Balco Bonds Hits 742nd HR

by user Niteowl049

Baseball Notebook

Baseball Daily Digest

Barry "Balco" Bonds hit his 742nd homer of his career and 8th of the season tying him with Ian Kinsler for third in majors in homers. Giants lost the game 5-4 to the Diamondbacks....Twins defeated the Tigers 11-3 behind a 17 hit attack and the pitching of Carlos Silva who so far has pitched much better than last season....Rangers defeat the Blue Jays for second day in a row with Hank Blalock hitting a bases loaded sacrifice fly in the 10th inning for a 9-8 win. Mark Texeira hit his second homer which puts him twelve behind AL leader Alex Rodriguez and his sixth RBI leaves him needing 28 RBI's to tie Rodriguez.

A's blast the Devil Rays by a 12-5 score putting together good hitting and pitching to take the win. Dan Haren pitched into the eighth inning allowing only 2 earned runs. Travis Buck hit a three run homer and is tied for second in homers among A's hitters and is third in RBI's having more RBI's than Nick Swisher and Mike Piazza.

Yankees edged the Red Sox 3-1 behind the superb pitching effort of Kei Igawa who replaced injured starter Jeff Karstens as he shut out the Red Sox for 6 innings on 2 hits. Alex Rodriguez has seen his hot streak come to an end since hitting two homers and having 4 hits on Monday night and finishing the game with a .400 average. Since then he has one hit in 14 at bats with no homers and no RBI's and his average has tumbled 52 points to .348. The win places them in a last place tie with Devil Rays but they are only two games behind second place Orioles in AL East.

Jered Weaver pitched the Angels to a 3-0 win over the White Sox. Weaver had allowed 11 runs in his first 7 2/3 innings but allowed none yesterday in 5 2/3 innings....Jered's brother didn't fare as well against the Royals as he gave up 6 runs and 7 hits while only getting one batter out before being lifted in the Royals 8-3 win over the Mariners.It would not be a surprise to see him released considering he has an 0-4 record and has allowed 31 hits and 23 runs in 11 innings. Gil Meche took the win for the Royals allowing no earned runs in 6 innings.

Carlos Zambrano pitched his best game of the season allowing one earned run in 7 innings in the 8-1 romp by the Cubs over the Cardinals. Zambrano only struck out two batters but that didn't matter as the Cubs offense came alive as Jacque went 3 for 4 and drove in four runs....Previously unbeaten Tom Gorzelanny took the loss as the Reds defeated the Pirates by a 8-1 score. Matt Belisle 3-1 took the win allowing one earned run and five hits in his complete game win.

Dontrelle Willis 5-1 became the first five game winner in the NL behind a 17 hit attack by the Marlins in their 11-5 win over the Phillies. Miguel Cabrera was 5 for 5 lifting his average from .319 at gametime to .364. Hanley Ramirez the leadoff hitter was the only position player without an RBI....Chris Sampson allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings to take a 10-1 win over the Brewers. Hunter Pence picked up a hit in his major league debut....Mets took a 6-2 win in twelve innings over the Nationals. Carlos Beltran hit a double and David Wright hit a single to plate the winning runs in the top of the twelfth inning.

John Smoltz pitched the Braves to a 6-2 win over the Rockies while allowing two runs and striking out eight....Greg Maddux won his second game of season in the 3-2 win by the Padres over the Dodgers.

Stats Corner

Matt Holliday leads all major leagues hitters in batting average with .398 average....Rodriguez has seen his home run total remain at 14 since last Monday night with Jimmy Rollins second with nine....Rodriguez still leads in RBI's with 34 and Jeff Francoeur took the NL lead in RBI's by driving in a run last night giving him 25 for the season....Holliday leads in hits with 39 for the month of April so far with two more games this month. If he reaches 40 he would be on pace to have 240 hits for the season if multiplying 6 months by 40 hits a month....Adam Dunn has struck out 32 times in 23 games and if he maintains that pace he would finish the season with close to 200 strikeouts.

Jose Reyes leads majors in stolen bases with 14 and Juan Pierre is next with 10....Alex Rodriguez is seeing his slugging percentage take a freefall to .899 yet still leads the majors in this category. Barry Bonds is gaining on him fast as he is now at .828 for second place....David Ortiz leads major in hitting into double plays with 6....Rodriguez is barely leading in extra base hits with 21 to the 18 by Chase Utley.

Standings at a Glance

Red Sox and Braves are leading the majors in winning percentage with 15-8 records and a .652 winning percentage....At the other end of the spectrum are the Royals who have a 7-16 record and a .304 winning percentage.... Diamondbacks have the longest winning streak at four games. Three teams, the Cardinals, Astros and Cubs share last place in the NL Central with identical 10-13 records....Angels have best home record with 11-3 record but are worst road team with a 2-8 record....Leading in runs scored in majors is the Marlins with 133 with the Devil Rays are the worst allowing 159 runs to cross the plate.

Nationals and Pirates have scored the least runs this season with 78 runs scored with Mets allowing fewest runs with 75. Rangers are the closest last place team being two and a half games behind the Angels. The team furthest behind the division leader is the Royals with six and a half game deficit.