Baseball Etcetera...A-Rod Hits Walkoff Homer for 10th Home Run

Baseball Notebook

Alex Rodriguez Hits 10th Homer In Dramatic Come From Behind Win

The Yankees came to bat in bottom of the ninth trailing the Indians 6-2 and things looked even worse after Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera made outs to start the inning but by the time the smoke had cleared the Yankees went on to score 6 runs and win the game 8-6 capped by the three run homer by Alex Rodriguez to win the game.

Despite starting three rookies in consecutive games due to a depleted starting rotation because of injuries the Yankees have won all three games. When you have the firepower of the Yankees they are never really out of a game until it is over. They hope the big win yesterday will carry over into the three game series in Boston at Fenway Park at 7:05 EDT on ESPN and 6:05 CDT.

Andy Pettitte 1-0 will face Curt Schilling 2-1 in the opening game. Manny Ramirez finally hit his first home run of the season for the Red Sox yesterday. Ramirez is one of those players that no matter how slow he starts the season he is always around 35 homers and 100 RBI's by the end of the season.

Baseball Daily Digest

Johan Santana and the Twins defeated the Mariners 6-5 yesterday. Santana allowed one run in seven innings while striking out seven to take the major league lead with 32 strikeouts....White Sox defeat the Rangers for second night in a row with a 6-4 win. Only highlight for the Rangers was Sammy Sosa hitting his fourth homer of the season and the 592nd of his career. After his first 50 at bats Sosa has 4 homers and 11 RBI's which translated into a 500 at bat season adds up to 40 homers and 110 RBI's. If Sosa comes close to those numbers the Rangers will be happy with their decision of giving Sosa a chance to make the club in spring training.

Jeff Suppan pitched the Brewers to a 7-5 victory over the Pirates with J.J. Hardy driving in four runs for the Brew Crew. Brewers stay atop of the NL Central with the win and have now won 6 of their last 8 games....Jamie Moyer posted a big win for the Phillies who have been struggling and had lost 7 of their last 9 games before yesterday when 44 year old Moyer allowed only 2 runs and 4 hits in 8 innings....Jake Peavy didn't pitch that well yesterday allowing 4 runs and 10 hits in 5 innings but it was enough to defeat the D'Backs 11-6 as Peavy's record goes to 3-0.

Cardinals staked Kip Wells to a 2-0 lead yesterday but they couldn't hold the lead. Actually Wells was a part of the two runs since he scored both of them, hit his 4th homer of his career and 2 of the 5 hits for the Cardinals but his hitting didn't match up to his lackluster performance on the mound as he allowed 5 runs with one being unearned in the 6-2 loss to the Bondsless Giants. Bonds had the day off to rest and Bonds has 4 of the 7 homers hit by the Giants. Like I have stated before if the Giants lose Bonds for any reason they don't have much of a chance of competing in the NL West race.

Mets took a half game lead over the Braves after their 11-3 win over the Marlins. Orlando Hernandez pitched 7 innings allowing one earned run and only three hits while David Wright extended his hitting streak to 26 games as part of the 16 hit attack by the Mets....Josh Hamilton is showing he should have been in the Reds lineup from opening day. He has hit so well the Reds finally had to make room for him in the outfield. To show how productive Hamilton has been this season he has 30 at bats to the 60 at bats of Adam Dunn yet has one more homer than Dunn and is 2nd in NL in homers with 5. He is leading the team in RBI's with 11. I am rooting for Hamilton who has come a long way since missing three seasons because of drugs taking over his life druing that time. I believe in second chances and hope Hamilton who is taking three drug tests a week can stay clean and show why the Devil Rays made him the No.1 pick overall in the 1999 amateur draft.

Rich Hill who had a history prior to this season of shuttling between the Cubs and minors as he couldn't seem to pitch as well in majors as he did in minors but as of today he is the best pitcher in baseball with a 3-0 record and a 0.41 ERA after pitching 8 shutout innings against the Braves last night in the 3-0 win by the Cubs. Mark Redman pitched his best game of the season for the Braves but it wasn't enough to overcome an anemic offense by the Braves as they could only muster a double and three singles against the Cubs.

Stats Corner

Placido Polanco is leading the majors in batting average with a .381 average. Polanco is in his tenth year in majors and has a .301 lifetime average....Alex Rodriguez with 10 homers in 14 games leads the majors and is three ahead of Ian Kinsler with 7....Rodriguez has 26 RBI's which is nine more than Carlos Beltran and Carlos Lee with 17.... Orlando Hudson leads majors in hits with 25....Jim Thome leads in walks with 19....Adam Dunn has the most strikeouts with 20 in only 60 at bats. Alex Rodriguez leads in slugging percentage among players with at least 30 at bats with .961 mark and Josh Hamilton is next with .900 percentage.

Twelve pitchers lead in wins with 3....Zach Duke and Dontrelle Willis lead in hits allowed with 32....Rich Hill leads in ERA with 0.41 while Johan Santana leads in strikeouts with 32.

Unusual Stats

Placido Polanco who is leading the majors in hitting has only swung and missed 3 times in 100 swings while Scott Hatteberg is second with one miss in 50 swings....Victor Martinez leads in hitting with runners in scoring position with a .750 average....Todd Helton leads in batting average against lefthanded pitchers with a .647 average while the best hitter against righthanders is Jim Thome hitting .615....Alex Rodriguez has best home run frequency rate with a home run every 5.7 at bats....Travis Hafner leads in best batting average on the road with a .478 mark....Mike Cuddyer leads in outfield assists with 4.

Felix Hernandez has allowed 6 hits in 56 at bats holding opponents to a .107 average while second best is Rich Hill who has 8 hits in 71 at bats for a .113 average....Ted Lilly has the best strikeouts per 9 innings rate with 11.37 strikeouts per 9 innings with Brett Myers second with 11.02 strikeouts per 9 innings. They are only pitchers in majors with more than 10 strikeouts per 9 innings....Livan Hernandez has pitched the most innings with allowing a homer (25)....Wilfredo Ledezma leads in leadoff wins by a reliever with 3....Curt Schilling has best home ERA of 0.00 allowing no runs in 8 innings at Fenway Park....Gil Meche is best road pitcher with an ERA of 0.00 on the road allowing no runs in 14 innings.