Whoop. Dee. Doo. Edwin Jackson threw a “no-hitter” for the Arizona Diamondbacks in a game the Tampa Bay Rays lost 1-0. Whose accomplishment is this? You have to give a big assist to the Rays. Jackson didn’t exactly throw a great game Friday night. He walked eight batters and hit one by a pitch, in addition to having Carlos Pena reach on an error. This included loading the bases with no outs in the third inning. Essentially, he gave a free base to every hitter in the lineup and the Rays did nothing with it. When you’re facing dead bats, how proud can you really be by essentially no-hitting a team by default?
We’re going to skip the recap today – there’s nothing to mention except a solo home run by Adam LaRoche; boys and girls, we’re going to talk about what every other sports guy is talking about: the “no-hitter.” Do I sound like a bitter dick? Yeah, I probably am, but I don’t see this as much of an accomplishment. Is it poetic? Yeah. He “pounded” the team that dealt him for cheap two years ago. The man for whom he was traded, Matt Joyce, played his first game up with the big club this year and came up empty. I’m sure Eddie is really satisfied with the result here, but how proud could he be about how he got there? This amounts to kicking a guy in the ribs when he’s lying on the ground after his girlfriend kicked him in the balls. How big a man do you have to be to claim the killer blow on an animal that’s bleeding out?
This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2010.