They Say Good Things Come In Threes

Badassery abounded in triplicate last night for Mariners' tradebait hurler Cliff Lee and Twins centerfieder Denard Span.

Lee pitched his third complete game in as many tries, defeating the World Champion Yankees. Despite giving up two homers to Nick Swisher, Lee pitched his little heart out to go all nine last night. He was lights out against A-Rod, who went 0-4 last night, and issued just one walk - his first in thirty eight innings - to drive up his trade value before the deadline. It was his fifth complete game of the season, which is hard to come by these days.

He had the run support to stay in the game, which is also hard to come by these days for Seattle. Seattle beefed up their roster during the off season by adding the likes of Lee, Chone Figgins, and Milton Bradley, to name a few, in hopes that they'd get Ken Griffey, Jr. the World Series ring he so rightly deserved. Instead, it's been an abysmal season for the Mariners, who lost Griffey to the retirement home, bingo, and shuffleboard mid-season retirement, and they're dead last in their division, 14 games behind Texas. Ouch. Fun fact: the last Mariners pitcher to toss 3 complete games in a row as Randy Johnson, back in 1998. He was traded two weeks later. Will history repeat itself?


Elsewhere, in Minnesota, Twins lead off hitter and centerfielder Denard Span started off the night with a triple off of Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga. You remember him, right? He's the poor bastard who pitched the perfect game that wasn't earlier this month. Span took full advantage of the awkward right field corner at Target Field, hitting some shots that had some crazy ricochets off the wall, making Magglio Ordonez work hard for his money. He ended up hitting 4-4 on the night, with three triples and a double, with five RBIs. Spantastic!

With their 11-4 victory last night, the Twins are back on top of the AL Central by a half a game over Detroit. The two teams meet again Wednesday afternoon to try to either remain in or regain the top spot on the division.

Honorable mention for awesome things that happen in threes: Brewers pitcher Yovani Gallardo hit his third homerun of the season last night. Pretty damn impressive for a pitcher to hit one bomb, let alone three.

And one thing we hope happens for a third night in a row? A longball for our favorite tater-masher, Jim Thome. He's one homer away from tying Harmon Killebrew for #10 on the all time homerun list. He hit #571 on Monday and #572 on Tuesday. Let's not forget he also got a triple on Monday night - his first since 2004. Way to go, Jim Jam!