THT Daily: America’s Obesity Problem
Major League News for September 20
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Game of the Day
Yesterday’s Home Runs
Player News
Stats
Yesterday’s Results
American League MIN 7 BOS 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Morneau: 5 for 5, 2 2B BAL 5 TB 4 (Recap and Boxscore) TB: 9th straight loss NYA 6 TOR 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 7 DET 0 (Recap and Boxscore) See below LAA 5 KC 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Saunders: 7 IP, 1 R OAK 7 CLE 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Kielty: GS HR; Saarloos: 5 IP, 2 R, 11 K SEA 9 TEX 7 (Recap and Boxscore) 10 innings; Bloomquist: 5 for 6 National League NYN 3 FLA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Glavine: 8 IP, 2 R; Olsen: 7 IP, 1 R PHI 4 CHN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Moyer: 7 IP, 1 R, PHI: 1 G out of wildcard WAS 9 ATL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Beltran: 6 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, first ML start CIN 5 HOU 4 (Recap and Boxscore) Scott: 2B, 3B, HR STL 12 MIL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) STL keystone combo: 7-10; Weaver: 6 IP, 2 R COL 12 SF 4 (Recap and Boxscore) Atkins: 3B, 2 HR PIT 10 LAN 6 (Recap and Boxscore) Bautista: 5 RBI; Snell: 6 IP, 1 R; Only 2 LA HR’s SD 5 ARI 2 (Recap and Boxscore) Hensley: 6 IP, 2 R; Cameron: HR, 3 RBI
Today’s Games
Visitors Home Starts CIN - Arroyo B. (14-9, 3.17) HOU - Clemens R. (6-5, 2.52) 2:05 SF - Schmidt J. (11-8, 3.45) COL - Cook A. (9-14, 4.23) 3:05 BAL - Penn H. (0-3, 27.00) TB - Seo J. (1-6, 4.28) 4:15 CHC - Walrond L.* (0-0, 7.59) PHI - Myers B. (11-6, 4.04) 7:05 ATL - Cormier L. (3-5, 5.23) WAS - Ortiz R. (10-14, 5.30) 7:05 MIN - Bonser B. (5-5, 4.52) BOS - Schilling C. (14-7, 4.13) 7:05 NYY - Henn S.* (0-0, 9.00) TOR - Halladay R. (16-5, 3.20) 7:07 FLA - Willis D.* (11-11, 3.80) NYM - Perez O.* (3-11, 6.61) 7:10 DET - Bonderman J. (12-8, 4.14) CWS - Garland J. (17-5, 4.30) 8:05 SEA - Baek C. (3-1, 3.90) TEX - Tejeda R. (4-3, 4.58) 8:05 STL - Suppan J. (12-7, 4.23) MIL - Villanueva C. (1-1, 4.05) 8:05 LAA - Escobar K. (10-13, 3.54) KC - Perez O.* (2-3, 5.82) 8:10 CLE - Carmona F. (1-9, 6.03) OAK - Loaiza E. (10-8, 4.83) 10:05 ARI - Gonzalez E. (1-3, 5.26) SD - Wells D.* (0-1, 3.94) 10:05 PIT - Chacon S. (1-3, 5.56) LAD - Maddux G. (13-13, 4.22) 10:10
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 NYA 92 59 .609 0.0 90 2BOS 81 70 .536 11.0 76 5
TOR 79 72 .523 13.0 80 -1
BAL 66 85 .437 26.0 65 1
TB 57 94 .377 35.0 59 -2
American League Central DET 90 61 .596 0.0 89 1
MIN 89 61 .593 0.5 86 3
CHA 85 66 .563 5.0 85 0
CLE 70 80 .467 19.5 81 -11
KC 58 93 .384 32.0 58 0
American League West OAK 87 63 .580 0.0 80 7
LAA 81 70 .536 6.5 77 4
TEX 77 75 .507 11.0 82 -5
SEA 72 79 .477 15.5 72 0
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 92 58 .613 0.0 86 6
PHI 78 73 .517 14.5 79 -1
FLA 74 77 .490 18.5 76 -2
ATL 73 78 .483 19.5 77 -4
WAS 66 85 .437 26.5 65 1
National League Central STL 80 69 .537 0.0 78 2
CIN 74 77 .490 7.0 71 3
HOU 72 78 .480 8.5 75 -3
MIL 68 83 .450 13.0 65 3
PIT 64 87 .424 17.0 66 -2
CHN 62 90 .408 19.5 64 -2
National League West SD 79 71 .527 0.0 79 0
LAN 79 72 .523 0.5 80 -1
SF 74 76 .493 5.0 72 2
ARI 71 79 .473 8.0 73 -2
COL 71 80 .470 8.5 77 -6
Wildcard Standings American League MIN 89 61 .593 0.0 CHA 85 66 .563 4.5 BOS 81 70 .536 8.5 LAA 81 70 .536 8.5 TOR 79 72 .523 10.5 National League LAN 79 72 .523 0.0 PHI 78 73 .517 1.0 SF 74 76 .493 4.5 FLA 74 77 .490 5.0 CIN 74 77 .490 5.0
Game of the Day
For the second start in a row, Freddy Garcia allowed only one hit over eight innings and the White Sox beat the Tigers 7-0. The win keeps the White Sox in the AL Central and wildcard races, if just barely. A.J. Pierzynski hit a grand slam home run for the Pale Hose.
The last starter to go at least eight innings and allow no more than one hit in consecutive starts was Dave Stieb in 1988, and the only other pitcher to do so in the last 50 years was Sam McDowell in 1966.
DETROIT (0) VS CHI WHITE SOX (7) - FINAL DETROIT ab r h rbi bb so lob avg C Granderson cf 3 0 0 0 1 3 0 .261 I Rodriguez c 3 0 1 0 0 1 0 .293 V Wilson c 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 .276 S Casey 1b 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 .248 C Shelton 1b 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 .273 M Ordonez rf 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 .294 B Clevlen rf 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 .297 C Guillen ss 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 .309 O Infante 2b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .288 M Stairs dh 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .241 C Monroe lf 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 .259 A Gomez lf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .283 B Inge 3b 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 .251 K Hooper 3b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 N Perez 2b-ss 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 .193 Totals 29 0 2 0 2 8 9 BATTING: Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - C Guillen 1. Team LOB - 4. FIELDING: DP: 1 (N Perez-O Infante-S Casey). CHI WHITE SOX ab r h rbi bb so lob avg S Podsednik lf 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 .261 a-J Fields ph-3b-lf 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .500 T Iguchi 2b 3 1 1 1 1 0 2 .287 J Dye rf 3 2 1 1 0 0 1 .320 R Sweeney rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .235 J Thome dh 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 .287 J Owens pr-dh-cf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 P Konerko 1b 4 1 2 0 0 0 1 .314 A Pierzynski c 4 1 2 4 0 1 0 .292 J Crede 3b 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 .291 R Mackowiak lf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .289 A Cintron ss 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 .283 B Anderson cf 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 .231 Totals 30 7 10 7 4 2 10 a-flied out to right for S Podsednik in the 8th. BATTING: HR - A Pierzynski (16, 4th inning off J Verlander 3 on, 0 Out), J Dye (43, 5th inning off J Verlander 0 on, 2 Out), J Thome (41, 5th inning off J Verlander 0 on, 2 Out), T Iguchi (16, 7th inning off C Durbin 0 on, 0 Out). S - S Podsednik. RBI - A Pierzynski 4 (63), J Dye (118), J Thome (102), T Iguchi (63). 2-out RBI - J Dye, J Thome. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - J Crede 1, T Iguchi 1, J Fields 1. GIDP - P Konerko. Team LOB - 6. BASERUNNING: CS - S Podsednik (18, 2nd base by J Verlander/I Rodriguez). Picked Off - A Cintron (1st base, J Verlander). ---------------------------------------------------- DETROIT - 000 000 000 -- 0 CHI WHITE SOX - 000 420 10x -- 7 ---------------------------------------------------- DETROIT ip h r er bb so hr era J Verlander (L, 16-9) 4 2/3 6 6 6 3 2 3 3.63 C Durbin 1 2/3 3 1 1 0 0 1 5.40 A Miller 1 2/3 1 0 0 1 0 0 2.84 CHI WHITE SOX ip h r er bb so hr era F Garcia (W, 15-9) 8 1 0 0 2 5 0 4.63 B Jenks 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 3.86 HBP - J Dye (by J Verlander); B Anderson (by A Miller). Pitches-strikes: J Verlander 93-53; C Durbin 21-12; A Miller 21-13; F Garcia 106-67; B Jenks 16-14. Ground balls-fly balls: J Verlander 3-7; C Durbin 4-1; A Miller 4-1; F Garcia 9-10; B Jenks 0-0. Batters faced: J Verlander 22; C Durbin 8; A Miller 7; F Garcia 27; B Jenks 4. UMPIRES: HP--Larry Young. 1B--Alfonso Marquez. 2B--Mike Everitt. 3B--Tom Hallion. T--2:25. Att--38,850. Weather: 55 degrees, cloudy. Wind: 14 mph, out to center.
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. You can read their daily updates at the Hit Tracker Blog.
Two innings after taking a Matt Cain pitch in the back, Colorado’s Matt Holliday took him deep for the longest home run of 2006, a 496 foot home run to left field at Coors Field during a 12-4 win over the visiting San Francisco Giants. Holliday’s blast left the bat at a powerful 116.8 mph and under standard conditions (70 degrees, no wind, sea level) would have traveled 443 feet, a notable but not especially long distance. However, the game was at Coors Field, which is as far from standard conditions as you can get. The wind, temperature and altitude added +6, +1 and +44 feet respectively (note: these numbers are rounded, which is why they don’t add to 496), turning Holliday’s homer into the longest of the year, dethroning Ryan Howard and his 491 foot blast that had stood up for 5 months…
Holliday knocked his previous long homer of the season, a 475 foot shot at Dodger Stadium, out of the top 5, but with 2 of the 6 longest homers of the year, one of which came on the road, Holliday is establishing himself as one of the premier long-distance hitters in the major leagues!
Hitter Pitcher True Dist Std. Dist. HR # Holliday, Matt COL Cain, Matt SF 496 443 29 Posada, Jorge NYY Marcum, Shaun TOR 464 443 20 Guerrero, Vladimir LAA De La Rosa, Jorge KC 432 431 30 Teixeira, Mark TEX Washburn, Jarrod SEA 431 425 28 Quinlan, Robb LAA De La Rosa, Jorge KC 420 425 8 Kielty, Bobby OAK Lee, Cliff CLE 427 423 8 Cameron, Mike SD Hernandez, Orlando ARI 417 420 21 Scott, Luke HOU Harang, Aaron CIN 431 418 7 Johjima, Kenji SEA Volquez, Edinson TEX 421 418 17 Chavez, Eric OAK Lee, Cliff CLE 414 416 20 Nady, Xavier PIT Kuo, Hong-Chih LAD 427 415 17 Johnson, Nick WAS James, Chuck ATL 420 415 23 Abreu, Bobby NYY Speier, Justin TOR 410 411 12 Murton, Matt CHC Moyer, Jamie PHI 403 411 13 Hall, Bill MIL Weaver, Jeff STL 412 409 32 Anderson, Marlon LAD Capps, Matt PIT 420 408 10 Belliard, Ronnie STL Sheets, Ben MIL 410 408 10 Furcal, Rafael LAD Snell, Ian PIT 417 407 15 Helms, Wes FLA Glavine, Tom NYM 398 405 9 Matthews, Gary TEX Washburn, Jarrod SEA 406 400 19 Atkins, Garrett COL Cain, Matt SF 435 394 26 Blalock, Hank TEX Jimenez, Cesar SEA 403 392 16 Cantu, Jorge TB Loewen, Adam BAL 393 392 14 Hernandez, Anderson NYM Olsen, Scott FLA 381 392 1 Pierzynski, A.J. CWS Verlander, Justin DET 423 391 16 Gonzalez, Adrian SD Hernandez, Orlando ARI 401 391 23 Atkins, Garrett COL Wright, Jamey SF 419 388 27 Vidro, Jose WAS James, Chuck ATL 380 384 7 Hunter, Torii MIN Wakefield, Tim BOS 407 379 27 Iguchi, Tadahito CWS Durbin, Chad DET 392 367 16 Bautista, Jose PIT Dessens, Elmer LAD 372 364 14 Matsui, Hideki NYY Tallet, Brian TOR 356 357 7 Kinsler, Ian TEX Jimenez, Cesar SEA 357 356 13 Rollins, Jimmy PHI Aardsma, David CHC 365 355 22 Denorfia, Chris CIN Albers, Matt HOU 358 353 1 Swisher, Nick OAK Perez, Rafael CLE 347 350 32 Everett, Adam HOU Harang, Aaron CIN 372 349 6 Thome, Jim CWS Verlander, Justin DET 374 344 41 Dye, Jermaine CWS Verlander, Justin DET 380 341 43 Bartlett, Jason MIN Wakefield, Tim BOS 364 323 2
Player News
Player news items are provided by CBS SportsLine.com.
Verlander, Josh Johnson, Weaver, Sanchez, Cain … in a season when every month seemed to deliver a new candidate for top rookie pitcher, Chuck James has quietly been the winningest freshman (10-4) since the date of his first victory (June 25). But there’s a new sheriff in town. On Tuesday night, Beltran Perez of the Nationals defeated James and the Braves, and he did it impressively, allowing one hit and no walks in six innings. Only two other pitchers in the live-ball era allowed a total of one hit and walk pitching at least six innings in their first major-league start: Darrin Winston (1997 Phillies) and Jimmy Jones (1986 Padres). (Source: Elias)
Kirk Saarloos struck out 11 batters in five innings in earning the victory in the A’s 7-3 win over the Indians. Saarloos hadn’t recorded even half that many strikeouts in any of his previous 29 starts.
Delmon Young went 0-for-4 in the Devil Rays’ 5-4 loss to the Orioles, and he’s now 31-for-84 (.369) after 20 major-league games. Young’s total of 31 hits to date is the most by any player in his first 20 games since Bo Hart went 32-for-89 (.360) for the Cardinals in 2003. According to Elias, the last AL player with at least 31 hits in his first 20 games was Ichiro (31-for-88 in 2001).
The Pirates defeated the Dodgers, 10-6, on Tuesday night despite striking out 15 times. It was the third time this season that a team scored in double-figures despite at least 15 strikeouts. (The Braves and Nationals did it, both against the Phillies.) There were only two other such games during the live-ball era — one in 2001, the other in 1975.
Jeff Karstens was the winning pitcher in the Yankees’ 6-3 victory over the Blue Jays, one night after his fellow rookie teammate Darrell Rasner started and won. It was the first time in 15 years that a pair of Yankees rookies started and won consecutive games. On Wednesday night, Sean Henn can try to match the three-game streak in 1991 by Scott Kamieniecki, Jeff Johnson, and Wade Taylor. (Source: Elias)
Jimmy Rollins hit his 22nd home run of the season and extended his stolen-base streak to 20 in a row in the Phillies’ 4-1 victory over the Cubs.
The Red Sox purchased the contract of RHP Devern Hansack from Double-A Portland of the EL an placed LHP Abe Alvarez on the 60-day DL. Hansack, 28, was 2-0 with a 1.93 ERA (3 ER/14 IP) in his two starts in the Double-A playoffs, pitching seven shutout innings in Game 1 and allowing three runs in seven frames with eight strikeouts as the Sea Dogs were 8-5 winners in the fifth and deciding game Sunday. He spent the entire 2006 season at Portland, going 8-7 with a 3.26 ERA and one save in 31 games/18 starts. He led the Sea Dogs in innings (132 1/3) and strikeouts (124) and had the lowest ERA on the staff.
The Giants want RHP Brian Wilson to pitch in winter ball and become a closer. “He has the good fastball and slider,” manager Felipe Alou said. “But he’s weird and off beat. I saw him downtown (Monday) and he asked me when he had to be at the ballpark.” He returned from a side problem Monday night and might be a candidate for token save chances in the season’s final days.
1B Todd Helton was moved from No. 2 to No. 5 in the batting order Monday. “It’s something I’ve been toying about for a long time and didn’t want to wait until spring training to do it,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “It will give him more chances to drive in runs.”
The Reds said LHP Chris Michalak will start Friday in place of Eric Milton, who says his sore left elbow has ended his season. Milton left the game against San Diego on Sept. 12 with the elbow getting stiff on him. He had a cortisone shot the next day and tried to pitch Sunday but lasted only seven batters and realized he shouldn’t have pitched. Jason Johnson will likely be the Reds’ No. 5 starter when that turn comes up next week.
Michael Young is hitting .403 (29-of-72) with 10 multihit games in September, raising his average from .296 to .317.
1B Tony Clark is expected to undergo right shoulder surgery soon. Manager Bob Melvin said he hopes Clark, who is signed through next season, will be ready for spring training.
THT Stats
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