Saturday, June 18, 2005

One is an accident, two is coincidence, three is a trend

And a trend I'd like to continue. I think the Giants have struck gold with this new score-more-runs-than-the-other-team strategy that Father Alou has employed over the last three games, last night coming in the form of a shutout vs. the Detroit Tigers.

Not to mention, the rest of the NL West has continued the We Suck Parade and given the Giants another reason to get charged up. The Padres, Dodgers, and Diamondbacks all got smacked around again by AL Central teams (Padres game was tight, but lumping them in with the smacked-around group makes me feel better). This means...well, still not much. The Giants are still seven games back of the Padres, and with the Phillies currently having a better record than the Padres do, it's division title or nothing for the G-Men at this point.

I'm a realist, but it's hard not to cling to a bit of hope with the top three teams in this division playing so poorly. The upcoming 10 games against Arizona (seven) and San Diego (three) are starting to gain some significance.

Last night? It was all about three players: Jason Schmidt, Mike Matheny, and Tyler Walker.

Not only was this a dose of hope with their third win in a row while gaining another game on every team ahead of them in the NL West, but it came with Schmidt pitching eight shutout innings. The Giants throwing a shutout really turns me on (as long as you add in a scantily-clad Salma Hayek somewhere in the mix).

I must needs purchase this game from MLB.tv tomorrow, because instead of watching the game, I was getting beat at poker...again. Included in my Little Shop of Horrors last night was:
  • Getting pocket pairs on seven different occasions and never getting a set (we even chased the rabbit to see...nope).
  • Two of the occasions where I was able to bet my pocket pairs (queens once, and eights the other time), I was re-raised by pockets aces, both times by the same person.
  • I failed twice to put out Lucky Luis, my nemesis, each of those times with Luis catching his one out card on the river to stay alive.
  • Losing on pocket kings.

I remain the unluckiest poker player all of you know.

No comments: