Baseball Etcetera....A-Rod HIts 8th, Sosa Hits 591st, Glavine Wins 293rd

by user Niteowl049

Baseball Notebook

Baseball Daily Digest

Alex Rodriguez hit his 8th homer of the season in the Yankees 10-3 win over Cleveland with rookie starter Chase Wright winning his first major league start....Daisuke Matsuzaka pitches well again but takes the loss as the Red Sox could only muster one run from their offense with their 3-4-5-6 hitters having a 2 for 16 game with no RBI's. Gustavo Chacin pitched even better for the Blue Jays in their 2-1 victory allowing only one run in 6 2/3 innings. Matsuzaka only allowed 3 hits and struck out 10 in 6 innings. His next start will probably be on Sunday against the Yankees in Fenway Park on ESPN national television broadcast.

A win today for Devil Rays could tie them for last place with the Orioles after their 6-4 win last night....Rangers put it all together in their 8-1 win over the White Sox. Ian Kinsler moved into second place in majors in homers with 7 and Sammy Sosa hit the 591st homer of his career and raised his average to .205. Robinson Tejada added a stellar pitching performance to the win for the Rangers pitching seven innings while allowing one run and three hits.

In a huge win for the A's Bobby Crosby hit a three run homer and Chad Gaudin pitched his third straight game in which he gave up two or fewer runs and has allowed only 4 runs in 18 innings this season. His ERA was 3.60 after his first start but now is 1.96....It was a bad night for the Weaver brothers as Jered Weaver took the loss in the Athletics game then his brother Jeff Weaver lost to the Twins 11-2 as he was shelled in his second start of the season. He has allowed 14 runs and 17 hits in 8 innings. It is hard to believe this is the same Weaver that shut down the Tigers in the World Series.

Tom Gorzelanny seems to be the latest Pirate pitcher to come on the scene suddenly and if they can get pitchers like Zach Duke and Ian Snell to pitch as well as Gorzelanny they could actually post a better than .500 season. Gorzelanny has an microscopic 1.33 ERA allowing only 3 earned runs in 20 innings and has not allowed a home run this season. They will have to have better hitting from Adam LaRoche than the .116 average with only 5 hits in 43 times at bat for them to be competitive in the NL Central race. LaRoche hit 32 homers last year for the Braves and that is why the Pirates gave up closer Mike Gonzalez to get some power in the lineup but so far it hasn't happened but it is still early.

Watched part of the Cubs game and was impressed by the debut of Felix Pie pronounced pe-ay as he doubled and threw out Russell Branyan at home in the tenth inning which may have won the game but eventually the Padres did win the 14 inning game by a 4-3 score on a double by Geoff Blum. Pie was filling in for injured Alfonso Soriano so not too likely he will get much playing time with Jacque Jones, Cliff Floyd and Matt Murton trying to get playing time already in a crowded Cubs outfield. It was nice to see a centerfielder for the Cubs who can throw runners out at the plate after having weak armed Juan Pierre in centerfield last year.

Braves won behind the pitching of John Smoltz and the hitting of Kelly Johnson who saw his batting average jump by 72 points after having a 4 for 5 night. He started the game with .150 average but by end of game it was .222 and with him being on base so much it helped the hitters behind him giving them RBI opportunities. Chipper Jones hit his fourth homer of the season and Jeff Francoeur drove in two runs giving him a team leading 12 RBI's. The 6-4 win over the Senators kept the Braves a half game ahead of the Mets.

Tom Glavine won his 293rd game of his career in a 8-1 win over the Phillies with Moises Alou hitting his first two home runs of the season....Brewers blew a 5-4 lead going into the bottom of the seventh and lost 11-5 to the Reds....Roy Oswalt won his third game of the season yesterday while Carlos Lee hit his 5th homer of the season in the 6-1 win by the Astros over the Marlins....Giants bullpen lost a 3-0 lead in the eighth inning when they gave up 5 runs to Rockies and giving the Rockies a 5-3 win. Matt Cain had pitched 7 innings of shutout ball allowing only 2 hits....Dodgers became the first team to win ten games this season as they defeated the Diamondbacks 6-4. Juan Pierre who went to Alexandria Senior High in Alexandria, Louisiana seems to be coming out of his slump. After Sunday's game he was hitting .180 but has hit 4 times in last 9 at bats to raise his average to .220.

Stats Corner Kenji Johjima leads majors in hitting after finally having enough at bats to qualify and is hitting .400 while Orlando Hudson is next at .393....Alex Rodriguez continues to lead majors in homers with 8 and in runs batted in with 21. Orlando Hudson and Placido Polanco are tied for most hits with 22....Torii Hunter leads in doubles with 9....Tony Pena leads in triples with 4....Total bases leader is Rodriguez with 47....Ryan Howard leads in walks with 19....Craig Monroe leads in strikeouts with 18....Leading the majors in stolen bases is Jose Reyes with 8....Rodriguez is leading in slugging percentage with a .979 percentage....Rodriguez also leads in extra base hits with 13.

Eight pitchers lead majors in wins with 3 while Tom Glavine is only one of the eight to have lost a game....Felix Hernandez is only pitcher with perfect 0.00 ERA and will start tonight against the Twins. Hernandez has only given up 3 hits in 17 innings this season....Johan Santana leads in strikeouts with 25 with Daisuke Matsuzaka and Ted Lilly are tied for second with 24....Todd Jones leads in saves with 7.

$300 Million Chicago Cubs In Last Place in NL Central

The Cubs who spent close to $300 million last offseason find themselves in last place in NL Central. Alfonso Soriano is hitting only .245 and has no homers and one RBI after batting 49 times. Mark DeRosa signed by the Cubs last offseason is hitting .243 but is leading team in homers with 3 with nobody else having more than one homer. He is second in RBI's with 8.

It is a long season but so far the Cubs are 5-8 and now travel to Atlanta for a two game set with the Braves then go to St. Louis for a three game series with the Cardinals. At the end of those two series the Cubs will have played in 18 games which would be more than ten percent of the season so will be interesting to see how they do on this road trip.