The Orioles needed Rodrigo Lopez to go deep in the game tonight, but that doesn't look like it will happen tonight. Lopez threw 44 pitches in the first inning, only 24 for strikes. He walked 2 and hit a batter in addition to allowing four hits. On any other night, Mazzilli might have pulled Rodrigo in the first. Instead, he let him get hit by the White for five runs.

The Padre decent below .500 continues. They lost 7-1 against the Reds. Woody Williams had the fourth consecutive poor start for San Diego, and the 9th in eleven games. They even made Eric Milton look good!

It's amazing to me that the best the Padres could do at the trading deadline is rid themselves of Nevin and Blum and pick up Chan Ho Park. With the loss, the Padres fall into a tie with the Arizona Diamondbacks, both teams three games under .500. (Actually, Arizona leads by .0002.)

I thought Manny Ramirez was taking the day off! How nice that he made himself available to pinch hit and drove in a run to give the Sox the lead. What a guy!

Update: Schilling pitches the ninth for the save. The Red Sox sweep the Twins, putting the Twins farther out of the wild card race.

Manny is being interviewed right now. He's saying this is the place for him. The Sox fans seem to love him, they cheered when he came to the plate.

We'll see how much they love him when his skills start to diminish. My guess is he'll get the Sammy Sosa treatment when that happens.

The Angels and Yankees go to extra innings, thanks to the good and the bad of LAnaheim's defense. The Angels made three errors today, leading to three unearned runs. But Figgins in center made a great diving catch on Bernie Williams early that saved at least one run, and Izturis at third just stole a game ending hit from Andy Phillips. The defense giveth, and the defense taketh away.

Update: With Yankees on first and third and two outs, Gary Sheffield hits a grounder to Cabrera at short. The ball takes a high hop and Cabrera fails to field it cleanly for the out. It goes as a hit, but Orlando should have made the play. Once again, the game is tied, this time at 7.

Chris Bootcheck gave the Angels six good innings today, allowing just 1 run to the New York Yankees. He threw strikes, 55 out of 79 pitches going his way. Why did Scioscia pull him after six? The Angels bullpen, which worked quite a bit over the last few days, gives up five runs and the teams now find themselves tied at six. It seems Bootcheck could have gone into the seventh. If he gives up a hit or a walk, pull him. Otherwise, give him a chance to go 100 pitches.

The trade deadline is hear, and I've heard of no blockbusters. However, the deals just have to be in to the MLB offices by four. They still may not be announced until games are completed.

Update: Just made a quick check of the boxscores, and I didn't see anyone pulled out of the lineup for no reason in the middle of a game.

Update: The Marlins acquired Ron Villone from the Mariners. It's a good pickup for the Florida bullpen.

Update: I heard the Braves got Farnsworth from Detroit, but I can't find a confirming article. However, STATS, Inc. is now listing him with Atlanta. He's having a career year. Detroit has been very willing to part with good relief pitchers this season.

Update: The Cubs send Gerut to the Pirates for Matt Lawton. It's a good move for the Cubs as they get an outfielder who can get on base.

Chris Capuano has a no-hitter through five innings. He's walked one batter. The game is not on MLB extra-innings, so if you're watching locally, feel free to leave comments on how Chris is doing.

Noah Lowry is nearly matching Capuano. He's just given up 1 hit and 1 walk in the fifth. Both teams are scoreless.

Update: Grissom breaks up the no-hitter leading off the 6th.

The Nationals are getting some timely hitting this afternoon, even from the pitcher. With Guillen at third and two out, Baerga singled Jose home for the lead. A double and an intentional walk brought Livan Hernandez to the plate. He singled in the insurance run and chased Brian Moehler from the game. The bases are still loaded for Carroll who faces Riedling.

Update: Riedling gets Carroll to ground out. Washington lead 3-1 in the 5th.

The Molina brothers slammed Randy Johnson today. Each hit a home run; Bengie's three run shot gave the Angels as 3-1 lead, and Jose's solo dinger made it 4-1. Randy Johnson has now allowed the most home runs in the American League, 23.

Jason Giambi hit his 13th home run of July. That's more than he hit in all of 2004. He now has a .440 OBA and a .542 slugging percentage for the year.

Update: Giambi hits another one in the 7th. It's his fourth multi-homer game of the month. The Yankees still trail 4-2 after seven.

Manny Ramirez is not in the lineup for today's game vs. the Twins. If the Red Sox are not going to trade him, they should be playing him.

Update: Manny says he wants to win another World Series with Boston.

The Oakland Athletics are just 2 1/2 games behind the LAnaheim Angels going into action today. The Angels-Yankees game looks like a mismatch, as career minor leaguer Chris Bootcheck faces Randy Johnson. Bootcheck is making his first start of the season and only the second of his career. Johnson is coming off his best start of the season, eight shutout innings vs. the Twins, no walks and eleven strikeouts.

The Athletics face a former farmhand who is developing into the Tiger's ace. Jeremy Bonderman faces Kirk Saarloos this afternoon. Bonderman is 8-3 since June 1st, despite a 4.36 ERA. Saarloos is coming off two poor starts; he's allowed 9 earned runs in his last 11 1/3 innings. Given the Athletics scoring lately, he still could get a win pitching like that.

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I just wanted to say Congratulations to Peter Gammons on the day of his induction to the Hall of Fame. When I arrived in Boston in 1978, Peter's Sunday column was a must read. When I started to work on Baseball Tonight, it was more of a thrill for me to be working with Gammons than with the former Major Leaguers. Peter's been a good friend and great supporter of mine. All the best on his big day.

Fair Run Average gets an article in the New York Times today. Basically, it's a way of correcting ERAs for bad relief pitching.

On average, putting runners on first and second with no outs - the mess Foster made - leads to 0.9 more runs than a typical inning. One of the runners often scores. Both of them usually do not.

In a fairer world, the main pitching statistic would have charged Foster for the damage he did, 0.9 runs, but no more, whether or not the two runners ended up scoring. Since they did score, Kolb would have gotten the rest of blame: 1.1 runs' worth.

Had the runners been stranded, Kolb would instead have received credit for his good work. His line could have been 1 inning with minus 0.9 runs allowed. His runs-allowed total for the season would actually drop.

The problem with calculations like this is they change season-to-season. So FRA is a moving target; as the probability of scoring changes with each game, a pitcher's FRA may change without him pitching. This is one of those statistics (like linear weights) which can only be accurately calculated after the season is over.

Buddy Bell got an earful from umpire Joe Brinkman last night and didn't like it.

Bell questioned a call on Berroa — complaining that a called strike was in fact too low — when he said Brinkman responded with a profanity-laced tirade.

“We’re supposed to sit back,” Bell said, “and we’re supposed to say, ‘OK, whatever they want to say.’ He can call me whatever he wants and get away with it?

“To be honest with you, there’s a little bit of a double-standard when umpires can do whatever they want and you can’t do anything back to them.”

According to the article, the exchange between manager and umpire could be heard by the fans. Was anyone at the game last night? What exactly was said?

The Red Sox picked up Jose Cruz Jr. from the Diamondbacks last night in exchange for two minor leaguers. The Red Sox also received cash. I assume he'll fill in for Trot Nixon and give the Red Sox a little insurance if they do trade Manny Ramirez.

The Mariners did indeed trade Randy Winn, but not to the Yankees. The Giants picked up the center fielder, sending Yorvit Torrealba and Jessie Foppert to the Mariners. The Giants make themselves a little older again, and the Mariners pick up a catcher who might hit if he plays everyday. Foppert had Tommy John surgery, so it's not clear what path his career will take.

David Steele in the Baltimore Sun criticizes the Orioles for not getting more pitching early on:

Stop us if you've heard that before. If the Orioles do as expected and stand pat today, most of the criticism will be aimed at Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan for not doing anything now, for not getting A.J. Burnett or whoever might stop the bleeding. That criticism will be multiplied if the Red Sox or Yankees get Burnett or some other pitcher who makes the difference.

The anger will all be misguided. Be smart and train your fury at the fact that nothing was done before the season, that the group that made it out of spring training was sold as being good enough, that everybody was tricked by two months of glory.

That was fool's gold. To have thought that the pitching was going to hold up, and be good enough to keep them in the mix with the Red Sox and Yankees, was to have believed in Santa and the Easter Bunny.

I don't know if I agree with that. The Orioles offense should be good enough to win with a mediocre pitcher staff. When the offense went south, the pitching couldn't win. In general, it's a lot easier to fix offense than it is to fix a pitching staff. Even if they got Burnett, that only helps 1 out of five games.

It's nice to see a manager stay with a relief pitcher who is pitching well, rather than bring in the closer because it's time for the closer:

After rookie Conor Jackson put the Diamondbacks ahead with an eighth-inning double to score Troy Glaus, Melvin decided to stick with Aquino, who had worked a quick, 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth against the middle of the Cubs order.

Aquino, who had 16 saves a year ago as a rookie, then retired the side in the ninth for his first save of 2005.

The Red demolished San Diego 9-1 later, putting the Diamondbacks just one game out of the NL West lead.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Jonny Gomes hits three homers to help the Devil Rays to a 7-3 victory over the Royals tonight. It was the first three homer game in DRays history. With the win, the Devil Rays move past the Royals and no longer have the worst record in the American League. Maybe I got off the Devil Rays bandwagon too soon. :-)

Andy Pettitte throws eight shutout innings vs. the Mets tonight. He finishes July 5-0 with a 0.90 ERA. He's been a big factor in the Astros comeback.

Man, the Yankees could have a great lefty rotation. Pettitte, Lilly, Halsey. Put that with Mussina and a fifth starter and New York probably wouldn't need to trade for a starter.

Manny Ramirez was scratched from tonight's lineup. There's been no word from the Red Sox as to why he was taken out of the lineup.

Update: Olerud is batting in Manny's slot and drives in the first run of the game in the bottom of the first.

Update: Manny is still with the Red Sox. Given all that's going on, Francona didn't want to play Manny tonight. Francona will speak to the press after the game on the subject.

Sounds to me like there's more to this than meets the eye.

Ichiro Suzuki belted two home runs for the Mariners today. It's the third multi-homer game of his career, and his first since June 17, 2003.

Mike Morse also hit a long ball for the Mariners to account for the third run in their 3-2 victory over the Indians. Morse is someone to keep you eye on in the rookie of the year competition. Mike has an excellent on-base average (.392), much better than Cano. He doesn't have the playing time of Robinson or the power, but Morse is a nice offensive callup for the Mariners.

With the Orioles and Nationals losing again today, the Baltimore-Washington area has gone from looking for a commuter rail series to also ran status. Since the All-Star break, the Nationals are 3-12, the worst record in the NL. The Orioles are 4-11, the worst record in the AL.

The Orioles scored six runs today, but their starter was hit with a line drive early, and the bullpen couldn't handle the load two days in a row. The White Sox out-homered the O's 3-1.

John Patterson pitched another good game for the Nationals. Giving up two runs in six innings. But Washington only managed four hits, a walk and a hit batter against Burnett, and nothing against the Florida pen, losing 3-0.

Shawn Chacon gives the Yankees six good innings today. He gave up four hits and three walks, but none of the hits were for extra bases. He allowed just 1 run, none earned, and threw 104 pitches, 56 for strikes. It was an okay start. I would suspect other teams with better offenses than the Angels will score more runs with that kind of strike percentage.

Update: Chacon's luck does not rub off on the bullpen. Rodriguez, Embree and Gordon give up a walk, a hit and an error on a sac attempt and a two run single to give the Angels a 4-3 lead. I'm sure conspiracy theorists will see Embree allowing a single then making a throwing error as a Boston plant. :-)

Gordon committed a balk that eventually led to a run. It's 5-3 LAnaheim.

Update: The Angels bullpen does no better than the Yankees, giving up five runs in the 8th and the 9th to give New York an 8-7 victory. Both pens waste fine outings by their starters. Rivera gets the win in relief, K-Rod takes the loss and blows his fourth save.

Did anyone see what happened to Daniel Cabrera in the Orioles game. He left after getting two out and giving up three hits in the 2nd inning. Was he hurt, or was Mazzilli just trying to keep the game from getting out of hand?

Eric Byrnes has an RBI double and the Orioles lead 4-2 in the top of the fourth.

Update: Cabrera was hit on the hand by a line drive. It's the 2nd day in a row an Orioles pitcher had to leave early after being hit with a batted ball.

It looks like Joe Garagiola will be moving to Major League Baseball.

Diamondbacks General Partner Jeff Moorad, traveling with the team, said Friday the club was not in position to confirm or deny that Garagiola has already been hired by MLB, along with Mike Port, vice president of the Boston Red Sox.

Garagiola is said to be moving into a senior vice president position, which was created when Sandy Alderson left MLB earlier this season to help run the San Diego Padres. Garagiola's move, widely speculated for weeks, was reported by several sources Friday.

Given the way the Padres are playing, I bet Alderson wishes he had stayed. :-)

I find Garagiola a very interesting study as a general manager. He's been with the DBacks since the beginning. He got them to a World Championship as fast as any expansion team. He has a talent for taking a veteran player that seems to be going nowhere and getting some good out of him. Who would have thought a 29 year old Luis Gonzalez had his best seasons in front of him? Or that Steve Finley, 34 and coming off the worst season of his career would still be playing today? He was smart enough to bring in Johnson and Schilling, two pitchers great enough to handle a hitter's haven in Bank One Ballpark.

Not everything worked, of course. The trade for Sexson was a disaster. But the DBacks recovered quickly and are once again in contention for the NL West. He turned Randy Johnson into two good young pitchers and picked up the G-Men to solidify the offense.

He's had a very good run as a GM (especially compared to his counterpart in Tampa Bay). I hope he does as well with major league baseball.

The Washington Nationals send John Patterson to the mound against A.J. Burnett and the Marlins to try to stop their five game skid. At the beginning of the week, they were tied with the Braves for first in the NL East. Now, they're not even leading the wild card as they sit one game behind Houston. Burnett's improved with each start since returning from the DL, going seven strong innings vs. the Giants his last time out. Patterson has allowed no more than two runs in each of his last six starts, yet his record over that time is 1-0. The Nationals are only 2-4 in those games, wasting four good outings that should have them tied for first in the division.

Barry Zito tries to keep his winning streak going today as the Athletics host the Tigers and Nate Robertson. Through June 17th, Zito was 3-8 with a 4.66 ERA. Since then, he's won six in a row with a 1.61 ERA. He's not striking out as many batters, but he's giving up many fewer hits. You don't see that too often. Robertson and Zito have each been effective with men in scoring position this year. Zito ranks third in the AL with a .196 BA allowed, while Robertson is 6th at with a .214 BA allowed.

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I haven't put much stock in the trade Manny rumors. But I had forgotten about this:

One source stressed to the Globe that the Red Sox have additional motivation to make this deal as Ramirez will have the right after this season to veto a trade under baseball's ''10-5'' rule, which applies to players with 10 years experience, five consecutively with the same club.

So if the Red Sox don't trade him before the season ends, they will be in a worse situation than the Padres were with Phil Nevin. Manny could veto any trade, giving the Red Sox very little leverage if Manny decides he'll only play for a certain team.

It's happened. The Padres lost 8-3 to the Cincinnati Reds last night. They now lead the division, but are one-game under .500. Early in the season, the Padres banked on their starters going five decent innings, and the bullpen finishing the game. Now, the Padres are getting nothing from their starters. Lawrence gave up seven runs in 5 1/3 last night. The Reds had no problems with the dimensions of PETCO as Dunn hit two homers and Encarnacion added a solo shot.

The Dodgers and Giants both gained ground. The Giants came back from a 5-2 deficit, thanks to a sparkling job by the bullpen. Relievers went 5 1/3 innings, giving up just one run and striking out seven as San Francisco picked up a 7-6 victory over the Brewers.

The Giants are now just 5 1/2 games back of the Padres. The way this division is working out, a Barry Bonds return might actually help them. Maybe Barry can get a shot at the World Series this year after all.

The Dodgers are just four games behind San Diego now. The injuries don't seem to have hurt the Cardinals that much, as they scored five runs last night. But the Dodgers got to the seemingly invincible Matt Morris. The Cardinals tied the game at five in the sixth inning, but Morris gave up a walk, single and double in the seventh to plate two more for the Dodgers and seal the victory.

Eric Byrnes joins his third team of the month as the Rockies and Orioles swap outfielders. Larry Bigbie is now a member of the Rockies. I'm not sure what the Orioles are getting in Byrnes that they don't have in Bigbie. Larry's two years younger and should be at the prime of his career. I really don't buy the right-handed bat notion. Most of the pitchers in the majors, and certainly in their division are right handed. You'd think the Orioles would want to stock up on lefties.

Bigbie will probably slug .550 for the Rockies next year.

Correction: Corrected spelling of Bigbie.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Padres finally swung a deal for a lousy pitcher. Phil Nevin could not refuse a trade to Texas, so the Rangers send Chan Ho Park to the Padres. I don't quite understand the trade from the point of view of the Rangers. They're down a pitcher with Rogers suspended, and now they're down another starter. Will we be seeing a three man rotation in Texas?

The move is probably a good one for Chan Ho. He had sucess in Dodger Stadium, and should be more comfortable in PETCO than in Arlington.

Torii Hunter is headed for the DL.

Minnesota Twins center fielder Torii Hunter has a torn tendon in his left ankle and will be sidelined for at least 4-6 weeks, ESPN's Harold Reynolds learned Friday night.

Hunter's a good player. He's a fine centerfielder who doesn't hurt you with the bat. He'll be tough to replace.

The Orioles are down 6-2 to the White Sox in the 8th inning. This has been typical of their 2-10 streak in which they've been outscored 57-37. Three runs a game is just not going to win them the AL East. Sammy Sosa's been the best hitter during the streak. Orioles fans waited all season for Sammy to come to life, and when he does the rest of the team goes into a tailspin.

The Pirates, down 2-1 in the top of the ninth, had men on 2nd and 3rd with no one out and failed to at least tie the game. Eldred struck out swinging on a pitch that looked like ball four to me. The next batter, Castillo was intentionally walked. Brower was pitching at the time, and it looks like he had real problems with the intentional balls. He threw very softly and pretty far off the plate. I thought if he timed it right, Mackowiak could have stolen home on one of the throws and tied the game right there. Another strike out and a ground out ended the game for the Pirates. They couldn't put the ball in play when it would have mattered.

The LAnaheim Angels have now allowed just 3 run in their last 27 innings pitched. Tonight, however, it pays off in a win as Ervin Santana improves over his last appearance against the Yankees and gets another win against New York. The Angels bullpen was great again, giving up just 1 hit in 2 2/3 innings.

Kirk Rueter proved once again tonight why he shouldn't be a starter anymore. He last just 3 2/3 innings against the Brewers tonight, giving up five earned runs on seven hits and two walks. Actually with his ERA at 5.95 and opponents hitting .305 against the lefty, I'm not sure he should be pitching in the majors at this point.

Minnesota and Boston, like the Twins and Yankees earlier in the week, have different strengths. Boston is the better offensive team, Minnesota has better pitching and defense. I would think, off the top of my head, that the Twins would be better at winning low scoring games than the Red Sox. But it's not true.

I'll define low scoring as contest in which no more than seven runs are scored by both teams. The Red Sox don't play many of these, and are 15-12, a .556 winning percentage. The Twins do play lots of games of this type, but they're only 19-27, a .413 winning percentage.

Most surprising to me is the Yankees. For a long time they had not won a game in which they scored three runs or less. But they are 17-8, a .680 winning percentage in low scoring games. That's the third best winning percentage in the majors behind the White Sox and the Braves.

Frank Thomas will be out for the rest of the season. He has a fracture in his left foot and will go into a cast.

It's too bad that Thomas isn't able to be a part of this great season for the White Sox. While Chicago has done fine without him, a healthy Thomas would have added an extra dimension of offense to the team. It would also be nice to see Thomas have another chance to win a championship.

Mark Prior continues to dominate this season at Wrigley field. He's thrown 100 pitches through seven innings, 68 for strikes. He's allowed just one runs while striking out 8, bringing his home ERA down to 1.82.

Update: I didn't think Prior would come out for the 8th after 100 pitches. He loaded the bases with two singles, a sacrifice and an intentional walk. He got ahead of Glaus 0-2, but Troy singled on the next pitch to drive in two and give the DBacks a 3-2 lead. This reminds me of game six in 2003, where Dusty didn't seem prepared for his ace to get in trouble.

Update: With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Michael Barrett singles in the tying run. It's first and second with one out for pinch-hitter Aramis Ramirez.

Update: Ramirez bounces one past a sliding Glaus for to drive in the winning run. It looks like the bounce was funny, because Troy look fooled. The Cubs win 4-3.

I just checked out the WGN Baseball Blog. In addition to posts by the announcers, they're publishing the STATS, Inc. game notes used by the broadcast. Those are always full of interesting tidbits.

Javier Vazquez continues to get hurt by the long ball. Catcher Henry Blanco takes Javier deep down the left field line after fouling off a number of pitches. The Cubs lead 2-0 after two.

The Baseball Crank posts an interesting study showing how the Yankees and Red Sox do when the two are competing for a division or league race from August first on. Make sure you look at the 1970's.

Sean Peter Kirst offers a solution to Joe Jackson and Pete Rose not being in the Hall of Fame. I could live with that, although I have my doubts about it remaining a quiet spot.

The Day by Day Database is now up to date.

There are lots of great contests today. The Diamondbacks and Cubs get us started early at Wrigley with Javier Vazquez facing Mark Prior. Vazquez appears to be bothered by the home run bug again. He gave up six in April and May, fourteen since. Prior has been lights out at Wrigley this season, posting a 1.89 ERA in 52 1/3 innings while striking out 60.

The Twins travel to Boston in third place in the wild card race. Both teams are feeling the heat from the Yankees as Boston hold just a 1 1/2 game lead in the AL East. Carlos Silva faces Wade Miller. We'll see how the Manny Ramirez situation plays out. I'm wondering if Francona will bench Manny today.

The LAnaheim Angels, fresh off a sweep by the Blue Jays come into Yankee Stadium to meet Mike Mussina on the mound. Mussina's allowed a mere .298 OBA in Yankee Stadium this season. The Angels send Ervin Santana against the Bronx Bombers. Santana got the win vs. NY in his last start, but his team's offense was really the difference. His wildness doesn't work well against the Yankees hitters.

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The update of the Day by Day Database will be delayed today as I haven't received the data yet.

I tried staying up, but the Angels and Blue Jays went 18 innings last night. Toronto fans got two games for the price of one! The relief was excellent. Two Angels pitchers combined for 5 hitless innings, and four Blue Jays combined for 5 2/3 hitless innings. Toronto finally scored in the bottom of the 18th as Alex Rios singled, stole 2nd, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Hudson single. The game only went 4:50, which isn't much longer than a typical Yankees-Orioles game. :-)

The Blue Jays move past the Orioles for third place in the AL East. The Athletics move to within 3 1/2 games of LAnaheim.

Jayson Stark is reporting that the Yankees have traded two minor leaguers to the Rockies for Shawn Chacon. Shawn becomes the Saturday starter. It's not official, so take it with a grain of salt.

I like the move for the Yankees. Chacon is 0-5 on the road, but he has a 3.12 ERA. He's only allowed 1 home run on the road vs. six in Colorado.

The problem with Chacon, is the number of walks he allows; one every other inning. The Yankees tend not to go with pitchers as wild as that. It's going to be fun to see what Chacon can do in a big park at sea level, however.

Update: The Yankees trade two young pitchers to the Rockies. Eduardo Sierra looks like Chacon, but with more strikeouts. Ramon Ramirez is also striking out a ton of people. Maybe the Yankees should have given one of them a try in the majors.

Ezequiel Astacio was given a tough task tonight, pitching against Pedro Martinez. But Astacio was up to the task, matching Pedro with one run allowed through six innings. He walked two more than Martinez and gave up one more hit, but as he leaves the game the score is tied at one. Maybe Clemens, Oswalt and Pettitte are starting to rub off on the rookie.

Update: Chad Qualls does not get the job done in relief, giving up a solo home run to Miguel Cairo. The Mets lead 2-1.

Frank Rodriguez issues a walk and gives up two broken-bat bloop hits to the Blue Jays as they tie the game in the ninth. K-Rod is intentionally walking the bases loaded with one out to try to cut down the winning run at the plate.

Lackey and Bush pitched great, but neither will figure in the decision. The Angels are bringing in a fifth infielder to try to keep a grounder from going through and maybe getting a DP.

Update: K-Rod strikes out Hill. Zaun will try to win the game for the Blue Jays.

Update: K-Rod strikes out Zaun. The run was the first Rodriguez has allowed since June 21st.

Victor Santos has to feel a little unlucky right now. With a no-hitter in the fifth, Deivi reaches on a strikeout. With two out and Cruz on 2nd, the Brewers intentionall walk the #8 hitter to get the pitcher Hennessey. Hennessey proceeds to get the first hit of the game for the Giants, a three-run homer. It was Hennessey's first extra base hit of his major league career.

Two great pitching duels underway tonight. In the AL, John Lackey and David Bush are tied at 0 in the 8th. Each pitcher has allowed three base runners. In the NL, Kip Wells and Dontrelle Willis are tied at 0 in the bottom of the 7th. Both pitchers in that game have allowed three hits and one walk.

Update: At the end of April, I wrote this about David Bush:

David Bush has not lived up to his minor league numbers so far. He's already given up five home runs in 22 innings pitched this season; in his minor league career he allowed 19 in about 300 IP.

He was sent back down in May, and it appeared he needed it. He pitched well in his first start back in the majors, and he's doing even better tonight.

Update: Juan Encarnacion doubles in a run to give Willis and the Fish a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 7th.

Update: With men on 1st and 3rd in the top of the 9th, David Bush intentionally walks Vlad Guerrero. That's it for Bush. It's still 0-0. Scott Schoenweiss is coming in to face Steve Finley.

Update: Vlad's was the 2nd IBB. With a man on 3rd, Gibbons walked the bases loaded to get to the lefty and try to get the double play.

Update: Schoenweiss gets the ground ball, but Koskie does not field it cleanly. The Blue Jays only get one, and the Angels take a 1-0 lead.

Sidney Ponson came out of the game against the Rangers in the third innng. He was pitching well. Did anyone see the game, and was he hurt or might he have been traded?

Update: My source in the industry tells me Ponson was hit in his pitching hand.

Two former Yankees lefties pitched well today. First, Brad Halsey got the win vs. the Cubs. Then, Brandon Claussen pitched seven excellent innings against the Dodgers in LA. The only run he allowed came on a home run by Cesar Izturis. Claussen's allowed a high number of hits this season, but only four this afternoon while walking none.

The Padres were not able to follow up Peavy's great performance with another good start from their pitching. Tim Stauffer only lasted 3 1/3 innings, giving up seven runs in the process. It's too bad for San Diego, as Chris Carpenter is having an off day for him, having allowed three runs through four innings.

Also, Phil Nevin is catching. With Hernandez hitting the DL, the Padres are forced to go with Nevin and Fick behind the plate. Maybe the non-trade worked out for the best.

The Diamondbacks received six good innings from Brad Halsey this afternoon. He allowed four hits and no runs through six innings, but for some reason left after only 73 pitches. He only struck out two, but the balls in play didn't hurt him much. Tim Worrell is in with a 3-0 lead.

The Braves sweep the Nationals, winning another close game 5-4. That makes the Braves lead in the NL East three games. Francoeur ends the day two for four; he's batting .441 with a .971 slugging percentage. It looks like Frank Robinson's tirade yesterday didn't help enough.

Aaron Small gave the Yankees pitching staff a big boost today, going seven innings, getting the game to Gordon and Rivera with a comfortable lead. Small wasn't hurt by the Yankees defense. The Twins put balls in play all afternoon. Twenty five of twenty six batters got wood on the ball as Small struck out one and walked none. The Yankees fielders turned all but six of those into outs. New York wins 6-3 and moves into 2nd place in the wild card race.

My dear aunt Frances is celebrating her 83rd birthday today. In her honor, you can use the promotional code elizeus at the Baseball Musings Ticket Store to save 5% on your order. This offer will be good through the weekend. Take this chance to stock up on seats for the pennant races, the NFL season and, once again, hockey!

Two youngsters are making a big impression in their first 30 or so at bats. Jeff Francoeur is playing right field for the Braves today. Through six innings, he's two for three, making him 15 for 33 on the season. He hasn't drawn a walk, but if you hit .455, your on-base average is good enough that you don't need to draw walks. Both hits today were home runs, bringing his slugging percentage to an even 1.000. If Jose Reyes were hitting like this, no one would complain about his lack of walks either.

Up in Chicago, Matt Murton is drawing walks. He had five in his first 27 at bats entering today. He had a single in his first plate appearance this afternoon, bringing his batting average to .500. So far his power consists of two doubles, but he'll move plenty of runners if he's getting a hit every other at bat.

I'd be much more interested in Francoeur, however. He's two years younger than Murton. At 23, Matt is not old, but at 21, Jeff could have a tremendous career ahead of him.

My old office mate from UMass, Margie Connell, retired today so I just got back from Amherst and her going away party. On the way back, I was listening to the Yankees game. It seems New York does not have a starting pitcher for Saturday. Torre may actually make a Tony La Russa move, and use a series of relievers for a few innings each.

The Astros and Mets are 2-3 in the Wild Card standings as New York visits Houston for the start of a four game series. The Mets send their best to the mound to try to stop the Astros four game winning streak. Pedro Martinez faces Ezequiel Astacio. Astacio shows some promise as he starts his major league career. He's striking out almost 9 batters per 9 innings. The bad news is he's allowed 13 home runs in 31 2/3 innings. When batters do hit the ball, it tends to go a long way.

Opposing batters are just getting nowhere with Pedro. They have a .229 OBA against the righty, and a .297 slugging percentage. Imagine how long a hitter would last in the majors with those numbers.

The Yankees and Twins play the rubber game of their series this afternoon at Yankee Stadium. A win by the Twins ties them with Oakland for the wild card lead; a win by the Yankees puts them in 2nd place in the race ahead of Minnesota.

As the graphs at The Hardball Times show, the Yankees and Twins achieved their similar records through very different means. The Yankees do very well on the runs scored axes, while the Twins are near the top in pitching and defense. There are lots of different ways to win ballgames.

Enjoy!

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Manny Ramirez was scheduled for a day off yesterday. With the Nixon injury, the Red Sox asked if he would play. Manny said no.

So, really, what are team officials to do? You want the home runs and RBI, you get the teenage behavior, too. With Ramirez, it is all part of the deal. The Red Sox won a World Series last year and Ramirez was a very big part of that, and the unfortunate reality is that the Red Sox need Ramirez more than he needs them. In the short term, that will remain true as long as the Sox want to win.

The Red Sox could always bench him. Grady Little did that in 2003. It was just for one day, but the message came through as Manny played great the rest of the season. Maybe Francona should have Manny take Friday off as well.

Update: LyfLines reprints their thoughts on Manny from two years ago.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are releasing Jose Cruz Jr. to make room for Conor Jackson, a minor league first baseman who's tearing up the Pacific Coast League. Arizona is looking for an offensive boost, and they're getting it by sacrificing defense in the outfield:

Jackson, 23, will share time at first base with Tony Clark in a move that will force Chad Tracy, who has started 72 games at first, out to right field. Shawn Green, who has started 97 games in right, will move over and be the everyday starter in center field.

Green became a first baseman with the Dodgers. Tracy is a first baseman. There's a reason these players were at first rather than in the outfield. Green last played center in 2001.

Still it's not such a bad move if Jackson hits well. The team gets plenty of credit for boldness and imagination. And considering the state of the NL West, a small team improvement can lead to big rewards.

Jake Peavy put the Padres on his shoulders last night and pitched eight 2-hit innings to end San Diego's 8-game losing streak. It's the second time this season that Jake responded to the need for a superlative game from a starter with a two-hit performance. On May 26th, the Padres bullpen was fatigued and Jake threw nine 2-hit innings against the Diamondbacks.

And Jake really needed to pitch that well as the Padres offense remains ineffective. Jason Marquis matched Peavy's one run allowed through eight innings. After Hoffman pitched a scoreless ninth, Klesko and Fick combined with a double and a single to produce the winning run. The Padres stay in the lead above .500.

With the Cardinals loss and the Astros win, however, Houston pulls within 9 1/2 games of St. Louis. The Astros have the best record in the NL from June 17th on. The Astros hot streak corresponds perfectly with Lance Berkman's hot streak. The Astros have gained five games on the Cardinals over that time.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Braves just took the lead in the Nationals game and it was a perfect example of how Washinton's luck changed from before the All-Star break until now. Jeff Francoeur hit a shallow fly ball to center. Three Nationals converged on the ball, but the second baseman Vidro just missed it. It's one of those balls that would have been caught in the first half. Coming into this game, the Nationals are 2-7 in one and two run games since the All-Star break.

Update: The Braves win 4-3. They extend their NL East lead to two games, and the Nats are 2-8 in 1 and 2 run games since the All-Star break.

Sammy Sosa followed up a Tejada three run homer with a solo shot of his own. It's the third home run for Sammy in four games. The Orioles could use some more offense right now. They've been waiting a long time for Sosa to contribute. Maybe he's finally finding his swing.

If you missed tonight's show, you can hear the recorded version here. It's also available on demand at TPSRadio.

Brian Spurlock does not want to see Ken Griffey traded.

Of course, I also have to endure the whining of "fans" who claim Junior is overpaid and underproductive. They forget that he had a good season in 2000 and then was plagued by injuries - the result of going all-out. He's just starting to come back, but the "fans" and radio know-it-alls want to trade him.

Ken Griffey Jr. is a bona fide superstar, a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer who will end up with 700 home runs. He signed a contract below market value to come here, but all anyone talks about is how his contract is hindering the Reds.

All good points. However, if the Reds could use Griffey to get some young pitching, I'd do the deal. Griffey's best years are behind him and he's an injury waiting to happen. The Reds would be well served to trade him if the right deal comes along.

The Red Sox hold on to beat the Devil Rays 4-1. Tampa Bay load the bases with 2 out in the ninth, but Crawford grounded out after batting Schilling, fouling off pitch after pitch. The Devil Rays are back to 20 1/2 games out.

Good for Bud Selig. He did not reduce Kenny Rogers' suspension. Even better, the arbitrator who is going to hear the grievance of the union (over whether Bud should make the decision) won't issue a stay. Rogers suspension starts tonight.

This really hurts the Rangers:

That team will now have 24 active players instead of the customary 25.

"We've got some options. None of them are going to be as good as Kenny," Showalter said. "But that's the cards that we're dealt, and it looks like we'll be playing with 24 players for a while. It puts a lot of emphasis on nobody getting kicked out of a game, that's for sure."

The team is falling, the pitching staff is in disarray, and now because of the idiocy of their ace, they're down a man for almost three weeks. Good job sinking your team's chances, Kenny.

I went to have dinner, came back and the White Sox and Royals were still playing. Kansas City had the bases loaded with nobody out when I got back to the room. McEwing struck out, but Brown lined a single to give the Royals a 6-5 victory and the series against the best team in the AL. The Royals were down 5-0 in the 6th, but the bullpen put together seven innings of three hit ball to allow the comeback.

The Athletics were down 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth when they put together four hits to tie the game and three more in the 10th to win. Haren allowed 12 hits in 5 1/3 innings, but the Indians only managed four runs with those hits. Haren's seven K helped there. The A's will be in first place in the wild card race one more day.

Arizona defeated Milwaukee 3-0 this afternoon behind stellar pitching by the starter Vargas and the bullpen. The three pitchers struck out 13 while walking only 1 Brewer. Jose Valverde struck out five in two innings, bring his season total to 44 in 38 innings. The Diamondbacks are now just 2 1/2 games behind the Padres.

Jeromy Burnitz was at the plate in the bottom of the ninth with 2 out, 2 on, standing there with a 3-2 count. He laced the three-two pitch down the rightfield line for the game winning hit. Obviously, the Giants were afraid to pitch around Burnitz as that would have loaded the bases for Neifi Perez.

There's been some scoring in Kansas City since I posted this item. The White Sox and Royals have moved to the top of the 10th, tied at 5. Mike Sweeney drove in all five KC runs with two homers, one in the 6th and one in the 8th inning. The Royals bullpen has only allowed 1 hit in three innngs so far.

It looks like the line drive to Matt Clement's head was not too bad. A second CAT scan was negative, and he was released from the hospital this afternoon.

Francona visited Clement at the hospital after the Red Sox rallied to beat the Devil Rays 10-9 in 10 innings Tuesday night and said the pitcher was in good spirits and talking on the telephone when he entered the room.

"He laughed a lot. He was Matt. He just had a bump on his head," the manager said, adding that he was amazed Clement wasn't injured more seriously.

"He had a little cut on his ear. I didn't stand over his bed, but I don't think he was really that swollen. It was amazing. ... I was really surprised."

Update: The news on Trot Nixon wasn't good as he's been placed on the DL.

This post made David Singer want to ask for clarification on who invented knobs on the end of baseball bats. If you can help him, leave on comment at his blog.

Alex Rodriguez turns 30 today. It's a good point to look at his career and see how he's doing vs. the all-time greats. A-Rod has more home runs at age 30 than any other player. But it's more useful to look in terms of full seasons.

Seasonal age is the age a player is for most of the baseball season. The cut off is July 1. Whatever age you are before July 1 is your age for the year. By this measure, Alex is only 29. By seasonal age, here are the most home runs through age 29:

HR through seasonal age 29 (age before July 1)

First Name	Last Name	Home Runs
Alex	Rodriguez	409
Ken	Griffey Jr.	398
Jimmie	Foxx	379
Mickey	Mantle	374
Eddie	Mathews	370
Hank	Aaron	342
Mel	Ott	342
Juan	Gonzalez	340
Frank	Robinson	324
Harmon	Killebrew	297
Ralph	Kiner	294
Vladimir	Guerrero	291
Johnny	Bench	287
Babe	Ruth	284
Andruw	Jones	282
Darryl	Strawberry	280
Willie	Mays	279

A-Rod and Vlad will continue to add to these totals this year, and Andruw Jones gets next year as well. That means that A-Rod is likely to have a 20 to 30 home run lead on Griffey at the end of the season. If Alex can end the season with 430 home runs, he'll have 11 more seasons to bring him through seasonal age 40. He'll have to average 30 home runs a season to break Aaron's record. Not easy, but certainly not impossible. Still when you look at the names on the list, it's amazing how many were ahead of Ruth at the same age and never caught the Babe.

Correction: I meant 30, not 33.

There are three game going on right now, all in the 5th inning or later, and a total of four runs have scored. All three games are shutouts; two 1-0 games and the Cubs lead the Giants 2-0.

Jermaine Dye hit his 20th home run of the season for the lone run in the White Sox-Royals game. Quinton McCracken tripled and was stranded on two ground outs before he scored on a Ohka wild pitch in Milwaukee. And the Giants just got on the board with three straight hits in the top of the fifth.

The weekly Baseball Musings radio show will be on TPSRadio tonight and every Wednesday at 8 PM EDT. Check out their other sports programming as well.

You can also call in at 888-985-0555 and leave a question for the show, or stop by the chat room at TPSRadio during the broadcast and leave a comment. Also, feel free to leave a question in the comments to this post and I'll be happy to answer it on the air.

Jim Caple takes replicas of vintage bats to ballparks to see the reactions of hitters.

We gave our brother-in-law a 1927 Babe Ruth replica bat for his 50th birthday. It was heavy, but perfectly balanced. Just holding it made you feel like you could hit 60 home runs. But I agree with Caple's conclusion:

"The handle is the biggest thing that bugs me," Richie Sexson said. "It's so big and thick. I don't know how he used it. But I don't think they were throwing 95 miles an hour back then, either."

This was a frequent observation. Players would grab the bats, hold them, swing them, marvel at the thick handles and occasionally praise the balance. But they would also say that it was too heavy to swing in a game and that old-time pitchers couldn't possibly throw as hard as today's pitchers if batters were successful with such clubs.

I think they're right -- the bats go a long way toward explaining how different the game must have been -- but not everyone agrees.

The 50-50 San Diego Padres are facing the prospect of leading their division with a sub-.500 record. They've lost eight in a row and once again face a depleted St. Louis lineup. The Padres just are not delivering. They knocked out nine hits in 5 2/3 innings vs. Mulder last night, but came away with only two runs. Three double plays by the Cardinals helped. As you can see here, the hitters are just not hitting. Most of the regulars have on-base averages below .300.

The Padres will try to turn this around as Jake Peavy faces Jason Marquis. Peavy was shelled by the Mets in his last start and has been inconsistent since the start of June. The Padres need Jake to be a rock solid staff ace right now, and he's not getting the job done.

Marquis is the "hard luck" pitcher on the Cardinals staff. His ERA is 3rd among the five regular starters, but his 9-7 record less deserved than Mulder's 12-5. Although I suppose that things even out; his ERA is likely lower than it should be given his strikeouts, walks and home runs allowed. His DIPS is 5.10.

Enjoy!

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The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Dr. Roland A. Carlstedt responds to the post on The Psychology of Clutch in the comments.

I was the one who made the comment on hypnosis being a parlor trick, based on this show. Dr. Carlstedt rightly calls me on confusing hypnosis with hypnotic susceptibility. The latter is a sign of how willing you are to let others tell you what to do, although it seems you can induce that easily with a few drinks. :-)

I notice I'm much better at sports when I'm relaxed. To swing a golf club well, I really have to concentrate on getting every muscle of my body to loose. I can see where people who are susceptible to hypnosis are naturally relaxed people, so they might do well in "tense" situations. But I also wonder how much of that can be learned? If I can teach myself to be a more relaxed person, do I then become susceptible to hypnosis? Or is it an inborn trait?

Maybe a shot of whiskey before a big at bat is a good idea after all. :-)

Johnny Damon pulls the great defensive play to end the inning/leading off with the home run trick. He went deep to the wall in the bottom of the ninth to make a leaping catch and save extra bases. Then, he homered leading off the top of the 10th. And his legend grows.

Update: Trot Nixon also left the game early with an injury on a swing. He has a strained oblique muscle, and it's not clear how long he might be sidelined.

Update: Schilling gives up a run in the 10th, but a nice play by John Olerud ends the game and gives the Red Sox a 10-9 win. The Devil Rays express is temporarily derailed. The top four teams in the AL East all win, so the standings remain the same.

Make Lamb takes a 1-0 pitch Ryan Madson into the stands for a walk off home run and a Houston Astros victory. Houston has now won 9 of 10. Oswalt went the distance for the win, striking out 9 and throwing 123 pitches.

I only heard the end of the report, but the Red Sox broadcasters were briefed on Clement and their reaction was that the news was good.

I'm surprised that Livan Hernandez didn't finish the game against the Braves. He threw 105 pitches through 8 innings, and didn't have problems in 8th. But Robinson brought in his closer in a 2-1 game, and the Jones boys got to Cordero, setting up LaRoche for a sacrifice to tie the game. They've gone to extra innings at Turner Field.

Update: The Nationals lose on a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the tenth. There's no excuse for that. With three balls on a batter, make him put the ball in play. Throw the ball down the middle and let the odds work in your favor. The Braves claim the lead in the NL East.

A good night for Andruw Jones, who drew the walk. He also had a double and a triple.

Gustavo Chacin finishes a good July with eight shutout innings against the LAnaheim Angels. Undefeated in July, Chacin ended up posting a 3.60 ERA to go with his 4-0 record in the month. Toronto continues to hang tough in the AL East and wild card races.

Livan Hernandez is capable of throwing a ton of pitches, but tonight he's going the distance with few pitches. He's throwing a two-hitter at the Braves, tossing only 77 pitches so far. The Nationals lead 2-0.

I just received an e-mail saying that Matt Clement was hit in the head with a line drive. They have not shown a replay since I tuned in. Let's hope he's okay.

Chad Bradford came in to take Matt's place, and Huff just hit a grand slam to tie the game at five. Aubrey did not have a grand slam before the Baltimore series, and now has two. The Devil Rays band wagon keeps rolling along.

Update: NESN finally showed a replay, and suggested that people might want to turn away. It was pretty nasty. The ball got Matt square in the side of the head, and he just fell to the ground. Jerry Remy just reported that Clement was just taken away by ambulance.

Randy Johnson hit Shannon Stewart to start the game, then erased him with a double play. He's now faced the minimum through four, allowing no hits while striking out six.

More importantly, he's throwing unhittable strikes. He's been able to get through four innings with only 42 pitches. The Yankees can really use a long outing by a starter, and Johnson is on his way to giving them that kind of outing tonight.

Manny Ramirez moves into the AL lead in home runs with a two-run shot in the first inning against Tampa Bay. Early in the season, Manny was not hitting well on the road, but now his homer totals home and away are even.

As I wrote the above, Alex Rodriguez hit one to straight away center field for his 28th.

I've been upset with DirecTV most of this baseball season. I have a high definition TV, and hoped that DirecTV would carry MLB Extra Innings game in HD, just like they did with the football package. I was very happy one day in April when I saw an HD game listed in the on screen program guide. However, when I tried to watch it, I was told the game was not available in my area.

I made a number of calls to their support line to ask this basic question; if I'm paying for MLB Extra Innings and the HD package, why can't I see games in HD? On about the fourth call a supervisor told me that the HD feeds were from the RSNs (Regional Sports Network), so you had to be in the proper area to get the broadcasts. This made no sense to me, since the channel name was listed as MLB HD, not YES or Fox Rocky Mountain. But I gave up at that point, figuring the customer service people didn't know what they were talking about.

And it turns out I'm right. Suddenly, these games are now available in HD! I didn't get an announcement or an e-mail, I just looked yesterday and there was a game! So tonight, I turned on channel 94 at 7 PM, and sure enough, the Yankees are playing the Twins in glorious high definition. Now, we need to get them to show more than one or two games a night.

Update: They just did a close up or Randy Johnson that filled the whole wide screen. He's even scarier in high def.

Frank Robinson doesn't usually make out the Washington lineup card. He leaves it to coach Eddie Rodriguez who loves working with numbers and computers.

The numbers dance for Rodriguez. He sees them when he drives home from the ballpark. He twists them around in his sleep, looking for an elusive, never-discovered combination. Then, after a fitful rest, he rises with the morning sun, pours a cup of coffee, tears open the paper and begins the daylong process of trying to make the Nationals' offense come to life.

There is honesty in the numbers, and Rodriguez plays them well.

It's a nice example of a manager delegating authority to someone who may be stronger at the task.

Dan Johnson and Jason Dubois both played DH and batted ninth last night. That's the first time both DH's batted ninth in a game.

The point of the DH is to have a great offensive player in the lineup. If they're going to bat ninth, they can't be that great an offensive player. The pitcher can hit ninth. More DH's should be like David Ortiz; player's whose whole career is about hitting.

Larry Walker joins Reggie Sanders, Scott Rolen and Yadier Molina on the DL. That's nearly half the Cardinals starting lineup. If a team is going to make a move on the Cardinals, now is the time. Luckily the Cardinals have such a big lead that they can afford to take time to get healthy for the stretch run and the playoffs.

The Twins and Yankees open a three game series that will help determine the AL wild card winner. Twins and Yankees are ranked 2 and 3 in the race, with Minnesota ahead of New York by 1/2 game. They'll start the set with their oldest veterans. Brad Radke takes the hill for the Twins. Radke continues his outstanding control, having walked just 1 batter in his last four starts, and 10 in 133 IP on the year. He'll face Randy Johnson. One reason for Johnson's poor season are the hits falling in against him. His batting average allowed is 70 points higher than last year.

The Nationals and Braves are tied for the NL East lead, and they'll send their aces to the mound as Livan Hernandez faces John Smoltz, two oldies but goodies. Washington is leading the season series 6-3. Livan is on a bit of a losing streak as the Nationals went down to defeat in his last 3 starts. Meanwhile, the Braves have won Smoltz's last eight starts.

Enjoy!

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Chris Wavrin at CommentaryPage.com notes a scandal in Taiwan. It seems players and bookies are conspiring to throw games.

I understand why an individual would want to fix a game. A big bet on an underdog would lead to a big payoff. I don't understand why bookies would want to fix games. Bookies make their money by setting odds that cause people to bet evenly on the favorite and the underdog, and make a profit by taking a small percentage of the bet, say by paying out 99 cents for every dollar won. As long as the odds are set correctly, they shouldn't care who wins or loses.

Tim Marchman in the New York Sun writes a great Sabermetric article arguing that the White Sox have the worst offense in the AL, and how unusual it is to have a team with such a poor offense do so well.

A claim that the White Sox are a terrible offensive club should, rightly, be met with skepticism. The team is, after all, sixth in the league in runs scored, first in stolen bases, and on pace to win 107 games, this last number being the best evidence against the Sox being notably bad at the plate. There are a few mitigating factors, though. The most important among them is that they play in U.S. Cellular Field, which is one of the better hitter's parks in baseball. The team's last place ranking in runs scored on the road is more telling than that sixth-place ranking in total runs scored.

It's a well thought out, well researched article. I hope you'll read the whole thing.

This is a continuing trend. More and more I see a new generation of sports writers looking at stats in new ways. The paradigm is shifting away from BA/HR/RBI toward a more meaningful look at the numbers.

Update: Casey Abell questions this story in the comments, rightly looking at runs per game on the road, rather than overall runs scored on the road.

One problem that I have with internet sites that show team statistics is that they don't give you runs per game. You have to sit there and figure it out for yourself. It would be great if MLB or ESPN or Fox or CBSSportsline put runs per game into their sortable stats. Marchman should have spent the time figuring it out, but that stat should be available. I'll have to add it to the Day by Day Database.

Felipe Alou must have needed some exercise last night, as he kept making trips to the mound in the eighth inning of the Giants-Cubs game:

Alou tried to play his trademark brand of matchup baseball. He used five relievers in a bid to get three outs in the eighth before the Cubs could score the tying run. The plan failed. Ultimately, Alou summoned closer Tyler Walker to face Neifi Perez with the bases loaded and two outs.

One pitch later, the game was tied 2-2 on a Perez single. Walker had his third blown save in his last four chances and blew a Schmidt win for the second time in six nights. Walker then allowed singles in the ninth to Ronny Cedeńo and Todd Walker. After an intentional walk to MVP front-runner Derrek Lee, Jeff Fassero replaced Walker and got Jeromy Burnitz to line out to center.

Cedeńo tagged from third. Jason Ellison unleashed a terrific throw, but Cedeńo made a better slide, getting his hand around Mike Matheny's block attempt. The game was over, and Alou confessed he is starting to worry about his closer.

Two things here:

1. Why not let Hawkins or Eyre pitch as long as they are doing okay? Eyre's been successful against both lefties and righties this year.
2. We're going to start hearing Neifi Perez compared to Pat Tabler. That's two days in a row he's come through with the bases loaded late in the game.

There are times when matchups are important. But I believe those situations aren't as widespread as some managers believe. Every time you bring in a new pitcher, you're rolling the dice. Maybe this guy doesn't have it today. Why leave in the guy who has shown he can get an out?

Yesterday I was critical of Derek Lowe, and of course he goes out and throws eight innings of one-hit ball last night. The Dodger and Lowe won 4-0 over the Reds and are now just two games out of second place and five games from the division.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Oakland Athletics showed they can hit lefties tonight as C.C. Sabathia only lasted 2 1/3 innings. The A's saw 10 men reach base against Milliliter, with 8 hits and 2 walks. Eight earned runs were charged to the Cleveland lefty, leaving him with a 5.24 ERA for the season.

Meanwhile, Barry Zito has struck out five through four innings with no runs allowed. The Athletics lead 8-0 in the middle of the fourth.

Update: The A's can hit righties, too, as Eric Chavez hits his 2nd home run of the game, this time off Rafael Betancourt. Chavez now has 17 home runs on the year, 13 since June 1st.

For the second day in a row, the Devil Rays picked up a game on the Red Sox. This time they didn't need any help as Timlin and Schilling combined to turn a one-run lead into a one-run loss in 10 innings. Timlin didn't have a run charged to him, but he did allow one of David Wells bequeathed runners to score. The broadcast said Timlin's allowed 13 of 20 inherited runners to cross the plate. The Red Sox should make him the closer, because they seldom come in with men on base.

Schilling then went 1 2/3 before allowing the winning run to score in the tenth on a double by Huff. Schilling's batting average allowed now stands at .339.

The Devil Rays have won 8 of their last 11. I'm on the band wagon.

Craig Biggio and Lance Berkman hit back-to-back home runs twice in tonight's game against the Phillies, driving in all the runs as the Astros jump out to a 5-0 lead after three innings. Cory Lidle continues his cold streak for Philadelphia, allowing all four long balls. It's the 22nd time this season that a pitcher has allowed four or more home runs in a game.

Update: Jason Lane adds a fifth home run off Lidle to make the score 7-1. It's the third time this season a picher allowed five or more home runs in a game. Last year, it happened four times.

I just heard on the NESN broadcast of the Red Sox game that Phil Nevin decided to exercise his no-trade option and refused the trade to the Orioles. Here's the story from ESPN.

I have to think this is a positive for the Padres, as I just didn't see Ponson helping them at all.

Daniel Cabrera of the Orioles is off to a good and bad start. The Rangers have no hits through three innings, but are leading 1-0 as Cabrera walked five.

Yard Work brings on Seymour Hersh to uncover a 30-year conspiracy to prevent pitchers from winning 20 games. Part 1 is here, and links lead to parts two, three and four.

For years I thought the lack of 20 game winners was due to the constant decrease in the the work load for starters over time. Little did I know that it was all Gene Autry's fault!

It's good to see Nick Schulz back to blogging at Transition Game. He talks about new and improved softball bats in this post. It makes me wonder if they will eventually invent a wood composite bat (infused with carbon nanotubes, maybe) that performs like wood but is very difficult to break.

Dan Agonistes quotes from an interview with Kevin Goldstein on the farm systems of the Red Sox, Braves and Dodgers:

KG: Sure. The Red Sox system has certainly taken a step forward, particularly in terms of pitching, with Jon Lester, Jon Papelbon and Anibal Sanchez all having seasons one could categorize as breakout. So while it’s an improving system and they have every reason to happy, they’re still not in the same league as the Dodgers or Braves. The Dodgers have one of the best systems in baseball and the Braves, well, we’ve seen most of their prospects at the major league level recently. They also do a remarkable job of scouting and development – it seems like they’re always loaded with prospects."

I've heard this about the Dodgers before. When DePodesta took over, he praised the Dodgers' great farm system. What I'm wondering now is why I'm not seeing any evidence of that great farm system at the major league level.

If the farm system was so great, why did the Dodgers trade for a Yankees prospect at catcher? Why did they sign Jeff Kent instead of playing Antonio Perez? Why haven't they brought up someone decent to replace Drew? Why do they have Lowe and Weaver in the rotation? Why did they give eight starts to Scott Erickson?

The Braves got in trouble, and they actually had prospects in their farm system that could play. DePodesta's old boss keeps finding people in his minor league system that can play at the major league level. Why not the Dodgers? If it's such a great system, why aren't we seeing a good, young team?

Catfish Stew manages to weave Swedish tennis players and The Greatest Star Trek Episode Ever^TM into a post about the Athletics.

A nice pitching matchup in Milwaukee this evening as Brandon Webb and the Diamondbacks face Ben Sheets and the Brewers. The Diamondbacks are closing in on the Padres, while the Brewers are fighting to get back to .500 and back into the wild card race. Arizona lost the five starts by Webb, with Brandon picking up the decision in four of them. Webb has a 6.68 ERA over his last five starts, allowing 44 hits in 32 1/3 innings. Sheets over the same period has a 3.18 ERA, and has only walked 3 batters in his last 34 innings.

Just 1/2 game separate the Phillies and Astros in the NL wild card race as the two team meet tonight in Houston. Cory Lidle's strong start faded in the summer. In April and May, Lidle posted a 5-3 record and a 3.50 ERA. Since, he's 3-5 with a 5.49 ERA. Andy Pettitte, however, is in line for pitcher of the month honors with his 3-0 record and 1.08 ERA.

Finally, the Cleveland Indians travel to Oakland trailing the Athletics by 2 1/2 games in the wild card race. They'll send C.C. Sabathia against Barry Zito. Milliliter is not living up to his role as staff ace. He's allowed 24 hits in his last 15 1/3 innings. Zito, however, regained his ace form at the end of June. He's 5-0 with a 1.22 ERA over his last six starts, and has allowed just 25 hits in 44 1/3 innings. Cleveland has the worst BA vs. lefties in the AL, so that's another factor that should favor Oakland tonight.

Enjoy!

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Here's a thought to add to the wild speculation going on about trades right now. Why don't the Yankees trade Jason Giambi? His value may never be higher than it is right now. His hot streak is short enough that we don't know if it's for real, but his approach to hitting right now looks like the Giambi of old. The Padres, Mets and Indians all could use a slugging first baseman and have excess pitching. If the Yankees could get a starter and reliever for the first baseman, would you do the trade? Jeter, A-Rod, Sheffield and Matsui offer plenty of offense for a good pitching staff. The Yankees could afford to play Tino the rest of the way and solve first base next season. It certainly would be a bold move on the Yankees part.

I'm assuming that the Yankees would need to send money (especially to SD and Cleveland) to take care of part of Giambi's future salary.

The Tigers didn't have Magglio Ordonez most of the season, but what a month he's had since he returned to the lineup on July 1st. He's knocked out 31 hits in 21 games and currently has a 17 game hit streak, the longest currently in the majors. The Tigers are having their best month batting of the season, and are three games over .500 for the month. It took a while, but the gamble of signing Maggs appears to be paying off.

The St. Louis Cardinals treated Derrek Lee like Barry Bonds last night, walking him four times. The Cubs turned two of those walks into runs, twice on home runs. Aramis Ramirez hit a two run shot in the 8th to tie the game. In the tenth, both Lee and Ramirez were intentionally walked, Ramirez's setting up Neifi Perez with the bases loaded. Al Reyes then proceeds to allow a grand slam to the out machine Perez. The Cards should fine Reyes for that. Cubs win, taking 2 out of 3 from St. Louis, and remain in contention in the wild card race.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Devil Rays broke the huge 20 games back psychological barrier today, completing a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles. Now, if they can win all their games the rest of the year, they might have a shot at the division. :-)

Early this season, I linked to a number of post on Freakonomics about the Athletics. Basically, he felt that Moneyball is a crock, and issued this challenge:

For all of you who disagree with me - and the betting markets - go to tradesports and bet on the A's. The market thinks they will only win 82 games. If they are as good as you believe, there is a lot of money to be made. And after you all bet and drive the odds up, I will bet the other side.

It seems fans are pointing out the Athletics record to Mr. Levitt lately. He's too busy to comment. But I want to know how much he bet when the Athletics were down. How much money are you going to lose, Mr. Levitt?

He should have bet a bundle around May 26th. At that point, it looked pretty unlikely that the A's would be able to win 90 games.

What happens next? Is Macha's job on the line? Will there be reassignment of players? Is Billy Beane safe? If the A's want to make the playoffs this year, they will need to remake this team quickly. They've blown a golden opportunity to gain ground on the Angels as the Rangers have.

Since Macha and Beane are still there, what have they done to remake the team. Here's the A's through 5/26 and 5/27 through yesterday sorted by at bats. Basically, Swisher and Johnson are getting more AB, Crosby is back in the lineup, and Hatteberg, Byrnes (traded) and Durazo (injured) had their playing time reduced. On the pitching side, the rotation remains the same, while Glynn and Calero replace Dotel and Cruz in the bullpen.

In other words, not much has changed. People are just performing better. Getting Crosby back was a big deal, as was promoting Johnson. But in the end, a team in a collective slump came out of it together. And today they find themselves tied for the wild card lead.

It's still 1-1 in the Astros-Nationals game. Both teams used all their position players, so the Astros are using Brandon Backe to pinch hit for the pitcher, Russ Springer. Backe has a .278 batting average this season and is slugging over .400. Wilkerson played him shallow, and Backe nearly hit it over Brad's head. Two out and two on. The Astros put men on 1st and 2nd to start the inning, and Bake's ball advance one to third with two out.

Update: Eric Bruntlett hits a three-run, two-out home run to give the Astros a 4-1 lead in the top of the 14th.

Update: The Astros win. With the Mets and Phillies both winning, the NL East and the wild card race get a little bit tighter.

The San Diego Padres extended their losing streak to seven games this afternoon with a 5-1 loss to the Phillies. The Padres have been outscored 43-16 during the streak, so there's plenty of blame to pass around on both sides of the ball. It's not clear how long the Padres can depend on the ineptitude of the rest of the NL West to keep them in first place.

With the Padres now one game over .500, might we see the first sub-.500 division winner (in a full season)? Texas finished first in 1994, but who knows what would have happened if the season had played out.

Kris Benson continued his great season at Shea today. His eight shutout innings lowered his ERA to 2.38 in Queens this year. I don't know if it's intentional, but he's now made 10 of his 16 starts in New York. It's a good move if they are really trying to set the rotation to maximize Kris' starts at Shea.

The Tigers had a big power day, knocking out 13 hits. With 26 total bases in the game, their average hit was a double. With so many hits, and so many long hits, it's pretty amazing that they only scored five runs. The team was only one for eight with men in scoring position. So it's a good thing they had the long hits. Four of their runs came on long hits with a man on first or the bases empty.

I will be on Lehigh Valley Yankee Fan Club Radio at 7:30 EDT this evening to discuss the Yankees. Hope you'll tune in.

Jose Guillen left the Nationals game in the bottom of the ninth after being hit on the hand with a pitch. The game is in the 10th with the score tied at 1, and the Nationals are out of position players. They're going to go the rest of the game with the lineup they have now.

I'm watching the Astros and Nationals, locked in a 1-1 contest in the 7th. John Patterson is hurling for Washington, and so far has set a career high in strikeouts with 10. Patterson has one trait he shares with Randy Johnson; long legs. Like Johnson, his legs look out proportion to the rest of his body. I wonder if there is any relation between leg length and power pitching. Patterson has a very high K per 9 for his career, 8.4 per 9 entering today. Any physicists or bio-mechanics experts wish to comment?

Balls, Sticks and Stuff link to an interesting article on what makes a clutch hitter, psychologically that is. I tend to dismiss the "hypnotic susceptibility" portion of the argument since hypnotism is simply a parlor trick. But I'd remind you, some players have to do well in non-clutch situations to set up the clutch situations. So a better clutch hitter isn't necessarily a better ballplayer.

Update: Tom Durso went to the same game as part of a blogger's night at the ballgame. His post is here.

The Oakland Athletics are interested in building a small baseball stadium, partly to increase season ticket sales:

The A's managing general partner is looking for a park so intimate it would make SBC Park or even Fenway Park look almost spacious. It would have about 35,000 seats, Wolff said last week, and that would make it the smallest big-league park.

"Right now our capacity (at McAfee Coliseum, 43,662) is too big, and it makes it too hard to sell season tickets,'' Wolff said. "That's why we have the highest walk-up traffic in major league baseball.''

Even some of the luxury suites would be cozy. Half of them -- 40 of the 80 -- would be 4-to-6-seat mini-suites, club officials say. That would make them more affordable, a necessity for a club that can't begin to attract the level of corporate support the Giants enjoy.

It's not a bad idea. And it seems you could build the park in such a way that if it proves to be too small, it could be expanded.

Lynn Henning of the Detroit News takes a look at why the Tigers were able to acquire Chris Shelton:

Pirates general manager Dave Littlefield said Friday they were aware of Shelton's hitting potential. The problem was no one was too sure where they could play him. He was a catcher, but not a good enough catcher to play regularly in the big leagues. He wasn't an outfielder. He wasn't reassuring as a first baseman (those emerging skills have been another Shelton surprise). And, at least in terms of Pittsburgh and the National League, he couldn't become a designated hitter.

The Pirates had young players they judged to be more dimensional players. Shelton, Littlefield said, "fell below" some raw assessments they were obliged to make.

When you have someone that good, an orgainization (especially one that isn't winning much) needs to find room for him. Follow what Oakland did with Scott Hatteberg; teach to play first and live with the consequences. Most of the time, it will work out in your favor.

The Dayton Daily News has a short profiles of the two pitchers the Reds received in the Randa trade. Both are young, and both are striking out a lot of batters. That's certainly a good sign.

Chick's carrer through 2004 looks very good. Germano's strikeouts aren't quite as high, but his walks are a lot better. Not a bad deal for the Reds who finally get some young talent for the pitching staff.

The odds look good for the Athletics sweeping the Rangers today. Rich Harden takes his 2.11 ERA to the mound against Chan Ho Park's 5.33. As I watch the Rangers free fall, I wonder how long Showalter and Hershiser will last. They have failed to add to last year's improvement. A loss to Oakland today pretty much buries them in both the AL West and Wild Card races. I haven't heard Buck's name on the list of managers on the hot seat, but since the break they've lost 6 of 7 to Oakland and 2 of 3 to the Yankees, two teams they needed to beat in the wild card race. That kid of performance should certainly put the manager's job on the line.

The Cubs and Cardinals play the rubber game of their series in stunning high definition this evening on ESPN. It's Prior vs. Suppan on the mound and Lee, Burnitz and Ramirez vs. Pujols, Edmonds and Walker at the plate. Since June 1, Ramirez and Lee each have 16 home runs and have combined to drive in 80.

Enjoy!

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Every so often someone makes a comment to the effect that games late in the year are more important than games early in the year. This is, on it's face, hogwash. A win counts just as much early as it does late. In fact, games won early are game you don't need to win late.

To demonstrate this, let's look at the NL East race, charting team by their winning percentage by month (click on image for full size chart):

What you see are a number of different paths to success or failure. The Braves are taking the slow and steady approach. They are good but not great every month. The Nationals, on the other hand, used one great month to reach the top. The Mets are taking a one step forward, 1/2 step back approach. The Marlins are steadily declining.

April mattered most to the Phillies. Finishing the month in last place, the Phillies have been playing good ball ever since. They have the same record as the Braves since May 1st. But having the same record as the Braves does them no good as the year progresses. No one in the NL East won the division in April, but the Phillies might very well have lost it that month.

Someone wrote the other day wondering how saves and complete games were running compared to last year. Early in the season, it looked like saves were down. That's turned around in a big way. At the same point in the season last year, there were 734 saves in 1099 opportunities, a 66.8 save percentage. This year, there are 735 saves in 1074 opportunities, a 68.4 save percentage.

Complete games continue to run higher than last year, which may account for the drop in save opportunities. Through the same point in the season, 2004 showed 84 complete games in 2900 starts, or 2.9% complete games. In 2005, pitchers have completed 120 games in 2914 starts, or 4.1%.

One reason for the better save and complete game number is that offense continues to be down. (I'm not stating cause and effect; I don't know if it's better pitching or poorer hitters who are causing the offensive drop.) Runs per game are running at 9.3 per game vs. 9.6 per game at the same point in the season in 2004. Home runs are down slightly, from 2.20 to 2.06 per game.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

What happened to Sean Douglass? For four years he was a medicore pitcher with the Orioles and Blue Jays. Suddenly, he's 3-0 in five starts with the Tigers, and is sporting a 2.10 ERA after allowing just 1 run in seven innings against the Twins. The big difference so far is that he's not allowing home runs, just 1 so far in 30 innings. Sometimes pitcher just mature late, and at age 26 we may not be seeing that in Douglass.

The San Diego Padres picked up Joe Randa today for a couple of minor leaguers and appear to be ready to trade Nevin for Ponson if Nevin approves the deal. I understand the Randa deal; Sean Burroughs just hasn't hit. He's slugging .302, which is just unacceptable for a third baseman.

I don't understand the Nevin for Ponson deal, however. I understand the Padres need for a starting pitcher, but is Ponson really going to help? You can't even argue that Petco Park is going to help, because Sidney has a 7+ ERA on the road. Nevin is coming off an injury, but he's had a poor year overall. Like Ponson, he can't blame his home park, because he's playing worse on the road as well. I just don't see it as a trade that helps either team at this point.

I'm about to hit the road for the morning, so a quick Games of the Day. The Twins play a pair against the Tigers today, and a sweep can put a little distance between them and the Yankees in the wild card race. Houston goes for their seventh consecutive win vs. reeling Washington. Chicago-Boston, Oakland-Texas and New York-LAnaheim all have implications in the AL division and wild card races.

The Braves-Diamondbacks should be a good matchup as Sosa faces Halsey. Sosa may be the luckiest starter on the Braves staff. He's walked 19 in 24 innings as a starter, yet has a 2.63 ERA and a 2-0 record. After going through a rough stretch, Halsey pitched two good games in a row, allowing just three runs in his last 13 2/3 innings.

Enjoy!

There was further tightening of division and wild card races last night. The big winner in the AL was the Oakland Athletics, who took another game from Texas last night, winning an 11-10 slugfest. Every batter in the game reached base once, with Gary Matthews, Jr. the only player not to get a hit. Neither starter lasted long, and neither bullpen did a good job. The A's ended up with four more hit and one more run. With the Yankees, Orioles and Twins all losing, Oakland finds themselves just 1 1/2 games out of the wild card lead.

The Phillies were the only NL East team to win last night. Chase Utley was 0 for 5 when he came to the plate in the plate in the 11th. His 13th home run of the year proved to be lucky as it gave the Phillies the victory. They move into third place four games behind Washington and Atlanta. The poor play of the Nationals and Braves lately has caused the division to bunch up again. Five and one half games separate the top from the bottom in the NL East.

The Dodgers and Diamondbacks continue to gain ground in the NL West. With the Phillies win over San Diego and Los Angeles and Arizona notched victories to each gain a game on the division leader. The Dodgers pounded out 15 hits in route to a 6-5 defeat of the Mets. The Diamondbacks used the same score to win against the Braves. Claduio Vargas turned in seven strong innings while Tim Hudson was hittable and a bit wild. Brian Bruney gave up four runs in the 8th to the Braves to make it close, but Alex Cintron hit the game winner in the 10th, rewarding Lance Cormier with a win for his 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Roger Clemens is having little trouble with the Washington Nationals tonight, allowing no runs while striking out 10 through six innings. It's Roger's second 10 K game of the season.

Nothing really new to report after Rogers appealed his suspension to Selig. There won't be a decision until next week, and then the union will probably appeal on a technicality.

Frank Thomas is back on the DL. His left foot is bothering him again. Maybe he can get a transplant from Daniel Day Lewis. :-)

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Houston sends its best pitcher to the mound tonight as Roger Clemens faces the Nationals and Ryan Drese at RFK. Clemens is working on a streak of seven straight games in which he's allowed 2 earned runs or less. He on track for another Cy Young award. Drese lowered his ERA three runs moving from Texas to Washington. The big difference is he's allowed 0 home runs, and his hits allowed in general are way down. He was allowing 12.4 hits per 9 with Texas, 7.9 with Washington. Is it better defense or better pitches?

The Cubs open a series in St. Louis trailing the Cardinals by 13. They're also 5 1/2 in the wild card race. With the Cardinals injured, the Cubs have a chance to gain ground in the Wild Card race and show the Cardinals that they are not invincible. They'll have a tough time tonight, however, as Chris Carpenter takes the mound for St. Louis against Carlos Zambrano.

Enjoy!

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In a comment to this post, a reader points out this article in the Washington Post concerning the dimensions of RFK Stadium:

Club officials asked the reporters to stop before other measurements could be taken, but the team agreed to bring in a surveyor who took measurements yesterday morning. The results confirmed what the players had suspected -- the marks in the areas midway between the foul poles and center field were incorrect. According to club officials, the actual distance -- measured with a laser -- to the mark that said "380" in left-center field was 394.74 feet; the actual distance to the "380" mark in right-center was 395 feet.

"It's been something that's been in people's minds," said Andy Dunn, the Nationals' vice president of ballpark operations. "The dimensions were on pads that make up the outfield fence, but the pads with the 380-feet marks were in the wrong locations."

So it seems like an honest mistake. There's a location on the fence where those pads are supposed to be placed, and someone mixed up the locations. More interesting, however, is Bowden's take on the stadium configuration:

Nationals President Tony Tavares has attended every home game, and has watched what Guillen and his teammates are seeing. In fact, Tavares and Bowden had a conversation during RFK's renovation over the winter, when the Nationals were preparing to move from Montreal.

"I told Jim I could tweak it, slightly, to be a pitcher's park or a hitter's park," Tavares said.

"And I told him," Bowden said, "that to bring the fences in with our team I didn't think made any sense, because I thought we're going to have to win with pitching and defense. We also had hitters who didn't have to hit home runs to produce runs."

More importantly, Bowden isn't going to hold the park against his hitters:

"And if we're doing a contract with Jose, and I'm still here, I'll say, 'Jose, those count as home runs,' " Tavares said. "He can add them to his totals, and we'll negotiate from there. I know this isn't a hitter's ballpark."

The Nationals are capable of winning low-scoring, close games. Bowden made the right decision.

The Washington Nationals, with a 3-2 loss to the Astros last night, have fallen into a tie with the Atlanta Braves for first place in the NL East. The Nats are 2-6 since the break. What are they doing differently? Nothing as far as I can see. Before the break, they had a great record despite being outscored by four runs. Since, they have a poor record, despite being outscored by only two runs. They are 0-4 in one run games since the break after going 24-10 in the close ones before hand. Looks like a typical case of regression to the mean.

Update: It looks like Livan Hernandez will continue to pitch this season, although the reason for his anger Wednesday night is still not clear.

Zach Duke lowered his ERA to 0.93 as he allowed 1 unearned run over seven innings. The Pirates finally scored some runs as well, defeating the Rockies 8-1. Duke didn't have good control last night, but the Rockies are so inept away from Coors the four walks didn't hurt the Pirates rookie.

As for the offense, they scored 50% of the runs they scored over the previous nine games:

Since their 11-4 win over the New York Mets on July 9, the Pirates had batted .190 while being outscored, 64-16, in nine games. Moreover, they had accumulated a streak of 82 innings without scoring more than one run and were 3 for 43 with runners in scoring position to start the second half.

The Angels game back from a 5-2 deficit in grand fashion last night against a Yankees bullpen that is showing little depth. Since the All-Star break, the Yankees starters have exposed this problem. None have gone seven innings, and as a whole are averaging just over five innings a start. It looked like Randy Johnson was going to go deep into the game last night, but:

Fortunately for the Yanks, Johnson doesn't appear seriously injured. The 6-10 lefty tweaked his back when he slipped while throwing a 1-0 pitch to Orlando Cabrera in the sixth , but finished the inning before heading to the trainer's room.

After the game, he tried to quickly defuse questions about the severity of his injury, saying, "I've done it before and I'll be fine. I'll be facing these guys in 10days (at the Stadium) and I'm pretty adamant about being there."

Johnson was at 89 pitches when he left the game. Without the injury, he could have gone 2 more innings, leaving Scott Proctor and Buddy Groom in the pen where they belonged. Instead, they loaded the bases and Guerrero got the best of Tom Gordon for a grand slam and the win.

The top of the Yankees bullpen is fine. They just can't pitch every day.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Jason Giambi hit his 14th home run of the year tonight, and his 9th in the month of July. After a dismal start, he's regained the stroke that earned him the big contract from the Yankees. His slugging percentage is now over .500 on the season.

Jason Giambi is the one person playing today that we are reasonably sure used steroids extensively. Can we be reasonably sure he's not using them now? I assume he's been tested, although test fail. I think, rather, the pituitary tumor probably put him off to their use anymore. I'd say the chances of Giambi still using steroids are low.

So, have we learned anything? Giambi was a big strong ballplayer with a good eye for the strike zone and tremendous power. If he is still that ballplayer off steroids, maybe steroids don't have much of an effect. In other words, as I've often argued on these pages, the whole steroids issue is overblown. Players who use them are just getting snake oil. The believe the pills and injections and creams give them a boost, but it's their own hard work that makes the difference. And the people who complain about them are equally exaggerating their powers. What is the difference between Giambi now and the Giambi of two years ago? He's huge and he's hitting home runs, just like then. So please, someone explain to me what is the big deal. It seems to me there's no reason to use the junk, and there's equally no reason to be too upset when someone does, because it really doesn't seem to help all that much.

Update: As I wrote this, Giambi hit another home run. That's 15 on the year, 12 behind A-Rod, who also homered tonight. He trailed A-Rod by 18 at the start of July.

The White Sox suffered an unusual loss tonight. They lost by one run, and they lost on unearned runs. Chicago only allowed 26 unearned runs all year; tonight they gave up three.

In what may be his last game for three weeks, Kenny Rogers is going out in style. Through four innings tonight, he's only faced 14 Oakland batters, allowing two hits and no runs. His appeal will be heard tomorrow, leaving Buck Showalter wondering what to do with a tattered rotation. I bet Buck didn't think he'd miss Ryan Drese this quickly.

And there's the chance that the MLBPA will file a grievance if the suspension isn't reduced. I find that ludicrous, especially after the outburst against the cameraman earlier this week. The MLBPA has to realize one of the things that makes their members valuable is all the free press coverage they receive. This should be one time where they say to their player, be a man and take your punishment.

Update: The Athletics got to Rogers in the fifth and six for four runs. Rogers didn't lose the game, but he'd helped his team on the way to the loss, 6-4.

If you told John Lieber he'd only give up a run on two doubles in the first today, he'd be thinking he was going to win. But Citizen's Bank Park played like the old Astrodome today as Odalis Perez and the Dodger bullpen made that one run stand up for the victory. Both staffs generated a lot of wind today as a total of 17 strikeouts were recorded in the game. After the doubles by Robles and Kent, the Dodgers managed just three more hits the rest of the day. It's the 22nd 1-0 game this season.

It was an excellent afternoon for the Mets and their fans. The offense hit, and against one of the best pitchers in the league, Jake Peavy. Kaz Ishii was wild, but didn't give up too many hits. He combined with the bullpen to shutout the Padres 12-0. And the Phillies lost, moving the Mets into third place in the NL East. The Mets sweep the Padres, and San Diego's lead falls to 4 1/2 games in the NL West.

Unlike Nick Johnson, my daughter is a fast healer. The doctor took the cast off today and is impressed with how much the bone healed. Instead of another six weeks in a cast, she'll be in a removable brace for two or three weeks. Very good news for her, as she'll probably be able to go swimming during our vacation.

Jake Peavy picked up his third hit of the season this afternoon, raising his average to .103. Amazingly, he has four walks. He has a good eye, but not a good bat.

Livan Hernandez gave a very strange press conference last night in which he indicated:

1. Something has him upset.
2. He may opt for knee surgery today and shut down for the rest of the season.

Both of these items took people by surprise. We'll see how it plays out.

There's a very good interview with Rob Neyer over at Baseball Digest Daily. I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing, but I agree with his take on the Devil Rays:

BDD: You mentioned Tampa Bay. Is there any hope for Tampa Bay at all? They seem to have loaded up on top prospects and restocked the organization. Why does this club always seem to be in such disarray?

RN: It certainly shouldn't have taken this long to improve. Here's why I don't buy into the Devil Rays. It's true that because they had so many awful finishes, they have had a number of good picks. It's true that their minor league system has good prospects like Delmon Young, Jeff Niemann. They also have a bunch of good young outfielders right now.

This is a team that has had some good players over the years, and it hasn't translated into very many wins. The common thread throughout this time has been that Chuck Lamar has been the general manager. I don't mean any disrespect to Chuck Lamar. I'm sure he's good at some things, but running a baseball team doesn't seem to be one of them.

We're now in the franchise's 8th season and we've seen no improvement. I do think that at some point, with all the good young talent, that this team can turn in a 70 win season, maybe a 75 win season, and that would be a major step forward for this club. But an 80 win season, 85 win season? I don't think I can see that happen until they have a general manager who does a few things better than Chuck Lamar.

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It looks like an even matchup in Detroit tonight as Johan Santana and the Twins visit Jason Johnson and the Tigers. Both pitchers sport 3.84 ERAs entering action today. They've allowed the same number of walks (although Santana pitched 9 1/3 more innings) and about the same number of home runs. But Santana has struck out nearly 90 more batters. I would think the resulting decrease in hits allowed would make a big difference in their ERAs.

Your pitching staff is in good shape when your second best pitcher has a 2.54 ERA, and Roy Oswalt gets to pitch in a friendly park tonight as Houston faces Washington at RFK. Esteban Loaiza takes the hill for the Nationals. Clemens and Oswalt are 1-3 in the NL in ERA, and with the month Andy Pettitte is having he may join them soon. Given Minute Maid's reputation as a hitter's haven, I'm surprised to see Roy with a 3.18 road ERA vs. 1.95 at home. Loaiza also finds success at home, with a 2.36 ERA in Washington vs. a 4.94 ERA on the road.

The big matchup of the night pits the first place Red Sox against the first place White Sox in Chicago. Matt Clement and Mark Buehrle oppose each other on the hill. This is the first time the possible playoff opponents meet this season. Boston boasts the 2nd best offense in the league, nearly tied with the Yankees. The White Sox trot out the best defense, with the lowest ERA in the league. The White Sox offense, however, is in the top half of the league, while the Red Sox rank 11th in ERA. That should give Chicago an edge in this series.

Finally, just one west coast game tonight as the Yankees face the LAnaheim Angels. Expect a lot of strikeouts as Randy Johnson faces Bartolo Colon. Colon's run into a bit of a wall lately, allowing 12 runs in his last 11 innings. Johnson won his last three and struck out 26 batters in 19 1/3 innings over that streak.

Enjoy!

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It looks like Barry Zito is putting in his bid for AL Pitcher of the Month in July. He pitched seven shut out innings vs. the Angels last night to lower his July ERA to 1.20 and raise his July record to 4-0. Barry got off to a rough start in April but lowered his ERA every month. It's not exactly clear what the difference between his April and July are, however. His strikeouts, homeruns and walks aren't that different, yet he's allowed less than half the hits. It's as if the Oakland defense suddenly got better behind him. Maybe it's Bobby Crosby?

Oakland takes two out of three from the Angels, putting them 6 1/2 games back in the AL West. With the Rangers loss last night, the Athletics are also in second place, 2 1/2 back in the wild card chase.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Baseball Savant has an interview with Matthew McGough, the author of Bat Boy. It's my next baseball book in the queue.

If you missed tonight's show, you can hear the recorded version here. It's also available on demand at TPSRadio.

The Dodgers appear to have the measure of the Phillies tonight. The game started as a pitching duel, with Lidle and Lowe matching goose eggs for four innings. But in the 5th, Kent and Werth each homered as the Dodgers scored nine. Lowe continues to shut down the Phillies, but the score has climbed to 10-0 in the 7th. The Dodgers had only averaged 3.0 runs a game over their last nine contests.

Ken Griffey Jr. hits his 522 career home run and 21st of the season to pass Ted Williams and Willie McCovey on the all-time home run list. Two more homers and he'll have passed his best season mark of the century.

Carlos Beltran hit just his third Shea Stadium home run tonight. His struggles in this park remind me of Bobby Murcer in 1974. The Yankees moved into Shea for two seasons while their Stadium was being remodeled. Murcer had been used to pulling balls for homers in the old park, and with the deeper lines in Shea couldn't do it. He had two homers at Shea all year, both in late September.

The Baseball Musings Radio Show is coming up at the top of the hour. I'll have Brian Gunn of The Hardball Times as my guest. We'll talk about the Cardinals and the NL Central, and I'll do my usual roundup of news and views.

Joaquin Benoit gets off to a good start in his first start of the year. He strikes out Jeter, Cano and Sheffield to have a 1-2-3 first inning. He threw 14 pitches, 11 for strikes.

The Tigers offense scored some runs for Nate Robertson, and he went seven innings to pick up his fifth victory of the year. Kyle Fransworth did his best to give it away, but four runs in the top of the ninth were more than enough to make up for the three runs allowed by Kyle.

Craig Dingman threw three pitches to retire the last batter and pick up his first save. In three innings, Dingman has four strikeouts and one walk. Maybe he'll get more chances at closing with Percival injured. In a 10 year minor league career (through 2004), Dingman had 551 K in 466 1/3 innings.

John Patterson moved past John Smoltz last night for fifth place in the NL ERA race. Smoltz returned the favor today, allowing 1 run in eight innings to lower his ERA to 2.64, good for fifth place. The Braves picked up the 4-1 win over the Giants in a brisk 2:19.

Jeff Francoeur continues to impress in his short stint in the majors. He's 9 for 22 with his third home run today, but has yet to draw a walk. Maybe the other teams should start pitching around him, given his .864 slugging percentage.

The Minnesota Twins played their 8th straight one-run game today, defeating the Orioles for the second day in a row in the ninth inning. Jacque Jones was the hero today with a walk off homer to make the final 3-2.

The main problem with the streak is the Twins are just 4-4. If the Twins are going to gain any significant ground on the wild card race, they're going to need to start blowing out their opponents. The pitching's been very good during this stretch. They need a stretch where the batters are as good as the pitchers.

Correction: The Twins are 4-4 during the streak.

Mark Hendrickson became the second pitcher this season to start a game, face batters, and get no one out. Four hits and two walks was enough for Lou Piniella as Mark ended up having all six batters score. Paul Wilson went eight deep in the first inning in early May.

The weekly Baseball Musings radio show will be on TPSRadio tonight and every Wednesday at 8 PM EDT. Check out their other sports programming as well.

You can also call in at 888-985-0555 and leave a question for the show, or stop by the chat room at TPSRadio during the broadcast and leave a comment. Also, feel free to leave a question in the comments to this post and I'll be happy to answer it on the air.

Torii Hunter just hit a hard liner that hit Rodrigo Lopez either in the chest or the stomach. Lopez made the play, then fell to the ground. After a few minutes catching his breath, he's staying in the game. It looked like he got the wind knocked out of him. He gets the final out of the inning and the game is tied 2-2 after six.

It's nice to see that Lance Berkman is back to full strength. He's given the Astros a 1-0 lead in the first inning today on a solo home run. He got off to a slow start in May, had an excellent June and is on fire in July. The home run brings his July slugging percentage up to .645.

There are two good examples of the importance of run support today. Nate Robertson faces Freddy Garcia as the Tigers and White Sox play the rubber game of their three game series. Robertson has a better ERA than Garcia, but is just 4-7, while Freddy is 9-3. Robertson's given up 51 runs, while the Tigers have scored 41 while he's been on the mound. Garcia, on the other hand, allowed 52 runs this year while the White Sox scored 83 for the pitcher.

That isn't the only difference, however. Robertson's allowed 12 unearned runs while Garica only seen two cross the plate. And Garica goes an inning deeper in games on average, giving the bullpen less of a chance to blow a lead.

In St. Louis, Ben Sheets faces Mark Mulder. Mulder is sporting a 10-5 record with a 4.13 ERA. Sheets is at 5-6 with a 3.45 ERA. Sheets allowed 43 runs this season, and his team scored 43 with him on the mound. For Mulder, those numbers are 59 and 77.

Which will win out? The better pitcher or the better offense? Enjoy!

You can find seats for these and other events at the Baseball Musings Ticket Store.

AJ Burnett threw a nice game in a tough ballpark, allowing three runs in six innings in route to a 6-3 Marlins victory over the Diamondbacks. With the game, Burnett's ERA goes to 3.68, exactly the same as last year, in about the same number of innings. In fact, if you combine the two years together you get about one good season from the pitcher. A .500+ record, but great strikeout and home run numbers. No wonder he's the big trade rumor.

It will be a few more games before Rich Harden qualifies for the AL lead in ERA. He shut down the Angels last night, not allowing a run until 2 out in the ninth. And it was a good thing, too, as Oakland managed just three runs off Wasburn, who ranks 5th currently among AL qualifiers in ERA. Since his return from the DL, Harden is 5-1 with a 1.34 ERA, earning a decision in each start. He's only allowed 18 hits in those six games, and opponents are batting .186 against the righty.

Update: Just a word about Dan Johnson, who's seventh inning home run gave the A's a bit of insurance, making the score 3-0. He was chosen 221st in the 2001 draft, and since then has shown the ability to get on base at every level of the minor leagues. He doesn't have great power for a first baseman, but he doesn't have zero power either. I wonder how many teams could have had Johnson for a song the last couple of seasons? If you have a problem at first base, it shouldn't be difficult to solve. You just need to scan the minor leagues for the Dan Johnsons of the world. He has a .365 OBA and a .463 slugging percentage for the A's this season. The AL average for first basemen is .337 and .442.

A very nice comeback win by the Milwaukee Brewers last night. Doug Davis allowed four runs in four innings, but the pen held the Cardinals scoreless, striking out five in their five innings of work while walking none. That was enough time for Bill Hall to break out of his slump and drive in two with a double in the 8th to give Milwaukee a 5-4 victory.

Milwaukee is hanging around respectability. They're just two games under .500 and 6 1/2 games back in the wild card race. It's a huge improvement for the team.

The change in the AL East standings is a result of two bullpens blowing one run leads last night. They Yankees failed to stay in first, and the Orioles failed to gain a share of the division lead.

Mussina and Park traded goose eggs for six innings. Felix Rodriguez pitched a scoreless seventh, walking just one batter before the Yankees got to Park for a run in the 8th. In the bottom of the 8th, Torre made a move he would later regret. Playing the percentages, he brought in lefty specialist Wayne Franklin to face Dellucci (L), Young (R) and Teixeira (S). Franklin gives a single to Dellucci. At that point, lefties are 4 for 8 vs. Franklin. Wayne gives up a single to Young to put men at 1st and 2nd with none out. Of course, Franklin stays in to keep Teixeira batting righty, but falls behind 3-0. Teixeira gets the green light, but swings at ball four and grounds into a double play. Now Franklin gets to face a lefty again, Hank Blalock. He falls behind Blalock 1-0, and then throws a strike that Blalock deposits in the seats for a 2-1 lead. That would be enough to win the game.

The question I have is why take out Felix Rodriguez? He threw 25 pitches in the 7th inning, but got out of it with no damage. He's not getting killed by lefties this year. He's a better pitcher than Wayne Franklin. A lefty specialist who can't get lefties out isn't very valuable. La Russa can play this percentage game because his relievers can actually do the jobs assigned to them. This is a case where Joe should have stuck with what was working.

Speed led to a blown save and a loss to BJ Ryan as the Twins topped the Orioles 4-3. Brian Roberts put Baltimore ahead 3-2 in the top of the ninth, but patience and baserunning skills of Joe Mauer undid the O's in the bottom of the inning. Mauer walked, then stole second. He doesn't run often, but he's 8 for 9 this year when he attempts a swipe, and 9 for 10 for his career. A bad throw on the attempt puts Mauer at third, and a wild pitch plates him. Still, the O's have two outs, and Ryan should send the game into extra innings. But a walk and two singles brings home the winning run, and Ryan blows his 2nd save in a row.

The end result? The Red Sox are once again alone in first.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Ryan Howard pins a blown save and loss on Brazoban of the Dodgers. Los Angeles took a one run lead in the top of the 10th, but Howard's two run homer in the bottom of the inning blasted the Phillies to victory.

Update: Howard, it should be noted, is outslugging Thome this season .475 to .352.

Aramis Ramirez takes his turn hitting two homers in a game. After Derrek Lee and Todd Walker slugged a pair each yesterday, Ramirez hit his 23rd and 24th homers against Cincinnati tonight. Aramis hit 10 home runs in April and May in 47 games. He has 14 in 42 games since June 1.

Prior has another good outing, striking out 8 in 6 2/3 innings. With Lee and Ramirez hitting well, three runs allowed by a starter should be more than enough to win for the Cubs.

The Red Sox defeat the Devil Rays 5-2 tonight behind fine pitching by rock and roller Arroyo. Schilling pitched a perfect ninth, throwing just nine pitches to pick up his first save. Since giving up the hits to Sheffield and A-Rod, the first two batters he faced in relief, Schilling's given up 1 hit in four innings while striking out five.

John Patterson is climbing up on the ERA leader board. He allowed 0 runs in 8+ innings this evening, lowering his ERA to 2.69 and moving into fifth in the NL race. It was a terrific performance as he only allowed three hits while striking out 8. The 4-0 Washington victory over the Rockies means one more day in first for the Nationals. The Rockies are now 8-37 on the road.

The Padres and Mets are tied at one in the bottom of the eighth. Both starters are out which should favor the Padres. San Diego's bullpen ERA is nearly a run lower than the Mets' pen.

Update: The Mets bullpen proves the better of the two. They hold the Padres scoreless for four innings on one hit. Chris Hammond gives up a two run homer to Woodward in the 11th for his first loss of the season.

Andrew Clark enhanced MajorLeagueCharts.com. Stop by and check out the improvements.

Whatever offense the Pirates had seems to have disappeared. They scored just seven runs in their last eleven games after being defeated by the Houston Astros in the first game of the double header 9-3. That's one more run than they had scored the game before the streak started, an 11-4 victory over the Mets. Twice in this poor streak, the Pirates allowed 11 runs. Only the shutout innings by Zach Duke kept them from a 0 in the win column as they've gone 1-6 in the stretch.

Correction: The Pirates scored 12, not 11 runs in the streak. It seems I can no longer do sums in my head.

The Twins seem to be in a collective slump of pulling off the ball when they swing:

"We're not doing the things we are capable of doing, that we need to do to win ballgames," Ullger said. "We're going to pop one into the gap and hit one over the fence, occasionally, but it is a byproduct of good hitting. A byproduct of hitting the ball gap to gap, staying on the ball.

"Our two most consistent hitters up to this point are Shannon Stewart and Joe Mauer. They both are guys who stay on the ball and aren't afraid to get jammed. That's what we have to get back to."

Gardenhire concurs:

"Our guys are pitching their tails off, and we are not scoring any runs for them," Gardenhire said. "It gets real frustrating, watching guys swing and pull off the ball, and I know our guys are trying as hard as they possibly can, but it's not working out too good right now. We have to win baseball games and score runs."

First, I wonder if this is true (Twins fans may wish to comment). Second, I wonder if there's something like a yawn going on here. You know, if one person yawns then everyone in the room starts to yawn? Did someone on the Twins started pulling off the ball and everyone else saw it and followed suit? Maybe the team needs some negative reinforcement.

Todd Zolecki discusses Citizen's Bank Park and what (if anything) can be done about the home runs there. Believe it or not, the team and architects thought it was a fair park:

"The park is not playing out as we expected, because we felt we designed a neutral facility," Phillies president David Montgomery said. "And right now, it's certainly gearing toward a hitters' ballpark. But do you think we tried to design a ballpark that wouldn't be fair? Is the fact that [the 369-foot sign in the power alleys] is further to the right here than [the 371-foot sign] at the Vet an issue? Yes. Was it something we discussed and did intentionally? Absolutely not."

The big problem seems to be that the walls are straight instead of concave. That means the power alleys don't get deep as quickly:

A team source said a Phillies player met an architect involved in the design of the project at a charity event and asked the architect how the ballpark's dimensions were conceived. The architect reportedly told him that the Phillies had been cautioned about the dimensions, but that the team was OK with them.

Montgomery denied he had been cautioned by an architect about the dimensions.

"That's absolutely not true," he said. "That couldn't be more incorrect. We set dimensions. We told everybody. We set them similar to Veterans Stadium. We went out and paid people to tell us what the wind would do. We tried very hard. Could it be true that in one spot we said, 'Leave it there. Leave [the wall] at eight feet'? Of course. The absolute truth is that we thought we were copying Veterans Stadium dimensions."

But the outfield fences at Citizens Bank Park aren't concave like the Vet's. The fences move from the left-field foul pole to center and from the right-field foul pole to center at 90-degree angles. That means the D in the Bud Light sign in left field is just 345 feet from home plate. The Majestic sign in right field is just 349 feet from home plate.

Players, pitchers and coaches contend that the Bud Light and Majestic signs are the park's power alleys - or at least close to them. The Phillies contend that the power alley in left is the 369-foot sign.

The worry is that teams in high run ballparks don't win. So the Phillies may remove seats and lose revenue to make the outfield fences deeper. Of course, that may lead to a Coors problem, where balls start dropping in front of the outfielders.

The Indians and Cubs completed a deal last night, sending Jody Gerut to Chicago for Jason Dubois. I like the trade for both teams. Gerut is a known quantity; the Cubs need offensive help in both left and center, and Jody is better than the people they've been using there. By picking up Dubois, the Indians are getting two years younger at Gerut's position. Dubios' minor league stats are good, although that has yet to translate to major league success. The Indians are wagering he'll be a better player long term than Gerut.

If you're interested in a little late afternoon slugfest, check out game 1 of the Astros-Pirates double header. Ezequiel Astacio brings his 9.47 ERA to PNC Park to face Ian Snell, a pitcher who walks as many as he strikes out (and he strikes out quite a few batters).

At the other extreme, Rich Harden tries to even the series with the Angels as he takes on Jarrod Washburn of the Angels. Washburn won two of his last three starts depite not getting out of the 6th inning. Harden's strength this season is his ability to get both lefties and righties out. Left-handed batters have a .264 OBA vs. the righty, while righties are getting on at a .258 clip.

AJ Burnett may be making his last start for the Marlins tonight, as he's the subject of lots of trade rumors. He's not exactly impressing anyone as the deadline approaches, posting a 7.04 ERA in July. He'll face Javier Vazquez and the Diamondbacks.

Enjoy!

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The Braves are getting healthy. Chipper Jones followed Tim Hudson and Mike Hampton off the DL and added a home run last night in Atlanta's 6-1 victory over the Giants. With Andruw Jones hitting two dingers himself, it looks like the division will have a tough time keeping up with the Jones. And as their health returns, regression to the mean is catching up with Washington. It was the Rockies, not the Nats who took home the one-run victory last night. Since the break, the Nationals are 1-4, and now stand just 1/2 game ahead of the Braves. The masters of close wins the first half, all five games since the break have been decided by 2 runs or less.

Tyler Kepner sums up last night's game nicely:

It took a perfectly flawed game to put a spectacularly flawed team into first place. On a night when their obvious problems nearly did them in, the Yankees took the last, best gasp and outlasted the Texas Rangers on Monday, 11-10, to take over first in the American League East.

Since the Yankees injected Robinson Cano into the lineup on May 3rd, the team is playing .600 ball with a 39-26 record. In that time they've gained three games on Boston and seven on Baltimore. It's not a great team, and I still believe .550 won't win the division. However, the Red Sox seem to be back to their, "What, Me Worry?" attitude of 2003:

''If this were later in the season, I'd be concerned," said Damon. ''We didn't catch fire until this time last season. We just have to be better in all phases of the game. Kazmir just had good stuff tonight. It seems like everyone makes fun of the Devil Rays, but they show up to play every time with everything they've got."

No one in the clubhouse seemed particularly concerned about the team slipping behind the Yankees, 11-10 winners at Texas, in the standings. Boston is tied with Baltimore for second, a half-game behind New York.

''I could care less," said Trot Nixon. ''We have two months of baseball left. Are we going to get a prize if we're in first place tomorrow?"

It's not just another game. It's a game the Red Sox should win easily. Last I looked Tampa Bay wasn't a very good team. Instead of sitting around waiting to get hot, the Red Sox should figure out how to get hot.

Both teams still need to deal with the Orioles. The O's are likely to get better just by getting healthy. They did that with Erik Bedard last night, and Javy Lopez is almost ready for a rehabilitation assignment. On top of that, a trade is in the works for AJ Burnett. The AL East is not a strong division, but it may provide the most exciting division race of the season.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Erik Bedard makes a fine return to the Orioles rotation, pitching six shutout innings to extend his scoreless inning streak to 13. He struck out seven, holding the Twins to just four hits and two walks. Unfortunately, the Orioles bullpen could not hold the 2-0 lead, so the Twins and Birds are fighting it out in extra innings. I guess we won't be seeing much of Hayden Penn any more. Now if they could just find a replacement for Ponson...

Update: The Tejada legend continues to grow in Baltimore. Miguel homers off Rincon in the top of the 11th to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead. The Orioles already used B.J. Ryan, so we'll see if they leave Julio in to save the game.

Update: Julio not only stays in, he gets the side in order to earn the win (maybe he should get both in this situation). The Orioles move past the Twins in the wild card race and gain a game on the Red Sox. With Texas ahead of the Yankees 10-9 in the 7th, this could turn out to be a very good night for Baltimore.

An interesting outing by Scott Kazmir tonight who walked six Red Sox batters (all in the 3 through seven slots) but only allowed one run. The Sox managed just three hits against the lefty, and are losing 3-1 in the eighth. Johnny Damon is 0 for 4 and may not get a chance to bat again if the Sox don't generate some offense.

Update: The Devil Rays win 3-1. The Tampa Bay bullpen pitches three no-hit innings, but do add another walk to the Red Sox total. Damon goes 0 for 5, ending his hit streak at 29 games.

Brandon Backe is having a great game on both sides of the ball tonight. He's only allowed 1 run through 3 2/3 innings tonight and he has half a cycle, picking up the double and the triple. It's the 2nd triple of the season for the Houston starter and the second of his career. He's now batting .306 for his career (15 for 49) with a .469 slugging percentage.

Kenny Rogers needs to learn to ignore camera people:

Rogers jawed at a cameraman for Dallas-Fort Worth television station WFAA as he was booked into the county jail. Just as with the incident that led to the charges, the exchange was caught on tape.

WFAA reported on its Web site Monday that photographer Mike Zukerman was videotaping the procedure when Rogers turned to him and said, "You're getting really close; you know that? Do you hear me?"

A few seconds later, Rogers again turned to the camera, saying, "You must be pretty proud of yourself, too."

After Zukerman replied, "It's just my job, Kenny," Rogers responded: "Yeah. Your job. That's just your excuse."

That's going to look really good when he faces these charges.

Tony Armas came out of the game with a 2-1 count on Byung-Hyun Kim leading off the top of the third. It's not clear at the moment why he needed to come out of the game. The Washington announcers are speculating that it might be the heat.

Update: The Washington broadcast is reporting that Armas was suffering from heat and dehydration.

Derrek Lee keeps crushing the ball. They're only in the third inning and he's already hit two home runs, bringing his ML leading total to 30. Given the HR characteristics of the GAB, we'll keep our eye on Lee tonight to see how many he hits. The Cubs lead 4-1.

Update: Lee walks in the fourth inning. Todd Walker, batting 2nd tonight, hit his 2nd homer of the game just before the walk. Brandon Claussen allowed five home runs so far tonight, 50% of what he had allowed coming into this game. If he allows one more he'll tie the NL record for a game.

Reggie Sanders is on the DL with a broken right leg. Sanders is having his typical odd year; hitting well for power. With the depth of the Cardinals team, however, it's unlikely he'll be sorely missed. With the big four healthy, St. Louis has plenty of offense.

WasWatching notices the newest addition to the Yankees starting corps, Aaron Small. Go to the post to see the great spin Torre puts on this. A better way of saying it would be, "The rules require we have a starting pitcher. Wednesday night, it's Aaron Small."

He first reached the majors in 1994. Since the end of 1998, he's appeared in two major league seasons, pitched a total of 16 2/3 innings, and allowed 16 earned runs. Joe better make sure the bullpen is well rested on Wednesday.

It seems Humbug Journal was ready for food injuries before they ever happened.

Dan Agonistes notes a big positive for the Cubs future:

First round draft choice Mark Pawelek has pitched 12 scoreless innings thus far in pro baseball in the Arizona Rookie league. He's also fanned 19, walked 6, and given up 5 hits.

The bad news: He's 0-2 as he's given up 3 unearned runs, and the Cubs the rookies behind him are not hitting. Let's hope Mark's career isn't made up of lots of close games lost on defensive miscues.

In this otherwise amusing post, I'm still trying to get my head around this line:

Now, it's important to note that Justin Morneau is Will's girlfriend Laurie's boyfriend, and--after meeting Will and said girlfriend at Spring Training--that seems to be fine by Justin.

This sounds a little Fritz Peterson/Mike Kekich to me. An the phrase "non-sexual man crush" doesn't help.

Update: I forgot the link to the Batgirl Post. It's up now.

The Baseball Crank shares his ideas on how the Mets should approach the trading deadline.

As a result, perhaps the best posture for the Mets entering the deadline is to listen to offers - I wouldn't hesitate to deal any of those three guys - but not feel the need to trade them. In other words, rather than letting the desire to win now panic you, use it to convince people they need to make it worth your while to drop out of the race.

I remember hearing once that if two Samuri faced off against each other, the first one to move lost. (I can't vouch for the accuracy of that statement. I think I heard it on thirtysomething.) It's time for the Mets to be the Samuri that doesn't move.

Erick Bedard returns to the Orioles not a moment too soon as the Brids go head-to-head with the Twins in a game important in both the wild card and AL East races. He'll face Carlos Silva at the HHH Metrodome. Bedard last pitched on May 21st, and the Orioles have missed his 2.08 ERA. The Orioles are 22-27 since Eric's last start. The Twins find themselves tied with the Yankees for the wild card lead, and only 1/2 game in front of the Orioles. The Twins are just 3-7 over their last 10 games, including a 2-5 mark against the Angels. The Twins need to do better against the top AL teams if they're going far in the playoffs.

Later tonight, the red hot Athletics travel to LAnaheim to face the division leading Angels. Tonight's matchup favors the A's, as Kirk Saarloos faces Ervin "Magic" Santana. Santana's been hurt by allowing a home run every five innings. Saarloos has allowed fewer homers in more than twice as many innings. It's a three game series, so Oakland can pull within five of the Angels with a sweep.

Enjoy!

Viva El Birdos uses the Day by Day Database to compare Carpenter's last six starts to some other great pitching streaks.

Kenny Rogers turned himself into police today on assault charges. It's not clear if this will affect his availability to pitch.

Correction: Changed effect to affect. I used to know that cold in high school. Also, I've talking about availability, not ability. Some people in the comments appear to have misread that word.

If you are interested in becoming an independent agent, or if you work for a big agency and want to be your own boss, don't read License to Deal by Jerry Crasnick. Jerry explores the hectic world of the independent agent; the late night calls, the handholding and the betrayal people like Matt Sosnick endure to try to land the prize, a superstar baseball player.

I was not enthralled by the story. Crasnick paints Sosnick as a hard driving multi-millionaire who's never achieved happiness because he can't slow down long enough to actually enjoy life. I was bored with this protagonist very early in the book.

In fact, the only really interesting character in the story is Dontrelle Willis. Willis comes off as the only flesh and blood human being in the book. Jerry shows us the hard-knock life, the near death experience, the triumph of the draft and Willis' ability to take it all in stride with good humor and generosity. It's a great picture of an emerging major league star, and makes me want to pull for Dontrelle even more.

So don't read the book for the story of another super-competitive over achiever. Read it for the story of a pitcher who appreciates every moment of his baseball and personal life.

Due to games ending early today (I knew the ESPYs were good for something), the Day by Day Database is up to date.

Ken Griffey hit his 6th home run of July this afternoon. It was the 20th of the season, matching last year's total, and the 521st of his career tieing him with Ted Williams and Willie McCovey. Pretty good company. The Reds won 9-4 over the Rockies.

The Oakland Athletics take three out of four from the Rangers, getting three RBI from three different batters in the 9th spot. Scutaro hit a sac fly in the 7th to bring the A's within a run, 3-2. Melhuse, pinch-hitting for Scutaro in the 9th, doubled in the tying run to make the score 4-4. Then Kielty, who ran for Melhuse in the 9th, ended the game with a leadoff home run in the 14th. The win moves Oakland ahead of Cleveland for fifth place in the wild card race, just 2 1/2 games behind the Twins.

Roger Clemens didn't have his best stuff this afternoon. Despite striking out just one in seven innings, Clemens only allowed one earned run to lower his ERA to 1.47. The two unearned runs he allowed wouldn't matter, however, as Chris Carpenter did have Clemens like stuff, shutting out the Astros. He walked none and struck out 9, allowing just three hits for his 14th win. St. Louis is now 29-9 vs. the NL Central teams and 9-2 vs. the Astros.

Al Letier pitched a very good game for the Yankees tonight. He gave up just 3 hits in 6 1/3 innings while walking three. But he also struck out eight, the most he's had this season. He didn't throw a lot of strikes; 59 of 102 pitches, under 60%. I doubt he'll have long term success at that rate. But he kept the Sox off balance tonight, and the Yankees have three homers off Wakefield and lead 5-1 in the 8th. If the Yankees hold on to this lead, they'll be tied for the Wild Card lead with Minnesota.

The Phillies got to Dontrelle Willis today, scoring eight runs against him in 5 2/3 innings today in route to an 8-4 victory. With Philadelphia taking three out of four from the Marlins and the Nationals losing three out of four to Milwaukee, the Phillies are only 5 1/2 games out of the division lead right now. With the four game split, the Mets and Braves each gained a game on the division leader. Seven games still separate top to bottom in the division, and the Braves and Phillies are in striking distance.

The Tigers and Royals got into a melee today when Runelyvs Hernandez hit Carlos Guillen in the head, his third plunk of the day.

The Royals led 4-0 when Hernandez (7-9) threw a low and inside pitch that Guillen thought hit him. Guillen argued with plate umpire Marty Foster, and Detroit manager Alan Trammell came out to plead the case. The next pitch hit Guillen in the helmet.

"I didn't try to hit nobody," Hernandez said. "I feel sorry about that (hitting Guillen in the head). But I didn't try to hit him on purpose."

It sure sounds to me like he meant to hit Guillen, just to show him what it felt like to actually get hit. If you're going to do that, however, the behind is a more appropriate target.

The Cleveland Indians found themselves swept by the Chicago White Sox today 4-0. It wasn't as if they were dominated by Chicago today; the Indians knocked out eight hits, drew three walks and had a batter hit. That's twelve base runners. That's a lot of people on base for a team that scored 0 runs. Cleveland didn't help themselves by hitting into two double plays. They were also 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

Power was the difference in the game. The White Sox put on fewer base runners and went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position. But Chicago hit two long balls for three runs, and the only extra-base hit Cleveland could manage was a double.

What a great weekend for the White Sox. They pick up four games on Cleveland and three on Minnesota. Halfway through July, the White Sox can cruise into the playoffs.

Stephen Lombardi brings us The Baseball Same Game, a fun romp through the history of baseball. He uses comparisons to league averages to find players of similar career lengths and statistics. Some make perfect sense, as Christy Mathewson is paired with Tom Seaver. Some surprise, such as Ralph Garr and Davey Johnson.

One that really surprised me was Thurman Munson and Terry Puhl. When we played Strat-o-matic, we called the former outfielder Terry Tool. He was a 1 e0 in right field, the best fielder he could be. He was an A bunter, a B hit and run (both tops) and had great stealing and base running ratings. He seems about as far away from the stocky catcher as you could imagine.

But offensively, they were close. Munson had more power, but in terms of runs created, the two were very close. It's one of the examples in the book of Lombardi finding someone (Puhl in this case) who's better than you thought.

So pick up a copy of The Baseball Same Game and take a trip down memory lane. You'll meet old friends and make some new ones.

The Mets haven't generated much offense in the last two games against the Braves, and they may not need to this afternoon as Pedro Martinez takes the mound against Mike Hampton. Mike hasn't pitched in six weeks, but was having a great season before his injury. He has not allowed a run since May 3rd. Pedro's pitching against the Braves this season is right around his season averages; a high 2's ERA, lots of strikeouts and few walks.

The other superb matchup takes place in St. Louis where potential All-Star starter Roger Clemens takes on the actual All-Star starter Chris Carpenter. Roger's only allowed 2 home runs in his last 41 innings, over which time he has a 1.10 ERA. Carpenter's matched that (in 41 2/3 innings) and his ERA since 6/14 is just 0.43.

Enjoy!

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Johnny Damon extended his hit streak to 28 games yesterday, putting him halfway to DiMaggio's magic number of 56. This is when hit streak get interesting to me; all you have to do at this point is repeat what you just did! :-) Notice Damon has played 29 games during the streak, but he did not bat on 6/22 so the game does not count against the streak.

One thing that helps Damon is the number of plate appearances he's getting. During the streak, he averages 4.8 PA per game. The more you come to the plate in a game, the more likely you are to get a hit.

When I work on hitting streaks, I like to use a statistic I call hit average, hits divided by plate appearance. It's the probability that you'll get a hit once you step to the plate. Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn had very similar batting averages, but Gwynn had a higher hit average than Boggs because he walked a lot less. This season, Damon has 124 hits in 391 plate appearances for a hit average of .317. That means, if Damon gets one plate appearance in a game, his chance of extending his hit streak is .317.

Chance of Johnny Damon Extending His Hit Streak

Number of PA	Probability of Extending Streak
1	.317
2	.534
3	.681
4	.782
5	.851
6	.898

For the season, Damon is averaging 4.8 PA per game. That means, in a 5 game stretch, we would expect Johnny to have four games with five plate appearances and 1 game with four plate appearances. So the probability of hitting in five straight could be approximated as .851^4 * .782 or .41. For 28 games, I'll be a little conservative and use .851^22 * .782^6 (^ means raised to the power). That means the probability of Damon hitting in another 28 straight games is .00657 or about 1 chance in 152.

Remember, the chance of the streak continuing has nothing to do with what's gone on before. At the start of the streak, Damon had a .000043 chance of going 56 games. But every game he extends the chain makes the rest of the streak more likely.

The next milestone is DiMaggio's Boston record; Dom DiMaggio that is. The Little Professor hit in 34 straight for the Red Sox in 1949. Boggs couldn't top that; we'll see if Damon can.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Ken Griffey Jr. hit his fifth home run of July tonight. He's improved his batting average and on-base average every month this season, and he's slugging over .700 in July. Griffey now has 520 career home runs, putting him one behind Ted Williams and Willie McCovey.

Now the Reds just need to turn his offense into wins.

The Chicago White Sox took the Cleveland Indians out of the AL Central race today. The 7-5 victory drop the Indians 14 games out of first place with 71 games to play. If the Twins lose tonight (and they're down 3-0 in the third) the AL Central is pretty much over.

The White Sox also have a 6 1/2 game lead for home field advantage. This gives Guillen the luxury of coasting to the playoffs. He can afford to rest players with minor injuries. He can afford not to overuse his starters or relievers. The White Sox can concentrate on grooming their team for the playoffs.

Zach Duke had a game he'll tell his grandchildren about. He faces Maddux in the third start of his career and shuts out the Cubs for eight innings, lowering his ERA to 1.23.

I know it's only 22 innings, but he's struck out 21 while walking four. If Oliver Perez comes back healthy and Duke continues his royal performances, Pittsburgh fans have some good times ahead.

Al Leiter is returning to the New York Yankees:

Leiter will be thrown right into action by the Yankees. He is expected to start Sunday in Boston for them.

The Yankees' pitching situation grew desperate after the shoulder injury incurred by rookie Chien-Ming Wang and a 17-1 defeat to archrival Boston on Friday night in which Tim Redding and Darrell May were both roughed up. While Leiter was just 3-7 with a 6.64 ERA for Florida, he is a veteran of the New York baseball scene, having starred for the Mets years after coming up with the Yankees.

I spent the afternoon driving around Connecticut listening to the Yankees game, and the radio broadcasters were very happy about this news. Unfortunately, their reasoning had nothing to do with reality. They talked about Leiter's intangibles, but dismissed his 6.64 ERA and his 60 walks in 80 innings because he knows New York and knows how to handle pressure. Even when Leiter pitched well this season, he hasn't gone deep in games.

I don't expect Al to do any better in New York than he did in a pitching park in Florida. If he's wild against the Red Sox tomorrow, he won't last long in the game. Once again the Yankees are solving a problem with an old, questionable pitcher. It looks like after Wang, the farm system is dry. Once again, the "win now" mentality has left the pitching staff in the lurch.

The Yankees and Red Sox send their aces against each other this afternoon as Randy Johnson faces Matt Clement. Johnson hasn't pitched great against the Red Sox, but he's pitched well enough to be 2-0 in three starts. He's getting his strikeouts, but the selective Red Sox lineup is drawing walks against the Big Unit. Clement has only allowed 2 earned runs in 10 1/3 innings against New York despite allowing 10 hits and seven walks.

The Oakland Athletics can move into second place in the AL West today with a win over the Rangers. Kenny Rogers will face Joe Blanton. I believe this is the third day in a row I've seen Rogers listed as the starter. The Rangers offense is doing nothing against the A's starters in this series. Barry Zito copied Rich Harden last night and took a no-hitter into the eighth. The A's are outscoring their opponents by over two runs a game in July.

The Nationals started the second half by losing two games late, the opposite of how they played the first half. They'll send Esteban Loaiza against Chris Capuano today. Capuano is the de facto Brewers ace this season, even with Ben Sheets throwing a good game last night. Capuano is riding a five game winning streak, although he hasn't been outstanding in that streak, posting a 3.94 ERA with poor strikeout, walk and home run numbers.

Finally, the Angels try to make it three in a row over the Twins as both teams send their aces to the mound. All-Stars Bartolo Colon and Johan Santana go head-to-head this evening. Both pitchers are showing tremendous control this year. Each has walked 26 batters, and they only differ in innings pitched by 2/3 an inning.

Enjoy!

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