Endy Chavez drives in Jose Valentin to take a 1-0, 13 inning victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Jason Grimsley started the inning, giving up a double to Valentin. Castro moved him to third with a slow roller to short, then Chavez launched deep into the right center gap with the outfield in to win the game. It's the 8th walk-off win for the Mets this year. Great pitching on all sides until the end.

Duaner Sanchez pitched three innings to get the win. Tonight, he was Duane, Duaner and Duanest.

Jorge Julio returns to Shea and faces Delgado, Wright and Floyd in the bottom of the 12th. He retires the side in order, and now has allowed just one hit while striking out four in three innings for the Diamondbacks since the trade. On to the 13th.

Carlos Beltran just foulded a pitch off his right knee. He was on the ground for a couple of minutes and is obviously in pain. He's up, and they're trying to decide if he can stay in the game.

Update: Beltran stays in the game and strikes out with a man on second. The game remains tied at zero as the Diamondbacks and Mets go to the top of the second.

Update: Beltran does not take centerfield in the top of the 12th.

The Red Sox lead the Blue Jays 8-6 in the top of the eighth. Boston's used three pitchers so far, all rookies. Pauley started because of Wells' injury, followed by Van Buren and Delcarmen. Pauley had a rough start giving up six runs in 4 1/3 innings, but the bullpen is holding off the Blue Jays so far.

Red Sox hitters returned the home run barrage of last night with four of their own, accounting for six of the eight runs.

The Pirates offense comes through again, hitting three home runs as Pittsburgh takes a 6-1 win over the Brewers. Jason Bay popped home run 17, while Jose Castillo continued his hot hitting with his eighth of the year. Even Sean Casey contributed one tonight.

On the pitching side, Ian Snell pitched six good innngs while the bullpen was perfect through three. If the Cubs listen carefully, they might hear the cat-like tread of Pittsburgh approaching.

If you missed tonight's show, you can hear the recorded version here. It's also available on demand at TPSRadio.

The pitching matchup between Pedro Martinez and Brandon Webb lived up to the hype. Webb pitched seven shutout innings, lowering his ERA to 2.01, while Martinez lasted eight, lowering his ERA to 2.50. Once again, Pedro will not get the win as the game is still scoreless in the top of the ninth. The two starters combined to allow nine hits in their 15 innings while walking one and striking out 13. Billy Wagner is on in the ninth for the Mets and he's retired the first two batters.

Update: Wagner retires the side in order, and the Mets have the heart of the order up in the bottom of the ninth.

Update: Lyon strikes out Beltran, Delgado and Wright in the bottom of the ninth to send the game into extra innings.

The Baseball Musings Radio Show is coming up in a little while at 8 PM EDT. You can leave questions during the show in the TPSRadio Chat Room.

Barry Bonds isn't in the lineup again tonight after complaining of a bad back yesterday. There doesn't seem to be much communication between Alou and his star slugger:

Bonds sat out Tuesday night's 5-3 loss to the Florida Marlins because of a sore back. Manager Felipe Alou had planned to rest him Wednesday anyway and filled out the lineup without receiving an update on his star's condition.

"I haven't talked to Barry," Alou said, adding that he assumed Bonds' back was still bothering him when the seven-time NL MVP didn't stop by the manager's office when he arrived at the ballpark.

Somehow I'm not suprised.

David Ortiz goes deep off Ted Lilly in the first inning, his sixth home run in 75 at bats against left-handed pitchers this year. He's 20 for 75 now vs. lefties, with 12 of his 26 extra-base hits coming off the lefties. There doesn't seem to be much of an advantage for southpaws against Papi anymore.

The San Diego bullpen power through three innings of work today, striking out six while preserving a 3-2 Padres lead. The three relievers allowed just two hits and one walk as they held Colorado scoreless. That lowers the relief ERA of the team to 3.47. Given the starters are over 4.00, it's nice to be able to depend on the pen. The Padres starters are averaging just over 6 innings per start, so the pen is getting a good workout.

Earlier today Blez at Athletics Nation complained about Oakland always being out of sync. Today we saw what happens when everyone plays on the same page. The Athletics spared themselves the embarrassment of being swept by Kansas City with a 7-0 victory. Thomas, Crosby and Kendall homered, while Joe Blanton pitched a five-hit shutout. The A's got on base, hit for power and kept the opposition off. When the team clicks, they're very good.

So Taguchi drives in the winning run in the bottom of the eleventh as the Cardinals send the Astros 7 1/2 games out of first place. David Eckstein loaded the bases when he was hit on the hand with a pitch. We'll keep an eye out to see if his hand is okay.

It looks like the Cubs are about to acquire Phil Nevin in exchange for Jerry Hairston and a pile of cash. The Cub Reporter offers his thoughts here:

The Cubs have traded Jerry Hairston to the Rangers for Phil Nevin, which would have been a great trade two years ago, and would have been a decent trade a month ago, but now just seems like a whatever trade.

At 35, Nevin's OBA faded over the last two years, along with his power. He's not a replacement for Derrek Lee. Why don't the Cubs have a Ryan Howard in the minors, who can step in and pound the ball when the big first baseman goes down? They're not that hard to find.

Earl Weaver would like this kind of offense, too. The Mariners gathered eleven hits off John Korona in 2 2/3 innings, ten of them singles. Ibanez already had a single when he came up for the second time, so he hit a three run shot instead. It's now 7-0 Mariners in the top of the fourth at Texas.

Update: Mathews hits a grand slam in the fifth to make the score 7-5, but the Mariners come back with two in the sixth to stretch the lead to four. Felix Hernandez had a chance to lower his ERA today, but once again the long ball hurts him.

Alfonso Soriano knocked out his 19th home run of the season today to give the Nationals a 2-1 lead over the Phillies in the third. The impressive season by Soriano comes as a big of a surprise given his turbulent off-season. What's most impressive is he's hitting for better power at home, with 11 dingers at RFK vs. 8 now on the road. I guess playing for a free agent contract overcomes discontent with his fielding position. And that's good for the Nationals.

Royals Authority links to the story.

Sources say Moore is getting a five-year contract and complete control over baseball operations in a commitment to turn around a franchise that has lost 100 or more games in three of the last four seasons.

Moore, 39, is expected to take control, officially, next week upon completion of baseball’s two-day draft. Sources said assistant general manager Muzzy Jackson will replace Baird on an interim basis.

Something had to be done, why it took so long is anyone's guess. Dayton now gets the chance to reach his potential. I wish him good luck, the Kansas City fans need it.

Jim Edmonds, out of the lineup again today, will visit a specialist after the game:

Cardinals center fielder Jim Edmonds, his lower abdomen sore enough to keep him out of the starting lineup for four consecutive games, will see a specialist in sports hernias after Wednesday’s game, Cardinals officials said Tuesday night.

Edmonds had an MRI scan taken Tuesday, but the Cardinals would prefer that a specialist view the results and consult with Edmonds before a diagnosis is finalized.

The Cardinals are batting Encarnacion fifth today, and it cost them in the first inning. Pujols reached when his potential double play ball hit an umpire after a Rodriguez single, then Rolen was hit to load the bases. Encarnacion hit a shallow fly ball for the second out. He's now 10 for 52 with runners in scoring position, a .192 batting average. Rolen's not doing that much better, but he hitting .240 in that situation.

The Astros lead 1-0 in the second.

It's official, Clemens signed with the Astros today. He'll start in the minor leagues, playing with his son Koby at Lexington, Kentucky. Here's the plan:

The 43-year-old Clemens, who will be entering his 23rd major league season, is agreeing first to a minor league contract that pays $322,000 over the five-month minor league season, and his first start is likely to be June 6 at Lexington, Ky., the Class A team where his oldest son, Koby, plays.

If all goes well, his second minor-league start would be June 11 at Double-A Corpus Christi, Texas, followed by a start June 16 at Triple-A Round Rock, Texas.

...

When he is added to the major league roster, he gets a one-year contract worth $22,000,022 -- his uniform number is 22. Because he won't be playing the full season, he gets only a prorated percentage of that, which would come to about $12.25 million if he rejoins Houston in late June. The tentative goal is to have him start against the Minnesota Twins on June 22 -- if he's put on the big league roster on that day, he would earn $12,632,307.

That's a nice piece of change for 1/2 a season. Of course, there's always the possibility that Clemens fails at the minor league level. If so, the Astros are only out a few hundred thousand dollars.

The Baseball Musings radio show will be on TPSRadio tonight at 8 PM EDT. Check out their other sports programming as well.

You can also call in at 888-985-0555 and leave a question for the show, or stop by the chat room at TPSRadio during the broadcast and leave a comment. Also, feel free to leave a question in the comments to this post and I'll be happy to answer it on the air.

The Oakland Atheltics lost two in a row to the Kansas City Royals. At home. Because of that, the Royals no longer have the worst road record in the majors (the Pirates trail them by 1/2 game). Oakland fans are not happy.

It would be foolhardy to call the season over at this juncture, but every single sign seems to be pointing to the water rolling around in the sink. Whether it makes it to the drain is another question. The fact remains that this team is just bad right now.

The offense can't score and when they do, the starting pitching or bullpen isn't there. When the starting pitching pitches well, the offense can't score. When the starting pitching struggles, the offense might score, but then the bullpen implodes.

I'm more positive than this. The team is out of sync, but it's more than possible that they'll get in sync for a while, and suddenly look like a sure winner.

Remember the story about Jacque Jones' mother yelling at a fan who heckled her son? The Postmen knows the fan an gets an exclusive interview! (Hat tip, Deadspin)

The Astros called a news conference for this afternoon. It looks like the Clemens signing will be true today.

Why did Clemens wait an extra month to come back? Look at his statistics from the 2005 season:

Clemens through August 12, 2005.

Clemens from August 18th through the end of the regular season.

Clemens can probably go four good months and a bit. That takes him through the rest of the regular season and into the playoffs. If it works out that the Astros can catch, the Cardinals, make it back to the series and win, it will certainly be a fairy tale ending to a tremendous career.

The brother of the Dodgers Jose Cruz, Jr. and son of Houston coach Jose Cruz, Sr. went missing. (Hat tip Dodger Thoughts) The story doesn't give much hope for a happy outcome.

Getting Paid to Watch notes a couple of parallels between Lastings Milledge and Darryl Strawberry. Let hope for Lastings sake only the good ones continue.

The Cincinnati Reds fall from grace started on May 12th. In that time they've gone 5-12. After such a good start, the regression might not surprise you, but the reason should. The pitching and defense during this stretch gave up 91 runs, 5.3 per game. But the Reds offense is capable of covering that, at least to stay at a .500 level. It's the offense that's really collasped, scoring just 69 runs, 4.1 per game. And that's actually generous. The Reds scored 4 runs or less in eleven of these 17 games and lost every one of those contests, including four shutouts. You can place most of the blame on Kearns, Griffey and Encarnacion.

One game really stands out on this Wednesday. The Diamondbacks and Mets send their aces to the mound in New York and Brandon Webb faces Pedro Martinez. Webb is 8-0 in eleven starts. His batting average allowed is about the same as last year, but he's lowered his OBA allowed about 25 points. He's walked just 9 in 82 2/3 innings. But that's not the whole story. With the great defense behind him, he's already induced 14 ground ball double plays after getting 30 last season. The few runners reaching base against him often get wiped out, effectively lowering his OBA allowed.

After winning his first five starts, Pedro is 0-1 in his last five. He easily could have won them all. Pedro's ERA over the first five starts was 2.94. Over the last five it's been 2.65 with a higher strikeout rate, a better walk rate and fewer home runs. He needs more support from his offense and bullpen.

The man who hung the loss on Pedro last time out was Josh Johnson of the Marlins who gets another test today as he faces Jason Schmidt of the Giants. In 107 at bats against Johnson, the only extra-base hits opposing players have garnered are two doubles. Schmidt is going deep in games, averaging over 7 1/3 innings per start. He's walking a few too many, but hits against him are rare so the free passes aren't hurting him too much.

Enjoy!

The Pittsburgh Pirates continued their roll last night, pounding the Brewers 12-1. They've scored 57 runs in their last six games. Almost everyone is contributing. What's very encouraging is the youngsters are on a roll. Bay, Castillo, Paulino and Sanchez could form a decent core for this team. Jason showed them how it's done, and the rest are following suit.

My nephew's high school bad played at the Bridgeport Bluefish game last night. That's him on the base drum.

Tommy Herr managed the visitors and Dave LaPoint managed the Bluefish.

My father came to the game to see his grandson perform, and by coincidence his younger brother brought his family. My dad is seated, and that's his brother Anthony standing next to him.

Update: Here are some video highlights including Jim Storer on Lastings Milledge.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Chris Young comes out of the game after eight innings in favor of Trevor Hoffman. Young allowed just one hit but threw 110 pitches. It's a great start by the former Ranger. He lowers his ERA to 3.80 and has now struck out 54 in 64 1/3 innings.

Update: Hoffman allows a single to Helton but gets through the inning for the save. Ivy Leaguer Young gets the win and the Padres keep pace with the Diamondbacks.

Josh Beckett equaled his home run total from last year as he allowed four home runs this evening to bring his total to 14. Beckett's career high is 16, so he looks like he's going to shatter that mark.

Glaus (2) and Wells (3) combined for five dingers tonight, 32 on the year. They accounted for six of the eight Toronto runs. With the win the Blue Jays move 1 1/2 games behind the Yankees and Red Sox, who are now tied for first place in the AL East.

Chris Young takes his no hitter into the eighth inning.

Update: Hawpe lines the first pitch down the right field line for a double. With a 2-0 lead, Young needs to bear down here. At 100 pitches, he might not be in the game much longer.

Update: Hawpe stays at second base as Young gets the next three hitters on a foul pop and two strikeouts. Chris struck out eight through eight innings.

The Yankees blew a 6-1 lead tonight but rallied for five runs in the eleventh to defeat the Tigers 11-6. Mariano Rivera came in to pitch the ninth inning in the tie game, threw only a few pitches, then came out for the tenth. I was listening to the game on the way home, and with the lead extended to five runs, the announcers wondered if Rivera would pitch the eleventh. That he did, retiring the side in order. He worked three innings, allowing just one hit and striking out three. More importantly, he threw just 25 pitches in the outing, so he probably can come back tomorrow.

With the Red Sox loss, the Yankees are now tied with Boston for first place in the AL East.

Chris Young takes a no hitter into the seventh inning for the Padres. Helton leads off with a deep drive to centerfield that Cameron runs down for the out and then crashes into the wall. The catch preserves the no-no and draws a standing ovation from the crowd.

Young's walked two, and is approaching 100 pitches. He's through 6 2/3 innings.

Update: Young retires the side in order in the seventh. He's six outs away from a no hitter.

My nephew Gregory played with the Trumbull High School Band at the Bridgeport Bluefish game tonight, so I took a trip down to the old home town to see the performance. The Bluefish won 11-4. Former major leaguers Donovan Osborne and Deivi Cruz played in the game for Bridgeport. I'll have pictures and video tomorrow.

On my way down, I heard on the radio that Clemens signed with the Astros. It seemed like a bad time to be away from the blog, but the story was not true.

Jon Weisman worries that the Dodgers players aren't honest enough about the extent of their injuries.

The minor league umpires ratified a new contract. The increases in monthly salary and per diems seem low, but they'll be back on the field by June 12.

Scott Saurbeck ran into trouble with the police for allowing a drunk woman to drive his car. He was not charged for allowing seven walks in in 10 2/3 innings.

The Mets called up Lastings Milledge today to replace the injured Xavier Nady. Milledge had a great April and a not so great June; still his OBAs are high across the board even though his batting average is inconsistent.

The pitching matchup of the night takes place in Cleveland where lefties Mark Buehrle and C.C. Sabathia meet for the third time this season. The teams spilt the first two games as Milliliter left opening day early with an injury, then returned from the DL to pitch five strong innings against the White Sox. Sabathia's been the only consistently good starter on the team. Buehrle, with lots of balls in play, has allowed 8 unearned runs, or his ERA could be much higher.

Two pitchers used mostly out of the bullpen go at it in Detroit as the Tigers host the Yankees. Aaron Small and Roman Colon make starts to fill in for injured pitchers. Small's already allowed more home runs than he did all of last year, so it's a good night for Detroit's offense to break their streak of 18 scoreless innings.

The Dodgers are just 1/2 game out of first place, and they send a rejuvenated Aaron Sele to the mound. Sele's ERA hasn't been under 5.00 since 2002, but he's posting a 1.69 ERA on the strength of a very low batting average allowed. Its' been over .300 the last two seasons, but it's down to .200 in 2006. He'll face the Braves and Jorge Sosa, who enters the game with a 1-6 record. Sosa is getting hammered by lefty batters this year. Last year was his only good year against southpaws, and the only great ERA he's posted.

Enjoy!

I have a problem that I'm trying to solve, and if anyone else out there encountered this I'd appreciate some help with the fix. I recently bought an LG VX9800 cellphone from Verizon, because I tested it and could use it to blog. Recently, however, I upgrade my blogging software from MovableType 3.12 to version 3.20. The latest version uses JavaScript for the save button, and the web browser on the phone doesn't support JavaScript. So I can type in posts, but I can't save them.

There are three ways to solve this problem.

1. Hack MovableType to provide a save button that doesn't use JavaScript.
2. Hack the phone to install the OpenWave Broswer version 7.1 which does support JavaScript.
3. Get a new phone.

Number 1 seems like the best solution, since MovableType is open source software. Does anyone have experience with MovableType and can you point me in the right direction? Or has someone else written this code already?

The Baseball Crank looks at where the Tigers rank in ERA compared to league ERA, and find they're off to a very good start.

Randy Johnson took a different approach yesterday as he threw six shutout innings:

Though Johnson himself insisted his fastball was his most important pitch yesterday, there was no doubt that he was using an off-speed splitter and even a straight change on the outside part of the plate more than in the past, which kept hitters from sitting on either his fastball or his down-and-in slider.

"He's not just trying to throw the ball by you now," Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge said after going 0-for-2. "That's the first time I've seen him use a changeup. It's always been fastball-slider. It looks like he's got a different mind-set and it makes him more effective."

There's a good discussion in the article about which pitches made the others more effective. Posada says getting the fastball in on righties made the splitter more effective. John Haper notes that the off-speed pitches made hitters vulnerable to the fastball, as evidenced by the series of pitches that struck out I-Rod.

What's clear is that Randy Johnson made an adjustment. That adjustment put the hitters off stride, and that resulted in an extremely effective outing.

David Wells tested his knee yesterday, and the results were such that the Red Sox scratched him from his Wednesday start. Boston is undecided as to what they will do:

Francona was also kidded that perhaps the choice would be Roger Clemens, but he laughed that off.

A couple of Cubs fans picked the wrong day to heckle Jacque Jones:

Dave van Dyck of the Chicago Tribune says Jones lost a ball in the sun in the top of the seventh, ruining Carlos Zambrano's no-hit bid. In the bottom of the inning, Jones was called out on strikes and a fan allegedly yelled, “The sun must have gotten in your eyes.”

According to witnesses, the fan was berated by a finger-wagging woman wearing a replica of Jones' No. 11 jersey. It was Jones' mother, sitting two rows away.

I believe she said, "If you hurt my son's feelings, he'll never get his OBA above .320." :-)

Nick and Nick rip the Twins on their loss last night.

Cliff Lee think he may be tipping his pitches (second item):

He allowed a home run to Jim Thome on a hanging curveball with an 0-and-2 count. Paul Konerko and Juan Uribe homered on fastballs, each on the 10 th pitch of the atbat. Konerko first fouled off five pitches, Uribe six.

"Normally, when you go through a bad stretch, you’re walking guys and getting behind (in the count). I’m not doing that," Lee said. "For some reason right now, I throw a pitch to get an out and they foul it off.

"Today, especially, the ‘out’ pitches kept getting fouled off. I don’t know if they had my pitches — if they knew what was coming — or what."

He did throw a very high percentage of strikes in the game for such a bad start.

Rick Maese of the Baltimore Sun notes that the Orioles pitching staff regressed from last year despite the addition of Leo Mazzone:

The signing of Mazzone was still a good one, much better than throwing money at A.J. Burnett, Esteban Loaiza or Jeff Weaver. (And never mind the Cubs' trade proposal - Mark Prior for Miguel Tejada . Jim Hendry should face fraud charges for even floating that one.)

But it's reasonable to expect a return on the investment before the All-Star break. Last year at the break, the Orioles had a 4.41 ERA. With four of the five same starters, it's currently at 5.61, trailing only the woeful Royals.

Maybe Tim Hudson was right.

There were some exciting finishes late last night in the Major Leagues. The Mets and Diamondbacks battled to the bitter end, with New York as the youngsters Reyes and Wright delivered RBI singles to turn a 7-6 game into an 8-7 victory. Valverde allowed four hits and an intentional walk as he blew his third save of the year. It's games like this that make me want to go back to the day when a relief pitcher came in to finish the game. Both Medders and Vizcaino pitched well, and Medders only threw 8 pitches. Why not leave them in until they tire, rather than rolling the dice that a pitcher is going to have a bad night? Both offenses clicked during the game as 13 of the 21 hits went for extra bases.

The Angels saw late inning heroics, too as they defeated the Twins 4-3 in eleven innings. With two out in the 8th, a walk, infield single and a Figgins single to center tied the Twins at three. Then Figgins figured big in the 11th as he singled, went to third on a pickoff error and scored on a Cabrera hit to win the game. The Twins bullpen blew one of the few good games Brad Radke pitched this year. Interestingly, Radke walked three in the outing. John Lackey went deep in the game, saving the Angels bullpen so they just needed to throw three innings.

The Athletics found themselves down to the Royals 6-3 in the ninth when Nick Swisher hit his fifteenth home run of the year. Kotsay followed with a one out single, and Kansas City fans could see another meltdown coming. But Burgos induced Chavez to hit into a double play, and the Royals picked up their 12th victory of the season and raised their winning percentage to .245. Meanwhile, Texas now holds a four game lead in the AL West.

No late inning fireworks in San Diego, just another well pitched game by the Rockies. Jason Jennings threw a shutout, supported by three home runs from the Rockies offense. It's the third shutout of the month and the year for Colorado. They thrown eight shutouts in a season twice, in 2001 and 2002.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

John Rheinecker made his second start for the Texas Rangers, earning his first win as he shut down the Seattle Mariners 2-0. He was two outs away from the shutout, but had reached 110 pitches, hit a batter and allowed a single when he was relieved for the final two outs. He's now given up two runs in 12 1/3 innings, striking out 9 and walking just one. The Rangers will take those kind of numbers the rest of the year.

Coco Crisp batted eighth tonight after leading off in his return on Sunday. He started the Boston comeback with a solo homer in the fifth, his first of the season. The Red Sox needed to overcome a 6-0 deficit thanks to another poor performance by Matt Clement, whose ERA is now approaching seven.

The Sox used three homers to pull back into a tie with Toronto, but former Red Sox Shea Hillenbrand drove home the game winning run with a single in the 8th, and B.J. Ryan dispatched the Red Sox easily in the 9th. With the Yankees winning earlier, 2 1/2 games separate 1st from 3rd in the AL East.

The Philadelphia Phillies took an 11-2 win from the Nationals tonight. It was a close game until Ryan Howard launched a three-run shot in sixth to put the Phillies ahead to stay. He tied Soriano for 2nd in the NL with his 18th home run. If Pujols wasn't such an outlier this year, it would be a very interesting race for the home run title in the NL. Coming into today, seven players had between 15 and 18 home runs. We'll see if any of them can catch Pujols as the season goes on.

Jason Bay's home run streak ended tonight as he went one for five with a single, but the rest of the Pirates offense picked up the slack as they creamed the Brewers 14-3. Four Pirates banged out three hits each, including the 1-2-3 hitters who combined to go 9 for 15 with 2 walks, seven runs scored and six RBI. The offense is on a roll, scoring 45 runs in the last five games.

Albert Pujols recorded his 25th home run of the season this afternoon to defeat the Astros 3-1. Houston held a 1-0 lead from the third inning until Albert launched his three-run shot in the bottom of the seventh. He continues his pace to top Bonds, and the Cardinals continue to open distance between themselves and the rest of the division. The Reds lost to the Cubs (that's embarassing) and Milwaukee lost to the Pirates. The Cardinals now lead by five games and once again are starting to pull away in the division. I thought they'd come back to the pack this year, but with the tremendous year by Pujols they're winning again.

While Albert Pujols goes after Bonds for the single season home run record, people forget that no one in the American League ever surpassed Maris' mark. Jim Thome is making a try, however. He hit two home runs today in the White Sox scored 11 against the Indians this afternoon. That puts his season total at 20, and to catch Maris you need to average a little more that 10 home runs per month. Jim's off to a good start to try to break an American League record that has stood for 44 years.

Derek Jeter is out of the Yankees-Tigers game. He jammed his knee sliding into second during the third inning.

Meanwhile, Randy Johnson works on a no-hitter through 5 2/3. He's walked two and struck out three. Two good plays in the sixth helped him out, as Cairo is perfectly positioned to catch a hard, sinking line drive and A-Rod makes a great play to his left on a ground ball.

Update: After a Thames walk, I-Rod singles to right to put runners on 1st and 2nd with two out. The Yankees lead 4-0.

Update: Johnson gets out of the inning by striking out Ordonez. He's just given up one hit through six.

The Dodgers came into the day leading the NL in runs per game. They've done nothing to lose that spot today as their up 8-1 on Atlanta in the fifth. They've knocked out 10 hits and drawn six walks. Not suprisingly, they're leading the NL in on-base average. They've now draw 219 walks on the year in 1734 at bats. Drew, Furcal, Kent and Cruz are all on a pace to draw over 80 walks on the season. Even Nomar is walking much more than his career average. You might think DePodesta put this team together!

Cliff Lee ended May the way he pitched all month, giving up a lot of hits. He faced 17 batters in 2 2/3 innings today, and the only one not to put the ball in play walked. The eight hits means he's given up 51 in the month in just 33 1/3 innings. Three of the eight hits went for home runs, bringing his total for the month to seven. He's allowed 10 in two months after giving up 22 all last year. The Indians trail 7-0 in the fourth.

David Cameron charts Felix Hernandez's pitches and finds he's throwing too many fastballs early and being too predictable late.

Joe Posnanski continues his great writing on the Kansas City Royals GM situation. Today, he looks at Johnny Damon and how he was lucky to get out of a world where wins are few and cherished to a world where a one-run victory over the Royals has to be defended.

The Indians are off to a poor start in trying to climb back into the AL Central race. They lost two out of three to the Tigers, now face the White Sox for four games at home. Javier Vazquez and Cliff Lee take the mound today. Given his great home run and walk numbers, I'm surprised Vazquez has an ERA over 4.00. But he's allowed a .341 batting average with runners in scoring position. Lee is looking to end May on an up note after allowing 43 hits in 29 2/3 innings in the month.

The Tigers get another test on the road to the playoffs today as they face the Yankees in Detroit. New York sends the disappointing Randy Johnson to the mound. The good news for Johnson is that he struck out 8 in his last start. The bad news is he also gave up 9 hits in just five innings. Detroit starts their own disappointment, Jeremy Bonderman. Like Javier Vazquez, Bonderman is pitching better than his ERA. However, four of his five home runs allowed came with men on base. Hank Waddles notes that this is the first time since 1995 that the Tigers entered a series with the Yankees holding a better record.

The Red Sox enter Toronto with a 3 1/2 game lead on the Blue Jays and their rotation a question mark. Matt Clement starts off the three game series against Roy Halladay. Clement just gets worse the more men move around the bases. He's allowing a .439 batting average with runners in scoring position. Halladay is devastating left-handed batters this season. They're hitting just .183 with a .230 OBA against him.

The Diamondbacks meet the Mets in a battle of first place teams. The Diamondbacks are second in the NL in runs per game by a hair. The Dodgers lead 5.36 to 5.35 runs per game. The Mets are tied for second in the NL in ERA. With Vargas and Trachsel on the mound, however, the offense might win out.

Enjoy!

Jason Bay extended his home run streak to six games yesterday, bringing him within two of former Pirate Dale Long. Long holds the NL record, homering in eight straight games and is tied for the Major League record as well. You can read an account of Dale Long's record streak here, set fifty years ago.

Chris Carpenter's sore shoulder is sending him to the disabled list:

Team trainers have described Carpenter's condition as scapulothoracic bursitis - inflammation of a bursa sac between his right shoulder and rib cage. The area had become swollen and created what trainer Barry Weinberg described as "a clicking" sensation when Carpenter pitched. Carpenter admitted after his last start May 19 in Kansas City that he had been uneasy about his mechanics for some time.

If Carpenter's recovery allows him to throw within the next several days, he could return to the rotation by next week's series against the Cincinnati Reds.

The Cubs keep losing, and they keep finding strange ways to do so. Yesterday, they scored four runs in the ninth to tie the game, then lost it in the 11th:

Wretchedness?

Never before—not in the 131 years of the franchise, not in the 90 years at Wrigley Field, not even in all those Mike Schmidt slug-'em-outs with the Phillies—had Cubs pitchers given up more than seven home runs in a game.

Until Sunday. That's when they gave up eight—while hitting none of their own—in a 13-12 loss to the Atlanta Braves in 11 innings.

Strangeness?

The winning run reached base when a high popup came down on Aramis Ramirez's head. True story. Right on top of his head.

"Boy, you think you've seen everything, and you wonder what else can happen, and it happens," manager Dusty Baker said.

The Cubs project to a .346 winning percentage, so they've actually been lucky as their at .367. So Chicago Cubs fans, don't feel so bad!

My host turned off my comments last night due to excessive comment spam. Unfortunately, they didn't bother to tell me. I'm turned them back on now. With luck, that won't happen again.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

On this Memorial Day, I'd like to thank all the military readers (past and present) of Baseball Musings for their service and send my deepest condolences for the losses you've suffered. I hope all of you come home safely.

I've been staying up to watch Barry Bonds hit 715, and of course he does it on the day I'm out of the house. He hit 715 this afternoon off Byung-Hyun Kim in the fourth inning to set the record for most home runs by a left-handed batter and move into second place on the all-time home run list. Congratulations to Bonds on achieving this milestone!

It's been a few days since Albert Pujols hit a home run, but he's still on pace to set the single season home run record. He now has 24 in 50 games.

Despite these shots, both the Giants and Cardinals lost. Colorado took the game 6-3 over the Giants, and San Diego defeated St. Louis 10-8.

Alfonso Soriano and Nick Johnson supplied plenty of power today as the Washington Nationals defeat the Dodgers 10-4. Soriano blasted his 18th of the year, and Johnson hit a pair of solo shots. We're seeing what a healthy Nick Johnson can do. He now has 12 home runs after hitting 15 all last year. His slugging percentage is up to .566, almost 100 points over his career high.

Soriano is doing much better than I thought he would in that park. He's slugging over .700 at home in 2006.

The Cubs staked Jae Kuk Ryu to a 4-1 lead in his first start, but the youngster gave the lead right back. Atlanta score five in second to drive Ryu out of the game after just 1 1/3 innings. The Braves now lead 7-4 in the fourth. Everyday Chicago finds a new way to lose.

There are six game underway and there's been scoring in the first in each one. The Mets scored four, the best of the day so far, just equaled by the Yankees on a bloop single by A-Rod. The first five batters earned hits off Runelvys Hernandez. The Indians and Diamodbacks pushed across three each to take early leads on the road.

Update: Melky Cabrera just scored from first on a deep single by Terrance Long. I was surprised Long didn't get a double on a ball that bounced off the right field wall, but the throw came into second, but Grudzielanek was confused and didn't throw home right away. The indecision cost the Royals a run. Hernandez is out of the game after 2/3 of an inning.

Bronson Arroyo takes to the hill to prevent a Diamondbacks sweep of the Reds. Cincinnati needs to score some runs to help. They've been held scoreless the last 21 innings. Enrique Gonzalez is scheduled to make his major league debut for Arizona. Gonzalez comes with very good strikeout and home run numbers in the minor leagues.

A very good pitching matchup takes place in San Diego where Mark Mulder faces Jake Peavy. Mulder's lower his ERA 0.7 runs over his last four starts as he's posted a 3-1 record with a 2.70 ERA. He's only allowed one homer in that stretch. Peavy's ERA seems to be much higher than you'd expect from his stats. Usually there's a reason, like home runs with men on or a high batting average allowed with men in scoring position. But Peavy's great at both. Must be bad luck.

Enjoy!

Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke recounts last night's Pirates win over the Astros that took 18 innings.

A couple of more things. Each team used 14 substitutes, meaning at the end of 18 there were two starting pitchers left on bench for each side. Both Andy Pettitte and Tyler Buchholz pinch hit for the Astros. Snell pinch-ran for the Pirates, and Victor Santos relieved and got the win for the Pirates.

Craig Biggo walked five times in nine plate appearances. All told, there were 23 strikeouts and 21 walks in the game.

Of the 33 hits, 25 were singles.

No doubt, we're going to see two tired teams on the field this afternoon.

Joe Posnanski continues to pound Royals owner David Glass over his treatment of Allard Baird:

Actually, watching Royals general manager Allard Baird at work says it all. Let's be honest, Baird was publicly fired almost four weeks ago. David Glass told three different news operations that he was going to make major changes. When pressed, he left no doubt that Baird was going to be fired. Not that this was wrong: The Royals have lost 100 games in three of Baird's five full seasons. They’re going to lose 100 games this season.

Baird had to be fired. That’s sports. That’s life.

But here's the thing. Glass did not fire Baird then. He did not fire Baird after a week or two weeks either. He still has not fired Baird. According to Baird, David Glass has not even called. The amateur draft is in about a week, and Glass has not given Baird a budget. People throughout the organization call Baird every day to ask him what's happening. Baird does not know what to tell them.

“I say, ‘Look, we've got a job to do,’ ” Baird says. “Let's do it.”

But there's a big positive in the story, too. Glass is talking to Dayton Moore:

David Glass has done one impressive thing. He has offered his general manager's job to Dayton Moore. True, you would have liked to see Glass mention something about this to his current general manager first. But in any case, Moore is admired throughout baseball. He would make a terrific choice. Many people around the game are impressed (and stunned) that Glass was even able to get Moore to listen to a Royals offer.

Of course, even here there is trouble lurking. Moore is reportedly nervous about taking the job because of … well, David and Dan Glass. He apparently needs assurances in writing that he will be given complete control of baseball operations. The fact that one of the best young minds in baseball needs assurances that he will be free of meddling from Royals president Dan Glass — who prepared for his baseball career by working in jewelry retail and real estate development — just about says it all.

Posnanski goes so far as to say the league should step in if Moore refuses the job because he won't be in control:

I do know this: If David Glass loses Dayton Moore because he refuses to cede all baseball authority — and I mean all baseball authority — well, the league office should step in, as the NBA did when former owner Ted Stepien was running the Cleveland Cavaliers into the ground. Because if the Glasses aren't smart enough to realize they're not smart enough to turn this team around … there’s no hope.

This whole article makes me wonder if the Royals problems are a result of Baird doing a bad job, or Baird being forced to do a bad job.

David Wells is on crutches, but there's no phyical damage to his knee after being hit with a line drive on Friday:

Francona was speaking in positive terms, even throwing out the possibility that Wells wouldn't miss a start.

``I think there's an outside chance he could start, I don't know," said Francona. ``I guess we're still holding on a little bit of hope. I think there's a chance his start would be pushed back a few days, which is still not the worst thing in the world."

My guess is he misses his next start. It's silly after the problems he's had to rush Wells back and potentially make the problem worse.

I didn't realize Casey Kotchman was suffering from mononucleosis. I caught that in my late 20's and it knocked me out for a month. He's upset that the Angels didn't try to get him better medical care in March.

"It's nice to get medicine three months after your diagnosis," he said wryly.

Kotchman, the Angels' starting first baseman, batted .421 in spring training but .152 through May 9, when the team put him on the disabled list. In the interim, he said, he received intravenous fluids three times a week and used a hyperbaric chamber in what he called "individual efforts to help myself, because I wasn't getting it here."

With the Colorado Rockies in the thick of the NL West race, Mark Knudson encourages the team to make a bold move:

If the Rockies want to separate from the pack in the NL West, there's a move out there that could not only push them in the right direction but allow them to stay the course in their overall building plan. The Florida Marlins are going to trade all-star lefthander Dontrelle Willis at some point this season. The Red Sox and Yankees are both after him, and it's likely he'll end up at one of those two places. Doesn't mean the Rockies couldn't join the bidding.

Yes, trading for pitchers hasn't necessarily worked out for the best here, but Willis could be different. He's not someone who relies on a breaking ball or off speed stuff, as Darryl Kile or Denny Neagle did, and he seems to have more on the ball than Mike Hampton. With Coors Field playing much more normally now, it seems like Willis would be worth the risk.

One problem, Willis never pitched at Coors, so his ability to perform there is an open question.

Jim Hendry unequivocally stated yesterday that Dusty Baker won't be fired.

'I've been hearing every time we lose a ballgame that Dusty is going to get fired,' Hendry said Saturday. 'People were reporting that he would be fired if we lost three to the White Sox, that he was going to get fired after the last Marlin game [Wednesday]. That is not going to happen.

'Dusty is going to get every opportunity to manage the club and get us out of this hole and get the opportunity to manage the club when it gets healthy here in the next couple of weeks.

'I'd like to put that speculation--that every time we lose a ballgame [his status is open to] public discussion every single day--to an end.'

Of course, if Hendry fires Baker and the team keeps losing, then you start to wonder if it's not the manager's fault. Maybe it's the GM who put the players on the field.

The bells were ringing for Jered Weaver last night as he earned his Angels wings with a 10-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. Weaver didn't allow a run in his seven innings of work. He threw strikes (64 of 97 pitches), walked one and struck out five. Allowing no runs is nothing new to Weaver:

When Weaver left Salt Lake, he had thrown 27 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings. If one counts his seven on Saturday, Weaver has now thrown 34 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings in professional baseball.

So now the question is, who loses the starting assignment when Bartolo Colon returns?

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Curt Schilling pitched seven good innings tonight, giving up four runs on eight hits. It was classic Curt as he struck out seven and walked none. Foulke and Papelbon finished off the Devil Rays with two perfect innings of relief.

Schilling's career got off to a slow start, as Curt won just 52 games in his first nine seasons. Since 1997, however, he ranks fifth in wins behind Johnson, Maddux, Martinez and Clemens. During that time, he's struck out over 9 per 9 innings, while walking less than two.

Congratulations to Curt Schilling on reaching the 200 win milestone!

Correction: He gave up four runs, not seven. He struck out seven.

It was a good day for the AL ERA leaders. Jose Contreras returned to form tonight, allowing just one run over seven innings, lowering his ERA to 1.83. Unfortunately, despite a blown save by B.J. Ryan the White Sox lost to the Blue Jays.

Meanwhile, in Detroit, Justin Verlander matched Contreras' night with a one run, seven inning outing, lowering his ERA 2.55 and moving past Mark Buehrle for second place in the AL. His outing was good enough for Detroit to take a 3-1 victory and extend their lead over the White Sox to 3 1/2 games.

The Arizona Diamondbacks shutout the Cincinnati Reds for the second night in a row. The Reds have not scored since the sixth inning on Wednesday, 21 straight. It's the sixth time the Reds suffered a shutout this season. Remember when they led the league in runs per game?

The Cubs scored one run today as they lost to Atlanta 2-1. It was the 15th time this season the Cubs were held to one run or less. That's the most in the majors; Kansas City and Seattle are tied for second with 11 each. The Cubs lost all 15 games (no real suprise there). The Tigers have been held to 1 run or less four times and are 2-2 in those games, the only team with a .500 record in the majors.

Tom Glavine draws a walk in the top of the sixth after striking out twice. That means he's been on base more than the Marlins today. The first 15 Florida batters went down, six of them by strikes. The most impressive thing about Tom's season is his strikeout rate. For his career, it's 5.4 per 9; this year it's 7.3.

Update: Abercrombie pulls the ball to left for a double leading off the sixth. There goes the no-no.

Update: Treanor singles in Abercrombie to cut the Mets lead to 3-1. Helms pinch hits for Willis. Dontrelle allowed three runs through six and threw 109 pitches.

The CBSSportsLine Box reports that Jeff Kent left the Dodgers/Nationals game early with a hand injury. I'm seeng the Mets game, so if you saw the injury, I'd appreciate you leaving a comment with a description.

Jose Guillen landed on the DL today with a bad left hamstring.

Curt Schilling goes for his 200th win tonight against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Schilling has a pretty good shot at the win tonight. In his career against the Devil Rays he's 5-2 with a 3.89 ERA. He's averaging 8 K per 9 with 1.5 BB per 9. He'll face Seth McClung, who's allowed a .380 OBA this season. That's playing into a Boston strength.

Sidney Ponson returns to the mound for the Cardinals this afternoon as he takes on Chan Ho Park of the Padres. Ponson is pitching well after a tumultuous year in Baltimore. He last pitched on May 7th but left after three innings with a muscle strain in his pitching elbow. We'll see how that holds up today. Park pitches much better at PETCO. His 2.97 ERA at home goes to an evil 6.66 on the road.

Enjoy!

Matt Resell at Unrestricted View doesn't like fans voting for the All-Star Game especially now that the game means something:

For years I've been complaining about letting fans vote on the All Star Game. Every year it's a popularity contest. Guys worthy of the honor get shafted and big names who have been hurt all year, ie Nomar Garciaparra, take their place instead. I understand that it's supposed to be an exhibition game for the fans, so why not let the fans decide who particpates. It makes sense. But when The Commish made the insane decision to actually base home field advantage for the World Series on the outcome, the term exhibition became a misnomer.

Bill James once quoted Robin Yount on this subject. Yount was asked who should vote for the team, the players or the fans. He said it depended on who the the game was for. Clearly, it's no longer just a game for the fans.

Matt wants to send a message by having people vote for Neifi Perez and Juan Castro:

How do we do this? Simple. The blogosphere is interconnected and has alot of readers. By getting the word out to all the blog readers to vote for a specific, drastically unworthy player into the All Star Game it should be absolutely clear to the league how bad of an idea it is to let fans vote for the participants of such a meaning full game.

Of course, all this shows is that someone can organize a campaign to get a particular player elected, and that's been going on for years.

Why not do something more constructive, like suggesting a better voting system? When you have a flawed voting system like the all-star ballot, you get flawed results. Change the system to something similar to the MVP ballots, where players are ranked. A consensus second choice is likely to be the best players, especially in a system where fans will vote for their home team players ahead of the best players. The best will often get the second place vote across all ballots, and win in the end.

Second, include the players. Let players vote for fellow league members (again, using a ranking system), and average those results 50/50 with the fan results. Then everyone has a voice, and the voting system corrects for cities with big attendance.

The Indians pitching and defensive flaws were evident last night:

Most tellingly, the Indians could not — or at least did not — stop a randomly rolling ball in the seventh inning. Afterward, manager Eric Wedge looked a little like the afternoon storm clouds, with just a bit more restraint.

"I don’t care if it’s a meaningless game or the seventh game of the World Series," he said. "You play one way, and that’s the way you play every day."

The primary sources of his frustration were starting pitcher Jake Westbrook, who allowed three walks in the game-turning sixth inning, and infielders Jhonny Peralta and Ronnie Belliard, whose lax play in the seventh allowed the final run to score.

It's looking like the defense is the problem for Cleveland. The Hardball Times graph of defense vs. pitching shows that the Indians pitchers are doing a very good job. The difference between this year and last year is that the dot was in the upper right quadrant, the best place to be. If the Indians start fielding the ball as they did last year, the pitchers should see a good drop in their runs allowed.

The Royals broke their 13-game losing streak last night in an unlikely way, playing in New York against the Yankees with Mike Mussina on the mound. The Royals got to Mussina for three runs, then to the bullpen for four more. And it almost wasn't enough:

Ex-Royal Terrence Long opened the New York ninth with a pinch-hit single. Nelson retired Johnny Damon on a fly to right but walked Derek Jeter.

Gary Sheffield then lined an RBI single into center that eluded a diving attempt by Esteban German. Long scored easily, and Jeter raced to third.

Manager Buddy Bell called on Andrew Sisco at that point for a lefty-lefty matchup against Jason Giambi.

And, finally, fortune smiled.

Giambi grounded into a game-ending double play.

“We haven’t gotten a double play in that kind of situation ever,” Bell said. “That’s how it seems, anyway.”

Note to Bell, you're supposed to acentuate the positive. Talk about how this is a win you can build on and such. Don't tell everyone your team stinks, they already know that.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

With men on 2nd and 3rd and none out, Bonds is intentionally walked.

Update: Durham makes them pay with a hit that drives in two.

The initial report on David Wells is pretty good.

The 43-year-old left-hander, activated before the game after being on the disabled list since April 14 with a sprained right knee, was hit on that knee by Travis Lee's liner in the fifth inning. He winced in pain, fell to the ground and was helped off the field.

But an examination showed only a deep bruise with "no immediate evidence of a serious injury," Red Sox medical director Dr. Thomas Gill said. Wells was to be checked further on Saturday.

The Rockies, trailing 2-0 pitch to Bonds with a runner on second and one out. Francis throws a pitch outside, then comes low and in for a swinging strike. He gets the third pitch under his belt inside and Bonds fouls it off for a 1-2 count. Francis goes away again for ball 2. Another low inside pitch in the strike zone, and Barry fouls it off. Bonds then grounds out to the first baseman 3-1, advancing Vizquel to third.

Nice to see a team challenge Bonds in that situation. He's just not that scary anymore.

Livan Hernandez makes it three good starts in a row as the Nationals defeat the Dodgers 10-4. Hernandez pitched seven innings for the third straight start. He's 2-1 with a 2.57 ERA in that stretch. Tonight was the first time this season he didn't walk a batter.

Soriano keeps pace with Morgan Ensberg as Alfonso hits his 17th home run, and the two remained tied for second place in the National League behind Pujols.

The Tigers extended their winning streak to seven games tonight with an 8-3 win over the Cleveland Indians. The White Sox also lost, so they extend their lead to 2 1/2 games in the AL Central. Granderson was the hitting star tonight, driving in five runs with a two-run single and a three-run triple.

The Indians lost a golden opportunity to gain on the division leaders. The team did a good job of putting the ball in play, with 29 of 33 batters making fair contact. But only seven of those batted balls fell for hits, a .241 average. Cleveland came into the game with a .336 BA on balls in play, the best in the American League.

Jeff Francis starts Barry off with a big, slow sweeping curve that doesn't break enough and hits Barry in the back of the leg. Durham drives in Vizquel with a double and the Giants lead the Rockies 1-0.

It's not often that Pedro Martinez makes a start against a pitcher with a lower ERA. Josh Johnson didn't have many innings pitched, but he did have a 2.62 ERA coming into tonight's game. Tonight, the lower ERA pitched the better game. Martinez and Johnson both pitched great over seven innings, Pedro striking out 10 and walking none. But he did give up five hits and two runs, one unearned, one on an Olivo homer. Josh, however, allowed just two hits and one unearned run while striking out eight himself.

In the bottom of the eighth, Hanley Ramirez sacrifices and reaches on an error. He then scores from first on a hit up the middle that hits the corner of second base and takes a funny bounce into left center. The Marlins score again and are now up 5-1 in the 8th.

Eric Milton pitches his best game since August 1, 2002 and is in line for the loss. Over eight innings, he allowed just three hits while walking none and striking out nine. He left down 1-0, but Coffey gave up a two run shot to Shawn Green to make a no decision less likely. (His game on 8/27/2005 was also very good, but he walked one and gave up a homer. He also got a no decision in that one.)

Brandon Webb was just a bit better, allowing no runs so far. He's thrown just 95 pitches, so my guess is with a 3-0 lead he'll be out for the ninth.

Update: Webb gives up a single but no runs for his second consecutive shutout. That's 18 consecutive scoreless innings for the Arizona ace.

David Wells stint off the DL didn't last long. In the top of the fifth, Travis Lee lines a ball off Wells' right knee, and Wells goes down hard. He has to be helped off the field. He was pitching very well tonight, although losing 1-0 on a Carl Crawford home run. It the same knee that put him on the disabled list. We might have seen the last of Boomer tonight.

Troy Glaus made his first major league start at shortstop tonight as Gibbons decide to go with more offense against Freddy Garcia:

Toronto manager John Gibbons wanted more offense against Chicago White Sox starter Freddy Garcia, and he didn't think his third baseman would see many ground balls with fly ball pitcher Ted Lilly starting for Toronto.

A good use of statistics there. Glaus at shortstop makes the defense weaker, but it's a weakness that's being covered by the pitcher. So far it's working as the Jays are up 4-1 in the fifth and Glaus is two for three with his fourteenth homer.

The Mets are not done trading pitchers. Jermi Gonzalez is sent packing to the Brewers for Mike Adams. It seems to be a trade where each team gets rid of someone who isn't doing well.

Meanwhile, for the second time in a month, Cody Ross is traded for an undetermined player, this time to the Marlins.

Ryan Dempster comes on with a 5-3 lead in the 9th and the first four batters reach as Dempster walks in a run. He's now facing the heart of the order with the bases loaded and none out.

Update: Dempster strikes out Chipper Jones for the first out. Now he faces Andruw.

Update: Andruw Jones lifts a ball to the warning track in right for a sacrifice fly to tie the game. The throw in to Neifi Perez by Jacque Jones is a little high, but Neifi bobbles the catch, then throws the ball over the catcher's head. Another run scores, and the Braves take a 6-5 lead. Perez is charged with two errors on the play, and the boos are out in force at Wrigley.

Like I've said before, it's King Lear.

Update: Len Kasper just confirms my Lear theory. He just said he thought the Cubs hit rock bottom a week ago. The Cubs lose 6-5 as Ken Ray gets the side in the order in the ninth, and the fans are booing loudly. Something's got to give in Chicago.

Mark Prior hits rehab next week on his way back to the Cubs. Which brings up the question, how well do the Cubs need to pitch to win?

With five runs today, the Cubs have 172 runs in 47 games. That's 3.66 runs per game. To put up a .590 winning percentage with that low level of scoring the pitching and defense would have to limit the opposition to 3.05 runs per game. Since they're at 5.02 right now, I don't think Prior is capable of making a two run dent in the staff.

And with Tony Womack in the fold, the offense isn't getting any better.

A great post on pattern recognition and Ken Macha at Catfish Stew:

Sometimes Ken Macha drives me nuts, and sometimes it's because I think he's making an irrational decision, but I think the ones that drive me the most nuts are the ones that seem too rational. It's like Macha won't trust his pattern recognition tools at all, and requires rational, empirical proof that X is Y before he'll act on it.

Barrett and Pierzynski come up in this post, and A.J. made it into a my thoughts on pattern recognition last October.

Dodger Thoughts thinks about the Angels and notes in an update that the younger Weaver brother will pitch Saturday. It's too bad that Jered isn't replacing Jeff.

Mike Maroth goes on the disabled list with a sore elbow. The Tigers staff stayed pretty healthy to this point. Maroth was pitching well until his last start where the injury took it's toll. They'll have to make due with out him for three starts.

Carlos Zambrano started wild, but the Braves have zero hits through five innings. The Cubs are leading 2-1 due to four walks in the first inning by Zambrano. With the bases loaded and two outs, somehow Zambrano walked Jeff Francoeur! It was only Jeff's third walk of the season.

Update: Zambrano issues his sixth walk of the game, but still doesn't allow a hit in the sixth.

Update: Freddie Bynum hits his second home run of the season to make the score 4-1 and give Carlos a much better chance of winning the game. Bynum only has 9 hits on the season in 40 at bats, but four of them are for extra bases. His other two are both triples.

Update: Aramis Ramirez just made the play of the game. Pratt hits a ball down the third base line. Ramirez dives, stops the ball, gets to his feet and throw Pratt out by a step. A great stop and a great throw to preserve the no-hitter.

Update: Jacque Jones loses a long fly ball to right in the sun and it falls for a double. The no-hitter is over on a catchable ball.

It's probably a good thing. Zambrano is over 120 pitches and probably needs to come out.

Update: Giles dumps one down the line in right for the first legitimate hit of the game. That's it for Zambrano as Howry comes on in relief. It's 4-2 Cubs.

Deadspin has video of Bronson Arroyo's car commerical. I nearly fell off my chair laughing.

Jorge Posada torn a knee tendon, but it's not one that's really needed:

Working in the Yankees' favor is the tendon isn't a big part of the knee's function.

"It's the one they use for transplants," Cashman said. "It's one you don't need. It's an unusual injury."

Still, it bothered Posada enough that he missed Wednesday night's 8-6 win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Always one of the game's tough guys, it had to be a problem for Posada to miss a Yankees-Red Sox tilt.

Sounds like if it keeps bothering him they can just remove it rather than repair it.

The suspensions and fines came down today in last weekend's brawl in Chicago. Barrett got the most, ten games. I assume it will be appealed.

David Wells returns from the disable list tonight. He gets a tough assignment, as he faces Scott Kazmir and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Kazmir is pitching great in May, posting a 4-0 record and an 0.65 ERA. His walks are under control. He gave out 15 free passes in April, just six so far in May. He's yet to allow a homer this month, after giving up six in April. With a win tonight and another start on Wednesday, Kazmir could go 6-0 in May.

The Indians find themselves 9 1/2 games out of first place as they start a seven-game stretch against the Tigers and White Sox. It's a chance for the Indians to gain a lot of ground or be buried in the division. They'll send Jake Westbrook to the mound in Detroit against Nate Robertson. Both hold 4-2 records; Robertson is giving up fewer hits per 9 innings, while Westbrook gives up fewer walks and so far that's giving Robertson a better ERA. The location favors Robertson, too, as he's pitching well at home but Westbrook struggles on the road.

If you're interested in the future stars of pitching, Seattle at Minnesota offers Felix Hernandez vs. Francisco Liriano. Liriano pitched well last time in his first start of the year, striking out 5 and allowing just two hits in five innings. Hernandez, despite a high ERA, is still blowing away batters. But when they make contact, the balls are falling for hits. He's given up 61 hits in 49 1/3 innings in 2006; that's how many he allowed in 84 1/3 innings last year. On top of that, nine have gone for home runs, while just five left the park in 2005.

In San Francisco, Barry Bonds gets challenged by one of Colorado's Cy Young candidates, Jeff Francis. He's posting a road ERA of 2.81 and a May ERA of 1.63. This will be his first time facing Barry. Jason Schmidt takes the mound for the Giants. He's 5-2 with a 2.24 ERA against the Rockies at AT&T Park.

Enjoy!

The latest on Roger Clemens:

Clemens is supposed to make his decision the first week of June after completing a three-week at-home training regimen to determine how close he is to returning to game action.

Clemens's agent, Randy Hendricks, confirmed the Rocket is in ``Week 2 of an intense, three-week workout period. So far, so good."

When told someone close to the talks is saying it's between Boston and Houston, Hendricks replied, ``I think someone is guessing. We have not told anyone that they are out. I do think he is leaning towards playing if he makes it through all of his workouts."

My speculation is that Roger wants one more World Championship. He probably figures he's good for five months, which will get him through the playoffs. The team in the best position to win on June 1 is going to have a big advantage in securing Roger. And although fans of the other New York team might not like Clemens, I wouldn't count out the Mets given their rotation problems.

Update Dan Lewis wrote about Roger going to the Mets two months ago.

U.S.S. Mariner likes Albert Pujols breaking the single season home run record. He believes there will be pressure not to intentionally walk the St. Louis slugger:

Every manager who faces the decision on whether or not to walk a hitter has to decide whether that’s the best move. If they’re facing a player involved in the home run chase at home, they have to make an additional consideration: how pissed are these fans going to be if I don’t pitch to this guy, and does that mean the owner’s going to be chewing on my butt before tomorrow’s game?

That pressure will be much greater for Pujols. People believe he’s clean. They like him. They don’t like Bonds. He’s tainted, and as long as he holds the record, the record is tainted. When Pujols threatens 73, they will yearn for his success, even at the expense of their own team, because if the record is held by a clean player, the record’s redeemed, and baseball will have in a symbolic way closed the book on the steroid era.

The intentional walks to Bonds didn't start coming in droves until the 2002 season. With that policy established for extreme sluggers, we should be seeing more issued to Pujols as the season progresses. If not, DMZ's hypothesis will look correct.

Hat tip Baseball Primer Newsblog.

Via Baseball Primer Newsblog, Dejan Kovacevic wants to know why the Pirates don't give the starting third base job to Freddy Sanchez? Littlefield keeps saying Randa starts once he's healthy. Not even Randa agrees with that:

When it was mentioned to Randa this week that the Pirates say he will reclaim third base once healthy, he quickly retorted: "Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that. I don't know how this is going to play out, but Pittsburgh has to be just ecstatic with what Freddy's doing."

Randa, hitting .221 before his injury, pointed to the team's 14-33 record as a possible sign that management could wind up discarding veterans or reducing their roles.

Maybe Randa has more sense than the Pirates front office. Look what happened to the one person who thought Sanchez could do the job:

The subject was third base.

Was there anyone good enough in house?

Should they trade?

Try free agency?

One member of management spoke up in favor of the player who batted .291, second best on the team, and flashed a fine glove in his first full season of Major League Baseball.

"My vote was for Freddy Sanchez," that official, now employed elsewhere, recalled recently. "He hits for contact, catches everything. Great attitude, too. I told them: You could win with Freddy Sanchez as your everyday third baseman."

Employed elsewhere. If Mark Cuban buys the team, find out the name of this source and hire him back.

Bobby Abreu won't mind batting leadoff if the Phillies make the request:

"Anything that's better for the team. Anything to win games," Abreu said.

Why the change?

In Abreu's eyes, until this season the Phillies lacked enough RBI production to take his bat out of the middle of the lineup. He has averaged just over 100 RBI the last five seasons. His bat made him an All-Star the past two seasons.

However, with Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Pat Burrell and Aaron Rowand lined up behind him, Abreu considers the Phillies potent enough now.

"It's different," he said. "Now, we've got guys who can drive in runs."

It's the right move. Rollins at .304 is just making too many out in front of the good hitters. Abreu's slugging percentage is the lowest among the sluggers on the team, making him better in front that behind that group. The Lineup Analysis tool agrees that Abreu should be at the top as well.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

In the second big comeback of the day, the Texas Rangers were down 7-0 after five, but five home runs bring the Rangers back for an 8-7 victory over the Athletics and two more days in first place. Ian Kinsler came off the DL today and hit two of those five homers. Nevin finished the win with a two-out solo home run with two out in the bottom of the ninth.

Calero and Street pitched the last two innings, and gave up just two hits. Unfortunately, they were the game tying homer by Kinsler and the game winner by Nevin. The Texas pen, on the other hand, was nearly perfect, giving up just one hit and one walk in four innings of work. The A's once played in Kansas City, and today their pens were linked by ineptitude.

While we're on the subject of closers, Jonathan Papelbon picked up his 16th in 16 tries as the Red Sox defeat the Devil Rays 4-1. Jon's ERA is now a ridiculously low 0.34 and his opposition BA is just .143. He's only walked three men in 24 2/3 innings. If this keeps up, he'll be challenging Eckersley's great seasons.

Chris Ray continues to be a fitting replacement for B.J. Ryan. He recorded a five out save today, giving him an even dozen in twelve opportunities. He struck out two more to run his total to 22 in 19 1/3 innings, and 65 in 60 innings for his career. He did not allow a hit today and only 10 all season. The Orioles just need to present him with more chances to close games out.

The New York Mets picked up Dave Williams off the scrap heap today, sending minor league pitcher Robert Manuel to the Reds. The Reds were in the process of releasing Williams, so I guess the Mets didn't want him to get away.

Williams big problem with the Reds was nine homers allowed in 40 innings pitched. He gave up 20 last year for the Pirates in almost 140 innings. I'd like to say it was the move to Great American Ballpark, but seven of the nine against Williams came on the road. His overall road numbers with the Reds were awful, so that doesn't give me much hope that he'll be any good for New York.

Update: MetsBlog.com heard an interview with Minaya on the subject and recalls the salient points.

The Phillies are facing a very good problem. Shane Victorino is playing lights out while Aaron Roward is recovering from his broken nose. He's creating about two more runs per 27 outs than Aaron did, and his defense in center is very good. When Rowand comes back, does Victorino become trade bait for a pitcher? Or do you keep him around, spelling Abreu and Burrell defensively and filling in when someone's injured? He reached base twice in five tries today, keeping his OBA at .400. At age 26, he's at the peak of his abilities. He seems he would be valuable to someone in a starting role.

There are so many interesting stories in today's Tigers/Royals game, I'm not sure where to start. As Julie Andrews once sang:

Let's start at the very beginning
A very good place to start

Mike Maroth did a good job keeping the ball in the park this year, but not today. After a single and a popout to start the first, the next five batters belted out two doubles followed by three home runs. Giving up back-to-back homers is bad, giving up three in a row is worse, but giving up three in a row to the Royals is awful. The three players going deep had combined for four homers on the season coming into today, and that included none from Mientkiewicz. So Maroth left the game at that point with his team in a 6-0 hole and his ERA up by over a run.

The Tigers bullpen took over and pitched great. Roman Colon took the long roll and gave Detroit 5 1/3 solid innings, giving up two runs. Meanwhile, the Tigers worked their way back with five runs through the fourth. KC leads 8-5 in the top of the eighth when things start going wrong.

Bautista left in the fourth, allowing the five runs to that point. Bobby Keppel pitched well in relief, striking out 4 and walking one in 3 1/3 innings. But when he allowed a single to the leadoff hitter in the eighth, he was out. He had only thrown 43 pitches, but it was his major league debut, and I guess Bell either didn't trust him enough or wanted him to get the win, but he brought in Burgos. Then Dessens who finished the eighth. By that time three runs had scored. The game is tied at eight.

The Royals don't score in the bottom of the inning, and Dessens starts the ninth. With one out he gives up back-to-back homers to Monroe and Thames. Then two singles. Then Sisco pitches and three more runs score. The comeback is complete and the Tigers win 13-8.

It really came down to the bullpens. The Tigers went 8 2/3 innings, allowing 2 runs on 8 hits and five walks. Not stellar, but good enough. The Royals needed to get 16 outs. They did, but eight runs crossed the plate attributed to them. Both the Royals starters and relievers now have ERAs over six; the bullpen 6.12, the starters 6.10. At least they're consistent.

So the game had everything; some good pitching, some bad pitching, eight home runs, walks, strikeouts, even a triple by a catcher. Everything's going right for the Tigers, everything's going wrong for the Royals. Just a typical afternoon at the ballpark. :-)

The Houston Astros pounded out 12 hits, drew seven walks and stole seven bases against the Washington Nationals this afternoon and lost by a score of 8-5. They averaged two men on base an inning, advanced people with the steals and four doubles, and only managed to score five runs. The team was 6 for 21 with runners in scoring position, which is a .285 batting average. (They came into the game with a .252 RISP average). Simply by having the bases full so much, you'd think they'd score more runs.

Beyond the Boxscore does an in depth job of explaining why Casey Blake won't finish where he's starting. Marc sees a lot of small sample size luck issues involved in the fast start. I tend to agree with this, especially when I read what the manager is saying:

There is no easy way to explain the transformation of a player who was barely a blip on the big-league radar screen into someone who ranks near the top of the list in hitting.

"It's a long year," said manager Eric Wedge, speaking to reporters who might have a tendency to get carried away.

"Casey has settled in up here," Wedge added. "He's done everything we've asked him to do, and he's really come into his own as an offensive player."

If Wedge said something like, "The hitting coach made an adjustment and it's working really well for Casey," I'd put more credence into the transformation being real. Blake is old, his major league career isn't that impressive and he's only had 158 at bats.

Two big howevers, however. One is that Blakes current batting is highly unlikely given his career performance. The probability of a .263 hitter getting at least 56 hits in 158 at bats is .004. The 95% confidence range is 31 to 52 hits. That's enough to make me wonder if there isn't a real improvement here. He's hitting a lot more line drives, and Blake himself provides an explanation. From the above story:

"In another year, if I was scuffling and had a game like (Tuesday) night," Blake began, "I'm not saying I would have been in panic mode, but I would be kind of unsure of myself.

"Yet I came in here today and still had confidence in my approach. Just confidence is a good explanation (of his hot start). It's the difference between having success early and digging yourself a hole."

And from an earlier one:

Blake says he made a conscious effort to relax and forget about his troubles during the offseason.

I'm not a competent athlete. It took me many years to realize why, however. I'm not a relaxed person. If I'm playing a sport that requires swinging an object, I grip too hard and bad results ensue. Could it be that Blake finally learned to relax, and that relaxation led to better mechanics and more line drives? If that's the case, and he continues to be able to let his bad nights go, we might see a very impressive season.

The Kansas City Royals trot out a starter with a good ERA today as Denny Bautista hosts Mike Maroth. Bautista is looking for his first win. He's done a good job of keeping the ball in the park this year, allowing just one home run in 24 innings. He also pitches well against left-handers, allowing just a .292 OBA and a .341 slugging percentage so far. Maroth lost 21 games in 2003. Since then he's cut down on his ERA and his winning percentage is on the rise. The main difference between now and that disastrous season is his home run rate. In 2003, he allowed 1.58 home runs per nine innings. That's down to 0.94.

The Athletics and Rangers battle for first place in the tight AL West. No team is playing that well out there, so if a club can get on a hot streak, they could open a big lead in the division. Brad Halsey faces Kevin Millwood. Halsey's struggled as a starter, allowing all five of his home runs in that role. Kevin been mostly very good. Of his ten starts, seven were exactly what one would expect from the ERA champion. But the other three were so bad that his ERA sits at 4.26. Still, with the potential of the Texas offense, the should win Millwood quite a few games.

Enjoy!

Seventy one years ago today Babe Ruth hit the final three home runs of his major league career.

No.714 was the first to travel over the mammoth right-field roof at then 26-year-old Forbes Field, a feat only nine other men achieved before the ballpark closed in 1970. The prodigious drive was estimated at more than 500 feet, a Ruthian shot indeed.

"Boy, that last one felt good," Ruth told Pirates rookie Mace Brown, the pitcher related in a 1995 interview with the Associated Press. When Ruth left the game, he plopped down on the Pirates bench beside Brown, since all visiting players exited the field through the home dugout.

Bonds won't get the chance to pass the Babe today as the Giants have the day off.

Last night's loss to the Devil Rays prompted changes at the Blue Jays. Russ Adams and Josh Towers were both sent to AAA. Towers because he can't pitch, Adams because he can't play shortstop. Adams will spend time relearning second base while Hill is moved to the left side of the infield. As Richard Griffin pointed out, this could have been done in spring training.

Hey, the fact that Adams became the Jays' shortstop and Hill the second baseman was merely an accident of birth. Adams, Ricciardi's first No. 1 draft pick in June '02, is a year older than Hill, who is Ricciardi's second No. 1 draft pick, in June '03.

Both players came out of college touted as shortstops, but the fact is Adams reached the majors first, by a year, and therefore had squatters' rights. The Jays should have corrected the mistake at spring training.

If you look back, baseball magazines were predicting that Adams might have to end up at second or third base.

"I'll do what the Jay organization asks me to," Adams said, referring to the potential for a change of position. "I'll get work in there and I'll get back up here. It's obviously a wakeup call."

The Jays are just two games back of the Red Sox, and the offense is rolling along. If this moves results in better defense up the middle, that will help the Jays pitching staff, which was built to be the dominant half of this team.

Melky Cabrera is playing decent baseball. He's shown no power yet, but his OBA after thirteen games this season is very good, .413. So I have to ask, were the Yankees too impatient with the youngster? Before it looked like the Yankees could sign Damon, I thought a Crosby bridge to Cabrera would work fine. It turns out Melky was ready to make that bridge very short. The Yankees could have saved a lot of money and made themselves younger.

It's going to work out anyway. Melky got a little more AAA seasoning, and he's not under pressure since he's coming in as an injury replacement, not as the next Bernie Williams. Eventually, you'll see an outfield of Cabrera, Damon and Sheffield, or Sheffield will move to DH and Bernie will be out. It seems reports of the demise of the Yankees offense were a bit premature. And a poor farm system will have produced two pretty decent hitters in consecutive years.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Jason Bay is on quite the home run tear. In his last seven games he's hit seven dingers, including two multi-homer games. He's also driven in fourteen runs.

Unfortunately, his power surge hasn't done much to help the Pirates win. They're 1-6 after falling short in an 8-7 loss to the Diamondbacks tonight. The Pirates scored 33 runs in that stretch, meaning Bay's driven in 42% of the team's runs scored. With a little help from his friends, they might have turned four one-run losses into one-runs wins.

If you missed tonight's show, you can hear the recorded version here. It's also available on demand at TPSRadio.

Earlier I noted some good hitting by the Cardinals pitching staff today. It got better as Looper hit a double. The pitcher (and Marquis as a pinch hitter) just missed the cycle by a single.

Randy Johnson gives up three hits around a strikeout to David Ortiz, the last a two-run homer by Ramirez into the Charles River. Only a good throw by Long kept the inning from getting out of hand as Loretta was throw out at second on a wall ball. The balls that the Red Sox batters hit stayed up. There's little vertical movement to Randy's pitches. He just walked Varitek with two out.

The Baseball Musings Radio Show is coming up in a little while at 8 PM EDT. You can leave questions during the show in the TPSRadio Chat Room.

The Mets trade Jorge Julio for Orlando Hernandez straight up. Hernandez didn't fit in with the Diamondbacks as he had an 8.16 ERA at Chase Field but a 2.65 ERA away from there. Shea should be a much better park for him. Julio was having a good May after a horrible April. For his career he has excellent strikeout and walk numbers. This could turn out to be very good for both clubs. I'd much rather have Hernandez starting than Lima.

Thanks to RYANOTRD for the heads up!

Jason Marquis tripled earlier as a pinch hitter. Adam Wainwright was allowed to hit for himself and smacked a home run! La Russa is using multiple relievers today as Chris Carpenter went down with a swollen back. The pitchers have the tough half of the cycle, and the Cards lead 5-4 in the seventh inning.

The Texas Rangers out-hit the Angels 10-9, knocking out 8 long hits to LAnaheims' 2. But the Angles came out on top in the game 8-5. It's pretty rare to have at least 8 extra-base hits and only score five runs. It happens in about 2% of the games in which a team gets 8 or more EXBH.

The Cubs lost to the Marlins today by a score of 9-3. They get swept in a three game series by a combined score of 23-8. Four of the Marlins 14 wins this season came against the Cubs. The Marlins score 4.5 runs per game, but their average margin of victory in this series was bigger than that.

Something has to give with the Cubs soon.

The Cardinals just used Jason Marquis as a pinch hitter, and he hit a triple. It's the second triple of his career and the third extra-base hit of the year for the pitcher. For his career, he's 5 for 13 with a walks as a pinch hitter, although this was his first long hit.

C.C. Sabathia and Brad Radke threw about the same number of pitches for about the same strike percentage. The difference was Milliliter did it over nine innings and only allowed six hits while striking out eight. Sabathia fooled hitters with his pitches, while Cleveland hitters just kept putting them in play and finding holes. C.C. picks up the third shutout of his career and lowers his ERA to 1.52. He's still a couple of starts away from qualifying for the ERA title.

The Indians offense gave him plenty of support today, knocking out 15 hits. Everyone had a hit, and five players had multi-hit games, including a two homer day by Casey Blake. The rightfielder raises his slugging percentage to .614.

Barry Bonds is not in the starting lineup for the Giants today.

Looking at Brad Radke's pitching line today, the first thing I notice is that the guy is throwing strikes. Sixty-eight of one hundred went for strikes today. That's great! But the results aren't. Eleven hits in 5 2/3 innings, 9 singles, six runs, all earned. If you're going to throw strikes that don't fool batters, it may be time to hang up the spikes.

Here's a scary article on a disease that forced Billy Koch out of baseball. The Sci-Fi geek in me says it sounds like people are mutating into spiders.

(Hat Tip, Rachel)

The Florida Marlins got to Greg Maddux in the fifth inning. Maddux got the first two outs, but since then there's been a single, triple, double, IBB and home run. The Marlins score five in the fifth and take a 6-3 lead on the Cubs.

The Cubs are starting to remind me of King Lear. Just when you think it can't get worse, it does.

Update: Maddux is very upset in the dugout. He took a baseball bat to the big insulated water jug.

The Baseball Musings radio show will be on TPSRadio tonight at 8 PM EDT. Check out their other sports programming as well.

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Chris Carpener and Noah Lowry face off this afternoon in San Francisco as one tries to stop Barry Bonds and the other Albert Pujols. Bonds has one home run against Carpenter in six at bats. Pujols is 0 for 3 against Lowry. Carpenter is coming off his worse start of the year in which he allowed six runs to the Royals. Lowry is coming off his best start. Ironically Carpenter got the win in his game, Lowry the 1-0 loss.

It's a night for rising stars in New York as Cole Hamels takes on Alay Soler, who is making his major league debut (the article says Lieber is pitching tonight, and so does MLB.com). Soler's been eclipsing both left and righties so far this year. If Hamels pitches, he should benefit from a stadium that favors a high strikeout pitcher.

Update: Hamels hurt his shoulder last night playing long toss.

There's lots of good matchups involving the west coast teams tonight, the best being the battle of the Aarons as Cook faces Sele. Right now, the Cy Young race looks like a battle between Aaron Cook and his teammate Jeff Francis. Cook's ERA is 3.28 and Francis is even better at 3.07. Fantastic numbers for Rockies pitchers.

Enjoy!

I've noted before how the Arizona lineup is well balanced. Almost everyone has above average OBA and slugging percentages, with no on player being real outstanding. This article notes another piece of evidence toward that theory:

Estrada, who moved up a spot in the order and hit sixth for just the second time this year, took over the team lead with 31 RBIs. Jackson moved into a tie with Chad Tracy for second with 29.

The run production has been spread evenly throughout the lineup, with the Diamondbacks getting at least 20 RBIs from every spot in the order, including the pitcher's spot, split between hurlers and pinch-hitters.

The team doesn't have a superstar, but they don't have any bad players, either.

Last night Jaret Wright left his start early. It turns out it was an injury.

Turns out, Wright's ribs were not a problem. His groin, however, could be another story. Wright came out of his start last night after throwing five scoreless innings because he tweaked his groin in both the fourth and fifth.

Wright is expected to make his next scheduled start Sunday against Kansas City, Joe Torre said, and Wright downplayed questions about the injury afterward. But it's certainly enough to cause concern in Yankeeland, especially because Wright is perhaps more important than ever because Carl Pavano is scheduled for surgery, Shawn Chacon is on the disabled list and Aaron Small has struggled.

"I'm really not concerned at all," Wright said. "I just tweaked it twice. I definitely wanted to go back out there, but it was probably the smart thing to do to come out."

Probably. I believe three tweaks equals a pull.

Coco Crisp is due back Monday. Coco last played on April 8th. Centerfield hasn't been strong offensively for the Red Sox since. From 4/9 on, Red Sox centerfielders are hitting .270 with a .318 OBA and a .369 slugging percentage. The big question is what happens to Youkilis, who's proven himself an adept leadoff hitter, putting up a .429 OBA in the #1 slot. I would guess Loretta gets moved down to the bottom of the order with Coco and Kevin batting 1 and 2.

Ramon Hernandez and Corey Patterson led the Orioles in a 14-run outburst against the Seattle Mariners. Hernandez drove in seven runs with a three-run homer and a grand slam. Patterson seems to have found his groove after a slow start:

Patterson's two doubles and a long home run in the fifth inning all came off Pineiro (4-5), who allowed 10 hits and five earned runs in another poor outing. Pineiro has allowed at least five earned runs in each of his last three starts and five times overall.

Patterson is hitting .344 (33-for-96) since going 1-for-15 to begin the season.

On top of everything, Patterson is 15 for 16 in stealing bases. Despite having a number of sub-par OBA hitters in their lineup, the Orioles are scoring a lot of runs on the strength of their good players. They need to reduce their 5.59 ERA to win; in other words, they need Mazzone to do his job.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Madson goes one batter too long. Carlos Beltran belts a homer leading off the 16th to give the Mets a 9-8 victory in a game that went 5 1/2 hours.

Finley walks to start the ninth.

Bonds fouls a high outside pitch for strike one. Bonds then pulls the ball to the second baseman on the rightfield grass for a groundout.

Ryan Madson is having his best start of the year tonight. He started the ninth inning, however. He's now gone seven scoreless innings, giving up no runs, three hits and four walks while striking out six. He's event gotten two at bats! If he had pitched like that while he was a starter, Cole Hamels might still be in the minors. They're going to the top of the 16th at Shea.

With Rollins on second and Utley on first with one out, Abreu lines one up the middle. It looks like a sure hit (even the announcer called it one), Rollins takes off, but Reyes spears the ball and doubles Rollins off second. They're going to the bottom of the inning in New York still tied at 8.

Marquis starts Barry off with a pitch in the dirt. Not surprisingly, Barry doesn't swing. He does at a low inside pitch and fouls it off to even the count. Jason just misses the inside corner with ball 2. He then hits a high pitch over the plate a mile in the air for a fly out to right center. He's 1 for 3 tonight with a single.

The Indians and Twins went into extra-innings tonight with Minnesota scoring in the bottom of the tenth to win the game. The game came down to the relievers as both starters allowed five runs, but the staters did make a difference. Santana went seven innings to Lee's five, allowing the best of the Twins bullpen to shut down the Indians. Rincon and Nathan faced just ten batters, striking out six and allowing just one hit. The Indians had to go four deep, and the Twins finally got to Mota with a walk, a single and a sac fly. The two pens combined for 7 2/3 innings of one run ball, 11 strikeouts, 2 walks and 2 hits.

The Phillies and Mets are tied at 8 in the 11th inning. Beltran walks leading off the bottom of the 11th, and tries to advance when a pitch gets by Fasano. But Sal throws to second, Carlos beats the throw but over-slides the bag and is called out. Wright later singles which might have driven in Beltran.

Once again, Marquis starts Bonds off with a strike, this time on the inside corner. He then comes inside low for a ball. Again, Marquis does not take advantage of the first strike, throwing ball two high. Bonds pulls the next pitch into right field, but the second baseman is playing out there and throws out Barry easily at first. It's a base hit against a normal defense. Bonds seems to be pulling the ball more lately.

With a 4-1 lead, Alex Rodriguez hit a three-run homer to chase Tim Wakefield from the game. I could just see Yankees fans complaining about a meaningless home run. But the Red Sox come back to score four more runs off the bullpen, meaning the difference in the Yankees victory was A-Rod's homer! Just because it doesn't look important at the time doesn't mean it isn't. Alex didn't get much of a boost from the systems that measure change in probability of winning, but without it, the Yankees lose that game.

Ken Griffey drove in four runs tonight with a double and homer, which was more than enough in the Reds 7-3 win over the Brewers. Ken delivers runs when he's in the lineup, driving in 25 this year in 20 games.

Steve Finley just hit his 8th triple to drive in a run and bring up Barry Bonds. Marquis starts him with a low pitch on the outside corner for a taken strike. Pitch two is low for a ball. Pitch three is high and outside. He then goes low for ball three. The last pitch is low in the strike zone and Bonds lines it to right for a single. It was just over the glove of the second baseman who was shifted into shallow right. Finley scores and the Cardinals lead 3-2.

Steve Finely now has 12 extra-base hits on the season, 8 of them triples.

Forty six games. Twenty three homers. Albert Pujols goes deep in the first inning for his first home run at the park named after a phone company in San Francisco. He's been steady on that home run every other game pace since his tear in the middle of April. We'll see if Bonds can match it tonight.

The control Kerry Wood showed in his first start didn't last as he walked five Marlins and allowed three runs in five innings. However, he did leave with a 4-3 lead. Four Cubs relievers held the Marlins scoreless until dueces were wild for Ryan Dempster in the ninth as he allowed 2 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs for a 5-4 Marlins victory. It just keeps getting worse for the Cubs.

Roy Halladay pitched another great game tonight, falling one batter short of a complete game. He went 8 2/3, striking out seven and allowing just one run. Apart from the small amount of time he missed hurt, he's right where he was last year. Through May 23rd of 2005, Halladay was 7-2 with a 2.84 ERA. With the win tonight, he's 6-1 with a 2.77 ERA.

David Bell finishes up a bad fifth inning by Steve Trachsel with a three-run homer to give the Phillies a 6-2 lead. Bell's improved over last year's .361 slugging percentage; he's now at .426 after the homer.

Jaret Wright is out after five innings and 73 pitches. He allowed no runs, four hits and two walks. There's speculation that the line drive he took in the first inning might be the cause; my guess is the Yankees saw him pitch well, and didn't want to wait for him to blow up. New York has a four nothing lead, and I'm guessing they think the bullpen can hold that over four innings.

Update: Proctor comes in and gives up a run, allowing three hits to the first four batters.

The Chicago White Sox are pounding captain Kirk Saarloos' shield, launching three home runs in just two innings. That gives Saarloos eight homers allowed in just 32 2/3 innings. In 2005, he allowed 11 longballs in 159 2/3 innings.

Thome, Dye and Konerko all went deep. They've now combined for 42 homers in 45. That's a great power trio.

Michael Barrett gets his third triple of the year, and the third of the month. It gives him 21 for his career, which is pretty good for a catcher. Barrett also homered, giving him the tough half of the cycle. The Cubs lead the Marlins 4-1 in the fourth.

I caught the last out of the first, as Wood strikes out Jacobs to end the inning. The announcer intoned, "You just saw the real Kerry Wood." Given that Wood walked two batters before getting an out, I'd say that's a correct statement.

Kevin Youkilis leads off the bottom of the first with a hard line drive back at Jaret Wright. Wright tries to protect himself, and ends up catching the ball against his side, turning awkwardly as he did so. It looked like he was hurt at first, but he's staying in the game.

The Yankees lead 1-0 on a leadoff home run by Johnny Damon.

Update: Posada just appeared to injure him self running out a ground out. He limped the last third to the base, but he's putting on his catching gear. Maybe it was just a cramp.

The Baseball Crank notes that Justin Verlander picked up a decision in each of his first eleven starts. He wonders who owns the longest such streak at the start of his career.

Before I try to answer that, let me say that Joe Blanton has the longest active streak at 17 starts.

The Day by Day Database goes back to 1974, so we can see the longest streaks for players whose careers started then. The answer is Bryn Smith with 18. Smith actually started in the bullpen and was a spot starter through his first 13 starts He went 9-9 in his first 18 starts.

Jim Clancy was a starter from the beginning and received decisions in his first 15 starts. He had one relief appearance mixed in on his way to a 5-10 record.

Another famous pitcher on the list was also a Tiger, Mark Fidrych. The Bird made two appearance from the bullpen before getting his first start on 5/15/1976. He then reeled off 13 straight starts with a decision, going 11-2 with a 1.72 ERA.

There are others at 13, but Verlander has a way to go to catch anyone who's career started in the last 32 years.

Update: I figured out how to program streaks so I can find the longest in a time period. It takes some time, 11 isn't that impressive. Since the start of the century (2001), the longest streak is by Bartolo Colon, 30 games.

Jason Botts is on his way to the Texas Rangers.

The Rangers have not announced how they will make room for Botts. He has played first base and outfield, but he is mainly looked at as a designated hitter and he could impact Phil Nevin's playing time.

As you can see here, Botts had a good April and an even better May. He also seems to hit lefties and righties well. You could say he hits in every flavor!

It's not exactly a stellar night for pitching matchups. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays send Mark Hendrickson to the mound against Roy Halladay in what's probably the best of the evening. Hendrickson looks like Randy Johnson but throws like Tom Glavine, and it's working for him this year. He's holding right-handed hitters to a .210 batting average and a .387 slugging percentage. Halladay is giving up a few more hits and walks than he did last year, but his offense is making up for it with terrific support. The Blue Jays have outscored their opponents 42-20 with Halladay in the game.

If the Twins are going to climb back into the playoff race they need to pass Cleveland first. The two teams open a series tonight in Minnesota as the Indians send Cliff Lee to face Johan Santana. Lee and Santana are going in opposite directions in May. Cliff saw his April ERA of 2.97 jump nearly three runs to 5.84 in May. Santana is 2 1/2 runs better, dropping his ERA from 4.45 in April to 1.85 in May. Lee is allowing many more hits; Santana is keeping the bats off the ball with more strikeouts.

Kerry Wood gets his second start of the year, this time against the Florida Marlins. If you want to ease a pitcher back into the rotation, giving him two starts against Washington and Florida is the way to go. He'll be opposed by Scott Olsen. The left-hander has not allowed a home run at Dolphin Stadium this year, but 14 walks and 12 hits there led to 12 runs in 12 innings.

Enjoy!

Paul Lo Duca reminds a WFAN host why Mets fans should be happy with Billy Wagner.

Ruz at The Cub Reporter unloads on the northside team today:

So the team isn't contending, it isn't one player away from contending, it isn't rebuilding. I don't know where it is in the success cycle, and I don't think *it* knows where it is. As a fan, that's a really frustrating place for your team to be.

Gary Sheffield is likely to play for the Yankees tonight. He certainly looked good to me in his rehab assignment last night. He swung hard and didn't appear to flinch when he made contact. It was cold at the game last night, too. Gary was the DH, but he was the only one on the bench when Trenton was in the field not wearing a jacket.

Sheffield also said he didn't get a cortisone shot, but another drug.

Sheffield later told the Daily News he wasn't sure of the exact name of the medication, but that his doctor had spent 20 minutes explaining to Sheffield and Sheffield's wife, DeLeon, that there were no long-term damages to fear from using it. Sheffield said he had taken four cortisone shots when he played for the Braves to relieve various pains and that he had suffered on the field as a result.

"I went in there and told them I wasn't going to do the cortisone shot. (The doctor) recommended something else. I told him, 'Tell me what it is.' And he had to explain it to my wife. She was like 'Okay, as long as it's not damaging anything,'" Sheffield said.

Whatever it was, it did the trick.

At least no one injured his hand.

With the Tigers in first place, Jim Leyland discusses his expectations for the team this season:

"My goal is to get people in the seats and get them interested in Tigers baseball, that's the goal for the year," he said. "I don't have any goals for wins, and I don't have any goals for losses, and I don't have any goals for where we finish. I just want to play well and get people back interested in baseball. Whatever happens, happens. That's how I'm looking at it.

Update: Billfer is less happy with other comments.

"At the end of the year, I'm going to say, 'Did we have a good season, a bad season, or a mediocre season?' I'm interested in a good season over the long haul, and that's what we're trying to accomplish here. We want to be competitive on a daily basis, and the rest of it will take care of itself."

Currently the Tigers rank 10th in home attendance and 12th in road attendance. Time to snap up those Tigers tickets!

Hayden Penn won't be making his first MLB start of the season. He went under the knife.

Jae Seo continued the recent success of the Dodgers starting pitchers last night, holding the Colorado Rockies to just one unearned run over seven innings in a 6-1 Dodger win. Over their last twelve games, Los Angeles starting pitchers combined for a 7-2 record (9-3 overall) and a 2.25 ERA. The only two losses came in starts by Derek Lowe. Impressively, they're doing this without striking out a lot of batters, just 4.4 per nine. But they are more impressive in the other two legs of the pitching tripod, walking just 2.0 per nine and allowing a home run every 19 innings.

The current longest hit streak in baseball belongs to Ichiro Suzuki. Over the last sixteen games Ichiro is hitting .426 with a .473 OBA. Like most of the Mariners hitters, Ichiro started the season in a slump. Through May 4th, he was hitting just .262, seventy points below his career average. But since he's been hitting like the old Ichiro, bringing his BA to within 12 points of his norm.

Seattle's standing has improved as well. The 8-6 win over the Orioles last night brought the team's record to 10-6 during the streak. Even though the Mariners are four games under .500, they're just three out of first place. Now if they can get Beltre and Sexson to hit (Sexson did have a grand slam last night, but is hitting .189 in May).

Update: Fixed a typo.

Ducksnorts offers an analysis of Jake Peavy's effectiveness last night as the San Diego ace struck out 16 in a 3-1 loss. Although the Padres outhit the Braves 8-5, their only run came on a homer by Mike Piazza.

How unlikely is it to lose a 16 strikeout game? The Day by Day Database goes back to 1974, and in that time there have been 62 sixteen K games. The record of those pitchers is 47-8 with seven no decisions, an .855 winning percentage.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Bonds walks on four pitches, three outside, one inside. That's it for Barry as Ellison runs for him. He ends the night 1 for 3 with a walk and a 3-1 Giants lead.

The high scoring game between Oliver Perez and Orlando Hernandez did not materialize as the two combined to allow just one run in 13 innings pitched. Perez walked three in six innings which given his recent control problems was very good. He managed to keep Arizona off the scoreboard. El Duque struck out nine in seven innings, but gave up a solo shot to Jason Bay.

The Pirates bullpen hasn't been so stingy, however, as Marte allows four runs, two earned to give the Diamondbacks a 4-1 lead in the top of the ninth.

Update: The Pirates score two in the ninth off Valerde, but it's not enough as Jose earns his 13th save and the Diamondbacks take home a 4-3 win.

MIchael Young went 3 for 3 with a walk tonight as the Rangers beat the Angels 3-2. Young raised his OBA to .392. If he can maintain that level for the rest of the year, he will have raised his OBA every season he's played in the majors.

All three hits were singles, however. The power he showed last year (24 home runs) disappeared, as he's only hit one homer so far in 2006. However, his doubles are up; he's hit 17 in 1/4 of a season vs. 40 all of last year.

Barry gets a good pitch to hit on the first toss by Mulder. It was above the belt, just to the outside part of the middle of the plate. Barry just got under it, popping out to shallow center. He's 1 for 3 with a single and an RBI.

No one told Bronson Arroyo that Cincinnati's home park favors the hitters. Even though 20 runs scored at Great American Ballpark tonight, Bronson allowed just one of them on his way to his sixth victory against two losses. He remains undefeated at the GAB, extending this record to 3-0 in four starts and lowering his ERA to 1.47. The Reds win 15-5.

Frank Thomas hit two home runs on his return to Chicago, driving in two of the Athletics four runs. But it was a short hit, a bunt in the bottom of the tenth by Pablo Ozuna that gives the White Sox the one-run victory 5-4. Garland's woes continue as he allowed three homers and four runs in 6 1/3 innings. He's now given up 1/2 of last year's homer total in 1/4 of the innings. Zito continued his great May ERA wise, allowing just one run for three on the month. But once again, he doesn't earn a win for his stellar pitching. The White Sox keep pace with the Tigers,

Craig Biggio went four for five tonight with a double to help the Astros to 10-3 victory over the Washington Nationals. He also drew a walk and scored four of the five times he reached base. Biggio's OBA came down after the 2001 season, as did his power. I thought he might be done after 2003. But his power came back the last two years, and with tonight's game his OBA is up to .362. Maybe he's not the greatest leadoff man anymore, but he's certainly putting up good numbers for a middle infielder. He's 154 hits away from 3000 right now. With 46 in 43 games played, he has an outside chance of reaching the milestone this year.

Bonds grounds out on a 3-0 count to Pujols. Bonds pulled the ball sharply, but Albert was playing the line and made a nice play. Bonds does drive in a run with grounder, tying the game. Barry's 1 for 2 with a single so far.

The Tigers staff extended their scoreless inning streak to 21 with an 8-0 shutout of the Kansas City Royals. Justin Verlander was the hero tonight, pitching a complete game five hitter. The Tigers team ERA is down to 3.18.

Ordonez was the offensive hero, knocking out three hits and driving in two. He's now hitting .325 with a .583 slugging percentage. It's a year late, but that signing is paying off.

Curt Schilling seemed to put to rest any worries about his health as he shutdown the Yankees for eight innings, striking out six and walking none. Most impressively, he threw 72 of his 99 pitches for strikes. Keith Foulke didn't fare so well, however. He gave up two home runs in the ninth, along with four runs. That made the final Red Sox 9, Yankees 5.

Ortiz and Ramirez did most of the offensive damage, with two hits and three RBI apiece. Manny homered, only his second at Fenway this year.

The Cubs are so bad they lost to the Marlins 9-1 tonight. Ricky Nolasco and Hanley Ramirez did the damage, Hanley with the bat and Nolasco from both sides of the ball. Nolasco pitched seven strong innings for the win, allowing four hits and one run. He also added a solo home run to the effort. Ramirez reached base four times with three hits and a walk. That led to three runs scored. Nolasco's ERA drops to 2.89 and Ramirez's OBA goes up to .411.

I just got back from New Britain, Connecticut where Gary Sheffield played for the Trenton Thunder tonight. It was cold and windy, so I only stayed for his first three plate appearances. Here's Gary in the on-deck circle before his first plate appearance in the first inning:

Here's the video of the three meaningful swings:

The hitters are celebrating Victoria day with fireworks at the Rogers Center. The Blue Jays launched two so far, including lucky number 13 by Troy Glaus. Russel Branyan added his fifth for the Devil Rays. He's having a powerful May after an anemic April. That's five runs in two innings as the Jays lead the Rays 3-2.

Albert Pujols and Barry Bonds meet tonight, each in pursuit of home run immortality. Barry is looking to take second place on the all-time home run list for himself. Albert continues on a pace to break Barry's single season record. Both, in the long term, are chasing Henry Aaron.

Which bring me to my question of the day; how do you catch Aaron? Or, to make it simpler, how do you get to 700 home runs? I would have thought the way to get their was to set down a solid foundation of home runs in your twenties, then keep healthy through your thirties. But that's not the way it's been done at all.

Baseball reference provides a list of player records by age. Most through, during, and after a certain age. Look at the list of players with the most home runs through age 25, which includes Albert Pujols' last full season. There's lots of big names on the list, Hall of Famers, players who went on to 500 home runs. But the big starts weren't enough to propel them to 700. Now look at the list from age 35 on. There's all three 700 home run hitters, big as life. What's even more interesting is that there is no overlap on the list. So far, no big young hitter was able to make as big an impression from age 35 on.

Of the active players on the through age 25 list, we've already seen Griffey burn out early. Andruw Jones had a big boost in his production last year, but he doesn't seem to be repeating it. A-Rod continues to smack the ball, and doesn't have much of an injury history. Pujols does. The next person to get to Aaron's record might be someone a bit off our radar, who finds better conditioning (Ruth, Bonds) or a better ballpark (Aaron) late in his career and goes on a rampage. I've thought for a long time that tracking players home runs through a certain age vs. Aaron was the way to look for the record breaker. Now I'm wondering if big season at age 35 won't tell me more.

It's Victoria Day in Canada, so the Blue Jays are playing an afternoon game at the Rogers Center to celebrate. Wouldn't it make more sense, however, to invite the Royals rather than the Devil Rays? Victoria Day reminds me of one of my favorite jokes from Mad Magazine. They were doing the history of sex, and got to the Victorian era. They said, "There was no sex during the Victorian era. This is Queen Victoria. Now you know why."

The Jays and Rays have a chance to gain on either the Yankees or Red Sox tonight as those teams go head-to-head at Fenway. Chien-Ming Wang takes the mound vs. Curt Schilling. Schilling's been declining since his 133 pitch start in Cleveland, so we'll see if that continues. Wang is keeping his walks and home runs under control this season, allowing just three free passes in his last three starts.

Frank Thomas returns to Chicago for the first time as an opponent as the Oakland Athletics take on the White Sox. Zito is recovering from a disastrous April. He's only allowed 2 runs in his four May starts, but still managed to lose a game. He'll face Jon Garland, who is getting hammered by right-handed batters this season. Righties are slugging 100 points higher against Garland than lefties. For his career, righties slug about 20 points lower.

Don't expect a lot of O's in Phoenix tonight as Oliver Perez and Orlando Hernandez take the mound with identical 6.98 ERAs. We're looking at the high scoring game of the night as Perez allowed 14 walks in his last three starts and Orlando pitched just 11 1/3 innings in his last three.

The Dodgers can tie the Rockies with a win tonight. It's not an outstanding pitching matchup. Jae Seo has yet to win at Dodger Stadium, thanks to a 6.95 ERA at the park. Byung-Hyun Kim pitches worse on the road, as Coors results seem to be upside down this year.

Finally St. Louis visits the Giants. The big story here is Bonds and Pujols. I'll have more on this in a separate post later.

Enjoy!

Ken Rosenthal details the difficulties pitchers face in trying to win 300 games. He asks, will anyone win 300 after Glavine? Of course, the question makes a big assumption, that Glavine will get there.

My answer to the question is yes. When we talk about 300 game winners disappearing, we are looking at the context of the 1970s, when there were a lot of 300 game winners in that generation. When you look at the list of pitchers with 300 wins, you see a lot of ancient players, and a lot of players who pitched in the 1970s. You don't see a ton of players who had the bulk of their careers in the 1950s or 1960s. The 300 game winner disappeared, then made a comeback when schedules were expanded and teams still tended to use a four man rotation.

It's always been tough to win 300 games. Just as it's always been tough to hit 700 home runs. Despite all the changes and cheating in the last decade, only one player managed to break 600 homers. And yet, we've had two pitchers put up 300 wins and another who is getting close.

Let's look at the list of pitchers with the most wins since 2001, 5+ seasons. Mark Mulder has 93 wins. That's close to 18 wins a season. His seasonal age is 28. With 102 for his career, is it that unlikely he might average 17 wins a season over the next 12 years? Is it something that just can't be done?

How about Mark Buehrle? He's a year younger than Mulder and is at 90 wins for his career. He'll need to average a little over 16 wins a year to get to 300 by the time he's 40. Roy Oswalt is 14 wins behind Mulder at the same age, but a couple of more 20 win seasons and he'll be a contender.

In other words, like the home run chase, lots of people establish themselves early then fade. To say there's no one with a chance now is wrong. There will continue to be great pitchers like Maddux and Clemens in each generation. And writers will continue to say they can't reach 300 wins until they do.

SB at Replacement Level Yankees Weblog details the moves the Yankees made recently due to injuries (you really need a scorecard at this point). He doesn't like the Terrance Long move at all:

2)Yankees purchased the contract of outfielder Terrence Long from Triple-A Columbus.

In case you were wondering what I was referring to as asinine and stupid. Long's a bad defensive OF who has broken a .400 SLG mark once in the last 4 years, and had the following OBP over the last 4 seasons, .298,.293,.335,.321. But, since he's now 30, expect him to get priority in Joe Torre's pecking order over people who have the potential to be better than mediocre.

I don't think the Yankees outfield is in bad shape right now. Cabrera is hitting and getting on base. When Sheffield returns, you move Melky to left and see what happens. It would be nice to see him hit for power, but the Yankees should be able to live with a .395 OBA. And if he works out well, maybe the Yankees let Sheffield go at the end of the season and start making themselves a bit younger.

Maury Brown at The Hardball Times wonders why family ownership was so important to Bud Selig in the selling of the Washington Nationals, and not so important in the selling of the Braves. Obviously, Bud watches Sesame Street with his children and knows there are lot of different kinds of families. :-)

Craig Brown at Royals Authority pens an open letter to David Glass.

Did you happen to see any of the baseball this weekend at the Stadium? I ask because I know you spend much of your time in Bentonville, and rarely make it to Kansas City to actually watch the team you own in person. And since I took in the games, I just wanted to fill you in on some of the things you might have missed.

The Cardinals weekend is the best drawing series of the season, and for good reason. Everyone loves to have a rivalry, even if it’s as contrived as this one. But when your stadium is filled almost to capacity for three days and the crowds at those games are roughly 80% for the visiting team, then something is horribly wrong. Yeah, I know those Cardinal fans are the self-anointed best fans in all of baseball, but I saw almost as much red in the K on Saturday as you normally see at Arrowhead on a Chiefs game day. After the Pujols home run on Saturday, my brother commented to me that it was the loudest he had heard the stadium in almost 15 years. Does that embarrass you, Mr. Glass? It should.

Brown wants to see a full change over in the front office and scouting departments, including the departure of Glass' son from day-to-day operations of the team.

I didn't know Ozzie Smith and Tony La Russa disliked each other so much:

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, after reading a story in Sunday's Post-Dispatch that, in part, reiterated Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith's disinclination to participate in club-related field activities as long as La Russa was manager, said he had changed his mind about inviting Smith to spring-training camp as an instructor.

La Russa, before reading the text, had said he didn't think they would be going to dinner, given their past differences, but that Smith could be helpful if he wanted to join the other Hall of Famers who generally go to Jupiter, Fla., in the spring. Upon further review, there was a stark reversal of field Sunday by La Russa, who was not proffering an olive branch.

"Speaking personally, I don't think he would be good for our ballclub," said La Russa, who sought out the Post-Dispatch before the game. "For him to repeat those comments is really unreasonable. That invitation is no longer there.

"He's not welcome

."

Wow. Even Yogi Berra made up with George Steinbrenner. St. Louis fans, is it really just about playing time? Most pros realize after they retire that they were at the end of their game and probably deserved to play less. Is this just two big egos clashing?

From this description of Carlos Zambrano reacting to a Pierzynski home run, and givne the brawl earlier in the series, the Cubs/White Sox cross town rivalry appears to be on a full boil. Given that the White Sox are the ones usually ignored in the town, you'd think the Cubs players would have thicker skins. Maybe with the sucess of the White Sox last year and the terrible play by the Cubs in 2006, the team from the northside isn't as loveable as in they used to be.

Alex S. Gonzalez, the former shortstop for the Blue Jays and Cubs retired after Saturday's game. What's amazing to me is that he had a 13 year career from which to retire. Gonzalez was an impressively bad offensive player. The only good year he had average-wise was a season in which he only played 38 games. His highest OBA in a full season was .323 last year. For his career, he hit .243 with a .302 OBA and a .391 slugging percentage. That just doesn't help your team.

Why was he on a major league roster at all? My friend Jim Storer and I talked about this subject in reference to Miguel Cairo the other day. Because teams carry so many pitchers these days, they're in need of someone who is a super-utility player. You don't carry multiple back up infielders anymore, so you need a guy who can play anywhere. And since salary is locked up in the starters, you need to get a guy cheap. Hence, lousy offensive players with good gloves have a seat on major league benches.

Now, you could do better bringing up a kid from the minors, but he's probably a prospect and the team wants him playing every day. He's the one who gets called up with the star middle infielder gets hurt, so you need to have him ready to go. All that together creates opportunities for players like Gonzalez get to hang around past their usefulness.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Billy Wagner gets back on the horse and earns the save tonight as the Mets win 4-3. It wasn't easy as the Yankees got two more singles but were stuck with Kelly Stinnett and Miguel Cairo trying to drive in the tying runs. They were, to say the least, overmatched. The Yankees leave 15 men on base as they go 2 for 17 with men in scoring position.

The Yankees put 19 men on base tonight by a hit, walk or hit by pitch, but scored but three runs. Two reasons for this are a lack of extra-base hits; Bernie Williams had two doubles, but both were with the bases empty. The other reason is three double plays by the Mets. They all came with one out, and two came with men in scoring position. The Mets lead 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth.

Cliff Floyd hurt his left shoulder making a diving catch, and is being examined. He's out of the game.

The Mets come back in the bottom of the fourth with two singles to set the stage for Carlos Delgado, who smashes the first pitch into the right field stands. He looked like he knew what was coming and was ready to pound the ball. David Wright follows with a blast to left that goes completely out of the park. There are no outs in the fourth and the Mets lead 4-2.

Bernie Williams hit a rare infield double. He popped up a pitch a mile high, and as the fielders were looking for the ball, you could see debris blowing all over the field. Neither Delgado nor Lo Duca nor Matsui could catch the ball which fell between them. Bernie was hustling all the way, and ends up at second with his second double of the day. Nice to see Bernie hustle, since there have been times when he hasn't and made outs when he should be safe.

Update: The Yankees load the bases with two outs. Jeter puts the ball in the hole between short and third. The ball misses Wright's glove and then Reyes' as it hops underneath the gloves. Derek gets credited with a single and two RBI as the Yankees take a 2-0 lead.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are facing a May 31 deadline to change the team's name. There's an interesting discussion in the article of how it used to be very common to change team nicknames, even from year to year. But this is incorrect:

When those changes are announced, probably after the All-Star break, the Rays will become the first major league team to change their name without moving to another city since the Houston Colt .45s became the Astros in 1965.

The Houston franchise was renamed after three seasons to coincide with the opening of the Astrodome and to link the ballclub with NASA's space program centered in the city.

Three other franchises moved to other cities and were renamed to better identify with the new locale. The Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers. The Washington Senators moved to Arlington, Texas, and became the Texas Rangers. The Montreal Expos moved to Washington, D.C., and became the Washington Nationals, which was a tip of the cap to Washington's place in baseball history.

The left off the other Washington franchise. The original American League Senators moved to Minnesota in 1961 and became the Twins.

Update: One commentor feels the article is correct. He makes the point that the three movements spoken of in the above paragraphs were after 1965. I'll buy that, but it's not clear from the way the article is worded. And lots of people don't realize there were two Senators franchises.

With two out and a man on second, Eric Byrnes doubles to cut the Braves lead in half, 2-1. Bobby Cox is now removing Chris Reitsma, his closer, to bring in a lefty to face Chad Tracy. So far this year, however, Tracy hits lefties as well as he hits righties.

Update: McBride is on for the Braves.

Update: Tracy walks on a 3-2 count. That brings up Luis Gonzalez, who has struggled against lefties this year.

Tim Hudson pitched eight shutout innings, allowing six hits and three walks. He was left in a long time as he threw 122 pitches, even though his strike percentage was not that impressive (56.5%). But he kept Arizona off the board as they went 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position, 0 for 13 against Hudson. That has not been Tim's strong suit this year, as opposition batters were hitting .328 against him with runners in scoring position coming into the game.

The Mariners pick up a game on everyone in the AL West with a 10-8 victory over the Padres. Ibanez and Everett drove in half the Seattle runs; Ibanez with a three-run homer and Everett with a solo shot and a single.

The bad news for Seattle is that Felix Hernandez continues to struggle. He went six innings, but only struck out four while walking three. Seven hits helped push across seven runs, so even though he got the win, his ERA went up over 0.6 runs. At this point, the Mariners front office has to wonder if they rushed Hernandez to the majors, and maybe he should return to the minors for some fine tuning.

The Giants take a 6-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics. Matt Cain limits the A's to one hit and three walks to pick up his first complete game shutout. Even though he lowered his ERA over a run, it still sits at 5.47.

Update: A few minutes later, the Dodgers beat the Angels 7-0 behind Derek Lowe and Jonathan Broxton. Lowe threw seven shutout innings and has now given up two earned runs or less in eight of his ten starts. Broxton continues his great strikeout numbers. With two in two innings today, he's struck out 35 in 23 2/3 innings in his short MLB career.

The Braves are shutting out the Diamondbacks 2-0 in the seventh, so we could have six or seven by the end of the day.

The Rockies pitching did a job on the Toronto Blue Jays this weekend. They sweep the series with a 5-3 win today, allowing just seven runs in the three games. The Blue Jays came into the series with one of the best offenses in the majors. Shutting them down for three games at Coors makes one sit up and take notice.

With this performance today, the Rockies home ERA drops to 4.03, below their 4.08 road ERA. Both marks are excellent for this team. I never thought this kind of success was possible at Coors, but the Rockies developed a pitching staff that lived and breathed the altitude, and at the moment it's working out well for them. The staff has only allowed 20 home runs in 23 games in the mile high city.

Bonds singles to right on an 0-1 pitch. Once again, Gaudin threw a good sinker, but Barry was able to golf it into right to go 2 for 3 with a walk this afternoon.

Chad Gaudin takes over in the fifth after Blanton gets knocked around (and possibly hurt) in the fourth. On a 2-1 count, Gaudin throws a nice pitch that moves away and down from Barry, and Bonds grounds it up the middle for an out. The Giants lead 5-0.

Boof Bonser makes a fine major league debut, going six innings, allowing just one run and striking out eight. Unfortunately for him, Jesse Crain doesn't do his job. Four of the five hitters he faces reach, and all four come around to score as the Brewers take a 5-3 lead. Capuano gives Milwaukee another fine outing, going seven innings and allowing three runs, two earned. Turnbow is on in the ninth to try to earn the save.

Update: Turnbow gets the side in order, striking out two.

Barry leads off the fourth, and after taking ball one high and outside, Bonds takes a lower outside pitch to center for a line drive single. Kotsay was playing deep, otherwise he might have caught that ball.

The Houston Astros post the third shutout of the day, this time of the complete game variety as Taylor Buchholz records the first of his career. Taylor allows just five hits, all singles while record six whiffs. He threw 72 of 102 pitches for strikes.

Jacque Jones breaks the solo home run streak with a two-run shot of Neal Cotts to give the Cubs a 6-4 lead. Cotts cost Contreras the win as he gives up a game tying triple and the go-ahead home run. It's the first time the Cubs score six runs in a game since May 10th.

Grady Sizemore came to the plate in the bottom of the tenth 0 for 5 with four strikeouts. With the winning run at third and two out, Gonzalez got two strikes on Grady, but he then launched a ball off the right field wall to drive in the winning run for a 3-2 final. The Indians wasted a fine effort by Paul Byrd, as the Indians offense and pitchers continue to have trouble getting in sync. It took Cleveland 11 hits, five walks and two hit batters to push those runs across the plate.

With men on first and third in the first, Steve Finley hits a fly ball to medium right field. Randy Winn doesn't try to score as Payton makes a strong throw in. Vizquel takes off for second on the throw, which is cut off, but Vizquel barely beats the relay. Of course, first base open, the Atheltics intentionally walk Bonds. Durham then hits a slow roller to first for the second out and a run in the Giants column.

Does Soriano read this blog? :-) He performed more like a leadoff man today, getting on base four times with two hits and two walks. He also stole two bases, although he negated those with a caught stealing. He also scored a run which was almost enough for the Nationals as Washington defeated Baltimore 3-1. There were lots of opportunities missed, as Baltimore put 11 men on base and Washington 14. The teams were a combined 3 for 19 with runners in scoring position.

It's solo home run day in Chicago. The White Sox are leading the Cubs 3-2, and all five runs came on homers with the bases empty. Aramis Ramirez and Paul Konerko hit two each, with A.J. Pierzynski making the difference in the score. Contreras continues allowing just solo shots, as all four off him this year came with the bases empty.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays record the second shutout of the day behind Scott Kazmir. The young lefty buzzed through the Marlins order, striking out eleven in eight innings while giving up just four hits. Kazmir raised his strikeout to walk ratio over three, as he now has 67 K and just 21 walks. He also lowers his ERA to 2.39.

That's five games in a row for Scott in which he's given up 1 earned run or less. He's 5-0 in those contests with an 0.78 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 34 2/3 innings. It looks like the Zambrano trade was worth it.

Harang and Robertson engaged in a great pitching duel in Detroit today. Robertson allowed no runs into the eighth despite five walks. Rodney relieved him and kept the Reds from scoring.

In the bottom of the eighth, Harang got into trouble on his own, walking Inge and then throwing the ball away on a sacrifice bunt. Aaron came back to strike out Granderson, but Placido Polanco came off the bench to deliver an RBI single to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. The inning ends on a strikeout/caught stealing double play. The Tigers need three outs for a win and to remain in first place.

Update: Adam Dunn just sacrificed after Kearns walked. I can't believe that. Dunn can give the visiting Reds the lead with one swing of the bat, why are they playing for the tie?

Albert Pujols connects in the fourth inning for his 22nd home run of the year to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead over Kansas City. It's the forty fourth game of the year for the Cardinals, putting Albert back on a pace to hit 81. With the solo shot, he's split his homers down the middle, 11 with the bases empty, 11 with men on.

The first six Phillies reach in the bottom of the third, and the four runs allowed so far chase DiNardo from the contest. The big hit was a two-run triple by Bobby Abreu. It's the first year since 2002 where Bobby had multiple triples.

The first three Brewers reach against Boof Bonser, loading the bases. But Bonser recovers, allowing a sacrifice fly, and getting a pop out and a strikeout to end the inning with just one run scoring.

Not much action today, as nine games are underway and only five runs have scored.

Jose Contreras returns to the White Sox rotation today, and he'll face a tough test in Carlos Zambrano. Despite his stint on the DL, Jose has enough inning to still lead the American League in ERA at 1.41. He's been nearly unhittable, allowing just a .179 BA and a .263 slugging percentage. The only two home runs he's allowed were solo shots. Zambrano found his old form in May after a rough April. In his three starts in the month, he's allowed just one earned run in 23 innings while striking out 24.

Boof Bonser is the latest piece in the remake of the Twins rotation, and he'll face Chris Capuano and the Milwaukee Brewers this afternoon. Bonser is a striking out artist with less than perfect control, and he's named Boof. Capuano, on the other hand, is an established pitcher having a great season. His strikes, walks and home runs allowed are all excellent, and it's reflected in his 2.80 ERA. As a lefty, he's doing a good job shutting down right-handed hitters, as they're hitting just .213 with a .298 slugging percentage.

Enjoy!

The Minnesota legislature approved funding for a new stadium for the Twins, another blow to taxpayers who will foot most of the bill. Carl Pohlad will contribute $130 million. It's not quite the sweetheart deal the Nationals received, but it's close.

In may be worth it to get baseball out of the Metrodome. It's the most sterile facility I've ever visited. Olympic Stadium in Montreal was a pasture by comparison. The new stadium will be open air with natural grass. I'm not sure why. Maybe the cost of a retractable roof was beyond the means of the law makers. You'd think Pohlad would want to kick in the rest for a roof just so he doesn't lose fans to rain outs.

Brandon Webb became the first NL seven game winner last night and pitched a nearly flawless game as the Diamondbacks pounded the Braves 13-0. Webb walked just one and struck out 8. The Braves managed just four hits against him. Brandon threw just 101 pitches to complete the shutout, the second of his career. Webb even added a double and three RBI.

The NL ERA race is very tight right now, with .04 runs separating first from third. Webb number is still the most impressive, since he's thrown more innings than anyone else in the NL.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays win on a walk-off home run for the second game in a row. Russell Branyan provided the heroics last night, with a two out, two run homer. Travis Lee doubled to start the inning, and the Rays sacrificed him to third to put the tying run 90 feet from home plate. Hollins, however, could not plate Lee with a groundout, so Branyan simply put the ball in the seats for the win. The Marlins are now just 5-15 in save opportunities.

In creating the Marlins, Dave Dombrowski made sure he picked up a quality closer. His argument was that the team would lose a lot of games, there was no reason to lose the close ones. This recreation of the Marlins could have benefited from that thinking.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Kevin Millwood and two relievers combined to shut out the Houston Astros on five hits. Houston drew no walks and struck out eight times. Meanwhile the Rangers were both hit and walk. Andy Pettitte threw a strange game, striking out eight and walking five in six innings. He also gave up twelve hits; the Rangers were 12 for 21 when they put the ball in play. When they got a ball to hit, they hit it hard.

Now that Bonds caught Ruth, we can now watch to see if Pujols catches Bonds. Albert just blasted his 21st of the year, a three run shot in the eighth inning to extend the Cardinals lead to 4-0 over the hapless Royals. That's 21 homers in 43 Cardinals games for Pujols.

In 2001, the Giants also reached 43 games on May 20th. Through that date, Barry Bonds had 22 home runs on his way to hit 73.

Alfonso Soriano is having a very strange May. He homered tonight, driving in two runs and tying the game at three. But it seems all he's done in May is homer. His batting average comeing into today was just .229 in the month. He has no other extra-base hits besides his homers, and just one walk to go with 20 strikeouts. He's in the leadoff spot where his job is to get on base, and it seems that he's just swinging for the fences.

There's something on fire outside the ballpark in Philadelphia, and it looks like the smoke is floating over the outfield stands. The game is tied at one in the sixth, but the Red Sox have the bases loaded with one out.

Update: The Red Sox stay on fire, taking a 4-1 lead. All the runs are unearned on an error by Rollins.

Update: Josh Beckett goes deep in the seventh, giving the Red Sox a 5-1 lead. It's Beckett's second home run, his first coming last year. He entered the game a career .198 slugger.

Brad Halsey continues to be hurt by home runs as a starter. In 12 2/3 relief innings Bard did not allow a long ball. After four starts now, he's pitched 21 2/3 innings and given up 5 dingers. The Giants lead 2-1 today on the strength of those solo shots, including one by Bonds.

Andy Phillips, batting because Joe Torre made a double switch, drives in the go-ahead run in the eleventh with a single. It's like I said earlier today, I love baseball because anyone can be the hero.

Update: Mariano Rivera strikes out the side in the 11th to earn the win. It was a sloppy game with seven errors recorded. But it also shows that seven great innings by Pedro isn't enough to guarantee a victory.

According to the Fox broadcast, Bonds just tied Babe Ruth for most home runs by a left-handed slugger. No cut-ins on ESPN or Fox. You'd think they could put a small image in the lower corner while Barry was batting.

Congratulations to Bonds on reaching this milestone!

Update: They finally showed the highlight. It was a blast, high into the right-centerfield seats. Off a left-hander, no less.

Update: In case you're wondering, Ruth hit is 714 home runs in 8398 at bats (I'm not sure exactly which AB produced 714, but it's pretty close to his last). Bonds did it in 9234.

Update: Bonds has many more doubles than Ruth (570 to 506), but Ruth leads in triples (136 to 77). The net result is five more extra-base hits from Bonds.

Dallas McPherson hits his first home run of the season to give the Angels a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning against the Dodgers. It the first time this season that Dallas did something other than making an out or hitting a single. He came into the game with the same batting average, OBA and slugging percentage.

Billy Wagner is walking the stadium here in the bottom of the ninth. Wagner blew the Yankees away last night, but is having trouble finding the plate this afternoon. He's walked three and hit a batter so far, and also gave up two hits. What's worse, he walked the bottom of the Yankees order and then hit Bernie Williams, pinch hitting for the pitcher. The score is now 4-3 Mets, and Feliciano is coming on to face the top of the order with the bases loaded and just one out.

Update: Damon hits a slow roller to Reyes playing half-way. Reyes goes for the double play, gets the runner at second, but the relay is late and Damon is safe. The game is tied at four. Unfortunately, Feliciano gets credited with the blown save here.

Update: Bradford gets Jeter to ground out to end the inning. Once again, Pedro pitches well but gets a no-decision.

Tadahito Iguchi goes deep again. His two run shot makes him responsible for six of the seven runs scored against Hill.

Just how much are the injuries hurting the Yankees? Miguel Cairo is batting sixth today. Kelly Stinnett is up with two men on base, and Torre can't pinch hit because Posada is hurt. Pedro is getting tired, and the Yankees don't have the bats at the bottom of the order to take advantage of it as Stinnett strikes out looking.

Both Freddy Garcia and Rich have allowed three hits so far, but the White Sox are off to a 5-0 lead over the Cubs. The difference is five walks by Hill to non for Garcia. All those men on base gave Iguchi the opportunity for a grand slam, and the second baseman slammed it. Hill's at 80 pitches through four, and he's even in balls and strikes, 40 each.

Carlos Delgado just flicked his bat out and hit an opposite field home run out to left center. He didn't use his legs, he hardly turned his upper body. Just his arms. It was a good pitch, too, a ball on the outside part of the plate that was curving away from Delgado. The Mets lead the Yankees 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth.

Meanwhile, Pedro struck out six through his four innings.

There's likely to be a good pitching matchup on your Fox game this afternoon. We'll start off with a great matchup in a great rivalry as Mike Mussina faces Pedro Martinez in game 2 of the Yankees-Mets series. Pedro is undefeated, although he's seen no decision in his last three starts. Martinez is a bit susceptible to the long ball this year, having allowed eight home runs in eight starts after allowing just 19 all last season. But he's improved his strikeout rate, back to better than one per inning. Mussina pitches for Pedro's daddy, and Mike's been extremely effective against left-handed batters this year, holding them to a .196 BA and a .248 OBA. Don't expect a lot of free passes in this contest.

The Giants and Athletics send out two pitchers with nearly identical ERAs, Jason Schmidt and Brad Halsey. After a shaky start to the season, Schmidt found his groove in his last four starts, posting a 1.41 ERA and walking just five in 32 innings. Halsey's lost both his starts since moving to the rotation, allowing 13 hits and seven walks in 10 innings.

By the way, why isn't this game on National TV? I know there are a lot of people who don't care, but I'd at least like the opportunity to see Bonds hit 714. There's no reason FOX can't make the game available via MLB Extra Innings and black it out in markets were it's being shown over the air. It's not that difficult to do.

Eric Milton returns to the Reds rotation and gets to take on Mike Maroth, second in the AL in ERA. The Cincinnati starters posted a 4.15 ERA in the 28 games Milton missed. It was 5.09 with Eric starting.

Enjoy!

Josh Towers pitched poorly again last night, giving up five runs in five innings to raise his ERA to 8.52 as the Blue Jays lost to the Rockies 8-3. Ty Taubenheim gets a start today as a replacement for Chacin, but you have to wonder if he's really auditioning to replace Towers. When Chacin returns from the DL, we could see Ty move into Burnett's slot and Towers moved out of the rotation.

Lisa Gray praises Adam Everett's game winning, bases clearing double last night.

But every ballplaying kid dreams of it. There you are. Your team down by a run, 2 outs, the tying run on third, the winning run on second, the insurance run on first the count is full, and all you have to do is hit a good single into center, or a double down the line or

a FB to the base of the scoreboard, where Kevin Mench just couldn’t either catch it or field it cleanly. Three runs score and Adam has himself the 3 RBI standup double.

One thing I love about baseball is that anyone can be the hero. In other sports, we know who's going to get the chance to win the game at the last moment. No one's throwing to the reserve receiver in football. No one's giving the last shot to the 12th man in the NBA. The first line is going to be on the ice for the last minute in the NHL. But Adam Everett gets the chance to come to the plate with the game on the line, and last night he delivered.

Carl Pavano just keeps falling apart. He could play the Elijah Price character in unbreakable.

If you like comebacks, the Braves/Diamondbacks game last night gave you all you wanted. Atlanta surged to a 5-0 lead after the top of the first. Batista settled down and held the Braves scoreless over the next five innings while Arizona fought back, taking a 7-5 lead in the sixth inning. But the Diamondbacks pen then started giving away runs. The teams traded runs in the seventh before Atlanta scored two in the eighth to tie and one in the ninth to take a 9-8 lead. But Chris Reitsma was not up to the task in the ninth for the Braves, either as he allowed three hits and a walk to lead to the 10-9 Arizona victory.

Jeff Francoeur's hitting streak ended with an 0-5 (no walks). Despite his hot hitting of late, he's batting just .261 with a .272 OBA.

Aubrey Huff saved his first home run of the year for a big spot. After Toby Hall led off the ninth with a solo shot to tie the game, Huff repeated the feat in the tenth. The Devil Rays take the battle of Florida 5-4 and send the Marlins to their fifth straight loss. The Marlins kept four of those five close. They need to find some way to tip things in their favor; just slightly better pitching or slightly better hitting and they could have won four of those games.

It was a great pitching duel between two young stars as Danny Haren best Noah Lowry last night 1-0 in Oakland. Haren went eight innings, allowing just two hits and two walks. Lowry was less efficient, going over 100 pitches after just six innings, but holding the A's to just one run.

The Oakland pitchers handled Bonds well. Barry went 0 for 3 with a walk, flying out to center and left against Haren. In the ninth, Street was faced with a storybook situation:

Bonds struck out swinging in the ninth against Huston Street, who recorded the final three outs for his seventh save in eight chances.

"That's the fun part of the game," Street said. "It was one of those fairy-tale situations. Ninth inning, one-run game, Barry Bonds at the plate, one of the best all-time home run hitters. To be able to get the job done for my team was special."

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Bonds flied out to center in the second, and he's batting in the fourth with Finley on first base. The count goes to 3-2, and Barry walks.

Kris Benson put together his first complete game since 2004 as the Orioles beat their new rival, the Washington Nationals. That lowered his ERA to 3.86. Do you think the Mets could use him in the rotation right now?

In the battle of the closer theme songs, Billy Wagner came out on top tonight. He came into a 6-6 tie in the top of the ninth and dispatched the Yankees in order, striking out Giambi, Rodriguez and Stinnett on a total of twelve pitches.

Mariano Rivera continued his rough stretch. He allowed two more hits, including the game winner to David Wright to take the loss. In his last eight game, Rivera's allowed 12 hits in 8 1/3 inning while walking three. The most telling stat, however, is that he's only struck out 2. Rivera has a career K per 9 of 8.0. The Yankees have a real problem is both Johnson and Rivera are losing their ability to get batters on strikes.

In the battle of marine life, the Marlins took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but Toby Hall took the first pitch from Borowski into the left field seats to tie the game.

You can't pitch much better than C.C. Sabathia did tonight. Milliliter pitched his first complete game of 2006, striking out nine Pirates as Cleveland took the first game of the series 4-1. Sabathia was very efficient, using just 102 pitches, 77 for strikes.

Eddie Perez continues his great hitting against lefties, knocking out his fifth home run of the season, all against southpaws. He's hitting a dinger every 11 at bats vs. lefties.

The Cardinals are making a comeback and closed the score to 5-4. The first two Cardinals runs came on the twentieth home run by Albert Pujols. To hit 60, you need to average 10 homers a month, so even if Albert goes homerless the rest of May, he'll be on pace to reach the magic number.

MLB didn't buy Russ Springer's argument that he didn't mean to hit Bonds the other day, and he's been suspended for four games. Phil Garner picked up a one game suspension himself.

Mark Prior threw two innings in a rookie league game today. At least there's some good news for Cubs fans today.

Jorge Posada left the game in the bottom of the second inning. Was he hurt, or did the Yankees think Stinnett would do a better job with Johnson on the mound?

Update: According to the comment below, back spasms drove Jorge from the game.

The Royals take a 3-0 lead on St. Louis as a little wildness by Carpenter and a little contact by the Royals hitters lead to good things. Carpenter started the inning by hitting Reggie Sanders, and two hits, a walk, and two RBI groundouts later Carpenter is in the hole.

Francisco Liriano is making a good impression in his first start of the year. He's faced six batters, retired all six and struck out three. He's thrown just 24 pitches, 18 for strikes.

The Yankees batted around in the top of the first against Jeremi Gonzalez, knocking out three doubles and scoring four runs. Gonzalez appears to be a pupil of Jose Lima. So how does Randy Johnson start the bottom of the first? He walks Jose Reyes. While Reyes is walking more this year (that was his 17th), you'd expect Johnson to have an easy time with the leadoff hitter. LoDuca follows with a single, so it not starting out to be a night for the pitchers.

Update: Beltran homers to make the score 4-3. I can't see the game where (it's on local TV in New York) so I'm interested in anyone who can comment on Johnson's mechanics tonight.

The Maddux-Buehrle matchup was all Buehrle today as the White Sox win 6-1. Maddux gives up all six runs and his May ERA goes to 7.48. Buehrle once again gives up a run in the first inning, but it's unearned and his ERA drops to 2.92. He's still not striking out batters, but his defense keeps gobbling up balls, and he winds up with a two hitter this afternoon.

Jim Thome goes the opposite way against the shift, and ends up homering over the left field fence! He's extended the White Sox lead to 6-1 in the fifth inning, and the South Siders are just knocking hits against Maddux. This is Greg's fourth start in May, and the third in which he's been knocked around. He's now allowed three homers in the month, after giving up just one all of April.

I'm watching the Cubs Leadoff Man show, and with the north side battling the south side, they decided to interview the most famous man from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln. When describing the Cubs offense, Lincoln said, "It seems like their last four scores were seven years ago."

On the fiftieth anniversary of the start of Dale Long's home run streak, Ralph Bennett remembers the excitement it generated in Pittsburgh. I really love the way Bennett captures how fans enjoyed the game back then, listening instead of watching:

That Monday night, May 28, 1956, is etched in my memory. School had ended that day, Daylight Savings Time was in full bloom and ancient ritual demanded that even though it was a cloudy and relatively cool day, we boys of Rector, Pa., should go swimming until dark at Devil's Hole, our favorite "deep spot" in the rushing mountain creek a mile above our house. But what about the big game?

Did I say life was good? Our family had recently acquired a then-new and exciting piece of technology -- a transistor portable radio. It was a teal-colored plastic Philco, about the size of a big dictionary, with a convenient gold handle on top.

We sat it on some rocks beside the swimming hole, volume turned to the max, listening to a rasping Bob Prince's play-by-play. The Dodgers had the superb Carl Erskine, who had recently pitched a no-hitter, on the mound. And even before he had to walk out to the hill, Duke Snider smashed a home run, knocking in Junior Gilliam for a two-run lead in the first.

We swam and horsed around, our lips turning blue from the ice cold water. We paused only when Long came to the plate, standing shivering in our dripping trunks around the radio. Long's first time up he grounded out to second. Back to the water. Then, in the fourth inning, Long was at the plate again. The count went to one and one. Erskine fired what he later described as "a good overhand curve. Low and away."

I wish I could say I heard the "crack of the bat." I didn't. Long had poled the ball into the lower deck in right center. The only thing I remember is the roar from that Philco portable. It overwhelmed the little speaker. The plastic grill on the radio vibrated. You couldn't hear the hoarse-voiced Prince, just the long roar that reverberated across the water of Devil's Hole and through the woods. I could hear someone whooping through the open window of a cottage just down stream.

It's a great tribute to Long, recalling not only his homers, but his other brief moments of fame as a player as well.

It's natural rivalry weekend, and while I'm sure you're all looking forward to the Marlins/Devil Rays Game, there are other interesting matchups out there.

The best pitching matchup of the day takes place this afternoon as the Cubs drive south to play the White Sox. Greg Maddux faces Mark Buehrle. The Cubs so far are not emulating the Red Sox and White Sox championship seasons of the previous two years. Maddux, however, is winning games as he keeps the ball in the park (3 HR allowed) and free passes to a minimum (9 walks). Buehrle is devastating at home so far this season, allowing a .208 batting average and a 2.77 ERA.

Francisco Liriano moves into the Twins rotation tonight, and you should expect a lot of swings and misses by the Brewers. In his short major league career, Liriano struck out 65 batters in 46 innings. He'll face lefty Doug Davis, who's shown control problems when facing right-handed batters. He's walked 33 in 173 righty batters faced for a .382 OBA.

And Barry Bonds will be back in action tonight, facing cross bay rivals the Oakland Athletics as a DH. Bonds is 0 for 4 against Haren with a walk. In 22 games in Oakland, Bonds hit 7 home runs with a .648 slugging percentage.

Enjoy!

Oriole Central notes with glee that Melvin Mora's contract extension is done.

The Toronto Blue Jays spent a lot of money on pitching in the off season, but it's their offense that's been carrying them so far. Toronto scored an 8-4 victory over the Angels last night, putting their runs per game at 5.78, second in the majors. They're also under-performing their runs created estimate, so it looks like that number underestimates their offense. Meanwhile, their pitching staff ranks ninth in the AL with a 4.77 ERA.

Take a look at the hitters so far. Vernon Wells finally figured out how to get on base, as has Shea Hillenbrand. Overbay added OBA to the team, and Glaus power. Those two moves look very good right now. Alex Rios, at age 25, hit his prime and found his power.

Will this last? Overbay and Glaus are doing what's expected. Rios is at an age where the jump is likely to happen, but I thought that was true for Adrian Beltre. Wells and Hillenbrand are most likely to revert to something less than they're doing now. They have a solid track record, and this kind of OBA is not part of it. Still, despite the pitching not being as good as the money spent, the Jays find themselves just one game out of first place.

Nick Piecoro notes the Diamondbacks are leading the majors in turning double plays, and are on a pace to shatter the major league record. Hudson, one of the best defenders in the game last year, is benefiting from Counsell's knowledge of the hitters:

That has a lot to do with positioning, and Counsell regularly passes along some insights to Hudson during innings. Hudson said that several times this season Counsell has all but predicted a ground ball going to second base.

"Before every pitch, he's got everything thought out," Hudson said.

The downside of breaking a record for double plays, of course, is that there are a lot of batters reaching base. But the double plays turned effectively reduced the OBA of the Diamondbacks opposition from .344 to .312. In Bill James book, The Managers, Bill notes that Casey Stengel always tried to put a good double play combination around second base. He didn't mind pitchers who walked a lot of batters, as long as they got ground balls that could be turned into double plays. It's quite possible Arizona adopted that philosophy.

Update: I didn't know if the book was still in print, but Amazon sells it (click on the link above). For some reason, it wasn't as popular as other James books, but I think it's his best job of combining the history and strategy of the game and should be read for the Stengel section if nothing else.

Albert Belle is going to jail for violating terms of his previous bail. He's been calling the ex-girlfriend he was ordered not to contact:

Last month, the former girlfriend called police and said she was receiving hangup phone calls, Clark said. Detectives began an investigation and checked phone records, which showed the calls were coming from Belle. Last week, Belle called and spoke with the woman.

"The nature of the conversation was harassing but not threatening," Clark said.

That was enough probable cause to arrest Belle for felony stalking and violating the previous court order, he said. Clark said because Belle is accused of committing another felony while out on bond, he is ineligible for bail in the new case.

I still think My Name is Joey would be an excellent reality show.

Renyel Pinto made his major league debut for the Florida Marlins yesterday. He pitched an inning, giving up a walk and a hit but got a double play ball to get out of the 1st and 2nd, no one out jam. He threw 10 balls and 10 strikes, and K'd Giles. There's plenty of room for improvement, but not a bad result for your first inning.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Javier Vazquez over his career has seen a pretty steady rise in the number of home runs he allows in a season. That's why it was so encouraging to see him with just two home runs allowed coming into tonight's action, espcecially given that he's in a good home run park in Chicago. Unfortunately, he doubled his home runs allowed tonight as Branyan hit one early and Hollins hit one late, both to tie the game. Carl Crawford added a triple to drive in the winning run in the seventh, and the Devil Rays take the rubber game of the series 5-4.

Kirk Saarloos continued the good May for the Oakland Athletics starters. His one earned run in 6 2/3 innings lowered the ERA to 3.45 for the A's starting pitchers. That's after a 5.60 ERA in April. They've lowered both their walks and home runs per nine, and that seems to have made the difference.

Unfortunately, the record of the starters isn't all the much better. They're 8-7 in May after being 8-9 in April. They have plenty of time left this month to improve.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are employing an interesting shift against Jim Thome. They move three infielders to the first base side of second base, as usual, but then the move the third baseman Huff to left field, and all the outfielders shift toward right. Jim just hit a deep one to the power alley in right that the center fielder was able to run down. It's not clear he would have gotten the ball if he were in his normal position.

Alfonso Soriano and Brad Wilkerson both homered today to help Washington and Texas add one to the win column. At this point, who would you rather have?

2006	Soriano	Wilkerson
Batting Average	.276	.270
On-base Average	.317	.355
Slugging Average	.535	.482
OPS	.852	.837

Right now, Soriano gets the edge as he has better numbers in the tougher park. That's reflected in the win shares as Soriano has five and Wilkerson just three. But Alfonso's OBA is falling while Brad's is on the way up. We'll see how this looks in another month.

The Atlanta Braves rise coincides with the explosion of Jeff Francoeur's offense. On 4/30, Jeff went four for five and the Braves won. In the 18 games he's played starting on that date, Francoeur is 30 for 83 with 7 homers, 12 extra-base hits and 27 RBI. That helped the Braves to average 6.33 runs per game over that time period, the best in the NL. Their 9-1 victory over the Marlins today gives the team a 12-6 record and moves them 3 1/2 games out of first place.

Of course, the biggest difference is that Francoeur drew 1 walk in this stretch, his only one of the year. :-)

The wind wasn't just coming off Lake Erie today as the Royals and Indians combined to strikeout 20 times in the game. That's nearly 40% of the outs in the game via the K. The Indians bullpen was particularly effective today, striking out five in three innings.

Despite all the whiffs, there was still a lot of offense in the game with the final 6-5 Cleveland. Every Cleveland player had at least one hit, while the table setters for the Royals combined to go 6 for 7 with three walks. Unfortunately for KC, the 3-4-5 hitters managed just two RBI with all those opportunities.

Cole Hamels gave up a few runs today as the Brewers get to him for 1 in sixth and three more in the seventh. He could not hold the four run lead, and Ryan Madson once again relieved him and gave up more. The Brewers bullpen pitches four strong innings, striking out four and allowing just two hits to hold on for a 5-4 victory. Hamels walked four more today to bring his total to nine in 11 1/3 innings. Big league hitters are a bit more selective, as Cole is finding out.

It was close, but the Cincinnati Reds came back from an early 6-0 deficit to defeat the Pirates 9-8. The game snaps a five game losing streak in which the Reds averaged just two runs a game. LaRue was the offensive force for the team today, banging out four hits, including a home run and driving in four. He was just 4 for 27 in May.

The good news is that Kerry Wood struck out two and walked none in his first two innings back in the majors. The bad news is he's allowed three home runs and the Cubs are down 4-0 after two innings. Wood is working hard, as he's thrown 44 pitches in the first two innings, 33 for strikes.

Kenny Rogers leaves the Detroit game in the top of the sixth after just 83 pitches. He had loaded the bases, but one of those was on an error. If anyone saw the game, was Kenny injured?

Brian Bannister didn't last long in his rehab start today. Yankees outfielder Bubba Crosby came up lame on what should have been a double down the right field line. He made it to first, but limped almost all the way down the bases. That puts the Yankees down three outfielders. Kevin Reese, his replacement, just made an error in left on a high fly ball in the sun.

Why am I not surprised that Jose Lima allowed two earned runs in the first inning to raise his ERA to 10.12? The Cardinals lead the Mets 2-0. What a perfect day to give Albert Pujols a rest.

Jason Bay goes deep for Pittsburgh in the first with a grand slam as the Pirates jump out to an early lead over the Reds. It's Bay's second career slam. Jason's never drawn a walk with the bases loaded in 34 at bats. He usually draws one every 6.5 at bats.

Also adding to the scoring is Ronny Paulino, who doubled and scored. I'm not sure about Paulino's catching prowes, but he's put up good OBAs for a catcher at every level. He's currently at .354 after the hit, and Pittsburgh can use as many men on base as they can get. I wonder why he didn't play more last year.

The Pirates are up 6-2 in the third.

Instapundit notes this article, and the amusing headline, "Fading slugger hurting team by playing, but S.F. even worse without him."

Bonds is helping the team offensively. His OBA and slugging percentages are very good. As long as other teams are afraid of pitching to him, as long as they don't throw strikes, Barry will be an effective offensive player. How much of that effectiveness is being diminished by his slowness on the bases and in the field, I'm not sure. But my guess is that the high OBA is worth a lot. I'm guessing his OBA would need to get down to around .380 before the tradeoff really hurts the Giants. Note that Bonds is still doing fine in Win Shares despite a poor defensive number.

Carl Pavano still has two pains in the butt. All the other Yankees just have Steinbrenner. :-)

The Brewers go for a sweep of the Phillies today. Standing in their way is Cole Hamels, making his second big league start. The rookie only allowed 1 hit in his five innings against Cincinnati, although he did walk five. Today, he'll face the team leading the majors in home runs with 60. The Phillies aren't giving Cole easy assignments to start his career. He'll face Dana Eveland, also making his second start of the season. Eveland did not have the success of Coles in his first outing, allowing seven hits and six runs. The Brewers have won three straight in their final at bat.

The Chicago Cubs held the Washington Nationals scoreless over the first two games of this series, and now Kerry Wood gets to try to do the same. Sean Marshall and three relievers held Washington to one hit and four walks last night. Along with Carlos Zambrano, the Cubs staff did a good job of softening up Washington's for Wood's debut. He'll face Ramon Ortiz. Nothing is going right for Ortiz this season. He's given up many more hits than innings pitched and walked more batters than he's struck out. His 6.30 ERA looks like a ticket out of the rotation.

The only late game of the day features the best pitching matchup of the day as Roy Halladay and the Blue Jays play the rubber game of their series against John Lackey and the LAnaheim Angels. Roy's 2.74 ERA sits fifth in the American League. He's showing great control, walking one batter every six innings. Lackey's continued his success of last year, which came with a big jump in his strikeout rate. He's maintained that pace and his effectiveness.

Enjoy!

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Giants took no prisoners as they mangled the Houston Astros in the three game series. Just like game 1, the Giants win by a score of 10-1 tonight. In the three games San Francisco outscored Houston 34-5. They drew six walks tonight, and Bonds didn't even play. If the Giants needed a confidence boost, both the pitching and offense got it in this series.

The Yankees and Rangers each scored ten fewer runs than last night as the Yankees take a 4-3 win on the arm of Chien-Ming Wang. Wang survied three errors by the New York infield; only one of the three runs was unearned. His strikeouts were low once again (3 in 8 innings), but Texas managed just six hits.

Jorge Posada knocked in two more, giving him 14 RBI in 13 may games. He had 12 all of April.

It was close, but the Baltimore Orioles finally defeat the Boston Red Sox. The Birds were 0-8 coming into tonight, but managed to pull out a 4-3 victory. Old friend Kevin Millar gave the Orioles the lead with a two run blast, and Baltimore eventually extended the lead to 4-1. But Chris Ray ran into trouble in the ninth. David Ortiz hit a two run shot to bring the Red Sox within one, but that would be it. It was Ortiz's first ninth inning hit this year.

If you missed tonight's show, you can hear the recorded version here. It's also available on demand at TPSRadio.

Another fast game tonight as Jake Westbrook shutouts the Kansas City Royals 5-0. The Indians pitching and offense has been out of sync most of the season, but tonight everything worked right. Westbrook used just 112 pitches to complete the six hitter, all singles. Cleveland got an RBI single by the hot Casey Blake, and a grand slam from the big bat of Travis Hafner. That gives the Indians DH 39 RBI in 38 games played. I'm always impressed when batters have more runs or RBI than games played.

What a pitching duel in Detroit tonight. Two pitchers with very different approaches went at it for eight innings. Johan Santana kept missing bats. The Tigers struck out 12 times vs. the Twins lefty in eight innings. Justin Verlander pitched to contact, walking none, striking out none, but allowing just six hits (he also hit a batter). Both pitched 8 innings, but the Twins never got to Jason. But in the bottom of the eighth, Shelton drew the only walk of the game leading off. After an Inge strikeout, Vance Wilson became the unlikely hero, depositing his first home run of the year into the left field seats. Vance is a career .366 slugger, but he got the game winner off the best pitcher in the American League.

Tiger fans, if the Tigers can beat Santana, they can beat anybody. Go out and support this team!

Barry Bonds is not in the starting lineup for the Giants this evening. I assume he's available to pinch hit.

The Baseball Musings Radio Show is coming up in a little while at 8 PM EDT. You can leave questions during the show in the TPSRadio Chat Room.

The Rockies put two men on with two outs in the ninth, but Baez gets the final out for a 3-2 victory. That means there's been just 177 runs scored in 20 games at Coors, less than 9 per game.

Kyle Lohse became one of the highest paid players in triple A today as he's sent down in favor of Boof Bonser. How you can keep a pitcher with that name in the minors for any length of time is beyond me. Boof has a career minor league K per 9 of 9.38. He walks a few batters, but great control didn't help Silva or Radke this year.

I can't wait to hear the announcer intone, "They're not saying boo, they're saying Boof!"

After the Dodgers tie the game in the top of the seventh, Nomar Garciaparra delievers a two-run single to give Los Angeles a 3-1 lead. That gives Garciaparra 25 RBI in 23 games.

Neither team playing in Colorado has scored through four innings. Penny and Jennings have combined to allow five hits and strike out eight so far. The mile high park is averaging just nine runs a game this season.

Update: With two outs in the sixth, Jason Smith singles, steals second, then scores on a Miguel Ojeda single through the short stop hole. The Rockies take a 1-0 lead at the end of six.

Rays Index notices that the Devil Rays win over the White Sox last night demonstrated everything people thought about this team going into the season.

It seems Kyle broke the team rules by leaving early last night.

Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke looks at how the indecision of Dave Littlefield hurt the Pirates over the years.

The Baseball Musings radio show will be on TPSRadio tonight at 8 PM EDT. Check out their other sports programming as well.

You can also call in at 888-985-0555 and leave a question for the show, or stop by the chat room at TPSRadio during the broadcast and leave a comment. Also, feel free to leave a question in the comments to this post and I'll be happy to answer it on the air.

The Twins send their only reliable starter to the mound tonight to try to earn a victory against the Detroit Tigers. Johan Santana faces Justin Verlander in a battle of 4-3 pitchers. Santana's been on fire in May, striking out 30 while walking just two in 21 innings pitched. Verlander hasn't pitched well at home, allowing a .338 BA at Comerica.

On the west coast, it's a battle of lefties as Jamie Moyer takes on Barry Zito. Both have good ERAs; neither has good record. Moyer's allowing a .149 BA with runners in scoring position, Zito .206. Both pitchers only received 14 runs in support this year, however.

Enjoy!

Bob Dutton notes the Kansas City Royals are on a record setting pace for wild pitches.

"Some of the wild pitches aren't wild pitches," manager Buddy Bell said. "They've been on fastballs. But you can't just ask your catcher to block ball after ball after ball. Then it's like you're a (hockey) goalie.

"It goes hand in hand with command. If you have better command, the catcher will catch more of those pitches."

Curt Schilling denies that his 133 pitch performance in Cleveland is responsible for his poor pitching performances lately:

''I can talk until I'm blue in the face, until everybody's blue in face, when I tell you guys that's not it," Schilling said. ''It makes good copy. That's really putting the blame and making excuses where they don't belong.

Schilling's explanation doesn't really convince me otherwise:

''That's part of it," Schilling said. ''The split's not as sharp. The fastball doesn't have the extra oomph I used to have. I've got to adjust and make better pitches. I will."

Where that oomph went, of course, is subject to conjecture, as in, did it check out in Cleveland? What happened last night, Schilling said, was that in trying to reach back for something extra, he gave up command of his fastball, and that cost him, big-time.

''Any time you try to put extra velocity on the ball, chances are real high you're going to give away location," he said. ''When you throw the ball like Josh [Beckett] does, you can get away with that. But right now I cannot. I knew it -- I've known it -- but I'm not taking it out to the mound on a consistent basis."

That reach-back fastball ultimately will return, he insists. What to do in the interim?

''It's mental, it's all mental," he said. ''The mind-set, the philosophy, is not foreign to me. I get ahead throwing 91, 92, getting a guy to two strikes. It's almost like with two strikes I get to be a bull in a china shop instead of staying with my strength, which is command, moving a guy back and forth across the plate, getting him out in front. I'm not doing that, and that's frustrating."

It's only mental in that Schilling refuses to recognize his physical limitations. The physical limitations indicate that, well, something's wrong physically. The real interesting thing is that over the starts since the Cleveland game, his strikeouts per 9 innings is still 8.0, just like earlier in the season. What's different is the hits he's allowing. On fieldable balls in play, opposition batters were 23 for 84 against Curt through 4/25, a .274 batting average. Since then, they're 24 for 72, a .333 average. Is it shoddier defense, or is Schilling giving batters easier pitches to hit? Given that his home runs went way up, I'm thinking it's the latter. My guess is that there's some minor injury (maybe covered by his usual soreness) that's messing up Curt's mechanics.

Maybe Felix Hernandez was crowned just a little too early. The Athletics pounded the young Mariners' pitcher for ten runs last night, earning eleven hits and two walks in four innings. Despite an impressive number of strikeouts, the opposition is hitting .302 off Hernandez on the season. What's the problem?

Well, is the combination of Hernandez and new catcher Kenji Johjima simply not working out? Pitching coach Rafael Chaves said Johjima was not, in his view, part of the problem.

"I'm satisfied that Joh is calling the right pitches," Chaves said. "Felix is throwing the pitches he wants to throw. That's not a problem.

"What is a problem is that he isn't executing the pitches. He's throwing the right pitch at the right time, but it's up in the zone too much of the time."

He's now allowed eight homers in 43 1/3 innings, six of those on the road. He's been great in Seattle, allowing a .211 opposition BA, but that balloons to .393 away from Seattle. He's been hit hard in every park he's visited this year. Seattle fans, is there something about the dimensions of Safeco that helps Hernandez?

The Angels picked up eight runs last night as they sent the Blue Jays to an 8-3 loss. In the month of May, the Angels have four games in which they've scored 7 or more runs, and ten games where they've scored four or less (8 of those 3 or less). There seems to be no middle ground for the Angels as they've been outscored 71 to 52 so far this month.

The NL West tightened up a little bit more last night. The Diamondbacks won their third game in a row, defeating the Padres 5-2 behind a great job by the bullpen. That great job, unfortunately, was necessistated by an injury to El Duque:

But while they'll wake up in first place in the National League West, having wrested the lead away from San Diego by a half game, they'll also have to evaluate Hernandez's injuries, and perhaps make contingency plans.

Melvin said Hernandez left with injuries to his mid back and his right knee. Hernandez, however, said the knee isn't a concern but that he felt more pain in his right rib cage.

The injury, he said, happened while facing Dave Roberts in the game's first at-bat.

"I felt a little pain when I threw," he said. "I tried every inning but I was feeling more pain. I'll wait for tomorrow for the doctor to look at me. And maybe I'll have good answer then

."

The hitters deserve kudos as well as they managed two home runs off Jake Peavy and chased the ace after just five innings.

Colorado got back in the win column with another well pitched game at Coors Field. Byung-Hyun Kim was wild, but the Dodgers couldn't take advantage of five walks and two wild pitches in seven innings. Los Angeles managed just one run off Kim, while Derek Lowe allowed five as he struck out none. Brad Hawpe scored the big hit, a three run homer in the fourth.

Combined with the Giants blowout of the Astros, 2 1/2 games separate top from bottom in the NL West, and unlike last year, the five teams are close because they're all playing well, not because they're playing poorly.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Rangers score a run off Rivera in the top of the ninth to take a 13-12 lead, but Jorge Posada delivers a 2-run, 2-out homer off Otsuka to give New York a 14-13 victory. It was not a night for pitchers as the teams combined for 33 hits, 11 walks and two hit batters. Without Giambi, Sheffield and Matsui, the Yankees still put up lots of runs. An amazing win as New York matches their best comeback of all time, 9 runs. Posada drives in five, Jeter four and Cairo three.

Carlos Zambrano finds a way for the Cubs to win with no offense; pitch eight shutout innings. He combines with Dempster for a four hit, nine strikeout shutout as the Cubs take a 4-0 victory. The last five Cubs wins came when they allowed 2 runs or less.

The Tigers win and the White Sox lose with the result a tie for first place between Detroit and Chicago. This actually is bad news for Cleveland and Minnesota. With two teams way out in front of the division, it's less likely that both will come back to the pack. However, it's good for the fans as it's always fun to see a close race between two good teams.

The Red Sox remain undefeated against the Orioles, taking home a 6-5 victory. Curt Schilling gets the win, but it was not pretty. Schilling only struck out two and allowed nine hits and three home runs. After giving up four homers in his first seven starts, Schillings had six fly out of the park in his last two.

The bullpen, however, was great, allowing no runs, no hits and one walk over 3 1/3 innings. Paplebon pitched a perfect ninth for his fourteenth save, and the opposition is now batting just .151 against him.

Dontrelle Willis pitched nine innings tonight, allowing just two runs. He was on the verge of a 2-1 win when Jeff Francoeur with one out in the ninth hit a game tying homer. They've gone to the tenth in Atlanta, and Dontrelle won't get the win.

Correction: Francoeur's homer came with one out, not leading off the inning.

Trailing 4-3 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Indians found some power as Sizemore and Hafner go deep in the inning for a 6-3 victory over the Royals. Burgos blows the save and gets the loss. The Royals now have 10 blown saves in 15 opportunities. It's only the second win for the Indians against the Royals in seven tries this season.

Bonds bats again. He's batted in every inning but one tonight. Gallo starts him with a strike on the outside corner. He then flies out to center to end the inning. With the score 12-3, I suspect Bonds won't go to the outfield for the bottom of the sixth.

Update: Ellison replaces Bonds in left. Barry goes two for four with a HBP and scored three. It was by far the best night I've seen Barry have at the plate in a long time. He was able to consistently pull the ball, something he hasn't been doing much this year.

The Yankees, with a makeshift lineup due to a neck injury to Giambi, come back from a 9-0 deficit to take an 11-10 lead over the Rangers in sixth. Posada is batting fourth, Cano fifth, and both Andy Phillips and Miguel Cairo are in the lineup. But the six through nine hitters are seven for fifteen, Jeter is three for three with a homer and four RBI. Even with lots of injuries, there's still a lot of offense in that lineup.

Update: Proctor gives the lead right back with a walk and a Wilkerson home run. It's 12-11 Rangers.

It's 11-3, so for the second inning in a row, Bonds leads off. Russ Springer throws the ball behind Barry's behind, then comes inside and hits the knob of Barry's bat. Springer was warned after throwing behind Bonds, but keeps coming inside, getting ball 2 on Barry's hands. Springer hits Bonds on the should on a 3-1 pitch, and he and Garner are tossed. Springer sure looked like he wanted to hit Bonds in that plate appearance. I don't know why Russ would go after Barry like that, but I suspect there will be a fine. There was nothing subtle there at all.

After posting a very low K per 9 to start the year, Tim Hudson found his out pitch against the Marlins. With 10 K tonight, he's struck out 17 in his last 12 innings, all against the Fish. Ray is on in relief in the seventh. Unfortunately for Tim, Dontrelle Willis only allowed two hits and one run, putting Hudson on the short end of a 2-1 lead. Willis isn't exactly pitching lights out (3 BB, 2 K), but it's effective so far.

Carlos Zambrano brought his strikeout pitch tonight. Through four innings, he's shutting out the Nationals with seven Ks. Soriano, Guillen and Church each went down twice. He may need to keep that going, as Livan Hernandez hasn't allowed a run through three, and he's doing it with every batter putting the ball in play.

With the Giants up 6-2, Bonds comes up for the third time in the game in the fourth inning. After getting ahead 2-0, Barry lines a single by the first baseman for his second hit of the game. This is the first time in a while where I've seen Bonds pulling everything. He's 2 for 3 with two singles.

Brandon McCarthy's spot start does not last very long. The Devil Rays work him for 83 pitches in four innings, and he leaves the game trailing 3-1. It's not all negative, however, and he struck out four and walked just one in his stint. Unfortunately, the DRays were five for twelve when they put the ball in play, with Wigginton and Hall going deep.

The Minnesota Twins staked Kyle Lohse to a 3-0 lead after three at bats, but he's Minnesota starter and he gave it right back. The Tigers chased him with five runs in the bottom of the third, and then added one in the fourth for a 6-3 lead. The Twins are coming close to having to remake their rotation.

Bonds takes the first pitch for a strike, then gets a hold of one and sends Lane back to the warning track in right. Again, the pitch was belt high over the plate, and Bonds hit it well. It just wasn't good enough as Lane had plenty of room to haul it in. Durham was able to tag from first, however. Bonds is 1 for 2 with a single.

Mike Lowell hit his 20th double of the year in the Red Sox 37th game. I'm glad Lowell proved me wrong about his offensive decline. There was a very high probability that last year was real, but Lowell is hitting better than ever. If he hit like this last year, the Marlins would have made the playoffs.

For the last decade or so, it's looked like someone would threaten the single season doubles record. There's been any number of people who got off to a hot start, only to tail off as the season wore on. I used to have a day by day log for Earl Webb's 1931 season, the year he legged out 67 two baggers in 151 games, but I can't seem to find it.. Right now, Lowell is on a pace for 88. He's in a good park to take on the record, the same one Webb used. I doubt Mike will come close, but if sluggers can pass Ruth, Maris and McGwire, then 67 doubles shouldn't be out of the question.

Manny Ramirez and Trot Nixon hit solo shots in the second inning off Bruce Chen to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead over the Orioles. It's Manny's 7th of the year, and his 6th on the road. In his first five years in Boston, Manny hit 102 homers at home, 97 on the road.

Barry Bonds falls behind Wandy Rodriguez 0-2 on a taken strike (inside low) and a foul ball. Wandy wastes two on the outside (Bonds won't chase that pitch). Barry fouls off pitch five the opposite way, as he does with pitch six. Both were on the low outside corner. Another pitch on the outside part of the plate, and a check swing foul. Wandy then gets a pitch on the inside part of the plate above the belt and Bonds drives it down the line for an RBI single. He can still drive pitches up in the zone.

Update: Bonds can't run tonight. Most players would have a double on a liner down the right field line. Feliz follows with a fly ball that drops in the left field corner, and Bonds can only make it to second, prevent Pedro from being credited with a double.

It looks Shawn Chacon wasn't fooling any of the Texas hitters tonight. He lasts just 1 1/3 innings, giving up 8 runs. Of course, Aaron Small helped out, giving up a home run to Blalock with two of Shawn's runners on base. That takes Chacon's ERA up over 1.5 runs to 5.21.

Dan Lewis posts on Babe Ruth's 715th home run. The rules at the time only credited a batter who hit a walk-off home run with the number of bases needed to win the game. Ruth was credited with a triple on one of those.

I guess that's balanced by the rule at the time that credited balls that bounced into the stands as home runs. They're the ground rule doubles of today. I know Ruth didn't hit any of those in 1927, but I'm not sure about the rest of his career.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are helping to revive ball fields in the Tampa-St. Pete area:

Oliver Field is the first field to be refurbished under the Rays Field Renovation Program.

"Given Oliver Field's historical significance to the area and its close proximity to Tropicana Field, it was the perfect place to begin this outreach program," said Matt Silverman, Rays' president, in a release.

Oliver Field is the home field of the St. Petersburg Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities League (RBI), a grassroots outreach program managed by Major League Baseball designed to promote interest in baseball, increase the self-esteem of disadvantaged children and encourage kids to stay in school.

Another example of the Rays new management being better in touch with the surrounding community.

Two teams with tenuous leads on first place battle tonight as the New York Mets visit the St. Louis Cardinals. Veteran left-hander Tom Glavine take the mound for New York. Glavine is currently fourth in the NL with a 2.19 ERA. Tom's been very good at keeping himself out of trouble. Of 216 batters faced this year, only 47 have come up with runners in scoring position, 22% (compare to 27% for the team as a whole). The Cardinals send Jeff Suppan in opposition. Jeff's been the beneficiary of great support this season, getting 6.86 runs per nine innings, second in the National League.

The Padres and Diamondbacks go at it again tonight, with the winner holding first place in the NL West. Padres ace Jake Peavy faces the struggling Orlando Hernandez. Since pitching a poor start vs. Arizona on April 25th, Peavy is 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA in three May starts. And since a superb start against the Padres on April 26th, Hernandez is 0-1 in two May starts with a 13.50 ERA.

Enjoy!

Ben Kabak links to Alan Schwarz's latest on the legal battle between MLBAM and small fantasy baseball operators. I hope you'll read both. Ben's position is one I agree with; MLBAM should be doing everything to encourage as much fantasy play as possible. They should be encouraging competition among the small providers with licenses based on the number of players. That way, the good ones will grow, and MLB will reap the profits from that growth. The path MLB is going down might very well kill the golden goose.

Aaron Rowand earned himself revered status crashing into the wall in Philadelphia to catch a shot by Xavier Nady. He cemented that with his news conference.

''Going out and playing hard, you're not trying to be an example,'' he said. ''You're trying to play your game. If it's me and I see a guy bust down the line, and I know in the back of my mind I'm not giving everything I have, I'm going to step my game up. That rubs off. You'd be kidding yourself if you thought that it didn't.''

It has become popular to contrast his MO with that of Kenny Lofton, the Phils' semi-regular center fielder last year. Lofton didn't want to be on that wall, didn't need to be on that wall, and said so. Asked about that, Rowand steered clear. He played with Lofton in Chicago, and wasn't about to trash a former teammate.

Then the name of another ex-Philly athlete was invoked: Former Eagle Ricky Watters, of for-who, for-what fame.

''For who?'' Rowand asked. ''My teammates. For what? To win. That's what it's about.''

Geez. At this rate, this guy will never have to buy another meal in this town.

By the way, the Phillies finally installed padding on the fence.

It turns out Victor Zambrano needed Tommy John surgery, his second time having the procedure. MetsBlog looks at the speculation that his career is over.

FishStripes notes the end of the San Antonio deal to host the Marlins. He also notes that MLB is now very interested in putting a team in the Texas city:

If a deal can't be struck in Hialeah, San Antonio will most likely be the front runner for the team's new home.

Okay, that isn't altogether a shocker though I can think of three better locations. But what is surprising is: since when did Major League Baseball start being upfront with possible relocation cities?

I can't remember ever seeing this before.

All I can conclude is San Antonio played this like masters. Putting up an offer - setting a deadline and being open if MLB and the Marlins really want to move to the city in the future.

I must say: well done San Antonio.

Indeed. Unlike Portland or Vegas, San Antonio refused to be used as a pawn and put a legitimate deal on the table. It appears that MLB respects that.

Update: Sorry, I forgot to include the link before.

Dusty Baker acknowledges his troubles:

''It's been harder lately because I lost Steve Howe, who was a friend, and another longtime friend of mine [died] a few days ago,'' Baker said. ''The hardest part is going home to yourself or going out and knowing people are going to bombard you with negatives. It's hard because some of it is justified.

''This has been a tough 17-game stretch, and I knew it would be. It started tough and went downhill.''

That's what happened to King Lear. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. If you're looking for negatives, here are the Cubs batting splits since 4/20, the day after Lee's injury. Apart from the right fielder, nobody is hitting. The most damning thing in my mind, however, is the lack of production from first base. Lee's replacements averages are .193 BA, .272 OBA, .229 slugging. I don't expect them to find another Derrek Lee, but it shouldn't be that difficult to find someone who can hit to play the position. Where is Chicago's Ryan Howard? Don't they have a slugger at AAA or AA who can hit .250 with a .450 slugging percentage? Take the best bat in your system, put him at first and see what happens. It has to be better than this.

Billfer at The Detroit Tigers Weblog notes attendance is poor at Tigers games despite the team's good record. If you want your team to keep working toward winning, you need to reward management when they do a good job! Detroit fans, get out to the park the week. Billfer offers plenty of good reasons, including discount tickets!

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Eric Byrnes leads off the bottom of the 10th inning for Arizona with a double, and with two outs the Padres walk Clark so the lefty Embree can pitch to Green, and Shawn delievers a single to win the game 6-5.

The top two teams in the West lose, the bottom three teams win, and the West gets a bit tighter.

Brett Tomko moves his record to 5-1 as he allows just 2 earned runs over seven innings against the Colorado Rockies. With his ERA at 2.88, the Dodgers have three pitchers in the 10 ten in ERA.

The Dodgers are now 8-2 over their last 10 games and are back over .500.

Josh Bard just had a Josh Paul moment. On a third strike, Bard catches the ball near the ground. The ump makes a fist, then sticks his hand out to indicate the play is not over. Byrnes is running down to first, but no one is covering because they think Byrnes is out. (It looked to my like Bard caught the ball.) Once again, the ump is not clear on his signals, and the Diamondbacks put the tying run on first with one out. The Padres lead 5-4 in the bottom of the seventh.

Update: The ump makes up for the bad call with another Byrnes tries to steal as Tracy strikes out. But Tracy steps in front of the catcher and the ump calls interference. However, the catcher and batter never made contact, so according the the broadcaster, that's not interference. I'll try to find the rule.

Update: Rule 7.09(a):

It is interference by a batter or a runner when: (a) After a third strike he hinders the catcher in his attempt to field the ball.

Tracy certainly got in the way of Bard, hindering his throw. There's nothing in the rule about contact. A good call by the ump.

Update: Tony Clark ties the game in the bottom of the 8th with a solo home run.

Mike Mussina and Kevin Millwood battled to a seven inning stalemate in New York tonight. Each allowed two runs and combined for eleven strikeouts and just one walk. But the Texas pen was better over their two innings as Cordero and Otsuka combined to allowed just one hit, while Kyle Farnsworth allowed four base runners and two runs as Texas won the battle of the first place teams by a score of 4-2.

Barry Bonds comes up to bat in the sixth inning with men on first and third and no one out. Dave Borkowski is pitching, and throws the first two pitches outside for balls. He then gets a strike on the knees on the outside corner. Pitch four is high and outside for ball three. He then throws a strike at the knees. Bonds rolls is eyes at both called strikes. The first 3-2 pitch is pulled foul. Bonds then pops out to shortstop for the out. He's 1 for 3 with a walk and a double.

Josh Johnson made his third good start in a row for the Florida Marlins tonight. He held the Braves to 2 runs over five innings and left with a 5-2 lead. He was lifted because he threw 100 pitches. When that happens, you leave yourself open to the whims of the bullpen. Matt Herges came in and got knocked around by the Braves, allowing Atlanta to tie the game at five. Johnson pitching well in starts is a good sign for the Marlins; he'll need to start going deeper in the games to have more control over his wins and losses.

Update: Messenger throws more fuel on the fire and the Braves scored six in the sixth to take an 8-5 lead.

Once again, Bonds is up with men on first and second and one out. This time, however, he faces Trever Miller. Bonds takes the first pitch for a strike, again, at the knees on the inside corner. A sweeping breaking ball that finishes outside the strike zone is missed by Barry for strike two. Miller wastes a pitch, then Bonds fouls off one up on his hands. Miller finishes Bonds off with a big breaking ball that just catches the inside corner and Bonds looking for strike three.

The Baltimore Orioles are well on their way to their seventh defeat in seven games by the Boston Red Sox. If you remove the games against Boston, the Orioles would be 18-14 with a 5.22 ERA. They outscored other opponents 181-177, but the Red Sox outscored them 53-20, including the 8-1 lead tonight.

After the double by Bonds, Sweeney is walked intentionally to load the bases, and Pedro Feliz delivers a grand slam into the Crawford boxes. The Giants lead 8-0.

Barry walked in the first inning, and comes up in the third with men on first and second with one out. The fans are holding up asterisks. Barry fouls off the first pitch to the third base stands. He takes the second pitch for a strike at the knees on the inside corner. That seems to be the best place to get a called strike on Barry. The third pitch is up in the middle of the strike zone, and Bonds hits a screaming line drive to right. If hits in front of Lane and bounces over his head for an RBI double. It's the best swing I've seen from Bonds since the homer in Philadelphia.

Just in case you were wondering, Bonds is in the lineup against the Astros tonight, batting fourth.

With Carlos Silva being moved to the Twins bullpen, Brew Crew Ball notes that Milwaukee will see Cole Hamels and Francisco Liriano in consecutive games later in the week.

The Cub Reporter is taking comments on possible Cubs firings:

Dusty

Hendry

Everybody

The Arizona Diamondbacks locked up Chad Tracy today through the 2009 season.

Tracy, who is making $381,000 this season, gets a $1 million signing bonus, $2.75 million next year, $3.75 million in 2008 and $4.75 million in 2009. Arizona has a $7 million option for 2010 with a $1 million buyout.

"This contract demonstrates our commitment to the fans by continuing our efforts to provide them with a competitive team and an identifiable core of players," general manager Josh Byrnes said in a statement. "Chad has also demonstrated his commitment to this organization and the state of Arizona."

Tracy is a solid offensive player who is now locked up through his peak years. Not too long that he can cost the team a lot of money with a career ending injury, and they don't need to worry about arbitration. A nice signing by Arizona.

The White Sox won easily over the Twins today 7-3. The difference in the game was the starting pitching. The White Sox game into the game with a starter's ERA of 4.10, the Twins 6.44. Freddy Garcia allowed 3 runs in 6 2/3 innings, while Scott Baker allowed 5 in 4 2/3. That was more than enough to give the White Sox the victory.

Scott Podsednik goes deep to give the White Sox a 3-0 lead over the Twins in the second inning. It's the first regular season home run for Podsednik since 2004 (he hit one in the ALDS in 2005). Scott Baker, the Twins starter, continues to give up hits. The White Sox are four for ten against Baker today, raising his BA allowed to .307. Chicago doesn't even have it's best lineup on the field today.

Ducksnorts takes an in-depth look at the Padres hot streak.

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The Cub Reporter has 15 questions for the next manager of the Cubs. They're pretty good ones for any manager.

A battle of first place teams takes place in The Bronx tonight as the Texas Rangers face the New York Yankees. The Rangers took two days off due to weather in Boston, so they should be well rested for tonight's contest. My probables show Kevin MIllwood facing Mike Mussina. Millwood put together a streak of five fine outings before being pounded by the Twins his last time out. That game raises Kevin's ERA 1.6 runs. Millwood is hittable, allowing 59 safeties in 47 1/3 innings. Mussina's 2.56 ERA is third in the American League entering today's action. Mike is doing a great job fooling left-handed batters this season, as they're hitting just .187 against him.

The Padres and Diamondbacks open an important series in Arizona as Chan Ho Park faces Brandon Webb. Arizona finds itself 1 1/2 games behind San Diego, so they have a chance to move into first with a sweep. Park is a pitcher who did not seem to be hurt by pitching in the WBC. His ERA hasn't been this low since his last season with the Dodgers, although much of that is attributable to his pitching the majority of his innings at PETCO. However, his control is much better than last year, having walked just 11 in 45 1/3 innings. The way to beat Webb is to stack your lineup with lefties, but the Padres don't have many left-handed bats to put in the lineup. Left-handed opponents are batting .313 vs. Webb, righties, .231, with similar differences in OBA and slugging percentage.

Enjoy!

I'd rather take my chances with Bannister:

Mets brass is now leaning toward having Brian Bannister pitch in a minor-league game before reentering the rotation. That would prevent the rookie from facing the Yankees on Friday and delay a decision about whether to bounce Jose Lima or Jeremi Gonzalez from the rotation.

The Mets still were debating how to align Lima and Gonzalez, with one journeyman slated to pitch Thursday against the Cardinals and the other the following day against the Yankees.

You know you're in trouble if you need to ponder bouncing Jose Lima from the rotation.

Nick and Nick make the case for removing Carlos Silva from the rotation:

However, at this point, it is clear that Silva needs to be banished from the rotation. He has allowed 5+ runs in every single start he's made this year except for a home start against Kansas City. If the Twins are going to keep him on the roster for the time being, which they almost surely will, he should be moved to the bullpen. As a reliever in Philadelphia, Silva had a 3.83 ERA over two years and allowed only 11 HRs in 171.1 innings. Whether it's a relocation to the bullpen, a trip to the minors, or a trade/release (highly unlikely), something must happen with Silva. He cannot be allowed to make another start. If the Twins do that, they might as well use the dagger they couldn't put through the heart of the White Sox to stab themselves. He cannot get it done and at this point, and leaving Francisco Liriano in the bullpen while the rotation continues to struggle so mightily seems insane and just idiotic. Silva has to go.

The Indians sent Steve Karsay to the Oakland Athletics for cash. Given the state of the Indians bullpen, the fact that they sold Karsay to Oakland rather than bringing him up tells you something about the Indians opinion of the veteran.

Eric Gilmore expects the Giants to be a totally different team next year:

Bonds is one of nine Giants veterans in the final year of their contracts, along with Jason Schmidt, Moises Alou, Ray Durham, Pedro Feliz, Steve Kline, Todd Greene, Jose Vizcaino and Jamey Wright.

They count for more than $50 million of the Giants' $90-million-plus payroll, with Bonds' $18 million and Schmidt's $10.5 million the largest hits.

Include Steve Finley -- he has a team option for 2007 -- and you're talking 10 Giants and more than $57 million.

We're watching the Bondsian era of Giants baseball end before our eyes, day by day and, quite often, loss by loss.

The Giants will save a lot of money next year, but who do they use instead? Most free agents are not young players; you can't go out and buy a bunch of 26 year olds. If the Giants let that much talent go, some of the replacements need to come from within, or the team will be no better off than this year.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Carlos Silva could not hold the 7-3 lead given to him by the White Sox defense and his teammates hitting. He continues to be hit hard despite not walking any batters, allowing three home runs tonight as the White Sox come back and earn a 9-7 victory. Silva's now allowed 15 home runs in 46 innings; that would put him on a pace to allow over 60 if he got to 200 innings. Of course, with an 8.80 ERA, that's not likely to happen.

Buehrle settled down after the rough first inning and did not allow a run over the next five. According to the telecast, he's the first pitcher since 1900 to allow seven runs in the first inning and still win the game.

Daniel Medina sends a link to this article by Alan Schwarz on how the weather was responsible for the offensive surge in April:

The numbers bear this out. Merging data provided by Stats LLC and Weather Source, a provider of historical and real-time weather information based in Amesbury, Mass., Mark Gibbas of Weather Source found what he called a "meaningful and possibly substantial" correlation between heat index — an amalgam of temperature, humidity and other factors — and home runs. The April 2000 surge, he found, was at least partly caused by a 56.2 heat index that ranked sixth among the 34 years studied. Hot and cool Aprils tended to correlate with high and low offense.

This was the warmest April since records started being kept in 1895. Good work here. If you chart offense by month over time, you see the warmest months tend to have the best averages:

Month	BA	OBA	Slug	OPS
3	0.253	0.332	0.411	0.743
4	0.263	0.336	0.424	0.760
5	0.264	0.334	0.423	0.757
6	0.268	0.337	0.432	0.769
7	0.267	0.334	0.428	0.762
8	0.266	0.334	0.425	0.759
9	0.262	0.333	0.417	0.750
10	0.259	0.323	0.418	0.741

This data is from 2000 on, and contains two hot Aprils. I really like the way the article ends:

"People want a definite answer and to be able to say, 'This is it,' " said Mets reliever Aaron Heilman, who graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in management information systems and reads books on mathematics and philosophy. "But there are a lot of intangibles that they can't see. Most of the time, things have to do with a lot of factors. You can't pinpoint just one."

For those who must, the best is probably April's sultry weather. In the end, all the conspiracy talk might indeed have been a lot of hot air.

It usually is.

The Twins defense in the top of the first helped keep the game close. The White Sox defense in the bottom of the first gave away the lead. Two balls that could have been double plays turned into errors, and the Twins took advantage to the tune of six runs. They're still batting in the bottom of the first.

Update: The Twins plate the seventh run of the inning. The Twins have five hits since the second error, and there's still just one out. The White Sox allowed just four unearned runs all year, and they're going to allow more than that this inning.

Update: The innings is over and six of the seven runs were unearned.

Baseball Primer Newsblog at Baseball Think Factory posts a quote from the Pirates owner about how he doesn't think he'll be a long time owner of the a franchise. Mark Cuban is interested and probably has the cash in his pocket.

Jermaine Dye uses his pink bat to homer over the center field fence to give the White Sox a 3-0 lead over the Twins in the top of the first. It could easily be worse, as Hunter caught a Thome fly ball over the wall, and Castillo made a terrific catch on a fly down the right field line by Konkero. Dye's hit it so far, no one could catch it. Silva's ERA goes to 8.66 after allowing three earned runs in the first inning.

Bleed Cubbie Blue, in a very humorous column on the Cubs loss today, asks if there's been a game with one batter with five walks and one with five strikeouts before. The Day by Day Database goes back to 1974, and I only found one instance. It happened on May 23, 1987. The Cubs beat the Braves 7-6 that day in 16 innings. Dale Murphy walked five times for the Braves, and Ozzie Virgil, the Braves catcher, struck out five times. I found no examples in nine inning games.

Rastronomicals at Crawfish Boxes notes how much the Houston defense helped Andy Pettitte earn the shutout today.

Juilan Perez of the Braves died today.

Julian Perez, an Atlanta Braves scouting supervisor who had been with the organization in 1992, was killed in a car accident early Sunday in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Jeff Weaver started this afternoon's game against the Seattle Mariners with a 6.53 ERA and managed to raise it nearly a run! Weaver gave up seven runs in 3 1/3 innings to run his record to 1-6, raise his ERA to 7.40 and move the Angels into last place in the AL West. Maybe it's time to raise Jeff's brother, Jered to the majors.

Bonds hits the first pitch into shallow left center, where the shortstop makes the catch back peddling. He's 0-2 in the game with two walks. His batting average is down to .217.

Vin Scully is saying the buzz in the pressbox is that Bonds won't play in Houston so he can try to break the record when the Giants play interleague against the Oakland Athletics. The Giants then come back to SF for six games. If that's true, then the Giants don't think Bonds is helping them win, he's just playing for the record. But with his OBA, Bonds is helping, so he should be in the lineup.

Of course, the Giants, I'm sure, can find a physical excuse for Barry not to play. When you have two bad knees and a bad elbow, it's pretty easy. At least then it won't look like they're more interested in the record than winning.

The Arizona Diamondbacks held off a late game surge by the Cardinals to walk away with a 7-6 victory. Johnny Estrada drove in three runs with two hits and represents a big area of improvement for the Diamondbacks. Last year, Arizona catchers hit .218 with a.306 OBA and a .325 slugging percentage. Thanks mostly to Estrada, those numbers are up to .285/.331/.469. Not bad for a catching unit.

The Kansas City Royals went into the bottom of the ninth in Baltimore with a 7-4 lead over the Orioles. Starting the inning was Ambiorix Burgos, the Royals closer. Burgos is tough to hit; in 16 1/3 innings this year he has 20 strikeouts. But he also walks batters (7) and gives up quite a few home runs (4). So when he walks the first three batters to start the ninth, what do you do as a manger? Bell left him in. At first it looked okay, as he allowed a sac fly and a then got a strikeout. But two singles later, the game was tied, and Gobble came in to be the turkey, giving up the game winning hit to Kevin Millar.

I'll give Bell the benefit of the doubt here. The Royals drew 12 walks today. Maybe home plate ump Fullwood was squeezing the strike zone, although the Orioles only drew one walk until the ninth. Did anyone see the game? Were the Orioles pitchers really that wild?

Andy Pettitte pitched his first shutout in nearly four years as he defeated the Colorado Rockies 3-0. His last was on 6/30/2002 against the Mets, and like today he threw a three hitter. Homers by Berkman and Ensberg were more than enough for Andy today. The pair now have combined for 25 of Houston's 48 home runs this season. The Rockies fall a game behind the Padres in the NL West.

Sean Kirst explains how Ban Johnson pulling an AL franchise from Buffalo at the last minute cursed the city never to win a major league championship.

With the Dodgers ahead 2-1 and a man on first, the Seo walks Bonds on a 3-1 count. Not intentional, but Seo was being very careful

The Mets and Brewers kept the game in doubt through 10 innings. Each team battled back from deficits, the Mets tying the game in the seventh and ninth, the Brewers taking the lead in the second and eighth. It came down to Bill Hall and Chad Bradford in the bottom of the tenth, with Hall smacking his eighth homer of the year to win the game. That's Hall's third home run this year with the game tied. Coming into this game, he was batting .333 in tied situations with a .704 slugging percentage.

Hanley Ramirez keeps pouring on the offense, belting out three hits today and raising his OBA to .406 and his slugging percentage to .497. Given Lowell and Beckett's performance so far, it's hard to say the Red Sox made a mistake trading him, but the Marlins certainly got a good, cheap player who can give them strength up the middle for a long time.

The Marlins touched Ian Snell for seven runs in less than two innings and went on to an 8-2 victory. That pull the team winning percentage over .300.

The Cleveland Indians lost their sixth in a row today, falling to the Detroit Tigers 3-2. The Indians scored 18 runs against the Royals in three games and got swept. They allowed 11 runs to the Tigers in this series and got swept. They need a series where the offense and pitching are good together.

This reminds me of Cleveland in the late 1980's and early 1990's. They'd alternate years of having good pitching and good hitting. One year, the offense would be great, but the pitching would pull them down. The next year, the pitching would be among the leaders, but the offense was so bad they didn't win. This season seems to be a microcosm of that era.

Meanwhile, the Tigers move into a tie for first place in the AL Central pending the outcome of tonight's White Sox/Twins game. Mike Maroth lowers his ERA to 2.18, which should be good for second place in the AL.

Brian Giles drew five walks today as the Padres scored a 9-0 victory over the Cubs. Only one of the walks was intentional. That gives Giles 33 on the season and a .419 OBA. Greene hit his 8th homer and his fourth of the month, driving in four in the game. Interestingly, three of the nine runs score by San Diego were not driven in. One scored on an error and two on wild pitches.

Clay Hensley lowered his ERA to 3.70 with his first complete game and shutout. The Cubs managed just two hits and a walk against the righty, and have scored just 30 runs in 14 games in May.

Bonds fouls off the first pitch, then Seo catches the inside corner for a called strike. Seo wastes one inside, then Barry fouls two off. Seo is working more inside this time. Bonds grounds back to Jae for the third out in the inning.

The Phillies and Reds played their second low scoring game in as many days. The Phillies sweep the series, taking the last two games 2-0 and 2-1. They needed 12 innings today, as the only offense for Philadelphia came on two solo home runs by Ryan Howard. Howard pinch hit for Myers in the 8th, homered, stayed in the game, drew a walk, then hit the game winner. Howard's slugging percentage is now up to .597.

Barry Bonds is up with a man on third and one out. Seo is pitching to him!

Update: Seo pitches carefully to Bonds and goes 3-0, then Little decides to issue the intentional walk

Update: Finley forces Bonds. The Dodgers can't complete the double play and Winn scores from third for a 1-0 San Francisco lead.

John Thomson had a tough fifth inning today, giving up four hits and four runs. But an error with two outs meant that all the runs were unearned. Thomson gave up three hits after the error. It's the biggest problem I have with the unearned runs rule. Thomson pitched poorly in that inning, but for the game he only allowed one earned run, so his ERA goes from 1.88 to 1.87. I'm not sure how you make that rule better, but it seems at some point there should be a reset.

It looks like he'll get the loss, however, as Washington leads 8-0 in the ninth. Soriano is 3 for 5 with his 12th home run of the season, and Armas allowed three hits and two walks over seven shutout innings.

Update: Betemit homers in the bottom of the ninth of make the final 8-1.

Dan Haren and Randy Johnson came into this afternoon's contest with ERAs over 5.00 Haren, however, found his groove and pitched like an ace, going the distance on 100 pitches to beat the Yankees 6-1. Randy Johnson got off to a rough start, allowing three runs in the first, but went six innings allowing four. He only walked one, so his control was better, but he did allow eight hits and only struck out four. Johnson's K per 9 of 6.2 is the biggest sign something's wrong with the Big Unit.

I did not see the game, how did Randy's mechanics look today?

Alex Rios keeps banging out extra-base hits. He hit his second triple and eighth home run today as the Blue Jays helped Josh Towers to his first win of the season, an 8-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. With their 8 runs scored, the Blue Jays move past the Yankees for second in the AL in runs per game at 5.86. Rios raises his slugging percentage to .692, which could end up leading the league by the end of the day.

The Red Sox and Rangers lost another game to the elements today. It's not clear at the moment if it will be made up during the Rangers-Red Sox series in June or on a mutual off-day. I believe the problem is the Red Sox don't want to lose the attendance, and I believe players can veto a split admission double header if they're asked to play two in a series.

The best pitching matchup of the day takes place in Atlanta where Tony Armas faces John Thomson. Thomson leads the National League in ERA with a 1.88 mark. He's a reversed righty this season; he's pitching better against left-handed batters than right-handed batters (these types of pitchers are coveted in simulation games). Note, however, that John's fielding independent ERA is 3.58, which indicates he's been a bit lucky this year. Batters are just 3 for 32 against him with runners in scoring position.

Tony Armas comes into this game with a 3.58 ERA, much more in line with his FIP of 4.07. He's pitched better away from RFK this season, posting a 3-1 record with a 3.13 ERA on the road, only allowing 1 home run in 23 innings.

We'll also keep our eye on Randy Johnson as he faces Dan Haren in New York. Johnson's mechanics were off last time. See if his right shoulder flies open today and if he's able to put weight on his knee on his landing.

And of course, Bonds is still trying to tie Babe Ruth. He Seo wants to tie the Bambino! Barry is 0 for 2 with a walk against Dodgers starter Jae Seo.

I hope someone is counting pink bat homers today. :-)

Enjoy! And spend some time with your mother, too.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's who love baseball, or love someone who loves baseball.

Jeff Francoeur hits a walk off grand slam to defeat the Nationals 8-5. Chad Cordero allowed a run and loaded the bases, but struck out Andruw Jones. He then hung a breaking pitch on a 1-0 count and Francoeur dumped it into the left field seats. I guess that Cordero didn't get the "Francoeur swings at everything" meno. Why you'd throw him a strike, especially one over the heart of the plate is beyond me.

Ken Rosenthal and I are in complete agreement:

Attack him. It's safe.

Barry Bonds is batting .222. Yet he's second in the National League with 36 walks, and first with a .475 on-base percentage.
When will opposing managers stop treating him as if he's the Bonds of old, and start confronting the reality that he's nearly broken down at 41?

Opposing managers just help the Giants by walking Bonds. It was true when he was healthy, and it's more true today.

Tanyon Sturtze was asked to get two out in the sixth inning today, and instead got one and gave up two hits that led to two runs. He was booed off the mound and then placed on the disabled list.

Torre said Sturtze is having trouble finishing his pitches because of the discomfort in his shoulder.

"He's kept it to himself. He's trying to be a team guy," Torre said. "He should know better, basically. If you're not going out there with all your ammo, it's hard to give us what we need or what you're capable of."

This is about the third or fourth pitcher this week keeping an injury to himself. Isn't the point of gauranteed contracts that the player can take care of injuries without having to worry about losing money?

Jon Lieber took a perfect game into the seventh tonight. Adam Dunn singled with two outs for the only hit until Ken Griffey singled with two out in the ninth. The Phillies are leading 2-0 and bring in Tom Gordon to finish off the game.

The single by Griffey should have been a double, but he either thought it was going to be caught at the wall or he still can't run very well.

Update: Felipe Lopez singles off Gordon to bring the winning run to the plate in the person of Adam Dunn. It's Adam Dunn figurine night.

Update: Dunn strikes out to end the game. The Phillies take the first two in Cincinnati and continue their hot streak. Like the Padres, they've won 12 of 13.

Albert Pujols followed up his RBI single in the first with a solo home run in the second. That gives him 19 in 37 Cardinals games. That a pace for 83 on the year. The Cards lead the DBacks 4-1 in the third.

Ramon Hernandez and the man he replaced behind the plate, Javy Lopes, both go deep in the Orioles eighth inning to extend the O's lead over the Royals to 9-1. Hernandez added a double earlier, and is now slugging .500.

Kris Benson pitched an excellent game, as pitchers continue to lower their ERAs against the Royals (except if you pitch for the Indians). Kris threw seven innings, allowing just one run while striking out five. The Royals only run against Benson came on a homer by Matt Stairs.

Update: Mora hits the third homer of the inning, a two run shot to make the score 11-1. If the Orioles can load the bases and hit a grand slam, they'll have hit the homer cycle in the inning. Hernandez had the solo, and Lopez the three-run blast.

The San Francisco Giants score four in the bottom of the ninth off Baez to comeback and beat the Dodgers 6-5. Omar Vizquel ended the game with a sacrifice fly to drive in Vizcaino, made possible by an earlier error by Aybar at third.

Bonds batted in the 8th, grounding out to Nomar at first. He fell behind 0-2, worked the count to 3-2 before pulling the ball hard on the ground.

Bonds walks on four pitches, although the fourth one looked like the one that Bonds struck out on in the first.

Bonds swings at the first pitch from Sele and drives the outside pitch the opposite way. Ethier makes a nice running catch on the deep liner. Bonds is 0-2 with a strikeout.

Garciaparra gives the Los Angeles Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the top of the third with a homer into the left field seats. It's his fifth of the year and raises his slugging percentage to .712. They showed a very nice replay of Nomar's swing, demonstrating a perfect fundamental swipe. The bat was level and he kept his eye on the ball through the swing.

Update: Jeff Kent continues his hot hitting with a home run right over the smiling cars. That's his fourth home run in May after hitting just one in April.

The Mets didn't have to use an option on Bartolome Fortunato as he complained about his elbow and needs Tommy John surgery. To quote one commentor:

Didn't he miss all of last year as well because of surgery? Both pitchers that we got in the Kazmir deal have been damaged goods.

That trade is going down with Fergosi for Ryan as one of the worst in Mets history.

Ryan Dempster comes on to pitch the ninth with a 3-1 lead, but gives up three straight hits, the last a home run by Mike Piazza to put the Padres on top 4-3. Trevor Hoffman gets a chance to earn the save instead. It's the first home run Dempster allowed this season.

Update: Hoffman gets the Cubs, 1-2-3 in the ninth, striking out Cedeno to end the game. San Diego wins its twelveth game in thirteen contest, and move 1/2 game ahead of the Rockies for first place in the NL West. They've outscored their opponents 75-42 in that stretch.

Bonds is batting third in the Giants lineup today, so he'll be up in the first inning.

Update: Sele starts Barry off missing with three breaking balls on the outside part of the plate. He comes back and gets the called strike on a 3-0 fastball, they two fouls before freezing Bonds with a breaking ball low in the strike zone for the strikeout. The Giants go 1-2-3 in the first.

Greg Maddux pitched seven innings so far today, allowing no runs and just two hits. More impressive, he's only thrown 61 pitches, 43 for strikes. So much for trying to wear out the starter as the Padres find themselves down 3-0.

Teepee Talk notes that the Indians buried Danny Graves. Graves only struck out three batters in 14 innings this season. There's a lot of pitching problems on the Indians right now; I suspect this will be the first of a few moves.

Kerry Wood is ready to pitch for the Cubs and will get his first start on Thursday. With a .243 career OBA he might even help the offense.

Derek Jeter homers in the third inning to extend the Yankees lead to 4-0. Earlier, I noted that the Yankees had plenty of infield offense to overcome the injuries to Sheffield and Matusi. Coming into today, their 3-6 defenders have a combined OPS of .898, second in the majors to the Cardinals, who are way ahead of everyone with a .941 mark.

The Rangers/Red Sox game scheduled for tonight was called because of weather. It will be made up as a day-night double header in June.

Alex Rodriguez just hit a monster shot to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead in the first. Since two error game and Steinbrenner's complaint, A-Rod is 5 for 12 with three homers and five RBI. Today's shot went over the fence in deep left center, hit a bench in the bullpen and bounced into the stands.

Brad Halsey returns to the Bronx for the first time since his trade to the Diamondbacks. He'll lead the Athletics into battle against Jaret Wright. Halsey's been more effective as a reliever this year. Batter have exactly 44 at bats vs. Brad as a starter and reliever, and all five extra base hits the lefty allowed came as a starter. Wright is coming off a good six-inning start, in which he allowed just five base runners, but one home run. His strike out rate remains low; it's tough to say he's recovered from his injuries until that works it's way back up.

The Padres moved into a tie for first with their win yesterday and the Rockies' loss. They send former Ranger Chris Young vs. 300-game winner Greg Maddux. Young is 2-0 with a 2.29 ERA on the road this year, mostly because he's kept the ball in the park. Maddux, after a great start, gave up 19 hits and 12 earned runs in his last 8 2/3 innings.

Aaron Sele is put on Bonds watch today as he faces Noah Lowry. Lowry pitched very well in his comeback start last time out, allowing the Astros just two runs. Sele also pitched well in his call up from the minors, limiting the Brewers to just 1 run. Bonds is 0 for 3 with a walk against Aaron in his career. I think Dusty Baker did the league a favor by pitching to Bonds this week. Eventually, managers will realize you don't need to issue the intentional walks, you can get Barry out at a pretty good rate.

If you prefer evening baseball, the Tigers and the Indians go at it again in Cleveland. Jeremy Bonderman gets the call against the Indians C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia posts a 2.35 ERA while the rest of the Indians starters are at 5.72. Bonderman is shining despite a 4.40 ERA. His 39 strikeouts and 10 walks in 45 innings will bring that number lower as the season progresses.

Finally, Aaron Cook and Roy Oswalt oppose each other as the Rockies play the Astros. Cook holds an impressive ERA for a Rockies starter, 3.51. I've always said if a Colorado pitcher can keep his ERA under 4.00 for a season, he deserves the Cy Young award. Oswalt tries to recover from a beating by the Giants. He ERA went 0.8 runs after allowing six earned in 4 1/3 innings against San Francisco.

Enjoy!

Could the Phillies make Cole Hamels major league debut any more difficult. Not only did he face the best offense in the NL in their homer haven, but he had to pitch in the rain. Still, Hamels went out and shut down the Reds for five innings. He walked five batters, but struck out seven and allowed just one hit. He also issued the quote of the night (emphasis added):

"I knew there were some pitches where I rushed too much and threw balls 80 feet in the air," Hamels said with a smile. "But I just had to breathe a little more. That's what [pitching coach Rich] Dubee came out and told me. Just take a deep breath. I think that's something I'm going to learn along the way."

Breathe?

"Yeah, to breathe," he joked. "You can't breathe out of your eyelids."

Hamels was five when Bull Durham came out. I guess this means he doesn't wear ladies underwear when he pitches?

Luis Castillo is going to need surgery on his right knee after the season:

Castillo, who said the knee felt about 70 percent as he rejoined the lineup Friday, pulled his left quadriceps while legging out a triple for the Florida Marlins on a cold night in Colorado on April 26, 2005, and the other leg began bothering him later in the season as he compensated for a still-gimpy quad, he said.

He planned to be fully recovered by spring through weight training and therapy, but the discomfort has lingered — spiking at least twice this season when he hit bases awkwardly while running out ground balls.

It doesn't seem to be bothering his offense too much as he's hitting .345 with a .400 OBA. He went 3 for 5 with a double last night as the Twins pounded Chicago 10-1 behind another great performance by Johan Santana. Too bad Johan can't start every other day.

Ken Macha and Joe Torre commiserated about all the injuries on their teams last night, and then the Yankees went out and overcame theirs with a 2-0 win. Wang pitched 8 innings without striking out a batter, but didn't allow a run as the Athletics hit into five double plays.

I was quite surprised to hear people writing off the Yankees in 2006 after the Matsui injury. Even with Gary and Hideki out, the Yankees infield is capable of generating a lot of offense. Couple that with the Yankees rank as second in the league in ERA, and you still have a competitive team. They aren't going away; their just not going to run away with anything this year.

I also think Cashman is doing the right thing by not making a panic move:

But Cashman said his cellphone had not been ringing much in the 24 hours since Matsui broke his left wrist in Thursday night's 5-3 loss to Boston. Matsui underwent surgery and was officially placed on the 15-day DL on Friday, one day after he was injured trying to catch a Mark Loretta drive in the top of the first inning of the series finale with the Boston Red Sox.

"I haven't gotten one call yet today, to be honest," Cashman said about potential trade partners. "I'm not out there looking right now."

When I heard Cashman speak in the off-season, he noted their lack of a farm system limited the moves they could make. He was impressed with the way the Red Sox had rebuilt their minors and wanted to do the same. If you're going to go that route, you can't start trading players in the middle of the season just because a star is injured. There's no reason the Yankees can't win with the offense they currently employ; that's why it's good to be so deep. And that's why there's no reason to panic.

Hideki Matsui apologies for being injured:

"Due to this injury, I feel very sorry and, at the same time, very disappointed to have let my teammates down," Matsui said in a statement. "I will do my best to fully recover and return to the field to help my team once again."

Hideki is the one Yankees player that even Yankees haters like and respect. This is one reason why. He plays his behind off and then issues an apology for a freak accident. Get better, soon, Hideki!

Brad Lidge's control problems forced the Astros to relieve him of duties as the team's closer. It's so he can make adjustments without the game on the line:

Manager Phil Garner said righthanders Chad Qualls and Dan Wheeler will split the closer duties while Lidge will pitch earlier in games to allow him to work through his mechanical problems.

"He's still my closer," Garner said. "This is not (permanently) taking him out of the closer's role. What I want to try to do is give him a couple of outings here where he can work on some of the things he and (pitching coach) Jim Hickey have been working on and do it without thinking the one pitch may cost him a ballgame if he doesn't get it where he wants to.

"It's extremely difficult to make adjustments, and even more difficult when you're pitching in the ninth inning."

Most of Lidge's problems come against lefties. He's still a bit wild against righties, but if he can't get left-handed batters out, he's not going to be able to function as a a closer.

Billfer is pleasantly surprised by how well Jim Leyland handles the Tigers pitching staff.

We made it to Fenway Park last night, and with traffic we didn't get there until the bottom of the second. That gave us about 1/2 hour rain free. We sat on the right field roof in the beer garden for the first time, and I highly recommend it. Here's the view from our table:

We brought along my daughter's friend Ally. It was her first time at Fenway. Melinda is on the left, Ally on the right:

Clement was knocked around in the top of the third, allowing three runs on two doubles and two singles. He was getting booed as the hits continued to pile on. Loe, however, had little problem with the Red Sox. He did get into a second and third, one-out jam in the bottom of the third, but induced two ground balls to get out of the inning unscathed. It was that inning that the rain started, and the grounds crew did an incredible job making the field playable between innings so they could make in an official game. I was actually surprised they played the top of the sixth, but Texas was able to add two runs to make the final 6-0.

Despite the rain, it was a fun evening. We had a table on the roof, and that comes with $100 worth of food. We didn't get to the limit, but we had good service, and home plate shaped table with swivel seats (they look like baseballs). If you get the chance, check it out sometime.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Woody Williams appeared to injure his left leg going from first to third on a double. Just as he approached third he came up lame. It doesn't look like a hamstring, it might be his calf. He's out of the game.

The Cleveland Indians try to climb back into the AL Central race as they host the Tigers this evening. Cliff Lee faces Kenny Rogers. Lee is one of the few bright spots on the Cleveland staff this year, but even he's given up seven earned runs in his last 11 2/3 innings. Rogers is giving the Tigers the ace they sought. He's actually pitching better against righties than lefties (.614 OPS vs. Righties, .641 OPS vs. Lefties).

The Phillies plan to put Cole Hamels on the mound tonight against the Cincinnati Reds. You can see Cole's AAA numbers here. A 36/1 K/BB ratio is impressive at any level. His on-base + slugging allowed is .310. He goes up against the lizard, Elizardo Ramirez. Ramirez's slugging percentage allowed jumps from .311 on the road to .542 at home.

In a game that actually might get played, the surprising Diamondbacks take on the St. Louis Cardinals. Juan Cruz has adjusted well to his starter's role, striking out 10 in 10 innings while walking only two. Like his old teammate Tim Hudson, Mulder's strikeouts are falling. Maybe Beane got rid of both at the right time.

Enjoy!

My family and I have tickets to the Red Sox game tonight, but the weather report looks very bad. The type of weather pattern we're in right now can dump a ton of rain on us over a few days. It's conceivable that this series gets completely washed out, especially since tomorrow is scheduled as a night game. The Rangers return in early June; we could be looking at three split admission double headers in a row then.

Jamie Mottram of Sports Bloggers Live will be on ESPN2's Cold Pizza this morning plugging his favorite bloggers. The show starts at 10 AM EDT and repeats at noon.

Rubber Arm is a new group blog covering major league baseball. Stop by and say hi!

With Cole Hamels scheduled to make his debut tonight, Philadelphia pitchers remember their first games in the majors.

Tim Dahlberg noticed Barry Bonds' shabby play in left field yesterday:

He couldn't stop while lumbering after a foul ball fly in the sixth inning, bonked into the wall, teeter-tottered over and landed upside-down in the stands. Two innings later he couldn't run down a lazy looper near the line and let it go. It was charitably ruled a triple.

Any other major league left fielder gets that ball. Heck, half the fans in the stands might have had a shot at it.

Up by nine runs, it wasn't a big deal. In close games, it's going to be a tougher call.

It strikes me that any ball hit to Bond's left can turn into a double. Hitters need to start thinking that if Bonds has to move at all, turning on the after burner can get you to second safely. Watching yesterday, Barry has a real problem transitioning from the grass to the rubberized warning track. Get a ball near there and a speedster might have an inside the park home run.

Eric Chavez is sick with a bacterial infection, orginally thought to be food poisioning. The A's are in pretty bad shape right now:

"He's our third or fourth hitter who plays every day," manager Ken Macha said. "We had another error at third, which led to a couple of runs. We missed the guy. I saw him in there (trainer's room) sleeping. I don't know if he'll play tomorrow."

That's a question Macha might ask of a lot of his players. The team, already short-handed with Chavez's absence and catcher Jason Kendall's suspension, which has one game remaining, may have lost designated hitter Frank Thomas for the time being to a right quadriceps injury.

The A's aren't in a position to call up a player, though that could change, but outfielder Milton Bradley said he's willing to be activated from the disabled list. Bradley hasn't played since leaving an April 25 game in Texas with a left knee problem. His left oblique muscle is still an issue, which has kept him from taking batting practice left-handed this week.

Hideki Matsui may be out for the season:

Hideki Matsui fractured his left wrist on a first-inning play, and the Yankees' iron-man leftfielder might miss the rest of the season, general manager Brian Cashman said. His injury ruined the night, and to further sour it for Yankees fans, the home team fell to the Red Sox, 5-3, at Yankee Stadium.

Matsui suffered the fracture when he tried to make a sliding catch of Mark Loretta's line drive. He spent the night at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, where he will undergo corrective surgery this morning.

Hideki never missed a game since he joined the Yankees, and his streak of consecutive games goes back into his days playing Japanese baseball. That puts two thirds of the Yankees outfield on the disabled list. It looks like we'll see a lot of Bubba Crosby and Melky Cabrera in the outfield.

Damon was hurt in the game also:

Last night, the Yankees couldn't overcome both the early loss of Matsui and a substandard effort by starting pitcher Shawn Chacon. Despite benefiting from some great defense - Johnny Damon aggravated injuries to his left shoulder and left foot when he ran into the centerfield wall snaring Doug Mirabelli's fourth-inning blast; Crosby robbed Mike Lowell of a two-run homer - and receiving a 3-1 lead, Chacon couldn't make it through the fifth inning.

This reminds me of 1975, when the Yankees outfielders fell like flies and two catchers (including Munson) were playing the corner outfield positions.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Typical Red Sox/Yankees game. Four hours to play nine innings. The Red Sox put a ton of men on base tonight. Starter Chacon allowed five hits and five walks over 4 2/3 innings but just one run. It wasn't until the sixth that the Red Sox started to score, overcoming a 3-1 deficit to take a 5-3 victory. All in all, Boston put 18 men on base via a hit or a walk, while New York managed 12. With no double plays or caught stealings, but teams left a lot on base tonight, and either could have scored a lot more runs. Boston is back in first place in the AL East.

Ken Griffey returned to the Reds lineup tonight, and he comes in with a bang. Arroyo pitched eight scoreless innings, but Weathers gave up one run in the ninth to tie the game. Washington then scored three in the top of the eleventh, but the Reds scored a run in the bottom of the inning and put men on first and second for Junior. The Nationals brought in lefty Joey Eischen and, Griffey takes him deep to centerfield to win the game.

Lefties were batting .063 vs. Eischen coming into the game, but Griffey hits southpaws very well. He grew up with his father, a left-handed thrower, pitching to him. There's no platoon advantage versus Ken Junior.

The Phillies take a rain shortened game from the Mets, winning in the minimum 4 1/2 innings 2-0. Gavin Floyd gets a complete game shutout. The only got two hits off the Philadelphia righty, but they did draw four walks. Chase Utley hit his eighth homer for the Phillies.

Shane Victorino took over for Rowand in the top of the second. Aaron broke his nose crashing into the wall in the first inning, but he made the catch. Victorino went on to knock out a double and a triple.

The Braves-Marlins boxscore contains an ugly line for Dontrelle Willis. The only thing he did right was not allow a home run. The Braves touched him for 10 hits in 2 2/3 innings. Dontrelle didn't strikeout a batter and gave up seven runs. Dontrelle's ERA jumps to 6.22.

Tim Hudson's struggles disappeared tonight as he struck out seven in six innings. His low strikeout rate and high ERA is a sign of trouble, but the Marlins went quietly tonight, his only mistake a solo home run to Olivo.

Matt Diaz went five for five, raising his batting average 80 points.

Derek Lowe took the loss for the Dodgers today as the Astros won behind Wandy Rodriguez 4-2. Lowe pitched seven and did not strike out a batter. That's become an unusual occurance. There were a lot more starts like that in the 1970s than now. What I find interesting, however, is that since 1974 starters have a 483-265 in games they've gone at least seven without striking out a batter. Lasting a long time in the game is a good indicator of winning. This was the 927th start that met those conditions since 1974, the fourth this year.

Bonds swings at the first pitch and flies out once again to left center field. He goes 0-3 with two walks. His BA is at .240 and his OBA's at .491. The Cubs did a good job against Barry in the series, allowing him just one hit when they didn't issue a walk.

The weather is poor in Chicago, so the Angels and White Sox will not play tonight.

Update: Baltimore at Detroit is also postponed.

Bonds gets around on a 1-0 pitch, pulling it hard to right, but it's right at the right fielder for the out. Bonds is 0-2 in the game with two walks, one intentional. The spill into the stands didn't seem to bother him, he actually turned on the ball quite well in that at bat.

Barry Bonds just tumbled into the stands after going after a foul fly ball. He was running toward it when he hit the warning track and tried to slow down. The ball dropped, but Bonds couldn't stop, hit the wall and fell over. He limped back to left field.

As a commentor to the previous post pointed out, Bonds is playing more due to the injury to Alou leaving the team short-handed. But that play is a perfect example of why you want to get Bonds out of sure wins or losses early. A play in the field can easily take out his knees. He's due up in the bottom of the sixth.

With a man on second and the Cubs trailing 6-0, Sean Marshall pitches very carefully to Barry and walks him on a 3-1 pitch. He's 0-1 with two walks (one IBB) so far.

Update: Steve Finley just drove in Bonds with his seventh triple of the year. He leads the majors and has 119 for his career. At this point in time, 100 triples in a career is very impressive.

Update: I'm a little surprised Barry Bonds is still in the game with a 9-0 lead. I thought at the start of the season Alou was going to pull Bonds from blow outs to save him for the rest of the season. He's already pushing Barry by playing him a day game after a night game, why go further?

Sean Kirst attended his local Little League dinner and heard the CEO give an interesting talk on winning at that level.
Rather than downplaying winning, maybe they should work harder at distributing talent evenly.

The Padres are up on the Milwaukee Brewers 5-0 early in the game. Five different batters drove in runs in the first, including Jake Peavy who picked up his first of the year.

Marshall gets a called strike on the first pitch to Barry with a sweeping curve ball. He then gets Barry to ground out pretty weakly to the first baseman, unassisted. Bonds is 0-1 with a walk. Barry's batting average is now .247, and his OBA is at .495.

Alex Belth always gets the best interviews. Today he talks to Joel Sherman, author of The Birth of a Dynasty, the story of the 1996 Yankees.

Niekro doubles in two runs as the first three Giants reach base. That gives Baker an excuse to issue an intentional walk to Bonds. The Giants lead 2-0.

Update: Feliz makes them pay for the walk with an RBI single. Finley follows with a drag bunt to load the bases. That's six in a row on base for the Giants.

Update: Mike Matheny gets the fifth hit of the inning to make it 4-0. Frandsen then grounds into a force to record the first out of the inning and plate the fifth run. Marshall doesn't have his good stuff today.

Update: Ten men bat for the Giants in the first. That means Bonds will get his second chance of the game in the second inning.

Major League Baseball players have the options of using pink bats on Sunday to help raise money for Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. This is a subject near and dear to my heart, as I've had a close family member suffer from this disease.

Kevin Mench was among several Texas players who wanted their mother's names burned on the bats. The Rangers slugger, who homered in seven straight games earlier this season, also planned to have a bat for his grandmother, who died from breast cancer.

"My mom is the glue of our family, and I just want to do something to thank her for all that she has done," Mench said before Tuesday night's game against Minnesota. "At the same time, we are raising money for a great cause."

As Rich Braasch notes in an e-mail about the article:

What if somebody in a power drought like Teixeira or Sexson go nuts with the bat? Will they keep using it to not mess with the streak?

But of course!

Troy Glaus added a solo shot to his earlier three-run homer, and the Blue Jays are up 8-2 on the Athletics in the seventh inning. Toronto hit three doubles and three homers in the game. They came into the day with their team slugging percentage at .494; it's at .769 for the day so far. That would bring them over .500 for the season, but we'll see how the last two innings go.

The Diamondbacks and Pirates was postponed due to bad weather.

Nick Swisher had a bit of success versus Ted Lilly coming into today's matchup, going 3 for 7 with a double. Nick built on that today as he gets the first two hits off Ted, both solo home runs. That brings Swisher's line against Lilly to 5 for 9 with three extra-base hits and two walks.

Update: Glaus takes Saarloos deep in the bottom of the third. It's a three run shot and it gives Toronto a 4-2 lead. Looks like a continuation of last night's slugfest.

Will Carroll responses to yesterday's post on Randy Johnson in his Under the Knife column (subscription required). Will points out that it's Johnson's knee that the problem.

From the very first pitch, Johnson was not extending, appearing instead to shorten his stride to reduce stress on that damaged front knee. Watch Johnson’s leg--it’s nearly straight. He’ll either “pop up” on his follow-through, getting taller, or rotate to the third base side. Both actions take the energy that normally heads to the plate in a delivery and redirects it.

So it's an injury causing bad mechanics. Last weekend on Lehigh Valley Yankees Fan Club Radio I was asked what the Yankees were going to do with Pavano when he came back. My semi-joking reply was, "He'll take the place of the next injured starter." Maybe Randy needs a two week vacation to let the knee heal.

Roch Around the Clock notes an interesting rule in Baltimore, explained by the ushers:

They wanted to make sure I was aware that the Orioles and Ravens share the same policy regarding fans standing during a game. The majority rules. If most people in the section are sitting, you'll be asked to join them. And those orders come "from above," I was told.

One of my college roommates was extremely annoyed by fans standing at games, especially over long foul balls. I'll have to check to see if he's joined the Orioles front office. :-)

The Diamondbacks and Pirates get off to a 12:30 EDT start in Pittsburgh. It's a game that represents how to and how not to build a team. Arizona put together an offense that's not great, but no one's bad. Together, they're an above average offense. I'm not sure how Pittsburgh built their offense, but I can guess they didn't ask the question, "Can this player get on base?"

It's also an important start for Oliver Perez. There's sort of an unwritten rule in baseball that if your ERA is over 7.00, you're not long for the starting rotation. Do they send him back down to triple-A to work out his problems? Send him to the bullpen? Right now Tracy is staying positive:

"Instead of putting the guy's head in a noose, I think Oliver needs to know that his manager, his coaches and his teammates are behind him," Tracy said. "I don't think he needs to be reading in the paper that he might be losing his spot in the rotation. He needs to be reading that we're all pulling for him to go out and have a good start."

Okay. But sometimes, "If you don't pitch well today, you're going to the minors," is a good motivator.

The Cubs and Giants play an afternoon game, so people on the east coast don't need to stay up late to see if Bonds hits 714. He'll face Sean Marshall, a pitcher not seen by players on the Giants. Marshall's only allowed three homers in 34 2/3 innings this year.

The Braves face off against the Marlins with a pair of struggling stars on the mound. Tim Hudson comes into the game with a 5.09 ERA. This season sees a continuation in the decline of Tim Hudson's strikeouts that started in 2004. He's only getting 4.5 per nine this season. Dontrelle Willis is saddled with a 5.15 ERA. His numbers are good, however, as his 3.09 FIP shows. I'm guessing he's suffering from having a AA defense behind him. That's what always strikes me as the biggest difference between the minors and the majors; the ability to catch the ball.

Enjoy!

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch notices that Albert Pujols is not only on a record setting home run pace, but a record setting RBI pace as well.

Pujols' previous home run high was 46, in 2004. In a related development, Pujols, who leads the majors with 43 runs batted in, is on pace to drive in 199. Hack Wilson's record, set in 1930 for the Chicago Cubs, is 191.

So, how many homers is Albert going to hit? Let say that Albert falls back for the rest of the season to his career home run rate, one every 14 at bats. Since Albert always gets 590 at bats (his career at bats: 590, 590, 591, 592, 591), we'll say he has 474 at bats left. That would give him 34 more home runs for 52. Not a record, but certainly an impressive total, and one that would solidify his chances at breaking Aaron's career record.

We need to ask if these 18 home runs represent a new level of performance. Based on his career through 2005, the probability of an Albert Pujols at bat ending in a home run was 0.068. The 95% confidence interval for home runs in 116 at bats for that probability is 3 to 14. Pujols is way over that. The probability that Albert, given his career numbers would hit 18 home runs in 116 at bats is .00086. It sure looks like there's something different about Albert's home run power this year.

It's not just the new ballpark. Albert's home run rate is way up there, but it's also way up on the road:

Pujols HR/AB	2001-2005	2006
Home	.065	.169
Home	.071	.137

So what's a good rate to use for future predictions? A home run probability of .095 puts 18 in the 95% confidence interval for 116 at bats. That would give Albert 45 more home runs on the season (his career high is 46) for a total of 63. Past former Cardinal Roger Maris, but well short of the record.

Frank Thomas summed up his slump this way:

While Thomas appears to be overanxious in some at-bats, lunging for the ball on occasion, he said, "It's hard to figure out right now. Some at-bats you have it, some you don't. It's kind of weird. I'm taking strikes and swinging at balls. This is typically what you do when you get in a rut like this. I've seen guys go through them before. Now I know how they feel. I can tell you, it's not a good feeling."

This is a person who seldom swings at anything outside the strike zone. He's on a pace to equal his career high in strikeouts, 115 in 2002 and 2003. But he drew a lot of walks in those two years, and in 2006 those look they are going to come in around 60. That's fine for most players, but well below the level of Thomas.

FishStripes has the news that the Marlins declined to meet San Antonio's deadline. That's good news for the Marlins staying in Florida. Kudos to San Antonio, too, for not letting itself be used as a pawn to get a better deal in Florida.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Bonds pops to short on an 0-1 pitch. He's 0-3 tonight with a walk. That looks like it for the evening with the Cubs up 8-1.

Zambrano gets ahead of Bonds 0-2, then wastes two outside. He comes back with a perfect pitch that starts inside then breaks back over the plate knee high to strike out Bonds looking.

Zambrano is finding a way to win with few runs as he's held the Giants to one so far. He's issued five walks, but just three hits. The Cubs lead 3-1 after five.

Bonds lines out to Pierre. Once again, he's not pulling the ball, he keeps hitting fly balls to center.

Jeff Kent goes deep in the first inning to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead. That's two games in a row with a homer for the second baseman. Kent now has seven extra-base hits on the season, all of them at Dodger Stadium.

Furcal follows with a three-run shot of his own to make the score 6-0.

The Mets and Yankees even their series with the Phillies and the Red Sox. Cory Lidle allowed 8 runs in just two innings, and the Mets went on to a 13-4 victory. Glavine went seven innings for his fifth win, allowing three runs and raising his ERA to a still stellar 2.19.

Curt Schilling came into the game against Mike Mussina having allowed one more homer than the Moose. He gave up one more tonight as well. Boston hit two shots off Mussina while the Yankees took Curt deep three times, including the first Yankee Stadium homer of the year for Alex Rodriguez. The Yankees take a 7-3 win a move back into first place.

He walks on a 3-1 count.

If you missed tonight's show, you can hear the recorded version here. It's also available on demand at TPSRadio.

The Toronto Blue Jays get a hit or walk out of the first six batters in the first, including a grand slam by Lyle Overbay. The Athletics are down 6-0 after one, and Joe's ERA ballooned to 6.99.

The Baseball Musings Radio Show is coming up in a little while at 8 PM EDT. You can leave questions during the show in the TPSRadio Chat Room.

David Ortiz fouls off a number of pitches, then unloads on Mussina, taking a 3-2 pitch into the upper deck in right for a 2-0 Boston lead in the first.

There's been one lone run scored in the Devil Rays/Mariners game so far, on a balk by Moyer. The Indians scored a run earlier today on a balk. You don't see two run on balks in the same day too often.

Scott Kazmir is pitching the kind of game the Devil Rays hope to see many times. Through 6 2/3 he's struck out 9 and walked only one.

Kazmir turns the game over to Lugo and Walker, who each pitch an inning and preserve the shutout. The Devil Rays beat Moyer on the balk 1-0.

The Minnesota Twins eked out a win over the Rangers this afternoon 4-3. Kyle Loshe was a bit wild, walking four, but only allowed one run over six innings. Padilla was a bit wilder, walking three and hitting two batters over his six plus, walking two and hitting two to start the seventh and setting up the eventual defeat.

Two young players in this game are trying to rebound from poor seasons in 2005. Hank Blalock is succeeding, as he now stands with a .396 OBA and a .500 slugging percentage. Justin Morneau is not. Despite a double today, his OBA is a mere .298, although he is getting extra base hits, slugging at .473. The hits have the distance, he just needs to increase the frequency.

The Indians were down 8-5 in the eighth, but they mount a comeback and tie the game on a balk by Burgos. Royals pitchers also issued two walks and a wild pitch in the inning.

With the Indians offense, they should be winning easily. If this mediocre pitching continues, the Tribe is going to need to make some moves.

Update: Mota gives up a leadoff home run to Guiel leading off the 8th. Just amazing. They Royals lead 9-8.

Update: The Indians do nothing in the 9th, and get swept by the Royals 10-8. The team ERA sits at 5.49.
Update: One out later, Berroa follows with another solo shot! It's 10-8 Royals.

Albert Pujols added a double to his home run today to give him 24 extra-base hits on the season. We're five games away from being a quarter through the season, and Albert is setting himself up for a good run at 100 extra-base hits. He's come close twice before, 95 in 2003 and 99 in 2004. He usually has more doubles than homers, but that's been reversed this season. I don't think anyone is going to complain.

Westbrook can't hold a 3-0 lead. The Royals scored in the second, the fourth and now the fifth to take a 5-3 lead. They used power (three extra-base hits) and in this inning, singles bunts and ground outs. They just keep chipping away at the Indians starter.

Jeff Sackmann at Brew Crew Ball just published the minor league equivalent of the Day by Day Database. It's called the Minor League Splits Database and allows you to look at fairly up to date stats for current players in the minors. Check it out, and send Jeff a big thank you for his work. You can feast your eyes on Cole Hamels here.

Scott Elarton shows his weaknesses in the first inning as he allows a walk, a homer and three runs. The Indians get off to the early lead, but is it enough for their weak pitching staff?

Albert Pujols wastes no time today, going deep in the first inning for a 2-0 Cardinals lead over the Rockies. For the sixh time this year he's gone deep in consecutive games. That's 18 home runs in 35 team games.

Balls, Sticks and Stuff heard it on the radio. He'll pitch Friday in Cincinnati. Not an easy task for your first start in the majors. I always like to see young pitchers get their feet wet against a poor offense in a pitcher's park. But if Hamels can handle the Reds at the GAB, he'll be able to handle any team.

The Baseball Musings radio show will be on TPSRadio tonight at 8 PM EDT. Check out their other sports programming as well.

You can also call in at 888-985-0555 and leave a question for the show, or stop by the chat room at TPSRadio during the broadcast and leave a comment. Also, feel free to leave a question in the comments to this post and I'll be happy to answer it on the air.

What a woeful job the press did on covering Randy Johnson last night. None of them state the obvious, that Johnson's mechanics are screwed up. The Boston Globe, New York Daily News and New York Newsday all basically have the same story. Here's Posada in the Globe:

Catcher Jorge Posada was in the corner of the subdued Yankees clubhouse informing reporters there was nothing wrong with Randy Johnson's velocity.

''He threw one pitch 101 miles per hour tonight," Posada insisted.

Right, he was throwing hard last night. What I saw struck me as a lousy follow through, but Jerry Remy on NESN called it the front shoulder flying open. He was "throwing like a girl".

Of course, everyone "throws like a girl" before you're taught how to throw. It's the natural motion to rotate with both arms extended. But eventually, someone teaches you to bring your glove hand into your chest as you throw. This transfers momentum to your throwing arm. It's like a skater bringing his/her hands in to spin faster.

Johnson wasn't bringing his glove hand to his chest last night. He'd bring it about halfway in and stop. That's why his shoulder was flying open. And it could be a physical problem. The Times reminds us:

Johnson has not seemed like the same pitcher since April 13, when he abruptly left a start against Kansas City after five innings. He said that day that his shoulder was stiff but quickly added that it was his right shoulder.

Was he joking? Or was he subtly revealing a problem? Johnson, 42, said nothing about his health after last night's game, but he generally bristles at the suggestion he may be hurt. He was throwing as hard as usual, but his command was terrible.

He has a stiff right shoulder. Is that keeping him from bringing his glove hand into chest and following through properly? I'd love to hear Will Carroll's thoughts on this. It's an example of how the whole body works together to throw a ball. Damage something that doesn't look related, and everything falls apart.

There's some buzz that Cole Hamels will make his major league debut Friday.

The Cleveland Indians are facing a sweep at the hand of the Kansas City Royals this afternoon. Jake Westbrook tries to salvage a victory against Scott Elarton. Last year at this time, the Indians problems were offensive. This year, they're scoring plenty of runs but the pitching and defense aren't holding up. They don't seem to have a way to stop left-handed batters who are hitting .324/.402/.501 against the Tribe's staff. On top of that, opponents are running with abandon, stealing 31 bases in 35 attempts. The face Scott Elarton, who's ERA is way out of line with his pitching numbers. He's not striking out batters, walking a ton, and giving up homers. He's simply not giving up hits with men on base.

The pitching matchup of the day pits two veterans experiencing comeback seasons on the big stage of Yankee Stadium. Curt Schilling and Mike Mussina are both 5-1, both striking out tons of batters, both showing great control and keeping the ball in the park. They're pitching like their younger selves this year.

And the Bonds watch continues. Carlos Zambrano gets the call for the Cubs tonight against Matt Cain. Bonds hasn't seen Carlos much, as he's 0-1 with two walks against the Cubs ace. Zambrano's already issued 28 walks this season as he's had control problems, so don't be surprised if he actually does walk Barry. It's also clear that the umps treat Barry like Ted Williams; if the pitch is on the outside corner and Bonds doesn't swing, it's a ball. There's a lesson there. Selectivity helps a batter get the good call. If you show the umpire you know the strike zone, he'll give you the benefit of the doubt on the close pitches.

Enjoy!

Age may finally be catching up to Jeff Kent. The 38 year old is hitting just .209 with a .300 slugging percentage. Although he is drawing a good number of walks, the Dodgers expect more than a .621 OPS from their second baseman. Kent donned his superman outfit briefly last night, hitting a three-run homer to finish up a six-run eighth inning that sent the Dodgers to a 12-7 victory over the Astros.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Milwaukee Brewers used the double last night to take a 5-4 win over the San Diego Padres. Carlos Lee and Corey Koskie went back-to-back with the two baggers in the 10th. For Koskie, it was the second double of the game and twelveth of the season; he only hit 20 last year.

The Mariners knocked out 14 hits last night,13 of them for singles. The only extra base hit was a solo home run by Carl Everett. It's been typical of the Mariners this year. They've hit just 22 home runs, 13th in the American League. The good news is that a number of slumping hitters knocked out multiple hits last night; Suzuki, Everett, Beltre and Betancourt combined to go 10 for 16 with a walk. Ibanez, their best hitter so far, was the only starter without a hit. The Mariners take down the Devil Rays 8-1.

FishStripes links to a Sports Illustrated interview with Dontrelle Willis. It's turns out Dontrelle can't get a hit off himself!

Lost in all the Bonds hoopla, Jason Schmidt throws an efficient, in control performance. Schmidt allowed just five hit and one walk as he struck out five. He completes the game throwing just 95 pitches. Schmidt's allowed just three runs in his last three starts, 3 walks and just 15 hits in 25 innings. He seems to be back to form.

Bonds takes a strike on the first pitch, but it's called a ball. He launches the second one into right center for an out to end the 8th. See you tomorrow!

Scott Eyre actually got a called strike on the outside corner on his first pitch to Barry Bonds. He also gets a called strike on the 1-1 pitch, a fast ball low down the middle. Barry works the count to 2-2, and Barry gets one up in the zone and takes it to left center for a single.

The Giants lead 6-1, so I'm surprised that Bonds isn't being lifted for a pinch runner. Doesn't seem like there's much of a chance of Barry batting again in this game.

Update: If there's no double play, Bonds should bat in the 8th.

Carlos Lee hits his 15th home run of the season to help the Brewers to a 4-1 lead over the Padres. Lee is on a pace for 74 home runs.

The balls are flying out of Dodger Stadium this evening. The Astros lead 6-5 in the fourth inning. Houston hit three home runs so far and the Dodgers two. That gives Houston 42 long balls on the season, 29 by Berkman, Ensberg and Lane, the latter two connecting tonight.

Barry Bonds works the count to 3-2, then smashes a ball to center field. Juan Pierre goes back, and catches the ball just over the fence to save three runs.

Hill tied up Barry with a good inside fastball that Bonds just managed to foul off for strike two. He then went outside twice and missed. I don't understand why he didn't go back in high on Barry's hands again. It seems a good place to get Bonds out.

The Cardinals come back with a three-run blast by Albert Pujols in the bottom of the 8th to take a 4-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies. It's Albert's seventeeth homer of the year. The Cardinals have now played 34 games, so that puts Pujols on a pace for 81 dingers.

Barry Bonds swings at the first pitch from Hill in the fourth, a high fastball. He just misses getting all of the ball and flies out to center.

For the third time tonight, the Kansas City Royals come back from a two-run deficit. This time, John Buck goes deep for a three-run homer. He's two for two with a walk and four RBI tonight. That from a .242 hitter with a .314 OBA.

Update: The Royals score six in the sixth to make it 10-6 KC.

Jeff Francoeur drew a walk tonight as Atlanta defeated the Marlins 10-2. Brian Moehler gets the distinction of not being able to fool Francoeur with pitches outside the strike zone. Maybe that's why his ERA is 9.76.

Rich Hill walks Bonds in the first. I thought the 2-1 pitch got the outside corner, but Bonds seems to get that call when he doesn't swing.

Joel Peralta's on in relief in Kansas City and faces Jhonny Peralta. Jhonny wins the battle, walking for the fourth time in the game. That loads the bases for Hafner with none out. Twice the Indians have blow two run leads, and this is a golden opportunity to get the lead back.

Update: Hafner flies out to shallow left. Sizemore tries to run on German, but he's thrown out easily at the plate. Bad strategy for Cleveland, taking themselves out of another sacrifice fly situation.

Update: After a wild pitch, Victor Martinez bails the Indians out with a two-run single to left center. Cleveland leads the Royals 6-4 in the sixth.

Huston Street gets his first save since April 18th, but he came close to blowing the game. He struck out Zaun to end the eighth but in the ninth he hit a batter and gave up two doubles to bring the Blue Jays within one before getting Glaus to pop out to end the game. The win puts the Athletics two games over .500 and 1/2 game out of first pending the outcome of the Texas game. The Rangers are down 10-5 to Minnesota in the seventh.

Matt Holliday blasts a solo homer, his tenth of the year to break a 1-1. Josh Fogg is battling Chris Carpenter. The Rockies came into the game with a 3.60 ERA on the road, and that may end up going down further.

The Phillies win 5-4 thanks to a 40 foot grounder by Bobby Abreu. With the bases loaded and two outs, Abreu tapped one halfway between Heilman and Lo Duca. Both players reached the ball at the same time, and both tried to pick it up. By the time Heilman found the handle, he had to rush the throw and the ball went down the right field line. (It was called an error.) The Phillies close to within three games of the Mets.

An exciting ninth in Philadelphia.

Ian Snell makes it four pretty good starts in a row. He goes seven, allowing just five hits while striking out five. His ERA over the last four starts is 1.75. The Pirates beat the Diamondbacks 3-0.

Tom Gordon blows his first save of the season, giving up a one-out, two-run homer to Carlos Delgado in the ninth. The only out came when Beltran hit a hard liner right at Utley. Wright is on first with the go-ahead run after collecting the third hit of the inning off Gordon.

Update: After a wild pitch, Floyd gets the intentional walk. Nady up with the go ahead run at second.

Update: Nady ground out to third, but it's hit slowly so both runners are able to move up. Matsui gets a chance to be the hero.

Update: Matsui works the count to 3-2, but Gordon drops a 3-2 curve ball over the heart of the plate to strike out Kaz looking. It's tied at 4 in the bottom of the ninth.

Update: On the replay, the ball looked high. Julio Franco (who's on the bench), told the ump so and got tossed.

It turns out there's an out on the drug testing policy:

Major league players can scrap the sport's toughened drug rules if they don't have a new labor contract by August, a provision drawing attention from congressmen who pushed for the strengthened policy.

If players and owners don't agree to a new labor contract by Aug. 1, the union has until Aug. 15 to unilaterally end the new drug policy as of Dec. 19, when the current collective bargaining agreement expires.

It's a great bargaining chip for the players. If they scrap the agreement, Congress gets involved, and my guess is the owners don't want that as much as the players. Since the two sides are as close as they've ever been since labor trouble started in the 1970s, this gives everybody a good reason to get the contract done quickly.

Jose Contreras goes on the disabled list with a pinched nerve.

Contreras began experiencing pain in his lower back and right leg while throwing lightly on the side with Freddy Garcia on Sunday.

"It's really bad I have to miss starts ... especially when I'm pitching so well," Contreras said through an interpreter. "What upsets (me) the most is I wish it had been on the mound or while I was doing one of my workouts. I was just throwing really softly with Freddy on the side, and that's where I felt the pain."

Put that one in the freak injury department. The White Sox pitching is deep, so they should be able to absorb two missed start by Contreras.

The team is up 6-1 on the Angels in the third. Garcia is pitching and has four strikeouts through three innings, but did allow five hits. Jim Thome launched his 14th home run, a three run shot.

The Washington Nationals take full advantage of the small Cincinnati park as they smack four home runs to dominate the Reds 6-0 in the seventh. Jose Guillen went deep twice to drive in three of the six runs. Tony Armas, Jr. is taking care of the defensive side, allowing just two hits while walking one and striking out four. Armas' opposition batting average is down to .241 so far.

Brett Myers is pitching a great game. He allowed just three hits through seven innings, no runs, no walks. But Floyd led off the eighth with a single, and Nady follows with a two-run homer to cut the lead to 3-2. Manuel is leaving Myers in agains the bottom of the order.

Pedro has not allowed a hit or a walk since the three-run second. He's already struck out ten.

Update: Myers retires the rest of the side easily. Pedro is out after Valentin pinch hits for the starter.

Kevin Millwood faced 14 batters in 1 1/3 innings, giving up nine hits, five for extra bases. Michael Cuddyer managed two doubles in two innings. Millwood's ERA balloons to 5.13.

Carlos Silva can pitch to his 8+ ERA and still win this game.

Randy Johnson gives up three runs in the third inning and looks bad doing it. Jerry Remy notices that Johnson's front should is flying open, leading to wildness. As the inning progressed (and everything that could go wrong went wrong) Johnson became more tentative, afraid to just let the ball go. He walked two, threw a wild pitch, and was hurt by an error by A-Rod. The Sox lead 3-2. Toward the end of the inning, the fans were booing every time The Big Unit threw a ball.

Update: In the top of the fourth, Johnson's fifth walk of the game and three more hits send Randy to the showers via a shower of boos. He gave up a hit to Gonzalez on an 0-2 count as Johnson hung a slider. He gave up a hit to Loretta on a 3-0 count as Francona gave the second baseman the green light. Ortiz followed with a line drive the other way to put men on second and third, and Aaron Small enters in relief. Johnson did not have good control, throwing 43 balls and just 49 strikes.

Update: NESN just showed a nice replay of Johnson front should flying open. Do the Yankees not notice this, or is Randy unable to compensate?

Update: The Red Sox extend the score to 7-2 as Cabrera drops a pop fly. Cano loses it in the wind, Cabrera then over runs it and Manny reaches second. It's one of those games where everything that can go right for the Red Sox happens.

Correction: Johnson gave up the hit to Gonzalez, not Cabrera.

The Oakland Athletics hit two home runs off Josh Towers in the top of the fourth inning to take a 3-0 lead over the Toronto Blue Jays. The homer keep coming off Josh; he's now allowed nine in 30 1/3 innings pitched. That moves him up into the top five in the league in homers allowed.

Pedro Martinez walked two in the first inning against the Phillies, showing uncharacteristic wildness, but got out of the inning. Four hits, in the second, however, two for extra bases, plates three runs for Philadelphia as they take an early 3-0 lead over the Mets. Pedro is averaging less than four hits per start coming into today.

Gary Sheffield's wrist lands him on the DL. Melky Cabrera is recalled in his place. We'll see how another year in the minors improves the young Cabrera. He looked lost replacing Bernie Williams in 2005.

Blez notes that Jeremy Brown is now in the major leagues.

Delmon Young received a 50 game suspension today for throwing his bat at an umpire:

"The Tampa Bay Devil Rays fully support the decision," the team said in a statement. "As stated before, we do not tolerate this type of conduct from anyone in the Devil Rays' organization."

The suspension is retroactive to April 27, the day after Young tossed his bat in a Triple-A game while playing for Durham. The 20-year-old outfielder has agreed to perform at least 50 hours of community service, and can play again June 19.

Good. I don't care how badly the umpires call a game, there is no place for violence against them.

I'll be on XM On-Deck at 6:25 EDT this evening. You can hear the show on XM Satellite Radio (channel 175) weeknights from 6:00 to 7:00 pm ET.

One of the strengths of the Diamondbacks this season is how they pitch with a lead and bat when trailing:

Diamondbacks 2006	Pitchers Leading (Avg. Allowed)	Batters Trailing
Batting Average	.225	.281
On-Base Average	.293	.344
Slugging Average	.349	.490

The DBacks pitchers do a good job of shutting down the opposition once they have a lead. The Arizona hitters do a good job of battling back, especially by applying power.

It's a big night for New Yorkers as the Yankees and Mets both battle the second place teams in their divisions. The stadium in the Bronx hosts the Red Sox as Randy Johnson faces Josh Beckett. Neither is pitching well lately. Beckett's walked 10 and allowed 18 runs in his last sixteen innings, covering three starts. Johnson's pitched badly in three of his last four starts, only striking out 5.1 per nine while posting a 7.43 ERA. Thanks to the Yankees offense, he's 3-1, however. What both pitchers have in common over their slumps is they faced the Blue Jays twice and were hammered both times. That has to be a huge positive for Toronto fans.

The two hitters who caused the big MVP argument last year are also in slumps. David Ortiz is a mere five games. He's 1 for 20 with two walks over those games, but still managed to drive in four runs. A-Rod hit just one home run in his last 15 games, posting a .232 BA. But he's showing signs of coming out of that as well as he's 5 for 13 with six RBI in his last three games.

Also, note that the Yankees efforts to improve their defense worked better than the Red Sox efforts so far. They Yankees come into the game with a .710 DER versus .705 for the Red Sox.

The Mets visit Philadelphia as the best team in the NL faces the hottest team in the NL. Undefeated Pedro Martinez takes the hill for the Mets. Pedro's allowed just nine hits in sixty nine at bats on the road this season. Pedro's danger zone is the sixth inning, where the batting average against him jumps to .273 and slugging jumps to .545. Brett Myers opposes the Mets for the home team. Myers this year allowed a high number of walks and home runs at home. However, overall he's kept batters off base, so his 3.50 home ERA is quite good for the that ballpark.

Of course, on the West Coast, Barry Bonds sits on the edge of tying Ruth for second place on the all time home run list and first among left-handed batters. Rich Hill gets the call for the Cubs, and they've never faced each other. The fact that Hill has allowed five home runs in 27 2/3 major league innings bodes well for Barry.

Enjoy!

I didn't know Cary Grant was a Yankees fan. (Then again, it might be Rock Hudson.)

MetsBlog.com speculates on what the Mets rotation will look like as pitchers spend time on the DL. I wonder if the Glavine contract restructuring had something to do with the Mets wanting to free money to add someone big mid-season?

Okay, I know it's his job as an agent, but Jeff Borris is being a little ridiculous here. It's one thing to say Bonds wants to play in 2007, another to predict this:

"I wouldn't rule out DH as a possibility," Borris said. "In fact, if he were a DH, I think 1,000 home runs would be within his grasp. Barry approaches rehab as diligently as anybody. If his knee holds up, I wouldn't put 1,000 home runs past him."

The man can barely run around the bases. I don't really expect his knees to get better; maybe he just does a better job of managing the pain. He's going to play until he's 50 like that?

The other thing is, who would sign Bonds at this point? If the Mitchell investigation does anything to verify the steroids allegations, don't you think Bud will send out the word not to hire Barry? Either because of his health, or because of a lack of interest, I don't see Bonds playing in 2007.

According to this article, the Athletics are close to a deal for a new stadium in Fremont, California. That's about 30 miles south east of Oakland.

The site is just off I-880, called Pacific Commons. Here's the aerial view of the site, although this doesn't show the current development. For more, check out this photo essay of the possible sites in Fremont from the The New A's Ballpark blog.

One economist sees Oakland as the big winner in all this:

Oakland could be the biggest winner of all if the A's actually do move to Fremont, according to Porter, the economics professor.

"If the A's keep the name 'Oakland' when they move, Oakland gets the best of all worlds," Porter said. "They don't have to spend millions to build a stadium, they don't have to give up land for a huge stadium that would be vacant for all but 81 days a year, and they would still keep the name recognition."

Stay tuned.

It looked like it would be an easy night for Roy Oswalt. Both Alou and Bonds sat on the bench, and the Giants were in a tailspin. But the team erupted for five runs in the fifth while Noah Lowry pitched a successful comeback game and San Francisco defeated the Astros 7-5. Randy Winn, however, fouled a ball off his knee; if the swelling goes down, he might not play this evening, meaning once again the Giants would be without two of their three starting outfielders.

Tampa Bay's starting pitching was excellent for six innings, allowing the Mariners just one run. But starter Casey Fossum ran into trouble in the seventh, and reliever Chad Orvella added fuel to the fire as Seattle stormed back to take a 6-3 win over the Devil Rays. Jose Lopez drove in three of the Seattle runs. With runners on base, he's hitting .345 with a .638 slugging percentage.

The Cubs could not overcome Greg Maddux's early game blowup and San Diego went on to win the game 8-3. The 1-4 hitters in the Padres lineup were unstoppable, combining to go 11 for 16 with three walks.

The NL West remains a close race with 4 1/2 games separating first from last.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Padres aren't fooled by Greg Maddux tonight, scoring seven runs so far against the right-hander. Maddux is out of the game after 3 2/3 innings, and he's still responsible for the runner at third.

Update: Rusch gets the final out after walking the first two batters he faces. Maddux's ERA balloons to 3.64.

A rare win for the Royals tonight as they defeat the Indians at home 4-3. The Royals, for a bad team, are actually playing well in close games, with a 4-4 record when the contest is decided by one run. The Indians fall to 4-2 in one run games, but came pretty close to winning. Sizemore homered in the ninth, and the Indians then put men of first and second for Victor Martinez, but the catcher popped out in foul territory to the third baseman.

The Indians, while not off to a bad start (17-16) are falling behind in the division. The loss puts them six games behind the White Sox. Cleveland is 1-3 vs. the Royals, while the White Sox and Tigers are a combined 10-3.

Tom Glavine saves the New York Mets some money this year, and gets an option for the next.

Roy Halladay pitched a great game, and Matt Holliday hit two home runs against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Rockies are up 6-0 in the seventh.

Jeff Weaver and Roy Halladay did what they do best tonight. Roy threw a complete game, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out six. The Angels scored just one run off the former Cy Young winner. Weaver ate up some innings, but allowed a good number of runs along the way. He went 6 2/3, giving up five tallies. Weaver is now 1-5, and is turning out to be a poor free agent signing. It's just a matter of time before he's replaced by his brother. The Blue Jays win 5-1 and gain on both the idle Red Sox and Yankees.

Jason Marquis walked three and hit two batters through two innings tonight. The five free passes allowed the Rockies to score two runs on just two singles. Colorado is off to an early 2-0 lead over the Cardinals.

This isn't Kansas City any more. Back against a team that can hit, Brad Radke is being knocked around in Texas. The Rangers picked up eleven hits and six runs through five innings against the veteran. And, unlike most of his games, Radke is issuing walks, three of them so far. It's the first time he's walked 3 in a game since 8/10/2005, a span of 13 starts.

The Angels/Blue Jays game is off to the same start as yesterday. Neither Weaver nor Halladay has allowed a hit yet through three, and Halladay is perfect. Weaver walked a batter, but Jose Molina eliminated the runner with a pickoff.

Sabernomics looks at the causes of the home run boom of the last decade plus and makes a good case that it's the distribution of talent among pitchers due to expansion that's the likely cause. I love this post, because it confirms something I wrote after the 1993 season. In The STATS Baseball Scoreboard 1994, page 90 there is an article titled What Does Expansion Affect More: Pitching or Hitting? Here's a scan from the book. The scan is Copyright 2006 STATS LLC, reprinted with permission.

WasWatching notes an unusual minor league giveaway. I'm about an hour from Norwich, so I'll have to see if I can get down to one of these games.

Just Off-Camera does a very good job of demonstrating fans hatred of Barry Bonds has little to do with race or steroids. It can be summed up by Barry not signing the ball for the young man who caught number 713.

The Angels disabled Darin Erstad due to an ankle injury:

Erstad, 31, is batting just .238 (19-for-80) with four RBI in 22 games this season.

Somehow, Erstad seems older than 31 to me. He'll be 32 on June 4th. Erstad seems old because he's been around a long time, and he peaked early. He hasn't had a good offensive season since 2000, when he was 26. It's not that he's old, he's just playing old.

Redleg Nation has the details of a sleepover at Dodger Stadium.

The Astros make a brief visit to San Francisco on their way to Los Angeles to make up a rainout against the Giants. Roy Oswalt gets a chance to be the victim of home run 714. Bonds has an impressive line against Roy; 4 for 4 with 4 walks and a home run. In fact, all four hits went for extra bases.

Roy is opposed by Noah Lowry, making his first start his injuring himself on April sixth. Lowry's had very good luck with the Astros, going 2-0 with a 0.56 ERA in his two starts. He's limited them to just six hits in sixteen inning while striking out 15.

Greg Maddux attempts to pitch well enough for the Cubs offense to win tonight as Chicago visits San Diego. Greg's strong point this season comes from his ability to induce failure among left-handed batters. The group's OPS is a mere .542 versus the ageless pitcher. Chris Young takes the mound for San Diego. He's the strikeout artist the Padres hoped for, but he's also allowing longballs, mostly at PETCO. That might actually be a good sign, as I don't expect that result to be maintained throughout the season.

The Rockies visit St. Louis in a battle of surging teams. Both are on three game winning streaks and both are climbing in the standings. In the NL, only the Mets possess a better road record than the Rockies, and only the Astros own a better home record than the Cardinals.

Enjoy!

Geoff Young at Ducksnorts evaluates five key players on the San Diego Padres. He's worried about Peavy and Williams, but likes what he sees in Bowen, Barfield and Greene.

Cole fails to fail, slows timetable

The title refers to what the general manager wants to see from Cole Hamels:

Phillies general manager Pat Gillick, who said last week that he can really tell about a young pitcher after watching him come back from getting roughed up, will have to wait a little while longer.

You see, Hamels keeps getting batters out. And it's not even close:

In those three starts, the 6-3 lefthander has pitched 23 innings, walked one, struck out 36, and has a 0.39 ERA. Nearly as impressive, if you are on the front-office side of the business, is that Hamels drew a season-high crowd of 8,776 to Lackawanna County Stadium, including a walkup of more than 4,100.

He sure looks like an ace. His effectiveness comes from the huge difference between his fastball and changeup:

The next thing you notice is not so much the number of strikeouts - 10 yesterday, 36 in three Triple A starts - but the way Hamels goes about getting them.

His fastball topped out in the seventh inning yesterday at 92 mph on the stadium radar gun; fast gun, slow gun, dunno. All but one of his first eight strikeouts against Syracuse came on an offspeed pitch, usually a changeup that arrived at 80 mph.

I'm not sure how many starts Hamels needs before it's clear AAA batters are overmatched against him. The Phillies may need to promote him just because he needs the challenge.

Sidney Ponson's elbow bothered him the entire time he was in the game yesterday:

After he came in from the third inning and with the Cardinals ahead 2-0, Ponson informed trainer Barry Weinberg he was having pain in the back of his right elbow.

"He felt it on a pitch," Weinberg said. "The question that got him out of the game was, 'On which pitch did it hurt?' He said, 'All of them.'"

He's lucky he didn't end up like Victor Zambrano.

If there are Chicago Cubs fans looking for good news right now, this might be it:

Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood struck out 12 in five scoreless innings during a rehab appearance Sunday with Chicago's Class A affiliate, the Peoria Chiefs.

He walked just one batter and threw a very high percentage of strikes. Of course, the way the Cubs offense is not working, Kerry may need to throw a shutout everytime to win.

Royals Authority collects David Glass' quotes over the last two weeks to show how slow he is to change the front office. He also launches The Royals Incompetence Counter.

Kerry Robinson can't hit, and if yesterday's game is any indication, he doesn't make up for the lack of offense with his glove.

The Royals managed to work around one misplay Sunday by center fielder Kerry Robinson. A second one, though, led to the winning run in a 3-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.

Mistake one:

Robinson's earlier misplay came in the fourth, when he misjudged a fly ball by Crede so badly that second-base umpire Gerry Davis initially signaled a homer.

It was a drive deep to the left of center. Robinson raced back and climbed the wall. Except the ball didn’t go that far. It hit the warning track and bounced over the wall.

Mistake two, the one that cost them the game:

The White Sox had two outs and none on in the eighth inning when Robinson, overshifted to right field against left-handed pull hitter Jim Thome, couldn't corral a high, slicing fly toward left center.

The ball fell for a double when Robinson made a lamentably late diving attempt after exchanging you-or-me looks with left fielder Emil Brown.

"It was a situation," Robinson said, "where he thought I said, 'I got it,' and I thought he said, 'I got it.' Then it was too late. I had to dive for a ball I really shouldn't have had to dive for.

"We both could have had it, but it’s my fault because I'm the center fielder."

He doesn't get on base, he doesn't hit for power, he doesn't catch the ball. Why is he in the majors?

Chris Chambliss adjusted Austin Kearns hands in spring training with excellent results:

"We worked at getting his hands away from his body a little bit," said Chambliss. "He seems to be getting more and more comfortable with it."

Kearns agrees.

"I always kept my hands pretty close to my body, sometimes too close and tied myself up," he said. "I've worked with Chris on keeping them away and it works."

Seventeen of Kearns' thirty nine hits this season resulted in extra bases. He's scoring and driving in runs (22 each), the mark of a good all-around hitter.

Chris Constancio looks at home team bias among minor league replacement umps. His conclusion:

The season is still young and we need to collect more information to better understand the effects of the replacement umpires, but so far all the evidence all points in the same direction. Home team batters appear to have an advantage at the plate. Furthermore, there may be other effects of the new umpiring population that are more difficult to quantify or assess with traditional statistics such as strikeouts and walks. It is clear, however, that we need to be more careful than ever when analyzing minor leaguers' performance. The initial evidence suggests an appreciation for a prospect's home and away splits may be particularly important this year.

Victor Zambrano's elbow was a disaster waiting to happen:

Zambrano said persistent elbow trouble prevented him from matching fans' expectations. "I can win 15-20 games," he said. "I never was feeling good to prove what I can do. ... Maybe they can understand a little bit more and have a better relationship."

Mets staff insisted Zambrano never acknowledged the full extent of the elbow troubles, with Minaya calling the result of the lack of disclosure "a lesson to others." Still, the GM noted that players pitch through nagging injuries and suggested Zambrano may have merely underestimated the severity, saying there's a "fine line" between soreness and pain. Zambrano said he felt he could pitch through discomfort.

Given Zambrano's record, I'd say he couldn't pitch through discomfort. Also, it's one thing to want to keep pitching when the season is underway, but did he ever go to a doctor during the off season? It's possible that his elbow could have been fixed without him missing any time.

The Diamondbacks are developing confidence with all the comeback wins, and even comebacks in losses:

"I've played on a lot of winning teams and this has just got that feel."

So what brought about the feel?

"I think, probably, if you want to pinpoint one game, I think it was a Giants game we actually lost" 10-9 after trailing 7-0 early, Byrnes said. "I think at that point, we realized that look, we overcame seven runs, we can overcome anything."

Shawn Green, who homered and drove in a pair of runs in Sunday's comeback try, agreed.

"I think teams to go far in the season and have a chance to make the playoffs are teams that show signs that we're showing right now," Green said. "I know the only year I went to the playoffs with LA was the same type of thing - a lot comeback wins early in the year."

The NL West standings are pretty much the opposite of what was expected coming into the season. I like the Arizona team long term, but sometimes that long term planning pays off short term as well.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Kevin Frandsen just took his fifth hit by pitch in his 10th major league game. It took Biggio 134 games to get plunked five times.

Bonds launched home run 713 in the top of the sixth inning. It the first home run of the season Bonds pulled. He hit it off the McDonalds sign on the edge of the upper deck. That cut the score to 5-3, but the Phillies came back with two runs in the bottom of the sixth.

That was probably the best swing I've seen from Bonds this season. He was able to get his whole body behind the ball.

It's a good day to be a pitcher named Aaron as Sele makes his first start for the Dodgers and comes through big. Sele goes 6 2/3 innings, allowing just one run as Los Angeles goes on to a 10-2 victory over the Brewers. Furcal hit his first home run of the year; even with that shot Rafael's slugging percentage is a miniscule .260.

When does a slump become a sign of the end of a player's career? Juan Pierre went 0 for 4 in the Cubs 6-3 loss to the Padres this afternoon. That lowers his batting average to .240 and more importantly his OBA to .287. He's coming off the lowest OBA of his career, and his slide continues into 2006. He's only 28, so he should be near the top of his game. Can something be done to correct the slide?

Pierre hasn't missed a game since 2002. At six feet, 180, he's not exactly a big guy. Maybe the strain of playing every day has taken its toll on the centerfielder. He's in a huge slump, he's not helping the team offensively. Maybe it's time to give Juan a couple of days off.

This whole Rockies pitching well in Colorado is getting a bit old. :-) Today, Aaron Cook earned his first win at home after going 0-3 with a 3.00 ERA in Coors. He needed just 104 pitches to complete eight innings, giving up just 2 runs on six hits. Fuentes pitched the ninth and gave up a run, but still picked up his seventh save. The team ERA at home is now 4.50, a respectable number in a lot of ball parks these days. They sweep the Astros and drop the Astros into third place 1/2 game behind the surging Cardinals.

I'll be on Yankee Fan Club Radio at about 7 PM EDT this evening (in about 10 minutes).

The Cleveland Indians shutout the Seattle Mariners today behind the pitching of C.C. Sabathia. MIlliliter threw 105 pitches over eight innings, allowing seven hits while walking none. C.C. lowers his ERA to 2.35. Given the overall poor performance by the Indians staff this year, Sabathia returning to form should take some pressure off the bullpen so they're more prepared to relieve the other starters.

Kevin Youkilis and Mark Loretta combined to get on base seven times today, scoring four runs in the process as the Red Sox defeated the Orioles 10-3. Given Youkilis' three year record now of getting on base, I wonder why the Red Sox did not find a place for him sooner. At 27, he's at the peak of his prowess. While he'll certainly be good for a number of years, the Red Sox missed out on his full peak value.

The Yankees won their fifth straight game 8-5 over the Texas Rangers. For Joe Torre, it's his 1000th win as manager of the club. He joins Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel and Miller Huggins as the Yankees managers with 1000 wins. He did it in just a little over 10 seasons, so he's averaging 98 wins a season with New York. Given the revolving door to the managers office before Joe arrived, it's a pretty amazing accomplishment.

The Royals lost to the White Sox today 3-2 when with two out in the bottom of the 8th, a Thome double, a Konerko IBB and a Crede single plated the winning run. It was the fifth loss for the Royals in games in which they allowed three runs or less. Their 4-5 record in such games is the worst in the AL. The Royals and the 5-6 Marlins are the only teams with losing records when allowing three runs or less. The record for the majors is 286-81, a .779 winning percentage (through Saturday).

Update: The White Sox move to 15-0 in that category.

A very nice job by the Cardinals bullpen today. Four pitchers combined for six innings in relief of an injured Sidney Ponson, allowing just one run while striking out six. The pen lowered their ERA to 2.68, moving past the Mets for lowest relief ERA in the National League.

Santana hits a batter, but keeps the no-hitter intact. He also recorded his tenth strikeout.

Update: Ivan Rodriguez grounds a ball through the hole for the first Detroit hit of the game.

Update: Ordonez follows with a home run to cut the lead to 4-2.

Gary Sheffield's wrist is keeping him out of action, and it sounds like it will likely land him on the DL.

Sheffield said he's experiencing pain even when he's swinging at 70 mph pitches in batting practice.

"I can't hardly do it in BP," he said. "Take that into the game, starting and stopping your swing, breaking balls and fastballs, I just can't do it."

I always hate to see a player with a wrist injury, since even when they heal it takes time to get the swing back.

Ben Sheets is not making his scheduled start today against the Dodgers due to shoulder stiffness. The Brewers are down playing the injury:

"It's stiffness in the front of his shoulder, which is not a serious thing. So instead of battling through what we battled through last time, we thought we'd give him an extra day, hoping that the five days would make him feel better," Yost said. "Guys play sore and they play hurt. If it jeopardizes their career, they don't play. But Ben's career is not being jeopardized in the least."

Jeff Francoeur still hasn't walked, but he's just a double away from the cycle as the Braves bat in the top of the 7th. He just picked up the single, and the way the Braves are pounding the depleted Mets staff today, Jeff is likely to get a shot at the double. Atlanta leads New York 10-1 in the top of the seventh.

Update: Rondell White just drew his first walk of the season, although it was intentional. Despite going 1 for 2 with a walk today, all three of White's averages are below .200.

Update: Francoeur strikes out to end the top of the ninth. Unless the Mets score 11 in the bottom of the ninth, he won't get another chance to hit.

Johan Santana is getting the better of Mike Maroth today. The Twins lead the Tigers 4-0 in the fifth, and all the Minnesota left-hander allowed so far is a walk to Thames. He's also struck out nine through his five innings of work. He's done it throwing just 64 pitches, or about 13 an inning.

Casey Janssen earns his first major league win as he limits the Angels to one hit over 7 1/3 innings. B.J. Ryan finished up for a five out save, although he did allow a run. It was a fast game, exactly two hours long. That's what happens when only 207 pitches are required to finish the game.

Sidney Ponson left the game today after three innings despite allowing just one hit and no runs. The Cardinals pinch hit for him in the top of the fourth. Did anyone see the game? Was Ponson hurt? Or thrown out by an ump?

Update: Some commented below that it's an elbow

Freddy Sanchez took a ball and scooted down to first place. Unfortunately, it was ball three. Sanchez gets to first and the ump send him back to derisive cheering by the Washington fans. Freddy made up for the mistake, however by getting a base hit on the next pitch, a triple that drives in two. The Nationals lead 5-3 in the fourth.

The same thing happened yesterday in the Oakland game, but Jay Payton, who was on first, ended up with a stolen base because no one on Tampa realized it was ball three either.

John Lackey and Casey Janssen are mowing down the opposition in Toronto. Both took no-hitters into the fifth, when Hillenbrand singled with two outs for the only hit of the game so far. Janssen will try to keep his no-no going in the sixth.

Update: Figgins breaks uo Janssen's bid with one out in the sixth. The Blue Jays got Lackey with single runs in the sixth and the seventh, including the 10th home run of the year by Troy Glaus. Toronto leads LAnaheim 2-0 in the eighth.

Jose Lima picks up where he left off last year, allowing three runs in three innings. Isn't there a double-A or single-A pitcher who can do better than this?

The Daily Lancer looks at what the new GM will find when Allard Baird is finally fired.

The two best pitching matchups in the National League are early today and involve three young pitchers. Zach faces Mike O'Connor in the rubber game of the Pirates/Nationals series in Washington. Both lefties control left-handed batters well, but O'Connor, in his brief time in the majors baffles righties as well. He seems to take the "I'd rather walk the guy than allow a hit" approach. He's allowed just four hits to righties in thirty three at bats, but issued six free passes. Duke is coming off a shutout of the Cubs, and four consecutive starts of at least six inning with three runs or fewer allowed.

The other good matchup involves Sidney Ponson visiting the Florida Marlins and Scott Olsen. Ponson is not striking out many; his opposition batting averages are good but not great. Sir Sidney, however, spreads those hits out well, with opponents hitting just .154 with men on and .111 with runners in scoring position. Olsen's ERA is in the low threes, depite walking more men than he struck out. Like Ponson, he survives by getting outs with men in scoring position. How long this success will last for either is anyone's guess.

In the AL, the big matchup is between Mike Maroth and Johan Santana. It's been Maroth, however, who is up among the AL Leaders in ERA. Maroth has a good road ERA despite allowing more hits than inning pitched and walking more than he strikes out away from home. He's done a good job, however, of getting the first out as batters are just 1 for 22 with a walk and HBP leading off an inning against Mike on the road. That limits the damage from hits late in the inning. Lefties seem to have figured out Johan this year, as they're hitting .293 with a.488 slugging percentage against him.

Enjoy!

Victor Zambrano needs season ending surgery after he walked off the mound yesterday at Shea Stadium.

Zambrano has a torn flexor tendon in his right elbow and will require surgery that will sideline him until 2007, agent Peter Greenberg told the Daily News last night after meeting his client at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.

"He's out for the year," said Greenberg, who described the recovery time for this injury as less than the 12 months prescribed for Tommy John surgery. "He's down, obviously. He's been pitching with some pain for a while. Now he knows what it is. The doctor told him the ligament is in good shape, which is good news."

The Mets are now if a bit of a pickle pitching wise with three starters injured. Jose Lima, coming off one of the worst seasons ever for a pitcher, is going to start today. Oliver is available, or Aaron Heilman.

Bleed Cubbie Blue presents a picture of a typical Cubs fans and more information on the pitiful offense of the northsiders.

Billy Wagner let his feeling be known about his former teammates in Philadelphia:

Three days before returning to Citizens Bank Park in a New York Mets uniform, outspoken former Phillies closer Billy Wagner yesterday painted a grim picture of his final weeks in the team's clubhouse last year.

"I knew I was not well-liked there," he said, referring to his former teammates. "I felt like an outsider."

Worse, Wagner said, he got the feeling late in the season that his teammates, whom he described as overly sensitive about media coverage, were just waiting to see him fail.

Wagner said he became "everyone's least favorite Phillie in the clubhouse" after he called his teammates on the carpet for their spiritless play in an interview that appeared July 1 in The Inquirer.

Wagner should be careful what he says. Afterall, he doesn't have a very good track record against former teams.

The western evening games offered a scarcity of runs last night. The highest scoring game took place in Los Angeles where the Dodgers edged out the Brewers 5-4. Baez blew the save but picked up the win when Lofton doubled in the bottom of the ninth and Garciaparra singeld him home.

The Mariners and Indians combined for five runs as Joel Pineiro allowed a leadoff home run to Grady Sizemore, and then nothing for eight innings as Seattle takes a 4-1 victory. Pineiro threw exactly 100 pitches, 69 for strikes as he gave up four hits while striking out six.

Cincinnati played at Arizona, and those team managed to score four runs. The Diamondback stay hot and tied for first with Colorado. Bronson Arroyo took his first loss, although he deserved to give up more than three runs. Batters went 11 for 27 against Bronson last night, but he only walked one batter and most of the power came with the bases empty. In fact, 6 of the 11 hits were with no one on. The final score was 3-1 Arizona.

The Cubs offense continues to flail. In their last eight games, Chicago has seen four shutouts thrown against them, and hasn't scored more than two runs in a game for a total of six runs. Last night, Sean Marshall pitched brilliantly for six innings, not allowing a hit or run until the sixth. But that run total matched Peavy's for the night, and the San Diego bullpen proved tougher, pitching four scoreless innings before backup catcher Rob Bowen hit the second home run of his career leading off the tenth to win the game 2-1 for San Diego. The Cubs are scoring 2.6 runs per game since they lost Derrek Lee to an injury.

Overall, offense in the majors is declining as the season progresses. The following chart shows runs per game by day, with a trend line (linear regression) showing how runs are headed down. Is it injuries to key players? Bad starts by big names? The lack of amphetamines taking it's toll? Just plain better pitching? Coors Field playing like the Astrodome? Bad weather lately? I'd love to hear your ideas. (Click chart for a larger view.)

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Rockies take down the Astros 5-0 at Coors tonight. It's the third shutout at Coors this year, the second by the Rockies, and the second by the Rockies in the last four games. Jason Jennings goes the distance, striking out 9 and walking just one as he limits the Astros to seven hits. The Colorado defense turned two double plays in his support. Jennings ERA is down to 4.70, and his Coors ERA is at 3.86.

Chase Utley continued his hot hitting tonight. He extended his hit streak to six games, and the last five are all multi-hit affairs. Like last night, all his this were for extra bases as he stroked a double and homer against the Giants. He scored once and drove in two as Philadelphia took home a 4-1 win against San Francisco.

Alex Rodriguez broke his power drought tonight. A-Rod went 13 games without a home run, and only hit .213 and slugged .255 during the unlucky games. He did, however, draw 11 walks and drive in nine runs.

The main difference between Manny Ramirez on the road and at home this year was his power. HIs BA and OBA were very close, but Manny didn't hit a home run at Fenway until this evening.

Chris Burke, making his first start in right field, makes a great catch at the 375 foot sign at Coors Field. He crashed into the wall, however, and was lying on the ground holding his left shoulder. He's coming off the field on his own power, but he's holding his left arm across his belly. He can't seem to swing it like he's doing with his right arm.

For the second game in a row, Dontrelle Willis gets knocked around for a ton of runs. His pitching only stats look good; 11 2/3 innings, nine strikeouts, 2 walks, 1 home run. But he's allowed 20 hits! I don't think that's all his defense. Any Marlins fans care to comment on Dontrelle's outings? Bad luck or flawed pitching?

Kelvim Escobar throws 6 2/3 shutout innings en route to a 3-0 Angels victory over the Blue Jays. That lower Escobar's ERA to 2.78 and puts him in top five leaders in the AL.

With this game, the majors recorded the 13th shutout of May. There were 31 in April in 28 days.

The Athletics just defeanted the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 3-2. With the score tied at 2, Oakland put the first two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth. Scutaro then popped the ball up behind second base. Lugo let it drop, picked it up and stepped on second to force the runner from first. Payton, on second, is frozen and gets in a rundown. He makes back safely to second, but Scutaro had reached second, thinking Payton would be tagged out. The DRays get the DP as Oakland ends up with two runners on second.

That leaves Payton on second with two out and Kendall at the plate. Kendall hits an easy ground ball to Huff at third, but it goes through his legs and Payton comes around to score from second for the victory. Two unusual plays to end the game.

I was driving around this afternoon, listening to the beginning of the Mets game. Victor Zambrano dominated the first four batters, striking out three, including cleanup hitter Andruw Jones. He then sprinted off the mound with an apparent arm injury. The Mets need to use five other pitchers to finish out the game, but a four-run seventh was enough for New York to hang on to a 6-5 victory over the Braves. Jose Reyes added three more hits, making him 12 for 32 in May, a .375 BA.

The Kansas City Royals try to make it three in a row on the road as they send Runelvys Hernandez against Javier Vazquez of the White Sox. Whatever program the Royals used to whip Hernandez into shape appears to have worked. He's allowed just eight hits and one walk in 13 2/3 innings of work since returning to the rotation. That translates to a .180 OBA allowed. Vazquez appears to have solved his career long home run problem. He's allowed just one in 33 innings pitched this season; last year he gave up 35 in 215 2/3 innings.

Bronson Arroyo attempts to become the first six-game winner in the majors against the hot Arizona Diamondbacks. Arroyo's success comes from his effectiveness against left-handed batters. They're getting on base at a .222 clip and slugging just .303 against the right-handed pitcher. Bronson faces Claudio Vargas. Claudio's ERA of 4.32 seems higher than it should be given the low number of walks and home runs he's allowed. He has a very extreme home/road split; he's been unhittable away from Chase Field, at hitters dream at home.

Enjoy!

The Mets beat the Braves 8-7 in fourteen innings last night. Reyes knocked out five hits, including his fifth triple, and David Wright drove in the winning run with a double. Wright also had the game winning quote:

"The biggest statement had nothing to do with the Braves, it had to do with this team," Wright said at 12:30 this morning in the Met clubhouse, after a game that took four hours, 47 minutes and was completed a minute before midnight. "Not one guy hung their head and not one guy thought we were going to lose this game. To have that kind of confidence on the bench when you're down 6-2 to a team that's won the division 14 consecutive years, that's great that we have that kind of attitude."

Lots of talent helps breed that kind of attitude.

Alex Rodriguez was moved to the fifth slot last night by accident:

As Joe Torre and bench coach Lee Mazzilli were discussing potential lineups before the game, Torre told Mazzilli to make up one batting order with Gary Sheffield - starting for the first time since last Saturday - back in his usual No. 3 slot and then "just move everyone else down."

It didn't occur to anyone that Jason Giambi had been moved up from fifth to third during Sheffield's absence, so pushing everyone down meant A-Rod would hit fifth.

"If it had been on purpose, I would have gone and talked to him before doing it," Torre said.

A-Rod doesn't mind:

"I feel real comfortable between the lefties," he said.

Insert punch line here.

Brandon Webb pitched another great game last night, running his record to 5-0. He's using a different pitching compared to previous seasons:

And for a rotation that has lacked consistency, Webb has been as reliable as the sunrise. His 52 2/3 innings pitched are tops in the majors.

And he might be getting even better.

Webb has thrown off-speed pitches more regularly this season, mixing his curveball and change-up with his signature sinkerball.

It's a pitch pattern that carried over from the start of spring training, when he threw off-speed stuff early in games because he was only scheduled to throw a few innings anyway.

Webb had so much success with it, he and catcher Johnny Estrada didn't change a thing for the regular season.

The curveball has become a weapon he can use in just about any count.

"I've been able to throw that for strikes," Webb said. "Most of the guys have seen me three, four years now and know that I'm going to go after them with a sinker. To come out with a first-pitch curveball keeps them off balance early and makes it a little easier for me."

At some point, the pattern will change again as hitters adjust to his early curve. But with a number of pitches Brandon can throw for strikes, he can keep hitters guessing indefinitely.

Coco Crisp is taking longer to heal than expected, and is probably going to be out a few more days than originally thought. Francona is already getting questions about where Youkilis will bat when Crisp returns:

When he does return he'll reclaim his spot atop the order, pushing out Kevin Youkilis, who went into last night leading all leadoff hitters in on-base percentage (.420). It might make some sense, instead of sending him back to the eighth spot, to bat Youkilis second. Mark Loretta, the current No. 2 hitter, went into last night batting .217 with a .274 OBP.

''I'm not going to do the batting order two weeks ahead of time," manager Terry Francona said. ''Two weeks is a lifetime. When the time comes to get Coco back, I'll do what I think is best for the lineup. But that's a long way away. I think Youkilis can hit anywhere in the lineup."

Willie Mays turns 75 years old today. Gary Peterson remembers.

Moises Alou is on the 15 day disabled list with a sprained ankle. This is the sort of thing you need to expect when the best players on your team are in their late 30s and early 40s. On days that Bonds can't play, there's not going to be much offense in the middle of the Giants lineup.

With apologies to Paul McCartney:

Rocky Ramon Was pitching at home Hoping to hold down the Astros Rocky had come Equipped with a gun To set down the side with some KOs.

Ramon Ramirez pitched two scoreless inning last night and is becoming the go to guy in the Colorado bullpen. He faced the heart of the Houston order in the eighth and struck out the side, giving him 16 strikeouts in just 12 innings. Last night, he kept the Astros in check while the offense rallied for three runs in the 8th and 9th inning to pull out a 5-4 victory and keep the team in first place in the NL West.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Phillies doubled Matt Cain's home run allowed total tonight, knocking four of their five taters against the San Francisco starter. Howard and Utley launched two each off Matt, while Rowand added one against Worrell. The Phillies win easily 8-3.

It looks like the high pitch outing by Curt Schilling two starts ago produced no adverse effects. He picked up his fifth win tonight, going seven innings and showing great control. He walked none while throwing 74 of 105 pitches for strikes.

Mike Lowell punched out three doubles. He's leading the league in doubles with 16. He's making a nice recovery after a disastrous 2005.

Zach Day and Nick Johnson combined for the first Washington win since the Lerners won the bidding for the franchise. Day contributed seven shutout innings, holding Pittsburgh to four hits and one walk. Johnson smashed two home runs, bringing his total to eight on the season and raising his slugging average to .598. The pair even combined for a 3-6-1 double play. Washington won 6-0.

Oliver Perez continues to be awful. He walked four and struck out 1 in four innings. More and more, 2004 is looking like a fluke.

Vlad Guerrero finally hit something other than a single or home run. The Angels right fielder knocked out his first double of the season, as well as another single. It's no where near enough, however, as the Blue Jays are winning in a blow out 12-3 in the 8th. Alex Rios knocked out three more hits to raise his batting average .402.

David Glass is finally upset at the Royals constant losing:

Glass' tone was distinctly different from what it had been two weeks earlier, when he said that before making changes he preferred to "give this thing a chance to play out."

Now, he says, "What's happened is just unacceptable. We're going to change some things to make it better."

Glass declined to specify what moves he is contemplating or when he might act. But there has been a public clamor for a change in general managers.

Allard Baird, who became GM of the small-market operation on June 17, 2000, has acknowledged his job could be on the line.

"I've got a bunch of balls in the air right now and I'm going to catch some of them," Glass said.

It's about time. With a number of GMs finding success in small markets this decade, Glass might have realized sooner than the Royals were doing things backward, wasting money on free agents before the talent was ready.

Of course, the fact that they let so many good players go, rather follow the Indians path of signing them long term when they're young reflects badly on Glass himself. A little more money a few years ago would be paying a big dividend now.

Balls, Sticks and Stuff previews a sign that will be on display at the Giants/Phillies game this evening.

Jason Kendall will sit on the bench for four games as he's the only one suspended for his altercation with John Lackey. That seems appropriate. Charging the mound because the pitcher threw a great curve ball should not be allowed.

The schedule gives us three games today where first place or near first place teams battle each other. The Yankees travel deep in the heart of Texas to play the Rangers. Mike Mussina battles Vicente Padilla in the game. This isn't a good matchup for Vicente, as he struggles with left-handers, and the Yankees can pack their lineup with them. On the plus side, Padilla's kept the ball in the park in Texas, not allowing a homer in a home game. Mussina saw his strikeout rate deteriorate over the last couple of seasons, but it's rebounding well in 2006. He's struck out 37 in 39 innings.

The first place Reds continue their west tour with a visit to Phoenix. They'll face the Diamondbacks best as Brandon Webb hosts Elizardo Ramirez. That's a great name. There's not much on Ramirez, but he's putting batters away when he gets to two strikes; he's allowed a .130 BA in that situation. Webb's been particularly good against the top of the order, allowing a .261 OBA to #1 hitters and a .227 OBA to #2 hitters.

The Astros, only 1/2 game behind the Reds in the NL Central, travel to Colorado to see if runs can still be scored at Coors. They'll send Taylor Buchholz to the mound to try to sew up a victory. Taylor's been unhittable so far (that doesn't mean he can't be hit) allowing a .158 BA to lefties and a .188 BA to righties. Byung-Hyun Kim makes his second start of the year for the Rockies. His nine strikeouts in his first 6 2/3 innings is an encouraging sign for Colorado.

Enjoy!

Retrosheet now provides complete play by play from 1974 on, with the exception of 1999. It would fairly easy for me to make all this split data available in the Day by Day Database (game logs are complete back to 1974). Are people interested in this data? Do you think that making it available without 1999 means that people are going to make mistakes and publish it as career, missing the caveat? Or should I wait for the 1999 data to be published, so that I don't need to worry about these things?

Bill Conlin gets it right on Pat Gillick and Cole Hamels:

Hamels is in Triple A, waiting to get roughed up, so he can prove his manhood. Gee, Pat, I thought Cole had already done that when he covered a teammate's back in an ugly Clearwater parking lot dust-up. Cole, the designated driver, broke a finger on his pitching hand on some guy's skull. Of course, if the Phillies are really waiting to see how he responds to replicating a Vicente Padilla outing, we might not see him for years. He's thrown exactly three homers in three-plus truncated minor league seasons. Two came last year when his back was ailing.

The Phillis are only five games out of first. Maybe Hamels makes the difference. It would be sad to see the Phillies fall farther from first before they make this move.

Ivy Chat notices a smart-alec comment about Mark Prior's rehabilitation in the press, and wants to see more!

With last night's performance at Coors, Aaron Harang is making a serious challenge to Bronson Arroyo as Reds staff ace. Harang struck out 12 as he allowed just one run over 8 1/3 innings. That's four runs allowed in two games for Reds staff at Coors. Pretty impressive.

Meanwhile, the Rockies hitters have the strangest home/road split in the history of the club. They're slugging .522 on the road, .385 at home! Colorado has to hope that the road number stay high, and the offense returns to it's usual levels at Coors. That would be enough to win the NL West.

The Texas Rangers lead the AL West by 1 1/2 games. Last night's 8-2 win over the Orioles is what the Rangers would like to see more of this year. Good pitching to go with a good offense. Kevin Millwood gave the bullpen a night off, throwing 99 pitches to go the distance vs. Baltimore. He's doing exactly what the Rangers hired him to do; replace Kenny Rogers as the ace. As noted at the beginning of the year, an ERA of 4.00 from Millwood would be fine, but he's 1/2 a run better than that at the start of May.

The Rangers starting staff last lost a game on April 15th. Since then, they've posted a 3.07 ERA while going 7-0. The revamped rotation was a major concern going into this season, and so far it's worked well.

Brad Lidge put two baserunners on last night before earning his eleventh save of the season. Over his last nine appearances, Lidge has allowed baserunners in seven of those games. The numbers aren't impressive, but Brad earned seven saves, making one wonder just how tough it is to close games. He reminds me of John Wetteland in 1996. It seemed everytime I saw the Yankees closer come into a game, he'd put the first two batters on. Maybe coming into the game with the bases empty wasn't enough of a challenge for John. Like Lidge, Wetteland struck out a lot of batters that year, making it tough for the men on base to move around.

Juan Cruz continued to respond well to his role in the starting rotation in Arizona, shutting out his former team for five innings last night as the Diamondbacks defeated the Cubs 6-0. Cruz has collected 10 innings as a starter, striking out 10 and walking just two. He's a big improvement so far over Russ Ortiz. Chad Tracy homered in his third straight game. Tracy's averages right now are right where he ended last season; one point lower in batting average, 7 points lower in OBA and slugging .553 both years. Talk about consistency!

A gutsy performance by Clay Hensley last night. After being hit in the back of the head with a flying broken bat, he stays in the game and pitches six shutout innings.

“Maybe I need to get hit in the back of the head every outing,” Hensley said.

The Padres won on a three-run homer by Greene, off none other than the Dodgers bullpen. Takashi Saito allowed two hits and a walk in his inning of work, leading to the only three runs scored in the game. LA's relievers have issued more free passes than the Dodgers starters, 51-48. So while the starters and relievers allow about the same batting average, the relievers own a much higher OBA and a 2-11 record.

I noted yesterday that Doug Davis didn't allow many runs over his last two starts despite putting a number of runners on base, especially via the walk. Batters are 1 for 15 against him with runners in scoring position in those games, which explains why quite nicely.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Royals hitters were just a bit less inept than the Twins tonight, winning their first road game of the season 1-0. Despite drawing six walks in five innings against Affelt, the Twins couldn't push a run across the plate. If this keeps up, Gardenhire's days are numbered.

Andre Either hits a Clay Hensley pitch and breaks his bat. Hensley turns to watch the ground ball head to the short shortstop, and the splintered end of the heavy part of the bat hits Clay in the back of the head. He's sitting on the mound right now, and it looks like they're digging spliters out of his head. He's coming out of the game.

Update: Clay did not come out. He went to the dugout to get patched up. He comes back to the mound and strikes out Oscar Robles. He wins the he-man of the night award.

The Atlanta Braves can't seem to generate any action from the leadoff spot. Marcus Giles went 0 for 5 tonight, lowering the combined OBA of the #1 hitters to .276. Giles should be making a difference in the slot, but he has a .301 OBA as a leadoff hitter this year. I'd bet that's going to get better, but right now it's a headache for the Braves. They lose to the Phillies tonight 6-3.

I would have guessed that the sale of the Washington Nationals would provide a boost to the franchise. The players would know there's going to be some stability. They're going to have an owner that cares about them winning. The sale was announced the day they started a series against a team stripped of most of its stars. But the Marlins spoiled the celebration. They took a one-run victory last night, and crushed Washington this evening 11-3. The one hitting star the Marlins kept, Miguel Cabrera knocked out three hits and two doubles while driving in three. Ramirez and Uggla set the table, scoring three each. Josh Johnson pitched well, allowing just one hit over five innings. It's the Marlins that celebrated in Washington, as they move past the Nationals for fourth place in the NL East.

What's up with Tom Glavine? For his career through 2005, Glavine struck out 5.4 per nine innings. It's an okay total, not great, but Glavine makes up for the lack of strikeouts with great control. Suddenly, however, he's striking out batters left and right. Nine Pirate batters struck out through five innings tonight, and Glavine now has 40 K in 44 1/3 innings, 8.1 per 9. He's found something that's fooling batters this season, and his ERA is down to 2.03 through five.

Update: Glavine goes seven shutout innings as the Mets win 6-0. Tom strike out 10 and lowers his ERA to 1.94. The Pirates strike out a total of 14 times in the game.

Edgar Renteria extended his hit streak to 19 games tonight. He's batting .367 with a .405 OBA. Hanley Ramirez drew two more walks so far tonight, and his OBA is up to .379, and he's hitting a respectable .287. Alex Gonzalez is 0 for 1 as the Red Sox play in the third inning. He's batting .178 with a poor .271 OBA.

I can't argue with the moves the Red Sox made this off-season. Ramirez helped bring them Beckett and Lowell; so far Mike's worked out better than Josh. Renteria brought them Crisp. A freak injury put him on the DL. But using hindsight, it looks like the Red Sox would have a better team if they:

• Trade Renteria for Marte and let Marte play third.
• Don't trade for Beckett and let Arroyo pitch.
• Let Ramirez play short.
• Pay Johnny Damon and let him play center.

They really didn't seem to have a good plan at shortstop, and now it's hurting them. It's one thing to have a weak hitting shortstop, it's another to have one that hits like a pitcher.

The Oakland Athletics got their revenge on the Indians this afternoon. After losing 14-3 yesterday, the A's came back to take a 12-4 victory from Cleveland today. In four of their last five games, Oakland scored or allowed 10 runs. Cleveland has scored 10 runs or more five times, and allowed 10 or more five times, but not in the same game.

Jose Contreras continues to dominate hitters, lowering his league leading ERA to 1.41 with seven innings of one-run ball. He's now allowed just 28 hits in 44 2/3 innings. Add in 11 walks and he's less than a batter an inning reaches base against him. Since the start of last August, he's been unbelievable, allowing a 1.82 ERA and just five home runs in 123 2/3 innings. Remember, he pitches half the time in a good home run park, so that stat is even more impressive.

Doug Davis pitched his second good game in a row, if you look at runs allowed. Over his last two starts, he's allowed just one run in 12 1/3 innings, despite walking eight and giving up nine hits. When I get the situational stats tomorrow morning I'm going to be very curious to see how he's doing with men on base over these two games. The Brewers defeat the Giants 7-4.

Vlad Guerrero continues his strange season. The Angels defeat the Tigers 7-2 as Vlad drives in three runs. He went four for four with three singles and a home run. That gives the rightfielder 37 hits on the season; 29 singles and 8 home runs. He usually has quite a few doubles in April.

The first three White Sox hitters reach against Felix Hernandez, the third being a a home run by Jim Thome. That's the fourth home run allowed by Hernandez in a little over 10 IP on the road, along with 19 hits and seven walks, and he's not even out of the first yet.

Update: Felix gets out of the first with no more damage. Those statistics are over 10 2/3 road innings this season.

Mike Napoli makes his major league debut behind the plate for the Angels this afternoon and homers in his first at bat. The Angels lead the Tigers 1-0 in the third. He's hit 60 homers over the last two season in the minor leagues.

Carlos Lee raises his home run total to 12 with a two-run shot, and Koskie doubles in another run as the Brewers jump on Hennessey for three in the first inning and take a 3-0 lead on San Francisco. Lee's been very consistent hitting homers over the last three seasons, getting 31 or 32 in about 600 at bats. His pace right now would double that amount.

Barry Bonds is sitting out the day game after the night game (and the battng practice beaning).

Bronson Arroyo finds a reason to be happy in Cincinnati.

I've been chided for not mentioning last night's Cardinals-Astros game in which Lidge faced Albert Pujols again. Here's the story.

The Angels and Tigers battled in a pitching duel last night and might do so again today. Kevin Gregg gets promoted to the starting rotation due to injuries. He's been great in relief this year, striking out 11 in 10 2/3 innings while walking just 3. Justin Verlander is one of four Detroit pitchers in the top 15 in ERA. He's done an excellent job of keeping batters off base, allowing just a .280 OBA to his opponents.

Felix Hernandez is not living up to the hype of 2005, especially on the road. (Compare to his home starts.) He'll face the undefeated Jose Contreras in Chicago this afternoon. Left-handed batters gain about 60 points of batting average vs. Jose, but they're still just hitting .220 against the White Sox righty.

Both Chris Carpenter and Andy Pettitte put up Cy Young worthy numbers in 2005. The two will meet in Houston tonight as the Cardinals try to keep pace with the Astros. Carpenter continues his impressive performances, posting a 1.80 ERA so far. Pettitte, however, is getting crushed by the home run ball. His career high is 23 in 221 innings. That was in 1996. At his current rate, he would allow 43 homers in the same number of innings.

Enjoy!

Soccer Dad notes a reason the Orioles lose out on top free agents; they're not aggressive enough.

Just in case Philadelphia fans were unsure of how to act when Bonds comes to town on Friday, Paul Hagen reviews the taunts and tactics used so far.

The ground breaking ceremony for the new Washington ballpark takes place at 10 AM EDT. Ted Lerner will turn over the soil with the mayor.

Lerner said he's dreamed of being a baseball owner since he used to watch the old Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium.

"I was born and raised in Washington, D.C. My wife and children were all born here. We are deeply routed to the community. I am also a lifelong baseball fan who saw Dizzy Dean pitch, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. I remember as a child the thrill of occasionally finding my way into Senator's games at Griffith Stadium."

He's showing his age there. I wonder how many people are still alive who saw Ruth play? My dad is 85. He didn't see Ruth, but he did go to Lou Gehrig day. People are living longer, so there are still should be plenty of fans around. The youngest is probably 75 at this point, however.

The Padres and the Dodgers played an unusual game at Chavez Ravine last night.

• The Padres picked up 17 hits despite Brian Giles going 0 for 6.
• The Padres picked up 12 of those hits after the Jae Seo left the game. Seo pitched six innings of one-run ball.
• The last time the Dodgers bullpen was this bad was on May 5, 2001, when the Cubs scored 16 runs in the seventh and eighth innings.

Maybe that's why Grady didn't want to lift Odalis Perez the night before.

The Diamondbacks handed Greg Maddux his first loss last night, knocking out ten hits in five innings against the future Hall of Famer. Arizona is 8-3 over their last eleven games and sits in second place in the NL West, just one game behind the Rockies. Take a look at the final boxscore from last night and notice the OBP and Slug columns for the DBacks hitters. The first seven hitters all have on-base percentages above the league average of .333. They also have slugging percentage above the NL average of .417.

Notice also that none of these players has an outstanding OBP or slugging percentage. There's no MVP numbers in that lineup. But when everyone is above average, your offense is going to be above average. It's a perfect offense for a team that doesn't want to spend a lot of money. Everyone does something well, but not so well that the individuals can demand huge salaries. If you put enough of those players together, you have a very good, low-cost offense. A very nice job by Mr Byrnes in so far.

Last night the Indians defeated the Athletics 14-3 behind seven good inning from Paul Byrd. Last year, Kevin Millwood led the AL in ERA and lost more than he won. This season, his replacemet, Byrd, is 4-2 despite a 7.11 ERA.

Jason Schmidt controlled the strike zone last night, pitching a complete game shutout of the Milwaukee Brewers. Over his nine innings, he struck out seven and walked none.

The last time he didn't issue a free pass in a start of any length was Sept. 17, 2003 — 68 starts ago.

"We heard he'd been walking a lot of guys, and we expected him to be wild, but his command was great tonight," said Jenkins, who had two of theBrewers' hits. "He has a lot of pitches to put you away with."

With a 5.03 staff ERA after the shutout, the Giants can certainly use Schmidt returning to his 2003-2004 form.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Tonight's win by the Rockies may be the most amazing one in the history of Coors Field. Not only did Jeff Francis, Jose Mesa and Brian Fuentes combine to throw a four-hit shuout, they did it against the best offense in the National League, the Cincinnati Reds. It's another low scoring game at Coors as Claussen and the Reds staff held Colorado to just three runs. That's usually all you need to do to win at Coors.

The average number of runs in Rockies home games this year is 9.77. In away games, that number goes up to 10.27. Simply amazing. And the opposition scored just 66 of those 154 away runs.

Once again, the Yankees play a close game vs. Tampa Bay despite putting many more men on base. New York batters reached base 16 times by a hit, walk or hit by pitch to Tampa Bay's six. But the Devil Rays turned four double plays and caught a runner stealing, effectively reducing the Yankees OBA. New York had to go 10 to win the game 4-2.

Jaret Wright started and pitched decently, although he only struck out three in six innings. His big mistake was allowing a home run to Tomas Perez. Perez possesses little power; for his career he's a .348 slugger and entered the game at .267. But we forget that even a bad major league hitter is still pretty good in the grand scheme of things. Even the lowly ninth slot hitter for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays cannot be taken lightly.

Neither Roy Halladay nor Josh Beckett were at their best tonight, so it fell to the Toronto and Boston bullpens to decide the game. In a night where three closers pitched, B.J. Ryan did the job. He got the heart of the lineup, getting Ortiz on strikes and Manny on a fly out. He struck out Mohr, but Dustin reached on a passed ball. Harris then stole second and went to third on a throwing error, but B.J. covered Zaun's mistakes by striking out Varitek to end the game.

Boston used both its closers, and neither succeeded. Foulke gave up a two-run homer to Hillenbrand, and the previously unscored upon Papelbon allowed his first run of the year, the one that put Toronto ahead to stay. Just 1/2 a game now separate New York, Boston and Toronto. The Blue Jays are now 5-2 against the Red Sox.

Pedro Martinez failed to win his sixth game tonight due to pitchers batting in the National League. Having thrown just seventy-seven pitches through six innings, the Mets took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth. Chavez just doubled to drive in Floyd with the go-ahead run when it was Pedro's turn to bat. Randolph pinch hit for Martinez, and although Valentin struck out, Reyes tripled home the insurance run.

In the ninth, Billy Wagner blew the save, sending the game into extra innings where Carlos Delgado won the contest with a home run in the bottom of the 12th.

In an AL game, Martinez would have continued, and with that pitch count could easily finish the game. Randolph made the right move. The insurance run was more important than Pedro continuing in the game. But that's the price a starter pays in the when he can't hit. Pedro's a career .092 hitter.

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Was Watching points to a poorly constructed poll that shows players think Jeter is overrated. That study screams for a Borda count.

Three True Outcomes wonders why Bud Selig only met Lerner once.

David Steele hopes this move gets the Nationals on TV.

The Beltway Boys note that it was time to sell because Bud Selig inflicted all the damage he could. I disagree. He have forced the team to trade Nick Johnson to the Royals for Kerry Robinson.

Nationals Farm Authority is very pleased Kasten is going to be rebuilding the team.

By the way, given the resources of the Lerner group, why couldn't they have contributed to the stadium? Why, in fact, couldn't they have built it outright? The team became more valuable if the new owner didn't need to build a park. The taxpayers of Washington aren't' giving a handout to the new owner. They're giving a handout to the rest of the major league baseball teams that are enjoying the profit of the sale.

Jon Weisman offers an excellent critique of Grady Little's handling of Odalis Perez last night. Watching things unfold in the fifth inning was a little like watching game 7 of the 2003 ALCS again, as Lisa Gray pointed out in the comments here.

The Lerner group wins the bidding war for the Washington Nationals.

Selig is expected to hold a telephone news conference from Milwaukee at 4:45 p.m., sources said. The Lerners are planning their own news conference at 7 p.m. at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington.

Lerner has agreed to pay Baseball's price of $450 million for the franchise and the league has said it will fast-track the Lerners' approval process and vote on the Nationals' purchaser in time for the league's next owners' meeting May 17-18 in New York. Lerner is expected to take possession in June.

It's about time. Stan Kasten will run the club. We'll see if his first move is to fire Bowden.

Of course, since baseball got the group such a sweetheart deal on a stadium, I'm sure Lerner is another owner who owes his allegiance to Bud. And, since Bud made a nice piece of change for all the other owners, it's another reason for everyone else to be pleased with the commissioner.

Best of luck to the Lerner group. It's good to see baseball back in Washington, and I hope they can be more successful than the other baseball franchises in the city. They've been given a good start with the stadium deal. We'll see if they can build a winner.

Andrew Koch notes the Athletics are off to a better start than last year.

Sometimes, when I'm scanning the schedule for the day, one game pops out as being head and shoulders above every other game out there. Today is one of those days. Kansas City visits Minnesota as Joe Mays faces Brad Radke. First of all, it's Mays' first time back in the Hubie Dome against his old team. Secondly there's an irresistible force/immovable object feeling about this game. These two starters are terrible. Radke's allowed 43 hits in 26 1/3 innings. Mays has walked 14 and struck out 8 in 20 1/3 innings. This game looks to be a slugfest.

But the offenses are terrible. The Twins and Royals are 13-14 in the AL in runs scored respectively. They rank 12 and 13 in OBA, 13 and 14 in slugging percentage. So I must ask the question, if good pitching stops good hitting, does bad pitching stop bad hitting?

Enjoy!

Chad Carroll auctioned off his loyalty to the Royals on E-Bay. He's not the first Royals fan to try this, however.

Should this send a message to Royals management? Two people in a year willing to sell their loyalty to another team might make them think they have a real problem. Unfortunately, you can't fire an owner. Maybe MLB should stop wasting revenue sharing money on this sorry franchise.

I can't believe I get to mention bulging discs twice in the same day!

An examination Tuesday in Kansas City confirmed that Royals captain Mike Sweeney has a bulging cervical disk — but a different disk from the one that sidelined him for extended periods in 2003 and 2004.

The prognosis is the same, however: Sweeney is expected to spend the next several weeks on the disabled list.

It seems the Royals can lose as well with Mike as without him, although he did add to the team's walk total.

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Ruben Sierra suffered a pretty serious injury:

Minnesota Twins reserve Ruben Sierra is expected to miss several months with a ruptured biceps tendon near his left elbow.

The 40-year-old Sierra had an MRI test before Monday night's game against Seattle. He was placed on the 15-day disabled list Sunday after hurting himself the day before while swinging at a pitch.

Although the story says he'll return this season, I have to wonder. First of all, he's been a poor offensive player the last three seasons. Missing a few months of the season at this point doesn't seem like the way to improve things. This may actually be a blessing for the Twins if they can find someone who can hit to DH.

Matt Rico tested positive for the second time and will miss 100 games.

Rico is in extended spring training, and hadn't played for a team yet this season. He was Tampa Bay's sixth-round draft pick in 2001 as an outfielder, but was converted to a pitcher last year. He had no record in eight games with short-season Class A Hudson Valley last year, finishing with a 2.53 ERA.

Another marginal player tests positive. Matt's probably not going to make the majors anyway, so he probably thought it was worth giving the drugs a try. If he gets away with it, the boost might be enough to give him a shot at the show.

I don't write about minor leaguers much, but one of my commentors is very excited about Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia Phillies. This article gives you the reason why.

Hamels, a 22-year-old lefthander, yesterday dominated the opponent for the second straight time for Triple A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. In Richmond, Hamels threw his first complete game, a two-hit shutout in which he walked one and had 12 strikeouts against the Braves' best minor leaguers in a 5-0 win. He shut out Norfolk with 14 strikeouts, five hits and no walks in seven innings in his Triple A debut Thursday.

He's dominated the minors so far, although his walks rates are somewhat high. He's also been limited in playing time by SportsCenter's favorite injury, the bulging disc. So I understand Gillick's reluctance to promote the youngster to the majors. But the opposition is hitting .317 vs. the Phillies starters this year. If that keeps up, Gillick may not have a choice.

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The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Dodgers take a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth vs. the Diamondbacks, but Odalis Perez allows two runs then loads the bases for Chad Tracy. Tracy hammers the first pitch down the line in right, a screaming liner that's just foul. After taking a ball, he launches the next pitch over the right-centerfield fence for a grand slam and a tie game.

Update: After a walk, Broxton is brought in to face Connor Jackson. The first baseman lauches one straight over Lofton's head for a double, an RBI and a 7-6 Arizona lead.

The Minnesota Twins needed a gift tonight, and Johan Santana provided the present. It didn't look good at the beginning; the first three Mariners reached base on hits, plating a run. But Santana came back to strike out the next three Mariners, and cruised through seven innings, striking out nine and walking none. Minnesota even scored some runs, achieving a 5-1 victory. That's more runs than they scored in their previous four games.

Mike Maroth added six more good innings to his 2006 season as the Tigers keep the Royals winless on the road with a 4-1 victory. Maroth's ERA now stands at 1.78, second in the AL. But he'll only stay on the leader board for three days he needs one inning for each game played to qualify. He needs to go deep in a game soon so he stays among the best the entire time between starts. He threw just 87 pitches today, so one more innings was possible. But the Detroit pen gave up just one hit to the ten batters faced, so you can't argue with Leyland's decision.

The Phillies came into tonight's game against Florida trailing the Marlins in the number of walks drawn, despite playing two more games. They turned that around this evening as Philadelphia drew eight free passes and issued none to Florida. The extra base runners resulted in a 7-5 comeback victory for the Phillies. They are now six walks ahead of the Marlins.

The heart of the Orioles order did the Athletics one better, as each of the 3-4-5 hitters homered against the Blue Jays. The trio drove in seven to help Kris Benson to a 9-2 victory. Benson only struck out one, but he continues his success with a low strikeout rate. We'll see how long that lasts.

The Rockies are leading the Braves 4-3 despite being outhit 9-6. The difference is that three of the Rockies six went out of the park, and a total of five went for extra bases. The Braves just have one extra-base hit, a double. It's a great example of how both OBA and slugging percentage contribute to offense.

Mike O'Connor makes it two fine pitching performances in a row to start his major league career. He pretty much shut down the Mets, allowing just one run over seven innings, a gopher ball to Paul Lo Duca. He allowed just one other hit while walking two and striking out six. His ERA after 12 innings stands at 0.75, and the opposition is hitting .122 against the rookie. The Nationals lead 6-1 in the eighth.

The Astros are hitting Ben Sheets. He's given up five hits without getting an out in the second inning, including an RBI single by the opposing starter, Nieve. The Astros are up 4-0 and still threatening in the second.

Update: The score goes to 5-0 as Taveras beats out what looked like a sure double play grounder and drives in the runner from third.

Update: Sheets lasts just 2 1/3 innings. He allows 9 hits and 7 runs while striking out 3. The Brewers trail 7-2 in the third, thanks to a home run by Bill Hall.

The Oakland Athletics demonstrated how the heart of the order should bat today. Chavez, Thomas and Crosby combined to go six for 14 with two homers and eight RBI in the 10-3 romp over the Angels. The 3-4-5 hitters entered the game with overall weak stats, batting a combined .213 with a poor OBA and slugging percentage.

Update: There was a fight in the game between Kendall and Lackey. That's one way to get the opposition starter out of the contest.

Bonds hits number 712 in the bottom of the eighth inning in a 5-3 loss to the Padres. The solo shot puts him two away from tying Babe Ruth for second place on the all-time home run list. I haven't see the replay yet, but the play by play describes it as going out to center. That means Bonds has yet to pull a ball for a home run. I'm not sure what to make of that. Can he not get around on an inside pitch? Any experts care to speculate on how to pitch Barry if he can't pull the ball? Keep the pitch in on his hands?

Eric Chavez give the Athletics an early 3-0 lead with his tenth home run of the season. A hit batter by Lackey and a Swisher single set up the three run shot. It's also Chavez's 200th career home run.

Zach Duke continues his domination of the Cubs today. He's allowed no runs through five innings today, lowering his career ERA against Chicago to 0.64. We'll see if he can run it lower as the day continues. The Pirates lead the Cubs 4-0 going to the sixth inning.

Sidney Ponson continued his comeback today with six inning of two-run ball. His only mistakes were solo home runs to Dunn and Edwin Encarnacion. If the Cardinals can get five or six low--run innings out of the knight most starts, their investment will pay off. The game is tied at two in the bottom of the ninth.

Update: Brian Falkenborg, just called up today by the Cardinals, shows a reason he hasn't spent much time in the majors. With Reds on 1st and 2nd, a bunt came back to him quickly. He had plenty of time to get the runner at third, but didn't see the catcher's signal to go that way and got the out at first. Javier Valentin comes through with the single to win the game and put Cincinnati two games up on St. Louis.

Milliliter goes five innings and throws 89 pitches, 60 for strikes. He allowed just one run on five hits and two walks. The Indians bullpen will try to protect a 5-1 lead.

Albert Pujols takes a day off after a night game, which is a bit surprising since the Cardinals are playing the team one game ahead of them. But starting first baseman Scott Spiezio drove in a run in the first, and the Cardinal take a 1-0 lead into the second.

Update: Juan Encarnacion homers in his third straight game to make the score 2-0 St. Louis in the fourth inning.

A reader left a comment that Pujols is out with a bad back.

The Indians put six balls in play in the first against Buehrle and end up with four hits, including a three-run homer by Travis Hafner. Buehrle did strike out one, but his low K total this year makes these type of innings more likely. The Indians lead 3-0 in the second.

Reds fans should be embarassed.

Royals Authority looks at what motivates Runelvys Hernandez: humiliation.

Peter at The Good Phight sends this post using retrosheet data to look at the Phillies in the clutch. Peter takes defines clutch very narrowly (which is good), but it leads to small sample sizes (which is bad).

What really caught my eye, however, was that retrosheet now has 2005 data available. So I went over to the events page and found that 1993-1998 data is also available! (As someone who donated to the cause, they might have sent out an e-mail.) That means we're one year (1999) away from having a completely public domain play-by-play from 1974 to 2005.

The Day by Day Database can then be populated with splits data for the careers of all active players, and some very interesting retired players. We'll have complete batter vs. pitcher records available to us. It's an exciting time to be a baseball researcher.

C.C. Sabathia returns from the DL today in a rematch of opening night. He faces the White Sox and Mark Buehrle, this time in Cleveland. Buehrle is pushing the envelope of how few strikeouts one can allow while still finding success. Sabathia hopes to improve a starting staff currently posting a 5.35 ERA.

Brad Halsey moves into the Athletics rotation due to injuries, getting his first start of the season vs. the Angels' John Lackey. The Admiral has not allowed an extra-base hit in forty four at bats this season. Lackey is shutting down left-handed batters, allowing just a .111 batting average and a .111 slugging percentage against hitters with the platoon advantage.

The Yankees see Josh Beckett for the first time since game 6 of the 2003 World Series. Shawn Chacon take the hill for the Yankees. Both have 3-1 records and ERAs around 4.50. Chacon comes in with a better K per 9, BB per 9 and HR per 9, however.

Enjoy!

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Washington Post reports that comments by D.C. politians against the Lerner group pushed major league baseball closer to the Lerner group.

Major League Baseball is likely to award ownership of the Washington Nationals to a group led by Bethesda developer Theodore N. Lerner, after efforts by District politicians and others to steer the selection to competing bidders apparently backfired, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

Commissioner Bud Selig, who will decide who gets the franchise, was angered by accusations that Lerner's group was unacceptable because it had included minorities only as tokens rather than genuine partners, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the negotiations.

For all the things I don't like about Bud, he's worked dilligently to promote minorities throughout baseball. I can see where he would be angered by the comments, although it certainly seemed to me that these groups were bidding with African-Americans rather than money.

Barry Zito found his groove last night as he pitched 7 2/3 shutout innings against the LAnaheim Angels. He threw106 pitches, 66 for strikes. Zito's problem this year had to do with walks and home runs and he walked just two last night. He needed to pitch that well, as Hector Carrasco and the Angels pen allowed just one run on a double by Swisher and a single by Crosby. That was all the scoring as Oakland won 1-0. Despite what is considered a slow start by the Athletics, they're only 1/2 game out of first.

Los Angeles and Arizona played a low scoring game as well. The Diamondbacks used three doubles in the second inning to score three runs, and that's all they'd need as Claudio Vargas pitched six strong innings and the bullpen was nearly untouchable. Although they've blown three saves, the Diamondbacks bullpen is keeping the opposition at bay, allowing a .305 OBA and a .360 slugging percentage. The DBacks win 3-2.

Most of the scoring took place in San Francisco last night, where the Padres scored as many runs as the other five teams combined in a 10-4 rout of the Giants. San Diego only out hit San Francisco 12-10, but did a better job of bunching their hits, and added four doubles to the Giants one. Peavy threw strikes as he lasted eight innings for the win, with 74 of his 105 gaining a positive result.

Sean Marshall gives the Cubs 7 1/3 fine innings tonight allowing just one run. The Cubs needed that performance as they end up taking a 2-1 victory from the Pirates. Marshall's pitched very well in Chicago, lowering his ERA at Wrigley to 2.41, striking out 14 in 18 2/3 innings at his home park.

Bill Hall continues to be a good problem for the Brewers. They're playing him everywhere, and he keeps hitting. His three for four in the Brewers 4-2 victory over the Astros raise his average to .348, his OBA to .405 and his slugging percentage to .773. Do you give him a permanent position, or do you keep spot starting him to give the others a day off?

The Twins lose again, this time 8-2 to Seattle. Once again, a starter gets hit hard, and the offense offers no support. Baker gives up five runs in 5 1/3 inning without walking a batter. (In fact, there were not walks issued in the game.) All in all, the Mariners collected 19 hits, their season high. The Twins have been outscored by their opponents 156 to 99. That's better than two runs a game.

Troy Glaus hits big tonight, knocking out twelve total bases with two doubles and two home runs. He was a big part of a 16 hit, 27 total base attack that led to a 9-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. Glaus is now slugging .656 on the season.

The Mets continue their domination of their NL East opponents with a 2-1 win over the Washington Nationals. Both staters went six allowing one runs. The Mets relief corps did not allow a hit over three innings. However, Gary Majewski made an error that allowed the winning run to score.

Carlos Delgado hit his 10th home run of the year. Mets first basemen had 21 homers all last year.

The Red Sox get to Small in the 8th with a walk and a hit by pitch. Sturtze comes on and gives up a hit up the middle to Loretta to plate the go-ahead run. The Red Sox lead 4-3 with two on and one out and Ortiz at the plate.

Update: Ortiz slams one into the bullpen near the triangle off Meyers. He crushed a 3-2 pitch against the wind to plate three and extend the Red Sox lead to 7-3. It's his fifth home run of the year off a left hander for David.

Travis Hafner finally comes up with the bases loaded this year and smacks a grand slam to bring the Indians within two of the White Sox. It's 7-5 Chicago in the eighth.

The Reds soundly defeated the St. Louis Cardinals tonight 6-1. They knocked out four doubles, raising their total to 61 which at the moment leads the majors. They also become the first team in the majors with 100 extra-base hits on the year. They won the game pitching to Pujols as well. Albert went 0 for 3 with a walk.

Arroyo continues to make an impression in his new home, going the distance on a four hitter. It's no surprise that with a 2.06 ERA and the Reds offense he's undefeated at 5-0.

The Rangers are conservative with Kameron Loe, also. The remove him after seven shutout innings, allowing four hits while striking out three. But the Texas bullpen did the job, as Cordero and Otsuka combined to retire all six Tampa Bay batters en route to a 3-0 Texas victory. Loe's ERA goes down to 4.15, a great number with the potential of Texas' offense.

Two balls knocked down by the wind in the bottom of the seventh both help and hurt the Red Sox. A pop up back of short stop is lost by Jeter as the wind blows it around and the hit puts runners on first and third. A walk loads the bases, and Willy Mo Pena blasts a ball toward the wall in left center. The swing looked like a homer, but the ball came down in Matsui's glove. The wind is blowing a gale straight in from center tonight in Fenway.

The Tigers defeat the Royals 3-2 behind eight shutout innings by Jeremy Bonderman. Todd Jones got the save, but he made it close, allowing four hits and two runs to make it a one-run game. Bonderman threw just 94 pitches and retired the Royals 1-2-3 in the 8th. Was this just an example of using your closer in a save situation just to get him work or a save?

For the Royals, even though they lost they must be happy with Runelvys Hernandez. Whatever they did to cure his "out of shape" appears to have worked. He's allowed just a .143 batting average in his two starts. If they can do the same for Greinke, they might win some games this year. The Royals are now 0-10 on the road.

Tim Hudson shut down the first place Rockies, recording a 2-0 shutout. Hudson allowed just one hit while walking three. He lowered his ERA to 4.54 and his opposition batting average to .242. The only hit off Hudson was a single by Jason Jennings, the opposing pitcher. Jennings pitched a fine game himself as the Rockies staff continues to be tough on the road.

Update: The game took just 2:07.

Dan Uggla is a big part of the Marlins 5-1 lead against the Phillies tonight. He's knocked out a single, double and home run so far, scoring two and driving in two. He should get at least one more at bat to try for the triple.

Update: Uggla doesn't get the triple in his next plate apperance, but the Phillies tied the game at five, so he may get another chance.

Jeter starts the Yankees fourth with a solid single, but two walks, two ground outs and a seeing eye single by Cano finds the Yankees up 3-1. The announcers thought Loretta should have dove for the ball hit by Cano; he could have saved a run by knocking it down. But I thought the ball was well by him and a dive would be useless.

Kameron Loe is perfect through four inning against the Devil Rays. Tampa is not even making him work hard, as he's thrown just 38 pitches, 28 for strikes.

Update: In the top of the fifth, Barajas produces the first run of the game with a solo home run to left. That may be all Loe needs tonight.

Update: Loe gives up a single with two out in the fifth.

Jeremy Bonderman and Runelvys Hernandez are putting down the opposing lineups with little effort. Through four innings, Hernandez threw 54 pitches, Bonderman 49. The KC starter allowed just one hit so far, but it was a solo home run by Maggilo Ordonez, and the Tigers lead 1-0.

Chien-Ming Wang walks three in the first, but the Red Sox manage just one run as Lowell grounds into a force at the plate and Pena flies out to right on a ball that Crosby almost misplays. The Red Sox lead 1-0.

Rich Aurilia hits a solo home run off Mark Mulder to give the Reds an early 1-0 lead against the Cardinals. Great American Ballpark saved the infielder's career. Aurilia has 16 home runs there since joining the team at the start of 2005, only three on the road.

Update: Encarnacion ties the game with a solo shot of his own in the top of the second. That gives Juan three homers and seven RBI in his last six games after a very slow start.

Thome may have struck out, but Paul Konerko provides some pop with a three-run homer off Cliff Lee. That's only his second hit against the Indians this year in 14 at bats.

Damon was introduced to a mixture of cheers and boos. You could hear the boos, but you could see a number of Red Sox fans standing and clapping. Damon doffed his cap to the crowd, which brought out a few more cheers. The boo-birds were more vocal, the clapper quiet. Damon flies out for the first out of the game.

Update: The Yankees go 1-2-3 in the first as Giambi just misses a home run to the triangle in center.

Update: With Damon in the center field in the bottom of the first, the fans are taunting him with, "Trader, trader!" He must have made some bad moves with stocks or options at some point.

Jim Thome strikes out on a 1-2 count in his return to Cleveland.

Doug MIrabelli arrived at Fenway Park in a State Police SUV. It's good to see my tax dollars being wasted in a good cause. He changed into his uniform in the SUV. Just amazing.

Fire Brand of the American League is not at all happy with the Doug MIrabelli trade.

Basically we trade a young catcher who was doing pretty good with the stick save for his power outage, and a young reliever, plus cash or a PTBNL, all because he was doing exactly what Doug Mirabelli did when he first caught Tim Wakefield.

It’s a desperation move. It helps now, sure, but it’s a desperation move which leaves us less options for the future. I love Doug Mirabelli, and I’m going to cheer him on the rest of the season, but I won’t forget what he cost.

Make sure you catch his update as well.

Bob Sikes at Getting Paid to Watch believes the Mets can make a deal for Johan Santana:

With tonight's start by Victor Zambrano ominous and tomorrow's John Maine debut not much more than that, one can assume Omar Minaya must note the same. This team is built and invested to win now, and I believe Minaya won't let his cellphone go unused.

Look first toward the struggling. The Minnesota Twins come first to mind. Terry Ryan and Joe McIlavaine know the Mets well and have been trading partners in the past. Johann Santana has struggled, but might be had. But Ryan and Joe Mac wont go for a care package of four of five.

Santana is in the second year of a four year contract that will pay him $25 million over the last two seasons (2007, 2008). That's a lot of money to spend on one player on a losing team. Of course, without Santana they're likely to lose more. But this is how small market teams survive; trade your value for potential value that's a lot cheaper.

The Red Sox send Josh Bard away from Tim Wakefield and re-acquire Doug Mirabelli. (Thanks to Edward Cossette for the tip!)

The Boston Red Sox have finalized a trade to obtain catcher Doug Mirabelli from the San Diego Padres in exchange for catcher Josh Bard, minor-league pitcher Cla Meredith and cash, ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney is reporting.

In 96 minor league innings through 2005, Meredith did everything right as a pitcher. Seems like a good deal for the Padres, sweetened by the Yankees going after Doug as well.

There are a number of good divisional matchups today, but the best pit teams tied for first place against each other. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox meet for the first time this season, and people seemed more concerned about how the fans are going to react to Johnny Damon than any damage Damon might do to the Red Sox. He's off to a good start with a .300 BA, 400 OBA and .500 slugging percentage, all you could want from a leadoff hitter. He's also played well as a visitor at Fenway, although he's never homered there in an away uniform. With Wakefield on the mound for the Red Sox tonight, keep an eye on the passed balls by Josh Bard. He's on a record setting pace.

The Cardinals and Reds are tied for first place in the NL Central and bump heads in Cincinnati tonight. The Reds are playing long ball (36 home runs, 2nd in the NL) and small ball (23 for 27 in stolen base attempts) well. They're also winning the close ones with a 6-2 record in one run games. The Cardinals send Mark Mulder to the mound to try to stop that offense. St. Louis boasts a 3.35 ERA, second in the NL. We'll find out tonight if good pitching stops good hitting on both sides, as Reds ace Bronson Arroyo takes the hill for Cincinnati. Cardinals Diaspora writes a colorful post on this game and the series.

Plenty of other good action as Cleveland welcomes back Jim Thome and the Chicago White Sox to Jacobs Field, Toronto and Baltimore vie to stay close in the AL East, and Houston travels to Milwaukee in an important NL Central matchup.

Enjoy!

In Bubble Wrap is offering twenty five copies of Jeff Angus' Management by Baseball. I'm told there are no strings attached, just click on the "I Want One" button and you're entered in the drawing.

I upgraded my blogging software and we had a Denial of Service attack last Friday. Is anyone having problems with the site loading slowly? Is anyone having probelms with comments? Things do work, it just seems the screens take longer to change than before.

Kevin Frandsen, the recent call up by the San Francisco Giants continues his minor league propensity to get plunked. He's been hit by a pitch in each of his three games. It's his way of helping the team:

Any time the ball comes at me, I'm going to stay there so I can get on base for those big guys behind me," Frandsen said. "I know my job."

I just hope he doesn't get hit in the head too often. :-)

Here's a nice story about Babe Ruth helping a church in Philadelphia pay off a loan on a ballfield by playing in an exhibition game during the 1923 season:

It was not recorded how much money the game raised, but it was enough to pay off Casey's loan.

Curiously, while all the Philadelphia newspapers dispatched reporters to cover the exhibition game, they weren't inclined to cut Ruth any slack.

"Ruth's Bat Fails Ascension Club" read the story's headline in the next day's Evening Bulletin.

I guess some things never change. :-)

The Diamondbacks believe they found the flaw in Russ Ortiz's delivery:

"When he's struggling," Price said, "his body gets out ahead of his arm and it affects his release point and his ability to command his stuff. He's also doing some stuff to tighten up his breaking ball."

Ortiz, who will work exclusively out of the bullpen as a long reliever, has not made an appearance since his last start on April 23 at Dodger Stadium when he lasted less than two innings. He's due for an inning or two of work, but Arizona will proceed cautiously so as to not have a long man available in case one of the starters gets injured early in a game the following night.

"It's hard in the middle of a season to re-create or completely change a pitcher and then expect him to go out there and be efficient," Price said. "This is more fine-tuning than anything."

Ortiz acknowledged on Sunday that his velocity could be part of the issue as well. It's topped out in the high 80 mph range, forcing him to have to make adjustments on the fly. But he said much of the frustration and anger he felt when told of his demotion last week has subsided.

Of course, some might argue that it's years of poor control finally catching up to the pitcher. Since 1998, his first year in the league, Ortiz's walk rate is the third highest in the majors. Couple that with age and a loss of velocity, and you have a pitcher who walks a lot of batters and gets hit hard when he is in the strike zone. It's not a good combination for the Diamondbacks.

Albert Pujols made offensive player of the month an easy choice. While setting a monthly record for home runs might be enough, Pujols led the majors in slugging percentage and RBI, was second in OBA and runs scored and walked more than Barry Bonds. Pujols even stole two bases without getting caught! Jason Giambi deserved consideration, also. His OBA ranked ahead of Albert, but he played three fewer games, scored less and drove in fewer runs.

Congratulations to Albert Pujols, the Baseball Musings Offensive Player of the Month for April 2006!

The pitcher of the month is a tougher choice. Thomson of the Braves leads the majors in ERA, but all he has to show for it is an 0-1 record. Greg Maddux's ERA is a close second, and he won all five of his starts. More importantly, his strikeout, walk and home run number are all good.

Curt Schilling posted better strikeout and walk number than Maddux, and did it over six starts. He allowed four home runs, however. Mike Mussina posted similar number to Schilling, with a better ERA. It was a good month for the old men. But it's tough to beat Maddux this month. He did everything a pitcher needs to do, and it resulted in a very low ERA and five wins.

Congratulations to Greg Maddux, the Baseball Musings Pitcher of the Month for April 2006!

Former Baseball Musings Players of the Month:

Month	Batter	Pitcher
September 2005	Randy Winn, SF Giants	CC Sabathia, Cleveland Indians
August 2005	David Wright, NY Mets	Noah Lowry, SF Giants

The Day by Day Database is up to date.