Baseball Notebook

NL Central Race Tightens Up

The Cubs have lost five of their last six games and in the five losses they have scored a total of six runs. Their lead in the NL Central is down to one game over the Brewers who have won six in a row. A Cubs loss today combined with a Brewers win would would put the Brewers in a tie with the Cubs for first place. Ted Lilly will make the start for the Cubs against the Diamondbacks. C.C. Sabathia will get the start for the Brewers against the Cardinals.

A year ago today the Brewers were three games ahead of the Cubs and eight games ahead of the Cardinals while today the Cubs lead the Brewers by one game and the Cardinals by two games.

Around the Bases

The AL West leading Angels are the only division leader with a comfortable lead. In the AL East the Rays have a half game lead over the Red Sox. In the AL Central the White Sox have a game and a half lead over the Twins.

In the NL all three division leaders have one game leads. In the NL East the Phillies have a one game lead over the Mets and Marlins. In the NL Central the Cubs have a one game lead over the Brewers and a two game lead over the Cardinals. In the NL West the Diamondbacks have a one game lead over the Dodgers.

The Brewers have the longest current winning streak with 6 while the Yankees are next with a 5 game winning streak. Mariners have the longest losing streak with 4 and are unfortunately in the same division as the Angels who have the best winning percentage in the majors and are 23 games behind the Angels.

The Yankees have only lost three times since July 4th and reliever David Robertson has the been the winning pitcher in the wins last Saturday and last night. Mike Mussina 12-6 will try for his 13th win of the season today.

Dallas Braden 2-0 won his first start of the season for the Athletics with a 8-1 win over the Rays. Athletics pitchers held the Rays to seven singles in the contest....On June 6th the Tigers reached the low point of the season with a 24-36 record. Since then they have been 27-13 and are two games over .500 with a 51-49 record.

Mark Buehrle 8-8 was 2-6 at the end of May and now is 6-2 since then after pitching the White Sox to a crucial win over the Royals yesterday. At the end of May Buehrle had an ERA of 5.27 but now has lowered it to 3.56. One of his two losses since May came in a game in which he pitched 7 1/3 innings and didn't allow a run to score. The White Sox got great production from their 7th and 8th hitters yesterday with Nick Swisher and Alexei Ramirez both homering and driving in 7 runs between them.

Player to Watch: Chris Davis first baseman for the Rangers has 8 homers and 16 RBI's after only 75 at bats. He didn't make his major league debut until June 26th and is leading the team in slugging with a .653 slugging percentage. He had hit 23 homers already in the minors before joining the Rangers so has 31 homers between the minors and majors and has driven in 85 runs this season combined.

Grady Sizemore tied Carlos Quentin for the AL home run lead by hitting his 24th homer yesterday. Francisco Rodriguez picked up his 41st save of the season. That is amazing considering it was only the 100th game of the season for the Angels....Daisuke Matsuzaka 11-1 may have been the leader in wins if not for being on disabled list earlier this season. He has walked 60 batters in 95 innings yet still has the best ERA among Red Sox starters with a 2.63 mark. Last season he walked 80 in 204 innings. His ERA last season was 4.40 so he has lowered his ERA by almost 2 runs per nine innings.

Last night the Braves shutout the Marlins 4-0 and last night the Marlins returned the favor by shutting out the Braves by the same 4-0 score. Rick VandenHurk in only his third start of the season held the Braves to no hits and no runs in five innings but was still taken out of the game due to having thrown 94 pitches and lost his chance for a no-hitter. The five walks he allowed didn't help him stay in the game any longer. Chipper Jones had the only hit for the Braves while Mike Jacobs had the only extra base hit in the game with a three run homer for his 20th homer of the season.

The Mets showed last night why the pitch counting needs to be tossed out when Johan Santana saw his 5-2 lead turn into an 8-6 loss after the Mets relievers became completely discombobulated and gave up 6 runs and 5 hits in the ninth inning. Santana has only won once since June 1st. Santana had made 105 pitches when he was removed from the game. The Phillies won despite Joe Blanton having a less than stellar NL debut by giving up 5 runs in 6 innings.

Clayton Kershaw 0-3 showed he is not ready for prime time as he threw 75 pitches in 3 innings in his 10-1 loss to the Dodgers. Ubaldo Jiminez 6-9 pitched a complete game win for the Rockies allowing only four hits....Barry Zito 5-12 pitched the Giants to a 6-3 win over the Nationals. Zito won for the third time in his last four decisions. Three of his five wins have come against last place Indians and last place Nationals who he has defeated twice. He is 2-0 in July.

Jeff Keppinger drove in the winning run in the bottom of the eleventh as the Reds defeated the Padres 4-3. Reds are fourth in the NL Central. Bronson Arroyo 8-7 apparently received a wakeup call after his disastrous start against the Blue Jays on June 24th. In that game he gave up 10 runs and 11 hits in one inning. Since then he has won his last four starts he has given up 8 runs in 25 innings and has lowered his ERA from 6.52 to 5.71. Arroyo starts tonight against Greg Maddux 3-8 who hasn't won since May 10th and that win was his only win since April 13th. Maddux has pitched a lot of games he should have won but has also had some very bad games lately. In three of his last five starts he has had two games in which he gave up 6 runs and another game in which he gave up 8 runs.

Baseball Notebook

Vazquez Has Quality Start But Loses
Due to Shoddy Bullpen, Lack of Offense

Javier Vazquez 7-8 gave up three runs and four hits in seven innings and struck out ten but the White Sox lost 6-1 to the Rangers due to the White Sox only having five hits and the shoddy bullpen work of Boone Logan who gave up three runs and four hits like Vazquez but it took him only one inning. By the time Logan had left the mound the game had turned from a 3-1 game to a 6-1 game. Vazquez has been having problems lately and has given up four or more runs in six of his last eight starts. Logan though has done even worse as he has been scored on in his last five relief appearances. In the 2 2/3 innings he has pitched in those five appearances he has given up 8 runs and 10 hits. The loss was the sixth in the last eight games for the White Sox.

Randy Johnson Wins 291st Game
As Diamonbacks Shutout Cubs 2-0

Randy Johnson 7-7 won his 291st game shutting out the Cubs 2-0 on two singles and Rich Harden 5-2 allowed only one hit but it was a home run by Alex Romero that gave the Diamondbacks a 1-0 lead. Harden has been sensational in his 12 1/3 innings he has pitched for the Cubs with 20 strikeouts and an 0.73 ERA with the Cubs but only has a no decision and a loss to show for it. The Cubs have lost four of their last five games and have won three games in a row only once since June 22nd. With the Cardinals and Brewers only two games behind them the worst thing is that if the Cubs lose today they will be only one game ahead of the winner of the Cardinals-Brewers game.

Around the Bases

Sidney Ponson 6-1 pitched the Yankees to a 12-4 win with the help of Alex Rodriguez who hit his 21st homer and drove in three runs....Scott Kazmir held the A's to 2 hits in 7 innings while striking out nine in their 4-0 shutout win. The A's loss combined with the Rangers win over the White Sox dropped them into third place in the AL West. I still think Billy Beane gave up too early on the 2008 season and now the A's are paying the price for his decision.

The Tigers are hitting the way they were expected to after their offseason trades and it was evident last night after their 19-4 win over the Royals and with the White Sox and Twins both losing they moved to within five and a half games of first place in the AL Central. Carlos Guillen, Miguel Cabrera and Matt Joyce combined for 12 hits in 16 at bats with 13 RBI's. That is what is called getting production from the third, fourth and fifth hitters.

Joyce may not have the numbers for the AL Rookie of the Year award but is the Tigers Rookie of the Year with 10 homers and 24 RBI's in 109 at bats. He is slugging .679 and is making it a tough decision for Jim Leyland to pick whether to play him or Marcus Thames since they have 29 homers between them and the Tigers outfield has 57 homers this season. With Magglio Ordonez and Curtis Granderson as everyday starters it won't be an easy choice for Leyland. For comparison sake all the Braves outfielders only have 20 homers this season.

It took ten innings but the Brewers moved into a second place tie with the Cardinals by defeating them 6-3. The two Brewers infielders who will probably be sharing playing time the rest of the season with Russell Branyan and Ray Durham both hit homers as Richie Weeks and Bill Hall homered with Hall hitting his in the tenth inning. Albert Pujols may be in danger of not having 100 RBI's for the first time in his eight year career as he only has 55 in 302 at bats. Last year he barely had 100 RBI's with 103.

Just when it appeared that the Braves don't have the pitching to compete in the NL East Jorge Campillo 5-4 pitches them to a 4-0 shutout win over the Marlins. Chipper Jones started the month of July hitting .393 but is down to .372 and is hitting only .276 in July.

Homer Bailey seemed to be on his way to his first win of the season until the Reds bullpen blew the game and closer Francisco Cordero imploded and blew his sixth save of the season as the Padres won 6-4. Trevor Hoffman recorded his 18th save of the season and the 542nd of his career and if he pitches another two seasons he could post his 600th save.

The Rockies made the mistake of giving Kip Wells 1-2 his second start of the season after nine consecutive relief appearances before going on the DL. They may have wished they left him on the DL from which he came off yesterday and hadn't pitched since April 28th. In one third of an inning he gave up 8 runs and 7 hits and walked one his ERA ballooned from 2.29 before the game to 5.40 and his July ERA stands at 189.00. The Dodgers held on to win the game 16-10 It is beyond me why Wells is even in the major leagues with his 65-93 major league record.

In ten major league seasons Wells has had a winning record in two seasons when he was 4-1 with the White Sox in 1999 and 10-9 with the Pirates in 2003. The Rockies outhit the Dodgers 20-18 but still lost by six runs. It was unusual that only one homer was hit in the contest when Matt Holliday his a solo homer for his 17th of the season. The Dodgers scored in the first five innings but didn't score after the fifth inning. Typical for Andruw Jones he only had one single among the 18 Dodger hits.

Indians defeated the Angels 5-2 as the Angels couldn't come from behind like they had in the last two games against the Red Sox. Paul Byrd 4-10 took the win while Ervin Santana 11-4 absorbed the loss....The Red Sox were the third team in the majors to post 4-0 shutouts as they whitewashed the Mariners 4-0. Jon Lester 8-3 took the win and he has only lost once since April 9th and that loss came on May 25th so he will have gone two months without a loss before his next start. He has given up only 3 homers in his last eight starts.

Baseball Notebook

Cubs, Cardinals and Brewers
Win in NL Central Action

The Cubs won for the first time since July 12th behind Ryan Dempster 11-4 who pitched 8 scoreless innings in the 9-0 shutout win against the Astros. The Cubs needed the win to stay two games ahead of the Cardinals and three games ahead of the Brewers.

In St. Louis Aaron Miles hit a walkoff grand slam to defeat the Padres 9-5 as the Cardinals won their fifth straight game. Brad Thompson picked up a blown save and the win in the contest.

The Brewers won their fourth straight in their 7-4 win over the Giants. Manny Parra 9-2 took the win for the Brewers and struck out nine batters. The Brewers defeated Tim Lincecum 11-3 who lost for the second time in his last three starts after not losing since April 29th. Lincecum struck out eight making it ten times this season he has struck out at least eight batters. Ryan Braun hit his 24th homer and drove in five runs to lead the Brewers offense.

Yesterday the Brewers acquired Ray Durham the 36 year old second baseman from the Giants in exchange for Darren Ford and Steve Hammond. Ned Yost said he is not yet sure how he will use Durham but one thing for sure is that Richie Weeks is not happy with this development but Weeks who is hitting .218 shouldnt' be too surprised that the Brewers would trade for Durham who is hitting .293 this season. This move shows the Brewers are serious about winning this season.

Ford debuted in rookie ball in 2005 and is in his third year of A ball. His speed is his main asset as he stole 64 bases in 2006 and stole 67 bases in 2007 and after 87 games this season he has 44 stolen bases. Ford has little power with a .364 slugging percentage this season and is hitting only .232 which may be preventing him from being promoted to Double A plus he has almost twice as many strikeouts as walks this season.

Steve Hammond is a lefthanded starter who was 7-4 in Double A this year before being promoted to Triple A where he has struggled with a 0-4 record. In 88 innings in Double A ball he gave up 5 homers but has given up 6 in 17 innings in Triple A. Hammond is 26 so is little old to never have pitched in the majors but was 23 when he left Long Beach State University.

The Brewers should be helped immediately by Durham but Ford and Hammond are still works in progress and may not be on the Giants roster anytime soon.

Braves Out of NL East Race?

The Braves pitchers gave up 29 runs to the Nationals in the three game series against the Nationals and won on Friday despite giving up 6 runs. On May 26th the Braves were 28-23 but since then they haven't been more than five games over .500 and are now 46-52 so are 18-29 since then. The starting pitching is in shambles with the exception of Tim Hudson 10-7 and Jair Jurjjens 9-5. The only other Braves starter with a winning record is John Smoltz 3-2 who is on the disabled list.

Smoltz hasn't pitched since June 2nd and Tom Glavine 2-3 hasn't pitched since June 10th. Jo-Jo Reyes 3-9 has lost five straight starts and pitched less than five innings in four of those starts. Reyes has only won one start since May 18th. Jorge Campillo 4-4 has seen his ERA continue to rise since his 0.71 ERA in April, 1.13 in May, 4.35 in June and is 5.00 for the month of June.

Charlie Morton 2-2 won his first start on June 14th but has won only once in his last five starts.

The bullpen has struggled also and is in such a bad state that Mike Gonzalez leads the team in saves with 4 despite not playing his first game till June 18th.

With the trade deadline approaching the Braves are in a touchy situation with them being six and a half games out of first which doesn't sound like that much of a deficit but with them having to pass the Marlins, Phillies and Mets it won't be easy. One thing for sure is that if they trade Mark Texeira and don't get someone who can help the offense right away it will be like giving up on the season since they would only have Chipper Jones and Brian McCann to be the offensive leaders. Jeff Francoeur has mysteriously lost his ability to hit in the last two months with him hitting .206 in June and .186 in July so he can't be counted on.

Eight Braves outfielders have combined to hit only 20 homers this season and nine of them been hit by Francoeur. The other seven outfielders have combined to hit 11 homers. Omar Infante who has hit only one homer is fourth on the team in slugging percentage among players with at least 100 at bats with a .427 slugging percentage.

I can't see the Braves turning it around to win the NL East title. They are fortunate to be as close as they are to the first place Mets and Phillies but with their pitching they are not going to be force in the NL East this season especially after the Nationals scored 29 runs against them in 3 games. Imagine what will happen when they face slugging teams like the Phillies and Marlins. It may be too early to say wait till next year but that day may be here sooner than we think.

Looking at the Standings

AL East

The Rays are barely holding on to a game and a half lead over the Red Sox after losing 8 of their last 10 games. The Yankees are four and a half games behind the Rays but on this date last season they were seven games behind the Red Sox so are actually in better position this season. On June 2nd the Yankees were 28-29 and are now 53-45 for a 25-16 record since then.

AL Central

Despite their loss yesterday the White Sox are a half game ahead of the Twins who also lost their game. The Tigers gained a game on both the White Sox and the Twins with their win yesterday and all three teams are 5-5 in their last ten games while the Royals and Indians are 6-4 in their last ten games.

On this date last season the White Sox were 10 games under .500 but today are 13 games over .500. Last year the Indians were 17 games over .500 and this year they are 11 games under .500.

AL West

The Angels who have won their last five games while the A's have lost their last 5 games have extended their AL West lead to nine games. Trading Rich Harden and Joe Blanton prematurely may have ruined any chances of the A's winning this year. The Rangers are only a half game behind the A's so they could move up in the standings soon.

The Mariners are 22 games out of first place and although not mathematically eliminated it is very unlikely they will move out of last place.

NL East

The NL East has the best race in the majors with the Mets and Phillies tied for first place and the Marlins only a half game behind them. The Braves won't be a factor till they reach .500 since they are six games under .500 currently.

NL Central

The Cubs who have lost three of their last four games have let the Cardinals move to within 2 games of them and the Brewers are only three games back. The fourth place Reds were getting close to .500 but have slipped back to four games under .500 and are in fourth place and 11 games out of first place. The Astros and Pirates are battling to stay out of last place with the Pirates currently in last place after losing five in a row.

The Pirates haven't played .500 baseball since 1992 and are 44-54 this season. Still the .449 winning percentage is the best since 2003 when they won 75 games.

NL West

The NL West is proving again to be the worst division in baseball with the Dodgers and Diamondbacks tied for first with 48-50 records. It would be interesting to know if any major league team has won a league or division title with a sub .500 record. Rockies are 14 games under .500 and are only 6 games behind the leaders. Giants are 18 games under .500 and are only 8 games out of first place.

The Padres are 25 games under .500 and still only 11 games out of first place.

Baseball Notebook

Blanton Traded to Phillies

Joe Blanton was traded yesterday by the Athletics to the Phillies for three minor leaguers. The Athletics received three prospects in Adrian Cardenas a second baseman in A ball who would have been blocked by Chase Utley, Josh Outman a Double A relief pitcher and Matthew Spencer an outfielder in A ball.

Cardenas has a .303 lifetime average in the minors in three seasons and I am surprised he is not at a higher level than A ball at the age of 20. He has stolen 16 bases this season without being caught stealing all season.

Outman is in his fourth year in the minors with a record of 33-18 and a 3.00 ERA. He has struck out 409 in 414 innings. He is a player to watch in the future and could be in the majors as soon as next year.

Spencer probably won't be of any help to the A's for a couple of years at the earliest unless he is promoted to Double A by the end of this season.

Blanton who has a 5-12 record does not have a very good record this season and has given up four runs or more nine times. He has given up six or more runs four times.

The Phillies are gambling that Blanton will turn his season around with the Phillies and that he will do better with the powerful Phillies offense supporting him. If Blanton keeps allowing 6 runs in two games and 7 runs and 8 runs in two other games it won't matter what kind of offense he has behind him.

Billy Beane can only hope now that minor leaguer Gio Gonzalez can step into the major league rotation but when you consider Blanton was 5-12 Gonzalez may turn out to be an upgrade.

Mets Win 10th Straight Game
With 9-8 Defeat of the Reds

The Mets moved into a first place tie in the NL East with the Phillies after their 9-8 win over the Reds. The Reds were ahead 5-2 after four innings but then were trailing 6-5 after six innings. They came back to take a 8-7 lead after seven innings. Francisco Cordero tried to save the game for the Reds but instead gave up 4 runs and 6 hits while retiring only one batter giving the Mets a 9-8 victory.

David Wright and Carlos Delgado both hit their 18th homer of the season. Wright drove in four runs while Fernando Tatis and Delgado were both 3 for 4 and drove in 3 runs each.

Kyle Lohse Wins 12th Game
In Cardinals 4-3 Victory Over Padres

Kyle Lohse 12-2 is having an excellent season after compiling a 32-48 record since 2003. The 4-3 win over the Padres moved the Cardinals to within four games of the first place Cubs in the NL Central. Jake Peavy 7-6 gave up four solo homers with Troy Glaus hitting his 16th and 17th homers of the season. Peavy had only given up four homers since April 27th before giving up the four homers yesterday.

Rockies Off to Rocky Start
Defeat Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3

The Pirates jumped off to an early 3-0 lead after three innings but never scored again while the Rockies scored twice in the fourth inning and three times in the sixth inning to take a 5-3 over the Pirates. The NL West is the only division with no teams over .500 in their last ten games.

Tigers Back Over .500
After Defeating Orioles 6-5

Gary Sheffield hit his 6th homer of the season and 486th of his career in the Tigers 6-5 defeat of the Orioles. Sheffield could hit his 500th homer this season if he avoids the disabled list and any long slumps.

The win gave the Tigers a 47-46 record. Marcus Thames hit his 18th homer of the season and is on his way to the best season of his career. He needs only 8 homers to match his career best 26 homers and needs 19 RBI's to match his career best 60 RBI's. He has a .601 slugging percentage this year.

Kenny Rogers 7-6 has pitched into the sixth inning in nine of his last ten starts and has only lost twice since May 15th. Garrett Olson 6-5 took the loss for the Orioles.

Interesting Stats Department

Hitting

Home Run Frequency
Adam Dunn HR every 10.9 at bats
Jason Giambi HR every 13.7 at bats

Intentional Walks
Albert Pujols 22
Lance Berkman 13
Ken Griffey Jr. 13

Grounded Into Double Plays
Derek Lee 19
James Loney 18

Sacrifice Bunts
Aaron Cook 11
Ryan Dempster 11
Jeff Francis 10
Tim Redding 10

BA With Runners in Scoring Position
David DeJesus .460
Ian Kinsler .419

Pitching

Lowest Batting Average Allowed
Justin Duchscherer .186
Shaun Marcum .198

Strikeouts Per 9 Innings
Chad Billinglsey 9.9
Edinson Volquez 9.64

Run Support Per 9 Innings
Kyle Kendrick 7.39
Vicente Padilla 6.88

Pitches Thrown
Justin Verlander 2163
A.J. Burnett 2131

Best Home ERA
Justin Duchscherer 1.36
Jake Peavy 1.45

Best Road ERA
John Danks 1.92
Tim Lincecum 2.11

Home Runs Allowed
Brett Myers 24
Paul Byrd 23

Complete Games
Roy Halladay 7
C.C. Sabathia 3
James Shields 3
Ben Sheets 3

Pickoff Throws
Adam Eaton 106
Andy Pettitte 105

Blown Saves
Jason Isringhausen 7
Six pitchers with 6

Catchers Throwing Out Base Stealers

Jason Kendall and Jose Molina lead the majors in most base stealers thrown out with 25 thrown out in 52 attempts for a 48.1 per cent success rate. Ivan Rodriguez showing that he can still throw out baserunners is third with a 38.3 percent mark.

The Padres have the two worst catchers in the majors with Michael Barrett and Josh Bard throwing out only 12 runners in 96 attempts combined.

It is surprising that Kendall is at the top of the list since he threw out 20 in 131 attempts last season for a 15.3 percent success rate.

Player From the Past: Nellie Fox

Jacob Nelson "Nellie" Fox

Born: December 25, 1927 in St. Thomas, Pennsylvania

Died December 1, 1975 in Baltimore, Maryland

Major League Debut: June 8, 1947

Final Game: July 25, 1965

Inducted Into Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997

When I think of Nellie Fox I think of how great a baseball player he was and the ever present chaw of tobacco in his mouth.

He played the first three seasons of his career for the Philadelphia Athletics. On October 19, 1949 he was traded to the White Sox for Joe Tipton. Tipton would only play two full seasons for the Athletics and part of a third season while Fox would play for the White Sox for fourteen years.

1951 was his first season to hit higher than .255 when he hit .313 and had 189 hits in his second year with the White Sox. As good as Fox was he was not a five tool player since he had little power and was not successful as a base stealer since he had 76 stolen bases but was caught 80 times while attempting to steal.

1954 was his only 200 hit season when he had 201 hits. Fox had 600 at bats twelve times in his fourteen years with the White Sox. He only had 35 lifetime homers and in 1952 he had no homers in 648 at bats.

The statistic that stands out to me is the amazingly low strikeout totals for his career. He only struck out 216 times in 9232 at bats. Ryan Howard may strike out that much this season in less than 600 at bats. He never struck out more than 18 times in a season. In 1958 he struck out only eleven times in 623 at bats. Over the six month baseball season that is not even two strikeouts a month. In 1957 he had 75 walks and 13 strikeouts. As far as I know nobody today comes anywhere close to posting strikeout totals that low.

From 1954 to 1964 he had the least strikeouts of any AL player. In 1958 he struck out only once in every 56 at bats.

In 1959 he won the AL MVP award in the pennant winning year for the White Sox. He won the Gold Glove Award in 1957, 1959 and 1960. Fox appeared in fifteen All Star games.

On December 10, 1963 Fox was traded to the Astros for Danny Murphy and Jim Golden. Murphy was 4-4 in two seasons with the White Sox and Golden never played in a major league game for the White Sox.

Fox retired with a .288 batting average and hit .375 in his only World Series appearance in 1959 with 9 hits in 24 at bats. He retired with 2663 lifetime hits.

Nellie Fox died of skin cancer on the 1st of December in 1975 at the age of 47 in Baltimore, Maryland.

The following articles tell more about the career of Fox:

This is the New York Times obituary about the death of Fox:

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/deaths/nellie_fox_obituary.shtml

This is a general recap of the career of Fox with some baseball card photos:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Nellie_Fox

This is a lot of quotes by Fox and by others talking about Fox:

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/nellie_fox_quotations.shtml

Baseball Notebook

The Look on Bud Selig's Face....Priceless

When the camera showed Bud Selig when the 2008 All Star Game had gone into extra innings the look on his face was priceless. He had the same bewildered look on his face that he had in 2002 when the All Star game was canceled. He was hoping that the game would not get to the place where position players would have to become pitchers.

Scott Kazmir who wasn't even scheduled to pitch in the game for the American League was the winning pitcher.... It was ironic that Carlos Marmol held the AL scoreless in the 14th inning despite not pitching well lately and then a solid closer like Brad Lidge would give up the winning run....Dan Uggla set a record for most errors by a player in an All Star game as he made three errors. Uggla was also the only NL player to bat four times without getting a hit and hit into a double play in the tenth inning with runners on first and third ending a scoring chance....Matt Holliday scored the first run of the game when he homered in the fifth inning giving the NL a 1-0 lead.

The NL scored again in the sixth when Lance Berkman hit a sacrifice fly to give the the NL a 2-0 lead....In the bottom of the seventh inning J.D. Drew drove in the first two runs for the AL with a two run homer. Drew who had a terrible season in 2007 hit a grand slam in the World Series and is having an excellent season in 2008 won the MVP award for the 2008 All Star game. Confidence means everything for a baseball player since his success in the World Series Drew has shown he can deliver in the clutch and has picked up the slack when David Ortiz was placed on the disabled list.

The NL took a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth inning when Adrian Gonzalez hit a run scoring sacrifice fly. Evan Longoria doubled in the tying run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Without Longoria's hit the game would have ended in a 3-2 win for the NL.

The next run was not scored until the 15th inning when Michael Young hit the game winning sacrifice fly to score Justin Morneau. Young had driven in the winning run in the 2006 All Star game so he has driven in the winning run in two of the last three All Star games.

I was surprised that on a night when the AL needed to get a lot of innings from their pitchers that the best closer this season Francisco Rodriguez would only pitch to one batter before leaving the game. It would have been better if Rivera would have started the ninth inning and then they could have used Rodriguez later but I guess Terry Francona wasn't thinking about the game lasting fifteen innings at the time and wanted to bring in Mariano Rivera in middle of the inning so Rivera would get more of an ovation from the crowd.

Noteworthy Stats

Ben Sheets, Carlos Marmol and Dan Haren pitched two scoreless innings each for the NL over the first six innings....453 pitches were thrown with both teams striking out 17 times....J.D. Drew and Justin Morneau were the only AL players to have two hits in the game....Ben Sheets and Aaron Cook made the most pitches in the game with 42 each....The game lasted 4 hours and 50 minutes.

Grady Sizemore and Ian Kinsler were the only players who didn't start that batted five times....This was an unique All Star game in that the replacement players batted more than the starters....Three of the seven runs scored in the game scored on sacrifice flies including the walkoff sacrifice fly by Michael Young....Dan Uggla left six runners on base for the most runners left on base by either team....Joe Mauer was the only batter who didn't make an out in the game.

Matt Holliday's home run was the only extra base hit among the 13 NL hits....The game would have ended in the eleventh inning but slow running Dioner Navarro was thrown out at home on a perfect throw by centerfielder Nate McLouth.

Baseball Notebook

MLB Has Best All Star Game

I have seen a lot of All Star games but baseball to me has the best All Star game. When the players are introduced before the game has always been my favorite part of the game. A lot of those players may never play in another All Star game so for those few seconds they are recognized will be a memory they will remember forever.

The Pro Bowl of football is anti-climatic after the Super Bowl. I never hear much talk about who won the Pro Bowl. Because football is such a heavy contact sport there is no way a mid season Pro Bowl will ever be played. No team would want to lose a Bret Favre or Brian Urlacher in a midseason Pro Bowl game because of injury.

One problem with the early voting for the MLB All Star game is that a player like Ryan Howard is left off the team because most of the voting had been done by the time a player really gets rolling like Howard did this season. He is leading the NL in home runs and runs batted in but will be watching the game on television. Even though he is not hitting for average Howard is the kind of player the fans want to see in the All Star game.

As long as Bud Selig is commissioner we will never be assured of a glitch free All Star game. Selig will always be remembered by me for canceling the World Series and for being undecisive when the All Star game ended in a tie in 2002. If that had happened a year later in 2003 when the winning team won home field advantage in the World Series it would have been an even bigger fiasco than it was. I guess if it ever does happen again Selig will probably have the two teams flip a coin for home field advantage.

For many years I scheduled my vacation each year for the All Star game and for the last week of the World Series so I would be able to see them.

Just 9 hours 55 minutes and 14 seconds to gametime!!!!!!!!!!!

Bobby Murcer Dies At Age of 62

Bobby Murcer died in an Oklahoma City hospital last Saturday at the age of 62. A malignant brain tumor was the cause of his death.

Murcer like Mickey Mantle broke in with the Yankees as shortstops but both became outfielders. Murcer was being mentioned as the next Mantle but didn't have the kind of career Mantle had. Still he had a very good career in which he hit 252 homers and hit over .300 twice. He never did have 100 RBI's in a season but came close three times.

Murcer played for the Yankees from 1965 to 1974 then played for the Giants in 1975 and 1976. He played for the Cubs from 1977 to 1979 the year in which he was traded back to the Yankees for Paul Semall a minor league player.

Baseball-reference.com compares his stats to those of Dusty Baker, Bobby Thomson and Andy Pafko.

He may not have been the next Mickey Mantle but he was the first Bobby Murcer a man who left a legacy behind that will last for years.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-13-bobby-murcerjul13,0,1741960.story

Dave Ricketts Dies At 73

Dave Ricketts died Sunday in St. Louis, Missouri after battling cancer. Ricketts only played six years in the major leagues and only batted 213 times in those six years and hit one homer and had 20 RBI's while hitting .249.

Ricketts was more valuable to the St. Louis Cardinals as a coach after he retired from playing. He had a reputation for never giving up on players and Yadier Molina gives Ricketts credit for teaching him to be a major league catcher.

Chuck Stobbs Dies At 79

Chuck Stobbs died at the age of 79 after battling cancer for the last seven years. Stobbs had a record of 107-130.

He is best known for giving up one of the longest homers ever to Mickey Mantle.

The article linked below tells more about his career:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080713/NEWS/807130337/1006/SPORTS

Steve Mingori Dies at 64

Steve Mingori who pitched for his hometown Kansas City Royals from 1973 - 1969 died last Thursday of natural causes. He started his career with the Indians before being traded to the Royals for Mike Jackson.

Mingori compiled a 18-33 record and had a very respectable 3.03 ERA. He started twice in his 385 game career.

Grandson's Team Loses In La. State Championship

Grandson’s Team Loses Championship Game 6-0

In Louisiana State Finals for 9-10 Dixie Youth

After winning the first four games of the Louisiana state championship for the 9-10 years old age group in the Dixie Youth tournament the Tioga team which included my grandson Matthew lost 6-0 in the championship game yesterday afternoon.

The Tioga team had been winning by large margins in the regional and early stages of the state tournament but yesterday lost their first game after winning eight games in the championship game. Their opponent from Ville Platte, Louisiana didn’t allow the Tioga team to score a run in the game and Ville Platte ended the hopes of Tioga becoming state champion when one of their players hit a grand slam home run over the fence leaving the Tioga pitcher literally in tears.

Most of the same Tioga players had gone to the state championship last year only to lose in the final so it was doubly heartbreaking for them. My grandson who didn’t make the team last year was used sparingly during the tournament since he was one of the youngest players but when given a chance to play he did well and on Saturday Matthew came up with the bases loaded and hit a high fly to center that was dropped by the center fielder which enabled a run to score. It may not have been a hit but he made contact at a crucial time in the game. At this age high fly balls can be an adventure.

Matthew’s dad said he didn’t think Matthew cared whether they won or lost the game yesterday. I think it is because Matthew is enjoying just getting a chance to play and not that he doesn’t care about winning or losing.

He is not the kind that is going to go on a rampage in the dugout if he strikes out nor does he get overexcited if he does well. It is good that in his sixth year of youth baseball he keeps a level head on the field because any major leaguer will tell you that baseball has a lot of ups and downs and that you can’t get too high or too low or it will affect your play on the field.

It meant a lot to me when his All Star coach Kevin McGehee who pitched for the Orioles briefly in 1993 told Matthew’s dad last week that he thought Matthew has what it takes to make it to the major leagues. If he is correct and it does happen for Matthew I hope I will be around to see his first major league game but he is only 9 and it may be about 13 years before he would get his chance to play if he does make it.When considering that there are 750 players in the majors today everything would have to fall into place for it to happen and injuries have ended the career of many players headed to the majors. I would be 77 years old and there are no guarantees in life that I will be around so all I can do is hope I can last that long.

Here is a video of Matthew showing how to grip a baseball and how to throw it:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=38374378

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=38374378

At the All Star Break

At The All Star Break

With major league baseball at the All Star break it is a good time to look back at the first half of the 2008 season.

American League

In the AL East the Tampa Bay Rays lost seven games in a row before taking the All Star break. The worst thing for Rays fans is that the Boston Red Sox are back in first. The New York Yankees are six games back of the Red Sox and only three games ahead of the fourth place Jays who are nine games back of the Red Sox.
The break finds the AL Central race also very close as the Minnesota Twins have moved to within a half game of the first place Chicago White Sox. The Detroit Tigers are seven back of the White Sox and missed an opportunity to move closer to the second place Twins this last weekend when they could only manage to win one game in their four game series with the Twins.

The Los Angeles Angels hold the lead in the AL West leading the Oakland Athletics by six games. The Texas Rangers are seven and a half games back of the Angels and are a game and a half back of the Athletics.

National League

The Philadelphia Phillies are holding on to a narrow half game lead over the charging New York Mets who have won nine of their last ten games in the NL East. The Florida Marlins are only a game and a half behind the Phillies and only a game behind the Mets. The Atlanta Braves need to win five in a row just to get back to .500 so can’t be taken seriously until they can get back to .500 and improve on their 15-32 road record. Their 30 home wins is only bettered in the NL by the Chicago Cubs with 37 and the Milwaukee Brewers with 31 wins at home.
The NL Central leading Chicago Cubs are leading the St. Louis Cardinals by four and a half games while the third place Milwaukee Brewers are five games back of the Cubs. The addition of C.C. Sabathia to the Brewers roster has already resulted in two wins without a defeat when he is on the mound.

The NL West has the only division leader with a sub .500 record in the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 47-48 record and they are only a game ahead of the 46-49 Los Angeles Dodgers. The San Francisco Giants are in third place and seven games back of the Diamondbacks.

Highlights of Last Day Before All Star Break

American League

It was not a good sign for the White Sox that they had 22 hits yesterday in their 12-11 loss and still lost the game. Jose Contreras didn’t get the loss but he deserved the loss after pitching four innings and allowed 7 runs and 10 hits. Nook Logan allowed 3 runs, 2 hits and walked a batter without recording an out to take the loss.

The first five White Sox hitters in the batting order were 15 for 28 with 9 RBI’s. It is a shame that after getting that many hits from their first five batters that they would not win the game. Carlos Quentin goes into the All Star break second in home runs with 22 in the AL behind Grady Sizemore with 23 and is second in RBI’s with 70 which is 25 behind the league leading Josh Hamilton with 25.

The Yankees managed only six hits as Andy Pettitte (10-7) was outpitched by A.J. Burnett (10-8) in the Blue Jays 4-1 victory. There have been rumors that Burnett may be traded before the trading deadline but with the Blue Jays only three games behind the Yankees it may be too soon to let go of Burnett….The Rays only had three singles in their 5-2 loss to the Indians….Justin Verlander (7-9) allowed only four hits to the Twins as they averted a sweep at the hands of the Twins.

Francisco Rodriguez picked up his 38th save of the season in the 95th game of the season as the Angels defeated the Athletics 4-3….In a battle of two pitchers with little control the Red Sox edged the Orioles 2-1 as Daisuke Matsuzaka (10-1) walked five in six innings while Daniel Cabrera (6-5) lost the game after walking six in 4 1/3 inning.

National League

Jorge Campillo (4-4) took the 12-3 win for the Braves over the Padres and Randy Wolf (6-9) gave up 6 runs and 6 hits in 5 innings to take the loss. Brian McCann hit his 18th homer and drove in three runs for the Braves….Chad Qualls (2-7) kept Brandon Webb from winning his 14th game of the season when he gave up 4 runs and 4 hits in a third of an inning in the Phillies 6-3 win. The win was crucial for the Phillies since a loss would have dropped them to second place in the AL East race.

Chad Billingsley (9-8) struck out 13 as the Dodgers defeated the Marlins 9-1 as Andrew Miller (5-9) gave up 7 runs, 5 hits and 5 walks in only an inning and a third….C.C. Sabathia (2-0) with the Brewers homered and pitched a complete game shutout win over the Reds by a 3-2 score when Craig Counsell hit a walk off sacrifice fly.

The Cardinals gained a game on the Cubs with their 11-6 victory over the Pirates. Ryan Ludwick hit his 21st homer and Troy Glaus hit his 15th of the season….The Cubs could only manage a double and seven singles in their 4-2 loss to the Giants. Tim Lincecum (11-2) struck out 9 and hit a triple to take the win and Ryan Dempster (10-4) took the loss as they let the second place Cardinals and third place Brewers gain a game on them in the NL Central race….Mike Pelfrey (8-6) pitched eight innings of scoreless baseball as the Mets moved to within a half game of the Phillies by shutting out the Rockies 7-0….Brandon Backe (6-9) pitched the Astros to a 5-0 win over the Nationals as the Astros went into the break in last place in the NL Central with them a half game behind the fifth place Pirates.

Looking at Lifetime Stats

Randy Johnson with 4,711 strikeouts needs three more strikeouts to be 1000 strikeouts behind the all time record of Nolan Ryan with 5,714. With the advent of pitch counts Ryan’s record is probably one of the safest records in baseball. Greg Maddux with 3,332 strikeouts needs ten more to tie Phil Niekro who has 3,342 for tenth on the career strikeouts list.
Mariano Rivera needs 12 saves to tie Lee Smith who has 478 career saves. Early next season Rivera should join Trevor Hoffman who has 541 saves at the only pitchers in baseball history with more than 500 saves.

Ken Griffey Jr. with 605 career homers only needs four more homers to tie Sammy Sosa who has 609 for fifth place in major league home run history.
Alex Rodriguez with 537 homers needs 11 homers to tie Mike Schmidt who has 548 lifetime homers and into a 12th place tie on the all time homers list. Jim Thome with 525 homers needs 9 more homers to tie Jimmie Foxx who has 534 homers for 15th on the all time homers list.

Manny Ramirez with 1,664 runs batted in needs 39 runs batted in the rest of the season to pass Sammy Sosa with 1,667, Cal Ripken Jr. with 1,695, Frank Thomas with 1,701 and Reggie Jackson with 1,702 and move from 24th to 20th on the alltime RBI list. Ramirez needs 336 RBI’s to become only the fourth player in the major league history to retire with 2000 or more RBI’s. Hank Aaron with 2.297 is first, Babe Ruth is second with 2.213 and Cap Anson is third with 2,076. Barry Bonds is four short of 2000 RBI’s.

Most RBI’s at the All Star Break

103 - Hank Greenberg ..had 170 RBI’s at the end of the season.
101 - Juan Gonzalez …had 157 RBI’s at the end of the season.
97 - Carlos Delgado …had 145 RBI’s at the end of the season.
96 – Manny Ramirez…had 165 RBI’s a the end of the season.
95 – Josh Hamilton at the All Star Break

Baseball Notebook

Will the Real Jason Marquis Stand Up?

Jason Marquis 6-5 will be trying to get rid of his last half swoon reputation when he starts today against Matt Cain at Wrigley Field. In the last two seasons he was kept off the playoff rosters in his last year with the Cardinals and his first year with the Cubs.

Marquis has pitched into the sixth inning only seven times out of 16 starts and has had problem with pitch counts having starts like these: 102 pitches in 6 innings, 98 pitches in 5 innings, 105 pitches in 5 innings and 86 pitches in 4 innings. He has the worst ERA among the eight starters the Cubs have used this season with a 4.78 ERA. His Wrigley Field ERA this season is 6.29 while his road ERA is 3.38.

If Marquis does falter in the second half Chad Gaudin newly acquired from the Athletics may take his spot since Rich Harden will be taking Sean Gallagher's spot. So Marquis has the chance to show Cubs fans he is not the same Marquis that pitched so badly the last half of the 2007 season he was kept off the playoff roster that he is ready to have a good second half.

Tigers No Help To White Sox By Losing 7-6 to Twins

The Detroit Tigers were no help to the White Sox as they let the Twins defeat them 7-6 in an eleven inning contest enabling the Twins to move to within two and a half games of the first place White Sox in the AL Central.

While the Twins were winning the White were losing 4-1 to the Royals despite Mark Buehrle 6-8 pitching 7 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball. Jermaine Dye hit his 20th homer of the season for the only White Sox run.

Cubs Give Up 7 Homers
In 12-7 Loss to the Reds

The Cubs were ahead 3-1 after two innings but after that the Reds hit six more homers in addition to the homer hit by Edwin Encarnacion in the second inning. The Reds hit a homer in each inning from the second to the seventh. Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 12th homer of the season and 605th of his career leaving him four short of tying Sammy Sosa.

The Reds hammered out 18 hits including the seven homers, a double and ten singles. The Cubs only had one homer by Mike Fontenot for their only homer in the game. The loss combined with the Brewers win and the Cardinals loss enabled the Brewers to move into second place and they are now four games behind the Cubs.

Athletics, Angels Both Win
Eleven Inning Games

Yesterday the Athletics and Angels both won eleven inning games with the Athletics winning on a Emil Brown walkoff homer giving the Athletics a 3-2 win. The Rangers outhit the Angels 20-12 but came out on the short end of a 11-10 score. Howie Kendrick who had not homered in 172 previous at bats this season hit his first and second homers of the season in the game. Sean Gallagher will make his first start for the Athletics today as the Angels come to Oakland to play a three game series that is crucial for both teams. The Athletics need a sweep to move within two games of the Angels but an Angels sweep would move them eight games ahead of the Athletics.

Josh Hamilton hit his 21st homer of the season and drove in his major league leading 90th and 91st run. It took Hamilton 298 at bats to hit 19 homers and this year it has taken 65 more at bats to hit 21 homers but has 44 more RBI's than the 47 of last year. Edinson Volquez who was traded for Hamilton may be having a great year too but he can only pitch every five days while Hamilton has been driving in runs game after game. Hamilton has failed to drive in a run only twice in his last eleven games.

Around the Bases

Ryan Howard who had five homers and 12 RBI's at the end of April now has 27 homers and 83 RBI's and in the first ten days of July he has 7 homers and 15 RBI's. Yesterday was the first time this season that his slugging percentage has been over .500 and it is .512 after yesterday's game. He is hitting .375 in July and is slugging .900....Barry Zito left the game with the Mets yesterday after making 105 pitches in 5 innings with the score tied 3-3 in the 7-3 win by the Mets. Fernando Tatis was 3 for 5 and drove in 4 runs for the Mets. Tatis who did not play in the majors during the 2004, 2005 or 2007 seasons has slugged 1.045 and is hitting .500 in July.

Mike Mussina pitched well but didn't receive the decison while Paul Maholm 6-5 pitched even better as the Pirates defeated the Yankees 4-2. The third through seventh hitters in the Yankees batting order were 1 for 20 in the game....Dave Bush 5-8 won for the third time in his last four decisions as the Brewers defeated the Rockies 11-1. Bush struck out 13 batters in the contest after striking out a personal high of 7 in his last start with 20 strikeout in his last 16 innings. In his last four starts that he either won or didn't receive a decision Bush has given up 3 runs in 31 innings and he has not walked a batter in his last two starts encompassing 16 innings.

The Diamondbacks and Nationals were tied 2-2 after nine innings and the Diamondbacks won the game 7-5 after both teams scored three times in the tenth inning and the Diamondbacks scored twice in the top of the eleventh to end the game....It didn't look good for the Indians yesterday with them mired in a ten game losing streak and first place Rays of the AL East coming to town. Starter Andy Sonnanstine 10-4 had a 2-0 lead after four innings but the Indians scored 13 unanswered runs to win the game 13-2 for their first win since June 27th.

In the fourth eleventh inning game yesterday the Marlins defeated the Dodgers behind the 23rd homer of the season by Hanley Ramirez. Ramirez only hit one homer in May but hit 10 in June and 4 already in July. He needs only 7 homers and 8 stolen bases to become a member of the 30-30 club. Last season he missed by one homer of being in the club when he hit 29 homers and stole 51 bases. He is hitting .312 this season which is also his career average.

Baseball Notebook

Red Sox Clobber Twins 18-5 to Help White Sox

White Sox Help Themselves to 7-6 Win Over Royals

Just when the Twins were on the brink of catching up with the White Sox after winning five games in a row they lost three games in a row to the World Champion Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox hammered 23 hits in the 18-5 win. The Red Sox were only ahead by a 7-5 score after six innings but went on to score a total of 11 runs in the seventh and eighth innings.

The loss to the Red Sox moved the Twins to three and a half games back of the White Sox and the Twins face the Tigers in a four game series this weekend in Detroit with the Tigers three and a half games back of the Twins could move into second place with a sweep.

Jeff Bailey who batted only once for the Red Sox was the only Red Sox player that didn't score a run or have a hit in the game. Brandon Moss and Bailey were the only Red Sox players not to have an RBI in the game so it was literally a balanced attack that won the game.

Josh Beckett 9-5 took the win while Livan Hernandez 9-6 gave up 6 runs and 11 hits in 6 innings. Hernandez has given up 11 or more hits four times this season and in those four games he has given up 49 hits in 19 innings.

Meanwhile in Kansas City the White Sox who were trailing the Royals 5-0 after three innings came back to defeat the Royals 7-6 as the White Sox won their fourth straight game. Carlos Quentin hit his 20th and 21st homers of the season and drove in four runs giving him 65 RBI's for the season. The Royals outhit the White Sox 13-5 but because of Quentin still lost the game.

The win was the eleventh in the last thirteen games for the White Sox. Nick Swisher after hitting .315 in June is hitting only .207 in July. Alexei Ramirez who had a terrible first month of the season with a .138 batting average in April has now hit .295 in May, .355 in June and .407 in July and is now hitting .308 for the season and the only everyday White Sox player hitting over .300.

If Swisher and Paul Konerko can start hitting like they have in past seasons and the rest of the team can avoid long slumps the White Sox will score a lot of runs in the second half. The White Sox have the fourth most runs scored in the AL and are seventh best in the majors. Their 123 homers lead the AL and are third behind the Marlins and Phillies in the majors.

White Sox pitchers have the second best ERA in the majors trailing the A's who have a 3.42 ERA by only two percentage points with a 3.44 ERA.

Around the Bases

Yankees defeated the Rays 2-1 and have won four in a row and Red Sox have won three in a row while the Rays have lost three consecutive games and are holding on to a two game lead. The Yankees will play Pittsburgh today and will be going against the only team in majors with an ERA over 5.00....Miguel Cabrera is hitting the way the Tigers expected when they traded for him last offseason. He has 5 homers and 11 RBI's in his last ten games and is hitting .410 in that time span. He is hitting .292 against both lefthanders and righthanders this season.

Josh Hamilton hit a walkoff homer for the Rangers as Francisco Rodriguez blew his third save of the season and was the losing pitcher. Hamilton hit his first homer since June 19th and drove in two more runs giving him 89 RBI's for the season which is 22 more than Justin Morneau who has 67. In the NL Ryan Howard has 25 homers and 80 RBI's. Howard hasn't been hitting for average but is driving in runs which is more important since it puts runs on the board. Howard had 5 homers and 26 RBI's in June but already has 5 homers and 12 RBI's after the game of July 9th last night.

Last night was an example of the season Hunter Pence is having after his .322 rookie season. He was 0 for 6 and drove in a run but left six runners on base. He is hitting .260 which is 62 points lower than last season. After slugging .539 last season he is slugging only .419 this year.... It is time for the Pirates to give up on John Van Benschoten. He first came up with the Pirates in 2004 and had a 1-3 record with a 6.91 ERA. He didn't pitch in majors again till 2007 when he was 0-7 and had an ERA of 10.15. In 39 innings in 2007 he gave up 44 earned runs, 55 hits and walked 29 batters but he did strike out 26 batters but even that didn't help because of all the hits and walks. In 15 innings this season he has a 1-2 record with a 9.77 ERA. He has given up 17 runs and 25 hits in those 15 innings while walking 12 and striking out 15. So after 83 innings he has allowed 90 runs and 113 hits and 60 walks in his career with a 2-12 record and a 8.96 ERA.

Diamondbacks only had three singles in their 5-0 shutout loss by the hands of the Nationals. Micah Owings 6-8 has been struggling since April when he was 4-0 at the end of April but has been 2-8 since then and has not won since May 25th....Johan Santana 8-7 won for the first time since June 1st as the Mets shutout the Giants 5-0 on three hits but Santana left after the fifth inning....Cubs defeated the Reds 5-1 on only two hits with one of them being the 23rd homer of the season by Adam Dunn. Carlos Zambrano 10-3 took the win and allowed only one hit in 8 innings. Aramis Ramirez hit his 16th homer of the season and Kerry Wood picked up his 23rd save. The Cubs gained a game on every NL Central team except the last place Astros who won their game. Cubs, Cardinals and Brewers are all 6-4 in their last ten games.

I look for the Oakland Athletics to start slipping further down the standings in the AL West after giving up Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin in the trade to the Cubs. Justin Duchscherer 10-5 and Dana Eveland 7-5 are the only starters left with winning records for a combined 17-10 record while Joe Blanton 5-12, Greg Smith 5-7 and Lenny DiNardo 1-1 are a combined 11-20. Since Sean Gallagher hasn't pitched yet for the A's I am not including him in this article.

Bobby Jenks is going on the 15 day disabled list retroactive to June 30th with bursitis....Vicente Padilla is going on 15 day disabled list retroactive to July 5th with strained muscle in right side of the neck....Dustin McGowan has been placed on the 15 day disabled list for soreness in the right shoulder. White Sox may have Jenks back by the end of the All Star break.

The Indians have now lost ten games in a row and are 16 games behind the White Sox. They have a 37-53 record after their first 90 games for a .411 winning percentage. The Padres are showing it is good to play in a lousy division since they have a 36-56 record with a .391 winning percentage but are only 9 and a half games back of the Diamondbacks who are tied for first place in NL West with identical 45-46 records.