Balco Bonds Hits 741st HR
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Balco Bonds Hits 741st HR
Barry "Balco" Bonds hit his 741st home run last night and the sickening reality is setting in that a cheater is going to pass Hank Aaron and sooner rather than later. I will give Balco the benefit of the doubt and say he is hitting now on his own natural ability but still think he padded his home run numbers with the aid of steroids in the early part of this century placing him at the point where he is on the brink of passing one of the most sacred records in sports. If and when he passes Aaron it will be one of the darkest days in the history of sports but it is inevitable that is going to happen barring injury or suspension.
Baseball Daily Digest
Red Sox gained on all the teams in AL East winning over the Orioles 6-1. Curt Schilling 3-1 allowed one run in seven innings to take the win....Last night both teams from Texas were in extra inning games and both teams lost their extra inning encounters. Jhonny Peralta singled in the winning run in the eleventh inning to end the game with Indians taking a 8-7 win. Ian Kinsler hit his 8th homer of the season and drove in three runs while Sammy Sosa also drove in three runs giving him 16 RBI's for the season. There were 32 strikeouts in the game with the Rangers hitters striking out 19 times in 43 at bats.
Chad Durbin 1-1 took the win in the Tigers 6-2 win over the White Sox. Durbin allowed three hits and struck out nine. Tigers have four everyday players hitting under .200 so they can only get better as those averages improve....Mariners defeated Athletics behind the pitching of Jarrod Washburn 1-2 who pitched a complete game shutout while Joe Blanton pitched almost as well pitching the complete game but lost on solo homers by Jose Guillen and Kenji Johjima.
Rockies defeated the Mets 11-5 behind the hitting of Willy Taveras and John Mabry with Taveras going 5 for 6 and Mabry driving in four runs. Taveras was hitting .192 at start of the game but by the conclusion of the game he was hitting .259 an improvement of 67 points....Cubs defeated the Brewers 9-3 pounding out 16 hits in the contest. Cliff Floyd and Derrek Lee were 4 for 5 in the game. Ted Lilly 2-2 took the win allowing one unearned run in seven innings. Brewers did not play like a first place team allowing five unearned runs in the fourth inning. Ben Sheets was pitching well when he had to leave the game with an injury.
Tim Hudson pitched well until the ninth inning when he gave up three runs. Previous to that he had allowed no earned runs. Bob Wickman blew his first save this season as the Braves lost on a passed ball as the Marlins took the win 4-3. Hudson struck out twelve while Scott Olsen struck out ten. Kelly Johnson hit his fifth homer of the season and his 13th RBI placed him one RBI ahead of Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones.
Jimmy Rollins hit his 8th homer of season and Ryan Howard hit his 3rd in the 9-3 Phillies win over the Nationals. Looks like a series with the Nationals was the antidote the Phillies needed to regain their winning ways. Chase Utley was 5 for 5 in the game....Jake Peavy outpitched Brandon Webb in the 2-1 win by the Diamondbacks having pitched 7 innings and allowing only two hits while striking out sixteen but came away with a no decision after Trevor Hoffman blew his first save of the season and took the loss. Scott Linebrink also struck out two giving the Padres pitchers a total of eighteen strikeouts.
Pirates edged the Astros 4-3 in a 16 inning game. Astros had 16 hits but left 18 runners on base with Craig Biggio picking up three hits to place him 49 hits shy of 3000 hits. There were only eleven strikeouts in the game not many for a 16 inning game considering the Diamondbacks and Padres had 25 strikeouts in their nine inning game. So they played 7 more innings but had 14 less strikeouts. The game ended after Jason Bay was intentionally walked to face the worst hitter in baseball Adam LaRoche who singled in the winning run. His hit despite a 1 for 5 night improved his average from .096 to .106 moving him over the LaRoche line of .100.
Cardinals took a 5-1 win over the Reds as the Cardinals scored four times in the eighth inning. Josh Hamilton hit his sixth homer of the season good for third place in NL. Hamilton has 30 fewer at bats than Adam Dunn yet has two more homers and leads the team in RBI's with 12.
Stats Corner
Matt Holliday and Derrek Lee lead the majors in hitting with identical .393 averages with Alex Rodriguez hitting .385 and placing him in first place in all of the Triple Crown categories in the AL....Ian Kinsler and Jimmy Rollins gained on inactive Rodriguez in home run race hitting their eighth homers while Rodriguez has 14. Barry Bonds and Chipper Jones are third in majors with 7 each....Rodriguez leads in RBI's with 34....Matt Holliday leads majors in hits with 35....Jose Reyes leads in stolen bases with 12 and Kenny Lofton who turns 40 next month has 8.
Even with five pitchers trying for fourth win yesterday none of them were able to win a fourth game so Dontrelle Willis and Josh Beckett are only pitchers to win four games this season....Johan Santana leads in strikeouts with 39 while Jake Peavy who had 16 strikeouts yesterday is second with 36....Tim Hudson leads in ERA with 1.22 mark....Mark Hendrickson has the lowest opponents batting average among starters with the opponents hittting .193.
Transactions
Angels sent down Kendry Morales who was hitting .400 and recalled prospect Brandon Wood who may be ready to be an everyday player for the Angels.
Standings at a Glance
Yankees sank deeper into AL East cellar falling four and a half games behind the first place Red Sox. Devil Rays joined the Yankees in last place after their loss but Yankees winning percentage or should we say losing percentage is 8 points lower than the Devil Rays....Indians have a half game lead over Tigers in AL Central....A's and Angels have identical 11-10 records to lead the second place Mariners by a half game in the AL Central.
Braves and Mets both lose so Mets kept their half game lead over the Braves in NL East....Brewers have the largest lead in majors over the second place team with a three game lead over the Reds and Pirates in NL Central....Dodgers have a one game lead over the Giants and Padres in the NL West.
Giants have longest winning streak in baseball with seven consecutive wins while Yankees and Astros have longest losing streaks with both teams losing five in a row.
