Willy Taveras picked up three more hits last night to extend his hit streak to 28 games. He's the last person with a chance of breaking DiMaggio's hit streak record this year. Taveras' batting record, with a low OBA relative to his batting average, makes him the type of player likely to go on a long hit streak. With a low number of walks, Taveras gets more ball put into play, so there's more of a chance that any one plate appearance ends in a hit. DiMaggio was like this relative to Ted Williams. Ted was the better offensive players, but Joe was more likely to get a hit when he came to the plate. That's why Joe holds the hit streak record, but Ted holds the mark for consecutive games reaching base.

David Ortiz finally came forward to speak about his hospitalization:

Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz said stress and nearly a week of sleeplessness caused dehydration and eventually the irregular heartbeat that landed him in a Boston hospital last weekend.

The major-league leader in home runs said he was "stressed out about everything" -- including the New York Yankees' first three wins of their eventual five-game sweep of the Red Sox last weekend that has turned both teams' seasons. A team doctor advised him to go to Massachusetts General Hospital last Saturday evening.

The hospital re-hydrated Ortiz and he was fine.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

After a week back from his injured back, Bobby Crosby is back on the DL. The way he's playing this year, the A's may be a bit better off. Overall, the A's shortstops are hitting .235 with a .310 OBA and a .359 slugging percentage. Most of that come from Crosby who contributed .229/.298/.338. What they really need is the 2005 Crosby.

After hitting his 46th homer of the season last night, David Ortiz needs sixteen more in the Red Sox last 35 games to top Roger Maris' American League record. Can he do it? The most he's ever hit in a month was the 14 he socked this July. Five other times he's hit 10 or 11. So if he has a really good last week of August, he'll be in line for the record.

Based on games played and home runs hit, he's on a pace right now for 59. It's not hard to believe he might find a couple of more in there.

The AL Wild Card is up for grabs today as Minnesota travels to Chicago with the two teams separated by 1/2 game in the wild card race. Brad Radke takes the mound for the Twins against Javier Vazquez. While Radke gives up about a hit an inning at home, that goes up by nearly 50% on the road. The Twins dominated Vazquez so far this year, as he's posted a 7.71 ERA against Minnesota. Twenty-five hits allowed in 18 2/3 innings led to 17 runs scored.

The Padres pulled themselves back into the NL West race with a sweep of the Dodgers, and now it's the Diamondbacks turn. Greg Maddux faces Claudio Vargas in the first of a three game series. In four starts for the Dodgers since the trade, opponents collected just 15 hits off Greg in 26 innings. A win tonight gives him 330 for his career and puts him 130 games over .500. Vargas is showing good control lately, allowing just 4 walks in his last 23 1/3 innings.

Aaron Harang leads the Reds against the Giants with a win giving them a chance to move into first place in the NL Central. Harang's been a true road warrior this season, posting a 2.76 ERA and allowing just five homers in 91 1/3 innings. He'll be opposed by Matt Morris. Matt is getting hammered with men on base this year, allowing 11 of his 18 homers in that situation to go along with a .302 batting average against.

Enjoy!

The Mets completed their sweep of the Cardinals yesterday with a 6-2 victory. The St. Louis starting pitching in the series was simply awful. The allowed four home runs and ten walks in 14 innings (that's less than five per start) leading to nineteen runs scored. If they make the playoffs, they're likely to meet a team with a good offense. How is this staff going to hold up against that? They can't pitch Chris Carpenter every day.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, the Eric Milton allowed three runs on two homers, but the revamped Reds bullpen held as five pitchers managed to get seven outs, allowing the offense to score late and take the game 6-3. Edwin Encarnacion continued his great season with three hits and three RBI, and David Ross score and drove in the go-ahead run with an eighth inning solo homer of Chulk.

St. Louis is still in first place by virtue of playing two fewer games, but only .001 separate the two teams in the standings. San Diego and Philadelphia are within striking distance of both teams. Outside of the NL East, it's going to be a fun last month of the season in the NL. Maybe we can finally get a multiple tie scenario; LA, SD, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati all finish with the same record. Then we'd have a one-game playoff for each division, with the losers going into a three way playoff for the wild card!

Albert Belle received three months jail time and five years probation for stalking his ex-girlfriend.

Superior Court Judge James Keppel warned Belle that if he contacts the victim again he will go to prison.

I wonder if TradeSports puts out a contract on Belle contacting the girlfriend again. I bet the odds would be pretty high that Albert breaks his probation and contacts the woman.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Jermaine Dye hit two home runs and a double today to help Chicago to a 10-0 win over Detroit. Dye is now slugging .651, 170 points over his career average. His career high before this was .561in 2000. It's pretty unusual for a player to set career highs in power at this age (32). I wonder if we'll start hearing steroid rumors about him. Does anyone know if Dye changed his approach to hitting this year, or if someone's coached him differently?

Update, 8/25/2006, 8:45 AM: There's an argument in the comments for the park helping Dye. The problem with that argument is it doesn't hold water. In 2005, the park was neutral for him in batting average and OBA. It did, however, help his slugging percentage. In 2006, the park is neutral in OBA once again, but his BA and slugging are much better away from Chicago. Note also that these results are indeed outliers. The 95% confidence range for hits in 424 at bats is 92 to 136. Dye collected 138 hits so far. For OBA, the range is 142 to 182, and Dye reached base 186 times. This season represents a big departure from career norms for Dye, and the probability that it's random is small.

Cole Hamels had his hat handed to him this afternoon by the lowly Cubs. He gave up nine hits and nine runs in two innings while not striking out a batter. Five of the runs came off homers by Barrett and Pagan. The first seven batters in the Cubs lineup all scored at least one run.

The White Sox go for the split with the Tigers this afternoon to keep hope of an AL Central title alive. Jon Garland faces Nate Robertson. Garland is an amazing 14-4 despite a 4.73 ERA. No doubt Kruk will push him as a Cy Young candidate. Garland puts a lot of men on base via hits, but not very many via walks. This saved him from being really terrible. The other thing is a low batting average allowed with runners in scoring position, .243.

Garland's also on a hot streak. He's brought his hits down (better defense?) while keeping his walks very low. He's 7-1 since July 1.

Robertson might be the unluckiest pitcher of August. He's posting a 2.96 ERA but just a 1-3 record. In August he's allowed a .266 OBA overall and a .118 batting average with runners in scoring position. In three of his starts, the Tigers failed to score more than two runs.

If you're wondering if the Mets can win without pitching, look no further than the current series with the Cardinals. The combined score of the first two games in 18-15, with New York winning both. Jason Marquis takes the mound for St. Louis against Dave Williams. This could easily turn into another slugfest, and once again Marquis might have to take one for the team.

The Red Sox were the first team to beat the Angels in a Jered Weaver start, but tonight Weaver gets Boston on his home turf. He's allowed just 3 earned runs in Anaheim in 27 innings pitched there, a .231 OBA and a .265 slugging percentage. Meanwhile, Josh Beckett owns the highest road mark for HR per 9 innings by a wide margin.

Enjoy!

It looked like the Royals were going to stave off a losing season for one more night when they scored 10 runs in the first inning to take a 10-1 lead on the Indians. Even when Cleveland fought back to make the score 10-9, the Royals put three more on the board to seemingly ensure the victory. But a walk and three doubles in the ninth put the tying run in scoring position and brought in Burgos for the save. Choo (gesundheit) hit a pinch triple, and the game went to the tenth. A two run single by Garko in the tenth sealed the Royals fate as they go down 15-13. It's their 82nd loss, making them the first team in the majors this year to be assured of a losing record. As bad as Kansas City's been this year, that's the first time they scored 10 runs and lost.

The Padres completed their sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers last night, putting them one game back in both the NL West and the NL Wild Card races. San Diego's pitching sent the mighty Dodgers offense into a funk once again, as the Padres outscored the boys in blue 12-4.

The Padres are the latest NL West team to try a winning streak, as they've taken five of their last six from Arizona and Los Angeles, beating their nearest competition in the division. The starters have a 2.36 ERA over this stretch, and only allowed two home runs (that includes Chris Young's one inning start).

The Giants are making a similar run, 8-2 over their last 10, but are coming from much farther back. But they're tied for third, four games out of the race. This is the wildest, toughest to call race I've seen in years.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Jon Heyman notes the double standard in treating Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield statements:

Let's get this straight: Alex Rodriguez gets ripped like Dean Martin at closing time for casually mentioning that he has played hurt this season -- and those close to A-Rod say he weathered a nagging groin injury and food poisoning in Detroit -- and yet his long-sidelined teammate Gary Sheffield gets a pass for publicly pledging he won't play through pain?

A-Rod's history shows he almost never takes a day off, while Sheffield has missed about three years with injuries.

I've wondered from time to time if A-Rod was hurt. It's the most logical explanation for the trouble fixing his mechanical problems. He's just unable to execute due to pain. It sounds very similar to what happened to Carlos Beltran last year. Still, it's a pretty good season for someone playing hurt.

Alex isn't in the lineup tonight vs. Seattle. Maybe with the 6 1/2 game lead the Yankees feel they can give him some time off to heal.

Billy Beane's pick up of three veterans last off season looked pretty good tonight. Esteban Loaiza, Frank Thomas and Milton Bradley combined to shutout the Toronto Blue Jays 6-0. Thomas and Bradley each hit two-run homers. Loaiza lowers his August ERA to 1.77, going 3-0 in four starts.

Gustavo Chacin only lasted 1 1/3 innings. No word if Gibbons and Gustavo got into a fight over his early removal.

Mike Mussina went on the disabled list today, and Ben Kabak notes this will prevent him from winning 20 for the first time in his career.

Of the six games that started at 7 PM EDT, only one failed to produce runs in the first inning tonight, Texas at Tampa Bay. They're in the third already with no hits accrued.

The White Sox scored three in the top of the first off the Tigers, which then roared back with three of their own in the bottom of the inning. The Twins scored 2, the Athletics scored three, the Mets scored four, and Washington trails Florida 3-1 after one. It could be a high scoring night.

Due to my vacation, there will be no Baseball Musings Radio Show tonight. It will return next Wednesday at 8 PM EDT on TPSRadio.net.

Enrique Gonzalez continued his putrid pitching on the road today lasting just four innings and allowing four runs. He came into the game with a 7.51 ERA away from Phoenix, and managed to raise it to 7.65. He's hittable on the road for some reason, having now allowed 57 hits in 42 1/3 innings on the road, 31 hits in 45 2/3 innings at home.

His early departure proved too much for the bullpen to handle. Arizona fought back to take a 6-4 lead, but the pen allowed three runs in the bottom of the seventh to seal the team's defeat. The Giants and Diamondbacks are now tied for third in the NL West, 4 1/2 games out of first.

Chris Michalak pitched a pretty even game with Roy Oswalt this afternoon. Even though Oswalt out shone Michalak in terms of walks and strikeouts, each allowed just two runs, Roy through six innings, Michalak into the sevent. But when Chris ran into trouble in that inning, Coffey set the pot to boiling. He didn't record an out, but walked three and allowed one hit. Franklin and Cormier came in as the dregs of the bullpen, and by the time the inning was over the Astros scored six runs and took home a 7-3 victory. Not a great job by the revamped bullpen. Coming into this game, they were allowing a .297 BA and a .358 OBA in August.

Willy Taveras extended his hitting streak to 26 games with a 1 for 4 performance with one walk.

The Detroit Tigers can push their magic number below 30 today with a win over the Chicago White Sox. Freddy Garcia faces Zach Miner. For some reason, Miner strikesout fewer batters at Comerica than on the road. Not surprisingly, he gives up many more hits at home, leading to a 5.35 ERA. Garcia's pitched decently against the Tigers, but allowed four home runs in 19 innings.

There are two good pitching matchups on the west coast tonight. The first involves second year pitchers, Chien-Ming Wang and Felix Hernandez. King Felix hasn't live up to the hype surrounding him. Despite striking out batters at a high rate, he's still hittable, allowing a .260 batting average. Wang's exceeded expectations, amassing 14 wins with a 3.86 ERA. Despite striking out very few, his batting average allowed is .277. He's doing a better job of keeping his hits allowed short than Hernandez, as Wang posts an opposition slugging percentage of .378 while Felix is at .411.

The Padres go for a win in game 2 of the Dodgers series as they try to sweep into a first place tie. Brad Penny will try to shine against Woody Williams. Williams is shutting down left-handed batters this year, allowing just a .238 batting average. Penny, like Williams, is a RHP doing better against lefties, although it's more balanced.

And finally, a loss tonight by Kansas City makes them the first team to be guaranteed to finish with a losing record.

Correction: As one of the commentors pointed out, this is the third game of the Padres/Dodgers series and the Padres will be one game out if they win. I've lost track of time on vacation and thought it was Tuesday.

The Mets finally worked a deal for Shawn Green:

The Diamondbacks sent Green, 33, and slightly more than $6 million to the Mets for Triple-A pitcher Evan McLane, FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal reports.

The cash, to be paid over three years, will cover nearly half of the approximately $13.5 million left on Green's contract - the pro-rated portion of his $8 million salary this season, $9.5 million next season and a $2 million buyout for 2008.

Metsblog.com likes the deal, because Green is a complementary player, he's not meant to be a star. I agree. Green's power and ability to get on base took a big hit when he reached 30. He's not the future, but he helps this team now, and gives the Mets a chance to let Milledge develop.

The prospect's name is spelled MacLane, by the way. His K, BB and HR were very good at AA this season, but his K's fell off at AAA. He looks like a decent prospect for the Diamondbacks. His first three years in the minors look very good.

Jake Peavy threw like his old self last night, shutting out the Dodgers for seven innings on three hits, one walks and seven strikeouts. He's now 2-0 vs. Los Angeles this season with a 1.29 ERA.

San Diego needs him to start beating other NL West teams however. Vs. the Giants, Rockies and Diamondbacks, Peavy is a combined 2-5 with a 6.53 ERA. Turn that record around and the Padres are in first place. It's not that his strikeouts, walks and home runs are bad against these teams (although their not up to his par), but these teams just banged out hits. He's now allowed 8 hits in 14 innings vs. LA, but 49 in 41 1/3 innings vs. the rest. San Diego fans hope this is the start of a great stretch drive by Jake. His poor performance this year is a big reason the Padres aren't running away with the West.

Aaron Rowand is likely out for the rest of the season:

Rowand, who won a World Series ring with the Chicago White Sox last year, broke his left ankle in the bottom of the eighth inning when he collided with second baseman Chase Utley while charging a short fly ball hit by John Mabry. Rowand went flying and tumbled on the ground, landing on his neck before rolling over and jamming his ankle. He was down for a bit before being helped off the field and was taken to a hospital for X-rays.

"I heard my neck crack when I hit the ground," he said. "Then I just laid there and took inventory."

Rowand was upbeat Tuesday despite the injury. He watched highlights of his collision on the clubhouse TV and talked to new teammate Jamie Moyer, who started for the Phillies Tuesday.

Last time he was out, the Phillies went 9-4 in his absence. This forces the high OBA David Dellucci into the lineup, which might in fact make the offense better. They're 1-0 without Aaron in this set of games.

It's time once again for you to be the scout and help Tangotiger judge defensive ability. I believe this is the third year Tom conducted this survey, using the knowledge of fans to rate the defensive ability of players. The more input he gets, the better his results. So if you watch baseball, go to his site and take part.

There is an enormous amount of untapped knowledge here. There are 70 million fans at MLB parks every year, and a whole lot more watching the games on television. When I was a teenager, I had no problem picking out Tim Wallach as a great fielding 3B, a few years before MLB coaches did so. And, judging by the quantity of non-stop standing ovations Wallach received, I wasn't the only one in Montreal whose eyes did not deceive him. Rondel White, Marquis Grissom, Larry Walker, Andre Dawson, Hubie Brooks, Ellis Valentine. We don't need stats to tell us which of these does not belong.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Adrian Beltre connects for a two-run homer in the first inning to spoil the debut of Jeff Karstens. That's Beltre's seventh homer since the All-Star break, matching his total from the first half. Still, in two years with the Mariners, he hasn't hit as many as he did in his last year with the Dodgers.

Manny Ramirez's hamstring is still cramped, so he's out of the lineup tonight. Alex Gonzalez goes on the DL, making room for Dustin Pedroia, who's batting ninth today. Pena's in left, and Kapler's in right. With the Twins and White Sox losing, Boston has a chance to pick up a game in the wild card. However, with Oakland dropping a game to Toronto, the Angels also have a chance to gain in the West.

Kenny Rogers revived his stuff tonight as he shutout the White Sox for seven innings. Fernando Rodney finished off the White Sox as the two combined on a five hit, 4-0 Detroit victory. Marcus Thames contributed a triple and homer. That raises his slugging percentage to .582.

Meanwhile, the Twins lost to the Orioles 6-3. It was a big night for Nick Markakis as he hit three solo homers to bring his total for the season to 11. Carlos Silva allowed five in total, giving him 30 allowed on the season. That puts him second to Josh Beckett in home runs allowed.

The Reds took advantage of the Cardinals collaspe tonight with a magnificent game by Kyle Lohse. Not only did he pitch eight shutout innings against the Astros, he picked up three hits, scored two runs and drove in one as the Reds slammed Houston 14-0. Lohse had four career hits coming into tonight. Eight of the runs came on four home runs including number 38 by Adam Dunn. The win closes the gap with the Cardinals to one game.

The good news for the Astros is Willy Taveras extended his hitting streak with a 2 for 4 night.

Albert Pujols set a career high with seven RBI as he blasted two home runs, a three run shot in the fourth and a grand slam in the fifth as he put the Cardinals ahead 7-1. But the Mets battled back in the bottom of the fifth with four of their own. They went into the ninth trailing 7-6, and Carlos Beltran hit a mere two-run shot off Isringhausen to win the game.

It was a typical Jeff Weaver start. He looked fine through four innings, then things fell apart in the fifth as an error helped load the bases for a Delgado grand slam. It seems if you give Jeff five or six innings, the opposition will find a way to score four or five off him.

The Cardinals and Mets face off today in a matchup of first place teams and possible playoff opponents. This will be a good test for New York, as St. Louis is very much fighting for a playoff spot and will put forward their best players. The pitching duel would seem to favor New York tonight, as Jeff Weaver faces John Maine. But Weaver is coming off three decent starts, posting a 2.41 ERA in that time. Maine's been nearly unhittable at Shea, allowing a .187 BA and a .328 slugging percentage.

The Red Sox open on the West Coast against the Angels. Both teams need to win to start to work back into their division races. The Red Sox send Kyle Snyder vs. Joe Saunders. Snyder's improved his strikeout rate tremendously since joining Boston. It was a subpar 4.4 with Kansas City, 8.2 with the Red Sox. Saunders is coming off his first loss and his first bad start. He walked five and gave up five hits in 2 2/3 innings vs. the Rangers. But in Anaheim, he's still undefeated with a 1.29 ERA in 21 innings.

Enjoy!

There's very good news for Tom Glavine and the Mets today:

An angiogram Monday showed that no invasive procedure is needed. "The test showed that the symptoms are caused by an old injury to an artery probably caused by pitching," the Mets said in a statement Tuesday. "The scar tissue from that old injury occasionally causes blood clots to form in Tom's finger. The condition is not serious and will be treated with baby aspirin and other medication to help his circulation."

A news conference was expected at Shea Stadium before Tuesday night's game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

"I was relieved to hear the news," Glavine said in a statement, "First and foremost to hear that the condition is not serious, but also to hear that I can get back to doing what I love to do relatively quickly."

Glavine was not expected to go on the disabled list, meaning he could be back for the series that starts Sept. 1 at Houston. He will rest for a few days to allow the incision from the angiogram to heal.

It's probably good for Glavine to miss a start so he can rest and be fresh for the playoffs.

You may have noticed a set of context sensitive advertisements in the text of the posts on this blog. I've received a small set of complaints and a small amount of positive feedback about these. The company that creates the ads is in the process of optimizing content for Baseball Musings, so expect the ads to change over the next week.

As always, I'm interested in your thoughts. I like trying all kinds of new forms of earning money from this endeavor, but I also want the experience to be a good one for my readers. Please let me know what you think of this new form of advertising.

Noah Lowry pitched a complete game shutout against the Diamondbacks last night, his first in two years and the second of his career. He allowed just two hits and one walk while striking out six. Lowry's gone back and forth between brilliance and mediocrity this season. Three starts ago he went nine innings, allowing just one run against the Rockies. In between, he allowed six runs in 12 2/3 innings. Being home seems to help as he's much more likely to pitch well there. If he's going to be a real success, he's going to need to have more games like last night's away from San Francisco.

Ron Guidry sums up the difference between the 1978 and 2006 Boston Massacres:

Ron Guidry and Reggie Jackson played on the 1978 Yankee team that won four straight at the Fens from Sept.7-10. Standing at his locker after yesterday's game, Guidry admitted this weekend's success had stirred some memories.

"I'd be lying if I said it didn't remind me of '78," the pitching coach said. "Reggie's here, (head trainer Gene) Monahan's here and I think we're the only ones who were there. The other one was a little different in that we were four out and we had to play that well."

That series in 1978 didn't win the Yankees the division, but it made the win possible. This series made a division win by the Red Sox unlikely.

U.S.S. Mariner praises sports writer Larry Stone for his understanding of how a baseball team is built.

John Gibbons and Ted Lilly appeared to fight last night.

The Toronto Blue Jays coughed up all of an early 8-0 lead last night but they didn't go down without a fight.

Unfortunately, the fight -- or near-fight, or scuffle, or whatever the Jays want to call it -- involved manager John Gibbons and his evening's short-lived starter, left-hander Ted Lilly.

And this one -- unlike the untaken challenge to fight that Gibbons had issued the soon-gone Shea Hillenbrand four weeks back -- at least had a little meat on it. Again, though, apparently no punches were thrown.

"Nobody got hit," said Gibbons, some 20 minutes after the Jays had tumbled 12-10 to the Oakland A's. "We've talked it out (meaning he and Lilly) and everything's good. He's a competitor, I'm a competitor. It's over and we move on."

Lilly agreed that no punches were thrown:

"It was verbal," said Lilly. "I'm certainly glad and I think he's glad it wasn't physical but we were on the verge of something regrettable happening. We were yelling at each other face to face.

"It's an embarrassing situation," Lilly said calmly. "I said something to him I shouldn't have said and it kind of got out of control. I was already upset enough and didn't handle it very well. I handled it in a way that I think I'll regret."

Did that mean he thought there could be some discipline headed his way? When Hillenbrand allegedly wrote the "ship was sinking" on a clubhouse bulletin board, he was designated for assignment during the game and shipped off to the San Francisco Giants two days later.

"Hopefully not," said Lilly. "I guess I'll find out."

Shea Hillenbrand got to spin this event to his benefit:

"Ted Lilly's a great guy. Ted Lilly's an intense competitor," Hillenbrand said. "He was a great teammate when I was over there. So I'm surprised that confrontation happened with Ted Lilly."

He added: "Stuff like that's been going on all season over there. I had my issues with the manager. ... They say I'm the cancer of the team and things are still happening, so I don't know how you can make that assumption or that statement. Things like that begin to come out when times get tough."

Unlike Hillenbrand, Lilly seems to be well liked. You've never heard anything negative about his personality:

Oakland's Eric Chavez, who played with Lilly in Oakland, was surprised.

"It's a little strange to seen that happen," he said. "I liked Ted. He was a good teammate when he was here."

Gibbons appears to be an old style confrontation manager. That type of style worked over the history of baseball, although most modern ones don't fight their players. Felipe Alou and Jim Leyland fit this mold, but they limit their physical intimidation to the other team. Gibbons seems to be more like Billy Martin and Lou Piniella, although I only remember Lou getting in one fight with a player.

I hear Davey Johnson is interested in managing again. All he ever did was win.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The latest word from my source is that Will Carroll is definitely working for ESPN -- on football. It looks like he'll have a column starting tomorrow and a fantasy show debuting next week. His baseball coverage will remain on Baseball Prospectus.

Willy Taveras extended his hit streak to 24 games tonight against the Cincinnati Reds. With thirty seven Astros games left, Willy is the last person in Major League Baseball that can break Joe DiMaggio's record this season.

The Astros lead 2-0 on home runs by Berkman and Huff. Andy Pettitte has struck out 10 through 5 1/3 innings as the Astros make a last ditch effort to make a run at the wild card.

Sean Casey's strength as a hitter was his ability to get on base. His weakness was that his position, first base, required more power than he had to offer. But in his few games with Detroit, he's turned that around. He's two for three tonight with a double. He's sporting a lowly .308 OBA, but he's picked up six extra-base hits for a .435 slugging percentage. Still not great for a first baseman, but he's used that power to drive in 16 runs in 20 games. With three RBI tonight, he's helped the Tigers to a 7-1 lead over the White Sox in the sixth.

Manny Ramirez right hamstring cramped during today's game. I doubt a long plane ride is going to make it feel much better.

A couple of ex-ballplayers got caught ripping off electricity.

In a weekend of high scoring games, the Yankees and Red Sox saw a pitching duel between Cory Lidle and David Wells. Lidle posted six shutout innings, even though he walked five. David Wells went 7 1/3, leaving the game with one run in and a man on third, one out. Foulke game in to strike out two batters, but threw a wild pitch to score the run. That meant Wily Mo Pena's homer off Proctor wasn't enough.

Amazingly, the Red Sox were not able to get the game to Ortiz in the ninth. Loretta ended the game with a line drive that looked like it would fall for a hit when Robinson Cano reached out and snared it to leave Papi on deck.

I didn't expect a sweep. These teams have been so evenly matched for so long, I thought one team would take three of the five. But the Yankees bury Boston, leaving them 6 1/2 games out of first place, which gives New York the largest division lead in the American League. They won games early, they won games late, they came back from deficits, they won close and they won big. Boston has it's work cut out just to get back in the wild card race, which they trail by 4 1/2.

Corey Lidle attempts to put the last nail in the Red Sox coffin today as the Yankees and Red Sox play a rare Monday afternoon game. With the Yankees Lidle hasn't exhibited the control he did with the Phillies. He's walked 7 in 16 1/3 innings after walking 39 in 125 1/3 innings for the Phillies. He'll face the master of control, David Wells. Unfortunately for David, he's given up more home runs (9) than walks (6) this year.

The White Sox, at 5 1/2 games back still have a shot at the division title. They swept three from the Tigers a week ago, and open a four game series in Detroit today. It's a good matchup, too as Jose Contreras takes on Justin Verlander. Contreras has held the Tigers offense to 2 home runs in 31 innings this season, a big reason for hits 1.45 ERA against Detroit. Verlander, on the other hand, gets knocked around by Chicago. He's 0-3 with a 9.88 ERA, giving up 27 hits in 13 2/3 innings.

The Dodgers visit San Diego with a four game lead over both the Padres and Diamondbacks. The Friars really need a three game sweep here, as time in the season is starting to run short. Chad Billingsley starts off for LA against Chan Ho Park. Billingsley strikes me as a pitcher waiting for his ERA to catch up with his abilities. He had a good outing in his last start, but for the season he's still given up more walks than strikeouts. Chan Ho Park defeated his old team twice in three starts this season, but is posting a 4.76 ERA against them.

Enjoy!

People are starting to gang up on Theo:

I'd say that right now The Eye of Sauron that is Red Sox nation is ominously focused on young Theo Baggins and one World Series ring isn't going to render him invisible.

And from the more traditional media:

Maybe the Red Sox are correct in their belief that they must step back to go forward.

Maybe in three years they'll resemble a mini-dynasty and the Yankees will collapse from age and excess once and for all.

But the transition is a tough sell, to put it mildly.

The Yankees go all-out every season, remaining a powerhouse while incorporating young players like second baseman Robinson Cano, left fielder Melky Cabrera and right-hander Chien Ming-Wang

It isn't beyond the Red Sox to follow suit.

We're not talking about the Kansas City Royals; the Sox's ticket prices are the highest in the majors. And while team executives seem preoccupied with managing future payrolls, Curt Schilling, David Ortiz and the rest of the Sox's $130 million-plus roster want to win right now.

The fans deserve better. The players do, too.

And the reason is Theo is blaming payroll disparity:

``Since I've been GM, we've never focused exclusively on the now, and we never will," Epstein said. ``We're not going to change because of a tough month. We are not the Yankees. We admire the Yankees. I admire the Yankees. I respect them. We have to do things different.

``Our approach is a little bit different, given our resources relative to the Yankees; we feel our best way to compete with them year in and year out is to keep one eye on now and one eye on the future and to build something that can sustain success.

``They're also very good at that," Epstein continued. ``We've gone toe-to-toe with those guys taking that approach. I think we're, what, one or two games under .500 against them, and since '03 have won one more World Series than they have taking that approach. We've been in the playoffs every year, just like they have.

``We're not going to change our approach and all of a sudden try to build an uberteam, and all of a sudden win now at the expense of the future. That's not an excuse. I'm not trying to throw some sort of a cloak over the clear holes that are on this team by sort of talking instantly about the future. I'm not. Our goals are now and our goals are to put ourselves in a position to win every single year."

This is exactly the kind of thing Theo worries about in Feeding the Green Monster, the promise of a winner every year and what happens when you don't deliver. I still think the Red Sox should have taken the step back in 2005. They had enough residual support from winning the World Series, that telling fans, "We're going to step back and rebuild so we can compete efficiently every year," would work. Now, in the middle of a season where they were leading most of the way, it sounds like an excuse.

I didn't stay up to watch the end of the game, but were the Fenway faithful chanting, "MVP, MVP," when Jeter hit the game tying single off Papelbon?

Aaron Harang is pitching an outstanding season for the Reds. On Sunday, he pitched seven masterful innings vs the Pirates, allowing just one run while walking none and striking out nine. His 13 wins are tied for the NL lead in that category. And despite his 3.72 ERA, Aaron should be getting Cy Young consideration.

Yesterday was an exception for Harang, as he pitched well in his home ballpark. As things stand this morning, Aaron has a two run difference between his home and road ERAs; 4.77 at home, 2.76 on the road. Glance at this list of best road ERAs in the majors, and Harang is near the top. His strikeout, walk and especially his home run numbers away from home are outstanding. He should get Cy Young consideration. A few more games like yesterday at Great American Ballpark and maybe the sports writers will notice. And more importantly, a few more game like that and the Reds are likely to make the playoffs.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Cold finger.
On his hand,
The hand that does throw the pitch.
Oh what a bitch!

Tom Glavine's season could be in trouble:

Tom Glavine's health and his season are in jeopardy, a potentially crushing blow to the pitcher as well as to the Mets' World Series ambitions, the Daily News has learned. Sources said the southpaw has experienced coldness in a finger on his pitching hand, and that the cause of the alarming condition isn't yet known.

The 287-game winner is scheduled for a CT scan tomorrow, while an angiogram is planned for Wednesday.

Let's hope this is nothing serious, but the Mets have potential problems in the post season. New York, especially at home, is a low batting average/high on-base average team. Offenses like that can be stopped by good pitching staffs, ones that don't allow many walks. Teams like the Dodgers, Twins and Tigers could take advantage of that Mets weakness. One way to combat that is with great pitching of their own. But with both Pedro and Glavine iffy, it becomes more difficult to send great pitchers to the mound for more than half your games in a short series.

I'm somewhat shocked to see Jamie Moyer traded to the Phillies. I assumed at this point he would finish his career with the Mariners. Jamie was traded around quite a bit early in his career, but eventually found a home in Seattle and is one of the faces of the franchise. He goes to the Phillies for two Andrews, Baldwin and Barb. Baldwin is the starter. His main strength is his control, walking just 22 batters in 145 1/3 innings. Barb is a closer, high strikeouts, high walks but keeps the ball in the park. When Moyer retires, the Mariners get nothing, so in a season in which they're out of the running, they turn their leader in wins into two prospects.

So can Moyer help the Phillies? He's going from a fairly neutral park to a more hitter friendly one. And on the road this season, Moyer has a 5.29 ERA. And while Jamie's not giving up homers as he did in 2004, he's likely to post the second highest total of his career. He's better than Mathieson, but Philadelphia is going to need to score some runs when he's on the mound.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Cincinnati Reds needed a win today to stay in first place in the wild card race. They scored six in the first, and eventually pulled out to a 7-3 lead. But the Pirates fought back, tieing the game at seven in the top of the seventh. But in the bottom of the innings, the Reds teed off on Torres, scoring seven to make the final 14-7. David Ross drove in five as he picked up a single, double and homer and is now slugging .638. Cincinnati stays one game ahead of Arizona, a winner over San Diego earlier in the day.

We've arrived at the beach, where we'll be relaxing for the next week. Blogging will be very light for the next seven days.

Meanwhile, you can compare the current Yankees/Red Sox series to the Boston Massacre of 1978.

Alert the network, we're going long! Randy Johnson faced Josh Beckett today as two tired teams face two supposed aces with ERAs around five. Fox better be prepared for another very long game. Johnson's overall stats are pretty good, but he's getting creamed with men on base. The opposition is hitting .311 with runners on and .339 with men in scoring position. Beckett's pitched very well in day games this season, posting a 5-0 record in seven starts and a 2.98 ERA. He's only allowed four of his 31 homers in his day starts.

The Diamondbacks and Padres are tied in the standings, one game out of the wild card and three games back in the west. The Padres might be more deserving of the position, as they've outscored their opponents by 4 runs, while the Diamondbacks have been outscored by 9. Arizona's taken five out of seven head-to-head so far.

They'll be watching the Pirates/Reds score. The Pirates are playing okay since the All-Star break, posting a 3.87 team ERA and a 17-15 record. That ERA ranks them third in the NL in that time. The Reds are an all or nothing at all team in August. Their batting average of .230 ranks last in the NL for the month, but they lead the league in home runs with 32.

Like the Yankees and Red Sox, the White Sox and Twins send two pitchers to the mound with great records but bad ERAs. Jon Garland visits Brad Radke as the Twins look to move into a lead for the AL Wild Card. Garland appears to be turning around his season in August as his ERA sits at 2.89 for the month. But appearances can be deceiving as he's giving up a .329 batting average and a .566 slugging percentage. He's kept his walks down, which helped some, but batters are hitting .250 with runners in scoring position against the White Sox righty. Most of the damage done against Radke is on the road. In the Metrodome, his averages allowed are about 100 points lower.

The best pitching matchup of the day pits Greg Maddux against Brad Hennessey in San Francisco. Maddux showed how masterful he can be last Sunday as he shutout the Giants for eight innings on just 68 pitches. Hennessey is a right-hander who gets out lefties. The sinister batters are hitting just .178 vs Brad with a .276 OBA and a .308 slugging percentage.

Enjoy!

The Cardinals may lose David Eckstein for the rest of the season:

The injury occurred when third-base coach Jose Oquendo waved Eckstein home on first baseman Albert Pujols' one-out single into shallow left field. A weak throw by Cubs left fielder Angel Pagan arrived at about the same time as Eckstein, whose left leg became pinned beneath Barrett. The slide jarred the ball from Barrett, who then kneed Eckstein behind the ribs in the ensuing scramble.

Barrett "really got my leg pretty good, so that's what I was really feeling when I came off," Eckstein said. "I was just hoping it was a cramp. When I went out there to throw, I definitely felt it."

Eckstein left the field after making one warm-up toss before the bottom half of the inning. "As soon as I threw the ball there was no chance," said Eckstein, who was examined by a Cubs team doctor but did not have X-rays.

It may not be that big of a loss. Eckstein's done a poor job getting on base since the start of June. If the Cardinals can find a player with even league average OBA and a little power, they should actually improve with David out of the lineup.

Hat tip 6-4-2.

Derek Jeter predicted the Yankees final run total in the middle of game 2.

Drew Olson pens an excellent piece on what the quiet over the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) means:

This year, a strike or lockout seems about as unlikely as a Brewers-Royals World Series. The silence has been both deafening and revealing.

"It's a sign that they've begun the process and they're doing things the right way," said Astros manager Phil Garner, who was active in labor negotiations during his playing days. "The less noise there is about it, the better the chance that they can get something done.

"If one of the sides says something to the media, that causes the other side to dig in their heels. It doesn't matter which side it is. As long as they can be quiet and have discussions, you can get some small stuff out of the way. Believe it or not, some the small stuff is what can kill the deal down the road. You can agree on the big things and get in the biggest arguments over the simplest of things, like meal money."

In the past, baseball commissioner Bud Selig and union chief Donald Fehr would use the media to lob threats at each other like verbal grenades. There has been none of that this year. Negotiations have been taking place away from the spotlight, but they still are taking place. The fact that Selig recently canceled a quarterly owner's meeting -- with the official reason being a lack of things to talk about -- was a pretty good indicator that acrimony is running low these days.

The last time a deal was in negotiations, you saw a lot of doom and gloom in the media because it was going down to the last minute. They always go down to the last minute:

Garner agreed. "The truth of the matter is you're really not going to get a deal until there is a time crunch," he said. "It's naïve to say "Well, let's just get in a room and get it done, a month before the deadline." People who say that simply do not understand the process. People that would do that simply would get their ass handed to them on a platter if they did that.

"If you're in a negotiating posture for anything, you always feel like if you settle two months ahead you're doing it from a position of weakness. If both sides feel pretty strong, then you should be able to get to a deal. It will come down to the end. There will be some posturing, but I think it's a good sign that they've started the process."

If you want to know if there's going to be a work stoppage, look at differences in the money they're talking about. In 2002, the difference was small, and the deal was settled. If the difference is big, or they start jousting in the press, that a sign of trouble. At this point, both sides are doing well so I don't see why just don't keep the same basic structure.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

At midnight in the east, the Yankees/Red Sox game is in the bottom of the seventh. All three west coast games are in the seventh. There's a good chance that at least one of them finishes before the game in Boston.

Update: If the Boston game finishes in nine innings, it will be the longest game by time in AL history.

Update: The Padres defeat the Diamondbacks while the Red Sox are batting in the bottom of the ninth. It's a good day for San Diego as they get good hitting and good pitching in the 8-2 win. All the teams ahead and directly behind them in the Wild Card race also lost, and the Dodgers are losing 7-3 in the top of the ninth.

David Ortiz homers to make the score 14-11, and break the ML tie with Ryan Howard. A-Rod then makes an error that puts Manny on base. Rivera started the ninth, so it's not a save situation.

Update: The game finally ends, nearly 12 hours after the first pitch of game 1. The Yankees win 14-11 to go up 3 1/2 games in the AL East and assure they'll come out of the series in first place. The Angels actually finished their game first, winning 3-0 behind seven strong innings by Jered Weaver, who gets his 9th win. LAnaheim also picks up 1 1/2 games on the Athletics. A few minutes later, the Giants finish off the Dodgers 7-3 to extend their win streak to four. That makes it an even better day for San Diego as they gain in the NL West race as well.

The Red Sox and Yankees meet again in about 12 hours.

Correction: It was Jered, not Jeff Weaver.

The Oakland Athletics do indeed get swept by the Royals. With the Rangers win over the Tigers, they gain 1 1/2 games. The Angels lead Seattle 3-0 in the seventh behind another strong outing by Jered Weaver. He's allowed just two hits and one walk through six innings.

The Yankees pick up a run in the top of the seventh, then with the bases loaded and two outs, Jeter doubles to right to clear the bases and give the Yankees an 11-10 lead. For some reason, the Boston crowd isn't chanting, "MVP, MVP."

Update: A-Rod doubles in Jeter to add an insurance run. Cano singles in two more to make it a 14-10 game. In this game, the teams need as much insurance as they can muster.

Esteban Loaiza pitches his second good game in a row, allowing one unearned run in 6 2/3 innings after a one run, 8 innings performance in his last start. But Duchscherer and Street allow two runs each in the 8th inning to give the Royals a 5-3 lead. Kansas City is on the verge of sweeping the best in the West.

The Minnesota Twins score 2 in the seventh and one in the eighth to take a 7-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. Chicago's lead in the wild card is down to one game with two contests left in this series. Joe Mauer goes 2 for 5 to raise his average to .360.

C.C. Sabathia allows three runs in eight innings to hand the bullpen a 5-3 lead. But the team blows it's 20th save of the season as Sikorski crashes, allowing three hits. Davis comes on and gives up the two run single to Crawford for the 6-5 Devil Rays victory. Sikorski is charged with the three runs and the loss, Davis gets the blown save. Cleveland's only picked up 16 saves all season.

For some reason, Torre leaves Villone in to start the fifth, after throwing 42 pitches yesterday. He allows a walk and two singles without an out to put the Red Sox up 8-7. Boston's scored in every inning in tonight's game.

Upate: Loretta knocks in two more to extend the lead to 10-7. Mark now has four RBI in the game.

Update: Manny hits one that gets by Jeter for an error, but Cabrera throws out Loretta at the plate for his 12th assist of the season. He leads the American League in that category for outfielders.

The White Sox and Twins are engaged in a close battle. The Twins got off to a one nothing lead in the first. Chicago answered with two in the fourth on a Dye home run, but Minnesota came right back with 2 in the bottom of the inning. The White Sox scored a single run in the top of the six, and once again the Twins come back, this time on aTorii Hunter home run.

Now Morneau singles in the fifth run to make it 5-3 Twins in the bottom of the seventh. They entered the day trailing Chicago by two in the wild card race.

Sidney Ponson does not get an out in the fourth as the Red Sox load the bases. Ron Villone is on to face Ortiz.

Update: Ortiz grounds into a force out at second to make the score 7-6. He didn't hit it hard enough to get the double play.

Update: Manny hits the ball hard, lining a single into left to tie the game at 7.

Update: Villone gets Hinske and Pena to end the inning. He's now pitched four days in a row. The first four innings took two hours. The west coast games might finish before this one.

Melky Cabrera once again gets on base for Johnny Damon, who drives him in with his second home run of the day to give New York a 7-5 lead. That's seven RBI and four runs scored for Damon on the day so far.

Update: Damon matches his career high in home runs, 20, set with the 2004 Red Sox. After Lester gives up a single to Abreu, Francona removes Jon from the game.

Craig Wilson, the defensive first baseman, commits a two-out error that allows the Red Sox to tie the game at five in the bottom of the third. This is going to be another very long game.

Mark Loretta picks up his fourth double of the day as Sidney Ponson pitches no better than Jon Lester. Mark's at second after driving in two to cut New York's lead to 5-4. Ortiz is up with two out in the second.

Update: Ortiz is caught looking to end the inning. He's one for six on the day with a run scored.

The 1-2-3 hitters in for the Washington Nationals tonight are a combined 8 for 11 tonight, scoring and driving in all six runs. Zimmerman is 3 for 4 with a double, triple and a homer, and should get another chance to hit for the cycle.

Jon Lester loads the bases again, this time in the top of the second inning against the Yankees. Melky Cabrera delivers an RBI single to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. That's just the second hit off Lester with the bases loaded in 11 at bats.

Update Damon singles as Crisp dives for the ball and appears to hurt himself. He didn't get up and chase he ball, but he's staying in the game. He might have just hurt is face as he hit the turf. Bases still loaded, and it's 3-1 Yankees.

Update: Lester strikes out Jeter. Jeter hit a fan with a foul ball. They didn't show it, but from the reaction of the crowd it was pretty bad. Abreu follows with a double to drive in two more and make the score 5-1. Lester picked a bad night to have his bases loaded luck catch up with him.

Update: This is the third time today the Yankees batted around in an inning.

Luke Hudson goes seven strong innings to help the Royals to a 7-1 win over the Athletics. Blanton tired in the sixth, and the bullpen was no relief as they allowed five of the runs. New addition Ryan Shealy picked up three hits and two RBI for Kansas City. He has 14 RBI in 18 games for the Royals.

Alfonso Soriano led off the first for Washington tonight with his 39th home run of the season, tieing his career high in home runs. Zimmerman also homers in the inning to drive in two, and the Nationals lead the Phillies 3-0 in the bottom of the first.

Luke Hudson is doing a great job for the Royals in game 1 of the Oakland/Kansas City double header. He's pitched five innings so far, allowing just one run and throwing just 59 pitches. He's been efficient by throwing strikes, 41 so far. If he can keep this up for a couple of more innings, he'll have saved the Royals bullpen for game 2. Joe Blanton is working in the fifth, also allowing just one run, but he's already at 91 pitches.

Heard in the Red Sox pressbox during game 1:

Johnny Damon just reminded Fenway of the kind of grabs he can make in center when he robbed Alex Gonzalez of an RBI single, making a sliding catch to his right.

"You get what you pay..." muttered one writer on press row.

The Yankees take game 1 of the day and the series by a score of 12-4. With the exception of Proctor, neither team used their front line relievers. The score, however, is somewhat reminiscent of game 1 of the Boston Massacre, 28 years ago.

While the Yankees/Red Sox game drags on the Cardinals put a hurting on the Cubs today as they connected for six home runs to take an 11-3 lead into the top of the ninth. Preston Wilson contributes early as he hits his first for St. Louis. Albert Pujols contributes three hits and his 36th of the season. The homers account for 8 of the 11 runs.

The Yankees load the bases with none out. Cabrera flies out for the first out of the inning. Damon follows with a two run single for his third and fourth RBI of the day. The Yankees lead 10-3. Saenez is going to take one for the team here.

Update: Jeter reaches on an error for the second time in the game as Hinske drops a ball in right as he battles the sun. The bases are loaded for Abreu, who is four for four with a walk.

Update: Abreu strikes out.

Update: Giambi walks to drive in the 11th run. Time for Rodriguez to hit a grand slam.

Update: A-Rod walks to make it 12-3. Rudy's still on the mound.

Update: Cano strikes out to end the inning.

With two out, Delcarmen gives up the fourth hit of the game to Abreu and a walk to Giambi. Saenez will try to get A-Rod.

Update: A-Rod strikes out to end the inning.

I'm interviewed at the Educated Sport Community.

Wang allows a double to Lorreta leading off the seventh. It's the sixth double allowed on the day, and Myers comes in to face Ortiz.

Update: Myers gets Ortiz to bounce back to the box. Proctor will try to finish the innng.

Derek Jeter reaches on an error by Mike Lowell, then comes around to score on consecutive singles by Abreu and Giambi. Bobby is 3 for 3 today and is now batting .391 since joining the Yankees with a .480 OBA.

Update: Alex Rodriguez follows with an RBI double to extend the lead to 6-3. The Yankees have men on second and third with one out.

Update: Cano drives in two to make the score 8-3.

Update: Melky Cabrera flies out to center to end the inning. However, you can see the Yankees coaches in the dugout with a look of worry on their faces as they dread the five-run homer by Ortiz in the bottom of the ninth. :-)

Wang gets in trouble in the bottom of the sixth. He walks Lowell and gives up the third double of the day to Hinske. The ball bounces into the bullpen to prevent Lowell from scoring, but the tying runs are in scoring position.

Update: Wang's the master of the comebacker, and he gets Lopez to bounce back to the box for the first out.

Update: Gonzalez hits a fly ball to left center and Damon makes a diving catch. One run scores, but Damon saves the lead as Crisp also flies out to center to end the inning. It's 4-3 New York and Wang is still in the game.

Wang intentionally walked Manny his first two times up. In the fifth, however, Manny comes to the plate with two out and none on. Wang throws a nice pitch on the outside part of the plate, and Manny flicks it out down the right field line just past the foul pole. That cuts the lead to 4-2. That's all the Red Sox get as they go to the sixth inning.

That was Manny 33rd homer of the season, the 9th year in a row he's reached that level and the tenth time in the last 11 years.

Johnson issues a one-out walk to Melky Cabrera, and Damon makes him pay with his 19th home run of the year down the rightfield line. Jeter and Abreu follow with singles, and Johnson is done. He threw 95 pitches, and Snyder is coming in. The Yankees lead 3-1 in the top of the fifth.

The Yankees did their job, forcing Johnson's pitch count up and getting into the bullpen early.

Update: Giambi's up, and he's sporting a mustache and beard stubble. How's he getting away with that? He singles to right to drive in Jeter. That extends the lead to 4-1.

Update: That's it for the Yankees. What looked like a good outing for Johnson ends up raising his ERA to 6.35, and he's in line for the loss.

Eric Hinske leads off the bottom of the fourth with his second double of the day. Eric then tags on a fly out to right field near the line.

Update: Alex Gonzalez grounds out to Jeter. Derek had to dive, so Hinske was able to score and tie the game at one.

It's a repeat of the first inning as Loretta picks up a one-out double and with two out Manny is intentionally walked.

Update: Wang walks Youkilis to load the bases.

Update: Lowell flies out to right to end the threat. Wang is not pitching well, but the Red Sox have not taken advantage of their opportunities. Through three innings, he's thrown more balls than strikes.

Eric Hinske lines a double to left for a hit in his first at bat for the Red Sox. He's at second base with one out.

Update: That's all the Red Sox get in the second. It's 1-0 New York after two.

Johnson gets the bottom of the Yankees order in order on just 12 pitches in the second inning.

With one out, Mark Loretta drives a 3-1 pitch down the left field line for a double. That's 26 doubles on the year for Mark. Ortiz swings at the first pitch and pops out to left to leave the rally up to Manny.

Update: Wang falls behind Manny and then intentionally walks him to face Youkilis.

Update: Youkilis works the count to 3-2, then flies out to left. Both teams leave two on in the first. Wang only throws 17 pitches, but 10 of them were balls.

Johnny Damon starts off the game with a triple to the centerfield triangle in Fenway. Johnson got ahead in the count, then after missing twice left a pitch up for Damon to drive. Crisp bobbled the ball, and for a moment I thought Damon might score.

Update: Jeter works Johnson to a 2-2 count, and singles up the middle to give New York a 1-0 lead. Johnson's already thrown 12 pitches without getting an out.

Update: Johnson hangs a changeup and Abreu lines it up the middle for a single. Two on, none out for Giambi.

Update: Giambi pops out to Gonzalez in shallow center for the first out.

Update: A-Rod also pops out to shallow center, this time to Crisp. It's up to Cano now.

Update: Cano grounds out to second to end the inning. Johnson does a good job of limiting the damage, although he uses 29 pitches to get it done. The Yankees did an excellent job of working the count.

WEEI Radio and the Red Sox are running a radio/telethon for the Jimmy Fund today. You can find out more and contribute here.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Not only did the Yankees lose big yesterday, the beer was warm.

Armed with a thermometer and a fistful of twenties, the Daily News found that beer at yesterday's afternoon game was as warm as 60 degrees - closer to room temperature than freezing.

You don't have this problem at Fenway, where vendors don't sell beer in the stands. You are forced to go to a concession stand to buy your brew.

Given today's pitching matchups in the Yankees/Red Sox split admission double header, it seems the team are trying for the split. Wang vs. Lester and Ponson vs. Johnson would be better matchups if one team wanted to go for the sweep. Given the ERAs of the starters, I'd say the Yankees have a better shot at game one, while the Red Sox should be favored in the night cap. If the matchups where switched, the odds of winning either game would be closer to 50/50. I guess they just couldn't resist a duel between Wang and Johnson.

Meanwhile, second place in the AL Central and a shot at the wild card is up for grabs in Minnesota this weekend as the White Sox visit the Twins. Freddy Gracia takes on Boof Bonser in game one of the three-game series. Garcia's beaten the Twins twice this year, walking just two in 13 1/3 innings. Boof's been boffed for eleven home runs in just 45 1/3 innings so far this season.

On the West Coast, the last place Giants try to make up for last week's sweep by the Dodgers as they take on Los Angeles in San Francisco. It's a great matchup as Brad Penny faces Jason Schmidt. The Dodgers baby Penny to keep him healthy, as he's averaging just six innings per start. As long as he keeps his .309 OBA allowed, that's just fine. This is Schmidt's fifth start against Los Angeles this season. He's posted a 2.33 ERA, but just has an 0-2 record to show for his troubles.

Enjoy!

Joseph Pawlikowski writes:

That's Yankees prospect Tyler Clippard, written off by many as a bust when he struggled earlier in the year. But here he is. His dominance over the last few months has culminated in the ultimate pitching achievement.

Here's what he's talking about, a four-walk, nine-strikeout no hitter. For the season, he's struck out 155 and walked 50 in 149 1/3 innings. I'll take that.

I don't know who's the bigger jerk, the person who brought the lawsuit or the judge who didn't throw it out:

A judge refused Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit that claimed the Angels discriminated against men by giving tote bags to only women during a Mother's Day baseball game.

Instead, Orange County Superior Court Judge Jonathan Cannon set a procedural hearing for Aug. 30.

The lawsuit, filed by Los Angeles psychologist Michael Cohn, claims thousands of men and fans under age 18 are each entitled to $4,000 in damages because they were treated unfairly during last May's promotion. Women over 18 received the gifts.

Yes, I'm sure thousands of men are walking around the great Anaheim area, despondent over the fact that they can't show off their Mother's Day tote bag. I'm sure Monday morning after the game grown men were crying to their co-workers, "My 21 year old daughter gets a tote bag, and I'm not even a grand father yet! It's just not fair!"

As it turns out, the Angels already made it up to him:

To celebrate Mother's Day last year, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim gave away specially designed tote bags to all female fans over the age of 18. Cohn felt discriminated against, and wrote a letter of complaint.

In response, the Angels sent him an apology and 4 tote bags.

Judges really shouldn't be encouraging people like this.

Lookout Landing didn't have a new Win Expectancy chart for the Mariners game last night, so they just used the one from the night before as Seattle loses for the 8th straight time.

WasWatching reviews the botched popup that made the Orioles blowout a slightly larger blowout.

In the YES replays, you clearly see Jeter moving his mouth when the pop is in the air. It appears that he's saying "I got it!" a few times. In the same replays, you never see A-Rod open his mouth, at all.

Rodriguez was clearly planted under the ball. He was in perfect position to catch it. Jeter had to range to his right to get towards the ball. I would offer that Derek had to move around 10 feet, away from his position on the pitch, towards the foul line, to get to where the ball was going to land.

Jeter went behind A-Rod and their gloves bumped as they both reached up for the ball. That appeared to be the only serious contact between the two players. It seemed as if their gloves met just as the ball was going into the pocket of A-Rod's mitt - and that knocked the ball loose.

The rule on the Yankees should be that Jeter catches all pop ups, even the ones hit directly at another fielder, to make up for all the ground balls that go through the shortstop position. :-)

Here's how the Red Sox plan to use Eric Hinske:

Epstein deferred to manager Terry Francona for how Hinske will be used, but depending on the matchups and multiple other factors, he can spell Kevin Youkilis at first base, Mike Lowell at third, Wily Mo Pena in right field and Manny Ramirez in left. "He's got a .950 OPS against right-handed pitching - a guy like that should be able to find his way into the lineup four or five times a week," Epstein said. "He's not here to take any one person's job, he's here to fit in."

Tony Massoratti pens a poor column this year on how the Yankees/Red Sox series matters more this year because of the wild card race:

They play 19 games a year, every year, and we treat each unfolding drama as if it were the work of William Shakespeare. Then the dust settles and the air clears, and in the aftermath, we come to a stunning conclusion. It was much ado about nothing. Now the New York Yankees are here again, for five games in 75 hours on four late-summer days, and a funny thing has happened on the way to October: The games actually mean something this time. The Red Sox are two out in the loss column with 43 games to play, and for the first time in a long time, the boys appear to be operating without a net.

There is no wild card to fall back on, it seems.

Does he forget that last season, Cleveland was in the race until the end? Even with Cleveland self-destructing in the last week, the two teams went into the final weekend with the possibility of not making the playoffs. For that matter, if either team managed to win 13 games in the head-to-head race, the other doesn't make the post season. So yes, the games matter, just as they've mattered for the last three years.

Due to technical difficulties, the update of the Day by Day database will be delayed.

Congratulations to Aaron Gleeman! Although we don't know the details of the job, Aaron signed a multi-year contract to provide some kind of content to someone. Here's wishing him best of luck in his new job!

The Blue Jays tee off on the Devil Rays relievers after five strong innings by Scott Kazmir. Johson, Overbay and now Molina all go deep to give the Jays a 4-2 lead in the top of the 8th. Molina also picked up a triple and a single tonight.

Scott Kazmir is averaging two strikeouts per inning tonight, with eight through four innings. Unfortunately, he's thrown 80 pitches already, which will likely limit how high that total can go. The Jays and Rays are scoreless in the bottom of the fourth.

Update: Kamir strikes out two more in the fifth for ten in the game. He's at 89 pitches, and the trainer and manager were already out to talk to him once this inning. That may be it for Scott.

Update: Maddon is being interviewed right now and he says Kaz is out of the game. He also says B.J. Upton strained his left shoulder, and he'll be day to day.

A.J. Burnett also is working on a two-hitter. He neither walked nor struck out a batter yet.

Update: Of course, as soon as I hit the save button, Burnett walks the leadoff batter in the fifth.

The Tigers are up 3-0 after three innings, but the bottom of the third ended with Dmitri Young thrown out at the plate by Nelson Cruz. Young was at second with two out when Pudge Rodriguez singled to right. Gene Lamont waved Young around third. Cruz fired home, and Gerald Laird waited a good two second before he needed to make the tag. It's not often you see someone thrown out at the play by 20 feet.

I heard about this from one of the commentors during the radio show last night. Ryan Howard was threatened by a fan:

In the last 3 ½ weeks, Ryan Howard, a National League All-Star who won the Home Run Derby, has hit .360 with 10 homers and 28 RBI. In his first full season with the Phillies, he leads the league with 41 homers and 106 RBI, and he is making an MVP run.

Howard has been this good with a morbid threat hanging over him.

Howard yesterday confirmed that, about 4 weeks ago, he was made aware of a letter to him whose sender threatened to shoot him and cripple him.

"He said he wouldn't kill me; he'd put me in a wheelchair," Howard said.

I assumed it was a racial thing, but in fact it seems to be due to the Mets-Phillies rivalry:

The letter, according to Howard, was postmarked Scranton, where Howard starred as recently as last season for the Phillies' Triple A team. Howard said the sender was a Mets fan who opined that Mets third baseman and Derby finalist David Wright deserved to win instead of Howard.

"It didn't bother me," Howard said. "If he's writing letters like that, that dude's got bigger problems than me."

That's the truth. Maybe he lost a lot of money betting on Wright to win ROY.

Clint Hurdle made a difference today:

The Rockies were told before the game by manager Clint Hurdle to stay away from anything that started belt high or lower out of Webb's hand, and they foiled Webb's bid to become the NL's first 14-game winner.

Colorado scored six runs in the first two innings off one of the best sinkerball pitchers. Webb (13-5), among the NL leaders in fewest walks per nine innings at 2.93, walked a season-high five in six innings and gave up eight hits.

And good job by the scouts to get Hurdle that information.

Buck Showalter and two Rangers pitchers were suspened for their part in a beanball incident against the Angles. Seven Angels, including manager Mike Scioscia were suspended as well. Mike's upset that his team lost control, as the suspensions might cost them a shot at the division.

Evan Grant reviews the actions leading up to the suspensions.

With the NL West games over for today, all five teams are at 121 games played. San Francisco and Colorado walk away with victories this afternoon, both by the score of 8-4. That puts Arizona in second place, three games back of the Dodgers, with SD, Colorado and San Francisco 4, 5 and 6 games back. With 41 games left, it's still anybody's race.

The best mark against the division belongs to Arizona at 27-20. The Giants and Rockies, the teams farthest out, both play the fewest remaining games in the west, making it tougher for them to gain ground directly. The Diamondbacks play six more against the Dodgers, the Padres seven more, the Rockies six more and the Giants six more, so each team has enough games left against the division leader to make a difference.

Through four innings, Matt Cain faced 17 batters. Twelve of them failed to put the ball in play as he walks five and strikes out seven. Those five who managed to put wood to the ball all made outs. Cain is working on a no-hitter, but he's not making it easy on himself.

Peavy allowed one run in the first on a double by Frandsen and two ground outs. The Giants picked up two more in the third on a bases loaded single by Feliz. Cain is headed back to the mound in the bottom of the fifth with a 3-0 lead.

Update: It's an easy inning for Cain as he retires the side in order on a fly out, pop out and ground out. It's unlikely Cain will finish this game. With all the walks and strikeouts, he's up to 95 pitches after five innings.

Update: Bard singles in the sixth to break up the no-hitter, and that's it for Cain. He gives up 1 hit, walks six and strikes out 8 in 5 1/3 innings. Kevin Correia finished the inning without allowing a run.

Trailing 5-3, the Royals sandwich an out between a pair of singles off Jenks. The tying runs are on with just one out.

Update: DeJesus doubles in one run. Brian Anderson cut the ball off in the gap, or else the game would be tied. Grudzielanek is issued the IBB to bring Mike Sweeney to the plate with the bases loaded.

Update: Sweeney falls behind 0-2, the grounds one to Crede, who steps on third and throws to first for the DP and the White Sox win. The Pale Hose extend their lead on both the Twins and the Red Sox in the Wild Card race.

Duncan singles and Pujols walks to put the winning run at second base. Rolen follows with a single, driving in Chris to beat the Reds 2-1. Rolen drives in both runs with his single and his solo home run. He's 14 for 38 against the Reds this year, .368. The Reds drop to 2 1/2 games back in the NL Central.

On a day the Yankees could have used a long outing by Jaret Wright, he lasts just three innings. Going into the double header with Boston tomorrow, the Yankees burn Villone and Myers as those two combine for 4 1/3 innings. With the 12-2 loss, New York goes into Boston just 1 1/2 games up on the Red Sox. Boston needs to take four out of five to move into first place.

Just in case you were wondering what happened to the Mets offense, Carlos Delgado hit two home runs today on the way to a 7-2 New York win over Philadelphia. Beltran also homered off Mathieson to raise the pitcher's ERA to 7.23.

Ryan Howard produced the two Phillies runs with his 42nd homer, tying him with David Ortiz for the Major League lead.

Oscar Villarreal makes his first start of the season for the Braves, and pitches five strong innings to help the team to a 5-0 win over the Washington Nationals. He allowed just one hit and one walk while striking out four. He used just 65 pitches, throwing 46 for strikes. His main problem this year was the large number of home runs he allowed, but he avoided the long ball today and picked up his 9th win of the season.

Jeff Weaver and Kyle Lohse each pitched six stellar innings, each shutting out their opponent. But in the seventh, Griffey takes Weaver deep for a 1-0 lead, then Rolen dings Lohse to tie the game in the bottom frame. The Cardinals now have a man on first with none out.

The Rockies take a 2-0 lead despite Brandon Webb not allowing a hit. Stolen bases worked well, as two walks led to a double steal, that set up a two run error by Tracy. The Rockies lead 2-0 in the bottom of the second.

Update: Webb gives up five hits in the second inning, including a home run to Ryan Spilborghs as the Rockies take an early 6-0 lead.

Kansas City Royals picked up two more hits and two more walks than the White Sox so far today, but Chicago leads 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth. Twice though, they ended innings with a caught stealing, once with the runner being thrown out at third. It tough to win when you give away outs on offense.

Matt Garza improved over his last performance, going five innings and allowing three runs to the Indians. But Paul Byrd is shutting down the Twins offense allowing just four hits and one run so far through seven innings. The lone score came on Morneau's 31st home run of the season.

Update: Byrd finishes the game, allowing two runs on seven hits. It's Paul's first complete game of the season. The Twins lose 1/2 game to the Red Sox in the Wild Card race, and may lose a full game to the White Sox.

Jaret's Wright good August didn't last long as he allows five runs in three innings on four walks, two hits and a home run. The Orioles lead the Yankees 7-2 in the sixth inning. Meanwhile, Lopez struck out seven Yankees through five innings.

In regards to the move for Hinkse, SawxBlog notes that Trot Nixon might be out for the rest of the year.

Late yesterday afternoon (08/17/06) I discovered some bad news. According to my source, Trot Nixon's infection in his elbow is bad enough that it's going to derail him coming back this year and maybe even next year. As recently as Tuesday people were saying this would not derail Trot's comeback process.

The trade is official, by the way.

The Mets are hitting Scott Mathieson this afternoon. In the top of the third, he's already given up six hits, including a home run to Carlos Delgado. The Mets lead 4-0.

Brian Roberts leads off the Orioles/Yankees game with his fifth home run of the year. Baltimore's scored the first run in each game of this series.

Update: Damon matches Roberts' feat and Robinson Cano adds a solo shot of his own in the second to give New York a 2-1 lead.

Today's the perfect day to take a very long lunch, find a sports bar with MLB Extra Innings and lots of screens and enjoy some pennant race baseball.

The Yankees and Orioles finish up their three game series this afternoon. It's an important game for New York as a victory puts them 2 1/2 games ahead of the idle Red Sox going into a five game series against Boston. Rodrigo Lopez take the mound for Baltimore against Jaret Wright. Lopez simply gives up too many hits. The league is batting .307 against him while slugging .516. He doesn't give up many walks, but I wonder if it's because he throws up so many juicy pitches that hitters can't help but swing! After struggling for four months, Wright improved his pitching in August. He's 3-0 this month with a 1.65 ERA. Don't think he's turned the corner just yet, however, as he's walked 9 in 16 1/3 innings this month.

The Phillies try to reach .500 and sweep the Mets at the same time as John Maine faces Scott Mathieson in a battle of rookies. The Phillies outscored the Mets 27-4 in this series, most of the Mets offense coming on three Jose Reyes homers. They have a chance against Mathieson who's given up 35 hits this year, more than half for extra bases. Maine's made one start against Philadelphia this year, shutting them out for six innings.

The Twins send Matt Garza to the mound against the Indians after a disastrous first start against the Blue Jays. Minnesota is just one game behind the White Sox in the Wild Card race. His opponent, Paul Byrd, carries a 3.88 road ERA into the game, but he's just 3-4 away from Jacobs Field.

The Royals are doing a good job of playing spoiler in the AL, sweeping Boston and taking two in a row from the White Sox. They'll try to make it three today as Odalis Perez takes on Mark Buehrle. Mark's been battered with men in scoring position this season, allowing a .326 batting average. Perez is even worse, as opponents have hung a .421 BA on him in that situation in 2006.

And the games keep coming. The Reds and Cardianls play the rubber game of their series with the rejuvenated Kyle Lohse facing the mercurial Jeff Weaver. Lohse struck out 16 and walked 1 in 12 1/3 innings since joining the Reds. Weaver's struck out 15 and walked 11 in thirty innings for the Cardinals. He's pitched great and badly for the team. The Cardinals need him to be great today.

The Diamondbacks send their best, Brandon Webb against the Rockies Josh Fogg. Often, a 4.59 ERA would be considered great on Colorado, but Fogg is just their fourth starter this season. Webb is leading the league in ERA after a rough outing by Josh Johnson yesterday. The way Coors field is playing this season, he might be able to come out of today's game with an even lower number.

We finish the afternoon with the Giants and Padres as Matt Cain faces Jake Peavy. Peavy carried the Padres staff this year, and his falloff is a big reason the Padres aren't in first place. It's home runs, as he's already allowed more than all of last year. Cain's strikeouts are rising as he's K'd 23 in 18 innings in August. His 5.00 ERA in the month seems out of line with six walks and 2 homers allowed in those same number of innings.

Enjoy!

There's a report that Eric Hinske is going to the Red Sox.

It was not immediately known what the Red Sox sent the Blue Jays in return for the 2002 AL Rookie of the Year, a left-handed hitter who has played the corner positions in both the infield and outfield.

Hinske, who has become a part-time player this season, was pulled from the Blue Jays' lineup shortly before the start of Wednesday's game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He wasn't told why he was pulled, but was informed he wouldn't play at all Wednesday night.

"That's usually a sign something is probably going to happen," Hinske said. "I'm just kind of waiting around to see what's up and see what happens. That's all I can do."

My question is, where is Hinske going to play? The obvious place would be in a platoon with Lowell at third base. Look at the production at the position since the All-Star break. Averages of .234/.300/.387 isn't exactly getting the job done. If you look at Lowell by month, he's slowly returning to his 2005 form. Hinske is their insurance in case that continues.

I'm very surprised the Jays are willing to help out a division rival like this. I guess Toronto considers itself out of the race.

During my radio show yesterday I mentioned how Jim Edmonds OBA and slugging percentage fell off this year. I speculated it was just him getting older, but now we know the real reason:

St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Jim Edmonds was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome Wednesday, one day after leaving a game because of dizziness and blurred vision.

Edmonds underwent an MRI on Tuesday night that showed normal brain function, then had a battery of tests Wednesday to rule out other possibilities such as diabetes, nutrition deficiencies or an infection. Trainer Barry Weinberg said all the tests were normal.

"We're just going to keep it under the category of post-concussion syndrome and we'll just go day by day and see how he feels," Weinberg said. "He's got to just give me the input every day."

The concussion happened nearly two months ago:

Edmonds sustained what was described as a slight concussion on June 21 when he crashed into the wall in Chicago trying to rob White Sox third baseman Joe Crede of a home run. Edmonds said he's had intermittent bouts of dizziness and blurred vision along with nausea since then, feelings that have intensified after a couple of diving attempts in the last week or so.

"The last four or five days I've just really been clueless," Edmonds said. "I started to notice it the most when I tried to catch two fly balls on Saturday night and both of them almost came out of my glove."

But he said Tuesday was "terrible" and the "worst day."

Edmonds mentioned to assistant trainer Greg Hauck that he was having difficulty focusing and had blurred vision before taking the field for the fifth inning. He was removed before a pitch was thrown after the news was relayed to manager Tony La Russa and Weinberg, who met Edmonds on the field.

Until he woke up Wednesday, Edmonds had thought it was only the second inning when he came out.

"You don't really know what's what," Edmonds said. "I couldn't believe it was the fifth inning."

The Bridwatch apologizes. Dwight Schrute can sympathize.

Update: Added missing link to article.

Via Redleg Nation, Ken Griffey's mon and dad are suffering from cancer:

Birdie is undergoing surgery for colon cancer today in Orlando, Fla.

Griffey is going through one of the more trying periods of his life. He found out about his mother's condition shortly after learning his father, Ken Sr., was suffering from prostate cancer.

"Not one parent but both your parents," he said. "It's been tough."

Griffey has known about his father's cancer for about a week and a half. He found out about his mother's a few days later. Ken Sr., 57, and Birdie are divorced.

Let's hope both make a full recovery.

The Oakland Athletics extended their ALWest lead to 6 1/2 games, their August record to 12-2, and their streak over Seattle to 15 games with a 4-0 win last night in Oakland. Dan Haren struck out 8 in six innings for the win. Seattle managed ten hits, but nine were singles and the Athletics staff issued no free passes. Oakland pitching has held Seattle to a .298 OBA this season.

The Giants made it three in a row over the Padres and go for the sweep this afternoon. Once again, they played a close game, going 13 innings for the 7-5 victory. That's seven games in a row for San Francisco decided by 1 or 2 runs. Is this the start of the upswing for San Francisco? The Dodgers and Diamondbacks had their long losing and winning periods. Are the Giants next?

Barry Bonds hit home run number 16 and number 724 for his career, but Eliezer Alfonzo drove home the go-ahead run in the 13th for the win.

The Diamondbacks took sole possession of second place in the NL West with a 9-5 victory over Colorado. That's the Coors we know and love! Neither starter pitched well, but the Arizona bullpen posted 2 1/3 no hit innings, striking out four to preserve the win. The division has spread out a bit with 6 1/2 games separating top from bottom. Since no team can go on a hot streak without also going on a cold streak, I expect it will tighten further before we have a clear winner.

I didn't notice until this morning, but on Tuesday night the Yankees passed the Mets for best record in New York. The Yankees and Mets are the same number of games over .500, but the Yankees winning percentage is .598 to the Mets .597. That should make the Boss happy.

Update: And they broke ground for a new Yankees Stadium!

Adam Bernero is on his fifth team in seven seasons. He's never had a good season. His main strength as a pitcher over the years was keeping his walk total low. But he always seems to give up hits.

In his two starts with Kansas City, however, something's changed. He's struck out 11 in 11 innings with no walks. He's allowed 12 hits, but none for home runs. His ERA is 0.77.

"His tempo is much better than I ever remember it," manager Buddy Bell said. "He's got a confidence about him that I don't quite remember in the past. He pitches backward, and he's very effective with his off-speed stuff."

We'll see what happens when the league adjusts to him.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Red Sox and Tigers traded leads, but Boston came out on top 6-4 as Coco Crisp doubled in the winning run in the bottom of the sixth. Jon Papelbon threw six pitches, all strikes to retire the Tigers in order in the 9th and pick up his 32nd save.

The Yankees didn't have the comeback in them tonight as Baltimore made three early runs hold up as they defeat New York 3-2. That closes the AL East race to two games. The Yankees play tomorrow, while the Red Sox take the day off before the two teams open a five game series with a double header in Boston on Friday.

The Texas Rangers had Joe Saunders number tonight. He faced 17 batters and gave up five hits and five walks, which led to eight runs. He gave up more runs tonight than he did in his first four starts. The one-nine combination of Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz combined for two homers, four runs and six RBI tonight for Texas. The Rangers lead the Angels 9-2 in the seventh.

If Bronson Arroyo can get through the fifth inning tonight, there's a good chance he'll pick up his tenth win. He's only allowed one run through the first four, while the Reds knocked out Reyes early and scored a total of seven runs so far. All the runs scored on four home runs, including number 36 by Adam Dunn.

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

Update: Link was broken, it's been fixed.

In a very fast game, the Phillies kept the hopes of a Mets sweep alive with a 3-0 shutout by Jon Lieber. He allowed just five singles while striking out four. Tom Glavine takes the loss as he pitches seven solid innings but gets no support from the Mets offense. There were only 225 pitches thrown in the game, one reason it was done in about two hours.

Update: Time of game, 2:03.

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.

Octavio Dotel finally joins the Yankees in time for the five games in four days at Fenway.

Dotel, operated on in June 2005, spent most of this year rehabilitating his elbow at the Yankees' complex in Tampa, Fla.

Dotel hopes to provide more flexibility for an overworked yet effective bullpen. Yankees right-handers Scott Proctor (59) and Kyle Farnsworth (56) are the top two pitchers in the AL in appearances.

Earlier in the game, Cody Ross and Dan Uggla collided going for a pop up. Ross injured his knee and left the game. While they're examening the knee on the field, Vin tells us how Cody's father and sister both suffered from knee injuries. Scully finished the story calling the Rosses a "kneedy family."

Update: The Marlins win 15-4. Florida knocks out 16 hits, half for extra bases.

It's not a good day for the Dodgers pitching staff as the Marlins lead 12-4 in the middle of the sixth. Miguel Cabrera, who was 2 for 19 vs. Los Angeles this season, popped two home runs accounting for five of the runs. They've produced these runs on 11 hits and five walks.

Damaso Marte didn't have much luck in the top of the 13th against the Brewers as he walked the leadoff batter, then kept throwing wild pitches, forcing him to intentionally walk the bases loaded. That set up David Bell for a one-out, two run single, and the Brewers go on to beat the Pirates 5-2. Great pitching by the Brewers bullpen in the game as six relievers pitch seven two-hit innings, not allowing a run.

The Mets returned Pedro Martinez to the disabled list today:

Pedro Martinez was placed on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday by the New York Mets with a minor strain in his right calf.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner was examined in New York on Tuesday, one day after the injury forced him out of his start against the Philadelphia Phillies following the worst first inning of his career.

There's no word in the article on how long they expect him to be out of action.

The Cubs post a 1-0 win over the Astros with pitching that was worse than the score. Ryan O'Malley made his major league debut for the Cubs, and pitches eight shutout innings. But getting there, he allowed five hits and six walks, while striking out only two. That's not the kind of outing you'd expect in a shutout. But the Astros went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position. The Cubs were 0 for 4 themselves, but a solo home run by Michael Barrett ruined Andy Pettitte's start. The lefty allowed just four hits and one walk as he completed nine innings, striking out seven. He out pitched O'Malley, but his offense couldn't deliver.

The Brewers and Pirates are in extra innings, tied at two. Neither bullpen has allowed a run yet.

Mark Hendrickson walks the bases loaded in the first inning, setting up a bases clearing double for Cody Ross. Cody's having a poor August, but that hit gives him 3 of 5 on the month for doubles. Ross scores after the two bagger and the Marlins lead 4-0 with the Dodgers coming to bat.

Update: Johnson walks a couple in the first, and a Jeff Kent double scored both to cut the lead in half, 4-2 Marlins after one.

I sent the following EMail to Jay Alves, VP, Communications/Public Relations for the Rockies:

I've heard quite a lot of speculation about the humidor keeping offense down this year. Has something changed in the use of the humidor vs. previous years? Do the Rockies believe that is the explanation, or is there some other reason?

Mr. Alves was nice enough to reply:

We have one of the best starting rotations in MLB. That's the difference..there has been absolutely no changes in the use of the humidor since it was first used five years ago.

The run index in Colorado is 99 this year (100 is neutral) as opposed to 128 last year and 133 over the previous three years. There's more here than just the development of a good pitching staff. Colorado's road ERA is third in the NL, so indeed the staff is very good. But that doesn't explain why opponents coming into Coors are preventing runs as well. We need to look beyond the humidor, however.

Freddy is one for two so far this afternoon as the Pirates lead the Brewers 1-0 in the fifth inning. That hit keeps his batting average at .345, the best in the National League. It's strange to look at the NL leader board and see the names behind Sanchez; 2-5 are among the best players of their generation, while Sanchez is a 28-year-old in his second full season of work.

The one thing that stands out when I look at the Hardball Times stat line for Sanchez is his improvement in hitting line drives. He's up to 28 percent from 23 percent in 2005. More hard hit balls, more balls falling for hits. And, it appears, more doubles as he leads the league in that category as well. His major league numbers are pretty much in line with his minor league numbers. Why did Boston and then Pittsburgh keep him in the minors so long? His lack of walks? A .380 OBA is still good, no matter how you get there.

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

You can 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.

And congratulations to Fantoo Girls and Lunatic Radio, both winners of the Podcast Awards. Two examples of the great programming on TPSRadio.net.

The Dodgers try to keep their streak alive this afternoon against the NL leader in ERA, Josh Johnson. Although he owns identical 5-3 records at home and on the road, Johnson's been tough to hit away from Miami, allowing a .203 batting average. Former Devil Ray Mark Hendrickson takes the mound for Los Angeles. He's simply not pitching well for the Dodgers, allowing a .379 OBA and a .439 slugging percentage so far.

Another potential Cy Young candidate takes the mound tonight as Justin Verlander faces David Wells and the Boston Red Sox. Verlander hasn't done much to help his cause in August, allowing eight runs in 10 innings. But a win tonight ties him with Roy Halladay for the major league lead. Wells simply hasn't pitched that much this season, but his six homers allowed in 20 innings at Fenway has to be a concern.

Bronson Arroyo makes another attempt to gain his tenth win of the year, and this time it counts. :-) He's up against the Cardinals and Anthony Reyes as the Reds try to even the series with St. Louis. Since the last win, Arroyo's walks and strikeouts are fine. It's the home runs that are killing him.

Enjoy!

Placido Polanco's shoulder landed him on the disable list:

he Tigers have suffered their third major injury of the season.

They've already overcome Mike Maroth's elbow surgery.

They've already overcome Dmitri Young's two-month absence with a leg injury and personal woes.

Now they must overcome second baseman Placido Polanco's separated left shoulder.

The Tigers placed Polanco on the disabled list with that injury, which he suffered making a diving catch in the seventh inning Tuesday night. The club recalled infielder Ramon Santiago from Triple-A Toledo to take his place. Santiago and Omar Infante figure to get the starts at second base in place of Polanco.

Polanco's offense wasn't that good this year, at least among regular second basemen. Still, I'd much rather have Placido in there than Infante. Santiago isn't much better. It's a good thing the team's built a big lead in the race for the playoffs.

Was Watching notes a minor league move by the Yankees could be in the works.

I would bet that this Karstens move is just insurance, in case Ponson trips over a doughnut in the next few days and sprains something.

Still, yeah, he'd be a rookie making a major league debut, for the Yankees, at Fenway Park, in the middle of a pennant race with the Red Sox, but, I would bet that Karstens could go six innings and only allow 5 runs - if he got the start.

Sure, that doesn't sound pretty. But, it's probably better than what Ponson will do, if given the start.

Jeff Kartens put in about the same number of innings at AA and AAA this year. He was dominating the lower league, but he's still adjusting to AAA. I agree with Lombardi's assessment. He might get hit around at Fenway, but then you bring in Ponson anyway. And if he can give you six decent innings, you might save some wear and tear on the bullpen.

I guess this is what Jim Bowden meant when he said the Yankees farm system was wet enough for him.

Ken Rosenthal speculates on why the Nationals placed Soriano on waivers. Something like this happens every year, and I think this is the best explanation:

The Nationals' placing of Soriano on waivers doesn't necessarily mean that the team wants to trade him; some clubs put all of their players on waivers in August as a matter of course, trying to mask their intent with the two or three players they might want to deal.

I really doubt he'll get traded.

Chad Billingsley's stat line left much to be desired before last night. Although he was posting a good ERA of 3.52 in his first eleven starts, he walked 47 in 61 1/3 innings while striking out just 38. It seemed that ERA couldn't last. But on Tuesday night he turned that around, tossing seven shutout innings, walking one and striking out 9 in a performance more in line with Johan Santana than Kirk Rueter. The Dodgers starters continue their hot performance. During the 17-1 streak, they are 12-1 with a 2.55 ERA.

Two cities held two for the price of one nights on Tuesday as Houston and Colorado saw their games go 18 innings. Arizona kept pace with the Dodgers as they finally picked up a run in the top of the 18th to take a 2-1 victory. The two bullpens combined for 20 scoreless innings before Arizona's Luis Gonzalez singled home the Eric Byrnes after a single and a sacrifice bunt.

It looks like the low altitude took its toll on the batters as the game progressed. Julio and Medders combined for five no-hit innings to finish the game for the DBacks. they allowed two walks and struck out six. Although Ramon Ramirez took the loss, he allowed just the two hits over the last four innings for the Rockies, walking one and striking out five. Another impressive night of pitching in Colorado.

Most of the offense in Houston was confined to the first six innings as the Astros held a 6-5 lead going into the seventh. Roger Clemens allowed all five Cubs runs, raising his ERA to 2.71. Then Brad Lidge blew his fifth save of the year to send the game into extra frames, giving up a leadoff home run to Matt Murton.

The Cubs bullpen gave up four runs early. The first two relievers pitched a poor sixth inning, but then the pen settled down and allowed nothing the rest of the way. The batting hero was Murton, knocking out a bases loaded single with two out in the 18th to make the final 8-6. Dave Borkowski went six innings for the loss. It looks like he was going to pitch forever, as he got in trouble in the 18th and Garner did not make a move to relieve him. The Astros fail to gain ground in the wild card race.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Jason Jennings pitched 8 one-run innings tonight for the Colorado Rockies, lowering his ERA to 3.34. He won't get the win, as the game is tied at one in the bottom of the ninth. His ERA puts him in sixth place in the NL ERA race, and he should get some Cy Young consideration. He still plays in Coors field, and this may be the greatest season every by a Rockies starter. Working against that, of course, is that there are three Rockies starters with ERAs well below 4.00. I don't know what changed, but Colorado put together a staff to be reckoned with.

A win by the Rockies ties them in the standings with the Diamondbacks.

Update: Regulation ends with the score still 1-1. They play extra-frames in Colorado.

Joel Pineiro is not fooling the Athletics hitters tonight. He's given up 10 hits in three innings, and the only thing that kept him from giving up more than four runs is three double plays by his defense. The A's are off to a 4-0 lead as they try to make it 14 wins in a row against the Mariners. Kotsay, Payton and Swisher already have two hits each.

Update: Oakland is now up 9-0 and Seattle's turned four double plays in four innings.

The Giants break their 1-0 streak by scoring two runs in the top of the third to take a 2-0 lead over the San Diego Padres. An RBI single by Vizquel and an RBI groundout by Alou plate the first two runs of the game.

Runelvys Hernandez pitches another good game for the Royals, this time getting the win as Kansas City sets down Chicago 4-2. Hernandez allows just two runs in 7 2/3 innings as he starting to show some stamina. He went seven in his last outing against the Red Sox, although he tired in that last inning and allowed three runs. But he's starting to look like he can be a useful member of the rotation.

Johan Santana pitched eight scoreless innings tonight to pick up his 14th win and move ahead of Roy Halladay in the AL ERA race. With Liriano on the shelf, Verlander owns the best ERA, Halladay the most wins, but Santana keeps eliminating hitters with the strikeout. He picked up nine more tonight to give him 187 in 178 1/3 innings. Nathan allows a run in the ninth, but the Twins take the game 4-1. With the Red Sox losing, and Chicago down 4-2 in the ninth, Minnesota has a chance to gain on both teams they're chasing for the wild card.

The Blue Jays are trying to hang on the edge of the pennant race as they take a 4-3 win over Tampa Bay. B.J. Ryan walked one but struck out three to pick up his 27th save of the season. He's now struck out 69 in 57 1/3 innings, 10.8 per 9.

Roy Halladay picks up his 15th win to lead the majors. His 2 run, seven inning performance lowers his ERA to 3.20.

Wily Mo Pena has a bad ninth inning. He dropped a fly ball that allowed a run to score (although it might have scored anyway on the sac fly), then strikes out looking to end the ninth. The Tigers take the one-run victory, 3-2.

Bonderman and Schilling each pitched fine games, but neither figured in the decision. Jeremy lowers his ERA to 3.69, Schilling to 3.83.

Erick Bedard leaves after six innings, allowing one run and owning a 3-1 lead. His pitch count, however was at 106. LaTroy Hawkins comes in allows a single to Cabrera, then a home run to Johnny Damon to hang a no decision on Bedard.

Placido Polanco of the Tigers separated his shoulder diving for a pop up in the outfield. He's out and Ivan Rodriguez is playing second. For Baltimore, Melvin Mora caught a hard line drive, but the ball smashed into his thumb, and he was pulled from the game as well.

Correction: Sorry, Pudge Rodriguez is playing second for Polanco. I was watching the game, and they showed Carlos Guillen when they were talking about the second base replacement. Peter Gammons did a piece for ESPN many years ago talking about I-Rod's foot work, and how it was so good he could easily move to second base.

Chris Carpenter is pitching like an ace tonight, shutting out the Reds through five innings, allowing just two hits. He's being much more efficient than Harang, having allowed more than 40 fewer pitches so far and five fewer runs. Half of the hits against Harang tonight have gone for extra bases.

Sean Casey double in two runs in the top of the seventh to put the Tigers on top 2-1. Schilling's lack of strikeouts catch up with him in this inning as he gives up three straight hits to lose the lead. Sean now has 13 hits since joining Detroit, five for extra-bases. He's also driven in 12 runs in 14 games.

Pedro Astacio is throwing a Greg Maddux like game against the Braves tonight. Through seven innings he's thrown just 68 pitches, 50 for strikes. He's struck out four while walking none, and has allowed just two hits. With a 5-0 Washington lead, he's likely to finish the game, unlike Maddux on Sunday night.

Update: Astacio completes the two-hit shutout, using only 89 pitches. He threw 66 of them for strikes, 74%. The Nationals take the game 5-0.

The pitching matchups in the AL East are living up to their expectations. Erik Bedard leads Mike Mussina 1-0 after five innings. Each starter allowed three hits so far, with Bedard adding a walk. But one of the Orioles hits was a Kevin Millar home run.

In Boston, it's also 1-0, but in the bottom of the sixth. Coco Crips supplied the solo shot to give the Red Sox the lead. Bonderman is actually outpitching Schilling, having allowed half the hits and six times the strikeouts. But the one long ball is the difference.

Down in Tampa Bay, the Devil Rays picked up two runs off Roy Halladay in the first, but he's held the Rays scoreless since as Toronto came back against Jae Seo to tie the game at two in the top of the sixth. Seo's allowed 9 hits and 2 walks, but two Tampa Bay double plays helped keep the Toronto scoring down.

The Phillies are up 9-2 on the Mets in the top of the fourth. Shane Victorino is 2 for 3 with a triple and a homer. He's now batting .317 in August as the new full-time rightfielder for Philadelphia.

The authors of Game of Shadows are likely headed to prison:

A federal judge told two San Francisco Chronicle reporters they must comply with a subpoena and tell a grand jury who leaked them secret testimony of Barry Bonds and other elite athletes ensnared in the government's steroid probe.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White means reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada must appear before a grand jury investigating the leak unless a higher court blocks the ruling. The pair have said they would not testify and would go to jail rather than reveal their source or sources.

Everybody seems to end up in jail except the player everyone is trying to get.

Andruw Jones won't be in the lineup for the Braves tonight:

The Braves said Jones has patellar tendinitis in his left knee.

There's no word on the seriousness of the injury or how it happened.

Padres minor league catcher Matthew Lauderdale is gone for 50 games.

San Diego Padres minor league catcher Matthew Lauderdale was suspended for 50 games Tuesday after testing positive for a drug of abuse.

I take it this means a non-performance enhancer.

This looks like an interesting panel discussion to attend if you're in New York tomorrow night. Of course, if you're there, you won't be watching the Yankees or the Mets. :-)

Lots of fascinating information today at Dodger Thoughts.

The AL East holds two of the top games once again tonight. The Tigers and Red Sox kick it off with Jeremy Bonderman facing Curt Schilling. The two own nearly identical ERAs. Bonderman strikes out more, but Schilling walks fewer. The big advantage for Bonderman is in the home run column, where he's allowed .74 per 9 compared to Schilling's 1.35.

The Yankees start a three game series with the Orioles, sending ex-Baltimore ace Mike Mussina against the current number one, Erik Bedard. He's only allowed one home run in five starts since the All-Star break after giving up 12 in the first half. Mussina makes his third try at 14 wins. He's given up six earned runs in 11 innings trying for that so far.

The Reds and Cardinals start a three game series that will help decide the NL Central, and the teams will start it with their best. Chris Carpenter host Aaron Harang in St. Louis. They met on August ninth, with both pitchers giving up long balls in an eventual 8-7 Reds victory. Both are in a ballpark tonight will home runs should be less of a problem. Carpenter's allowed 1/2 the homers at home as he has on the road, and Harang's homers go down by 1/3 away from the GAB.

San Francisco's played two 1-0 games in a row, losing to the Dodgers but winning against the Padres. The Giants offense has another tough test tonight as they go against Chris Young. The Princeton grad doesn't give up many hits (.226 BA allowed) but the few the opposition gets go a long way (46 of 59 have gone for extra bases). Matt Morris will try to continue the Giants starters good pitching. After a fine stretch in June and July, Morris settled back into mediocrity, posting a 6.57 ERA in his last seven starts.

Enjoy!

I was having a discussion about Mark McGwire and the Hall of Fame yesterday, and was asked how I would vote if I had a vote. My answer was that I'd like to wait for the Mitchell investigation to finish to see if any new allegations turned up about McGwire, or if the FBI investigation would be confirmed. So I would not vote for McGwire on the first ballot.

Others offer different reasons for the same non-vote, along the lines of Ripken and Gwynn shouldn't need to deal with McGwire when they get elected. What's going to be interesting is if that idea takes hold.

What if 96% of the voters take either of these reasons as legitimate? McGwire is then off the ballot. In other words, there's a real chance that if McGwire doesn't make it on the first ballot, he's not going to make it period. I don't think the BBWAA rigs elections. I don't think they go around saying, "Make sure a few of you vote for so-and-so," to keep him on the ballot. You could turn out with what amounts to a protest vote shutting McGwire out after one year.

Does anyone have an idea of how much support there is for Mark on the first ballot?

Joe Torre explains why he bunted with Abreu:

Abreu, who hasn't had a sacrifice since 1998, was asked to bunt and he took several shots at it. "I don't practice it at all," he said.

He got a bunt down and nearly beat it out, but advanced the runners, the fans giving him a hand.

"I talked to Larry Bowa, who managed [Abreu for four years], and he knew he'd never asked him to bunt," Torre said. "Bobby hasn't been swinging the bat as well as he was four or five days ago, or I might've done something different. In that situation, I've got to get a run."

So he takes the bats out of the hands of two left-handed power hitters. Lackey is very good against lefties, but he's much better vs. righties. And since Abreu doesn't bunt, there was a good chance he wouldn't get it down. Bobby's grounded into just eight double plays all season. The chances are by swinging away he likely had a very good chance of getting a runner to third with no more than one out.

Pedro Martinez strained his calf warming up in the bullpen Monday night, leading to his disasterous first inning:

Two starts ago, in Florida, Martínez wore an ice pack on the same calf, of his push-off leg, before taking the mound. But questions about his health subsided after he pitched six impressive innings, allowing one run while striking out nine and surrendering no walks in a no-decision.

On Monday night, Martínez was vulnerable from the beginning and lasted only one inning. This was his briefest appearance since June 20, 1995, when, with Montreal, he lasted two-thirds of an inning while allowing six hits and five runs against Houston. Never before had he given up six runs in the first inning.

When Martínez said he felt tightness in the bullpen, nobody informed Randolph. Martínez thought the muscle would loosen up, Peterson said, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

This is one of those things that's not going to bother the Mets standing the rest of the season. What it could do, however, is effect their playoff chances. The Mets goal right now should be getting Pedro healthy for October.

There's an entry for me at Wikipedia. Thanks to the person who entered the data!

Bleed Cubbie Blue wonders why Dusty Baker still uses Neifi Perez.

Maybe Baker's pissed at Neifi! for the dramatic game-winning HR he hit on September 27, 1998, a walk-off job that prevented Baker's Giants from winning the wild card outright (never mind that the Giants blew a 7-0 lead in that game), and forced the dramatic tiebreaker game the next day, which the Cubs won, and thus went on to the postseason, while Dusty and the Giants stayed home -- and so maybe Baker's taking out his anger on that eight-year-old homer on us Cubs fans.

I know, that's ridiculous, but so is any other explanation of why Neifi! continues to bat second. Incidentally, the day he hit that walk-off job in Denver? He was batting second.

Matt Diaz tied an NL record last night with 10 hits in his last 10 at bats. I've always felt this record was a little strange, since you can get a sac fly or execute a sacrifice bunt without the streak stopping. But still, it's an impressive feat.

Correction: The article makes it sound like Diaz went four-for-four last night, but he went four for five. The streak is over.

The Dodgers and Athletics extended their streaks and division leads last night as four tight games were played out west. It looked for a while like Seattle might break its 12 game losing streak against Oakland, but Nick Swisher delivered his 25th homer in the 8th to turn a 4-3 deficit into a 5-4 win. Barry Zito continues to disappoint. In his last four starts he's put up a 5.70 ERA, allowing 2.7 home runs per 9, including two last night.

Los Angeles picked up a 4-2 win over the Marlins. Dontrelle Willis couldn't hold a 1-0 lead as he allowed two runs in both the sixth and seventh innings, two on a Nomar Garciaparra homer. Julio Lugo picked up three hits to raise his Dodgers OBA to .352. He's scored 10 runs in the 14 games he's played in LA.

While the Dodgers were winning, their nearest rivals were losing. The Giants broke their losing streak, this time coming out on top in a 1-0 game. The Padres could only manage five hits vs. Hennessey and five relievers. The Giants didn't do much better, picking up four hits and two walks, but a San Diego error led to the only run of the game.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, the Diamonbacks took a 3-2 lead in the eighth off Francis and Mesa. Jeff pitched well enough to win, allowing just two runs over 7 1/3 innings, lowering his ERA to 3.39. But the Rockies weren't done as Medders gave up the tying run in the eighth and Pena the walk off single to Hawpe in the ninth for a 4-3 Colorado win. The Dodgers are now 2 1/2 games up in the West, while the A's move to 5 1/2.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Dontrelle Willis hasn't hit much this season, but he tripled in the third inning and scored to stake the Marlins to a 1-0 lead. It's the second triple of his career. It's only his fifth hit of the season after picking up 25 safeties in 2005.

It's another pitching duel in Colorado tonight as Vargas and Francis kept their opponent scoreless through 4 1/2 innings. A single, double and ground out plated a run for the Rockies in the bottom of the fifth, and Arizona trails 1-0 as they bat in the top of the sixth. Neither pitcher issued a walk through the first five innings.

Ben Broussard hits his 17th home run of the season to put the Mariners on top of the Athletics 2-0 in the top of the second inning. After losing the first meeting of the season, Oakland is on a 12 game winning streak against Seattle.

The Red Sox fall to Detroit 7-4 while the Yankees take the Angels 7-2. That extends the Yankees lead to two games, three in the loss column. They start a five game series with a double header on Friday.

It's an interesting pitching matchup in Houston tonight. Carlos Zambrano has allowed just four hits through seven innings, but walked six. Still the Astros have not capitalized on his wildness as they've yet to score. Oswalt has not issued a free pass, but has given up seven hits, including a two-run homer by Phil Nevin for the only scoring in the game.

With eight scoreless innings tonight against the Mets, Cole Hamels line for August is 21 IP, 12 hits, 3 walks, 27 strikeouts and just two runs allowed. I believe this is the Cole the Phillies expected. Philadelphia takes a 13-0 victory.

Chipper Jones picks up two home runs in his second game back from the DL, helping the Braves to an 8-3 lead over the Nationals in the bottom of the seventh. It's the 34th multi-homer game of his career. He's now slugging .581 on the season.

Update: Chipper hits his third homer of the game. That give him four hits on the night and five RBI. He's now slugging .592.

Damon dumps a single down the left field line, Jeter bunts for a single to put men on first and second with none out in the bottom of the seventh. The Yankees then call on Abreu to bunt! I can't believe it. Abreu still has some power, and can easily double in both batters. So now they're walking Giambi to pitch to A-Rod. I can't wait to see how this ends and Torre's explanation for the bunt.

Update: Lackey gets ahead of 1-2, the A-Rod gets a pitch he can drive the other way. Guerrero catches it against the wall at the 314 sign down the right field line and Alex drives in the go ahead run, and moves Jeter to third.

Update: Cano flies out to left to end the inning. The Yankees play for one run, and that's all they get.

Pierzynski and Crede collect two run hits to put the White Sox up 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth. The two RBI by Crede gives him 80 on the season, the fourth White Sox hitter to reach that plateau this season. Four players with 100 RBI would be an impressive season for any team.

Update: The White Sox end up scoring eight in the inning as Thome drives in two with his 36th home run.

Randy Johnson pitched six shutout innings and took a 2-0 lead into the top of the seventh. But he allowed two doubles and a single in the frame to plate the tying runs. He's pitched well, striking out five and walking just one. He's been in the strikezone all night as 73 of his 101 pitches went for strikes.

He's out pitched Lackey who's given up one more hit and two more walks in one less inning. But Lackey's big mistake was a two run homer to Jeter.

The Mets are getting dominated by the Phillies on both sides of the ball tonight. After chasing Pedro after just one inning, Darren Oliver gives up seven runs in 3 2/3 innings. Meanwhile, Cole Hamels is cruising, shutting out the Mets for six innings on three hits and four strikeouts.

The Pirates score one run each in the first four innings to take a 4-2 lead over the Brewers. With two solo home runs tonight they've hit as many in the last two games as they did in their previous seven.

Pedro Martinez isn't himself in the first inning tonight. He's given up four hits (although three of the them were on shoddy fielding), he walked one, hit two, committed a balk, and had Carlos Beltran misplay a single with the bases loaded to allow a third run to score on the play. Pedro strikes out Hamels to end the inning, but the Phillies are up 6-0 after one.

The Tigers start the first inning with a triple and go on to score three runs off Josh Beckett. The first is the worst of the early innings for Beckett until he starts hitting a wall in the fifth. That shouldn't be that surprising since you always face the top of order in the first.

Baseball Musings roving reporter Jim Storer is at the Tigers/Red Sox game tonight and sends this pregame report:

Beach boy John Cowsill sang national anthem. He was great!

Sounds like Fun, Fun, Fun!

Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog.com complains about the slow service at Shea consession stands. I posted a solution to this last week.

This is one of my favorite commericals of all time. I wonder how'd they redo it today know what we know about McGwire?

Dodger Thoughts recalls the last time Los Angeles beat San Francisco 1-0 in extra innings.

It's the sweepee versus the sweeper in Boston tonight as the Tigers face the Red Sox. Detroit lost three at the hands of the White Sox, while Boston took all three games from Baltimore over the weekend. Nate Robertson tries to stop Detroit's slide while Josh Beckett attempts to continue the Boston winning streak. Robertson's lowered his ERA every year in the majors, mostly by pulling down his slugging percentage allowed every year. Beckett's 13 wins are more a function of his 6.7 runs per 9 in support than his 4.92 ERA.

An even better supported pitcher is Randy Johnson. The Yankees are getting the Big Unit 7.66 runs per 9, making him a winner despite a 5.03 ERA. Runs may be tough to get this evening as the Yankees face John Lackey. The Angels starter ranks sixth in the AL in ERA at 3.33. The Yankees have a history of doing well vs. John, at least in the regular season. Even in the post season, New York manages to draw a good deal of walks against him.

It's the old version of Pedro vs. the young version of Pedro as Martinez faces Cole Hamels in Philadelphia this evening. Since returning from the DL, the strikeouts were not there for Pedro in two of his three starts. Meanwhile, Hamels struck out 37 while walking just seven in his last four outings.

The Astros are five games back in the NL Central and 3 1/2 back in the wild card as they send Roy Oswalt to the mound to host Carlos Zambrano and the Cubs. Houston is 8-4 in August as they try to make another late run at the playoffs. The offense is scoring over five runs per game while the staff is posting a 3.31 ERA. The Cubs offense is doing a great job of getting on base lately, but the pitching staff OBA allowed is going up as well.

Finally, the Dodgers try to make it 16 of 17 tonight as Dontrelle Willis faces Derek Lowe. Willis took a huge step backward this year as he's having his worst season in terms of issuing walks. Meanwhile, Lowe has not issued a walk in August, and only three in his last five starts.

Enjoy!

The Sporting Brews looks at Chien-Ming Wang and innings pitched, and decides the Yankees did not do a great job bringing him along:

So have the Yankees done a poor job in managing Wang this season? Looking at his peers, it would appear so. It is possible that his workload has been the result of consequence (i.e. the absence of $40 million dollar man Carl Pavano), leaving the Yankees with little beyond the option of pitching him normally and hoping there isn't any negative result.

I'd say it's also a result of Wang's own success. If he's pitching well, the Yankees leave him in the game since they need to give the bullpen rest every so often. I'd also argue that some of his problem lately might be luck catching up with him. All those balls in play are going to result in hits sooner or later.

Update: On a related note...

Kevin Baxter writes on the great season and streak by Miguel Cabrera:

His two hits Sunday gave Cabrera multiple hits in seven consecutive games and 49 multihit games this season, most in the National League.

He's batting .556 in his past seven games, raising his season average to .340, second-best in the NL.

And his four RBI on Sunday gave him 82 for the season, moving him into the top 10 in the league and leaving him well ahead of pace for his third consecutive 100-RBI season.

And while the RBI don't seem too outstanding, he's done well with the opportunities given him. He's hitting very well with runners in scoring position, helping him to rank high in RBI percentage.

Jorge Posada continues to slump:

Posada said he has reviewed his swing on video and with others, but has found no clues. No one could identify anything mechanically amiss in his swing.

"I'm just going out there and trying to see the ball and react to it," he said. "I'm not trying to do too much. I'm trying to minimize the amount I'm thinking out there."

Let me suggest that Posada is simply tired. His OBA tends to fall off in August, and much more in September. The best treatment might be letting Fasano catch two or three games in a row.

In case you missed it over the weekend, Baseball Musings received information that Will Carroll is going to ESPN. Since that post, more data came in to indicate to me that it's real. It's great to see someone moving from the Internet to a major broadcaster.

Dave Duncan is looking to change the direction of the Cardinals pitching staff. Is it just a problem of not listening?

As far as adjusting the rotation, Duncan said, "I don't know if it's that. What you do with each guy is try to identify things that are particular to them that they need to do in order to succeed and (identify) the things they have a tendency to do that hurt them. You try to eliminate the things that hurt them.

"Each guy knows what those things are, but when you see those things reoccur and that makes it more difficult for them to win, somewhere along the line you've got to take a stronger stance."

Translation: We're coaching just fine, but the players aren't listening to us. Well, if they're not listening, you're not coaching just fine. There's no hint as to what will be done to get their attention.

The Philadelphia Inquirer publishs the 911 calls made during Bret Myers alleged assualt on his wife. A news story accompanies the transcript.

Witnesses to Phillies pitcher Brett Myers' alleged beating of his wife on a busy Boston street described a vicious pummeling meted out by an athlete who dwarfed his spouse, according to a transcript of 911 calls obtained by the Inquirer.

"There's a guy like beating up his girlfriend," a woman told Boston's 911 operators during the June 23 incident.

"I got a guy smacking a girl around right in front of the Hynes Convention Center. She's crying. She's got no shoes on," a man reported. "He's a pretty big guy... and he's hitting her hard."

Sam Mellinger details the adjustments Mark Teahen made to his swing in his stint at AAA:

Teahen's strength had always been on the outer half of the plate. Big-league pitchers knew this, so they stayed inside. Teahen now admits this got in his head. He thought too much about the inside pitch, stopped laying off it, and then started missing the outside pitch, too.

Omaha hitting instructor Terry Bradshaw made a video of Teahen's good at-bats from last year. What better way to teach a stubborn student than to let him learn from himself? The mechanical changes were subtle. They shortened Teahen's swing, kept his hands back, and made a minor adjustment with his hips that allowed him to hit inside pitches better.

Once he did that, the Royals had no choice but to call him back up. He was 28 for 56 with a 1.107 slugging percentage and .606 on-base percentage in his last 17 games in Omaha.

"I want you to know it's nothing that I really did, it's what Mark did," Bradshaw says.

Teahen's adjustment now gives the Royals depth at third base, something they should be able to exploit to their advantage.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Texas Rangers picked up five more doubles tonight as they defeat the Mariners 10-6. That brings their team total to 281, leading the majors by 25 over Cleveland. The record is 373 by three teams; the 1930 Cardinals and the 1997 and 2004 Red Sox. The Rangers are on a pace to pick up 383.

The Dodgers and Giants go scoreless through nine. Schmidt and Maddux each pitch eight strong shutout innings. It's up to the bullpens now.

Update: Wow. With the bases empty and one out, Bonds gets ahead in the count 2-0. The Dodgers intentionally walk him at that point to put the go-ahead run on base. Bonds is out for a pinch-runner.

Update: The Dodgers once again prevent the Giants from scoring. They can win it with a run in the bottom of the 10th.

Update: Chulk one up to Martin. He takes Chulk deep to left field for a game winning homer leading off the bottom of the 10th. It's his sixth home run of the year and third from the 7th inning on.

The Dodgers maintain their lead after the Padres win and the DBacks loss. In a week, they play back-to-back series against both those teams. As posted earlier, it's going to be a fun two weeks of division showdowns.

The Giants and Dodgers are scoreless through 5 1/2 innings. Greg Maddux is being incredibly efficient tonight, using just 51 pitches to get through six innings. Both Maddux and Schmidt allowed just two base runners so far, Greg on two hits and Jason on a hit and a walk. Schmidt's thrown 77 pitches through five innings.

Update: Still 0-0 after 6 1/2 innings. Maddux is at 60 pitches through seven innings, Schmidt is at 90 through six. Jason's struck out seven, including Ethier three times.

Update: Classic Vizquel as well. He makes a great diving stop of a Lugo line drive for the second out in the bottom of the seventh.

Update: Maddux throws 68 pitches through eight innings, allows no runs, but in a 0-0 game he's being lifted for a pinch hitter. A tremendous start by Maddux tonight. The Dodgers need to score here, however, to get Greg the win. Fifty of his 68 pitches were for strikes.

Update: Furcal and Lofton single with one out to put a man in scoring position for Nomar Garciaparra.

Update: Garciaparra strikes out on a pitch just off the plate on the outside. It's up to Kent.

Update: Kent hits a foul pop for the third out. Schmdit pitches out of trouble again, and Maddux won't get a decision for his masterful game.

The Mariners and Rangers are tied at three in the top of the fourth inning. Ben Broussard hit his third home run since joining Seattle. He's hitting one in about 10 at bats for the Mariners; he was hitting one every 20 at bats for the Indians.

Barry Bonds just made a very nice play to end the third inning. Lofton lined a shot to left. Bonds ran back hard, stretched out as far as he could and snagged the ball with his back to the plate. I continued to be surprised at how well Bonds moves in the field with his bad knees.

I often chide managers who give a star a day off and put the replacement in his batting slot, rather than redoing the lineup. John McNamara used to do this with Ed Romero. He'd give Wade Boggs the night off and bat Romero leadoff. You'd think he could move Evans into the leadoff spot without it hurting the rest of the order too much.

Bruce Bochy did this today as he rested Piazza and inserted Josh Bard in the cleanup slot. I can't complain this time, because Bard is having a career year. He homered today in the Padres 7-2 win over Houston, his seventh of the season. That's 35% of his career home runs. He's now slugging .549 on the season, very worthy of the fourth slot. The Bard for Mirabelli trade sure worked out well for the Padres.

Brad Radke continued his hot August with seven shutout inning against the Toronto Blue Jays. The veteran righty turned the tables on Toronto, which shut down the Twins in the first three games of the series. Today's performance brings Radke's record to 3-0 in the month. He's only allowed four runs in 22 innings, good for a 1.64 ERA. He's issued only three walks in that time.

It's going to be quite exciting for the next week and a half as we had the AL Central, NL Central and AL East all tighten up this weekend, with 1-2 in each division having a head-to-head series coming up. The Yankees lost to the Angels this afternoon as LAnaheim had no problem turning balls in play against Chien-Ming Wang into hits. Of the 24 balls in play against Wang today, 13 went for hits. The Angels seem to find the holes against the Yankees defense. Weaver had no problem with the Yankees offense, allowing just one run over six innings while striking out eight. Despite last second homers by A-Rod and Giambi, the Angels got Weaver his 8th win with no losses by a final of 5-3.

Meanwhile, Baltimore and Boston knocked out a total of 20 runs as the Red Sox took an 11-9 win. Boston would get out to a lead, and Baltimore kept battling back. The game ended with Papelbon walking two to load the bases, then getting Mora to ground to third to end the game. Manny Ramirez went 0-3 to end his hitting streak.

One game now separates the long time rivals. The two play a five game series next weekend in Boston. That will test the stamina of both teams.

The Cincinnati Reds scored seven runs today and the St. Louis Cardinals allowed seven runs as the the primary colors closed another game on the birds. The distance between the two teams was cut to 1 1/2 games as the Reds blow a 5-1 lead but win the game in extra innings. Light hitting Juan Castro, playing short on a double switch knocks out a double in the eleventh to plate the eventual winning run. Milton gave up a homer to Ryan Howard, his 41st of the season. The Phillies are now 22-14 when Howard homers.

The Cardinals were never really in the game against the Pirates. Although St. Louis out-hit and out-walked Pittsburgh, the Pirates out slugged them, collecting two double and two homers to win 7-0. The Redbirds managed just three runs in the three game series against the lowly Pirates.

It's tough to make a call in this race. The Cardinals offense looks weak at the moment. the Reds have plenty of offense, but their pitching staff can make a high scoring game close. The teams open a three game series in St. Louis tomorrow to help decide the question.

The White Sox completed a sweep of the Tigers today, taking game three of the series by a score of 7-3. That puts the White Sox 5 1/2 back with 46 games to go. It's not going to be easy for either team down the stretch as they both play plenty of opponents in contention in all three divisions. However, the White Sox get the Royals next while Detroit moves on to Boston. Chicago has a chance to gain more ground before a four game series in Detroit starting 8/21.

The Tigers offense is in a bit of a tail spin, only scoring 33 runs in their last nine games. Outside of Monroe and Guillen, the team is just not getting on base enough. Are they tiring? They still have a substantial lead, but Leyland needs to have them fresh when they face the White Sox again in a week. They missed an opportunity to put the division away this weekend. The Tigers shouldn't let that happen again.

Alfonso Soriano hit his 38th home run of the year in a 3-1 loss to the Mets today, putting him one shy of his career high. Since and including 2002, Soriano ranks 7th in the majors in home runs hit. That's quite impressive. But please take a look at the walk column. Soriano is the only player in the top 10 below 200 walks. Vlad Guerrero is next among that group, and he has 120 more walks than Soriano.

Usually someone who can hit home runs at that rate induces a bit of fear in a pitcher. They pitch more carefully to these hitters, especially in tight situations. So either the pitchers are less afraid of Soriano (doubtful), or he's just not taking advantage of pitches outside the strike zone. Either way, this is another part of the argument that his offensive strengths make him a better lower part of the order hitter.

There hasn't been much good news out of Cleveland this year, so a six-game winning streak is something to celebrate. The Indians completed a four-game sweep of the Royals today, trouncing Kansas City 13-0. The big blow was a grand slam by Travis Hafner, tying him with Don Mattingly for most grand slams in a season. He still has plenty of time to break that record.

It's sad how long the Royals were forced to go with Luke Hudson in the first inning due to the double header yesterday. Hudson only recorded one out while facing 13 batters. He gave up 3 walks and 8 hits, and one batter reached on an error. The 10 earned runs he allowed raised his ERA close to two runs.

It's the youngsters early and the veterans late today. The Angels and Yankees play game three of their four game set with Jered Weaver facing Chien-Ming Wang. Wang's never faced the Angels before, but it should be an interesting contest. The Angels philosophy is to put the ball in play. In the past, this played havoc with the Yankees, since it took away the ability of the New York staff to strike out batters, negating that strength. But Wang approach is to get the other team to put the ball in play, just weakly on the ground. It's strength against strength here.

After winning his first seven starts, Weaver's faced tougher opponents lately. And while he hasn't lost, his strikeouts are down and his hits allowed are up. He'll be facing the #2 offense in the league, after seeing 3 and 4 in two of his last three starts.

Later, on the west coast, the Dodgers go for a sweep of the Giants at Chavez Ravine. Greg Maddux hosts Jason Schmidt. Maddux is giving the Dodgers solid innings since the trade, allowing just two runs in twelve innings so far. He's also reigned in the home run bug that hurt him for a couple of months. In his last 44 innings, he's allowed just 1 long ball.

In three starts against the Dodgers this year, Schmidt posted a 3.32 ERA but and 0-2 record. The Dodgers drew 11 walks in 19 innings against the usually in control Schmidt. Twice the Giants lost his starts by a score of 3-1.

Enjoy!

This time it's rotator cuff tendinitis.

The Cubs want Prior to rest for three weeks before throwing again, which could mean the end of his season if he doesn't have time to make enough rehab starts before rejoining the Cubs.

"Everybody can do the math as to what that does for the rest of the season," Cubs trainer Mark O'Neal said. "At the end of the three weeks, hopefully we're going to (start) throwing and we'll go from there - I haven't really looked at the calendar. Then it would take 10 days of bullpen to get going again. The likelihood of him returning this year is questionable."

Prior began the season on the DL with a sore shoulder and went back on in July with a strained oblique muscle. He's made nine starts, going 1-6 with a 7.21 ERA, his only win coming against Pittsburgh on Aug. 5, when he allowed five hits and two runs in 5 2-3 innings.

What a shame. With all the injuries, you have to wonder if he'll be able to come back, and if he does, will he lose his ability to strike out batters.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Toronto Blue Jays shutout the Minnesota Twins for the second time in this four game series. In the three games played so far, Blue Jays pitchers held the Twins offense to just one run. After losing seven in a row, the Jays are 6-1 since. They remain seven games back in both the wild card and division races. The Jays have held the Twins to just 1 hit in 16 at bats with men in scoring position in the series, while going 7 for 18 themselves.

Ben Sheets turned in a very odd pitching line tonight. If I told you he pitched seven innings, allowing six hits and no walks while striking out eight, you'd think he pitched very well. But Ben allowed five runs with those numbers. He started the eighth and let the first three runners reach base, one of them scoring. The bullpen came in and allowed the other two to score turning a very good pitching performance into something that hurt his ERA. Still, Ben got the win, and the Brewers will take many more performances like that down the stretch.

Wilson Betemit has certainly supplied some power in his brief tenure with the Dodgers. His two-run homer in the fifth broke a 4-4 tie and was the difference in LA's 6-5 win over the Giants. It's his fourth homer in 45 at bats for the Dodgers, giving Wilson a .622 slugging percentage with his new team.

Lofton, Lugo and Loney each scored for the Dodgers this afternoon as Los Angeles is off to a 3-0 lead on the Giants. They've also combined for the first three quarters of the cycle as Lofton singled, Lugo doubled and Loney tripled. I don't know how fast Loney is for a first baseman, but that's his fourth triple to go with four doubles and no home runs. He might get an inside the park HR before he hits one over the fence.

Down 7-3 in the sixth inning, the Red Sox score four in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game. It stayed that way until the bottom of the 10th. Manny Ramirez was hitless on the day, but Loretta and Ortiz walked to bring Manny to the plate. He delivered a single to extend his hitting streak to 27 games, and while he didn't drive in the winning run, the error by Fahey fielding the base hit did. The Red Sox take the 8-7 win and stay two games behind the Yankees. Manny now owns a higher BA, OBA and slugging percentage than Ortiz. He's the team's MVP right now. With the 1 for 4, he's hitting an even .400 during the batting streak, 40 for 100.

Update: Wily Mo Pena had the tough 3/4 of the cycle, getting the double, triple and homer but failing to pick up the single. Pena is 14 for 47 (.298) with 5 homers and 13 RBI in 12 games since Trot Nixon went down.

The White Sox picked up another win today, take the Detroit Tigers 4-3. That cuts Detroit's lead in the Central to 6 1/2 games and assures the White Sox they'll be in first place in the wild card for another day.

Chicago's dominated the Tigers in their head-to-head meetings this season, going 8-3 so far. They've outscored the Tigers 51-38 in the 11 games, mostly based on power and timeliness. The White Sox out slugged the Tigers by 50 points, plus they've hit about 100 points better with runners in scoring position. They have 8 games left with Detroit, and without some help from other teams they're going to need to win close to all of them if they want to take the division. Given their better record in Chicago, they can use the home field advantage.

C.C. Sabathia won the Baseball Musings Pitcher of the Month twice since I instituted the award last August. He's off to another good start here in August. With one run in eight innings today, his August ERA sits at 0.78. He's struck out 24 in 23 innings while walking just four. He's hoping the bullpen can preserve the win for him today. With a 4-1 lead, the Royals have the tieing run at the plate in the ninth.

Update: Sabathia remains 1-1 in August as the bullpen blows the lead in the ninth. Jason Davis allows three runs, but in the bottom of the ninth, Hafner singels in Luna with the game winner as Nelson and Gobble combine for the loss. The Cleveland bullpen owns a 5.89 ERA in C.C.'s starts this year.

The Angels steal three bases in the top of the sixth inning against the Yankees but fail to score. I'll refer you to this post from Thursday for my thoughts. The steals put runners at 2nd and 3rd with one out, but a strikeout and a pickoff ended the threat.

If you like offense, this is shaping up to be a good day. Twenty five of the 32 pitchers going today hold ERAs over 4.00. The only game with both starters under 4.00 is Florida at Arizona where Scott Olsen faces Brandon Webb. Olsen ranks fifth in the NL in strikeouts per 9 with a rate of 8.65. Webb is second in the league in ERA, mostly because he walks the fewest batters per 9 in the NL.

It's tough to pick a slugfest of the day, but game 2 of the Royals/Indians double header looks pretty good. Jorge de la Rosa starts for Kansas City. His strikeout rate is great as he's fanned 38 batters in 37 2/3 innings. But he's also waked 28 and allowed 45 hits. Opponents are hitting .381 when they put the ball in play vs. de la Rosa. He'll face Jeremy Guthrie, who's walked 9 in 13 2/3 innings while allowing 17 hits. He's also struck out nine, meaning opponents hit .370 when they put the ball in play against him. It should be an exciting game, with lots of Ks and lots of hits.

Enjoy!

Jason Johnson pitched seven scoreless innings last night to lower his ERA to 2.69.

The Diamondbacks got pretty much what they expected to get out of Livan Hernandez in his Arizona debut Saturday night at Chase Field.

They probably should have expected that Josh Johnson of the Florida Marlins might be better.

Johnson regained his hold on the best ERA in the National League by limiting the Diamondbacks to just two hits in seven solid innings in leading the Marlins to a 4-1 victory in front of 21,950.

He's 0.05 runs ahead of Brandon Webb, and has enough innings pitched to hold the lead until his next start.

In other Diamondbacks news, Craig Counsell is on his way to becoming Wally Pipp.

The Dodgers eked out a victory over the Giants last night to remain hot and widen their lead over both San Diego and Arizona. The 3-2 victory gives the Dodgers 13 wins in 14 games. Their starting pitching continues to be superb. This was the tenth game in a row in which the starter allowed three runs or less.

Someone, however, didn't give the Dodgers the memo that it's okay to pitch to Barry Bonds now. Bonds picked up an RBI single in the fifth, but walked in his other three plate appearances. That's the first time he walked three times in a game since June 27th. Through the end of June, Bonds drew 67 walks in 62 games (28 intentional). That helped him to a .477 OBA. Since, he's walked 25 times in 30 games (5 intentional). His OBA is still a healthy .429, but it's clear he's not as feared as he once was, except to the Dodgers.

The Oakland Athletics defeated Tampa Bay last night 5-2 behind solid pitching from Dan Haren and a 10 hit, four walk attack from the offense. Rays of Light notes something about the A's that Rob Neyer noticed some time ago:

But first, on an angst filled note, does anyone else find the Oakland Athletics to be perhaps the most boring team in baseball? Sure there is the anticipation of awaiting Frank Thomas's next injury or the thrill of watching a man named Marco Scutaro achieve nothing, but other than that they are a team built to thrill a kind of baseball purist I am not. Yet year after year they trudge towards victory in unglamorous fashion, getting it done without flash or drama, making the right calls and executing when it's time; the PBS of baseball. But that's Oakland's problem. Ours is much more fun.

They don't take a lot of chances, and taking chances is fun.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Phillies have the bases loaded in the bottom of the 14th with the score still tied at five. There's one out when Rowand delivers a base hit to drive in the winning run. The Reds fail to pick up a game on the Cardinals, but the Phillies are now just two games behind the Reds in the Wild Card race.

Houston wins 4-2 over San Diego. They're just five games out of first now and 1 1/2 behind Cincinnati for the wild card. Pettitte pitched a great game, striking out 10 in seven innings and allowing just three hits for the win.

David Wells pitches a strong seven innings and Cory Lidle last only four as the Red Sox pick up a game on the Yankees. The Boston offense was as good as the pitching tonight, picking up nine runs on eleven hits. Manny Ramirez extended his hit streak to 26 games with two safties tonight as the Red Sox win 9-2.

Cory Lidle gave up three runs on two homers, and Ponson allowed three more runs as the Angels take a 7-4 win from the Yankees. The 1-2-3 hitters in the Angels order combined to go seven for 14 with four runs and five RBI. The Red Sox are now just two games behind the Yankees in the AL East race.

Cleveland lost a number of games last week in their last at bat, and they returned the favor tonight as they score three in the bottom of the ninth. Last night's hero for the Royals, Ambiorix Burgos, gives up a bases loaded triple to Sizemore to blow the 3-1 lead. That's 11 blown saves in 29 chances for Burgos.

Zach picks up his second complete game of the season as he stops the Cardinals 7-1. Albert Pujols picked up three doubles to bring his extra-base total to 60 on the year, but it wasn't enough as Duke spread out 8 hits, walking none and striking out seven. The Cardinals now have lost 11 of their last 15.

The game is not on MLB extra-innings, but Jose Contreras is pitching a no-hitter through five innings against the Tigers. The White Sox lead 1-0 on a ground out RBI by Iguchi.

For those of you who thought I should have made this a game of the day, I stand corrected.

Update: Granderson doubles with two out in the sixth inning to break up the no hitter.

The Texas Rangers score seven runs in the first inning tonight off Gil Meche. The amazing thing is they got those with just two hits. Meche walked four in the inning, and two errors caused five of the runs to be unearned. After Gil walks the first two batters of the second on full counts, he's out of the game. Woods comes on and allows both runners to score, making Meche's line for the evening, 1 IP, 2 hits, 9 runs, 4 ER, 6 BB, 0 K. Thirty of his 54 pitches were called balls.

Kyle Lohse is out of the game after pitching 6 1/3 fine innings for the Reds tonight. On August sixth, he made his first start his May and struck out seven in five innings, allowing two runs. Tonight he struck out eight. That's 15 K in 11 1/3 innings for a pitcher with a career K per 9 of 5.6. Did the Reds change something about his delivery, or is he finally healthy? Cincinnati leads the Phillies 3-1 in the top of the eighth.

Update: Bray can't hold the lead as the Phillies tie the game at three as they still bat in the bottom of the eighth. Rollins' two run homer gave Lohse the no decision.

Update: Times sure have changed. Burrell hits a long fly ball to deep center off Coffey. Griffey went back and toward right, but over ran the ball. He jumped, reached back, it ticked off his glove, and Burrell gets a triple and an RBI to put the Phillies ahead 4-3. It's a ball Griffey catches easily last decade. He looked like he had a hard time tracking the ball.

Update: Gordon blows the save on a lead off walk and a one-out, pinch-hit homer by Javier Valentin. It's his fourth pinch homer of the year. Eddie Guardado will try not to pick up the third blown save of the game.

Update: Coste leads off the bottom of the ninth with a double to left center.

Update: Ross tries to pick off Coste at second and throws the ball into center. Ross goes to third with none out. However, Nunez strikes out on a ball high out of the strike zone.

Update: Victorino hits a sacrifice fly to tie the game. Guardado picks up the third blown save of the evening and the teams go to the tenth.

Matt Garza gets off to a rough major league start as the Blue Jays score five runs in the first two innings against the rookie. He's given up seven hits, including a homer. On the bright side, he's struck out two. The Blue Jays lead 5-0 after two, with Burnett continuing the shutout innings against the Twins from last night.

Mike Lowell just took a pitch in the top of the helmet that knocked him to the ground. After spending a little while on his back, he's up and taking first base. It sure looked and sounded nasty.

Update: Loewen is a wild pitcher. He came into the game with six hit batters in 56 2/3 innings and 38 walks.

I received an anonymous tip today so take this with a big grain of salt. Will Carroll might be moving to ESPN.

A few weeks ago, I saw someone walking around the Bristol, CT, ESPN facilities with some Baseball Prospectus gear. I've seen this person a few times but I thought nothing of it at first. Then I saw that Will Carroll was resigning from The Juice Blog for reasons he couldn't divulge, and I put two and two together. That person I saw was Carroll, and I think he was here to develop a show or appearance with ESPN.

I e-mailed Will to see if this was true, and his reply was, "No comment." Let's hope it's true.

Royals Authority liked what he saw from Kansas City in the Red Sox series:

Kidding aside, what I liked about these three wins is there was very little 'flukishness' about them. All three were simply solid wins over a good team in which the Royals made big plays and got big hits when they needed them. That's baseball - it's really not all that hard.

Of course, KC only won the three games by a total of four runs; each game easily could have gone the other way.

The Angels visit the Yankees as rookie Joe Saunders takes on new acquisition Cory Lidle. The Angels started the season with a bit of a youth movement, but their original young players are gone, supplanted by the likes of Quinlan, Napoli, Kendrick, Jered Weaver and Joe Saunders. Joe's proved tough to hit so far as the league is batting just .164 with a .233 slugging percentage against him. Lidle is undefeated since the All-Star break, but has allowed six home runs in 27 2/3 innings in that time, accounting for 8 of his 11 runs allowed.

The Phillies are just three games behind the Reds in the Wild Card race as the two teams meet in Philadelphia tonight. It's a good matchup of sluggers in a hitter's park as Ryan Howard and Adam Dunn go head-to-head. The big difference between the two is hits vs. walks. Dunn's reached base more (191 times vs. 179 for Howard), but Howard's knocked out more hits, raising his slugging percentage 67 points higher than Dunn. He moves runners farther than Adam in a given at bat, which shows up in their RBI percentage.

If Toronto is going to stay in the Wild Card race, they need to keep defeating the opponents ahead of them. They go for two in a row this evening as they send A.J. Burnett vs. Matt Garza, making his major league debut for the Twins. I wonder if shoddy defense is hurting Burnett. Since the all-star break he's posting a 5.40 ERA, but look at his K/BB/HR numbers. I'll take my chances with those.

Enjoy!

Francisco Liriano underwent an enhanced MRI and the results show the injury to be quite extensive:

The test showed a mild chronic strain of his ulnar collateral ligament, and a clinical exam revealed weakness and stiffness in his shoulder that is causing that soreness in his forearm near his elbow.

Team physician Dr. John Steubs said Thursday night that he was "optimistic, but not totally confident" that Liriano would pitch again in 2006. For now, he'll treat the shoulder and elbow with physical therapy.

Elbow to shoulder to forearm. We are complicated machines.

Christian A. Bruzzese sends along this article from Sports Illustrated on the consequences of issuing an intentional walk in a pony league game:

In a nine- and 10-year-old PONY league championship game in Bountiful, Utah, the Yankees lead the Red Sox by one run. The Sox are up in the bottom of the last inning, two outs, a runner on third. At the plate is the Sox' best hitter, a kid named Jordan. On deck is the Sox' worst hitter, a kid named Romney. He's a scrawny cancer survivor who has to take human growth hormone and has a shunt in his brain.

So, you're the coach: Do you intentionally walk the star hitter so you can face the kid who can barely swing?

Wait! Before you answer.... This is a league where everybody gets to bat, there's a four-runs-per-inning max, and no stealing until the ball crosses the plate. On the other hand, the stands are packed and it is the title game.

So ... do you pitch to the star or do you lay it all on the kid who's been through hell already?

Yanks coach Bob Farley decided to walk the star.

Parents booed. The umpire, Mike Wright, thought to himself, Low-ball move. In the stands, Romney's eight-year-old sister cried. "They're picking on Romney!" she said. Romney struck out. The Yanks celebrated. The Sox moaned. The two coaching staffs nearly brawled.

And Romney? He sobbed himself to sleep that night.

This article raises so many issues that have to do with children and sports these days. Does winning matter? Should everyone play? Do we need to make children feel good about themselves, even when they fail?

The Yankees coach wasn't in an all or nothing situation. If he walks the good hitter, he wins the game with a nearly 100% probability. If he pitches to the good hitter, he still has a non-zero probability of winning the game. So then this article doesn't get written. But of course, people would want to know why he didn't walk the batter, and would the answer of, "I didn't want to upset the kid with cancer," really make Romney feel any better?

On top of that, who bats the worst hitter on the team behind the best hitter on the team? You want to surround your best hitter with other good hitters so he has people to drive in and people who can drive him in. The Red Sox coach used a poor lineup strategy. (I suppose there's the possibility that the Red Sox coach batted Romney where he did because thought opponents wouldn't walk his best hitter to get to Romney. If so, he was playing to win as much as the Yankees coach.)

My gut tells me that these teams were playing a championship game, meaning they were going to pick a winner. In a championship game, you should play to win. And maybe people shouldn't worry about Romney's feelings too much. He's seems to have learned the right lesson from this:

By the way, the next morning, Romney woke up and decided to do something about what happened to him.

"I'm going to work on my batting," he told his dad. "Then maybe someday I'll be the one they walk."

I hope that turns out to be true.

Bob McManaman recognizes the good job of Josh Byrnes in his first year with the Daimondbacks:

Many of Byrnes' key acquisitions that have helped Arizona remain in contention in the National League West were calculated, low-risk, high-reward moves that banked on players bouncing back from subpar half-seasons or injury.

Case in point: He traded for an All-Star catcher and former Silver Slugger in switch-hitting Johnny Estrada, who is hitting .309 and was leading all NL catchers with 57 RBIs.

Estrada was coming off a difficult season with the Atlanta Braves, which included lingering effects from a June concussion, but parting with a pair of non-spectacular relief pitchers (Oscar Villarreal and Lance Cormier) to get him now seems like a steal.

He makes a similar point about Eric Byrnes:

"I've seen Eric since he was a sophomore in college, so it was not overreacting to two or three bad months," Josh Byrnes said, "it was having a longer view of the player. And like him, it was the same thing with DaVanon."

It appears Josh doesn't get fooled by small sample sizes.

The Los Angeles Dodgers wake up in first place this morning, 1/2 game ahead of the Diamonbacks and Padres. Power and speed won the game in the late innings. Andre Ethier homered in the bottom of the eighth to put LA on top 3-2, but Saito blew the save and allowed the Rockies to tie the game in the ninth. Jose Mesa, however, gave up a walk and two singles to Lugo, Fucal and Lofton giving Kenny the walk-off single and the Dodgers the win.

It's just amazing how horrible streaks don't eliminate teams from this division. The Dodgers recent went 1-13 and couldn't buy a run. Since they're 12-1 and the pitching is shutting down the opposition. The DBacks went on a 3-20 slide in June. They're 21-12 since and right in the thick of the race.

The Padres don't go into extended slumps, but they've had four losing streaks of at least four games, and they may make it five tonight. I guess it's just a matter of time until the Giants come back from their 3-13 slide to take the title.

The Toronto Blue Jays stayed in the AL Wild Card race last night by shutting down the Minnesota Twins 5-0. The Twins came into the game with one of the hottest offenses in baseball, hitting .322 since the All-Star break. They came down a bit as Ted Lilly and two relievers held their opponent to just four hits, all singles. Brandon League continues to impress out of the bullpen. He pitched two scoreless innings and now has 13 strikeouts while walking just three.

The win puts the Blue Jays seven games back in the Wild Card race, while the loss drops the Twins to second place. Chicago picked up an unearned win as Alex Rodriguez and Melky Cabrera commit errors in a four run second inning to help the White Sox to a 5-4 win over the Yankees. Cabrera made up for his miscue with a homer later in the game, while Alex went 0 for 4. Javier Vazquez allowed 12 base runners (six hits, six walks) in five innings, but the Yankees only managed two runs against him.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Wily Mo Pena socks a three-run homer off Runelvys Hernandez in the top of the seventh to give the Red Sox a 4-2 lead.

Buddy Bell should be fired. He gets six great innings from his lousy starter, yet he goes out for the seventh. He's living on borrowed time, and when he gives up a double and single, why doesn't Bell get him out of there? Even after the home run, he's still pitching. Is the bullpen that tired that they blow the game by leaving a bad, tired pitcher on the mound?

Update: The Royals are batting in the bottom of the 8th, and Mark Teahen picked up the eighth double of the night for the Royals. Kansas City collected nine hits tonight, all for extra bases. In the history of the Day by Day Database (1974 on), that's only happened once in a complete game. The Braves did it on 8/18/1998.

As I wrote this, Reggie Sanders doubles to tie the game and giving the Royals 10 hits, all for extra bases.

Update: Shealy hits a line drive off Schilling's glove than falls in the infield for a hit. It's a single, and breaks the streak of extra-base hits. The Royals score and lead Boston 5-4. Francona makes the same mistake as Bell and doesn't remove Schilling until it's too late, despite the fact he gave up three doubles in the inning.

Update: On June 30th of this year, Minnesota picked up seven hits in a game, all for extra-bases.

Update: Burgos gets the side in order in the ninth, striking out Cora to end the game. It was good to see the KC fans waving brooms in the stands. So many were abandoning the team earlier.

Ryan Garko is letting his bat due the talking tonight, hitting a double and homer to help the Indians to a 14-2 lead over the Angels in the 8th. It's his first major league home run. Garko is making the most of his call up at age 25. He's 5 for 12 so far with three extra-base hits.

After a long rain delay, the Yankees are batting in the top of the first inning.

Runelvys Hernandez came into tonight's game against Boston with an 8.54 ERA. He allowed at lead one home run in each of his eleven starts. He kept that going, but the only run the Red Sox scored tonight was on a homer by Doug Mirabelli.

This is a pitcher the Red Sox should be pounding. He's given up more walks than strikeouts, but tonight he's walked just one and struck out three. He's even with Schilling at 1-1, and he's gone deep enough into the game so that the Royals can start using the bullpen. It's a missed opportunity for Boston.

Buck leads off the bottom of the fifth with a double, the fifth of the night for KC. All the hits by KC have been doubles so far.

Update: After Hernandez pitches a scoreless sixth, Schilling gives up a home run to Emil Brown to make the score 2-1 KC. It's tough to believe Curt is being outpitched by Runelvys.

It looks like Jeff Maier didn't get drafted, as he's joined the front office of the New Haven Cutters, an independent league team.

Maier, then a precocious 12-year-old, appeared on a series of talk shows including The Late Show with David Letterman and was awarded the key to New York by then-mayor Rudy Giuliani. The Old Tappan, N.J. native enjoyed an outstanding baseball career at Wesleyan and now is embarking on the next stage of his life -- one that begins Sunday when he starts his new job as a special events coordinator for the Cutters of the independent Can-Am League.

"There are a number of different things he will be doing," Cutters General Manager Marie Heikkinen Webb said. "There will be a lot of variety (in Maier's duties) for the remainder of season. He will be involved in community relations, promotional research here in the community, take part in special events and he will be traveling to other ball parks. He'll be pretty busy."

He's getting his foot in the door of baseball management.

Juan Rivera keeps slugging. He just hit a two-run homer to cut the Indians lead to 3-2. He stays hot since the break. He had 11 homers and 36 RBI in 55 games before the break, 9 homers and 28 RBI in his last 26 games since.

Anibal Sanchez walks the first three Nationals he faces, but gets Johnson to pop out and Kearns to ground into a double play to get out of trouble. The Marlins score twice in the top of the second to take a 2-0 lead.

Ervin Santana left the Angels/Indians game after two batters, getting a strikeout and giving up a hit. It's likely an injury, did anyone see what happened?

Update: CBSSportsline says Santana left with a leg injury. The broadcast seemed to indicate that Michaels single was a line drive off Ervin. Putting two and two together, a line drive off Santana's leg knocked him out of the game.

Via Bronx Banter, a detailed analysis showing flaws in Alex Rodriguez's swing compared to last year.

I can not bring myself to believe that A-Rod all of a sudden can't hang in NY or deal with his surroundings, especially coming off his best offensive season. What is much easier to believe is that his swing has slipped a bit, but with a few adjustments, he can get back to being his usual MVP self.

What I'm wondering is why the Yankees staff doesn't pick up on this? Isn't that their job?

Via U.S.S. Mariner, Derek Zumsteg complains about the favorable ruling the Cubs received in their ticket scalping case.

The Illinois Ticket Scalping Act says that if you put on a sporting event (or a Cubs game), you can't sell those tickets for more than their face value. The Cubs set up a sham firm, Wrigley Field Premium Tickets, which was owned by the same people who owned the Cubs, run by a Cubs VP, and even had the Cubs do their accounting. The Cubs would then funnel them face-value tickets before they were available to anyone else, which the sham company would scalp. I've followed this story since 2002, when two Cubs fans took the whole rotten system to court, and I have no idea how this can be ruled legal.

The best part about this saga has been the amazing lies of the Cubs that this scheme is good for fans.

"Fans have more choices [to] buy tickets," Cubs vice president Mark McGuire said in 2003. "Brokers should be very disappointed today. Fans who buy tickets through those sources will have more choices, good seats, at better prices, than what they would have if freedom did not exist."

Because those other ticket brokers, like terrorists, hate our freedom.

Yes, Derek, less choice is always better. McGuire here is certainly spinning badly, but his underlieing argument is correct. The Cubs are just another ticket broker in this case. The more brokers offering me tickets, the better price I'm going to get.

I do argee with Derek on this:

This allows a team to make more money off their tickets by scalping them -- and they avoid paying other teams revenue-sharing money from that income. I'm surprised the highest-revenue teams haven't pooled their resources to build a time machine so they could start doing this through baseball's history. (Kill Hitler while you're in the '30s, as long as you're back there. It's worth a shot.)

The big teams, like the Yankees and Red Sox, who have rabid fan bases and see an active market for scalping their tickets, would love something like this. Instead of pricing a seat at $50 a game and seeing a ridiculous third taken away through revenue sharing to fund the infant-like flailing of the Royals, they can instead sell that ticket to their side business for $20, scalp it for $400, and then use the profits on whatever they want: starting pitchers, three platinum Escalades for each executive (one for them, one for their honeys, one for their money), a personal hair stylist for Manny Ramirez, whatever.

But this is easily remedied by Bud Selig acting as supreme dictator and forcing teams to share revenue if they own the broker. In fact, I don't understand why teams put face value on tickets anymore. They all should be sold by auction. A ticket, after all, is nothing more than a futures contract. Teams, for example, could sell lots of tickets to brokers in January to cover their cost for the year. That puts the risk on the broker. Teams could hold back tickets, in case they have a better year than expected, and reap the additional profit as demand increases. My guess is that attendance would be decent for poor teams because people could pick up tickets for $1 the day of the game. And teams will likely still make money because the fanny in the seats is worth a lot in concessions.

And all though it's meant as satire by Derek, I really like this idea, at least the part about the length of the line:

Food and drink are priced up based on the length of the line, and then individually marked up further based on the presence of screaming kids and the recommendation of a facial recognition software that determines how much hunger pain a potential customer is in.

I don't like missing the action. I'd pay extra to be able to get a hot dog and back to my seat between innings without missing a pitch. Real time price information on an electronic display in the food court, including wait times, would be great. Let the markets work!

Mark Prior made a decent start his last time out, but couldn't repeat it today against the Brewers. He lasted just three innings, allowing six runs on four hits. The control that made him such a force a few years ago abandoned him today as he walked four and struck out just one. He's now walked 28 in 43 2/3 innings this season. The Brewers lead the Cubs 8-3 in the bottom of the sixth.

The Padres tied the Mets at three in the top of the seventh, but Doug Brocail couldn't get an out in the bottom of the inning. The first six Mets reached base, five off Doug, and New York plated four runs to take a 7-3 win. The Padres loss sends the NL West into a three way tie, with SD, LA and Arizona all at 58-56 at least for a few hours.

The Mets have nearly identical records at home and on the road. They're 35-22 at Shea, 34-22 away. In a way, however, they're a better road team. They've outscored their opponents 326-252 on the road, 281-255 at home. Not surprisingly, the Mets are 22-6 in one-run games at home.

Down 5-1, Adam Dunn hits a ball that appears to go over the yellow line on the fence in right, which should be a homer. The ball bounces back and the ump doesn't call it. Dunn, at the moment has a long single. But the Reds do have the leadoff man on in the inning.

Bronson Arroyo continues to give up home runs since the break. With three allowed today, that's 11 of 26 in the second half.

Update: The replay is inconclusive. It may have hit the padding (which is the yellow line) in which case the ball is in play.

In the bottom of the first inning in today's Padres/Mets game, New York stole three bases and did not score a run. This underscores one of the offensive shortcomings of the stolen base. It's seldom valuable in isolation. Without a offensive help from following batters, stolen bases seldom score runs. It's another reason sabermetricians tend to value steals less than fans and the media, and another reason why some great pitchers don't care about base runners and concentrate on getting the batter out. If you get the batters, the thiefs tend to be stranded.

Update: The Mets score 2 in the bottom of the second. They didn't get a stolen base, but a bases clearing triple by Jose Reyes. That's 14 three-baggers for the shortstop.

Update: Reyes scores on a sac fly to make the score 3-2 Mets. Power once again is a much better way to move base runners and set up scoring.

Adrian Gonzalez take Orlando Hernandez deep to give the Padres an early 2-0 lead over the Mets. It's the 18th home run allowed by El Duque, equalling his total from last year. That's 20 home runs for Gonzalez; last year, San Diego first basemen had 19.

This afternoon's contest between the Cardinals and the Reds is huge for both teams. A Cardinals win earns them a split and some breathing room in the NL Central. A Reds win moves them to 1 1/2 games of first place. Anthony Reyes faces Bronson Arroyo. Reyes is susceptible to the long ball, not a weakness that fits well at the GAB. Arroyo has the same problem since the All-Star break, allowing 8 home runs in his last 33 1/3 innings.

Javier Vazquez makes his first start against the Yankees since leaving New York. He'll be up against Mike Mussina. Mike attempts to join the 14 win club today as he's going for his first 20 win season. Mussina is tough on lefties in 2006, allowing just a .263 OBA to batters with a platoon advantage. I'm somewhat surprised at Vazquez's 5.18 ERA. Given his walk, strikeout and home run numbers are pretty good, you'd expect something lower. The Hardball Times puts his fielding independent ERA at 4.02. That's either a lot of bad fielding or a lot of bad luck. Or it's just the fact Javy gets hammered with men on base. He's allowing a .468 slugging percentage with men on base. That means runners get moved a long distance. On top of that, 9 of the fifteen homers he's allowed came with men on base.

Enjoy!

The fan who jumped from the upper deck of Yankee Stadium into the netting behind home plate is banned from the stadium for life:

Scott Harper, 19, of Armonk, N.Y., pleaded guilty Wednesday to reckless endangerment following last season's plunge at the New York Yankees' Bronx stadium. District Attorney Robert Johnson recommended probation and restitution to the Yankees, but Harper rejected the deal.

Harper's criminal sentence, to be handed down Sept. 19, will depend on the outcome of another case in Westchester County for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, state Supreme Court Judge Troy Webber said.

I think Dean Wormer said it best.

Jon Papelbon allowed two runs in a game last night and blew his fifth save of the year and his second in a row. Through July, he had not allowed more than one run in a month! Has the league figured him out?

Sweeney said the Royals have had good scouting reports on Papelbon, and know his tendencies a little bit better.

``Those guys are going to make adjustments and I need to make some on them," Papelbon said.

I also wonder how much of this is Lopez catching. Varitek might be better at mixing things up. Lopez certainly had problems catching Beckett last night:

Lopez's defense was a different story. It was evident he wasn't comfortable catching Beckett as he learns a new staff.

In the third inning, Beckett struck out Angel Berroa, but the ball got past Lopez for a wild pitch. Berroa could have ended up at first, but the Royals shortstop didn't run the ball out.

In the fourth, when the Royals scored three runs, right fielder Shane Costa reached on a wild pitch on strike three. That was after three consecutive hits by the middle of the order, the big blow a two-run double by Teahen.

Then with Ryan Shealy up, Lopez committed a passed ball.

He was crossed up on a ball that broke inside. Lopez didn't follow the break on the pitch and it bounced off the end of his mitt, scoring Teahen. The inning was reflective of the inexperience Lopez has with the staff.

Aaron Gleeman notes it's been 19 years since the Twins had a slugger hit 30 home runs in a season:

Prior to Morneau, the last time a Twins hitter homered 30 times in a season was back in 1987, when Kent Hrbek (34), Tom Brunansky (32), and Gary Gaetti (31) all did so. Kirby Puckett nearly made it a foursome with 28 homers that year, which makes it all the more difficult to believe that it took nearly 20 years for the team to produce another 30-homer season.

They used to call it the HHH Dome the Homer Dome. That's been a misnomer for a long time. I've always prefered the Metro Nome. :-)

Correction: I had the wrong numbers this morning. A program I thought was computing GDPs was computing something else. Sorry for the confusion. This post is correct.

The Arizona Diamondback turned five double plays last night, setting a team record.

The Diamondbacks turned a club-record five double plays - three 5-4-3s, a 4-6-3 and a 1-4-3 - as Batista was able to pick up win No. 10 despite allowing the Giants to begin three innings with back-to-back singles.

Arizona ranks third in GDPs induced:

In case you're wondering if it's all Orlando Hudson, the team ranked eighth in 2005 with 140.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The White Sox score four in the eighth inning off Farnsworth to get the Yankees lead to 7-6 and force Mariano Rivera into trying to convert a four out save. With Damon injured earlier in the game, Iguchi hits a fly to shallow right center that Williams can't catch. It's a ball a fast CF like Damon would have caught for the third out. The single puts Anderson at third, who was hit earlier in the inning by Rivera.

Thome, however, grounds out to Cano and the Yankees hang on for the one-run victory.

The Houston Astros might trip the mercy rule as they are pounding the Pirates 14-1 in the seventh inning. Shawn Chacon started and lasted 1 2/3 innings, giving up seven runs and three homers, including one to Roy Oswalt. It's Roy's first home run as a major leaguer. His career slugging percentage is lower than his OBA, and his OBA isn't very high. It's an embarrassing night for the Pirates staff.

Tadahito Iguchi singles to left to start the bottom of the seventh to break up the no hitter. Jim Thome follows with a walk, so it's not clear how much longer Randy will stay in the game. The Yankees extended the lead to 7-0 so Johnson as a lot of room for error.

David Ross hits a two run shot in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the Cardinals 8-7. It was back and forth all game as the teams combined for six home runs and 20 hits. Six of Ross' homers came from the 7th inning on.

Jake Westbrook picks up his second shutout of the season as he spreads out nine hits to beat the Angels 4-0. Both shutouts came at Jacobs Field this season where his ERA is now 2.49.

Mike Piazza hit two solo home runs off Pedro Martinez tonight, but that's all the runs Pedro allowed as the Mets take home a 4-3 win over the Padres. I'm sure the Mets fans are happy as they got to see Mike show off his power without suffering a loss. They should be a bit concerned, however, about Pedro's line. He only allowed three hits, but he walked four and struck out just two. That's a very un-Pedro-like combination.

Randy Johnson is pitching a no-hitter in the bottom of the sixth. He's struck out five and walked one so far. He's being pretty efficient so far, as his pitch count is in the high sixties.

Update: Johnson gets the last two batters of the sixth on a line out to center and a grounder. He's thrown just 71 pitches. Early in the game he wasn't throwing a high percentage of strikes. I wonder if that was intentional to keep the hitters off balance?

Update: Johnson can afford to cruise as the Yankees are up five nothing. Abreu, Cano and Cabrera all went deep for New York.

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

Bonderman and Santana gave the fans what they expected tonight. In the bottom of the seventh, it was 2-1 Minnesota. Santana walked Guillen, but struck out Thames. Then as he reached the 100 pitch mark, Johan hung a pitch to Inge that was hit down the left field line for a two run homer. Santana finished the inning, but he's in line for the loss despite just four hits allowed and ten strikeouts.

Update: Morneau comes back with a two run homer in the 8th off Zumaya to get Santana off the hook and in line for a win.

Correction: It was off Zumaya, not Walker.

Update: Joe Nathan closes the game to preserve the 4-3 victory. The Twins take 2 out of 3 from the Tigers to stay close in the wild card race.

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.

Adrian Beltre picked up two hits today, including his 13th home run of the season as Seattle took a 2-0 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The former Dodgers third baseman now has hit six of those homers since the All-Star break and is slugging well over .500 in that time. It only took 1 1/2 years, but Beltre is starting to belt the ball.

Vicente Padilla pitched one of his best games of the year, going seven scoreless innings against the Athletics as the Rangers take the game 14-0. The Rangers offense and defense made it easy for each other today as the offense hit five homers and Padilla and Mahay combined to strike out eight and walk one. With a 12-7 record and a 4.13 ERA, Padilla's proved to be one of the better pickups by Texas during the off-season.

Tyler Yates snatched defeat from the jaws of victory today as he entered the game for the Braves in the top of the seventh with a three one lead. His problem all year was walks, and he issued free passes to three of the five batters he faced. He ended up charged with four runs in his 1/3 inning of work as the Phillies scored eight in the inning to take a 9-3 win over the Braves. Yates has now walked 20 in 27 1/3 innings.

The Texas Rangers are off to a 6-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning as they just hit their fourth home run of the game off Barry Zito. That's 20 homers allowed by Barry this year, eight in his last four games. It's only the second time in his career he's allowed four in a game.

Nick Markakis went two for three in a losing cause for the Orioles this afternoon. The rookie is having a fine season and keeps getting better. Since the start of June, he has more hits than games played (60 in 53 games) and an on-base average well over .400. Maybe it's time for the Orioles to move him out of the ninth slot.

The Cincinnati Reds picked up Todd Hollandsworth from the Indians for a PTBNL. So the Reds trade away Kearns for an injured pitcher, then find they need another bat? To paraphrase Dennis Moore, Wayne Krivsky might be saying to himself, "This redistribution of talent is trickier than I thought!"

Deadspin notes that Peter Gammons attended a Cape Cod League game. Let's hope that a signal he'll be back on the air soon.

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

You can 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.

Roy Halladay is dispatching Orioles quickly today, usings just 21 pitches to retire the first six batters.

There are some dandy pitching matchups on this thirteen hours of baseball day. We'll start at 12:30 EDT with Erik Bedard taking on Roy Halladay. Bedard's turned his game around. Since 6/21 he's posting a 1.30 ERA while striking out more than 1 per inning. He's only allowed three homers in that period; he's given up 13 on the season. Halladay is coming off a tough loss against the White Sox in which he allowed 10 hits in six innings despite striking out seven.

The Twins and Tigers go at in again in Detroit in the rubber game of their series as Johan Santana face Jeremy Bonderman. The Baroque Rocker is 3-0 since the All-Star break despite not pitching well. His ERA in his last five starts is 4.31 and he's walked 11 in those 31 1/3 innings pitched. He walked about one every five innings before the break. Bonderman is allowing 0.77 home runs per 9 innings in 2006. He's lowered that mark every year in the majors. However, Bonderman's allowed seven of his 13 homers since the All-Star break.

The Cardinals and Reds send two of their best to the mound tonight as Chris Carpenter takes on Aaron Harang. Carpenter owns an ERA 3 runs higher on the road, but it's not clear why. He gives up a few more hits, walks and homers, but his numbers are still good. Harang's ERA goes up 2 1/2 runs at home, but it's clear that he simply gives up many more home runs in the hitter friendly GAB.

On the West Coast, the Rockies try to end the Dodgers winning streak with Cy Young candidate Jeff Francis visiting Derek Lowe. Francis is pitching well, posting a 2.03 ERA in his last seven starts, walking just 10. Lowe's having a tough time since the ASB, with the league batting .331 against him.

Enjoy!

Brad Wilkerson continues to suffer through a bad season, and now is on the bench as Matt Stairs gets the starting job. It was my opinion that the Wilkerson for Soriano trade would work out well for the Rangers, but Brad's been a disappointment. However, there is a reason for his slump:

Wilkerson has battled shoulder problems all season and has had a pair of cortisone injections to relieve soreness. He received the most recent injection the weekend before the All-Star break. While Wilkerson has said the pain has subsided, his performance has not picked up.

Showalter is still positive about Brad:

"Brad has been very team-oriented since he got here," manager Buck Showalter said. "I still think he's got his best baseball ahead of him. I hope we get to a point where he gets back in there and helps us. But he's handled this with a lot of maturity."

Showalter met with Wilkerson last weekend in Anaheim to discuss the rest of the season. Though Wilkerson has considered shoulder-ending surgery, he assured the manager he'd be available if needed. Wilkerson said if he had surgery during the season, it would only be after the AL West race was decided.

Joe Maddon intentionally walked Beltre and Ibanez in the tenth inning last night to get to Mariners first baseman Richie Sexson:

Sexson, who came into the game with a .222 batting average, has been at his most productive when Ibanez has been walked in front of him. Ibanez had 13 previous intentional walks, and Sexson had followed those with seven hits in 11 at-bats with two walks.

"You set up the lineup so the other manager has to make choices," Hargrove said. "You want him to pick his poison."

Three times previously Sexson had followed an intentional walk to Ibanez with a home run. Now it's four times. The numbers kept mounting after the ball carried out to center field.

"I'm just trying to get the ball deep enough to score a run," Sexson said. "Really, that's a good situation for a hitter. With the bases loaded, eventually they're going to have to pitch to you."

His grand slam ended the game and moved Seattle into a tie with Texas, 6 1/2 games behind the Athletics.

Juan Cruz was targeted for the bullpen to make room for Livan Hernandez before last night's start:

Cruz, who started the season in the bullpen, hadn't brought enough consistency to his starting role. His pitch counts, much like his ERA, were too high. His innings worked, like his number of quality starts, were too low.

But he was just right in front of 35,146, pitching with conviction and really, nothing to lose, in picking up his second straight win after five consecutive winless starts.

If this was his last start, nobody told him - at least not until today when manager Bob Melvin is expected to announce a couple of changes.

"You can't worry about that," Cruz said.

Whatever happens, Cruz (5-6) delivered his finest outing of the year in allowing just seven hits and pitching a career-high 7 1/3 innings with just one walk and three strikeouts as Arizona moved to within 1 1/2 games of first-place San Diego in the National League West.

"Unbelievable," Melvin said of Cruz.

"When he throws the ball over the plate, stuff-wise, I don't know if we have anybody with better stuff."

Melvin then acknowledged the decision on whom to move out of the rotation just got a lot tougher, saying, "We've got to sit down and think about it."

Overall, his strikeout and home run numbers are very good. His walk numbers are better if you only consider his time as a starter. Batista, Vargas and Gonzalez all walk fewer batters, but all have higher ERAs. Then again, it's better to have too many starters than not enough.

FishStripes follows up on the Girardi/Loria flareup. Bottom line is they're happy with each other.

In light of the Cliff Lee deal, Brew Crew Ball wonders what Chris Capuano is worth.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Mariano Rivera enters the game in the ninth inning and leaves a ball over the heart of the plate for Paul Konerko. The White Sox first baseman crushes the ball to the opposite field to tie the game at five. Dye singles to put the winning run on with none out.

Update: Pierzynski tries to bunt, but he pushes the ball back to the pitcher who throws Dye out at second for the first out. Ozuna runs for the catcher.

Update: Ozuna is caught stealing. The White Sox are 0 for 3 stealing bases tonight. You might name this game, Little Ball Gone Bad.

Update: Crede flies out to end the inning. The teams will play extra-innings.

Update: Dye drives in the winning run with a single in the bottom of the 11th. The White Sox and Twins gain on the Red Sox in the wild card race, with Chicago taking a 1/2 game lead.

David Ortiz continues to pound the ball. His solo homer in the 7th inning brings the Red Sox within one run of the Royals as they trail 5-4. It's his tenth since the All-Star break. He's hitting a homer every 9.6 at bats in that time.

The Mets defeated the Padres 3-2 tonight, but the teams had chances to score more runs. The Padres left eight on base, going 0 for 5 with men in scoring position. The Mets left nine on, going 2 for 12 with men in scoring position.

The Twins help their wild card chances with a 4-2 victory over the Tigers. The top of the Minnesota order, Castillo, Punto and Mauer provided most of the offense, combining to collect eight hits in fifteen at bats. Mauer's 3 for 5 puts his batting average at .367. The trio scored and drove in 3 of the team's four runs.

The Cincinnati Reds come back from last night's blowout and put a hurt on the Cardinals, winning 10-3. Jason Marquis is not allowed to take one for the team, giving up four runs in just 2 2/3 innings, but the bullpen didn't do any better. The first four pitchers out of the pen gave up at least one run each as the Red collected 17 hits, 14 of them singles. With that many base runners, St. Louis did manage to turn four double plays.

Jeremy Sowers pitched a good game for the Indians, allowing 4 runs, 3 earned over seven innings. He played to his strength, not issuing a free pass in the game. However, the Indians bullpen came into a 4-4 game, and Betancourt gives up 2 hits and 2 walks and most importantly one run. That was enough to give the Angels a 5-4 victory.

The Cleveland bullpen now owns an 8-22 record. That's tied with the Marlins for the worst bullpen record in the majors.

Whatever Daniel Cabrera did at AAA seems to have worked:

In four starts for the Lynx, Cabrera was 3-1 with a 4.07 ERA, allowing 20 hits, walking nine and striking out 27 in 24 1/3 innings. His last start--he tossed six scoreless innings--was on Thursday, so Cabrera will be working on normal rest.

He followed that up with seven strong innings tonight, holding the Blue Jays to 2 runs (1 earned) while walking one and striking out seven. Coming into tonight, he walked 75 in 85 2/3 innings. The Orioles lead 8-4 in the top of the ninth.

The Indians run Jered Weaver's pitch count up early, and get to him as he tires in the sixth. He leaves the game after Luna singles in two to tie the game as Donnelly comes into the game and gets out of the inning.

The White Sox are doing a good job of adjusting to Chien-Ming Wang's sinker. The hitters are going down to get the pitch, almost using a golf swing against him. They're driving the ball to the outfield and already picked up five hits, three of them doubles. Chicago leads 3-2 in the top of the third, and it could be higher if two men were not removed with base running mistakes.

Update: Alex Rodriguez answers in the top of the third with a two-run homer to give New York a 4-3 lead. That gives Alex 80 RBI for the 11th year in a row.

With two out in the top of the first, the Cubs bang out five straight hits against Tomo Ohka, including two home runs to take a 5-0 lead into the bottom of the first. The Cubs have now scored 5 runs or more in 10 of their last 15 games.

The Damon and Abreu each stole a base on Freddy Garcia in the first inning. They each had the base stolen before the ball left Garcia's hand. Opponents are now 28 for 29 stealing against Freddy. He just doesn't give the catcher a chance to throw out a runner. The rest of the staff has allowed 52 steals in 75 attempts.

Update: Cano is back in the lineup and makes a great relay throw to nail Scott Podsednik trying to reach third on the first White Sox hit of the game. The replay showed the play was extremely close, but it looked like A-Rod got the tag on the elbow just before the fingers reached the bag. Abrue get the outfield assist.

Vlad Guerrero hits his 25th home run of the season on a low pitch on the outside part of the plate off Sowers. He blasted it to the opposite field, and from his swing it looked like that was his plan all along. He's now 12 for 24 against the Indians in seven games with three homers and nine RBI.

It seems Gary Majewski was damaged goods.

The Reds didn't know that the right-hander had a cortisone injection in his shoulder before the All-Star break. Majewski was placed on the 15-day disabled list Monday after telling the team that his shoulder has bothered him since spring training.

A medical test found no serious injury. There's no telling how long he will be sidelined with what was diagnosed as a tired shoulder.

"I'm still trying to figure out what's what here," Krivsky said. "I'm glad we have Gary Majewski, and I'm glad he's not hurt seriously. I'm disappointed he's not active for us right now."

Obviously, this doesn't reflect well on Jim Bowden.

A Yankees minor league pitcher received a 50 game suspension today.

Major League Baseball suspended New York Yankees minor league pitcher Daniel McCutchen for 50 games on Tuesday for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.

Given the hype over the years about home run hitters doping, I'm continued to be impressed at the number of pitchers caught. Maybe we should be looking as critically at high strikeout numbers as we are at high home run numbers.

Batgirl links to an article indicating Liriano's elbow is injured, contradicting earlier stories. The article is not definite on the injury, but everything I've read from the Twins says it's not the elbow.

Update: Sports Illustrated is still referring the problem as muscular.

There's a nice matchup of first-year rookies in Cleveland as Jered Weaver faces Jeremy Sowers. Sowers is making his sixth start at home vs. only two on the road. He's holding opponents to a .256 OBA in Cleveland and a .325 slugging percentage. His main strength so far is not walking batters, just one every five innings. Weaver walks a few more, but his high strikeout numbers keep the hits down. Opponents are batting just .192 against him with a .246 OBA.

The Yankees visit Chicago in a game with implications for both the AL Wild Card and the AL East. Freddy Garcia hosts Chien-Ming Wang. Garcia is susceptible to the long ball on the south side, giving up over two per game at his home park. Wang keeps saving the Yankees bullpen, averaging over seven innings over his last eleven starts. He also comes into he game with 18 consecutive scoreless innings pitched.

Enjoy!

A commenter left this message here.

CDM wins lawsuit against MLB today. Judge rules in CDM's favor. A win for all fantasy sports.

I can't find a news story about this. Does anyone have a link, or can anyone confirm this news?

Update: Ben Kabak supplied this link in the comments. MLBAM shot itself in the foot, as I suspected might be the case:

It's my opinion that MLBAM should have kept the fees low and encouraged more fantasy games. Fantasy games are a growth industry; they create fans for major league baseball, and those fans spend money in the MLB.com store, attend MLB games and watch the advertising during broadcasts that keeps the teams running. They should be encouraging the growth of the industry with low license fees. If a court finds that the MLBAM has no right to license the stats, they'll end up with nothing.

The Players Association had a nice little business going here. They sold that to MLBAM, and now neither is getting a penny. They should take some blame, also:

I'm even more disappointed in the MLBPA. I still believe they are the best union in the world, but they need to understand that the value of their players comes from fans wanting to watch them perform. More people playing fantasy games means more eyeballs to watch them pitch and hit. It would be nice if the MLBPA stepped in and said, "This wasn't what we had in mind when we gave you the exclusive."

If you want to start a fantasy baseball game, now's the time. Congratulations to CDM for increasing competition in the fantasy game market!

Ricky Ledee, that is.

The Mets addressed their need for a left-handed-hitting reserve Tuesday when they claimed veteran outfielder Ricky Ledee off waivers from the Dodgers.

Ledee had been placed on waivers Monday night, so the Mets moved quite quickly to fill the void created over the course of the season when switch-hitter Jose Valentin and left-handed-hitting Endy Chavez assumed more regular roles with the team.

It appears to be a straight waiver claim. The Dodgers didn't want him, the Mets get him for the waiver fee. He's a low average, low OBA, low slugging left-hander. It's not an earth-shattering move.

Arthur Kyriazis is on vacation and phoned to tell me about a pitcher for the Lakewood Blue Claws, Josh Outman. Not only is that the best name I've heard for a pitcher since Jack Armstrong, he's living up to his moniker. In 125 innings this season, he's struck out 127 batters. However, given his 4.75 BB per 9, he might be related to Bob Walk.

The Cleveland Indians locked up Cliff Lee today:

Cliff Lee signed a three-year, $14 million contract extension with the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday, another long-term commitment for a young player the club considers key to winning in the future.

Is this a good signing? Given the money starting pitchers are getting these days, it's not a bad price to pay. What worries me is that Lee is showing a downward trend in his strikeouts. Is there a reason to think that's going to get better? If it does, it's a good signing. If not, it's not that much money, and they don't need to go through arbitration.

FishStripes supplies the links and details of an apparent verbal fight between Jeff Loria and Joe Girardi. It seems Loria was stepping into Joe's territory on a 3-2 call that went against the Fish. The blogger's take:

Did something happen? Looks like it did but no one seems to know for sure what exactly happened. The "eyewitnesses" have different stories and the articles contradict each other on several points.

In short, no one knows what transpired between the two men, except them.

This I do know: it's Tuesday and Girardi is the manager of the Marlins and Loria is the owner. Best I can tell nothing is different and I seriously doubt this will turn into a Steinbrenner-Martin relationship.

I'm a little more willing to speculate. Girardi, at some point, either resigned or was fired. I'm leaning toward resignation. My guess is that Loria's been interfering with on-field activities for a while, and Joe had enough on Sunday. I can see where he would give Loria an ultimatum, and how Jeff might accept it in the heat of the moment. Somehow, cooler heads prevailed, the Girardi is back at the helm of the Marlins. We'll see how long he lasts. I don't think it will turn into Steinbrenner-Martin, because once Joe is gone, he's not coming back.

Update: Included the link.

It was continued soreness in his forearm that's being blamed for Francisco Liriano's poor performance last night:

'It started bothering me in the second inning,' Liriano said. 'It really bothered me. I couldn't throw fastball, changeup, slider or anything.'

After facing Detroit on July 28, Liriano (12-3) missed his next scheduled start because of inflammation in his forearm. But the rest hardly seemed to help _ he gave up a long homer to Marcus Thames and an RBI double to Magglio Ordonez.

'It's a muscular problem. As the game was going on, he started to feel it,' Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. 'We had him checked out before, and everything was fine, but we'll have him checked out again. It's muscles, not his elbow.'

My first reaction is to shut down Liriano. However, the Twins are still in the heat of the wild card race, which makes the decision more difficult. However, the Twins are about to pull another good, young pitcher out of their system, Matt Garza. Instead of using him to replace the #5 starter, put Liriano on the DL and let Garza take Francisco's spot. Liriano is too valuable to take a chance this injury might lead to more trouble if he tries to pitch through it.

In 1999 the Oakland Athletics, a small market team that couldn't possibly win, finished second in the AL West with 87 wins. Since then, they've finished first or second in the division every year with at least 88 wins. One reason is their August dominance:

They're off to another good start this August, going 5-1 after a 7-4 win over Texas last night. Their OBA is 20 points higher than their season average on the offensive side, an 20 points lower on the defensive side. With Chavez, Bradley and Swisher finally looking healthy, this team is finally gelling.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Carl Crawford picked up his 12th triple of the season and the 61st of his career. Since he joined the Devil Rays in 2002, Crawford is way in front of everyone else in the triples category. He also has more triples than homers, something I thought was unusual, but there are a number of them among the leaders on the list.

With catcher Russ Martin at first, pitcher Brad Penny doubles down the left field line, scoring the slow footed catcher all the way from first. The Dodgers lead 2-0 in the bottom of the first on four hits, three of them for extra bases.

Update: Jeff Kent is having a good night as he returns from the DL. He drove in the first run of the game with a double and just homered to plate two more. The Dodgers are having their way with Fogg tonight as they lead 4-0 in the bottom of the third.

Correction: Changed Ross to Russ.

With the signing of David Wright, The Sports Dude wonders what Joe Mauer is worth?

The LAnaheim Angels are up 3-1 on the White Sox in the sixth inning, all three runs coming on solo homers.

Ryan Howard hit home run number 39 tonight, a two run shot that has the Phillies up 2-1 in the top of the fifth. It looks like Ryan's 2006 season is going to compare very favorably to Frank Howard's 1969 season. Frank is the only Howard to hit 40 homers in a season, although that's likely to change soon. Moe, Curly and Shemp could not be reached for comment.

The Phillies score 5 in the top of the fifth to make the score 7-1 over the Braves.

With two out and a man on third, Ivan Rodriguez singles and Magglio Ordonez doubles to score two runs in the bottom of the third. The Tigers lead 2-0 going to the top of the fourth.

Update: After the Twins score one in the top of the fourth, the Tigers come back with two more so far in the bottom of the inning, one on a homer by Thames. Liriano continues to have problems with the Tigers. He's now given up 13 runs in 15 2/3 innings against Detroit.

Update: Mauer homers in the top of the sixth to cut the score to 4-3. Joe's now slugging .532.

The Twins/Tigers game is not only featuring two good young pitchers, but two potential American League MVPs. If you take a look at the AL leaders in win shares, Joe Mauer is tied for the lead with Manny Ramirez and Derek Jeter, but right behind is Carlos Guillen. Both players play important defensive positions but get on base and hit for power like first basemen. With the Tigers running away with the league, people should be looking for a potential MVP on the team. Carlos Guillen gets the nod.

I also find it interesting that while the buzz in Boston is Ortiz for MVP, Manny's having the better year. Even excluding defense, Ramirez is generating more wins with his bat than Ortiz. Both are pretty neutral in the runs created valuation of clutch, Manny at -0.8, Ortiz at -1.8. In other words, their batting average with runners in scoring position and home runs with men on base is what you'd expect from them. It's going to be a very interesting vote if it remains this close for the rest of the season.

The St. Louis Cardinals get off to a 5-0 lead in the top of the first as they pick up five hits against Elizardo Ramirez, four for extra bases. We'll see if that's enough for Jeff Weaver.

Why is Carlos Beltran included in the Comeback Player of the Year candidates? Beltran picked up 21 win shares in 2005. My no stretch of the imagination did he have a bad season. It just wasn't as good as people expected.

Lyle Overbay and Russ Ortiz experienced completely opposite games this afternoon. Overbay picked up three hits, just needing the triple for the cycle, driving in five of the eight runs scored by the Blue Jays. Meanwhile, Russ Ortiz demonstrated why it's not a good idea to take a flier on a pitcher whose multi-million dollar contract was eaten by another club. He lasted just three innings, allowing 9 hits, six runs and three walks while striking out none. Just for icing on the cake, he gave up two homers. Not surprisingly, the Blue Jays took the game 8-1.

Kudos to Brandon League who pitched the last four inning for the Jays without allowing a hit, picking up his first major league save. The league is hitting just .217 against League now.

Finally, someone figured out how all this works. :-)

Orlando Hernandez didn't work out, so the Arizona Diamondbacks are trying Livan.

The Nationals received two 23-year-old prospects: right-hander Garrett Mock and left-hander Matt Chico. Both will report to Washington's Double-A affiliate in Harrisburg.

The move is symptomatic of last-place Washington's desire to build for the future under new owner Ted Lerner, while Arizona is looking for an edge in the competitive NL West. The Diamondbacks trailed first-place San Diego by two games entering Monday's play.

Mock strikes out a good number of batters, but he's allowing a .345 OBA this season. Chico looks like a much better prospect.

Livan's pitched very well over the last month. It looks like the DBacks are taking a chance to win this year. They didn't appear to give up too much, although I don't know how deep their pitching goes in the minors.

Baseball Historians is a new site organized by Brian Borawski to aggregate feeds from historical baseball blogs:

What this site does is pull all of the feeds from each of the sites in the network so you have one handy place to check for content. On occassion, this site will also have some exclusive content which I'm working on as we speak. And as time goes by, I'm hoping to add sites for each of the major league teams. Next will be a Red Sox blog as well as a site that covers everything and anything regarding the All Star Game.

Stop by and say hi.

Ted Lilly did not start today's game against the Orioles. The Blue Jays did go with another double-L, however as Brian Tallet gets the start. He's allowed no hits through two innings as Toronto is off to a 1-0 lead.

Update: Tallet leaves after two walks and a popout in the third inning. Given that he threw just 41 pitches at the time, I assume he left due to an injury.

Update: Bad assumption. Lilly was scratched with a stiff neck. Tallet reached his pitch limit. It looks like Gibbons is going to go with a series of relievers today.

Baseball players, models, adultery? Metsblog.com has the story.

Update: Sorry, Deadspin did post on this. I was skimming for the story and the Utah Jazz title threw me. I thought it would be a post about, you know, the Utah Jazz.

Crawfish Boxes notices the Astros recent success coincides with the return of Willy Taveras to centerfield.

After Chris Burke went 0 for 4 vs. the Reds on July 27, and Garner reinstated Willy Taveras as starting centerfielder, the club as a whole has batted .280.

Indeed, Taveras hit in every game since returning. Is this just a hot streak, or at age 24, did the demotion finally awake a good hitter in Willy? His career numbers are not impressive, but he's still young enough and it's early enough for him to get better.

It's Civic Holiday in Canada, so the Orioles and Blue Jays are playing an afternoon game starting at 1:07 EDT. Why they celebrate a Japanese car in Canada is beyond me, but any excuse to have a Molson, eh? It also would have been nice to have Roy Halladay pitch instead of Ted Lilly. Actually, Civic Day is like Labor Day in the US. They hold it in August because summer ends a month earlier up there. (Sorry for all the jokes. Some of my best friends are Canadian.)

The Twins are 20 games over .500 but 9 1/2 games back in the division. They get a chance to closer that gap this week as they take on the Tigers in Detroit. Francisco Liriano faces Zach Miner. Detroit's the one team that's given Liriano trouble this year. Early in the season he pitched poorly in relief against the Tigers twice, but was quite good the last time he started against Detroit. Miner's been faltering lately. Over his last four starts, he's allowed just one home run but walked almost as many as he struck out.

The Reds trail St. Louis by 3 1/2 games but open a four-game series at home tonight. The Cardinals trot out Jeff Weaver to take on Elizardo Ramirez. The ability to strike out batters totally abandoned Weaver when he joined the Cardinals. He's K'd just five batters in 18 2/3 innings with St. Louis. Ramirez's last four starts at home look fine from a K/BB/HR view, but 31 hits have fallen in against him in just 20 2/3 innings. Poor defense behind him? This one has the makings of a slugfest.

The Rockies trail the Dodgers by 1 1/2 games as the two teams open a four game series in Los Angeles. It's Fogg vs. Penny in game one. Fogg posts a 3.44 ERA on the road, and only four of his 16 homers allowed came away from Coors. The Rockies haven't figured out Penny this year as Brad defeated them three times so far, allowing just 1 run in 19 1/3 innings. He's walked three and struck out 17 in those starts.

Enjoy!

The newest addition to the Brewers racing sausage family is on the shelf for marketing reasons. David Brown suspects something else.

MLB says it needs to formally study El Picante for permanent use, much as it would any fresh mascot, logo, color change, team meat, etc. If Pico, in 12-18 months, passes muster(d) he will return to the majors.

That's what baseball says.

They aren't saying everything. What might they be hiding?

Only, perhaps, the biggest drug scandal to rock sport since the one from a couple of days ago, is all.

In the wake of recent doping allegations in baseball and elsewhere, it wasn't surprising Sunday to learn that Pico the Sausage tested positive for levels of silicon dioxide 11 times the legal limit allowed by the World Racing Association of Professional Sausages.

Will these scandals never end? :-)

Brew Crew Ball wants someone to dig up Corey Hart.

Phillies Nation is in London and reports on a game between Great Britain and Ireland.

The game was played at the Finsbury Park Cricket Ground in Finsbury Park, north London. The cricket grounds have two baseball diamonds carved out, one for the amateur leagues I mentioned earlier and the other is home to the Little League London Mets. I arrived that Saturday afternoon just as the second game was ending. Ireland took the first one and Great Britain came back to tie up the series; both games finished 6 to 5. I found my seat on the grass just next to the Ireland bench as the players were returning from their between-games hot dogs and hamburgers. The third and final game, besides being the day's rubber match, also held special significance for the aforementioned Josh Chetwynd. Josh, who is American, also happens to play for the British National team and this was his final game. He is a solid ballplayer, I'd have to say, and graciously ended his career with a hit in his final at bat.

Let's hope the game continues to grow in popularity around the world, bringing more talent and revenue to the major league game. And let's hope that leads to expansion around the globe.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

There are five men at the Mets game dressed as a construction worker, an Indian, a cop, a cowboy and a soldier. They're holding a sign that proclaims they are The Milledge People. Their player just came through as Lastings singled with the bases loaded to drive in the Mets third run of the game. After Maine strikes out, Reyes hits a grand slam to make the score 7-0 New York. It's the second slam of Jose's career.

Joe Blanton continued his domination of the Seattle Mariners as the Athletics take a 7-6 win. Blanton pitched six innings, allowing three runs. He's 4-0 against Seattle on the season, and 6-1 for his career. In 54 innings against Seattle in his career, Blanton's walked just nine batters. That's helped him to a 2.50 ERA against his opponents from the Northwest.

When I first saw that Adam Eaton lasted just 2/3 of an inning, my first thought was that he re-injured himself. But he was just tossed from the game:

Eaton gave up a three-run home run to Garret Anderson with two out in the first, then threw a pitch behind Juan Rivera's back. Home-plate umpire Rob Drake first had to restrain Rivera, then turned and threw Eaton out of the game.

Joe Saunders, however, pitched a gem for the Angels, going seven scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 1.29. Not a bad farm system that produced both Saunders and Weaver. Each is undefeated and each sports an ERA under 2.00.

Matt Cain pitched an impressive outing today, striking out 12 and walking just one as the Giants won over the Rockies 6-2. Cain's strikeout number have been excellent all year, but his walks were high at 4.4 per nine. He now has three 10 K games in his last nine starts, but this is the first time he combined that many strikeouts with a small number of walks.

Dave Roberts and Brian Giles, the 1-2 hitters for the Padres each pick up three hits and are responsible for all three runs. Giles drives in Roberts twice, once with a home run to give San Diego a 2-1 lead, then a single in the bottom of the tenth to win the game 3-2. Giles power disappeared this season as he's only slugging .384, but his .378 OBA makes him an ideal #2 hitter.

Following up on the Jose Reyes deal, the Mets locked up David Wright for six years and a total of $55 million dollars.

"It's been an exciting week for us," Mets general manager Omar Minaya said. "To reach agreements with both Jose and David means the left side of our infield is secure for the next several years. At the age of 23, David Wright has developed into one of the most complete players in the National League."

Wright has developed into a bona fide MVP candidate in just his third season. The 23-year-old is hitting .308 with 22 home runs, 82 RBI and 11 stolen bases. His career average stands at .304 with 63 homers and 224 RBI in 335 games.

I love these kind of moves. The Mets are insulating themselves from a possible run up in player salaries, they don't have to worry about arbitration, and they're going to get the peak years out of these players. It's also nice to see he Mets recognize the difference in what Reyes and Wright accomplished so far and reward both accordingly.

This also has to encourage Lastings Milledge. He knows now that a couple of very good seasons from him will likely result in a rich contract. He should play hard for that.

Jason Bartlett picked up five hits today to help the Twins to an 11-5 win over the Kansas City Royals. That's Bartlett's third multi-hit game in a row and the fifth in his last seven games. He's now batting .377 with a .443 OBA. Since Bartlett was recalled on June 14th, the Twins have the best record in the majors, 36-11, 2 1/2 games better than the Tigers.

Jaret Wright pitched six innings, allowing just one run for the Yankees this afternoon. Since July 7th inclusive, he's made six starts and posted a 3.86 ERA. Although he didn't show good control today, he's walked under three per 9 in this stretch while striking out over 7 per 9. On top of that, he hasn't allowed a home run. The Yankees will take those kind of numbers the rest of the way from a fifth starter. New York wins 6-1 to extend their AL East lead to two games.

You know your team is hot when you give some of your regulars the day off and the offense still scores seven runs. The Dodgers extended their streak to 9 wins today with a 7-3 victory over the Marlins. Saenz played first for Loney, one of the stars of the streak, and contributed two hits and a walk. Hall caught for Martin, another streak star and knocked out two hits of his own, as well as two RBI. Furcal is a streak star who did play today, and his double, single and stolen base led to his scoring two runs.

Relievers Broxton and Saito remain great out of the pen during the wins. They've now combined for 9 2/3 innings in the last nine games, allowing 0 runs and five hits while striking out 11. They've also picked up four saves, although they didn't get a chance today due to the big lead.

The Cincinnati Reds remade their bullpen before the trade deadline, and a big move was picking up Bray and Majewski from Washington for two hitters. Bray's been okay, allowing just two earned runs in 10 1/3 innings, although he's given up 11 hits. But Majewski continues to fan the flames. He came into today's game and gave up four runs on four hits, raising his ERA with the Reds to 12.54. Although he's walked just three in 9 1/3 innings, he's allowed 21 hits. Opponents are batting .525 against Gary when they put the ball in play. He takes the loss as Atlanta defeats the Reds 6-4.

The nice thing about Albert Pujols batting third is that he can set the table as well as drive in runs. He picked up three hits today and scored two runs as Rolen and Encarnacion combined to drive in five today on home runs. Pujols' .431 OBA works well in front of the middle power of the Cardinals lineup, while his .687 slugging percentage is good at driving in runs when the 1-2 hitters get on base. They only did that once today. The Cardinals take home a 7-1 win against the Brewers.

David Ortiz became the first player to reach 40 home runs this season, but Tampa Bay out-homered the Red Sox 4-1 to take a 7-6 victory in 10 innings. Shortstop Ben Zorbist tripled the number of hits he's collected on the year, picking up a double and a homer. He was 1 for 17 coming into today. Greg Norton picked up the game winner, his eighth of the year. Including today's seven have been solo shots.

Update: Ortiz is on a pace for 59 home runs, which would obliterate the team record of 50 held by Jimmie Foxx from the 1938 season.

C.C. Sabathia committed his first error of the year today, and that was all the Tigers needed. Detroit uses that miscue to score the only run in the game and take the contest 1-0. Will Ledezma made his first start for the Tigers and pitched 5 2/3 innings. The Indiains put eight men on base in that time, but couldn't bring any around to score. At the moment, the Tigers have 9 more wins than anyother team in the majors.

The Giants 1-11 record over the last dozen game is impressive for the closeness of the contests. They've not lost a game by more than three runs, meaning they've been in until the end every time. They've been outscored 60-42, so they should be more like 4-8 over that span. The record would have them in the thick of the division race with everyone else. The offense managed just a .301 OBA in this time.

I can't say I'm sorry to see this happening. The Giants decided that after the 2003 season they would build a team to help Barry Bonds win the World Series. They signed old players, the the young hitters they brought along were not very good. There was talent, but with age came injuries and they spare parts weren't available to fix what's broken. By catering to a superstar rather than the fans, San Francisco not only won't win a World Series for their star slugger, they've set themselves up to be poor for years to come. The talent on their aging team isn't going to bring much back in trade. This isn't the Marlins or the Athletics, where prime talent can bring back prospects. The Giants will need to either stay on the free agent treadmill or start a long term plan to build through the draft. Neither is going to result in any short term benefits.

The Boston Red Sox start the day out of the AL playoff picture, trailing the White Sox by 1/2 game in the wild card race and the Yankees by one game in the east. They're game against the Devil Rays is setting up to be the slugfest of the day as Jason Johnson faces J.P. Howell. For his career, J.P.'s allowed a .370 OBA and a .448 slugging percentage. He's given up 9 hits in 3 2/3 innings so far this season. Johnson held a 5.96 ERA when the Indians let him go. He's managed to pitch worse than that so far with the Red Sox, allowing 12 earned runs in 13 2/3 innings for a 7.90 mark.

Joe Saunders host Adam Eaton in Anaheim in a battle of recent callups that pitched well. Saunders is a rookie who pitched two quality starts in his two appearances this year. He very good with two strikes on a batter, as opponents have gone 0 for 18 with 2 walks so far in that situation. Eaton recently returned from the DL. His first start was a rough one against the Yankees but he followed that up with six shutout innings against the Twins for his first win of the season.

Enjoy!

Fausto Carmona is auditioning for the role of Cleveland closer, and so far it's not going well. Given his performance over the last seven days, it's amazing the director didn't yell, "Next!" after he sang the first note. Cleveland is 2-5 this week, with all five losses coming in the opponents' last at bat and four of them getting hung on Carmona. Five of their last six games were decided by one run, with the Indians losing four of those. The Tribe is 9-18 in one run games, the worst in the majors.

So, did they make a mistake selecting Carmona as the closer? Before this streak started, Carmona posted good numbers. His strikeouts weren't stunning, but 7.4 per 9 is good. Couple that with good walk and home run numbers, and he was a perfectly reasonable person to try as the closer. But being moved into the role saw his walks go up, and home runs fly out of the park. And when batters put the ball in play, they usually collected a hit. Opponents were 8 for 12 when they put the ball in play against Fausto. And none of this is even counting the three hit batters, which raised his OBA against to .682 for the week. At age 22, Fausto has time to grow into the role. But if the Indians want to win games now, they need to find another option.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Adam Loewen of the Baltimore Orioles held the Yankees to one hit over 6 1/3 innings this afternoon and the bullpen held them hitless the rest of the way as Baltimore took home a 5-0 win over the division leaders. While Loewen was overpowering at times, striking out 8, he was also wild, as he walked five. Overall, however, the Yankees selectivity didn't work to their advantage today.

Javier Vazquez pitches his best game since April, maybe his best of the year. He strikes out 13 and walks two, allowing just two hits over eight innings as the White Sox defeat the Blue Jays 7-1. It's brilliant games like this that make Vazquez a tradable player. If he could just put starts like this together more often, he'd be a true star.

Josh Johnson loaded the bases with Dodgers in the second inning tonight. The league was 1 for 16 against him in that situation this year, but this time Furcal tripled to clear the bases. Having allowed five runs, Moehler came out to start the fourth inning. The Dodgers loaded the bases against him and Ethier doubled in two more to make the score 7-1 LA.

The Oakland Athletics won their 11th straight game against the Mariners today, taking the contest 5-2. While they continue to dominate the Mariners in every category, what's amazing about the game is the A's only score five runs. Oakland collected 12 hits and nine walks while hitting into just one double play. Part of it was that only three of the hits were for extra bases (all doubles) and the A's went 4 for 15 with runners in scoring position.

Juan Rivera homered this afternoon as the Angels lead the Rangers 10-3 in the top of the 9th inning. His three run shot in the 4th extended the lead to 7-0 and pretty much put the game out of reach. On July fourth, Rivera hit two homers in a game at Seattle. Since then, he's tied with David Ortiz for the most home runs in the majors with 13.

Chase Utley pinch hits in the 9th inning against Billy Wagner with Ryan Howard on first and two out. He lines a single down the right field line to send Ryan to third. It looked to me like a double, but Utley didn't want to take the chance of being thrown out. I wonder if a pinch runner for Howard might have scored on that hit and tied the game.

Update: Lieberthal smashes one down the third base line, and David Wright makes a great diving play to pick up the ball and throw out the Phillies pinch hitter. The Mets win 4-3.

Lieber pitches a complete game loss, allowing three unearned runs when he makes a bad throw in the bottom of the sixth. He allowed just six hits through eight innings while walking none and striking out six.

Jason Shiell gives up two home runs, accounting for five of the six runs scored by Cincinnati and leaves after three innings. He leaves after three innings. The Braves bullpen follows with two hitless innings as LaRoche homers to cut the Reds lead to 6-4 in the sixth.

Update: Coffey replace Arroyo with two out in the sixth, and gives up a homer to Giles, tying the game at six.

Chase Utley gets a day off after the end of his streak, but Ryan Howard is still in the lineup and he homers in the first to give the Phillies a three-run lead over the Mets. That home runs in consecutive at bats for the NL leader. The very tight home run races in both leagues have disappeared as Howard and Ortiz opened up bigger leads. The Phillies lead the Mets 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth

The Big Lead wonders if Jose Reyes got robbed by the Mets.

The All-Star shortstop - who leads the majors in triples and stolen bases, and he's second in runs scored - was inked to a 4-year, $23.25 million contract. Jeter money, it's not.

Jeter earned $5 million after the 1998 season, the first time he was eligible for arbitration. At that point, his career averages were .308/.373/.437. Reyes is going into his first year of arbitration. His career average is .282/.317/.414.

Secondly, the The Big Lead notes that Reyes leads the league in stolen bases and triples. Bill James addressed stolen bases and triples in his 1983 Abstract, in his article on the Yankees (pages 96-97). He presents a study showing that stolen bases and triples have the least effect on winning of the main offensive stats. The runs scored are much more important.

The Mets are giving a big contract to a 23 year-old with two good offensive months under his belt. There's reason to think he'll continue to develop into a very good ballplayer. But there's also the chance the last two months were the anomaly. Reyes did not get shafted. He's set for life. He'll be 28 when he becomes a free agent. If he remains as good as his last two months, he'll get Jeter money then, and this will have proved to be a great investment for the Mets.

The Phillies go for their fifth win in a row as they face the Mets again in Shea this afternoon. The Phillies are 7-1 since Abreu's last game with them, while the Yankees are 4-0 with Bobby in the lineup. I guess it's a trade that helped both teams! Tom Glavine's ERA is on the rise. The first two months of the season, he posted a 2.59 ERA while striking out 7.4 per 9. Since 9 strikeout game of 5/27, Glavine's ERA is 5.45, and he's only striking out 4.1 per 9. While he pitched at least six innings in every start in the first 1/3 of the season, he's had six starts since in which he didn't complete six innings.

The hottest team in baseball right now is the Dodgers, winners of seven in a row. They take on the Marlins again in a battle of youngsters as Chad Billingsley (I wonder if he ever worries about the Beaver?) faces Josh Johnson. Johnson has something in common with Jon Lester, the ability to get out of a tight situation. With the bases loaded in 2006, opponents are just 1 for 16 against Josh with 8 strikeouts. Billingsley's major handicap is that he's allowed more walks than strikeouts in his 50 1/3 innings pitched, 38-28. Those runners don't advance very far, however, as Chad's allowed a .186 batting average with runners in scoring position. Will both continue to be lucky in these situations?

Enjoy!

The AL West race appears to come down to the Athletics/Mariners season series:

If the A's didn't get to play the Seattle Mariners, they likely wouldn't be looking down at the rest of the American League West. And if the Mariners didn't have to play the A's, they likely wouldn't be looking up at everybody else.

The A's continued their season-long dominance of Seattle with a 5-2 win Friday night in front of 44,277 at Safeco Field. The A's now are 10-1 against the Mariners this season; they've won 10 in a row after dropping the first game. They are 48-50 against all other opponents.

The A's lead in the ever-changing AL West is 21/2 games over the Texas Rangers, who moved into second place with their win over the Los Angeles Angels.

As you might imagine with that lopsided of a record, the A's are outscoring the M's 64-31. Oakland collected twice as many extra-base hits (34-17) and close to that ratio in walks (45-24).

Elden Auker, the last member of Detroit's first World Series championship team passed away:

Elden Auker, the submarine-style pitcher who struck out Babe Ruth, faced Dizzy Dean and helped the Detroit Tigers win their first World Series championship, died Friday. He was 95.

Auker died in Vero Beach, Fla., where he had lived since 1974.

An occasional visitor at old-timers' events and a regular on the golf course until recent years, Auker used his unique delivery to go 130-101 for the Tigers, Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Browns from 1933-42.

"He threw it from about as low as you could go without untying your shoes," Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller said by telephone Friday. "Any lower and you'd scrape your knuckles on the pitching rubber."

Feller, in fact, hit his first major league home run off Auker, in 1940 at the first night game played in St. Louis.

"He found my bat, somehow," Feller said.

Alan King used to do a routine called "survived by wife." This is the best I've seen:

Auker is survived by his wife of 73 years, Mildred, and a son, Jim.

That's impressive. You can read more about Auker in the first chapter of The Only Game in Town. My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Barry Bonds hit his fifteenth home run of the season, but argued a strike call in the ninth and got tossed:

The Giants' frustrating season reached a boiling point Friday night after Barry Bonds was ejected during an at-bat in the ninth inning of a 5-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies at AT&T Park.

Bonds, who had hit career home run No. 723 earlier in the game, got into a verbal exchange with home plate umpire Ron Kulpa after a 2-1 pitch from Rockies closer Brian Fuentes was called a strike. Bonds argued briefly before Kulpa took his mask off, walked in front of home plate and began jawing at Bonds. When the exchange escalated, Bonds was ejected.

Things quickly turned ugly as fans began hurling debris onto the field. The game was halted for 11 minutes until the mess was cleaned up, during which Rockies manager Clint Hurdle had pulled his team off the field.

"There were two unprofessional people out there at that moment," Bonds said. "He was very unprofessional and so was I. What happens on the field stays on the field, and that's all I have to say about it."

I thought San Francisco patrons were classier than that.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Chase Utley just made his third out of the game in the top of the fifth. He'll get one more at bat, possibly two with some help.

Update: They're in the bottom of the 8th with Utley 0 for 4. Chase will lead off the ninth.

Update: Utley falls behind 0-2. He works the count back to 2-2, then strikes out swinging. With the sccore 4-3 Phillies, it's possible if the Mets tie the game that Utley will get another chance.

Update: Ryan Howard hits his 37th home run of the year and the Phillies take a 5-3 win over the Mets. Utley's streak ends at 35, still an impressive number.

It's been a while since Randy Johnson struck out a batter. His last one came in the fifth inning against Texas on July 24th. He pitched one more inning in that game, 3 1/3 in his last start, and four tonight with no batters struck out.

Update: Johnson is through five without a strikeout. The Orioles are leading 4-3.

Update: The Big Unit ends up going six innings with no strikeouts. The Yankees come back and win the game 5-4, with Scott Proctor getting the W.

Chuck James finished the fourth inning, still not allowing the Reds a hit. That 10 innings without a hit by the Reds against an opponent starter.

Update: James gets the Reds 1-2-3 in the fifth. Twelve outs to go for the Atlanta starter.

Update: Royce Clayton breaks up the no-hitter with a two-run homer with one out in the sixth. That ties the game at 2.

Patrick Arnold, the inventor of the clear, is going to jail:

The rogue chemist who created the previously undetectable steroid dubbed "the clear" was sentenced Friday to three months in prison and three months of home confinement for his role in a widening sports drug scandal.

Patrick Arnold was the last of five defendants convicted of steroid-distribution charges connected to the Burlingame-based Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a nutritional supplement company federal authorities exposed as a steroid distribution ring for top athletes.

"The behavior reflected here is destructive and damaging to Arnold, damaging to the community and damaging to the nation as a whole," U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston said. Arnold was ordered to report to prison by Sept. 19.

"I'm very regretful for what I've done and especially since what it has precipitated in sports and society," Arnold said outside court. "I do believe there should be a level playing field and that this whole things needs to be addressed."

I wonder how many more like him are out there, and if any athletes are employing chemists of their own to make designer steroids yet.

Greg Maddux no-hit the Reds while he was in the game last night, and through two innings this evening, Chuck James of the Braves faced seven Reds without allowing a hit. That's eight straight hitless innings against the opposition starter by the Reds.

Timothy Moreland take RBI Percentage to the next level.

Xavier Nady doubled three times and collected four hits total as the Pirates lead the Cubs 5-0 in the bottom of the seventh. Nady's accounted for four of the five, driving in two and scoring two. Tom Gorzelanny has six strikeouts after six innings and just two hits allowed. The big improvement over his normal out is he's walked just one. On the season, coming into today, he struck out 17 and walked 17.

Buster Olney notices that Andruw Jones might be going to another team:

That Jones was placed on waivers is unremarkable; he was one of hundreds of players, including many stars, who were placed on waivers earlier this week. What makes Jones' situation interesting is that on Aug. 15, he will gain 10-and-5 rights -- 10 years in the big leagues, five with the same team -- to block any proposed trade.

Multiple teams placed claims on Jones, according to major-league sources. But on Thursday afternoon, one team was awarded a claim on Jones. Now the Braves have two choices -- either work out a trade with the team who placed the claim by Saturday or pull Jones back from waivers. If they pull him back, they cannot trade him again for the rest of this season.

It's an interesting dilemma for the Braves. They're not really in the wild card race, but like all the NL teams, they're not really out of it either. Can they get enough talent for Andruw? And do they really want to let him go? I don't think the 10-5 is such a big deal, as he'll be a free agent after 2007. So the Braves won't be stuck with him indefinitely.

Javy Lopez goes to the Red Sox for a player to be named later. When reached for comment, the PTBNL said, "I hope they name me Babe Ruth."

Ronny Paulino drives in Nady with a single to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead in the middle of the second. Nady doubled to set up the run. My question is, why is Paulino, with the third best OBA in the lineup, batting 8th? His OBA's been going up every month. Shouldn't his position in the lineup, also?

The four team AL West race sees the teams seeded tonight as 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3. The Oakland Athletics kept Barry Zito at the trade deadline, and he'll try to help them on their way to a division title as he faces Jarrod Washburn in Seattle. You need to get to Barry early; over his first 30 pitches, batters hit .292 against him. After that, it's just .229. Washburn and Zito have something in common this year; they've had better success against righty batters than lefties.

Down in Anaheim, Vicente Padilla takes on John Lackey. Lackey's coming off a July in which he was named AL Pitcher of the Month. He struck out 50 in just 43 1/3 innings. Padilla is also coming off one of his better months, in which he walked just seven in 31 1/3 innings.

Enjoy!

WasWatching links to the latest on Hideki Matsui's wrist. He's still a month away from returning.

The Texas Rangers won a four-hour, extra-inning game last night on a Mark Teixeira solo shot:

The homer deep into the seats in right field was Teixeira's third homer in the last two games and his 10th in the last 30 days. It's quite a change in production for Teixeira, who struggled to just eight homers in the first three months.

Juan Rivera also continued his hot power hitting with a three-run shot in the eighth to tie the game. Jered Weaver, however, was human:

The rally meant Weaver would not get the loss. He allowed eight hits, walked one and struck out three in six innings. He gave up his first run in 15 innings at Angel Stadium, but he was burned by Mark DeRosa and Ian Kinsler, the Rangers No. 6 and 7 hitters respectively, who combined to go 4-for-6 against him and spark a run in the second and the two in the sixth that proved to be Weaver's undoing.

Weaver was relatively unharmed by the core of the Texas lineup, holding Michael Young, Carlos Lee, Teixeira and Hank Blalock to a combined 2-for-11, but it was Blalock who had both hits and started a two-run sixth inning that eventually took Weaver out of a game trailing for the first time in his career.

Even with that outing, Weaver holds a 1.81 ERA and a .192 batting average allowed.

Royals Authority takes an indepth look at Mark Teahen's transformation.

Check out this story in the Toronto Star:

The Blue Jays open a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox tonight at the Rogers Centre that carries wild-card implications for both teams.

Oops ... make that one team.

Thanks to a 2-8 road trip, which ended yesterday with the completion of a thoroughly deflating three-game sweep by the Yankees, Toronto has all but made it all but impossible to be considered a wild-card contender any longer.

While Toronto certainly made it tough on themselves with their poor road trip, comebacks of this sort happen. And this shows the author doesn't really know what he's talking about:

Even with 54 games remaining, the Jays would need an implausible winning streak to catch both New York and Boston, who are vying for the AL East lead and the wild-card position.

They don't need to catch both teams, just one of them. They do need to catch Chicago and Minnesota, but they have a chance to move up against the White Sox this weekend and play four against the Twins the weekend after that. With eight remaining against Boston and six against New York, the Jays have the opportunity to move up in the race. Starting today, they'll need to do a better job converting their opportunities.

The Boston Globe provides more details on the potential Javy Lopez to the Red Sox deal. It's being held up by the amount of money involved and to see if the player(s) Baltimore wants will clear waivers:

The deal must be approved by the commissioner's office, possibly as early as today, because at least $1 million is changing hands, according to Duquette. The deal shouldn't be jeopardized because of the money, but until the stamp of approval comes from the big office, it can't be official. If it happens today, Lopez could be in uniform tonight in Tampa Bay.

Indications are the Orioles could receive one of the following players: switch-hitting center fielder Adam Stern, switch-hitting infielder Alejandro Machado, or, less likely, lefthander Abe Alvarez. Whichever player is involved must clear waivers before the deal is consummated.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Cole Hamels displayed his brilliance tonight against the Cardinals. Through seven innings, he's struck out 12, walked just two and allowed a single run. The Phillies scored five runs, which is more than enough with a performance like that. He's thrown 109 pitches, so it's unlikely he'll come out for the 8th.

The Cardinals are looking at their 7th loss in a row. The only team really gaining on them, however, is Chicago, and they're so far out it doesn't really matter.

The Red Sox are down one going to the bottom of the ninth, with David Ortiz leading off. Jason Davis, rather than Carmona is going to try to close this one.

Update: Ortiz flies out to Choo (gesundheit) for the first out.

Update: Manny Ramirez goes the other way, hitting one deep to right that Choo (gesundheit) catches in front of the warning track. It's up to MIrabelli.

Update: Doug pops out in foul territory to Victor Martinez. Davis gets his first major league save, and Jake Westbrook saves the bullpen by toughing out 8 innings in which he allowed 15 hits, but only one walk and six runs. The Indians will take a win anyway they can get it.

Greg Maddux is making quite a first start for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Through five innings, he's allowed zero hits. He's given up three walks (unusual for him), but two were taken out on double plays, so he's faced just one over the minimum. A two run homer by Saenz in the first inning is all the scoring so far, but all Maddux has needed. Greg's only thrown 62 pitches so far.

Update: A groundout, a strikeout and a popout and Maddux has a no-hitter through six. He's never thrown a no-hitter in his career.

Update: A thunderstorm interrupts the bottom of the seventh. I wonder if Maddux will come out after this?

Update: Maddux doesn't return after the rain delay. Joe Beimel relieves him and gives up a hit to Hatteberg, the first batter he faces.

Dontrelle Willis pitches 8 solid innings, giving up just one unearned run as Florida goes into the bottom of the 8th tied with the Mets at one. They load the bases on a hit and two walks by Heilman for Miguel Cabrera. The offensive star clears the bases with a double, although the third run scored when Lo Duca couldn't hold on to the ball. It's 4-1 Marlins going to the top of the ninth.

Update: Borowski retires the side in order in the 9th as the Marlins take 2 of 3 from the Mets to stay in the Wild Card race. With his 2 for 3 tonight, Cabrera now has a .429 OBA and a.557 slugging percentage.

Josh Beckett gave up 7 runs at Fenway park for the second time in a month tonight. Six came in the sixth inning as Hafner hit a two run shot and Choo (gusendheit) goes yard with a grand slam. Along with Boone's solo shot in the third, Beckett gave up three homers tonight after allowing just five at the ballpark all year. That brings him to 31 allowed on the year. One more, and he'll double his previous career high. The Indians lead the Red Sox 7-5 in the top of the seventh.

TangoTiger takes apart Tom Verducci at The Book Blog. (Hat tip, Baseball Think Factory.)

Dontrelle Willis and Pedro Martinez are pitching gems. Dontrelle has allowed no runs through six, and Pedro did the same through 5 2/3 before former Met Mike Jacobs took him deep. It's the 15th home run for both. The Marlins lead 1-0 in the bottom of the sixth.

Chase Utley singled in the first to extend his hit streak to 35 games. It was a solid line shot to the right of center field. Nine to go to tie Rose and Keeler, 21 for Joltin' Joe.

The Padres pen continued to pitch well today, keeping the second best ERA in the National League with 3 1/3 shutout innings. The lowered the relievers ERA to 3.65. Only the Mets, at 3.23 are better in the NL. The walked none today, and they're the only NL pen with less than 100 base on balls issued. That helped the Padres to a 5-2 win over the Astros, assuring they'll stay in first place in the NL West.

The Mets locked up Jose Reyes for the next four seasons:

The speedy All-Star shortstop signed a $23.25 million, four-year contract extension with the Mets on Thursday, the sides working quickly this week to ensure him a home through the 2010 season.

Reyes leads the majors in stolen bases and triples and is among the leaders in hits and runs. The leadoff man is a big reason the Mets have the best record in the league and a whopping edge in the NL East.

The 23-year-old Reyes could have been eligible for salary arbitration after this season, and could have become a free agent following the 2009 season. Instead, he opted for future security.

I love deals like this. The Mets avoid arbitration and keep Reyes through his best years. If something happens, they're not out all that much money (in baseball terms). And if he lives up to his billing, there's a good relationship between the team and the player, so it should be easy to sign him to an extension, avoiding free agent bidding. A win-win for everyone!

Stephen Drew hit a triple and a homer in the early Diamondbacks/Cubs game, driving in four runs as Arizona took the contest 10-2. Luis Gonzalez also added a dinger. It's his 4th since the All-Star break after hitting just seven before that.

In the nightcap, the Cubs hold a 7-3 lead in the top of the eighth behind Matt Murton. He's tied a Cubs record today, last set by Billy Williams in 1969, picking up four doubles. That increases his season doubles total by 40%. He's driven in five of the seven runs in the game. It's a good day for the youngsters.

ESPN is reporting that the Red Sox and Orioles are close to a trade for Javy Lopez.

Lopez has been upset over the lack of playing time he was receiving in Baltimore and asked for his release. The 35-year-old Lopez is hitting .265 with eight HR and 31 RBI.

Varitek underwent arthroscopic surgery for a cartilage tear in his left knee on Thursday and is expected to be sidelined four to six weeks.

Lopez hasn't caught much this year. Only about 1/4 of his at bats came as a backstop this season. On the other hand, he's probably pretty fresh, and he'll be less of an offensive loss than Mirabelli.

Bobby Abreu produced three hits and scored two runs while Cory Lidle posted six innings, allowing just one run. Both helped the Yankees to an 8-1 win over the Blue Jays and a sweep of the series. Brian Cashman is looking very good right now. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays are quickly falling out of contention in both the East and the wild card.

Update: The Yankees even helped the Pirates, as Shawn Chacon pitched five okay innings and allowed just one run as Pittsburgh defeated the Braves 3-2. The Pirate pen picked up four holds and a save in the game as well.

Via Deadspin, the story of an incident in 2001 connecting Juan Gonzalez to steroids. It's a good read, but once again, someone Canseco names in his book is found to have another connection to steroids. Jose's credibility on the subject just keeps growing.

Royals Authority rounds up the news on Luke Hochevar. The Royals are going to sign him to a major league contract:

We all remember the Alex Gordon negotiations of last year when the Royals would not budge on their long-time insistence that they do not sign draft picks to major league deals.

Credit to the Royals for deciding to relax what used to be thought of as a rigid rule and get the deal done.

According to the release, Hochevar will sign the contract on Saturday will and be placed on the Royals 40-man roster. He is only the fourth No. 1 overall pick in the last 20 years to sign a Major League contract, joining Delmon Young (2003), Pat Burrell (1998) and Alex Rodriguez (1993).

I've liked all of Dayton Moore's moves so far. No slam dunks, but bit by bit he's improving the organization.

This is a test .

Update: I had an emergency to deal with this afternoon which involved buying a stove. While I was at the mall, I came across a Verizon store, and they had a Motorola Q that was actually activated to use the internet. I've been thinking of buying one since my LG VX9800 no longer allows me to blog. I finally got to test it, and the above was the result. Now I have to decide if I want to pay full freight for it.

This is one of those great days when there will be games played for 12 straight hours. The Pirates start us off at 12:30 EDT, and the Angels finish with a 10 PM EDT start in Anaheim.

Cory Lidle makes his Yankees debut against the Toronto Blue Jays as New York goes for the sweep. He'll face Shaun Marcum. The Toronto right-hander beat New York earlier this season despite giving up six runs in six innings. He has trouble on the road and against left-handed batters, so facing the Yankees in The Bronx could spell trouble for him. The bullpen for New York is rested after Wang's performance last night, so the Yankees are looking to get six decent innings from Lidle in his start today.

There's a traditional double header scheduled in Chicago today, making up for last night's rainout. Ernie Banks would be proud, although there's rain forecast today as well. It could be a very long day at Wrigley. Then again, there's a lot of things worse than a long day at Wrigley.

The Mets and Marlins present the pitching matchup of the day as Pedro Martinez takes on Dontrelle Willis. Given his great strikeout, walk and hits allowed numbers, it's amazing Pedro's allowed an ERA over 3.00. Part of it is that while right-handers aren't hitting Pedro for average, they are hitting him for power. Nineteen of the thirty nine hits he allowed to right-handers have gone for extra bases. Willis' ERA goes up and down with the month this year. He's coming off a July in which he posted a 5.52 ERA. We'll see if August returns him to the level we expect.

The Rangers open a four game series in Anaheim against the Angels, trailing LAnaheim by 1 1/2 games. It's going to be a tough first game as they send Kevin Millwood against Jered Weaver. Millwood is a road warrior in 2006, posting a 7-1 record and a 2.96 ERA away from Texas. He's struck out 21 more batters and walked 16 less on the road than at home in the same number of innings. Weaver's only made two starts in Anaheim, but he's yet to allow an earned run in the ballpark.

Enjoy!

Bronx Banter finds Sal Fasano talking about catching in the scorching heat.

It sounds like Chan Ho Park was seriously ill:

San Diego Padres right-hander Chan Ho Park is expected to have a transfusion on Thursday to treat intestinal bleeding that led him to lose half his blood volume.

Let's hope he gets better soon and they figure out what caused the bleeding.

Fish or Cut Bait has inside information on a new Marlins stadium. (Hat tip, Fishstripes)

Cardinals Diaspora made up his mind about Jeff Weaver:

First, I'd like to be the first to say that Jeff Weaver is one of the more disappointing pitchers I have ever seen. I'm not kidding. I remember about 4 years ago watching this guy in Detroit and thinking- "Damn. Wish the Cards had that guy. He's gonna be goooood!" Psssspht. He sucks. Hard. And now that he's blown his umpteenth chance at redemption it's time to bid his career a fond farewell and see if his brother is another flash in the pan or the real deal. History will remember the Jeff Weaver era in St Louis for two things. Blowing and Blowing some more. And if by some act of God you see JW make another start for the Cards this season, the body falling from the Eads Bridge will be mine.

I wonder how much of his early success was an illusion of Comerica.

Chase Utley is 22 games from tying Joe DiMaggio's hit streak, 10 games from tying Rose and Keeler for the NL record. Let's take a look at the odds of him making it.

For the probability of getting a hit, I like to use something I call hit average. It's a very simple calculation, hits divided by total plate appearances. I use this instead of batting average because the calculation is less complicated. Batting average is a conditional probability:

BA = P(Hit|AB)

By Bayes Rule, we can rewrite that:

BA = P(AB|H) * P(H) / P(AB)

But the the probability of an AB given a hit is one, so:

BA = P(H)/P(AB)

If we substitute the formulas for the probability of a hit and an at bat we get:

BA = (Hits/PA)/(AB/PA)

Where PA is plate appearances. This finally yields:

BA = Hits/AB

I bet you never saw anyone derive batting average before. :-)

Instead, I'm just going to use hits/PA as my probability. I'm going to do two calculations, one based on Utley's career numbers, the other based on his season numbers. This will give us a range of probabilities.

Utley's career hit average is .2599, while this season it's .2938. For hit averages, .290 is excellent. That's the probability of Chase getting a hit in a single plate appearance. But games are made up of multiple plate appearances, and he only needs to get a hit in one of those to keep the streak alive. Utley is averaging 4.6 plate appearances per game. So, in a ten game span we expect he'll have six games with five plate appearances and four games with four. We can use the Binomial Distribution to figure out the odds of his getting at least one hit in a four PA and five PA game.

Since each game is an independent event, we can just multiply the game probabilities to get the probability of a particular streak. For example, he needs ten game to tie Rose and Keeler. So based on his 2006 hit average, that would be six games at .824, or .824 ^6 (^ is the sign for an exponent) times four games at .751(.751^4). That works out to a 0.1 chance of tying the NL record, or 10%. Those are pretty good odds. Here are the various odds in a table:

The odds are against him against reaching any of these streaks, but the NL record is certainly doable, especially based on this year's performance.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Chase Utley reaches on a failed fielder's choice in the 8th inning. That doesn't count as a hit, so he's 0 for 5. There's only one out in the 8th, however, and the way the Phillies are hitting tonight, they may very well give Chase another chance. They've answered the Cardinals four runs in the bottom of the seventh with five of their own. A sac fly makes it 13-7 Phillies.

Update: Okay, the box score just changed, and he now has a hit. I thought the scoring was strange. When I first saw the play, I thought he beat out an infield hit. He's at 34.

Both the Red Sox and Marlins having men on 1st and 2nd in the bottom of the ninth, trailing by one run.

Update: After striking out two Red Sox to start the inning, Carmona hits two and walks Youkilis to load the bases. They're trying to set up Papi for the game winner again.

Update: Loretta doesn't give Papi the chance. He hits the ball off the Green Monster to plate two runs and give the Red Sox a 6-5 win.

Update: Wagner strikes out Cabrera on a high, outside, 99 MPH fastball. The Mets also take a razor thin 6-5 victory.

Update: Wagner strikes out Uggla for the second out. Girardi pinch runs for a pinch runner to get even more speed on the bases! It's up to Cabrera.

Meanwhile, former Red Sox Hanley Ramirez strikes out on a foul bunt after Wager gave up a hit and a hit batter to start the inning.

Chase Utley just struck out leading off the seventh to go 0 for 4 on the night. With the Phillies leading 8-3, the big offense probably means he'll bat once more in the game. The more times you can come to the plate in a game, the more likely you are to get at least one hit.

Chien-Ming Wang follows up his complete game shuout of the Devil Rays with 8 shutout innings against the Blue Jays. Once again, his strikeouts are low (3) , and his hits allowed are almost as low (4). Ron Villone's given up two runs in the ninth on a Glaus home run to make the final score 7-2 Yankees.

Ted Lilly's undoing, as Yankees fans will remember, was the home run. Jeter hit a solo shot and Posada added a two-run homer to account for three of the five runs Ted allowed in his 5 1/3 innings of work. He's now given up 20 on the season.

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

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.

Adrian Beltre's first inning homer was all the Mariners needed today, and all they received from the offense. Felix Hernandez and three reliever held the Orioles to one run on six hits and eight strikeouts.

Alfonso Soriano hit two home runs and Nick Johnson added one of his own, but it wasn't enough as the Giants defeat the Nationals 8-6. Washington was down 6-1, but scored five runs over the last three innings to make the score close. Jason Schmidt pitched six great innings, striking out 10 and allowing just one run. But the bullpen was shaky, letting the Nationals back into the game. Benetiz came in to get the last out, walked a batter and was pulled from the game. Stanton came in to strike out Escobar to end the contest. It looks like Armando's days as a closer are numbered.

It was a close game in Anaheim this afternoon when Mark Kotsay drove in the go-ahead run for Oakland with a single in the eighth inning. That brought on Huston Street to pitch two perfect innings and preserve a 3-2 victory for the Athletics. It's his fifth save of four outs or more and his second two inning save of the year. The Athletics take two of three from LAnaheim to extend their lead in the AL West.

The Rangers defense played a big part in today's 10-2 win over the Twins. They turned six double plays in the game, greatly reducing the impact of the Twins' 12 hits and five walks. Kip Wells pitched five okay innings for the win, allowing one run. Three of the six double plays came with him on the mound, two GDP's and a K/CS. He allowed nine base runners, but just one run. When the Rangers offense hits like it did today, however, they don't need much more from Kip.

Alfonso Soriano hits homer number 33 leading off the game for the Nationals. That pushes his slugging percentage to .592. Given that 20 of his 33 have come with the bases empty, it seems a waste of power to bat him leadoff.

Boof Bonser made today's start in Minnesota due to an injury to Francisco Liriano.

"It's not an elbow, it's just in the forearm, it's muscular," Minnesota pitching coach Rick Anderson said after Tuesday night's 9-0 loss to Texas. "It's just more of a precaution. You don't want to mess with him. If we were to run him out there and it's not 100 percent and something happens you'd never forgive yourself."

Anderson said Liriano would likely miss one start, adding that if it were late September he would likely start.

"He could pitch, but we're not going to let him pitch," he said. "He doesn't want to do this, but we made him do it."

Let's hope it is indeed not serious.

Adrian Beltre hits a line shot into the leftfield stands to give the Mariners a 2-0 lead over the Orioles in the first inning. Bedard allowed just two home runs all July.

As he allows five runs in the fourth inning, the Minnesota fans start booing Boof Bonser. Michael Young hit his 37th double of the season, which set off the boo birds. That ties Young with Mike Lowell of the Red Sox for the league lead. The Rangers are up 7-0 in the bottom of the fourth. Nice support for Kip Wells in his first Rangers appearance.

Jim Storer is the only fan baking in the sun at the New Haven Cutter's game today.

Mark Teixeira's home run stroke continues it's comeback. After hitting just nine home runs in 88 games before the all-star break, his second inning solo shot gives him seven in 20 games since the break. It also puts the Rangers up 1-0 on the Twins.

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

You can 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.

MetsGeek looks at Tom Glavine's problems. They're strikingly similar to those of Greg Maddux. Both had their strikeout rates fall off after great starts.

The Seattle Mariners are still in the thick of the AL West race, and they send their young potential star Felix Hernandez against one of the best pitchers of July, Eric Bedard. Left handers and road ballparks give Hernandez trouble this year, so today isn't a great combination for Felix. Bedard's cut way down on his home runs allowed. After giving up through May, he's only allowed two since.

The Dodgers can pull within three of the wild card with a second win against Cincinnati. Brad Penny faces Elizardo Ramirez. The Red Lizard's main problem is power. He's allowed a low OBA of .324 to batters, but they slug .430 against him. Penny's only allowed one home run on the road all year, helping him to a 5-2 record away from LA.

Enjoy!

Redleg Nation is concerned abou the low attendance at Great American Ballpark. I agree with the person who blames five consecutive losing seasons. While the Reds are in first place in the wild card, they haven't been an outstanding team like the Tigers. If they both play well and make the playoffs, the fans will come.

Ed Barkowitz remembers Kevin Stocker:

It appeared to be just another innocuous baseball trade.

On Nov. 18, 1997, the Phillies, coming off a 68-94 season, dealt shortstop Kevin Stocker to Tampa Bay for Bobby Abreu, the Houston Astros outfielder the Devil Rays had just selected in the third round of the expansion draft.

Stocker, who five seasons earlier solidified the Phillies' only hole during their magical run to the 1993 pennant, remembers the day clearly. He was at home with his wife, Brooke, and the two were cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the draft (which is about as romantic as most major leaguers get).

"I didn't know who Bobby Abreu was at the time, I don't think anybody did," Stocker said. "Obviously now it turned out to be a pretty good trade for Philly."

You don't hear that one discussed in all-time bad trades, but it should be up there. Stocker never had a good full-season with the Phillies. He was okay for Tampa in 1999. Tampa at the time seemed much more interested in veterans than untested youth, and it cost them dearly. Houston, of course, let him go in the first place.

There were two 1-0 games in the west last night. Richard Justice says Houston's win against San Diego was a blueprint victory:

And Tuesday was the blueprint victory: six innings from Andy Pettitte and three from Chad Qualls, Dan Wheeler and Brad Lidge. Lidge has been tested more than any player in memory and he keeps going back out there. Having heard his name mentioned in trade rumors, he probably has a touch of anger to his usual motivation. That's not always a bad thing.

As for the lineup, Phil Garner may no longer use Preston Wilson everyday when Berkman returns. Mike Lamb's days as an everyday player probably are over for now. This is Luke Scott's opportunity.

More than ever, power wins. With Berkman, Ensberg, Scott and Aubrey Huff in the lineup, they have four guys with legitimate power, and power is what they haven't had.

The Astros have seven teams to pass in the wild-card standings but they closed to within five games of Cincinnati. After a tumultuous week, they couldn't have had a better day.

The good news for San Diego is Jake Peavy pitched great. After a 7.13 ERA in July, his 1 run in seven innings was a welcome sight.

Coors was the other location for a 1-0 win as the Brewers held on to beat the Rockies. It's the third 1-0 game at Coors this season. That's tied with Minute Maid Park for most in the majors.

Update: Brew Crew Ball points out the exciting bottom of the ninth.

There was a one-run win in Anaheim as well. The Angels evened the series with the Athletics with a 3-2 victory. Neither bullpen allowed a hit in relief. Orlando Cabrera, who is now batting third, knocked out three hits and drove in a run to help the Angels to the win.

Barry Bonds sat out the Nationals/Giants game last night due to a swollen right knee. Washington took advantage of that to craft a 4-1 win over San Francisco. Livan Hernandez and Matt Cain both pitched seven strong innings, but Livan allowed one run to Matt's two. The Giants were hitless against the Nationals bullpen as Washington added two more runs against Chulk for their final tallies.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

With the scored tied at 0 in the seventh, Damien Miller singles with a man on third to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead in Colorado. Bush and Fogg are spinning gems in what's become the shutout captial of baseball.

The Dodgers defeated the Reds tonight 10-4. After a fifteen game streak in which they scored 3 runs or less 13 times, Los Angeles picked up 34 runs in their last four games. Needless to say, they've won four in a row. Wilson Betemit picked up two more hits, giving him five since joining the Dodgers. With a homer tonight, three of them are for extra bases.

C.C. Sabathia spread out 10 hits over eight innings but allows just one run as the Indians take a 6-3 win against the Boston Red Sox. Boston picked up just one hit in nine at bats with runners in scoring position. Meanwhile, in New York, the Yankees defeat the Blue Jays 5-1. A-Rod drives in two and Bernie Williams drives in three to support Jaret Wright for the win. Wright pitched five good innings, walking one and striking out five, but it took him 103 pitches to get there. Villone, Proctor and Farnsworth combined for four two hit innings to preserve the victory. They threw just 49 pitches.

The Yankees move percentage points ahead of Boston as they hold a 62-41 record vs. 63-42 for the Red Sox. It's going to be a fun last two months in the division.

Chase Utley didn't waste any time tonight, getting a single in the first inning to extend his hit streak to 33 games. Ryan Howard hits his 36th home run in the game as the right side of the Philadelphia looks better and better every day. The Phillies lead the Cardinals 5-3 in the bottom of the sixth in St. Louis.

I tuned in to watch the bottom of the ninth in the Mets/Marlins game. The score was 5-4 Mets, and Olivo singled to lead off the inning. Girardi sent Helms up to pinch hit for the pitcher's spot. For some reason, Joe had a pinch hitter with a .504 slugging percentage bunt. Wes layed down a good one to put Olivo at second. The announcers were then talking about how the Marlins had gone the longest of any team without a walk off home run. The last was off Braden Looper of the Mets in 2004. Willingham pinch hit and slammed the first pitch from Wagner way over the left field wall for the game winner. The Marlins take the game 6-5 and are now 13.5 games behind the Mets.

At age 26, Adam LaRoche finally developed the power you expect from a first baseman. He homered twice tonight, setting a new career high and helping to ruin a 10-strikeout performance by Ian Snell. Adam is now slugging .551 after slugging .468 his first two seasons in the majors. The Braves take a 4-1 win over the Pirates.

Are we starting to see the Leo Mazzone influence on the Orioles? Eric Bedard was close to being the pitcher of July. Tonight, Rodrigo Lopez pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings. His recent outings are encouraging. Even though he hasn't gone deep, except for one game he hasn't allowed many runs. Including tonight, his ERA over the last five starts is 3.49. He's walked seven and struck out 22 over his last 28 1/3 innings. Going deep into the game this evening is another good sign. Maybe he'll be the pitcher of August.

The Cubs and the Rangers suffered blowouts yesterday, each giving up 15 runs. Tonight, both clubs are turning the tables as the Rangers scored eight runs in the fourth for an 8-0 lead, and the Cubs scored seven runs over the first three innings for a 7-0 lead. Chicago stroked eight hits so far, six for extra bases, while the Rangers scored half their runs on two homers.

Carlos Guillen has the Tigers two extra-base hits tonight, a homer and a triple. That brings his slugging percentage up over .500 for the season. The Tigers lead Tampa Bay 6-2 in the bottom of the third.

Update: Guillen picks up a double in the eighth to complete the cycle. It's the third one this season. He's 4 for 5 tonight with three runs and two RBI. The Tigers lead 9-3 in the bottom of the 8th.

Update: It's the first cycle by a Tiger since Damion Easley on June 8, 2001.

Carlos Beltran picks up where he left off in July. He's 2 for 2 with a double and a homer to help the Mets to a 4-1 lead over the Marlins in the top of the fourth. That gives Carlos five home runs in his last three games. He's just five away from his career high in home runs.

According to the NESN broadcast, Jason Varitek requires knee surgery and the Red Sox placed him on the disabled list. Here's the story from the Globe.

Update: The surgery was speculation on the part of the announcers. That has not yet been decided.

Update: Ken Huckaby, called up to replace Jason, was hitting very poorly at AAA.

Mondesi's House thought hell froze over (and provides documentary evidence) but it was just ESPN confusing Pennsylvania cities.

Jason Beck sends this link that shows David Ortiz really does come through almost every time!

John Sickels wonders if there is hope of Eric Duncan. While his view is positive, let me add a caveat. I saw Duncan play last week in New Britain. He's already been moved from third to first defensively. From his play at first base, it's clear why. He played the position poorly. Now, I'm not one for wanting a lot of defense at first base, but you at least need to be competent at the position. I remember one play in particular. It was a slow roller down the first base line. It was going foul. He picked it up anyway, but the runner was blocking the throw to first. The second baseman didn't set up in foul territory to take the throw, but Duncan threw the ball anyway. It ended up in rightfield. Maybe he's just learning the position, but he has a lot to learn.

Little Leagues, Big Dreams just arrived in the mail. It looks to be a look at the pros and cons of Little League, and how it's grown into a big business told through the lens of the 2005 Little League World Series.

The Blue Jays and Yankees face each other in New York tonight, with the Blue Jays once again needing wins to climb back in the division and wild card races. They took three out of four against the Yankees in Toronto recently, but then went 2-5 vs. Seattle and Oakland while the Yankees took five out of six from Texas and Tampa Bay. It will be a battle of oft-injured free agents as A.J. Burnett faces Jaret Wright. With both teams getting a day off yesterday, the bullpens should be rested.

The pitching matchup of the day is in Cincinnati as Aaron Sele takes on Bronson Arroyo. Sele's ERA is rising as the year goes on. He was hit for a 6.17 mark in July. Arroyo suffered his first winless month of the year in July, going 0-3 with a 5.45 ERA. It was the home runs, as 8 of the 20 he's allowed came during the month.

Enjoy!

Only Baseball Matters speculates on why the Giants didn't make a deadline deal:

It was also telling that, in the end, the rest of the league saw the Giants exactly as I do, and overpaid collection of "veterans" that is worth essentially nothing. Schmidt had perhaps the most value, but Sabean was about 5 weeks late if he intended to try and get anything significant for the pitcher.

Schmidt's dismal run of starts since he peaked with his 16-strikeout gem -- and, by the way, how many times do we have to see Schmidt go 130 pitches and then fall apart for three months before we don't let him throw that many? -- virtually assured the Giants of having nothing to sell. Ray Durham had a hot streak that made him look tempting, I'm sure, but he soon reverted to form with a hamstring tweak and a couple of errors.

He is encouraged that Sabean is willing to let Schmidt go in order to get a couple of draft picks.

Jayson Stark opines on a trade that might have happened: Roger Clemens to the Red Sox.

Multiple sources say it was a trade that could have been made, even as late as Monday afternoon. All Astros owner Drayton McLane would have had to do was say: "You know, it's the right thing to do."

But apparently, that isn't what he said. Drayton McLane isn't ready to give up on his season. And he isn't ready to give up Roger Clemens.

The offensive player of the month is an extremely difficult choice in July. Start with Chase Utley. Not only did he hit safely in every July game, but he led the majors in OBA. He scored 26 runs (tied for first) and drove in 24. He posted a .755 slugging percentage to go along with his great OBA.

David Ortiz led the majors in slugging percentage at .798. His 14 home runs and 35 RBI also led the majors.

In between those two is Alfonso Soriano, who finished second in OBA and second in slugging percentage. The high OBA coming from Alfonso is a truly amazing feat.

Carlos Beltran hit three grand slams, and Juan Rivera had the month of his career. But I really think the award comes down to a choice between Utley and Ortiz. How to tease them apart? Look at the splits for Chase and David. They both performed well away from home. They both performed well in "clutch" situations. Ortiz drove in eight runs with the game tied. Utley hit over .500 with his team trailing. You can't even distinguish them by RBI percentage. Utley is at 23.38 for the month, Ortiz at 23.33.

Utley's OPS is 1.230. Ortiz's sits at 1.227. It's the OBA vs. power question, and does Ortiz's clutch persona trump that? The Sabermetric part of me wants to give the award to Utley. The fan in me wants to give it to Ortiz.

The sabermetrican wins, and Chase Utley is the Baseball Musings Offensive Player of the month for July 2006. Congratulations, Chase!

Pitcher of the month isn't quite so difficult. Six hurlers posted ERAs under 2.00 in at least 25 innings of work, with Justin Verlander leading the way with a mark of 1.01. However, Justin made just four starts and only pitched 26 2/3 innings. Jered Weaver didn't allow a home run in the month, but again, he's at the lower end of innings pitched in the month. John Lackey pitched an impressive moth, but his ERA is about 1/2 run higher than Francisco Liriano.

Jeff Francis deserves a deeper look. He made three of his five starts at Coors, allowing zero runs in two of those, including a complete game shutout. He wasn't, however, as consistently good as Bedard and Liriano. So it comes down to those two.

Francisco made one bad start, after a tiring All-Star break. Each picked up four wins. Liriano also allowed fewer hits in more innings, giving him better BA, OBA and slugging percentages allowed. Couple that with a better ERA and a much higher K per 9, and Francisco Liriano is the Baseball Musings Pitcher of the Month. Congratulations, Francisco!

Former Baseball Musings Players of the Month:

The difference between Dan Haren and Ervin Santana last night was an extra home run ball. Haren allowed a solo shot to Juan Rivera, while Santana gave up one run on a Bradley homer, then lost the game on a two-run shot by Jay Payton. Otherwise the pitchers spread out their eight hits allowed over the course of the game. Haren pitched efficiently, completing the game with just 105 pitches. The Athletics take a 1 1/2 game lead on the Angels.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.