Tag: Minnesota Twins

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MLB General

The Full Count: Watch out for the Twins


1. The Most Dangerous Team: Going into the playoffs, the scariest team in the American League isn’t even a division leader. It is the Wild Card-leading Minnesota Twins, who have been rolling since the All Star break. Even with only one great starter in Johan Santana, their pitching staff has found a way to get the job done. Yesterday, Boof Bonser won his third straight decision to lead the Twins to an 8-2 victory over the Red Sox. Torri Hunter continues to be a man on a mission and has hit 5 homers and 15 RBIs in his last 10 games. Despite David Ortiz’s 50th homer of the year, the Red Sox lost again and are virtually out of the playoff hunt. The 90-61 Twins, meanwhile, will win the Wild Card barring a total collapse. Watch out for this team in the postseason.

2. The Last Battle: The Detroit-Chicago season series has finally come to a close. Chicago beat them 12 out of 19 times, but take out the first five games between these teams and they each won 7. The Tigers got the last laugh, as they won the final series 2-1. They beat the White Sox 6-2 yesterday behind a strong outing from starter Jeremy Bonderman. Bonderman, who had been inconsistent recently and lost 4 of his last 5 decisions, pitched six innings, allowed two runs, and got just enough run support to get the job done. Pudge Rodriguez and Magglio Ordonez each homered for the Tigers, who got 12 hits and 5 runs off the White Sox’s best starter, Jon Garland. The ChiSox are 5.5 games out of the Wild Card with 10 games left to play, meaning they have virtually no chance. The Tigers are just holding off the Twins by a half game.

3. Tying it up: The Phillies had been looking for the Wild Card lead for a while, and now they’ve finally found it. The Phils tied the Dodgers and Padres, who each share the WC lead at this point. Philly beat the Cubs yesterday 6-2 behind an outstanding pitching performance by Brett Myers. Myers went for a complete game, allowing 2 runs and striking out 12 in the process. He got homeruns from Chas Utley and Pat Burrell, which was enough for the Phils to win. But can they hold onto the Wild Card? Probably; the team plays Florida six times, Washington three times, and Houston once the rest of the season. If they take seven of those games, the Phillies will make the postseason.

4. Falling in: Would you celebrate in this circumstance? The Yankees lost 3-2 to the Blue Jays yesterday, but they clinched the AL East division title via a Red Sox loss. While it’s hard to celebrate after a loss, this would be the best time to do so. This is the team’s ninth straight year winning the division, and they certainly deserve it. Despite the losses of Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui in addition to a somewhat mediocre pitching staff, this team is as good as any. The Yanks are 92-60 and should be a force come the playoffs. If only people would just shut up and realize that A-Rod is a damn good player. He has more RBIs than any other thirdbaseman in the game. With 34 homers, 116 driven in, and 14 steals, A-Rod is still one of the best all-round threats in baseball. The media should just let him play like everybody else.

5. Wait till next year: The Braves are officially done this year. But what will the team look like in 2007? Their bullpen at least will have a closer. That’s because Bob Wickman just re-signed with the team through next season. This means they probably won’t be amongst the league leaders in blown saves anymore. Wickman has saved 15 games in 16 chances for the Braves this year and has a 1.19 ERA since joining the team. The team’s biggest problem will be a former strength: starting pitching. They have no one reliable outside of John Smoltz, and he is getting older. There’s one thing for sure though: the team will not be as bad as this year’s mediocre 74-78 club.

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MLB General

The Full Count: Liriano down and out



Liriano out for the season

1. Double Blow: Yesterday was a big day for the Minnesota Twins; it marked the return of Francisco Liriano. While the day started out hopeful, it soon turned towards the negative. Liriano, though he pitched two great innings, left with elbow problems again. He hadn’t pitched for more than a month due to his elbow, and now Liriano will be out for the rest of the year. This will be a huge blow to the Twins, who need a pitcher down the stretch that can complement Johan Santana. The Twins lost to the A’s 1-0, with Oakland’s Dan Haren throwing eight innings of shutout ball. They still lead the White Sox by one-and-a-half in the Wild Card standings.

2. Perfect? Almost: After Anibal Sanchez’s no-hitter last week, we almost saw two perfectos last night. Ben Sheets and Freddy Garcia each took a perfect game into the seventh inning last night, with Garcia recording 23 straight outs to start his ballgame. Garcia and his White Sox faced the Angels, and he didn’t allow a baserunner until there were two outs in the eighth. Then Adam Kennedy, who is hitting .266 on the year, broke it up with the Angels’ only hit of the night. Garcia improved to 14-9 and his ERA dipped under 5 to 4.82. Meanwhile, Ben Sheets of the Brewers allowed nothing until a leadoff single in the seventh and a homerun to Pirates backup catcher Ryan Doumit. Otherwise he was perfect, finishing with eight innings pitched and 10 strikeouts.

3. Changing of the Guard: The San Diego Padres played the Cincinnati Reds yesterday in a matchup of current and past Wild Card leaders. The team currently on top, the Padres, stormed through the Reds, winning 10-0. Jake Peavy pitched 6 innings, allowing just 3 hits and no runs while extending his NL lead in strikeouts. Peavy has looked like the ace he is in three September starts, with a 1.66 ERA and .171 opponents’ batting average. Mike Piazza also hit his 22nd homer of the season, as he remarkably leads all catchers once again. The Padres Wild Card lead actually shrunk on the day, as the Philadelphia Phillies won both games of a doubleheader to move to 1.5 games back.

4. Ninety: The New York Mets became the first major league team to win 90 games on the season yesterday, improving to 90-55. They defeated the Florida Marlins 7-4, though they were trailing leading into the ninth inning. The Mets needed a pinch-hit RBI single by Carlos Delgado to send the game into extras, where they excelled. New York put up three runs in the 11th to beat the Florida Marlins, who got another great game from Josh Willingham. Willingham homered for his third straight game, and has 6 RBIs and 8 hits during that span. But that wasn’t enough to take down the mighty Mets, who have scored the second-most runs in the NL and allowed the second-fewest. They have the league’s best home record and its best road record, and should absolutely represent the NL in the World Series. Only a catastrophic injury or just poor playoff performance could keep them from that.

5. Penny’s worth to the Dodgers: Who is the most valuable player on the Dodgers? What player has propelled them from no-show to leader in the division? This is not a team loaded with stars. There are two players that have been particularly good though–and that made the All Star team. They are Brad Penny and Nomar Garciaparra, who each contributed yesterday in LA’s 6-0 victory. Nomar had two hits and two RBIs. He leads the team in batting average, homers, and RBIs among other things. Penny meanwhile, was in shutout form through seven inning to win his NL-leading 16th game. The 77-68 Dodgers are just 61-60 in games Penny has not recorded a decision. Both are valuable, but we’d take the player that started the All Star game and hasn’t looked back.

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MLB General

The Full Count: Chris Carpenter for NL Cy Young



This year’s Cy Young

1. Cy to Carpenter: Who should win the NL Cy Young this year? While Johan Santana has virtually clinched the AL award, there is no clear favorite in the National League. But in our opinion, the league’s winner from last year is again its best pitcher this year. He is Chris Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals, and he’s been dominant recently. Carpenter, who went 21-5 last year to take home his first career Cy Young, is 14-6 this year with a 2.84 ERA. Last night he shut down the Astros with a complete game, six-hit shutout. It was his second straight complete game in a row and third in his last six games. He’s won four straight decisions, and leads the NL in both ERA and WHIP. Carpenter has also been the only consistent starter for the Cardinals this season. That should be enough to add another Cy Young to his trophy case.

2. That’s offensive: It’s been well-established that the Florida Marlins have some good young players. Last night, many of them were at their finest. The Fish stomped the Mets 16-5, and while Anibal Sanchez failed in his quest for two straight no-hitters, it was all good news for Florida. Star third baseman Miguel Cabrera drove in three RBIs, giving him 109 on the year. All Star Dan Uggla went 5-5 and scored three runs. But it was outfielder Cody Ross that had the biggest day. Ross hit three homers, seven RBIs, and went 4-5 at the plate. All in all Marlins rookies hit five homeruns, setting a major league record. They passed Philly to improve to second place in the division and in the Wild Card race. They’re just two games out of the lead in the latter.

3. Keeping pace: As the Minnesota Twins won again yesterday, the White Sox needed to stay close to them by winning themselves. And, despite only recording four hits against starter John Lackey and the LA Angels, they still managed to win 3-2. Jose Contreras has his second consecutive 8 inning, one run allowed start. He had previously allowed five or more runs for four straight starts. But he improved to 13-7 as Bobby Jenks saved his 40th game of the year. The win left the Sox 3 games back of the Tigers and 1.5 behind the Twins for the Wild Card. This should be a fantastic race down the stretch.

4. Mid-field greatness: Where do the Yankees strengths lie? Well, they have many, but their greatest asset could be their middle infield. Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano have been the best offensive shortstop-second base combination this season, at least in terms of batting average. Cano is hitting .336 and Jeter .345. While Jeter is second in the league, Cano doesn’t have enough at-bats to qualify. Anyway, his three-run double in yesterday’s game put the Yankees ahead for good over the Orioles. Jeter, meanwhile, continued his 21 game hit streak, a career high for him. He has 13 homers and 91 RBIs this year; Cano has 9 and 59 in less at-bats. That’s pretty good for a double-play combo.

5. Lefty #2 returns: Francisco Liriano, who is one of two lefty aces for the Minnesota Twins, is finally coming back to the mound. After missing more than a month, Liriano is off the disabled list and is set to return to the rotation as early as Wednesday. The 12-3, 2.19 ERA Liriano will pitch against the Oakland A’s. Assuming Liriano picks up where he left off, this could be a huge boost to the Twins in their push for the playoffs.

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MLB General

The Full Count: Here come the Twins


1. Closing in: We thought the Detroit Tigers had a divisional lead impossible to overcome. The Minnesota Twins thought otherwise. They just took 3 of 4 from the Tigers in dominant fashion. On Sunday, Johan Santana was able to shut down the Detroit offense once again. He threw 11 strikeouts and didn’t allow a run in Minnesota’s 12-1 blowout. Joe Mauer had two doubles and two RBIs for the offense, and Nick Punto had an excellent game with four hits. It was the Twins’ third win in a row to close out the series, and it gave them their smallest divisional deficit since April 18. The Twins are just two games back now of the Tigers. These teams don’t play for the rest of the season unless they meet in the playoffs.

2. The D-Train Returns: The Florida Marlins pitching staff got plenty of attention over the past week, but little of it went to Dontrelle Willis. He had been in the shadow of Anibal Sanchez’s no-hitter as well as some of the Marlins’ other rookies. But he showed on Sunday that he is still a very capable young pitcher. Willis pitched one of the best games the league has seen this season, going the distance for a complete-game shutout. He struck out 12 Phillies, matching a career high. The Marlins won 3-0 to salvage a series split against the Phils. The teams have identical records at 72-71 and stand 2.5 games back of the Wild Card lead.

3. Rollin’ Along: The Oakland A’s are still winning ballgames and still leading the NL West. Though they receive little attention, they have been just as good as the Yankees or White Sox, at least by record. The A’s are 82-60 after outlasting the Devil Rays 9-7 yesterday. The big news was Frank Thomas, who had a “perfect” day and homered for his fifth straight game. Thomas went 3-3 at the plate with 2 walks and now has 35 homers on the season. The A’s are still holding off the red-hot Angels in the division by 5.5 games. For the D-Rays, Delmon Young continued his incredible success since he was called up, going 3-5 to bring his average to .408.

4. Padres Power: The San Diego Padres still have the lead in the National League Wild Card. They’re going for their second straight playoff appearance, and the Padres moved to 2.5 games ahead of the streaking Giants after beating them yesterday. They won 10-2, as Woody Williams improved to 8-3 on the year and Brian Giles hit 4 RBIs. Rookie middle reliever Cla Meredith now has a 33 inning scoreless streak, as he hasn’t allowed a run since July 17 to decrease his ERA from 3.86 to 0.69. The Padres, who are off today, will take on Cincy this week before a pivotal series against the Dodgers.

5. Best in the business: The best players in the majors are performing better than ever. David Ortiz missed a week and a half in late August and early September, but he’s picked up right where he left off. Papi went 0-7 his first two games back, but then on Friday went 3-5 with 4 RBIs. Then, yesterday, Ortiz went 2-2 with three walks, three runs, and a homerun. The round-tripper gave him a career-high 48 this season, and he’s also on pace for career bests in on-base percentage, slugging, and OPS. Albert Pujols is also on pace for some career highs this year. His 45 homers are one off his best mark, set in 2004, and his 118 RBIs are nine away from his high. This is despite going on the disabled list for the first time earlier this season, and having almost 20 games left in the year. Other prominent players that are blowing up their career marks are Jermaine Dye, Travis Hafner (who is out the rest of the year with a broken hand), Derek Jeter, Alfonso Soriano, and Carlos Beltran, to name a few.

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MLB General

The Full Count: Shutouts galore



2H, 1BB and 12K in 8 innings

1. Shut down and shut out: There were an inordinate amount of shutouts last night in the big leagues. Pitching prevailed as seven teams put up straight zeroes on the day. Let’s start with the American League, where three teams got blanked. The AL Wild Card race was affected, as the Twins won 8-0 while the White Sox lost 1-0. For the Twins, Johan Santana won his 17th game to take the lead in each of the pitching Triple Crown categories. The Sox lost to the Red Sox in David Ortiz’s return. Ortiz went 0-3 but the Red Sox escaped thanks to Kason Gabbard’s nice start. Elsewhere, the team that has allowed the most runs this season shut out the team that has scored the most. That’s right, it was Royals over Yankees, 5-0. For KC, Todd Wellemeyer went for a very long save, going 3.1 innings and striking out five. The Yankees still lead the Red Sox by 8 games while the Twins have opened up a 1.5 game lead on the White Sox.

2. Shutouts, NL Edition: There were way too many shutouts last night to contain in just one article. The Cards took on the Nats, winning 2-0 behind Albert Pujols’ 5th homer in 3 days. That gives him 44 on the season, more than last year when he won the MVP. Milwaukee crushed LA with a Doug Davis complete game. Davis allowed just four hits while striking out eight on the day. Claudio Vargas helped the D-Backs earn a shutout win of their own as he outdeuled the Marlins’ Dontrelle Willis. And finally, Bronson Arroyo of the Reds surged back after his recent inconsistency, going for a complete-game blanking of the Giants while his ERA dropped to 3.33. According to Elias Says, this was only the seventh time in major league history that there were seven or more shutouts in a single day.

3. What’s going on?: The Tigers lost again last night. The team that has held the best record in the majors for so long finally finds itself and its starting pitching in a slump. Detroit has only won 4 of their last 13 games and just 9 of their last 27. While the Tigers still hold the best record in the major leagues and Kenny Rogers is on fire, many are now questioning whether this team really is “for real.” Jeremy Bonderman blew a three-run lead last night and has not looked like himself for the past month and a half. Bonderman has a 5.05 ERA and a .280 opponents’ batting average since the break, and he along with Nate Robertson and Zach Miner declined in August. But the Tigers have plenty of time to solve their problems before the postseason begins–if they can hold on to their playoff spot.

4. Now they’re the worst: Could things get any worse for Cubs fans? How does a loss to the Pirates sound? That’s what happened last night, as Pittsburgh won their second game of a four-game series. The Pirates’ Jason Bay had one of his best games of the season, with 2 homers and 4 RBIs. He is just shy of his career highs in both categories, set last year. The Cubs declined to the notorious title of “worst team in the National League.” Basically, considering how relatively bad the NL is, they’re the worst team in the majors. The 55-83 Cubbies have gone 1-9 their last ten to cement this dishonor.

5. Hell does not freeze over: And the Cincinnati Reds’ Key Griffey is hurt again. For Griffey, who last played a full season in 2000, this shouldn’t be news. But he is a major contributor to a contending team, so this could be important. Girffey’s current malady is a dislocated toe that leaves him out indefinitely. The 36-year old has no guess as to when he might be back. Source: http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/story/9640364/rss

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Baltimore Orioles

Sep 6 in Sports History: Cal Ripken breaks Lou Gehrig’s record


In 1995: Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles broke Lou Gerhig’s record by playing in his 2,131 consecutive game. Ripken’s streak began on May 30, 1982 and didn’t end until 1998, after 2,632 games. The game against the California Angels was stopped in the fifth inning for 22 minutes as soon as the game was official. The crowd celebrated as the huge banner counting the games dropped from the warehouse across from Camden Yards. Ripken then took a lap around the field, shaking hands with the crowd. He even homered off Shawn Boskie in the 4th inning. The Orioles won the game 4-2.

In 2002 The Minnesota Twins defeated the Oakland A’s 6-0 at the Metrodome, ending the A’s record-setting 20-game winning streak. The A’s defeated the Royals 12-11 the night before in Oakland to win their 20th straight on a dramatic game-winning homer by Scott Hatteberg. The two teams would meet in the postseason, with the Twins winning a five game series.

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MLB General

The Full Count: No No-No in Ninth


1. Close but not quite: No pitcher has recorded a no-hitter in more than two years, since Randy Johnson was perfect in May 2004. But a very unlikely pitcher came very close to the feat yesterday. It was the Nationals’ Ramon Ortiz, who took a no-no into the ninth inning against the Cardinals. But it was broken up by an Aaron Miles leadoff single, and then by an Albert Pujols homerun (43). So perfection dodged yet another pitcher yesterday, and in the end this is just an insignificant last place over first place win for the Nats.

2. Back and forth: At one point in the season the Minnesota Twins weren’t even near the playoff picture. But now the Twins and the White Sox are trading around the Wild Card lead almost daily. Now the lead is in the hands on the Twins, who defeated the Devil Rays 2-1 yesterday. It was their 13th straight win against Tampa. Chicago is now right behind after a narrow 3-2 loss to the Red Sox, who witnessed the return of many key players yesterday. With Manny Ramirez, Trot Nixon, and Jason Varitek back in the lineup, the Sox defeated the Sox in extras. Chicago did see another great start by Jon Garland, who is 8-1 with a 2.83 ERA since the All Star break. Minnesota and Chicago won’t play each other again until the last series of the season, at the Metrodome.

3. Barry’s back: Barry Bonds had yet to catch his usual form this year, which could be his last as a Giant. But now he is in the groove like he was from 2001-2004, and he is hitting homeruns like there’s no tomorrow. Bonds went deep for the third straight game yesterday, helping the Giants to a 5-4 win in Cincy. In his last six games Bonds has 5 homers, 7 RBIs, and is slugging a preposterous 1.412. He’s only 25 back of Aaron now with 730 career homeruns. When will he catch him? Sometime next summer, if he plays.

4. Pitching=success: The Los Angeles Angels have remained in the playoff hunt, and it’s not because of their offense. It’s their pitching staff that’s carried them this season, like yesterday when they defeated the Orioles 1-0. Jered Weaver returned to form after two straight losses with 7 shutout innings. Then Francisco Rodriguez, also known as K-Rod, shut the door for his 39th save of the season. That ties him with Bobby Jenks for the major-league lead, and Rodriguez remains the most underrated closer in baseball. At age 24 he has 98 career saves and a 2.32 career ERA, including a 1.82 mark this year. The Angels are now 6.5 back of the A’s in the AL West even though they have won 3 straight. Their staff will need to carry them if they want to make the postseason again.

5. To return or not to return: The Twins, already leading the WC as mentioned before, could get a boost by the middle of the month. Francisco Liriano threw 78 pitches in a bullpen session yesterday, and said that he felt great. He will throw in batting practice on Wednesday and could return before mid-September. With their other injured starter, Brad Radke, there is more questions. Radke, who hasn’t thrown since August 25, has a stress fracture in his right shoulder. The doctors have told him not to pitch for a few weeks as he recovers, though no specific return date has been announced.

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MLB General

The Full Count: Special August Wrap-up Edition



Often compared to Willie Stargell

1. He’s good. Real good: The Phillies lost to the Nationals last night, but that wasn’t the most important thing going on in that game. It was Ryan Howard’s continued dominance at the plate. Howard jacked his 49th homerun of the year, breaking Mike Schmidt’s single-season franchise record with a month left in the season. Howard has now hit an RBI in 9 straight games and homered in 6 of those games. His August will go down as the best month of the season by any player, as Howard hit 14 homeruns and 41 RBIs for the month. He also hit .348 and slugged .750 on the month and put up a stratospheric 1.214 OPS. The most incredible part of all this? Howard’s just 26 years old and playing in his first full season.

2. Santana strikes again: Who do you call when you need a win? Call on Johan Santana. The pitcher had a great start against the Kansas City Royals, who were actually on the brink of sweeping the Twins. He struck out 11 and pitched seven innings for his league-leading 16th win of the season. Johan just completed a truly special month of August. He went 4-0 with a 2.32 ERA and 47 strikeouts, first of any pitcher in the month. The win improved him to 7-0 after the break this year and 37-3 after the break since 2003. The Twins won 3-1 and are a half-game out of the Wild Card.

3. Where did this come from?: Putting it lightly, Astros pitcher Andy Pettitte sucked the first half of the season. He posted a 5+ ERA each of the first three months and allowed opponents above a .300 batting average. But now, Pettitte is starting to produce like a machine. In August he put up a 2.43 ERA and 44 strikeouts, both very comparable to Santana’s numbers above. Though he just went 3-2 and still has a .500 record on the season, Pettitte is looking more like himself from last year, when he went 17-9 with a 2.39 ERA. Last night he pitched seven innings while only allowing 5 hits and 1 earned run to the Brewers. With Pettitte in addition to Roger Clemens and the recently resigned Roy Oswalt on the pitching staff, the Astros are looking good as they head into September.

4. New York, New York: Both teams from the Big Apple had particularly good months. The Mets finished the month with a loss yesterday but overall posted an outstanding 19-8 record. They gained the best record in baseball, 82-50, in the process. The Mets are 15.5 games ahead of the second-place Phillies in the division, still the only double-digit lead of any team, and they would be 11 games up on the Cardinals if they were in the same division. That’s quite an accomplishment considering the Cards have finished with the best record in the NL for two straight years and are in second this year. And how `bout them Yanks? For them it’s been a great month for them and a bad month for their rival, you-know-who. NYY was tied with the BoSox on August 1, but after their success and Boston’s struggles have opened up an 8 game lead. By the way, that is the second-largest lead in all of baseball. So if you don’t think another Subway Series is a reality this season, you better reconsider.

5. Back to the Bay: After lasting two years with the Boston Red Sox, David Wells is moving on in his career once again. Wells is going back to the San Diego Padres, his hometown team who he played with in 2004. Wells was sent to Cali in a trade for a minor league catcher. Padres GM Kevin Towers thinks Wells is the difference for this team as they look to keep a lead in the Wild Card race.

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MLB General

The Full Count: Padres overtake the Reds



Ryan Franklin gives it up

1. Knocked off: It’s almost hard to remember a time when the Cincinnati Reds were not leading the Wild Card. They’ve had control of the lead ever since the All Star break and despite numerous competitors have not let go. Until now. The Reds lost their 5th game in a row, a stinging 16-inning defeat to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The game was tied at 6 for ten innings until pinch-hitter Ramon Martinez hit an improbable walk-off homerun, only his second jack of the year. The Dodgers, who have won 4 straight, find themselves three games up on their NL West competitors. The Reds are 3.5 back in their division and now a half-game back in the Wild Card.

2. New teams on the block: So which contenders overthrew the Reds to take the Wild Card lead? Well, the outright leaders are now the
San Diego Padres, who beat the Diamondbacks 8-3 yesterday behind the strong pitching of Chris Young. Young, who was a legit All Star contender after a few great performances before the break, had posted a 5.21 ERA afterwards. But he rebounded to his capable form, striking out 11 batters while allowing just 1 run last night. His 10th win of the season, along with Mike Piazza’s 19th dinger on the year, helped send SD to the WC lead. Also, Philadelphia is now a half-game back after another win. Ryan Howard hit his MLB-leading 48th homerun and 125th RBI of the season in the win. And don’t overlook the Florida Marlins as contenders as well. They have won 9 in a row after defeating the Cardinals yesterday.

3. Complete games galore: Of yesterday’s six AL games, three featured a complete game by a pitcher. C.C. Sabathia of the Cleveland Indians tossed his majors-leading 5th complete game of the year. He struck out 6 and allowed just 4 hits as the Indians beat the Blue Jays 5-2. Now let’s go to our favorite All Star: Mark Redman! He tossed a shutout for the Kansas City Royals against the Twins, allowing just 5 hits on the night. He improved to a glorious (by Royal standards) 8-8 on the season. And now for the last CG, throw by Kevin Millwood of the Rangers. He allowed 4 runs to the Orioles but received plenty of run support in a Rangers win.

4. Taking it back: So much for the Twins leading the Wild Card. The Chicago White Sox took advantage of their loss by winning against the D-Rays 12-9. Freddy Garcia allowed 5 runs but still won as he got all the run support a pitcher could ask for. Jermaine Dye continued his recent streak with a homerun (39) and 4 RBIs. Joe Crede improved his average to over .300, going 4-5 with two knocked in. The losing Devil Rays also had something to smile about. In his major league debut, Delmon Young hit a two-run homer. Young is well-known for his infamous bat-throwing incident with a minor league umpire earlier this year, but he has served that suspension and was called up yesterday. The ChiSox lead the Wild Card by a half-game.

5. Tripped up: The Braves showcased their offense yesterday in a 13-8 blowout against the Giants. Andruw Jones, Chipper Jones, and Adam LaRoche all went deep for the Braves, but it will be one of Andruw’s two shots that is most memorable. Jones tripped and fell on his way to first during his homerun trot, causing an array of laughter in the
Braves’ dugout. (Here is video of the incident.) For the Giants, Barry Bonds had one of his better games of the year. Bonds went deep twice, giving him 19 homers on the season and 727 for his career. He also made a homerun-saving catch in the loss.

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MLB General

The Full Count: Jered Weaver finally goes down



What losing feels like

1. Finally defeated: One of the greatest streaks this baseball season is finally over. Jered Weaver of the Angels, who had won his first 9 career decisions, lost for the first time yesterday to the Boston Red Sox. But Weaver didn’t have a bad start; in fact he allowed only one run and four hits in six innings. His only fault was allowing a David Ortiz homerun, Ortiz’s 46th of the season. But he lost due to lack of run support as the Angels put up no runs with him in the game. The broken streak left him tied with Whitney Ford as the only pitchers who won their first 9 games as a rookie. Boston’s 2-1 win gave them the series win over the Angels after their disastrous 5 game sweep against the Yankees last weekend. They stand 5.5 back from New York still in the division.

2. Showing off: In terms of talent level, the Twins might be the most solid all-around team in baseball. With their excellent starters, MLB-best bullpen, and dangerous young hitters, they can do everything well. The only thing they need is a new stadium and some fans to go along with it. Yesterday, they dismantled the Orioles 11-2 in an offensive outpour. Joe Mauer, who leads all batters with a .361 average, had 3 hits and 4 RBIs on the day to lead the charge. Justin Morneau hit his 32nd homer, while Michael Cuddyer went 4-4 and drove in 4 runs. The Twins won their second straight and 7th out of 10, though they still trail Chicago by a half-game. The White Sox won again yesterday over Detroit. The two teams will start a pivotal three-game series today.

3. Call it a draw: We now have co-division leaders in one division. That’s the NL Central, as the Reds and Cardinals are now tied with both teams going in different directions. That’s another way of saying the Reds are hot while the Cards are sucking it up. St. Louis got swept by the Mets yesterday when New York defeated them 6-2. Meanwhile, Cincy started off their series against San Fran well, with a 6-3 victory. The Cardinals will look to start winning against their rival Cubs over the weekend, while the Reds will play the Giants three more times as part of a 10-game West Coast trip.

4. Losing team, winning pitcher: Where would the Cubs be without Carlos Zambrano? Even further down the standings, most likely. They are 40-68 in games the Zambrano does not record a decision, while his record is 14-5. He got his NL-leading 14th yesterday against the Phillies, and now Zambrano is one of the leading Cy Young candidates in the league. He ranks first in wins and strikeouts in addition to innings pitched and opponent’s batting average. His 3.31 ERA isn’t in the top 5 but that doesn’t really matter in a year when no NL pitcher is below 2.90. In the end Zambrano will be a leading Cy candidate and will face off with the Diamondbacks’ Brandon Webb for the honors.

5. Back to the Past: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to play baseball in the pre-World Series era? When a walk was six balls, a foul didn’t count as a strike, a hit batter was only a ball, and the umpires were addressed as “sir?” Well, here’s your chance. Former major league pitcher Jim Bouton announced the creation of the Vintage Base Ball Federation, or VBBF. The teams will play using pre-1900’s rules and equipment. They will play games over the course of an unspecified season and will play a VBBF World Series next August. Now there’s something to get excited about!