six RBIs and it’s the eleventh time he’s driven in five in a game. He did it three times last year.
Curtis Granderson scored three more runs to bring his season total up to 46. Based on Granderson’s first half, I thought he was a lock to score a hundred last year but he fell just short. Same thing this year. Unless he really struggles in the second half, he should get that 100th run.
Sean Casey had four hits and he’s right on the cusp of hitting .300 for the season. He still hasn’t hit that first homerun though but after hitting just .192 in April, he’s hitting over .350 since then.
Tonight, it’s Andrew Miller throwing against Jamie Moyer. I’ll be at a friend’s house and I’m sure he’ll have it on so I’m hoping to finally see Miller throw.