Josh Hancock Death, Troy Tulowitzki Triple Play
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Igawa Only Yankee Starter to Post Two Wins
When the pre-season prognosticators made their predictions for the 2007 season none of them imagined the Yankees would be six and a half games out of last place on the next to last day of April. On this date last season the Yankees were first place in AL East. At the pace the Yankees are playing they will win 54 games this season. With this rag tag pitching staff they may be lucky to win that many unless they get their regular starters back soon. Yankees have been known to get hot and win ten or more in a row so they still can't be counted out.
Even more surprising is the fact that Kei Igawa the fifth starter would be leading the starters in wins with two despite a 6.08 ERA. Nine Yankee pitchers have started games for the Yankees. Andy Pettitte and Darrell Rasner are only starters with ERA of under 4.00 among the nine starters. Six of the nine starters have an ERA of over 5.00.
The relievers have only converted one save out of eight save opportunities. Closer Mariano Rivera has the second highest ERA on the pitching staff with a 10.57 ERA.
They have one save compared to the Brewers and Diamondbacks having 11 saves.
Only Marlins, Rangers and Devil Rays have higher ERA’s than the Yankees. Only the Giants and Mariners have struck out less batters than the Yankees.
Joe Torre should not be blamed for the rash of injuries to the starters but George Steinbrenner may be at the end of his patience with Torre and if the losing ways continue Torre may be let go as the scapegoat even though there is nothing he could do about all the injuries.
Josh Hancock Death
More Important Than Baseball
A human life is far more important in in life than any baseball game. I am glad that the game between Cardinals and Cubs was canceled because of the death of Josh Hancock. The Cardinals needed the time to reflect on the fragility of life and discuss among themselves the tragedy of losing a teammate and friend.
Baseball becomes so insignificant at a time like this. This should be a time of mourning and a time to remember the life of Josh Hancock. May his memory live on for the next several decades.
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Baseball Daily Digest
Troy Tulowitzki pulled the sixth unassisted triple play since 1927. It is a wonder it doesn't happen more often because it was so easy to accomplish the feat catching a line drive off the bat of Chipper Jones, stepping on second base to get Kelly Johnson out and then tagging Edgar Renteria who was running on the play. Jones has the dubious honor of hitting into a more routine triple play on June 15th of 1996 one in which three players were involved and hitting into the unassisted triple play yesterday.
As rare as an unassisted triple play is it was accomplished on consecutive days when Jimmy Cooney of the Cubs and Johnny Neun of the Tigers pulled off the rare play on May 30th and May 31st of 1927.
Yankees lost yesterday even with Chien-Ming Wang on the mound their ace from last year. This has to be a concern of monumental proportions for Joe Torre and the Yankee front office. On top of the terrible pitching Alex Rodriguez has shown he is human after all and has been 3 for 18 in his last five games with no extra base hits or RBI's. With the Yankees and Red Sox both off today they can't fall any further out of first place but can lose ground to the Orioles and Blue Jays who play today.
Their .390 winning percentage is the second worst in baseball with the Royals and Nationals having the worst winning percentage of .320. Yankees and Astros share the worst record in last ten games with a 2-8 mark. They could even be further behind the other teams in AL East except none of the other teams except for Red Sox has a winning record.
Tomo Ohka 2-2 pitched 7 innings while allowing one run in the Blue Jays 7-3 win over the Rangers. Brandon McCarthy 1-4 took the loss for the Rangers and has shown he is not the starter the Rangers were hoping for when they acquired him from the White Sox. In 20 innings he has given up 22 earned runs and 34 hits for a 9.90 ERA. In his last three starts he has lasted in order one, two and three innings yesterday.
Scott Kazmir 2-1 didn't have his strikeout pitch working posting only one strikeout but pitched well enough to take a 5-3 victory over the A's. The second major league start for Dallas Braden didn't go as well as his first start when he allowed 1 run in 6 innings to Orioles. Today was a different story as he gave up three homers and had to leave before the end of the fifth inning. The Athletics have today off as they travel to Boston and play in historic Fenway Park on Tuesday.
Aaron Harang posted his fourth win without a loss in the Reds 9-5 defeat of the Pirates. Ryan Doumit the Pirates catcher who was recently called up after tearing up the minor leagues with his good hitting is 6 for 11 since being called up.
Jamie Moyer 3-1 pitched the Phillies to a 6-1 win over the Marlins. The 44 year old Moyer is on a pace to win 18 games if he can win three games a month the rest of the season. Ryan Howard continues to struggle and is hitting .219 on the season and has one homer and two RBI's in his last six games.
John Maine 4-0 and the Mets defeated the Nationals 1-0 as Maine pitched seven innings allowing only three hits. Jason Bergmann pitched well in defeat giving up a run and two hits in seven innings.
Brewers so far are the surprise team in the majors. On this date last season they were three games out of first and this year they are three and a half games ahead of second place Reds and Pirates after taking a 3-1 win over the Astros behind the pitching of Claudio Vargas 2-0 who pitched five shutout innings but threw 98 pitches so was removed and three relievers finished the game including Francisco Cordero who picked up his tenth save of the season.
Scott Thorman may get more playing time after going 4 for 4 and improving his batting average from .227 to .292 during the game with Rockies. However, Bob Wickman couldn't hold the 7-5 lead and had his second blown save in his last three appearances and the Rockies won the game in the 11th inning when Matt Holliday hit a two run walkoff homer giving the Rockies a 9-7 win.
In the longest game of the season which lasted 17 innings Dodgers took a 5-4 win when Brady Clark doubled in the winning run. Dodgers outhit the Padres 16-9 and Mike Cameron went 0 for 7 in the contest. Adrian Gonzalez had his 25th RBI of the season which tied him with Jeff Francoeur for the NL lead.
Randy Johnson allowed two runs in six innings as the Diamondbacks defeated the Giants 5-4. Johnson ended his start with a 6.55 ERA.
Stats Corner
Matt Holliday is hitting .394 to lead majors in hitting with Derrek Lee hitting .391 and Holliday's teammate Todd Helton hitting . 390....Home run leaders were unchanged with Alex Rodriguez leading majors with 14 and Jimmy Rollins and Ian Kinsler next with 9.
Rodriguez is still stuck on 34 RBI's but Adrian Gonzalez and Jeff Francoeur are closing in with 25 each....Matt Holliday leads majors in hits with 41 and Ichiro Suzuki is 70th name on list with 25. If Suzuki keeps up this pace he will have 150 hits for the season but he is still likely to have 200 hits by end of the season....Rodriguez lost more ground to Barry Bonds in lead for total bases as he is slugging .882 while Bonds is at .828 for second.
Aaron Harang and John Maine both notched their fourth victory of the season without a defeat on Sunday and joined Chris Capuano the only other pitcher with perfect 4-0 records. Josh Beckett and Dontrelle Willis are still the only five game winners....Johan Santana leads majors in strikeouts with 45 and Erik Bedard is second with 42.
Tim Hudson leads in ERA with a 1.22 ERA with John Maine second with 1.35 ERA. Dontrelle Willis leads in hits allowed with 49 with Joe Francis and Gil Meche tied for second with 45....Edgar Gonzalez and Carlos Zambrano have given up the most homers allowing 8....Jose Valverde and Francisco Cordero lead majors in saves with 10.
Rick Ankiel Has 7 Homers For 2nd Place Tie in PCL
Former major league pitcher Rick Ankiel is second in homers in the Pacific Coast League with 7 homers. He is third in RBI's with 25. The major league Cardinals have only 6 homers from all their outfielders combined so it wouldn't be surprising to see them call up Ankiel at some point this season.
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