THT Daily: Red Hot
Zack Greinke and the Dogers are red hot. Greinke now has a 0.40 ERA after shutting down the White Sox last night, and the Dodgers are now 11-0 at home, the fastest home start in National League history.
Major League News for May 5
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
Cole Hamels (ankle) is expected to throw a bullpen session Tuesday.
The Phillies are a little concerned about Hamels’ ability to field his position, but he could put those worries to rest fairly quickly today. He’s still on track to start Friday against the Braves.
X-rays and a CT scan on Rick Ankiel’s head revealed no fractures as a result of Monday’s collision with the wall in center field.
“He was never knocked out,” GM John Mozeliak said. “He never lost consciousness. My understanding was that he had some discomfort in the face area, obviously, from hitting the wall. But for the most part right now, we’re encouraged based on Dr. Paletta’s first [evaluation], just getting to see him on the field.” No word yet on whether Ankiel will land on the DL. Colby Rasmus figures to start in center field for at least the next few days.
Jorge Posada will have an MRI on Tuesday after hurting a hamstring during Monday’s game.
Manager Joe Girardi said the catcher felt it “grab.” If Posada needs some DL time, the Yankees would probably call up Kevin Cash to play behind Jose Molina.
Ryan Zimmerman went 4-for-4 with two doubles, three runs scored and two RBI as the Nationals beat the Astros 9-4 on Monday night.
Zimmerman emphatically pushes his hitting streak to 22 games with the stellar four-hit performance. Over the first 21 games of the streak, he’d never managed more than two hits, but tonight he reached base in all five trips to plate, rounding out the hit-fest with a walk. He’s now batting .333/.393/.588 this season.
Zack Greinke recorded his MLB-leading sixth victory with a shutout of the White Sox on Monday.
He’s just unbeatable right now. Greinke allowed six hits, walked none and struck out 10. Granted, he was facing a lineup that included three minor leaguers in Jayson Nix, Scott Podsednik and Brent Lillibridge. But it was another extremely impressive effort, one that lowered his ERA to 0.40.
Cubs placed RHP Carlos Zambrano on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left hamstring.
Zambrano is expected to miss two to three weeks. He was injured while trying to beat out a bunt single in Sunday’s victory against the Marlins. Randy Wells and Jose Ascanio look like the best to replace him in the rotation with Mitch Atkins struggling in Triple-A. Ascanio has a 1.25 ERA at Iowa, but the Cubs probably have more faith in Wells.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday’s games, read “And That Happened” at Shysterball.
American League BOS 6 NYA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) BAL 8 TB 4 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 9 TOR 7 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 7 DET 2 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 3 CHA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 5 OAK 2 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 6 SEA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) National League NYN 6 ATL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) FLA 3 CIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS 9 HOU 4 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 4 SF 2 (Recap and Boxscore) MIL 7 PIT 4 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 6 STL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 7 ARI 2 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 9 SD 6 (Recap and Boxscore)
Check out Fangraphs’ scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Houston Astros at Washington Nationals, 12:35 PM (R) Roy Oswalt (0-2) vs. (L) Scott Olsen (1-3) San Francisco Giants at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (R) Tim Lincecum (2-1) vs. (L) Sean Marshall (0-1) Milwaukee Brewers at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (R) Jeff Suppan (1-2) vs. (R) Ian Snell (1-3) Cincinnati Reds at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Edinson Volquez (3-2) vs. (R) Chris Volstad (2-0) New York Mets at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM (R) Livan Hernandez (1-1) vs. (R) Kenshin Kawakami (1-3) Philadelphia Phillies at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM (R) Brett Myers (1-2) vs. (R) Adam Wainwright (3-0) Colorado Rockies at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Aaron Cook (1-1) vs. (R) Josh Geer (0-0) Arizona Diamondbacks at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Max Scherzer (0-2) vs. (R) Jeff Weaver (0-0) American League --------------- Cleveland Indians at Toronto Blue Jays, 12:37 PM (R) Anthony Reyes (1-0) vs. (L) Brett Cecil (0-0) Baltimore Orioles at Tampa Bay Rays, 4:08 PM (R) Koji Uehara (2-2) vs. (R) Matt Garza (2-2) Texas Rangers at Seattle Mariners, 4:40 PM (R) Vicente Padilla (1-2) vs. (L) Erik Bedard (2-1) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) Josh Beckett (2-2) vs. (R) Joba Chamberlain (1-0) Minnesota Twins at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (R) Nick Blackburn (2-1) vs. (R) Rick Porcello (1-3) Chicago White Sox at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (R) Gavin Floyd (2-2) vs. (R) Kyle Davies (2-1) LA Angels of Anaheim at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Shane Loux (1-2) vs. (L) Dallas Braden (3-2)
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 TOR 18 10 .643 0.0 17 1BOS 16 10 .615 1.0 15 1
NYA 13 12 .520 3.5 11 2
TB 11 16 .407 6.5 14 -3
BAL 10 16 .385 7.0 10 0
American League Central KC 15 11 .577 0.0 15 0
DET 13 12 .520 1.5 13 0
MIN 13 13 .500 2.0 11 2
CHA 12 13 .480 2.5 11 1
CLE 10 16 .385 5.0 12 -2
American League West SEA 15 11 .577 0.0 14 1
TEX 13 12 .520 1.5 13 0
LAA 11 13 .458 3.0 12 -1
OAK 9 14 .391 4.5 11 -2
National League East Pwins Diff FLA 15 11 .577 0.0 13 2
PHI 13 10 .565 0.5 12 1
NYN 11 13 .458 3.0 12 -1
ATL 11 14 .440 3.5 12 -1
WAS 7 17 .292 7.0 10 -3
National League Central STL 17 9 .654 0.0 16 1
CHN 14 11 .560 2.5 13 1
MIL 14 12 .538 3.0 13 1
CIN 13 12 .520 3.5 12 1
PIT 12 13 .480 4.5 14 -2
HOU 11 15 .423 6.0 11 0
National League West LAN 19 8 .704 0.0 18 1
SF 12 12 .500 5.5 11 1
ARI 11 15 .423 7.5 11 0
SD 11 15 .423 7.5 10 1
COL 10 14 .417 7.5 12 -2
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 FLA A+ Michael Stanton... 5 3 2 1 0 0 0 CLE A+ L. Chisenhall..... 5 4 1 0 1 0 0 3 R SEA AAA Jeff Clement...... 5 3 1 0 1 1 1 TEX A+ M. Moreland....... 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 SEA AAA Michael Saunders.. 6 2 0 0 2 0 1 ARI AA Gerardo Parra..... 5 3 0 0 1 0 0 TOR AA Bradley Emaus..... 6 4 0 0 1 0 0 BOS A+ Ryan Kalish....... 4 2 0 0 1 1 1 4 RBI TB AA Desmond Jennings.. 4 3 1 0 0 0 0 TOR AA David Cooper...... 5 4 1 0 0 0 0 OAK AA Corey Brown....... 4 3 1 0 0 1 0 3 LD PIT AAA Neil Walker....... 5 3 1 0 0 0 0 3 LD ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes TOR AA Marc Rzepczynski.. 8 5 2 1 6 1 0 PHI AA Vance Worley...... 6 6 2 2 7 0 0 CHW AA Aaron Poreda...... 5 0 0 0 8 5 0 ATL AA Scott Diamond..... 6 7 2 1 8 3 0 11 GB MIN A+ M. McCardell...... 6 6 3 3 7 1 1 SF AA Henry Sosa........ 6 4 0 0 4 1 0 SF A+ M. Bumgarner...... 5 3 2 1 4 1 0 STL AA Lance Lynn........ 5 5 0 0 6 2 0 TEX AA Kasey Kiker....... 5 5 2 2 6 3 0 NYY A Pat Venditte...... 1 1 0 0 3 0 0 HOU AAA Bud Norris........ 5 6 2 2 6 3 1 NYY A Brett Marshall.... 5 7 3 3 4 3 0
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