Tom Haudricourt presents the Official Scorer's explanation for calling the only hit against CC Sabathia on Sunday:

"The play came off the bat, it was a spinning ball, to the right of a left-handed pitcher. In my opinion, it's not an ordinary play to make. It was difficult both because of the spin and because he has to make the play and turn completely around.

"The runner was well down the line. It would have been a really difficult play to make to get him. The standard for a hit or an error is an ordinary effort. In my view, it was a hit as a result of that standard.

"I called it immediately, believed it was a hit. I think that's a hit in every circumstance."

The Brewers appealed the call and hope to get a no-hitter for Sabathia.

It looked like Justin Morneau might not reach 20 RBI in a month for the first time this season. He came into Sunday afternoon's game against the Athletics with 18 RBI for August. He knocked in four runners today, including himself with a three-run homer. That brings his total for the season to 108.

Dodgers Andre Ethier and Casey Blake homer in the first inning to put Los Angeles up 4-0 on the Diamondbacks. Those are only the 11th and 12th home runs allowed by Webb this season. It's also the third game in which Webb allowed two homers. Half his home runs allowed have come in just three games.

The Tampa Bay Rays extended their AL East lead to 5 1/2 games with a 10-4 win over the Orioles. Rocco Baldelli went 3 for 3 with two doubles. I don't know what kind of treatment he received for his mitochondrial disease, but it seems to be working. Baldelli's averages now stand at .351/.442/.622 in 37 at bats. He's more than replaced Carl Crawford's offense.

Jason Bartlett came into the game with no home runs in 366 at bats this season. That was second only to Chone Figgins with 385 at bats. Bartlett let Juan Pierre take over second place as he hit his first home run in over a year. I guess he hits one very August if he needs to or not.

Despite the injuries (including Dioner Navarro), the Rays posted their best month ever, 21-8.

Update: The Angels lost to the Rangers 4-3, extending the Rays lead for home field advantage as well. Chone Figgins went 0 for 4 and now has no home runs in 389 at bats.

Jayson Werth did more damage against the Cubs today:

Werth hit a two-run double in the first and a solo drive in the fifth for his 21st homer of the season. Werth, who went deep twice and drove in four runs in Philly's 5-2 win Saturday, is 11-for-21 with four homers and 10 RBIs against the Cubs this season.

It's unlikely the Phillies would play the Cubs in the first round. Philadelphia is more likely to win the NL East than the Wild Card, so they would probably have the second best record among the division champions. If the teams did meet in the NLCS, I wonder if Charlie Manuel would play Werth more against the Cubs than he would normally?

The Astros completed a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals, winning 3-0 Sunday afternoon. With the Brewers sweeping the Pirates, St. Louis finds itself 6 1/2 games out in the wild card race, and now also trails the Phillies. The Cardinals are also seven games down in the loss column. Milwaukee's magic number to eliminate the Cardinals from playoff competition is 20.

Cristian Guzman picked up two more hits Sunday afternoon as the Natoinals extended their winning streak to six games, downing the Braves 8-4. Guzman delivered his six straight multi-hit game and leads the Nationals with 16 hits during the winning streak.

Washington only has to go 11-14 the rest of the way to prevent a 100 loss season.

Miguel Cabrera drove in all four Detroit runs today as the Tigers came back to defeat the Royals 4-2. That gives Cabrera 104 RBI on the season and a good chance of topping his career high of 119 set in 2007. However, Cabrera has only scored 66 runs this season. In his four full seasons he scored between 91 and 112 runs. His drop in OBA this year makes him a less useful player. Before, he could start or finish a rally. Now, he much better at the end than at the beginning.

While his slugging percentage improved as the season progressed, his OBA hasn't. We'll see if this is a one-year aberration or if this trend continues.

The Mets bullpen pitched three shutout innings this afternoon as Pedro Martinez picked up his fifth win of the season. The Mets pen takes a lot of flack for their blown leads, but they deserve some credit for their good games as well. They're doing something right since the Mets are 17-7 over their last 24 games. New York takes 2 out of 3 from Florida, pretty much ending the Marlins playoff chances. The final score today: 6-2.

Last night, Adrian Beltre helped the Mariners win a game with his body, this afternoon he did it with his bat. Beltre knocked out two home runs and a single, driving in three runs as Seattle beats the Indians 6-4. With 23 home runs going into September, he has a good chance of topping his Seattle high of 26.

Just in the nick of time, the Arizona Diamondbacks acquired David Eckstein from Toronto for pitcher Chad Beck. I wonder if they are looking for Eckstein to improve the OBA at shortstop or the batting average at second base?

Beck is in his third year of A ball. The Diamondbacks couldn't seem to decide if he should be a starter or a reliever. Maybe the Blue Jays can give him some direction.

CC Sabathia takes a one-hitter into the bottom of the ninth. The only hit against him came in the fifth, when Andy LaRoche rolled one halfway between third and the pitcher's mound. Sabathia tried to pick it up with his bare hand and dropped it. The official scorer immediately called it a hit because he felt it was going to take an extraordinary effort to throw the batter out. However, the replay shows there was more than enough time for CC to make the throw.

He just struck out the first two batters in the ninth.

Update: Freddy Sanchez flies out end the game. The crowd was chanting, "Change the score!" CC strikes out 11, picking up his third shutout as a Brewer as the Pirates fall 7-0. Those three shutouts lead the NL. He's now pitched eleven games for Milwaukee, throwing 88 innings. His pickup by the Brewers was easily the best deal in the season.

Roy Halladay breaks the 16 win mark, the level he reached each of the last two seasons. The Blue Jays defeat the Yankees 6-2 as Halladay goes seven innings. With 103 pitches thrown, I'm a little surprised that he didn't go for the complete game, but with a good lead there was no reason to stretch him. His only mistakes were gopher balls to A-Rod and Giambi. His 17 wins are the third highest of his career. With a little luck, he might be able to equal his career high of 22 set in 2003.

Joey Votto ends August on a high note, going four for four against the Giants with four RBI as the Reds win 9-3. In his last 10 contests, Votto has five multi-hit games and is hitting .486 with a .649 slugging percentage. He's also drawn six walks for an OBA well over .500.

CC Sabathia walked Freddy to start the fourth inning against Pittsburgh. Nate McLouth then hits a line drive up the middle. It wasn't a hard hit ball, but Sabathia's follow through had him falling away from the flight of the ball. He used his left hand, however, to reach back and snare the ball out of the air for the out, then threw to first for the double play. Sabathia's height and wing-span came in handy on that play. He's yet to allow a hit through four innings as the Brewers lead 1-0.

Jim Thome hit career home run 536 to tie Mickey Mantle for 14th on the all-time list. His first inning shot gave the White Sox a 2-0 lead which they have maintained into the third inning.

Alex Rodriguez hit a solo shot for the Yankees, cutting the Toronto lead to 4-1. That's 547 career for Alex, placing him one behind Mike Schmidt for 12th on the all-time list. There's a 15 home run gap between Schmidt and Reggie Jackson, so Alex would need a very good September to catch Mr. October.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

Pedro Martinez makes an important start for the Mets today against the Marlins. His walks and strikeouts have been very good in his last two outings, but that hasn't translated into low number of hits allowed and low numbers of runs allowed. With Arizona and Chicago all boasting three great starters, and Milwaukee close with Manny Parra as a third, the Mets could really use Pedro on his game to go with Santana and Pelfrey.

CC Sabathia goes for his 9th win since joining the Brewers. The big difference for CC after the trade comes from his home runs allowed. CC gave up 21.3 HR per 200 innings this season with Cleveland, 10.1 with Milwaukee. He'll face Pittsburgh for the second time in a row, this time drawing Jeff Karstens. After getting off to a good start with the Pirates, Karstens allowed nine runs in his last nine innings.

The Dodgers and Diamondbacks play the rubber game of their series with Derek Lowe facing Brandon Webb. Lowe's had a terrible season on the road this year, posting a 5.47 ERA to go with a 2-6 record. His .317 BA allowed on the road is over 100 points higher than he BA allowed at home, .215. Players hit Webb for a higher average when Brandon is at home, but he's still managed a 9-1 record and a 3.08 ERA in Arizona. A win tonight gives him 10 at home, 10 on the road, and 20 before September first.

Enjoy!

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With the score tied in the bottom of the ninth against Florida on Saturday, a lead-off walk by Aaron Heilman led to a runner on third with one out after a sacrifice and a wild pitch. At that point, Heilman issued two intentional walks to load the bases, then walked Josh Willingham to force in the winning run. It was a wild inning for Heilman, to say the least.

Heilman issued the 10th walk off walk in the majors this season. I define a walk off walk (WoW) as a walk or hit by pitch in the bottom of an inning (9th inning or later) in which the score is tied and the batter is credited with an RBI. This may turn out to be the biggest WoW season of the decade:

Season	WoW
2000	10
2001	8
2002	9
2003	9
2004	11
2005	9
2006	5
2007	9
2008	10

Can pitchers issue two more in the final month of the season?

There's really no excuse for the WoW. Even if a pitcher throws the ball right down the middle of the plate, he still has a decent chance of getting an out. I'd rather give my defense a chance than take the risk of walking in the game winning run.

Cathal Kelly describes the Blue Jays comeback against the Yankees Saturday:

It was the epic meeting of a resistible force and a movable object at Yankee Stadium yesterday afternoon.

In the end, Toronto's spluttering offence won a thumb war with the Yankees' spaghetti-limbed relief corps. They overcame the fading Bombers with a comeback 7-6 win in the brutally muggy Bronx.

The Jays are 11th in the AL in runs per game, the Yankees bullpen ERA of 3.96 is ninth. Interestingly, the Jays knocked out hits against pitchers who don't give up many. Bruney's opponents are hitting .176 against him, Marte's .227 and Ramirez's .197.

After a 13-3 loss to the Royals on Saturday, Bless You Boys sums up the Tigers:

Owned, pwned, fail - whatever you want to call it, it's plain ugly. Just when you think the Tigers have fallen as low as they can go, they push those shovels a little deeper and find further depths. The same might be said of Kenny Rogers, especially when he's facing the Royals. Last night, he allowed six runs on eight hits - including three home runs, two by rejuvenated Tigers killer Billy Butler - in six innings. In five starts against Kansas City this season (the most he's faced any team this year), Rogers has a 1-4 record and 7.07 ERA.

That can be a problem with pitchers in their 40s. At some point their athleticism fades, and eventually the ability to fool batters. I assume he made five starts against the Royals because Leyland knew Rogers was a weak link in the staff and wanted to put him in a situation where he could succeed. The Royals are the second lowest scoring team in the AL, but even they ripped apart Rogers. The probability is farily high that Kenny won't be back next season.

(Note, however, that the Royals do hit lefties much better than righties.)

Bleeding Blue and Teal links to a video to Adrian Beltre getting hit by a batted ball. He was on second with a runner on first, Beltre is called out and the batter gets a hit. The ball was likely a double play grounder, however, and Eric Wedge argued that Beltre intentionally interfered with the ball. It wasn't as blatant as Reggie Jackson in the World Series, but he certainly looked like he turned to present a bigger target to the ball. If the umps had seen the play as intentional, they would have granted a double play and the inning would be over. Instead, Seattle scores another run in the 10th inning, and wins the game 4-3.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Phillies/Cubs game features two starters pitching better since the All-Star break for the same reasons. Both Brett Myers and Ted Lilly cut down on their home runs and their walks. With Myers, the transformation was extreme, going from a 5.84 ERA to a 1.66 ERA. Lilly cut his home run rate by about 1/3, but that was enough to bring his ERA down from 4.68 to 3.25.

After a shutout by the Red Sox and a big win by the Twins, the White Sox lead in the AL Central is down to 1/2 game over Minnesota. Chicago send Mark Buehrle to the mound against Michael Bowden, making his first major league start. You have to love the 21-year-old's minor league stats. In 406 innings he's struck out 389, walked 106 and allowed 29 home runs. This is the second year in a row Buehrle posted a good ERA by only has a record a bit over .500. I wonder if he usually matches up against another good pitcher?

The Mets can put another nail in the coffin of the Marlins season as Mike Pelfrey takes on Ricky Nolasco. The Marlins played better than anyone expected in 2008, they just don't have the stamina for a full season yet. Since his 0-5 May, Mike's record stands at 11-2 with a 3.03 ERA. Most impressively, he's only allowed five home runs in 107 innings. Nolasco is one Marlin who isn't fading. He's posted a 2.43 ERA in August with 43 strikeouts in 37 innings.

The Dodgers try to keep from falling off the edge of the NL West precipice as they send Chad Billingsley against Dan Haren. In three starts against the DBacks, Billingsley allowed 13 runs in 14 innings, walking 8 and giving up three home runs. Haren is having a tough August. He's 3-1, but his 5.29 ERA may be taking him out of the Cy Young race.

Enjoy!

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The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Does anyone still think the Yankees should have kept Joe Torre as manager? I'm not looking for comments on the way the Yankees released him, but the actual decision to let him go. He's not exactly marching the Dodgers into the post season at this point.

We're getting ready to send my daughter off to college, so blogging will be light for the next couple of days.

I'm pressed for time, so a very quick games of the day. Two pitchers who were teammates a couple of months ago face off in Chicago as Joe Blanton takes on Rich Harden. Rich has been nearly unhittable in Chicago, whereas Joe is pitching about the same as he did in Oakland.

Two former teammates also face off in New York as A.J. Burnett opposes Carl Pavano. Both may end up free agents at the end of the year. They may face different stories, however, as we wonder how high Burnett's salary might go while we wonder who would consider signing Pavano.

The Sox will win tonight as Javier Vazquez takes on Daisuke Matsuzaka. Javier is on a roll in August with great control and few home runs allowed, while Matsuzaka is undefeated in the month.

The Dodgers have yet to win on the road this trip as they face their biggest test of the season in Arizona. Hiroki Kuroda faces Doug Davis. Working in the Dodgers favor is a poor month by Doug Davis, 1-3 with a 7.50 ERA.

Enjoy!

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I'll be appearing on ESPN 1470 in Tampa Bay at about 3:40 PM EDT this afternoon. You can listen at the link.

Update: They moved the interview to 4:05 PM EDT.

Via Phillies Nation, the Phillies acquire Matt Stairs from Toronto for a player to be determined. He'll be the replacement for Geoff Jenkins.

Stairs power disappeared this season as he's slugging just .394. He can still draw a walk, however. He may not be able to get the big hit in a rally, but he won't kill one either.

Howie Kendrick re-injures a hamstring and heads to the 15-day disabled list. With their huge lead in the AL West, the Angels can afford to give Kendrick all the time he need to heal for the playoffs.

I took a good look at Kedrick's stats, since the article described him as "one of the Los Angeles Angels' top hitters this season." That's true, but I wonder if they would say the same about Mike Napoli. Mike's batting average is 90 points lower than Kendrick, but his OBA is one point higher and his slugging percentage is 66 points higher. Kendrick really has a low number of walks for a .300 hitter.

Both the Athletics and Angels scored late in the game to pick up victories Thursday night. It was quite the chess game in Oakland as the managers used small ball, pinch runners, pinch hitters and pitching changes to set up a Kurt Suzuki walk off double as the Twins fall 3-2. Minnesota is now 1 1/2 games behind the White Sox. Suzuki's strange season continues. August is a down month after a very good July. There's no consistency in his game. When you take his season as a whole, he's a good hitter for a catcher. His averages in any given month show a lot of volatility, however.

Brandon McCarthy pitched six good innings for Texas, allowing the Angels just two runs, one earned. His bullpen took a 5-2 lead into the eighth, but then gave away the lead. Wright loaded the bases on two singles and a walk, then walked in a run. Madrigal came in to try to stop the bleeding and Juan Rivera doubled to clear the bases and give the Angels the lead, then scored an insurance run.

That also set up Frankie Rodriguez for his 51st save. As seems to be usual with him, he allowed a hit, but kept it to a single. The Angels keep place with Tampa Bay, staying one game back in the race for best record.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Only Baseball Matters makes the case for Tim Lincecum winning the Cy Young award.

Josh Beckett won't start Friday against the White Sox. Instead, he's visiting Dr. James Andrews. That's seldom good news.

Cole Hamels pitches seven brilliant innings, leaving the game allowing just one run to the Cubs. He did not walk a batter, something very difficult to do against Chicago. He yields to one of the best bullpens in the game, but they didn't look like it tonight.

Madson comes in and gives up a home run, double and single. Durbin enters and walks Derrek Lee to load the bases, then Aramis Ramirez deposits a ball into the bleachers for a grand slam. The Cubs come back from a 4-1 deficit to take a 6-4 lead, and they are still batting after chasing Durbin with one out and one on.

Update: Kerry would give up a hit, but Wood retires the final three batters to earn the save. Chicago goes to 50-19 at home, and their 84 wins leads the majors by three.

Willy Aybar hit a home run as part of a three-hit effort as the Rays down the Jays 3-2. That puts them at 81 wins, guaranteeing their first .500 season in their eleven year history.

In the three weeks since Longoria went down, Aybar is batting .306 with a .569 slugging percentage. It's the luck of the Rays this season. Their best hitter goes down with an injury, and his replacement produces a great stretch of hitting. The Rays now lead the Red Sox by 4 1/2 games, five in the loss column.

Elijah Dukes hits two home runs tonight against the Dodgers. He's scored three time and knocked in four as the Washington Nationals are blowing out the Dodgers 9-2 in the eighth. Cristian Guzman is a triple short of the cycle as he drives in two.

Kershaw lasts just 2 1/3 innings, allowing five runs. That raises his road ERA to 6.69. He might be the next Chan Ho Park.

Update: Guzman triples for the cycle as the Nationals win 11-2. It's the second cycle since the Expos moved to Washington and the eighth in franchise history.

The Dodgers have now dropped seven straight and head to Arizona for three games. With Los Angeles 3 1/2 games back, they won't be able to pass the Diamondbacks even if the Dodgers win all three games.

The Phillies-Cubs game is not in high def. Should I watch this to see if instant replay gets used, or watch the big screen, crystal clear, rhyming Jays-Rays?

Ty Wigginton hit two solo home runs today, including the game winner, as the Astros defeated the Reds 3-2. At age 30, Ty is having the best season of his career. He's always been okay. His career .331 OBA and .459 SPCT are useful, but not outstanding. This year, however, Ty is putting up number not so easy to replace. After his two for four afternoon, Ty's OBA stands at .364 and his slugging percentage is a healthy .551. He's five short of his career high in home runs. Despite being around since 2002, Ty will still need another season before he's eligible for free agency. The way he hit this season, he'll certainly make a good deal of money in arbitration, and if he can repeat the season, lock up a nice piece of change in free agency.

Correction: I meant OBA and slugging percentage.

Jason Giambi came off the bench, hits a two run blast to centerfield to tie the game and then comes up with the bases loaded in the ninth and sends a hump-back liner into center to win the game 3-2. At least the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry goes out on a high note for New York in Yankee Stadium.

Both Lester and Mussina pitched very well, aided by the wide strike zone of the home plate umpire. Even the NESN pitch tracker was showing balls well off the plate called for strikes.

Cody Ransom went for for two with a double, ending his perfect 1.000/1.000/4.000 season. He's now at .750/.800/2.500.

My lastest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

Waiting for next year notes that Cleveland's Kelly Shoppach is the best hitting catcher in the majors since the All-Star break.

The Red Sox and Yankees play their last game at Yankee Stadium this afternoon. The first major league game I attended was played between the Red Sox and Yankees at the old stadium. What I remember most was Mel Stottlemyre's triple and that I got to see recent call-up Thurman Munson catch. Both teams were out of it but it was exciting to finally see the ballpark. There's something about walking into a green enclave in an urban area. I got the feeling that I stepped into an oasis. Twice more I would experience the same emotion; the first time I entered Harvard Yard and the first time I saw the grass at Fenway Park. They remain my three favorite green islands in areas of urban bustle.

They'll end with a fine pitching matchup as Jon Lester faces Mike Mussina. The two come in with nearly identical ERAs, Lester slightly better at 3.45 than Mussina at 3.49. Jon's pretty much shut down the Yankees this season, allowing just two runs in 16 innings while striking out 16. As an example of how much Mike improved over last year, in 7 1/3 more innings he's walked 14 fewer batters and allowed 16 fewer hits.

The Dodgers try to win a game on their road trip before they head to Phoenix for a showdown with the Diamondbacks. Clayton Kershaw takes on John Lannan. The Dodgers have a chance as Lannan is terrible at home, going 2-7 with a 6.27 ERA. Kershaw is nearly as bad away from Los Angeles, posting a 5.79 ERA on the road.

The replay era kicks off at Wrigley Field (last night game, first replay) as Cole Hamels opposes Ryan Dempster. Ryan's held opponents to a .213 BA this season, with very little difference between left and right handed hitters. Lefties do hit for a bit more power. Hamels opponents are batting .220 against him, but for some reason lefties hit him for power. Hamels held the platoon advantage against hitters in 24% of the at bats against him, but those lefties delivered 33% of the home runs off Cole.

Enjoy!

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Via FishStripes, Ronald Blum provides details of the Network Operations Center for instant replays:

Baseball spent $2.5 million and two months installing fiberlink lines, monitors and dedicated telephones to link every ballpark with the NOC. Major League Baseball Advanced Media will now collect both teams' video feeds from each game and send them here.

For the 20 to 30 games each year with no telecast, MLBAM already is sending its own production truck, with six-to-eight cameras. And just in case there's a power failure at the NOC, the control room has emergency battery power just behind the wall and a generator on the roof with at least 12 hours of fuel.

The transformation is dramatic for a site where Oreos, Mallomars and Animal Crackers used to be cooked up--and the change is about as radical for MLB.

Baseball was the last replay holdout among the major U.S. professional leagues, one so conservative that National League president Len Coleman chastised umpire Frank Pulli for consulting a monitor in May 1999 before awarding Florida's Cliff Floyd a double rather than a home run in a game against St. Louis.

"You can slow a picture down so much that you can see the grains of sand and the clay around the bag. You can see whether or not a person has shaved that day," Solomon said. "The commissioner has come around and he's embraced it, because the technology is undeniable. I'm sure there was a time when all of us watched baseball on black and white TVs. Now I bet you everybody in the room has a high-def TV."

Solomon goes on to say that replay will never be expanded beyond the boundary calls. My guess is that as soon as there is a blown call that costs a team a World Series (see 1985), replay will be used for everything.

Tim Lincecum proved to be too much for the Rockies as San Francisco finally got to Livan Hernandez and won the game 4-1. Back-to-back home runs by Bengie Molina and Pablo Sandoval in the seventh chased Hernandez and gave the Giants all they needed for victory.

Lincecum now stands at 15-3 with a 2.43 ERA. He's struck out 210 in 185 1/3 innings. Could we get two Cy Young winners from sub .500 teams this season? The Indians are winning again, so they may end up with a decent record. Will NL writers vote for Lincecum over Webb?

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Diamondbacks and Dodgers both lost today, Greg Maddux falling to Washington 5-4 this evening. Even more amazing, Livan Hernandez is out pitching Tim Lincecum through six. Dave Roberts just tripled with one out, and tried to score on a fly ball to shallow center. Willy Taveras nailed him at the plate with a perfect throw. The Rockies maintain a slim 1-0 lead.

The Red Sox defeated the Yankees 11-3 tonight, pushing New York seven games back in the wild card standings and for all intents and purposes ending the chance of the Yankees making the playoffs. This isn't a good team playing poorly. No one sits there thinking, "If only Sidney Ponson and Darrell Rasner can live up to their potential." Age, injuries, and lack of depth caught up with this group, and in the last season in the House that Ruth built they're more than likely to be watching the playoffs from the sidelines.

It was a great run. For thirteen straight seasons New York played in the post season. They fielded the greatest team I've ever seen in 1998. They won three World Championships in a row for the first time in 25 years, and came a few feet away from making it four in a row. The organization gave us Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera. They turned Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius into stars.

The Yankees turned Joe Torre into a Hall of Famer. He experienced some moderate success as a manager before the Yankees, but New York proved to be the perfect fit for Joe's personality and methods. He took over an intelligent team. He protected them from the owner and the media, and they produced wins and comebacks. He showed that someone could manage under Steinbrenner for the long term.

The team was always interesting. Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, David Wells, Mike Mussina, Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon showed they weren't afraid to spend to money. They generated headlines, controversy, adulation, and yes, wins.

While it was clear for a while this teams wasn't as good as the ones of the last decade, tonight pretty much seal the deal. In two games that would make them contenders once again, the Yankees went down without much of a fight. So it goes. Now the team can focus on next year. They'll have money, a new stadium, and a good group of stars. I suspect they won't be down for long.

David Purcey puts it all together in his eighth major league start. He goes eight innings, throwing just 92 pitches. His problem so far this season was walks, but he issued zero base on balls while striking out eleven. He made just one mistake, allowing a solo home run to Carlos Pena. He lost.

Matt Garza gave up six hits and three walks over 7 2/3 innings, but kept the Blue Jays off the board. Only one of the hits went for extra bases, a double. Keeping the ball in the park made all the difference tonight.

For the second day in a row, the Mets and Phillies are tied late. Carlos Degado just hit his second home run of the game, an opposite field shot down the leftfield line to tie the score at 3 in the top of the eighth. Last night's contest was one of the most exciting games I watched all year, and this one is shaping up to try to match it.

Update: After an infield single by Beltran, Charlie Manuel brings Lidge into the game, and he allows three runs to score. A Murphy double plates one, and a Schneider bloop down the leftfield line brings in the other two. The Mets give their bullpen a three run lead to hold.

Update: The Mets bullpen pitches a perfect 8th and 9th and take back first place in the NL East.

After going nearly two years without a complete game, the Marlins picked up their second in eight games tonight. Josh Johnson throws 113 pitches in holding the Braves to one run as the Marlins get back in the win column with a 4-1 victory. Johnson threw 80 pitches for strikes, walking three while striking out eight. Given that the Marlins offense isn't performing up to their early season levels, Florida is going to need more pitching performances like this to stay in the race.

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

The Baseball Musings Radio show is coming up tonight at 7 PM EDT on UBroadcast.com channel 100. You can join in the show and chat here.

Update: Show's over, chat box removed.

Jody Gerut triples in the seventh to start a three-run rally, then singles in the eighth to drive in the winning run as the Padres come back to defeat the Diamondbacks 5-4. San Diego sweeps Arizona and gives both the Dodgers and Rockies a chance to gain a game tonight. Gerut picks up five hits in the series, including the game-winning home run on Monday.

Beyond the Boxscore takes a look at how sabermetric teams are doing this year and concludes they are doing just fine. It seems to me that if sabermetric teams and more traditional teams are both at .500, it doesn't really matter which side you choose. Given that RJ actually figured out which teams were truly sabermetric (the Rays are), it's not as bad as I thought in this post.

The Diamondbacks and Padres failed to score through the first five innings. Randy Johnson allowed just two hits while recording seven strikeouts. Cha Seung Baek allowed four hits, and like Johnson just one walk. All six hits are singles, and Randy Johnson managed the first safety of the afternoon.

It's like they're playing limbo, seeing if they can go lower than the Cubs/Pirates two runs.

Update: As Baek approaches and passes 100 pitches, the DBacks start pounding the hits. Tracy and Dunn single to set up a sacrifice fly, and Hensley enters in relief. He gives up a triple and a double, and the DBacks lead 3-0. Hensley posted a 1.35 ERA in August despite 13 walks in 13 1/3 innings coming into today.

Update: Randy Johnson gets his second hit of the day, and the Diamondbacks lead 4-0 as Hensley gives way to Hampson.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

Scott Boras claims the contract signed by Pittsburgh's first round pick, Pedro Alvarez, is invalid. From the quotes coming out of the Pirates camp, the dispute appears to be centered on timing:

"In fact, the contract between the Kansas City Royals and Eric Hosmer, another Boras client, was submitted to the office of the commissioner after our contract with Pedro was submitted," Coonelly said. "Mr. Boras is apparently satisfied with the $6 million bonus that he secured for Mr. Hosmer and has not challenged the validity of that contract. Mr. Boras has been informed that if he pursues a claim that our contract with Pedro was not timely, he puts Eric Hosmer's contract with Kansas City in jeopardy."

Hosmer, drafted immediately behind Alvarez, also received a $6 million signing bonus. No. 5 pick Buster Posey also got more from the Giants - $6.2 million - than Alvarez did from the Pirates.

Alaverz is now on the restricted list, meaning he can't play for anyone until this is settled. Of course, maybe Boras is right, and he does indeed want to put Hosmer's contract in jeopardy. I could imagine if Boras proved the timing was off, an arbitrator might make both players free agents.

The Cubs won two high scoring games to start the series against the Pirates, 12-3 and 14-9. This afternoon, runs were scarce, but the Cubs managed to score all of them.

Zach Duke gave up two in the seventh. He got into trouble, giving up a single and double to start the inning, but then recorded three straight outs. Unfortunately, the first two advanced the runners and the Cubs win the game 2-0. Jason Marquis pitched seven innings without walking a batter for the win. The Cubs are 4-4 this month in games in which teams scored a combined five runs or less.

Dwight Jaynes wants fans to see the replays the umpire sees. Right now, they won't be seen in the ballparks:

So in other words, the people sitting at home on the couch watching the game on television will know more about what's going on than the people in the ballpark? What else is new? It's been going on for years in sports and it's ridiculous. A player leaves the game with an injury -- if you're watching on television, you almost immediately know the problem. If you're at the ballpark, though, you're often mystified.

I know in the past ballparks have refrained from showing controversial replays so as not to incite the crowd. Maybe in this case, they don't want the fans influencing the decision of the umpire.

I agree with Dwight, however. Make the system transparent.

The Twins are in danger of getting swept by the Mariners as they send Glen Perkins against Ryan Feierabend. The Twins, scoring at a pretty good clip most of August, managed just two runs in each of the first two games. The Twins knocked around Feierabend in his first start of the season, but Ryan came back to pitch five strong innings against the Athletics. Perkins opposed Feierabend the last time he faced the Mariners. He didn't pitch great, but no walks allowed him to last six innings for the win.

Tonight's game in Philadelphia should favor the Mets as Johan Santana opposes Kyle Kendrick. Johan is giving the Mets their money's worth in August, going 3-0 in five starts with a 1.49 ERA. Kendrick walked more batters than he struck out in August, so it's not surprising his ERA stands at 6.75 for the month.

Just when you think the Rockies might be climbing back into the NL West race, you notice Livan Hernandez facing Tim Lincecum. For the full season, the opposition is hitting .348 against Livan with a .519 slugging percentage. Those numbers for a batter would merit MVP consideration. Lincecum's slugging percentage allowed, .314 is lower than Livan BA allowed!

Enjoy!

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The Tao of Stieb learns the wisdom of Yoda, "Always in motion is the future."

We remember back when Roy was 23 (hey! same age as Ricky Romero!) and he was getting knocked all over the place. We were pretty convinced back then that Kelvim Escobar was a star, Chris Carpenter was going to be a mediocre number four pitcher and that Halladay may end up being a washout.

All three turned out to be pretty good.

The Colorado Rockies defeated the Giants Tuesday night 7-2. Coupled with a bad outing by Brandon Webb leading to a 9-2 San Diego win over Arizona, the Rockies find themselves six games out of first place. With nine wins in their last eleven games, including two out of three from the Dodgers, the Rockies gained three game on Arizona and six on Los Angeles. Playing mostly on the road, they've allowed just 41 runs over that time.

Can they continue? The remaining schedule is good. Sixteen of their remaining 28 games are against teams with losing records, and three come against Houston, a .500 team. The have three games with the Dodgers and six with the Diamondbacks, just enough to catch both without help from other teams. Last season the big push didn't happen until Sept.16. They allowed 51 runs in their last 15 games to win the wild card. This season, a miracle in the mountains needs to take them to the division title.

The Rockies went 17-10 with great hitting in July. They've gone 14-10 with good pitching in August. If they can get both in September, they may turn the NL West into a three-team race.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Mets and Phillies go thirteen innings. Shane Victorino leads off the bottom of the 13th with a triple. Jerry Manuel then has Scott Schoeneweis issue two intentional walks to get to the pitcher's slot. Charlie Manuel is out of options, so he send Brett Myers to the plate. Brett appears to have instructions not to swing at a pitch, and works the count to 3-2 before being called out on strikes. Coste then bats and drives a ball over the drawn in outfield to plate Victorino and give the Phillies an 8-7 victory and propel them into first place.

Neither starter pitched well, but the Mets staked Pedro to a 7-0 lead, five of which he gave back. Nice comeback by the Phillies, and nice work by their bullpen who held the Mets scoreless for the last nine innings.

Kevin Millwood pitches his second consecutive complete game, once again allowing just one run. That was just enough, as the Rangers defeated the Royals 2-1. Texas fans, has Kevin changed something in his delivery or developed a new pitch, or is it just him getting to pitch against poor AL Central teams?

Geovany Soto drives in seven of the Cubs fourteen runs tonight, knocking out two doubles and a homer. He's doing a great job of getting on base in August, and his three extra-base hits bring his August slugging percentage over .500. The Cubs needed all seven of those RBI as they down the Pirates 14-9.

The Milwaukee Brewers put the Cardinals playoff hopes in jeopardy tonight, blowing out St. Louis 12-0. Hardy, Braun and Fielder combined for eight hits, five runs and four RBI. Ben Sheets stops a personal two-game losing streak with six shutout innings. The Cardinals did work him, however, as he needed 100 pitches to get through six. The Brewers now lead the Cardinals by 4 1/2 games in the Wild Card race, five in the AFILC.

Vernon Wells home run streak continues as he goes deep tonight, his third game in a row with at least one long ball. He has four in that stretch, more than a quarter of his season total of 14. He's not just hitting home runs, as his three hits tonight give him nine in those three games. Combined with a strong six inning effort by Roy Halladay, the Blue Jays defeat the Rays 6-2. Tampa's lead over the Red Sox is down to 3 1/2 games.

The Atlanta Braves stage a four run rally in the ninth to defeat the Marlins 10-9. It's only the seventh one-run win for the Braves against 25 losses. Kevin Gregg gives up five singles and a walk for his eighth blown save.

The Philadelphia Phillies complete a comeback from a 7-0 deficit to tie the Mets in the bottom of the ninth. Jayson Werth scores from first on an Eric Bruntlett double, the relay throw skipping by the catcher at the plate. The Mets bullpen gives up two runs in four innings, but Mets fans get to kvetch about them again. This time, Ayala gives up the tying run.

Easley, however, might get another chance at the cycle. He's 4-4 with a walk, and needs the double.

Derek Lowe can't buy a win. He pitches an eight inning complete game against Washington, allowing six hits, one walk and two runs. Collin Balester and the Nats, bullpen, however, hold Los Angeles to just one run despite giving up seven hits, four walks and two hit batters. Ryan Zimmerman, however, starts four double plays, one unassisted to take the Nats out of trouble and Washington gets a rare win. The Dodgers drop to two games under .500 and 3 1/2 games out of first pending the outcomes of the Diamondbacks game.

Cliff Lee wins his 19th game easily as the Indians score ten runs against the Tigers, winning the game by six. Lee showed his usual great control, walking one in 7 2/3 innings as he allowed just two runs. That keeps his ERA at 2.43, and he's looking more and more like the Cy Young winner every start.

The Indians extend their winning streak to nine games. Four home runs tonight gives the team 18 in the nine games. With the win, Cleveland moves past the Tigers into third place, but remain 11 1/2 games behind the White Sox. With 31 games left, the Indians would need to win 26 of those just to reach 90 wins. With only three games left against the Twins and six against the White Sox, Cleveland would need a lot of help to make the playoffs at this point.

Correction: Fixed rank of the Indians.

Five Chicago White Sox hitters collect multi-hit games as the White Sox trounce the Orioles 8-3. Orlando Cabrera led off and led the way with a four for five evening, knocking out two doubles and a triple as he scored three runs. Carlos Quentin added to his MVP credentials with three hits, two of them doubles.

Gavin Floyd gets the win, lasting eight innings, allowing four hits, one walk and two runs. He came into the game with a 6.00 ERA in August.

Damion Easley is three for three for the Mets tonight with a single, triple and home run. He just needs a double for the cycle, and with the Mets lead 7-3 in the fifth inning, he should get two chances to at the two bagger. He came into the game with a .344 slugging percentage, making him an unlikely candidate for a cycle.

Update: Easley gets a single in the sixth. The Phillies cut the lead to 7-5 before being retired in the fifth.

Carl Yastrzemski left the hospital today, a week after triple bypass surgery. Here's to a speedy recovery!

Evan Longoria is still looking to return on September first when rosters expand.

He will probably wait another couple of days to start swinging a bat.

"I want to be pain-free before I start swinging. I just need it to where it's comfortable when I swing," Longoria said. "It's definitely not pain-free, but there's a lot less pain than there has been in the past week. That's a big plus. I'm just tentative to put it to full-boar yet."

The Rays weathered the injury well so far, going 11-4 since Evan broke the wrist.

Coco Crisp just scored from second on a groundball to third. With two out, the Red Sox had runners on 2nd and 3rd. Bailey hit a grounder that hit the third base bag. A-Rod fielded the ball in foul territory, but the throw couldn't get Bailey at first. Coco was running for home all the way and scored before Giambi could react. The Red Sox chase Pettitte in the fifth and lead 6-2.

Update: Damon hits another home run, cutting the lead to 6-3. That's two tonight off Wakefield.

ESPN reports that the Braves and Red Sox are close to a deal that would send Mark Kotsay to Boston.

An MIT graduate figured out how to make a wood bat that competes with aluminum models in durability.

It is made from 12 wedges that are combined with adhesive and clamping pressure. The result is that the outside of each wedge has a tight grain surface, guaranteeing the best hitting surface at every spot on the bat.

"The result is that it is very strong, and as a result of it being strong it is very safe," Dill said. "It is impossible for this maple bat to shatter in the way the maple bats shatter in the major leagues today. You will never have a barrel separating from the handle. The worst thing that can happen is a crack. There is a never a catastrophic break."

There is also no trampoline effect, Dill said. The ball does not jump off the bat.

The bat is expensive, but if it lasts longer and saves some people from injury, it just might be worth it.

Baseball announced the implementation of instant replay starts with the next set of series. Three games will use it on Thursday, then all games on Friday:

For now, video will be used only on so-called "boundary calls," such as determining whether fly balls went over the fence, whether potential home runs were fair or foul and whether there was fan interference on potential home runs.

I thought this was rather humorous coming from the man who implemented the wild card and interleague play:

"Like everything else in life, there are times that you have to make an adjustment," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said following Tuesday's announcement. "My opposition to unlimited instant replay is still very much in play. I really think that the game has prospered for well over a century now doing things the way we did it."

People need to remember replay will not be perfect. I've seen runners look safe on one angle and out on another. It will, however, be better than just the umpire alone. I hope they did their best to get all the bugs out of the system.

The Red Sox finally put J.D. Drew on the disabled list after playing a man short for a week.

Jerry Remy was just discussing hitting against Tim Wakefield. He described how hitters wait for pitch up in the zone, "When it's high, let it fly!" About two second after he finished that statement, Wakefield delivered a high pitch to Damon that Johnny delivered down the leftfield line for a home run. The Yankees are off to a 1-0 lead. Counting the home run, Damon has scored 20 runs in 22 games in August.

My latest column at SportingNews.com looks at a way to predict RBI, taking into consideration the ability of the players batting in front of the power hitter to drive in runs.

One thing that amazed me during the writing was how much Jeff Francoeur hurt the Braves this season. The Braves have only been outscored 612-590; they should be around a .500 team, not a .435 team. With any kind of decent power from Francoeur, the Braves likely add 30 runs. With all the one-run losses, those 30 runs could be huge. Instead of looking to build a team for next year, they'd likely be in the Marlins spot, on the edge of the playoff race.

Three games today involve teams going head to head for a playoff spot. The Red Sox make what is probably their last visit to Yankee Stadium (a Rays collapse seems unlikely at this point, along with either the Twins or White Sox playing poorly enough to lose the wild card). Tim Wakefield gets the call against Andy Pettitte. Tim made two good starts before the Red Sox shut him down due to a stiff shoulder. We'll see how rusty he is tonight. Pettitte's overall number look okay, but he gives up a lot of power with men on base. Only six of his 17 home runs came with the bases empty.

The Mets go into Philadelphia for a two-game series leading the Phillies by 1/2 game. They'll send Pedro Martinez against Jamie Moyer in a battle of veterans. Pedro's posted a 3.16 ERA in August despite allowing seven home runs in the month. Moyer is enjoying his best season since 2003. He's brought the long ball under control, allowing just two home runs since the All-Star break, good for a 2.47 ERA. The opposition has not homered off him in August.

The Cardinals trail the Brewers by 3 1/2 games as Milwaukee visits St. Louis. Ben Sheets faces Todd Wellemeyer in game one. The Brewers lost four of Ben's last five starts, but only scored five runs in those four losses. Ben has a 4.36 ERA over those five games, so both sides are contributing. Wellemeyer's ERA is about 1 1/2 runs higher at home. In about the same number of innings, he's walked twice as many batters in St. Louis

Also on tap, Cliff Lee goes for his 19th win and third place in the AL Central as the Indians face the Tigers. Brandon Webb pitches for his 20th win as the Diamondbacks continue their series in San Diego.

Enjoy!

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The Diamondbacks picked up Jon Rauch to solidify their bullpen, but he took the loss Monday night as the Padres took home a 4-2 victory. Rauch's walks and strikeouts are as good as they were with Washington, but the two-run shot by Jody Gerut was the fifth home run Jon allowed in 15 innings of work with Arizona. He gave up a total of five home runs in 48 1/3 innings with Washington. Seven of the ten runs he's allowed for the DBacks came on home runs. With the Dodgers loss earlier in the evening, Arizona fails to gain a game in the NL West.

The Twins fell to the Mariners Monday night on a blown by good old reliable Joe Nathan. Adrian Beltre doubled leading off the ninth and scored on a double play. Then in the 11th, with one out and a man on first, Adrian ended the game:

Adrian Beltre hit a ball as hard as any Mariner has hit one all season Monday night.

And the way the season has gone, no one would have been surprised if Beltre's 11th-inning blast off Minnesota's Jesse Crain was hit too hard.

"He crushed that ball, but it had so much topspin on it that I thought, 'Oh, man, that ball isn't going to clear the fence,' " manager Jim Riggleman said.

And if it didn't clear the fence?

"There's no way I'm going to score from first if that ball hits the wall," Raul Ibanez said. "I doubt if there is any human alive who's going to score on that ball, as hard as he hit it. He smoked that ball."

It did clear the fence, and that dropped the Twins one game behind the White Sox and 1 1/2 game behind the Red Sox.

Richard Griffin makes the case for and against J.P. Ricciardi staying on as GM in Toronto. He has two years left on his contract. On the pro side:

Ricciardi has built a farm system that is about two years from producing some key major leaguers. He deserves to see his best prospects bear fruit and watch the young guns from recent drafts develop and reach the majors.

Well, it took him long enough. I received this email last night from Michael Hobson who writes at The Fan View.

Remember how the Jays said that were using older catchers like Zaun and Barajas as stop-gaps because the veterans were simply filling space and biding time until the organization's catching star was ready. That was the catch phrase a few years back when the position of phenom catcher was held by Guillermo Quiroz--now a serviceable back-up in Baltimore.

Next up was Curtis Thigpen. The organization promoted his value as the next guy until Toronto baseball fans were witness to a guy who looked like he swung a toothpick, and hit as such.

Lastly, there is Robinson Diaz. A player that was hyped as the best of them all. A player that was touted to take over the catching position perhaps as early as late this season--but most likely it would occur at the start of the next season. This was a player that was recently sent to the Pirates as compensation when the Jays acquired a mediocre major league third baseman from Pittsburgh.

JP needs the assurance that he is a smart baseball man in the mould of his major league mentor Billy Beane. It is certainly unfortunate for the Jays that the bright student never developed into anything more than a bright student.

My bet is that J.P. is gone at the end of the season.

Jorge Says No is a new blog, mostly about the Mets. Stop by and say hi.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

It was Grady Sizemore early and Franklin Gutierrez late as the 1-2 hitters for Cleveland combined for three home runs against the Tigers. Grady led off the first and third innings with long balls, while Gutierrez's shot with one out in the tenth proved to be the game winner for the Tribe. Cleveland has won eight in a row and can pass Detroit to move into third place tomorrow as Cliff Lee goes for his 19th win.

Jim Thome sandwiches himself between Foxx and Mantle with his 535th career home run. That give him eight for the month of August. It's his best of the year so far in terms of home runs, but with a 1 for 4 tonight, he's only batting .239 on the month. Eleven of his 17 hits have gone for extra so far, so he's doing damage. His shot proved to be the game winner as the Orioles fell 4-3 in the regularly scheduled game.

After getting off to a good start with the Cubs, Jim Edmonds was 0 for 17 over his last seven games. That ended tonight with three long hits, two doubles and a triple. He scored two and drove in one.

Kosuke Fukudome was just 2 for his last 18, but picked up three hits as well against the Pirates. He drove in four as the Cubs easily defeated Pittsburgh 12-3.

With John Maine going on the disabled list, Mike Pelfrey steps up to pitch a great game against the Astros. He goes the distance for his second complete game in a row. He did not allow a run until the ninth, allowing just six hits and no walks while striking out six. He now given up four earned runs in his last 25 innings.

Carlos Delgado drove in six runs with two three-run homers. That raises his slugging percentage to .493. The Mets win by a final score of 9-1.

Brett Myers loaded the bases with one out, bringing up Kent and Manny in the top of the seventh. He got ahead of Kent 0-2, then threw what looked like two strikes that were called balls. He struck out Kent, then got Manny to fly out deep to right to end the threat. The Phillies lead 3-0. Myers has eight strikeouts in his seven innings of work.

It's starting. Once replay is in place for home runs, people will want to use it for other things:

The real irony here, and with some of the other notable botched calls this weekend, is that just last week the MLB Umpires' union complained about and eventually settled on a system for using instant replay to review disputed home run calls, and only home run calls. No discussion has been made of reviewing balls and strikes, or safe/out plays at a base using instant replay, but there have been noises about using it for checking outfield catches that might actually be trapped balls and other difficult judgment calls.

Like, you know, run-downs. This kind of play begs for the use of instant replay, and yet the MLB umpires stubbornly refuse to budge.

And before you know it, every close play at first, every borderline ball four and strike three called are being reviewed. Prepare for five hour games that aren't played by the Yankees and Red Sox.

The Mets place John Maine on the disabled list due to a bone spur:

Maine said rest helped alleviate the pain the first time and hopes another break will make him available for the final couple of weeks of the regular season.

This will put pressure on Oliver Perez to step up. If he can pitch like he did in July, it should help.

The Orioles won the suspended game against the White Sox in the 14th inning:

Lou Montanez singled in the go-ahead run, and the Orioles beat the White Sox 4-3 Monday night in the conclusion of a game suspended after 11 innings by rain on April 28.

With the score 3-all in the finale of a four-game series in Chicago, play was stopped with the infield unplayable. It was the Orioles' final scheduled visit, so baseball officials ruled that the game would be completed in Baltimore.

Nick Markakis led off the 14th with a single off Horacio Ramirez (1-3). After a single by Kevin Millar, a sacrifice and an intentional walk loaded the bases, Montanez greeted D.J. Carrasco with a soft single to center.

That gives the Twins the chance to gain at least 1/2 game on Chicago.

Johnny Cueto right elbow is strained and he'll miss at least one start for the Reds. He's been pitching better in August, so that appears to be a loss for the Reds.

It appears Eddie Guardado is headed back to the Twins for Mark Hamburger. Eddie's having a good year out of the pen, giving up just three home runs in 49 1/3 innings. Opponents are hitting .220 with a .286 OBA. Plus, he's only pitched in 55 games. Not used everyday, his arm must be far from tired! :-)

Hamburger is just 21 years old. His ERA is high in rookie ball this season, but his strikeouts, walks and home runs are all good, just what you want in a reliever. This could be a juicy pickup for the Rangers down the line, as long as they don't fry his arm.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

The Phillies try to return the favor and sweep a four game series from the Dodgers tonight. The overall score in the three games is not close as Philadelphia scored 22 runs to Los Angeles's five. It was a little closer at Dodger Stadium where the Phillies lost 22-16. Chad Billingsley brings a 3.10 ERA into the game. His 9.30 K per 9 is second in the NL only to Tim Lincecum. Brett Myers is coming off a complete game shutout and owns a 1.82 ERA in August. He's walked four and struck out 26 in the month.

Dan Haren and Jake Peavy matchup for the second time in a row. The pitching duel didn't develop as both were tagged for five earned runs. Playing in PETCO Park tonight could give us the low scoring game we expected last time.

In Seattle, Francisco Liriano takes on the Mariners and Miguel Batista. Liriano has not allowed an earned run in three of the four starts since his return to the majors. Batista walked seven more batters than he struck out this season, walking batters at a 6.3 per 9 clip.

Enjoy!

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Outs per Swing interviews Andrew Friedman, the GM of the Rays. Nothing earth shattering, but they are talking about David Price:

TR: With the dominating season he's had so far, David Price's name has come up a lot recently. Are we close to seeing Price in a Rays Uniform? And have you thought about what role he would serve on the staff? Could he be the 2008 Joba Chamberlain?

AF: David has made tremendous progress in only [18] pro starts and has shown every bit of the potential that made him the first pick in the draft. He is not a finished product, but he has the ability and makeup to make a difference at the big league level for many years. How he fits into our puzzle here has been an interesting topic of discussion and we look forward to continuing that as we watch David progress.

View from the Bleachers reprints some research from Bill James Online looking at the results of long and short at bats in terms of pitches seen. Players hit for a higher average and more power in short at bats, but get on base more in long at bats.

Two White Sox hitters rose to the top of the American League last week. Alexei Ramirez drove in 11 runs, the most in the majors. His eight hits included a triple and three home runs. Nick Swisher led the AL with four home runs in four consecutive games. Unlike Ramirez, he also drew three walks, giving him a better OBA and slugging percentage. He also scored more runs. Grady Sizemore posted a pretty good week, helping Cleveland to extend their winning streak to seven. Seven of his ten RBI came in one game however. So for hitting all week, and doing more things well, Nick Swisher is the Baseball Musings AL Hitter of the Week.

In the National League, Albert Pujols made the choice easy. He posted the highest OBA and Slugging percentage in the majors. He did get a little competition from Mark DeRosa, who hit four home runs. Albert, however, used the week to catch up to Chipper Jones in the race for the NL batting title. Both players are now listed with a .359 BA, although Chipper's is a bit better out to four decimal places. With 11 hits, six for extra bases, four walks and only one strikeout, Albert Pujols wins the Baseball Musings NL Hitter of the Week.

On the pitching side, it's mighty tough to argue with Rich Harden. The recent addition to the Cubs rotation won two games in a powerful fashion. Harden struck out 21 batters in 14 innings without issuing a walk. He only allowed two hits in each of his seven inning performances, and the only run came on a solo homer. For devastating the opposition, Rich Harden wins the Baseball Musings NL Pitcher of the Week.

The pick for AL Pitcher of the Week proved more difficult. Kevin Slowey and Anthony Reyes posted the best ERAs among pitchers with 10 or more innings. Slowey, despite allowing 13 hits in 14 innings, showed the better control, striking out 17 and walking none. Reyes kept the ball in the park, while Kevin allowed two long balls.

Francisco Rodriguez picked up three more saves, bringing his season total to 50. He reached that plateau two weeks earlier than Bobby Thigpen in 1990, who recorded his 50th save Sept. 15th. (The season started a week later in 1990 due to the lockout.) Frankie did not have a perfect week, however, giving up a hit in each outing.

Taking everything into consideration, Kevin Slowey gets the nod. His great strikeout and walk numbers, combined with his low ERA makes him the Baseball Musings AL Pitcher of the Week.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Phillies win in the bottom of the 11th as Pedro Feliz homers deep to left center to make the final score 5-2. He also hit the game tying single in the ninth. He's not much of a hitter overall, but he has hit much better with men on than with the bases empty this season.

The Phillies gain a game on the Mets, cutting the NL East lead to 1/2 game.

Once again, Tom Tango is looking for your help in rating fielders. Here's your chance to add your expertise to the fans scouting report.

Anthony Reyes pitches seven innings for the Indians tonight, allowing just one run. That lowers his ERA since joining Cleveland to 2.22 over 24 1/3 innings. The biggest difference in Reyes from his time in St. Louis is his home runs allowed. He allowed 33.4 home runs per 200 innings with the Cardinals, only one so far for Cleveland (8.2 per 200 innings). Otherwise, he's really not pitching that well. His strikeouts are low and his walks are high. I'd be very surprised if he keeps his ERA this low without improving at least one of those stats.

The Phillies make two nice catches in the top of the sixth against the Dodgers. Loney hit a long drive to deep centerfield, and Shane Victorino ran it down, making it look easy. With Garciaparra at first with two out, Martin hit a pop foul down the rightfield line. Ryan Howard raced down the line dived near the stands and made the catch. The Phillies are known for their offense, but in a 1-1 game they are flashing a little leather.

Howard, who made the great play to end the top of the inning, leads off the bottom half.

The Marlins kept their playoffs hope alive, gaining a game on the Mets with a 5-2 win over the Diamondbacks. Brandon Lyon came in to pitch the ninth for Arizona with Florida leading 3-2. He gave up three doubles to plate two more runs and increase the odds of the Marlins holding off the DBacks in the bottom of the inning.

Lyon raised his August ERA to 14.21. He's given up five doubles in the month out of eleven for the entire year. That has helped the opposition to a .694 slugging percentage against the pitcher.

It what was an otherwise wild game, the Reds might have lost Johnny Cueto:

Reds starter Johnny Cueto left after three innings with soreness in his right triceps tendon and will be examined Monday in Cincinnati. Cueto gave up one unearned run but didn't allow a hit and walked three.

This was the fourth extra-inning game of the day.

The Angels staged a late comeback to defeat the Twins 5-3, knocking Minnesota 1/2 game behind the White Sox in the AL Central and one game behind the Red Sox in the AL Wild Card race. The Angels scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth off Reyes and Crain, lowering the Twins bullpen record to 21-17. Francisco Rodriguez reached the 50 save plateau. Thigpen in 1990 didn't reach 50 saves until September 15th.

The two teams combined to strike out twenty batters while issuing no walks. That's tied for seventh most strikeouts in a nine or more inning game in which neither team issued a walk since 1957. Mark Prior and Javier Vazquez met up in Chicago that day to combine for 26 Ks, and Luis Ayala added one in relief for 27.

Robinson Cano went four for five this afternoon to help the Yankees to an 8-7 victory over the Orioles. Lately, the Yankees fortunes seem to be following Cano's hitting.

Dates	Cano BA	Yankees Record
July 18-26	.514	8-0
July 27-Aug. 13	.210	5-12
Aug. 13-24	.351	6-3

The Brewers take 12 innings to down the Pirates 4-3. Milwaukee picked up 12 hits off Pittsburgh starter Paul Maholm in six innings, but could only plate two runs. Sabathia also lasted six giving up eight hits and just one run. For the game, the two teams combined for 31 hits, but only six of those came with runners in scoring position. The last hit was one of those as Hardy singles home Weeks from second after a stolen base to win the game. The Brewers keep pace with the Cubs and maintain their lead over the Cardinals.

Rich Harden continued his great pitching for the Cubs today, lasting seven innings with eleven strikeouts. Once again, a solo home run proves to be the only way to score against Rich. He's now allowed nine runs pitching for Chicago, five on solo homers.

He's now struck out 70 in 49 innings for the Cubs, 12.9 per nine innings. With that many Ks, he allowed a mere .162 batting average. He even through 109 pitches today as the Cubs seem to be willing to let him go deeper in games now. Chicago wins by a final score of 6-1.

The White Sox take the final game of their series with Tampa Bay 6-5 in 10 innings (lots of extra innings games today). A.J. Pierzynski figured almost won the game single handedly. He singled to start the inning, then moved up to second on a fly ball to Upton. He then made a mistake, getting caught in a run-down on a grounder by Dye, but Willy Aybar was called for interference and A.J. took third on the play. After an intentional walk to Thome, Alexei Ramirez singles in A.J. for the win. The White Sox keep pace with the Red Sox in the wild card race, and could take first in the AL Central if the Twins fail to hold their 3-1 lead over the Angels.

Three of the smaller Red Sox players hit for power this afternoon as Boston downs Toronto 6-5 in 11 innings. Pedroia, Crisp and Lowry average 5' 11", 180 pounds, but their three home runs accounted for five of the six Red Sox runs. Lowrie's shot in the 11th proved to be the game winner.

Boston takes two out of three from Toronto, dropping the Blue Jays eight games back in the wild card race. It's going to be very difficult for Toronto to make the playoffs at this point.

The Astros down the Mets in 10 innings as Houston wins the battle of the bullpens. Both starters allowed four runs, Wolf over six innings, Perez over 6 1/3. Both pens pitched well through the ninth inning, but in the tenth Feliciano allowed home runs to Ausmus and Erstad. Meanwhile, the Astros pen finished the day perfect, retiring all twelve batters they faced. They did it without recording a strikeout. The Houston relievers came into the game averaging 7.3 K per 9.

Carlos Beltran hit two home runs to drive in three of the four Mets runs as they lose 6-4.

The Braves and Cardinals are playing in the sixth inning. Albert Pujols is 2 for 2 with a homer, Chipper Jones is 0 for 2, and Albert has passed Chipper in the batting race, .359 to .358. We'll see if that holds up by the end of the game.

Update: Pujols ends the game 2 for 2, Chipper 1 for 3 and the two are tied at .359. Chipper is at .359459...., while Albert is .35867, so Chipper is still leading by less than a point. The Cardinals win the game 6-3.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

It's the trade show today as three pitchers who migrated to the National League try to to continue to help their new teams to the playoffs.

CC Sabathia aims to remain undefeated as the Brewers host the Pirates and Paul Maholm. While Sabathia holds the lowest ERA in the majors since the start of July, Maholm ranks twelfth. He's posted excellent strikeout, walk and home run numbers over that stretch.

Rich Harden sits number two on that ERA list. He gets what should be an easy assignment as he takes on Jason Bergmann and the Washington Nationals. Bergmann's big problem, apart from run support, is extra-base hits. He does a good job of limiting the number of batters reaching base, but gives up lots of doubles and homers to move the ones who do reach long distances. Opponents are just 2 for 25 against Harden with runners in scoring position since he joined the Cubs. He's allowed as many runs with the bases empty (four home runs) as with men on base.

Finally, Joe Blanton hosts the Dodgers' Hiroki Kuroda on ESPN. Kuroda is just 2-7 on the road. His walks and home runs go up while his strikeouts go down. Blanton comes off two poor starts in which he allowed 17 hits and 8 runs in 10 innings of work. He did strike out nine, but the balls in play against him kept finding holes.

Enjoy!

Find World Series odds for all these teams at Bodog Sportsbook.

Nick Carfardo pens "The Sky is Falling" piece on the Red Sox:

Is the sky falling?

Well, not yet. But it's dangling. The Sox could use a reinforcement or two right about now (Tim Wakefield's expected return Tuesday should be huge), but the waiver wire just isn't packed with players who are better than what they have. Brian Giles was their best shot at landing a hitter who could make an impact, but he elected to exercise his no-trade and continue his surfer-boy lifestyle. Jeff Bailey has had a very good Triple A season, but every time he gets called up to the big leagues, he looks like a big guy with a slow bat.

So the Sox are likely to go with what they have.

The Red Sox came into the season with some of the same concerns as the Yankees. They had some older players who might decline (Varitek, Lowell, Ortiz, Ramriez, Wakefield), some injury risks (Drew, Beckett) and some dependence on youth (Ellsbury, Pedrioa, Lester and Buchholz). The Yankees problems manifested themselves early, so New York had time to deal with them. The Bronx Bombers are better now than early in the season, although probably not good enough to make the playoffs. The Red Sox faced some problems early (Ortiz, Buchholz) but had the depth at that time to weather the adversity. Now, with a number of injuries coming at once and most avenues for change closed, Boston finds itself in a tough position. Instead of just worrying about the Yankees, they find themselves challenged by two teams from the midwest.

Boston, Chicago and Minnesota are 2-3-4 in the AL in runs per game in August, all around six runs per game. The Twins are tied with Tampa Bay at 3.38 for the best ERA in AL, however, with Chicago 0.8 runs back in 5th and Boston another 0.6 back in 8th for the month. The Red Sox are scoring enough to keep winning, but they may be allowing too many to keep pace with the Twins and the White Sox.

Dana Eveland revamped his delivery in his stint at AAA and came back to pitch a good game against the Mariners:

Dana Eveland always started his delivery with his hands over his head as a nod to his idol, Nolan Ryan.

He's abandoned his boyhood hero, though, and for good reason: Eveland's control is much, much better when he begins his delivery with his hands at his belt. On Saturday night at Safeco Field, Eveland made his first start with the A's since revamping his style during a brief demotion to Triple-A Sacramento, and he was terrific.

Seattle ranks 12th in the AL in runs per game (Oakand 14th) so it may not be that great a test. However, Eveland was skating by with a high walk rate early in the season, so if this does get that under control, it's should be a boost for the A's.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Carl Pavano's return was a success. He last five innings throwing 91 pitches. Pavano allowed three runs on seven hits, only one of the hits coming after the second inning. Most encouraging was his one walk and five strikeouts. With the Yankees leading 4-3 in the sixth, he's in line for the win.

Brandon Backe just finished four perfect innings against the Mets. He's struck out three and thrown just 44 pitches so far. The Astros staked him to a 5-0 nothing lead, mostly on a three-run homer by Lance Berkman. He's two for two and added a double for half the cycle so far.

Update: Backe issues a walk in the fifth, then Ryan Church breaks up the no-no with an RBI double. The Mets trail 5-1.

Pat Burrell picked up three hits and drove in five runs this afternoon as the Phillies defeated the Dodgers 9-2. His 30th home run gives the team three players at the level as he joins Howard and Utley. A good argument can be made that Pat is the MVP among those three. He leads Utley by 18 points in OBA, while Chase has Pat by six in slugging percentage. Utley, however, drives in and scores more runs and plays a tougher defensive position. If Pat carries the Phillies down the stretch, however, his bat might be enough to get him some votes.

The Rays score four runs in the top to the eighth to down the Chicago White Sox 5-3. That inning nullified a great pitching performance by Javier Vazquez, who took a perfect game into the sixth and a two home run performance by Jermaine Dye.

The Rays seem to be winning games late. Their last three wins all came with runs from the seventh inning on. The main reason appears to be that Tampa Bay's bullpen is superior to their opponents.

Through games of 8/22/2008

2008 OPS	Rays Hitters	Rays Opponents
Vs. Starters	.766	.729
Vs. Relievers	.741	.650

It's not that the Rays hitters get good late, they're just more likely to score than their opponents. As long as the game is close, they have a chance to win.

Josh Beckett continues to experience numbness in his hand and won't start on Tuesday. He could go as early as Friday.

"It's gotten better," he said. "We had the one day (Friday) where it kind of came back. That's why we decided to do what we did. It has gotten better. The treatment and stuff is definitely working."

Francona intends to be "overly cautious" with Beckett, who is 11-9 with a 4.34 ERA in 23 starts.

It seems to be caused by the way he sleeps, so they are putting a cast on his arm at night to protect the arm.

The 4-5-6 hitters for the Cubs today combined for seven hits in 15 at bats, driving in seven of Chicago's nine runs as they down Washington 9-2. Aramis Ramriez hit two three-run homers to bring his RBI total to 90.

Mark DeRosa also homered, extending his career high to 17. He appears to be swinging for the fences this season. He's hitting many more homers, but it also looks like he'll finish the season with 20 to 25% more strikeouts as well.

In April, Jon Lester threw eight shutout innings against the Blue Jays. It was a turning point in Lester's season as that game started a streak in which Jon went 11-2 with a 2.65 ERA. The Blue Jays got a chance to get back at Lester for that game and did so with a vengeance. Toronto banged out eight hits in 2 1/3 innings scored seven runs, five of them earned. They're batting in the bottom of the fourth now (almost two hours into the game) with men on second and third with two out. They're in a good position to win this game with a 7-0 lead.

Update: Overbay singles off Youkilis's glove and it's 9-0 Toronto.

Update: Vernon Wells hits his second home run of the game to make the score 11-0 Toronto. That gives Wells 12 homers on the season, passing Matt Stairs for the team lead.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

Scott Kazmir faces Javier Vazquez as the Rays and White Sox continue their series in Chicago. Since the All-Star break, Kazmir's control took a nose dive. He walked 3.4 batters per nine innings before, 5.3 since. The extra pitches he's throwing shortened his average outing from six innings to 5 1/3. Vazquez is having his best month of the season, posting a 2.48 ERA in August. He's only allowed two home runs in the month after giving up six in each of the previous three.

Clayton Kershaw is the new Mr. No Decision. In fourteen starts, he's only recorded a 2-3 record. He'll need to average more than five innings per start if he wants to record wins. Cole Hamels tries to make it two in a row for the Phillies against the Dodgers. Hamels is less than two innings shy of his 2007 total. Despite giving up the same number of walks, two fewer homers and 14 fewer hits, his ERA is only 0.17 runs lower.

The Rockies host the Reds as Edinson Volquez takes on Aaron Cook. Volquez's BA allowed drops from .261 at GAB to .197 on the road. Cook is going through a rough patch in August, allowing 28 hits and 13 earned runs in 16 1/3 innings.

There are also three debuts of a sort today. Dirk Hayhurst makes his first major league appearance, pitching for the Padres. Despite good strikeout and walk numbers throughout his minor league career, Hayhurst is just making the majors at age 27. Of course, his gets added to the list of my favorite baseball names.

Brandon McCarthy spent the year on the disable list, but comes off today after work with Nolan Ryan. He returns to the majors with 13 straight scoreless innings at AAA. The White Sox are in contention this season with help from John Danks, and Texas hopes McCarthy can do the same for them next season.

Finally, Carl Pavano tries to make up for his lost contract as he goes against the Orioles. Starting him against a weaker team away from New York is probably a good idea. However, it is Baltimore, and they send their ace Jeremy Guthrie to the mound. Yankees fans like to travel south to see the team play (cheaper than going to Yankee Stadium) so it may be like home with the boo birds if Carl doesn't pitch well.

Enjoy!

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It's a good thing some on my commenters didn't see this.

A number of pitchers turned in fine performances out west Friday night. Aaron Harang went into Coors and reversed his troubles, tossing six scoreless innings as the Reds won 8-5. Harang labored a bit, throwing 115 pitches. Given that he allowed eight runs in his two starts since coming off the disabled list, this was a huge sign of progress for the Reds ace.

Glen Perkins used his defense as only five of twenty five balls in play against him fell for hits. He delivered eight scoreless innings against the Angels as the Twins win easily 9-0. Denard Span continues to spark the team. His three for four raises his OBA to .407. That included a three-run homer.

Randy Johnson struck out 13 in seven innings as he continues to return to his Cy Young form. His defense and his bullpen didn't help, however. Johnson gave up three runs, two unearned and the bullpen allowed two more as the Marlins kept pace in the NL East with a 5-4 victory. Johnson recorded 38 K in his last 33 1/3 innings.

Tim Lincecum continued to make his case for a Cy Young award with eight shutout innings against the Padres. In five games against San Diego this year, Tim is 2-0 with an 0.79 ERA. The Giants take the game 5-0.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Adam Wainwright returned to the Cardinals rotation tonight and allowed the Braves just one run over six innings of work. He also went three for five, one of three three-hit games by Cardinals hitters this evening. St. Louis's offense scored 15 runs so far and they're batting in the bottom of the eighth.

The Braves keep getting worse. Assuming they don't come back from a 15-1 deficit in the ninth, they will have lost 11 of their last 12 games, allowing at least 86 runs. I read the complaints of Yankees fans every day, but their team is on a pace to win 86 games. They ought to look to Atlanta for a reality check.

Cody Ransom came in as a late inning defensive replacement for Jason Giambi. With the Yankees knocking around the Orioles bullpen, Ransom came to bat in the ninth with two on and two out, and delivered a three-run homer to make the score 8-4 New York. Xaiver Nady hit the next pitch out of the park for the final run of the game.

For Ransom, it was his second time to the plate this season. He homered in his other appearance. That gives Cody a perfect 1.000/1.000/4.000 batting line. He should quit the season now so he can see how much his 5.000 OPS can bring in a contract. :-)

Rocco Baldelli hits a home run over the leftfield fence to extend the Rays lead of the White Sox to 4-2 in the eighth. It's Rocco's first home run since returning from his illness. It was also his first extra base hit, having gone 4 for 16 coming into this game.

Update: A double later Ben Zobrist goes deep to give the Rays a four-run cushion.

Greg Maddux came into tonight's game as hot in August as Kyle Kendrick was cold. Of course, Maddux gets lit up by the Phillies, allowing seven runs in 5 2/3 innings. Kendrick matches the innings, but allows just one run and Philadelphia keeps pace with the Mets with an 8-1 win. Howard, Utley and Coste homered. For Chase, it was his 31st of the season, one short of his career high.

Johan Santana runs his scoreless streak to 16 innings as the Mets defeat the Astros 3-0. He gave up hits but not home runs, getting tagged for eight safeties in seven innings. He walked just one, however, and struck out five.

You can see in Santana's opposition batting stats (since 2000) how he improves as the season progresses. Batters are close to the Mendoza line against him from June through September.

Astros fans have to be happy with Roy Oswalt, who gets an eight inning complete game. He walked none and struck out six, giving him two walks and 16 strikeouts in his last sixteen innings.

Update: Fixed a typo.

Congratulations to Derek Jeter on his 2500th hit. If Jeter can play six more seasons, through age 40, he needs to average 150 hits a season to reach 3400. He needs 3315 to tie Eddie Collins and join the top ten of all time.

J.D. Drew herniated a disk:

The original lineup had Drew in right field, but he was scratched soon after the clubhouse opened. He was sent to a local hospital for an MRI, where it was learned he had a herniated disc.

"I hope I won't have to go on the disabled list," said Drew, who said he felt good Thursday and thought he'd be able to play Friday. On Friday morning he was a little stiff and took a hot bath in attempt to loosen the stiffness. After the bath his back locked up, and Drew said he felt "progressively worse" during the day. He was having difficulty walking in the locker room.

There's no word on how long he'll be sidelined.

He injured the sheath around the disc back in 2001.

My comment about Manny Acta at MetsBlog.com drew this response from Peter Gammons:

Manny Acta is a sabermetrics student and the only manager who ever dropped a VORP on me. He has the worst team in baseball.

That got me thinking. Sabermetric teams really disappointed in 2008.

• Manny Acta's Nationals own the worst record in the majors.
• The Cleveland Indians stand 14 games out of first place.
• The Blue Jays put together a good pitching staff, but couldn't match it with a decent offense.
• The Oakland Athletics started in contention but trades threw them into a tailspin.
• Detroit didn't live up to the hype of their winter trades.
• San Diego sits in last place in the NL West.
• Trey Hillman's Royals haven't improved, and sabermetric pitcher Brian Bannister pitched poorly.

The Red Sox and Diamondbacks are still in contention. Arizona hasn't blown anyone away, however, and the Red Sox in a three-way race for the wild card. The biggest triumph was Baseball Prospectus's prediction that the Rays would win 88 games. I'm not sure if the Tampa Bay front office is statistically oriented, but they seem to be making moves as if they were. If true, their success will be a big victory for the science.

The Cubs take a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a strikeout and a double steal. With Alfonso Soriano at third and Derrek Lee on first, Aramis Ramirez strikes out. Lee took off for second, and the throw is made to the base, allowing Soriano to go from third and beat the return.

Update: Even less often do you see the Nationals score this many runs. Down 4-0 in the sixth, they score two before Willie Harris hits a grand slam to give Washington the lead. They now lead 10-5 after eight. Emilio Bonifacio, who led off today despite a .260 OBA, reached base twice today and scored two runs.

Update: Ronnie Belliard picks up his fourth hit of the game, a home run to extend the Nationals lead to 11-5. Belliard with a single and two doubles, just misses the cycle by a triple.

Update: Willie Harris homers for the second time, a two run shot that makes the score 13-5. That should be a big enough lead for the Nat's bullpen. It's their eighth 10-run game of the season, and they are two runs away from tying their high of the season.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

I like Tom Seaver's attitude about the end of Shea Stadium.

Sam Mellinger posts a nice column on how this is the worst part of the season for a team (like the Royals) out of the race. He also provides this note on Brian Bannister:

Anyway, with Banny starting tonight after his disaster on Sunday, let's end this with two relevant stats, one good, one bad.

The bad: including relievers, there have been eight pitchers since 1956 to give up 10 or more runs in one or fewer innings. Four of them are Royals. Two of them this season.

The good: among the starters who made their next scheduled outing in the same season, the average ERA was 4.28. The other Royal on that list of starters, Luke Hudson, was the best of the bunch, giving up five hits, two walks and one earned run over seven innings.

Regression to the mean in action.

It's a post-season preview weekend as many teams in contention for the playoffs matchup over both leagues. The Dodgers swept the Phillies four games in LA last week, and now the Phillies try to return the favor. The series opens with the return of Greg Maddux to the Dodgers. Greg's pitched better than his 6-9 record and comes into the game hot in August. He's posted a 1.89 ERA this month, walking one batter in 19 innings. He'll face his polar opposite in Kyle Kendrick. Kyle's pitched worse than his 10-7 record and sports a 9.00 ERA in August. He's walked 13 in 13 innings.

The Toronto Blue Jays stand seven games behind the Red Sox and Twins in the AL Wild Card race as Toronto hosts Boston in a three game series. This may be the Blue Jays last stand. A sweep of Boston gets them close enough for a September run. Losing two out of three would pretty much kill off their chances. Paul Byrd faces Shaun Marcum in the opener. Byrd faced Toronto in his first Boston appearance, and every batter put the ball in play. Ten of the 31 found their way for hits. Marcum pitched three shaky outings after returning from the disabled list, but in his last three starts opponents scored just four runs in 18 innings.

The Rays start a series in Chicago as Edwin Jackson opposes John Danks. This would be one ALDS series if Boston wins the wild card. Jackson's two run drop in ERA makes it look like Tampa Bay put a better defense behind him. Last season, he allowed 34 more hits than innings pitched. In 2008, that's down to two fewer hits than innings. Danks shows a similar falloff in hits, but a more pronounced fall off in ERA as he also limited the number of home runs he allowed.

The Marlins are just hanging on in the NL East race as they send Anibal Sanchez against the Diamondbacks and Randy Johnson. So far Sanchez shows a huge lefty/righty split, allowing a .341 BA to lefties and a .116 BA to righties. Johnson's found his old control since the All-Star break, walking just three batters in 40 1/3 innings.

Glen Perkins takes on Joe Saunders in another possible playoff matchup as the Twins try to take the second game of the series from the Angels. Perkins 10-3 record seems a bit too good given his pitching stats. However, most of the power against him comes with the bases empty. He's allowed 13 of his 16 home runs with no one on. Joe Saunders dropped his strikeout rate for the second year in a row, and for the second year in a row his ERA improved. After averaging four home runs a month this season through July, he hasn't allowed one in August.

Enjoy!

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The Twins might be glad Torii Hunter was playing for the Angels last night:

Torii Hunter was the first to admit he should have caught the deep fly ball by Nick Punto, which turned into a triple and the eventual winning run in the Twins' 2-1, 12-inning victory Thursday at Angel Stadium.

"I've got to catch that," Hunter said. "If it hits your glove, you have to catch it. I make those plays nine out of 10 times."

"I was a little shocked," Punto said. "I watched Torii make those plays all the time. Fortunately for us, it worked out."

That was pretty crafty of the Twins to let Hunter go so he would be just out of position on that ball last night. :-)

Scott Baker and John Lackey treated the crowd to a fine pitching duel for eight innings, each allowing one run. Their lines were almost identical, the only difference was that Baker allowed four hits and Lackey five. The Angels scored in the first inning on a Teixeira home run, but that was it. Designated loser Justin Speier (1-7) gave up the triple to Punto and the single to Span for the winning run. Joe Nathan, whose ERA is about 1/3 that of Francisco Rodriguez, struck out two for the save.

The Twins trail Chicago by 1/2 game, one back in the loss column. The two teams have just three games left head-to-head. They face off in the penultimate series of the regular season with Minnesota hosting.

Brandon Webb's win Thursday night was a bit painful:

The shot off the bat of San Diego's Kevin Kouzmanoff had struck Webb just below his rib cage, temporarily putting him in a purple daze and giving him a nice bruise. He completed the play despite the pain to end the sixth and went on to pitch one more inning.

...

"People thought I got a glove on it, which I didn't. I wish I did. Got me pretty square, went toward first base and had to get the out," he said. "As bad as it hurt, I wanted to make a play on it. Ran in (to the dugout) so I could rub it. It was a pretty good shot. It will still be a couple of days, it will be a little sore, but I will be all right."

His seven shutout innings lowered his ERA to 2.74. He's 6-0 with a 1.53 ERA since the all-star break and can win his 20th game before September first. If the DBacks were willing to skip Davis on a turn through the rotation, Webb could get two more starts this month. Winning 20 by Sept 1 would be impressive, since no NL pitcher has won 20 since 2005.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Sean Gallagher and Justin Duchscherer both hit the disabled list for the Oakland Athletics, setting a team record for DL use. It also leads them with an all-lefty rotation:

The A's recalled left-handers Dana Eveland and Dan Meyer from Triple-A Sacramento to join the rotation. Eveland, in his second stint with the A's this season, is scheduled to start on Saturday. Meyer is scheduled to pitch Sunday. He is also in his second stint with Oakland this year.

The team now has an all left-handed, five-man rotation -- including Thursday's starter Greg Smith, Gio Gonzalez and Dallas Braden. The only other time Oakland has had an all-southpaw rotation was in 1973 with a four-man staff of Vida Blue, Ken Holtzman, Darold Knowles and Paul Lindlad.

Sounds like something sinister is going on in Oakland. I can't imagine an all-lefty rotation works that well. Most hitters are still right-handed, after all.

Luis Ayala pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for the win as the Mets come back from a 4-3 deficit to defeat the Braves in the bottom of the ninth when Carlos Delgado singles in David Wright.

Ayala came to the Mets from Washington, who picked up Anderson Hernandez in the deal. The second baseman drove in a run tonight to cut the Phillies lead to 3-2, and Washington went on to win the game 4-3 with two runs in the eighth. That drops the Phillies 2 1/2 games behind the Mets. The trade helps them in Philadelphia and New York at the same time!

With Toronto leading the Yankees 13-3 after seven innings, Cito Gaston pulls Roy Halladay. He allowed all three New York runs in the seventh, but only threw 94 pitches. I'm sure Roy was more than capable of finishing the game, but Gaston does the right thing here. The Toronto pen should be able to easily finish this contest. There's no reason for Roy to go for the CG in this situation. Compare this to Sabathia's last start in which he was allowed to throw 130 pitches when the Brewers were winning big. I'm all for pitchers finishing what they start, but there are times to be conservative and games like these certainly qualify.

With men on first and third in the bottom of the ninth, Kevin Gregg unleashes a wild pitch to hand the Giants a 4-3 victory. It's their second walkoff win in as many games. It's Gregg's seventh WP of the season surpassing his total of each of the last two seasons.

The Marlins fall 5 1/2 games back in the division and eight games back in the wild card. The offense continues to sputter despite a home run today by Dan Uggla. They've scored just 33 runs in their last 10 games.

Toronto picks up Jose Bautista from the Pirates:

On the other hand, it is important to remember that even though Bautista's been languishing in Indianapolis since August 10, he's still hit more homers in 2008 (12) than anyone on the Jays roster.

That's just sad.

Carlos Zambrano hit as many home runs as he allowed this afternoon as the Cubs took the Reds 3-2. Carlos hit his fourth home run of the season and allowed his 16th on the way to his 13th win. The home run by Jay Bruce was the only score off Carlos in the game. He lowers his ERA to 3.29 and raises his batting average to .361 and his slugging percentage to .611. I wonder if the Cubs will let him bat if they get to the World Series?

Correction: Bruce, not Votto homered off Zambrano. Votto homered off Marmol.

Cleveland's two best players came through today in a 10-3 win over the Royals. Cliff Lee won game number 18. He gave up two earned runs in seven innings. He allowed eight base runners, but induced four double plays to remove half of them. Lee is now sixteen games over .500. If the rest of the played .500, Cleveland's record would be 71-55, in contention in the AL Central.

On the batting side, Grady Sizemore posted a four for five day. He missed the cycle by a double, driving in seven runs. His triple and homer drove in three runs each. This all from the leadoff spot. Sizemore now has 79 RBI and 78 runs scored on the season.

Cliff Lee sits atop the AL Cy Young race. He combines the best record with the best ERA, and his three pure pitching stats, strikeouts, home runs and walks are all great. At this point, there's no reason not to award him the trophy. Grady Sizemore makes a legitimate claim on the MVP award. Sizemore came into the day third in runs created. Win Shares ranks him fifth. Right now, he would not get the prize, but a good finish could put him on the top of both categories. There's no reason to think he won't get support in the top five.

Thinks about that. A team well under .500 could produce both the Cy Young award winner and the MVP. Nothing like that ever happened before. Eighteen times a batter and pitcher won the two awards from the same team (I'm not counting season when the pitcher wins both). The only time the team didn't make the playoffs was in 1962. Maury Wills won the MVP and Don Drysdale the Cy Young for the Dodgers. Los Angeles won 102 games but finished one behind the Giants. A team with a great hitter and a great pitcher is usually a great team.

That's the big failure of the Cleveland franchise this season. They failed to surround these starts with players capable of playing decent ball around them. Part of it was poor timing. Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner and Fausto Carmona all going down at the same time hurt. Hafner showed signs of decline in 2007, and the Indians didn't prepare for more of the same. Carmona's innings made him a candidate for an injury, and the Indians didn't really find a way to replace him. Cleveland tried to move Victor Martinez to first in the past; that might have saved the catcher from the decline and the injury.

Two superstars and a good supporting cast gets a team into contention and often to the playoffs. The Indians got half the equation right, and that may result in the most unusual Cy Young-MVP combination in history.

Carl Pavano starts Saturday against Baltimore. The Yankees might be better off with this Carl.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

The Indians lead the Royals 5-0 after three innings. The Royals did draw two walks off Cliff Lee in one inning, so that probably qualifies as a moral victory. Unfortunately, those don't count in the standings. They still haven't collected a hit on the afternoon.

Only one of the runs against Greinke is earned.

Update: An even bigger moral victory as Tony Pena singles off Lee and drives in a run. The Royals scored three times in the fifth. A couple of more moral victories and they might actually get a real one!

The Cardinals penciled in Adam Wainwright into the rotation. He starts tomorrow (Friday) against the Braves. At least they're giving him an easy first assignment.

The Cardinals rotation is 23-18 with a 4.37 ERA since Wainwright went down. They were 29-15 with him as a starter, posting a 3.97 ERA.

Via Bronx Banter, an excellent essay on Joba Chamberlain's mechanics. To sum up, there are good points and bad points to Joba's delivery, but the biggest risk or injury comes from his throwing hard:

The Yankees can work with Joba to make his mechanics more efficient, can strengthen the shoulder and the arm with a regimen that has proven to work, and they can baby him as much as they like. But sometimes a team simply has to hope for the best because even if a pitcher does everything right, there is still only so many pitches in a player's arm before the arm begins to give way and the pitcher loses the quality of his stuff. Just how many depends on many factors, most of which the Yankees and other teams will never know. For the Yankees sake, they should hope Joba is one of the lucky ones.

The Royals and Indians play a lunch time game as Zack Greinke faces AL Cy Young leader Cliff Lee. Lee goes for his 18th win against just two losses. If you're looking to see home runs and walks, Lee is not your man. He's allowed just on walk per start and gives up a long ball every three games. Grienke was in giving mood with home runs, allowing 14 in May and June. He's cut that down, allowing just three over his last 47 1/3 innings.

In the old, broken down pitchers making comebacks game, Mike Hampton takes on Pedro Martinez in New York. Mike's made five starts without injuring himself, and actually pitched well in two of them. Both were against San Francisco, however. Teams with good offense have knocked him around a bit, and the Mets own the second best offense in the National League. With Pedro, the good news is he's posted a 2.59 ERA in August. He has allowed six home runs in 24 1/3 innings, however. All six were solo shots, and only two other runs were charged to Pedro this month.

Brandon Webb tries for his 19th win as the Diamondbacks host the Padres and Chad Reineke. Chad is undefeated in his one game MLB career. In the minors, he struck out 500 in 513 innings. Webb's a great example of a pitcher who succeeds despite allowing the running game to flourish. Opponents have stolen 20 bases in 25 attempts, an 80% success rate. So few batters get hits against him however, it's tough to score those runners. Webb allows a .197 BA with runners in scoring position.

A possible first round playoff matchup gets a preview in Anaheim as the Twins take on the Angels. Scott Baker takes the hill for Minnesota. Baker is going through a rough stretch in his season, allowing 19 earned runs in his last five starts covering 28 2/3 innings. He's allowed eleven of his 26 walks in that stretch. John Lackey is not much better. His sub 2.00 ERA of May and June turned into a +5.00 ERA in July and August. He's more than doubled his home run rate in that time.

Enjoy!

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The Detroit Tigers Weblog notes that with small market teams willing to pay big bucks for draft choices, the better teams have a harder time grabbing players who slip in the draft due to signability issues.

Jake Peavy and Dan Haren combined to allow eleven runs in eleven innings as the duel between two of the top NL pitchers never developed. The Diamondbacks led 6-4 at the end of two innings and went on to an 8-6 victory, extending their NL West lead to two games over the Dodgers.

Peavy's road woes continue. Last season, he was as good away from PETCO as at home. This season, his ERA is 4.52 traveling, over three runs higher than at home. He's allowed 13 home runs on the road including two Wednesday night. He gave up 15 overall.

Haren is going through a bit of a rough patch right now. He'd 3-1 in August, but with a 6.04 ERA. His strikeouts and walks are good, so it may just be a few balls in play finding holes.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Texas Rangers pounded out ten extra-base hits tonight against Detroit, two double, two triples and six home runs. The only managed four singles. Byrd doubles twice, Metcalf homers twice, and Hamilton takes home a triple and a homer. It's the sixteenth time this season a team collected at least 10 EXBH in a game and the second time for the Rangers.

Even better, Kevin Millwood pitches a complete game, giving up six hits and one run. It's his second complete game of the season and lowers his ERA to 5.24.

The Braves place Casey Kotchman on the bereavement list to attend to his ailing mother. My best wishes go out to Kotchman and hope his mom gets well soon.

It's not a Dodgers broadcast until Vin Scully says "half a dozen". He got it in early tonight as Nomar Garciaparra came up in the second inning with six home runs on the season. We also got this gem, however:

It took a miracle catch to save Jeff Francis bacon on that play.

And yes, Scully left off the apostrophe.

Garret Anderson struck out with the bases loaded to end the seventh inning. The Angels led 4-3 at the time, and a hit could have broken the game open. Instead, the Rays come back in the eighth, scoring the tying run on back-to-back doubles by Upton and Pena. In the ninth, Anderson comes up once again with the bases loaded and two out. This time he hits a hard shot up the middle that Iwamura knocked down, but couldn't make a play. That was enough for Francisco Rodriguez who records his 48th save of the season. The Angels finally win a game at the Trop.

This was another exciting game in an exciting series. I'm with the Angels announcers on this one. These teams are evenly matched, and theirs would make for a great playoff series. The Angels grab back the best record in baseball as the Cubs lose also.

Earlier today, some bloggers wondered if Clay Buchholz's problems were bad luck, bad mechanics, or just Clay pitching badly. Giving up five runs in 2 1/3 innings with three walks and no strike outs seems to move things in the direction of pitching badly.

The umpires objections to instant replay didn't last long:

The deal was signed by lawyers for the commissioner's office and the World Umpires Association one day after a WUA spokesman went public with complaints over negotiations.

After haggling over final details, the sides exchanged proposals Tuesday night.

"We reached an agreement. Final decision with respect to moving ahead has not been made yet, but we have an agreement with the umpires," said Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president of labor relations.

I wonder if the manager will have to throw a flag on the field before the next pitch?

The Cleveland Indians mount an eighth inning comeback to score five runs and defeat the Royals 8-5. Ramon Ramirez started the inning, giving up a leadoff home run to Kelly Shoppach, Kelly's second of the game. He left with a man on second and one, giving Joakim Soria the chance for a five-out save. It wasn't his night, however, as the Indians put five men on base against the Royals closer with two hits, two walks and a hit by pitch. The big blow was the Franklin Gutierrez three-run homer which hung a third blown save and a loss on Soria. The Indians are 9-3 in their last 12 games.

The Yankees and Toronto play a fast game also (see previous post). Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter combine to reach base six times and score four runs as the Yankees take the game 5-1. Andy Pettitte pitched seven strong innings, allowing five hits and no walks. The Yankees prevent Toronto from overtaking them for third place in this series.

Damon's OBA is now .386, the highest on base average he's posted since the 2004 season.

The Phillies and the Mets get their wins out of the way fast tonight. Brett Myers goes the distance for a 4-0 shutout. He walks one and strikes out nine as he continues to impress since his return from the minors. He's posted a 1.94 ERA with a strikeout to walk ratio of 3:1.

Meanwhile, the Mets scored five runs in the first inning and cruised a 6-3 win. Mike Pelfrey went the distance with a 3 line; 3 squared innings, three hits, three runs, three earned, three walks and three strikeouts. He now has (3 * 3) + 3 wins. Both games finished in less than 2 1/2 hours.

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

The Baseball Musings Radio Show is coming up tonight at 8 PM EDT. You can listen, watch and chat here.

Prince Fielder hit two sacrifice flies to take over the NL lead with 10. The Brewers now have 36 on the season, fifth in the NL. I remember back in the early '90s, the Brewers not only were among the AL leaders in sacrifice flies, but often threatened the team record.

Milwaukee downed the Astros 5-2.

Francisco Liriano continued his good luck today as he didn't pitch great, but only allowed one unearned run over five innings. Eight players reached by a hit or a walk, but the only one to score was the one who reached by an error. The Minnesota bullpen, on the other hand, was nearly perfect. They allowed no hits and walked just one over four innings, striking out four. The Twins win 3-1 on the strength of six singles, three walks and a hit by pitch. They keep pace with the White Sox who down the Mariners 15-3.

Ken Griffey, Jr. hit his first home run with the White Sox in the second inning off R.A. Dickey. That long ball ties him with Sammy Sosa for fifth on the all-time home run list. It took a while to get there, as his last home game on July 30th. Griffey went 13 games without a dinger.

Dickey did not come out for the third inning, and Chicago leads Seattle 10-1 in the top of the fifth.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

Six of the first seven White Sox batter reach against R.A. Dickey in the bottom of the first inning. The last is Alexei Ramirez, who drives in three with a homer into the leftfield stands. Dickey's allowed five hits and a walk so far, but he's staying in the game. Chicago leads Seattle 6-0.

Update: Dickey gets the next two batters to fly out. The inning raises Dickey's ERA to 5.42.

YFSF looks at the arguments over Clay Buchholz, one that he's been unlucky, and one that he's plain bad. This post by Center Field, however, indicates that Clay's mechanics were mucked up. We'll see how he does tonight from the stretch.

Ian Snell watched CC Sabathia on his iPhone and changed his pitching style. The result was a gem against the Cardinals. However, I wonder if it simply wasn't that Snell had become predictable. Reversing when he usually throws his fastball and slider would make guessing on a pitch more difficult. Maybe the pitch F/X mavens can comment on this?

The race for the AL Central continues this afternoon with Twins hosting the Athletics and the White Sox hosting the Mariners. Francisco Liriano takes the hill for Minnesota. Since returning from the minors he's posted a 1.45 ERA with 15 K in 18 2/3 innings. The only thing he's done poorly so far is walk seven batters. He'll face Dallas Braden. The A's pitcher has an interesting split, giving up a much higher BA with the bases empty, but a higher slugging percentage with men on base.

The White Sox send Gavin Floyd against R.A. Dickey. Despite allowing a majority of his home runs at home, Floyd is 8-2 with a 3.27 ERA in Chicago. For some reason, his strikeouts are much higher at the park formerly known as Comisky. Maybe players swing for the fences in the easy home run stadium? Dickey is averaging two base runners per inning in August.

The Rays go for the sweep of the Angels for the second time this season. The disappointing Jered Weaver faces Matt Garza. I don't quite understand why Weaver's ERA is so high. Most of the damage against him comes with the bases empty. It looks like a case of two seasons balancing out. Last year, his FIP was a little higher than his ERA. This season, it's a little lower. Garza's done a great job of keeping the ball in the park in Tampa Bay. He's allowed just two home runs at home, twelve on the road.

Finally, the best pitching matchup of the day goes to San Diego at Arizona as Jake Peavy faces Dan Haren. Peavy's allowed two runs in 14 innings against the Diamondback this season but still managed to lose a game. Haren's posted a 2.14 ERA against San Diego, but is 2-1 against the division rival.

Enjoy!

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Peter Abraham points out that the Ivan Rodriguez trade hurt both teams. Especially damning is this:

Andy Pettitte threw to him once then asked not to again.

Pudge's defensive credentials are based on his ability to stop the running game. I've heard others question his game calling skills before, but never so directly.

River Ave. Blues posts the latest on Carl Pavano. He's like death and taxes rolled into one.

Brandon Lyon came close to blowing a game for the Diamondbacks last night. Starting the ninth in a 7-3 game, he promptly gave up four hits, a walk and three runs. Over his last four outings, totalling 3 1/3 innings, he's allowed 11 hits and eight runs, seven of the earned. He's had a few bad outings this season, but this is the first time he bunched them together.

The DBacks hang on for a 7-6 win and move into sole possession of first place in the NL West as the Dodgers fall to the Rockies 8-3. The Rockies hit three home runs off three different pitchers in the game, accounting for six of the runs.

Orioles closer George Sherill goes on the 15-day disabled list with a sore shoulder. Right now it doesn't look serious. Former closer Jason Isringhausen looks to miss the rest of the season for the Cardinals. He suffers from a torn tendon in his elbow.

The Chicago White Sox pitching staff started the season strong. They pitched three shutouts in April and owned the second best ERA in the AL that month. They only recorded two more scoreless games from May through July. Lately, however, the shutouts returned. Clay Richard pitched six scoreless innings Tuesday night as the White Sox shut down the Mariners 5-0. It's their third shutout of August and third in their last eight games. In that stretch the team allowed just 15 runs.

I thought this division race would come down to the good, young pitching of the Twins against the power hitting of the White Sox. Given the number of high scoring games by Minnesota lately and the excellent pitching coming out of Chicago, these two teams are turning out to be very well balanced. That's going to make this race even more interesting.

Ricky Nolasco took home a little extra money Tuesday night:

Ricky Nolasco won a pot of cash for his first career complete game - thanks to the Marlins' nearly two-year drought without a pitcher going the distance.

Nolasco pitched a two-hitter for his first shutout and drove in two runs with his first double, leading the Marlins past the San Francisco Giants 6-0 on Tuesday night.

His reward: the money that had been accumulating in Florida's complete-game pool started some time after Anibal Sanchez pitched the last such game on Sept. 16, 2006, a major league-record 301 games ago.

Nolasco performed superbly in every aspect of the game. He threw strikes, with 78 of 110 pitches ending in a positive result. He showed great contol, walking just one batter. In striking out eleven, he reached double digits for the third time in his career, all this season. The strikeouts kept balls in play to a minimum, and only two made it through for hits. The bottom line for Ricky was his first career complete game and shutout and a new career high in wins with 12.

His control really came together after the all-star break. In the first half of the season, Nolasco averaged an excellent 2.3 walks per nine. Since, however, he's dropped that rate to 1.1 walks per nine. It's resulted in a better ERA but not a better record. Still, if he keeps this up he should have a very strong finish to this season and become a leader of the rotation going into 2009.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Daisuke Matsuzaka picks up five more walks and one more win as the Red Sox down the Orioles 7-2. He lasted just five innings, and unlike most of his games, he was not unhittable. Six of the 15 ball in play against Dice-K fell for hits. Still, despite allowing eleven base runners, only two of them managed to cross the plate. It wasn't pretty, but once again Matsuzaka gets the job done.

Jayson Werth homers in the bottom of the eighth to give the Phillies a 5-4 win over the Washington Nationals. After a poor outing by Blanton in which he allowed four runs in five innings, the Philadelphia bullpen pitches four scoreless innings for the win. Brad Lidge stays perfect in save situations, converting his 31st in 31 tries.

The Nationals lose their eleventh game in a row. With 82 losses, they are the first team this season guaranteed to finish under .500.

So far, the Rich Harden for Sean Gallagher trade isn't working out well for the Athletics. Harden threw seven shutout innings for the Cubs tonight, walking none and striking out ten. That lowers his Cubs ERA to 1.50. The Cubs lead 5-0 in the ninth.

Meanwhile, Gallagher gives up 11 hits in five innings as the Twins tattoo him for ten runs. His ERA goes up to 6.55. Minnesota leads 13-2 in the seventh.

Update: The Cubs win 5-0 and tie the Rays for best record in the majors. A Rays Cubs series would be a great story. A power of ten difference in the length of their struggles.

The Rays and Blue Jays each took leads in the eighth inning to win their games, and the Mets are trying to join them. Carlos Delgado came up with the bases loaded and the Mets trailing 3-2 and launches a double off the wall in left. That scored two and New York takes a 4-3 lead. They're still batting in the bottom of the eighth.

Update: Easley singles home two more and the Mets lead 6-3. The offense is trying to give the bullpen a big cushion.

Update: The Mets score five in the inning, erasing the save situation.

Update: The Braves get a single in the top of the ninth but that's it. The Mets bullpen pitches 2 2/3 scoreless innings and earns the win tonight.

Lyle Overbay just saved the game for the Blue Jays. With the score 2-1 in favor of Toronto in the top of the ninth, Alex Rodriguez hits one off the end of the bat that lands over Overbay's head in right. A-Rod wasn't running that hard, thinking it would either be caught or fall for a single. The ball however, rolled away from Lyle, and Alex turned it on for second. Overbay ran the ball down, slid picking it up and made a perfect throw to second to nab Alex. B.J. Ryan retires the last two batters and Toronto wins 2-1. They are now just one game behind the Yankees for third place in the AL East.

Ervin Santana pitches seven stellar innings against the Rays, allowing one run while striking out nine. He was in control, issuing just two walks. Scioscia, however, pulls him after 106 pitches with the Angels in the lead 2-1. The pen comes in wild. Shields issues two walks and has a batter reach on an error to load the bases. He strikes out Upton before he's pulled. Oliver comes in and walks Pena to tie the game. Floyd Ks, so the bases are still loaded with two out.

Update: Aybar gets the first hit of the inning, singling to left to drive in two and put the Rays up 4-2. The Angels showed a bit of weakness between the starters and K-Rod.

Update: Wheeler picks up the save, striking out two. The Rays will end the night with at least a share of the best record in baseball.

The game goes to the top of the ninth with the Angels needing two runs.

Earlier there was a report that Carl Yastrzemski entered the hospital with chest pain. He ended up needing bypass surgery. Best wishes to Carl for a speedy recovery.

The umpires are cool to instant replay right now:

Umps said their governing board voted Tuesday to boycott a conference call with management intended to discuss implementing replay, angry that their concerns aren't being addressed.

Major League Baseball responded by saying it canceled the Wednesday call because it doesn't have a replay agreement with the union.

"A lot of the procedural issues necessary for instant replay to be implemented need to be worked out," World Umpires Association spokesman Lamell McMorris said. "Major League Baseball needs to step up to the plate and iron out these issues."

Shouldn't baseball people use metaphors from other sports?

There appears to be a long list of issues the umpires want resolved. It may be a few more weeks before this system gets used in games.

I would still prefer to see it tested during spring training games. That way, all the bugs get worked out and a wrong decision doesn't matter.

Billy Wagner's elbow isn't healing, and he's likely out for the season. Wagner blew seven saves this season. Feliciano and Heilman have combined to blow five in ten opportunities.

Washington takes an early lead on Philadelphia as Willie Harris homers off Joe Blanton. It's the sixth homer Blanton allowed with the Phillies but the first in the home ball park. The Nationals take an early 1-0 lead.

Word comes from Beijing that Matt LaPorta is okay:

The USA Olympic medical staff informed the Indians on Tuesday that outfield prospect Matt LaPorta suffered no ill effects from being hit in the head by a pitch during Monday's game against China.

"He had no symptoms of post-concussion syndrome when he woke up Tuesday morning," said Indians head athletic trainer Lonnie Soloff, who added the back left side of LaPorta's head and neck, where he was hit, was still sore.

That had to be tough for the Indians front office to watch. They trade one of their best players for a potential future star, and then watch him go down in a game half-way around the world. It least it doesn't appear to be too serious an injury.

Josh Beckett is suffering from numbness in his right hand:

"We've got to figure out what ... it is," Beckett said Tuesday. "Obviously, (being pushed back) is not what I want, but at this juncture it needs to happen."

Beckett was scheduled to pitch Saturday against Toronto. Instead, he's tentatively set to start Tuesday night when the Red Sox play New York at Yankee Stadium.

"I don't know. It's still seven days away," he said. "We'll see."

Beckett will undergo tests to determine the cause of the numbness -- and to rule out a serious condition such as a blood clots.

Oil Can Boyd suffered numbness in his arm before he was diagnosed with a blood clot.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

My latest SportingNews.com column looks at Denard Span's success in the majors.

Carl Yastrzemski was admitted to the hospital with chest pains. Let's hope all is well with the Hall of Famer.

Update: Yastrzemski underwent bypass surgery.

The Red Sox travel to Baltimore where Daisuke Matsuzaka goes for his 15th win. The Boston righty appears to have adopted the philosophy of denying batters anything good to hit. He's surviving a high walk total most likely due to batters chasing close pitches often enough that they strike out or put the ball in play weakly. Consider that of the 338 balls in play against him, only 91 have gone for hits, a .269 average. He's wild without finding the need to give in to hitters, and it's working for him. Compare that to Daniel Cabrera, his opponent tonight. Dice-K walks over a batter more per nine than Cabrera, but Daniel is among the worst twenty in the majors in BB/9. He's just much more hittable when he's in the strike zone.

The Rays try to take over the best record in the AL and the majors as Ervin Santana faces James Shields. With a win tonight Santana doubles his output from last season. He's already pitched 12 2/3 more innings while allowing 29 fewer hits. Against the Angels this season, Shields struck out 17 batters in 17 innings without allowing a walk.

Johnny Cueto takes on Rich Harden in Chicago as the Reds face the Cubs. Cueto is an example of a pitcher who despite low walks and high strikeouts just isn't successful. He allows too many home runs as his FIP is actually very close to his ERA. Harden's allowed five home runs in his 35 innings with the Cubs, but otherwise opponents don't score much. The homers account for six of the eight runs he's allowed since the trade.

Enjoy!

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It looks like Ian Kinsler will miss the remainder of the season with a sports hernia. At age 26, Kinsler made a major leap in performance this season, raising his OBA about 25 points and his slugging percentage about 70 points over the averages of his first two seasons. Their 2-10 record over their last 12 games pretty much takes Texas out of the playoff picture, so they should concentrate on getting Kinsler well for next season.

Sam Mellinger notes that fans who think Eric Hosmer is greedy should also admit that he's smart.

As can't-miss as we hear Hosmer is, take a look at other guys who went third overall in the draft. It's not a sure thing.

Oh, there's Evan Longoria and Troy Glaus and some other solid big leaguers.

But there's also Luis Montanez, Dewon Brazelton, and B.J. Wallace. Kyle Sleeth went in that spot five years ago, and he's already retired without ever making it to the big leagues.

Most people don't get a single chance to be set for life. Hosmer's lucky his talent gave him that chance, and smart for cashing in early.

A Cubs fan says thank you to Kenny Williams.

It looks like Greg Maddux will become a Dodger today. It's his second stint with the club:

Maddux, who has 353 career victories, has pitched well in his last three starts, posting a 2-1 record and 1.89 ERA in that span. In his last start, he dropped a decision to the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday even though he held them to a run and five hits over seven innings.

He has had trouble away from pitcher-friendly Petco Park, where he has a 2.62 ERA. His road ERA is 5.75.

To make the deal happen, Maddux had to waive his full no-trade clause.

Maddux also pitched 10 games this season in which he went at least six innings, allowed three runs or less and received a loss or a no decision, including his most recent performance against the Phillies. Despite a lack of strikeouts, he's pitched well against the Dodgers this season.

The Cub Reporter offers a very good explanation of how a player qualifies for post-season play. It seems that having a good number of players on the disabled list on 8/31 really gives a team flexibility.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

CC Sabathia goes 8-0 with the Brewers as the Astros fall 9-3. The big lefty picks up his fifth complete game since joining Milwaukee, throwing 130 pitches. Some people have suggested to me the Brewers are abusing CC with all the complete games, but his pitch counts before tonight were not outrageous. Tonight, however, makes me believe that a little more. With a 9-3 lead, why is he even out there for the ninth? While I love pitchers who finish what they start, in a blow out, give it to the pen. If the Brewers do make the playoffs, they don't want CC to wear out like he did against the Red Sox in 2007.

The White Sox once again pound the ball, defeating the Mariners 13-5. For the second game in a row they hit four home runs, the ninth time this season they've reached that level. Carlos Quentin extends his major league lead with his 35th homer of the season.

The win puts the White Sox in first place as the Twins fall to the Athletics 3-2. They did manage to score a run off Brad Ziegler, who still earns his third save with two innings of work. So far, he hasn't been the traditional closer, with two of his three saves lasting two innings. Will he redefine the closer role as the eighth and the ninth?

The Tampa Bay Rays down the Angels 6-4. Willie Aybar continues to fill in well for Longoria with three hits tonight and two runs scored. The Rays are now just 1/2 games behind the Angels for the best record in the American League. A sweep puts them on top. So far, they are 4-0 against the Angels in Tampa Bay.

From what I heard in the game, the team will make a decision tomorrow morning about playing the Tuesday game. The storm appears to be taking a track that should allow them to play, but you never know with these tropical cyclones.

Correction: The Rays are 1/2 game behind LAnaheim, not 1 1/2. I thought the standing I looked at were up to date.

Jonathan Papelbon comes in with two out in the ninth and gives up Manny Delcarmen's two base runners, but the Sox score twice more in the ninth and the Red Sox closer finishes the game for his 33rd save. He's 4 2/3 innings short of his total from last season with less than half the walks, 15 to 7.

Justin Duchscherer left the game against the Twins after 2 2/3 innings due to hip pain. He did not allow a run. Kirk Saarloos has continued the shutout as the Athletics lead the Twins 3-0 in the bottom of the seventh.

CC Sabathia was holding onto a 1-0 lead when the Astros intentionally walked Jason Kendall to load the bases with two outs. The big lefty goes with the pitch, singling to left to drive in two and give himself a little breathing room. He's now driven in four runs since joining the Brewers. Milwaukee leads 3-0 as they still bat in the bottom of the fourth.

Update: A double by Durham and a single by Hardby plate three more runs and the Brewers go to the fifth with a 6-0 lead.

Jon Lester and Jeremy Guthrie came through with their pitching duel. The Red Sox took a 2-1 lead into the top of the eighth on solo homers by Bay and Varitek, while Huff provided a long ball for the only Baltimore run. With Ortiz on first after an error, however, Rocky Cherry pitches to Jason Bay, and Bay delivers for the second time, a two run shot to put the Red Sox up 4-1 and give them some insurance for the eighth and ninth innings. Bay's 3 for 4 tonight and is now slugging .569 for Boston.

Tropical Storm Fay didn't stop the game between the Angels and the Rays tonight. Tampa Bay is up 5-1 in the fourth on the strength of two-run homers by Hinske and Floyd. Juan Rivera hit a solo shot of the Angels in the third, but grounded out with the bases loaded to end the fourth. The two home runs allowed by Garland equals his total from 2007.

Update: Oops. Upton hits a ball that might be a home run, but it hits off the wall. He's not running hard and gets tagged out at second despite an off-line throw. He might get benched again.

Barry Zito pitched seven scoreless innings against the Braves this afternoon. This gives Barry a sandwich August. He started the month with eight shutout innings against the Padres, then gave up eleven runs in two starts against the Dodgers and Astros. He then puts the top slice of bread on with his performance today. It's all or nothing for Barry lately.

The Giants lead the Braves 5-0 in the bottom of the ninth.

Update: The game ends in a shutout. The Braves have scored two runs or less in six of their last eight games.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

The Pirates defeat the Mets 5-2, scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth as Duaner Sanchez fails to retire any of the four batters he faced. The Mets were not without opportunities to score, however, as they collected six hits and drew seven walks. Three Pirates double plays helped erase threats. New York went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Their RISP BA is about 20 points lower than their overall BA this season.

YFSF looks at how the Red Sox perform against the best pitchers in the league and find they lose more than other top offenses. I like these kind of studies, and if I have time later today I'll run a similar program I wrote. My guess is that the Red Sox are a bit walk dependent, and as the good starters average just two walks per start against Boston, they're taking away a key part of the team's offense.

MetsBlog.com notes the Mets have a tough decision coming up on Luis Castillo.

With both the White Sox and Twins breathing down their necks, the Red Sox send Jon Lester to the mound against Baltimore's Jeremy Guthrie. Lester is emerging as a legitimate ace. He's walking less than three batters per nine innings and keeping the ball in the park, both improvements over his two previous seasons. He's also going deep in games, averaging over seven innings per start since the all-star break. Guthrie is five innings short of his total from last season. His strikeouts are down, but so are his walks and home runs. He's emerged as the new ace of the Orioles staff with a 3.18 ERA.

The teams with the two best records in the American League meet in Tampa as the Angels visit the Rays. Jon Garland faces Andy Sonnanstine. The Rays have done a good job this year of shutting down LAnaheim's offense, allowing just 19 runs in six games while scoring 28. That's good for a 4-2 record. They've won all three games in Tampa Bay, tossing two 2-0 shutouts there. Garland was on the losing end of one of those as he pitched eight shutout innings against the Rays but did not get the decision. The next day Sonnanstine gave up five runs in five innings, but Tampa took home an 8-5 win.

CC Sabathia goes for his eighth win without a loss as the Brewers host the Astros and Randy Wolf. Randy is 2-0 himself since joining the Astros, posting a 3.63 ERA. Sabathia's most impressive stat with the Brewers is his four complete games in eight starts. He had three with Cleveland in 18 starts this seasons. In half the innings with Milwaukee he's allowed less than 1/6 of the home runs.

Finally, Justin Duchscherer and the Athletics travel to Minnesota to face Nick Blackburn and the Twins. Justin's faded since the All-Star break, his 1.82 ERA before the break ballooning to 5.34 since. Blackburn's ERA is about 1.5 runs better at home than on the road, although it's not clear that it's the park. He's allowed a .234 BA with men in scoring position at home, .284 on the road.

Enjoy!

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Two hitters stood out this week for their hitting prowess, their power, and their scoring. Ty Wigginton took up the mantle of the fallen Carlos Lee, collecting hits in all seven Astros games. In six of those games, Ty knocked out multiple hits, 16 in all. Seven of those went for extra bases, including four home runs. With his high on-base average and phenomenal power, Wigginton scored nine runs and drove in eleven. He's the Baseball Musings NL Hitter of the Week.

Melvin Mora played a nearly identical week for the Orioles. He started off with an 0 for 4 and a sacrifice fly, but then reeled off six straight multi-hit games, three three-hit games and a five hit game. Mora also hit for power, with eight of his eighteen hits resulting in extra bases. Like Ty, he scored nine runs, but did Wigginton two RBI better with 13. Melvin Mora earns the nod as the Baseball Musings AL Hitter of the week.

With the White Sox locked in a tight battle with the Twins for the AL Central title, Javier Vazquez stepped up his game last week. He made two starts, last eight innings in each game and gave up a total of one run. His eighteen strikeouts reduced his opponents balls in play and his one walk allowed kept the nine hits against him from doing much damage. His 0.56 ERA for the week earns him Baseball Musings Pitcher of the Week honors.

In the NL, four pitchers make the choice tough. Edinson Volquez appears to be over his rough patch, posting a 0.66 ERA in two starts. His low strikeout and high walk total, however, knocks him down a bit. Tim Lincecum struck out 17 batters in 12 innings, but also walked six. Roy Oswalt threw the best game of the week on Sunday, but his first outing wasn't that impressive. That leaves Johan Santana. Two wins, sixteen innings pitched, a shutout, eleven hits and just two walks moves him to the top. With 13 strikeouts, he K'd as many as he allowed on base, and his two wins helped propel the Mets to the top of the NL East. Johan Santana wins the Baseball Musings NL Pitcher of the Week.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Josh Hamilton has been promoted to the status of Jim Rice and Barry Bonds. The Rays, up 7-3 in the ninth, loaded the bases with two out. According to the STATS play by play, they intentionally walked Hamilton to prevent him from hitting a grand slam. It pays off, and Byrd strikes out to end the inning and the Rays win 7-4. As if Marlon Byrd was incapable of hitting a grand slam to win the game.

Grant Balfour causes most of the trouble for Tampa Bay living up to his name by walking three of the four batters he faced. Dan Wheeler comes on to get the final out. The Rays lead in the AL East goes to 4 1/2 games over the Red Sox.

Update: According to the comments at ESPN, Jim Rice was not walked intentionally with the bases loaded.

Update: I just looked through the Day by Day Database at Rice's games against the Brewers. The only one he drew an intentional walk and had an RBI was on 7/27/1977, and it was not with the bases loaded.

Update: In looking at that game again, Rice did walk with the bases loaded, however, it's not listed as the intentional walk. My guess is that either:

• Some one, in compling the play by play, thought the events were confused and assigned the IBB to the more likely scenario.
• A sports writer at the time confused the two events and reported that Rice was intentionally walked.

I don't know how Retrosheet put together the play by play for that game. It's possible they had a fan score sheet that didn't distinguish which was the intentional walk, so they assigned it to the fifth inning when first base was open. I remember hearing the story told by the Milwaukee manager of why he walked Rice with the bases loaded. Of course, I've misremembered enough things in my life to not trust that.

The Phillies lack of offense continues. With two runs tonight, they've scored seven in their last four games. Cole Hamels and Brad Lidge, however, combined to allow the Padres just one run. Hamels wasn't striking batters out, but he walked none and allowed just seven hits, all singles. Lidge matched Hamels three strikeouts in one inning, but did walk a batter. Burrell homered, one of just six hits for the Phillies and the only one for extra bases.

An unearned run was the difference in the game as Jimmy Rollins stole second and went to third on a throwing error by the catcher in the first. He scored on a sacrifice fly. A better throw early and this game goes to extra innings. The Phillies keep pace with the Mets, staying two games out.

Chan-Ho Park comes in to a 5-1 game in the bottom of the ninth. There's one out and a man on first. Two errors by Loney puts runners on second and third, setting up a two-RBI single by Ray Durham. Park gets Hardy to ground out, but Ryan Braun hits a home run down the leftfield line to tie the game at five.

After the home run, there was a great shot of Clayton Kershaw in the dugout just shaking his head. Park threw his glove to the ground in disgust as the ball went out, and Torre brought in Beimel. The Dodgers are going to need at least another half inning to try to win the game and claim the lead in the NL West.

Kershaw allowed one run and one walk while striking out six in his six innings of work.

Update: Andre Ethier does Braun one better, hitting a game-winning homer in the bottom of the ninth. It's his second of the day as he goes 3 for 5 and drives in three runs. The Dodgers win 7-5 and take a one game lead in the NL West.

Manny Ramirez homered and drove in three runs. That gives him 21 RBI in 16 games for Los Angeles and 89 RBI on the season.

The Twins and White Sox both score big today as they remain tied for the AL Central lead. Minnesota took an 8-0 lead into the sixth, but three Seattle home in the seventh runs brought them back to an 11-8 loss.

The White Sox hit four home runs, the eighth time this year they've hit at least that many in a game. That leads the majors. Nine of their 13 runs score on the homers, giving more than enough support to Javier Vazquez. He walks none and strikes out eight to even his record at 10-10.

Both teams gain on the Red Sox and now sit just 1/2 game out of the wild card. The three teams are even in the AFILC. This season could easily end with three new teams in the AL playoffs compared to 2007.

Roy Oswalt pitched a one-hitter through eight innings as the Astros defeated the Diamondbacks 3-0. He walked two and struck out 10. Lance Berkman thought it was the best game he had seen from Roy in a while:

"What a performance by Roy," Berkman said. "This is probably the best game I've seen him throw in two or three years."

Oswalt (11-8) won his fifth consecutive decision in dominating fashion, retiring the final 15 batters he faced after giving up a two-out single to Stephen Drew in the third inning.

Oswalt won his previous four decisions, and was showing signs to coming around. The Astros have to hope this marks a return to his former dominance.

Melvin Mora remains on a multi-hit game tear. He collected five hits in six at bats today, including two home runs and two doubles. He just needed the triple for the cycle. That helped the Orioles to a 16-8 drubbing of the Tigers.

Over his last 23 games, Mora has 15 multi-hit games, including a streak of six in a row and 11 of his last 12. He's hitting .434 with nine doubles, six homers and 34 RBI. Despite his hot hitting, the Orioles are just 12-12 over the stretch.

In the Games of the Day post, I noted five NL Cy Young candidates were in action today. None of them hurt his chances this afternoon.

Johan Santana turned in the strongest outing, a shutout against the Pirates. Not only did Santana go the distance for the second time this season, he allowed just three hits, all singles. He lowers his ERA to 2.75 and his batting average allowed to .231. The Mets win 4-0.

Edinson Volquez walked four and struck out four over seven innings, but held the Cardinals scoreless He only allowed three hits, however, which is how he's operated all season. He can afford to walks a high number of batters because he gives up few hits to drive them around. The bullpen wasn't so good, but the Reds take the game 7-3.

Tim Lincecum pitched into the eight before allowing his lone run of the day. Like Santana and Volquez, he gave up just three hits. He walked four to go along with ten strikeouts. He's just eight K away from 200 on the season. The Giants defeat the Braves 3-1. The Giants record is just 3 1/2 game worse than the Braves right now.

Aaron Cook only lasted five innings, but his two runs allowed were low enough to earn him his 15th win. He was suffering from back stiffness, which probably led to his early exit. The 7-2 Rockies victory extends the Nationals losing streak to 10 games.

Ryan Dempster stayed in the game long enough for the Cubs to score some runs, and wins his 14th as he allowed two runs over six innings. He had the Marlins swinging and missing for ten strikeouts, giving him 149 in 163 1/3 innings. The Marlins fall to the Cubs 9-2 and now trail the Mets by 4 1/2 games.

Nice to see good pitchers living up to their billing.

The Cleveland Indians take two out of three from the LAnaheim Angels with a 4-3 victory this afternoon. All three game were decided by one run with Cleveland out scoring the Angels 10-9.

The loss puts the Rays just two games behind the Angels for home field advantage throughout the playoffs. It probably means more to the Rays to earn home field, since the Angels have an excellent 39-23 record on the road. Of course, if they face the Rays in the playoffs, getting them out of Tampa Bay is a very good idea.

I'm watching the Cubs-Marlins game. Pinto comes in to relieve Volstad with men on first and third and none out in the top of th seventh. He walks pinch-hitter DeRosa and then gives up a sinking line drive to Soriano. The ball is hit to left and fading toward the line. It looks like Luis Gonzalez has a chance to catch it, so he dives and misses. The ball goes by him and two runs score to tie the game at two.

It looked to me that Gonzo had less of a chance to catch the ball than I originally thought. If he stays on his feet, he probably gets in front of it and holds it to a one-run single, since the runners had to hold in case it was caught. As a veteran outfielder, I would think Luis would get a better read on the ball. Did anyone else see the play?

A nice job of hitting by Soriano, as he was fooled on the previous change-up, but hit this one solidly.

Update: Renyel Pinto is not getting the job done. He makes a nice fielding play on a grounder up the middle for an out, but Aramis Ramirez doubles down the line to drive in two, then gives up a sacrifice fly to Fukudome. A good game by Volstad goes down the drain as the Cubs take a 5-2 lead.

The Toronto Blue Jays score eight runs off Josh Beckett in 2 1/3 innings. It's the second time he's allowed that many runs in his last four games. Interestingly, each bad outing was preceded by an extremely good one in which Beckett allowed one run. Beckett's ERA goes to 4.34, over a run higher than in 2007. Part of the problem seems to be Fenway. Beckett's ERA at home this season is now 6.02.

The Royals remove Brian Bannister before he can give up the home run cycle. Alex Rodriguez took him deep in the first with a three-run shot. Two batters later Xavier Nady knocked out a solo shot. Jason Giambi hits a grand slam in the second, but with Nady at first, Cano singles to chase Brian from the game. A two run shot there would have given the Yankees all four scoring types of homers. They lead 10-3 and are still batting in the bottom of the second.

Bannister faced 16 batters, allowing 10 hits and three walks, and a double and triple to go with the three homers.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

It's a good day to get a handle on the NL Cy Young race as five possible candidates pitch today. Ryan Dempster faces Chris Volstad in Florida as the teams play the rubber game of their series. Of the Cubs regular starters, Dempster owns the best winning percentage and ERA. With almost the exact same number of innings as Zambrano, Dempster has struck out more batters and given up fewer hits and home runs. As a pitcher on a winning team with a good record and ERA, Dempster would appear to be the one to get the Cy Young votes on the Cubs. Volstad's been strong with runners on base this seasons, allowing a .261 slugging percentage. In his last two starts, however, he's walked more batters than he's struck out.

St. Louis sends Kyle Lohse against Edinson Volquez, two pitchers who made important and somewhat unexpected contributions to their teams this season. Edinson holds more than 1/4 of the Reds wins this season. He's been fading lately, however, posting a 4.57 ERA since the start of July. Lohse, too is starting to fade. His strength this season was keeping the ball in the park. Before the All-Star break he allowed just 8 home runs in 119 1/3 innings. Since he's given up seven long balls in 36 2/3 innings.

Tim Lincecum goes into Atlanta with a 12-3 record and 2.67 ERA to face Charlie Morton. Tim's turned up the strikeouts since the All-Star break, sending batters back to the dugout 47 times in 32 1/3 innings, 13.1 K per 9. Morton's numbers don't look that bad on the surface, but five of the seven home runs hit off him came with men on base.

The Mets and Johan Santana go for the team's sixth win a row as they face Jeff Karstens and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Although Santana doesn't have the record of a Cy Young candidate, his ERA and strikeouts are certainly in the ball park. A little more run support and Santana's record could be up there with Webb's. Karstens had his first rough outing for Pittsburgh against the Reds, but still lasted seven innings, giving up four runs, three earned.

Finally, Aaron Cook should get some consideration for the Cy Young award. He's a Rockies starter with an ERA under 4.00, never an easy feat to accomplish. He holds an excellent record on a poor team. He doesn't walk many and he keeps the ball in the park. He also gets a fairly easy assignment today as he faces Odalis Perez and the Nationals. Odalis is pitching well in August, posting a 2.79 ERA in three starts.

Enjoy!

Correction: Lincecum is 12-3, not 12-6.

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A Giants fan finds comfort in strange places.

With Pedro Martinez putting together his third good outing in a row, the Mets rotation has gelled in August. The group is going deep in games and limiting opponents walks. Granted, their opposition hasn't been that stiff, but they're taking advantage of the lull in the schedule to get this group in shape. I thought if Santana and Pedro could form a good 1-2 punch the Mets would be tough to beat. That may turn out to be true over the last quarter of the season.

Matt Harrison put it all together for the Texas Rangers Saturday night as he pitched eight shutout innings in a 3-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. It was easily the best pitched start of the year for the Rangers, surpassing two Padillia candidates of 5/7 and 7/20. Despite walking none and striking out eight in the game, Harrison still owns more walks (19) than strikeouts (15) on the season. His performance last night was much more indicative of his minor league career in which he held a better than 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio.

The team shutout was the sixth for the Rangers staff this season. That ties them for 18th in the majors, much better than I would expect for a team with such a high ERA. The Tigers are last, having only thrown one team shutout in 2008.

Albert Pujols hit two home runs in the Cardinals 9-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds. That gives Albert 308 home runs for his career. At age 28, he's nine home runs away from entering the top 100 of all time. (George Brett currently holds 100th place with 317.)

His consistent greatness impresses on most about Albert Pujols. In his eighth season in the majors, he's never hit below .300. Only once has his OBA dipped below .400, and only twice has his slugging percentage dipped below .600. During his sophomore slump in 2002, his average line came in at .314/.394/.561. He scored 118 runs and drove in 127 that season. He's never failed to drive in 100 runs, and 2007 was the only year he missed 100 runs scored. He scored 99. With 328 doubles (more than 40 per season) he's well on his way to 600 for his career. How many great all-around hitters go through their careers without a major down years? Ted Williams comes to mind. I always thought Frank Thomas would be the right-handed Teddy Ballgame, but it looks like Albert will take that title.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

All four games played Saturday afternoon were decided by one run. As mentioned earlier, the Yankees down the Royals 3-2. Frankie Rodriguez earned his 47th save of the season. That equalled his career high and the Angels record and leaves him 10 away from tying Bobby Thigpen for the single season save record. The Indians lose on two unearned runs as the Angels take the game 4-3.

The White Sox offense didn't help much, but John Danks and the bullpen held Oakland to one run as Chicago takes the game 2-1. After a brief offensive outburst Friday night, Oakland is back to low scoring losses.

The Mariners came back with six runs in the sixth to take a 6-5 lead on the Twins, but Minnesota tallied single runs in the eighth and ninth to win the game 7-6. Minnesota loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, and Brian Buscher got the ball deep enough in the outfield to collect a sacrifice fly and win the game for the Twins. The AL Central remains tied. The Mariners have allowed at least seven runs in each of their last five games.

Roy Halladay completed his eighth game of the season as the Blue Jays spoiled the start of the Paul Byrd era in Boston 4-1. Halladay allowed seven hits and one walk, the only real mistake a home run by Dustin Pedroia. Roy erased three of the base runners with double plays as he only faced 32 batters on the night. Alex Rios added a triple and home run to score two and drive in two, more than enough for the Blue Jays to earn Halladay the win.

Joe Christensen updates the reasons the trade for Jarrod Washburn fell apart. The Mariners did not turn down a trade for Boof Bonser.

Carlos Silva goes on the disabled list with pain in his elbow. He had the pain before he gave up nine runs to the Twins last night, but didn't bother telling the team until after the game.

The Royals and Yankees play thirteen innings as New York wins 3-2 on a Brett Gardner RBI single. The game took 4:53, an amazing left for that low scoring a game. The Yankees collected 10 hits, seven walks and a HBP; the Royals put 14 on by one of those three outcomes. It's not clear why the game took so long. It looks like it might have been the Royals pitchers. New York tossed 178 pitches, 13.6 per inning. The Royals, however, threw 235 pitches, or 18.1 per inning. Seven double plays helped keep both teams from scoring more.

With so many players signing above their slot value this season, and with the kickback scandal among Latin American free agents, it seems like a good time to re-examine the baseball draft.

Baseball instituted the draft in the mid 1960s as part of a long war between the rich and poor clubs over the distribution of talent. Before the draft, players were free agents, able to sign with the club of their choice, usually for a high bonus. The complaint was that the rich teams gained an advantage by being able to sign players for bigger bonuses. Once signed, the reserve clause controlled costs since teams could simply renew players if they didn't reach an agreement, and the only recourse for the player was not to play. So rich teams could pay out a high initial cost for the player, knowing that long term their costs were under control.

To keep the rich teams from signing all the good players, the league instituted bonus baby rules. High priced signees had to stay on the major league roster for a fixed amount of time. The rich teams found ways around this by getting some poor teams to sign the player, then trade that player to the rich team when he was major league ready.

Finally, MLB decided on a draft that would allow the worst performing franchises a chance at the best talent. It worked. The Oakland Athletics of the 1970s were a result of the ability to sign the best talent in the late 1960s without interference. The Mets of the mid 1980s were built on the draft picks resulting from their terrible performances in the late 1970s and early 1980s. All went well with the draft until the early 1990s.

That's when the Athletics realized they could sign unsignable players. Todd Van Poppel was going to go to college. Thirteen teams passed him by before the Oakland Athletics took him with their pick. They offered him a ton of money, and suddenly college wasn't that important. This was the start of a breakdown in the system. As signing bonuses went higher, better players kept slipping down the draft list as the poorer teams decided they couldn't afford to sign them. No longer were the teams that needed the talent getting a fair shot at the best talent.

In the early days of the draft, teams used their leverage as the only employer to sign drafted players cheaply. Now, amateurs use their leverage of limited supply to demand large bonuses. Limited supply seems to have won over restricted demand.

In addition, MLB teams started looking overseas for players. These players were not covered by the draft, so the highest bidders could sign the best players, often at a lower cost than if the player were drafted. Again, this gave teams with more money, who were able to put scouts and academies in places like the Dominican Republic an advantage. We're basically back to the wealthier teams getting the best talent.

My first preference would be to abolish the draft, but that's not going to happen nor would it be desirable. Injecting poor performing teams with good talent is good for the game. We want different teams rising into the playoffs and winning the World Series.

My proposal would be to give each team a shot at fifteen players per round over a few rounds (four or five). MLB would create a ranked list of players, order 1 to 200 (for five rounds). The teams with the first five picks in the current system get to try to sign one of the top 15 players on the list. The teams with the next five picks get to negotiate with players six through twenty. Teams with picks in the range 11-15 can talk to players 11 through 25, and so on. When the draft would return to the team with the number one pick, they will be competing with some of the best teams in the league for talent. At the end, the top five teams would be the only ones allowed to sign the five lowest ranked players in the draft. Anyone not ranked on the top 150 would be a free agent and can sign with any team.

If a player doesn't sign, he would be ineligible to sign anywhere until two drafts have passed (someone who didn't sign in 2009 can't be drafted or signed until 2012). So high school players who say they want to got to college get to spend three years getting an education and playing ball. Any team failing to sign one of the fifteen players assigned to their slot simply loses out on that round.

The master list would be drawn up from the draft lists of the 30 teams. They would submit a ranked list of players, 1-200. A Borda count would be used to rank the players, with this exception. Only the ballots for the team with the first five draft picks would determine the top five players in the draft. Five more teams would be added to determine the top ten, and so forth through the first round of the draft. That way, teams with low draft picks can't game the system to force good players to drop down.

This style of draft might not make for exciting television, but it would improve some current problems with the system.

• More choices for teams mean that they are more likely to sign some talented player. If a player like Aaron Crow asks for too much money, the team can simply move on to a more reasonable player.
• It gives the player more of a choice. Maybe the draftee wants to play close to home. Maybe there's more of an opening for his position on a particular team. He has a choice, and might be willing to take less money for these other considerations.
• Players can't fall that far through the draft. The five best players sign with the five worst teams or day are out of a job for three years. The World Champions would not have access to the best 25 players in the draft.
• Internationals players can easily be integrated into the system without without totally losing the free agent right they currently possess.

Overall, this plan should force good talent onto weak teams without handcuffing either side. I'm curious to hear what readers think of this plan.

Alex Rodriguez just struck out with the bases loaded and no one out. Giambi follows with a double play grounder to keep the team off the score board. Damon had second base stolen at one point, but Jeter interfered with the catcher, which sent Johnny back to first. The two singles that followed loaded the bases instead of plating a run.

A-Rod's strikeout was his 54th with men on base:

Alex Rodriguez, 2008, through his second AB on 8/16

Stat	None on	Men on
At Bats	188	192
Strikeouts	29	54
K Pct	15.4	28.1

That table makes me understand why fans are so frustrated with Alex. He's not even giving the runners a chance to advance 1/4 of the time. The Royals lead 1-0 in the fifth inning.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

The AL Central race takes center stage on Fox this afternoon as they broadcast both the White Sox at Athletics and Mariners at Twins. John Danks gets the call for Chicago against Greg Smith of Oakland. Danks improved the three true outcomes for a pitcher this season, bettering his strikeouts, walks and especially home runs versus 2007. Smith pitched to some hard luck this season, although an 0-4 July was squarely his fault as he posted a 6.18 ERA that month. In two games against the White Sox this season he's walked seven while striking out only six.

Ryan Rowland-Smith takes on Scott Baker in Oakland. The hyphenated hurler makes his fourth start. His strikeouts per 9 are down since joining the rotation, leading to more hits allowed an a higher ERA. Baker posts a 2.83 ERA at home, only allowing five of his 17 home runs in the Metrodome.

St. Louis faces Cincinnati as they try to continue to catch Milwaukee for the wild card. Aaron Harang takes the mound for the Reds. Harang pitched poorly in his return from the disabled list, making me wonder if he's really healthy. Joel Pineiro take the hill for the Cardinals. In his two starts against the Reds this season he's posted a 1.50 ERA.

Anibal Sanchez tries to turn around the Marlins swoon against Sean Marshall of the Cubs. Marshall makes his fourth start of the season. He's struck out batters at a higher rate as a starter and walked batters at a lower rate, yet his ERA is almost a run higher than in the bullpen this season. Sanchez is allowing a .200 BA with runners in scoring position in his brief return to the majors.

Enjoy!

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Mike Hargrove wants to manage again:

"It really would have to be the right place - and the team that did it would have to believe I wouldn't walk away."

Hargrove said he has no regrets about his decision to leave, other than missing some close relationships he had established in the game.

"I really misspoke when I said I had lost my passion for the game," Hargrove said. "I think my competitive edge was dulled. Now, it's back."

We'll see if anyone wants to take a chance on Mike. The worry that he'll walk away would be a huge factor in the decision. I don't know how one guarantees that won't happen.

Brandon Webb easily won his 18th game of the season, holding the red hot Astros to two runs over eight innings. He allowed four hits and one walk, lowering his BA allowed to .234 and his OBA allowed to .286. His 18 wins equals his career high set last season, and Brandon should get 8 more chances to reach 20. Twenty five wins remains a possibility.

Meanwhile, Chad Billingsley gave up three runs early to the Brewers, but that was all in his seven innings of work as the Dodgers clawed their way back for a 5-3 win. Manny Ramirez and Jeff Kent each picked up RBI, giving Manny seventeen in his fourteen games with the Dodgers. Kent has come to life since the Manny trade, too. He's also 22 for 52 since the first of the month.

The Oakland Athletics struggled to score runs lately as the Chicago White Sox came to town. The A's turned he tables on the White Sox however, as they hit four home runs to win the game 6-4. The White Sox came into town with seven four-homer games, the most in the majors. This was only Oakland's second of the season. Carlos Quentin extended his AL lead with his 33rd home run of the season.

Meanwhile, the Twins used a Jason Kubel home run to break a 2-2 tie in the fourth, and then used a ton of singles to score a total of nine runs off former teammate Carlos Silva to down the Mariners 9-3. Liriano allowed just two hits and two unearned runs over seven innings for his third win. He's posted a 1.45 ERA since returning from the minors. That puts Minnesota and Chicago into a tie for the ALCentral lead. Both are 2 1/2 games behind the Red Sox in the Wild Card race as well.

Watching the ninth inning of the Royals/Yankees game last night reminded me just how much luck is involved in the game. Mariano Rivera allows two hits, but the run scores on a wild pitch. Mariano Rivera has faced 4034 batters in his career and has thrown 11 wild pitches. That was his second in the last six seasons. So it was a fairly improbable event that puts the Royals ahead.

In the bottom of the ninth, luck was all over the place for the Yankees. Wilson Betemit leads off with a weak grounder down the third base line, weak enough that he beats it out for a hit. Justin Christian, New York's star pinch runner tries to get a walking lead and Soria picks him off. It looks like the end for the Yankees, but Jeter singles and Abreu walks. That brings up A-Rod, who hits a weak ground ball. Like Betemit, it's so weak he beats it out to load the bases. Giambi works the count against Soria, but flies out to end the game.

So the Yankees had some good luck, some bad luck, but just not enough solid hitting or pitching to win the game Friday night. Considering how the White Sox eviscerated the Royals, this should have been a game a playoff contender would win. Seven games out of the wild card, the Yankees are looking more and more like also rans.

Jamie Moyer and Greg Maddux showed that age and speed don't matter that much as they combined for 14 innings and one run allowed as the Phillies shutout the Padres 1-0. Moyer allowed three hits and two walks, while Maddux stayed in the strikezone, not walking a batter. Of his five hits allowed, the only one that mattered was to Pat Burrell, a solo home run that was all the scoring seen Friday night. It was the third time this season Maddux started a game in which the Padres failed to score. The Phillies offensive slump continues, but at least they found a team even weaker at the plate.

The Reds sign Yonder Alonso, but Redleg Nation wonders if the Reds arent' too heavy with first basemen. The Reds think he can play third.

The Giants spent $6.2 million on catcher Buster Posey, twice as much as they've ever spent before.

The Pirates also broke the bank, signing the second overall pick, Pedro Alvarez, a power hitting third baseman to a $6 million contract.

Another third baseman, Eric Hosmer, signed with the Royals, although the terms haven't leaked out yet.

If you hear of any others, leave a note in the comments.

Update: Here's a complete round up from Keith Law.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Daryle Ward hits a three-run homer in the top of the ninth to propel the Cubs to a 6-5 win over the Marlins. Kevin Gregg blows his seventh save of the season.

Cliff Lee wins his seventeenth game of the year as the Indians squeak by the Angels 3-2. Lee completed the job, his third CG of the season. That equals his total from the previous seasons of his career. Cliff allowed ten Angels to reach by a hit or walk, but also induced four double plays to erase nearly half of them. He needs one more win to equal his season high.

The Mets ran their winning streak to four games as they defeat the Pirates 2-1. The hurlers are on, allowing just seven runs in the four games. Mike Pelfry pitched seven scoreless inning tonight, using his defense to great effect. Twenty four of the twenty five batters he faced put the ball in play, resulting in seven hits. He didn't allow more than two hits in any inning, however, and two double plays helped keep the Pirates off the board. The Mets hang on to first place in the NL East.

The Rays make up for their loss of Evan Longoria with four home runs off Kevin Millwood tonight, chasing him from the game in the fifth. Willy Aybar, Longoria's replacement, hits the first of the night as the Rays take a 5-0 lead to the bottom of the fifth. Matt Garza has yet to allow a hit.

With men on first and second and nobody out, Jeremy Hermida of the Marlins tries to lay down a sacrifice bunt, but pops out to the catcher. Jorge Cantu doesn't need no stinkin' bunt, however, as he hits a three-run home to give the Marlins a 4-1 lead over the Cubs. The team's power disappeared lately, likely prompting the bunt. Maybe the homers are about to make a comeback in Miami.

Update: The Marlins take a 5-1 lead into the fourth, but Johnson gives up a single and homer to start the inning and the Cubs cut the lead to 5-3.

It's been a bad couple of days for injuries. Tom Glavine returns to the disabled list after a one game return from injury. At his age, you start to wonder if his career is over.

The Angels lost Macier Izturis for the duration:

Maicer Izturis' left thumb injury was far worse than the Angels feared.

The shortstop suffered a torn ligament diving for a grounder Wednesday night against Seattle and will undergo season-ending surgery Tuesday in Los Angeles, putting at least a small damper on the Angels' World Series hopes.

"It's a tough loss," Manager Mike Scioscia said before Friday's game against the Indians. "We feel terrible for Izzy because we know how much a part of the club he was. It's going to put more weight on others to carry the load."

With a .329 OBA and a .362 slugging percentage, Izturis wasn't exactly an offensive force. According to Bill James Online, he ranks 15th in +/- at shortstop. In general, he's okay.

Erik Aybar takes over the position. I don't think he'll make much of a difference.

Lookout Landing is just a tiny bit upset the Mariners turned now a deal that would send them Boof Bonser for Jarrod Washburn:

Boof Bonser is a 26 year old righty with two years of service time and a career 4.70 tRA that's 5% above the league average. His 2008 salary is $0.4325m and he won't be eligible for free agency until the winter of 2012. Evidently the Mariners came to the conclusion that, in exchange for Washburn, he wasn't enough.

To summarize, Bonser:

-is better than Washburn
-is younger than Washburn
-is cheaper than Washburn
-is under team control for longer than Washburn

And somehow we were the ones to turn down the deal.

Are we sure the Mariners actually replaced Bill Bavasi?

Update: Joe Christensen updates this deal, and it seems the Mariners didn't turn down Bonser for Washburn.

Chris Carpenter was supposed to miss one start, but instead his strained shoulder places him on the disabled list. It's of course the prudent thing to do as the Cardinals don't want to see Chris's reconstructed elbow damaged due to a faulty shoulder.

Joba Chamberlain threw for six minutes this afternoon.

The Latin American kick-back scandal hits the Yankees as they fire two scouts:

The Yankees terminated the contracts of Carlos Rios, their director of Latin American scouting, and Ramon Valdivia, their Dominican Republic scouting director, a baseball official said Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made.

The two, who had been on leave, were terminated Thursday, the official said.

They were accused of skimming six figures from the deals, a second baseball official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity because no announcements had been made.

The Yankees join the White and Red Sox as teams to dismiss employees over this practice.

If this is Olympic Baseball, I'm glad I'm not watching:

Oh, and by the way: The new Extra Innings Rule had to be used for the first time, and the Americans pretty much hate it. Terry Tiffee, the Dodgers Triple-A first baseman probably headed for The Show shortly, called it "bogus."

Miquel Castillo alerted me to the rule:

I was checking on the Olympics reports (not only beach volley...) and found out about a new extra innings rule in international baseball. Apparently, from the 11th on, every inning starts with men on 1st and 2nd and no outs.

If they're going to write silly rules like this, then it's best baseball isn't a part of these games.

The Orioles sign first round pick Brian Matusz for $3.2 million and a spot on the 40-man roster:

"I'm excited," Matusz said. "It's been a long summer, a lot of talks going on these last few weeks ... the last few days have been hectic. I haven't slept much, with all the traveling and trying to get a deal done. It's a relief now to have it done and start my pro career, and do what I've loved to do since I was a little kid -- play baseball."

He posted impressive college stats at San Diego, improving each season. He averaged 11.3 K per 9 there.

Via Shysterball, the Yankees send Melky Cabrera to the minors and release Richie Sexson.

Bruce Gardner and Cody Ransom were recalled from Triple-A Scranton to fill the open spots on the Yankees' 25-man roster.

I'm very disappointed in Melky Cabrera. He's still young, but you'd like to see progress early in a player's career and Melky showed none this season. While I love the name, I'm not sure how much Cody Ransom will help. He basically defines career minor leaguer.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

It's nice to have Cliff Lee and Brandon Webb on rotation as we get to see the two duke it out for most wins in the majors. Both get tough assignments tonight.

Cliff hosts the Angels and Jered Weaver. The Angels enjoy the best record in baseball and added hard hitting Mark Teixeira to the mix. He's slugging .620 since joining the Angels. Lee has allowed fewer walks than games started, and doesn't get hit hard for a pitcher who is always around the plate. Only 36 of his 152 hits allowed went for extra bases. Weaver allowed six home runs in his last two starts.

Webb pulls the hottest team in baseball as Arizona visits Houston. The Astros's winning streak, however, came against Cincinnati and San Francisco, not exactly NL power houses. Webb has allowed just three home runs on the road this season in 91 1/3 innings. He'll face Wandy Rodriguez, having the best strikeout season of his career. That should work well against the high K Arizona offense.

Paul Byrd makes his Red Sox debut and draws Roy Halladay. Roy averages 7.5 innings per start, taking plenty of pressure off the Toronto bullpen. Byrd hasn't allowed a home run since the All-Star break. That works well against Toronto as they've hit the fewest home runs in the AL in 2008.

After losing three of four to the Cardinals, the Marlins host Carlos Zambrano and the NL leading Chicago Cubs. Zambrano already beat the Marlins once this year, walking none and striking out six in seven innings of work. Josh Johnson tries to get Florida back to winning. He's giving up hits (.277 BA) but not much power (.387 SPCT).

Enjoy!

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I think I would like Manny a lot better if he just stood up and said, "Hair rules are stupid, I'm not cutting my hair," instead of splitting them. I do like Torre's response to all this:

"He haunts me with this," Torre said. "He said, 'It's the hair.' Every time he gets a hit he tells me, 'It's the hair.' He's been funny. I continue to tell him, I say, 'If it was the hair, I would have snuck into your apartment when you were in Boston and shaved your head.' I said, 'It's your ability.'"

Sean Kirst writes about a success story in creating a summer baseball program for 13-15 year olds in Syracuse.

The hard work of truly fashioning the league - schedules, signups, all that stuff - was done by Jimmy Oliver and Kevin Murphy. There were plenty of skeptics. There were people who believed these kids simply didn't care about baseball anymore. There were people who believed these kids, if they signed up, would get bored and stop showing up for games. The original list contained the names of roughly 100 kids, and one of the first questions was whether to have six teams of 16 or eight smaller teams.

After much discussion, we went with six teams. We figured the rosters would dwindle as kids fell away.

The result, however, was dramatically different.

The kids show up, every game. Every last kid. They are passionate. They are coachable. The other night, when we called off practice because a field was soaked by rain, I received calls from two different kids who went to the field and insisted - despite the mud and puddles - it was dry enough to play.

It's nice to see there is still some passion for the game in the youngsters.

Not only is Jason Varitek not hitting in the final year of his contract, he's also getting divorced:

Jason Varitek had nothing to say today, at least to us, about his divorce. And there are few details in the documents filed in Gwinnett County, Ga. Seems the Sox catcher and his wife, Karen, split June 7 and are living separately. In his complaint, filed at the end of July, the team captain contends the marriage is "irretrievably broken" and there are "no prospects for a reconciliation."

I have a friend who Varitek tried to pick up a few years ago, despite the fact she was on a date with her future husband. Sometime after that encounter she saw Varitek's wife on TV and realized they looked alike. Seems Tek used the Roger Clemens MO of dating women who looked like his wife so people who just glanced at the couple would think that indeed was his spouse.

The Yankees first round pick decided that he would rather go to college than play professional baseball right now:

Cole is represented by the agent Scott Boras, who is known for asking for lucrative bonuses. But the Yankees have reached deals with first-round Boras clients the last two seasons, and the person said the failure to sign Cole had nothing to do with him.

Instead, Cole and his father had a change of heart and decided to go to college rather than negotiate with the Yankees.

"It was not a negotiating issue," the person said. "It was not a number issue."

Cole is a Yankees fan, which makes this even more interesting. Either this is a move to see just how high the Yankees go to lure him away from college or he really does value an education. Can't argue too much with that.

SportsHubLA examines the different receptions Manny Ramirez and Mark Teixeira received from fans of their new teams.

Also, there was some attachment among Angels fans to the guy they gave away. Casey Kotchman isn't as good a player as Teixeira, but was so deeply steeped in Angelness he practically had wings and a harp. The fans loved him. He was one of their guys. I was shocked, reading through the chat boards on sites like Halos Heaven and 6-4-2, as to how many people were angry they moved Kotchman in the deal, even for a superstar power bat like Teixeira. Is Kotchman a good player, likely to get better? Sure. Still, I was surprised he was all it took to get Teixeira. It was a no-brainer for GM Tony Reagins.

I would also suggest that because Teixeira was a Ranger for so long, the Angels fans are used to rooting against him. That feeling may take a while to fade.

The Dodgers defeated the Phillies Thursday night to send the NL East team into second place in their division. Both squads are pitching well in August (as last night's score indicates) but the offense moved in opposite directions:

August 2008	Dodgers	Phillies
Runs per Game	4.8	3.3
ERA	3.61	3.81
Record	8-5	5-8

In August the Phillies scored 5.0 runs per game and the Dodgers scored 4.5. The Manny trade worked so far. If I'm a Phillies fan, however, I'd be encouraged by the team's ERA. Philadelphia's offense is good. They're going to produce runs. If the pitching can maintain this level, that offense will win them lots of games down the stretch.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Chris Dickerson, a 26-year-old rookie, takes Adam Dunn's place in leftfield for the Reds, and so far he's making the fans forget Adam. Chris collected three hits in five at bats tonight, two doubles and a home run. In his two games he's banged out four hits, all for extra bases. That gives him a slugging percentage of 1.000.

The Red defeat the Pirates 3-1.

Daisuke Matsuzaka continues his strange year of poor control with a great ERA. He gives up six hits and five walks to the Rangers tonight, but allows no runs. Two things helped Dice-K accomplish this. All the hits were singles, so the runners on base didn't advance very far. The Red Sox defense then removed four of the runners with two double plays and two caught stealings. Matsuzaka continues to be deadly with runners in scoring position. The Rangers went 0 for 4 tonight as opponents are now hitting .188 against Dice-K in that siutation. The Red Sox take the game 10-0 and keep pace with the Rays.

The Mets collect eight hits by eight different players as they defeat the Nationals 9-3 to sweep the series. Three players drove in two runs each only Fernando Tatis, who reached four times on double and three walks, had an outstanding offensive game. As a team, however, New York generated more than enough runs.

The win puts the Mets into first place pending the outcome of the Phillies Dodgers game, just getting underway.

The St. Louis Cardinals shutout the Florida Marlins 3-0 to take the series three games to one. With Johnson, Sanchez and Volstad in the rotation, the Marlins offense seems to be taking the month off. They've scored 4.7 runs per game over all, but only 3.2 runs per game so far in August. They're just 5-8 in the month, and lost a chance to gain on the Phillies as the Mets have done.

The Cardinals close the gap with Milwaukee to three games. They only averaged four runs a game in the series, but that was enough to beat a Marlins team that lost it's power.

Aramis Ramirez left tonight's game against the Braves with a hip contusion. He was 2 for 2 with a home run as the Cubs are once again pounding the Braves. It's 11-4 in the top of the seventh as Tom Glavine pitches poorly in his return from the disabled list.

Gary Sheffield cleared waivers and can be traded to any team. I wonder why no one blocked him? Do teams really not want to take a chance on the slugger? His stats are pretty poor this season.

Update: Commenters point out that Sheffield is owed a large amount of money for next year.

Troy Percival left the game against Oakland with an injury today. Is it time to call up David Price?

Shoulder tendinitis puts Dan Giese on the disabled list, which may accelerate the return of Phil Hughes to the majors.

Brad Penny didn't last long in the majors as he returns to the disabled list.

The move, which came a day after a stiff-shouldered Penny was tagged for six runs in a season-low three innings, was one of several the Dodgers made today.

Right-hander Cory Wade, who hasn't pitched since Saturday because of discomfort in his shoulder, also went on the DL. Taking the places of Penny and Wade on the active roster are left-hander Eric Stults and right-hander Tanyon Sturtze, who were called up from triple-A Las Vegas.

Manager Joe Torre conceded that losing Penny was a serious blow, but noted, "We're used to playing this game without Brad Penny. It's been a fact of life for the last month or so."

Update: You can add Alberto Gonzalez to the list as well.

Chad Durbin blogs about his two blown says and how things have changed for the Dodgers offense:

That said, the addition of Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake has certainly changed the level of pressure for some of the talented young players in the Dodgers lineup.

The players hitting in the 7 and 8 holes were being asked to hit 3, 4 or 5 just a month or so ago. Confidence is high in Dodgertown. We play 162 games for a reason, the season will play itself out and weathering these storms is part of it.

Manny add one more tough out to the lineup, forcing pitchers to work that much harder.

Carlos Pena leads off the twelfth for the Tampa Bay Rays with a home run. The Rays score two in the inning, and it turns out they needed the insurance as an error leads to a run in the bottom of the inning. The Rays win 7-6, and at least maintain their lead on the Red Sox, who are up 9-0 after two innings.

For Pena, that's his fifth home run of the month, and 12 of his 23 on the year came from the start of July.

In his second inning of work today, Brad Ziegler gives up a single to Iwamura and a double to B.J. Upton. Iwamura scores, ending Ziegler's scoreless inning streak at 39. Congratulations to Ziegler on his record and for overcoming two skull fractures to reach the majors.

The game is tied at five as the team go to the 11th.

The Chicago White Sox took no prisoners in their three game series with Kansas City. After shutouts in the first two games, the White Sox added insult to injury with four straight home runs in the sixth inning today, the sixth time a team accomplished the feat. Joel Peralta gave up the first three, and Robinson Tejada came on for the fourth. So much for using pitchers named after shortstops. :-)

At least the Royals scored today as they lose 9-2. For the series, the White Sox out-score Kansas City 22-2.

An umpire following the ball and not the play costs the Padres a run. Jody Gerut was on third with two out when Jason Kendall had a pitch bounce off his glove. Gerut tried to score, Kendall fielded the ball and threw to Brian Shouse, whose slide to catch the ball push Gerut away from the plate. The ball came out of Shouse's glove, and bounded toward first base. While the ump watched the ball, Gerut got his hand on the plate, then starts walking toward the dugout. Kendall realizes there wasn't a call, Shouse picks up the ball and tags Jody out.

The announcers note that while Gerut was safe, he should have held the plate until the ump called him safe. Still, the Padres get three runs in the inning to take a 3-1 lead over Milwaukee and give Jake Peavy the chance for the win.

The Astros extend their winning streak to eight games, defeating the Giants 7-4 this afternoon. Tejada and Berkman combined to break a 4-4 tie in the eighth inning as Miguel singled and Lance followed with his 25th home run of the season. The Astros have scored at least six runs in six of the games and have not allowed more than five.

Unfortunately, both the Brewers and Cubs are hot, going 8-2 over their last 10 through Wednesday. That makes gaining ground for the playoffs difficult.

The Cooperstown Cookie Company is offering a great prize in their sweepstakes.

Aaron Rowand left the game against the Astros with a back injury. Rowand, Winn, and Aaron's replacement Fred Lewis are the only three hitters having decent years for the Giants. If this is more than a day-to-day injury the Giants will score even fewer runs.

The Toronto bullpen entered this afternoon's game against the Tigers with a 2.87 ERA, the best in the game. They cannot, however, protect a 1-0 lead given to them by Jesse Litsch as Jason Frasor gives up two hits and three walks, and all five base runners come around to score as Shawn Camp comes in and give up a two-run single to clear Jason's runners.

Armando Galarraga pitched eight stellar innings, walking two and striking out six. With the Tigers taking a 5-1 lead, his one-run effort may now result in a win.

Update: Fernando Rodney retires the side in order, striking out two to preserve the win. Galarraga continues to have a great season for Detroit, making one wonder how well Texas would be doing if they kept Armando and Edinson Volquez. I guessing the Texas offense would still be pretty good without Josh Hamilton.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

SportsAgentBlog runs down who remains unsigned from the June draft and who received the most money in each round. The unsigned players seem to have Scott Boras in common.

The best pitching matchup of the day goes to Milwaukee at San Diego as Ben Sheets faces Jake Peavy. Sheets has pitched well since the Brewers acquired Sabathia, but that hasn't resulted in good headline numbers. He's 1-3 with a 3.25 ERA despite allowing just 9 walks and 1 home run in 38 1/3 innings. Peavy holds the lowest ERA in the majors since the start of the 2007 season (300 innings) by over 0.3 runs.

Up the coast, the Rays and A's play the rubber game of their low-scoring series. James Shields takes on Sean Gallagher. Shields has taken his fine control to the next level since the All-Star break, striking out 25 while walking just three. Gallagher seems to have lost his, walking about twice as many batters per nine innings as he did with the Cubs earlier in the year.

Enjoy!

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WEEI and NESN are holding their annual Jimmy Fund Telethon today. If you'd like to donate to a worthy cause, you can do so here.

Cardinals Diaspora appears to be conceding the NL Central and NL Wild Card to the Cubs and the Brewers:

Let's talk turkey here: MLB's worst bullpen might be starting to shore up- but the damage has been done. If we had back 1/3 of the blown saves these dog meat arms gave up, the Cardinals would be neck and neck with the Cubs. But since they don't intend on giving any ground back; we're moving through August with the frustration of a team that will spend the off-season wondering 'what could have been'. Frankly, I hate it. If you're writing the script for 2008 you want the scrappy Cards to make it to the playoffs. Yet with 45 days remaining before playoff game 1 the NL Central big boys aren't leaving any room for error.

It's a scary thought that winning 3 out of 4 on the road from a divisional contender looses you ground.

Both the Brewers and Cubs went out and acquired top line talent for the stretch drive, and both pitched well yesterday. The Cardinals failed to counter those moves, and they're now seeing their playoffs hope fade away.

It looks like Tim Lincecum will make his next start after getting hit with a line drive:

One day after getting drilled by a Brad Ausmus line drive, Lincecum seemed to be walking normally. The side of his right leg, just below the kneecap, didn't appear overly swollen, though Lincecum (whose legs aren't exactly in the Bengie Molina range) considered it lots of swelling.

The area was reddened, and Lincecum spent much of his time in ice. He rode a stationary bike and did his usual rotator-cuff and abdominal work and plans to throw on the side today or Friday.

Shall we start calling him Bird-Leg Lincecum?

Nomar Garciaparra homered in the bottom of the ninth to cap a Dodgers comeback as they defeat Philadelphia 7-6. Brad Penny pitched poorly, staking the Phillies to a 6-1 lead after two innings. Los Angeles fought back, however, as Manny Ramirez cut the lead in half with a two-run shot in the third inning, and Jeff Kent tied the game with a two out, two run double in the eighth. It was a good night for the veteran hitters.

Combined with the Diamondbacks 6-5 loss to Colorado and the Mets 12-0 win over Washington, the NL East and the NL West are both tied. With the Cubs and Brewers continuing to cruise toward playoff spots, this is where all the action lies in the National League.

A good pitching duel between Andy Sonnanstine and Justin Duchscherer ended when Ben Zobrist doubled home the go-ahead run in the seventh Wednesday night as the Rays maintain their lead in the AL East with a 3-2 win over the Athletics. Oakland continues to sputter offensively. This was the 20th game in their last 26 in which they scored three runs or less.

Looking at the individual hitters, you can find something positive to say only about Cust, Suzuki and Brown, but none of them are great. The overall numbers are absolutely dreadful. An individual player hitting .218/.289/.318 is waiting for a ticket to the minor leagues. The batters have almost 40 more strikeouts than hits, and almost three times as many strikeouts as walks. To turn the Ks around, opposition pitchers are striking out 8.5 per nine against the Athletics in this stretch. There's no way an offense can be successful when they can't put the ball in play often enough. Maybe it's time for the whole team to start choking up on the bat.

Of all the teams against all the pitchers in all the world, you don't really expect the Mariners to rally for three runs against Francisco Rodriguez. Instead of matching his career high with 47 saves, he walked one, allowed three hits and uncorked a wild pitch. There were actually four blown saves in the game as the score went back and forth from the 7th through the ninth, the last came on a Teixeira home run off Putz in the bottom of the ninth. That sent the game into extra innings.

In the twelfth, Raul Ibanez, going for the cycle, hit a double instead of a triple to start a three run rally and the Mariners walk away with 10-7 victory. Ibanez is on the trade block, and a 4-5 night with a walk just ups his value. He's one of the few Mariners hitters who is living up to his 2007 stats.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Mets and Cubs each smash their opponents tonight, New York downing Washington12-0 and Chicago burning Atlanta 8-0. John Maine made a successful return from the disabled list with five shutout innings. He walked four but allowed just one hit, and Brian Stokes added for shutout inning for the first save of his career.

Rich Harden pitched a similar game to Maine's. He lasted just five innings, giving up five walks and two hits. The Cubs used four pitchers to finish the game, each recording one strikeout in an inning of work while allowing just one hit as a group. For the day, the Braves found themselves outscored 18-2.

In the American League, the White Sox held the Royals to no runs behind the pitching of Mark Buehrle. He need less help from the pen as he lasted seven innings without allowing a walk. The help was perfect however, as Dotel and Jenks faced six batters and struck out three.

At 10:50, there are still two more shutouts possible in the late games.

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

Jarrod Washburn was claimed on waivers, and the Mariners will try to work a deal by Thursday afternoon:

The Yankees were not the team that claimed Washburn, sources say. They had interest in the pitcher before the July 31 non-waiver deadline, but consider their hitting to be a greater problem than their starting pitching.

The White Sox, another team in need of starting pitching, have indicated that they do not consider Washburn a fit.

Could Texas have claimed him?

Joel Zumaya returns to the disable list with a sore shoulder.

Jim Edmonds collected two more hits for the Cubs this afternoon, a double and a home run. That raises his Cubs batting average to .279 and his slugging percentage to .620. I heard on the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast that Edmonds stopped taking drugs for the concussions he's suffered. I hope he's not sacrificing his long term health to hit better, but so far the results are great.

The Twins defeat the Yankees 4-2 on the strength of a Delmon Young three-run homer. As in the game one, the Yankees pitchers were good enough to earn the win, but the offense wasn't up to a low walk, low strikeout pitcher. New York put the ball in play against Kevin Slowey, but only managed three hits on nineteen of those batted balls. Slowey stayed in the strike zone, throwing 61 of 91 pitches for strikes.

The Twins now stand two games behind the Red Sox in the wild card race and for the moment are even with the White Sox in the AL Central race. They've put one game between them and the Yankees in this series, who are now 3 1/2 games behind the Twins and five behind the Red Sox.

The Yankees score 43 runs on the 10 game road trip and allow 59 for a 3-7 record. As much as you hear complaints about the pitching, the offense is just as bad.

The Boston Red Sox placed Mike Lowell on the disabled list today:

Righthander pitcher David Pauley has been recalled from Pawtucket to take Lowell's spot on the roster.

Lowell struck out looking in the seventh inning after having strained his right oblique during the at-bat.

Sounds like Kevin Youkilis will be getting some play at third and Sean Casey at first.

Geovany Soto follows up two walks with a double to drive in both runners. That gives him 65 RBI on the season and raises his slugging percentage to .494. I'm a little surprised Soto doesn't have more RBI given the Cubs ability to get on base, but most of the catcher's power comes with the bases empty.

Alex Rodriguez doubles and scores in the top of the first to put the Yankees up 1-0. It's the 1576th run of his career, and he ranks 47th in Major League history. Alex has scored two more runs than he's driven in, 1574. That ranks 38th. This leads me to ask the question, is it easier to score runs than drive them in? Is that why RBI in general are given more glory than runs scored?

Part of the reason for the higher rank in RBI is that there are more runs to go around. While (obviously) every run is recorded, not every run is an RBI. I believe there's more going on here, however.

The ability to drive in runs depends on power, and power tends to fade with age. The ability to score runs depends on the ability to get on base, which tends to fade more slowly. Hitters with good strike zone judgement can stay in the majors longer as they compensate for fewer hits with more walks. They don't drive in as many runs, but they're still on base to score.

A-Rod is a little over 700 runs from both the run and RBI record. He could very well follow in the footsteps of Ruth and Aaron and set both.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

Jeff Passan lists his 25 least probable success stories in major league baseball.

John Maine returns to the Mets rotation tonight against the Washington Nationals. He'll face Jason Bergman, and both own identical 4.13 ERAs. It says something about the relative strength of their offensive squads that Maine's record is 9-7 while Bergman's stands at 2-8.

Rich Harden pitches the night-cap for the Cubs after getting his start rained out yesterday. He takes on Jorge Campillo of the Braves in Atlanta. Harden's going to end the season in interesting fashion. He's striking out 1.5 more batters per nine than any other Major League pitcher with at least 100 innings. He also holds the lowest ERA in the majors. With 107 innings pitched, however, he still needs 55 innings to qualify for any sort of ERA title. The Cubs will have 42 more games after today, meaning Harden gets eight more starts. He's need to average seven innings per start to reach 162 innings. He's only averaged six innings per start with the Cubs. Still, it possible that Harden ends the season as the best pitcher in the majors, but due to his splitting the season between the two leagues, does not win a Cy Young award.

The Angels magic number to win the AL West sits at 29 as they face Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners. The King posts a 2.47 ERA on the road, where he allowed just one home run all season. He'll face the magic man, Ervin Santana. Santana is off to a great start in August, striking out 15 and walking two in 15 innings of work.

Finally, CC Sabathia tries to remain perfect against as he takes on Josh Banks and the Padres. Milliliter has walked just 12 in 57 innings since joining Milwaukee, and that's helped him to a 1.58 ERA. Banks has similar great control, but doesn't match it with a high strikeout rate. He's a pitcher with an okay OBA allowed, but with most of his OBA coming from hits, runners tend to advance farther and score more.

Enjoy!

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The AL East race stretched from Boston to Oakland Tuesday night. With Boston winning a wild game, the Rays needed a win to maintain their lead. They managed five hits and four walks off Oakland starter Gio Gonzalez in five innings, but managed just one run. Scott Kazmir only allowed two hits, but one of those was a two-run homer by Bobby Crosby, and Oakland takes the game 2-1. Tampa's lead drops to three games. Brad Ziegler pitched a scoreless inning for his second save and now stands at 38 scoreless innings since reaching the majors.

The White Sox won their game quickly, but the Yankees and Twins took twelve innings to complete a 9-6 Yankees win. Alex Rodriguez was 0 for 5 when he came up in the twelfth with the score tied at six. The 1-2-3 hitters in the lineup reached base nine times, giving Alex plenty of opportunity to do damage before that point. He finally delivers a solo shot to give New York the lead. Two batters later, Nady follows an I-Rod hit with a home run for the final runs of the game. Mariano Rivera blew a save for the first time in 2008.

The Mets and Marlins waited to see if they would gain ground in the NL East as the Phillies played at Los Angeles. The Phillies scored early off Kershaw, the Dodgers scored late off the bullpen, and the Dodgers came out on top 4-3. Utley hit his 30th home run and Hamels kept the ball in the park, but it wasn't enough as Ethier singled home the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. The Phillies, Mets and Marlins sit 1-2-3 in the NL East, 1 1/2 games separating top from third.

The Dodgers needed the win as Arizona defeated Colorado 4-2. Randy Johnson pitched another great game, striking out seven and walking one over six innings of work. Adam showed how it's Dunn as he walked twice, struck out twice and doubled in the win. Arizona remains one game ahead of the Dodgers. It will be interesting to see if Dunn's selectivity rubs off on other Diamondbacks players.

The Brewers took advantage of Florida's win over St. Louis to increase their lead in the wild card race. It was a bit of a slugfest in San Diego as each team hit two home runs. The Padres' dingers were both solo shots, while Prince Fielder's was good for three runs and Milwaukee wins 5-3. They now hold a solid four game lead for the last playoff spot.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

There were stories today that Gary Sheffield was placed on waivers. It's August, however, and everyone gets placed on waivers. Sheffield upped his trade value tonight, hitting two home runs against the Blue Jays. That wasn't enough as Toronto wins the game 6-4. The Tigers waste a good performance by Zach Miner. He allowed just one run over six innings. The bullpen allowed six walks after Miner allowed just one, leading to five runs.

The White Sox defeat the Royals 9-0 tonight in a game that takes just 2:13. Javier Vazquez strikes out ten over eight innings while walking just one. It's his third 10 K game in his last seven starts. The Yankees and Twins are tied at six in the ninth. A Twins loss puts Chicago back in first place.

Dustin Pedroia just picked up his fifth hit of the night, driving in Jacoby Ellsbury with a double off the wall. That ties the game at sixteen, and matches him with Marlon Byrd for the most hits in the game. After an intentional walk to Ortiz, Youkilis homers over the Green Monster to put the Red Sox up 19-16. That gives Kevin two homers in the game and five RBI. The 3-4 hitters for the Red Sox drove in eleven runs tonight. Can Texas come back again?

Update: I heard on the broadcast that this is the first time since 1918 that a pitcher gave up 12 runs in a game and didn't get the loss.

Update: Papelbon gets the last two outs with a fly to right and a soft liner to second. The Red Sox win a wild one 19-17.

Update: The Rangers are not dead yet. Papelbon strikes out the first batter, but Byrd reaches on an error by Youkilis at third and Boggs doubles him in. That brings the tying run to the plate.

After providing the catalyst for the Indians 2007 surge that took them to the division title, Asdrubal Cabrera's had a disappointing 2008. It looks like he's doing better lately, however. His three for four tonight gives him eight hits in his last fourteen at bats with two doubles and a home run. The Indians won all four games, including a 7-5 victory over Baltimore tonight.

Despite losing Griffey and Dunn, the Reds still managed to generate some power against the Pirates tonight. Brandon Phillips and Javier Valentin each homered as the Reds took the game 5-1. Edinson Volquez stopped his slide, allowing one run in 6 2/3 innings. His ERA now stands at 2.86.

A line drive to the knee forced Tim Lincecum out of the game against the Astros:

The 24-year-old Lincecum fell to the ground as manager Bruce Bochy and the team's medical staff rushed to check on him. Lincecum limped off the field and was replaced by right-hander Keiichi Yabu.

Let's hope it's not serious.

The Mets bullpen fails to fail. Given a one-run to preserve for Johan Santana, Joe Smith and Pedro Feliciano combine for two innings, one hit and four strikeouts. Yes, the Mets bullpen can get the job done as they take the game from Washington 4-3.

The Red Sox extend their lead to 14-10 in the bottom of the fifth, but the Rangers come back with five more runs in the sixth to take a 15-14 lead. Kinsler and Chris Davis each have four RBI for the Rangers. These teams might combine for 50 runs in this game.

The Dodgers replace Nomar Garciaparra with Andruw Jones on the disabled list.

Adam Dunn strikes out in his first plate appearance with the Diamondbacks. The broadcast showed a graphic that Arizona now has three of the top five batters with the most strikeouts in the National League.

While strikeouts for an individual batter don't matter that much, strikeouts for an offense probably do. It takes away opportunities to get hits because so many batters are striking out so often.

The Rangers chase Zink with five runs so far in the fifth inning. That cuts the Red Sox lead to 12-7. Charlie's knuckle ball wasn't fooling anyone as he gives up 11 hits on the night. It's a good thing for Boston the Rangers starter imploded tonight.

Update: The Red Sox give up three more as Aardsma gives up a three-run homer to Ian Kinsler. Zink ends up charged with eight of the ten Rangers runs tonight. It's a ball game again, 12-10 Boston.

This should make Reds fans a bit happier about the Dunn trade. One of the players to be named later is Micah Owings.

It's unclear if Owings has yet to be placed on waivers. He will have to clear waivers if he is to be traded before the end of the season.

It's possible that Owings has been placed on waivers already and was claimed by another team, at which point the Diamondbacks would have pulled him back off waivers. That would mean he would not be able to be traded until the conclusion of the regular season.

It's also unclear is Owings' physical condition could be a factor in the deal. He is expected to miss his start Wednesday with shoulder stiffness.

He can take over for Dunn in leftfield and pitch. Owings started this season well but hasn't pitched well since the start of June. It makes you wonder how much his stock has dropped in the last year and a half. The Diamondbacks wouldn't give him up in the Randy Johnson trade, but he goes as a PTBNL in a trade for Dunn.

Rain postponed the Cubs/Braves game. They'll play two on Wednesday.

Charlie Zink retires the Rangers in order in the top of the first as he makes his Major League debut. Scott Feldman gives up a walk, single and an Ortiz home run to start his night the polar opposite of Zink. The Red Sox lead 3-0.

Update: The Red Sox send 13 men to the plate in the first inning and score 10 runs. David Ortiz adds to his legend by hitting two home runs in the inning, both three run shots. Zink can cruise the rest of the way, and has already given back two runs in the second.

South Side Sox decides that Ken Griffey, Jr. can't play centerfield.

My latest column at SportingNews.com examines what the Pirates pitching trades says for the future of the team.

The Detroit Tigers signed Freddy Garcia to a minor league deal.

The Red Sox picked up Paul Byrd off the waiver wire today:

The Boston Red Sox acquired pitcher Paul Byrd from Cleveland on Tuesday, hoping to boost a rotation hurt by an injury to Tim Wakefield and the struggles of Clay Buchholz.

The Red Sox will send either a player to be named or cash to the Indians.

The 37-year-old Byrd is 7-10 with a 4.53 ERA this season. But he has won all four of his starts since the All-Star break with a 1.24 ERA.

The only thing that's changed for Byrd since the all-star break is his home runs allowed. He gave up 23 before the break, 0 since. If this is a real adjustment instead of a lucky streak, he should be able to help the Red Sox.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

It's not a meaningful game, but Edinson Volquez and Jeff Karstens offer a good pitching matchup in Pittsburgh. Volquez is slipping in the Cy Young race, so we'll see if he can return to his early season form. Karstens has yet to allow a run since joining the Pirates.

The Cubs appear to have the highest probability of winning a game today as Rich Harden faces Charlie Morton in Atlanta. Harden has pitched spectacularly since joining the Cubs, while Turner Field exacerbates Morton's weaknesses. Charlie is 0-4 with an 8.39 ERA at home. He's allowed 5 home runs in 24 2/3 innings there.

The Rays are lucky the injuries to Longoria and Crawford came while they were facing the weak teams of the west. They travel to Oakland as Scott Kazmir takes on Gio Gonzalez in a battle of lefties. Kazmir is backsliding. Before the break, he was keeping his walks and pitch counts low. Now both are rising, meaning more runs allowed and fewer innings pitched. Gonzalez makes his second ML start after putting up both high K and and high BB numbers in the minors.

Enjoy!

Find World Series odds for all these teams at Bodog Sportsbook.

Redleg Nation asks you to keep former Reds manager Dave Miley in your thoughts. He just lost his 17-year-old son in a car accident.

Russell Martin gave Brad Penny a Mohawk, and Manny will cut the dreds:

It's Monday, and Manager Joe Torre lost his bet and will make a donation to Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA -- Ramirez still looking like Samson before messing with the ladies.

A deal has apparently been struck, though, with Fantastic Sam's, Ramirez getting it cut sometime this week and a Dodgers charity benefiting.

Hair today, and maybe gone tomorrow, and it's all anyone wants to talk about.

Manny also told the report the Red Sox fined him $40,000 for pushing the traveling secretary in Texas. All the money went to charity.

Last night's Marlins attendance was only 13,419, but that was enough to generate boos for Florida's poor performance. With the Marlins in the NL East race, more fans should be showing up to cheer them on, but it's good to see the people who do show up are at least passionate about the team playing well and winning.

Bob Melvin penciled in Dunn to start in right tonight, but that won't last with Upton returning to the majors soon.

It's unlikely that the Diamondbacks would leave Dunn in right field once Upton is healthy. They could put Dunn in left and move Conor Jackson back to first base or put Dunn at first base. Either of those scenarios would involve Chad Tracy moving to the bench.

A more complicated maneuver: Dunn to left, Jackson to first, Tracy to third and Mark Reynolds to second base to take the place of the injured Orlando Hudson.

Melvin wouldn't rule out moving Reynolds to second, but added, "At this point right now, he's playing third base."

Dunn's defense hurts the least at first base. Chad Tracy had his chance to hit his way into the job, but continued to show declining power as he entered his prime years. Putting Dunn at first is probably the best combination of increasing scoring without doing too much damage on the runs allowed side of the equation.

Charlie Zink replaces Tim Wakefield today as the Red Sox lose one knuckleballer to the disabled list and gain another:

With Zink having a stellar season in Pawtucket - 13-4 with a 2.89 ERA - he was an obvious candidate to fill an opening in the rotation, no matter who went down. But because it was Wakefield, that makes the transition even smoother. The one problem was that Zink last pitched Friday, meaning today's start will be on three days of rest, though that is less of a concern for a 28-year-old knuckleballer than it would be for a more traditional pitcher.

"I think everybody felt it was kind of a breakout year for him," manager Terry Francona said. "I've heard his name a lot - not like somebody's beating my door down - but if you look at the reports, he's done well.

"This seems like a really good opportunity to let him pitch. He's been throwing the ball well. The idea will be to slow the Rangers down a little bit."

Though Wakefield threw entirely knuckleballs in his last start, against the Royals, Zink's game is slightly different. He throws fewer "other" pitches, like fastballs and curveballs, even though his fastball is faster than Wakefield's, coming in around the low to mid 80s. Red Sox director of player development Mike Hazen said recently that Zink's improvement from last year (11-6, 4.63, between Portland and Pawtucket) to this has to do with an increased maturity level and an increased commitment to throwing knuckleballs in any count.

Zink doesn't think the Red Sox will carry two knuckleballers. I don't see why not. The knuckleball isn't a pitch batters can learn to predict, because no one ever knows where it's going. If a knuckleball pitcher is effective, the only reason not to carry multiple copies is to save your catchers.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Manny Ramirez came home to Dodger Stadium with his dredlocks intact. He just doubled with the bases loaded to drive in the first two runs of the game in the bottom of the third, so maybe Joe Torre will continue to cut him some slack. :-)

Update: The Dodgers end up with six runs in the inning. Blake hit his 14th home run of the season to cap the inning.

Denard Span ran from second on a 3-2 pitch and scored on an infield hit that ticked off Sidney Ponson's glove. The Twins lead the Yankees 4-0 in the bottom of the eighth.

Update: The Twins win 4-0. Nice game for new father Glen Perkins who earns a short shutout, pitching eight innings while allowing four hits and three walks. Minnesota improves it's playoff position relative to the Yankees, who may find themselves five games out of the wild card if the Red Sox can hold on. Boston just took a 4-1 lead in the ninth on a bases loaded double by Jed Lowrie.

Through five innings, the Red Sox have yet to record a hit against John Danks. In fact, no one has reached as the Red Sox put 15 up and Danks set 15 down.

Update: Danks hits Ellsbury in the back with two out to end the perfecto. The no-hitter is still intact.

Update: Crisp grounds into a force play to end the inning. Danks is nine outs away from a no-hitter.

Update: Youkilis breaks his bat and dumps a hit into short left-center. The White Sox still lead 1-0.

Update: Drew doubles after a Lowell walk and the Red Sox take a 2-1 lead.

I hope Sidney Ponson is properly embarrassed to have given up a home run to Adam Everett. Adam was hot, going 5 for 12 over his last six games, all singles. He came into the game slugging .319 on the season.

Baseball Digest Daily alerts me that Evan Longoria is going to be resting his wrist for a while:

Just a day after losing two-time All-Star Carl Crawford the Rays were dealt another blow, as the team announced on Monday evening that All-Star third baseman Evan Longoria will be joining Crawford on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Aug. 8. Longoria was hit on his right wrist in the ninth inning of Thursday's loss to the Mariners and although initial X-rays taken after the game were negative, the Rays have now announced that the rookie's wrist is fractured.

Longoria started hitting his stride early in June and stayed hot up until his injury. We'll have to wait to see how long this is going to take to heal. It's a real blow to the Rays offense.

Update: David Oritz is resting his wrist tonight.

Doctors repaired Carlos Lee's finger and appear satisfied with the results.

The Milwaukee Brewers defeat the Washington Nationals 7-1 in a sweep of the four game series. Milwaukee batters struck out 14 times this afternoon and walked seven times. That left them only 19 at bats in which they put the ball in play. The managed eight hits, three for doubles and two for home runs.

The Nationals manage just five runs in the four games. Of forty innings at Miller Park, Washington plated runs in just three.

Aaron Heilman blows the save against the Pirates as Ryan Doumit singles with men on first and second, driving in a run to tie the game at five. It's Heilman's third blown save of the season. After a hit by pitch, the Pirates have the bases loaded with one out.

The pen ruined a great start by Pedro Martinez, who allowed just one run over six innings. Schoeneweis is coming in to try to keep the game tied.

Update: Schoeneweis gets a groundball that's turned into an out at the plate, but Steve Pearce singles in two runs to put the Pirates up 7-5. They've scored six runs off the Mets bullpen this afternoon.

Update: John Grabow gives up a hit but induces a double play as he picks up his second save. The Pirates win 7-5. It's only their fourth win since the big trade at the deadline in 10 games.

The Arizona Diamondbacks acquire Adam Dunn from the Cincinnati Reds:

The Diamondbacks acquired slugger Adam Dunn from the Cincinnati Reds today in exchange for minor league pitcher Dallas Buck and two players to be named later.

Dunn is a free agent at the end of the season. He's likely to be a rental player. Arizona leftfielder have a .308 OBA and a .387 slugging percentage. Dunn, despite a low batting average, posts a .376 OBA and a .528 slugging percentage. A very good move for the Diamondbacks. Dunn hits for power so well he might actually make up for some that was lost with the injury to Hudson as well.

Dallas Buck looks okay, but not great. It will be interesting to see who else the Reds get out of this deal.

The Pirates just made their third error of the game. Delgado made an ill-advised attempt to score on a single to center. McLouth made a great throw home, but Doumit dropped the ball at the plate. Delgado failed to touch the plate, but had time to get back and dive with his hand. The Mets lead 4-0, with two of those runs unearned.

Richard Justice notes a quote from Cecil Cooper that the Astros manager would quit if the team signed Barry Bonds.

Maybe Coop feels he has done such a bang-up job running the clubhouse and the games that he can help out Ed Wade in personnel. Lord knows, Ed could use some help.

If I were Cecil Cooper I'd be real careful about making threats. Sure the Astros have been playing well lately, but Cecil Cooper could be replaced in about three seconds. I have Don Baylor's telephone number around here somewhere.

Lisa Gray quotes Justice as writing:

Really? I'd make that swap. That would be a win-win.

I can't find that in the post, but it was my thought exactly.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

Two surprise playoff contenders meet in Miami as the Cardinals face the Marlins in a four game series. Florida is two games behind St. Louis and five games behind Milwaukee in the wild card race, 2 1/2 back in the division. Joel Pineiro take the hill for the Cardinals. His strikeouts, walks and home runs are very similar to his 2007 effort, but his ERA is up .70 runs as more hits have gotten past the defense this season. Anibal Sanchez is coming along slowly, making his third start. The most encouraging thing so far is that he's not giving up extra-base hits.

The last time the Yankees met the Twins, New York needed a sweep to move past Minnesota in the wild card race. The same logic applies now. The Yankees trail Minnesota by 2 1/2 games and Boston by four in the competition for the last playoff spot. Sidney Ponson tries to get the Yankees back to winning after a sweep in Anaheim. Despite his 3-1 record with the Yankees, his 17 walks and five home runs allowed in 40 innings makes me think that record could be a lot worse. Glen Perkins doesn't strike out many batters, but like many Twins pitchers his walk total is so low he still maintains a 2:1 strikeout to walk ratio. He can be taken deep at home, however, as nine of his 13 homers allowed came in the Metrodome.

The White Sox try to make it three out of four against Boston in the series as they send John Danks against Josh Beckett. Josh seems to be allowing runners to score from first as he's allowed a high slugging percentage with men on base, but a low one with men in scoring position. Danks big improvement over 2007 is his home run rate. He'll likely pass his 2007 inning total tonight, but has allowed 17 fewer long balls.

The Phillies head to the west coast to take on the Dodgers. Derek Lowe owns a better ERA than Kyle Kendrick, but Kyle collected 10 wins while Derek suffers with 10 losses. Kendrick's ERA jumps to 4.79 on the road, but he's still managed a 6-2 record. Lowe posts a 2.72 ERA at Dodger Stadium, but he's just 6-5 there.

Enjoy!

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Orlando Hudson underwent the first of two surgeries to repair his left wrist and will miss the rest of the season. It's a blow to the Diamondbacks both offensively and defensively.

The Nationals took a week to think about it, but agree to pay above slot for catcher Adrian Nieto. If teams don't want to be held up for money by fifth round picks, abolish the draft and let everyone be an amatuer free agent. That way, there's lots more supply at that end of the talent scale. If a catcher wants too much money, you move on to someone else.

The National League offers a tough choice this week among hitters. Albert Pujols hit three home runs, posted a .556 OBA and a .955 slugging percentage. Carlos Lee matched the home runs with better averages, but only played five games and may be out for the season with a broken finger. There's also Dan Murphy of the Mets, who's getting on base, but without the runs scored and RBI of Lee and Pujols. My NL Hitter of the Week goes to Carlos Lee. He hit better than Pujols, and his injury inspired the Astros to keep playing well, going 5-2 this week.

In the American League, Marlon Byrd knocked out six multi-hit games and two four-RBI games. Carlos Pena started to show the kind of hitting that made him a star in 2007, posting a .545 OBA and an .826 slugging percentage. Carlos Quentin doesn't quite hold the averages of the other two, but hit four home runs and took some for the team as he was hit by a pitch in four straight games. It's a tough call. Despite Byrd's great performance, Texas played poorly as a team. Pena helped the Rays extend their lead in the AL East, and the White Sox took two out of three from the Red Sox. Texas's team play can't hide the fact that Byrd hit like a machine this week, so the AL Hitter of the week goes to Marlon Byrd.

Pitchers of the week are a bit easier to establish. Leading Cy Young candidates Brandon Webb and Cliff Lee started twice, pitched well twice and won twice. Webb allowed two walks in fifteen innings, as did Lee. Webb allowed 15 hits, but only one of those, a double, went for extra bases. Lee was almost as good. With few strikeouts, 16 balls in play went for hits, but just two were doubles. Brandon Webb wins NL Pitcher of the Week honors while Cliff Lee takes the title for AL Pitcher of the Week.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Chicago Cubs down the Cardinals 6-2, taking two out of three from their division rivals. Over the Cubs last 13 games, they've played division rivals exclusively. They've won ten of those games, outscoring their opponents 78-49. This was a perfect two-week period for the division to gain on Chicago, and the Cubs put everyone away.

Monday, Baseball Musings starts a new feature sponsored by the US Army, the Baseball Musings Players of the Week. Every Monday I'll list the best players of the previous seven days. If you'd like to help, feel free to nominate someone for something other than their stats. If someone showed leadership on or off the field, feel free to send me an email or add a comment. Watch for it tomorrow.

ESPN just reported Carpenter suffered a right tricep strain.

Carl Crawford follows Carlos Lee onto the disabled list with a bad finger.

Carl Crawford has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with a subluxation of his right middle finger tendon, and his status for the remainder of the season is unknown.

Rocco Baldelli was activated off the disabled list to take Crawford's place on the roster; Eric Hinske was penciled in as Sunday's left fielder.

I don't know how much this really hurts. Crawford was an out machine this year, posting a .319 OBA with little power. If the Rays had picked up Jason Bay, they wouldn't be missing Crawford much. Baldelli hit great at AA, but we'll see how it translates to the majors.

Chris Carpenter leaves the game after 66 pitches. He throws a 0-1 pitch inside to Jim Edmonds, then calls out the trainer. He pats his upper arm, indicating the area that's bothering him. No work yet on what is bothering him.

Carpenter was working very efficiently but had allowed two runs. Ron Villone comes in and induces a double play grounder that goes through Kennedy's legs and plates the Cubs third run of the game.

The Tampa Bay Rays saw their 7-8-9 hitters carry the team today. The three combined to reach base seven times and also contributed three home runs, accounting for seven of the eleven runs. Willie Aybar hit two of the dingers, accounting for one third of his total this season. With the Red Sox losing, the Rays extend their lead to 4 1/2 games.

The win also sets a club record. No matter how poorly they may do the rest of the season, this is now the winningest Rays team ever as they break the 70 win total set by the 2004 club. With 45 games to go, if they only play .500 the rest of the way, they'll win 93 or 94 games. That's probably good enough to make the playoffs. They're most certainly a lock to finish above .500. I can't imagine this team going 10-35 the rest of the way.

Brandon Webb took home his 17th win of the season as the Diamondbacks defeated the Braves 6-1. Webb's season can be divided into three parts. Through May 21st, he went 9-1 with a 2.69 ERA. He then went through a rough stretch of eight games ending July 3rd. During that time he was 3-3 with a 4.53 ERA. The big difference was his home runs allowed. His rate was three times higher than earlier. In his last seven starts, including Sunday's, he's 5-0 with a 1.59 ERA. He's yet to allow a home run in this stretch.

Interestingly, his strikeouts were highest during his poor stretch. It makes me wonder if he was overthrowing, not getting his good sink on the ball during that time.

Mariano Rivera comes into a tie game with the winning run at second and gives up a single as the Angels earn a 4-3 victory over the Yankees. Rivera is nearly perfect in save opportunites, but does just okay otherwise:

Rivera 2008	Save Opps	Other Games
ERA	0.31	3.00
Innings	29 1/3	21
Earned Runs	1	7
Hits	13	18

It does hold up over Rivera's career. He has a 1.31 ERA in save situations, 3.43 otherwise.

Chase Utley hits his 29th home run and makes it count as it gives the Phillies a 5-3 lead over the Pirates and Philadelphia goes on to a 6-3 win. Chase is now three homers behind the leaders Dun and Howard. Utley hit 19 home runs in the first two months of the season, but only ten since. He's off to a better start in August with two so far. He hit four in each of June and July.

Tony Pena pinch runs for the Royals and stays in the game as the designated hitter. He goes two for two, raising his batting average to .157. He scores the tying run in the 8th and drives in the winning run in the twelfth. That's only his 10th RBI and 19th run scored in 75 games.

The Twins fall out of first place in the AL Central but don't lose ground to Boston in the Wild Card race.

The Brewers go to the bottom of the 13th still tied at four. Through the first 12 innings they've drawn 13 walks, but only two of those batters scored. The Milwaukee staff has only issued one free pass.

Update: Gabe Kapler homers to give the Brewers a 5-4 victory and a sweep of the Nationals. They stay in control of the National League wild card.

Correction: Sorry, it wasn't a sweep. The two teams play Monday.

Neither Clay Buchholz nor Gavin Floyd pitched well today as both starters give up five earned runs. Floyd, however, lasts 5 1/3 innings, two more than Buchholz. With fewer innings to cover, the White Sox bullpen doesn't allow a hit, while the first reliever in for the Red Sox, David Ardsma is charged with the game winning run. The Red Sox fall to the White Sox 6-5. Boston falls to 27-35 on the road.

The White Sox move into a temporary tie with the Twins. Minnesota is tied with Kansas City in the 11th.

The Rangers and Orioles played a slugfest in Baltimore this afternoon, the Rangers coming out on top 15-7. Marlon Byrd and Melvin Mora each drove in four, while two more Texas players drove in three each. Texas played a 10+ run game at Baltimore in each series dating back to 2005.

Dan Uggla has been in an ugly slump, but helped the Marlins to an 8-2 win over the Mets today. Uggla knocked out two doubles for 30 on the season driving in three and scoring twice.

Josh Johnson pitched very well, striking out five and walking two over seven innings. That gives him a 2:1 K/BB this season.

The Mets gain a game on Florida in the series. The teams remain separated by 1/2 game, but now the Mets hold second place in the division.

Eric Gagne was on a hot streak over his last seven games. That ended today as he allows two home runs with two out for a total of three runs in the eighth. The Brewers no trail Washington 4-1.

Update: Mike Rivera hit a double with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth to clear the bases and tie the game. The Nats and Brewers are now tied at four in the tenth.

Cliff Lee inched closer to the AL Cy Young award with eight shutout innings against the Toronto Blue Jays. His record goes to 16-2 and his ERA drops to 2.45. Lee earns the win by letting his defense help him out. He faced 31 batters with 30 putting the ball in play. Lee walked none and struck out one. The Blue Jays were just 8 for 30 putting the ball in play today, a .266 BA. With all but one of those hits going for singles, they just couldn't create a sustained rally or move runners very far.

Lee gets his sixth short shutout, tying him with CC Sabathia and Jon Lester for the major league lead.

The Oakland Athletics fall to the Tigers 4-1. The manage just one run off Nate Robertson in 7 2/3 innings. Nate Robertson walked just one and struck out five. This is the same Nate Robertson who came into the game with a 6.11 ERA, 42 walks and just 85 strikeouts. Unfortunately for the A's, this performance has been typical over the last month.

Since July 12th, the team's record stands at 3-20. The have been outscored by 63 runs, an average of 2.7 runs per game. That's pretty much the level of scoring for the team, 2.8 runs per game.

You can't blame it all on the offense, however. The pitchers have allowed 127 runs, 5.5 per game. What was once the best starting staff in the AL owns a 5.89 ERA over this period.

I'm a big a fan of Billy Beane as anyone, but he screwed up this year. This was a team in contention, arguably playing better ball than the LAnaheim Angels, even though it didn't show up in the won-loss record. In the past, Beane was able to make mid-season trades that improved the team and sent them on winning streaks almost as good as this losing streak. This time, however, he tore the heart out of the pitching staff, and the result is a team that obviously no longer cares and no longer even tries to win. Nate Robertson is a hittable pitcher. The Athletics, however, trot out a lineup that can't get on base, can't hit for power, and can't score runs. It's a joke and an embarrassment. Greg Smith lasted just 4 2/3 because he walked seven batters and ran up his pitch count. He was lucky to allow just one run.

The A's may have a plan, but it's getting harder to see. Maybe keeping Haren and Harden and drafting players who can actually hit would have been a better strategy.

The Washington Nationals are batting in the top of the sixth in Milwaukee, trying to break a streak of 27 consecutive scoreless innings. The Nationals have two on with one out against Manny Parra, so they may break through here.

Meanwhile, the Nationals starter, John Lannan is pitching a ho-hitter through five innings. As usual, he's getting no support from his team.

Update: Milledge singles with two out, and the Nationals finally score. They lead the Brewers 1-0.

Update: An error and a walk set up Corey Hart for a bases loading single, and a sacrifice fly ties the game at one.

The Astros aren't missing Carlos Lee today. Berkman and Blum homer back-to-back to start the third inning. Bourn hit a three-run shot in the first, and the Astros lead the Reds 8-0 early.

Carlos Lee goes down for the season with a broken finger. It's amazing how something so small can be so important to a player's performance. This likely kills any chance for a wild card comeback by the Astros. Lee's stats surged since the All-Star break. He was slugging .667 with 24 RBI in 21 games.

Cliff Lee goes for his sixteenth win as the Indians take on Scott Richmond and the Toronto Blue Jays. That would give Lee nearly a third of the Indians wins this season. Lee is averaging just one walk per start this year, and only allows a home run every three. Richmond starts his major league career as a control freak as well, allowing just one free pass in his first eleven innings pitched.

The Marlins try to salvage a game against the Mets as Josh Johnson faces Mike Pelfrey. Johnson's ERA sits at 3.34 despite a .300 BA allowed with runners in scoring position. Pelfrey does a great job of keeping the ball in the park at Shea, allowing just three home runs in 78 2/3 innings there, or 7.6 per 200 innings.

Manny Parra makes his first start since his altercation with Prince Fielder as the Brewers go for their third straight shutout of the Nationals. Parra pitched three short shutouts this year, but allowed 11 earned runs in his last 11 1/3 innings. He'll face John Lannan. Lannan's 2.57 ERA on the road is fourth best in the National League.

The Angels look to bury the Yankees as Andy Pettitte takes on Joe Saunders. The Angels pounded Pettitte for nine runs in 5 1/3 innings in New York. Saunders gives up a good amount of home runs for a pitcher who doesn't strike out many batters, but most of them (11 of 17) were solo shots.

Brandon Webb tries to keep the Diamonbacks in first place and pick up his 17th win of the season as he faces Mike Hampton and the Atlanta Braves. The Braves offense has come alive with the return of Chipper Jones, 3 for 7 in his two games with two walks. One of Webb's two losses came against the Braves, however, who scored seven runs in 4 1/3 innings against him earlier this season.

Finally, the Cardinals and the Cubs play the rubber game of their series in Chicago on Sunday Night Baseball. Chris Carpenter makes his third start since returning from his long rehabilitation. So far, he's not striking out batters like he used to, but he's not allowing runs just the same. Ryan Dempster tries to extend the Cubs lead over their arch rivals. He's posted a 1.38 ERA since the All-Star break.

Enjoy!

Enjoy.

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It looks like Orlando Hudson played his last game of the 2008 season Saturday night:

Hudson either broke or dislocated a bone in his left wrist in the sixth inning of an 11-4 loss to the Atlanta Braves at Chase Field, an injury that likely means his season will end early for the second year in a row and perhaps closes the curtain on his career with the Diamondbacks.

"We're not 100 percent sure whether or not he has to have surgery," manager Bob Melvin said. "Probably a pretty good chance we'll know in the morning. If he has the surgery, he's out for the rest of the year. If he doesn't, there's still a chance he could be out for the rest of the year."

The DBacks acquired Hudson as a defensive second baseman, but he's hit very well for the team in his three years as well. With Toronto, his averages came in at .270/.327/.417. Since he joined the Diamondbacks, those increased to .294/.365/.448. So the Diamondbacks lose both offensively and defensively with this injury. His likely replacement, Augie Ojeda, posted pretty good OBAs the last three years but with no power.

A week into August, the team is neither hitting nor pitching well. They've been outscored 52-37 in nine games for a 3-6 record. The only saving grace so far is that even with Manny, the Dodgers aren't scoring that much better, 36 runs in eight games. Their pitching is spot on, allowing just 28 runs for a 4-4 record. Right now, the Diamondbacks need a boost, and this injury does just the opposite.

Did you know there are law enforcement professionals assigned to each ballpark to authenticate items used in a game before they are sold?

The 49-year-old Chicago police officer is not there as a fan -- although he does love baseball -- but as part of Major League Baseball's program to guarantee the authenticity of game-used jerseys, balls, bats and other memorabilia it sells to fans.

At the end of the White Sox game, Cunningham will assign each item an identification number, attach a tamper-proof hologram and record its details.

Fans who pay hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars to buy these items -- usually via the Major League Baseball website -- can be sure that they are getting what they pay for.

"It's put integrity back in collectibles," said Cunningham, one of baseball's 130 authenticators, who also witness and authenticate the signatures of players who sign items for sale.

The program was set up after a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into sports memorabilia in 2000 that concluded that as much as 75 percent of sports and entertainment memorabilia was fake.

I still think it's not that difficult to fake one of these things. How many people look at the hologram and do the research to determine it's the hologram as opposed to a forgery?

With the second complete game shutout in two games, Nationals Enquirer wonders what happened to the new look Nationals?

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Orlando Hudson leaves the game against the Braves with what looks like a serious wrist injury. Brian McCann singled with the bases loaded, then tried to advance to second on the throw. The catcher threw to second, but the throw was wide to the first base side and Hudson, in an effort to catch it, dove into McCann. His glove was bent all the way back, and he walks off the field with the trainer supporting the Orlando's left hand.

McCann tries to steal third, the throw is wide again, and this time Reynolds is hurt. He stays in the game, however, but he was limping for a minute. Atlanta leads 9-3 in the top of the sixth.

We just got back from the wedding of my cousin's daughter, Erica. Her new husband Kyle is a big baseball fan and a loyal reader of Baseball Musings. We were about to leave, and he introduced me to one of his friends, J.D., who's also a fan of the site. My moment of fame for the day.

Best of luck of Erica and Kyle as they start their new life together!

He's only an assistant, but I can't see how this is a good move for the Reds.

The Soxaholix won't like this post, but I'm watching Olympic volleyball, and I noticed a rule change. It used to be that you could only record a point if your team was serving. Now, there seems to be a point on every play. When did that rule change?

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

The Twins and Royals offer an interesting matchup as Francisco Liriano faces Zack Greinke, two pitchers with the potential to dominate the AL Central for a number of seasons. Liriano will try to build on his six shutout innings against Cleveland, his first major league start after a poor performance early in the season. Greinke's walks, strikeouts and home runs are all good. He just needs better defense behind him to bring his hit totals and ERA down. The Royals have a .687 DER behind him.

Dan Haren's bid for the Cy Young Award continues. His teammate Brandon Webb owns the better record, but Dan allows fewer hits, walks and strikes out more batters. He also holds the lower ERA. He'll face one of the future stars of the Braves rotation, Jair Jurrjens. He ranks fourth in the NL in fewest HR per 9 innings, 0.52. That works out to 11.6 over 200 innings.

Enjoy!

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Ian Kennedy's great performances at AAA didn't translate to the majors. He also doesn't seem to realize how poorly he pitched.

Kennedy (0-4) allowed nine hits in his short stint, five in a row to start the third inning. But the 23-year-old right-hander didn't think he pitched poorly.

"I felt like I made some good pitches," he said. "I'm not too upset about it. ... What was it, a bunch of singles and three doubles? I'm just not real upset about it. I'm just going to move on and I've already done that."

Joe Girardi didn't share that opinion. In his world, nine hits over two-plus innings is something to be upset about.

"That's not what you want," the manager said. "You've got to get better the next start. He's got some work to do, and we'll get him ready."

Good pitches are what CC Sabathia made to the Nationals last night. Kennedy needs to learn to take responsibility for his poor outings.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers returned Brad Penny to the rotation. He was given a somewhat easier assignment as he faced the Giants and Barry Zito. He allowed one hit over five innings, but walked three without striking out a batter. His control wasn't that good , 32 balls, 44 strikes.

Asked if the Penny he saw was an improvement over the stiff-shouldered pitcher who was 0-7 in the eight starts leading up to his being put on the disabled list, Manager Joe Torre replied, "I think it's too early to say that."

At least Penny has a positive outing on which to build.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Brad Ziegler pitches two more scoreless innings to extend his streak to 37, tying the team record held by Mike Torrez. He also earned his first Major League save. Given the Athletics closer problems, he may end up in that role, possibly as a two inning closer.

The Orioles shut down the best offense in the majors as they defeat the Rangers 9-1. Jeremy Guthrie lasts seven innings. For the third straight game, Guthrie allowed just one run. That's good for a 1.21 ERA over the three starts.

CC Sabathia pitches his fourth complete game and his second shutout since joining the Brewers as he beats the Washington Nationals 5-0. In 57 innings with the Brewers, he's allowed just 40 hits.

Oliver Perez continues his roll with seven shutout innings against the Marlins as the Mets take the game 3-0. That puts the Mets into second place in the NL East as they move 1/2 game ahead of the Fish. With his seven shutout innings, Perez now holds a 1.71 ERA over his last eight starts. His ERA always goes hand-in-hand with his control, and he's struck out 55 while walking 18 in his last 52 2/3 innings.

Maury Brown takes a closer look at the rash of minor league suspensions for performance enhancing drug use.

Troy Glaus went 0 for 5 this afternoon against the Cubs. That brings him to 0 for 29 on the season against Chicago. He's headed for a record if he doesn't get a hit soon.

Most AB against an opponent in a season without a hit, 1957-2008

Batter	Opponent	Season	At Bats
John Lowenstein	TEX	1974	35
Andruw Jones	PHI	1998	33
Troy Glaus	CHN	2008	29
Marty Cordova	OAK	1998	29
Jerry Kenney	CAL	1970	27
Jose Cardenal	NYN	1971	27
Mike Ryan	SFN	1968	27

The Cardinals still have eight games to play against the Cubs. I can't imagine Glaus going hitless in all of those games. The probability of a .267 going 0 for 32 (four at bats a game in the remaining games) is .000048. Still it will be fun to see how long he goes before he gets a hit against the Chicago this season.

Jim Edmonds adds a second home run in the seventh to tie the game at two, and the Cardinals and Cubs finish regulation with that score. They head to the tenth tied.

Update: Henry Blanco delivers an RBI single to left with the bases loaded and the Cubs win 3-2. Blanco was catching after the Cubs pinch-ran for Soto. He made the most out of his one at bat today.

The Cardinals try the suicide squeeze with Cesar Izturis on third and Branden Looper at the plate. Lilly threw the ball so inside and low it almost hit Looper, but Soto makes the catch and tags out the runner. That's why it's suicide. :-) The game remains tied at one going to the bottom of the fifth.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

Jim Edmonds puts the first run on the board in the Cardinals/Cubs game. He homers to rightfield against his former team for a 1-0 Cubs lead in the bottom of the second. He came into the game 0 for 7 against St. Louis this season.

Update: Ted Lilly hangs an 0-2 curve ball and Mather puts it in the seats to tie the game at one. Lilly is now two home runs shy of last season's total.

The St. Louis Cardinals try to stop the Cubs juggernaut as they visit Wrigley Field for a three game series against Chicago. Branden Looper survives by keeping his walks low and limiting his extra base hits allowed to bases empty situations. He's allowed a .502 slugging percentage with no one on, but it drops over 100 points with men on base. Ted Lilly's home runs and walks are way up from his great 2007 season, but with the offense the Cubs generate he's still good enough to win most of his games.

The Mets trail the Marlins by 1/2 game as they open a three game series at Shea. It's been a close season series so far, with the Mets winning five of the nine games played. It's not so close in runs, however, as New York outscored Florida 51-38 in those contests. Ricky Nolasco set a career high in innings pitched and strikeouts without setting a career high in walks. Oliver Perez won two games in three starts against Florida without a loss this season. He's struck out 20 in 18 innings in head-to-head competition.

The Red Sox visit Chicago for an important four game series with both division and wild card implications. The White Sox would not only like to beat the Red Sox to keep their lead in the AL Central, but they'd like to move ahead of Boston for the wild card if the Twins stay on their tail. It starts with a battle of lefties as Jon Lester faces Mark Buehrle. Since 5/14/2008, no one with at least 70 innings pitched has been better than Lester at keeping the ball in the park. He'll be challenged by Chicago as they've hit the most home runs in the majors. Buehrle's ERA is much better at home, mostly due to giving up fewer hits. His batting average allowed drops 90 points home versus road.

On the west coast, two pitchers return to the majors. Ian Kennedy is thrown right back into the fire as the Yankees visit the LAnaheim Angels. Kennedy was 4-2 with a 2.14 ERA in AAA this season. He struck out 38 and walked 13 batters. We'll see if he can do that against the Angels, a team that likes to put the ball in play.

Up north, Brad Penny returns from his injury against Barry Zito and the Giants. Watch Penny's home runs. He allowed nine in 2007 in over 200 innings. He allowed nine this season in just 85 2/3.

Enjoy!

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Sam Mellinger runs down the Royals options as the deadline approaches for signing Eric Hosmer, the third overall pick in this year's draft.

There's a little bit of a different feeling around Hosmer, who some think might be more willing to play college ball. Boras has always been a proponent of guys going to college. Some think that's just a negotiating position, and maybe it is to an extent, but I also think he believes it.

There's also the safety net that the Royals have built for themselves with fourth-round pick Tim Melville. A high school pitcher from suburban St. Louis, Melville is considered by many a first-round talent who slid mostly because of signability questions.

In a stark contrast to recent history (and another sign that this organization is moving in the right direction), the Royals took a chance on Melville and all signs are that a deal will be announced before the deadline.

If Hosmer went unsigned, the Royals would still get a first-round caliber talent out of this draft, plus have a compensation pick next year (either fourth or fifth, depending on if the Pirates sign No. 2 overall pick Pedro Alvarez), so it's not an absolute do-or-die.

Of course, getting both in the system makes the Royals better that much sooner.

The Commissioner's office started an investigation into the Manny Ramirez trade:

Here's why Selig's office is looking into the matter:

The Red Sox had an option to retain Ramírez in 2009 for $20 million. They had the same option for 2010. Ramírez, who will turn 37 next season, wanted to be a free agent at the end of this season. His agent wanted the same thing. Boras inherited Ramírez's old contract and stood to earn nothing until Manny signed a new one. It was in the interest of the player and the agent to have the options dropped.

Manny's only leverage was withholding services and playing at half speed. So that's what he did.

So Manny acted like a jerk in order to get traded. That's a tried and true way to force clubs into action. I remember Billy Sample talking about this in 1991 during his time on Baseball Tonight. You mouth off a lot, become a bad person in the clubhouse. He didn't talk about not playing hard, but how can you measure that? Manny gone half speed plenty of times in the past. What makes this different?

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Charlie Morton walked 20 in his first 39 2/3 innings this season. For his second start in a row, however, Morton walked one while striking out four over seven innings. That was good enough for him to keep the Diamondbacks off the board. The bullpen had some trouble, but Atlanta walks away with a 6-4 win.

The Arizona loss allows the Dodgers to gain a game, cutting the lead in the NL West to two games.

With the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Raul Ibanez hit a screaming line drive into the rightfield stands for a walk off win against the Rays. Ibanez is on fire, 20 for 49 over his last 12 games with four home runs and 18 RBI.

Both Andy Sonnanstine and Felix Hernandez pitched great games. Andy gave up five hits but didn't walk a batter in 7 1/3 innings. Hernandez lasted eight, and a little support earlier would have netted him a win. Felix does pull his ERA under three at 2.94.

I have to remind myself to look at Ziegler's line every night. He pitched another inning today, bringing his scoreless streak to 35 innings. He did give up two hits, something that's rather unusual for him as he's only allowed 21 hits all season. The two were singles, and not only has he not allowed a home run, the 21 hits are all singles.

Miguel Cabrera helps the Tigers to an 8-3 win over the Chicago White Sox as the Tigers try to stay alive in the hunt for a playoff spot. With a three for three night and a home run, Cabrera is now batting .353 with a .612 slugging percentage since the All-Star break. It looks like Miguel is starting to meet the Tigers expectations.

Mike Mussina picks up a short shutout tonight as he lasts seven innings in the Yankees 3-0 win over the Rangers. It's Mussina's third short shutout of the season, all coming in his last seven games. He's given up just one earned run in fourteen innings during his two August starts.

Mussina reaches 15 wins for the 11th time in his career. If he wins 20 games (for the first time in his career) and the Yankees manage to make the playoffs, does he get the Cy Young over Lee and Halladay?

The Rangers lose a golden opportunity to gain on the Yankees in the wild card race. According to the Yankees broadcast, this is the fourth time this season New York lost the first two games of a four-game series, only to come back and gain the split.

The Astros won their 8th game in their last 11 tries as they down the Cincinnati Reds 7-4. The 2-3-4 hitters each picked up three hits in the game. Tejada, Berkman and Lee combined to go 9 for 13 with four doubles. They scored five of the Astros seven runs. They also set up Pence and Wigginton for mutiple RBI. Lee also collected two RBI and has driven in 15 runs over these 11 games.

The Blue Jays annoucned that Cito Gaston will return to the bench in 2009 as the manager of the Blue Jays.

"Cito's definitely going to be back," general manager J.P. Ricciardi said Thursday. "He's done a good job. We're six games over .500 since he took over. We've got a long way to go offensively, but he's really laid the groundwork for some of the right stuff offensively. The guys like playing for him."

The Blue Jays win tonight 6-4 over Oakland.

Sixty Feet, Six Inches comes up with a new statistic for pitchers, mistakes per inning. In combination with K per inning, it seems to be a good measure of the success of pitchers.

The Nationals take the night cap 6-3, the identical score of the first game against the Rockies. They gain 1 1/2 games on the Phillies, putting them 18 1/2 games out of first.

They are 8 1/2 games behind the Braves. If they want to set a short-term goal, catching the Braves might be something they can shoot for the rest of the way. The Braves are decimated by injuries and trades, so Washington might have a chance.

I'll be on Sports Radio 610 in Houston at 7:25 PM EDT, 6:25 PM CDT tonight.

The Washington Nationals win game one of their double header at Coors field by a score of 6-3. Lastings Milledge knocks out three hits, two of them home runs as he drives in four. That's four home runs for Milledge in his last five games, and he extends his hit streak to seven games. Despite a high slugging percentage in that span, he's only driven in seven runs. Washington doesn't do a great job of getting on base in front of Lastings.

Tangotiger has an interesting idea for deciding when to use the designated hitter; let the home manager decide:

The one being proposed would be somewhat similar in that we expect half the games to have the DH rule in effect. Plus, it adds great strategy (should we force Ortiz to play the field? do we want a DH if Owings is pitching?). It has story potential ("We should have forced them to have a DH and put a better fielder at 1B!"). As I see it, no downside.

My guess is that eventually, all teams would develop a designated hitter, and would use it most of the time. Also, managers would think, "It's easier to manage with the DH, so I'll just use it," rather than really thinking through the strategic implications.

Andy Pettitte may miss his next start. Since Melky Cabrera lost his starting outfield job, maybe he can become the reverse Ankiel and start pitching!

The Dodgers defeat the Cardinals this afternoon 4-1 behind the pitching of Clayton Kershaw and the hitting of Jeff Kent and Manny Ramirez. Kent went three for four and scored twice, while Manny hit his fourth home run since joining the Dodgers, driving in two more runs. Manny now has a .615 OBA and a 1.130 slugging percentage. If he had gotten off to that kind of start with the Red Sox, maybe the whole ugly series of incidents leading to the trade doesn't happen.

The Marlins defeat the Phillies in a game started by Cole Hamels for the fourth time this season. He's pitched well in three of those, including today, giving up two earned runs. Today, Chris Volstad and the Marlins bullpen were better as they shut out the Phillies 3-0. They held the Phillies to four hits, although they did walk six. The Phillies went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position.

The Phillies loss, coupled with the Mets win makes the NL East very tight. The Marlins are 1 1/2 games back, the Mets 2. Florida heads to New York while the Phillies host Pittsburgh. Philadelphia has five games left with the Mets, six with the Marlins.

Waiver deals are starting to happen. The Tampa Bay Rays get Chad Bradford from the Orioles.

The Rays claimed the submarining right-hander on waivers, then got him from the Orioles in a trade for a player to be named.

The 33-year-old Bradford is 3-3 with a 2.45 ERA this year. The durable reliever has made 47 appearances and thrown 40 1-3 innings.

The Tampa defense needs to be at their best with Bradford on the mound. His K per 9 is way down this season, just 2.9 K per 9 innings. He does, however, have great control and gives up few home runs. He certainly adds depth to the Rays bullpen.

The Marlins broadcast reported the Phillies picked up Scott Eyre from the Cubs for a minor leaguer. Scott is having a strange season as he's giving up lots of hits despite lots of strikeouts.

Update: Here's the story on Eyre.

Jody Gerut delivers a solo shot in the top of the ninth to tie the game with the Mets at three. It was his second ninth inning home run of the series, and Jody also homered in the first inning of game two. That set up Heath Bell to give up a two-run shot to David Wright in the bottom of the inning for a 5-3 Mets win. The Mets thought of giving Wright the day off after a shaky game last night, but David goes 3 for 5 with the game winning RBI.

The Padres sent two pinch hitters to the plate in the top of the eighth. Bud Black wanted to put the new pitcher into the two slot, but either he made a mistake, or the ump made the mistake, and Brian Giles (who hit in the two slot) is staying in the game and the pitcher is batting ninth. Black thought it was the umpires mistake and argued the point. He and the bench coach were thrown out of the game. Bud might have assumed the rookie umpire knew what Bud wanted to do, rather than making it explicit.

The Padres trail 3-2. They loaded the bases with no one out in the top of the inning by only managed to score one run.

Cole Hamels breaks up Chris Volstad's no hitter with two out in the fifth. Hamels is 15 for 54 on the season, a .278 batting average. The Marlins lead 1-0 as Hamels seems to have come out of the funk of his previous two starts. He's allowed three hits and one walk while striking out six.

Some team claimed Brian Giles on waivers and the Padres are trying to make a deal. That team may be Texas, and Lone Star Ball wonders why they would be interested.

Update: YFSF points to reports that the Red Sox claimed Giles. Sounds like a backup plan if one or both of Ortiz/Youkilis are really injured.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

We'll know the state of the NL East by late afternoon as both the Mets and Phillies host matinees today. It's a good none matchup at Shea as Josh Banks faces Johan Santana. Banks holds a 2:1 strikeout to walk ratio despite a very low strikeout rate. He only walks a batter once every four innings. One worrisome stat for the future for Johan is that for the first time since 2001, he's striking out less than nine batters per nine innings. His 2007 rate of 9.7 K per 9 dropped to 7.5 this season.

The Marlins and Phillies play the rubber game of their series with Chris Volstad facing Cole Hamels. There's been speculation that Hamels is hurt as he's allowed 14 runs, 8 earned in his last two starts. He's also allowed 8 home runs in his last five outings. Volstad showed great control in the minors, averaging 2.4 walks per nine. So far, it's been a respectable 3.6 walks per nine in the majors.

Texas needs a win to take three out of four from the Yankees and actually gain some ground in the wild card race. They'll send Scott Feldman against Mike Mussina. Scott is the kind of pitcher the Yankees should beat. He strikes out too few, walks too many, and is susceptible to the long ball. Mussina's ERA has gone down every month this season, and he's started August with a 1.29 mark.

The Rays fly as far as they can for their next game as they travel to Seattle for a series against the Mariners. They draw Felix Hernandez in game one. King Felix cut down on his home runs up upped his walks this season. He already walked as many as in 2007 in 54 fewer innings. Andy Sonnanstine is about at his 2007 inning total. He allowed two fewer walks and five fewer home runs, lowering his ERA about one run.

Enjoy!

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The Mets remain pessimistic about Ryan Church returning to the lineup this season:

"I'm not optimistic about that," manager Jerry Manuel said of getting him back. "It's very foreign to all of us and we just aren't sure as to where it could go. And historically, it hasn't gone in our direction.

"We've been going through this, I don't know how long. Two months? Whatever. But, if it does turn out to be something favorable for us, it would be very, very welcome."

Via Bronx Banter, the New York Times discusses Joba Chamberlain's injury:

Tendinitis is a vague term that can indicate a tear of some degree. Jorge Posada said in May that he had rotator-cuff tendinitis, but he actually had a tear in his subscapularis muscle. He eventually had labrum surgery.

Reminded of that, Mussina guessed that Posada aggravated his condition by throwing for so long before giving in to the pain. Girardi said tendinitis was nothing alarming.

"We're not going to rush anything, but that's pretty good diagnosis," he said. "Tendinitis is something that you could probably walk around and find it in 75 percent of the players."

Ian Kennedy pitched well at AAA. I'm sure the Yankees were looking forward to Ian improving the rotation, now they hope he can keep it from getting worse.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Cardinals knocked out 13 hits tonight against Derek Lowe, scoring eight runs against him. That matches his career high, set twice before. However, in his previous 13 hits games he lasted longer, 5 2/3 innings on 6/1/2005 and 8 1/3 innings on 8/25/2002.

Sidney Ponson pitches 6 1/3 innings against his former team, allowing three runs as the Yankees defeat the Rangers 5-3. He walked one and struck out four. Given that he had walked more than he struck out in his time with the Yankees, that was a good outing for him.

David Murphy and Ivan Rodriguez each left the game after a collision at home plate. Ivan braced himself, but Murphy slid with his knees. David seems to have hurt his knee, but it's not clear how Ivan was hurt.

Update: I-Rod's knee was also hurt.

The Phillies shut out the Marlins 5-0 to insure they'll stay in first at the end of the series. Kyle Kendrick pitched the first six innings, and in what seems to be the norm for Kyle, came away with a great result despite not pitching that well. He allowed five walks and four hits while striking out four. His strike percentage was less than 60%. Kendrick was able to spread the hits out so the Marlins didn't get more than one in any inning, so the walks didn't hurt. Kendrick is now 20-9 on his career, a .690 winnings percentage.

Shaun Marcum pitches a good game in his fourth start back from the disabled list. He gave up 16 earned runs in 14 1/3 innings, but tonight went seven strong innings, allowing just one run. He struck out seven Athletics while walking two. How much was improvement by Marcum or a poor A's offense we'll wait to see. The Blue Jays win 5-1.

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

The Yankees broadcast called the injury shoulder tendinitis. There's no structural damage.

Denard Span hit well again today, driving in four runs with three hits, including a triple. He was part of an eleven hit attack that ended in the Twins winning 7-3 over the Mariners. The bullpen was back to it's fine form, too, pitching three scoreless innings, although they didn't strike out a batter.

Ervin Santana's magic season continued today as the Angels downed the Orioles 9-4. He struck out seven while walking none. That gives him 150 strikeouts on the season against just 39 walks. That's pretty close to a 4.0 K/BB. For his career, it's 2.4, which is still very good.

Who should call the final game at Yankee Stadium?

Tiffany Berryman is hearing that Joba Chamberlain has a rotator cuff tear, but she can't confirm the rumors.

Karstens is still perfect through six innings. He's only struck out three, so the Diamondbacks aren't getting good wood on the ball when they put it in play. He's about to start the seventh.

Update: Karstens sets the Diamondbacks down in the seventh, then gets his second hit of the game in the top of the eighth. Two for three off the Big Unit is a good day for anyone, especially a pitcher.

Update: Karstens scores, helping himself to an insurance run.

Update: Reynolds bounces to Gomez at third. He bobbles the ball but still has time to make the throw for the second out. Two scary plays, two outs.

Update: Tracy leads off the eighth with a line drive to centerfield. It stays up in the air for the first out.

Update: Chris Young lines a pitch down the leftfield line for a double and the first Diamondbacks hit of the game. Karstens gets Romero to ground out, keeping the shutout intact. He's yet to allow an earned run since joining the Pirates.

Joba Chamberlain goes on the disabled list, but the Yankees haven't explained the injury yet.

Jeff Karstens holds on to a 1-0 lead after five innings as he's retired all 15 batters he faced. He gave up two long fly balls to center in the fifth, but Jason Michaels chased them down. He's thrown just 58 pitches.

The only run came off a Freddy Sanchez home run off Randy Johnson. The Big Unit has only allowed two hits while striking out four, and it was the first run he's allowed since the All-Star break.

Brandon Backe allows eight runs in the third inning against the Cubs today, but comes out to start the fourth. He pitches poorly again, giving up a run and his reliever letting in a second. Backe is charged with eleven runs, all earned, and his ERA jumps .60.

The Cubs lead 11-4 in the bottom of the sixth.

When a pitcher starts a game with an ERA over 7.00, there's a good chance that ERA comes down. Homer Baily managed to raise his today, giving up six earned runs in 5 1/3 innings as the Reds fall to the Brewers 6-3. Bailey's phenonmenal strike out rate hasn't translated to the majors. He's only struck out 18 in 36 1/3 innings. That's led to 59 hits, good for a .378 opposition batting average.

The Brewers are now 2-0 since the Fielder fight, outscoring their opponents 14-4. Milwaukee seems to be focused on both sides of the ball again.

Edward Mujica comes on in the ninth to hold a 7-4 Indians lead over the Rays. The first three batters double, double and homer to tie the game. Gabe Gross's game tieing home run was off the video wall behind the rightfield bleachers.

Masa Kobayashi comes in and allows the first batter he faces to reach as Masa misses the bag covering first.

Update: Kobayashi walks a batter then gives up a monster shot to Carlos Pena that lands over the centerfield fence. The Rays win 10-7, scoring six runs in the ninth. They're one win closer to the playoffs.

Asbrubal Cabrera trips near the third base coaching box at Tropicana Field as he's walking out to take the field for the bottom of the sixth. He needs to come out of the game, and due to Marte pinch hitting for the DH, Wedge is limited to the moves he can make without losing the designated hitter.

Update: Sal Fasano ends up playing first. Garko started the game at DH, but Wedge removed him for not hustling.

In the bottom of the fifth, Carlos Pena comes up with two out and a man on second, facing Jeremy Sowers. On a 3-2 count, Sal Fasano sets up outside. Sowers throws the ball, instead, over the inside corner. Fasano moves his gloves all the way across the plate to catch it, and the ump calls it ball four. It was clearly a strike on the inside corner. The ump gets fooled by the glove movement, and Evan Longoria follows with an RBI single. The Indians lead 5-4 at the end of five instead of 5-3.

Via the Hardball Times, Squawking Baseball wonders if Mark Cuban will challenge baseball's anti-trust exemption if MLB owners don't vote him into the club.

I'd like to see Cuban own a baseball team because I believe he would bring transparency to the owners meetings. Right now, we just hear results of the meetings, which in the way Bud Selig runs things are always unanimous votes of approval. Given that Cuban is a very public person, I would hope he'd give us an idea of how the consensus was reached. What ideas were shot down, which owners are the stumbling blocks to innovative ideas. Of course, that's probably a good reason (in the minds of the other owners) to keep him out.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

The Marlins and Phillies continue their battle for the NL East crown as Anibal Sanchez faces Kyle Kendrick. Sanchez pitched well in his first start since returning from his injury, but had trouble keeping the leadoff man in the inning off base. Kendrick's innings are almost equal to last year's total, but he's allowed ten more earned runs. His strikeouts are up, but so are his walks and hits allowed. Last season, his ERA was about a run better than his FIP indicated. This year, that's down to 1/2 a run.

Sidney Ponson returns to Texas, the team that let him go due to his bad attitude despite a good ERA. He's pitching worse but behaving better for the Yankees. He'll face Tommy Hunter, making the second start of his career. Hunter posted superb walk numbers in the minors, issuing just 1.7 walks per nine innings.

Enjoy!

Find World Series odds for all these teams at Bodog Sportsbook.

Lyflines looks at the history of David Ortiz batting with and without Manny in the lineup and finds a result the opposite of the common wisdom.

The Los Angeles Dodgers penciled in Brad Penny for Friday's start against the Giants.

Via FishStripes, MLB was almost ready for controversy last night:

The first night Major League Baseball tested instant-replay equipment at Citizens Bank Park, it had a controversial home-run ball in the seventh inning in the Phillies' 8-2 loss to the Florida Marlins.

Shane Victorino's two-run homer off Renyel Pinto looked foul on instant replay. Third base umpire Dale Scott called the ball fair and the umpires conferred after the Marlins protested. But the call stood, cutting the Marlins' lead to 4-2. Scott acknowledged after the game that the ball was foul.

Unfortunately for the Marlins, MLB was testing the equipment it could use in the future only to see how it works. In other words, umpires had no opportunity to run to a TV screen to check it out.

I saw the play, and I think the umps were fooled by the way the ball rebounded off the back wall into fair territory. Luckily for all involved, it didn't cost the Marlins the game.

As I went off to bed Tuesday night, the Tigers took the lead over the White Sox and the Twins took the lead over the Mariners. When I woke up Wednesday morning, I noticed the White Sox came back in the bottom of the fourteenth, hanging a blown-save on Joel Zumaya. Nick Swisher did the damage with a three-run homer.

Meanwhile, after J.J. Putz helped the Twins to a 7-6 lead in the eighth inning (Jimenez and Corcoran did most of the damage), Guerrier and Nathan gave the runs back in the bottom of the inning. Both closers picked up blown saves, but at least Putz earned the win.

Due to the poor relief pitching, Chicago takes first place in the AL Central instead of the Twins. It was the theme across baseball last night. After John Lanna pitched seven strong innings against the Rockies, Washington relievers turned a 2-2 tie into an 8-2 rout. Giants relievers gave up eight runs as Atlanta wins 11-4.

Overall, batters hit .307 against relief pitchers last night with a .388 OBA and a .510 OBA. Batters collected 269 more at bats against starters last night, but hit two fewer home runs. Major League relievers blew 10 saves last night, tying July 2nd for most blown saves in a day this season. Last night, teams needed relief from the relief.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Chris Waters makes a very successful debut for the Baltimore Orioles. He pitches eight shutout innings against the top team in the AL, the LAnaheim Angels. He holds them to one hit while walking three and striking out three. His minor league record isn't very impressive, but at 27 years old (seasonal age) he should be at the peak of his athletic performance. He certainly made the most of his opportunity in the big leagues.

The Cardinals take a four-run lead into the ninth, but Ron Villone gives up a home run to Andruw Jones to make it 4-1. That triggers a save situation, and Isringhausen enters. Five batters reach against him as he allows three runs, and a game that the Cardinals had in control is now tied at four in the bottom of the ninth. Jason is now 8 for 20 in save situations.

Update: Ryan Luckwick walks off with a two-run homer in the bottom of the 11th and the Cardinals take home a 6-4 win, keeping pace with Chicago and Milwaukee. It's his 28th home run, but only his seventh with a man on.

The Texas Rangers hold off the Yankees as they take game two of the series 8-6. The Texas bullpen walked five batters in 2 2/3 innings but allowed just one hit, a grand slam by Richie Sexson.

The Yankees bullpen was any better, however. They cut the lead to 5-2 in the seventh, but Robertson and Bruney combined to walk five batters, leading to three runs in the bottom of the inning, putting the game out of reach. The Rangers now trail New York by 1 1/2 games as Texas tries to pass the Yankees in the wild card race.

I just looked at the Pirates-Diamondbacks boxscore, and the game is over. Brandon Webb didn't allow a run until the ninth to win the complete game 3-1. He threw 103 pitches, 67 for strikes.

Zach Duke and Craig Hansen also combined to throw 103 pitches, 67 for strikes. The only gave up six hits to Arizona's nine, but four of those went for extra bases, while Webb only gave up one extra-base hit, a double.

Webb is now 16-4, an .800 winning percentage. He may reach 20 wins by the end of August.

Jason Bay keeps up his hot hitting, going 4 for 5 with two doubles tonight as the Red Sox beat the Royals 8-2. The doubles bring Bay's full season total to 25, equally his level of 2007. Bay holds a .520 OBA and a .762 slugging percentage since joining Boston.

J.D. Drew batted leadoff. He doubled and drew two walks, but did not score a run. Still, I like that move as Drew's ability to get on base works well as long as Ortiz, Youkilis and Bay form a powerful heart of the order.

The Tampa Bay Rays used three balls out of reach to put the game out of reach against the Cleveland Indians tonight. Longoria, Floyd and Navarro all homered in the seventh, turning a 4-3 lead into an 8-3 rout. The Indians bullpen is now allowing an average of 30 home runs per 200 innings. Rafael Betancourt, who allowed two of the dingers, has now given up 11 homers in 47 1/3 innings, a rate of 46.5 over 200 innings.

The Rays win by a final score of 8-4.

The Marlins finally hang a loss on Jamie Moyer. Despite not pitching well, Moyer only allowed two runs. The Marlins did make him work however, and Jamie left after five innings having thrown 96 pitches. The Marlins then went to work on the bullpen, picking up two more runs until J.A. Happ entered the game. The Marlins hit him up for four runs in two innings and went on to an 8-2 victory and cut the Phillies lead in the NL East to 1 1/2 games.

Like Moyer, Josh Johnson didn't pitch as well as his runs allowed. He picked up a short shutout, holding the Phillies scoreless through six innings. He walked four and struck out just three, however, and the Phillies did collect five hits against him.

The Mets plan to use Aaron Heilman as their closer while Billy Wagner is on the disabled list. Heilman came on to pitch the ninth with a four run lead. Not being a save situation, he allowed a hit and a walk before yielding a three-run homer to Jody Gerut. Smith and Schoeneweis came on to get the final two outs, and the Mets still win 6-5.

Fernando Tatis was the offensive start in the game, hitting two home runs and driving in four. That raises his slugging percentage for the season over .500 to .531.

The good news for the Padres is that they out-hit the Mets 11-6 and out-homered them 3-2. I would think they'll win most games with that kind of performance.

The Brewers fought the opposition, not each other tonight. The heart of the order, Braun, Fielder and Hart combined to hit for the cycle with a 6 for twelve night, Bruan doubling, Hart tripling, and Fielder homering. David Bush took care of the pitching, going seven innings, allowing three hits and striking out seven.

The offense pounded Edinson Volquez, who allowed nine hits in five innings, leading to five runs. The Brewers manage to keep pace with the Cubs by a score of 8-1.

Huston Street gets the call in what's supposed to be a closer by committee, pitching the ninth to hold a 3-2 lead. Instead, he gives up three hits, including a double. The Jays use those to plate two runs and win the game 4-3.

Brad Ziegler pitches great again in a setup role, accumulating two more scoreless innings. His streak now stands at 34 innings. Maybe, from now on, he should pitch the eighth and ninth instead of the seventh and eighth.

Joba is going to see Dr. Andrews. That's seldom good news.

Jamie Moyer doesn't walk Marlins, except for tonight. He's issued three walks so far and hit two batters. With the Marlins picking up six hits, in four innings, it's impressive that Moyer only allowed two runs so far. One came on a bases loaded walk, one on a ground out. The Marlins are one for nine with runners in scoring position. The only hit in that situation resulted in Josh Willingham getting thrown out by a mile at the plate to end the top of the fourth.

Billy Wagner goes on the disabled list with a strained forearm:

Wagner had an MRI exam and X-rays on his pitching arm Tuesday. The tests showed no structural damage, but the forearm strain requires rest.

"It's like a pulled hamstring," he said.

The left-hander is 0-1 with a 2.30 ERA and 27 saves in 45 appearances. After sitting out a game with a sore shoulder two weeks ago, Wagner began feeling discomfort near his elbow while pitching in Florida last Tuesday.

Seven blown saves is the most Wagner's recorded in a season since 2000, when he was 6/15 for Houston.

Prince Fielder apologies for his attack on Manny Parra:

"It's not like we hate each other," Fielder said. "I don't. It's just a little disagreement. I apologize for the way it went down, but I don't apologize for the passion and intensity. I definitely could have handled it a little better, but just at that moment, that's how it went down. I can't take it back. The way I handled it probably could have been dealt with better."

Major League Baseball handed down suspensions and fines for the brawl between the White Sox and the Royals. Both managers and two Royals received penalties. Zack Greinke and Miguel Olivo will appeal their five game suspensions.

The Mariners dropped Jose Vidro and called up Wladimir Balentien. Vidro's OBA fell off 100 points from last year to a miserable .274. Wlad is slugging .584 at AAA.

The Arizona Diamondbacks tear up Dan Haren's contract and sign him through 2012 with an option for 2013:

The contract, which nullifies Haren's previous deal, is worth $41.25 million over the next four seasons and includes a $15.5 million option for 2013 with a $3.5 million buyout.

Haren will be paid $7.5 million in 2009, $8.25 million in '10, $12.75 million in '11 and $12.75 million in '12.

Given his Cy Young type season, it's still cheap. Great move by the Diamondbacks

The Cubs get a winning roll as they defeat the Astros 11-7. Kerry Wood returns from the disabled list and uses just seven pitches, six strikes, to retire the Astros in the eighth innings (they did get one hit). Marmol pitches the ninth, and the comeback from the blown lead nets Chicago their 68th victory, most in the NL by six.

Soriano, Lee and DeRosa were the stars, combining to go 10 for 15 with eight RBI and five runs scored. Derrek Lee was two for his last 22. Piniella gave him Monday off, and he responded with four hits today.

My latest column at SportingNews.com looks at the near future success of the Marlins rotation.

While the Astros are trying to come back in the wild card race, they're also trying to come back in this game. Down 6-1 after two innings, the Astros are pecking away at Rich Harden. Wigginton hit a solo shot in the fifth, and Blum added a two run homer in the sixth to close the gap to 6-5. Those five runs doubled Rich Harden's Cubs ERA.

Update: Carlos Lee goes deep off Bob Howry to complete the comeback. The two-run shot in the seventh puts the Astros up 7-6. The Cubs had 1st and 3rd with one out in the bottom of the sixth, but Ramirez grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Update: Two pitchers later, Doug Brocail puts one in Alfonso Soriano's wheel house and the Cubs leadoff hitter deposits it in the leftfield bleachers. It was one of those times when you see the ball break toward the batter, and you know even before he swings it's just going to be crushed. The Cubs take a 10-7 lead.

Update: It's the Cubs turn for a comeback as a single, double and sacrifice fly tie the game at seven. Samson has given up four hits in 1 1/3 innings.

Finally, my work area is back to normal. Why it took six days to fix this problem, I still don't know. The tech who came here said it should never have happened in the first place.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

The Astros won seven of their last eight games and pitched consecutive shutouts as they play game two against the Chicago Cubs. With visions of their 2004 and 2005 second half comebacks dancing in their heads, they now sit seven games out of the wild card with five teams ahead of them. Wandy Rodgriguez takes the mound this afternoon against Rich Harden. For the second year in a row, Wandy's taken his ERA down about a run. Last season he upped his strikeouts. This season, he lowered his walks. Harden has been almost unhittable since joining the Cubs. He faced 95 batters, struck out 39 and allowed just 14 hits.

The Fish and the Phillies open up a three game series, giving the Marlins a chance to move into first place in the NL East. A sweep puts them up 1/2 game. Josh Johnson takes on Jamie Moyer. Johnson's walk and strikeout numbers are good in his first four starts, but he has allowed three home runs in 23 2/3 innings. Moyer is perfect in his career against the Marlins, going 10-0 in ten starts with a 3.03 ERA.

The Tigers sit 6 1/2 games out of first place as they open a three-game series with the White Sox. Game one seems to favor Chicago as Nate Robertson opposes Gavin Floyd. Robertson has a well deserved 6.06 ERA as he's allowed a .501 slugging percentage this season. Batters hit for power off Floyd as well, but his batting average allowed is much lower, so it doesn't have the same impact.

The Dodgers and the Cardinals are both battling for playoffs spots with Chad Billingsley facing Chris Carpenter in St. Louis. Chad is the kind of pitcher who should benefit from the increased offense expected from the trade of Manny Ramirez. Despite a 3.05 ERA, his record is just 11-9. Carpenter was somewhat lucky to allow just one run in his first start since recovering from surgery. Seven of nineteen batters reached base against the former Cardinals ace.

Enjoy!

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Beyond the Boxscore wonders if David Price should be brought to the majors the same way as Joba Chamberlain, in the bullpen.

The fight between Prince Fielder and Manny Parra appeared to be over Parra wanting to leave the bench after he was lifted for a pinch hitter and Fielder wanting him to stay. So this could turn into a positive team building exercise.

Once again, people make too much of streaks. The Brewers are 11-8 over their last 19 games. That winning percentage would be good for 94 wins over a full season. If that same record came in two or three game spurts of winning and losing, they'd be in the same place they are and no one would be too worried about the team.

The Day by Day Database is up to date. Verizon called and said someone would be here between 8 AM and 5 PM to fix my DSL line. Isn't it amazing how a high tech company like that can predicted a visit with such accuracy? I'll believe it when I see it. The guy will show up and probably tell me it's another ten days before the service comes on line.

With luck, blogging will be back to normal today.

Cliff Lee's remarkable season continues with his fifteenth win, a 5-2 victory in Tampa Bay. Lee goes seven innings allowing two runs, leaving his ERA unchanged at 2.58. He walked two tonight, only the sixth time this season he walked at least two.

The Milwaukee Brewers fall to the Reds 6-3 despite Milwaukee out hitting Cincinnati 9-4 and out homering them 2-1. The Reds made three hits count as Votto, Arroyo and Bruce each drive in two with a single, double and home run respectively. The Cubs are down 2-0 to the Astros in the sixth, with the game delayed by rain.

Update: Sounds like Prince Fielder wasn't happy with Manny Parra:

The cameras just caught an altercation in the Brewers' dugout between Prince Fielder and Manny Parra in which Fielder shoved Parra down onto the bench twice before teammates and coaches pulled Fielder away.

Joba Chamberlain gives up three runs in the bottom of the fifth, then leaves with what appears to be a shoulder injury, as that's where he pointed while talking to the trainer on the mound.

He was almost out of the inning early when Ian Kinsler nubbed one in front of the plate. Pudge pounced, threw to second, and because Kinsler didn't run, the Yankees got an easy double play. One of the other umps, however, said it hit Kinsler in the box, foul ball. Kinsler walked, and scored on a Michael Young three-run homer. The Rangers lead 5-4.

Roy Halladay dispatches the Oakland Athletics easily as he allows four hits and one run over eight innings. It's the eleventh time this year Halladay threw at least eight innings. With eight strikeouts and one walk, Halladay now has a K/BB of 5.14.

Jason Giambi shaved his upper lip, and picked up hits in his first two at bats. His RBI single in the first and Giambi's solo home run in the fourth plate the only two runs in the game.

Mike Aviles and Xavier Nady share player of the week honors. Nady proved to be a great pickup for the Yankees, while Aviles seems to be in the middle of every Royals win lately.

Via The Book Blog, Joe Posnanski invents the Ziegler Number, a way to measure the effectiveness of pitchers. Pretty cool, and Joe gets an assist from Brian Bannister.

The Athletics go to a closer by committee model.

The heat is on in Texas as the Yankees open a four-game series with the Rangers. The forecast calls for 102 degrees Fahrenheit at game time. Joba Chamberlain will try to stay hydrated against Vicente Padilla. In moving to the rotation, Chamberlain maintained his high strikeout rate while lowering his walk rate. Padilla owns the third highest HR rate in the AL, 1.34 per nine innings. The Rangers sit 3 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the wild card race, so a sweep by Texas jumps one hurdle.

Two pitchers try for win number 15 tonight. Cliff Lee faces the first place Rays in Tampa Bay. The Rays are great at home, and Lee's only two losses came in road games. Aaron Cook might have a better chance as he hosts the Washington Nationals. Cook sports a 3.43 ERA at home where he's allowed five of his 12 home runs.

Enjoy!

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Lone Star Ball offers thoughts on the purge of the Texas pitching coaches. His working hypothesis was the Mark Connor was trying to make each pitcher throw the same way.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

Via Extra Bases, Joe Torre did tell Manny Ramirez to cut his hair. Now T.J. Simers has a bet with Joe it won't happen:

If Ramirez returns to Dodger Stadium a week from today to open the team's next home stand with all his hair, Torre said he would make a donation to Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA.

As part of the deal, Torre agrees he will say nothing more to Ramirez about his hair, believing Ramirez heard him the first time they talked.

If Ramirez shows up to Dodger Stadium without the dreads, Page 2 will make a donation to the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation.

As part of the deal, of course, I will say nothing more to Ramirez about his hair.

As Simers notes, there's not financial incentive, since the Red Sox, not the Dodgers are paying Manny. If Torre pushes this, he's likely to trigger the evil Manny the Red Sox were so anxious to trade.

Sam Mellinger compares Ozzie Guillen and Zack Greinke's statements to the press after bean balls resulted in a bench clearing brawl. Guillen:

Benches clear in baseball, these things happen at least a few times every summer. Maybe the thing to take from this is that Guillen all but promised it will happen again, which is why he might get suspended.

"Get ready for the warnings," he said. "I signed a five-year deal with this organization, and we play Kansas City a lot."

And Greinke:

In other news, Zack Greinke's final pitch plunked Nick Swisher in the hip, and my first thought was, "THAT's how you hit somebody."

Greinke said the right things afterward, that he had trouble with the fastball inside to lefties all day, that the 7th was his worst inning, it was hot out there, so maybe he just a little tired.

So then I thought, "THAT's how you avoid a suspension."

Now we get to wonder about every inside pitch these teams throw against each other.

John Shea notes Greg Maddux's dominance of San Francisco ranks at the top since the Giants moved west:

Six pitchers have started at least 50 games against the Giants since '58, and Maddux has the lowest ERA (2.78) and best winning percentage (.682) and is tied with Phil Niekro and Don Sutton for most wins (30).

Here are the complete stats for the six. If you reduce the qualification to 30 starts, you'll see Maddux's ERA no longer ranks one, but he still does very well versus other Hall of Famers.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Brad Lidge comes into the bottom of the ninth with a two-run lead, but allows a home run to Glaus, then loads the bases with one out on two singles and a hit by pitch. He then strikes out two inexperienced players on sliders to earn a save.

The Phillies extend their lead in the NL East to 2 1/2 games. The face second-place Florida in a three-game series starting Tuesday.

Jason Giambi shaved his moustache.

Skip Caray passed away in his sleep:

"Our baseball community has lost a legend today," said Braves President John Schuerholz. "The Braves family and Braves fans everywhere will sadly miss him. Our thoughts are with his wife Paula and his children."

I always enjoyed Skip's broadcasts on TBS, and thought those productions were some of the best in baseball broadcasting. I'll miss his voice.

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

The Texas Rangers can even score without many hits! They lead the Blue Jays 5-4, knocking out only three hits. All three were long balls, two by Gerald Laird. They've also had two batters reach by the walk and two more were hit by pitches.

The Yankees announcers were wondering why Girardi didn't warm up Mariano Rivera when Edwar Ramirez got in trouble in the 8th inning today. Rivera was suffering from back spasms:

Rivera said his back started nagging him between the shoulder blades after he took the loss in Friday night's 1-0 defeat against the Angels.

The All-Star closer said it was nothing to be concerned about, but it was uncertain whether he'd be available to pitch Monday night at Texas in the opener of a 10-game trip.

The Yankees will just need to score enough runs to alleviate the need for a closer.

Both Adam Jones and Luke Scott are running on bad wheels right now.

Greg Maddux won the 352nd game of his career, pitching six one-run innings against the Giants. San Francisco took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but in the bottom of the second, Maddux drove in the tying run with a single. It's his first RBI since 8/30/2006. He's been a pretty poor hitter in the intervening games.

Manny Ramirez is 3 for 3 this afternoon with a single, double and home run. He's driven in three runs and the Dodgers lead 6-3 in the bottom of the fifth. His homer in this inning got back the run Stephen Drew scored on a homer in the top of the inning.

Update: Neither Manny, nor anyone named Ramirez, has ever hit for the cycle.

Update: Ramirez hits an infield single in the eighth to go 4 for 5 on the game. Pablo Ozuna follows with the triple Manny needed, hittng the ball over Chris Young's head to straight away center. The Dodgers lead 9-3.

Daisuke Matsuzaka walks two and strikes out eight over six innings of work as the Red Sox sweep the Athletics 5-2. It was pretty much his best ratio of Ks and BBs since his 0 walk, nine strikeout effort against these same A's on April first. Matsuzaka is now 12-2 with a 3.04 ERA.

Jason Bay picks up two more hits and scores twice. His OBA in the three-game series is .533.

The Cubs defeat the Pirates 8-5 to extend their lead in the NL Central to five games. Carlos Zambrano came out after five innings in which he allowed two runs, one earned. His control wasn't great as only 47 of 82 pitches were strikes. Maybe Lou Piniella thought they could beat the Pirates with the bullpen and why not give Carlos some rest? Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez and Reed Johnson all homered in the win.

Fernando Rodney picks up the third blown save of the Tigers/Rays game. He gives up a single, a hit by pitch, and three walks, the final one of those forcing in the winning run. The diminutive righty threw 34 pitches in the inning, only 18 for strikes. The Tigers bullpen wastes a great outing by Galarraga, who allowed just one run over seven innings.

The Minnesota Twins bring up Francisco Liriano and move into first place on the same day. Liriano's six shutout innings lead to a 6-2 victory over the Indians. Span and Harris hit solo homers to help the cause, and Span, with a .403 OBA is emerging as the leadoff hitter the Twins needed.

The White Sox fall to the Royals 14-3. Greinke and Tejada combine to hold the White Sox offense down, giving up seven hits. Aviles, Butler and Maier combine for ten hits in 14 at bats, scoring four and driving in six. The Royals go to 28-24 when Aviles plays. KC is now if fourth play, three games ahead of the Indians, while the Twins take a 1/2 game lead on the White Sox, even in the loss column at 49.

The Mets put John Maine on the disabled list and send Billy Wagner for an MRI. That's two of their three most important pitchers with injuries as the Mets are sinking once again in the NL East. They're losing 4-0 to the Astros in the top of the ninth.

Update: The Mets do lose 4-0, failing to pass the Marlins. Former Mets third baseman Ty Wigginton does some damage, doubling, homering and scoring twice.

Jorge Campillo lowers his ERA to 2.58 with seven shutout innings against the Brewers. He allows just six hits, Fielder's double the only one for extra bases. The Brewers road winning streak ends at nine as Ben Sheets allows three runs in six innings and the Braves win 5-0.

The Marlins fall to the Rockies 3-2. Florida loads the bases with one out in the ninth, but Cantu pops out and Willingham flies out to left. Josh worked the count to 3-2, but Fuentes threw two good strikes. Willingham fouled one, but couldn't get all of the other. After a day off tomorrow, the Marlins play three at Philadelphia and three at New York in what may be a week that determines how far Florida goes in this pennant race.

Kyle Farnsworth manages to make his trade not work for both teams. The Tigers are up 3-1 on the Rays when they bring in Kyle to pitch the eighth. He gives up a solo shot to Eric Hinske leading off the inning, then a two-run shot to B.J. Upton. He puts the Tigers in a hole and may prevent the Yankees from gaining a game on Tampa Bay.

Update: Granderson homers to tie the game in the top of the ninth as Percival blows the save.

Rare poor defense by the Angels allows the Yankees to tie the game in the eighth. Ivan Rodriguez singles (he homered earlier). Melky Cabrera is sent to sacrifice, but Shields falls behind 3-0, and Melky takes two to run the count 3-2. At that point, Justin Christian pinch runs, and starts on the next pitch. Aybar moves to cover second, and Melky grounds one right to him. He's not ready for it, and the ball bounds off his chest for an error. Then, the two attempt a double steal. Figgins is in as Damon squared to bunt, and Mathis throws to a back-peddling Figgins, but the ball goes into leftfield. Christian scores, and the Yankees now have 2nd and 3rd with one out. Usually, it's the Angels speed and the Yankees poor defense that makes the difference between these two teams.

Update: Abreu walks to load the bases. A-Rod hits a grounder to third, but instead of a double play, Figgins bobbles the ball and doesn't get an out. The Yankees take a 10-9 lead.

Update: Cano knocks in two with a single and the Yankees take a 12-9 lead.

Francisco Liriano leaves after six innings, allowing no runs. The Indians managed just three hits and three walks, while Francisco struck out five. A more than solid outing for the this ace. They lead 5-0 in the top of the seventh, while the White Sox trail the Royals 10-0 in the sixth.

The trade for Xavier Nady looks good for the Yankees right now. He drives in five with a double and a home run as New York comes back from a 5-0 deficit to take an 8-5 lead.

Edwar Ramirez comes in to hold the lead after the Yankees score four in the seventh. He loads the bases with two out and then gives up a grand slam to Mark Teixeira. It's his first home run for the Angels. They grab back the lead 9-8.

The Royals are up 6-0 on the White Sox after three innings. Mike Aviles is 2 for 2 with a homer and two RBI. It seems every time I look at a positive Royals boxscore, Aviles seems to be doing something good. They Royals come into this game 27-24 when Aviles plays, 24-36 otherwise.

Scott Olsen just finished the fifth inning, and the Rockies have yet to record a hit against the Marlins starter. He's walked two. Olsen has thrown a high number of pitches, however, 78.

Update: An infield hit by Taveras breaks up the no-no with one out in the sixth. The Marlins lead the Rockies 2-0.

Francisco Liriano gets off to a good start in the first. He retires the Indians in order, striking out two. I'm interested to hear what Twins fans think of his delivery. It used to be known for it's violence. He seems somewhat more in control of his mechanics now.

Update: Blyleven just addressed this. The Twins are trying to get Liriano to keep his right shoulder in to reduce the violence of his delivery.

The Oakland Athletics sent Dana Eveland to the minors today. Dana's control started detiriorating in June. In April and May he walked 26 in 66 1/3 innings. Since, he's walked 38 in 58 2/3 innings.

Phil Hughes pitched more impressively than Carl Pavano last night. If Phil keeps making that kind of progress, he may be back in the Yankees rotation by mid-August.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

The Padres lost to the Giants Saturday night as Barry Zito pitched eight scoreless innings.

When manager Bruce Bochy jogged to the mound with two outs in the eighth inning, he didn't want to pull Barry Zito even though the Padres' scariest hitter, Adrian Gonzalez, was coming up with two runners aboard.

"That was his ballgame at that point," said Bochy, who left the mound without signaling to the bullpen.

Closer Brian Wilson called Bochy's decision "one of the greatest, most respectable things I've seen."

Zito thought it was pretty cool, too. He retired Gonzalez on one pitch to complete eight shutout innings for the first time since Aug. 21, 2004, against Tampa Bay, and Wilson threw a perfect ninth to earn his league-leading 30th save and close out a 2-0 victory.

This supplants Zito's game against the Dodgers on July 5th in which he walked one and struck out ten, as well as his game against the Indians on June 25th in which he allowed one run in 6 2/3 innings. Congratulations, Padres, you win the most embarrassing loss of the season!

The pitch by Mariano Rivera that earned Mike Lowell an ejection was indeed a ball, according to QuesTec.

The Milwaukee Brewers go for a sweep of the Braves with Ben Sheets facing Jorge Campillo. Sheets is coming off his worst month of the season, going 1-2 in July with a 4.34 ERA. It might have been the fault of his defense, however, as his strikeouts, walks and home runs allowed were all excellent. Batters are adjusting to Campillo. The high strikeout rate he showed in April and May (33 K in 36 1/3 innings) dropped in June and July (37 K in 64 2/3 innings).

Armando Galarraga faces James Shields today in the Tigers/Rays game. Galarraga and Edinson Volquez are two reasons, I believe, for the purge of the Texas Rangers pitching coaches. Neither performed well for the Rangers, but both blossomed away from Texas. Like Volquez in Cincinnati, Galarraga owns the best ERA among Tigers starters.

Enjoy!

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Sixty Feet, Six Inches looks in detail at the haul the Pirates received for Jason Bay.

The Day by Day Database is up to date as I start day five without Verizon DSL. Once again, the good people at Friendly's are supplying high-speed internet in exchange for breakfast.

Maury Brown notes that there have been a large number of minor league suspensions due to substance abuse in the last nine days. I wonder if it was just because the review process finished at about the same time?

Ron Gardenhire won't be managing tonight's game:

Gardenhire was suspended after he kicked his hat in disgust following his ejection in the seventh inning. Fans threw hats, baseballs and other debris on the field after that, forcing Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen to pull his team off the field for a few minutes.

Ron won't be there if the Twins claim first place.

Update: The Twins just laid down three straight bunts. Gomez and Span picked up back-to-back bunt hits, then Punto sacrificed them to 2nd and 3rd. I can't remember seeing three straight bunts in a row. That's 48 bunt hits for the Twins, more than twice as many as any other team.

Update: After Mauer walks, Morneau hits a sacrifice fly, and the Twins lead 1-0 in the bottom of the third.

Update: Peralta doubles in the top of the fourth to tie the game at one.

Update: Shoppach hits his fifth home run in his last 10 games and the Indians lead 3-1.

Jason Bay continues his good start for Boston with a home run off the Volvo billboard above the Green Monster. He's two for four with seven total bases for a 1.750 slugging percentage with the Red Sox. Eveland hasn't recorded an out as the Red Sox turn a 2-0 deficit into a 5-2 lead.

The temperature in Kansas City was 95 degrees Fahrenheit at game time with a heat index of 111. That seemed to perk up the bats as the White Sox and Royals combined for seven home runs. The White Sox went back-to-back twice, all solo shots. They Royals also picked up four runs on their three homers, but overall they outhit the White Sox 19-10, leading to a nail-biter of a victory, 9-7. The White Sox loss gives the Twins a chance to claim first place in the AL Central with a win over Cleveland.

Mike Mussina allowed two hits over seven innings to help the Yankees to an 8-2 win over the Angels, ending LAnaheim's winning streak of five games. Mussina could have allowed no runs except for a poor attempt at turning a double play. He retired the last seventeen batters he faced.

The win takes Mike's record to 14-7. If he maintain two wins for one loss the rest of the way, it will be his 8th season with a winning percentage of .667 or better. He's now 264-151 for his career, a .636 winning percentage.

The Milwaukee Brewers send the Atlanta Braves to another loss. CC Sabathia goes deep into another game, lasting 109 pitches for 8 1/3 innings. He allows two runs while walking one and striking out nine. That gives him 11 walks, 43 strikeouts, and a 5-0 record with Milwuakee.

Prince Fielder provided the offense with two home runs. He drove in three of the four Brewers runs. He's now driven in 65 runs and scored 61. The Brewers win by a final score of 4-2. The Braves have now lost seven of their last eight games.

In the top of the second, Wilson Betemit makes an error trying to turn a double play that gives the Angels a 2-0 lead over the Yankees. In the bottom of the inning, he follows a Nady single with a two-run home over the fence in right-center. The Angels and Yankees go to the third tied at two.

Jered Weaver struck out the first four Yankees batters he faced.

Chad Gaudin turned into Mr. Control since joining the Cubs. He faced two batters today and struck out one to bring his total to 14 in 12 1/3 innings with Chicago, while only walking one. Combined with Rich Harden, the two have K'd 53 batters in 37 Cubs innings. Chicago takes down Pittsburgh 5-1.

Joe Girardi says Chien-Ming Wang won't return for the stretch drive.

"The chances of getting him back on September 1st is zero," Girardi said. "October 1st is possible."

Wang, a 19-game winner each of the past two seasons, was 8-2 with a 4.07 ERA when he got hurt. Girardi said he wouldn't hesitate to throw Wang back into the rotation just as soon as he's ready to go, pennant race or not.

"I would not hesitate," Girardi said. "As long as he's healthy we'll throw him out there."

That seems to leave Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes as the best chances to improve the Rasner/Ponson end of the rotation. Kennedy is pitching well at AAA. Hughes made his first rehab start, as did this pitcher, lurking in the shadows.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com

The Texas Rangers replaced their pitching coaches Friday night:

The Rangers fired pitching coach Mark Connor and bullpen coach Dom Chiti after Friday's 9-8 win against Toronto.

Triple-A Oklahoma pitching coach Andy Hawkins and Jim Colborn, director of Pacific Rim operations and a pitching coach for two years under former Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy, will take over for the rest of the season. Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said the club will re-evaluate both coaches at that time.

Texas pitchers own the worst ERA in the American League, the only team with an ERA over 5.00. The Rangers are the highest scoring team in the majors at 5.63 runs per game, yet they've been outscored by more than 30 runs. If new pitching coaches can knock down the Rangers ERA, they have a chance at making a run at the wild card this season.

"We felt we weren't seeing the progress we wanted to see," Rangers president Nolan Ryan said. "We're serious about the wild-card race, and in fairness to our offense, we needed to try to do something to improve our pitching. We owe them that."

Baltimore Birds' Nest has the latest on Roch Kubatko's move to MASN.

The White Sox continue their series against the Royals with Mark Buehrle facing Kyle Davies. Buehrle's ERA doesn't jibe with his record of 8-9. A pitcher on a first place team with an ERA of 3.69 should at least be over .500. It's been his bad luck to start nine games in which the White Sox scored two runs or less. Davies is getting hit hard this year, but especially at home where opponents are batting .309.

Somehow, when Johan Santana faced Roy Oswalt, I didn't expect them to be a combined 17-15. Since the start of the 2003 season, the two rank 1st and 3rd in the majors in wins, respectively.

There's a good matchup of young left-handers in Boston as Dana Eveland visits Jon Lester. Eveland, however, is just 2-4 away from Oakland, posting a 4.44 ERA on the road. His walks go down but his home runs go up. Lester is having a great run since the start of June, undefeated with a 2.56 ERA. The high walk totals from the start of his career have disappeared as his BB per 9 is just 1.3 during this stretch.

Enjoy!

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Jason Bay and Manny Ramirez had their first games with their new teams end very differently Friday night. After walking twice and reaching on a hit by pitch, Bay came up with two out in the twelfth and tripled, scoring the winning run on a Jed Lowrie infield single.

Manny started his game by grounding out to shortstop, but busted down the line, something not usually seen in Fenway. He picked up two singles before coming up in the bottom of the ninth in a 2-1 game with none out. He grounded into a double play and the Dodgers lose 2-1.

Randy Johnson pitched a strong six innings for the win. He walked none and struck out six, earning a short shutout. Johnson is benefiting from the Baseball Musings reverse jinx that helped Jose Reyes and Justin Morneau so much in 2006. Since writing this post, Randy is 5-0 with a 1.39 ERA. He's walked two and struck out 25. I should start selling "X is done" posts to hitters and pitchers in major slumps.

Sitemeter made a change that caused the blog not to load in IE 7. I've removed sitemeter until the problem is fixed (if ever).

Update: The problem is fixed.

Once again, Verizon fails to fix my DSL service. Thanks to the good people at Friendly's, however, the Day by Day Database is up to date and I ate a nice breakfast. At some point I'll have time to rant about my Verizon experience, but for now I need to use the little high speed time I can find to update the site.

The Athletics and Red Sox are tied at one in the bottom of the tenth. Brad Ziegler pitches two more scoreless innings to bring his streak to 32 innings. He'd have to give up seven runs to bring his ERA close to 2.00.

Mike Lowell limps off the field after reaching on an infield single. That would be a tough loss for the Sox if it's a serious injury.

Update: The Red Sox leave the bases loaded in the 10th. This one goes to 11.

Update: Oakland walks Drew, then Lowrie chops one up the middle. It bounces over Embree's head, Crosby fields, but double pumps and Lowrie beats it out. Bay scores and the Red Sox win 2-1 in 12. Bay reached base four times, with the triple, two walks and a hit by pitch. Nice start to Bay's Red Sox career.

Update: Jason Bay just tripled with two out in the 12th. It scraped the wall and for a minute it looked like a walk-off home run.

The Yankees fall 1-0 to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Sidney Ponson pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing two hits while striking out just one. With four walks, the Angels put 21 balls in play against the royalty, but couldn't put together a rally. It was up to Mariano Rivera in the ninth to give up a walk and two hits to allow the first run of the game, leading to Francisco Rodriguez easily retiring the Yankees for his 45th save.

Ervin Santana pitched a great game, striking out eight over eight innings. That brings his road ERA down in 3.45, much better than his 2007 mark.

Jeremy Sowers of the Indians is perfect through five innings against the Twins. He needs to pitch well as Nick Blackburn is also pitching a shutout.

Update: Harris doubles leading off the sixth.

Homer Bailey came into tonight's game with an 0-4 record and a 6.52 ERA. He drew an easy assignment, facing the hapless Washington Nationals offense. Bailey gives up five runs in two innings, all earned, to raise his ERA to 7.55.

Jason Bay walks and scores in the second inning, a good start to his Red Sox career. Boston leads 1-0 after a Drew single and a Lowrie sacrifice fly.

The Minnesota Twins brought up Francisco Liriano today:

To make room for Liriano and Ruiz on the roster, Minnesota designated pitcher Livan Hernandez and outfielder Craig Monroe for release or assignment.

It's about time.

Jeff Karstens has pitched six scoreless innings in his first start for the Pirates. It's not the kind of performance, however, that should generate a lot of excitement. On the plus side, he's given up five hits, all singles. He's walked four, however, while striking out just two. Those numbers aren't going to lead to much success long term.

Update: Pirates win 3-0, with Karstens getting the six inning short shutout. The Cubs hit into four double plays, negating 1/3 of the 12 batters to reach, seven by walks.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

Steve Silva at Extra Bases does an excellent job of rounding up the reaction to the Manny Ramirez trade. There will be a news conference on the field at Dodger Stadium tonight.

I'd like to add one thing to this story. Manny, to a certain extent, has moved criticism from his playing ability to his personality. Remember the story of the off season? Manny was working out and was going to be in the best shape of his life. Despite the intense training, Ramirez put up numbers very similar to last year, with a little more power. The Red Sox had to look at that and say to themselves, "He worked his butt off this winter and he didn't improve much. The decline is real. Let's wait this out."

Manny probably thought he would come out like gangbusters, reaching 500 home runs quickly and wowing the front office with his return to dominance. Age, however, is eroding Manny's skills. He's so good that he can still be the best player on many teams playing at a lower level, but teams will pause before committing to an expensive, long term deal.

I suspect that was the big cause of the breakdown. Manny didn't meet his own expectations, but couldn't blame himself. He worked hard, said the right things to the press, even showed up to spring training on time. The Red Sox front office, however, saw the numbers, and the numbers said wait. Ramirez wouldn't accept that, so he acted in such a way that the Red Sox had to trade him, and received his wish.

It's too bad. Terry Francona, the front office, the players, and a good deal of Red Sox Nation cut Manny a lot of slack for a number of years. They respected Manny's ability to perform on the field. Ramirez should have more respect for their generosity.

They'll ban this soon.

Willie Nicklaus guest writes at SportsAgentBlog.com on the choices high school students face in deciding to turn pro or go to college. The decision date is only two weeks away.

The Angels continue their blitz through the AL East as they send Ervin Santana against the Yankees' Sidney Ponson tonight. A somewhat telling statistic right now is that LAnaheim is 9-1 against the Red Sox and Yankees, 2-4 against Tampa Bay. The Angels are not only dominating the AL West, they may make the difference in the AL East as well.

The class of 1993 meets again in Florida as Ubaldo Jimenez takes on Chris Volstad. Ubaldo is coming off a hot July (we had a day last week when it was the heat, not the humidity) in which he posted a 1.74 ERA, giving up 29 hits in 41 1/3 innings. Volstad is off to a good major league start due to the lack of power against him. Only five of his 19 hits allowed went for extra bases, and opponents are slugging a mere .313 off the Florida rookie.

The Phillies and Cardinals start a weekend series with both division and wild card implications. Cole Hamels gets the ball in game one for Philadelphia. Cole's home run rate is holding him back from being a Cy Young contender. He's tough to hit, tough to reach base against, but with 21 homers allowed, nine for more than one run, more than half of his runs allowed came on the long ball. If he could cut his home run rate 25%, his ERA would likely drop to around 2.75. Look what an improved home run rate did for his opponent tonight, Kyle Lohse. His HR rate is down 25% from his career average and his ERA down a run from his career mark.

Enjoy!

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John Danks left Thursday night's game against the Twins with a 4-3 lead. By the time the inning was over, his leadoff walk in the seventh tied the game, and the White Sox trailed 7-4. As the Twins took the series 3-1, the White Sox bullpen allowed a total of 11 runs to the Twins six. Chicago starters put a bit more pressure on their pen as well, lasting 23 1/3 innings to Minnesota's 25. Overall, the Twins pen is posting a 3.86 ERA to Chicago's 3.32. Minnesota was able to turn a White Sox stength on it's head.

The Arizona Diamondbacks extended their lead in the NL West to two games with a 2-1 victory over the Manny-less Los Angeles Dodgers. It was Lowe's third loss this season in games in which he allowed two runs or less. Brandon Webb pitched even better, however, lasting eight innings, allowing just one run. He was very efficient, using just 97 pitches to record the 24 outs.

The Marlins didn't land a big name at the trade deadline, but they did improve the team. Anibal Sanchez returned Thursday after 1 1/2 years out to pitch 5 2/3 innings and pick up a win. He allowed two runs, walked two and struck out four. He threw 95 pitches, so the Marlins didn't feel they really needed to baby him. A rotation that looked very shaky at the start of the season now throws out Nolasco, Johnson, Volstad and Sanchez as their front four.

I've been expecting the Marlins to decline because of their pitching. Now, that's not the case. The successful return from injury of Johnson and Sanchez suddenly gives Florida a rotation that's more than capable of winning with the kind of runs support the offense produces with their power (2 home runs, 12 runs Thursday). An all Florida World Series doesn't seem far fetched at this point.

The Day by Day Database is up to date. Thanks once again to the good people at Friendly's for supplying WiFi at their restaurants free while I await Verizon to fix their screw-up.