Iwamura tops hitters...Devil Rays in first

by user Niteowl049

Baseball Notebook

Baseball Daily Digest

Robinson Tejada pitched the Rangers to a 2-0 victory over the Red Sox by hurling 7 scoreless innings while allowing only 2 hits. It is a not a good sign that the Rangers had to go to their fourth starter before winning a game. Nine of the Rangers in yesterday's game are hitting under .200 so until they start hitting better only a pitching performance like this will win games for them....Mike Mussina had a rocky first start giving up 6 runs, 8 hits and 3 walks in 4 innings as the Orioles defeat the Yankees 6-4....Devil Rays served notice that they are not going to roll over and play dead by coming from behind in their 6-5 win and scoring 3 runs in bottom of ninth against B.J. Ryan who allowed 5 hits in 2/3 of an inning before the game winning run scored. Akinori Iwamura led the Devil Rays by having 4 hits in 4 at bats and hitting his first home run while taking the major league lead in hitting with a .636 average best among hitters with at least 10 at bats.

Joe Kennedy of Athletics and Dustin Moseley of Angels allowed 1 earned run in 6 innings but the Athletics bullpen lost the game 5-2 as Vladimir Guerrero's 3 RBI's gave him the lead in RBI's and his 3rd homer tied him with Grady Sizemore for the major league lead....Rookie Chris Young homered and drove in his 7th run of the season in the Diamondbacks win over the Nationals as Young is showing why he has been touted so highly as a prospect and could possibly contend for the NL Rookie of the Year award. Micah Owings pitched 5 innings of one hit ball to take the 7-1 win.

Braves lost their early season momentum with their 11-1 loss their worst loss on opening day at home in their franchise history. Mark Redman showed why he was one of last free agents signed by a major league team by allowing 5 runs and 9 hits in 5 2/3 innings. Oliver Perez on the other hand pitched a great game for the Mets allowing 1 run and 5 hits in 7 innings and struck out 6. Jose Reyes was the hitting star for the Mets by hitting 2 triples and driving in 4 runs. Braves need to shore up their defense at second base as Chris Woodward may not have been charged with any errors but still made some misplays including bobbling a double play ball that prevented finishing a double play. Chipper Jones was charged an error on a ball that the wind was blowing away from him which to me was an unfair call since his glove never touched the ball. This was my second time to see the Mets play as I watched this entire game and I am very impressed with them in the early going this season.

Brad Penny scattered 10 hits over 7 innings allowing only one run and taking the 2-1 win over the Giants. Barry Bonds was 0 for 4 and is now hitting .214 on the season. Giants now have last place to themselves being the only sub .500 team in NL West with a 1-3 record.

Rich Hill pitched the best game in major leagues yesterday pitching 7 scoreless innings of 1 hit ball in the Cubs 9-3 win over the Brewers. Dave Bush pitched 5 scoreless innings after allowing the Cubs to score 6 in the first inning which is similar to locking the barn door after the cows have escaped....Jason Hirsh outpitched Greg Maddux in the 4-3 win by the Rockies over the Padres. Hirsh pitched into the 7th inning and allowed one run and struck out 8....Cardinals got on the winning track with a 4-2 win over the winless Astros behind the pitching of Adam Wainwright who had such a great spring training and in his first start of the season and allowing 1 run in 7 innings and hit a run scoring double a treat which AL fans never get to see since they don't allow pitchers to hit under the idiotic DH rule. Albert Pujols continued his slump having 1 hit in 13 at bats with no homers or runs batted in and is hitting .077 after 4 games.

Looking at Stats

Akinori Iwamura leads majors in hitting with a 6.36 batting average....Vladimir Guerrero and Grady Sizemore lead the majors in homers with 3 while Guerrero leads in runs batted in with 9...Guerrero is also tied for lead in hits with 9 with Aramis Ramirez also having 9....Guerrero also leads in total bases with 20....Adam LaRoche leads in strikeouts with 9 in only 15 at bats....Salomon Torres and Francisco Rodriguez lead in saves with 3.

Yankees lead all major league teams with a .321 batting average....Mets lead in runs scored with 31 having outscored their opponents 31-3 this season....Angels have most hits with 50 in 5 games....Athletics have most doubles with 13....Braves lead in homers with 7....Braves also lead in most strikeouts by hitters with 42....Worst hitting team this season so far is the Rangers hitting .149.

Mets are allowing opponents a 0.75 ERA while the second place Reds are allowing an ERA of one more run a game at 1.75....White Sox have worst ERA at 7.33....Twins have allowed the fewest hits with 19 while Diamondbacks have allowed the most with 54....Mets have allowed the fewest runs allowing only 3 while the Nationals have allowed 31 for the worst mark....Pirates have issued the fewest walks with 6 while Nationals have allowed 24 walks for the worst record....Diamondbacks have the most strikeouts with 54 while Tampa Bay is at bottom with 12.

Looking at Standings

Biggest surprise in standings this morning is that Devil Rays are leading the AL East standings with a 2-1 record and are only team in the 5 team division with a winning record....Only 4-0 Mets and 3-0 Twins are still undefeated....Athletics yesterday needed a win to tie the Angels for first place. Instead they lost to the 4-1 Angels and slid to 2 games back....Astros are only team to not have posted a win this season seeing their record slide to 0-4 on the season....Nationals are already 3 and a half games out of first place in NL East making them the team the furthest out of last place in the majors....Only Twins, Mets and Reds have allowed less than 10 runs this season.

Today's Matchups

Ben Sheets and Carlos Zambrano face each other today in Milwaukee with Zambrano wanting to post his first win of season after a bad opening start and Sheets wanting to pitch another good game like he did on opening day.

Mariner fans will be watching today to see which Jeff Weaver shows up today when he gets his first start of 2007 season. Will it be the Weaver who was released by the Angels or the Weaver who pitched so well during the World Series? He will be facing C.C. Sabathia who will be trying to garner his second win of the season.

Felix Hernandez in the second game of the doubleheader will be trying for his second win of season adding to his major league leading 12 strikeouts....Gil Meche will try for his second win today facing the Detroit Tigers....Russ Ortiz will start his first game for Giants and will see if his corrected delivery can put a win on the scoreboard against the Dodgers and Derek Lowe.

Matchup of the Day: Former teammates Tom Glavine and John Smoltz face each other as the Mets try to keep their hot start going while Braves hope to stay within striking distance of the Mets with a win. Glavine will by trying for his 292nd win of his career and is only 9 wins from 300 wins which is tantamount to being elected to Hall of Fame.

Brandon Webb will try for his first win of the season and comes into his start against John Pattterson with a 9.00 ERA....Anthony Reyes tries for his first win of the season against Roy Oswalt who pitched well but didn't get the decision in his last start and has a 1.17 ERA coming into the game.

It may be only the 6th game of season for Athletics but this is still a crucial game as win will give them a chance to move within 1 game of the Angels and have a chance to tie them for first place tomorrow. Dan Haren and John Lackey will start the game with both pitchers not having given up an earned run in their first starts.

Kei Igawa makes his first major league start for Yankees going against Steve Trachsel making his first start. It only took Igawa 1058 innings to record 1000 strikeouts in Japanese basball. Trachsel who despite winning 16 games last season is the fifth starter for the Orioles and he won't have the potent Mets offense but instead will be pitching for a team with only 2 homers in 4 games and a .209 batting average so he will have to pitch a lot better to have any chance of winning 16 games again but it is very unlikely that will happen.

Note: For fans who want to see the best previews of games I have seen on internet go to mlb.com then touch the news label at top of page without clicking on it and a flyout menu will have press pass at bottom of choices then you find the icon of your team and click on it and you will see very detailed preview of that day's game. You may be required to register but registration is free and a one time deal. If there is a better source for previews of games I don't know about it.