marlins – Page 2 – Sportscolumn Blog

1. This Rookie’s not fading: It’s a fact that most rookies, even the best ones, fade down the stretch. But Justin Verlander of the Tigers isn’t following that trend. In September he has two starts and a 0.60 ERA after last night’s gem against the Twins. Verlander threw 7 innings, allowing just one run and striking out 5. He earned a victory to improve to 16-7 as the Tigers rolled on against the Twins. Verlander was helped by the Tigers’ offense, which scored 7 runs and hit 4 homers. Detroit ended a 1-4 stretch with the victory and leads the Twins by 5 games.

2. The Contenders: The Phillies and Marlins started what will be an interesting four-game series over the weekend. Yesterday the Phils took Game 1 by a score of 14-8 in a game that featured great offense by both teams. For the winning Phils, Ryan Howard hit his 54th homerun of the season, his fifth jack in five days. Chase Utley had two hits and three RBIs, and backup catcher Chris Coste even got in on the action with four runs driven in. The Marlins were impressive too on offense, as Miguel Cabrera went crazy with four hits, a homer, and three runs. But their stud rookie pitcher Josh Johnson saw his ERA rise over 3.0 for the first time since May 4. He had been leading all pitchers in that category for a while, but not after the 4 innings pitched, 5 earned runs effort he had last night. The Marlins fell back to .500 a day after their no-hitter. But each team is still very much alive in the Wild Card standings.

3. The Steamroller: The Mets are literally steamrolling their way through the relatively easy National League. Yesterday they cruised by the Dodgers 7-0, as Tom Glavine pitched well enough to earn his first victory since August 5. Since June 23, Glavine is remarkably just 2-4, with an increased ERA as well. Two wins in two-and-a-half months are very bad luck for a pitcher on the NL’s best offense, which showed off as well in the win. Jose Reyes hit what was surprisingly his first career inside-the-park homerun. David Wright went 2-2, drove in a run, and scored. And Carlos Beltran hit his team-leading 113th RBI. Brad Penny of the Dodgers got smoked for all seven runs and exited with a loss.

4. No Hafner, no problem: The Cleveland Indians lacked big-time DH Travis Hafner last night, who hasn’t played since the 1st with an unknown injury. But that was no big deal for their offense, even against the defending World Champs. Cleveland easily outclassed the White Sox yesterday, winning 9-1. Victor Martinez and Grady Sizemore each homered for the Tribe, who pumped out 17 hits on the night. The loser for the White Sox was Mark Buehrle, who has been plagued by inconsistent play recently. He left after 4 innings, allowing 5 runs and 10 hits on the day. The loss dropped him to 12-12, including a 3-6 mark since the break. The Indians have now outscored their opponents by 81 runs this season, a remarkable figure considering their 67-72 record.

5. The Quiet Pursuit of an All-time Record: An MLB player is about to break a major record, yet even baseball fans haven’t been hearing about his chase. He is Padres closer Trevor Hoffman, who has been one of the league’s most underrated players for a while and is closing in on the saves record. Hoffman leads the National League with 37 saves this season, and has closed out more than half of the Padres’ 73 wins. He hasn’t even allowed a run since July 28. More importantly, Hoffman is just 5 away from Lee Smith’s mark of 478 saves. He’s on pace for six more saves this season, meaning that he should break the record.Why this isn’t a bigger story is beyond us. Mariano Rivera gets all the publicity, but Hoffman has been just as good for just as long in the regular season. The only thing he doesn’t have is the playoff experience. Still, he’ll retire the all time saves leader, and that should be enough to get anyone into the Hall of Fame.

The Full Count: Marlins’ Sanchez throws no hitter

1. The Drought is Over: Believe it or not, you just waited through baseball’s longest no-hitter drought of all time. Believe it or not, it was an unknown rookie on baseball’s most overachieving squad that captured the no-no. Anibal Sanchez threw the Marlins’ fourth no-no in team history, the first since 2001 by a rookie. He was the first to do so since Randy Johnson in May 2004, an 841-day span. Sanchez did it against the Diamondbacks, as the Marlins won 2-0. Here’s his line: 9 innings, no hits, no runs, four walks, and six strikeouts. Sanchez also allowed a baserunner to reach via error, and he needed a few defensive gems to accomplish the no-hitter. Perhaps the biggest one of those came in the 7th innings with two outs, when shortstop Hanley Ramirez fielded a tough grounder to his left, spun, and threw a bullet to first for a close out. The stadium in Miami was one of the least likely atmospheres to witness a historic feat, considering the paid attendance was only 12,000 and about half that actually were in the stands at any given point. On the year, the 22-year-old Sanchez is 7-2 with a 2.89 ERA. Since the start of August, he is 3-1 with seven straight quality starts. Sanchez, a native Venezuelan, is one of many rookies on the Marlins roster and wasn’t even among their numerous candidates for Rookie of the Year before yesterday. Well, he is now.

2. The Deadly Duo: Chicago couldn’t afford a sweep at the hands of the Red Sox. They needed to at least stay close to the Twins. And they did just that with an 8-1 victory yesterday. Their best two offensive players, Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye, came up big in the win. Dye hit his 40th homer of the year, a two-run shot. Thome went 4-4 with his 39th shot of the year. The duo, which has been pacing the White Sox’s dynamic offense all year, struck again against Boston. Pitching-wise, Jose Contreras broke out of a month-long slump in which he had gone 0-3. He finally won his 12th game of the season with an 8 inning, nine strikeout performance. The White Sox took advantage of a Twins loss to move to just .5 games back of them for the Wild Card. Each team is closing in on the slumping Tigers.

3. Daily Double: The New York Mets played a home doubleheader against the Braves yesterday, and they sure took advantage of it. The Mets won the first game 4-1, behind a recent call-up’s starting pitching. Dave Williams, who has been back and forth to and from Norfolk all season, pitched a gem to move the Mets on in game 1. In game 2, the Mets won by a more convincing margin. Despite resting David Wright and Carlos Delgado, New York moved on behind Jose Reyes and Shawn Green homeruns. At 86-52, they have the best record in the majors.

4. Watch out!: Don’t look now Oakland Athletics, but the LA Angels are coming for you. The team has won five games in a row, gaining 3 games on the A’s in the process. The Angels easily beat the Orioles last night by a margin of 8-4. Vlad Guerrero hit two RBIs to bring his season total to 109–best in the division. Rookie prodigy Howie Kendrick hit his 3rd homerun and 23rd RBI of the year. And young starter Ervin Santana won his 14th game of the year, though he allowed 4 runs in 7 innings. The Angels are still 5.5 back of the A’s, but with the way they are playing that gap could be diminished very soon.

5. Gaining firepower: The major’s best offense is about to get even better. The Yankees, who won 8-3 last night behind two homers and six RBIs from Jorge Posada, lead the MLB in runs scored and OPS. Now they will return Hideki Matsui, who put up 100 or more RBIs from 2003-05. Matsui had his first rehab start yesterday for the AA Trenton Thunder. He went 1-3 with an RBI. Though no specific return date is listed for Matsui, when he does come back it will likely be at the designated hitter spot. That could provide a huge boost for the Yanks as they make their run at their first World Series title since 2000.