Ichiro Streak at 24....Fielder Hits 19th HR

by user Niteowl049

Baseball Notebook

Baseball Daily Digest

American League

Indians 11 Tigers 5 C.C. Sabathia 8-1 didn't pitch that well giving up 5 runs and 10 hits but still became the third pitcher to record 8 wins this season. Justin Verlander 5-2 took the loss giving up 7 runs and 8 hits in 5 innings. Travis Hafner drove in four runs for the Indians and Victor Martinez drove in three in the 11-5 win by the Indians over the Tigers.

Blue Jays 2 White Sox 0 Roy Halladay 5-2 pitched 7 innings of shutout baseball and Frank Thomas and Aaron Hill both hit their 8th home runs of the season which were the only hits given up by Mark Buehrle 2-2 who took the complete game loss. In 10 starts Buehrle only has four decisions not many after two months of baseball.

Orioles 6 Angels 2 Brian Burres 3-2 pitched the Orioles to a 6-2 win over the Angels. Kelvim Escobar 6-3 took the loss for the Angels as the Orioles evened their record at 27-27 and moved to within ten games of the first place Red Sox.

Mariners 9 Rangers 5 Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to 24 games as he picked up three more hits in the Mariners 9-5 win over the Rangers. Suzuki is now hitting .336 for the season and hit .357 for the month of May with 46 hits in May after 25 in April and is on a pace to have 200 hits for the seventh straight season since starting his career. He has 1425 hits in less than seven seasons and should have over 1550 hits by the end of this season. Cha Seung Baek 3-2 took the win while Vicente Padilla 2-8 gave up 7 runs and 9 hits in 3 innings taking the loss. Sammy Sosa struck out four times including when the bases were loaded in the seventh inning.

National League

Nationals 11 Dodgers 4 Ryan Zimmerman made sure the Nationals wouldn't be shut out the third game in a row by hitting his 7th homer and driving in four runs. Micah Bowie 2-2 took the win while Mark Hendrickson 2-3 took the loss for the Dodgers.

Padres 4 Pirates 2 Mike Cameron hit his 200th homer in top of the 11th inning as the Padres defeated the Pirates 4-2. Trevor Hoffman picked up his 16th save and 498th of his career.

Mets 4 Giants 2 Orlando Hernandez 3-2 pitched the Mets to a 4-2 win over the Giants as he showed what his presence in rotation means to the Mets. Since returning from the disabled list he has given up 2 runs and 4 hits in 13 innings. He has not given up a home run in the last 27 innings. Matt Cain 2-5 took the loss. Barry Bonds was 0 for 3 and hit .194 in May.

Astros 10 Reds 2 Craig Biggio had a 3 for 5 night and needs 23 more hits to reach 3000 hit plateau as the Astros ended their ten game losing streak and posted a 10-2 win over the Reds. Lance Berkman drove in three runs in the win hitting his 6th homer of the season. He hit 45 last season so would need to average about 10 homers a month the rest of the season to hit that many again. Woody Williams 2-7 took the win while Bronson Arroyo 2-6 gave up 8 runs and 11 hits in 5 innings. In his last 11 innings Arroyo has given up 20 runs and 24 hits.

Brewers 4 Marlins 3 Prince Fielder hit his 19th home run of the season tying him with Alex Rodriguez for the major league lead. J.J. Hardy drove in the winning run with a single in the 8th inning. Brewers stretched their lead over the second place Pirates to 6 1/2 games with the win. The game was the 54th of the season the exactly third of the season mark ending the mark with 30 wins so are on track to have 90 wins which should be enough to win the NL Central this season. The second place Pirates are seven games under .500 showing how weak the NL Central is this season.

Cardinals 7 Rockies 3 Juan Encarnacion keyed the win over the Rockies by hitting a three run double in the 6th inning as the Cardinals scored 4 times in the inning and two more times in the 8th. Brad Thompson 4-1 was the winning pitcher while Aaron Cook 4-2 took the loss for the Rockies.

Stats Corner

Hitting

Vladimir Guerrero and Jorge Posada lead major league hitters with a .357 average while Kevin Youkilis is next with .354 average....Prince Fielder has tied Alex Rodriguez for the lead in home runs with 19 with Justin Morneau next with 16....Magglio Ordonez leads in RBI's with 49 with Carlos Lee second with 48....Matt Holliday leads in hits with 76 and Ichiro Suzuki has 71....Fielder is the new leader in total bases with 132 with Matt Holliday next with 130....Ordonez leads in slugging percentage with a .660 mark with Fielder and Rodriguez are next at .641.

Pitching

C.C. Sabathia is the latest member of the 8 win club joining John Lackey and Josh Beckett. John Lackey tries to become the first 9 game winner today while Jake Peavy tries for his 8th win....Erik Bedard is strikeout leader with 88 while ERA leader is Peavy with 1.47 ERA....Kip Wells leads in losses with 9 and Vicente Padilla lost his 8th game of the season last night to join Anthony Reyes who is now in the minors in the 8 losses club....Francisco Cordero and Jose Valverde lead in saves with 19. Note: Yesterday baseballetcetera.blogspot.com had the 12,000th visitor since May 20th of 2006.

Because of taking my grandson to batting practice at 7:30 on Saturday morning and a game at 9:00 AM the post tomorrow will be abbreviated in order to have it posted at the usual time.