Friday's first pitch

Leading Off
Someone check Pedro Martinez ancestry. He must be related to H.G. Wells, because he has a time machine. The three-time Cy Young winner made it feel like 2001, when he dominated the Giants Thursday.
What's amazing is that he whiffed nine in seven innings on just 87 pitches. In today's game 87 pitches over seven innings is miraculous. But factoring in at least 27 of those pitches were of the sit-him-down variety, that means he needed at most 60 pitches to get 12 outs.
That's an at-worst ratio of five pitches per out.
Pitching coaches dream of this stuff.
Lost in Pedro's spectacular effort was Tim Lincecum, tossing fantastic pitches.
The Freak was fantastic and it makes you wonder what his record would be if he had any run support.
The 13-5 mark might be a 17-1.

Regional Roundup

• Jimmy Watch: 1-for-4, double, strike out. Lidge Lookout: One inning, no runs, hit, walk, save.


• The Orioles are a lost cause, and could be on their way to 100 losses. Adam Jones could miss the rest of the season.


• The Pirates have two really good pitchers. Now they'll spend less time on the mound. That's right, boys and girls, the Buccos are going with a six-man staff.


• Running Riggleman.

Best of Rest

Maybe if the Marlins really hated each other, they'd win the division.

• Talk about weird. The Marlins are openly calling each other names. Yet, they have caught fire.


• More Jeter worship.


• Jason Bay was the hero for the Red Sox on Thursday.


• The Mets gave the Giants some help in the Wild Card race.


• The Dodgers got a good effort from John Garland, who beat the team that traded him.


• Chris Carpenter is bringing home the bacon. Not to mention the hardware.

Batter's Eye

• Here's a guy who wants Hanley Ramirez to win the MVP Award. And no it's not Hanley Ramirez.

Today in history
1916 -- Longtime pitching rivals Christy Mathewson and Mordecai Brown closed out their careers, by special arrangement, in the same game. Mathewson won the game 10-8.

1966 -- The Los Angeles Dodgers became the first team in major league history to draw more than 2 million at home and on the road in an 8-6 victory over the Reds in front of 18,670 fans in Cincinnati.

2006 -- Florida became the first team in major league history to climb above .500 after being 20 games under, rallying to beat reeling Arizona 8-5. With four consecutive victories, the Marlins (69-68) have a winning record for the first time. They were 11-31 on May 21.

The Closer
Ken Griffey Jr. Is open to returning to the Mariners next season.
From everything we heard at the beginning of the year, we'd have thought this was it for The Kid.
However, when we hadn't been seeing a farewell tour, we should have known better.
Griffey is, without a doubt, the premiere player of his generation.
Junior had the same talent level of Barry Bonds, but everything you hear is that he is the one guy every one is sure of being clean.
Sean Casey went so far as to say he'd give up his entire career salary if Griffey ever got tainted with steroids.