Rookie Thompson Defeats Yankees 6-0
Daryl Thompson made one one of the shakiest debuts in the history of baseball yet managed to escape serious trouble in several innings yesterday as the Reds shutout the Yankees 6-0. He had the bases loaded with no outs in the second inning yet was able to pitch himself out of that jam and others during the game. He did make a rookie mistake of failing to cover the first base bag which allowed the runner to reach first base.
His mound opponent Dan Giese made an worse mistake by making a bad throw to second base and the Reds scored three unearned runs because of his error. Giese pitched just as well as Thompson with both pitchers not allowing an earned run while they were on the mound. Only problem for Giese besides his error was that the Yankee offense didn't show up for the game with only one extra base hit by Alex Rodriguez to go with six singles.
Jay Bruce has been jolted back to reality after an excellent start with only three singles in his last 28 at bats which dropped his average to .302. Even though Thompson pitched well in his debut the Reds are hoping that he doesn't do like Johnny Cueto and not pitch as well in his next few starts.
Edmonds, Gross Turning Seasons Around
Jim Edmonds who was released earlier this season by the Padres continued to hit well for the Cubs by homering twice yesterday. Edmonds had 1 homer and 6 RBI's in 90 at bats while with the Padres but since joining the Cubs he has 4 homers and 16 RBI's in 74 at bats with the Cubs.
Gabe Gross was traded on April 22nd to the Rays with the Brewers getting RHP Josh Butler. Gross is hitting only .243 for the Rays but delivered a walkoff double yesterday giving the Rays a 4-3 victory over the Astros. Gross has had three walk off hits this season.
Return of Matsuzaka Didn't Go Well
Diasuke Matsuzaka 8-1 started his first game since May 27th but his return didn't go as planned as he lost his first game of the season. He pitched only one inning and gave up 7 runs and 6 hits and walked three. He started the game with an ERA of 2.53 and finished it with an ERA of 3.46. The Cardinals won the game 9-3.
Uggla Takes Over Major League Home Run Lead
Dan Uggla took over the major league home run lead yesterday when he hit his 23rd of the season as he passed Chase Utley who has 22. Uggla is 4th in NL All Star voting. I can understand him being behind Utley who is having a great season but there is no reason he should be behind second place Mark DeRosa and third place Katsuo Matsui. He still should make the squad as an extra player but apparently fans don't look at the stats or he would be in second place.
Looking at Stats
Josh Hamilton is leading the majors in RBI's with 76 but the nearest AL player is Justin Morneau with 56. Hamilton has 29 more RBI's than he had last season and has matched his 19 homers of last year.... Adrian Gonzalez is second with 64 and had an even 100 RBI's last season.
Cristian Guzman of the Nationals leads all major leaguers with 101 hits....Jose Guillen leads the majors in doubles with 27....Jose Reyes leads in triples with 7....Lance Berkman leads all players in total bases with 185....Adam Dunn leads in walks with 61....Ryan Howard leads in strikeouts with 106 with 5 games left in the first half of the season for the Phillies.
Chipper Jones leads in batting average with a .393 average and also leads in on base percentage with a .485 percentage....Berkman leads in slugging with a .693 percentage and Uggla is second with a .648 percentage and also leads in extra base hits with 48.
Joe Saunders and Brandon Webb lead the majors in wins with identical 11-3 records...Barry Zito leads the majors in the dubious most losses category with 11 losses while Joe Blanton and Aaron Harang are nipping at his heels with 10 losses each....Edinson Volquez leads the majors in striketouts with 110 and in ERA with a 1.71 mark. He is only one win away from leading in all the Triple Crown for a pitcher categories.
Francisco Rodriguez leads in saves with 29....Livan Hernandez leads in hits allowed with 141 hits in 91 innings still has a 7-4 record....Brett Myers leads in two dubious categories with the lead in earned runs allowed 61 and home runs allowed with 23....Oliver Perez leads in walks with 51.
Justin Masterson leads in lowest batting average allowed by a starter with a .176 average...Dan Giese of the Yankees is allowing hitters to hit only .192 against him.