Of course, I write a whole article about how Joe Blanton has been unlucky this year, and then he goes right out and gets clobbered for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with luck, and everything to do with throwing a bunch of hanging curveballs and leaving fastball after fastball over the middle of the plate.  The hit-me-fastballs included, embarrasingly enough, one to Blanton’s good friend and former teammate Dan Haren, a bases-loaded double.  I’m sure Blanton will never live that one down.

Blanton just plain sucked last night.  That still doesn’t change my belief that he’s been unlucky.   Indeed, looking at BP’s LUCK stat, which tracks the difference between expected W-L record and actual W-L record, even after last night’s suckfest, Blanton remains the unluckiest pitcher in the majors: