Along with the Game of Thrones finale tonight and the ruebens my brother made for lunch, Hughes stifling the Tigers and out-pitching Verlander may end up being my best birthday ever. (although the ARod grandslam comeback in ‘07 is close).

Reubens are awesome!  Happy birthday!

His paintings cost a mint.  Generous gift.

Melky looks a lot less like a fat guy than he used to.

And happy nameday, snuggles.  May you live your next year in the light of the Seven.

07 was ARod’s homer off Papelbon, not a grand slam.

Yay Hughes! Yay birthdays!

Happy birthday Snuggles!

Phil’s ERA/FIP/xFIP for the season now 4.96/4.84/4.25. Pretty damn good considering how he started.

Thanks to shaked for the liveblog.

[4] Huh, Snug always struck me as more of an Old Gods kind of guy, loitering about the weirwoods. Happy b’day either way though.

They still can’t hit with RISP.
what were they today? 1 for 10? and the 1 a catchable fly ball?

I now feel better since a day without a complaint is a day without sunshine.

3 typos in the liveblog.  I think it captured the flow of the game.  Verlander is an amazing pitcher that got beat on a combination of a few bad pitches and some bad luck.  Hughes was the exact opposite.  His bad pitches were outs and he pitched very well when it mattered.

I did the liveblog as a reverse-jinx, but I really enjoyed the display.  I cannot say enough how much I wish the Yankees had a pitcher like Verlander.  At his worst, he’s still a stud.

In other news, Hiroki Kuroda looks like a bum except he’s pitched better than anyone on the staff not named Sabathia.  He deserves more.

I like reubens a lot - esp. half-pastrami half-corned beef.  But somehow outside of NYC and Canter’s Deli in LA they’re usually disappointing.

3 typos in the liveblog.

Yes, but they were all low leverage situations and that limited the damage.

Great job !

Kuroda has done a decent job of keeping them in most games. He has been unlucky in a lack of run support. He is not a dominant thrower, but more of a “set things up for your 6 RPG offense” which hasn’t been there.

[10] Don’t forget Number 46.

I’m cautiously optimistic about the staff. CC is CC and should actually start pitching better. Hopefully Andy can be Andy without any injuries. Kuroda is pitching to his career line so far despite the league switch, he’s no Igawa. Gotta think that Nova will see better results eventually. And Phil has had just 3 truly bad starts out of 11 games, maybe he can be a tolerable 4/5 after all.

[13] Agree with all of this.

Our pitchers would look a lot better if the offense was putting out.

I was so pissed off last night that I couldn’t even bring myself to post a recap thread.

So yeah, I am in a much better mood today. Now they just have to take 2 out of 3 from Tampa Bay and they’ll REALLY be in business.

Tyler Austin seems to be having the best year from a position prospect since say Montero.  Hope we can get a sore armed pitcher in return.

Reubens are so good that even a bad Reuben is worth eating.  I didn’t think this would be something that united the blog, but I’m pleased.

Now I want a reuben for dinner and am thinking how I can tell my wife I don’t want the shrimp dish she was going to make.

Also, results today very unexpected.  I blame Phil Hughes.

[17] email seems to work well for our members when discussing delicate subjects with our bitter halfs.

Was that a 25 year old SP finally putting it all together and stepping into his potential or the greatest dead cat bounce of all-time? Either way, I’ll take it.

Also, Youk got drilled in the head today because the Jays were sick of TWN plunking their guys. As always, very enjoyable.

[17] I’m thinking of going out for another Reuben for dinner.

The Ruebens at Katz’s are lousy. But only a lunatic would order anything there but a plain old pastrami sandwich….the single greatest food item in NYC.

Also, Youk got drilled in the head today because the Jays were sick of TWN plunking their guys. As always, very enjoyable.

Thank Mo for mlb.tv, I can go watch this. What inning ?

Bah, that was such a CT. He got hit on the shoulder.

Both East divisions are a dogfight.  Maybe opening the door for teams from the central and west to sneak into the wild card spots?

24 Teams should play a more balanced schedule then we wouldn’t have that problem.

As the lone vegetarian here, but a meat eater most of my life, I loved me a lean roast beef hero with brown mustard, but pastrami yuk.

Balanced schedule makes way more sense to me. Don’t understand the unbalanced schedule. What’s the point? Saves travel mileage?

[26] I was once a dedicated carnivore, but dabbled in veganism for about 2 years. I am back to eating meat, although generally on a more reasonable level.

I still eat fish a few times a week.  The only meat I miss is a nice medium rare steak.  Always disliked the taste of fat so giving up meat was relatively easy.  Still the scent of a juicy steak is awfully tempting.

27 playing some teams 19 times and others 6 times is lunacy and unfair to the AL and NL East.

Ross Ohlendorf is a free agent. Perhaps the Yankees could bring him back?

[31] Ohlendorf + Hughes for Melky?

I really didn’t think there was anything that could not make me want to see Prometheus, until ESPN had a Sportscenter tie-in with Steven A. Smith yelling at me.

At what point did anyone think that was a good idea?

[33] The Coors Light commercials didn’t win you over?

I don’t mind vegetarian food, as a side dish to go with my critter.

What I really don’t understand is “vegetarian pizza”. Wouldn’t that be “plain cheese” ?

[34] Forgot about those, that just seems like a strange thing to link your product too: aliens that use people’s bodies as nurseries - buy our beer! It totally won’t kill you like a chest-burster!

[36] I suppose we should be grateful that Coors outbid McDonalds or they’d have to do a chest bursting Happy Meal tie-in. And children give me enough anxiety as it is.

35 Roasted peppers, onions maybe anchovies.  Pretty, pretty good.

[35] I’m certainly a carnivore but on pizza the veggies tend to be higher quality.  And if the meat were of high quality - say prosciutto - I’d want it in some other context - like on a melon, or with parmigiano and olive oil or lemon juice, and some good fresh bread, and say a kir royale or some asti, and that’s the Mediterranean out there.  So various kinds of bell pepper, and red onion, and olive, and mushroom, and garlic.  Or radicchio and goat cheese.

[39] Prosciutto is too delicate for pizza, but you can use some heartier cured meats like hams or spec.

Although, prosciutto might work on a white pizza.

I’ve had peppers, onions, artichokes, asparagus, squash and more on pizza. My objection to “vegetarian” pizza is they load it up with too much, and it ends up soggy. They over-do it just to hit you over the head with “hey, look ! No nasty meat !”

Prosciutto doesn’t cook well.  The whole point is that it’s “raw”—cured.  That said, the one context I’ll go for cooked prosciutto is in a pork chop stuffed with sage, mozzarella, and prosciutto.  It doesn’t dry out that way and gives a great flavor and texture.  Could see doing a chicken breast the same way, sort of a dago cordon bleu.

[41] I hate overloaded pizzas. I try never to have more than 3 on a pizza. I have a few pizzas that break the rule, but the flavors work together too well to leave any off.

I’ve made pizza with turnips before, and have plans for a sweet potato pizza.

Generally in NYC you pick what toppings you want.  Like Joes for a slice, Spunto thin crust or Otto for Mario Battali “gourmet ” pizza.  Dislike Rays, too much cheese or soggy crust like they order in my office.

[42] Toss the prosciutto on after the pizza’s cooked.  People like it with figs in that context.

[43] Maybe just roasting (or par-roasting) first would help.  I never find sogginess an issue.  And anything worth doing is worth overdoing.  Except for those spices you get at a good Thai place when you’ve convinced them you don’t mean “hot” by casual American standards - unless I suppose you like hallucinating the next day, or fear you might get possessed.

“Both East divisions are a dogfight.  Maybe opening the door for teams from the central and west to sneak into the wild card spots? “

15 of the 18 teams on or east of the Mississippi are at or above .500 with Tigers/Brewers/Cubs the only losers.

Hughes got away with some pitches in this game.  Granted, he’s due that since it seems to me that every bad pitch he throws gets hammered.  So perhaps that’s just his luck evening out.  Still, despite the results, I don’t trust him at all.

Anyway, 2 outta 3 will do, pig.

I made a capicola pizza last night. My sauce was way too acidic and gave me heartburn, but it was good.

By the way, Manhattan Pizza has gotten SOOO FREAKING BAD. You pretty much have to go to a nice fancy place like Otto or a legendary coal oven join like Lombardi’s or John’s to get good pizza now.

I love the pizza threads.