The Inevitable Aaron Cook Game (and a Thursday Debacle)

Aaron Cook had his annual dominant outing against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night.

It's becoming a tradition that Aaron Cook has one outing a season against the Drinos where, by pounding the strike zone and taking advantage of free swinging Padres' hitters, he gets a complete game victory in about two hours and with less than 80 pitches.

On July 25, 2007, Cook took 74 pitches (55 strikes) over 9 innings to beat the Padres 10-2 in 2:22 minutes on a Wednesday afternoon at Coors Field.

Then, on Tuesday night at Coors, Cook used all of 79 pitches (58 strikes) over 9 innings to shutout the Padres 4-0 in 1:58 minutes. Less than two hours. Only about twenty minutes longer than the running time for Hancock.

Just ridiculous.

Last year on Wednesday afternoon at Coors it was a getaway day and commenters criticized the Drino lineup for free swinging to quicken the game so they could get the game finished, get to the showers and get to their charter flight out of Denver to Houston.

This year, however, there is no apparent explanation short of Cook just dominating the Padres hitters. The Padres swung early and swung often but they were swinging at strikes and just not putting good wood on the ball. The credit goes to Aaron Cook.

Thursday Debacle: Rox 8, Drinos 1

I was at PD O'Hurley's near 72nd and Amsterdam in Manhattan drinking Carlsbergs so didn't watch the game. I saw the score updates scroll along the bottom of the Yankee game. First, I saw that Headley hit his fourth bomb. Then I saw that something like three Rox hitters already had multiple ribeyes ... in the fourth inning.

So much for that game.

"Another Carlsberg, please."