Clemens Only Over 40 Starter to Lose
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Clemens Pitches One Inning Too Many: For five innings Roger Clemens and Erik Bedard were locked in a scoreless duel but in the sixth Clemens became unraveled and gave up four runs as he lost his third game of the season with only one win. His ERA ballooned to 5.32 not exactly the kind of ERA the Yankees were expecting from one of the greatest pitchers in the history of baseball. He pitched one inning too many and he may be pitching one year too many.
In his defense the Yankees offense was non-existent managing only five singles in the contest. It was ironic that in the first game he faced a designated hitter that Aubrey Huff, the DH for the Orioles, hits a three run homer against him. In his first two games he had a strikeout to walk ratio of 15-3 but in the last three games it is 7-5 and he didn't register any strikeouts on Wednesday night. His next start will be Monday against the Twins in Yankee Stadium. His road ERA is 7.15 while it is 3.65 at Yankee Stadium. Worst of all the loss dropped the Yankees three games under .500 and they fell another game behind the second place Blue Jays who are now nine games behind the Red Sox while Yankees are eleven back. As bad as the season has been for the Orioles they are only three games behind the third place Yankees.
Around the Bases
Over 40 starters scoreboard.... Kenny Rogers was rained out....John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux posted wins....Woody Williams and Jamie Moyer had no decision though both pitched well so the only over 40 failure of the day was Roger Clemens the only over 40 starter to absorb a loss. Glavine's 297th win with about two starts left before the All Star game should win his 300th at some point in July.
Craig Biggio tried to sacrifice in his lone at bat yesterday as a pinch hitter but bunted into an easy out by popping up. The Brewers took a 6-3 win over the Astros as Brewers fans lifted a Miller beer to celebrate Damian Miller's walkoff homer in the eleventh inning in Miller Park. Dave Bush 6-6 was the winning pitcher pitching in relief.
The odds weren't good for the Royals to sweep the Angels in the Angels own ballpark but that is what happened as Jorge De La Rosa 5-9 scattered ten hits with nine of them being singles to take the win....Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched eight innings of three hit baseball and allowed only one earned run but it wasn't good enough to pick up a win or a decision. His ERA for the month of June is 1.59 after posting a 5.22 ERA in May. Jose Lopez hit a walkoff double to win the game for the Mariners by a 2-1 score.
A's jumped off to a 9-0 lead over the Indians and then hung on for a 13-7 win. Jack Cust hit his 13th home run of the year and drove in 5 runs while Shannon Stewart had four hits. Lenny DiNardo 3-4 took the win while Fausto Carmona 8-4 took the loss and lasted only one inning in which he gave up 8 runs and 7 hits. It was the third loss in the last four decisions for Carmona.
Carlos Zambrano 9-6 won for the fourth time in his last five decisions and has lowered his ERA from game to game since he had an ERA of 5.62 on June 1st but now it stands at 4.20. His problem this season has been righthanded batters who are hitting .314 while lefthanders are hitting .177 against his offerings. The 6-4 win for the Cubs over the Rockies was their sixth in a row and was the sixth loss in the row for Rockies who have not won since sweeping the Yankees last week.
Greg Maddux won his 340th game. It is not a matter of if Maddux makes the Hall of Fame but rather a matter of when he will retire and wait the five years needed to be inducted. It is not easy to retire when getting paid $10 million a year but how much is enough considering he has made $133 million in his career according to baseball-reference.com before adding the $10 million he is being paid this year. Like a broadcaster on television said yesterday some players don't want to leave the game while they are still physically able to compete.
Phillies seem to be getting early leads in games then losing them but can't verify that but Phillies readers probably can let me know one way or the other. Phillies should be in first place in NL East with the talent on that team but the pitching seems to be holding them back. Ryan Howard has a eight game hitting streak and has 4 home runs and 14 runs batted in during his last ten games. Most players would be happy to have 14 runs batted in for the month. Howard has 9 home runs and 26 RBI's for the month and a .649 slugging percentage.
What a difference a week makes....Last week the Braves scored only one run out of all the games they played from Tuesday through Sunday. This week in three games they have swept the Nationals and have outscored them 23-3 capping the sweep with a 13-0 win last night behind a 22 hit barrage with five Braves having three or more hits in the contest. You can be sure the schedule makers will be getting a Christmas card from the Braves for letting them play the Nationals at such an opportune time. Even Andruw Jones had one of the 22 hits. Chipper Jones had 4 runs batted in. John Smoltz 9-4 was the beneficiary of the offensive outburst pitching 5 innings and striking out 7 to take the win. Padres and Diamondbacks both won and moved into a first place tie to lead the NL West.
Stats Corner
Hitting
There is only a 13 point difference between Magglio Ordonez hitting .377 and Ichiro Suzuki hitting .364 the major league leaders in batting average. Alex Rodriguez leads in home runs with 28 with Prince Fielder close behind with 27....Rodriguez is only major leaguer with more than 70 RBI's with 77 but Vladimir Guerrero with 69 and Ordonez with 68 are close to the 70 mark....Ichiro Suzuki leads in hits with 114 in 75 games. ESPN.com projects Suzuki to have 246 hits by the end of the season. Suzuki is last AL player to have more than 246 hits in a season when he had 262 in 2004. The last AL player before him to have more than 246 hits is Al Simmons who had 253 in 1925. Suzuki is hitting .422 this month and has only had three games all month with no hits.
Rodriguez leads in total bases with 195 and Matt Holliday is next with 184. No AL player has had 400 total bases since Jim Rice had 406 in 1978 but Rodriguez has a great shot at cracking 400 this season....Adam Dunn leads in strikeouts with 98 with Dan Uggla far behind with 83....Jose Reyes leads in stolen bases with 38 with Juan Pierre next with 26....Rodriguez is leading in slugging percentage with a .694 percentage with Ordonez next at .637....Chase Utley leads in being hit by pitch with 15 and Aaron Boone is next with 13....Ordonez and Uggla lead in extra base hits with 47 and Curtis Granderson and Rodriguez are next with 46. Albert Belle is the last AL player to have 100 extra base hits with 103 in 1995. Hank Greenberg with 103 in 1937 is the only other AL player to have 100 extra base hits in the last 70 years.
Pitching
Josh Beckett and C.C. Sabathia are only 11 game winners with John Lackey and Brad Penny next with 10 ten wins. Cole Hamels, Kelvim Escobar and Justin Verlander try for their tenth wins on Friday....Erik Bedard with 129 strikeouts leads Johan Santana who has 114 and Bedard is starting to pull away from the rest of the field....Dan Haren leads in ERA with a 1.91 mark with Brad Penny in second with a 2.04 ERA....Francisco Cordero leads all closers in saves with 27 with Jose Valverde next with 25....Woody Williams leads in earned runs allowed with 61 with Vicente Padilla and Kip Wells next with 60. The three pitchers have combined for a 9-29 record this season.
Ervin Santana leads in home runs allowed with 19 and James Shields is close behind with 18....Matt Cain leads in walks with 50 with Scott Kazmir and Daniel Cabrera next with 49....Woody Williams has allowed the most total bases with 203 and Zach Duke is next with 195....Anthony Reyes is now 0-10 and his record along with teammate Kip Wells 3-11 combined is 3-21 so it no mystery why Cardinals aren't doing better this season. They have trudged out to the mound 27 times between them and only have three wins to show for it.
