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I'm thinking of closing the Byrnes/Hairton/Quentin watch, and possibly even banning the words "Carlos" and "Quentin" from the site, simply because we all know that at the moment, he is hitting better than Eric Byrnes. At this stage, repeating the fact really serves no useful or positive purpose - least of all, getting Byrnes back on track, which is what we want to happen. I like the phrase "Embrace the Suck" someone used in a comment: after all, Byrnes is not going anywhere so, good or bad, we might as well deal with it. Alternatively, I may just post this pic every time Q gets mentioned:
Moving on, looking forward to tonight's game: the series is already in the bag, and we've got a chance at the sweep with our ace on the mound. However, Webb is facing the Rockies' best pitcher this season, and Cook has been almost Webb-like, losing only one game in 2008. Should be fun, but Webb has beaten better pitchers this year. A victory would be Brandon's eleventh consecutive W, tying John Smoltz in 1996, for the longest such streak in the National League since Bob Gibson won twelve straight, during his brilliant 1968 season. Mind you, Gibson pitched complete games in every contest, and allowed just six earned runs over 108 innings, for a 0.50 ERA. Different times...
Elsewhere in the division, Dodgers already won, in an afternoon game against the Brewers; Padres lost to the Cubs; and the Giants went down to the Astros - Jose Valverde got his eleventh save there, and has now got his ERA down to a credible 4.15. This game will mark the end of the first quarter of the season, and if we can take the win, we'll have a 4.5 game lead in the division - I think we'd all have settled for that at the start of the year.