Griffey Jr. Hits 573rd, Lackey Wins 7th
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Baseball Daily Digest
John Lackey 7-3 pitched 5 innings of 3 hit baseball as the Angels won their sixth in a row defeating the Detroit Tigers 6-3....Julian Tavarez 3-4 and the Red Sox defeated the Yankees 7-3 as the Yankees could only manage 3 singles and a double in the contest. Mike Lowell hit his 9th homer of the season and now has 36 RBI's for the season....Blue Jays moved into a second place tie with the Yankees behind the 8 strikeout pitching of A.J. Burnett 5-3 as they defeated the Orioles 6-4. If the Orioles had won the game they would have been in second place all by themselves.
Seattle Mariners and Jarrod Washburn 4-4 sent the Devil Rays to their fourth straight defeat by a 5-2 score. Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to 15 games....Scott Olsen 4-3 had a low enough pitch count to hang on long enough for the Marlins to overcome a 3-1 Phillies lead and score four runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth inning. Cole Hamels 6-2 took the loss while striking out eight. Marlins won the game by a 5-3 score.
Nationals defeated the Reds 8-4 behind the hitting of the first hitters in the batting order as leadoff hitter Felipe Lopez drove in 6 runs and Cristian Guzman batting second drove in 2 runs accounting for all the runs by the Nationals. Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 10th homer and 573rd of his career as he continues to have a good month. In April he had 1 homer and 9 RBI's and hit .254 but in May has come alive and hit 9 homers and drove in 20 runs while hitting .355.
Minnesota Twins won over the Rangers by 7-1 behind the pitching of Johan Santana 5-4 who struck out 13 and only allowed one run on the 10th homer of season for Sammy Sosa. Sosa only needs two more homers to hit his 600th of his career. Justin Morneau had a big night at the plate hitting his 13th and 14th homer of the season while driving in 5 runs. Torii Hunter hit his 11th homer as Morneau and Hunter combined to drive in all 7 runs for the Twins.
Kyle Davies 2-2 pitched 8 innings giving up one run and 6 hits and hit a three run homer to lead the Braves to a 8-1 win over the Mets. Former Brave Jorge Sosa 3-1 took the loss for the Mets. The lack of production from Carlos Delgado continues to be a puzzlement this season. He finished the game with a .209 average and only has 11 extra base hits with season a quarter over after having 70 extra base hits last season and only has 3 homers after hitting 38 last season. Biggest surprise is his .313 slugging percentage after slugging .548 last year.
Kansas City Royals defeated the Indians 4-3 as the Royals defeated the team in first place and moved to within 10 and a half games of the Indians. Royals are 7-2 since falling 15 games under .500 on the 12th of May. They still need 10 wins in a row to reach .500 baseball but the win over the Indians could be a starting point.
White Sox blasted Colby Lewis 0-1 for 10 runs and 12 hits in 3 1/3 innings as they took a 10-4 win over the A's. Lewis called up from Sacramento may be on his way back to Sacramento after being shelled. Jim Thome drove in 5 runs for the White Sox. John Danks 3-4 got the win and has a 3-1 record in May after having an 0-3 record in April and has pitched into the sixth inning in his last five starts.
Tim Lincecum pitched eight innings while allowing two runs and five hits in the Giants 4-2 victory over the Astros. Lincecum outpitched Roy Oswalt 6-3 as he pitched his third straight quality start and has allowed only 4 earned runs in last 22 innings. He has only walked 3 over the last three games after walking 5 in his major league debut. Barry Bonds has 3 hits in last 17 at bats and is hitting .196 in May after hitting .356 in April.
Cardinals defeated the Pirates 9-4 behind the pitching of Adam Wainwright 4-3 and the hitting of Chris Duncan who hit his 8th homer of the season but only has 18 RBI's with the season 11 games from being a third over. David Eckstein is breaking out of his slump. On May 12th he was hitting .207 but now is hitting .268 and is hitting .333 for the month of May.
Livan Hernandez pitched 8 innings while allowing 1 run and struck out eight but still got no decision when reliever Brandon Lyon 3-2 allowed 2 runs in the ninth innings as the Rockies defeated the Diamondbacks 3-1. Hernandez who made 125 pitches has proved he can throw even more pitches than that wound up losing the game due to the pitch count which is keeping starters from winning games they might have won and the starter has to sit and watch a reliever come in and let the other team get the winning runs.
Jake Peavy 6-1 took the win for the Padres in their 5-1 victory over the Cubs. Rich Hill 4-4 took the loss, his third straight of the season. In April he was 3-1 with a 1.77 ERA but in May is 1-3 with a 5.87 ERA. Padres hit 4 solo homers including the 11th for Adrian Gonzalez...Dodgers posted a 3-2 win in a pitchers duel between Randy Wolf 6-3 and Ben Sheets 4-3. Both teams could only muster four hits in the contest. Sheets left the game with a blister on his finger in the 7th inning. Luckily for the Brewers the loss came on a day when only the Cardinals won in the NL Central so the three teams closest to Brewers gained no ground on them. It is not always if you win or lose but sometimes if the teams behind you win or lose on that same day.
Stats Corner
Hitting
Derrek Lee with a .381 average and Jorge Posada .371 continue to lead the majors in hitting....Alex Rodriguez with 18 homers leads in that category with Prince Fielder and J.J. Hardy next with 14....Rodriguez leads in RBI's with 43 with Carlos Lee and J.J. Hardy in second with 41 each....Jack Cust leads in slugging among batters with at least 50 at bats with an .808 percentage.
Pitching
Josh Beckett finally has company as another 7 game winner joined him as John Lackey posted his 7th win last night. Nine pitchers have 6 wins with four pitchers trying for their 6th win today....The top 3 pitchers in strikeouts pitched yesterday with Johan Santana leading the majors with 80 strikeouts with Cole Hamels with 78 and Jake Peavy with 77 close behind....Peavy lowered his ERA to 1.63 with Dan Haren next with a 1.74 ERA. Peavy is only one strikeout short of leading the NL in pitchers triple crown....Zach Duke has allowed most hits with 80 in 55 innings....Livan Hernandez leads in walks with 34.
