Extra! Extra! (Innings) Read all about It!...

Oh man,
What a game last night! It had it all: suspenseful pitching, lotta hitting, an overworked bullpen and a thrilling ending in extra innings. There were actually 3 games that went into extras last night, the O's Rangers, which I will get to shortly, also a thus far surprising Seattle team outlasted Anaheim off a throwing error in the 10th and Oakland held off a thus far struggling Boston team in 12. Is there anything more exciting than playing extra innings, if there is I cant think of anything (well maybe Tim Tebow's jump pass...). But here's the rundown of what we learned from last nights game:

The O's have a bullpen and a good one at that.

Is it too late to take back what I said about Dennis Sarfate? Yesterday I called this kid a project a la Gilbert Arenas. I don't know if he was reading this or not, but he definitely proved me wrong and may be knocking on the door for a place in the starting rotation after last night. Dennis went 3 and 1/3 innings giving up only 1 hit and 0 earned runs against one of the league's most potent offenses in a true hitters ballpark after coming in for Alfred Simon. Simon when down with an elbow injury mid-way through the 2nd. The bullpen pressed on with Chris Ray and Jamie walker allowing 0 ER in an inning each and Jim Johnson (1-0) giving up 0 through 2 and 2/3 innings pitched. Remember when I said that Walker and Johnson needed to get some innings? What did I tell you. We didn't even use Danys Baez and still had enough firepower to go into extras before bringing out Sherril. Sherril nearly blew the save, loading the bases with 0 outs, and allowing 2 runs before getting hamilton to ground out and Blaylock and Cruz to fly out to finally end the game.

What was great about this game is the transformation it underwent throughout. At the beginning it looked like it was going to be another slug-fest (5 homers between the two teams by the 4th inning including 1 by Huff and 1 by Scott) but then turned into a pitchers duel, where 0 runs were scored by either team until the 10th inning. At this point, the slugfest returned with the O's recoridng 4 runs off 4 hits including the 2 run Yaaak by Adam (Pacman) Jones and an RBI double by Scott to give the Os the lead for good. The Rangers responded recording 4 hits of their own in the bottom of the 10th and scoring 2 runs to cut the lead to 2 before Sherrill's late game heroics sealed the win (while also keeping my streak for the cash alive). The top of the order stayed hotter than Marco Jaric's girlfriend with Roberts, Jones, Markakis and Huff combining to hit .439 in the series so far. Luke Scott is also contributing, hitting an impressive .375 in the series with a HR and 3 RBI.

Look out O's fans, this is the Birds (6-2) 3rd straight series win in as many tries as they go for the sweep tonight (8:05 EST). If we can split with Boston this weekand @ Fenway, we are looking to one of our strongest April's yet. Rich Hill is coming along faster than expected as he is throwing 75 pitches a day at full strength and may be back in the lineup by as early as next week. The only concern is whether or not the pitching can last a full season. In the past couple of seasons, they have started out looking strong, but the young guys, unaccustomed to the rigorous season end up getting fatigued by July and the teams suffered as a result tanking by August in each of the past 3 seasons. So don't hold your breath yet, but enjoy the ride while it lasts.

If I can switch gears for a second, the NHL playoffs kick off tonight and I for one am ready to Unleash the Fury (Was it over when the German's bombed Pearl Harbor? Please, somebody promote the guy who does the in-game montages at the Verizon center). The Caps open up with a series against the 7th seeded NY Rangers at home tonight (7:00 EST) in what should be a very close series. Washington took the regular season series 3-1 with the only loss (5-4) coming in a shootout at NY in late February. There was also the memorable January game at the Verizon center, where Alexander Semin was ejected and suspeneded after fighting Marc Staal in the 3rd. As you may remember Semin had his jersey completely pulled off and continued to pummel Staal in a motion resembling that of a bongo player (I'm holding open band auditions after the playoffs are over and could use a good bongoist...) The Caps escaped with a 2-1 victory in front of a sell-out crowd.

It looks like this series is going to be one of your classic Offense v Defense matchups with the Caps ranking #3 in the league in goals scored per game while the Rangers are ranked 6th in goals against per game. Something has gotta give here and I have a feeling it will be in the hands of the Alex's (Ovi and Semin...sounds like my freshman biology class).

You've gotta love what this team has done all season, with a relatively young lineup complemented with a few well placed vets to bring in experience and leadership. I think the defense is getting better everyday. Obviously Mike Green has had a breakout year leading all defensemen in goals scored, but I'm talking about guys like Tom Poti and John Erskine who are true defenders. Hard hitters, who may not produce on the offensive end, but hustle their asses off on defense and make big plays when it counts. You also gotta love the goon squad of Donald Brashear and Matt Bradley (white Brashear in training). These guys are hard hitters, in fact Brashear looks for any excuse to throw down fisticuffs. He actually injured himself going down in a fight back in March in a game against Pittsburgh. Look for him to be healthy and looking to rumble in this series.

Another important piece of this Caps team are its reserve forwards. I'm talking about Brooks Laich and my boy David Steckel. These guys provide plenty of resting minutes for the starters and are downright dominant when they get in. Laich has been a point machine during the final stretch of the season recording 12 in the final 8 games! I've said it once and I'l say it again, this is the Caps Stanley Cup to win if they want it enough.

One more topic to get to, and that of course is the future of the now lowly Wizards. But don't hang up those Rod Strickland throw-back jerseys yet kids, because this team is poised to return to form next season. As you've probably heard by now, the Wiz just brought in Flip Saunders as head coach signing him for close to 19 mil. I've gotten a lot of mixed input about this hire, but I don't understand why. This is a guy whose been to the playoffs 9 times in his career, reaching the conference finals 4 times, and doing it with limited talent in Minnesota. He now finds himself with a team full of talent. You have a core of guys who will be back and healthy next season (if Arenas can play hlaf as well as he blogs, everyone better watch out!) plus a group of benchwarmers who saw alot of action this season. Throw in a top-3 draft pick and perhaps we can finally make it out of the first round and past Mr. Crab Dribble himself. The future is bright, but I am going to miss Tapscott and all his memorable quotes like "When we play good, we're good, but when we play bad, we're bad" haha! Anyway just enjoy tonights finale vs the Cs although I doubt Gil will be playing.

*Some statistics courtesy of espn.com

NHL Playoff and Os recap tomorrow...until next time