Francoeur Leading NL in RBI's with 24
| 10
|
by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Baseball Daily Digest
Yankees fell three games under .500 after their 6-4 loss to Devil Rays. They now have sole possession of last place but luckily for them the Red Sox have lost to Blue Jays the last two days so still are four games back like they were at end of Red Sox series. Chien-Ming Wang, who made his first start after being released from the disabled list, didn't pitch that well but pitched better than some of the rookies that have been starting for Yankees lately. Yankees blew 1-0 and 3-2 leads. Devil Rays are showing they can compete with the best teams and are not going to be pushovers. Yankees return to Yankee Stadium to face the Blue Jays tonight.
Dallas Braden called up by the A's to replace Rich Harden in starting rotation pitched 6 innings allowing only one run and three hits while striking out six in the A's 4-2 win over the Orioles. If Braden continues to pitch this well it will be a tremendous boost to the A's pitching staff which has been depleted due to injuries of Rich Harden and Esteban Loaiza....Angels blew a 7-0 lead over the Tigers but let the Tigers back in the game with the Angels winning on an infield chopper by Erick Aybar in the tenth inning.
Roy Halladay silenced the Red Sox bats yesterday taking his third win of the season without a defeat and allowing 3 runs and 5 hits in 8 innings while striking out ten in the 10-3 victory....Twins lost to the Indians even with Johan Santana starting the game and Indians won the game 5-3 behind the pitching of Fausto Carmona who limited the Twins to two runs in 7 2/3 innings.
Jeff Francoeur leads NL in RBIs with 24 and has more than Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones have combined (23). Yesterday he drove in two runs in the 11-6 win over the Marlins. Braves scored four in top of first but Marlins scored four runs of their own in the bottom of the inning then Braves scored two more in top of second to make it 6-4 then in bottom of third Marlins scored two runs making it 6-6 but didn't score again the rest of the game. Mark Redman was ineffective and couldn't hold the early 4-0 lead as his record went to 0-3 for the season with a 10.13 ERA. In 18 innings he has given up 21 runs and 29 hits. Braves thought he would be a good replacement for Mike Hampton but now they are realizing why Redman was one of the last unsigned free agents. For some reason he doesn't stick with teams for more than one year having changed teams every year since 2001 having played for Tigers, Marlins, A's, Pirates, Royals and Braves. Braves could call up a minor leaguer who could pitch better than Redman.
Paul Maholm pitched the Pirates to 3-0 win over the Astros in a complete game shutout with Craig Biggio picking up two of the three Astros hits. Biggio needs 52 hits to reach the 3000 hit plateau....Phillies won their fourth in a row defeating the Nationals 6-3....Orlando Hernandez and Aaron Cook locked up in a pitchers duel yesterday at Shea Stadium with both starters pitching shutout ball in their seven innings pitched. Both teams scored runs in the tenth inning and the game ended when Endy Chavez bunted in the winning run on a squeeze play in the twelfth inning to give the Mets a 2-1 win.
Jeff Suppan pitched 8 innings of shutout ball as the Brewers won their fourth in a row 4-1 over the hapless Cubs who are 7-13 and mired deep in last place. The Brewers are 13-7 and look like they will be a serious contender all season for the NL Central title....Reds pounded out 17 hits in their 10-3 win over the Cardinals. Alex Gonzalez was the hitting star of the game going 4 for 5 with 5 RBI's. He only had 4 RBI's entering the game in his first 15 games.
Neither Randy Johnson or David Wells pitched that well yesterday with Wells giving up 5 runs in 5 innings and Johnson allowing 6 runs in 5 innings but Wells won his first game of the season. Johnson's ERA stands at 10.80 after the contest but he struck out 7 batters in the 10-5 win by the Padres. Adrian Gonzalez had a big night for the Padres having 3 hits in 3 at bats and driving in 3 runs while hitting his sixth homer of the season and has 20 RBI's on the season. Khalil Greene was 4 for 5 with 4 RBI's. Matt Morris is 3-0 after pitching the Giants to a 5-3 win over the Dodgers. Barry Bonds was 0 for 2 with 2 walks.
Stats Corner
Vladimir Guerrero is the only hitter hitting over .400 this season with a .403 mark....Alex Rodriguez with 14 homers has twice as many as any other hitter in majors with Ian Kinsler and Jimmy Rollins next with 7....Rodriguez with 34 RBI's leads in that category with Jeff Francoeur next with 24 and Adrian Gonzalez next with 20....Matt Holliday leads in hits with 33 the number needed each month to have 200 hits....Rodriguez leads in total bases with 79 with Jimmy Rollins next with 54 showing how great a season Rodriguez is having to be that far ahead of Rollins.
Jim Thome leads in walks with 25 in 18 games. Adam Dunn leads in strikeouts with 27 in 73 at bats....Thome also leads in on base percentage with a .553 percentage....Rodriguez leads in slugging percentage with 1.013 mark far ahead of second place John Buck with a .825 percentage....Rodriguez also leads in extra base hits with 21 with Khalil Greene, Torii Hunter and Chase Utley second with 15....Rodriguez has the best OPS in majors with 1.457 with John Buck next with 1.282 percentage.
Josh Beckett and Dontrelle Willis remain the only pitchers with 4 wins this season. Today C.C. Sabathia, Tim Hudson, Braden Looper, Jake Peavy and Randy Wolf try for their fourth win of the season....Tim Hudson is the new leader in ERA with a 0.62 mark with Brad Penny next with a 1.37 ERA. Having the dubious honor of leading in most runs allowed this season are Mark Redman, Carlos Zambrano and Clay Hensley all allowing 21 runs to score....Johan Santana takes back the strikeout lead with 39 with Cole Hamels second with 33....Francisco Cordero of Brewers is leading majors in most strikeouts per 9 innings with a 16.39 percentage. Claudio Vargas also of Brewers is leading starters with most strikeouts per inning with a 12.71 percentage.
Leading rookies in batting average is Akinori Iwamura who was placed on disabled list yesterday and has a .339 average....Delmon Young leads rookies in homers with 3 and in RBI's with 13.
Jason Hirsh leads rookie pitchers with a 2-1 record and a 3.16 ERA. Daisuke Matsuzaka leads rookie hurlers with 31 strikeouts.
Glance at the Standings
Blue Jays move to within 2 and a half games of Red Sox after beating them the last two days. Only AL teams with a lower winning percentage than the Yankees are the Royals and Mariners. Yankees have a 421 winning percentage after their record dipped to 8-11 for the season. Royals are only team in AL further behind than the Yankees in their division.
White Sox and Indians are in first place tie for AL Central lead. A's hold on to their one game lead over the Angels in the AL West.
Mets and Braves both won yesterday leaving the Mets a half game ahead of the Braves in the NL East. Phillies won their fourth in a row and are a half game behind the third place Marlins....Brewers so far the surprise team of the season lead the NL Central by three games. They are only team in division with a winning record. Cardinals and Cubs who have both lost seven of last ten games are the bottom two teams in the league with Cubs six games out of first.
Giants are hottest team in baseball having won six in a row and moving into third place and two games behind the first place Dodgers in the NL West.
Yankees and Diamondbacks have longest losing streak in baseball with 5 consecutive losses....Mets are best road team in majors with a 7-2 record....Royals are only team with a losing record in AL Central.
Hitters Still Hitting Under .200
There are still a lot of well known hitters still hitting under the .200 mark better known as hitting under the Mendoza Line named for Mario Mendoza who played for Pirates, Mariners and Rangers. In his nine major league seasons he batted below .200 in five of those seasons. He didn't pitch any better than he hit having a 13.50 ERA in his only major league appearance as a pitcher giving up 3 hits one of which was a home run in two innings. Surprisingly he is the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame which obviously is more lenient in their requirements for induction than our Baseball Hall of Fame.
Of the 193 hitters listed in ESPN batting statistics Adam LaRoche is last with a .098 average having only 6 hits in 61 at bats.
Some of the better known names and their averages who are hitting above the LaRoche line but under the Mendoza line:
| Brandon Inge | .111 | Josh Barfield | .123 | Alex Gordon | .143 |
| Gary Sheffield | .149 | Richie Sexson | .160 | Michael Young | .165 |
| Craig Monroe | .172 | Sean Casey | .188 | Jason Kendall | .194 |
| Jim Edmonds | .196 | Manny Ramirez | .197 |
