Beckett Wins 20th...Carmona Wins 18th
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Note: Today marks the 14,000th reader reading these posts since May 20th of 2006, when the counter was set up with a total of 14,006 readers as of today.
Josh Beckett Wins 20th Game
Josh Beckett (20-6) improved his chances for the AL Cy Young Award as the Boston Red Sox defeated the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 8-1, with David Ortiz hitting his 32nd homer and driving in four runs, leading the offensive attack. The Red Sox's win, coupled with the 14 inning loss by the Yankees increased the Red Sox lead to 2 1/2 games with eight games left in the season. Today, Daisuke Matsuzaka (14-12) will try to get back on the winning track. He has only posted one win since August 4th and his ERA for September is 11.20. Since the All Star game, he has a 4-6 record with an ERA of 5.37. If there was ever a "must win" game for Dice-K, this is the game.
Gregg Zaun was an unlikely hero for the Toronto Blue Jays yesterday, as they took a 14 inning 5-4 win over the New York Yankees when he homered in the top of the 14th inning. Roy Halladay started the ninth inning with a 4-0 lead, but the Yankees scored four runs with only one being earned to tie the game 4-4, robbing Halladay of a chance for his 16th win of the season. To make things worse, Ian Kennedy and Roger Clemens both have injury problems. Kennedy has been a surprise, outpitching the highly touted Phillip Hughes.
The Detroit Tigers won, but the Cleveland Indians also won behind the 18th win of Fausto Carmona, who continues to be a candidate for the Comeback Player of the Year after posting a 1-10 record in 2006. The Tigers remain 7 1/2 games behind the Indians with eight games left to play so it would take a miracle for them to win the AL Central division title. The Seattle Mariners shutout the Los Angeles Angels 6-0, delaying the AL West leaders from celebrating, but a loss today ends any hopes the Mariners have of winning the division title. In the AL wildcard race, the Tigers are 4 1/2 back of Yankees, so still have a very remote chance of winning the wildcard.
The Chicago Cubs defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 13-8, as they remained a game and a half ahead of the second place Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central, who defeated the Atlanta Braves 4-1. Aramis Ramirez reminded the Pirates again how bad a move they made in 2003 by letting him go, homering twice in the win. In four full seasons with Cubs, he has hit at least 25 home runs and drove in 92 or more runs in those four seasons and is two RBIs from having his third 100 RBI season with the Cubs. The talk of the Cubs not having a good third baseman since Ron Santo has subsided with the acquisition of Ramirez. Kerry Wood pitched well in relief again and has improved his chances of staying with the team while the status of Mark Prior is questionable.
The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Atlanta Braves and Tim Hudson (16-9), lessening the chances of the Braves winning the NL East. The Braves are now 5 1/2 games back with 8 games left in the season. Carlos Villanueva pitched six innings, allowing only one run and three hits, but the Brewers scored three times in the eighth to give Scott Linebrink (5-6) the win in relief. Today's game should be a good matchup with Yovani Gallardo 9-4 facing John Smoltz (14-7). The Brewers are 3-2 on their current road trip, and return to Milwaukee next week to play the St. Louis Cardinals three times and then finish the season against the San Diego Padres, who have the best pitching staff in NL with a 3.59 ERA with no other NL team allowing less than four runs per game.
In the NL East, the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies both won to keep the Mets a game and a half ahead of the Phillies. The Phillies have been 8-2 in their last ten games while Mets are 3-7. Carlos Delgado hit his 23rd homer of the season and drove in his 81st run in the 9-6 win over the Florida Marlins. Considering he has missed 23 games this season, he is not having that bad of a season after such a slow start this year. Pedro Martinez (3-0) took the win. He has really helped the Mets' starting rotation since returning.
Adam Eaton (10-9) may have given up five hits and five walks in five innings, but it was still good enough for him to take the win. For the second game in the row, the Phillies' bullpen pitched scoreless baseball and Brett Myers notched his 19th save. Ryan Howard hit his 42nd homer of the season and Pat Burrell and Jimmy Rollins both hit their 29th of the season in the 6-3 win over the Washington Nationals. Chase Utley drove in his 99th run of the season. Rollins had two hits, giving him 201 for the season and the first time he has had 200 hits in the season. He needs only one more homer to become a member of the 30-30 club this season.
The Los Angeles Dodgers face elimination today in NL West with eight games remaining and eight games behind the front running Diamondbacks and face the Arizona Diamondbacks again today after losing to them 12-3 last night, as Chris Young hit his 31st homer. The Colorado Rockies took a huge win over the Padres 2-1 in 14 innings to keep them in the NL West race with them being five games back of the Diamondbacks and 3 1/2 games back of Padres in NL wildcard race.
With the season ending in eight days, either the New York Yankees or the Detroit Tigers should win the AL wildcard and the NL wildcard could be won by the Padres, Phillies or Rockies. The Rockies are in an excellent position to gain in the wildcard race by playing the Padres this weekend.
The only remaining division race in the AL is the AL East with the Red Sox holding onto a slim 2 1/2 game lead over the Yankees. In the NL East the Mets and Phillies are separated by only a game and a half while Braves stand little chance of making the playoffs. The NL Central race is still a two team race with the Cubs remaining a game and a half ahead of the Brewers. The NL West race is still wide open with the Diamondbacks a game and a half ahead of the Padres with Rockies having a slim chance with them being five games out of first.
So in six divisions there are still four divisions up for grabs with the AL East having the Red Sox 2 1/2 games ahead of Yankees while in NL all three division leading teams have a game and a half lead making those races wide open.
Battle of the Drews
Stephen Drew making $1.5 million this season is outhomering his better paid brother, J.D. Drew, who is being paid $14.4 million by a 11-9 margin. Stephen has a 55-53 lead in RBI's. J.D. is leading in batting average with a .261 average to the .228 average by Stephen. Stephen also leads in extra base hits by a 41-39 margin. The Red Sox figured that J.D. would have more than 9 home runs and 53 RBI's with just a few games left in the season.
