Sammy Sosa Homers Twice
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Baseball Notebook
Baseball Daily Digest
Giants move into first place in NL West with a 5-4 win over the Dodgers. Russ Ortiz kept the Giants in the game and left the game to the bullpen who pitched well and the Giants have won eight in a row and start Barry Zito against the Diamondbacks today. Twins end a 11 inning marathon with a single by Mike Redmond to take a 1-0 win over the Royals. Torri Hunter was hit in the mouth by a Zack Greinke pitch during the game....Joe Kennedy allowed one run in five innings but the A's bullpen let the Mariners take a 4-2 win.
Sammy Sosa hits his 5th and 6th homers of season against the Indians and has now homered in more different ballparks than any other major leaguer homering in his 44th major league park. However the homers weren't enough to overcome a lead of 5-1 by the Indians who went on to win by a 9-4 score. Sosa is third in homers and fourth in RBI's in the AL this season and is slugging .535. Ian Kinsler picked up his 20th RBI of the season good for second place in AL.
Bartolo Colon lowered his ERA to 1.93 as he registered his second win of the season against no defeats and the Angels defeated the Devil Rays 11-3. Colon struck out eleven while giving up two runs and four hits in seven innings. Vladimir Guerrero hit his sixth homer of the season and drove in his 20th RBI.
Josh Beckett became the first major league pitcher to win five games as the Red Sox took a 5-2 win over the Orioles who had a 2-0 lead after five innings but lost due to shoddy bullpen work by the Orioles relievers....A.J. Burnett and the Blue Jays ruined the major league debut of the top Yankees pitching prospect Philip Hughes who allowed four runs in four innings but it was the seven shutout innings by Burnett that was the story as Blue Jays shut out the Yankees 6-0. The first four Yankee hitters in batting order were 1 for 14. It was the first time the Yankees have been shutout this season and the sixth loss in a row.
Also losing their sixth game in a row yesterday was the Astros who had lost a 16 inning game just hours earlier with the game ending about 12:30 AM Pittsburgh time and played their next game about 12 hours later. Pirates took the win by a 5-3 score....Cardinals overcame a 4-0 lead by the Reds after four innings to win 7-5....Diamondbacks overcame a three run homer by Adrian Gonzalez which was his seventh homer of the season and the 23rd RBI leaving him one RBI behind Jeff Francoeur who leads the league with 24.
Around the Bases
Matt Holliday and Derrek Lee lead the majors in hitting with .393 averages....The home runs leader is still Alex Rodriguez with 14 with Jimmy Rollins and Ian Kinsler next with 8....Rodriguez leads in RBI's with 34 with Jeff Francoeur next with 24....Rodriguez has a 80-58 lead over Jimmy Rollins in total bases.
Rodriguez now is slugging under 1.000 as he is slugging .976 with Barry Bonds next with .782 percentage....One offensive category that Rodriguez doesn't have a commanding lead is extra base hits with his major leading 21 but with Torri Hunter and Chase Utley close behind with 17 each.
Josh Beckett leads majors in wins with 5 and Dontrelle Willis is next with 4 and there are 22 pitchers with 3 wins waiting for chance to win their fourth game....Johan Santana leads in strikeouts with 39 and Cole Hamels is next with 37....Jae Seo has given up 43 hits in only 23 innings to lead in most hits given up with Dontrelle Willis next having given up 40 in 30 innings. Seo also leads in earned runs allowed with 25 in 23 innings.
Yankees start their series against the Red Sox five and a half games back and in last place with Devil Rays. This is a huge game for the Yankees as they will either be four and a half back with a win or six and a half back with a loss. It looks like a pitching battle between Daisuke Matsuzaka and Andy Pettitte tonight but anything can happen when these two teams collide. In the Astros-Brewers game both starters Chris Capuano and Roy Oswalt try for their fourth win of the season the only starters in majors trying for their fourth win today.
