Sosa Hits 600th HR....Clemens Faces Rockies Today
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Sosa Hits 600th Home Run
Sammy Sosa reached the 600 home run mark last night as the Rangers defeated the Cubs. In my book he belongs in Hall of Fame before Mark McGwire since only five players reached that mark including Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays. Needing 60 to tie Mays it is doubtful that will ever happen. If Sosa had played last season he may have had a chance. ESPN.com projects Sosa to have 30 home runs and 130 RBI's by the end of the season. If he comes anywhere close to those numbers it will be more than what the Rangers expected out of Sosa. It will be interesting to see if Sosa gets the McGwire treatment when he becomes eligible for Hall of Fame and receive few votes. Maybe by that time major league baseball will have conclusive proof of who cheated and who didn't but that may be impossible to prove. If circumstancial evidence is all it took Sosa would be enshrined in the Steroids wing of the Hall of Fame.
Around the Bases
Barry Zito 6-8 flounders again as Brewers defeat the Giants 7-3. His 4.83 ERA is one run exactly more than his 3.83 ERA of last year. The loss was the third in the row for Zito who previously had a three game winnng streak. His ERA has been worse each month with a 3.73 ERA in April and 4.62 and 6.98 ERA's in May and June. ESPN.com projects him to have a 13-15 record this year hardly worthy of a $10 million salary....Jeff Weaver 1-6 pitched a complete game shutout against the team Roger Clemens got his first win against the Pirates who are ranked 26th in majors in batting average. Weaver did pitch well against the Cubs who are 10th in batting in majors but his other effective start since coming off disabled list was against the Padres the 29th team in hitting. So will give Weaver credit for his win but would like to see how he does against one of the better hitting teams.
Braves are showing why Chipper Jones was correct in saying that the Braves shouldn't be playing against the Red Sox in interleague play because they didn't belong in the same ballpark with them last night as Buddy Carlyle pitched like a home run derby pitcher and is probably headed back to the minors. Don't understand why Bobby Cox left him in game so long since game was out of reach by time Carlyle was lifted with the Braves trailing 7-0. Saving the bullpen is one thing but letting the opponent score seven runs over the first two innings is complete idiocy. Looks like Red Sox are ready to extend their lead in AL East as they have gained two games on Yankees in the last two nights giving them a ten game lead over the Bronx Bombers. Red Sox are 21 games over .500 while Yankees are one game over .500.
With Mike Mussina and Andy Pettite losing on consecutive nights to the Rockies it makes you wonder if the Yankees pitching problems are over. This afternooon the Yankees send Roger Clemens 1-1 to the mound against Rodrigo Lopez 3-0 and has allowed four runs in his last 13 innings with a 2.90 ERA. Rockies are second best hitting team in NL so this will be a real test to see how well he can pitch against a good hitting team. Losing to the Mets while they were playing badly is not exactly a feather in his cap.
Carlos Pena had his 17th homer of the season and 44th RBI. Two years ago he had 18 homers and 44 RBI's in 260 at bats while this year it has only took 179 at bats to get the same number of RBI's. Readers may know of someone else but I think it is between Pena and Sammy Sosa for comeback player of the year in the AL and he is five homers ahead of Sosa but 9 RBI's behind....Jeremy Bonderman has a perfect 8-0 record and with Justin Verlander and Chad Durbin pitching well, the return of Kenny Rogers soon to the rotation should make their pitching staff even stronger. Nate Robertson and Mike Maroth have ERA's over 5.00
On May 19th the Mets were 28-14 but now their record today is 38-32 with 10-18 record since May 19th. The strange thing is that they were 2 1/2 games ahead of the Braves back then but today are a game and a half ahead of the Braves so have lost only one game off their lead. On May 19th the Phillies were 7 1/2 back of the Mets but now are only two games back so they have taken advantage of the Mets tailspin and to me are playing more like a division champion than the Mets or the Braves.
Dan Haren 9-2 to me is the best pitcher in baseball. Yesterday was only the second time in 16 starts that he has given up as many as three runs in a game something I doubt any other pitcher in the majors has done this year. Even if Rich Harden does return soon I consider Haren as the ace of the staff for the A's. A's problem is that all the AL West won yesterday so they are having trouble gaining on the first place Angels.
James Shields has lost his last two starts giving up 11 runs and 16 hits in his last 11 innings and getting lower than usual strikeout totals....Kip Wells 3-11 took the win in the Cardinals 14 inning game against the Royals. Ryan Ludwick hit a walkoff homer in bottom of 14th inning to win the game for the Redbirds. Aaron Miles was 5 for 7 and scored three runs in the contest....Craig Biggio was 0 for 5 and still needs 8 hits to reach 3000 hit plateau....Hunter Pence hit his 7th homer of the season and was 3 for 5 and drove in three runs raising his average to .351 which leads all major league rookies with at least 150 at bats. His 33 RBI's are second in majors for rookies behind only Delmon Young who has 39.
C.C. Sabathia 10-2 defeated the Philies who have lost four of their last six games. Still think they are a good team and destined to be the NL East champion but they have to take advantage on days when Braves and Mets both lose but instead are losing themselves.
Stats Corner
Hitting
Magglio Ordonez continued to sizzle yesterday as he raised his average to a major league leading .383 and has 6 hits in his last 7 at bats and is 17 for 34 and driving in 13 runs in his last ten games. Matt Holliday is second hitting .366 and has 105 hits for the season and is hitting .433 for the month of June....Alex Rodriguez with 27 home runs is barely ahead of Prince Fielder who has 26 roundtrippers....Rodriguez leads in RBI's with 73 with Ordonez next with 67....Holliday leads in hits with 105 to 103 for Ichiro Suzuki.
Ordonez leads in doubles with 34 with Chase Utley close behind with 30....Curtis Granderson with 13 triples leads Jimmy Rollins with 9....Holliday leads in total bases with 178 trying to have 200 by halfway mark of the season to have a chance at 400 total bases. In second is Rodriguez with 176....Jose Reyes leads in stolen bases with 38 with Juan Pierre and Brian Roberts next with 23....Rodriguez leads in slugging percentage with a .688 percentage with surprising Carlos Pena next with a .665 mark....Tiger teammates Magglio Ordonez and Curtis Granderson lead majors in extra base hits with 47 and 44 respectively.
Pitching
C.C. Sabathia became the third pitcher to record ten wins as he joined John Lackey and Josh Beckett in the ten wins club. Four pitchers have 9 wins this season with Fausto Carmona, John Smoltz and Daisuke Matsuzaka trying for their ninth wins on Friday....Erik Bedard leads in strikeouts with 112 with Jake Peavy in second with 110....Dan Haren continues to lead the majors with a 1.78 ERA. Haren is the most consistently effective pitcher in baseball this season. In second is Jake Peavy with a 1.98 ERA.
Francisco Cordero leads the majors in saves with 27 and Jose Valverde is next with 23....Zach Duke has the dubious honor of allowing the most hits this season with 120 and C.C. Sabathia is next with 113 but leads in innings pitched with 113....Kip Wells leads in losses with 11 with Paul Maholm next in this category with 10....Wells also leads in earned runs allowed with 59 with Daniel Cabrera and Vicente Padilla next with 56....Cole Hamels and Ervin Santana lead in home runs allowed with 17 while second place James Shields has allowed 16.
Glance at the Standings
American League
AL East:
Yankees are 15-20 on the road this season not a good record for a team hoping to win the AL East. Red Sox are 23-13 on the road. Yankees have the second lowest winning percentage of any second place team in majors with Cardinals being the worst.
AL Central:
Tigers and Indians remain in a tie for first place in AL Central. Tigers have the longest winning streak in majors with four wins in a row....Tigers at 24-15 are only AL Central team to have a winning record on the road. White Sox are only two and a half games ahead of the last place Royals. White Sox have not won a series this month.
AL West:
Rangers are the worst team in baseball with a 27-44 record and a .380 winning or rather in their case losing percentage. Rangers are only team in AL West that has a losing record on the road and at home. None of the other teams has losing record either at home or on the road.
National League
NL East:
Mets are 2-8 in their last ten games. No team in NL East has a winning record in last ten games enabling the Mets to stay atop the division. All NL East teams are idle today with the Mets playing A's Friday while the Braves play the Tigers and the Phillies travel to St. Louis on Friday. On paper it looks like the Phillies have best chance to gain ground on Mets this weekend.
NL Central:
Cardinals moved ahead of Cubs to take second place in NL Central. Brewers are 8-2 in their last ten games with the Cardinals at 6-4 the only other team in NL Central to have a winning record in their last ten games. The other four teams all lost yesterday.
NL West:
Diamondbacks moved to within a half game of the first place Padres yesterday. Rockies are the hottest team in NL West with 8-2 record in last ten games.... not good news for Roger Clemens who faces the Rockies this afternoon. Rockies have moved seven games ahead of last place Giants who are 11 1/2 games out of first and 11 games under .500 and have the identical 30-41 record of the Orioles. Bruce Bochy finds him and the Giants looking up to the Padres who sit atop the NL West and is probably wishing he had never left the Padres. With the Giants reeling out of control they may be ready to trade Bonds and other of the oldsters they so stupidly signed. Giants are ninth in ERA in majors but 27th in runs scored.
