A-Rod Hits 15th Grand Slam, Schilling Pitches One Hitter
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Schilling Loses No-Hitter With Two Out in Ninth
Curt Schilling was down to the last out when Shannon Stewart singled in the ninth inning in the 1-0 win by the Red Sox over the A's to dash his hopes of a no-hitter. Joe Blanton made one mistake to lose the game giving up the 11th homer by David Ortiz. Blanton pitched 7 1/3 innings allowing only four hits. A's are getting no production at all from Jason Kendall who is hitting .190 and has only two extra base hits in 189 at bats. He has become a one dimensional player in that he handles pitchers well but has thrown out only 11 runners in 54 stolen base attempts. He is the highest paid A's player at $13.4 million but having 36 singles and 2 doubles this season his job is in jeopardy.
David Price Chosen By Devil Rays
David Price of Vanderbilt was chosen by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays as the first overall pick in the 2007 Amateur Draft. With Scott Kazmir and James Shields headlining their starting rotation this season the staff should be even better next year when Price may surface in the majors.
Bonds Slowing Down In Home Run Chase
Barry Bonds is slowing down in his bid to pass Hank Aaron. Since May 8th he has only hit one home run and driven in four runs. On May 8th he was slugging .805 but now is down to .570. Unless he picks up the pace he won't pass Aaron this season. All the walks may be taking a toll on Bonds being forced to run the bases at an age when most position players are retired.
Steve Finley Reassigned By Colorado Rockies
Steve Finley may have reached the end of his major league career since being reassigned at his age probably means he will not be coming back to the Rockies. The Rockies were paying him $1 million this season. Finley couldn't get on tracked this season hitting .181 with only four extra base hits. If he doesn't come back to majors he will finish with 304 home runs and 1167 runs batted in with a .271 lifetime average. One positive stat for him this season was that he struck out only 4 times in 94 at bats. He was the current leader in career triples with 124 before being reassigned.
Around the Bases
Fausto Carmona 7-1 continues to turn around his 1-10 season of last year with the Indians. He has combined with C.C. Sabathia for a 16-2 record this season....Alex Rios has emerged as the offensive leader of the Blue Jays hitting his 14th homer yesterday leading Troy Glaus and Frank Thomas with 8 and Vernon Wells with 5. Wells has only homered once since the 24th of April....Alex Rodriguez hit his major league leading 22nd home run which was his 15th grand slam of his career and second of the season. His next grand slam will tie him with Hank Aaron, Dave Kingman and Babe Ruth with 16.
Yankees continue to improve as they won their sixth of last eight games in the 2000th win for Joe Torre last night. They are only four games under .500. The schedule is in their favor for the next three games as they play the Pirates in next three games at Yankee Stadium. They are tied with Orioles for third place in AL East and could move into sole possession of second place if they win and Orioles and Blue Jays win today. With Roger Clemens slated to pitch Saturday against the Pirates everything may be falling into place for Yankees.
Adam Dunn hit his 15th homer of the season and Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 13th of season and 576th of his career in the Reds 5-1 win over the Cardinals. Pat Burrell hit a ninth inning home run off of Billy Wagner to tie the Phillies with Mets at 3-3 then hit a double in the tenth inning that was part of a three run inning that iced the 6-3 win for the Phillies. Phillies moved to within 5 games of the Mets and are only a game and a half behind the second place Braves who lost their third in a row and seem to be on the verge of collapsing. Cole Hamels struck out five tying him with A.J. Burnett for the major league lead at 96.
Stats Corner
Team Stats Hitting
Tigers lead the majors in hitting with a .290 average. White Sox are the worst hitting only .233....Reds lead in home runs with 79 with Nationals at bottom of the list with 36....Red Sox have walked 250 times to lead the majors with Mariners the worst with 139....Marlins lead in strikeouts with 516 and Mariners are the best with 264 strikeouts....Mets lead in stolen bases with 69 with Cardinals the worst with 15. A's have hit into the most double plays with 61 and Padres have hit into the least double plays with 34....Tigers have the most extra base hits with 237 with the White Sox last with 129 extra base hits.
Team Stats Pitching
Padres have best ERA in majors with 2.91 ERA while the Rangers are the worst with 5.50 ERA. No wonder they are the worst team in baseball.... Padres lead in shutouts with 9 while Royals, Phillies and Devil Rays have not posted a shutout this season....Diamondbacks lead in saves with 24 and Yankees only have 7 for last place....Padres have allowed 176 earned runs to lead majors while Rangers are last with 320 earned runs allowed....Padres lead in least home runs allowed with 30 while Phillies have allowed the most with 77....Padres lead in least walks allowed with 151 while Marlins have issued 257 walks....Dodgers lead in strikeouts with 460 with the Yankees last with 289.
Glance at the Standings
American League
AL East: Red Sox are only AL East team with a losing record in last ten games with a 4-6 record. Last place Devil Rays are only a game and a half out of second place.
AL Central: Twins are 6-4 in last ten games the only team with winning record in last ten games in AL Central. White Sox are worst in last ten games in majors with a 2-8 record.
AL West: A's are a game and a half behind the second place Mariners. Rangers are only team in AL West with a losing record.
National League
NL East: Mets have longest current losing streak in majors with a 4 game losing streak. Phillies on the 1st of June were 8 1/2 games behind the Mets and 5 games behind the Braves. A week later they are 5 games behind the Mets and a game and a half behind the Braves.
NL Central: Brewers extended their lead to 5 and a half games over the Cardinals while the Cardinals lost while Brewers had the day off. Brewers now travel to Texas to play the Rangers the worst team in majors. Cardinals are only team in division with winning record in last ten games with a 6-4 record.
NL West: Padres have the longest winning streak in majors with 5 game winning streak and the Padres and Diamondbacks have best record in majors in last ten games with 8-2 records.
