Baseball Notebook

Dempster Handcuffs Brewers 7-2

Ryan Dempster 12-4 held the Brewers to only five hits in seven innings while striking out nine in the Cubs 7-2 victory. Dempster finished July with a 3-1 record and a 1.99 ERA for the month. He had two no decisions and in those games he gave up two runs in six innings and in the other no decision he gave up one run in six innings.

The most impressive statistic to me is that Dempster has allowed only 110 hits in 145 innings. In his last two seasons with the Cubs Dempster was 3-16 combined making his 12-4 record this season in the running for comeback player of the year.

Alfonso Soriano and Ryan Theriot combined for a 6 for 7 game last night but Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez were 0 for 9 in the game. Manny Parra 9-4 lost his second straight game after having not lost since May 3rd. Parra did hit better than he pitched hitting a double and triple which were two of the three extra base hits by the Brewers.

At the end of today's game the Cubs will either be three games or five games ahead of the Brewers. Rich Harden who has a 0-1 record with the Cubs but has pitched brilliantly for the northside club striking out ten batters in three consecutive games and has a 1.04 ERA with the Cubs. His opponent will be Dave Bush 5-8 who didn't pitch well in his last start giving up four runs in five innings but in his previous two starts he gave up one run in sixteen innings.

Cardinals Win 7-2 Over Slumping Braves

As Chris Carpenter Makes 2008 Debut

Chris Carpenter allowed one run in four innings in his 2008 debut for the Cardinals as the Cardinals defeated the reeling Braves 7-2. On May 26 the Braves were 28-23 but since then they have been 21-35 for a 49-58 record. The Braves loss was their fifth in a row the longest current losing streak in the majors.

Casey Kotchman making his Braves debut was 0 for 5 and left six runners on base. The win moved the Cardinals into a second place tie with the Brewers with both teams four games behind the NL Central leading Cubs.

Joel Pineiro 3-4 will start the game today and will be facing Mike Hampton 0-0 who is bringing a 13.50 ERA into the game.

Carlos Quentin Drives In Four Runs

In White Sox 8-3 Romp Over Twins

Carlos Quentin drove in four runs last night in a 15 hit attack by the White Sox. Quentin hit his 28th homer of the season and now has 83 RBI's. The 8-3 White Sox win also included another good game from Alexei Ramirez who hit his ninth homer and drove in three runs. Ramirez was hitting .138 at the end of April but now is hitting .314 after hitting .295 in May, .355 in June and .356 in July with the month ending today.

Gavin Floyd 11-6 won for the first time since July 5th. The White Sox have been 5-5 in their last ten games while the Twins are 4-6. The Tigers are 7-3 in their last ten games. The win enabled the White Sox to extend their lead over the Twins to a game and a half.

John Danks 8-4 will face Scott Baker 7-3 tonight. After the conclusion of this series the White Sox face the Royals while the Twins will be playing the Indians so both teams on paper at least should have an easy weekend.

Abreu, Rodriguez Lead Yankees

To 13-3 Win Over The Orioles

Bobby Abreu hit his 12th and 13th homers and Alex Rodriguez hit his 23rd homer in the Yankees 13-3 defeat of the Orioles. Rodriguez now has 65 RBI's but that is 39 behind AL leader Josh Hamilton who has 104. Last season Rodriguez had 156 RBI's so needs 91 more RBI's by the end of the season to equal that number which is highly unlikely to happen.

Joba Chamberlain 4-3 is 3-1 as a starter with seven no decisions. His 2.24 ERA would be leading the AL but he only has 84 innings pitched and needs 162 innings to qualify so with about 12 starts left he would need to pitch roughly seven innings a start the rest of the season to qualify.

Josh Beckett Loses Third Straight Game

As Angels Outslug The Red Sox 9-2

Josh Beckett 9-8 lost his third straight start and it was the second time he has lost to the Angels in the last eleven days. His other loss came at the hands of the Yankees. Joe Saunders 14-5 pitched the Angels to the 9-2 victory by joining Cliff Lee as the only AL pitchers with 14 wins.

Mark Teixeira was 0 for 4 and struck out twice in his Angels debut. Garret Anderson paced the Angels with a 4 for 5 game and hit his 11th homer of the season.

Rays Edge Blue Jays 3-2

Behind Pitching of Jackson

Edwin Jackson 7-7 pitched the Rays to a 3-2 win and enabled the Rays to stretch their AL East lead over the Red Sox to three games and the Yankees stayed at four games back of the Rays.

Carlos Pena hit his 18th homer of the season. Pena had 46 homers last season when he hit a homer every 10.7 at bats but this season is hitting a homer every 17.4 at bats.

Phillies Take Over First Place In NL East

Behind Hitting of Utley, Victorino

The Phillies took a half game lead over the Mets as they took over first place in the NL East. Chase Utley hit his 27th homer and Shane Victorino hit his 9th homer to lead the Phillies offense in their 8-5 win over the hapless Washington Nationals. Jamie Moyer 10-6 took the win which was the 240th win of his career. Moyer will be 46 in November.

Tigers Defeat Indians 14-12

In 13 Inning Slugfest

The Tigers pounded out 22 hits in their 14-12 win over the Indians but the Indians had 19 hits of their own. Curtis Granderson was 5 for 7 for the Tigers while Gary Sheffield was 4 for 7. Miguel Cabrera hit his 19th homer and drove in four runs to give him 79 for the season.

The Indians had two homer nights from Kelly Shoppach and Ben Francisco. Shoppach was 5 for 6 with his 10th and 11th homers of the season and also hit three doubles. Francisco hit his 9th and 10th homers of the season while having a 4 for 7 night at the plate. Grady Sizemore hit his 26th homer for the Indians.

There were six errors in the game with four of them being charged to the Indians. The two teams combined for 26 runs and 41 hits with 14 extra base hits. Cliff Lee failed to win his 15th game of the season after giving up 6 runs and 10 hits in five innings. Tigers pitchers struck out 15 and walked 11.

Around the Bases

The Athletics 4-3 loss in ten innings to the Royals gives them a 53-54 record. Despite being only one game under .500 they are in third place in the AL West and 14 games behind the Angels while the Dodgers are 54-53 and only a game behind the Diamondbacks in the NL West....Josh Hamilton hit his 25th homer and drove in his 104th run in the Rangers 4-3 win over the Mariners....Aaron Cook 14-6 became the second NL pitcher to win 14 games along with Brandon Webb.

Chipper Jones is hitting .369 which only 14 points higher than Albert Pujols who is hitting .355....Adam Dunn leads all major leaguers with 32 homers which is two more than Ryan Howard with 30 homers....Dan Uggla hit his 26th homer as the Marlins defeated the Mets 7-5 and moved to within a game and a half of the first place Phillies in the NL East. Uggla is hitting .186 against lefthanders which is surprising considering he is a righthanded batter. He made three errors in the All Star game but has only made seven errors this season in 457 total chances.

Edinson Volquez 13-4 pitched the Reds to a 9-5 win over the Astros. Volquez gave up five runs but only one of them was earned. Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 15th homer of the season and the 608th of his career leaving him needing one more homer to tie Sammy Sosa who has 609....NL West now has two teams over .500 as the Diamondbacks 55-52 and the Dodgers 54-53 both won yesterday.

Latest Trade Talk

MLB.com is reporting that Ken Griffey Jr. may be traded to the White Sox pending the approval of Griffey. To me it is a no brainer for Griffey since he would go from a next to last team to a division leader. The White Sox may bench Swisher so Griffey can play or they may include Swisher in a trade since he would not be a regular anyway.

There is still a chance that Manny Ramirez will wind up with the Marlins while Jeremy Hermida would wind up with the Pirates and Jason Bay would play for the Red Sox in a three way trade. The trade should happen in the next few hours before the deadline. Ramirez has worn out his welcome with the Red Sox brass with his recent comments criticizing the owner and the Red Sox front office. The Red Sox are in danger of slipping down the standings to third place and with Manny focusing on the front office when he should be focusing on winning baseball games it may be time to deal him even though it is very unlikely they will receive equal value in return.

The winner in the Pudge Rodriguez for Kyle Farnsworth trade may be Brandon Inge who has complained about the lack of playing time since being relegated to part time status. The Tigers will miss the signal calling ability of Rodriguez and his .295 batting average but his days of being a power hitter seem to be over. It will be interesting to see how Farnsworth is used in Detroit now that Todd Jones has lost his job as closer.

With less than six hours to the trading deadline there should be later news on television and online in the next few hours.

Baseball Notebook

Cubs Stretch Lead To Three Games After Defeating Brewers 7-1

Carlos Zambrano 12-4 showed again why he is a money pitcher by defeating the Brewers and Ben Sheets 10-4 by a 7-1 score. It was ironic that Zambrano pitched his best game of the season and had a season high nine strikeouts while Sheets pitched his worst game of the season in a crucial game for both teams. Despite the firepower on both teams nobody homered in the game. After having a 1-2 record with a 5.68 ERA in June Zambrano has a 4-1 record with a 1.78 ERA in July. He has allowed only two homers over his last six starts. As large as the win was for the Cubs Lou Piniella said the Cubs still have to play all of August and September. If the Cubs win the last two games of the series then the Cubs would be five games ahead of the Brewers going into August. The worst case scenario now is that they would have the same one game lead they had at the start of the series. Tonight there should be another good matchup with Ryan Dempster 11-4 starting against Manny Parra 9-3.

Mets Top Marlins 4-1 Behind Delgado Homer

Carlos Delgado hit his 23rd homer to give the Mets two insurance runs in the eighth inning as the Mets held on to a slim half game lead in the NL East. Delgado ended the month of June hitting .228 but after hitting .372 in July his average stands at .263. His slugging percentage in June was .476 but in July he is slugging at a torrid .745 mark. Oliver Perez 7-6 took the win while Scott Olsen 6-6 took the loss for the Marlins.

Cardinals Defeat Braves 8-3:
Have Outscored Braves 20-6

The Cardinals can thank the schedulemakers for scheduling a four game series with the Braves when the Braves are reeling from the loss of Tim Hudson for the season. And that is only the beginning with Chipper Jones on the disabled list and Brian McCann is recovering from a concussion. To top it off they traded one of the the best power hitters in baseball in Mark Teixeira to the Angels for Casey Kotchman and minor leaguer RHP Steve Marek.

Back to last night's game...Todd Wellemeyer and Jorge Campillo both pitched well but the bullpen of the Braves was the difference when Rafael Soriano allowed a run in the eighth and Mike Gonzalez pitching in a non save situation since the Braves have not even had a save situation since their July 18th game with the Nationals walked three in 2/3 of an inning as the Cardinals scored five times in the top of the ninth. The win kept the Cardinals four games back of the Cubs and they are only one game behind the second place Brewers. The Cardinals have outscored the Braves 20-6 in the first two games of the series as they defeated the Braves 8-3 in Atlanta. Tonight the Cardinals starter will be Chris Carpenter who hasn't started a game since Opening Day of the 2007 season. If Carpenter can pitch as well as he has in the past he could boost the chances of the Cardinals winning the NL Central title. Jair Jurjjens 10-5 will start for the Braves.

Lackey Takes No-Hitter Into the Ninth
But Pedroia Breaks It Up In 6-2 Angels Win

John Lackey 9-2 was two outs from a no-hitter when Dustin Pedroia singled to end his hope of baseball immortality. Clay Buchholz 2-6 took the loss for the Red Sox.Since returning from the disabled list on July 11th he has had a 0-3 record and a no decision game and an ERA of 6.75. He hasn't won since May 2nd.

With the addition of Mark Teixeira their closer Francisco Rodriguez may find himself in fewer save situations since Teixeira has more homers and runs batted in than any player on the roster. Teixeira has 24 more RBI's than Casey Kotchman, Torri Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero who are leading the team with 54 runs batted in.

Twins Edge White Sox 7-6
After White Sox Blow 4-0 Lead

The White Sox were leading the Twins 4-0 after scoring a run in the top of the fifth but the Twins came back with five runs of their own in the bottom of the frame to take a 5-4 lead and eventually won the game 7-6.Clayton Richard took the loss for the White Sox and despite striking out ten batters in 8 2/3 innings he has given up 10 runs and 14 hits and his ERA is 9.35. I wouldn't be surprised to see Richard sent back down after two horrific starts unless the White Sox don't have another pitcher ready to be called up.The White Sox loss enabled the Twins to move to a half game back of the White Sox.

Around the Bases

The Yankees still need a reliable starter in the back of their rotation. Darrell Rasner 5-8 proved he is not the answer after being 3-1 in May with a 1.80 ERA. Since then he has been 2-7 with a 1-5 record in June and a 6.47 ERA and a 1-2 record in June with a 6.23 ERA. His loss last night pushed the Yankees to four games back of the AL East leading Rays....Brett Myers 4-9 pitched his best game of the season in the 2-1 win for the Phillies over the last place Nationals in the NL East. He will get a much tougher test in his next start when he pitches against the Cardinals next Sunday.

Ichiro Suzuki Notches 3000th Professional Hit

Ichiro Suzuki now has 3000 hits in professional baseball after getting his 1,722nd hit of his major league career to go with his 1,278 hits in Japan. He needs 69 hits to reach 200 hits for the eighth straight season with two days left in July. His .298 average this season is the lowest of his career with the previous low being .303 in 2005. However with his history he may get hot and hit well over .300 by the end of the season.

His .375 slugging percentage also is a career low for Suzuki. His previous low was in 2006 when he slugged at a .416 mark. He needs 1277 hits to reach 3000 hits in the majors and he won't be 35 till after the season is over.

Baseball Notebook

Cubs Extend Lead To Two Games
Over The Brewers, Cardinals Win

C.C. Sabathia didn't have his best stuff since he only struck out three batters in his 6-4 loss to the Cubs. It was the fewest strikeouts in his five starts for the Brewers and the first time he failed to win since joining the Brewers. The Cubs win extended their NL Central lead to two games over the Brewers.

Chad Gaudin 7-4 took the win for the Cubs for the second day in a row after winning Sunday's game but lost Saturday to the Marlins so has received the decision in the last three Cubs games.

Derrek Lee drove in the tie breaking run in the top of the ninth to give the Cubs the lead and the Cubs held on to win 6-4. Alfonso Soriano hit his 17th homer for the Cubs and seems to be in the early stages of another of his hot streaks.

The game tonight will feature the aces of both teams with Carlos Zambrano 11-4 facing Ben Sheets 10-3.

Meanwhile in Atlanta the Cardinals clobbered the Braves by a 12-3 score to stay four games back of the Cubs. The Braves loss was not unexpected considering they started a pitcher in Charlie Morton 2-4 with a 6.00 ERA and by the time the smoke had cleared Morton exited the mound with a 7.26 ERA.

The Braves who placed Chipper Jones and Tim Hudson on the disabled list Monday may now trade Mark Texeira since there is little chance of them winning with Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Hudson on the disabled list. Ironically Mike Hampton is the only healthy pitcher of the top four starters they were counting on this season.

Braden Looper 10-8 took the win for the Cardinals. Albert Pujols drove in three runs for the Cardinals giving him 63 for the season. His time on the disabled list may prevent him from having 100 RBI's for the first time in his career unless he can get really hot over the last two months. He is third on the team in homers and runs batted in which shows that the Cardinals are getting a lot of offensive help from players like Ryan Ludwick, Troy Glaus and Rick Ankiel. He is playing his usual stellar defense with only three errors in his first 90 games.

Mets Blow 3-2 Lead in Ninth
As Marlins Score Five Times

The Mets took a 3-2 lead in the top of the ninth but the bullpen gave up five runs in the bottom of the frame to give the Marlins a 7-3 victory over the Mets. The Marlins win moved them to within a game of the first place Mets but they are still a half game behind the second place Phillies.

Top Three AL East Teams Lose

The Rays, Red Sox and Yankees all lost yesterday as the Blue Jays defeated the Rays 3-1, the Angels defeated the Red Sox 7-5 as Francisco Rodriguez recorded his 44th save of the season and needs 13 more saves to tie Bobby Thigpen for the most saves in a season. Sadly for Thigpen he had only 53 more saves total over the next five seasons before retiring at the age of 30. Still it is a testament to his record that it has stood for 18 seasons.

The Orioles humiliated the Yankees by a 13-4 score with 17 hits which included four homers and Adam Jones drove in five runs in the game with a triple and a grand slam homer. The only bright spot for the Yankees was the newly acquired Xavier Nady who hit his 14th homer and threw Brian Roberts out at home.

Don't count the Blue Jays out of the AL East race yet. They are only 7 1/2 games out and have won seven of their last eight games.

All Five AL Central Teams 5-5
In Their Last Ten Games

No team in the AL Central is really making a move since all five teams in the division are 5-5 in their last ten games. The Twins shutout the White Sox last night by a 7-0 score. The White Sox could only manage six singles against Kevin Slowey 7-7 who took the complete game win while Mark Buehrle 8-9 took the loss for the White Sox. The last time a White Sox starter besides John Danks and Mark Buehrle won a game was when Gavin Floyd defeated the Athletics on July 5th and we are only three days from the month of August.

Clayton Richard 0-0 who incidentally was born in my birthplace of Lafayette, Indiana for what that is worth will start today against Glen Perkins 7-3. Richard didn't receive the decision in his major league debut but did strike out seven in four innings despite leaving the game with a 9.00 ERA. A White Sox win would stretch their lead over the Twins to two and a half games but a loss would move the Twins to within a half game of the White Sox.

Greg Maddux Wins First Game
Since May 10th In Padres Win

Greg Maddux 4-8 defeated the Diamondbacks 8-5 to record his first win since May 10th. Maddux could win less than 13 games for the first time since 1987 when he was 6-14 for the Cubs. During his 15 win streak he never had a 4.00 ERA or higher but since 2003 he has had an ERA of 4.00 or higher five times with the only sub .4.00 ERA coming in the 2006 season while with the Dodgers after being traded during the season from the Cubs and he posted a 3.30 ERA with the Dodgers that year.

Baseball Notebook

Note: Due to writing the Goose Gossage article and this being my wife's 42nd birthday I am writing a shorter than usual roundup of yesterday's games so I can spend more time with my wife on this special day.

Cubs Win Crucial Game By Winning
While Cardinals and Brewers Lose

In baseball it is not only important to win but to win on days when the closest teams to your team lose and the Cubs did just that yesterday by coming from behind to beat the Marlins 9-6 after trailing 5-0 in the third inning on the same day the Brewers and Cardinals lost their games. Jeff Samardzija who had blown the save in the Marlins 3-2 win on Friday recorded the save yesterday and Chad Gaudin 6-4 who had lost on Saturday in relief came back Sunday to notch the win.

The bad Jason Marquis showed up yesterday for the Cubs. After pitching three quality starts in a row Marquis gave up 6 runs and 9 hits in 6 innings. With his next start not coming till August he finished the month of July winless after winning his first four starts in June and hasn't won since June 21st despite pitching. On July 11th he pitched seven scoreless innings against the Giants and didn't receive the decision so he has pitched some excellent games. Still he is not winning in the second half and that means he may not win a playoff spot on the roster for the third year in a row.

White Sox Can't Complete Sweep
Over Detroit Tigers in 6-4 Loss

Javier Vasquez 7-9 continues to struggle and hasn't won since winning on June 17th against the Pirates. The White Sox need to get better pitching from Vasquez after he gave up 6 runs and 11 hits in the 6-4 loss to the Tigers. It is time for Vaszquez and Gavin Floyd to start winning in the second half since neither has posted a win yet since the All Star break. The loss prevented the White Sox from sweeping the Tigers in the Tigers home park.

Braves Bullpen Implodes
On Consecutive Days

The Braves blew a lead on Sunday for the second consecutive day as they were leading 5-0 in the fourth inning but wound up losing to the Phillies 12-10. On Saturday the Braves had a 9-3 lead in the fourth inning but then gave up seven runs in the fifth inning to the Phillies for a 10-9 loss.

Mike Hampton did allow 6 runs and 8 hits in 4 innings on Saturday but the bullpen made things worse by allowing four more runs to score in the loss. Meanwhile the Phillies bullpen allowed no runs and four hits in 5 1/3 innings. I thought it was an optical illusion to see Hampton on the mound for the first time since 2005 and by the time he left the mound he had an ERA of 13.50. He made $44 million from 2005 to 2007 and is making $15 million this season. So in three seasons and one start this season he will have made a total of $59 million for 5 wins by the end of the season unless he wins more games. Compare these numbers to the money made by Hall of Famer Goose Gossage in his last major league season Baseball-reference.com does not list what his salary was in his last season but in the next to last season he made $325,000 which is $65,000 less than a rookie who plays all season this year.

Yesterday the Braves bullpen pitched even worse as they pitched 6 1/3 innings after Jorge Campillo left the game due to a lengthy rain delay. They allowed 12 runs to cross the plate and allowed 12 hits including five home runs.

With the Braves probably losing Brian McCann after a home plate collision with Shane Victorino for an undetermined length of time it is imperative for the Braves to find another backup catcher since Corky Miller is too much of an offensive liability to catch everyday. Six Braves pitchers are hitting for a higher average than Miller who is hitting .102 with5 hits in 49 at bats. Miller is in his eighth major league season and has batted only 324 times with a .182 lifetime average and one stolen base. The loss of McCann along with Chipper Jones being out of lineup will make it easier for opposing pitchers to pitch to Mark Texeira and I doubt he will get many good pitches to hit till either Jones or McCann or both return to the lineup.

The chances of the Braves trading Texeira now have been lessened since without him in the lineup the Braves have a huge dropoff to 9 homers by Kelly Johnson and Jeff Francoeur.

The Braves have had few homers from their outfielders lately. Mark Kotsay has not homered since May 20th. Francoeur has only homered twice since June 2nd. Gregor Blanco hit his only homer of the season on May 27th. The three regular outfielders have a total of 14 homers this season compared to the White Sox who have 65 combined home runs from Carlos Quentin, Jermaine Dye and Nick Swisher.

Around the Bases

Andy Sonnanstine 10-6 lost his third straight start since his last win on July 5th against the Royals....Randy Johnson 8-7 won his 292nd game of his career and won his fourth consecutive start after losing the six previous starts in a row. Johnson seems to want to notch his 300th win this season but time is running out on him with about 12 starts left in the season and needing 8 wins. Johnson only struck out two in his 7-2 win against the Giants.

Rich Harden has been very effective since joining the Cubs but only has a loss to show for it. In his three starts he has pitched 17 innings and allowed only two runs and eight hits and has struck out 30 for a microscopic 1.04 ERA. In his first start against the Giants he allowed no runs in 5 innings while striking out ten. In his second start Harden pitched seven scoreless innings and again struck out ten but the Cubs lost 2-0 to the Diamondbacks. Then last Saturday he pitched five innings and struck out ten for the third time in three starts while allowing one run and two hits.

I can't see Sidney Ponson 6-2 finishing the season with the Yankees as part of their starting rotation. Yesterday he allowed 7 runs and 10 hits in 4 innings yesterday in the 9-2 loss to the Red Sox. Since joining the Yankees hitters are hitting .352 against him. Jon Lester 9-3 has not lost since May 25th and is 20-5 in his career with the win yesterday.

Johan Santana 9-7 has been 2-0 in July after a 1-4 record in June....Brad Ziegler has been phenomenal coming out of the Athletics bullpen with 1-0 record and a perfect 0.00 ERA after pitching in 23 games encompassing 27 innings since making his major league debut on May 31st. He set a major league record by passing the previous record of 25 scoreless innings to start a career set in 1907 by George McQuillan of the Phillies.

Chris Davis is continuing his torrid hitting for the Rangers. He is fourth on the Rangers in homers with 10 despite batting only 93 times. He has 10 homers and 20 runs batted in. Jay Bruce started off with a bang for the Reds but in 208 at bats with 7 homers and 24 RBI's by Bruce he has been passed up by Davis in the power department with Davis having batted 115 fewer times. Davis is slugging .699 now with Bruce cooling off to a .413 slugging percentage. He is 5th in the majors in rookie home runs despite not making his major league debut till June 26th. His .699 slugging percentage leads all major league rookies and his 1.032 OPS also leads all major league rookies.

Baseball Notebook

Zambrano Pitches, Hits Cubs
To 6-3 Victory Over The Marlins

Carlos Zambrano 11-4 pitched and hit the Cubs to a 6-3 win over the Marlins. Zambrano was 1 for 2 and is now hitting .356 for the season and is slugging an amazing .542. Zambrano has a 2.30 ERA in July after having a 5.68 ERA in June. The Cubs had homers from two unlikely sources in Ronny Cedeno and Henry Blanco who both hit their second homers of the season.

Oliver Perez Fans 12
In 3-1 Defeat of Phillies

Oliver Perez struck out 12 batters while walking one but wasn't around long enough to get the decision as the Mets defeated the Phillies 3-1 which gave them a one game lead over the Phillies in the NL East. Perez has five straight quality starts but only has one win to show for it. In those five starts he has lowered his ERA from 5.29 to 4.15.

Cain Shuts Out Nationals 1-0

Matt Cain 6-8 pitched a complete game win as he pitched a four hitter against the Nationals. Tim Redding 7-5 also pitched a complete game but lost when Dave Roberts singled in the winning run in the eighth inning.

Brewers Edge Cardinals 4-3

Red hot Ryan Braun hit a two run homer in the top of the ninth inning to give the Brewers a 4-3 win over the Cardinals. The homer was the 26th of the season and Braun was 4 for 4 a day after going 4 for 5.

Blue Jays Win Twice
Against the Orioles

The Blue Jays won twice yesterday against the Orioles with 5-1 and 7-1 wins over the Orioles. A.J. Burnett 11-9 took the win in the completion of a suspended game in the first game while Roy Halladay 12-7 won the second game.

The two wins opened up a two and a half game lead for the Blue Jays over the last place Orioles in the AL East.

Royals Top Rays 4-2

Gil Meche 8-9 defeated the Rays 4-2 as Meche outpitched Matt Garza 8-6. The Rays were 55-32 on July 6th but now have a 59-42 record with a 4-10 record in that time span.

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