The SF Chronicle has a nice recipe today for what to do with your leftover rotisserie chicken.
Speaking of rotisserie, those of you who have Eric Chavez on your fantasy teams can be glad that Ken Macha did not follow my advice and give Chavez a day off yesterday. Eric Chavez finally looked like Eric Chavez again.
In the first inning, he took a pitch away, and flied out to deep left. I said out loud, “that’s the first good swing I’ve seen him take all year.” It reminded me of Sunday’s game against the Angels, where ESPN had a microphone in the Angels dugout. Steve Finley came back to the dugout after a fly out and declared “That’s my swing.” Next at-bat: home run.
Chavez didn’t follow up that good swing with a homer, but he hit two balls hard to the opposite field, driving in three runs. That’s his swing. That’s the real Eric Chavez.
We also got to see, I’m afraid, the real Eric Byrnes, who at times can win games with his hustle, but also lose them with his uncontrolled style. Last night, he misplayed a fly ball (lost in the lights, presumably), and then later that inning proceeded to throw the ball to third base when no one was standing there, allowing the tail runner to advance to second.
After watching that, my wife said, “He’s not young enough anymore to be making mistakes like that.” So true.
It was good to hear that Mark Kotsay gave the team a dressing down in the dugout after that inning. The play has been so lackluster lately, a kick in the pants was probably a good thing. It was a question before the season as to who would succeed Tim Hudson as team leader; looks like Mark Kotsay is the man.
Meanwhile, Ken Macha will likely give Bobby Kielty, Nick Swisher, and Charles Thomas some more opportunites to grab the job in the near future. Swisher and Thomas get the call this afternoon. Let’s hope Thomas can finally get a hit.
Now, I’ll go listen to the game on the radio while I eat my lunch. I don’t think I’ll use that rotisserie chicken recipe today; after all, I’m not Wade Boggs, and I had chicken for lunch just two days ago.