Hair of the Dog, Thursday, August 21st, 2008

It would be fair to say that Be Sheets experienced a spell of bad luck in Tuesday's game, and equally fair to say that Manny Parra and company leveled out the universe by getting extraordinarily lucky in yesterday's 5-2 win. Parra was seemingly in trouble all day, as he had trouble finding the (small) strike zone and let it get to his head. Eric Gagne loaded the basis, as Eric Gagne is want to do (with an assist from some terrible defense) and wriggled out of it with a 1-2-3 double play.

Luck happens. It's helps to remember the good as well as the bad.

Speaking of which, Tim McCarver's favorite pitcher Brandon Arroyo shut down the Cubs yesterday which allowed the terrible Reds to steal a game 2-1 and allowed the Brewers to climb back to within 5 games of the Ursa Minors.

The Brewers (and Cardinals) have the day off, but the Cubbies play a day game. Unfortunately, one of the Cubs' best pitchers, Carlos Zambrano, will be facing one of MLB's worst in Josh Fogg. It should be over by 1:25 so tune in early.

Only His Pride Is Hurt

Andrew Bogut will be OK. His ankle injury, suffered in team USA's drubbing of Bogut's Aussie squad, is minor. This should come as a huge relief for the Bucks, who have no one else up front.

Snell's like CC

Pirates' starting pitcher Ian Snell has struggled mightily this season. At least until he encountered the inspirational power of CC Sabathia:

"I couldn't take my eyes off CC," Snell recalled. "And you know what? The more I watched, the more I knew what I had to do."

And so, he took the mound last night and tore through St. Louis for seven scoreless innings and eight strikeouts to carry the Pirates to a 4-1 victory last night at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals' damage was limited to four hits and a walk.

Read the whole thing, and maybe you will be inspired to glory in whatever it is you do. Last night at my fantasy football draft CC inspired me to get St. Louis RB Steven Jackson for only $4.00. Which is awesome.

A Quick Note About Mike Golic

ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike do a segment leading up to the NFL season called "Two-A-Days" where they claim they will give you and in-depth look at every team in the league, two per day (of course). For each segment, each mike answers 5 questions about the team, with the 5th question being a prediction about their record.

I don't think Mike Golic does any prep work for this at all. Today they previewed the Atlanta Falcons and for every question his answer was "I'm just not sure, I don't know. Time will tell." He sounds like he Joe Morgan at an average JoeChat.

I don't expect in-depth analysis from Mike and Mike, but I do expect, at the very least, a stupid guess.

Today's Hair of the Dog is brought to you by

Lagunitas IPA. I would describe the taste as "strong" as most IPA's are. This one will stick with you for awhile.