Tom Haudricourt presents the Official Scorer’s explanation for calling the only hit against CC Sabathia on Sunday:
“The play came off the bat, it was a spinning ball, to the right of a left-handed pitcher. In my opinion, it’s not an ordinary play to make. It was difficult both because of the spin and because he [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 11:06 pm | Games | Permalink | 6 Comments
August 31, 2008
Justin Time
It looked like Justin Morneau might not reach 20 RBI in a month for the first time this season. He came into Sunday afternoon’s game against the Athletics with 18 RBI for August. He knocked in four runners today, including himself with a three-run homer. That brings his total for the season [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 8:50 pm | Sluggers | Permalink | 1 Comment
August 31, 2008
Dodger Dingers
Dodgers Andre Ethier and Casey Blake homer in the first inning to put Los Angeles up 4-0 on the Diamondbacks. Those are only the 11th and 12th home runs allowed by Webb this season. It’s also the third game in which Webb allowed two homers. Half his home runs allowed have come [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 8:27 pm | Games | Permalink | 1 Comment
August 31, 2008
Baldelli and Bartlett
The Tampa Bay Rays extended their AL East lead to 5 1/2 games with a 10-4 win over the Orioles. Rocco Baldelli went 3 for 3 with two doubles. I don’t know what kind of treatment he received for his mitochondrial disease, but it seems to be working. Baldelli’s averages now stand [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 7:09 pm | Players | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Werth His Contract
Jayson Werth did more damage against the Cubs today:
Werth hit a two-run double in the first and a solo drive in the fifth for his 21st homer of the season. Werth, who went deep twice and drove in four runs in Philly’s 5-2 win Saturday, is 11-for-21 with four homers and 10 RBIs against the [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 6:59 pm | Players | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Swept Away
The Astros completed a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals, winning 3-0 Sunday afternoon. With the Brewers sweeping the Pirates, St. Louis finds itself 6 1/2 games out in the wild card race, and now also trails the Phillies. The Cardinals are also seven games down in the loss column. Milwaukee’s magic number [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 6:49 pm | Division Races | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Cristian Sunday
Cristian Guzman picked up two more hits Sunday afternoon as the Natoinals extended their winning streak to six games, downing the Braves 8-4. Guzman delivered his six straight multi-hit game and leads the Nationals with 16 hits during the winning streak.
Washington only has to go 11-14 the rest of the way to prevent a [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 6:14 pm | Players | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Losing Dimensions
Miguel Cabrera drove in all four Detroit runs today as the Tigers came back to defeat the Royals 4-2. That gives Cabrera 104 RBI on the season and a good chance of topping his career high of 119 set in 2007. However, Cabrera has only scored 66 runs this season. In his [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 5:58 pm | Players | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Bullpen Praise
The Mets bullpen pitched three shutout innings this afternoon as Pedro Martinez picked up his fifth win of the season. The Mets pen takes a lot of flack for their blown leads, but they deserve some credit for their good games as well. They’re doing something right since the Mets are 17-7 over [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 5:32 pm | Games | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Body and Bat
Last night, Adrian Beltre helped the Mariners win a game with his body, this afternoon he did it with his bat. Beltre knocked out two home runs and a single, driving in three runs as Seattle beats the Indians 6-4. With 23 home runs going into September, he has a good chance of [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 5:22 pm | Players | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Eck for Beck
Just in the nick of time, the Arizona Diamondbacks acquired David Eckstein from Toronto for pitcher Chad Beck. I wonder if they are looking for Eckstein to improve the OBA at shortstop or the batting average at second base?
Beck is in his third year of A ball. The Diamondbacks couldn’t seem to decide [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 5:13 pm | Trades | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
A Little Controversy
CC Sabathia takes a one-hitter into the bottom of the ninth. The only hit against him came in the fifth, when Andy LaRoche rolled one halfway between third and the pitcher’s mound. Sabathia tried to pick it up with his bare hand and dropped it. The official scorer immediately called it a [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 4:28 pm | Pitchers | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
At Seventeen
Roy Halladay breaks the 16 win mark, the level he reached each of the last two seasons. The Blue Jays defeat the Yankees 6-2 as Halladay goes seven innings. With 103 pitches thrown, I’m a little surprised that he didn’t go for the complete game, but with a good lead there was no [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 4:20 pm | Pitchers | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
One Man, One Votto
Joey Votto ends August on a high note, going four for four against the Giants with four RBI as the Reds win 9-3. In his last 10 contests, Votto has five multi-hit games and is hitting .486 with a .649 slugging percentage. He’s also drawn six walks for an OBA well over .500.
Posted by David Pinto at 3:52 pm | Games | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Bare-Handed DP
CC Sabathia walked Freddy to start the fourth inning against Pittsburgh. Nate McLouth then hits a line drive up the middle. It wasn’t a hard hit ball, but Sabathia’s follow through had him falling away from the flight of the ball. He used his left hand, however, to reach back and snare [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 2:36 pm | Games | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Climbing the Ladder
Jim Thome hit career home run 536 to tie Mickey Mantle for 14th on the all-time list. His first inning shot gave the White Sox a 2-0 lead which they have maintained into the third inning.
Alex Rodriguez hit a solo shot for the Yankees, cutting the Toronto lead to 4-1. That’s 547 career [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 2:26 pm | Sluggers | Permalink | 1 Comment
August 31, 2008
NL East Tidbits
My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.
Posted by David Pinto at 12:53 pm | Division Races | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Games of the Day
Pedro Martinez makes an important start for the Mets today against the Marlins. His walks and strikeouts have been very good in his last two outings, but that hasn’t translated into low number of hits allowed and low numbers of runs allowed. With Arizona and Chicago all boasting three great starters, and Milwaukee [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 11:49 am | Matchups | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
The Dreaded WoW
Aaron HeilmanPhoto: Icon SMI
With the score tied in the bottom of the ninth against Florida on Saturday, a lead-off walk by Aaron Heilman led to a runner on third with one out after a sacrifice and a wild pitch. At that point, Heilman issued two intentional walks to load the bases, then walked Josh [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 11:00 am | Statistics | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Apt Description
Cathal Kelly describes the Blue Jays comeback against the Yankees Saturday:
It was the epic meeting of a resistible force and a movable object at Yankee Stadium yesterday afternoon.
In the end, Toronto’s spluttering offence won a thumb war with the Yankees’ spaghetti-limbed relief corps. They overcame the fading Bombers with a comeback 7-6 win in the [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:46 am | Games | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Summing Up the Tigers Season
After a 13-3 loss to the Royals on Saturday, Bless You Boys sums up the Tigers:
Owned, pwned, fail – whatever you want to call it, it’s plain ugly. Just when you think the Tigers have fallen as low as they can go, they push those shovels a little deeper and find further depths. [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:30 am | Team Evaluation | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Subtle Interference
Bleeding Blue and Teal links to a video to Adrian Beltre getting hit by a batted ball. He was on second with a runner on first, Beltre is called out and the batter gets a hit. The ball was likely a double play grounder, however, and Eric Wedge argued that Beltre intentionally interfered [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:20 am | Base Running | Permalink | No Comments
August 31, 2008
Sunday Update
The Day by Day Database is up to date.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:14 am | Statistics | Permalink | No Comments
August 30, 2008
Games of the Day
The Phillies/Cubs game features two starters pitching better since the All-Star break for the same reasons. Both Brett Myers and Ted Lilly cut down on their home runs and their walks. With Myers, the transformation was extreme, going from a 5.84 ERA to a 1.66 ERA. Lilly cut his home run rate [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 8:30 am | Matchups | Permalink | 1 Comment
August 30, 2008
Saturday Update
The Day by Day Database is up to date.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:27 am | Statistics | Permalink | No Comments
August 30, 2008
Question for a Saturday Morning
Does anyone still think the Yankees should have kept Joe Torre as manager? I’m not looking for comments on the way the Yankees released him, but the actual decision to let him go. He’s not exactly marching the Dodgers into the post season at this point.
Posted by David Pinto at 7:48 am | Management | Permalink | 13 Comments
August 29, 2008
College Days
We’re getting ready to send my daughter off to college, so blogging will be light for the next couple of days.
Posted by David Pinto at 3:47 pm | Other | Permalink | 3 Comments
August 29, 2008
Games of the Day
I’m pressed for time, so a very quick games of the day. Two pitchers who were teammates a couple of months ago face off in Chicago as Joe Blanton takes on Rich Harden. Rich has been nearly unhittable in Chicago, whereas Joe is pitching about the same as he did in Oakland.
Two former [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 12:00 pm | Matchups | Permalink | No Comments
August 29, 2008
On the Radio
I’ll be appearing on ESPN 1470 in Tampa Bay at about 3:40 PM EDT this afternoon. You can listen at the link.
Update: They moved the interview to 4:05 PM EDT.
Posted by David Pinto at 9:39 am | Broadcasts | Permalink | No Comments
August 29, 2008
Stairs Master
Via Phillies Nation, the Phillies acquire Matt Stairs from Toronto for a player to be determined. He’ll be the replacement for Geoff Jenkins.
Stairs power disappeared this season as he’s slugging just .394. He can still draw a walk, however. He may not be able to get the big hit in a rally, [...]
Posted by David Pinto at 9:16 am | Trades | Permalink | No Comments
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