Griffey Hits 579th HR...Royals Score 17 Second Time in a Week
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Yankees, Mets Going Different Directions
On the 29th of May the Yankees were 14 1/2 games behind the Red Sox and now about two weeks later they are only 7 1/2 games behind them. Yankees have gone from eight games under .500 to two games over. Yankees have been 11-2 since the 29th of May.
Meanwhile their crosstown rival Mets have taken the down elevator and are in danger of losing their NL East lead. They are 2-11 for the month of June and on June 2nd were 35-19 and 16 games over .500. Now just two weeks later they are 36-28 and just 8 games over .500.
Roger Clemens has the perfect setup for a win with the Yankees on a roll and the Mets reeling out of control but the games still have to be played and anything can happen. Mets still should be a better test of how far Clemens is along with his comeback than the Pirates were last week.
Around the Bases
Justin Germano 5-0 won again for the Padres as they defeated the Devil Rays 7-1. He allowed only 3 hits in 6 innings....Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 16th homer of season and 579th of his career as the Reds were defeated by the Angels 9-7. Vladimir Guerrero drove in three runs giving him 61 for the year....Andy Pettite pitched 8 innings of four hit ball as the Yankees won their ninth straight with a 7-1 win over the Diamondbacks....Brewers won for the second straight day after being no-hit by Justin Verlander defeating the Tigers 6-5 behind the pitching of Ben Sheets 7-3 who struck out his 1000th batter in the fourth inning.
Player to watch:
Yovani Gallardo was called up by the Brewers yesterday after Chris Capuano was placed on the disabled list. Gallardo is 8-3 in the minors with a 2.90 ERA and has struck out 110 batters in 77 innings. He has given up only 4 home runs. This could be a boost for the Brewers if he pitches anywhere close to as well as he has in the minors.
Astros bullpen collapsed again in their 6-5 11th inning loss to the A's. Jason Kendall drove in the winning run in the top of the 11th inning. Going into the June 12th game with Astros, Kendall had only 2 extra base hits in 201 at bats but in the three game series with the Astros had 3 doubles and a home run in 14 at bats. He was 8 for 14 in the series and raised his average from .194 to .219 and is hitting .326 for the month of June.
Josh Beckett 9-1 took the 7-1 loss to the Rockies which included a grand slam off Beckett by Garrett Atkins. J.D. Drew hitting leadoff for the Red Sox was 0 for 5 and left seven runners stranded. Drew after his 7 RBI game last week has only 1 RBI in his last 5 games and has now made 12 straight outs. This could turn out to be the worst signing of the year. With the Red Sox having about 15 more games left in the first half of the season they were expecting more than 25 RBI's from Drew. Drew only has 12 extra base hits after having 60 with Dodgers last season. Alex Cora and Dustin Pedroia have higher slugging percentages than the .342 percentage of Drew.
Nationals have the same record as the Orioles with both teams having 29-37 records but Nationals are only 8 behind the first place Mets in NL East while the Orioles are 12 1/2 behind the first place Red Sox in AL East. Nationals defeated Orioles 3-1....Jeff Weaver gave up 3 runs and 10 hits in 6 innings but didn't receive the decision in the 5-4 win by the Cubs over the Mariners....Casey Blake extended his hitting streak to 23 games in a 3-2 win by the Indians as they defeated the Marlins....Kameron Loe 2-6 pitched the Rangers to a 6-0 win over the Pirates. His only other previous win came in a 7-0 shutover over the A's back in April.
Braves couldn't hold a 2-0 lead for Tim Hudson and came out on the short end of a 3-2 victory by the Twins who won on a walkoff single by Mike Redmond....Royals may be at bottom of standings in AL Central but are still scoring runs in bunches. In their last 4 wins they have scored 50 runs including two games in which they scored 17 runs. They defeated the Cardinals 17-8 yesterday as Kip Wells 2-11 took the loss after giving up 6 runs in 1 1/3 innings. Still am amazed Wells is still starting games for the Cardinals and even more amazed he is in major leagues. Alex Gordon finally crossed the Mendoza Line as he hit his 5th homer and raised his average to .204. Albert Pujols hit his 16th homer of the season. In May, Pujols had 3 homers and 13 RBI's but in the first half of June he has 7 homers and 16 RBI's and is slugging .813 for the month.
Rookie Roundup
American League
Hitting
Reggie Willits leads AL rookies with at least 150 at bats with a .323 average. Delmon Young leads in hits with 66....Young also leads in doubles with 14....Travis Buck is the rookie triples leader with 4....Elijah Dukes leads in home runs with 10....Young leads in RBI's with 37....Willits leads in stolen bases with 15....Dukes leads in walks with 33....Alex Gordon leads in strikeouts with 58....Young leads in extra base hits with 20.
Pitching
Daisuke Matsuzaka leads AL rookie pitchers with 7 wins....John Danks has issued the most walks for an AL rookie with 29....Matsuzaka leads in strikeouts with 85 with Danks next with 49....Joakim Soria leads in saves with 10....Jeremy Guthrie leads in ERA with a 2.57 mark.
National League
Hitting
Among NL rookies with more than 150 at bats Hunter Pence is leading in batting average with a .348 average....Troy Tulowitzki leads in hits with 62 but it took him 232 at bats while Hunter Pence has 57 in 164 at bats so Pence has 68 less at bats but only 5 hits behind Tulowitzki....Pence leads in doubles with 15 and in triples with 4....Josh Hamilton leads in home runs with 9....Kevin Kouzmanoff leads in RBI's with 28....Michael Bourn leads in stolen bases with 10 in only 35 at bats and hasn't been caught stealing. Second place Chris Young has 205 at bats and only 6 stolen bases for second....Tulowitzki leads in walks with 23 and in strikouts with 55....Pence leads in on base percentage with .371 percentage and in slugging with a .579 percentage and in extra base hits with 24.
Pitching
Chris Sampson leads in wins with 6 with Justin Germano next with 5....Matt Chico has most walks with 32....[[]]Jason Hirsh leads NL rookies with 53....Henry Owens leads in saves with 4....Justin Germano leads in ERA with 2.75 percentage.
