Efren Ramirez was in attendance at last night's Cardinals/Phillies match-up at The Bank. While that name may not mean much to you, the name "Pedro" probably does. 
These days, if you utter the name "Pedro", two people most certainly come to mind: Pedro Martinez (future Hall of Fame pitcher) or Pedro Sanchez, the candidate for student body president in the movie Napoleon Dynamite.
In Napoleon Dynamite, there is a scene where Pedro, inexplicably begins to shave off his hair. When asked why he did it, his only reply is, "Because I was very hot."
Well, if that's the case, then hold down Bobby Abreu and shave his head, because this guy is real hot.
Abreu has homered in 8 of his last 9 games, and over that nine-game span he has posted some just absurdly high numbers:
BA .567
OBP .641
SLG 1.467
OPS 2.108 (!)
HR 8
RBI 15
R 10
SB 1
Interestingly enough, during this stretch, Abreu has been intentionally walked only once. Pat Burrell has been batting behind him during this stretch, and during the same stretch his statistics are, obviously, paled in comparison to Abreu's, but probably adequate enough to keep Abreu's intentional walks down:
BA .344
OBP .400
SLG .438
OPS .838
HR 1
RBI 4
R 1
SB 0
Several questions come to mind...First, for how long can Abreu keep up this tear? And, how long before pitchers begin to give him the Barry Bonds treatment -- baseball's version of Hack-a-Shaq in the NBA -- intentionally walking him with regularity? Will Bobby finally make the All-Star team outright this year without the Last Man Vote? Larger still, is Cooperstown a legitimate thing to consider? As always, time will tell.
Unfortunately, Abreu's efforts have been somewhat wasted as the Phillies are 4-5 during his nine-game tear. Last night was a win however, even though at times the Phillies defense made you groan, "Gosh!", just like Napoleon Dynamite would. Five errors were committed by the Phils -- three by David Bell -- in spite of the fact that they've had a very efficient defense, leading the league in fewest errors. Another slightly troubling event was when Wee David Eckstein hit a home run off of Billy Wagner. But hey, a win is a win. Final score: 7-5.
Tonight, Jon Lieber will take on Chris Carpenter in the second game of the series. While I'll be packing my life into boxes to go into a P.O.D.S.-thingy and watching on MLB.tv, my brother and father will be in attendance. But I'm not bitter. At all.
