Penny Fans 14, Rivera Fails Again
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Baseball Daily Digest
Matt DeSalvo in his major league debut pitched seven innings and allowed one run and three hits while walking three with no strikeouts. After that great performance all he could do was sit on the bench and watch his lead deteriorate in the eighth and ninth innings when Kyle Farnsworth blew the save in the eighth inning and Mariano Rivera gave up the game winning home run to Adrian Beltre in the ninth inning giving the Mariners a 3-2 win.
Umpire Gerry Davis enbabled the Mariners to tie the score when he called Willie Bloomquist safe at second when Bloomquist stole second in the eighth inning. Replays showed that Bloomquist had been tagged out by second baseman Robinson Cano. Kenji Johjima then singled in the tying run. After the game both Bloomquist and umpire Davis admitted that Bloomquist was out.
Even then it still looked good for the Yankees with money in the bank reliever Mariano Rivera coming in for the ninth inning but he gave up the winning homer to Beltre and the camera showed a very disappointed DeSalvo almost in tears after seeing his first major league win turn into a loss for the Yankees. Rivera finished the game with a 1-3 record and a 8.44 ERA. If he fails to close out games this often it doesn't matter if Roger Clemens pitches well when he returns to the Yankees if Rivera can't close down the opposition.
Note: Ineffective starter Kei Igawa was sent to a Class A team by the Yankees yesterday. It shows they have no faith at all in Igawa to not send him to their Triple A farm club. He will be the only player in A ball making $4 million this year assuming he is guaranteed the money.
Travis Hafner hit his seventh homer of the season when he hit a grandslam in the eighth inning in the 10-1 win by the Indians over the Orioles. Yankees and Orioles couldn't take advantage of the Red Sox being idle yesterday as they both lost ground and the Orioles slid into fourth place in the AL East as the Devil Rays moved into third.
Brad Penny 4-0 led the Dodgers to a 6-1 win over the Marlins as he struck out fourteen batters enroute to his fourth win without a loss this season. He shut out the Marlins and walked no batters. It looks like pitch counts will prevent pitchers from having more strikeouts as it did last night for Penny who threw 110 pitches. He lowered his ERA to 1.37 just behind John Maine at 1.35.
Chris Young 4-2 defeated the Braves 4-2 allowing them 2 hits in 6 innings then three relievers allowed only one more hit over the last 3 innings. Pitch counts are ruining the great pitching duels not that this was a pitching duel but we will never see another game like when Tom Cheney struck out 21 batters in 16 innings in 1962 in a 2-1 win striking out more batters in one game than anyone has struck out before or since. Sadly maybe due to lack of pitch counts his career ended due to arm injuries as he won only 19 games in 8 years.
Roy Oswalt 5-2 pitched the Astros to a 5-4 win over the Reds. Lance Berkman hit only his third homer of the season after hitting 45 last year. He hit .253 in May but is hitting .381 for the month of May so maybe he will start hitting homers more often soon. Adam Dunn hit his ninth homer for the Reds. Hunter Pence drove in his seventh run of the season leaving him just three behind Morgan Ensberg who has batted 91 times this season while Pence has batted only 36 times plus Adam Everett and Brad Ausmus have only 9 RBI's combined in 178 at bats so keep watching Pence as season goes on.
Brewers took a 3-0 win over the Nationals behind the pitching of Chris Capuano 5-0 who struck out nine in eight innings. Francisco Cordero posted his major league leading 13th save closing out the ninth inning. Brewers with win are 22-10 and are five and half games of the second place Cubs. They are 8-2 in last ten games and have won four in a row.
Rockies handed the Cardinals a 3-2 defeat sending the reeling Cardinals even further into last place in NL Central with the team now nine games back of Brewers. Todd Helton hit his 3rd homer of the season in his 31st game. With only nine games before season is a fourth over he could have his lowest home run total since 1997 unless he picks up the pace. He is hitting great for average hitting .389 and driving in runs but his home run stroke has been AWOL so far this season.
Diamondbacks defeat the Phillies 4-3 despite two relievers blowing saves. Barry Zito 3-3 pitched the Giants to a 9-4 win over the Mets. Benjie Molina led the Giants offensively hitting two homers and driving in five runs. Barry Bonds was 0 for 2 and was walked twice. He is hitting .267 for the month of May after hitting .356 in April. In his last four games he has only seven at bats while in the last three games he has been walked seven times. If I was a manager I would give Bonds one at bat in the first or second inning then walk him the rest of the game and make him run the bases and not let him beat you in the latter part of the game.
Stats Corner
With so few teams playing yesterday will look at team stats today:
Mets have best batting average at .284 with White Sox last hitting .222....Yankees have most runs scored with 176 in 30 games while Cardinals are at bottom of the list with 92 runs in 30 games barely a 3 runs a game average.
Reds lead in home runs with 41 with Nationals only having 13 the worst in majors. Phillies lead in walks with 147 while the worst is the Mariners with 61....Marlins have struck out 278 times and the Mariners have struck out the least with 126 strikeouts....Mets lead in stolen bases with 31 while the Cardinals, Mariners and Pirates are last with 8 each.
Mets not only lead in batting average but also lead in earned run average with a 2.96 ERA with the Devil Rays the worst at 5.60....Padres lead in shutouts with 4 with several teams last with no shutouts....Brewers and Tigers are tied for team saves with 14 with the Yankees last with 3 saves....Red Sox have allowed the least runs with 105 while Devil Rays have allowed the most with 190.
Giants have allowed only 16 home runs to lead in that category while last is the Devil Rays and Rangers who have both allowed 40 home runs....Indians have walked 85 batters while the worst team is the Nationals issuing 148 walks....Dodgers lead in strikeouts with 243 while Mariners are last with 138.
Athletics lead in opposing batting average by opponents with a .294 average while the worst average is by the Marlins who have allowed hitters to hit .369 against them.
Rockies have walked 19 batters intentionally while Mets have issued the fewest intentional walks with 3.
Glance at the Standings
Red Sox increased their lead in AL East over all the other teams and are the second best team in baseball with a 20-10 record. All the other teams in division have losing records.
Indians took advantage of the other teams in AL Central being idle and moved out of the first place tie with Tigers to take a half game lead.
Mariners moved to within a half game of the Angels with their win last night over the Yankees. There is a very tight race in this division with the 13-18 Rangers only 3 and half games back of the Angels.
All the NL East teams lost last night so there is no change in standings. Nationals lost their 6th game in a row.
Brewers are still the best team in baseball and lead the NL Central by five and a half games over the Cubs.
All the NL West teams won so there is no change in the standings.
