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.
