Mariners Defeat Yankees in Slugfest

by user Niteowl049

Baseball Notebook

Baseball Daily Digest

Yankees are learning that Kei Igawa is not the answer to their pitching problems after his 15-11 loss to the Mariners. In his first start after his best start of the season when he replaced an injured Jeff Karstens and allowed no runs and two hits in six inning 3-1 win over the Red Sox he reverted to being the Igawa the Yankees are more used to seeing on the mound. In four innings he gave up eight runs, nine hits and three homers sending his ERA from a pre-game mark of 6.08 to 7.63 when he made his early departure.

Blowing 5-0 leads in front of the Yankee Stadium faithful is not the way to impress fans, coaches or teammates. Cha Seung Baek the Mariners starter did almost as badly allowing seven runs and eight hits in three and two thirds innings and his ERA ballooned from 4.22 to 7.53 by the time he too made an early departure.

Neither bullpen pitched well either as the Yankees bullpen allowed seven more runs to cross the plate while Mariners bullpen allowed four more runs to score. By the time the last pitch had been thrown the two teams combined to score 26 runs and bang out 36 hits. Biggest surprise of the game was that Derek Jeter was 0 for 6 in the contest.

Yankee hitters probably couldn't sleep last night in anticipation of facing Jeff Weaver 0-4 today who has allowed 23 runs and 31 hits in 11 innings and brings a 18.26 ERA to the mound. Chien-Ming Wang 0-2 will try to atone for his poor performance in his last start against the Red Sox but compared to some of the other Yankee starters that game was a masterpiece considering he did pitch six innings which is something few Yankee starters have done this season.

Nick Markakis singled in the winning run as the Orioles defeated the Indians 3-2 in the tenth inning....Dan Haren pitched seven innings while striking out nine batters against the Devil Rays. In his last four starts Haren has allowed zero runs, one run and then two runs in each of his last last two starts. However, last night it wasn't enough to take the win as he left with a 2-2 tie before the A's scored three runs in the ninth when Nick Swisher hit his fifth homer of the seaso sending the Devil Rays to a 5-2 defeat. Few A's fans could have envisioned an A's outfield of Shannon Stewart, Chris Snelling and Travis Buck starting in same game but that is an indication of how many outfielders are on disabled list. Buck is mired in a 4 for 33 slump despite having 3 hits in the game on Thursday so taking away that game he would be 1 for 28.

Brandon McCarthy 2-4 pitched the Rangers to a 7-1 win over the Blue Jays holding them to one run and two hits in six innings. Mark Texeira is showing signs of coming around after hitting only .231 in April but so far in May is hitting .385. Michael Young hitting .210 was three for four in the contest. Young came into the game in a 1 for 17 slump. He has had 200 hits in the last four seasons but it is not likely to happen this year since he only has 26 hits in 29 games with the season close to a fifth over.It doesn't take a mathematical genius to figure 26 times 5 does not equal a number remotely close to 200.

Tim Wakefield 3-3 pitched seven innings limiting the Twins to no runs and three hits in the 2-0 win over the Twins. David Ortiz hit his 8th homer and drove in his 25th run in the game....Justin Verlander 2-1 pitched the Tigers to a 6-3 win over the Royals and moved the Tigers to one game back of Indians in AL Central....Kelvim Escobar 3-1 took a 5-1 win over the slumping White Sox who have lost four in a row.

Carlos Zambrano 3-2 allowed four first inning runs but still took the victory in the Cubs 6-4 win over the Nationals moving the Cubs into second place in NL Central. Derrek Lee was two for three and ended the game with a major league best .422 batting average....Dontrelle Willis failed in his bid to win his sixth game of the season but the Marlins were still victorious taking a 5-4 win over the Padres who only could muster four hits off the Marlins.

Rookie Troy Tulowitzki singled in the winning run in the eleventh inning for Rockies in their 6-5 win over the Reds. Ken Griffey Jr. has suddenly gotten hot as he hit his third homer in last four games. After having one homer and nine RBI's in April and hitting .254 he has three homers and five RBI's after first four games in May and is hitting .500 this month improving his average from end of April of .254 to .301 after last night's game.

John Smoltz 4-1 pitched his best game of the season pitching seven shutout innings while allowing six hits and striking out six in the 4-0 defeat of the Dodgers. Five of the first six batters in Braves order are hitting over .300 with the exception being Andruw Jones hitting .245. Brian McCann and Jeff Francoeur each drove in two runs with Francoeur having 27 to tie for NL lead.

Adam Wainwright 2-2 pitched the Cardinals to their first win since the death of Josh Hancock. Cardinals are now seven games behind the first place Brewers in the NL Central and still in last place....Brewers defeated the Pirates 10-0 behind the pitching of Claudio Vargas 3-0 and the home run hitting of Prince Fielder and J.J. Hardy who both hit their seventh homers of the season and Johnny Estrada hit his second roundtripper of the season. On this date last year the Brewers were in fourth place and and four games back of the first place Reds. There is no doubt this is the surprise team of baseball this season since the Brewers finished last season twelve games under .500 and this season are nine games over .500 an improvement of 21 games.

John Maine 5-0 became the only other pitcher in majors with five wins besides Josh Beckett as he took a 5-3 win over the Diamondbacks allowing one run and striking out seven in six innings. Randy Johnson 0-2 took the loss giving up five runs and nine hits while striking out seven. Johnson allowed two homers which gives him five allowed on the season after eighteen innings of pitching. He has struck out 19 in 18 innings so he still has his strikeout pitch.

Giants overcame an early 2-0 lead by the Phillies to defeat them 6-2. There were seventeen hits in the contest combined but only extra base hits were a double by each team. Matt Morris 4-1 took the win allowing 2 runs in seven innings. Barry Bonds was walked intentionally for the tenth time this season and he has a total of 25 walks in 26 games.

Stats Corner Derrek Lee continues to lead all hitters with a .422 average. B.J. Upton the AL leader is hitting .386 and is second behind Lee....Alex Rodriguez who hasn't homered since the 23rd of April still leads in homers with 14 with Chipper Jones next with 10....Rodriguez did pick up 3 RBI's last night giving him a major leading 37 with Vladimir Guerrero next with 29 and Jeff Francoeur and Adrian Gonzalez tied for the NL lead with 27.

Matt Holliday and Derrek Lee lead majors in hits with 46 making them the best bets to have 200 hits this season....Lee also leads in doubles with 17....Rodriguez leads in total bases with 91 with Jimmy Rollins next with 81....Rodriguez leads Chase Utley in extra base hits with 23 to 21 for Utley....Barry Bonds leads in OPS with a 1.271 percentage with Rodriguez right behind at 1.262.

John Maine became the third pitcher this season to post five wins and ties him with Dontrelle Willis with both of them behind the major league leader in wins Josh Beckett with six. Eleven pitchers are tied with four wins. Roy Halladay, John Lackey, Aaron Harang and Jeff Suppan all try for their fifth win today....Eric Bedard and Jake Peavy are tied for strikeout lead with 46....John Maine leads in ERA with a 1.37 mark....Four pitchers lead in shutouts showing that with closers and pitch counts involved a shutout is becoming rarer and rarer.

Todd Jones leads in saves with 11....Carlos Zambrano is the major league leader in home runs allowed with 9.

Glance at the Standings There is an unusual situation with the Red Sox with them leading all of the other teams in the AL East division by six and a half games so all the teams can claim to be in second place. Tigers having the longest winning streak in majors at five gained a game on the Indians and are one game back of them in the AL Central....All the AL West teams won yesterday so Angels were unable to gain on any of them.

Braves and Mets both posted wins so they remain co-leaders of the NL East....Brewers are five games ahead of Cubs in NL Central. On April 15th of this season the Cubs were in last place and two and a half games back of the Reds so they improved their place in the standings yet have fallen further behind the Brewers....Giants passed the Padres and the Diamondbacks in the standings yesterday and are a game and a half behind the first place Dodgers in the NL West.