A bunch of little guys on today's Birthday Team. Robertson is a two-time home run champ; Jefferson and Baldelli could pop one from time to time, but otherwise it's going to be slap-and-run.

Petralli's not really a third baseman, but he played 63 games there. Besides, if you ever saw Geno Petralli behind the plate, it wouldn't take long to realize he wasn't really a catcher either.

Pretty solid pitching staff. No need to pray for rain.

C: Bill Atwood
1B: Reggie Jefferson
2B: Glenn Hubbard
3B: Geno Petralli
SS: Phil Rizzuto
LF: Dave Robertson
CF: Rocco Baldelli
RF: Tony Womack

SP: Johnny Sain
SP: Pat Malone
SP: Steve Arlin
SP: Joel Pineiro
SP: Brad Bergesen
RP: David Weathers

Rhymes With Pretzel: Eric Hetzel

I wouldn't say that's a solid pitching staff. Malone and Arlin had two good seasons, Piniero's also had two good ones mixed in with a lot of dreck, and Bergesen is a AAAA guy.

-- MWE

The record setting 2012 Rockies. Can you guess the record? (It was actually mentioned in the dugout last week).

Mike, I probably (definitely) gave Arlin too much credit, but Malone is a career 111 ERA+ guy over nearly 2,000 innings, and Pineiro and Bergesen are both in the mid 90s in career ERA+.

It's not a spectacular staff by any stretch, but in the context of MLB history being divided into 365 pieces, it's at least middle of the pack, no?

Although, yeah, Pineiro in particular has spent his entire career being either fantastic or putrid, and almost never decent.

As a drizzly rain refused to subside, Acting Manager Wilbert Robinson of the Giants called off both games. There was little or no rain at 1:30, the time set for the first game to begin

Should have looked at the radar.

With Rizzuto, Petralli and Baldelli, this team is an Italian-American's dream.

Rocco Baldelli is one of my favourite names in baseball history.
It's not super goofy or unusual, but simply fun to say.

Game of the day (yesterday): Rangers 5, A's 4. Derek Holland and Dan Straily both allowed leadoff singles in the first inning, and both recovered to strand the runners (Stephen Drew and Ian Kinsler) on second. The similarities between their performances didn't last long.

Holland walked Brandon Moss to start the top of the second, and promptly served up a two-run homer to Josh Donaldson. Texas scraped together a run in the bottom of the inning when Straily hit Michael Young with a pitch and David Murphy reached on an error by Donaldson. After the second out, Mitch Moreland singled Young home. Kinsler walked to load the bases, but Straily struck out Elvis Andrus to preserve the lead, and Yoenis Cespedes homered in the top of the third to restore the Oakland advantage to two runs. Holland allowed a single to Chris Carter and walked Moss, but Donaldson popped out to end the inning. And Holland was pulled from the game after the inning.

Straily worked a perfect third, and after Roy Oswalt held the A's scoreless in the fourth, worked around a walk and a two-base error in the bottom of that inning. Oswalt threw a perfect fifth, and Straily finally allowed another run, this one on a solo homer by Josh Hamilton. Robbie Ross then replaced Oswalt. He allowed a leadoff double to Moss; two outs later, Derek Norris reached on an infield hit, and Cliff Pennington then singled to bring Moss home. Ross balked the runners to second and third, but struck out Drew to leave them there.

Straily set Texas down 1-2-3 in the sixth, and Koji Uehara shut the A's down in the seventh. Straily also retired the first two Rangers in the seventh, and was then removed. This did not prove to be a successful move, as Jerry Blevins walked Hamilton and Pat Neshek then served up a game-tying two-run homer to Adrian Beltre.

Mike Adams worked a scoreless eighth, and Ryan Cook was spotless in the bottom of the inning. Joe Nathan walked Drew with one out in the ninth, but coaxed a double play ball from Seth Smith. In the bottom of the ninth, Moreland led off with a single against Tyson Ross. Craig Gentry pinch ran, and Kinsler singled him to second. Andrus bunted the runners over, Hamilton was intentionally walked, and Beltre singled in the winning run.

I'm pleased with this game as a fan, both because the Rangers are my favorite AL team and because it heavily featured Adrian Beltre, who's well on his way to being one of the more underrated players in baseball history - a quality hitter and exemplary defender at third base in a fairly long career that has a good chance to last quite a bit longer (he's still only 33, after all). So the more game-tying homers and walkoff hits he gets, the better.

MWE -- Womack is the starting RF and you're worried about the depth of the rotation? :-)

And I'd never heard of him before but I'll put a word in for Malone as well. In addition to what Dan mentioned, he's got 18 points of black ink, 115 points of gray ink and guys like Jack McDowell, Mike Garcia, Mike Boddicker and Bruce Kison on his career comp list. He's got 550 more IP than Kerry Wood with an ERA+ that's only 6 points lower. He's got essentially identical IP and ERA+ to Josh Beckett. True, he looks a bit worse as you adjust for era -- the man could barely be counted on for 250 innings! -- but that's a plenty solid career.

Just cuz I was curious, not to pile on MWE ... only 632 pitchers (post-1900) have pitched at least 1500 innings (Malone is over 1900). By ERA+ he's in a many way tie for 180th. And his 1915 innings are good for 153rd post-1900. Even with various era and other adjustments that might push a Kerry Wood ahead of him, he's probably pretty comfortably within the top 250-300 starters in history (post-1900). He'd probably be a #1 on most birthday teams.

Now that I notice it:

Sain, 2125 IP, 107 ERA+, 15 black ink, 121 gray ink
Malone, 1915 IP, 111 ERA+, 18 black ink, 115 gray ink

Sain missed 3 years for the war but otherwise they're the same guy.

Game of the day (last year): Rockies 4, Astros 2 (13). In the top of the first, Houston's JA Happ issued only a walk, and promptly picked Mark Ellis off of first. In the bottom of the first, Colorado's Jason Hammel also issued only one walk - and still gave up a run. The walk was given to Jordan Schafer, leading off the inning; Schafer stole second, took third on a groundout, and scored on a sac fly. Truly, it was the most manufactured of runs.

In the bottom of the second, Brett Wallace rounded the bases much more easily after leading off the inning with a home run, putting Houston ahead by 2. Meanwhile, Happ didn't allow a hit until the fourth. That hit, however, was a single by Chris Nelson that came with a runner already on base (Ellis, having drawn his second walk of the game and this time managing not to get picked off), and was followed by a Jordan Pacheco double that scored both runners and tied the game.

Happ and Hammel both pitched superbly from that point forward, each coming out after seven innings, each having allowed three hits and two runs. David Carpenter and Matt Belisle threw perfect eighths, and Mark Melancon matched them in the top of the ninth. Rex Brothers recorded two outs in the ninth before JD Martinez singled and took second on an error; Carlos Lee was intentionally walked, and Matt Downs hit into a force to send the game to extras.

Offense picked up somewhat in the additional innings. Chris Iannetta singled with one out in the tenth against Enerio del Rosario, but Wesley Wright came on to induce a double play from Seth Smith. Clint Barmes picked up a one-out single of his own against Matt Lindstrom, and took second on a groundout before being stranded. Fernando Rodriguez came on for the eleventh and quickly got himself into trouble. He walked Eric Young Jr; after Ellis bunted the runner to second, Dexter Fowler was intentionally passed. The runners promptly executed a double steal, moving to second and third, but Nelson hit a grounder back to the mound that got Young thrown out at home, and Ty Wigginton struck out. Schafer led off the bottom of the inning by singling against JC Romero. Edgmer Escalona replaced Romero and coaxed Jose Altuve into a foul bunt with two strikes, but Schafer advanced anyway, stealing second during the next at bat. Jason Bourgeois grounded out, moving Schafer to third; Lee was intentionally walked and took second on defensive indifference, and Downs fouled out to extend the game.

Wilton Lopez worked a perfect twelfth for Houston, and the Rockies put in their third relief pitching Matt (Reynolds this time) of the game to work the bottom of the inning. (The preponderance of relieving Matts makes the '11 Rockies a little irritating to write about; I keep thinking they've all pitched already.) Anyway, Reynolds walked Jimmy Paredes, then balked him to second. Barmes fouled out, Humberto Quintero flied out, Angel Sanchez was intentionally walked, and Schafer fanned to end the inning.

That brought Jordan Lyles to the mound for the thirteenth. The first batter he faced was Thomas Field, who sounds like he was named after a high school football stadium. Field walked, and Young followed that with a bunt single on which Quintero's throwing error moved Field to third. Young quickly took second on defensive indifference. Ellis grounded out, and Fowler was intentionally walked to fill the bases. (I'm sure you're wondering; yes, this is the only time Dexter Fowler has drawn multiple intentional walks in a game. I can tell without even checking his gamelog, because he only drew three IBB's in the 2011 season, and hasn't drawn more than one in any other year. 40% of his career intentional walks in one game.)

Naturally, Nelson followed the intentional walk by drawing an unintentional one to force in the go-ahead run. Lyles was replaced by Aneury Rodriguez, who allowed a sac fly that doubled Colorado's margin, and Rafael Betancourt set Houston's hitters down in order in the bottom of the inning.

It's hardly a classic, but it does serve as an amusing reminder that even a late-September game between a bad team and an awful team can have its moments.