Kotchman Hits Grand Slam...Maddux Wins 336th
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Baseball Daily Digest
Nationals defeated the Braves behind the sterling pitching performance of Jason Bergmann 1-3 by a 2-1 score. Bergmann came within six outs of a no-hitter before Brian McCann homered in the eighth inning. He finished the game allowing one run and two hits in eight innings. Bergmann has pitched at least 6 innings in all but one start. To show the lack of run support Bergmann didn't receive a win after pitching 6 innings against the Braves on April 12th after allowing only one hit and no runs. On the 29th of May he allowed 1 run and 2 hits to the Mets but took the loss. If he was with team that hit well he would be having 5 wins by now.
Jered Weaver 2-3 pitched the Angels to a 7-2 win over the Rangers. Casey Kotchman hit a first inning grand slam and that was all the runs Weaver needed....Daisuke Matsuzaka 5-2 pitched his first complete game of the season as the Red Sox took a 7-1 win over the Tigers. Seven Red Sox players had at least 2 hits in their 15 hit attack. With the season being a fourth over by the time Matsuzaka gets his next start his 5 wins have him on track to win 20 games this season.
Blue Jays defeated the Orioles 5-3 on a two run homer by Troy Glaus in the eighth inning. The Blue Jays moved out of last place tie with Devil Rays with the win and moved to within a game and a half of the third place Orioles....Dan Haren and Gil Meche pitched well with Haren pitching 8 scoreless innings and Meche having 7 scoreless innings but neither got the decision as the Royals scored 2 runs in top of ninth and A's scored once as the A's took the 2-1 win. Haren has allowed 4 runs in his last 21 innings encompassing three games yet received no decision in all three contests.
Tom Gorzelanny 5-2 pitched 7 shutout innings to pitch the Pirates to a 7-0 win over the Marlins. Dontrelle Willis 5-3 took the loss despite pitching 6 innings and allowing 2 runs. It was only the second time this season Willis has allowed less than 3 runs so that accounts for his high 5.14 ERA....Greg Maddux 3-2 pitched a complete game win for the Padres as they defeated the Reds 7-1. The five hitter was the 336th win of his career for Maddux. Padres moved to within 2 games of the Dodgers.
Shoddy bullpen work by the Brewers enabled the Phillies to overcome a 6-2 deficit by scoring six times in the eighth inning to take 8-6 win over the Brewers. Brian Shouse allowed 2 hits and 2 runs while retiring nobody to start off the disastrous eighth inning but then things got worse when Derrick Turnbow gave up 4 runs 4 hits and a walk while retiring only two batters. Turnbow who blew 8 saves last season received his first blown save. Last year after pitching a game like this he seemed to be gun shy and couldn't handle the pressure. His next appearance will be closely watched knowing his history of last season. Worst of all the Brewers have lost 3 of 4 on this road trip and will try to salvage at least a split in this series before returning to Milwaukee on Friday. J.J. Hardy hit his NL leading 12th homer of the season.
Michael Wuertz issued three walks in the ninth inning to the Mets and the last one came with the bases loaded to Carlos Delgado as the Mets literally took a walk off win 5-4 over the Cubs on the third walk of the inning. Tom Glavine failed to win his 295th game of his career. In April Glavine allowed 11 runs in 35 innings but already in May he has given up 9 runs in 19 innings. The Mets win coupled with the loss by the Braves gives them a half game lead in the NL East.
Cardinals defeated the Dodgers 8-4 behind the pitching of Brad Thompson 2-0 and the hitting of Chris Duncan who hit his sixth homer of the season but only has 13 RBI's probably due to the leadoff hitters not hitting well this season. Albert Pujols continued to struggle as he was 0 for 5 lowering his batting average to .239. Pujols is hitting .214 for the month of April and only has one extra base hit in 42 times at bat. He only has 19 RBI's while the league leader J.J. Hardy has 37 almost twice as many as Pujols. Rafael Furcal was 4 for 5 after going 4 for 4 yesterday and has 10 hits in his last 13 at bats. His average was .218 after last Friday's game but now is .276 and he is hitting .388 for the month of May after hitting .203 in April.
Stats Corner
Hitting
Alex Rodriguez is seeing his major lead lead in home runs and RBI's threatened as his 15 homers are only 3 more than the 12 of J.J. Hardy and his slim RBI lead with 39 is being threated also by Hardy who has 37. After having 14 homers and 34 RBI's in April Rodriguez has only one homer and 5 RBI in the month of May with the month close to half over....Derrek Lee .390 average stays the same as he and other four top hitters didn't play yesterday.
Pitching
Josh Beckett with 7 and Roy Oswalt with 6 lead majors in wins. Fifteen pitchers have 5 wins so there should be some more six game winners soon. John Maine and Aaron Harang try for their sixth win today....Dontrelle Willis leads in hits allowed with 65 and Zach Duke is next with 61....Jake Peavy leads in strikeouts with 66 and Erik Bedard is second with 63. Brad Penny has a 1.39 ERA to lead in ERA....Ervin Santana leads in home runs allowed with 11 with Tomo Ohka and Carlos Zambrano second with 10.
Glance at the Standings
American League AL East: Red Sox extended their lead over the idle Yankees to 8 1/2 games. Red Sox are only team in division with a winning record their 8-2 record in last ten games is only team with a winning record in that span.
AL Central: After their loss yesterday the Tigers are a game ahead of the Indians and are 3 1/2 games ahead of White Sox. Twins and Royals are 3-7 in last 10 games.
AL West: Angels extended their lead in AL West to two games as they won while the A's were losing yesterday. Mariners moved one percentage point ahead of A's for second place.
National League NL East: Mets take over first place as the Braves and Mets continue to take turns in first place in NL East. Nationals have won four in a row and are 3 games behind the slumping Marlins who have lost 4 in a row.
NL Central: Brewers lost their second game in a row after blowing a 6-2 lead. Their road record fell to 9-8. They still have second best record in baseball and are 12 games over .500. Pirates and Cardinals gained a game on the Brewers with their wins yesterday.
NL West: Padres are only 2 games behind the Dodgers in NL West. Padres and Dodgers are only NL West teams with winning record in last ten games.
