Bases Covered is a daily roundup of the most interesting stories in baseball.
Bringing Big Sexy back
While the Mets have struggled with injuries to their starting rotation this season, Bartolo Colon has been a constant. On Monday, the 43-year-old hurler picked up another win as New York defeated Cincinnati, 5–0. He now sports an ERA of 3.22 through 28 starts this year.
Colon will be a free agent at season’s end, but one writer makes the case that New York bringing “Big Sexy” back next year is “a no-brainer.”
Good thing Colon wants to return to the Mets, too. The old-timer is grateful for the season he’s having, especially considering his admission that “I did expect to be in the bullpen at this point.”
He’ll be there for you
Speaking of the Mets, Colon’s teammate Wilmer Flores debuted a new walk-up song over the weekend: the theme song to the TV show Friends.
Apparently Flores learned to speak English by watching the show while he was in the minors, and he still watches it “every day before I go to sleep.”
Nobody messes with Carlos
In a Monday-afternoon matchup with the Rockies, the Giants made what turned out to be a critical error: intentionally walking Nolen Arenado in order to face Carlos Gonzalez.
With the bases loaded, Giants lefty Matt Moore walked Arenado on Bruce Bochy’s orders. Up stepped Gonzalez, who promptly delivered a grand slam. Colorado took the victory, 6–0.
“When you get opportunities like I did today, you want to come through,” Gonzalez commented after the game.
Boos for an old friend
Zack Greinke took the mound for the Diamondbacks on Monday and the results were not good. Facing his former team, the Dodgers, Greinke allowed eight runs and nine hits in 4 and 2/3 innings.
As Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times notes, the game “underlined an unexpected reality” this season: Dodgers rookie starter Kenta Maeda, who allowed only one run and three hits over six and a third innings, has been a better arm than Greinke, who opted out of his deal with Los Angeles after last season to sign a bigger contract with Arizona.
A good start
Orioles righty Ubaldo Jimenez threw a complete game on Monday as his team defeated the Rays, 7–3. It was the first complete game thrown by a Baltimore starter in more than two years.
As Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun writes, the starter credited his recent success with feeling better about his mechanics