Texeira Hammers 4 HR's....Drives in 10 Ten Runs in Last Two Games
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Mark Texeira Trade Paying Off For Braves
The biggest acquisition before the trading deadline has to be the trade the Braves made to acquire Mark Texeira. Since joining the Braves Texeira has 9 home runs and 25 RBI's in 18 games and 68 at bats hitting a home run slightly less than every 8 at bats. In 78 games and 286 at bats with Rangers he had 13 home runs and 49 RBI's and was taking over 20 at bats for every home run.
In the last two games he has 4 home runs and 10 RBI's. Texeira is slugging .765 since becoming a Brave. He has left the last place Rangers in the AL West to join a team that is in the thick of the NL East race.
Tim Hudson (15-5) took the win for the Braves and should have about eight starts left for a chance to win 20 games.
In their 14-4 win over the Reds last night Brian McCann hit a first inning grand slam and Andruw Jones hit his 23rd home run of the season but is only hitting .214. His low average will make him a tougher sell for Scott Boras when Jones tests the free agent market this fall.
Around the Bases
Saw the end of the Yankees/Angels game and the dramatic tenth inning double by rookie Ryan Budde that gave the Angels a 7-6 win. Budde's hit was only his second major league hit and he drove in his first major league run and has batted only 12 times in the majors. Alex Rodriguez hit his 40th home run to stay ahead of Prince Fielder who hit his 39th last night....The St. Louis Cardinals took a huge win over the Chicago Cubs, which moved them to within three games of the Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers, who are tied for first in NL Central....Albert Pujols who had one home run and 4 RBI's over the first fourteen days of August has hit four home runs and drove in five runs in his last five games. Rick Ankiel hit his fourth home run in his first nine games with the Cardinals and is hitting .313 and slugging .750.
The Boston Red Sox defeated the Tampa Bay Devil Rays as Tim Wakefield (15-5) was the winning pitcher in the 6-0 victory. The win stretched the Red Sox lead over the New York Yankees to five games....The Seattle Mariners won 9-4 over the Minnesota Twins as they remained two games behind the Los Angeles Angels who won their game with the Yankees.... The Chicago White Sox defeated the Kansas City Royals 4-3 to tie the Royals for last place in the AL Central....The Milwaukee Brewers shut out the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-0 on the road as Yovanni Galardo 5-3 pitched and hit the Brewers to the win pitching 6 innings of shut out baseball and hitting a solo home run in the second inning. Prince Fielder hit a towering home run that gave him 39 for the season and a five home run lead over second place Adam Dunn with 34 in the NL home run race.
Wily Mo Pena hit his second home run in 11 at bats with the Washington Nationals in their 7-0 win over the Houston Astros. Pena hit only five home runs for the Red Sox in 156 at bats....The Pittsburgh Pirates may be the second worst team in baseball behind the Devil Rays, but they won their third in a row on a eleventh inning single by Freddy Sanchez that gave them a 4-2 win over the Colorado Rockies, who fell to seven games behind the first place Diamondbacks in the NL West.
Looking at Stats
Hitting
Magglio Ordonez still leads the majors in hitting with a .351 average with Ichiro Suzuki in second with a .346 average. In the NL there is a three way tie for first place in batting with Hanley Ramirez, Chase Utley and Edgar Renteria tied with .336 averages....Alex Rodriguez leads the majors in home runs with 40 as he has hit 40 or more home runs eight times. Prince Fielder hit his 39th last night and is second in home runs.... Rodriguez leads in RBI's with 118 while Ordonez is second with 110. This is the tenth consecutive season that Rodriguez has driven in over 100 runs. If not for the 1997 season when he missed 21 games he may have had 12 straight 100 RBI seasons.
Rodriguez and Jimmy Rollins are only players to have scored 100 runs this season with 113 and 107 respectively....Ichiro Suzuki with 177 hits is on track to have 200 hits for a seventh season in a row. Matt Holliday and Hanley Ramirez are tied for second with 164 hits....Holliday leads in doubles with 42 with Ordonez, Utley and Dan Uggla tied for second with 41 each....Curtis Granderson leads in triples with 19 with Rollins next with 15....Rodriguez leads Fielder in total bases by 287-283....Ryan Braun leads hitters with at least 300 at bats in slugging with a .659 percentage with Rodriguez next at .629....Jose Reyes leads Juan Pierre in stolen bases 63-50. Extra base hits leader is Fielder with 72 and Holliday is next with 68.
Pitching
Josh Beckett, Tim Hudson, Tim Wakefield and John Lackey lead majors in wins with 15 and next are seven pitchers with 14 wins. Fausto Carmona tries for his 15th win today after having a 1-10 record last season. Dan Haren tries for his 14th win today and Kelvim Escobar tries for his 14th win. John Maine also tries for his 14th today. Cole Hamels tries for his 15th win on Wednesday.
Before the 17 strikeout performance on Sunday, Erik Bedard was leading Santana 207-174 in strikeouts a 33 strikeout lead but now is only ahead 207-191 a 16 strikeout lead and Bedard hopes to extend that lead tonight as he tries for his 13th win of the season....Chris Young is only major league pitcher with an ERA under 2.00 as he stands at 1.93 with Jake Peavy his Padres teammate second at 2.19....Jose Contreras leads all pitchers in losses with 15 and Paul Maholm is next with 14.
Roy Halladay leads in complete games with 5 with Brandon Webb next with 4....Webb also leads in shutouts with 3 with a surprising second place pitcher in Jeff Weaver with 2 the only other pitcher with more than one shutout. Weaver is a surprise because he is allowing 5.57 runs to cross the plate a game....C.C. Sabathia leads in hits allowed with 195 and Dontrelle Willis is next with 193 but has pitched 40 less innings than Sabathia....Adam Eaton leads majors in earned runs allowed with 94 with Contreras next with 93.
Livan Hernandez and Woody Williams lead in home runs allowed with 27 with four pitchers tied for second allowing 25 home runs....Daniel Cabrera leads in walks with 86 and Noah Lowry is next with 82....Jose Valverde leads in saves with 37 and Francisco Cordero and J.J. Putz are second tied with 36....Stephen Randolph leads majors in strikeouts per 9 innings with 14.54 and Joba Chamberlain is next with 14.14 strikeouts per 9 innings.
30-30 Candidates (Home Runs Listed First)
- Hanley Ramirez (23-39)....needs 7 home runs
- Grady Sizemore (21-29)....needs 9 home runs and 1 stolen base
- Brandon Phillips (22-25)....needs 8 home runs and 5 stolen bases
- Jimmy Rollins (22-25)....needs 8 home runs and 5 stolen bases
- David Wright (22-25)....needs 8 home runs and 5 stolen bases
- Chris Young (24-21)....needs 6 home runs and 9 stolen bases
- Gary Sheffield (24-20)....needs 6 home runs and 10 stolen bases
