THT Daily: A Saves Milestone

Major League News for July 2

Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Top Minor League Performances

You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/

Player News

Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld
Hank Blalock homered twice, including a two-run walkoff shot, in a 9-7 win over the Angels on Wednesday night.
Blalock was 3-for-5 with three RBI and three runs scored in the walkoff win. The two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth bailed out Frank Francisco, who blew a save opportunity in the previous half inning. Thanks to interleague play, Blalock had just 56 at-bats during the month of June. As such, he has already equaled his home run total from last month. His 16 homers are impressive, but a .245 batting average for a .272 career hitter just isn’t cutting it.

Alexei Ramirez will undergo X-rays on his right middle finger after leaving Wednesday night’s game in the eighth inning.
Ramirez injured the finger while fielding a ground ball earlier in the series, but the swelling continued to increase. He will miss at least Thursday’s game and then will be re-evaluated based on the results of the X-rays. Gordon Beckham could see some time at shortstop in his place.

Jair Jurrjens held the Phillies to one run on one hit over seven innings in an 11-1 win on Wednesday night.
Jurrjens actually gave up a run before he gave up a hit. Jason Werth, who reached on a walk in the fourth inning, made his way to third on a throwing error by Jurrjens and then came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Greg Dobbs. Jurrjens didn’t give up his first hit until Paul Bako lined a two-out single to right in the seventh. Jurrjens fanned six and walked four, improving to 6-6. He has a fine 2.73 ERA, 1.24 WHIP and .239 BAA in 17 starts this season.

Alex Rodriguez hit a decisive two-run homer in a win over the Mariners on Wednesday night.
In the sixth inning? How un-clutch of him. His two-run shot broke pushed the Yankees ahead 4-2. In the lineup as the designated hitter, Rodriguez went 2-for-4. He now has 13 homers and has went deep in four of his last six games.

Adrian Gonzalez is back in the starting lineup Wednesday after leaving Tuesday’s game with a strained right knee.
Gonzalez slightly strained the knee while sliding into third with a triple. “When I woke up this morning, I felt fine, no pain, no swelling,” Gonzalez said Wednesday. “But getting off the knee and out of the game Wednesday night probably helped me today.”

Rangers manager Ron Washington announced Wednesday that Frank Francisco has been re-installed as the team’s closer.
Francisco has been handling setup duties for C.J. Wilson since returning from the disabled list two weeks ago. Washington indicated that Francisco can now go on back-to-back days but will probably not pitch in three consecutive games. Wilson, who was 7-for-8 in save situations, will close when Francisco is unavailable.

According to Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mark DeRosa is “day-to-day” with a mild sprain of his left wrist.
DeRosa will be out for a few days, but is expected to avoid the disabled list. He tweaked his left wrist Tuesday during an at-bat and was seen wearing a brace Wednesday afternoon. Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa said there is “reason for optimism.” Look for Joe Thurston to fill in while he’s sidelined.

Jonathan Papelbon took over as Boston’s all-time saves leader after pitching a scoreless 11th inning Wednesday in the Red Sox’s 6-5 win over the Orioles.
The Red Sox, who blew a 10-1 lead after a rain delay Tuesday, overcame a 5-1 deficit in the ninth to win today. The Red Sox went ahead in the 11th when Julio Lugo singled in Jacoby Ellsbury, and Papelbon, pitching on a third straight day for the first time all year, finished the Orioles with his 20th save of 2009 and 133rd since debuting, moving him past Bob Stanley into the franchise lead.

Justin Morneau was removed from Wednesday’s game in the seventh inning because of a groin injury.
The Twins can’t afford to be without Morneau for any length of time. Brian Buscher is their backup at first base.

Yesterday’s Results

For the full scoop regarding yesterday’s games, read “And That Happened” at Shysterball.

American League
BOS     6  BAL     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA     4  SEA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     5  TB      0    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHA     6  CLE     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIN     5  KC      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     5  DET     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
TEX     9  LAA     7    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
ATL    11  PHI     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
FLA     5  WAS     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     1  ARI     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYN     1  MIL     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHN     4  PIT     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     2  SF      1    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAN     1  COL     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     7  SD      1    (Recap and Boxscore)

Check out Fangraphs’ scoreboard to see all the games in action.

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Arizona Diamondbacks at Cincinnati Reds, 12:35 PM
  (L) Doug Davis (3-8) vs. (R) Aaron Harang (5-8)
 New York Mets at Pittsburgh Pirates, 12:35 PM
  (R) Tim Redding (1-3) vs. (L) Paul Maholm (5-4)
 Houston Astros at San Diego Padres, 3:35 PM
  (L) Wandy Rodriguez (6-6) vs. (R) Kevin Correia (5-5)
 Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM
  (L) J.A. Happ (5-0) vs. (R) Javier Vazquez (5-7)
 San Francisco Giants at St. Louis Cardinals, 7:15 PM
  (L) Barry Zito (4-7) vs. (R) Todd Wellemeyer (6-7)
 Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 PM
  (R) Seth McClung (3-1) vs. (R) Ryan Dempster (4-5)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Seattle Mariners at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM
  (L) Jason Vargas (3-3) vs. (L) CC Sabathia (7-4)
 Chicago White Sox at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM
  (L) Mark Buehrle (7-2) vs. (L) Bruce Chen (0-1)
 Baltimore Orioles at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM
  (R) Jeremy Guthrie (6-7) vs. (R) John Lackey (2-3)

Standings

The graphics next to each team are called “sparklines.” They depict each team’s performance over the last month. Each “up” bar is a victory and a “down” bar is a loss. There are horizontal lines for home games and red bars represent games decided by two runs or less. “PWins” is short for Projected Wins, based on each team’s Run Differential, and is often a better measure of a team’s true strength. Other team graphs and stats can be found on our Team Page.

American League East        Pwins  Diff
BOS     48  30 .615    0.0   46     2    
NYA     45  32 .584    2.5   44     1    
TB      44  36 .550    5.0   48    -4    
TOR     42  38 .525    7.0   44    -2    
BAL     35  43 .449   13.0   34     1    
American League Central     
DET     43  35 .551    0.0   41     2    
CHA     40  38 .513    3.0   39     1    
MIN     41  39 .513    3.0   43    -2    
KC      33  44 .429    9.5   32     1    
CLE     31  49 .388   13.0   36    -5    
American League West        
LAA     42  34 .553    0.0   39     3    
TEX     42  35 .545    0.5   41     1    
SEA     39  38 .506    3.5   36     3    
OAK     33  44 .429    9.5   35    -2    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     39  36 .520    0.0   39     0    
FLA     41  39 .513    0.5   38     3    
NYN     38  39 .494    2.0   37     1    
ATL     37  40 .481    3.0   37     0    
WAS     22  54 .289   17.5   29    -7    
National League Central     
MIL     42  36 .538    0.0   40     2    
STL     42  38 .525    1.0   41     1    
CIN     38  38 .500    3.0   36     2    
CHN     37  38 .493    3.5   38    -1    
HOU     37  39 .487    4.0   36     1    
PIT     36  42 .462    6.0   39    -3    
National League West        
LAN     50  29 .633    0.0   48     2    
SF      42  35 .545    7.0   41     1    
COL     41  37 .526    8.5   42    -1    
SD      34  43 .442   15.0   29     5    
ARI     31  47 .397   18.5   35    -4    

Top Minor League Games

The following list, provided by First Inning, includes the top minor league batting (based on Runs Created) and pitching (based on Game Score) performances from yesterday.

ORG LVL PLAYER            AB  H 2B 3B HR BB SO  Notes
MIL A   Brett Lawrie...... 3  2  1  1  0  2  0  
SD  A   Allan Dykstra..... 4  2  1  0  1  1  0  3 R
FLA AA  Michael Stanton... 5  2  0  0  2  0  1  
NYY AA  Jesus Montero..... 3  2  1  0  1  1  0  
SD  A   Blake Tekotte..... 4  4  0  0  0  1  0  2 SB
HOU A   Jay Austin........ 5  3  0  0  1  0  0  3 LD
FLA AA  Logan Morrison.... 4  2  0  0  1  1  1  
WAN A+  C. Marrero........ 2  1  0  0  1  2  0  
BOS A+  Yamaico Navarro... 4  3  0  0  1  0  0  
PHI AA  Michael Taylor.... 4  2  0  0  1  0  1  
DET AA  Garth Iorg........ 3  2  0  0  1  0  0  
DET AAA Wilkin Ramirez.... 4  2  0  0  1  1  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
BOS AA  Junichi Tazawa.... 5  6  3  1  6  0  0  
CHW AA  Daniel Hudson..... 6  7  5  5  5  1  0  
MIL A   Wily Peralta...... 3  0  0  0  6  3  0  
BOS A   Stolmy Pimentel... 5  8  5  5  7  0  1  
PIT A+  Bryan Morris...... 4  4  4  0  5  1  0  
SD  A   Simon Castro...... 5  4  3  2  8  4  1  
LAA A   Manuarys Correa... 7  5  2  0  1  1  0  13 GB
NYY AA  Z. McAllister..... 4  2  1  1  6  3  1  
PHI AA  Kyle Drabek....... 6  7  3  3  4  3  0  
BAL A-  Brandon Erbe...... 4  3  3  1  2  1  0  
KC  A   Timothy Melville.. 4  7  4  4  5  3  0  8 OF
TEX A   Neil Ramirez...... 5  3  2  1  4  5  0

First Inning’s Major and Minor League Daily Reports:

Pick A TeamARIATLBALBOSCHACHNCINCLECOLDETFLAHOUKCLAALANMILMINNYANYNOAKPHIPITSDSEASFSTLTBTEXTORWAS