The Cubs hold on to Rich Harden, and he repays them with a wild night. He walked six in five innings, also allowing five hits and five runs as the Astros take a 5-3 victory. The Cubs lose 1/2 game to the idle Giants and Rockies.
Harden walked 22 in his previous 11 starts, fixing a control problem he suffered early in the season. That returned this evening.
Adam Lind just hit his second home run of the game, a solo shot in the top of the ninth to give Toronto a 12-10 lead. Texas was down 11-0 early in the game. Lind joins Barajas with two home runs and five RBI on the night.
Update: Two more doubles extends the Blue Jays lead to 13-10.
Update: A John McDonald single makes it 14-10. Are the Blue Jays putting the game away, or setting themselves up for a bigger fall?
Update: Lind clears the bases with a double, and the Blue Jays score seven in the ninth to take an 18-10 lead over Texas. Lind likely ends the night with eight RBI.
Update: The game goes final 18-10. The Rays are just one game behind the Rangers for second place in the AL Wild Card race.
The Minnesota Twins down the Chicago White Sox 4-1 as the South Sider’s batting slump continues. They’ve now scored six runs in their last four games, losing all four. They fall 2 1/2 games behind the Twins, while Minnesota takes advantage of the Tigers afternoon loss to close the gap to 3 1/2 games in the AL Central.
Joe Mauer went 2 for 4 to raise his average to .368. Ichiro Suzuki has been idle, and Mauer was coming back toward Ichiro’s .359 BA. Suzuki returns tomorrow for what should be a great September batting race.
Johnny Cueto returned to the Reds rotation tonight in the second game of the day agains the Pittsburgh Pirates. The rest did Cueto good as he goes five innings, allowing three hits, one walk and five strikeouts. He did allow one run on a solo homer as the Reds sweep the Pirates, taking the nightcap 6-3.
Texas scores two runs in the sixth to cut the Blue Jays lead to 11-9, and now has runners on 1st and 3rd wth one out in the seventh. The Blue Jays announcers just said this would be the biggest melt-down in Toronto history.
Update: Downs comes in to face Chris Davis, and Davis hits the first pitch to the wall in centerfield where Vernon Wells makes a leaping catch. It goes as a long sacrifice fly, and now it’s a one-run game, 11-10 Toronto. Nice catch by Wells, it saves at least one run.
Update: Elvis Andrus grounds into a force to end the inning.
Andy Pettitte lost his no-hitter late, but finished with a great starts, eight innings, one run, no walks, eight strikeouts. Over his last seven starts, Andy struck out 47 and walked 12, good for a 2.35 ERA.
Pettitte now has 227 wins for his career, and 72 over the last five seasons. If he can put up another five years averaging 14 wins, he’s at 300 for his career. As a bonus, he’ll get paid millions of dollars. I’m guessing Andy’s competitive streak wins out and he keeps pitching until it looks like he won’t get to 300.
The Rangers score seven runs off Brett Cecil in the fifth inning to close the gap to 11-7. Unfortunately Texas, if that remains the score, it will still be a crappy night. 🙂
The Braves take game one of their series against the Marlins 5-2. This puts them in good shape for the remaining three games as they’ve already defeated the Florida ace, Josh Johnson. Atlanta gains 1/2 game on the idle Giants and Rockies.
Joe Mauer’s BA has been dropping lately, and he hadn’t homered in 11 games. He hits a shot, however, in his second at bat of the night, smashing a ball off Gavin Floyd for a 1-0 Twins lead over the White Sox in the bottom of the third.
The Blue Jays are hitting Derek Holland left and right. He’s allowed five hits and three walks through three innings, leading to six Toronto runs. Three of those came on a Rod Barajas homer in the first. That ties Rod’s second best season of 15 homers. He hit 21 for Texas in 2005 and 15 for the Rangers in 2004.
Update: Adam Lind hits a grand slam in the fourth off Holland, and the Jays lead 10-0. Batters were four for ten without a home run against Holland coming into this game.
Omar Infante triples in two runs in the top of the seventh as the Braves take a 2-1 lead on the Marlins. Johnson lost the no-hitter in the sixth, but the Marlins couldn’t build him a comfortable lead. It’s Infante’s first triple of the year
Andy Pettitte is coming out for the seventh inning with a perfect game intact. Sixes are wild as he’s thrown 66 pitches and struck out six through six innings. Brian Roberts, Cesar Izturis and Adam Jones are scheduled in the seventh.
Update: Pettitte starts Roberts with a perfect pitch on the low, outside corner, then gets him to swing at a high pitch. With the count 1-2, Roberts drives a ball deep to rightfield, but Swisher runs it down.
Update: Izturis falls behind 0-2, swinging on both pitches, fouling the first off then missing one that’s low. Andy’s second 1-2 pitch is taken for a ball, but the crowd wanted a strike. Izturis then flies out to right. Swisher broke the wrong way, but had time to recover for the out.
Update: Pettitte throw ball one to Adam Jones. On his second pitch, Jones pulls the ball hard to Hairston at third, and it goes through his wickets for an error. The no-hitter is intact, but the perfect game is gone.
Update: Pettitte gets ahead of Markakis 0-2. Nick takes the next pitch the opposite way down the third base line for a single to end the no-hitter. Hairston is playing third because it’s the day to rest Alex Rodriguez. Now the Yankees 2-0 lead is in danger.
Update: Pettitte gets a grounder to short to end the inning. The Yankees still lead 2-0, but Hairston has to feel bad about the error.
Matt Diaz singles off Josh Johnson in the sixth, breaking up his no-hitter. Andy Pettitte, however, retires the Orioles in order in the sixth to remain perfect.
Andy Pettitte gets a fly out, strikeout and foul pop out to retire the Orioles in order in the fifth. That fifteen up and fifteen down as Pettitte remains perfect. The Yankees scored in the top of the fifth to extend their lead to 2-0.
Johnson walks one and strikes out one in the fifth, but a double play means he faced just three batters. He’s walked three batter but hasn’t allowed a hit as he continues to make a 1-0 Marlins lead hold up.
Josh Johnson singles with one out in the bottom of the third. He now has more hits in the game than the Braves. Florida leads 1-0.
Update: Josh Johnson extends his no-hitter through four innings. He’s walked two batters and struck out five.
Meanwhile, in Baltimore, Andy Pettitte has retired the first ten Orioles batters as the Yankees lead 1-0 in that game.
Update: Pettitte gets the Orioles in order in the fourth. He’s perfect through four with four strikeouts. He’s thrown 49 pitches.
Great picture at Dodger Thoughts of the wild fires near Dodger Stadium. It looks like a volcano is erupting.
Brad Penny heads back to the west coast as the Giants sign him for next to nothing.
Hat tip, 6-4-2, who has another interesting link as well. Penny is probably better than Joe Martinez.
The Royals are about to extend Dayton Moore’s contract.
The Royals have reached a tentative agreement with general manager Dayton Moore on a four-year contract extension that runs through 2014.
The new deal could be announced as soon as tonight.
The move confirms owner David Glass’ belief that Moore has the organization pointed in the right direction despite this season’s disappointing play. The Royals carried a 50-80 record into Monday’s series opener against the A’s at the Oakland Coliseum.
Royals Authority is disappointed:
The General Manager took over $20 million and pissed it away on utility guys, fringe players and Triple-A back-ups.
I thought last year’s team, with it’s five middle infielders, was a disaster from a roster-building stand point. This year’s roster is even worse. There’s no rhyme or reason behind any of the above moves and most were done with a blind eye to other, less expensive alternatives. You want to know why this year has been a “disappointment?” Revisit that list. How can anyone think the majority of those players can help a big league team?
I have lost faith in The General Manager to put a quality product together to compete. Over the last two years, he’s illustrated that he lacks the vision to construct a roster that makes any kind of sense. Aside from Gil Meche, his free agent acquisitions have been beyond horrible. Jose Guillen alone has crippled this franchise from the moment he reported to camp with 20 extra pounds before the 2008 season. I’m now looking to this winter with a great deal of apprehension – I have to hope that The General Manager decides to stay clear of the free agent (and trade) market, because he’s capable of doing more damage.
There are some positives about Moore in the article as well, and the caveat that it’s going to be a couple of more years before we know how well his drafts work out.
The down side to me is that the Royals are rewarding mediocrity. The Royals haven’t improved, and the trades he made didn’t even look good on paper when he made them. On the other hand, the owner is indicating that he’s going to give this group the time they need to make things work. It’s what Pittsburgh did with Dave Littlefield, to their detriment, but it’s also what the Rockies did with Dan O’Dowd and the Rangers with Jon Daniels, to their credit.
Update: Joe Posnanski watches a game with Bill James, and Bill suggests a way the Royals might try thinking outside the box.
The Pirates lose to the Reds 4-3 when Jesse Chavez uncorks a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth. Chavez now owns seven wild pitches in 70 1/3 career innings, 0.9 WP per nine innings. That’s a fairly high rate. Since 1957, only 37 other pitcher had a rate that high in at least 70 innings, and only 13 of them pitched more than 200 innings in that time period. Jason Grimsley, with 936 2/3 innings had the longest career of that group.
Celebrities for Charity is offering a raffle for great seats at Yankee Stadium for a Red Sox Yankees game. You have until September 23rd to enter.
Drew Stubbs welcomes Daniel McCutchen to the majors with a lead-off home run. They keep track of players who hit home runs in their first at bat, I wonder if they do the same for pitchers? The Reds lead the Pirates 1-0 in the bottom of the first.
Update: Daniel McCutchen singles and drives in a run in his first at bat and the Pirates lead 2-1 in the bottom of the second.
The first six Rays reach base against Jarrod Washburn, the last on a home run by Carlos Pena. The Rays lead 6-0 in the first, and now Washburn has allowed 10 of his 21 homers since joining the Tigers.
Detroit fans booed Washburn after the Pena homer, then sarcastically cheered when Aybar made the first out of the inning.
Rob Neyer notes that the Brewers are doing very well at the gate despite falling out of contention. He does not buy the explanations offered as to why:
I believe that attendance can basically be explained by four things: market size, performance, ballpark, and payroll. But one occasionally finds anomalies, and I believe those anomalies are worth more study. Because I don’t think anyone’s yet explained why the Brewers, an unexciting team in the 39th biggest metropolitan area in the United States can outdraw all but seven teams in the major leagues.
They’ve draw well for the last three seasons, even though they were only in contention in one of those. My explanation is marquee players. Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun are worth paying to watch. CC Sabathia brought in fans, and yes, I’d pay to see Gallardo pitch, and Ben Sheets, when they’re healthy. The fact that they start every season with Braun and Fielder makes them contenders. That’s why the Brewers should bite the bullet and offer Fielder a number of years at $20 million a year to see if he’ll stay.
Rich Harden and Aaron Heilman stay in Chicago, as the Twins, Giants and Cubs could not work out deals for the pitchers.
This is a good thing for the Cubs, as they are a better team down the stretch with those two than without. It wouldn’t take that big a miracle for the Cubs to make the playoffs this season, and their odds are higher sending Harden out every five games.
Dontrelle Willis hasn’t found the plate yet. In his last 57 2/3 major league innings, he’s walked 63 and struck out 35. We’ve likely seen the last of Dontrelle in the majors.
Sam Mellinger gives us a Trey Hillman dictionary.
The Rays and Tigers finish up their series in Detroit with an afternoon game as James Shields faces Jarrod Washburn. For the second year in a row, Shields’s strikeouts per nine is down. Given his low walk rates, he can probably live with it, but he’s only 27 and a decline of 1.3 K per 9 over two years should raise a red flag. I wonder if batters made adjustments to his style, and Shields hasn’t adjusted back? Washburn became a gopher ball pitcher once he joined the Tigers. He gave up 11 home runs in 133 innings for Seattle, nine in 31 1/3 innings for the Tigers.
The Pirates corner the market on McCutchens as Daniel McCutchen makes his major league debut against the Reds’ Kip Wells this afternoon in game one of a double header. Daniel came over from the Yankees and showed great control in his minor league career. Wells has allowed a .310 BA with runners in scoring position.
The Braves and Marlins are still in the NL Wild Card race as they start a four-game series in Florida. Both teams could use a sweep to try to bring them closer to the Giants and Rockies, but those of us who like massive tie scenarios would prefer a split while the Rockies and Giants both lose. Kenshin Kawakami and Josh Johnson get the series started tonight. Kawakami allowed 11 of his 15 home runs on the road in two fewer innings away from Atlanta. Johnson takes full advantage of Land Shark Stadium, going 7-1 there with a 2.26 ERA in 13 starts. He’s allowed just four of his 12 home runs at home.
Rich Harden is scheduled to start against Roy Oswalt tonight, but rumors have the Cubs working on a deal with the Twins. Might he start for Minnesota instead? The Cubs are certainly in the Wild Card race in the NL, so maybe they decide to keep Rich. Harden is 3-1 with a 1.80 ERA since the All-Star break.
Finally, the Twins try to put the final nail in the White Sox season while Chicago tries to retake second place as Minnesota hosts Chicago in a three-game series. The White Sox trail the Twins by 1 1/2 games. Gavin Floyd and Nick Blackburn start the set. Floyd pitched much better since the All-Star break, trading more home runs for fewer walks, but bringing his ERA down to 2.93. Blackburn pitched well against the White Sox this season, going 2-1 with a 3.15 ERA. He’s allowed Chicago just one home run in 20 innings of work.
Enjoy!