This has the makings to be a great baseball series.  I'll be at the games and posting updates afterwards at Rock Chalk Talk.

Aman Reaka has done his usual outstanding job previewing visiting prospects.  Link to the Missouri preview here.  Do his evaluations look right to you?

The weather here in Lawrence is a bit iffy for tomorrow, but the games on Friday and Sunday should go off without a hitch.  It is a bit cold and wet, the field will be sloppy.

Mizzou up 3-2 after two-run top of the fifth

...rings up his 11th victim of the evening to squelch a 2-on, 2-out situation in the 7th.  Mizzou maintains a 4-2 lead heading into the 8th.  Hope Crow's got two more innings in him, as I would prefer to wrap this one up without getting the bullpen involved...

Good: Mizzou scored another run to go up 5-2.

Bad: Crow's done, and the bullpen (Tepesch, in this case) has put the first two runners on in the 8th.

...I get ready to make a "1-2-3 ninth inning?  That's a change" comment when we quickly got the first two outs in the bottom of the 9th...and then the next three guys reach base.  And with the bases loaded, Kyle Gibson (???) comes in and goes 3-1 on his batter...and then strikes him out swinging to end it.  Hoo boy.  Aaron Crow's 11-0, but it gets harder every week.

Since the weather is so iffy today, Saturday, I think Missouri was taking a gamble with Gibson.  Pitch him short on Friday, and then bring him back Sunday to start.  

As there is a good chance there will be no baseball on Saturday it is a good calculated risk.  The worst thing that happens is the rotation is unsettled a bit by using Zargone on Saturday instead of Sunday.

It was a great game yesterday.  I posted a recap at RCT for those interested.  There were about 200 MU supporters at Hoglund last night.  Only one represted Mizzou poorly.  What is with that guy?  The big 40ish year-old guy.  Not trying to start smack here (seriously, I am not) but I wish someone from MU would talk to him about his behavior at games.  

...game's been delayed till roughly 7pm or so.  Meanwhile, Max Scherzer pitched six shutout innings for the D-Backs, and Keyon Dooling got a technical foul with a minute left against the Pistons.  Good with the bad.

...in today's first game, it's 1-0 Mizzou on an RBI double from Andrew Thigpen.  Have been hoping to see Thigpen moved up a couple spots in the order lately (he's batting 8th today)--he's been quite strong for a while now (.415 OBP), but I assume he's been left low in the order simply because he's a true freshman and Jamieson doesn't want to throw too much pressure at him too soon.

Meanwhile, Zagone's breezed through 3 innings, with 2 hits and 2 K's...

...and it's 3-2 MU, top 6th...

... than Mizzou having to play TWO games on Sunday?

...Senne with another solo shot, and Mizzou's up 1-0 after 1.  Hopefully Gibson can go the damn distance.

...in a way, it was a disappointing 3-run inning...we loaded the bases with no outs and did manage to score three off of a single and 2 walks, but...when you're looking for clutch hitting and only score when the pitcher can't find the plate...well...oh well, I guess.  3 runs are 3 runs.