Heartbreak

Such a shame to squander such a fine pitching performance from Shaun Marcum, who dropped his season ERA to 3.18 with his eight innings of six-hit, one-run ball.

And was it just us, or did Wells pull back a bit on that catch in the bottom of the 12th to avoid colliding with Royce Clayton? (We watched the play about ten times on the PVR last night, and it looked that way to us.) Maybe we just need a whipping boy (someone to despise) and Clayton is an easy target.

Of course, Clayton didn't strike out 15 times last night by himself.

Bonus Coverage: Neate at Out of Left Field lays this loss at the feet of the other favorite whipping boy, John Gibbons. It did seem to us that he was shortening up his bullpen a bit much, but we wrote it off as managing for a road win in extras. Whatever...anything to get the Fire Gibbons train back on the rails is fine by us.