THT Daily: Four Wild Pitches
Major League News for July 26
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
American League TOR 12 SEA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) McDonald: GS HR, 5 RBI; Halladay: 7 IP, 3 R NYA 7 TEX 4 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA: 7 R on 4 H; Mussina: 6 IP, 3 R TB 6 LAA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Wigginton: 2B, HR, 4 RBI; Shields: 6.1 IP, 2 R BOS 13 OAK 5 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 4 CHA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Santana: 7 IP, 3 R; Bartlett: 3-R HR KC 7 BAL 5 (Recap and Boxscore) Teahen: 2 HR, 5 RBI; Tejada: 4-4 CLE 12 DET 7 (Recap and Boxscore) Rogers: .2 IP, 7 R National League WAS 8 SF 6 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS: 8 R on 8 1B, 1 2B; Durham: 2 HR SD 7 LAN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) Gonzalez: 2 2B, 3 RBI STL 1 COL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) See below PIT 6 MIL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Burnitz: 2 HR, Snell: 7 IP, 1 R; Sheets: 7 IP, 1 R ARI 6 PHI 5 (Recap and Boxscore) 11 innings; Utley: 2 HR; Madson: 4 WP CHN 8 NYN 6 (Recap and Boxscore) Zambrano: 11th W, 4th HR CIN 2 HOU 0 (Recap and Boxscore) Harang (8 IP, 0 R) over Clemens (7 IP, 2 R) FLA 2 ATL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) Ross: 2 HR; Sanchez: 7 IP, 1 R
Today’s Games
Visitors Home Time DET - Verlander J. (12-4, 2.77) CLE - Sabathia C.* (7-6, 3.73) 12:05 CHC - Prior M. (0-4, 8.14) NYM - Maine J. (1-3, 3.12) 12:10 LAA - Colon B. (1-5, 4.55) TB - Fossum C.* (4-3, 4.84) 12:15 MIN - Silva C. (5-9, 6.91) CWS - Buehrle M.* (9-8, 4.53) 2:05 PIT - Maholm P.* (3-9, 5.02) MIL - Capuano C.* (10-5, 3.49) 2:05 STL - Suppan J. (7-5, 5.17) COL - Cook A. (6-8, 3.80) 3:05 SD - Peavy J. (4-10, 5.15) LAD - Penny B. (10-4, 3.23) 3:10 BOS - Snyder K. (2-1, 7.02) OAK - Haren D. (6-9, 4.02) 3:35 ARI - Webb B. (11-3, 2.51) PHI - Lieber J. (3-7, 5.55) 7:05 SF - Lowry N.* (5-6, 4.45) WAS - Astacio P. (1-1, 5.75) 7:05 FLA - Johnson J. (8-5, 2.49) ATL - Smoltz J. (7-5, 3.43) 7:35 NYY - Wright J. (6-6, 4.71) TEX - Rheinecker J.* (4-4, 5.13) 8:05 CIN - Arroyo B. (9-6, 2.92) HOU - Pettitte A.* (8-10, 5.08) 8:05 BAL - Loewen A.* (0-2, 7.09) KC - Gobble J.* (3-3, 4.88) 8:10 TOR - Burnett A. (2-3, 3.99) SEA - Moyer J.* (5-9, 4.10) 10:05
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 61 38 .616 0.0 57 4NYA 58 40 .592 2.5 57 1
TOR 56 44 .560 5.5 56 0
BAL 45 56 .446 17.0 43 2
TB 42 59 .416 20.0 41 1
American League Central DET 67 33 .670 0.0 63 4
CHA 59 40 .596 7.5 57 2
MIN 58 41 .586 8.5 55 3
CLE 44 55 .444 22.5 53 -9
KC 35 64 .354 31.5 37 -2
American League West OAK 51 49 .510 0.0 49 2
LAA 51 49 .510 0.0 50 1
TEX 51 50 .505 0.5 52 -1
SEA 48 52 .480 3.0 50 -2
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 59 41 .590 0.0 57 2
ATL 47 52 .475 11.5 52 -5
FLA 46 52 .469 12.0 48 -2
PHI 44 53 .454 13.5 45 -1
WAS 44 56 .440 15.0 45 -1
National League Central STL 57 42 .576 0.0 51 6
CIN 53 47 .530 4.5 49 4
MIL 48 53 .475 10.0 44 4
HOU 47 53 .470 10.5 47 0
CHN 39 60 .394 18.0 40 -1
PIT 36 66 .353 22.5 44 -8
National League West SD 53 47 .530 0.0 51 2
ARI 51 48 .515 1.5 49 2
SF 51 49 .510 2.0 51 0
COL 47 52 .475 5.5 51 -4
LAN 47 54 .465 6.5 51 -4
Game of the Day
There was another pitching duel in Colorado; the Cardinals beat the Rockies 1-0 yesterday, behind Chris Carpenter and a solo home run by Albert Pujols. Jason Jennings took the complete-game loss.
It was the 10th shutout in 46 games in Colorado this season (22 percent). From 1993-2005 there were only 38 shutouts in 1020 games played in Denver (4 percent). The game was only the fourth 1-0 game played in Colorado, and only the second in which the only run scored via a homer.
ST LOUIS (1) VS COLORADO (0) - FINAL ST LOUIS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg D Eckstein ss 4 0 1 0 0 2 0 .302 S Taguchi lf 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 .280 A Pujols 1b 4 1 1 1 0 0 2 .327 S Rolen 3b 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 .320 J Encarnacion rf 3 0 1 0 0 0 3 .284 J Edmonds cf 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 .253 Y Molina c 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .218 A Miles 2b 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 .261 C Carpenter p 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 .075 R Flores p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 J Isringhausen p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Totals 29 1 4 1 2 4 6 BATTING: HR - A Pujols (33, 6th inning off J Jennings 0 on, 2 Out). RBI - A Pujols (86). 2-out RBI - A Pujols. GIDP - J Encarnacion. Team LOB - 3. BASERUNNING: CS - J Encarnacion (4, 2nd base by J Jennings/Y Torrealba). FIELDING: DP: 1 (Y Molina-A Miles). COLORADO ab r h rbi bb so lob avg J Carroll 2b 5 0 2 0 0 1 2 .320 C Barmes ss 4 0 1 0 0 0 3 .237 G Atkins 3b 3 0 0 0 1 0 2 .313 M Holliday lf 3 0 1 0 1 1 2 .321 T Helton 1b 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 .280 B Hawpe rf 3 0 2 0 1 1 1 .304 Y Torrealba c 3 0 0 0 0 2 4 .236 a-J Smith ph 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 .278 C Freeman cf 4 0 1 0 0 1 4 .273 J Jennings p 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 .171 b-J Piedra ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .188 C Sullivan pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .278 Totals 33 0 8 0 4 6 23 a-singled to left for Y Torrealba in the 9th; b-walked for J Jennings in the 9th. BATTING: 2B - J Carroll (17, C Carpenter). S - C Barmes. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - J Jennings 1, T Helton 1, C Freeman 1, C Barmes 1. Team LOB - 11. BASERUNNING: CS - B Hawpe (4, 2nd base by C Carpenter/Y Molina). FIELDING: DP: 1 (C Barmes-J Carroll-T Helton). ---------------------------------------------------- ST LOUIS - 000 001 000 -- 1 COLORADO - 000 000 000 -- 0 ---------------------------------------------------- ST LOUIS ip h r er bb so hr era C Carpenter (W, 10-4) 7 1/3 7 0 0 3 4 0 2.68 R Flores (H, 15) 2/3 0 0 0 0 1 0 5.02 J Isringhausen (S, 28) 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 3.02 COLORADO ip h r er bb so hr era J Jennings (L, 6-9) 9 4 1 1 2 4 1 3.70 IBB - B Hawpe (by C Carpenter). Pitches-strikes: C Carpenter 112-67; R Flores 7-5; J Isringhausen 24-14; J Jennings 105-69. Ground balls-fly balls: C Carpenter 9-8; R Flores 0-1; J Isringhausen 1-1; J Jennings 12-10. Batters faced: C Carpenter 31; R Flores 2; J Isringhausen 5; J Jennings 31. UMPIRES: HP--Travis Reininger. 1B--Brian Onora. 2B--Chuck Meriwether. 3B--Phil Cuzzi. T--2:30. Att--31,673. Weather: 77 degrees, overcast. Wind: 15 mph, in from right.
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# Thome, Jim CWS Santana, Johan MIN 443 460 32 Crede, Joe CWS Santana, Johan MIN 434 402 21 Beltran, Carlos NYM Zambrano, Carlos CHC 432 423 28 Teahen, Mark KC Benson, Kris BAL 428 406 10 Ramirez, Aramis CHC Glavine, Tom NYM 427 406 23 Utley, Chase PHI Julio, Jorge ARI 427 397 18 Durham, Ray SF Bowie, Micah WAS 421 419 18 Ross, Cody FLA James, Chuck ATL 421 402 7 Cameron, Mike SD Hendrickson, Mark LAD 419 389 15 Nevin, Phil CHC Glavine, Tom NYM 418 407 18 Utley, Chase PHI Batista, Miguel ARI 416 388 17 Ramirez, Manny BOS Windsor, Jason OAK 412 396 28 Durham, Ray SF Ortiz, Ramon WAS 410 400 17 Terrero, Luis BAL Redman, Mark KC 409 406 1 Inge, Brandon DET Byrd, Paul CLE 407 401 20 Nixon, Trot BOS Windsor, Jason OAK 403 404 7 Wigginton, Ty TB Santana, Ervin LAA 403 402 17 Blake, Casey CLE Grilli, Jason DET 401 391 12 Young, Dmitri DET Byrd, Paul CLE 400 388 2 Lofton, Kenny LAD Park, Chan Ho SD 397 375 1 Fielder, Prince MIL Snell, Ian PIT 396 387 18 Alfonzo, Eliezer SF Ortiz, Ramon WAS 394 399 7 Quentin, Carlos ARI Franklin, Ryan PHI 394 363 3 Kubel, Jason MIN Contreras, Jose CWS 393 357 8 Teahen, Mark KC Benson, Kris BAL 392 364 11 Burnitz, Jeromy PIT Bush, Dave MIL 388 372 14 Chavez, Endy NYM Zambrano, Carlos CHC 387 380 2 Guiel, Aaron NYY Mahay, Ron TEX 385 373 6 McDonald, John TOR Fruto, Emiliano SEA 381 378 2 Burnitz, Jeromy PIT Sheets, Ben MIL 380 370 13 Catalanotto, FrankTOR Woods, Jake SEA 374 371 7 Pujols, Albert STL Jennings, Jason COL 371 356 31 Barajas, Rod TEX Mussina, Mike NYY 370 361 9 Zambrano, Carlos CHC Glavine, Tom NYM 357 355 4 Bartlett, Jason MIN Contreras, Jose CWS 354 359 1 Ross, Cody FLA James, Chuck ATL 352 332 8 Gonzalez, Luis ARI Cormier, Rheal PHI 340 306 9
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+ Rusty Ryal 3B 4 4 1 0 1 0 0 Hitting .524 over last 21 at bats BAL A+ Carlos Duran LF 4 3 1 1 0 0 0 BOS AA Brandon Moss RF 4 2 0 0 2 1 2 .519 OBP during past week CLE A+ Rodney Choy Foo DH 5 3 1 0 1 1 0 3 runs scored COL A+ Justin Nelson LF 3 2 0 1 1 2 0 3 runs scored DET A Michael Hernandez DH 5 4 1 1 1 0 0 5 RBI HOU A- Tim Torres SS 2 2 1 0 1 2 0 3 runs scored MIL A+ Carlos Corporan C 4 3 1 0 1 0 0 5 RBI NYM A Rafael Arroyo C 4 3 1 0 0 0 1 TOR A- Scott Campbell 2B 5 4 3 0 0 1 0 4 runs scored ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes CHW A+ Carlos Torres 6.1 3 0 0 7 0 0 0.84 ERA over past month DET A Burke Badenhop 7.0 5 0 0 8 0 0 MIL A+ Robert Hinton 5.0 2 0 0 6 1 0 29 K over last 21 IP NYM AA Miguel Perez 8.0 6 1 1 7 3 0 NYY A- Edgar Soto 7.0 1 1 0 5 0 0 NYY AA Tyler Clippard 8.0 5 1 1 2 2 0 NYY A Erick Abreu 6.0 2 0 0 1 2 0 OAK A- Andrew Bailey 6.0 1 0 0 8 0 0 PHI A Randy Wolf 5.0 0 0 0 5 1 0
Player News
Player news items are provided by CBS SportsLine.com.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have added some help by acquiring pitcher Elmer Dessens from Kansas City. The Dodgers sent disgruntled lefty Odalis Perez to the Royals, along with about $8 million in cash to offset part of what’s left of Perez’s $7.25 million contract this season and his $7.75 million salary in 2007. The Dodgers also included two minor league pitchers in the deal, right-handers Blake Johnson and Julio Pimentel.
Phillies starter Ryan Madson tied the major league record with four wild pitches in one inning Tuesday night against Arizona. Madson allowed a leadoff double in the third inning to Luis Gonzalez, who scored after the right-hander threw two wild pitches. Chad Tracy followed with a single and also advanced two bases on two wild pitches, but was left stranded. Atlanta’s Phil Niekro was the last National League pitcher to throw four in one inning, with the knuckleballer doing it in the fifth inning of a 1979 game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Walter Johnson threw four in one inning for the Washington Nationals in 1914 and Anaheim’s Kevin Gregg was the last to do it in 2004.
Chase Utley had another two hits tonight, both home runs, to extend his hitting streak to 25 games. Utley has had two or more hits in 15 of the 25 games and has a batting average of .398 (43-for-108) during the streak.
Adam Eaton (finger) returned to the rotation for the Rangers on Tuesday after being activated from the 15-day disabled list earlier in the day. He made his season debut against the Yankees and was tagged for three earned runs, four walks and a hit in just 3 2/3 innings. “He was pretty good the first three innings, but he lost command in the fourth,” manager Buck Showalter said. “We got a good glimpse of what he’s capable of. He was pretty impressive the first three innings.”
Carlos Quentin talked like a modest rookie, saying he would do anything to help Arizona win. On Tuesday night, his contribution was the winning home run in extra innings. Quentin’s solo homer in the 11th gave Arizona a 6-5 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies and kept the Diamondbacks in the thick of the NL West race. “I just happened to put a good swing on it,” Quentin said. Quentin hit his third homer of the season leading off the inning against Ryan Franklin (1-5), the seventh Phillies pitcher.
Carlos Zambrano’s hitting has been almost as good as his pitching. Just imagine if he was swinging from his favorite side of the plate. Zambrano hit his fourth homer of the season and won his eighth straight decision, leading the Chicago Cubs to an 8-6 victory over the New York Mets on Tuesday night. “The weird thing is, I’m a much better hitter lefty,” Zambrano said, adding that one of his homers this year came from that side. But he shies away from batting left-handed because he doesn’t want to expose his pitching arm and possibly let it get hit by a fastball.
Anibal Sanchez topped Florida’s rookie record for consecutive scoreless innings set by Willis in 2003 to lift the Marlins over the Atlanta Braves 2-1 Tuesday night. Sanchez (4-0) won his third straight start and gave Braves rookie Chuck James his first loss. Sanchez allowed one run and seven hits in seven innings. He struck out three and didn’t walk a batter. Sanchez’s streak of 23 consecutive scoreless innings was snapped when Marcus Giles singled in a run in the sixth inning.
Cody Ross, another Florida rookie, hit two home runs in the 2-1 win over the Braves. Ross also had a two-homer game for the Dodgers earlier this season. Ross is the second rookie in major league history to have a multi-homer game for two different teams in the same season. Jose Cruz, Jr. had four multi-homer games in 1997, two for the Mariners and two for the Blue Jays. (Source: Elias)
Jeromy Burnitz hit a pair of home runs and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-1 Tuesday night to ruin Ben Sheets’ strong return from the disabled list. Sheets pitched seven innings, giving up only one run and retiring the final 14 batters he faced in his first appearance in nearly three months. Dave Bush (6-8) relieved him and allowed five runs in the eighth. Sheets’ outing still gave the Brewers plenty of reasons for hope, despite the loss. The right-hander, out since May 3 with tendinitis in his pitching shoulder, gave up six hits, struck out five and didn’t walk a batter.
Aaron Harang outpitched Roger Clemens on Tuesday night and dominated the Houston Astros for the third time this season, leading the Cincinnati Reds to a 2-0 victory. Clemens allowed seven hits and struck out four, but the Astros suffered their 11th shutout when he pitches since the start of last season. Houston has mustered two runs or fewer in four of Clemens’ seven starts this year.
The Kansas City Royals traded veteran infielder Tony Graffanino to the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday for pitcher Jorge De La Rosa. The Royals recalled Nuñez from Triple-A Omaha.
The New York Post reports that Kris Wilson was designated for assignment on Monday. The team has 10 days to trade, release or assign to a minor-league team.
According to broadcast reports, Sammy Sosa is claiming that he is taking a break from baseball and that he’s not retired yet. He was also recently upset that MLB did not include him among the Cubs’ five hometown heroes, a recent promotion by the league.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Andy Marte has been working with Indians infield coach Robby Thompson on his defense. The Indians director of scouting John Mirabelli has followed Marte for several days after the All-Star break. General manager Mark Shapiro is at Triple-A Buffalo currently for three or four days evaluating when they should bring Marte up. The Indians will probably move Aaron Boone in a trade first, however.
Jeff Kent, sidelined since July 17 due to a strained muscle on his left side, isn’t expected to swing a bat for about another week.
THT Stats
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