Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 14, 2007
NL Tightens Up

All three National League division races tightened last night as the three division leaders lost, and five of the closest trailers won. The NL East saw three blowouts as the Mets lost 8-4 while the Braves won 9-1 and Philadelphia took St. Louis 13-3. Four games separate the three teams now.

In the NL Central, the Cubs afternoon victory was rewarded as Colorado defeated the Brewers 10-6. Neither starter pitched well, but the Rockies bullpen decided the game by shutting out the Brewers for four innings while Villanueva, the first man in for the Brewers, allowed five runs. The win by the Rockies was only the second in their last eleven road games. The Cubs now trail the Brewers by 3 1/2 games.

In the West, Arizona needed a win over the Padres to stay close in the NL West, and the offense came to life with a new hitting coach on the bench as Arizona won 8-3. Kevin Kouzmanoff was a single short of the cycle in the loss, and Doug Davis out pitched Greg Maddux for the win. But the DBacks offense was the star, knocking out fifteen hits, five for doubles.

The Dodgers and Giants played a close game until the end when Los Angeles scored six runs in the top of the ninth to take a 9-1 victory. Brian Sabean spent some time on air last night refuting a Chronicle story that he was about to hold a fire sale if the Giants don't play well this weekend. With the Rockies winning as well, the Padres and Dodgers are in a virtual tie for first place, with Arizona 2 1/2 games back and the Rockies 4 1/2 games back. Four and one half games also separate the six top wild card contenders, so we could be looking at another wild finish in the National League this season.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:19 AM | Division Races | TrackBack (0)
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