THT Daily: AL 10, NL 5
Major League News for June 29
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Game of the Day
Yesterday’s Home Runs
Top Minor League Performances
Player News
Stats
Yesterday’s Results
Interleague BAL 7 PHI 4 (Recap and Boxscore) Bedard: 7 IP, 0 R NYA 4 ATL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) See below CHA 4 PIT 3 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT: 13th straight loss DET 5 HOU 0 (Recap and Boxscore) Verlander: 8 IP, 7 K, 0 BB, 3 H, 0 R MIN 6 LAN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Hunter: GS HR, Morneau: 2 2B, Santan: 7 IP, 0 R BOS 10 NYN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Beckett: 7.2 IP, 2 R; Pedro blasted BAL 12 PHI 5 (Recap and Boxscore) Hernandez: 4 RBI, Markakis: 4-4; Howard: 2 H SEA 10 ARI 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Hernandez: 7 IP, 2 R; SEA: Over .500 TB 3 FLA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Fossum: 5 IP, 1 R; Olsen: 6 IP, 2 R, 0 ER TOR 6 WAS 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Lilly: 6 IP, 0 R; Catalanotto: 3 RBI STL 5 CLE 4 (Recap and Boxscore) Carpenter: 7 IP, 1 R; Sizemore: 4-5 COL 6 LAA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Francis: 6.2 IP, 2 R; Piedra: 3 RBI CIN 7 KC 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Harang: 7 IP, 1 R SD 8 OAK 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Hensley: 7 IP, 1 R; Greene: 3 RBI; Gonzalez: 4-4 SF 5 TEX 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Durham: GS HR, 5 RBI; Lowry: 7.2 IP, 1 R National League CHN 6 MIL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Marmol: 6.1 IP, 1 R, 8 K; Cubs: 5 in the 8th
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (R) Geremi Gonzalez (0-0) vs. (R) Mark Prior (0-2) Inter-League ------------ Chicago White Sox at Pittsburgh Pirates, 12:35 PM (R) Jose Contreras (8-0) vs. (L) Zach Duke (5-7) Texas Rangers at San Francisco Giants, 3:35 PM (L) John Koronka (6-4) vs. (R) Jason Schmidt (6-3) Oakland Athletics at San Diego Padres, 3:35 PM (R) Danny Haren (6-6) vs. (R) Jake Peavy (4-8) Philadelphia Phillies at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) Ryan Madson (7-5) vs. (R) Rodrigo Lopez (5-8) New York Mets at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM (L) Tom Glavine (11-2) vs. (R) Curt Schilling (9-2) Washington Nationals at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (R) John Patterson (1-1) vs. (R) Roy Halladay (9-2) Kansas City Royals at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (R) Bobby Keppel (0-4) vs. (R) Bronson Arroyo (9-4) Seattle Mariners at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (R) Gil Meche (7-4) vs. (R) Enrique Gonzalez (2-1)
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 gray 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 47 28 .627 0.0 43 4NYA 44 32 .579 3.5 45 -1
TOR 43 34 .558 5.0 43 0
BAL 37 42 .468 12.0 36 1
TB 34 45 .430 15.0 32 2
American League Central DET 54 25 .684 0.0 52 2
CHA 51 26 .662 2.0 48 3
MIN 42 35 .545 11.0 41 1
CLE 35 42 .455 18.0 41 -6
KC 25 51 .329 27.5 25 0
American League West OAK 41 36 .532 0.0 39 2
TEX 40 38 .513 1.5 41 -1
SEA 40 39 .506 2.0 42 -2
LAA 35 43 .449 6.5 35 0
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 47 30 .610 0.0 45 2
PHI 35 42 .455 12.0 35 0
FLA 34 41 .453 12.0 38 -4
WAS 33 46 .418 15.0 34 -1
ATL 33 46 .418 15.0 37 -4
National League Central STL 43 34 .558 0.0 40 3
CIN 42 36 .538 1.5 39 3
MIL 39 40 .494 5.0 35 4
HOU 38 41 .481 6.0 36 2
CHN 29 48 .377 14.0 29 0
PIT 26 53 .329 18.0 33 -7
National League West SD 41 36 .532 0.0 41 0
LAN 40 38 .513 1.5 44 -4
COL 40 38 .513 1.5 40 0
SF 39 38 .506 2.0 40 -1
ARI 37 41 .474 4.5 37 0
Game of the Day
Alex Rodriguez showed skeptics that he can indeed be a clutch hitter with a two-run homer in the 12th inning, rallying the New York Yankees to a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves. Marcus Giles had put Atlanta ahead with a solo shot in the top half.
Jorge Sosa (2-10) walked Jason Giambi with one out. Rodriguez, in a 2-for-20 slump, then drove a 3-1 pitch way over the left-field fence for his 16th home run. Most of the game was a pitching duel between John Smoltz and Chien-Ming Wang.
ATLANTA (3) VS NY YANKEES (4) - FINAL IN 12 INNINGS
ATLANTA ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
M Giles 2b 5 1 1 1 1 2 1 .238
E Renteria ss 6 1 1 0 0 0 0 .300
C Jones 3b 6 1 3 0 0 0 0 .288
A Jones cf 5 0 2 1 1 0 1 .282
B McCann c 5 0 2 1 0 0 0 .353
P Orr pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .211
S Thorman 1b 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .120
J Francoeur rf 6 0 2 0 0 0 7 .254
A LaRoche 1b 4 0 0 0 0 1 2 .241
a-M Diaz ph 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .339
T Pratt c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .195
W Betemit dh 5 0 0 0 0 0 4 .268
R Langerhans lf 4 0 0 0 1 1 0 .239
Totals 46 3 11 3 4 4 15
a-hit by pitch for A Laroche in the 11th.
BATTING: 2B - E Renteria (15, C Wang); A Jones (15, C Wang); C Jones (14, S
Proctor). HR - M Giles (5, 12th inning off S Proctor 0 on, 1 Out). RBI - A
Jones (65), B McCann (23), M Giles (25). 2-out RBI - B McCann. Runners left in
scoring position, 2 out - W Betemit 2, J Francoeur 4. GIDP - M Giles. Team LOB
- 12.
BASERUNNING: CS - M Giles (4, 2nd base by M Rivera/J Posada).
NY YANKEES ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
J Damon cf 5 0 0 0 1 0 0 .295
M Cabrera lf 5 1 1 0 1 1 2 .261
D Jeter ss 5 0 1 0 1 1 1 .331
J Giambi dh 4 1 2 1 2 0 2 .271
K Reese pr 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .429
A Rodriguez 3b 5 1 2 3 1 0 2 .279
B Williams rf 3 0 0 0 2 1 1 .276
B Crosby pr-rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .245
A Phillips 1b 5 0 1 0 0 2 4 .289
M Cairo 2b 5 0 1 0 0 1 4 .229
K Stinnett c 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 .224
a-J Posada ph-c 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 .288
Totals 42 4 8 4 8 9 18
a-lined out to shortstop for K Stinnett in the 7th.
BATTING: 2B - D Jeter (17, J Smoltz). 3B - A Phillips (3, J Smoltz). HR - J
Giambi (23, 8th inning off K Ray 0 on, 1 Out), A Rodriguez (16, 12th inning off
J Sosa 1 on, 1 Out). RBI - A Rodriguez 3 (55), J Giambi (62). Runners left in
scoring position, 2 out - A Phillips 1, B Williams 1, J Giambi 1, A Rodriguez
1, M Cairo 1, M Cabrera 1. Team LOB - 12.
BASERUNNING: SB - M Cabrera (3, 2nd base off C Paronto/B McCann).
FIELDING: E - A Rodriguez (13, ground ball). DP: 1 (D Jeter-M Cairo-A
Phillips).
----------------------------------------------------
ATLANTA - 000 101 000 001 -- 3
NY YANKEES - 000 001 010 002 -- 4
One out when winning run scored.
----------------------------------------------------
ATLANTA ip h r er bb so hr era
J Smoltz 7 6 1 1 2 5 0 3.73
K Ray (B, 3) 1/3 1 1 1 2 0 1 3.03
C Paronto 1 1/3 0 0 0 2 3 0 3.57
M McBride 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 4.56
O Villarreal 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 4.14
J Sosa (L, 2-10; B, 1) 1/3 1 2 2 1 0 1 5.45
NY YANKEES ip h r er bb so hr era
C Wang 8 7 2 2 1 2 0 4.01
M Rivera 2 1 0 0 1 2 0 1.88
K Farnsworth 2/3 1 0 0 0 0 0 4.89
M Myers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.67
S Proctor 1 2 1 1 1 0 1 4.22
R Villone (W, 1-1) 1/3 0 0 0 1 0 0 2.18
M Myers pitched to 1 batter in the 11th.
WP - R Villone. IBB - D Jeter (by C Paronto), A Jones (by S Proctor). HBP - M
Diaz (by M Myers). Pitches-strikes: J Smoltz 110-73; K Ray 16-6; C Paronto
28-13; M McBride 2-2; O Villarreal 22-15; J Sosa 14-7; C Wang 91-60; M Rivera
33-23; K Farnsworth 10-8; M Myers 5-2; S Proctor 24-12; R Villone 6-2. Ground
balls-fly balls: J Smoltz 7-9; K Ray 0-1; C Paronto 0-1; M McBride 0-1; O
Villarreal 3-2; J Sosa 1-0; C Wang 19-3; M Rivera 3-0; K Farnsworth 2-0; M
Myers 0-0; S Proctor 0-3; R Villone 0-1. Batters faced: J Smoltz 29; K Ray 4; C
Paronto 6; M McBride 1; O Villarreal 7; J Sosa 3; C Wang 31; M Rivera 7; K
Farnsworth 4; M Myers 1; S Proctor 6; R Villone 2.
UMPIRES: HP--Randy Marsh. 1B--Angel Hernandez. 2B--Hunter Wendelstedt.
3B--Sam Holbrook.
T--3:59. Att--54,186.
Weather: 83 degrees, partly cloudy. Wind: 9 mph, right to left.
The following graph tracks the game’s Win Probability, courtesy of Fan Graphs.
Yesterday’s Home Runs
The following stats are provided by Hit Tracker, which logs the projected distance of each home run (if it were to land uninterrupted at field level) and its “standard” distance, which is corrected for weather conditions.
Hitter Pitcher True Dist. Std. Dist. HR # Howard, Ryan PHI Rleal, Sendy BAL 434 442 27 Griffey Jr., Ken CIN Sisco, Andrew KC 415 442 15 Lopez, Felipe CIN Elarton, Scott KC 409 432 8 Piazza, Mike SD Flores, Ron OAK 420 426 11 Rodriguez, Alex NYY Sosa, Jorge ATL 446 425 16 Lee, Derrek CHC Kolb, Dan MIL 416 419 4 Burrell, Pat PHI Birkins, Kurt BAL 429 413 19 Utley, Chase PHI Benson, Kris BAL 414 412 15 Reed, Jeremy SEA Gonzalez, Edgar G ARI 422 410 6 Rolen, Scott STL Westbrook, Jake CLE 416 409 10 Hernandez, Ramon BAL Fultz, Aaron PHI 410 407 15 Hall, Bill MIL Howry, Bob CHC 401 404 16 Delgado, Carlos NYM Beckett, Josh BOS 429 403 22 Hernandez, Ramon BAL Hamels, Cole PHI 418 400 14 Aurilia, Rich CIN Elarton, Scott KC 388 400 10 Durham, Ray SF Rheinecker, John TEX 394 395 8 Buck, John KC Harang, Aaron CIN 377 395 7 Hunter, Torii MIN Perez, Odalis LAD 396 392 12 Howard, Ryan PHI Benson, Kris BAL 393 391 26 Pierre, Juan CHC Bush, Dave MIL 393 390 1 Hatteberg, Scott CIN Elarton, Scott KC 364 386 6 Giles, Marcus ATL Proctor, Scott NYY 393 377 5 Dellucci, David PHI Benson, Kris BAL 377 375 4 Roberts, Brian BAL Hamels, Cole PHI 389 373 1 Valentin, Jose NYM Beckett, Josh BOS 387 369 8 Cameron, Mike SD Blanton, Joe OAK 360 369 9 Victorino, Shane PHI Birkins, Kurt BAL 383 368 4 Bautista, Jose PIT Garcia, Freddy CWS 389 360 9 Giambi, Jason NYY Ray, Ken ATL 343 359 23 Burnitz, Jeromy PIT Garcia, Freddy CWS 366 346 12 Gonzalez, Alex BOS Martinez, Pedro NYM 367 335 5
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 POS AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes
ARI A Will Crouch 1B 5 4 2 0 1 0 0 4 runs scored
ATL AAA Michael Ryan RF 3 3 1 0 1 0 0
HOU A Ole Sheldon DH 5 4 0 0 1 0 1
HOU A Ryan Reed RF 3 2 0 1 1 1 1
NYM A Nicholas Evans 1B 4 3 0 0 2 1 1 3 runs scored
PHI A+ J.J. Johnson RF 4 3 0 1 1 0 0 5 RBI
SD A- David Freese 3B 3 3 1 0 1 0 0 4 runs scored
SD A- Chad Huffman LF 4 3 1 0 1 0 0 4 RBI
STL AAA John Nelson SS 3 3 1 0 1 2 0 3 runs scored
ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes
CHW A Richard Brooks 6.0 2 0 0 5 0 0
COL A- Tomas Santiago 7.0 2 0 0 5 2 0
HOU AA Chance Douglass 9.0 5 0 0 10 0 0
LA A David Horlacher 5.2 1 0 0 6 3 0 18 K over last 15 IP
LA A+ Scott Elbert 7.2 1 1 1 13 4 0 1.01 ERA over past month
MIL AA Tim Dillard 8.1 4 2 2 8 2 0
SEA AAA Cesar Jimenez 9.0 1 0 0 4 2 0
TB AA Tony Peguero 7.0 1 0 0 7 3 0
TOR AAA Jamie Vermilyea 7.0 5 1 1 6 0 0
WAN AAA Billy Traber 7.0 5 1 1 6 0 0
Player News
Player news items are provided by CBS SportsLine.com.
Goodbye for now.
- Ryan Howard hit two homers to take the major league lead with 27. He was 2-for-3 with two RBI in the game.
- Juan Pierre went 2-for-5 with a homer. Pierre had gone 643 at-bats without a homer — his previous one came on July 7, 2005, against the Brewers. It was the second-longest homerless streak in the majors behind Houston’s Willy Taveras, who hasn’t homered in 657 at-bats.
- Derrek Lee’s first homer in almost three months came at the best possible time for the reeling Chicago Cubs. His long, two-run shot into the left-field bleachers tied the score in the eighth inning, and the Cubs scored three more runs to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-3.
- Joe Mauer went 2-for-3 with a walk to improve his major league-best batting average to .392. He went 11-for-13 in the three-game sweep and had hits in eight consecutive at-bats before grounding out in the second inning. He is batting .484 (46-for-95) in June.
- Mike Cameron homered for the fourth time in five games.
- Johan Santana finished June 5-0 in six starts with a 1.05 ERA.
- Milwaukee reliever Matt Wise was hoping to pitch soon after being unavailable for two games following a freak accident. Wise got a cut on the middle finger of his right hand when he reached into a bowl Sunday and caught his finger on salad tongs. “I was going after a salad,” Wise said.
- The Giants recalled first baseman Lance Niekro from Triple-A Fresno on Wednesday. Niekro had been on a rehab assignment and hit two home runs earlier in the day for the Grizzlies.
- The Giants scratched right fielder Moises Alou from the starting lineup Wednesday night, then quickly placed him on the disabled list with strained lower back. The move is retroactive to June 18.
- The commissioner’s office suspended San Diego Padres catcher Josh Bard one game for his aggressive actions during a game against Seattle on Sunday. Bard was ejected Sunday by plate umpire Paul Nauert after taking a called third strike in a 9-4 loss to the Mariners. After being tossed, Bard argued with Nauert and pointed his bat at the umpire’s face. The catcher had to be restrained by third base coach Glenn Hoffman.
- Dan Uggla pinch hit in the ninth inning and grounded out to third on Wednesday against Tampa Bay. He had missed the last seven games with a hamstring injury.
- Michael Barrett’s 10-game suspension for punching A.J. Pierzynski ends Friday just in time for the Cubs’ catcher to play in what promises to be an emotionally charged rematch with the White Sox. “I just reacted,” Barrett said Wednesday, looking back on his punch that set off a brawl May 20. “Like I said, I’m not happy about what happened. … You know we all make mistakes, we all do things that certainly when you look back on, hindsight is 20-20. But it’s time to move on and play baseball.”
- Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Brett Myers was placed on the temporary inactive list Wednesday and optioned to Class-A Clearwater, one day after asking for a leave of absence following his arrest on charges of hitting his wife in the face.
- The Phillies called up right-hander Adam Bernero from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said Bernero will start Friday in Toronto. “I don’t know much about him, but that I saw him pitch last year in Atlanta,” Manuel said.
- With a doubleheader Wednesday and Brett Myers on leave until, the Phillies are hoping Jon Lieber (strained groin) could return to start Sunday in Toronto, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
- Randy Wolf (elbow, hand) has a hairline fracture in his hand after being hit by a liner in his rehab assignment, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
- RHP Matt Belisle was activated off the 15-day DL after recovering from a strained back. He could get a chance to pitch in a set-up role in Cincinnati’s struggling bullpen.
THT Stats
Stolen bases are good, getting caught stealing is bad. As a general rule of thumb, getting caught stealing is about twice as bad as stealing a base, which means that normal stolen base totals or even stolen base percentages aren’t the best way to judge a basestealer.
Here’s a good method for ranking basestealers: Net stolen bases, or stolen bases minus 2 times caught stealing. Corey Patterson and Ichiro are the league leaders in this category; in fact, I didn’t realize just how outstanding Patterson has been on the bases this year. I’ve expanded the list to include anyone with at least three net stolen bases so that you can see how certain players (Scott Podsednik is one example) can be overrated by simple stolen base counts.
Last First Team SB CS SB% Net SB Patterson Corey BAL 29 4 88% 21 Suzuki Ichiro SEA 25 2 93% 21 Reyes Jose NYN 34 8 81% 18 Figgins Chone LAA 27 6 82% 15 Crawford Carl TB 26 6 81% 14 Ramirez Hanley FLA 22 4 85% 14 Phillips Brandon CIN 14 0 100% 14 Roberts Brian BAL 19 3 86% 13 Roberts Dave SD 19 4 83% 11 Jeter Derek NYA 15 2 88% 11 Pierre Juan CHN 24 7 77% 10 Lopez Felipe CIN 22 6 79% 10 Rollins Jimmy PHI 18 4 82% 10 Cabrera Orlando LAA 12 1 92% 10 Freel Ryan CIN 17 4 81% 9 Sizemore Grady CLE 13 2 87% 9 Damon Johnny NYA 16 4 80% 8 Cameron Mike SD 12 2 86% 8 Abreu Bobby PHI 15 4 79% 7 Weeks Rickie MIL 15 4 79% 7 Wright David A NYN 11 2 85% 7 Crosby Bobby OAK 7 0 100% 7 Beltran Carlos NYN 12 3 80% 6 Lee Carlos MIL 10 2 83% 6 Beltre Adrian SEA 10 2 83% 6 Byrnes Eric ARI 8 1 89% 6 Barfield Joshua L SD 8 1 89% 6 Mauer Joe MIN 7 1 88% 5 Blake Casey CLE 5 0 100% 5 Podsednik Scott CHA 24 10 71% 4 Soriano Alfonso WAS 18 7 72% 4 Renteria Edgar ATL 8 2 80% 4 Furcal Rafael LAN 17 7 71% 3 Wells Vernon TOR 9 3 75% 3
Access all of THT’s stats here…
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Dave Studeman was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Follow his sporadic tweets @dastudes.