1. The kind of Cycling we care about: Who needs the Tour de France when you can see cycling in baseball? That’s right, for the first time this season a player hit for the cycle. It was Carlos Guillen, the Tigers’ underrated shortstop. Guillen finished 4-5 with a single, double, triple, and homerun. On July 23rd he finished a homer short of the feat. Now Guillen is hitting .306 with 13 homers, 64 RBIs, and 15 steals. That makes that he is one of the top all-around shortstops in the game, and he carried the Tigers to a 10-4 victory over the Devil Rays yesterday. Justin Verlander got his 14th win, giving him the major-league lead. Verlander is now 14-4, giving him a 21-win pace. He has led the Tigers to a 71-35 record, matching last season’s win total and the best in baseball by 8 games.
2. Expect the expected: This shouldn’t surprise anyone, but the Yankees and Red Sox are where they usually are–deadlocked. The teams are tied for first place after a Yankee win yesterday while Boston was off. In Bobby Abreu’s debut with the team, he went 0-3 but they still defeated the Blue Jays 5-1. Toronto, after tying New York a few weeks ago, has stumbled and is 6.5 back now. AJ Burnett lost again yesterday and is now 2-5 with an ERA of 4.84. For those who care, the next Yankees/Red Sox series is an enormous 5-game set starting August 18th.
3. Different Directions: The NL West is crazy, has been crazy, and will be crazy for the foreseeable future. Remember when the Giants were in second place? Now they have dropped 9 straight and have free-falled to last. The Dodgers, a few weeks removed from the cellar, are in third after a four game win streak. Last night they downed the Reds 10-4 using a lineup that included the just-traded-for Julio Lugo and Wilson Betemit. As for the rest of the division, San Diego and Arizona are still clinging to the first and second spots while the Rockies are average as usual.
4. Reversal of fortunes: The Astros have been plagued over the last two seasons with 1-0 losses, usually with Roger Clemens or Andy Pettitte on the mound. But yesterday, they finally won a 1-0 game of their own. Pettitte pitched wonderfully in the win while the bullpen allowed just one baserunner. The bad luck went to Jake Peavy of the Padres, who fell to an eye-opening 5-11 after losing. Though Peavy was the Padres’ ace in 2004 and 2005 with sub-3 ERA seasons, this year he hasn’t gotten on track. He has a 4.81 ERA despite striking out more batters than ever. Strange.
5. Who wants scoring?: Apparently the Rockies don’t. According to Brewers infielder Jeff Cirillo, the team is using water-logged balls to decrease scoring at Coors Field. Once the best hitters’ park in the majors with 15 runs scored per game, now only 9 combined runs per game are scored at the park. Cirillo said he compared a ball from Milwaukee with a ball used at Coors yesterday. The one from Denver was apparently puffy, heavy, and water-logged. That’s in part because they use a humidor to prevent balls drying out due to the altitude. But are they over-using the device? Just hear this: Coors Field has hosted the most shutouts in the majors this season with eleven. Last night’s 1-0 game was the third of its’ kind at the park this year.
