It's always a good day in baseball when your two favorite teams win by a combined 23-3. Man, watching Al Leiter pitch in Oakland last night was hysterical. I mean, it's sad to watch a former great at the end of the line, unless he plays for the Yankees. Then he deserves whatever he gets. Watching A-Rod trying to fake sympathy during a mound conference for Leiter, who didn't make it out of the first inning, was pretty funny too. Sometimes I think Alex Rodriguez is a robot programmed only to hit meaningless home runs in blowouts and swat impotently at cornrowed Red Sox pitchers. That wouldn't explain the ugly error made on a ball hit directly at him last night, though.

But enough about my fantasy life where I'm still living in Berkeley and in the thick of another A's pennant race. The Rockies somewhat surprisingly took the pipe to Jeff Weaver as Clint Barmes and Brad Hawpe eased back into duty. Hawpe had two hits. Todd Helton (pretty good, this Helton guy) homered twice and Matt Holliday had another good game. I'm not sure were I Clint Hurdle I would have hit Barmes leadoff in his first game back (0 for 5), but Cory Sullivan reacted extremely well to the two spot (a hit, two walks, and three runs). J.D. Closser and Aaron Miles had good games as well. Please, don't allow Aaron Miles' batting average to impress you. A guy with 16 extra-base hits in 296 at-bats is simply not good in any imaginable scenario. Miles' isolated power (slugging minus average) is .074.

Well, no luck for the A's today (I knew they should have pulled Danny Haren after the huge first inning and tried to start him again today). The Rockies try again this evening.

The Colorado-Colorado State game ended up being very compelling, even if I wasn't happy with the ending. Who decides which early national games go on ESPN and ESPN2 out here? Illinois and Rutgers? I ended up watching a World Cup qualifier between Sweden and Romania all morning.