What a day. Before the night games even started we'd seen a perfect game, the Red Sox blow a nine-run lead, Marlon Byrd get traded and Aubrey Huff play second base.
Obviously the biggest story of the day was rightfully Philip Humber's perfect game, but we'll leave that aside and concentrate on other stuff here -- as he deservedly got plenty of ink all to himself.
Full Saturday scoreboard with recaps and box scores for all 16 games
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A.J. Burnett, Pirates. After being a punching bag for Yankees fans and media alike the past two seasons, Burnett made his Pirates debut Saturday night against the 10-3 (at the time) Cardinals. And he shut them down. Burnett needed only 76 pitches to get through seven shutout innings, allowing just three hits and two walks while striking out seven in a 2-0 Pirates victory. He got into trouble in the first inning, allowing the first three runners on, but he got out of it and then didn't allow another runner to second base the rest of the night.
B.J. Upton, Rays. The center fielder played in his first game of the season and he made it count. He came to bat in the bottom of the sixth with a 0-0 tie and the bases loaded. Upton knocked in two with a single and a third run scored on a throwing error. Those three runs would be more than enough for James Shields and the reborn Fernando Rodney, as the Rays would go on to win 4-1. On the day, Upton went 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBI.
Cory Luebke, Padres. The Padres had the tall task of beating Roy Halladay Saturday, and they did just that behind the brilliance of Luebke. The 27-year-old left hander went eight shutout innings and allowed only two hits and two walks while striking out five in a 5-1 Padres' win.
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Red Sox bullpen. It was actually painful to watch after a while. In all, the bullpen worked three innings, allowing 12 hits, 14 runs (13 earned) and five walks. The biggest culprits were Vicente Padilla -- who was charged with five earned runs in just 1/3 of an inning -- and Alfredo Aceves, who was tagged with five earned runs without recording an out. That's how you turn a 9-0 lead into a 15-9 loss.
Rick Porcello, Tigers. Humber was perfect and Porcello was pretty much the exact opposite. He allowed 10 hits, nine runs (eight earned) and a walk in just one inning of work -- leading to a 10-4 loss in the front-end of a double-header. It was against the mighty Rangers, so we can at least think about forgiving a part of this ugly line. It wasn't an altogether disaster of a Saturday for the Tigers, though, as they took the nightcap, 3-2.
The 9th inning in the Giants-Mets game. What a debacle. Mets closer Frank Francisco came on after a Mike Pelfrey gem and gave up two hits and a walk. The Mets still should have escaped with a win in the top of the ninth because -- with a 4-2 lead and two men on base -- Jon Rauch coaxed a shallow outfield pop up off the bat of Brandon Belt. Only center fielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis overran the ball and it fell in for a "double." Tie game. In the bottom half of the inning, Giants manager Bruce Bochy decided to play defensive butcher Aubrey Huff at second base for the first time in his career. An easy double-play ball to shortstop turned into an infield single when Huff failed to cover second base. On the next play, the Giants had another chance at a double play to end the inning, but Buster Posey threw the ball into right field. And the Mets won, 5-4, on a walk-off error. Amazing.
Timmy turn around? Giants ace Tim Lincecum is enduring one of the worst -- if not the worst -- stretches of his career. He's 0-2 with a 10.54 ERA through three starts. His first-inning woes (27.00 ERA, 1.585 opposing OPS) are most concerning. He'll try to turn things around Sunday in Queens, as Lincecum takes on Dillon Gee (1-1, 2.92) and the Mets in Citi Field. 1:10 p.m. ET/10:10 a.m. PT
Stop the bleeding. The Kansas City Royals have now lost nine games in a row. That's always horrifying, but it's especially awful when they've only played 14 total games. Also: They are 0-8 at home. With a long road trip coming up, if they don't win Sunday or Monday over the Blue Jays they'll go all of April without a home victory. The task Sunday is to beat Jays' ace Ricky Romero (2-0, 3.72). Danny Duffy (1-1, 2.13) takes the hill for the Royals. 2:10 p.m. ET/1:10 p.m. CT
Road warriors. After a win in Oakland Saturday night, the Indians are now an astounding 7-1 on the road so far this season, tying them with the best team in baseball (Texas) for the top road record in the majors. The Tribe will look to push that mark to 8-1 Sunday, with Justin Masterson (0-1, 6.48) looking to bounce back from an awful outing last time out. The A's send Tyson Ross (0-0, 0.00) to the hill. 4:05 p.m. ET/1:05 p.m. PT
View entire Sunday schedule with probable pitchers for all 15 games
• Fear the Padres. According to Elias Sports Bureau (via Tom Krasovic), Roy Halladay had never issued three consecutive walks until he did so Saturday in San Diego.
• Storytime is over. Tired of answering questions about Miguel Cabrera's defense and Justin Verlander's workload, Tigers manager Jim Leyland is going to take a new approach to his job. He'll answer the questions, sure, but he's done elaborating. "It just seems like I talk a lot," Leyland said (The Detroit News). "So, I'm not gonna sit around and tell stories."
• Balancing act. Maligned White Sox DH Adam Dunn is starting to swing the bat a bit better, and some of that can be attributed to his balancing drills with the bat. One thing he's been doing is taking swings in the batting cage with a medicine ball between his legs. (MLB.com)
• Carrying the offense. Heading into Saturday, Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp had accounted for 62.9 percent of the Dodgers' RBI. (MLB Stat of the Day on Twitter). And then in a 5-1 win Saturday, Kemp and Ethier accounted for four of the Dodgers' five RBI.
• Death of the card show. Remember when there used to be a good amount of baseball card shows? Here's a good read from the New York Times on where they've gone. Evidently from 1989 to 1997 there were over 50,000 card conventions across America.
• Just ignore him. Apparently ESPN.com's Keith Law took the Orioles to task for how they're handling prized pitching prospect Dylan Bundy. The Orioles are bringing Bundy along slowly in terms of innings per game and level of competition and Law doesn't think it's fast enough. Steve Melewski of MASN Sports online, in response, put together a very well thought out rebuttal and in the comments section below that article it appears many Orioles fans don't care for Law. So might I suggest ignoring him? He has no bearing on the Orioles' performance and it's pretty easy to not pay attention to someone if you so choose.
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