Baseball In The Daytime: 7-18-07

While the puppies of America await the trial of Ron Mexico, the rest of us maintain the great traditions of America: credit card debt, political apathy and day baseball. Lots on the docket today, let's get into it.

Your leadoff game is White Sox-Indians at 10:05 Mountain. You can find it on XM 180, and it may also appear on DirecTV Extra Innings. I say "may" because DirecTV is being rather fucking lazy in publishing a baseball schedule today, which is totally cool considering I give them roughly $200 a month for intermittent service. But they do send me that crappy Access magazine, so we're good. Mark Buehrle and Jake Westbrook pitch, and the Indians are hanging on at a game back of the Tigers. Chicago is one hundred and five games out in the wild card race.

At 10:35, the Colorado Rockies gun for a sweep in lovely PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Will another whoopin' of the Pirates avenge the awful memory of the AFC Championship following the 2005 season? No, but you stick it to those kid-raping Iron City drinkers every chance you get. Listen to the sweet sounds of starters Jeff Francis and Ian Snell on XM 185.

At 11 on XM 184, you can tune in to the Reds (behind Aaron Harang) take on the John Smoltz's Braves. What's the grammatical rule for the possessive of a name ending in "z" (like Smoltz's)? Leave your theories in the comments.

At the same time, the day's lamest game commences as the Astros battle the Nationals--so naturally it's televised, on DTV 735 (audio broadcast on XM 183). Jason Jennings, whose trade from the Rockies raised many eyebrows in Colorado last winter, starts for Houston opposite Jason Bergmann. Jennings is 1-5 and has been hurt much of the year, while Willy Taveras, Jason Hirsch and Taylor Buchholz have, on the whole, been pretty damned useful to the Rockies (who are, by the way, 7 1/2 games better than the Astros). No one really cares about any trades the Nationals have made.

Big Z is back on the bump today as the Cubs host the Giants at 12:20, on XM 186 and DTV 736. He faces Matt Cain, whose name is always preceded by the modifier "hard-luck." I'm sure Cain will twirl another gem today, only to get zero run support from his dog shit teammates and lose 2-1. After a loss and a Brewers win last night, Chicago's divisional deficit grew to 4.5. But word is that Ben Sheets will miss at least a month, so things are looking good on the North Side, which should please at least one myopic nutcase.

The final National League game of the afternoon is the rubber game of the Phillies-Dodgers series from Chavez Ravine. I can't remember a single Dodger game since we started this feature, they almost always play at night in the place where it's perpetually 82 degrees and it never rains. Today they send Chad Billingsley against Philly's Kyle Kendrick in what's actually a pretty intriguing matchup of two promising young pitchers. Your channels are XM 189 and DTV 737.

Seventh and last, the Rangers take on the Athletics from Oakland at 1:35, on XM 179. Kevin Millwood, who's recently resembled a genuine big leaguer, gets the ball to compete against Lenny DiNardo. The A's are an absolute train wreck right now and have fallen 12 games behind the division-leading Angels. All the hair and body odor in the world can't save this bunch. Cheers!