Baseball Etcetera....A-Rod, Frank Thomas Hit Grand Slams

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Baseball Notebook

Baseball Daily Digest

Alex Rodriguez kept Kei Igawa from absorbing the loss in his first major league start by hitting a grand slam and driving in 6 runs. tying him for the major league lead in homers and making him second behind Vladimir Guerrero in RBI's with 9 with Guerrero having 10. Igawa gave up 7 runs and 8 hits in 5 innings. Steve Trachsel pitched better than expected against the Yankees limiting them to 3 runs in almost 7 innings. Melvin Mora led the Orioles with 5 RBI's....Gil Meche took his first loss of the season as Tigers defeated the Royals 6-5....Javier Vasquez and four relievers shut out the Twins 3-0 as Vasquez allowed only one hit in 6 2/3 innings....Frank Thomas hit a grandslam for his first homer of the season and the first runs batted in of the season in the Blue Jays 8-5 win over the Devil Rays.

Sammy Sosa hit his first homer of the season and Kevin Millwood won his first game of the season as the Rangers pounded out 14 hits in their 8-4 win over the Red Sox. The experiment using Julian Tavarez as a starter failed miserably for the Red Sox. He allowed 4 runs, 6 hits and 5 walks in 4 innings....Angels eked out a 2-1 win over the Athletics in a pitcher's battle with John Lackey taking the win and Dan Haren taking the loss despite allowing only 1 earned run in 7 innings....Cubs handed the Brewers their third consecutive loss defeating them 6-3 behind pitching of Carlos Zambrano and the hitting of Aramis Ramirez. Brewers are now one game under .500 so they hope a win today will even their record.

Aaron Harang won his second game of the season in the Reds 7-5 win over the Pirates as Adam Dunn hit his third homer of the season. Reds now have sole possession of first place in NL Central with a 4-1 record....Derek Lowe and the Dodgers defeated the Giants 4-1 as Russ Ortiz took his first loss while not pitching that well it was better than most games Ortiz pitched last season. Giants are alone in the NL West cellar with a 1-4 record....Mets lost due to sloppy fielding allowing 3 unearned runs in their 5-3 loss to the Braves. Glavine deserved a better fate as he kept the game close but errors by Carlos Delgado and Shawn Green prevented him from registering his 292nd win of his career. Unless Kelly Johnson starts hitting better the experiment with him at second base may be doomed to failure. He only has 2 singles in 17 at bats for a .118 average....Brandon Webb lowered his ERA from 9.00 to 4.50 by allowing only one run in 7 innings in the 7-1 win by the Diamondbacks over the Nationals. Astro posted their first win of the season over the Cardinals defeating them 5-1 behind the pitching of Roy Oswalt who pitched a complete game win and lowering is ERA to 1.08. Craig Biggio only needs 64 hits now to have 3000 hits. This is the record I really care about this season as Biggio is everything Barry Bonds isn't. Biggio has shown you can do well in baseball without cheating but by being consistently good over a long period. Albert Pujols slump has reached monumental proportions as he is hitting .059 with only 1 hit in 17 at bats but the entire middle of their batting order is not doing that great either with Scott Rolen hitting .118 and having 2 hits in 17 at bats and Jim Edmonds hitting .200 with 2 hits in 10 at bats so combined the three sluggers have 5 hits in 44 at bats....David Wells may be 44 next month but pitched very well last night allowing two runs in 6 2/3 innings as the Padres edged the Rockies 3-2. Wells didn't get the win but kept them in the game long enough for them to win the game in the ninth inning.

Looking at Stats

Vladimir Guerrero leads all hitters with 11 hits, is in a 5 way tie for home run lead with 3, leading in RBI's with 10, leads in total bases with 22, is 3rd in hitting with a .556 average and and appears headed to what may be his best season....Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Church lead the majors in extra base hits with 6 each....Akinori Iwamura continues to lead the majors in hitting with a .615 average with Trot Nixon next at .556....Aaron Harang, Dontrelle Willis and John Lackey are only pitchers with perfect 2-0 records....Brett Myers leads in strikeouts with 15....Dan Haren leads majors in ERA among pitchers with at least 10 innings pitched with a 0.69 mark with John Lackey who he faced last night second at 0.75.

Mets and Marlins lead in runs scored with 34....Devil Rays and Braves are tied for most homers with 8....Phillies hitters have struck out 48 times in 5 games to lead in that category....Indians lead in batting average at .310....Mets have lowest ERA with 1.02 with Angels second with 2.00....Diamondbacks are best in strikeouts with 59 in 6 games.