The Great. The Sad. And the Ugly

Thursday night in the majors showed how great and how awful major league baseball can be. There was greatness. There was sadness. And there was a whole lot of really, really ugly. Many of you can probably guess who fits in what category.

The Great

Randy Johnson won his 300th game in style. He gave up only two hits and one run. Granted, it was the Nationals, but, heck, it counts. If anything, that's impressive because the Nationals can hit.

Chris Carpenter is now 4-0. He pitched a complete game masterpiece against the Reds. One run, three hits and no walks. What he is doing is mind blowing. Remember, he missed almost all of 2007 and 2008. He pitched a total of 21 innings for two years. And then he comes back like this? Who does that? Nobody does that. Nobody misses that much time and comes back like this. His WHIP is under 1. His ERA is under 1. His batting average against is under .200. His strikeout to walk ration is 5.6/1. He's given up only one homer. It's all very overwhelming.

The Sad

Dontrelle Willis had the following pitching line against the Red Sox: 2.1 0 5 5 5 3. No hits, five walks, five runs. All of us were hoping and it's just sad that he has come to this.

The Kansas City Royals were such a good story at the start of the season. They started at 18-11 and would have been even better if not for a guy named Farnsworth. Since then, they have gone 5-17 and are falling faster than a piano thrown off of the Empire State Building. Tonight was the epitome of it all. Gil (ga) Meche pitched a good game. His walks were alarming, but he left with a 2 to 1 lead. Jamey Wright came in and gave up a two-run home to B. J. Upton and it turned into another loss. How sad.

The Nationals lost two games of a double-header to the Giants. In the two games, they scored two total runs on nine hits. They have now won only 26% of their games. At their current pace, they will end up with a 43-119 record.

The Ugly

Mike Pelfrey pitched 3.2 innings. He gave up nine hits, four walks and eight earned runs. Against Pittsburgh no less.

Wandy Rodriguez, who was having a good year up until his last start, pitched five innings, gave up ten hits, two walks, seven runs and four homes. Ugh!

Carmona pitched two innings, gave up five hits, three walks, two homers and seven runs.