A's pummel Giants and Zito 15-3

by user Niteowl049

Baseball Notebook

Baseball Daily Digest

Aaron Boone hit a grandslam to lead the Marlins to a 8-4 victory against the Devil Rays. Edwin Jackson 0-6 took the loss and lasted only 2 2/3 innings giving up 7 runs and 7 hits....Angel Pagan was 3 for 5 and drove in two runs in the Cubs 6-3 win over the crosstown rival White Sox. Ted Lilly 4-2 was the winning pitcher....Tigers clobbered the reeling Cardinals 14-4 behind a stellar pitching effort by Andrew Miller 1-0 making his first major league start and pitched 6 scoreless innings while allowing four hits. Braden Looper 5-3 who was rocked for 7 runs and 9 hits took loss for the Cardinals. Only bright spot for Cardinals was Albert Pujols hitting his first homer in May and having four hits for the first time this season.

Pirates shelled the Diamondbacks by a 11-5 score as Ian Snell 4-2 took the win and Xavier Nady and Ryan Doumit both hit three run homers while Adam LaRoche drove in two runs and finally crossed the Mendoza line by raising his average to .203....Indians pounded out a 9-4 victory over the Reds as the two interstate rivals tangled in Cleveland. Cliff Lee 2-0 took the win while Ryan Garko who is emerging as a big part of the Indians offense and Grady Sizemore both drove in 3 runs.

Ervin Santana 3-5 outpitched Brad Penny 5-1 in the 9-1 Angels victory over the Dodgers. Penny was leading the majors in ERA with a 1.39 average but ended the game with a 2.54 ERA....Steve Trachsel 2-3 pitched the Orioles to a 5-4 win who moved ahead of the Yankees by 2 percentage points to take over second place in AL East....Phillies evened their record at 21-21 as they defeated the Blue Jays 5-3. Jon Lieber 2-2 was the winning pitcher....Chris Young 5-3 allowed one run in 6 2/3 innings as the Padres took an easy 8-1 win over the Padres. Ichiro Suzuki stole 3 bases and raised his average to .325 and has had 13 hits in his last 22 trips to the plate raising his average 46 points in those 6 games. Last month he had 25 hits in 82 times at bat while in May has 24 hits in only 69 at bats with 13 days left in the month.

A's pummeled the Giants into submission by a 15-3 score with Chad Gaudin 3-1 taking the win and Barry Zito 3-5 absorbing the loss. Mark Ellis drove in five runs including a grand slam. Dan Johnson at .365 and Jack Cust at .300 were only A's in the game hitting over .300 but it didn't matter since seven players drove in runs.

Barry Zito allowed 7 runs and 6 hits in the loss giving him a 5.13 ERA not exactly the kind of numbers the Giants were expecting from a pitcher making $10 million this season. His ERA for May is even worse than his ERA for April since it was 3.73 in April and 7.04 in May. He is 11th on Giants in ERA and leads the pitchers in most runs allowed with 31 in 54 innings. Oliver Perez 5-3 outpitched Andy Pettitte 2-3 as the Mets edged the crosstown rival Yankees 3-2.

Who would have thought with the season a quarter over that Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte would have a combined 6 wins between them? With the season a quarter over the Yankees are on track to post 72 wins this season. They are in third place by two percentage points with the last place Blue Jays and Devil Rays behind them by a half game. To make matters worse they are sending Darrell Rasner to the mound against Tom Glavine today but in baseball nothing is certain until the game is over so will be interesting to see how this turns out. Alex Rodriguez continued his free fall going 0 for 4 again and has only 4 hits in last 32 at bats. He only has one homer since the 23rd of April and his May average of .242 after an April average of .355 shows how far his offensive production has fell. After slugging .882 in April he has slugged at a .323 percentage in May.

Brewers continued their losing ways even in their first home game after a disastrous road trip as the Twins defeated them 8-1. Boof Bonser 2-1 took the win and this was only his third decision in nine starts. Bonser allowed only one run and three hits to the anemic Brewers who seem to be unraveling. Chris Capuano 5-2 took the loss which was his second in a row. Torri Hunter hit a grand slam to lead the Twins attack.

The Rangers from North Texas defeated the Astros from South Texas by a 7-4 score as Nelson Cruz and Ramon Vasquez hit back to back homers to lead the offensive attack of the Rangers. Robinson Tejada 4-3 was the winning pitcher while Matt Albers 1-3 was rocked again this time allowing 5 runs and 6 hits in 3 innings. In his last two starts Albers has given up 12 runs and 15 hits in 6 innings and may be on his way to the bullpen or the minors if he doesn't ptich better soon. Craig Biggio picked up 2 hits leaving him 32 short of 3000 which he should reach in late June or early July.

Royals won their fifth game in last six as they defeated the last place Rockies of the NL West with a 5-2 win.

Stats Corner

Hitting

Derrek Lee at .390 leads second place Jorge Posada .370 in hitting....There was no change in the top home runs hitters with Alex Rodriguez locked in at 15 homers with J.J. Hardy next with 13....There is a three way tie in major league lead in RBI's with J.J. Hardy, Carlos Lee and Rodriguez all having 39....Matt Holliday leads in hits with 59....Magglio Ordonez leads in doubles with 20....Hardy leads in total bases with 104....Barry Bonds has the most walks with 43 in 37 games....Adam Dunn at the quarter mark of the season has 56 strikeouts a pace which would give him 224 by end of the season....Jose Reyes leads majors in stolen bases with 23 while Shane Victorino is next with 16....Ordonez leads in extra base hits with 29.

Pitching

Josh Beckett still leads in wins with 7 while four pitchers have 6 wins. Four pitchers will try for their 6th win today....Kip Wells leads all pitchers in losses with 8 and today teammate Anthony Reyes will try for his first win of the season against 6 losses....Dan Haren and Jake Peavy are the new ERA leaders with a 1.64 ERA....Francisco Cordero leads in saves with 16 with Jose Valverde next with 13.

Glance at the Standings

American League

AL East: Red Sox gained a half game on three of the teams in AL East even though their game was postponed. With their 10 game lead over the Yankees and Orioles they have by far the biggest lead in any division. The next closest is the Brewers with a 5 and a half game lead over the Astros in NL Central.

AL Central: Indians and Tigers both win as Indians retain their one game lead over the Tigers. Indians are 15-3 at home and 10-11 on the road.

AL West: A's move into second place in AL West with their win and a Mariners loss to break their tie for second place. Rangers have worst road record in AL with a 6-16 mark on the road.

National League

NL East: Mets stretched their lead in NL East to two games over the rained out Braves. Mets have best road record in NL with a 14-5 record.

NL Central: Showing what a difference a year makes the Cardinals were 27-15 and two games ahead of Reds and in first place on this date last year. This year they are 16-23 and 8 1/2 games out of first place. With their lack of pitching and offense it will take the type of miracle the Twins pulled off last season for them to get back in the race but they just don't have the horses especially with the pitching in shambles. Astros are only team taking advantage of the Brewers collapse as they won 6 of last ten while Brewers won 4 of their last ten.

NL West: Padres moved to within two games of the first place Dodgers in the NL West. The other three teams in division lost so none of them was able to take advantage of the Dodgers loss.