Beaneball

The highlights from the box scores for the games of 4/18 are these.

• Cleveland was all over Baltimore, 15-1. Jason Johnson threw seven innings one one-run ball despite striking out just two while Grady Sizemore hit his first homer of the year. Brian Roberts had four of the Orioles' seven hits in the game and also stole two bases.
• Boston beat the Devil Rays 7-4. Tampa scored two each in the seventh and eighth, but the Red Sox added three in the bottom half of each inning. Matt Clement had a solid start, allowing three runs in seven innings, but saw the win vultured by Mike Timlin. Jon Papelbon closed things for his seventh save of the young season, walking two and giving up a hit, but also striking out two. Manny Ramirez hit his firsth double of the year, Wily Mo Pena walked twice, and Travis Lee grabbed himself three free passes. My essay on Ty Wigginton could have waited until this post, since he hit his sixth homer of the year in this game.
• Toronto sent the Yankees back below .500 with a 10-5 win. Randy Johnson gave up seven runs in just 3 1/3 innings while striking out just two and Gustavo Chacin just hung on long enough to pick up his third win of the year despite giving up five runs in six innings. Troy Glaus hit a couple of homers for Toronto and Alex Rios hit his fifth bomb of the season as well.
• Chicago beat the Royals again, this time 4-1, behind a 6 1/3 inning, one-run start from Jon Garland. Scott Podsednik stole a couple of bases, and none of Royal starter Jeremy Affeldt's three runs was earned. Angel Berroa made his fourth error of the year.
• The Angels beat the Twins 8-2. Carlos Silva actually pitched 8 2/3 innings for the Twins and was charged with all eight runs. It's not every day you see a line like that. Kelvim Escobar struck out ten Twins in 6 2/3 innings, and Chone Figgins and Orland Cabrera combined to go 6-10 with a double and a homer out of the #1-2 spots.
• Texas beat Seattle 7-4, sending Felix Hernandez home still in search of his first win of the year despite striking out nine Rangers in five innings. The problem was the two two-run homers he gave up in the early innings. John Koronka survived a four-walk day to pick up his second win of the year for the Rangers. Ichiro! stole his sixth base of the year, and Adrian Beltre added his fifth pilfery.
• The Nationals walked all over the Phillies, 10-3, capped by a ninth-inning grand slam by Ryan Church, who's wreaking havoc after being called up from AAA. Pat Burrell added his sixth homer of the year for the Phillies.
• Pittsburgh beat St. Louis 12-4 despite Albert Pujols's tenth homer of the year. That's absolutely preposterous. Ten? It's April 19th, Al! Ease up, buddy! Jeff Suppan spoiled the party by giving up eight runs in just two innings. Craig Wilson doubled thrice, and Jason Bay singled, doubled, and walked three times for the Pirates.
• Florida beat the Reds 12-6 despite a four-inning, six-run, five-walk start from Jason Vargas. Hanley Ramirez hit the first two homers of his major-league career, including one leading off the game. Congratulations, Hanley! Ryan Freel walked three times and stole his seventh and eighth bases of the year for the Reds.
• The Braves cooled the Mets a little with a 7-1 win. Kyle Davies threw the complete game for Atlanta, the first such of his young career. Andruw Jones and Adam LaRoche combined for a 6-9 line with three homers and a double. They went back-to-back against Victor Zambrano in the third inning. Jones is up to seven bombs on the year, following up on his coming-out party last year.
• The Astros took a 9-2 lead over the Brewers after three innings, then held on to win 13-12 as Milwaukee scored ten runs over the last three innings. Despite the wildness, the Astros never actually trailed after the second inning, so Roy Oswalt picked up his third win of the year and Doug Davis, who gave up all nine runs in 2 2/3 innings, took the loss. Morgan Ensberg had two bombs for Houston and Carlos Lee his his seventh and eighth for the Brewers, the second coming against Brad Lidge. Prince Fielder had three hits, including his second homer of the year, for Milwaukee. Ensberg and Fielder also made errors in the game: it was Ensberg's fifth of the year, Fielder's first.
• Colorado continues to play bizarro, beating San Diego 3-2 in eleven innings at home. Mike Piazza had two doubles for the Padres, and Todd Helton hit his ninth two-bagger of the year for the Rockies.
• Arizona beat San Francisco 7-4 as the teams combined for eight runs in the sixth inning. Russ Ortiz lasted just 2 1/3 innings for the D'Backs, but didn't allow a run, so I smell injury. There were five double plays in the game, four turned by Arizona, and three caught-stealings. Barry Bonds walked twice and hit his third double of the year. Jeff DaVanon, who's off to a good start, added three more singles for the Diamondbacks.
• The Dodgers edged the Cubs 2-1 with a run in the bottom of the ninth against Will Ohman. Bill Mueller didn't record an official at-bat, walking four times (once intentional). Derrek Lee stole his fourth bag of the year for the Cubs, and Juan Pierre swiped his fifth.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 21:39 | |

The highlights from the box scores for the games of 4/17 are these.

• Boston beat Seattle again, this time 7-6 on a walkoff homer by Mark Loretta, of all people. David Ortiz hit two homers, giving him six for the year, earlier in the game. Kevin Youkilis had two singles and a walk in the leadoff hole. Lenny DiNardo, who I didn't even know was a starter, threw five innings for Boston.
• Cleveland walloped Detroit 10-2 on the strength of a six-run third inning. The 5-8 hitters for the Indians went 10-17 with two walks and three doubles, and the number nine hitter, Casey Blake, contributed a homer. Chris Shelton did hit his ninth homer of the season for Detroit and also walked once, but the Tigers managed just three other hits and two other walks. Alexis Gomez, who looks like a randomly generated AAA player from one of my PlayStation games, DH'd for the Tigers, and for some reason, was batting fifth, ahead of Shelton. That's a travesty, especially since Carlos Guillen also hits behind Shelton. There is absolutely no reason why a guy whose best minor-league slugging percentage was .466, and that season was four years ago, should be hitting in front of the major-league home run leader. None. Fire Jim Leyland!
• The Orioles became my latest favorite team by beating the Angels 4-2. Baltimore scored two runs in each of the first two innings and just held on from there. Daniel Cabrera gave up just an unearned run in seven innings, striking out six and Chris Ray finished things for his fifth save of the year. Jeff Weaver pitched fine, and only two of the four runs were earned, as the other two were helped across by Orlando Cabrera's fourth error of the year. Garrett Anderson had three hits for Anaheim, and for some reason, Maicer Itzuris was DHing. Really? What happened to Juan Rivera?
• Chicago shut out the Royals 9-0 and Kansas City managed just one hit and one walk against Jose Contreras and two relievers. John Buck compounded the problem by getting caught stealing. Paul Konerko did add his fifth homer of the year, and Joe Mays was bad, giving up eight runs (six earned) in 5 1/3 innings.
• The Cardinals scored two in the top of the first on Albert Pujols's ninth homer of the year (the man just never stops), then held on for a 2-1 win over the Pirates. Jasons Marquis and Isringhausen pitched for St. Louis, with the latter getting his fourth save of the year and the former improving his record to 3-0. Pujols also added his second double of the year.
• The Mets picked up their tenth win of the year behind Pedro Martinez's third. Andruw Jones blasted a solo homer against The Great Curled One, but Martinez struck out eight en route to a 6 2/3-inning, three-run performance. Xavier Nady had three hits, including his fourth homer, and Carlos Delgado added his fifth bomb of the year. Pete Orr was hitting leadoff for the Braves, which is odd because Marcus Giles was in the lineup.
• Cincinnati beat the Marlins 9-1 behind a good seven-inning, no-run game from Brandon Claussen, who picked up his first win of the year. Scuffy Moehler lost his third for the Marlins, giving up eight runs in five innings. One of those was unearned, helped by Hanley Ramirez's fourth error of the year. Ramirez continued to hit, though, with two singles and a walk in the game. Adam Dunn hit his eighth homer of the year and walked twice. The Reds, in fact, had six doubles and two homers, but just four singles. That's a lot of solid contact.
• Houston beat the Brewers 8-7 with five runs in the bottom of the seventh. Matt Wise gave up all five runs for Milwaukee, and accordingly took the loss. Brad Lidge picked up his fourth save, and there were five homers in the game, including Carlos Lee's sixth of the season. Preston Wilson tried mightily, but he struck out five times in the game, leaving eight men on base. That takes real effort.
• San Diego beat Colorado as Chris Young limited the Rockies to two runs in seven innings in Denver. Young also added a double off of Jeff Francis, his second two-bagger of the year. That's impressive for a guy with a strike zone the size of a Sunset Cliffs breaker. Young's having a year that Texas might prefer to the (non-)season that Adam Eaton is suffering through right now. Congratulations to Josh Barfield on his first major-league homer. Does it count if it comes in Colorado?
• San Francisco won a wild one, 10-9, by scoring three times over the last two innings against Luis Vizcaino and Jose Valverde. Barry Bonds walked a couple of times, and Tim Worrell picked up his sixth save of the year. Otherwise, it was a pretty routine slugfest.
• Chicago beat the Dodgers 4-1 behind a vintage Greg Maddux start: eight innings, three hits, one run, no walks, six strikeouts, 87 pitches. He even added an RBI single, since, donchaknow, chicks dig the long ball.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 21:38 | |

The highlights from the box scores on April 16th are these.

• A couple of power-house offensive teams, the Indians and Tigers, played to a 1-0 standstill, the only run coming on (of course) a Chris Shelton homer, his eighth of the year. Mike Maroth threw seven shutout innings for Detroit, lowering his ERA to 0.93 for the year. Aaron Boone had two of the Indians' four hits.
• The Devil Rays moved over .500 with a 9-5 win over the Royals, powered by Johnny Gomes and Ty Wigginton, who each hit their fifth homers of the year. This is remarkable for Wigginton, because it pretty much looked like his career was over. After a poor year with the stick in full-time play with the Mets in 2003, he was traded (well down the ladder) to Pittsburgh midway through 2004. He was slugging .487 when he was traded, but managed just a .341 SLG thereafter. Finally, he got just 170 PA's last year with the Pirates, though he did slug .465. If you're not getting 200 PA's in a year for the Pirates and you sign with the Devil Rays, you're basically one step from a professional surfing career. Instead he's had a great 50-PA start to the year, cementing the kind of season that looks good even if he goes into the tank from here on out (such is the power of the hot start - it's hard to notice the declining slugging percentage). Steve Stemle gave up six runs in 2 1/3 innings of relief for the Royals, raising his ERA to 15.00. At least by throwing 54 pitches, he made himself unavailable for a day or two. That's helpful.
• Anaheim even its record with a 9-3 win over the Orioles. Vlad Guerrero hit a couple of homers and stole a base for the Angels. Chone Figgins also homered and stole a base. The Angels actually gave up their DH in the game. Tim Salmon started at that spot, then was pinch-run for by Juan Rivera. Rivera later moved to right field while starter John Lackey was still in the game, putting Lackey in Guerrero's #3 spot. Francisco Rodriguez and Brendan Donnelly followed Lackey in the three-hole, but nobody got an at-bat. It's odd to see that Rodriguez started the ninth with the Angels up 9-2. It's odder that after giving up one run, he was pulled in favor of Donnelly. Both the giving up of the DH and the removal of Rodriguez smell like injury. The recap says that Salmon did indeed leave with an injury, but that only explains Rivera coming in for him, not why Rivera later moved to right. Rodriguez also hurt himself, leaving with a hamstring cramp. The Salmon injury isn't huge for the Angels. Juan Rivera would probably hit just as well in that spot (though obviously it costs them a valuable pinch-hitter). The Rodriguez injury is more problematic, but the Angels have to be happy that if he's going to be leaving games in pain, it's due to his legs, not his right arm.
• The Red Sox beat the Mariners 3-2 behind Josh Beckett's third win of the year. Beckett allowed two runs (one earned) in seven innings. Kevin Youkilis was back where he belongs, in the leadoff spot, though he went 0-3 with a walk. Jason Varitek actually stole a base for the Sox. Adrian Beltre contributed two errors for the Mariners.
• The White Sox beat the Blue Jays 6-4 in a 4 1/2 inning game. Toronto scored four runs in the top of the fifth, but their rally was stopped, so Chicago didn't have to bat in the bottom half. Josh Towers gave up five runs in two innings to take his third loss of the year for Toronto. Scott Podsednik finally stole his first base of the year, and Jim Thome contributed his seventh homer.
• The Yankees beat the Twins 9-3, evening both teams' records at 6-6. The Yankees hit four homers, including two by Jason Giambi, lost one runner to a caught-stealing (Robinson Cano, who also homered), grounded into two double plays (both by Derek Jeter), and had two errors (including one by first-base caddy Andy Phillips, who went 0-0 with a walk). The MVP, though, was Chien-Ming Wang who allowed two runs (one earned) in seven innings while walking none and striking out eight. A ground-ball pitcher with strikeouts is one almost destined for success in this league. Wang was an adequate strikeout pitcher in the minors, winding up with 7.05 per nine in his five years on the farm.
• San Diego beat Atlanta 4-3 by getting to the Brave bullpen. John Thomson threw six innings of shutout, one-hit ball, walking none and striking out six. He left with a 3-0 lead, but saw Kenny Ray cough it up in the seventh without even recording an out. Mike Remlinger gave up the go-ahead run in the eighth, and Trevor Hoffman finished things for the Padres in the ninth. Woody Williams struck out nine Braves in his six innings for the Padres.
• The Nats beat the Marlins 7-5 by scoring three in the top of the ninth against Matt Herges. Ryan Church hit two bombs for Washington, including a two-run shot in the ninth, and also stole his first base of the year. Chris Aguila has been starting in right for the Marlins, and he'll continue to do so for a little while longer, as the Fish had to put Jeremy Hermida on the DL with a hip problem. That's unfortunate for me because it removes a player I like to look for in the box scores. Aguila's a 27-year old out of a Reno high school. He was a mediocre minor-league hitter until breaking out in Portland (AA) with a .294/.369/.420 mark. The lack of power was worrisome, but it'd come: he hit .320/.384/.499 in Carolina (also AA) the next year, then .312/.380/.494 in Albuquerque (AAA) in 2004. He split 2005 between Florida and New Mexico, hitting .355/.412/.630 in about 160 PA's in AAA. His numbers are obviously very batting-average driven, but a .180 ISO isn't too bad, even if his walk rate doesn't stun anyone.
• The Mets won again, beating the Brewers 9-3. It was a good game until New York scored five in the bottom of the eighth to put things away. Jorge De La Rosa was the main culprit, giving up a three-run homer to Carlos Delgado. That was the only hit he gave up, but that's enough when you walk three, and then turn things over to Jared Fernandez, who was all too willing to let an inherited runner score. Jose Reyes stole his fifth base of the year and Prince Fielder, who walked three times in the game, likely the first of many three-walk games in his career, embarassed Aaron Heilman and Paul Lo Duca with his first major-league steal. Ben Sheets, true to form, struck out six and walked no Mets. Brian Bannister, auditioning to get sent back to AAA, walked five in his five innings. Each allowed six hits, and Sheets actually allowed one fewer extra-base hit, but somehow Sheets gave up four runs while Bannister allowed just one. Peripherals aren't everything within a single game, I guess.
• The Cubs beat the Pirates 7-3 with a couple of big innings, a three-run first and a four-run sixth. Each inning was helped along by a two-run homer, the first by Todd Walker, the second by Aramis Ramirez. Juan Pierre stole his fourth base of the year, and Craig Wilson, continuing to put the Pirates to shame for picking up Sean Casey, hit his sixth homer.
• The Cardinals edged Cincinnati 8-7 on a two-run homer by Albert Pujols in the bottom of the ninth. It was Pujols's third homer of the game, his eighth of the season, and his 14th and 15th RBI (in the Cardinals' twelfth game). Jason Marquis (a pitcher, as you'll recall) had the pinch-single in the ninth to set up Pujols's blast. Adam Dunn hit his seventh homer of the year for the Reds, and even Quinton McCracken contributed with a pinch-hit homer in the eighth. That three-run eighth inning for the Reds put them up 7-6.
• The Astros beat the Diamondbacks with a seven-run sixth inning, powered by a Morgan Ensberg three-run homer. El Duque struck out eight in 5 2/3 innings for Arizona, but also walked four, and took his second loss of the year. The Astros needed seven pitchers to nail down the Snakes. Brad Ausmus made himself useful with a three-walk day.
• The Dodgers got shut out by the Giants, 2-0. Brad Hennessey and three relievers did the job for San Francisco despite walking a combined five while striking out just three. They managed to give up just three hits, though, which is what you call defensive efficiency. Tim Worrell (I may have called him Todd in an earlier post) earned his fifth save of the year. Rafael Furcal and JD Drew each walked a couple of times for Los Angeles.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 21:36 | |

The A's lost a game they should have won last night. I don't think you'll see the Oakland bullpen, much less Huston Street, blow too many late-game two-run leads this year, so I don't think we should be too morose about it. We accept it, we find some silver lining, and we move on. There's not a lot to analyze about a loss when your closer gives up four runs and isn't even allowed to finish the inning (Joe Kennedy cleaned up another mess by throwing one pitch for the last out of the ninth). Did I mention silver linings? How about Dan Haren getting on track with eight innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts and one walk. The only run came on a homer in the eighth that Milton Bradley nearly saved. I wonder whether Macha would have given Haren a shot at the shutout had Bradley come up with that catch. Haren finished with exactly 100 pitches and, though you can't say for sure whether the A's would have scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth had the Rangers not tied the game in the top half (we may treat events as independent, but any time you're dealing with humans and their frail psyches, you can't really make assumptions like that), he could have had a three-run lead to play with. Of course, maybe if Haren's in there, the Rangers score even more. The other huge bright spot was Eric Chavez continuing his great early hitting, going 4-4 with two doubles. His line for the year is .313/.358/.750, which, true, isn't quite Chris Shelton, but it's not exactly Dan Johnson either. What kept the offense from scoring more than one run against Kameron Loe was Frank Thomas, Milton Bradley, Jay Payton, Jason Kendall, and Marco Scutaro combining for a 1-15 line, with the only hit being Jason Kendall's two-out single in the ninth (which almost turned into a rally, but fell short - duh). Marco Scutaro's a halfway decent player to have as a backup, but he's not someone who should be playing this often over Mark Ellis. Ken Macha is far too big a believer in the "hot hand" for my tastes. Giving Ellis all of 36 at-bats to decide that he's not hot enough to be in the lineup regularly is foolhardy: we know Ellis is going to outhit to Scutaro, and we know it'll be by a substantial margin. Let's not make things more complicated than we have to, Kenny. As always, maybe Macha knows something I can't see from the outside: maybe Ellis is pressing and his swing mechanics are getting a little out of whack, and it'd be better in the long-run (short term long-run, as in like over the next month or two) if he sat for a few games. But I don't trust any major league manager that much. I'm not ready to give him that much credit.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 21:02 | |

Last post of the day, as we get to the games of Saturday, 4/15.

• Travis Hafner won the individual battle with Chris Shelton by going 2-4 with a double and his seventh homer of the year while Shelton went 0-4 with a double play. Fausto Carmona made his major-league debut for the Indians, going six innings and allowing just one run, getting the win in the process. Carmona's a 6'4" Dominican righty who spent a half season at AAA Buffalo last year. His numbers kind of strike you as the opposite of the Dominican pitcher stereotype: his strikeout rate is underwhelming (5.64), but his walk rate is very good (1.61), and his homer rate excellent (0.65). Even low-walk, low-homer righties need to strike people out sometimes, so the worry will be whether Carmona's strikeout rate will stay steady in the majors or whether it will drop to truly unacceptable levels. For comparison, Oakland's own version of Carmona, Joe Blanton, struck out 8.33 men per nine innings in his minor-league career with very similar walk and homer numbers.
• The Mariners and Red Sox had another pitchers' duel as Joel Pineiro, JJ Putz, and Eddie Guardado combined to shut out Boston. Tim Wakefield threw a complete game on the other side, with one of his three runs allowed coming unearned as a result of a passed ball by Josh Bard (who had two such on the night - he's clearly still working on that whole knuckleball thing). Wily Mo got another start in right for the Sox and came through with his third double of the year. He may outhit Bronson Arroyo yet. Adam Stern hit leadoff for the Sox instead of Kevin Youkilis, and Boston paid the price: both players went 0-4, and Stern struck out three times. Don't mess with success.
• Mark Buehrle survived a two-run homer by Toronto's Alex Rios to lead Chicago to a 4-2 win. Paul Konerko provided all the offense with a couple of two-run homers of his own, his third and fourth of the year.
• Baltimore beat the Angels again, but Anaheimians have to be grateful that Bartolo Colon came out better: seven innings, three runs, one earned. Erik Bedard was just better, going eight innings with just two runs, which earned him his third win of the year. Tim Salmon, whose subscription of AARP Magazine hasn't been cancelled yet, managed a triple, his first since 2003.
• Minnesota beat the Yankees 6-5 by scoring two runs on a Justin Morneau single in the ninth. Because of the inning and the score, I don't have to mention who was pitching for New York. Jaret Wright was uninspiring for the Yankees, needing 81 pitches to get through three innings in which he gave up eight hits and four runs. Johan Santana continues to underwhelm in the early going, giving up four runs in 6 1/3 innings himself. Johnny Damon hit his seventh double of the year, and Rondell White was charged with seven men left on base. White is still batting under .100 for the year.
• Tampa Bay beat Kansas City again as Royals starter Mike Wood managed just four innings. He only gave up two runs on three hits, but he walked five and threw 78 pitches. I guess there's a reason Oakland was willing to trade him.
• The Brewers beat the Mets, finally sending New York to its second loss of the year. Tomo Ohka had a nice game, allowing two runs in seven innings, and Matt Wise threw the final two innings uneventfully. Prince Fielder had three singles, Carlos Lee hit his fifth homer, Rickie Weeks made his fourth error, and Jose Reyes stole his fourth base.
• St. Louis took revenge on Cincinnati's pitching, scoring nine runs en route to an easy win. Edwin Encarnacion made his sixth error of the year for the Reds, which is going to start annoying people pretty soon. On the other hand, if Adam Dunn keeps blasting homers (he hit his sixth of the year in this game), people may not notice. Albert Pujols hit his fifth homer of the year for the Cardinals, and Scott Spiezio added a pinch-hit bomb.
• Washington beat Florida 2-1 and they can thank John Patterson for that. Patterson went eight innings, gave up the only Marlin run on a Chris Aguila double, and struck out thirteen, including Miguel Cabrera three times. That pitching performance came in handy when the Nats ran themselves into four outs: Marlon Byrd, Damian Jackson, and Alfonso Soriano all got caught stealing, and Brendan Harris was thrown out at home by Josh Willingham.
• John Smoltz shut out San Diego, giving up four hits and two walks while striking out four. Jake Peavy had a very nice day himself, also giving up four hits and two walks while striking out double the hitters Smoltz did, but he also gave up a homer to Adam LaRoche and an RBI single to Jeff Francoeur. That's a tough loss for Peavy, but when you've got Smoltz going up against the kind of offense that carries Vinny Castilla, you've got to expect it to happen sometimes.
• The Pirates beat the Cubs 2-1 behind a strong Zach Duke start, allowing one run in seven innings. Jerome Williams started for the Cubs and allowed only one earned run himself, but a Ronny Cedeno error allowed another run to score, so Williams took his first loss of the year. Beaneball Fave Craig Wilson tripled, walked, and stole a base in the game.
• Colorado pushed Jon Lieber around for seven runs in 6 1/3 innings, sending him to his third loss of the year already. Matt Holliday doubled, tripled, and homered in the game for the Rockies, giving him five RBI. Pat Burrell hit his fifth homer of the year for Philadelphia.
• Wandy Rodriguez gave up just two hits (no runs) to Arizona in seven innings, and Chad Qualls and Mike Gallo finished things off for the Astros, neither pitcher allowing a hit. Every D'Back pitcher, in contrast, gave up at least one run. Eric Byrnes, happily enough, had half of Arizona's hits.
• The Dodgers got back to .500 by beating the Giants 3-1. Jason Schmidt gave up just three hits, but seven walks in six innings will bite you in the ass almost every time. Omar Vizquel stole his fourth base of the year for the Giants.

And that's that.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 18:57 | |

Following up, here are the games from Friday, 4/14.

• Baltimore beat the Angels in exciting fashion: the Orioles took the lead in the bottom of the eighth on a Melvin Mora single; Jeff Mathis, starting at catcher for the Angels, tied things back up in the top of the ninth; and then Ramon Hernandez, showing the rook how it's done, smacked the game-winning bomb off of Scot Shields in the bottom half. The game featured eleven runs, not an inordinate amount, but it took the teams eight homers to get there. Each starter (Rodrigo Lopez, Magic Santana) gave up three bombs. It's a good thing they were hitting all those homers, because the teams combined for just one walk, by Casey Kotchmann, Anaheim's first baseman.
• Boston managed just two runs against Jaime Moyer and two Mariner bullpenners despite ten hits and four walks. Fortunately for Boston, Curt Schilling and Jon Papelbon shut down the anemic Mariner offense, allowing just one run on four hits and no walks. Moyer actually struck out eight in his six innings, but Schilling, who struck out seven himself, was too good. Kevin Youkilis, still leading off for Boston, walked twice. Two of Boston's three starting outfielders were Adam Stern and Wily Mo Pena, which tells you two things: Coco Crisp is hurt, which you knew; and the Red Sox might not let Trot Nixon bat against a single lefty this year (though, amusingly, in his five plate appearances against portsiders so far, he's got three hits, including a homer, and a walk; against righties, he's 3-17 with a homer and five walks).
• Detroit got back on track, beating Cleveland behind Kenny Rogers's eight-inning, one-run outing. Brandon Inge supplied a couple of homers for the Tigers, while Chris Shelton (who, if you'll recall, is a slugging first baseman) hit his third triple of the year. Shelton, whose middle name is apparently Bob, never managed more than two triples in any minor league season, then broke out for three in 388 at-bats last year. He's on pace for about 48 this year, to go with his 60 doubles and 112 homers. I think it's fair to say three things:
  1. That'd be a historic season.
  2. It's not going to happen.
  3. The Pirates really miss him.
• Kansas City won its snail race with Tampa Bay as they induced the Devil Rays to score seven late runs. Elmer Dessens gave up three unearned runs for the Royals with the help of a Doug Mientkiewicz error. Scott Kazmir walked four in six innings (too many), but was outdone by Scott Elarton, who walked six in 6 1/3 innings (way too many). Travis Harper threw three perfect innings for the Rays to earn his first win of the year. And don't be surprised if it's his last.
• Minnesota beat the Yanks behind Scott Baker's strong outing: seven innings, three hits, one walk, one run. His four strikeouts were adequate, but he walked a fine line: fourteen of his sixteen outs on balls in play came in the air. When you're facing a team full of Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, and Gary Sheffield, those fly balls won't always fall for outs. (As I write this during Sunday's Twins-Yanks game, Giambi just hit a two-run homer off of Brad Radke to straightaway center.) Baker, who was born six days before me, threw 53 innings for the Twins last season, so he's not quite a rookie this year. He was drafted by the Twins out of Oklahoma State. Luke Scott is his only OK State teammate to have made the majors before him, and he had a two-year head start.
• The White Sox found themselves in another slugfest, losing 13-7 to Toronto. The teams combined for 31 hits, seven walks (six by Chicago), and one hit batsman (Joe Crede, who was 4-4 on the day). The Sox went into the ninth down 13-5, but tried to mount a comeback with back-to-back solo homers by Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye. Clearly, it was too little, too late. Greg Zaun hit three doubles for Toronto and Vernon Wells hit his fifth homer of the season.
• The Cubs sent Pittsburgh to their ninth loss of the year. Sean Marshall "earned" his first major-league win, giving up four runs in five innings, but getting eight runs of support. Craig Wilson hit his fifth homer of the year filling in for Sean Casey, who stuck around only long enough to get one at-bat. Apparently, Casey has a broken back, but he'll return in 6-8 weeks, which sounds funny. Six to eight weeks sounds like recovery from a broken arm or something, not a broken back. Either way, though, not to be callous to Casey, but the Pirates will be better off if he gets Pipped by Wilson.
• The Mets won yet another game, moving to 8-1 behind Tom Glavine's six-inning, one-run (none earned) performance. He struck out eleven Brewers in the game. I was surprised to find that he also struck out eleven batters in a September 29th performance against the Rockies last year, a two-hit shutout. Glavine had a couple of months last year when he barely broke eleven strikeouts.
• The Braves beat San Diego, though Tim Hudson was mediocre, with four runs in 5 2/3 innings. Oscar Villareal was the pitcher of record when the Braves took the lead, so he picked up his fourth win of the year, which is pretty remarkable, considering the Braves only have five wins overall. Jeff Francoeur handed Villareal that win with his third homer of the year (and of his last two games).
• The Marlins got themselves into a situation where Joe Borowski could get his first save of the year, beating the Nats 5-3. Baby Fish highlights include Josh Willingham's third homer of the year and Hanley Ramirez's third steal. Miguel Olivo, formerly of the cannon arm, allowed three steals to the Nats, including one by Nick Johnson.
• A Reds-Cardinals game isn't one you'd expect to end 1-0, and when you see that Chris Carpenter started for St. Louis, you wouldn't figure Cincinnati would the game. But both things are what happened on Friday. Aaron Harang picked up his second win of the year with seven innings of four-hit ball. Harang also knocked in the only run of the game with a single in the fifth. Adam Dunn and Jim Edmonds each struck out three times and Felipe Lopez flashed the "speed" part of his power-speed combo by stealing his fourth base of the year.
• Philadelphia scored ten runs in the first six innings in Colorado, so the Rockies' four-run ninth just narrowed the final margin of victory to two runs. Chase Utley had another two-homer day to power the Philly offense. Garret Atkins hit his seventh double of the year, which is a lot of two-baggers.
• Arizona shut down Houston 5-1 behind eight strong innings by Brandon Webb. The D'Backs gave out no free passes and Conor Jackson hit his second homer of the year.
• Brad Penny threw six nice innings for the Dodgers, giving up just one run, but the Giants scored one in the top of the ninth to win the game 2-1. Jamey Wright, of all people, threw eight innings of one-hit ball for the Giants and Todd Worrell tossed the ninth for his fourth save of the year. Jeff Kent homered for the only Dodger run, and Jason Repko stole his fourth base of the year. Rafael Furcal also added his third steal, and avoided making an error as well.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 17:21 | |

For the reasons already explained, I'm a little behind on the rest of the league's games. Luckily, it's Sunday. These are the games from Thursday, April 13.

• Even the White Sox will have games where they give up nine runs on 21 hits, especially when they're facing a team like the Tigers, who have enough offensive power to bat Carlos Guillen, a guy who's practically a lock for a .360 OBP, seventh. The best cure for that kind of game is to score thirteen runs on seventeen hits yourself. The great thing, from a fan's standpoint, about a game like this is that no lead feels safe: the Sox went up 10-3 going to the bottom of the fifth only to see the Tigers score four in the bottom half to make it a three-run game. Other gems from the box score: Chris Shelton hit his seventh homer of the year; Omar Infante hit his first two doubles; Jim Thome had his sixth homer; and Alex Cintron, starting at shortstop for Chicago, hit two triples off of Jason Grilli. Just two players went hitless in the game, both for Chicago: Scott Podsednik lowered his batting average to .059 with an 0-4 performance; and Brian Anderson, Chicago's rookie centerfielder, also went 0-4. Each player did walk once apiece, though.
• The Yankees beat the Royals again behind a strong, if short, outing from Randy Johnson: five innings, one run, five strikeouts. The score was just 4-2 going to the bottom of the eighth, but Jimmy Gobble allowed five Yankee runs, two on a Jason Giambi homer and the other three on Johnny Damon's first Yankee homer. Alex Rodriguez added his first double of the year, which is kind of surprising: this was the Yankees' ninth game of the year, after all. Andy Phillips made another first-base appearance for the Yankees without getting an at-bat. Bubba Crosby's doing even better, though: he's played in five games this year and managed just two at-bats. Tony Graffanino was the starting DH for Kansas City, which says a lot about the team.
• Toronto beat Boston 8-6 behind a strong Ted Lilly start: seven innings, one run, ten strikeouts. Matt Clement had the kind of game it seems like he's had a thousand of since joining the Red Sox: four innings, seven runs, four walks, one strikeout. When you have two starting lines like that, you're not supposed to have a close game, but BJ Ryan had to get the last out of the game anyway because Brian Tallet and Jason Frasor gave up five runs in the eighth and ninth. Further evidence of Keith Foulke's downfall is that he started the eighth for the Red Sox despite the score being 8-1 at that point.
• Seattle beat Cleveland 9-5 despite being outhit 12-9. The walks tell the story, though, as the M's took nine free passes in the game. Ichiro! had a neat game: 1-4 with a walk, his fourth steal of the year, and an assist, throwing out Jason Michaels at third base. He was also caught stealing once (though because the box score doesn't list a catcher, it appears that he was really picked off). Adrian Beltre continued his unlikely speed renaissance with his fourth steal of the year.
• Baltimore beat Tampa Bay 6-5 by scoring five runs over the last two innings. Shawn Camp and Dan Miceli were responsible for the runs, with Melvin Mora providing the decisive blow, a two-run homer that gave the Orioles the lead. Ramon Hernandez added three hits for Baltimore, including his fourth double of the year, raising his batting average to .533. Bruce Chen had an unusual day starting for Baltimore: 7 2/3 innings, five hits, five runs, four homers.
• The Dodgers walloped Pittsburgh 13-5. Cody Ross led the charge for L.A., smacking a grand slam and a three-run bomb. He also managed to strand one man in scoring position. Rafael Furcal, in what has to be a worrisome trend, made his fourth error of the year.
• The Mets won again, beating Washington 13-4, with the offense spread out all over the place: Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Cliff Floyd (all in the first inning), and Carlos Delgado all homered, and no Met had more than three RBI.
• Florida beat San Diego 9-2 as Jason Vargas allowed just two hits (but five walks) in his six innings. Dewon Brazelton gave up eight runs in his four innings for San Diego, as walk trouble bit him as well (four of them). The top four of the Padres' order went 0-15 with one walk, compared to a 6-12 performance, with six walks, from the corresponding Marlins. Hanley Ramirez continues to rake, going 2-3 with two walks and his fifth double of the year and Josh Willingham popped a couple of doubles himself.
• Milwaukee beat St. Louis on a Carlos Lee homer in the top of the eleventh. Jason Isringhausen, who's likely no longer the premier closer Cardinal fans would like him to be, gave up the bomb and thus took the loss, his second of the year. Derrick Turnbow picked up his fifth save of the early-going.
• The Reds have started off surprisingly well, improving to 6-3 with a win over the Cubs. Eric Milton pitched well enough to win (three runs in 6 2/3 innings), but the win was powered by the offense, which mustered eight runs, seven of which came on three homers: Adam Dunn's fifth, Felipe Lopez's third, and Austin Kearns's third. Milton also helped his own cause with a triple. Derrek Lee walked three times in the game, while the rest of the Chicago infield (Neifi!, Jerry Hairston, and Ronny Cedeno) combined to go 1-12 with seven strikeouts.
• The Giants won game one of their double-header with the Astros behind a nice three-run performance (in 7 2/3 innings) from Matt Morris. Brandon Backe started for the Astros and lasted just two innings, despite giving up only a Moises Alou solo homer. That's as clear a "removed for injury" pitching line as I've seen in some time.
• The Phillies beat Atlanta 7-6 despite a three-run eighth for the Braves against Ryan Franklin. Jeff Francoeur hit his first two homers of the year and also added a single. His corner-outfield mate Ryan Langerhans doubled and tripled for the Braves, but Atlanta couldn't overcome the Phillies' three-homer first inning against Kyle Davies. Davies wound up allowing two homers to Chase Utley, which were his first two hit this year as well.
• Roy Oswalt and Fernando Nieve combined on a shutout to give the Astros a split in their doubleheader. Lance Berkman hit his fifth and sixth homers of the year to power the offense. Matt Cain struck out eight Astros in just five innings, which is obviously a very nice rate. Cain's a former first round pick out of high school who made his pro debut at 17 in the Arizona Fall League. He's just 21 this year, having done High-A and AA ball in just one year, and having pitched impressively all the way up the chain: 10.12 K/9, 0.91 HR/9. His minor league walk rate is a tiny bit high at 3.73, and he did give up 22 homers in 145 2/3 innings in Fresno last year, but there doesn't seem to be any real reason why he shouldn't have a very nice major-league career.
• Colorado beat Arizona in a pretty generic game. Box score highlights are that Craig Counsell and Chad Tracy combined for six of the Diamondbacks' eight hits; and Todd Helton walked four times. Brad Hawpe also hit his fourth homer of the year.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 16:10 | |

I'm two days behind on the A's, mostly because I was laid up in bed all day yesterday with either a flu or mild food poisoning. I don't think I'll ever eat sweet and sour chicken again, at least not from a takeout chinese place. The A's got a bad start to their Texas series, losing to Kevin Millwood. It was the fourth straight loss for Oakland, and dropped them under .500 for the first time since Opening Day. Barry Zito was uninspiring again, giving up five runs in seven innings, though he only allowed six hits and two walks (and one HBP). Zito's wildness got to him in the second inning, as he hit Phil Nevin and walked Hank Blalock before getting two strikeouts. Then he walked one more before D'Angelo Jimenez came through with the key single to score two runs. The three-run Texas fourth inning was just a plain old rally: double, RBI single, double, sac fly, and then a run scores on a wild pitch. Huston Street gave up his first run of the year, but it didn't matter: the A's were already down three at that point, and, as I recall, the chance of winning is something like 99.7%. Speaking of garbage time, Milton Bradley hit his first Oakland homer in the bottom half, taking Antonio Alfonseca deep. That homer, along with Frank Thomas's earlier shot (the 450th of his career), foreshadowed the events of the next day, when the A's rode consecutive homers (on consecutive pitches!) from Eric Chavez, Thomas, and Bradley to a one-run victory over Vicente Padilla. All five of the A's runs, in fact, came on homers, since Oakland's other two came on a two-run shot by Nick Swisher, his fourth of the year. The homers were all the more powerful for coming the half inning after Rich Harden had coughed up a 2-1 Oakland lead on a three-run Phil Nevin homer. Harden only allowed three hits, but he walked five Rangers, including the two men he put on immediately in front of Nevin's homer. Even worse, he had started the inning with two of his eight strikeouts. Up until those two walks, Harden was on his way to another great outing: 5 2/3 innings, two hits, three walks, six strikeouts, and two double plays. Justin Duchscherer and Joe Kennedy pitched the eighth, with Kennedy putting out Duchscherer's two-baserunner fire, and Huston Street threw a perfect ninth for his third save of the year. Duchscherer and Kennedy have combined for 10 2/3 innings this year in which they've allowed no runs while recording twelve strikeouts and just two walks. That's obviously an excellent start to the year for the setup team, and yet another datapoint to the assertion that bullpens are made, not born.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 14:00 | |

We've got thirteen games yesterday, since the A's are taken care of and Houston-San Francisco got rained out (yes, again - things are going absolutely nuts with the weather out in the Bay, aren't they?).

• The Yankees got back to even with a 12-5 win over the Royals. Shawn Chacon gave up all five runs in six innings, but the bullpen did its job and the offense picked him up by scoring in six out of eight innings against Jeremy Affeldt and a variety of relievers. The Yankee offense was led by Gary Sheffield, DHing, who hit a three-run homer and two singles, ending up with four RBI. Notably, Bernie Williams started in right field. Baseball Cube says he hasn't appeared out there since 1992. Here's a post that has the lineup the last time Bernie started in right field. That's neat. I didn't know that guy from NYPD Blue played for the Yanks. In the former A's watch, Jason Giambi was thrown out at home by Emil Brown, Angel Berroa (who I'll count despite not getting out of the minors with the A's) made his third error of the year, Mark Teahen (see Berroa) went 0-3 and was replaced at third by Esteban German, and Matt Stairs walked twice, but is hitless so far on the year.
• The White Sox beat Detroit again, winning 4-3 despite Chris Shelton's two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth. That was Shelton's sixth bomb of the year. I think he's got Barry Bonds in his mind at this point. He's on pace for about 120 bombs, which would best Bonds's record by a few. Jim Thome kept pace, though, hitting his fifth homer of the year for the Sox. Somehow, the Tigers couldn't come up with a better DH than Omar Infante. That's ridiculous, and is a direct result of carrying twelve pitchers.
• The Blue Jays jumped all over David Wells, smacking three homers en route to seven runs in just four innings. That was enough for Gustavo Chacin and assorted Toronto relievers to cruise on home for an 8-4 win. Dustan Mohr, just up from the minors, and Wily Mo Pena, getting a start in right against the lefty Chacin, both hit their first homers of the year. Pena's was a line shot to straight away center field. He is an enormous, imposing man, isn't he? Forget "man," he's still just 24. I see no former A's in either lineup or pitching line, but I do see the Greek God of Walks hitting leadoff for the Sox, which is a welcome surprise. Unfortunately, the results might discourage repeated use, as the man they call "Youk" went 0-5 with three whiffs.
• Seattle beat Cleveland in a wild 11-9 game. Travis Hafner blasted his sixth homer of the year (the AL is just full of guys smoking the ball early, isn't it? Chavez, Hafner, Thome, Shelton ...), but the Mariner bullpen just managed to hold on to things. Ichiro! and Adrian Beltre each stole their third bases of the year. Beltre stole eighteen bases in his first full year with the Dodgers, and stole 25 with Vero Beach in 1997, but he's not exactly a guy you think of as a speedster.
• Tampa Bay scored six runs over the last two innings (seventh and eighth) to pull one out against the Orioles. Baltimore's Sendy Rleal (say that ten times fast) gave up four runs in just a third of an inning out of the 'pen, and former Athletic John Halama contributed a two-run Ty Wigginton two-run homer. Kevin Millar popped a couple of homers as the Baltimore DH, but he couldn't overcome Daniel Cabrera's bizarro day: five innings, three hits, one run, nine walks, and ten strikeouts. He threw fewer than 50% of his 117 pitches for strikes. When we add the bullpen's walks, and Tampa Bays as well, seventeen free passes were issued in this game. Maybe more than anything else, that might be emblematic of why these two teams aren't going to be very good this year. The Orioles Think Tank calls Daniel Cabrera the most intriguing talent in the AL East, and also wonders why Sam Perlozzo let him throw so many pitches when it's only April (and moreover, when it had to be clear he had no command).
• Texas beat the Angels 11-3 to help keep Anaheim from getting past the A's in the standings. John Koronka (six innings, two runs) out-pitched Kelvim Escobar (4 1/3 and eight), which isn't supposed to happen. But that's why they play the game. Orlando Cabrera made his third error of the year, and the Angels' long quest for a first baseman do not appear to be at an end just yet: Robb Quinlan and Edgardo Alfonzo each appeared there in this game. Adam Morris mentions the reason that Ian Kinsler hasn't been in the lineup for the Rangers, which is that he dislocated his thumb. That's tough for the rookie, and it's tough for the Rangers. They've got a solid fill in available in D'Angelo Jimenez, but if I'm a Rangers fan, I'd rather have Kinsler. Luckily, I'm not a Rangers fan. This followup says he'll be out three weeks, which is a fortunately small amount of time. Apparently, though, Mark DeRosa is going to start at second against righties, which I don't think is the right approach.
• I won't write another essay about how much I love these teams tonight, but the Padres beat the Marlins 7-2. Florida fell to 1-6 despite three errors by San Diego, including one by Jesse Barfield that's labeled as "pop up" in the ESPN box score. Major leaguers don't drop pop ups, do they? Chris Young, who as you'll recall I pimped a little bit this winter when San Diego traded for him, threw six innings of one hit ball, striking out six and giving up no runs. He did walk three and hit one batter, but that's still a nice outing for Young, especially for a guy making half a million bucks (remember that the Rangers had to give him a bigger-than-normal contract to keep him in baseball after he was wooed by the NBA). The Baby Fish didn't have a great day. They went 2-15 with two walks while Jeremy Hermida got the day off. One of the two hits was a Miguel Cabrera homer, though. Also, Mike Jacobs embarassed Mike Piazza by stealing two bases, including third once. Jacobs is listed at 6'2", 180, but I refuse to believe he's that light. Either way, first baseman not named Darin Erstad (who's not even a first baseman anymore, of course) oughtn't be stealing third base against major league catchers. Apparently, Hermida is dealing with a sore hip flexor. I'm not sure what that is. Go ask Will Carroll or something.
• Greg Maddux, Scott Eyre, and Ryan Dempster held the Reds to one run to help the Cubs move to 5-2. There's a lot of ugliness in this box score. The Reds made five errors, three of those by Edwin Encarnacion (pushing him to five on the year). Greg Maddux gave up two stolen bases, including Ryan Freel's sixth of the year, and Brandon Claussen gave up four, two to Juan Pierre and two to Derrek Lee. On the other hand, Lee was caught stealing twice, once of third base and once of home (!) - that looks suspicious, though, so I'm checking the play-by-play. In the first inning, Pierre and Lee pulled off a double steal (and then each runner moved up one extra base on Javier Valentin's throwing error). In the third, Pierre and Lee did the double theft again. Following an Encarnacion error that allowed Pierre to score, Lee to move to third, and Michael Barrett to reach first, Lee was caught stealing home. Since the play went "pitcher to first to second to catcher," it looks like Barrett got picked off of first and Lee tried to take advantage of the rundown to score from third. That's technically a "caught stealing," I suppose, but it's not really one. Lee's caught stealing of third, though, which came in the seventh inning, looks legitimate from the play-by-play. It's not every day you see a first baseman steal twice and get caught stealing twice, with the latter two coming off third and home.
• The Mets moved to 6-1 behind Pedro Martinez's strong seven-inning, one-run outing. Martinez only struck out three, which is worrisome for Mets fans, but the Nats couldn't take advantage, recording just three hits against him. Nobody got hit by a pitch, so it looks like the game stayed ugly-free, which is nice to see. Good job keeping it to baseball, fellas. Apparently, Pedro became a citizen this off-season. Maybe that's why he didn't strike anyone out. Strikeouts are fascist, after all.
• Pittsburgh sent the Dodgers below .500 with a 9-5 win. The difference in this game was in the bullpen: the Los Angeles pen gave up four runs in three innings while the Pirates allowed nothing in 3 1/3. Craig Wilson made me look good with a two homer day, and Jack Wilson looks like a homer machine out there as he popped his third already. The Pirates also stole four bases against Sandy Alomar's ghost, which ghost also made a throwing error.
• Philly won its second game of the year with a 7-5 victory over the Braves. Wilson Betemit had three doubles for the Braves, but nothing else really jumps at me from this box.
• The Cards dominated the Brewers 8-3, beating up David Bush for all eight runs in six innings while Jason Marquis threw the definition of a quality start and was followed by three shutout innings from the bullpen. Geoff Jenkins and Rickie Weeks each made their third errors of the year for Milwaukee, and Beaneball fave Prince Fielder hit his first double of the year.
• Arizona beat Colorado to even their record at fours. Conor Jackson homered against Jeff Francis in a matchup of good young players, but Large Human Ray King coughing (up the lead) fit in the seventh was the critical event. Luis Gonzalez had a good day for a guy with a bad wing, throwing out Danny Ardoin on the bases twice.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 21:40 | |

Billy Beane let us down on Wednesday night. Well, that's not entirely true. Beane let us down this winter when he signed Esteban Loaiza, who then, as Beane's agent, let us down Wednesday night. Five runs, given most of the A's starting pitchers and the bullpen, should be enough to win a lot of nights. With Loaiza on the hill, though, it's not. His six runs in four innings lost the game, and the fact that he gave up six hits, four walks, and two homers while not striking anyone out imply that he's likely to lose many more going forward, especially when we see that nine of his eleven outs (minus one double play) were in the air. What was so bad about Kirk Saarloos, again? Ken Arneson is expressing the same thing. Here's Ken Macha on Loaiza:

"Not a good outing again for Esteban. We need more out of him. ... We need him to get us (deeper) into games. That's what we need and that's why we signed him."

That's all you've got, Ken? No explanations of what's going wrong? No, "Damn that Billy - I liked Saarloos just fine" comments? Stir somethin' up, Ken! Nick Swisher carried the offense, hitting two homers and a double to drive in four runs. There were no baserunners coming from the top of the order, though, as Marks Ellis and Kotsay went 0-4 each. Dan Johnson continued his hitless streak with another 0-4. And because I'm getting to this writeup so late, I'm robbed of the opportunity to preview the next game, a game the A's already lost to Minnesota. As you might notice, that means the Twins swept the A's. As you'll recall, I mentioned that the Twins will sweep some team or two that are better than them this year. I also expressed a hope that this wouldn't occur on the A's watch. The starting pitching let the A's down for the third straight day today, but the culprit this time was Joe Blanton, who gave up seven runs in six innings. Four of the eleven hits he gave up went for extra bases, but things don't look nearly as dire for Blanton as they do for Loaiza despite similar results: he managed four strikeouts, with prorates to six per nine innings, a perfectly viable number; he also got seven ground balls compared to six flyouts, which isn't great, but isn't a flyfest, either. The A's just got dominated, since the offense managed just two runs against Kyle Lohse and two bullpenners. There were some highlights, though, including Frank Thomas knocking two hits and Nick Swisher knocking two more. Ken Macha juggled the lineup, hitting Marco Scutaro leadoff (and playing him at second base), Swisher second, and Jay Payton seventh, playing center field. Scutaro leading off is terrible idea. Macha falls in love with the "hot hand" idea but fails to realize that Scutaro just isn't that great a hitter: a guy with a career .307 OBP doesn't belong in the leadoff hole. Whether he belongs in the lineup at all is a further question, but I'll lay off on that one: Mark Ellis has to get a day off sometimes, right? Given the players who started today, I'd hit them like this:

1. Bradley
2. Swisher
3. Chavez
4. Thomas
5. Crosby
6. Johnson
7. Payton
8. Kendall
9. Scutaro

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 19:40 | |

We had twenty teams in action yesterday, not counting the A's and Twins, nor Houston and San Francisco, who got rained out.

• The Yankees found themselves down 7-4 to the Royals in the bottom of the eighth. Then came Andy Sisco and Ambiorix Burgos who gave up five runs to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Chien-Ming Wang and Tanyon Sturtze got the Yankees into the mess in the first place, allowing all seven Royal runs in 6 1/3 innings. Joe Mays didn't pitch any better, giving up four Yankee runs on three hits and five walks in just 2 2/3 innings. Wang is a ground-ball machine (13:4 GB:FB ratio in this game), but he's got to miss more bats (just one strikeout) if he's going to have any sustained major league success. Johnny Damon, by the way, hit his fifth double of the year, which is a lot.
• Boston improved to 6-1 by beating the Blue Jays. Mike Lowell went 4-4 with three doubles, and has a nice .320/.393/.600 line through his first 28 plate appearances. Keith Foulke showed why he's reversed roles with Jon Papelbon by giving up a two-run homer to Frank Catalanotto. That closed the Red Sox's lead to 5-3, necessitating an appearance by Papelbon in the ninth. The young closer has given up just one hit in his first five innings of the year while walking no one and striking out five. Josh Beckett had good results in the game, getting his second win by allowing one run in seven innings, but it looks a little lucky: he walked four and struck out just two, but only gave up three hits. You won't win too many games with a 2:1 BB:K ratio.
• Cleveland beat Seattle with offense: Jarrod Washburn wound up allowing six runs in just five innings. He also didn't strike anybody out. Travis Hafner hit his fifth homer of the year to, going back-to-back with Johnny Peralta in the fifth inning. Cliff Lee had a very nice outing, though he only lasted six innings because his pitch count was getting a little high. Lee struck out eight while allowing just five baserunners. On the other hand, three of the four hits he allowed went for extra bases, so it's not all good. Either way, Lee got his first win of the year.
• Baltimore evened its record at 4-4 by beating the Devil Rays. Anna Benson's husband threw a nice game, going seven innings while allowing two runs (one earned). The Orioles ruined Jason Hammel's major-league debut, hanging him with seven runs in 3 1/3 innings. The third batter he faced, Melvin Mora, hit a homer, and it was all downhill from there. Corey Patterson and Carl Crawford each stole their second bases of the year.
• The Angels scored two in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Rangers. The tying run scored on Adam Kennedy's double, and D'Angelo Jimenez's error on the same play allowed the winning run, in the form of Maicer Itzuris, to scoot home. This ruined a solid outing by Jack ... I mean Rick Bauer, who gave up one run in 5 1/3 innings. Hank Blalock hit a couple of homers off of Jeff Weaver and Vlad Guerrero went 4-4, but only managed singles.
• The Mets won an easy won against the Nationals on the strength of rookie Brian "Bruce" Bannister, who allowed just three hits and one run in seven innings. On the other hand, with thirteen fly ball outs and just one whiff, this one smells like a rat. A lucky rat. As I said in relation to Wang and Beckett above, you've got to miss bats to win consistently. Paul Lo Duca and Bannister ought to be ashamed of themselves, though: Nick Johnson (6'3", 225) stole second base against them.
• The Reds moved to 5-2 by dominating the Cubs, winning 9-2. Bronson Arroyo is wreaking havoc on the Cubs: he's 2-0 against them (and the league) now after throwing seven innings of shutout ball in this game. More importantly, he hit his second homer of the year, victimizing Glendon Rusch. Rusch gave up four homers in the game, and Will Ohman gave up two more. Ohman, in fact, gave up five runs on four hits without recording an out. Those six homers came from Ken Griffey, Adam Dunn twice, Arroyo, Edwin Encarnacion (who's just been waiting for his chance for years, hasn't he?), and Austin Kearns. Paul Dzien thinks it's ridiculous that Glendon Rusch gave up a homer to a guy who hasn't hit one in six years (Arroyo). I fail to see how the years matter, though: Arroyo got all of 55 at-bats in those six years. Jerry Narron ought to be ... well, let's just stick with fired: somehow, he thought that breaking up lefties Griffey and Dunn in the order was so important that he batted Rich Aurilia in the cleanup hole. Aurilia had a .444 SLG last year, which was his best season since his fluky 2001 in San Francisco. (Freakily, Aurilia has had a .444 SLG three different times in his career: 1999, 2000, and 2005.)
• San Diego beat the Marlins 9-3 behind a two-homer night by Khalil Greene. Greene, for his Baha'i faith, his surfer hair, his puka shell necklace, his acrobatic play at shortstop, and his offensive upside (2005 nothwithstanding), is one of my favorite non-A's, a guy I root for against everyone but Oakland. Looking at Greene's Baseball Cube page shows something interesting: he was hit by pitches 58 times in his four-year career at Clemson, nearly fifteen times a year. Remember that a college season is less than half as long, in terms of games-played, as the major league season. Some combination of Greene, Adam Eaton (no longer a Padre, of course), Kevin Towers, and Xavier Nady (also no longer a Father) made San Diego my favorite NL team a few years ago, a semi-fandom that's lasted. What I like about following the Padres-Marlins series, though, is that Florida is one of the other NL teams I'm rooting for this year. I like their Baby Fish top of the order, the fact that their second baseman is named "Uggla," and that a Cardozo alumnus is the team president. Those Baby Fish (Hanley Ramirez, Jeremy Hermida, Miguel Cabrera, Mike Jacobs, and Josh Willingham; and yes, Cabrera is a veteran at this point, but a very young one; and yes, Willingham is 27 already, but it's not his fault Florida stranded him in the minors: he smacked the hell out of the ball for three years straight before the Marlins got their act straight) were best-represented by Ramirez yesterday, who hit his third double and second triple of the year.
• The Pirates won their second game, beating the Dodgers 7-6 behind four shutout bullpen innings and four homers. Craig Wilson (ahem!) started at first and hit a game-tying homer in the sixth against Lance Carter. Evil Willow (i.e. Ryan Doumit - and I'm just going to call him Evil Willow from here on out, with no parenthetical help) had the go-ahead sac fly and also made a throwing error.
• The Rockies improved to 5-2 by beating the Diamondbacks with a big game from Brad Hawpe: a single, double, and homer for four RBI. Terry Mulholland and Jason Grimsley each pitched out of the bullpen for Diamondbacks. I'm pretty sure I have their baseball cards from when I used to collect them. In fifth grade.

Some of today's games have already happened, but of the remaining ones, my top matchup is Pedro Martinez against Tony Armas as the Mets face the Nats. There's piles of speculation about whether Robinson will sacrifice Armas to go after Pedro, and it wouldn't exactly surprise anyone if he did. Robinson's old school, after all.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Baseball at 20:38 | |

Everybody loses sometime, and the A's got outplayed last night. Dan Haren's six-run third inning (he wound up giving up seven in six innings) couldn't be overcome, valiant though Eric Chavez's effort was. Chavez gave the A's their first run, in the second inning, and their last two, in the eighth, with his fourth and fifth homers of the year. For Haren, though, you can't expect to give up a three-run homer to Tony Batista and win the game. Bobby Crosby also added his first homer of the year: it's good to see that the finger apparently isn't affecting him, though he did make a throwing error, his second of the year. Frank Thomas was hitless again, though he did walk once: he's now batting .080, but with a .207 OBP. I keep telling myself not to worry, that anything can happen in 20-some-odd plate appearances, that he's Frank Freaking Thomas. At some point, I'll be convinced. Dan Johnson got the day off despite this being a homecoming game for the young first baseman. Johnson's started the year 0-19, so hopefully skipping Brad Radke and going straight to Carlos Silva will do something for him. Ken Macha said, "I'd hate for him to get buried if he's not swinging the bat the way Gerald (Perry, the A's hitting coach) wants." Uh, Ken, you control whether Johnson gets buried or not. It's not like Jay Payton can just steal your Sharpie and start writing out lineup cards. Can he? Straight A's has this take on Thomas, Haren, and a variety of other A's topics. We also get this bit of news from the Chronicle story:

Assistant general manager David Forst said the A's are unlikely to bring Bobby Kielty back from Triple-A Sacramento while the team is in Minnesota unless an injury requires it, and Macha suggested that the outfielder might not be back until next week against the Tigers, who have several left-handed pitchers. Kielty, who is hitting .238 at Sacramento, was sent down at the start of the season so the A's could keep lefty Brad Halsey in the bullpen as insurance if a rainout or two messed up the rotation. It's not hard to tell that Macha would prefer to keep Halsey rather than have a fifth outfielder to juggle. "I like two lefties in the bullpen," Macha said, a sentiment he has expressed numerous times.

But see, Ken, "two lefties" is useless if one of them ain't any good. I understand that Bobby Kielty is essentially useless on this team (who needs a lefty masher with no D when we've already got Jay Payton, a lefty masher with good D? Also, note that I love Bobby K, so it really pains me to admit that he's got no place on the team). However, since Brad Halsey isn't that good, I'd rather take him out of Macha's hands. The last thing the A's need is Macha bringing Halsey in to face Big Papi in a tough situation because, donchaknow, that's what lefties are for. On the other hand, if there's no Halsey, maybe Macha shunts Joe Kennedy into the LOOGY role, and that's a poor use of a (recent) former starter who can actually be a decent pitcher. So I'm conflicted. The best solution? A real manager.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 19:45 | |