[Editor’s Note: Sportscolumn Blog welcomes Jackson Govatos as the lead baseball blogger. Jackson’s daily feature, The Full Count, will take you through the five baseball stories you need to know.]
1. Mr. Consistency strikes again: It didn’t take long for Albert Pujols to follow up his 3 homer game on Sunday. In the first inning against the Pirates, Pujols hit a two-run shot off Paul Maholm to remain the National League home run leader so far this year. This latest blast gave him four in consecutive at-bats, tying 34 other players for the major league record. Those two runs proved to be all the Cardinals needed as they won 2-1 behind strong pitching from Jason Marquis.
2. “K”-dro wins #200: Pedro Martinez of the Mets achieved his 200th win in a 4-3 victory over the Braves on Monday. Martinez wasn’t perfect–he allowed 3 earned runs, including a monster homer to Andruw Jones–but he still got the job done in a close win over the division rival. Duaner Sánchez and Billy Wagner relieved Martinez, allowing no hits or runs in 2.1 innings of work. Wagner will be a key contributor to Martinez’s success this season. Last year, before the acquisition of Wagner, Martinez allowed 3 or less earned runs 10 times in games that he did not pick up the win. Wagner gives the Mets a reliable closer so that won’t happen as much this year. The victory improved the Mets to a major league best 10-2 record, while the Braves fell to 6-8.
3. Not so fast my friend: Apparently realizing the Tigers had taken the division lead, the Indians exploded on offense to defeat Detroit 10-2. This game ended the highly competitive series in a 2-2 tie. Victor Martinez and Aaron Boone provided the offensive spark for Cleveland with 5 combined RBIs. The Indians are on fire offensively, with a .305 average for the season. However, they still couldn’t stop Tigers first baseman Chris Shelton–the slugger picked up his AL-leading 9th home run of the season in a losing effort.
4. The 40 year old surgin’: Greg Maddux pitched another strong game on Monday to improve to 3-0 on the year. The victory was Maddux’s 321st of his career and his first since turning 40 years old on April 14. Pitching against the Dodgers, Maddux worked 8 innings with 6 K’s and only 1 run allowed. His season ERA improved to 1.33, good for 2nd in the NL. The Cubs beat the Dodgers 4-1 and improved to a surprising 8-4 on the year.
5. Could it get any worse?: Barry Bonds, all over the news for the steroid allegations and possible perjury charges, got an object thrown at him during the 4th inning of last night’s 10-9 win over the Diamondbacks.
The object, which police say resembles a toothpaste tube, landed a few feet in front of Bonds and was promptly removed by security. The man who threw the object, 23-year-old Mark Greggersen, was charged with disorderly conduct. It was the second time an object has been thrown at Bonds this season. Bonds declined to speak to the media, but teammate Randy Winn said, “It’s definitely not a trend we want to continue.”
