Glavine Wins 295th, Yankees Implode in Loss to Mets
| 9
|
by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Baseball Daily Digest
Red Sox and Braves took turns clobbering each other in their twinbill yesterday. The Red Sox won the first game 13-3 behind the pitching of Daisuke Matsuzaka 6-2 who gave up 3 runs in 8 innings while Mike Lowell was 4 for 5 including a grand slam while driving in 5 runs. Braves starter Anthony Lerew 0-2 didn't last long giving up 3 runs in 2 innings but the bullpen gave the Red Sox another 10 runs. Mark Redman and Chad Paronto pitched 2 2/3 innings combined and gave up 9 runs and 9 hits.
In the second game it was the Braves turn to run the score up on the Red Sox shutting out the Red Sox by a 14-0 score. John Smoltz 6-2 pitched 7 innings allowing only 3 hits to take his 199th career win. His years spent as a relief pitcher will keep him from ever posting 300 wins but hopefully Hall of Fame voters will remember how well he did as a relief pitcher and still vote him into Cooperstown. Kelly Johnson was the offensive star of the game driving in 5 runs while Chipper Jones hit his 12th homer of the season. By the time the smoke had cleared after the twinbill the two teams had combined for 30 runs and 49 hits in 18 innings of baseball.
Cubs score 6 runs in the eighth with a grand slam by Derrek Lee capping the inning. Jason Marquis hit a home run to deep center field to drive in two runs. Cubs won the game 11-6. In a game I saw on Fox yesterday the Mets jumped ahead of the Yankees with a 8-2 lead then hung on to take a 10-7 victory over the hapless Yankees who saw their starter Darrell Rasner leave the game with a fractured finger and to make matters worse Robinson Cano had the kind of day in the field major leaguers dread making 3 errors.
David Wright was the story of the game hitting homers in each of his first two at bats while Tom Glavine 5-1 won his 295th game as he edged closer to 300 wins and almost certain admission to the Hall of Fame. Yankees slid into fourth place in AL East in what so far has been a season gone disastrously wrong. Alex Rodriguez hit his 16th homer in the contest.
Diamondbacks rallied from a 7-1 deficit to come back and beat the Pirates 9-8. Tony Clark hit a grand slam for the Diamondbacks on a day in which grand slams were prevalent....Orioles took a 3-2 win in 11 innings over the Nationals. Orioles took sole possession of second place in AL East with the win. Reds defeated the Indians 10-5. Even with the win the Reds remained in last place in NL Central and are 9 games behind the slumping first place Brewers.
Nate Robertson 4-3 left the game with a 6-2 lead but the Tigers bullpen was not effective as the Cardinals made a close game of it by losing by a 8-7 score. Anthony Reyes 0-7 took the loss for the Cardinals....Twins defeated the Brewers 5-2 as the Brewers lost while the second place Astros moved to within 4 and a half games of the first place Brewers. Since the 9th of May the Brewers have a 2-9 record going from 14 games over .500. After today they go on the road to play the Dodgers and Padres the top two teams in the NL West that both have very good pitching and then return to Milwaukee to face the Braves on the 28th.
Wandy Rodriguez 2-3 pitched the Astros to a 6-1 win over the interstate rival Rangers last night. Rangers are fading fast in the AL West as they are 5 games behind the third place Mariners. Kevin Millwood is on the disabled list again and Vicente Padilla who won 15 games last season is 1-6 this year so the pitching problems that have haunted the Rangers most of their history continue....Dontrelle Willis 6-3 pitched the Marlins to a 7-2 win over the Devil Rays. Hanley Ramirez hit his sixth homer but only has 9 RBI's this season. Jae Seo 2-4 took the loss for the Devil Rays.
Jered Weaver 3-3 pitching his third straight good game led the Angels to a 6-2 win....Blue Jays blasted the Phillies 13-2 as Lyle Overbay with 4 runs batted in led a 14 hit assault on Phillies pitchers....Taylor Buchholz 2-2 outpitched Gil Meche 3-2 as the Rockies took a 6-4 win over the Royals.
The A's behind the pitching of Dan Haren 4-2 and the hitting of Jack Cust defeated the Giants 4-2. Cust hit his 8th homer and now has 20 RBI's after only 42 at bats. Cust now has two more homers than Nick Swisher who is second on team in homers with 6 in 127 at bats. He is only three RBI's behind team leader Mark Ellis who has 23. Cust has 16 walks and has a .500 on base percentage and has the best slugging percentage on team with a .929 mark. 10 his 13 hits have been for extra bases. The A's kept pace with the Angels with the win and are 3 back of the Angels.
Mariners rocked Greg Maddux 3-3 for 7 runs and 12 hits in 3 2/3 innings on their way to a 7-4 win over the Padres. Ichiro Suzuki is continuing to hit the way he was expected to hit and has raised his average to .327. It was the 6th consecutive 2 hit game for Suzuki and he has 5 stolen bases over the last two games.
Around the Bases
Derrek Lee leads major league hitters with a .394 average with Jorge Posada next with a .386 mark....The top two home run hitters in majors both homered yesterday as Alex Rodriguez hit his 16th and J.J. Hardy hit his 14th....Rodriguez, Hardy and Carlos Lee lead in RBI's with all three players having 40.
Josh Beckett leads in with 7 with 7 pitchers having 6 wins. C.C. Sabathia tries for his 7th win on Monday....Jake Peavy is leader in strikeouts with 71 and also leads majors in ERA with a 1.64 ERA with Dan Haren next at 1.74.
A year ago today the Yankees were 24-17 and a game and a half game behind the Red Sox. This year they are 18-23 and 10 and a half back of the Red Sox and in fourth place in AL East. If Devil Rays win today and Yankees lose the Yankees will have sole possession of last place. I don't know if Steinbrenner will fire Torre since a lot of the problems have to do with injuries and having to used minor league starters who for the most part have been ineffective.
In the NL Central the Brewers seemed to have forgotten how to win ballgames as they still have the lead in the division but it is looking more precarious with each passing day. You have to wonder what effect this losing is having on the psyche of the players. Once a team has its confidence shattered it is hard to restore. The Brewers will have to better their 10-10 road record if they are to contend this year for NL Central title. By the time they come back home on the 28th to face the Braves they may have turned this freefall around in their favor or they may be hanging onto their lead in their division by a thread.
