Beckett First to Win 19 Games
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Beckett First To Win 19 Games
Josh Beckett (19-6) became the first 19 game winner this season pitching the Boston Red Sox to a 10-1 rout against the New York Yankees. Beckett allowed only 3 hits in 7 innings to take the win. Chien-Ming Wang (18-7) lost for the first time since winning his last five starts. Wang allowed five runs in 5 2/3 innings while the Yankee bullpen gave up five more runs. David Ortiz and Mike Lowell both drove in two runs, giving them both 106 for the season. The win stretched the Red Sox lead over the Yankees to 5 1/2 games, with the Red Sox having 13 games left in the season. Roger Clemens faces Curt Schilling, as he tries to get the Yankees back on the winning track.
Around the Bases
Nick Swisher homered in his third straight game and has hit five of his 22 home runs in the last seven games as the Oakland A's defeated the Texas Rangers 7-3 and are now four games ahead of the last place Rangers, who seemed to be ready to escape the cellar recently, but the A's are having none of that. Fausto Carmona (17-8) won his third straight game as he pitched eight innings of shutout baseball, as the Cleveland Indians defeated the Kansas City Royals 6-0. Those three wins included wins over the bottom three teams in the AL Central, the Minnesota Twins, the Chicago White Sox, and the Kansas City Royals. Carmona has to be a candidate for Comeback Player of the Year, since he had a 1-10 record last year, but Carlos Pena, with 39 home runs, also deserves strong consideration, after hitting only one home run last season.
Johan Santana (15-12) took the loss in the Twins' 4-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers. Since Santana struck out 17 Rangers on the 19th of August, he has given up four runs four times in his last five starts, and his 12 losses are the most in his career. Previously he had never lost more than seven games in a season. Raul Ibanez leads the Seattle Mariners in RBIs this season, with 95; Adrian Beltre is next with 92, and Jose Guillen is third with 90. Ibanez has had at least 89 RBI's in five of his last six seasons. Richie Sexson, with 63 RBIs, will have less than 100 RBI's for the first time since 2000 when playing a full season.
Chicago Cubs' Kerry Wood (1-1) won his first game in relief in a 3-2 win over the slumping St. Louis Cardinals, who lost their ninth game in a row. It was only the fifth win for Wood in the last three seasons. The Cardinals won the nightcap 4-3, ending the day six games behind the Cubs. Alfonso Soriano now has 27 home runs, after homering in both ends of the doubleheader. Soriano has 58 RBI's after his disastrous start when he posted only four home runs and 12 RBI's total during April and May. He played in only eight games in August due to injury but he is hitting when it counts and has homered five times in his last ten games.
The Philadelphia Phillies gained yet another game on the New York Mets defeating them 5-3, as they moved to within 4 1/2 games of the Mets. Adam Eaton faces Oliver Perez in the final game of the series. The Phillies and Dodgers remained a game and a half behind the San Diego Padres in wildcard race since all of the top three teams won yesterday.
Prince Fielder hit his 46th home run, which is now a franchise record. Jeff Suppan (10-11) pitched well last night, and has won two of his last three starts and has not given up more than three runs in his last six starts. Ryan Braun drove in his 83rd run of the season, despite batting only 398 times, as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-7. When comparing Braun to Ryan Zimmerman, Zimmerman has four more RBIs than Braun, but it Zimmerman has had 199 more at bats more than Braun this season. Braun is leading the NL in slugging with a .631 percentage among batters with more than 300 at bats with Prince Fielder at .623 and Chipper Jones at .606. No other NL player is slugging above .600.
Nick Markakis needs one RBI to reach the 100 RBI mark. Jeff Francoeur and David Wright need three each to reach 100. Chase Utley, Brad Hawpe, Bobby Abreu, and Carlos Beltran all need four RBI's to reach 100. Ichiro Suzuki is the only player with over 200 hits, with 216 and about 15 games left. Magglio Ordonez is next with 196 and Matt Holliday, Jimmy Rollins and Hanley Ramirez are tied for third have 193. Next in line are Derek Jeter and Michael Young with 183.
