10/4: Monday Night and MLB

Greetings... baseball overshadowed football last night...

• If I told you that a catcher hit .320 with 30 HR and 75 RBI this season... who would the average person guess? Brian McCann? Victor Martinez? maybe Joe Mauer?... Wrong, wrong, and wrong.... the answer is Mike Napoli.... and with his 2-run bomb that sparked the scoring for Texas last night, they may start erecting his statue sooner than you think... couple that blast with a 2-run single from Josh Hamilton, and 6 innings of 1-hit ball from Colby Lewis... and it's 2-1 Rangers... even if Mike Adams threatened to implode...
• Delmon Young proves his worth.... the young OF acquired mid-season from Minnesota homered in the 7th to give the Tigers a 5-4 lead they wouldn't relinquish last night... in the #1 vs #1 pitching matchup, it didn't exactly bare out like most would think... but Verlander ate up 8 innings and K'ed 11 despite allowing 4 runs, and that bested CC's 5.1 IP, 4 ER, 3 K performance... huge, huge win for Detroit who really needed to get this one...
• Tampa 24, Indy 17 - This is one Indy could've stolen... but Josh Freeman always seems to make plays late in games, and they rode Blount's 127 yards all night... Indy stinks... and this was about as uninteresting as any MNF game could be this early in the year....
  
• And a small college football rant... I see absolutely no reason why LSU would EVER start Jordan Jefferson as currently constructed... they have one of the 2 best defenses in the land (Alabama), and Jarrett Lee, who I've admittedly killed in the past, is taking care of the ball... oh, and Jefferson absolutely can't be trusted... so why play him? It'd be one thing if he was an impact player... but uh... he's never been more than average...
  

What to watch for on Tuesday...

• Rangers @ Rays - 2:00 - Harrison vs. Hellickson - Matt Harrison has been lights-out recently, and he encounters the rookie Hellickson in an absolute must-win (obviously)... should be entertaining despite the 2:00 weekday timeslot...
• Phillies @ Cards - 5:00 - Hamels vs. Garcia - Jamie Garcia has been brutal for about 3 months... not a good recipe when you see Hamels on the other side... I'd be surprised if Philly dropped this one
• Yankees @ Tigers - 8:30 - Burnett vs. Porcello - The worst pitching matchup of the entire postseason so far! Get excited!... at any rate, the Yankees season rides on AJ Burnett... best of luck
• Brewers @ D-Backs - 9:30 - Marcum vs. Collmenter - Collmenter is a nice story... but Shaun Marcum is a stud... I like the Brewers to end this thing...

Enjoy...