Verlander Becomes 2nd AL Central Pitcher With No-Hitter
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
Verlander Becomes Second AL Central Hurler to Pitch a No-Hitter This Season
Justin Verlander 7-2 pitched the Tigers to a 4-0 no-hit win over the Brewers. It was the second no-hitter pitched by an AL Central pitcher with Mark Buehrle pitching the other no-hitter. Verlander was masterful striking out 12 enroute to the win which combined with an Indians loss left the Tigers tied with Indians for first place in AL Central. The win was the sixth for Verlander in his last seven decisions. Just two starts ago he had given up 7 runs and 8 hits to the Indians but in his last start before the no-hitter he pitched 7 innings of scoreless baseball so for the month of June has pitched 16 innings without allowing a run and only giving up 5 hits.
Around the Bases
The Brewers lost their fourth game of their last five but were fortunate as the second place Cubs and Cardinals also lost as all top three teams in NL Central lost and all the bottom three teams won. A month ago the Brewers were 25-12 and seven games ahead of the Astros and Cubs and now a month later they are 34-30 and five and a half games ahead of Cubs and Cardinals. Going from 13 games over .500 to only four over is an indication of how badly they are playing. So despite going 9-18 they have lost only a game and a half off their lead. If this doesn't show the weakness of the NL Central I don't know what does. I rest my case.
Yankees finally evened their record with their seventh straight win and now after being eight games under .500 they have a real chance to win the AL East. They have won ten of their last twelve games and are 9 1/2 back of the Red Sox. Chien-Ming Wang, Tyler Clippard and Roger Clemens are only starters to record wins in those ten wins with Mike Mussina not winning since the 9th of May and Andy Pettite not winning since the 23rd of May.
With me going to a 10:35 AM baseball game this morning in our independent league will only highlight the important events of yesterday:
Cole Hamels became the first NL pitcher to post nine wins this season as his record goes to 9-2 while striking out eight which gives him the lead in strikeouts in the major leagues with 104....Indians lost their third game in a row and were shutout for the second time in last three games....Slumping Braves and Mets have let the Phillies back in the NL East race with the Mets losing 8 of their last ten and the Braves losing 7 of their last ten. Phillies are only a game behind the second place Braves and three games behind the first place Mets. Since ending a four game losing streak on the first day of June the Phillies have had an 8-3 record.
John Maine who was having such a great start is now 1-4 in his last seven starts with 3 no-decisions as his ERA has fell from 1.71 to 3.39 in his last ten games....Kevin Millwood 2-6 is a big part of the reason the Rangers are the worst team in majors currently. His ERA is 7.82 and he has given up 73 hits in 48 innings this season including 10 home runs. Millwood has not won a game since the 13th of April. Millwood and Vicente Padilla combined for 31 wins last season but so far this season have won only four games combined. Rangers continue their history of lousy pitching staff and can't see them turning this debacle of a season around with this staff.
Astros won on a 11th inning single by Brad Ausmus winning by a 5-4 score over the A's. Mark Ellis and Mark Kotsay were 6 for 11 in the game as the first two hitters in the A's lineup but the 3-4-5 hitters combined to have an 0-14 night. Since May 12th Roy Oswalt has been 0-2 with four no decisions....Mariners won their fifth in a row with a 5-3 win over the Cubs that took 13 innings. Willie Bloomquist singled in the winning run for the Mariners.
3000 Hit Watch
Craig Biggio needs 17 hits to reach 3000 hit plateau. Last night he was 3 for 5 after having 3 hits in his last 32 at bats. Unless he goes into another long slump he should have his 3000th hit sometime in early July.
