Micah Owings returned to the win column as a starter as he lasted five innings in the Diamondbacks 6-3 win over the Rockies. Owings walked one and struck out three, solving the walk problems that plagued him the last two seasons. Nice to see him back, and I hope he starts hitting as well.
Kelly Johnson‘s power is coming back as his home run tonight gives him three in his last six games.
The Diamondbacks are now just 1 1/2 games behind the Giants in the NL West.
Prosecutors dropped the DUI charges against Derek Lowe:
One of Lowe’s attorneys, Cory Yager, said Thursday that solicitor Raines Carter, the chief prosecutor in Atlanta Municipal Court, agreed to dismiss the charges for lack of evidence.
Yager says police video following the April 28 arrest showed Lowe “did remarkably well” in his field sobriety tests after declining a breath test.
Good for Derek. I hope he wasn’t drinking, and this was just a mistake by the police.
The White Sox defeated the Blue Jays 3-1 as two ninth inning errors provided the cushion for the win. Phil Humber and Brandon Morrow each made a high quality start, allowing one run each while pitching deep into the game. Marc Rzepczynski suffered the loss however, as sloppy play took over late for Toronto. John McDonald’s error allowed the leadoff man to reach, and Rzepczynski’s wild pitch put Alex Rios on second. With one out, Marc hit a batter, who stole second, setting up a Juan Pierre grounder to first. Rzepczynski broke late for the bag, and Juan Rivera made a poor throw. Juan earned an error and both runs scored.
The Blue Jays scored three runs or less in five of their last seven games.
At Baseball Analytics, I examine why David DeJesus hits well with runners in scoring position.
Buster Posey suffered strained, not torn, ligaments. That makes his prognosis for a return this season better. His broken bone should heal in a couple of months, so with rehabilitation and recovery from ankle surgery, he could be back by September.
Update: Bengie Molina is ready for the call. He also thinks the Giants should move Posey to another position.
The Texas Rangers fire their play-by-play broadcaster, John Rhadigan. This was his first year on the job, and it seemed he was not ready for the position.
Anibal Sanchez continued his hot pitching, not allowing a run for the third game in his last four starts. He went the distance Thursday afternoon as the Marlins beat the Giants 1-0. He’s given up just 16 hits and five walks in his last 31 innings.
Ryan Vogelsong also pitched well, allowing one run in eight innings, but takes a loss in a high quality start, all too common this season.
Brett Anderson kept the Angels off the board for eight innings, giving up just three hits and three walks. With a 4-0 lead in the ninth, the Athletics brought on Grant Balfour in a non-save situation. Grant lived up to his name, issuing one walk, but it was the three-run homer by Mark Trumbo that brought the Angels close. Balfour stayed in and got the last out for the non-save, and Oakland wins 4-3, earning a split with the Angels. I’m surprised they didn’t bring in Brian Fuentes for the one-out save. Maybe he’s in the doghouse, or maybe they just don’t trust him any more.
Anderson lowers his ERA to 2.84, and he’s walked just 20 batters in 73 innings.
The Cubs knockec out 17 hits Thursday afternoon as they downed the Mets 9-3. That matches the team’s high hit count for the season, reached on April 16 and May 11. Kosuke Fukudome hit his first home run of the season. That prompted my dear friend Jim Storer to call and ask if Kosuke Fukudome married Corey Koskie, if he would be Kosuke Koskie? 🙂
For the second day in a row, the Red Sox win a game 14-2 by scoring 14 runs. The beat Cleveland 14-2 on Wednesday, then this afternoon take Detroit down 14-1 in a rain-shortened game. Carl Crawford hit two triples as he went four for five, and is eight for nine with two doubles, two triples and a home run in the two games. He appears to have found his swing.
Boston moves into a games back tie with the Yankees, but are still in second place, percentage points behind New York.
Update: When I read the line score on Thursday, I thought I saw 14-2. I apologize for the error and the title that doesn’t make sense.
Cliff Lee saves a stretched out Philadelphia bullpen with an eight inning performance as the Phillies beat the Reds 10-4. He was aided by a big offensive day as the Phillies took an early 4-0 lead and kept piling on. Lee walked one and struck out eight, but still allowed 10 hits, including Jay Bruce‘s 14th home run. A fresh off the disabled list Jose Contreras pitched the ninth inning. Lee’s ERA goes to 3.50, which in years past would be very good, but in this season of low offense it’s not that impressive for the money he’s receiving.
Aaron Rowand just made a complicated catch look easy. Emilio Bonifacio hit a high fly ball to shallow left. The shortstop went out to catch it, Rowand ran in to catch it, and it was Rowand’s ball. In order to avoid the infielder, Rowand slid, caught the ball, then shifted his legs to avoid a collision. He never took his eye off the pop, but still managed to miss the infielder, and reacted like he did it every day.
The Marlins and Giants are scoreless in the bottom of the third.
It took twelve innings, but the Orioles extended their winning streak to five games with a 6-5 victory over the Royals. Vladimir Guerrero singled home the winning run, his first hit of the afternoon after an 0 for 5. That extends his hit streak to 11. With Buster Posey likely out for the season, that the longest active streak i the majors right now. In their five wins the Orioles took three of the games by two runs or less. They move past Toronto into fourth place, three games out of first in the AL East.
It looks like Buster Posey will miss the rest of the season.
The Red Sox are up 7-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning in Detroit, but rain is on the way. The Tigers grounds crew removed the cover from the tarp between innings. Detroit may try to stall here a bit, with the hope that the game will be called and the 7-0 lead wiped out. In that case, Jacoby Ellsbury would lose a three-run homer.
Nolan Reimold hit two home runs today, making a bid to be the sixth player since May 12th to hit three-home runs in game. In his fourth game back with the Orioles, Nolan owns four hits, three of them for home runs. He’s driven in four of the Orioles five runs today as they lead the Royals 5-4 in the top of the fourth inning.
Matthew Cerrone covered the conference call with David Einhorn, who is in the process of bailing out the Mets.
Via Rob Neyer, Buster Posey’s leg is in bad shape:
Unofficial update: #sfgiants Chris Stewart and Brandon Belt called up. Ford to D.L. Posey has broken leg and torn ligaments.
Breaks usually heal fine. Torn ligaments are a different story. I don’t think he’ll be back any time soon.
From Neyer:
This is essentially as terrible as terrible news gets. Without more details, we can’t know how long Posey will be out, but “broken leg” and “torn ligaments” usually mean surgery (or surgeries) and a long recovery process. Last August, Indians catcher Carlos Santana suffered a similar injury and missed the last two months of the season, but two months seems far too low for an estimate of the time Posey will miss. At the moment, it’s probably best to assume that Posey will not play again this season.
Maybe the Yankees can turn one of their catching prospects into a starting pitcher.
Rob Neyer wonders if the Diamondbacks are the best team in the NL West:
And while I can’t believe I’m even thinking about writing these words, I don’t have a real choice … Maybe it’s time to take the Arizona Diamondbacks seriously, if for no other reason that on the 26th of May they’re in second place, with a better run differential than the WORLD’S CHAMPION Giants.
In looking at their situational hitting stats, I don’t see much that might indicate the offense has been lucky, except for hitting with a man on third and less than two out. In 96 plate appearances they’ve delivered 67 RBI with a .370/.404/.630 slash line, two successful squeezes and ten sacrifice flies. In a low scoring environment, delivering in that situation can make a huge difference. They are 12-7 in one run games.
A lot of the credit for success in that situation goes to Stephen Drew.
The Mets reached a deal with a hedge fund manager to buy part of the team:
The Mets have agreed to sell a stake in the team to David Einhorn, a noted hedge fund manager, who will become a minority owner. It is believed that Einhorn’s stake will be for far less than the 49 percent that’s been speculated. Einhorn is negotiating for the right to become majority owner should the team-owning Wilpons become untenable.
Bernie Madoff was a hedge fund manager. I hope they did more due diligence on Einhorn than they did on Bernie.
Update: I would be interested in how much leverage Einhorn uses in his trades. Highly leveraged hedge funds can suffer massive failures, and the Mets don’t need that from a partner.
Update: Here’s a more complete story from the New York Times.
The Red Sox travel to Detroit with Alfredo Aceves facing Max Scherzer. Aceves moved from the bullpen to the rotation due to the injuries to John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka and allowed just one run in five innings against the Cubs. He allows opponents to put the ball in play, with only 11 K in 22 1/3 innings. Scherzer blows away batters with 60 K in 63 1/3 innings. He’s given up a decent number of hits despite the high K totals, but batters are hitting just .136 against him with runners in scoring position.
The Reds and Phillies make a quick turnaround after their six hour game last night, with Homer Bailey and Cliff Lee battling in a 1 PM EDT start. Bailey found the control that eluded him during most of his first four seasons in the majors. He’s walked just four batters in 26 innings this season. Lee, of course, is the master of control. Over 1/3 of his 15 walks this season game in one game against the Cardinals two starts ago. He is getting hit, however, and with men in scoring position batters are knocking those balls in the strike zone for a .328 BA.
Finally, Anibal Sanchez and Ryan Vogelsong square off in San Francisco. Sanchez sports a 4.03 ERA on the road, where he allows a batting average 126 points higher than at home with over twice the extra base hits. Vogelsong has yet to allow an earned run in San Francisco this season.
Enjoy!
The two San Francisco Bay areas teams lost Wednesday night. The Angels downed the Athletics 4-1 as Ervin Santana held Oakland to one run in six innings of work. Trevor Cahill walked five and gave up two home runs, pitching a game out of character for him. Control and keeping the ball in the park are usually his strengths.
The Giants mounted a comeback, scoring four runs in the bottom of the ninth to wipe out a 6-2 Florida lead. The Marlins, however, received a sacrifice fly from Emilio Bonifacio in the 12th and won the game 7-6. Burke Badenhop picked up the second save of his career by pitching a perfect 12th.
Buster Posey extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a 1 for 5 night. He’s hitting .380 during the streak, and is 19 for 42 when he puts the ball in play.
Update: Posey was injured on the 12th inning score.
Cousins scored the go-ahead run in a brutal collision with catcher Buster Posey at home in the 12th inning, injuring the Giants star as the Florida Marlins beat San Francisco 7-6.
The Marlins blew a four-run lead in the ninth, setting up the play at the plate. Posey went for X-rays on his left ankle, and the Giants said there would be no test results until Thursday, when he’ll have an MRI exam.
Will Carroll thinks he’s headed to the disabled list.
Update: Here’s the video. What’s unfortunate is that a feet first slide would have worked just fine, since Buster never caught the ball.
The Reds and Phillies took nineteen innings to decide a winner Wednesday night. The Reds tied the game on a two-run single in the top of the seventh off Roy Halladay, who allowed eleven hits on the game. With the game 3-3 in the tenth, Bruce delivered a solo home run, but Ryan Howard matched that in the bottom of the inning.
Game two started at that point, as two stretched bullpens played a nine-inning, 1-0 game, Philadelphia winning on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Raul Ibanez, and Philadelphia wins 5-4. Carlos Fisher had pitched 4 2/3 innings in three appearances before last night, but pitched the final 5 2/3 innings for the Reds. He threw 95 pitches and finally tired for the loss.
Danys Baez pitched five innings also, allowing just one hit and one walk. The Phillies decided not to push him into a six inning, and position player Wilson Valdez came into pitch the nineteenth. He hit a batter, but did not allow a hit to pick up the win.
Not bad for a journeyman infielder who became the first position player to earn a win since Colorado catcher Brent Mayne on Aug. 22, 2000, according to STATS LLC. Mayne went one inning in a 7-6 victory over Atlanta in 12 innings.
He threw half of his ten pitches for strikes. It seems that the Reds should have just been a bit more patient and waited for the walks.
I just heard Craig Calcaterra interviewed on The Weather Channel about rainouts and stadium evacuation plans.
The Day by Day Database is up to date.