Was there a full moon this weekend?

This is Eammon Portice. A 25 year-old pitcher on the Portland SeaDogs. The SeaDogs play at 1pm today on NESN and I figured a picture of Eammon was as good a way as any to let folks know that*. Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permisison.

Memorial Day weekend usually marks the first weekend of the summer (which is still not quite here yet) when people go away.  While I didn’t go away, activities this weekend caused me to miss a lot of baseball (including Friday’s and Sunday’s Sox games).  So if you’re one of those folks who did a little vacationing this weekend, or just had things that needed to get done and couldn’t stop to watch some baseball, here’s some of what you missed (in no particular order):

• The Angels’ Kendry Morales broke his leg in the celebration following his walk-off grand slam on Saturday.   (Incidentally, it makes me crazy whenever anyone refers to a grand slam as a grand slam home run, as the announcer does in that clip.  By definition, a grand slam is a home run, no need to be redundant.)  If you watch the video, the celebration wasn’t even that rough, Kendry landed the wrong way (supposedly because someone was grabbing for him as he was landing).  This was followed by Howie Kendrick (has he always been called Howard or did someone finally ask him which he preferred?  I’ll never get used to “Howard”) hitting a walk-off home run on Sunday with no jumping into a pile this time (but still some celebrating).  I have no issue with teams celebrating walk-offs.  Heck it’s a big deal, let them celebrate.  Just maybe they could not try to kill each other while they’re doing it.  (Also hearing, “Jimmy Jack” as a term for a home run makes me want to break someone’s leg.)

• Then there’s the Indians’ David Huff, who got nailed in the head with an ARod line drive that turned into a rbi double.  Huff, remarkably, didn’t end up with a concussion and didn’t even stay in the hospital overnight, returning to Yankee Stadium before the game ended.  The best part of this story, well aside from the fact that Huff is all right, is that ARod’s double made the score 2-0 Yanks in the 3rd inning and the score would get to 10-3, Yanks, yet would end 13-11 Indians.  Slappy taking out your pitcher is definitely a game you have to win.  Well done, Cleveland.  Sadly, not so well done?  Justin Masterson.  In the following game, Masterson was pitching what was probably his best game in a year.  In the middle of the 7th inning, the score was 3-0 Cleveland with Masterson only giving up 4 hits and a walk.  Then the 7th got ugly.   Three singles and a stolen base in the 7th scored two runs to make the score 3-2.  Masterson, with 103 pitches, get taken out of the game and his bullpen coughs up four more runs.  The bright side?  Masterson gets a no-decision, which breaks this streak of 11 losses in a row going back to last August.  I really feel for Justin Masterson but as much as I was upset about his being traded last year, this all kind of takes the sting of that away a little bit.

• On the happier side of baseball, Roy Halladay becomes the third pitcher to throw a perfect game since “The Baseball Project” wrote and released “Harvey Haddix”.  I watched the last three innings of Halladay’s game against the Marlins because, well, watching Halladay pitch is entertaining on many levels, and the fans in Florida were really great.  I was so terribly impressed with their reactions to all the outs the Marlins were making – and then someone pointed out to me that, being in Florida, there are a lot of snowbirds down there and Yankees and Phillies fans both tend to take over the park.  So while I still choose to believe that the Marlins fans were just being awfully cool, it looks like it might have just been Phillies fans cheering their own.  Along with messing up Harvey’s song, Halladay is just the 2nd Phillie to pitch a perfect game and the 20th player in MLB history to do it as well as being the Arizona Fall League alumnus to throw one.  Cool stuff, Roy.  Happy that he has this to add to his resume!

• The Red Sox ended up splitting the series with the Royals behind more great pitching from Buchholz and Lester, winning their weekend games, 1-0 and 8-1.  Mike Cameron came alive, David Ortiz and Jason Varitek added to their home run numbers and no one got injured celebrating anything.  I’d say that makes this weekend quite a successful one

Disappointingly, the Red Sox aren’t playing today.  While this gives me more time to focus on the barbecue (who am I kidding?  You know I’ll be going indoors watching pieces of the other games) it still disappoints me that, on a holiday, we don’t get baseball.  A little annoyed with the baseball gods with this one – although a day off, on a holiday, while they’re at home, is probably something most of the guys with families are looking forward to – so, I can’t be selfish.

Today is Dave Roberts’ 38th birthday.  Send him some good vibes, prayers, birthday wishes, whatever you have because the man deserves them.

Tomorrow the Sox begin a series against the Oakland A’s with John Lackey on the mound.  I think our Tuesday night live chat mojo is about to be seriously tested.  My computer issues are settled so the chat will be going on with, presumably, no interruptions!

(*It should be noted that Casey Kelly will be the starter for the SeaDogs today.  There’s a chance you can see Eammon come out of the bullpen, though!)