Big Unit wins a big game

Randy Johnson won his 300th career game Thursday against the Nationals.  In a dominant performance, Johnson surrendered two hits, two walks and an unearned run, and needed just 78 pitches to get through six innings.  At the age of 45, the Big Unit became the second-oldest – and at 6’10” without a doubt the tallest – pitcher to reach the milestone.  Congratulations, Mr. Johnson.

Braves bid farewell to one of their own

Johnson is not the only active pitcher with 300 career wins, but he is now the only one under contract.  Unfortunately, the last great pitcher to accomplish the feat got some bad news this week.  In a surprise move, the Atlanta Braves released 43-year-old Tom Glavine on Wednesday.  The veteran southpaw has been around so long he was actually drafted the year before I was born, and outside of his five-year affair with the Mets (2003-2007), Glavine has been a Brave his entire professional career.

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I’ve been in Denver all week and was able to attend two Rockies games at Coors Field.

Among the highlights:

I saw Evan Longoria hit home runs – his 15th and 16th - on back-to-back nights.  The first shot got the Rays on the board in the first inning on Tuesday en route to their 12-4 win over the Rockies, whose 11-game winning streak came to an end.

I watched Rays’ phenom David Price pitch against Aaron Cook, who in my opinion should have been the MVP of last year’s All-Star Game.  (People have a hard time voting for a player from the losing team, but Cook was more valuable to the N.L. than J.D. Drew was to the A.L.)  Price got knocked around for four runs in the second inning, but recovered to last seven innings while allowing five runs.  He was outpitched by Cook, however, who went seven innings and gave up just three runs.  Each surrendered two home runs, but the ones hit off Cook were both solo shots (including Longoria’s).  In addition to a solo homer, Price served up a three-run bomb.

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