A-Rod Hits 2 HR's...Willis Wins 4th...Francoeur Takes NL RBI Lead
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Yankees Pitching Troubles Continue
Yankees gave up ten runs last night which is becoming typical of the Yankees lately. In their current four game losing streak they have gave up 31 runs. Even Alex Rodriguez hitting two homers last night couldn't make up for a pitching staff that is in complete disarray. After 18 games only three starters have won at least one game including Andy Pettitte, Carl Pavano and Kei Igawa. The 4.67 ERA posted by the Yankees pitching staff is the fourth worst in AL with only the Rangers, Mariners and Devil Rays having worse ERA's.
They have given up the fourth most runs this season with 94 with the best team being the Red Sox who have given up 60. Yankees pitchers have allowed 21 homers third worst in AL while the Orioles are first allowing only 11 homers. Yankees are second in walks with 74 while Red Sox are best limiting opponents to 50 walks. They have struck out the second fewest batters with 92 strikeuts with the Orioles first with 147.
Of the starters filling in for regular rotation pitchers Darrell Rasner has the best ERA at 3.86. Chase Wright has a 7.88 ERA and has allowed 5 homers in 8 innings while allowing 10 hits and 6 walks. Jeff Karstens has an ERA of 14.54.
The Yankees had been reluctant to call up their top pitching prospect Philip Hughes from the minors but the other replacement starters have pitched so badly that they had no choice but to start him Thursday night against the Blue Jays. With the Yankees 8-10 they need some damage control before they get too far out of first place. They are closer to last place and a Devil Rays win over the Yankees tonight would put the Yankees in last place.
With the Yankees leading the AL in homers with 26 and in batting average with .286 average they have the firepower but so far that firepower is still not enough to make up for a pitching staff that is spiraling out of control.
Baseball Daily Digest
Nick Swisher who had only two homers in his first 18 games hit two last night. With the loss of Rich Harden and Milton Bradley to the disabled list the A's will have to have more offense and that has to be a concern because their best hitter for average is Eric Chavez hitting only .269. Shannon Stewart is the only other A's player with as many as 2 homers besides Swisher and Mark Ellis with 13 RBI's has 8 more than Mike Piazza who has 5 but in 21 more at bats than Ellis.
It will be interesting to see when Harden returns from disabled list. Just when it looked like he was ready to pitch all season without being on disabled list he pitches in three starts and 19 innings and is back on it again. With the A's leading the AL in ERA with a 3.16 mark they still have a great chance of winning the AL West but it will help their chances more if Bradley and Harden can return to action very soon.
Aaron Hill hit his fourth homer in the Blue Jays 7-3 win over the Red Sox. It has taken 71 at bats this season to hit four home runs while last year it took 546 at bats to hit 6 home runs. The former LSU player is only earning $393,000 this season in his third season with the Blue Jays which is only $13,000 above the minimum salary while he is leading the team in home runs, RBI's and batting average. When you consider he is outhitting Vernon Wells, Alex Rios, Troy Glaus, Frank Thomas and Lyle Overbay he may be the most underpaid player in baseball when you consider Glaus is earning over $11 million this season while Thomas and Wells both are earning over $5 million each.
Mark Buehrle followed up the no-hitter he pitched against the Rangers with a 7-4 win over the Royals.Paul Konerko who had 8 runs batted in during his first 17 games drove in five runs last night in the win....Ryan Garko singled in the lead run for the Indians as they scored four runs in the top of the 12th as they defeated the Twins 7-3....Jered Weaver is trying to imitate his big brother Jeff as he pitched only an inning and two thirds before being pulled allowing 7 runs with 2 of them unearned, 7 hits and 2 walks. Weaver made 70 pitches in the short time he was on the mound. His ERA ballooned to 9.39 in the game as the Tigers defeated the Angels 9-5.
Jimmy Rollins hit his 7th homer after sharing the home run lead in NL with Barry Bonds at 6 for one day. Phillies defeated the Astros 11-4 behind the pitching of Adam Eaton 2-1 and Astros starter Chris Sampson who had pitched so well in his previous starts was shelled by the Phillies who had 7 runs and 14 hits against Sampson in four innings....Marlins took an 8-2 lead and then hung on to take a 8-7 win over the Braves. Chipper Jones and Jeff Francoeur combined for a 7 for 9 night at the plate and driving in 5 runs with both players hitting solo homers. Francoeur took the NL lead in RBI's with 22. Dontrelle Willis became the first NL pitcher to post four wins this season as his record goes to 4-1.
John Maine 3-0 pitched into the eighth inning while allowing only one run in the Mets 6-1 win over the Rockies.... Brewers overcame a 4-0 deficit to defeat the Cubs in 5-4 win in which Prince Fielder drove in the winning run when he homered in the twelfth inning. Tony Gwynn Jr. is hitting .462 but has batted only 13 times in 15 games. Brewers have the pleasant problem of having too many good hitting outfielders but they need to get Gwynn more at bats the way he is hitting.
Stats Corner Alex Rodriguez tied Albert Pujols for most home runs in April when he hit his 13th and 14th of the season in the 10-8 loss to the Devil Rays. It is easier to list the categories that A-Rod is not leading than the ones he is leading in the AL. If season ended today he would have the Triple Crown in the AL as he is hitting .400 tying him with Joe Mauer for the AL lead in hitting. Rodriguez is leading AL in the following categories:
Batting Average.................... .400 Runs...........................................26 Hits.............................................30 Home Runs................................14 RBI's...........................................34 Total Bases................................79 Slugging Percentage...........1.053 OPS.......................................1.507 Extra Base Hits........................21
Matt Holliday is off to a great start hitting .400 to lead the NL in hitting with Moises Alou next with .397 average....Who would have thought that Barry Bonds slugging at .804 and Josh Hamilton at .737 would be leading the NL in slugging at this point in the season?....Carlos Beltran finally hit his first home run of the season yesterday. Other sluggers with only 1 homer this season are Jim Edmonds, Todd Helton, Craig Monroe, Hank Blalock, Pat Burrell, Mike Piazza, Gary Sheffield and Miguel Tejada. Mark Texeira has no homers in 67 at bats.
Michael Young is next to last in batting average on the Rangers hitting .165. His streak of four consecutive 200 hit seasons may be over as he only has 13 hits and a hitter has to average about 33 hits a month to reach 200 hit mark so he is 20 behind what he needs this month with only a few games left this month.
Dontrelle Willis and Josh Beckett are only pitchers with four wins this season. Willis also leads in hits allowed this season with 40. Johan Santana and Rich Hill attempt to register their fourth wins of season today.
Yankees have the most runs scored this season (116) while the Giants have the least with 58. Braves and Yankees lead in most homers with 26 while Rockies have the least with 7. Mets lead in batting average with .297 mark while Reds are last with .228 average.
Mets have best team ERA in majors at 2.59 while the worst team ERA is by the Devil Rays with a 6.13 ERA so the Mets lead in both best batting average and lowest ERA so that is a combination that should keep them in the NL East race all season....Devil Rays have allowed most runs in majors with 122 while Mets have allowed the least with 57....Devil Rays have allowed a major league worst 28 homers while Padres are the best giving up only 8 roundtrippers.
Nationals lead in walks with 95 while Reds have walked the least batters with 44....Brewers have struck out most hitters with 153 while Mariners are at the bottom having struck out 73.
Monday's Transactions
Among the more notable transactions yesterday:
Cubs place Wade Miller on 15 day disabled list....Indians place Andy Marte on 15 day disabled list and called up Shin-Soo "Chattanooga Choo Choo" Choo outfielder. Chris Berman will have fun with that name....Yankees activated Hideki Matsui and maybe he can provide enough offense to overcome the pitching of an uneffective Yankee pitching staff....A's place Rich Harden and Milton Bradley on 15 day disabled list. Seems like the A's always have a pitcher and position player on disabled list. Last year it was Harden and Bobby Crosby....Mariners placed Felix Hernandez on the 15 day disabled list retroactive to April 19th. Hernandez needs to come back soon or the Mariners will see their season go down the drain.
Rangers placed Eric Gagne on the disabled list. Gagne has pitched a total of 19 innings in the last three seasons including 2007....Blue Jays will miss B.J. Ryan who has been moved from the 15 day disabled list to the 60 day disabled list which hurts the chances of Blue Jays greatly without Ryan available to close until June at the earliest.
Glance at the Standings
Red Sox couldn't take advantage of the Yankees loss to the Devil Rays since they lost themselves to the Blue Jays and remain four games ahead of the Yankees. Second place Orioles are just a game and a half back of the Red Sox in the AL East....Tigers and Twins are tied for first place in AL Central with Indians and Tigers a half game back in second place....AL West is closest race in AL with the A's the only team in division with a winning record. Mets move back into first in NL East as Braves and Mets continue to take turns being in first place....Brewers opened a two and a half game lead over the Astros as their record improved to 12-7. A Brewers win tonight would sink the Cubs even further into the NL Central cellar as the Cubs are already five games behind the first place Brewers. Dodgers lead the Padres by two games in the NL West.
Pirates still don't have a win at home with a 0-4 record at home while the Angels have the best record at home with a 8-3 record....Twins are 4-0 in one run games while Cubs are the worst with 0-5 record in one run games.
