Griffey Jr. Has 584 HR...Thomas Hits 499th
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
What Was Torre Thinking?
With Joe Torre bringing Roger Clemens in as a relief pitcher yesterday against the Giants it made me try to follow his line of reasoning. Is the Yankee relief corps so ineffective that they call in Clemens to relieve with the Yankees two runs behind? By the time Clemens left the mound they were three runs behind. Maybe George Steinbrenner told Torre to use Clemens more often so Yankees could get some return on the huge salary Clemens is making this season. I do give Clemens credit for even being there in San Francisco since it was thought he would be in Texas between starts and if he is not with the team they are one pitcher short. His 5.09 ERA has to improve or the money spent on Clemens will go down the drain and maybe no team will ever be that desperate to sign him again.
Around the Bases
Ken Griffey Jr. is proving he belongs on the NL All Star team as he moved into second place in home runs in NL with 21. He also passed Mark "I Don't Want to Talk About the Past" McGwire in career home runs with 584. Before the season started I didn't think Griffey Jr. had much chance of hitting his 600th this season but with him hitting 21 in less than half a season he has a real shot at joining Sammy "No Comprehende" Sosa in reaching 600 Club this season.
Dustin McGowan pitched into the ninth inning for the Blue Jays before losing his no-hitter and Frank Thomas hit his 499th home run. Thomas has told McGowan that the pitcher has something special and McGowan proved it yesterday as they shut down the Rockies for the third straight game as the Blue Jays moved ahead of the Yankees into second place in AL East....Yankees are 1-5 on this road trip and are 16-23 on the road this season and fell under .500 and stand at 36-37.
Braves have scored one run since last Monday and have been shut out in four of their last five games and in five of their last ten games. They have been outscored 27-1 since winning 9-4 on Monday against the Red Sox. Andrew Miller 3-1 gave up only 4 hits in 6 innings and lowered his ERA to 2.70 in the contest. The only highlight of the game for the Braves was when Jeff Francoeur threw out Placido Polanco at home in the seventh inning for Francoeur's ninth assist of the season. With Nationals next on the schedule the Braves hope to start scoring runs again this week.
Edwin Jackson 1-8 won for the first time since 2005 yesterday in the Devil Rays win over the his former team the Dodgers....White Sox started the month of June with a 24-25 record but now their record stands at 29-42 for a 5-17 record this month. They only managed three runs in the three game series they lost to the Cubs this weekend and are only a game and a half ahead of the Royals....Angels won a ten inning over the Pirates with a walkoff single by Erick Aybar. Angels are pulling away from Mariners and A's with a eight game lead over the Mariners and a nine game lead over the A's.
Phillies moved a game and a half ahead of the third place Braves in NL East. Michael Bourn had three hits and raised his average to .304 Bourn may be getting more playing time as the regular left fielder Pat Burrell is mired in a 7 for 55 slump for June hitting .127 for the month and is .205 for the season....Johan Santana 8-6 struck out eight batters in six innings to take a 7-4 win over the Marlins after striking out only one batter in nine innings in his last start.
Astros scored three times in the top of the tenth to defeat the Rangers 12-9 behind a record breaking 658th double by Craig Biggio that scored what turned out to be the first of three runs in the tenth inning. Biggio is now the all time leader in doubles for a righthanded hitter. He needs eight doubles to pass George Brett and become No.5 all time in doubles behind only leader Tris Speaker with 792...No. 2 Pete Rose with 746...No.3 Stan Musial with 725 and No. 4 Ty Cobb with 724. Biggio has proved he belongs in the Hall of Fame and if he doesn't make it something is rotten in Cooperstown. The hit was his 2996th hit of his career and he should have his 3000th hit this week in Miller Park on Tuesday or Wednesday against either Claudio Vargas or Jeff Suppan since it is unlikely he will get four hits against Ben Sheets today. Hunter Pence was 4 for 6 hitting his 8th home run and raising his average to .353.
Mets won their third in a row and maintained their three game lead over the Phillies while defeating the A's who lost their third in a row and fell to nine games back of the first place Angels in AL West. John Maine 8-6 has issued only 4 walks in 32 innings this month....Brewers tied their game with the Royals in the ninth inning but lost the game in the 11th inning on a bases loaded walk. Derrick Turnblow...mean Turnbow, who should change his name the way he is blowing leads for the Brewers blew a 2-1 lead for starter Yovani Gallardo who had allowed one run in seven innings and lowered his ERA to 2.70. Brewers let the Cubs move to within 7 and a half games of them with the loss.
Josh Beckett 11-1 defeated the Padres 4-2 while striking out eight. The pitching duel with Jake Peavy did not materialize as Peavy left the game after making 111 pitches in five innings. Julio Lugo was 0 for 3 and his average fell to .193. Lugo is hitting .095 for the month of June and has only two extra base hits in the month and is slugging .149 for the month.
Stats Corner
Hitting
Magglio Ordonez may not be voted onto All Star roster for AL but is good enough to lead the majors in hitting with a .381 average with red hot Ichiro Suzuki closing in with .364 average. As recently as June 3rd Suzuki was hitting .327 but for the month of June is hitting .429 with an on base percentage of .480. He is on way to seventh straight 200 hit season with 110 hits already with 9 games remaining for Mariners in first half but some of those games may be played in the second half because of early season postponements.
Alex Rodriguez leads majors in home runs with 28 with Prince Fielder in second with 26 and Ken Griffey Jr. third with 21....Rodriguez leads in runs batted in with 77 and Vladimir Guerrero is next with 69....Suzuki leads in hits with 110 and Matt Holliday is next with 108....Ordonez, Orlando Cabrera and Derek Jeter are the other players with 100 hits so far this season and have excellent chance of having 200 hits by end of the season. Rodriguez with 193 total bases is the major league leader with Holliday next with 182. Both players have a chance to have 400 total bases this season....Adam Dunn leads in strikeouts with 97 and likely to have a 200 strikeout season with Dan Uggla next with 81 strikeouts.
Jose Reyes leads in stolen bases with 38 with Brian Roberts in second with 24. Looks like the days of players stealing 100 bases in a season are over with Vince Coleman being the last with 109 in 1987....Barry Bonds leads in on base percentage with a .500 mark with Ordonez next at .456....The leader in slugging percentage is Rodriguez at .707 mark with Ordonez next at .648....Ordonez leads in extra base hits with 47 with Rodriguez and Uggla next with 46.
Pitching
Josh Beckett leads in wins with 11 with John Lackey and C.C. Sabathia next with 10 wins. Lackey tries for his 11th today and Brad Penny tries for his 10th win....Erik Bedard leads in strikeouts with 121 with Johan Santana next with 114....Dan Haren with a 1.78 ERA is only pitcher in majors with a ERA under 2.00 as Chris Young is second at 2.08....Kip Wells is leading in losses with 11 but is getting competition from Kyle Lohse, Paul Maholm and Woody Williams with 10 losses....Derek Lowe and Matt Morris lead in complete games with 3 each....Eighteen pitchers have pitched shutouts this season but none have thrown two.
Francisco Cordero leads in saves with 27 with Jose Valverde next with 24. Mariano Rivera is 26th on list at mlb.com with 9 saves....Zach Duke has allowed 129 hits with Jeff Suppan next with 117....Daniel Cabrera and Scott Kazmir lead in walks with 49.
Glance at the Standings
Red Sox are only team in AL East over .500 with a 48-26 record.... Indians may be second place in AL Central but their .581 winning percentage is better than any NL division leader and are 3 games ahead of Mariners in AL wild card standings....Rangers are only team in AL West with a losing record....Mets and Phillies are only teams in NL East with winning records but no team in division has a winning record in last ten games....Reds and White Sox have the fewest wins of any major league teams with 29....Diamondbacks lead the NL West by one game over the Padres.
