Thieves held up Juan Francisco at gun point and robbed him:
According to Nunuz: “I was told that Juan was driving to his parents’ hometown at Bonao (north of Santo Domingo) and men wearing police uniform robbed him jewelry, a wristwatch, money and his waggon’s battery. I’ll be looking for more details.”
I’m glad no physical harm came from the ordeal.
Of course, you don’t really need a gun to rob a Francisco:
Of course, they were identity thieves.
Here’s the best Tony La Russa graphic of the day.
By the way, you know this is what Derek Lilliquist has been singing for the last two days.
The Cardinals beat the Rangers 3-2 in game one of the 2011 World Series. The difference in the game turned out to be the walks. The Rangers pitchers walked six batters, all by C.J. Wilson. The last one, in the sixth inning, brought up Allen Craig to pinch hit, and he delivered the game winning RBI. Wilson failed to go after Nick Punto, a career .249 hitter, and it cost the Rangers the game.
Once again, both bullpens pitched well. The Cardinals allowed one hit and one walk while striking out three in three innings of work. Texas allowed two hits while striking out one in 2 1/3 innings of work. Of course, they did allow the hit that drove in the winning run.
The Cardinals need to win the games pitched by Chris Carpenter and Jaime Garcia, and they did just that tonight as Chris went six innings for the win. Garcia starts Thursday against Colby Lewis.
The tree rodent fans are out in St. Louis:
Fans love the rally squirrel. Photo: James F. Storer
And the Baseball Tonight crew is ready:
The Baseball Tonight cast gets ready for game one of the 2011 World Series. Photo: James F. Storer
Dave van Dyck on Theo Epstein:
Attaining genius status sometimes is easier than maintaining it, as he discovered when his star began to fade in Boston.
It reminds me of this advice from Mr. Spock:
The Rays sting the Rangers early, loading the bases with two out to bring up yesterday’s batting hero, Kelly Shoppach. He walks this time, driving in the first run of the game as the Rays take the lead in the top of the first. That’s all they get, but once again Tampa Bay puts itself in the driver’s seat.
The Day by Day Database is up to date.
It turns out Leo Nunez is not Leo Nunez and he wasn’t born on 8/14/1983:
The Associated Press reports that the Florida Marlins closer and Dominican native has been playing under an assumed name for all seven of his years in Major League Baseball and is actually older than the age that’s listed by the team.
The news came to light on Thursday as Nunez returned to the Dominican Republic to sort the issue out and was placed on the Marlins’ restricted list. It probably goes without saying that he is not expected to pitch for the Marlins the last week of the season.
His realy name is Juan Carlos Oviedo, which in my opinion is a much better name.
Adam Dupont writes:
With all the talk about Verlander getting Cy Young and possibly MVP, I’m wondering how much better he’s been than James Shields of the Rays. Shields has a 2.70 ERA in a harder division (Verlander doesn’t have to face explosive Red Sox and Yankees offenses as much as Shields), with 11 bullpen saving complete games, and 15 wins despite the anemic Rays offense. Verlander has a gaudy amount of wins and 2.36 ERA in the AL Central, but could it be reasoned that Shields would have a better season if him and Verlander traded places?
I try to answer this question indirectly in today’s column at Baseball Analytics.
Well, maybe a singles fest. The Blue Jays pick up a walk a three singles to score two runs in the first inning off John Lackey. They lead Boston 2-0 in the bottom of the first.
The Royals and Tigers played a wild game, each team losing the lead twice. The Royals jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but the Tigers went up 3-2 an inning later. KC then led 6-3 and trailed trailed 8-6 before scoring for in the seventh and one in the eighth for the 11-8 victory.
Jeff Francoeur missed the cycle by a triple and Eric Hosmer continued his power surge with his 15th home run. Melky Cabrera also doubled, as Kansas City has Francoeur, Alex Gordon and Melky all in the top five among the AL doubles leaders.
Jon Lester hit Sean Rodriguez in the second inning of the Rays/Red Sox game. Since 1998, when the league expanded to 30 teams and the Rays entered the majors, there have been 219 HBP in the Rays-Red Sox series. That’s the second most among pairs of teams in the majors. First is the Red Sox/Yankees at 244. In fact, three of the top six teams include the Red Sox. The only National League pair in the top six are the Phillies and Marlins, fourth at 217. Maybe the designated hitter should be removed just to reduce the number of hit by pitches.
Tampa Bay leads Boston 1-0 in the top of the third.
The White Sox received home runs from Carlos Quentin and Brent Morel as they defeated the Orioles 4-3. Both own similar batting averages, Quentin at .264 and Morel at .259. The similarities end there, however. Morel hardly walks, and his dinger was just his second of the season, giving him a .277 OBP and a .319 slugging percentage. His batting average is his offense. Quentin, on the other hand, walks a ton and hit his 24th home run, giving him a .348 OBP and a .522 slugging percentage. The moral of the story is that offense is much more than batting average.
Ian Desmond bailed out the Nationals Sunday afternoon. Scott Hairston of the Mests hit his second home run of the game to tie the score at two in the top of the ninth. Desmond delivered an infield single to drive in the winning run in the bottom of the inning, and the Nationals won 3-2. That was the second walk-off RBI for Ian in his career.
Joe Bolonga suggests a new baseball statistic, SAB, successful at bats. Batters would get credit for an SAB in the traditional ways, walks, hits, hbp, but also when they did something that would help the teams. So a sacrifice, but or fly, would be an SAB.
Let’s say he led off the game grounding out weakly to the mound. But, before he grounded out, he consistently fouled off potential strikes and forced the pitcher to throw 10 or 15 pitches. Thus, not only causing the opponents’ starting pitcher to make so many extra throws, but affording the hitters behind the batter the ability to see the starting pitcher’s array of stuff. Would that not be considered a successful at-bat? His manager and teammates even might consider it his most successful at-bat.
There seems to be a subjective nature to this idea, but if you make any 10+ pitch at bat an SAB, you might get a decent number. I’ll see what I can come up with.
Baseball Musings gets results. From Wednesday night:
The Baltimore Orioles defeated the Athletics 3-2 Wednesday night, the ninth straight loss for Oakland. They’ve scored 26 runs and allowed 53, and the team was shutout twice. Something needs to be done. I almost think they should send down everyone they can send down and replace them with however is at AAA or AA. Maybe the manager needs to smash some items in a team meeting, or maybe they need a manager who wants to win at all costs.
Oakland fired Bob Geren this morning.
Geren’s four-plus season tenure at the helm in Oakland was marked by numerous injuries, a lack of offense and high-profile departures as he was unable to post a winning season after taking over an AL West championship team from Ken Macha. Geren posted a 334-376 record, including a 27-36 mark this season that has left Oakland eight games behind Texas in the AL West.
The A’s currently have four starting pitchers on the disabled list, including a season-ending shoulder injury for Dallas Braden. Oakland also was without injured All-Star closer Andrew Bailey for the first two months and is last in the American League with just 223 runs through the first 63 games.
The Oakland starters are 14-15 with a 3.06 ERA, so I don’t think the pitching is the main culprit here, even with the injuries. The offense just can’t score.
They replace Geren with Bob Melvin, who may be the most sabermetrically inclined manager they hired under Beane. It always disappointed me that they didn’t hire someone like Melvin sooner.
Derek Lowe walked one Marlins batter through five innings, but has not allowed a hit. He’s only thrown 54 pitches, 38 for strikes. He struck out four fish so far. The Braves lead the Marlins 2-0 as they bat in the top of the sixth inning.
Update: Lowe retires the Marlins in order in the sixth. He’s retired 15 batters in a row.
Update: Greg Dobbs singles up the middle, off the glove of the shortstop to end Derek Lowe’s bid for a second no-hitter with one-out in the seventh. The Braves still lead 2-0.
Of the games six games started at 7 PM EDT Wednesday night, five of them have shutouts going on at least one side, and the Dodgers and Phillies are 0-0 in the fifth. Derek Lowe of the Braves has a no-hitter going through four against the Marlins. No game today as produced more than five runs so far, although the Red Sox may break that all by themselves in a minute.
Update: Even the teams that are hitting aren’t scoring. The Pirates recorded eight hits against Zach Duke in the first four innings but only scored one run.
The Red Sox just scored their sixth run of the night and lead the Yankees 6-0 in the top of the fourth.
Police arrested Mark Grace for a DUI on Memorial Day. I guess former players haven’t learned their lesson either.
The Yankees placed Joba Chamberlain on the disabled list due to an elbow injury:
The Yankees will be without Joba Chamberlain for at least the next three weeks after he was placed on the disabled list with a strained flexor muscle in his right elbow.
Joba was pitching well with 24 K and seven walks in 28 2/3 innings. Those numbers are tough to replace. The Yankees now have their setup man, and the setup man’s setup man on the disabled list.
Matt Cain went the distance, walking one and striking out eleven as the Giants defeated the Nationals 3-1. Matt held Washington batters to five hits as he lowered his BA allowed to .233. It’s his second start in a row with just one run allowed, and his fourth quality start of the season in which he allowed one run or less. This was by far his best outing of the season, and the first time he reached double digits in strikeouts since July 1, 2008.
The staffs for the Dodgers and Reds battled in Cincinnati Friday night, with the Reds coming out on top 2-1. The difference in the game were the walks, as Los Angeles pitchers issued four, the Reds two. Two of those walks by the Dodgers pitchers loaded the bases, which set up Scott Rolen for a two-run single, the only runs the Reds would need. The victory gives the Reds two one-run wins in June in two games.
The Angels charter plane needed to make an emergency landing last night due to a mechanical failure. Everyone is fine, thanks goodness.
Matt Garza hits the disabled list with an elbow contusion. Jorge de la Rosa came out of the first game of the Rockies double header with an elbow problem, and Rafael Soriano‘s elbow is not improving. It’s a bad day for the joint. Garza was off to a good start with 68 strikeouts, 20 walks and one home run allowed in 55 2/3 innings. It’s tough to replace that kind of production from a pitcher.
I’m at the Cubs Red Sox game. I’ll be updating on twitter.
Ned Colletti and Don Mattingly gave slightly conflicting statements on Jonathan Broxton:
“(Mattingly) told me I’m still the closer,” Broxton told the Los Angeles Times.
Earlier Tuesday, Colletti told the Dodgers’ flagship radio station, KABC, that the team could use a closer-by-committee approach until Broxton returns to All-Star form.
“I think I can’t help but be concerned,” Colletti told the station. “I’m one of those people who’s pretty much concerned about everything.”
I don’t think this is such a big deal. Colletti didn’t say they were going to a committee, and Mattingly basically said no. They should probably talk about these things first, however.
Tom Tango comes out in favor of more teams in the playoffs at The Book Blog. One of the reasons he gives comes from hockey, where playoff games, in his opinion, are better than regular season games (I agree).
We’re used to this in the NHL, seeing 16 teams. And if you followed the NHL playoffs this past week, you would realize that: WHO CARES! This is FANTASTIC hockey. This has been great. The action is non-stop, never a dull moment (a far cry from the regular season). And this is round #1 with 16 teams. Why in the world would I say: “You know what, give me LESS exciting hockey.”
Just maybe, the duller regular season games are a result of the expanded hockey playoffs. If you are playing anywhere over .500 in the NHL, there is no reason to push yourself as a team. It’s a grueling sport, just play to get into the playoffs and then let low number of games and hard play carry you to the cup. If the NHL cut the number of teams going to the playoffs to four, I bet you would see many more playoff like games in the regular season. Those wins really count now. Winning 16 of 30 isn’t good enough any more. Even if the NHL went to eight playoff teams, my guess is that regular season play would improve.
Note that regular season baseball games are just as good as playoff baseball games. Sure not every game is a gem, but fans get upset when a good team starts 0-6. In hockey, it would not be a big deal, since they just need to climb back to .500 to make the playoffs. Accumulating 90 wins in MLB isn’t that easy after an 0-6 start, so those teams have to play full out for the rest of the season.
So in fact, if more games that are exciting is what you crave from your sport, fewer playoff teams may be the way to go.
The Nationals enjoyed a good day as they sweep Milwaukee in a double header, winning the night-cap 5-1. The received two good starts from their veterans, Jason Marquis and Livan Hernandez. They also knocked out two more homers in the late game, giving them five on the day. The Nats came into the day with just eight homers on the season. With the two wins, Washington moves one game over .500 on the year, 2 1/2 games out of first place.