Jake Peavy picked up where he left off in his last start. He struck out 16 in seven innings at Arizona, and home tonight against the Nationals he already struck out seven in five innings. That gives him 42 K in 37 1/3 innings this season.

Update: The first four Nationals reach base in the seventh, pushing a run across to make the score 3-1 Washington and loading the bases. Black leaves Peavy in the game. He strikes out the next two batters and retires in the side on a fly ball. He's losing, but he's struck out 10 and walked 2 through seven innings. San Diego needs to find Jake some runs.

Meanwhile, Patterson leaves after six innings, allowing just the one run. That's five starts in a row for the Nationals in which the starter allowed two runs or less.

Jason Bay homers in the bottom of the eighth and Salomon Torres picks up a wild save (15 pitches, 8 for balls) as Pittsburgh defeats Chicago 3-2. The Cubs are now 0-6 in one-run games, the only team not to earn a victory in that situation.

Rich Hill pitched seven strong innings, but Duke matched him through 6 2/3, both allowing two runs. Wuertz made the mistake to Bay, and that was the ballgame. Three of Bay's four home runs have come from the seventh inning on.

Tim Hudson turns in his sixth quality start in six outings as he holds off the Phillies long enough for the Braves to score three in the ninth inning on an Andruw Jones home run to take the game 5-2. With the two runs allowed, Hudson's ERA goes up to 1.40. He's pitched at least seven inning in each of his starts and three runs is the most he's allowed.

Roy Halladay pitches his second complete game of the season, using just 110 pitches in a time of 2:02 as Toronto defeats Texas 6-1. Halladay struck out eight and walked none, lowering his ERA to 2.28. Depending on how Lackey finishes his game, that will be third or fourth in the American League. With the complete game tonight, Halladay averages close to eight innings per start.

Update: Lackey lasts 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run. That lowers his ERA to 2.19, leaving him .01 behind Gil Meche.

The long ball continues to plague Randy Wolf as Chris Young of Arizona leads off the Diamondbacks/Dodgers game with a home run. That's the sixth home run allowed by Wolf in 30 innings.

Bob Wickman hits the DL with a back injury:

Braves closer Bob Wickman went on the disabled list with an upper back injury on Monday, one day after the veteran blew a save for the second straight time.

The team called the injury a strain. Wickman said he has tendinitis in his upper back, and he attributed his recent struggles to "stubbornness on my part."

Wickman says he has been feeling no discomfort in pregame warmups while throwing in the outfield, so he keeps telling pitching coach Roger McDowell he was available to pitch. The troubles come when he threw off mounds.

"You'd think I'd be smart enough," Wickman said. "Every time Roger came up to me in the outfield and asked me I said yes. I believe the last couple days I've been hurting the team rather than helping them. ... You try extending off the mound, it kind of catches."

Reggie Willits picked up his tenth hit of the season in the first inning, raising both his batting average and his slugging percentage to .370. That made we wonder who knocked out the most hits this season without one for extra bases. It's Tony Graffanino with eleven. Of course, with many fewer at bats he's hitting in the low .200s. Jason Phillips also lacks a long hit among his 10 safeties.

With two out in the top of the third, Scott Olsen picked up a hit off Chan-Ho Park. That started a string of six Marlins reaching base, four by hits and two by walks. The two-out rally plates five runs, and gives the Marlins a 5-0 lead.

Tim Hudson walked one and hit one, but that's it tonight. He's gone four innings without allowing a hit. He's induced nine ground balls all for outs.

Lieber is also pitching well, shutting out the Braves through three innings.

Update: Rowand gets the Phillies first hit with one out in the fifth.

Jeremy Bonderman's first inning woes continue. The Orioles went four for seven, scoring two runs in the top of the first. Opponents are now 14 for 33 against Jeremy in the first, a .424 BA. The rest of the game he allows a low .204 batting average.

Derrek Lee doubles and scores in the Cubs first, his fourteeth double of the season. The Day by Day Database goes back to 1957, and Derrek is only the fourth player in that time to pick up at least 14 doubles by the end of April. In 2002, his teammate Mike Lowell knocked out 15. That same year, his current teammate Alfonso Soriano collected 14 doubles, as did Garret Anderson in 2003.

The Cardinals hung a Josh Hancock jersey in the dugout and bullpen tonight for their game in Milwaukee. Tim Hudson played with Josh at Auburn, and he received permission to wear JH on the front of his jersey.

Tim Hudson retires the Phillies in order on six pitches and three ground balls in the first. Five of the six pitches went for strikes.

Wang pitched with a broken fingernail Sunday:

As it turns out, Wang was pitching with a broken nail on his pitching hand from the third inning on, thus the three walks, one hit batter, wild pitch (all of which came after the third inning), and unusual number of extra base knocks (Wang, who allowed just 12 homers all of last year hadn't allowed two homers in a single game since June 28, 2005). The nail on Wang's right index finger cracked in half perpendicular to his finger. According to Peter Abraham, Wang has reportedly fixed similar problems with glue in the past and says he will make his next start.

The Mets scratched Orlando Hernandez from tonight's start. He's suffering with bursitis:

El Duque, 2-1 with a 2.53 ERA in five starts, told the Mets on Sunday in Washington that he felt pain in the shoulder and was sent to New York to see a doctor.

Chan-Ho Park starts in Hernandez's stead.

J.C. Bradbury throws out the idea that the trade of Langerhans might mean the Braves are going to sign Andruw Jones.

When is a strikeout not a strikeout?

And while Baek didn't get the win after winding up with four hits and a single run in 6 1/3 innings, he set the table for an interesting series of events that included a pair of critical seventh-inning strikeouts with runners on second and third by rising rookie reliever Brandon Morrow, followed by Bloomquist's bizarre at-bat in the bottom of that inning.

With two out and two runners in scoring position, Bloomquist fouled a pitch back on a 3-2 count that appeared to be caught for the third out by catcher John Buck. But the ball lodged in Buck's chest protector. Home plate umpire Chris Guccione conferred with his crew and ruled that Bloomquist wasn't out, based on the 6.05(b) language.

The rule, which Bloomquist admitted he'd never heard of before that moment, states that a batter is not out if the ball sticks in the catcher's clothing or gear on a third-strike foul tip, unless it first touches the catcher's glove or hand. Since the ball went straight into Buck's chest, Bloomquist was given another chance.

He then delivered a bloop double to short center that eluded a diving David DeJesus and scored Jose Guillen and Yuniesky Betancourt with what stood up as the winning runs.

Another reason the home plate umpire needs to keep his eye on the ball.

Two minor league pitchers find themselves out of action for a couple of months:

Roney, a 27-year-old right-hander, is 2-0 with an 0.90 ERA in five relief appearances at Triple-A Syracuse. He signed with Toronto last November and was sent outright to the minors on March 22. He was penalized under baseball's minor league drug-testing program, and his suspension began Saturday, the commissioner's office said Monday.

...

In addition, Detroit right-hander Sendy Vazquez was penalized for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance under the minor league program and was suspended for 50 games, starting last Friday.

The Baseball Cube spells Sendy's last name Vasquez if you're trying to find his stats. Once again, pitchers get caught. Steroids, they're not just for sluggers.

No one is going to fire Torre or Cashman:

"The season is still very young, but up to now the results are clearly not acceptable to me or to Yankee fans," Steinbrenner said in a statement. "However, Brian Cashman, our general manager, Joe Torre, our manager, and our players all believe that they will turn this around quickly.

"I believe in them. I am here to support them in any way to help them accomplish this turnaround. It is time to put excuses and talk away. It is time to see if people are ready to step up and accept their responsibilities. It is time for all of them to show me and the fans what they are made of.

"Let's get going. Let's go out and win and bring a world championship back to New York. That's what I want."

The Yankees are basically in the same situation they were two years ago, except they're trailing the Red Sox instead of the Orioles. The starters lasted longer in games that season, but they were getting hammered, too.

In my opinion, the Yankees need to rethink bullpen use in light of their starters' short outings. More innings per appearance, less repeat appearances. It goes against conventional wisdom right now, but the Yankees are in far from a conventional situation.

Where Have you gone, Andy Van Slyke asks why the Pirates took so long to promote Steve Pearce to AA? My question is why do you trade for LaRoche when you have this person in your minors? His seasonal age for 2007 is 24. At this point, he should be much higher than AA, he should be ready for the big leagues. If he continues to hit like this at AA, the Pirates should seriously consider bringing him to the majors. Pittsburgh owns too many old minor leaugers. There's no use letting another player age in their system.

The Phillies start a three-game series with the Braves, trailing Atlanta by four games for second place in the NL East. The Braves send their big gun to the mound as Tim Hudson faces Jon Lieber. Since moving into the starting rotation, Lieber's been nearly as good as Hudson, posting a 1.54 ERA and striking out 10 in 11 2/3 innings. Hudson's allowed just one run in his fourteen innings of work in Atlanta this season.

The Cubs try to catch the Pirates tonight as Rich Hill gets the start after yesterday's postponement. Hill's been nearly untouchable on the road, allowing just one run and five hits in fifteen innings this season. He'll face Zach Duke, who's been inconsistent. He's pitched three good games and two very poor ones. And although he's only struck out six in 26 innings, he's walked even less, just five.

Finally, Arizona opens a three game series at Los Angeles, trailing the Dodgers by 1/2 game. Brandon Webb takes the hill for the Diamondbacks. Webb has everything working, high strikeouts, low walks and home runs. Against everyone but the Rockies, he pitching like a defending Cy Young Award winner. Randy Wolf is good at two of those three items. He is allowing home runs however, leading to a few more runs.

Enjoy!

The Oakland Athletics acquired Ryan Langerhans from the Atlanta Braves last night:

The Oakland Athletics got some relief for their injury-depleted outfield Sunday, acquiring Ryan Langerhans in a trade with the Atlanta Braves for a player to be named or cash.

Langerhans will join the A's in Boston on Tuesday and is slated to start in center field for the opener of the two-game series with the Red Sox.

"He plays all three outfield positions, and given our situation with all the injuries, we need as many healthy bodies as we can get," A's general manager Billy Beane said. "He's a player we've liked in the past. He's off to a rough start in Atlanta and he became available to us."

I assume Beane likes the 93 walks in 701 career at bats. That's not a lot of career at bats, so a pure picture of Ryan hasn't emerged yet. However, given that he's 27, the chance of him being much better than his career number is probably small. And while the 93 walks are good, the 188 strikeouts are not. Adam Dunn without the power?

MLB Fanhouse points to an article in which Giants outfield Dave Roberts is said to have helped Dodgers pitcher Bret Tomko with his delivery. Fanhouse notes:

The immediate question that must follow is whether or not Dave Roberts crossed a line in tipping his friend, who happens to pitch for a hated rival. Think about it -- do you see the players in the final showdown at the World Series of Poker tell each other their bluffs after they've finished? Of course not -- they know they'll meet at some point in the future and want to keep that privileged information to themselves. So what do you think, is it OK for Roberts to give a tidbit to his buddy, or does that cross the line of competition? I think Giants fans already know the answer.

But if you read the article, it's not at all clear when Roberts and Tomko talked:

Now, Tomko's mother is cancer-free. His wife is healthy. And he has used a new delivery inspired by a discussion over dinner with Giants outfielder Dave Roberts, a fellow San Diego-area resident, about how hitters were seeing the ball all too well against him.

So these two could have sat down for dinner when Roberts was a free agent. In that case, I don't see the problem giving advice to a friend.

MetsBlog.com posts two links worth checking out. In one, Brian McRae describes speed use by the Mets in the late 1990s, and it the other Bob Sikes tells us a little about Kirk J. Radomski. I agree with Matt that the amphetamine story could be told about any clubhouse in the majors for the last forty years.

The 2007 season hit the four week mark yesterday. So far, the big news remains the reduction in home runs. Versus the same point last season, runs are down 0.77 per game. Home runs are down 0.46 per game. At 1.6 runs per home run this season, the runs lost due to fewer home runs is 0.745 per game, or 97% of the difference.

On the team front, two teams show signs of pulling away from their divisions. The Red Sox own the best record in the majors. They just finished taking five out of six from the Yankees, dropping New York into last place in the AL East. That might be the biggest surprise of the month. Boston presents a balanced attack. They score over five runs a game while allowing three and a half. Julien Tavarez stands out as the only bad pitcher on the staff, and the completion of Jon Lester's rehab likely fixes that problem. Okajima and Papelbon emerged as the best setup/closer in the game. The combination allowed one run so far, striking out 32 and walking 8 in 22 innings of work.

Milwaukee turned out to be a consensus pick for first place in the NL Central, and right now they hold the biggest lead of any senior circuit team. Unlike the Red Sox, however, the Brewers record stands on a bit of luck. Opponents outscored Milwaukee 113-110 so far, meaning they should be much closer to .500. They're 8-3 in one and two games, however. The history of the Brewers show that they play well through the middle of May, then fall off. So far, they're on track for that type of season.

Apart from the Yankees, the surprises at the bottom come from the NL Central, where Chicago, St. Louis and Houston bring up the rear. While neither the Astros nor the Cardinals are playing well, the Cubs outscored their opponents by twenty two runs! It's their 0-5 record in one run games that puts them 1/2 game above last in the division. Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez carry the load offensively. But the big signing, Alfonso Soriano, hit poorly in April. If he did a better job setting up Lee and Ramirez, the Cubs might not play any close games.

And then there are the last place Yankees. They've also outscored their opponents, but are just 1-5 in one-run games. While the problems are properly put at the feet of the pitching, this isn't a typical Yankees offense, either. While they get on base and slug with the best in the league, their batting average is a bit low for them at .268 (although this ranks fourth in the AL). This means for pitching staff that don't walk many batters, they have a much better chance of keep the Yankees offense down. The bullpen started the year strong, but of the eight AL pitchers with 14 or 15 appearances this season four are Yankees. Until the Yankees starters are able to go deep in games, Torre needs to start using his relievers longer in games to save some of these appearances.

Alex Rodriguez and Grady Sizemore are both scoring more runs than games played, and Alex is also driving in more than played. No one score and drove in more runs and RBI than games played (100 games) since Ruth and Gehrig both accomplished the feat in 1931, although in 1937 Joe DiMaggio scored 151 runs in 151 games while driving in 167.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Troy Tulowitzki turns the rare unassisted triple play against Atlanta. His play prevented Atlanta from scoring in four straight innings, and the Braves ended up losing in eleven frames 9-7. The full list is here. There have been five since the start of the 1990s, eight before that. There were six in the 1920s, including one in the World Series. Maybe the clean ball led to more line drives.

The Dodgers and Padres head to the 17th inning still tied at four. The Dodgers picked up a single in the inning, but the runner was wiped out by a double play. The two teams combined to use 39 players so far.

Update: Wilson Valdez reaches on an error by catcher-playing-first Pete LaForest, then scores on a double by Brady Clark down the leftfield line. It's the first run scored by Los Angeles since the third inning. The Padres need a run in the bottom of the inning to extend the game, two to win. They haven't scored since the seventh.

Update: Two Padres reach on an error and a walk, but Billingsley strikes out three in the inning and the Dodgers stay in first place by 1/2 game.

The Dodgers and Padres remain tied at four after fifteen innings. Both starters allowed the runs, and the two bullpens are working overtime this afternoon. I like the way Bud Black is using his pen. He's giving each reliever two innings of work. In ten innings, they've allowed five hits and five walks, spreading them out enough to keep the Dodgers off the board.

This is something Joe Torre should think about. Instead of using all his relievers every day, he should try to leave the first one in as long as possible, keeping everyone else fresh. Using your relievers one inning at a time keeps everyone tired, so one of them is bound to blow up sometime in the game.

The Dodgers pen is only at 8 2/3 innings, but they've done even better, allowing one hit and one walk so far.

Scott Kazmir finished April on an up note, defeating the Oakland Athletics 5-3. Scott lasted seven innings, but only struck out one. That's the fewest batters he's struck out in a major league appearance of any length. Opponents were six for twenty three putting the ball in play (.261), but the defense did better, as two of those hits were home runs (.810 DER). Kazmir owes the win to the gloves behind him today.

Francisco Cordero keeps mowing down opposing batters. He walked one today, but didn't allow a hit to run his scoreless streak to 11 1/3 on the season. He's allowed just two hits on the season while striking out 19. He's wild, walking seven, but so far it's an effective wildness.

Mike Maroth outpitched Johan Santana today as he gave up one more hit but two fewer walks and one less home run. All four Tigers runs came via the long ball as Detroit took the game 4-3. That's unusual as the Tigers came into the game ranked eleventh in the AL in percent of runs on homers at 32.2%.

John Maine moves into second place in the NL ERA race with seven scoreless innings against the Washington Nationals this afternoon. He helped make Carlos Beltran's home run stand up for a one run victory. Maine's ERA drops to 1.35, and he's now struck out 30 in 33 1/3 innings. Maybe they should call him Pocket Pedro. :-)

Fausto Carmona comes close to a shutout, but ends up with an 8 1/3 innings, 6-1 win over the Orioles. He only struck out one, but he threw strikes all game. He threw 73 of 104 pitches for strikes, allowing only six hits. He lowers his ERA to 3.76 and seems to have found his niche as a starter.

Jamie Moyer just struck out Dan Uggla for the second out in the seventh. With two strikes, Moyer threw a nice pitch on the outside corner that was called a ball. He comes back with a breaks inside and just catches the inside corner to fool Uggla, who started to first base.

Miguel Cabrera then breaks up the no-hitter with a double. The crowd gives Moyer a standing ovation, and he's working with a 3-0 lead.

The Game of Baseball delivers posts about the game and its players. Stop by and say hi.

Carlos Beltran puts the Mets on top 1-0 in the top of the sixth inning in a good pitching duel between Maine and Bergman. Carlos once again is posting a high OBA and high slugging percentage. After a tough first year with the Mets, he continues to show he was worth the investment.

Jayson Werth makes a sno-cone catch to preserve Moyer's no-hitter. The ball seemed to fool him as he slowed up, then had to extend his reach to make the catch. Uggla was all the way around second and is easily doubled up. Moyer's faced the minimum through for innings, with a walk to Ramirez the only blemish on his game.

Update: Moyer retires the side in order in the fifth. That's four 1-2-3 innings for Jamie.

Update: The Marlins go in order in the sixth. Moyer is keeping his pitch count low (69 pitches), which improves the chance of his going deep into the game. Moyer may need to get shutout, as Obermueller allowed just three hits and one run through five innings.

Take a look at the statistics for the White Sox starting lineup. Dye has the best OBA in the order with a .326 mark.

Doug Mientkiewicz homers off Julien Tavarez to put the Yankees up 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth. Doug is a career .402 slugger, which is bad for any player but particularly for a first baseman. Allowing a home run to Mientkiewicz doesn't make Tavarez look very good. No wonder his ERA is around nine.

Update: Wang returns the favor and allows a two-run homer to Red Sox #9 hitter Alex Cora. I almost picked this game as slugfest of the day, and it's starting to look like that. Cora's career slugging percentage is .347.

A ball just dropped between Jason Kubel and Torii Hunter because Torii didn't do his job as a centerfielder and try to catch everything. He jogged after a ball he thought Kubel could catch, rather than running full speed and calling Kubel off. Kubel thought Hunter would get the ball, and it fell for a hit to put runners on first and second with one out.

Update: Santana gets a strikeout and ground out to end the inning. No score at the end of two in Detroit.

Kevin Youkilis drives a ball to the warning track off Wang where Matsui makes a good catch, but Ortiz follows up with another high fly that lands in the upper deck in right. No ground balls for Wang so far, and the Red Sox lead 1-0.

Josh Hancock died in a car accident this morning:

The Cardinals said they were told of the 29-year-old reliever's death by the St. Louis Police Department. The team's home game against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday night was postponed.

The team said the accident happened in St. Louis, but no other details were disclosed. The Cardinals and police are expected to make a statement this afternoon at Busch Stadium.

Hancock pitched his best season in 2006 for the Cardinals. He brought his strikeout rate up and his walk rate down. He was off to another good start this year.

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Update: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch provides more information:

Hancock's Ford Explorer slammed into the rear of a tow truck that was parked in the far left westbound lane shortly after 12:30 a.m. The tow truck driver, who was seated in the vehicle at the time, was unhurt.

He told police that his emergency lights were on, and that he honked his horn when he saw the Explorer approaching in his rear view mirror, but that the Exploer didn't slow down or swerve to avoid the collision.

At the time of the accident, the tow truck driver was assisting a motorist from an earlier accident.

Slugfest of the day is a tough choice, but I'm going with Texas at Toronto as Brandon McCarthy faces Tomo Ohka. Brandon's big problem comes from left-handed batters. They're slugging .735 against the righty. Ohka is a righty who can't get righties out. Righties are posting a .361 OBA against him, while lefties are getting on at a .270 clip.

Paul Maholm comes off a three-hit shutout of the Astros as he faces Aaron Harang and the Reds. Maholm shows good control this season walking just six in twenty five innings. Harang will try to end April 4-0. He's not only showing good control like Maholm, but he's adding a high strikeout rate as well.

In the battle of 23-year-old lefties, the veteran Scott Kazmir visits the rookie Dallas Braden. Dallas handled the Orioles easily in his major league debut, striking out six and walking just one in six innings of work. Scott's main problem this season is five home runs and a tendency to give up hits with men in scoring position.

The Cubs and Cardinals appear on National TV tonight. The teams are tied for last in the NL Central with Houston, so one of them will move up a spot after tonight. Rich Hill takes the hill for the Cubs. He's third in the majors in ERA based on incredible work against right-handed batters. They're hitting just .127 against Rich with a .207 OBA and a .215 slugging percentage. After three good starts at the beginning of the season, Kip Wells allowed eleven earned runs in his last two appearances.

Enjoy!

Update: Sorry, I just saw the Cardinals game was postponed due to the death of Josh Hancock. Please see the next post.

The line drive off Jeff Karstens' leg did more than knock the pitcher out of the game:

The New York Yankees lost another starting pitcher Saturday when Jeff Karstens was hit by a line drive, breaking his right leg.

On his first pitch of the game against Boston, Karstens was hit on the side of his knee by Julio Lugo's liner. He won't need surgery and is expected to return this season, team physician Dr. Stuart Hershon said.
"It's not as bad as it could have been," Hershon said.

In the clubhouse after the game, Karstens had an air cast on his leg. He won't need a conventional cast, Hershon said.

"They said no throwing tomorrow at least," Karstens joked.

Given his great relief work yesterday, I assume Igawa takes Karsten's spot in the rotation.

Ian Kinsler started a slow move up in the batting order:

2B Ian Kinsler moved up to the 6th spot in the lineup. Washington said he'd likely hit Kinsler sixth against lefties. Kinsler hits seventh vs. right-handed pitchers.

At the moment, he' hitting both sides pretty well. With his high OBA, he needs to be in one of the top two slots. Right now, Texas #1 hitters post a .330 OBA, #2 hitters a mere .291. Kinsler can help up there.

The Royals pounded Jeff Weaver last night:

Weaver lost his fourth decision in as many starts, giving up six runs, seven hits and recording just one out before manager Mike Hargrove pulled him in the top of the first inning.

The performance may have cemented Weaver's removal from the Mariners' rotation. Neither Hargrove or Weaver would comment about it after the game.

"I am really not going to talk about what I'm going to do or not going to do with Jeff," Hargrove said. "Tonight was not a good outing for him. He feels worse than anybody else. We've got to try and help him get back in line."

Weaver now owns an 18.26 ERA. Here's a list of the highest ERAs ever for pitchers with at least 10 innings pitched in a season:

Pitcher	Year	Innings	ERA
June Greene	1929	13 2/3	19.76
Jeff Weaver	2007	11 1/3	18.26
Mel Rojas	1999	14	18.00
Harry Byrd	1950	10 2/3	16.88
Jot Goar	1896	13 1/3	16.88

Given the number of innings by other people on this list, Jeff might be close to the end of his season.

Aaron Rowand led off on Saturday with Jimmy Rollins batting third. Given their torrid starts, that seems appropriate. Aaron currently holds a .460 OBA. What strikes me the most about that number is that he's drawn eleven walks in 86 at bats. In 2006, he drew just 18 walks in 405 at bats. He doesn't appear to be more patient at the plate as his 3.6 pitches seen per plate appearance jibes with previous years. Maybe he's just hitting the ball so hard pitchers are being more careful with him. He's slugging .640 on top of everything else.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Barry Bonds put the Giants up 2-0 early with his eighth home run of the season. That puts him fourteen home runs away from 756. It's looking more and more like Barry will get there sometime in June.

John Gibson writes:

FYI... Something you don't see every day I thought you might find interesting if you haven't already heard about it...

Runner on 1st and third and the batter flies out to RF. Tejada is running and gets doubled up at 1st. However Markakis tags up and scores before Tejada is doubled up. Umpires do not understand the rule book and waive the run off.

Apparently Perlozzo protested and couple of innings later the umpire is in the dugout making a phone call while the game is being umpired by only two umpires and they end up awarding an extra run for the O's in the 3rd inning and now Eric Wedge is protesting.

First time I've ever seen a team in the same half inning lose a lead and regain a lead.

Strange days indeed. The umpires got it right, however, and that's all that really matters. The Indians came back to tie the game then take the lead on a two-run homer by Peralta.

The White Sox are going to be without Jim Thome for a couple of weeks:

White Sox slugger Jim Thome is likely headed for the 15-day disabled list with a rib cage injury.

Thome left Friday's game against the Los Angeles Angels after fouling off a pitch in the first inning. He re-aggravated a right rib cage injury that caused him to miss the two previous games.

There's not much offense in the Chicago lineup without Thome. He's accounted over one quarter of the White Sox's walks this season.

Jerome Williams issued four walks so far, but the Mets remain hitless through five innings in Washington. Williams only struck out one batter so far, and has thrown more balls than strikes (36-34). Given his problems in the game, this looks like an unlikely no-hit bid.

Update: Matt Belisle is perfect through five against the Pirates. He's struck out five and walked none, and thrown 40 of 56 pitches for strikes.

Update: Beltran breaks up Williams no-no with one out in the sixth.

Update: Paulino doubles with one out in the sixth to break up Belisle's perfecto.

Dan Haren continues to cement himself as the Athletics' ace, helping defeat the Devil Rays today by a score of 12-5. Haren struck out seven in 7 1/3 innings while walking none, throwing 68% strikes. He's walked just 9 in 39 1/3 innings this season.

And when does B.J. Upton move up in the Devil Rays lineup? He picked up three more hits today, missing the cycle by a triple. His OBA is now over .400. Wouldn't that be more productive at the top of the order than at the bottom?

Mariano Rivera gets a save, but still trails Saul Rivera for most Rivera saves 2-1. He allowed a broken bat hit leading off the inning, but threw strikes on 11 of 16 pitches. The Yankees win 3-1 ending their losing streak. It's only the second win of the season for the Yankees in games in which they scored four runs or less.

Derrek Lee picked up his 13th double of the season, tying him with Chase Utley for the NL lead in that category. Throughout his career, Lee balanced his doubles and home runs, favoring doubles by a bit. But this season, he's only hit one home run. He's slugging .565, so there's nothing to complain about, but has he lost a bit of his power? Or is he simply hitting line drives, and the home runs will come eventually?

Call him Nuke Igawa. Kartens took a line drive off the leg in the first inning with none out, leaving the game with two men on. Kei Igawa entered, got out of the inning with a double play and a strikeout, and went on to pitch six innings with six strike outs. He didn't allow a run.

He did however, walks four and throw a wild pitch. At one point, ahead in the count 1-2 to Manny Ramirez, Igawa threw what appeared to be change up over everyone's head. It just reminded me of that scene in Bull Durham when LaLoosh is told to hit the bull, and Crash uses that to scare the hitters. Whatever Kei did today, he kept the Sox hitters off balance as they only picked two hits against him.

Michael Young and Mark Teixeira combined for a five for ten day with five runs scored as Texas pulled out an extra-innings victory over Toronto 9-8. The two big guns for Texas haven't hit, yet Texas game into the day 9-13, just 2 1/2 games out of first. I'd expect if today represents a turning point for these slumping stars, that Texas' prospect might be looking up.

Joe Mauer knocked out three hits today, including a home run to help the Twins to an 11-3 win at Detroit. Mauer's averages now sit at .388/.485/.538, and for his career he's batting .324 win an OBA over. 400. Being a catcher, however, he's likely to see his offense decline quicker than other players. Should the Twins move him to a different position as the Astros moved Biggio? Joe's a good defensive catcher, which makes the decision tougher. But should the Twins think about moving Joe to leftfield where they can take advantage of his batting skills longer? Or should they get his best years as a catcher, then let him walk as a free agent?

I'm on the road today, so here's a quick and dirty games of the day:

Minnesota at Detroit. The only good pitching matchup of the day pits a rejuvenated Carlos Silva vs. a just plain juvenated Justin Verlander.

Boston at New York. Tim Wakefield is tied for 2nd in the AL in ERA. The Yankees own the third worst record in baseball.

Florida at Philadelphia. Dontrelle Willis is always fun to watch, and the two teams are tied for third in the NL East. Plus, two shortstops off to great starts go head to head.

San Francisco at Arizona. Matt Cain looks like he's out acing Barry Zito this year.

Enjoy!

Mariano Rivera allowed four runs in a mop up assignment last night, raising his ERA to 12.15:

On Friday, Rivera's biggest problem was control. After Mike Lowell's one-out single, the left-handed-batting Jason Varitek and Coco Crisp laced singles on cut fastballs that Rivera failed to spot under their hands, the way he usually can. A walk to Dustin Pedroia, the No. 9 hitter, brought out Torre.

"I was missing up, missing down, missing everywhere," Rivera said.

Torre quickly dismissed any concern about Rivera. "He hadn't pitched in four days," Torre said. "He just needs to get regular work. Then he'll fall into what he needs to do."

The article mentions the no-save streak, but it's tough to pick up saves when the team doesn't present many chances. With the 11-4 loss to the Red Sox and the Tampa Bay win over Oakland, the Yankees are now 6 1/2 behind Boston and one full game behind the Devil Rays in last place.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The second place Pittsburgh Pirates won again as the rotation throws its six good game in a row. Snell threw seven scoreless innings against the Reds, and the Pirates starters now own a 1.54 ERA over their last six performances. They've been especially good at keeping the ball in the park, allowing just one home run in their last 41 innings. They've need the pitching as they've outscored the opposition by just six runs, 25-19 to go 5-1 during the stretch.

A former Mets clubhouse employee (very former, by the way) ran into the Feds today:

Today, the IRS agents, FBI and U.S. Attorneys office in California that pursued the BALCO case made a significant announcement. Kirk J. Radomski, a New York Mets clubhouse employee between 1985 and 1995, has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in San Francisco to distribution of a controlled substance -- a schedule three anabolic steroid -- to "dozens of Major Leaguers on teams throughout the league." He also pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering. (Combined, these charges are punishable by a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.)

Earlier this spring, the steroid-related news pertained to the break-up of a distribution chain linking the Internet sites to anti-aging clinics and compound pharmacies. Now, the BALCO investigative team is back in the picture.

No names yet, so stay tuned. Radomski is said to be cooperating.

Jason writes:

I was wondering if you could look up a record for me, since I haven't been able to locate it. What is the MLB record for the longest a team has gone into the season, without recording a save? The Yankees this year are now 20 games in without one, as upset about that as I am (being a Yankee fan), I was wondering what the record was. Obviously it'd have to date back to when the stat was first recorded. Thank you.

Good question, and the answer is that the record is longer than I imagined. The save statistic became official in 1969.

Season	Team	NoSaves
1975	BAL	57
1975	NYA	33
1974	KCA	31
1969	CLE	25
2002	DET	25
1974	TEX	23
1976	BOS	23
1975	CIN	22
1988	BAL	21
1978	SLN	20
1974	LAN	20
1988	PHI	19
2007	NYA	20
1981	CHN	17
2005	DET	17
2005	FLA	16
1986	LAN	16
1994	SEA	16
1971	CHN	16
1996	OAK	16
1996	FLO	15
2005	TB	15
1975	TEX	15
1982	LAN	15

The current Yankees streak of 20 games isn't even the team record. 1975 Was the year the save rule as we know it now came into existence. It could very well be that managers that season weren't managing to the rule yet. In other words, they might send a pitcher out to start the ninth with a platoon advantage, get one batter, then change pitchers. If the lead were three runs, the incoming pitcher would not get a save. It just goes to show how a stat changed baseball strategy.

Over at Mr. Irrelevant, bloggers discuss their favorite in person moments at baseball games.

Cole Hamels touts a big Day/Night split:

In his career, Hamels has a 2.70 earned run average in night starts and a 5.92 ERA in day starts. This season (admittedly only five games old for Hamels), he has a league-leading 0.56 ERA at night and a 5.71 ERA during the day.

The statistics have gotten the attention of manager Charlie Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee and, sooner rather than later, Hamels' starts could be manipulated to take advantage of his strengths and avoid what has so far been a weakness.

I'd like the article better if they talked to the catcher at least and asked him if he saw Hamels' pitches better in the day time. But three starts from now, Manuel has the choice of pitching Cole at night or pushing him back a day for an afternoon game. We'll see what happens then.

WABC in New York showed a movie every weekday afternoon at 4:30 when I was young. Every so often Monster Week would pop up with a bunch of 'Godzilla vs." flicks. So it's with a bit of nostalgia that Godzilla vs. Matsuzaka comes to New York this evening, weather permitting. There's only a small history between the two:

The two Japanese mega-stars have a little history. In the 2002 Japan Series, Matsui went 0-for-3 against Matsuzaka. In the 2001 All-Star Game at Yokohama Stadium, Matsui hit a two-run home run off Dice-K.

Meanwhile, the comeback last night against Baltimore gave Boston the biggest division lead of any first place team, and set the losing Yankees further into last place. Another sweep by the Red Sox and New York finds itself 8 1/2 games out of first place.

Last year's playoff entries from the AL Central face off in Detroit as Ramon Ortiz takes on Nate Robertson. Two things are helping Ortiz pitch well for the Twins. He's lowered his walk rate to less than one per 9 innings, and the Twins defense is posting a .765 DER behind him. With lots of balls in play, turning 76.5% into outs is extraordinary. Robertson reduced his home run rate by about a factor of three. That puts his ERA at 2.05, fifth in the AL.

Roy Oswalt looks to stop Houston's six-game losing streak as he faces Chris Capuano and the first place Brewers. One problem Roy faces this season is left-handed batters getting on base. They're doing so at a .354 clip. Coming into this season, Oswalt held lefties to a .307 OBA. Capuano's striking out about 1.5 batters more per nine than in his previous two seasons. Combine that with a higher percentage of ground balls and Chris' ERA took a tumble.

Enjoy!

Gary Thorne on how he made the mistake about Schilling's sock:

Mirabelli said he spoke with Thorne in the Boston clubhouse about six months after the 2004 playoffs.

"As he was walking away he asked, 'How about the bloody sock?' I said, 'Yeah, we got a lot of publicity out of that,' and that was all he can recall me saying," Mirabelli said. "He said he assumed what I meant was that the sock was fake and that it was just a publicity stunt. That by no means is what I meant. There was never a doubt in mind there was blood on the sock."

There a huge leap from "lots of publicity" to "painted sock." As I said yesterdy, Thorne is a sloppy with his facts.

Update: Hat tip to Joy of Sox for breaking the story.

After starting off 2-7, the Giants now sit 12-8. They've won eight in a row and are in first place in the NL West. Consistent pitching over the entire season now gets augmented by a decent offense. Actually, Barry Bonds carries the offense, and everyone else doubles. The offense posts a low .317 OBA during these 11 games, but a good team slugging percentage of .432. They're using power to make the most of the people on base. They've scored 54 runs in the 11 games, just under 5 per game, but they've only allowed 31.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

A.J. Burnett and Josh Beckett picked up wins tonight. Burnett hung seven shutout innings on the Yankees as New York goes down 6-0. It's the first time New York failed to score, and only the second time this year an opponent held them to less than four runs. A.J. allowed just four hits and opponents are hitting just .216 against him.

Beckett ran his record to 5-0 with eight strong innings. He allowed two runs, but was able to hang on until Wily Mo Pena blasted a grand slam in the 8th inning to hand Boston a 5-2 win. With no walks tonight, Beckett has issued just seven free passes in 32 2/3 innings while striking out 28.

Dave Stewart analyzes Barry Bonds' season so far.

Phil Hughes comes away from his major league debut with positives and negatives. He struck out 5 and walked just one. However, he allowed four runs in 4 1/3 innings, throwing 91 pitches in that time. The Yankees trail 4-0 in the sixth.

Bartolo Colon appears to be healthy again. He's in the middle of shutting down one of the best offenses in baseball as he's gone seven innings against the Devil Rays, allowing just two runs. His control is back, as he's walked one while striking out eleven. He's over 100 pitches, so he may be done for the day. The Angels lead 11-2.

Shawn Hill outpitched Cole Hamels today as the Nationals picked up a 4-2 win over the Phillies. I did not see the game, but from the from the boxscore it looked like Hamels struggled, throwing 92 pitches in 5 1/3 innings. Did anyone see the game and want to comment on Hamels? He's coming off a complete game.

Hill continues to pitch well. He walked two in eight innings and allowed just four hits. That gives him eight walks and 27 hits allowed in 32 2/3 innings and a 2.76 ERA. Not bad for someone with a replaced ligament.

The Houston Astros lost their sixth straight game today and sixth to the Pirates by a score of 5-3. Despite Tony Armas allowing six hits and four walks over five innings, the Astros scored just one run against him. For the game, they went 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position. That's been the problem all week as during the current streak they are 10 for 47 with runners in scoring position, a .213 batting average. To be fair, they're only batting .227 over the last six games overall.

Sammy Sosa hit two solo home runs this afternoon as Texas lost to Cleveland 9-4. That gives him six for the season and six away from six hundred. Sammy seems to be swinging for the fences as his batting average is just .239 but he's slugging .535. With a .289 OBA, he's not exactly trying to help the team by getting on base, either. Still, if you are going to be good at one thing, hitting home runs remains a good choice.

Boof Bonser walked seven men in five innings, and Zack Greinke walked four in seven innings, but neither starter allowed a run in the Royals/Twins game. The Twins bullpen walked two more in three innings of work, but neither team scored yet as the game goes to the tenth inning. The two teams combined for nine hits total, only two for extra bases.

Update: Minnesota picks up three singles in the bottom of the 11th to win the game 1-0. I wish the game ended on a bases loaded walk. The Twins pitchers issued a total of 10 in the game, but still pitched a shutout.

Update: Even more amazing, I find eight game prior to this one in which a team walked 10 or more batters and pitched a shutout. This includes a nine inning game on 5/21/1970 in which the Yankees walked 11 batters.

Trot Nixon delivers his first home run as an Indian, a two-run shot that puts Cleveland up 3-0 at the end of one inning.

Did anyone notice that the players ranked two, five and six in National League slugging percentage are all shortstops from the NL East? Rollins, Ramirez and Reyes are all off to great starts. Rollins leads the league in home runs. Ramriez and Reyes are in the top ten in OBA. Reyes leads the league in steals. I'm impressed that Jose and Jimmy really improved their ability to get on base, although I'll be more convinced about Rollins when he does it for a whole season.

So is this the Nomar/Jeter/A-Rod trio of this generation?

To put it mildly, River Ave. Blues is excited about Phil Hughes pitching for the Yankees.

Jeff Albert does his usual fine job of using video comparison to analyze the changes in Alex Rodriguez's swing from 2006 to 2007.

My first search for some insight into what mechanical changes were being addressed turned up a simple comment that A-Rod's mechanics were "firmer" and that new hitting coach Kevin Long had helped right the ship that is A-Rod's leg kick. According to a recent NY Times article, Long believed that a lower leg kick and faster hip rotation would help A-Rod quicken up his swing. After looking at the upcoming side-by-side that I will show, I have to extend a pat on the back to Mr. Long. Nicely done and way to earn your welcome to the Bronx!

I must admit, the change is very subtle, and I had to watch the video many times to catch it. See what you think.

Correction: Forgot the link.

Gary Thorne caused some controversy last night:

For those who have somehow forgotten, here's what happened: Schilling, who had a right ankle tendon injury, had sutures stitched into his ankle to keep the tendon stable so he could pitch in Game 6 against the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series. A red stain, presumably blood, could be seen on the sock during the game, which the Red Sox won, and the sock was sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., after the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series.

Fast-forward to Wednesday night's Mid-Atlantic Sports Network's telecast of Red Sox-Orioles.

In the bottom of the fifth, according to multiple media reports, Orioles play-by-play man Gary Thorne said on the air that he had been told by Red Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli that the substance was paint, not blood.

"The great story we were talking about the other night was that famous red stocking that he wore when they finally won, the blood on his stocking," Thorne told broadcast partner and Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer, according to media reports.

"Nah," Thorne said. "It was painted. Doug Mirabelli confessed up to it after. It was all for PR. Two-ball, two-strike count."

Everyone associated with the Red Sox and this story, Mirabelli, Schilling and Francona denied it was paint. Having seen Thorne screw up on the air many times with ESPN, I have no doubt that the Red Sox are right here. I try very hard not to dislike people, but I have strong professional dislike for Thorne. In the early days of the STATS/ESPN relationship a number of people were upset that ESPN didn't use Elias. Gary was one of these people. One day, he called STATS out during a broadcast for supplying incorrect caught stealing statistics. What Gary failed to realize, however, that the report we provided only dealt with caught stealing by catchers, where the report his friends at Elias gave him dealt with all caught stealings. Gary was forced to apologize on the air.

So I'm biased about Thorne. In my opinion, he's sloppy. And in this case he's very likely wrong.

Shawn Hill takes on Cole Hamels this afternoon in Philadelphia. Hill holds the best ERA among the Nationals starters at the moment. He averaging six innings a start and only allowed one home run so far. He's two days short of his 26th birthday, so a win today would be an early present. Hamels comes off the first complete game of his career. Note that this season, Cole's pitch counts are 110, 97, 110 and 115. There doesn't appear to be a 100 pitch limit with Cole as there are with so many young pitchers. Whether this turns out well is yet to be determined. I hope it does, because I'd like to see starters stay in games longer, especially when they are pitching well.

Boston finishes its series with Baltimore as Josh Beckett faces Adam Loewen. Both pitchers are undefeated. With Beckett on the mound, the Red Sox outscored their opponents 32-8. It helps that Josh holds opponents to a .267 OBA. Loewen holds a good ERA despite walking a ton of batters, almost one per inning. The Red Sox are the kind of team that can take advantage of his wildness.

Philip Hughes makes his debut for the Yankees against A.J. Burnett of the Blue Jays. With the rainout last night, the Yankees didn't want to push him back a day to start his career against the Red Sox, so Pettitte goes tomorrow. Burnett is uncharacteristically wild so far this season. He has, however, been very good against left-handed batters, which is important whenever a team faces the Yankees.

Enjoy!

Barry Bonds hit his seventh home run of the season last night. He's now getting on base at a .470 clip and slugging .808. I'm totally amazed by this. Watching him play last April, I thought he was through. But as the season wore on he adjusted to his knees and elbow, and now he's approaching the averages he posted earlier in this decade. So what do we make of this fantastic start?

We're in the third year of serious drug testing, and no steroids or other PEDs turned up in Bonds. He allegedly tested positive for speed, but most don't put uppers in the same category as steroids. There is the possibility that Bonds uses something that isn't detectable. (Other than HGH. I hear now that HGH doesn't build strength.) But we also need to consider the possibility that the test are correct, and Bonds is free of perfomance enhancers.

In other words, we have to consider that a forty-two year old man with two surgically repaired knees and a surgically repaired elbow can still hit with the all-time greats. If this is true, if he can put up numbers like this old and disabled, how much did performance enhancers really help him? I'm not excusing Bonds for being a Baseball Jerk. But for the next few years there will be debates about Hall of Fame voting on people suspected of using steroids. If Bonds hits forty plus home runs with a .450 OBA and a .700 slugging percentage with his physical problems, and does so cleanly, that should be a positive for the suspected cheaters. It indicates that skill as a player might be a bigger factor in success than the extra strength gained from PEDs.

Of course, a reasonable person might say that someone couldn't accomplish this level of performance with those physical problems unless help came by way of chemicals. Given Bonds' history, that's a logical conclusion. But if he indeed is clean, then we need to step back and rethink if there's a real difference between clean records and tainted records. It may be tiny.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Mariners and Athletics sped through tonight's game. Blanton threw just 105 pitches, and Washburn did him one better with 104. Each threw a complete nine innings as Washburn shuts out the Athletics on three hits, while Blanton allows six hits and two runs both on solo homers. Of the 209 pitches thrown in the game, 143 went for strikes. I wonder if that's the fewest pitches thrown in a nine inning game this year? The game took a mere 1:47.

Jake Peavy just finished the sixth inning, picking up his fourteenth strikeout. At one point, he struck out nine in a row, getting the side on strikes in the second, third and fourth innings. He misses Seaver's record by one. The Padres lead 2-0 in the top of the seventh as Webb is also pitching a good game.

Update: Peavy strikes out two more in the 7th. That gives him 16, tying his own franchise record. He's at 117 pitches, however. Do you leave him in and let him go for the record? Or is that enough and should he come out?

Update: Cla Meredith is warming up in the bullpen.

Update: Sorry, it was Linebrink. He enters the game and Miguel Montero greets him with a pinch-hit home run to cut the Padres lead to 2-1.

Update: Another ninth inning blown save, this time by Hoffman. He walks Tracy with one out, then gives up a home run to Drew with two outs. Thanks to Webb keeping them close, the DBacks survive a 16 K outing by Jake Peavy and win the game 3-2. Drew picked a perfect time for his first home run of the season.

The Tigers just finished a 6-2 win over the White Sox. For the first eight innings, the White Sox were shutout by Chad Durbin. Durbin allowed three hits, walked none, and struck out nine. This is a pitcher with a career 6.31 ERA. Over 351 career innings, he had allowed 422 hits and 150 walks. He only struck out 208 in that time. He gave up 62 home runs, 1.6 per 9! And he just carved up the White Sox, a team with a pretty solid heart of the lineup. It was cold and rainy, but this is Chad Durbin!

Congratulations to Chad on the game of his career.

Salomon Torres follows Bob Wickman's lead and blows a great start by Zach Duke. It's the fourth good start in a row for a Pirate's pitcher, but Torres starts the ninth and allows two runs. The Astros tie the game and send the contest into extra innings.

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

Tim Hudson pitched another great game tonight. Through eight innings he struck out 12 and allowed just five hits. But the first three batters singled in the ninth to load the bases, bringing in Bob Wickman. Hudson got his pitches up in the inning, and the Marlins took advantage of that. Hudson can't lose the game, but a bad performance by Wickman and Tim may not win it.

Update: Olivo hits the right center gap and the ball rolls to the wall. Cabrera and Ross score to double Hudson's ERA. Ross ran into the third base coach, and Cox argues that the run shouldn't count, but it wasn't intentional contact.

Update: After an intentional walk, Willingham stands in with the bases loaded. A long fly ball ties the game.

Update: Wickman falls behind 3-0, the works the count back full as Willingham takes two pitches. After fouling off a number of good pitches, Willingham swings over a sinker that would be ball four and strikes out. Amezaga's turn to hit a long fly.

Update: Amezaga loops one over the drawn in third baseman for an infield hit and a tie game.

Update: Wickman throws a wild pitch and the Marlins win! Quite a comeback against the best pitcher in the National League this year and a closer who was 24 of 25 in save opportunities for the Braves. It's games like this that make managers that bring in their closer at the start of the ninth.

The Baseball Musings Radio Show is coming up in a little while at 8 PM EDT. You can leave questions during the show in the TPSRadio Chat Room at Stickam. I really recommend you stop by the chat room. Lots of people make for a lively discussion and helps me with the show.

The Yankees postponed the game against the Blue Jays tonight. No word on how this will effect the rotation. I assume Pettitte will go tomorrow, but I don't know how far this pushes Hughes back.

Update: I'm told Hughes will go Thursday and Pettitte on Friday.

Biomechanics nerds are in! Anyone interested in becoming the biomechanics writer for Baseball Musings?

Derrek Lee answers a two-run fifth by the Brewers with his first home run of the season. Lee knocked out nine doubles so far this season, so his slugging percentage was good, but that's the first ball to leave the park. The Cubs now lead 6-2.

Elmer Dessens warms up and Ben Sheets is headed to the clubhouse as the Brewers bat in the top of the fourth. Ben hasn't allowed a run through three innings, but he did give up four hits while striking out one. Stay tuned.

Update: The broadcast reports a right groin strain for Sheets. There was a ground ball through the box at the end of the third inning. Sheets had his back to it, and spun to try to see it. After that, he limped off the field.

Update: WGN said it was a left groin strain. I'm watching the Wisconsin broadcast. One of his groins is strained.

Update: Dessens runs into trouble, allowing a run with just one out in the fourth. The Cubs lead 1-0 and two men stand on base.

Update: Ryan Theriot delivers a two-out, bases loaded single to extend the Cubs lead to 3-0. Floyd drives in two more with a double that he unsuccessfully tries to stretch into a triple. Lilly is pitching well, and now has a five run lead.

Also, the Wisconsin team just repeated the right groin strain.

This sounds pretty definitive:

"I want to stay in New York, no matter what," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez's statement sounded even stronger in the context of the question that preceded it. Rodriguez, who is batting .385 with 14 home runs and 34 RBIs in just 19 games, was nearing the end of a dugout interview with reporters when the opt-out clause in his contract was brought up. This is the seventh season in Rodriguez's 10-year, $252-million contract that he signed with the Rangers, who are picking up a significant portion of the money remaining. After this season, Rodriguez can opt out of the remaining three years and $81 million on his contract if he chooses.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman previously has said he does not plan to renegotiate Rodriguez's contract. He did not return a phone call yesterday afternoon.

Considering the hefty contracts given this past offseason to less accomplished players (Alfonso Soriano got eight years and $136 million, and Vernon Wells got seven years and $126 million), several teams likely will be willing to offer Rodriguez a contract worth far more than $81 million this winter. So Rodriguez was asked, after raving about how much he loves New York for a couple of moments, how hard it would be to turn down larger offers if the Yankees insist on sticking to the contract he has now.

That's when Rodriguez said: "I want to stay in New York, no matter what."

We'll see what happens at the end of the year. This doesn't mean he won't opt-out and renegotiate. But he can't be much clearer about his intentions.

The Rockies finish off the Mets 11-5. For a team that wasn't getting on much entering play, they reached 22 times by a hit or a walk. Willy Taveras picked up five hits while Helton knocked out four. The teams 20 for 44 day raised the Rockies batting average from .247 to .259, and the eleven runs topped their total for their last six games.

Mark Prior is officially done for 2007:

Mark Prior yesterday underwent successful right shoulder arthroscopy performed by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, AL. During the arthroscopy, Dr. Andrews performed a debridement of Mark's right rotator cuff as well as repair of labral and capsular injuries in his right shoulder.

Here's some information on debridement. It sounds like his shoulder was in pretty bad shape. At this point, do fans think he'll ever pitch again?

Holliday and Helton deliver RBI singles in the third, extending the Rockies lead to 3-0. The two H's are the only Colorado players experiencing good seasons, and both are having great years.

Mabry follows with a three run homer to make the score 6-0 Colorado. That's the first home run for John and ends seven straight games without a homer for the Rockies.

For Baseball Prospectus subscribers, my latest article looks at the relationship between winning and attendance.

I'm looking at the starting lineups for the Rockies at Mets today, and five of the Mets starters own OBAs over .400 and five Rockies sport OBAs under .300.

Update: The Rockies score in the first on a walk, stolen base and bloop single. Given the way Colorado scored the last two days, that might be the only run they get.

The Baseball Musings radio show will be on TPSRadio tonight at 8 PM EDT. Check out TPSRadio's other sports programming as well.

You can stop by the chat room at TPSRadio during the broadcast and leave a comment. We're now using Stickam for the chat, so there are no logins required. Also, feel free to leave a question in the comments to this post and I'll be happy to answer it on the air.

The Reds try to make it two in a row against the Cardinals as Bronson Arroyo takes on Braden Looper. With Carpenter out of action, Looper emerged as the staff ace, pitching the only decent start in the last eight games for the Cardinals. Braden keeps the ball on the ground, and induced five double plays so far this season. Arroyo pitches better than his 0-2 record indicates. His strikeouts are high and his walks and home runs are low. It may just be he's being left in the game too long. Eight of the fourteen runs against him came from the seventh inning on.

In a matchup of potential Cy Young candidates, Jake Peavy faces Brandon Webb in Arizona. Peavy's been too different pitchers at Chase Field. Early in his career, the ball flew out of the park against him as he allowed 10 home runs in his first 15 innings there. But since, he's controlled the long ball and posted a 2.18 ERA at the park. Webb strikes out better than a batter per inning, but the DER behind him is exceptionally low this season. Given that his line drive percentage is up this year, that's not all the fault of the defense.

Finally, Noah Lowry and Randy Wolf battle in Los Angeles as the Giants and Dodgers continue their series. Noah is suffering from a lack of run support as San Francisco scored a mere five runs in his 20 innings pitched. Mr. Wolf's strike out rate represents a career high for him, and the Dodgers make life easy with generous run support. They've scored 28 runs in his 24 innings pitched.

Enjoy!

Correction: Fixed Lowry's first name.

A new form of league revenue sharing sprung up around Daisuke Matsuzaka:

The Rangers are among several Major League Baseball teams capitalizing on the Sox's $103 million investment in Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka by selling ballpark advertising to Japanese companies. Those firms, which include a chain of men's day spas, are trying to get their message across to fans watching broadcasts of Major League Baseball games back in Japan. The Rangers and Kansas City Royals have already sold ad space worth hundreds of thousands of dollars inside their own stadiums, though neither team has a Japanese baseball star. Several other teams have also gotten inquiries from Japanese firms about advertising when the Red Sox are playing.

"Teams like the Kansas City Royals are benefiting from the Red Sox," said Sam Kennedy , Sox vice president of sales and marketing.

The Sox, though, won't see much new revenue from Japanese sponsors at Fenway Park because most of the advertising space was sold long ago to American companies. It's also far more expensive to advertise at Fenway compared to other baseball venues.

Don't you just love global communications?

A big reason for the Brewers good start rest in their power numbers. They picked up three more extra base hits last night giving them 75 for the year. That ranks second in the National League behind the Marlins and 3rd in the majors. Last season, their 501 EXBH ranked twelfth in NL.

The young guns are doing a lot of the damage, too, as Weeks, Fielder and Hardy combined for 32 of those 75 long hits. Their development was crucial to the improvement of the Brewers, and right now they look to be right on track.

Red Reporter felt there was too much coverage of Griffey last night and not enough of Alex Gonzalez.

Alex Gonzalez had an incredible night in just about every area of play. His throw to get Albert Pujols was amazing. It really annoyed me to read the AP recap and find four paragraphs devoted to Ken Griffey Jr. and just one about Gonzalez. I was obviously happy to see Junior's home run, but him moving into 10th place on the all time home run list feels like a non-story to me at this point. Not sure why that is exactly, but he feels like an afterthought in general now, which is a little strange.

Gonzalez is a glove man who hit did something unusual for him, hit two home runs in the game. Balance that with an all-time great passing another all-time great on the home run list. The assault on both the 500 and 600 home run levels is a big story of this season.

More importantly, the win over Cardinals puts the Reds in second place in the NL Central and drops St. Louis to fifth. St. Louis starting pitchers allowed seven earned runs in two consecutive starts and only posted one good game in their last eight contests. Too many balls in play led to 59 hits in 45 innings over that time.

Correction: Fixed the division.

The Devil Rays placed Akinori Iwamura on the disabled list Tuesday. He'll likely miss four to six weeks with a strained oblique. That's too bad, since he and Upton are the only Rays really getting on base. The team does a great job hitting for power, but it helps to have someone on when those long hits are delivered.

After a great first inning, Randy Johnson struggled in his first outing of the season.

There were lots of swings and misses from Padres hitters. There was good shape, good movement on Johnson's pitches. There was good velocity, his fastball registering at 93 mph about 10 times, 94 a few times and 96 once, on a 3-0 pitch to Adrian Gonzalez in the fifth.

But there also were some mistakes. Johnson walked four batters (two intentional) and hit two batters. He seemed to tire in the fifth. He fell behind too many hitters and left too many pitches up in the strike zone, and he paid for it, particularly during a four-run fifth inning.

"Early on, his mechanics were good, he was repeating his delivery, and he was reasonably sharp," manager Bob Melvin said. "I just think he hit a wall in the fifth. Endurance-wise, he needs to get out a little further, but I didn't think he threw the ball badly at all."

He ended up allowing six runs in five innings and the Diamondbacks lost 10-5.

Wes Baier recommends Diamondbacks Bullpen as an excellent forum on Arizona baseball. Wes blogs about the DBacks at DBacks Ramblings.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Mets used small ball and a Rockies mistake to break a 1-1 tie in the 12th inning. Shawn Green walked and reached second on a sacrifice. A balk put him at third, and an intentional walk put Reyes at first. In a play I don't understand, the Rockies let Reyes take second (defensive indifference). Shouldn't the Rockies have tried to keep Jose at first to keep the force in order? The Mets win on a squeeze that goes as a base hit as they score a run without getting the ball out of the infield. It's the seventh time this season the Mets held the opposition to one run or less.

Roy Halladay posted a Cy Young performance tonight, holding the Red Sox to three runs over eight innings. He demonstrated excellent control in both his strike to ball ratio and his ten strikeouts with no walks. He's now allowed 37 hits plus walks in 38 1/3 innings pitched this season. With the Red Sox losing and the Devil Rays winning, the AL East gets a little bit tighter, with four games separating top from bottom.

Paul Maholm stands as a good example of a low strikeout pitcher giving up a lot of hits. But tonight, despite striking out just four, he pitched a three-hit shutout against the Astros. The managers disagreed on whether it was Paul or the Astros hitters:

"You can count the number of bad pitches he threw on one hand," the Pirates' Jim Tracy said. "He was exceptional."

"It was a very bad game, we looked like we had no clue what we were doing," the Astros' Phil Garner said. "We hit one ball good. We didn't square the ball up and swung at a lot of bad pitches and, unfortunately, we put them in play. I think it was more us than him, though obviously he pitched well."

Given Maholm's past, I tend to agree with Garner. Putting lots of balls in play against Pittsburgh leads to good results most of the time.

Chase Utley picked up his eleventh double of the season tonight. That leads the NL and is one behind Torii Hunter for the ML lead. While Alex Rodriguez makes early runs at home run and RBI record, the single season double record of 67 has stood since 1931. The closest anyone's come in the last 60 years is Todd Helton's 59 in 2000. Both players hit doubles in the high 30s, so making a leap of 30 more is unlikely. But if they're going to double their way to fame, they're both off to a good start.

Reyes strikes out Mientkiewicz for the final out as Tampa Bay makes Crawford's grand slam hold up. The final was 6-4, and the win moves the Devil Rays ahead of the Yankees for fourth place in the AL East. Even though it was just a two game series, the Tampa fans waved brooms at the end of the game.

The Rays also stopped Alex Rodriguez's hit streak. The slugger drew a walk, but took an 0 for 3 otherwise.

Randy Johnson retires the side in order in the first inning, striking out the Giles brothers. He looked very smooth throwing.

Wang gave the Yankees what they need tonight, pitching into the seventh before he got in trouble. After Vizcaino intentionally walked the bases loaded and induced a lineout, Myers came in to face Crawford. Myers sent one in low but over the middle of the plate, and Crawford golfed it out for a grand slam and a 6-3 Devil Rays lead. Righties are 0 for 10 vs. Myers, but lefties are 4 for 17 with two extra-base hits.

It's never too early to keep your eye on Rich Hill. He's retired the first nine Brewers tonight, striking out one an inning. That lowers his opposition batting average for the season to .100.

Update: Hardy doubles with one out in the fourth, then Fielder knocks one out of the park for a 2-0 Milwaukee lead.

The Braves and the Marlins each score four runs on four hits in the first inning. Vanden Hurk walks the bases loaded in the top of the second which leads to his getting lifted from the contest. The Braves are in a good position to score four more runs in this inning.

Scott Kazmir hit Derek Jeter with a pitch in the first inning. Jeter did not come out to play shortstop in the bottom of the first. He was hit above the knee.

Detroit started down 7-0 after three innings. They worked their way back slowly, scoring in the fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth. In the ninth, Frankie Rodriguez gives up a double to Sheffield and a homer to Ordonez to put the Tigers on top 8-7. Great work out of Rodney today, pitching two perfect innings in relief, striking out three. Combined with Bonderman settling down to give up one hit over his last three innings of work, the Angels bats have been nearly silent for five straight innings. We'll see if that remains true as they go to the bottom of the ninth.

Magglio is three for three with two walks on the day, raising his OBA to .395.

Update: Vlad doubles with one out in the bottom of the ninth to put the tying run in scoring position.

Update: Guerrero advances to third on a deep fly ball then scores when a pitch gets by I-Rod, although it bounced first so it probably goes as a wild pitch. The game is tied at eight, and the teams will play extra frames.

Update: The Angels win in the bottom of the tenth as Reggie Willits scores from third on a ground ball. Morales reached on an infield single and ended up at second on a Todd Jones error. After an intentional walk, a sacrifice moved him to third, setting up the score. Both closers blow saves in the game, but the offense redeems K-Rod.

Dallas Braden gives the Athletics six great innings in his major league debut. They don't push him, removing Braden from the game after 86 pitches. He strikes out six and walks just one as he allows just one run. He leaves with a 1.50 ERA and a .150 BA against. The A's pen allowed one run so far to make the score 4-2 in the bottom of the 8th.

Update: Street throws a perfect ninth, striking out two for his sixth save. The Athletics take the game 4-2 and remain in first place in the AL West.

Through four innings, Bonderman struck out seven but allowed ten hits (no walks). That makes the Angels 10 for 17 when they put the ball in play, not counting two errors by Guillen. Not surprisingly, LAnaheim leads Detroit 7-1.

Bonderman and Guillen combine to allow the Angels four runs in the first inning. Bonderman gives up four hits in nine batters, raising his first inning BA allowed to .385 (10/26). Guillen commits two errors, making two of the runs unearned. The Angels lead 4-0 going to the bottom of the fourth.

Kelvim Escobar retires the Tigers in order on strikeouts in the first. He threw 11 of 15 pitches for strikes. Interestingly, the announcer noticed that Kelvim is working faster this season. He said last year he'd time Kelvim at 25 seconds between pitches, this year at about 15. Another success story for work fast, throw strikes.

Dallas Braden appears to be influenced by C.C. Sabathia. His uniform hangs on him, he keeps his hat a bit crooked, and he visage shows a serious game face. He's allowed one run in two innings on poor outfield play turning a double into a triple. He's also struck out two. He looks very confident on the mound so far.

Nick Swisher is running hard around third, trying to score on a Chavez single when he's held up the the third base coach. He injures his leg trying to stop and leaves the game limping. Scutaro pinch runs and scores on an error by Mora, letting a double play ball go through his legs. It's worse, however, as Mora throws up his hands after the error and doesn't cover third, allowing Chavez to advance to that base. He then scores on a sacrifice fly. It's 2-0 Athletics in the first.

The Game Mix channel that's part of MLB Extra Innings on DirecTV shows pregame shows, but the main channel showing the game doesn't. That's a bit strange.

The Mariners lose another game to the weather as rain in Texas postpones the contest until July.

The Blue Jays moved closer B.J. Ryan to the 60 day disabled list today.

Ryan was initially ruled out for 4-6 weeks on Sunday, April 15th with a "strained ligament" in the elbow of his throwing arm. According to G.M. J.P. Ricciardi at the time, Ryan was not to begin throwing again for the first four weeks, with the hope that he might return quickly upon restarting his pitching regimen.

That plan appears to have changed. The first timeline would have seen Ryan return some time in late May.

Jason Frasor seems up to the task so far.

One of the nice things about writing for Baseball Prospectus is that I'm now on the their chatter e-mail list. Both there and in comments on this blog I've seen the Yankees accused of panicking. Another thought is that Hughes should be up already, and the process of saying he's not ready one week but ready the next is poor. However, I think it's just bad spin. In their way, the Yankees are going through a process. Here's what I wrote on the BP thread:

One of the things I've heard is that clubs want to see what happens when a pitcher faces adversity. I think it's baloney, but in his second start, Hughes gave up five runs. He came back from that and pitched six shutout innings. See? He can handle adversity. Now they can bring him up.

The Daily News had this story in March, talking to Hughes' dad:

On Joe Torre's assertion that Hughes will benefit from adversity: "I think it's part of his development. No matter what you do, whether you're in business, working behind a desk or playing baseball, I think you're better off if you have a little adversity."

"There's no doubt in my mind he can handle it, because he's handled it before. He just hasn't had to as a professional. He's just going to have to experience it eventually."

More important to me is that at the AAA level he struck batters out, didn't walk many and gave up zero home runs. I'll take my chances with that.

Redleg Nation notes a connection between working hard and winning in Dayton.

Torii Hunter broke a baseball rule that almost resulted in him being banned from the game:

Hunter's gift of four bottles of Dom Perignon, which he had delivered to the Royals clubhouse this past weekend, was meant as a reward for the Royals sweeping the Detroit Tigers last September, allowing the Twins to come from behind to win the American League Central. The gift fulfilled a promise Hunter made last fall.

But baseball has rules about this sort of thing.

Namely, rule 21-b, which proclaims "Any player or person connected with a Club who shall offer or give any gift or reward to a player or person connected with another Club for services rendered ... in defeating or attempting to defeat a competing Club ... shall be declared ineligible for not less than three years."

The Royals returned the gift unopened, saving Hunter's career. It seems to me the rule is less about encouraging teams to win and more about preventing extortion. ("Wouldn't it be a shame if we didn't play well against the Tigers this weekend.") Since neither Hunter nor Terry Ryan were aware of the rule, the league might want to publicize this a little more.

The post from the Cheater's Guide to Baseball is here.

Gary Sheffield almost took off Jered Weaver's head with a line drive Monday night:

Weaver could have lost so much more, but he was actually lucky. A blistering Gary Sheffield liner whizzed past his head in the second inning at 108 mph, according to the stadium speed gun.

"I know it was 108 -- I could hear it," Weaver said. "I actually had a dream [Sunday] night about Sheffield hitting me with a line drive. It was kind of weird."

He needs to dream about striking out Sheffield instead. :-)

It's debut day in the majors and we start off with Dallas Braden taking the hill for the Athletics. Before I looked at his minor league numbers I had a pretty good idea what I wold see; high strikeouts, low walks and low home runs. On top of all that, a 23-6 record in the minors. So far in 2007 he's struck out 20 in 18 innings while walking just four. Seems he has little left to prove at that level. Dallas starts in Baltimore against Jeremy Guthrie. This is Guthrie's first start of the season and second of his career. The problem throughout his short career is control. He's walked 27 batters in 45 major league innings.

Down in Tampa, the Devil Rays try to drop the Yankees into last place in the AL East. Standing in their way is Chien-Ming Wang, making his 2007 debut. Wang pitched dismally vs. Tampa Bay in 2005, but owned them in 2006. The Yankees need the latter type of performance tonight. Scott Kazmir takes the hill for Tampa Bay. Scott's ERA is high despite good strikeout and walk numbers. His downfall came from hits with runners in scoring position. The opposition is 8 for 22 in that situation, a .364 batting average.

Finally, Diamondbacks fans welcome Randy Johnson back to Arizona. The Big Unit struck out 14 in 18 rehab innings while walking just two. Johnson is 57-27 lifetime at Chase Field with a 2.70 ERA. He'll face another old lefty, David Wells. Boomer still controls the strike zone as he's walked just two in sixteen innings. Like Kazmir, however, his ERA is high due to lots of opposition hits with runners in scoring position.

Enjoy!

Just saw this headline of FoxSports.com:

Griffey Sidelined by Colon Problem

He's 5 for 18 vs. Bartolo with a home run and four walks. Doesn't seem like much of a problem. :-)

Dejan Kovacevic, one of the new breed of sabermetric sports writers, examines players and coaches beliefs in clutch hitting. He offers a good contrast between the statistical research, and what the players think pro and con. It strikes me that all the people in favor of the idea offer just anecdotal evidence.

Of those who feel otherwise, Pirates pitching coach Jim Colborn said, "Dead wrong. There is an element in certain people that allows them to focus at their peak and get into a zone when the situation is more important."

He cited, from his playing days, Joe Rudi, a career .264 hitter who had a reputation of elevating his level every postseason for the Athletics, at least as measured by the intangibles of timely hits and key defensive plays.

"Believe me: For all the great players in that lineup, Joe Rudi was not the one you wanted to face. He just had a knack."

I like Jason Bay's explanation:

"It's not so much a matter of raising your level in a clutch situation. It's a matter of keeping your level the same," Bay said. "Baseball is predicated on the idea that the people who are the most successful are the ones who do things the same way most consistently. It's not an emotion game like football or hockey, where you can go bust some skulls."

Which jibes with what researchers sees in the stats:

Some players, the argument can be made, do become better in trying situations. But those cases -- and this is one area where statisticians and those inside the game tend to agree -- are much rarer than those where performance decreases.

Maybe it can be summed up as the great players don't choke.

Thanks to Dan Fox, who is quoted in the article, for the link.

There was a comment last night asking what happened to all the great nicknames. Well, Rocky Cherry debuted for the Cubs last night. Unfortunately for nickname afficinados, his parents named him Rocky.

And his first appearance ended up more rocky than cherry. Prince Fielder homered to put the Brewers up 5-4 in the top of the twelfth inning, and Cherry took the loss. All four balls in play against Rocky were in the air, something that won't help him when the wind is blowing out of Wrigley.

The good news for the Cubs is that Carlos Zambrano pitched better. He only went 5 1/3 innings, but struck out seven.

The Brewers sit atop the NL Central at 12-7. They're the only team in that division over .500. However, they've only outscored their opponents by four runs so far. The last place Cubs, however outscored their opponents by 10! Based on run differential, the Cubs should be in first place in the division. Close games tell the story. The Brewers are 5-2 in one run games, the Cubs 0-5.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

John Buck picked up two more extra-base hits tonight to raise his total to nine. He's picked up fourteen hits total for a .389 batting average. He doesn't have enough plate appearances to qualify yet, but we could end up in a few games with Mauer, Posada and Buck all near the top of the AL batting race.

A number of people are asking for the April record for RBI. Since 1957, the record is 35 for Juan Gonzalez in 1998. However, that year there were games in March, so the record for most through the end of April is 36 by both McGwire and Gonzalez. I assume that's the record because before the 1990s the season started later, making it tougher to collect a lot of home runs or RBI in the month. With 34, A-Rod has plenty of time to set the record for the month and through the end of the month.

John Maine made his bid for new Mets ace tonight as he stopped the Rockies for 7 2/3 innings. He allowed just one run to lower his ERA to 1.71. He threw strikes, more than 67% of his pitches. He gave up seven hits, but only one of the them went for extra bases. The league is hitting just .169 against him, and he's only allowed three extra base hits on the season.

The Mets offense keeps clicking as Carlos Delgado hits his first home run of the season as New York takes the game 6-1. With the Atlanta loss the Mets retake first place in the NL East.

Jered Weaver imitates his big brother and lasts just 1 2/3 innings as the Tigers plate seven runs against the youngster. Granderson started things with a home run leading off the game, but it was in the second inning where they hit Weaver. Jered struck out the first two batters, but then allowed four hits and a walk, before heading to the bench. A fielding error allowed the final two runs, so only five of the seven Jered allowed tonight were earned. The Tigers lead 7-0 early in the game.

The Red Sox wish Aaron Hill was stuck on Bunker Hill tonight. The Blue Jays second baseman smacked four hits tonight, including two doubles and a home run. That raises his slugging percentage to .634, which should put him in the top ten, if not the top five in the AL. The Blue Jays take the game 7-3 and gain on both Baltimore and Boston.

The Marlins nearly blow an 8-2 lead as the Braves work their way back to an 8-7 loss. Willis ran into trouble in the sixth and seventh, giving back three of the six runs. Owens tried to finish the game in the ninth but allowed a homer and two doubles before Renyel Pinto struck out McCann to end the game and earn the second save of his career. Hooray for the namesake!

It was nice to see Dontrelle Willis get his hitting stroke back. He delivered a single and a triple, scoring a run. That's the third triple of his career.

Alex Rodriguez just took Reyes deep in the top of the ninth inning. His second home run of the game ties the major league record of 14 home runs in April set by Albert Pujols in 2006. That makes the score 10-8 Devil Rays, and the Yankees are down to their final out after Giambi Ks.

Update: With the four for five tonight, he's also hitting .400 on the season.

Update: Matsui flies out to end the game with the Devil Rays winning 10-8. Six of the nine Devil Rays offensive players collected multiple hits in the game. The Yankees pitching continues to be poor.

If A-Rod was to revert to his career rate of RBI per game for the rest of the season, he'd drive in 146 runs. With three tonight, he's driven in 34 runs in 18 games.

Down two runs in the bottom of the ninth, the Orioles push a run across and load the bases against Huston Street. But Street gets Tejada to ground out and end the game. I didn't see the play, but the Baltimore announcers were talking about a bunt play by Mora in the ninth. With first and third and one out, Mora bunted back to the pitcher, but he was just able to advance the runner on first to second. I don't know if a squeezed was missed by the runner on third, or if Mora was bunting on his own.

The Phillies took Chris Sampson to town as they knocked out 14 hits against the Houston starter in just four innings. The Day by Day Database goes back to 1957, and Scott Sanders is the only other pitcher who allowed that many hits in that few innings (Sanders had a worse game). Rollins and Victorino did another great job of setting the table, reaching base seven times (Rollins missed the cycle by a double) and scoring six runs. The Phillies win the game 11-4.

David Halberstam died in a car accident:

Halberstam, a New Yorker, was a passenger in a car that was broadsided by another vehicle in Menlo Park, south of San Francisco, San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said.

...

The driver of the car carrying Halberstam is a student at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and was taken to Stanford Medical Center. Two others were injured.

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

I really enjoyed The Teammates. It gave me a new respect for the Red Sox teams of the 40s. I've read chapters of Summer of '49, also. He had a talent for putting you in the moment with his writing. It's sad to see him go so unexpectedly.

Both Craig Biggio and Jimmy Rollins lead off their half of the first inning with home runs. Rollins shot moves him ahead of Bonds for the National League lead in long balls. Biggio's hit leaves him 54 short of 3000. Half of his hits this season went for extra bases.

Alex Rodriguez blasts his 13th home run of the season leading off the second inning for the Yankees. That ties him with Ken Griffey, Jr. for the American League record for most home runs in April. He needs one more to catch Pujols for the major league record. He's now slugging 1.028, which is an MVP like OBA + Slugging.

Update: Igawa gives the run back and more in the bottom of the second as Baldelli crushes a three run homer to break a 1-1 tie and put the Devil Rays up 4-1.

It's about time:

A day after getting swept by the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees said Monday they plan on having top pitching prospect Phil Hughes make his major league debut Thursday against Toronto.

Yankees manager Joe Torre didn't rule out that the 20-year-old right-hander, taken in the first round of the 2004 amateur draft, might make more than one start.

"If we're comfortable and we sense he's comfortable, we'll see what we do," Torre said before the Yankees played Tampa Bay.

Hughes is 2-1 with a 3.94 ERA in three starts this season at Triple-A Scranton, and he pitched six shutout innings last Wednesday at Syracuse, allowing two hits, striking out 10 and walking none.

After last night's game, the Yankees could certainly use Hughes' control. With luck, he'll have a year like Jered Weaver did in 2006.

Eric Gagne hit the disabled list today:

Gagne, the 2003 National League Cy Young Award winner for Los Angeles, was appearing in consecutive games for the Rangers for the first time Sunday when he started favoring his right leg after his 11th pitch. He was diagnosed with a hip injury

.

The Rangers at least have an experienced closer who can take over. The Oakland Athletics lose a more valuable player:

The Oakland Athletics placed their ace right-hander on the 15-day disabled list Monday with a strained right shoulder and also put center fielder Milton Bradley on the DL.

The 25-year-old Harden went 4-0 with a 4.24 ERA in only nine starts last season because of two stints on the disabled list with a lower back and elbow injury.

The A's said Sunday that Harden, who threw a bullpen session before the game, would not make his scheduled start Tuesday at home against Baltimore. He left his outing April 15 against the New York Yankees in the seventh inning with a stiff throwing shoulder, but manager Bob Geren had said Harden probably wouldn't need to go on the DL.

Dan Haren makes a good ace, but it's tough to lose your best pitcher. Let's hope Harden doesn't turn into another Carl Pavano.

Soccer Dad doesn't like Forbes ranking of the top ten baseball GMs. He feels there's too much business, not enough baseball in the calculations.

Sabernomics points to a couple of studies that show hitters peak closer to 29 than 27. That's very interesting. When I first read Bill James and his research that players peaked at 27, it made sense to me. A few years earlier, a crew coach told me that oarsmen peaked at 27. I figured at that point, athletic peak was athletic peak. But it appears Bill's study was biased by the era of ballplayer he chose. Time to readjust my thinking.

Last night I wondered if Wily Mo Pena was the heaviest man to play centerfield. Since 2000, he's the heaviest man to bat as a CF.

Center Fielder	Weight
Wily Mo Pena	245
Lyle Mouton	240
Austin Kearns	235
Jermaine Dye	235
Larry Walker	233
Joe Borchard	230
Raul Mondesi	230
Robert Perez	230
Hideki Matsui	230
Sammy Sosa	230
Matthew Kemp	230

I'll see if I can dig up more data on the subject.

Where Have you Gone, Andy Van Slyke sees signs of hope and signs of despair in the Pirates play so far this season.

At U.S.S. Mariner:

I don't mean to be Corco, but our rotation was better when it had Gil Meche and Ryan Franklin in it.

A trio of retired African American players decided to try to bring baseball back to urban areas:

Count Dennis ''Oil Can'' Boyd, Marquis Grissom, and Delino DeShields among those taking a proactive approach to reviving baseball in the inner cities. They're doing this not only through their barnstorming tour -- ''Oil Can Boyd's Traveling All-Stars'' -- which starts May 16 vs. the Brockton Rox and continues through the US and Canada, but through their newly formed Urban Baseball League, which will start in 2008.

Independent pro baseball will be marketed in predominantly African-American cities (the hope is prominent African-Americans will purchase franchises), and inner-city kids will be taught the game Boyd, Grissom, and DeShields so love.

''I'm sick of the rhetoric,'' DeShields said from Charlotte, N.C., where his 14-year-old son was playing in a baseball tournament. ''If we want more black kids playing baseball, if we want more black people in the stands, if we want more black people running baseball teams and in positions of power, then we have to go after it ourselves. We have to do something about it, and not just talk about it. Oil Can, Marquis, and I are going after it. We're trying to change things as businessmen and as baseball players.''

It's one of those ideas that stop and make you think. In a way, it seems to be going back to the days of the Negro Leagues and segregation (although the article makes it clear Boyd's barnstorming team is diverse). But if you want to bring the game to black fans, what better way than putting a team in the middle of the community? I wish them lots of luck and hope Springfield, MA gets a franchise.

Manny Stiles, the man who sold his fandom on EBay for charity, is now credentialed at Devil Rays games. He'll be blogging from the pressbox tonight and wants you to join in.

Correction: Fixed not to now.

The Diamondbacks pitchers are hitting for a higher batting average than the Diamondbacks pinch hitters. Pitchers are 7/40, a .175 BA, while pinch hitters went 6/37, .162. It should be noted that batters in a pinch drew two walks and were hit by a pitch, giving them a better OBA. They've also produced a double versus no extra-base hits for the pitchers. Still, there's not much of a difference there. With Livan Hernandez 3 for 9, you might as well let him bat for himself.

The Red Sox continue their two week stretch against the injured Blue Jays and Yankees as they host Toronto Monday night. So far, Boston took five of six games against the AL East rivals to secure first place in the AL East. The Jays send Tomo Ohka against Tim Wakefield. Ohka's allowed the highest HR per 9 IP in the majors this season (15 IP). Given the Red Sox home run performance Sunday, that's a worry. Meanwhile, Tim Wakefield leads the American League in ERA with a 1.35 mark. He's yet to allow a home run, and batters are hitting a mere .167 against Tim. What's even more impressive is those 12 hits came on 61 balls in play, a .197 BABIP. Even when batters are making contact, they're not hitting the ball hard.

Chris Sampson of Houston is another pitcher at the top of the early season ERA leaderboards. Like Wakefield, he's not striking out many batters, but his BABIP is just .208. We'll see how long that lasts against a Phillies team that appears to be coming out of their offensive doldrums. Adam Eaton takes the mound for Philadelphia. He's pitched better than his ERA, but Adam gave up both his home runs this season with men on base.

The pitching matchup of the night throws Mark Buehrle against Gil Meche in Kansas City. Buehrle comes fresh off his no-hitter and has allowed a mere .127 batting average this season. With the Royals batting just .240 as a team, he might have a shot at another. Meche is controlling his walks well this season, helping him to a .315 OBA allowed.

Enjoy!

I have to agree with Deadspin on the Hank Blalock picture.

Not to make too much of 63 at bats, but there's no sign of improvement from Hank. This was one of Washington's big projects, getting Hank hitting again. So far, no change. And there's no high pressure management from Showalter this season.

Adam Dunn started out the season making contact. He struck out just eight times in his first nine games. Now that sounds like a lot, but for Adam it was a huge reduction in his career rate. He normally strikes out in 33% of his at bats. In those games, it was under 25%. Then things changed. In his last nine games, Dunn struck out every game, eight times more than once. And his averages plummetted. Putting the ball in play works for Adam. He's eight for 17 in this streak when he doesn't strike out. He can survive with a 33% strikeout rate, not a 50%. And if he can get it down to 25% again, he might win the MVP.

The Orioles sit in second place in the AL East, having taken five of their last six against AL East opponents and eight of their last nine overall. So far, the Orioles concentrating on the bullpen over the winter worked. While the starting staff is okay with a 4.55 ERA, the pen is shutting down the opposition. They've posted a 2.73 ERA so far, with great strikeout and walk numbers (58/19), 8.3 K per 9 IP.

The offense is middle of the road, but one place where it excels is with men on base. Thirty one of the team's fifty five extra base hits came with men on base, exactly when you want to hit for power. The long hits drive runners further around the bases. If the starting pitching can close to the bullpen in productivity, this will be a good season for the Orioles.

Four of the five NL East teams do a fantastic job of setting the table:

Best 1-2 OBA, NL Teams, 2007

Team	1-2 OBA
Mets	.404
Braves	.393
Marlins	.383
Phillies	.375
Reds	.375

Reyes and Rollins each discovered their inner selectivity this year. Jose's OBA is over 100 points better than his career average, while Rollins is up over 40. All these teams are giving their power hitting hearts plenty of RBI opportunities. NY, Florida and Atlanta are in the top five in the NL in runs per game.

Connor Jackson admitted to a hamstring injury on Sunday:

First baseman Conor Jackson left the game in the fourth inning with a left hamstring injury that apparently has been bothering him almost since the beginning of the season.

Jackson said he hurt it during the season-opening series in Colorado and re-aggravated it against the Dodgers last week.

That's likely a big reason behind his dismal start. He drawing walks just fine, but he's slugging just .281.

They have laws to cover everything in New York:

A 40-year-old man arrested at Shea Stadium on Friday night is accused of trying to distract Braves pitcher Tim Hudson and shortstop Edgar Renteria with a high-powered flashlight.

Frank Martinez was charged with interference with a professional sporting event and second-degree reckless endangerment, Queens District Atty. Richard Brown said Saturday.

If you ask Red Sox fans, Renteria doesn't need a light in his eyes. And given that Hudson pitched eight shutout innings, he's already seen the light. :-)

Joe Christensen notes that the Twins AAA pitchers are doing quite well to begin the season. That should be some comfort as Ponson's ERA soars.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Abreu walks with two outs in the top of the ninth, bringing up A-Rod against Papelbon.

Update: A-Rod falls behind 0-2, then grounds to third for a force play. The Red Sox win 7-6, and Dice-K gets the win in his worst start so far.

The Red Sox win the series, but it was close. They win by scores of 7-6, 7-5 and 7-6. It was a fun series, close games, plenty of lead changes, late come backs, and lots of home runs tonight. It's going to be a fun year between these two teams.

After Alex Rodriguez leads off the 8th with a single, Okajima relieves Matsuzaka. Dice-K struck out seven and walked one (he hit two), but the Yankees were 8 for 21 when they put the ball in play, a .381 average on balls in play.

Update: Hideki gets one out, but gives up a single to Cano and a walk to Posada to load the bases. That's it for Okajima. Donnelly comes in to a tough situation.

Update: Josh Phelps pinch hits for Nieves, which means he'll come in to catch. He last caught in the majors in 2001.

Update: Phelps hits a line drive up the middle that Pedroia catches on a dive. A great play to preserve a one-run lead for Boston. A-Rod scores in the inning. The Red Sox come up in the bottom of the eighth leading 7-6.

Scott Proctor comes in for the third straight game and gives up three straight hits, including the second home run of the game for Mike Lowell. The three runs puts the Red Sox up 7-5. Maybe he should have stuck with Pettitte.

Update: I really wonder if the Yankees wouldn't be better off bringing in relievers with the idea that they finish the game. That way, the pen doesn't get totally worn out like it is now, having lots of pitchers go an inning in almost every game.

Robinson Cano goes from first to third on a ball that came very close to being caught by J.D. Drew. It's a fly ball causes many runners to hold up, but Cano judged it would fall and made it to third easily. That paid off as Cabrera hit into a double play, and Robinson scored. The Yankees lead 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth, and Andy Pettitte enters the game. Pettitte threw 100 pitches on Friday.

Update: Pettitte walks Youkilis, but gets Ortiz to hit into a double play to end the inning. He throws nine pitches. According to the broadcast, this was Pettitte's day to throw on the side anyway.

Derek Jeter ties the game with a home run that just reached the top of the Green Monster. That's his first home run of the season and only his fourth extra-base hit in 24 hits.

With Posada injured, Wil Nieves hurts his catching hand. Wil looks like he's staying in the game, but Josh Phelps was getting his catching gear out.

Manny Ramirez chaes a Wright pitch over the Green Monster seats to cut the Yankees lead to 3-1. It was certainly a monster shot. Drew parks one into the triangle seats in center on a hanging curve, and the solo shots bring the Red Sox within one run. The Lowell hits it higher and farther than Manny, blasting a high arching ball over the monster seats to tie the game. Three in a row for the Red Sox tie the game. Not a great inning for Chase Wright.

Update: Varitek makes it four in a row, but he doesn't clear the Monster seats. He just reaches the top row. Amazing. We'll see if Pena can make it five.

Update: Pena strikes out to end the inning. ESPN reports four in a row is a record for the Red Sox.

Damon and Jeter reach against Matsuzaka in the third, but Dice-K comes back and strikes out Abreu and Rodriguez. Giambi, however, dinks one between Pedroia and Drew, where Pedroia was playing in shallow right. A lucky, perfectly placed ball put the Yankees on top 3-0. Jason is now 2 for 2 vs. Daisuke.

MLB.com lists Willy Mo Pena at 245 pounds. Is he the biggest fielder to play centerfield? Watching him tonight, he moves like a big, heavy man.

Chase Wright walks the Red Sox table setters to start the first, but gets the heart of the order in order. Ortiz and Ramirez fly out while Drew strikes out. Wright threw 15 of his 29 pitches for balls, however, not a good sign against this potent lineup.

Matsuzaka retires Damon and Jeter easily, but Abreu works him for a walk. The Dice-K tries to come inside to A-Rod and hits him. Matsuzaka works Giambi outside, and Jason goes with the pitch, hitting a double into left center. That's good for two runs. If Jason keeps doing that, he'll force teams away from the shift, making it easier for him to pull the ball for hits.

Jeff Weaver allowed three runs in three innings today and lowered his ERA. The Angels took the game from the Mariners 6-1. Ervin Santana continues his good pitching in Anaheim, allowing just one run in seven innings of work.

Matt Holliday missed the cycle by a home run, and Jason Hirsh pitched seven strong innings as the Rockies defeated the Padres 4-2. Hirsh struck out seven, allowing two runs, bringing his ERA down to 3.16. Holliday brought his average up to .382, which should put him in the National League lead.

For the second day in a row, the Giants hit just enough solo home runs to win the game. Saturday, Bonds produced the only run of the game with his fifth shot. Sunday, Bonds and Feliz both went deep. That was just enough for Matt Cain who held the Diamondbacks to one run. Cain completes the game for the 2-1 win. Cain walked four to go with the three singles he allowed, but the Giants turned three double plays behind him to neutralize the wildness.

That's three homers for Bonds in his last four games. His slugging percentage is up to .804, and it looks like he's getting in a groove. He now stands at 740 career home runs.

Jorge De La Rosa looks like he's been watching the Twins pitchers closely. He walked just one batter today as he held Minnesota to one run over eight innings. That gives him just five walks in 26 2/3 innings, well below his career average of more than a walk every other inning. He threw more that 2/3 of his pitches for strikes, and brought his ERA down to 3.04. If he can keep this up, the Royals found themselves a gem.

I just saw the clip of Gagne leaving the game against the Oakland Athletics with an apparent knee injury, although SeamHeads say it might be his back. The Rangers held on for a 4-3 win. Once again, the Oakland pen wastes a good start. Chad Gaudin struck out seven over six innings, allowing just one run. The A's pitchers need to become a bit more efficient if they're going to go deeper in games to pick up wins.

David Bush threw eight shutout innings against the Astros today, taking a 4-0 lead into the ninth. With Bush slightly over 100 pitches, I thought the Brewers would go to the bullpen, but Bush started the ninth. It turns out he was out of gas. He allows a double, walk and a double before Cordero comes in to finish the game. In true reliever fashion, he allows the inherited runners to score, boosting Bush's ERA but making himself look good for the save. That's just the kind of outing anyone with Bush on his fantasy team hates.

But David pitched extremely well, striking out seven and not issuing that walk until the ninth. He's showing excellent control this year, walking just three in 25 innings. That makes fantasy owners very happy.

Tom Glavine out-pitched his old buddy John Smoltz today. Smoltz lasted just 5 2/3 innings, getting tagged for six runs. Meanwhile, Glavine showed good control, walking none and striking out five in his six innings of work, leaving with a 6-3 lead. But the teams changed positions once the bullpen entered.

Braves relievers shut down the Mets the rest of the way, allowing two hits and two walks in their 3 1/3 innings of work. Meanwhile, Atlanta pounded three Mets relievers over two innings, hitting two home runs and taking advantage of the defense for three unearned runs. What was supposed to be a strength for the Mets turned into a weakness today.

Scott Rolen boosted his batting average 73 points today as he knocks out five hits in five at bats. His last, a two run triple in the top of the ninth is the difference in the game as Isringhausen tries to get the final out, pinch hitter Alfosno Soriano. It's 9-7 Cardinals.

Update: Isringhausen gets ahead of Alfonso 0-2. He fouls off some pitches, then Isringhausen throws a low pitch over the plate. It wasn't low enough or outside enough, however, as Soriano pulls it down the line for a double. That puts men at second an third for DeRosa.

Update: DeRosa hits a high fly ball down the right field line. At first, Derosa didn't run, but the win blew it back fair where it falls in for a single. Two runs score to tie the game at nine. If DeRosa is running all the way, he has a double. A force out ends the inning as these two teams go to extra innings.

Update: Pujols wins the game with a three-run homer in the top of the 10th. His three for six moves him well above the Mendoza line at .229.

Jay Payton debuted at the plate today for the Baltimore Orioles and made the most of it, going three for five and scoring two runs. He was part of a productive top of the order today, as the 1-4 hitters in the Baltimore lineup went nine for sixteen and scored all seven Baltimore runs. The 7-3 win over the Blue Jays puts Baltimore firmly in second place in the AL East, one game behind the Red Sox pending the outcome of tonight's game.

Placido Polanco caps off a good day at the plate with his second RBI of the game. He singles in the twelfth to put the Tigers in the win column 6-5 over the White Sox. Polanco reached base three times in six appearance, raising his OBA to .402.

I wonder if Polanco and Granderson wouldn't be better flipped in the lineup. Granderson's not doing a great job of getting on base, but he's hitting for power. That probably works better behind Polanco than in front of him.

James Shields pitches eight stellar innings for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays this afternoon, striking out twelve and walking just one. The Indians managed just two hits as the Devil Rays went into the ninth lead 4-2. But Shields was over 100 pitches, which meant Brian Stokes came into the game as Reyes pitched two games in a row. That was a mistake as he walked two and gave up two hits, including a three-run homer to Garko. The Indians score four in the top of the ninth, taking the game 6-4 and making Shields' fine performance for naught.

Bruce Bochy's desire to stretch out his pitchers in games concerns John Perricone.

Dan Uggla came out of his slump yesterday and the Marlins came out of their losing streak. Saturday he picked up two hits and two walks in a 9-3 Marlins win. Sunday, he repeated his three runs scored, this time with two home runs and a single. He also added six RBI. With Cabrera raised from the dead and hitting his fifth home run, the Marlins went on to a 12-6 win over the Nationals.

Here's hoping Ron Santo makes a speedy recovery.

Kelly Johnson get the Braves off on the right foot, leading off the game against Tom Glavine with his third home run of the season. It's the second leading off a game.

Tom Glavine comes into today with a 3-1 record, his only loss coming in a game against his former teammate, John Smoltz. Both pitchers allowed two earned runs in that game, but the Mets defensive miscues led to three unearned runs. Despite Glavine's low ERA, two things bother me about the pitcher's stats. He's walking more than he's striking out, and righties are hitting him much better than lefties. When Glavine is right, he's the kind of pitcher who gets right-handed batters out. Smoltz is doing a better job of keeping the ball in the park this season compared to 2006. He's only allowed two home runs in 26 innings.

Runs could be plentiful in the Cleveland/Tampa Bay matchup. The Devil Rays score at a rate of 5.18 per game, third best in the majors. Add to that Jake Westbrook's 12.08 ERA and you have a slugfest in the making. Jake's already been taken deep five times in just 12 2/3 innings. He'll face James Shields, who also allowed five home runs. His are over 20 innings, however. James is also pitching very well against left-handed batters, allowing a .209 OBA against the group.

Houston and Milwaukee continue their battle for first in the NL Central with David Bush hosting Roy Oswalt. Bush appears to be pitching in a bit of bad luck. His strikeouts, walks and home runs are all great, but he's putting a lot of leadoff hitters on. Eight of seventeen leadoff hitters reached by a hit or walk. Roy Oswalt allowed just four extra-base hits so far this season, and none with men on base. He's making it tough for runners to advance a long distance.

Greg Maddux allowed home runs in each of his last five starts at Coors field, eight in all. His record there is way out of whack with the rest of his career, and it's the long balls that hurt him. The Jason Hirsh trade looks good for the Rockies so far. He's posting a 3.38 ERA and only allowed one home run in 18 2/3 innings so far.

And tonight, in glorious HD, Daisuke Matsuzaka takes the mound against the New York Yankees. The should be good news for Chase Wright, since all of Matsuzaka's opponents pitched well so far.

2007	Matsuzaka	Opposing Starter
Innings	20	22 2/3
Walks	5	3
Strikeouts	24	16
Home Runs	1	1
ERA	2.70	0.79

Enjoy!

Manny Stiles documents the Pronk shift, used against Travis Hafner last night.

Bartolo Colon returned to the majors last night, and allowed just one run over seven innings. 6-4-2 has more:

Despite giving up one run and seven hits, Bart actually looked pretty solid. That's not to say that he'll look anywhere near this good against real teams; the absence of strikeouts is a concern. Maybe that's not a surprise, because his velocity is likely gone for good:

"My goal all along was to pitch in April. I worked really hard to get back here, and I want to thank my teammates for all the runs they gave me tonight," Colon said. "I know the days of throwing 99, 100 miles per hour are over for me, but my mind is stronger."

Though the stadium radar gun was turned off, the radio announcers said he threw up to 95 MPH. I'll take Saturday's game as a positive sign.

The bullpen came close to blowing the game, allowing five run in the eighth inning, but the Angels held on for a 7-6 win, the first of the year for Bartolo.

Update: Given that Seattle is scoring 4.85 runs per game and the Angels are scoring 3.47 per game, saying Seattle isn't a real team is a bit unfair.

What a way to blow a ball game! Ian Snell held the Dodgers to two runs over seven innings, and the Pirates led 3-2 going into the bottom of the ninth with Torres on for the save. He walked the leadoff hitter, then replaced him with Valdez on a force out. At that point, the battery ran out of juice:

Torres' second pitch to Saenz, a wild one, skipped away from Paulino, and Valdez broke for second. When Paulino retrieved the ball about 15 feet away and tried to nail him there, the throw sailed into center field, and Valdez took third.

That was the first miscue.

His next, and the one that was far more costly, came when Torres got Saenz to swing over a diving splitter for strike two. Paulino failed to turn his glove to the underhand in time, and it rifled through his legs.

"I just saw the bat and the ball at the same time," Paulino said. "I lost the ball right there."

Still, it caromed hard off the backstop and right back to Paulino as Valdez was in a desperate sprint for home. Paulino flipped to Torres, who appeared to block Valdez's slide with his left foot, but umpire Joe West ruled him safe, and the score was tied, 3-3.

That set up Martin's grand slam in the tenth on a 1-2 count. With the Pirates scoring 3.44 runs per game, they need to win when their starters hold the opposition down.

The Texas Rangers used nothing but relievers last night in a 7-0 shutout of the Oakland Athletics. Kameron Loe started the game after five relief appearances, but his relief did a stellar job. Oakland did not land a hit in 3 2/3 innings. Four men reached base by a walk or hit by pitch, but that was it.

Despite their high team ERA, the Rangers staff pitched two shutouts this season. Only fourteen of the thirty teams have at least one.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Joe Kennedy and Kameron Loe battle for five plus innings to a 1-0 score in favor of Texas. Loe is making his first start of the year after five appearances from the bullpen. He pitched much better tonight, giving up just three hits while striking out five. Kennedy also K'd five hitters, but walked three, one of those coming around to score on a Teixeira single in the fourth.

The bullpens took up the challenge, and it's still 1-0 in the seventh.

Cole Hamels struck out fifteen batters through nine innings. That gives the youngster 33 K on the season with just six walks issued, all in 28 innings. His only mistake tonight was a home run to Jeff Conine, a solo shot in the second. The Phillies win the game 4-1 as Hamels picks up the first complete game of his career and lowers his ERA to 2.57.

Update: A commenter points out the Phillies turned a triple play in the game.

Reds fifth. Hamilton walked. Encarnacion singled to center, Hamilton to second. Ross grounded into a triple play, third baseman Nunez to second baseman Utley to first baseman Helms. Hamilton out, Encarnacion out.

You have to love the around the horn triple play.

Matt Chico walks seven tonight in 4 2/3 innings. That matches the single game high for the season shared with Oliver Perez. That gives Chico 15 walks in 18 1/3 innings. He's not going to last in the majors with those kinds of numbers.

Anibal leaves the game in the top of the sixth with an apparent cramp. We'll see if it's more serious. The Marlins don't really need more injuries right now.

Update: Adam Loewen also walks seven tonight. That gives him 19 free passes in 19 1/3 innings. However, thanks three double plays he only allowed two runs and is in line for the win. The Orioles lead 5-2 in the ninth.

The Brewers idea to put Hall in center and Hardy at short paid dividends tonight. Hardy homered twice to help Milwaukee to a 5-1 lead in the sixth, J.J. driving in three runs. Both are showing decent to good power as Hardy is now slugging .559 and Hall .483.

Jon Papelbon pitches the ninth for the save and the Red Sox defeat the Yankees 7-5. All three AL games played today ended with the same 7-5 score!

Both bullpens pitch shutouts, with the Red Sox relievers not allowing a hit over 2 1/3 innings. Boston's relievers now own a 2.48 ERA.

Jason Marquis saved his best for his former team as he pitches seven shutout innings against the Cardinals. He allows seven hits, all singles and hits two batters. The Cubs offense helps out with two homers to give Chicago a 5-0 lead in the eighth.

Jim Thome drew his twenty second walk today. He's played fifteen games. It seems that the White Sox offense is so bad, teams feel they're better off pitching around Jim than pitching too him. I don't buy the strategy, but Thome's OBA is over .550 and the White Sox came into today with a .319 mark.

Edgar Gonzalez and Barry Zito are engaged in a classic pitching duel in San Francisco. So far, the only run came on Barry Bonds' fifth homer of the year and the 739th of his career. Home runs are Edgar's problem, as that's the sixth he's allowed in 24 1/3 innings through six today. Bonds is out of the game but leaves with a .767 slugging percentage.

Update: That's the way the game ends. Gonzalez gives up no walks and strikes out more batters than Zito, but the long ball makes the difference.

This was a good call. David Ortiz pulls the ball down the line in his third at bat for his sixth home run of the season. The two run shot puts the Red Sox up 7-4 and caps a three-run fourth inning.

Alex Rodriguez leads off the third with his seventh double of the season. That's 19 extra base hits for Alex, and so while we think about his breaking some single season home run record, we should also think about his breaking Babe Ruth's 119 extra-base hit record from 1921.

Crisp and Cora sneak back to back bunt singles by the Yankees, and both come around to score on a wild pitch, ground out and single. It's tied at four with the Red Sox still batting in the second.

Update: Ortiz sends another fly ball deep to right, but this time Abreu is playing deeper and makes the catch. If David keeps this up, the next one is going into the bullpen.

The Yankees are using the second string today as Thompson, Nieves and Cabrera bat 8, 9 and 1. What looks like an easy inning for Beckett turns into a run as Thompson doubles off the wall, Lowell makes an error on a ground by Nieves and Cabrera singles to put the Yankees back on top 4-2. They go to the bottom of the second with that score.

David Ortiz doubles in two to tie the Yankees in the bottom of the first. Lugo and Youkilis hit Karstens hard to start the game to put runners at second and third. Jeff then pitched Ortiz well, getting ahead and moving his pitches around the strike zone. But then he hung a curve and Ortiz just missed getting all of it, sending it over Abreu's head for a double.

Update: That's all the Red Sox get as Ortiz tries to score from third on a ground ball to second with the infield back.

Boof Bonser allows two home runs today in his five innings of work. That gives him seven in 20 2/3 innings. Makes you wonder if he's been getting tips from Twins broadcaster Burt Blyleven, who allowed 50 in 1986, the single season record. Minnesota and Kansas City are tied at five in the seventh.

The Yankees take a 2-0 lead in the first. Beckett walked two and struck out two facing the first four batters, then Giambi hit a fly ball to right center than fell between Drew and Crisp. (Drew made the most useless dive I've ever seen, as the ball landed yards away from him.) Then Cano hits a slow grounder that Youkilis doesn't go for, and by the time Cora gets there Robinson reaches first. The Red Sox are coming to bat.

Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye both double to start the 10th inning for the White Sox, putting them up 6-5 over the Tigers. An error and a sacrifice fly provides some insurance, making the score 7-5.

Update: Jenks pitches the bottom of the 10th for the save. Rodney continues to disappoint for the Tigers. His record goes to 1-4 and his ERA to 7.78.

Oliver Perez continued his career and season success vs. the Braves today. He allowed two runs through 6 2/3 innings. Most impressively, he struck out nine without issuing a walk. In 13 2/3 innings against the Braves this year, Perez struck out 15 without a walk. And while he's pitched a couple of bad starts, for his career he holds a 3.25 ERA against Atlanta.

Update: The Mets win 7-2, and Perez moves to 4-3 against the Braves.

Ken Harrelson said something very interesting while watching Crede face Zumaya. Joel is hitting 100 on the gun, and Crede just takes a pitch down the middle. Hawk says that when someone is throwing that fast, it's good to take a pitch like that all the way, not moving your head. He explained that this makes the pitch look slower; it lets the batter time the fastball. Crede then singled in the tying run.

I've never heard about this approach to a hard thrower before. Does anyone care to comment?

Jose Reyes knocked out three hits so far today, leaving himself a triple short of the cycle. Given his affinity for three baggers, the cycle seems like a decent possibility. His homer is one of three allowed by Chuck James, who didn't allow one this season before today. The Mets lead 6-1 in the sixth inning.

Nate Robertson picks up an error on a throw to first, because he faked out his own first baseman. Nate takes off his hat and is wiping his brow when he throws quickly to first. Casey, seeing Robertson apparently taking a moment, takes off his glove for an adjustment. The ball sails by, and Ozuna ends up at second. He's at third after a single, and ties the game on a sacrifice fly by Thome.

Jose Contreras throws seventeen pitches in the first inning, fifteen of them for strikes. The only ball thrown, however, hit Gary Sheffield to load the bases. That set up a grand slam by Carlos Guillen to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead after one inning. The opposition is now 10 for 23 in the first inning against Jose with two home runs and ten RBI.

Jeff Karstens faces Josh Beckett as the Yankees and Red Sox continue their weekend series. Karstens career is starting out in a similar fashion to Chien-Ming Wang's. In the minor leagues, Jeff posted very good walk numbers and decent strikeout numbers. But in the majors, the strikeouts fell, although he remained stingy with the free passes. The results are a good number of hits, but an ERA below 4.00. Hitters only slammed one home run against Josh Beckett so far this season. Last year, he allowed six in April. His ERA reflects that. At 1.50,his ERA is fifth in the American League. With a win, he'll become the first four game winner in the majors.

A nice matchup in Milwaukee tonight as Chris Capuano host Wandy Rodriguez. The lefty Capuano keeps lefties and righties off base with equal excellence in 2007, but righties do hit him for power. Opponents are hitting just .209 off Rodriguez, 70 points lower than his career average. The Astros only scored four runs for him so far, however, which is why he hasn't picked up a win.

San Diego at Colorado wins the nomination for slugfest of the day. Clay Hensley sports an ERA over 12 and is averaging less than five innings per start. Righties pound Jeff Francis, and they've accounted for about 70% of the at bats against him.

Finally, Ian Snell faces Brad Penny in a matchup of sub-2.00 ERAs. Snell is striking out a batter per inning, helping him hold opponents to a .181 batting average. Like Beckett, a win puts Penny at 4-0. Brad's put men on base this year, but opponents are only 1 for 14 against him with runners in scoring position.

Enjoy!

The Marlins find themselves on a six game losing streak. They depend on their infield for much of their offense, and while Hanley Ramirez keeps getting on, the other two big bats went silent. Miguel Cabrera is out with an injury, but Dan Uggla can't buy a hit. He's just 3 for 26 during the losing streak, but with 12 strikeouts. He's striking out at a rate 1/3 higher than last season. Either pitchers found a weakness, or there's something wrong with Dan as well.

Randy Wolf appears rejuvenated with his move to the west coast. Always a good strikeout pitcher, Wolf fanned ten Pirates in six innings last night helping Los Angeles to an easy 10-2 win over Pittsburgh. The former Phillies pitcher now has 25 strikeouts in 24 innings, with just six walks. The control is impressive, since for most of his career Wolf's K/BB was a bit over two.

What happens when a bad offense goes up against a good pitcher? Chris Young and the Rockies demonstrated that last night as Colorado scored just one run for the second night in a row. Young dominated, throwing 72 of 101 pitches for strikes and picking up seven Ks without walking a batter. He had been a bit wild entering the game with 10 walks in his three previous starts.

The Rockies now rank 25th in the majors in runs per game at 3.71. One reason is rookies Troy Tulowitzki and Chris Iannetta haven't found their strides. Both are hitting under the Mendoza line and doing little else offensively to make themselves valuable.

Going into last night, the Ponson/Perez matchup in Kansas City looked like a slugfest in the making, and the game didn't disappoint as the Royals took the contest 11-7. The old men rose up last night, as Grudzielanek, Sweeney and Sanders all homered. Neither Ponson nor Perez pitched well, Sidney pushing his ERA to 9.39 and Perez to 8.64. One wonders how many more starts either will get.

The Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers entered the ninth inning tied at two, and nearly doubled their run output for that game in the final frame. The Brewers failed to go for the sure out on a sacrifice bunt, and that loaded the bases. Biggio delivered a grand slam to put the Astros up 6-2. Craig is now 55 hits short of 3000.

And in what appeared to be a confidence building move, Brad Lidge starts the ninth. He walks the first two batters then Fielder takes him deep.

"It wasn't good enough, put it that way, obviously," Lidge said of his 1-2 slider to Fielder. "It should have been down more. He's a good hitter.

"I would classify it this way -- I got ahead of him, so for me to put it anywhere in the strike zone I think is a mistake. I should have thrown it lower. I probably tried to throw it too hard, overthrew it a little bit and left it up in the zone."

It wasn't enough, however, as Qualls closed out the game.

Lidge is older than I thought, mostly because he hasn't bee around that long. He's 30 years old, an age when pitchers go through a transition as they lose something off their fastballs. If that's the case, Brad isn't adjusting to it well. Of course, since he came up late in his career, maybe his peak was just very short. Looking at his minor league numbers, it's surprising he didn't reach the majors sooner.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Red Sox and the Reds aren't the only teams to mount comebacks tonight. The Toronto bullpen failed to hold a 4-2 lead passed on by A.J. Burnett. Markakis singled in both the 8th and the 9th inning, his second giving Baltimore the 5-4 win as they score three runs in the last two innings.

The Washington Nationals took an early 5-0 lead over the Marlins, but Florida fought back and tied the game in the bottom of the ninth at five on a Ross home run. The teams are still tied in the12th.

And the White Sox fell behind Detroit 4-2, but scored two in the sixth and one in the seventh for a 5-4 lead. The bullpen allowed just two hits in 4 1/3 shutout innings, holding off the Tigers long enough for the comeback.

Update: With a man on first and none out in the top of the 13th, Robert Fick tries to sacrifice. The runner is thrown out a second, but Fick takes his time running to first and he's easily doubled off. If he's running hard out of the box, he's safe. The MASN team is much too easy on that lack of hustle.

Mariano Rivera blows his second save of the season. Myers and Vizcaino couldn't get the job done, so Rivera came into the 8th with men on 1st and 3rd and a three run lead. Varitek singled, Crisp tripled and Cora singled to put the Red Sox on top 7-4. Mo is now 0-2 in save opportunities. Okajima will try to save the game for the Red Sox, as Papelbon is unavailable. He'll face Jeter, Abreu and A-Rod.

Update: Jeter grounds out weakly to second to start the ninth. Abreu walks to bring up A-Rod.

Update: Rodriguez works the count to 3-2, then hits a line drive to the second baseman. Now, both Giambi and Posada are out of the game, so it's up to Thompson.

Update: Thompson falls behind 0-2, stays alive on foul balls but finally misses a pitch in the dirt. A huge comeback victory for Boston to stay in first place in the AL East. Okajima picks up his first save and a new hero is born.

Tom Gordon enters in the ninth to try to save a 1-0 Phillies lead. He gets the first two batters, but falls behind Hatteberg and Scott mashes a 3-1 pitch into the right field seats. The teams are going to extra innings tied at 1.

Update: Phillips singles in the 10th with the bases loaded to give Cincinnati a 2-1 win. The Phillies are really snake bit this season.

Travis Buck his first ML home run, driving in two more to bring his total to five RBI on the night. Buck's two hits tonight are both for extra bases, and seven of his eleven ML hits are long ones.

Jon Lieber makes a terrific first start of the year, allowing one hit and one walk in 5 2/3 innings. He alos struck out five. Myers takes his turn as a reliever in the 8th. He walks one, but strikes out two. The Phillies hang on to a slim 1-0 lead.

Brandon McCarthy continues to get clobbered as a starter for Texas. He did not get a batter out in the second inning, allowing the first five batters to reach. They all scored, as well as three others, and Oakland scores eight in the second inning for an 8-0 lead. Buck drove in three and already walked and doubled.

I wonder if McCarthy is head back to the minors. His ERA now stands at 10.20.

With men on first and second and two out, Alex Rodriguez takes Curt Schilling deep for the second time tonight. He pulled the first one into the Monster Seats, but this time he drives the ball into the bullpen in right center. He's now five for seven on the season with RISP and 2 out. The second dinger moves him past both Stargell and Musial for 25th on the all-time list.

Update: Alex drove in four so far tonight, giving him 30 RBI on the season. I'd love to see someone challenge Hack Wilson's record of 191, or at least Gehrig's AL record or 184.

Varitek takes Andy Pettitte deep in the fourth to tie the Yankees at 2. Drew was caught stealing earlier in the inning, costing Boston the lead.

Correction: It was a caught stealing, not a pickoff.

Both Tim Hudson and Shawn Hill hold no-hitters through four innings. Hudson just walked his first batter after retiring eleven in a row. Hill walked two so far.

Update: Amezaga breaks up Hill's no-no with one out in the fifth.

Update: Alou breaks up Hudson's no-no with one out in the fifth.

Wow, an A broke up an H's no-no with on out in the fifth!

Alex Rodriguez leads off the fourth inning with his eleventh home run of the season. That's four straight games with a home run for A-Rod, and he's homered in 10 of 15 games. The Yankees lead 2-0 in the middle of the fourth.

The White Sox and Tigers are tied at one in the bottom of the third as both number nine hitters, Juan Uribe and Brandon Inge homered. The two have something else in common, low batting averages and high slugging percentages. Four of Uribe's ten hits went for home runs, and three of Inge's six.

Update: Iguchi goes deep to put the White Sox back up by one run. The vowel initials are doing well tonight. Look for Erstad, Infante and Ordonez to go deep later. :-)

Chipper Jones puts the Braves up 2-0 with his fifth home run of the season. The first inning shot is number 362 for his career, moving Chipper past the Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio.

Andy Pettitte hits a batter and walks another, but gets Manny Ramirez to hit into a double play. Andy's always had a high WHIP, but makes up for it with a high number of pickoffs and double plays. That's the fourth GDP for Manny this season. In 2006, he hit into just 13.

Marc Normandin was conducting a BP chat today and forwarded me this question:

Based on the enormous sample size of like 14 games do you think A-Rod will break Bonds' single season home run record?

Here's my answer:

For his career, Alex Rodriguez hits home runs at a rate of 6.9 per 100 at bats. If he gets 600 AB this season, he'll get another 543 at bats. So if he reverts to his career norm for the rest of the season, he'd hit another 38 home runs, giving him 48 for the year. However, the chance of someone who hits home runs at a rate of .069 hitting at least 10 HR in 57 at bats is .005, which is significant at the .05 level. So there's some evidence that A-Rod is better than his career numbers this season. If you average the two rates, you get .122, which works out to 73 home runs. My feeling is that he's better than .069 right now. How much better is the question. My gut is he's more likely to hit 50 than 70.

Another way to do it would be to find the lowest rate that's not significant at the .05 level. That rate is .0985. If he were to hit at that rate the rest of the year and come to the plate for 600 AB, he'd hit 63 home runs, breaking the AL record.

Ronny Cedeno, in the bottom of the ninth with one out, attempts to steal second base. The pitch is ball four but the throw goes through to Eckstein. Cedeno touches the base, comes off, and Eckstein tags him. After discussion by the umps, Cedeno is called out. The Cardinals are one out away from a 2-1 win, rather than looking at the tying run in scoring position with one out.

Update: The next pitch is popped up to Eckstein, and the Cardinals win.

Update: I only saw the beginning and end of the game, but 6-4-2 saw the triple play that wasn't.

The Cubs pick up three singles in the first, leading to a 1-0 lead over the Cardinals. Derrek Lee gets one of those, raising his NL leading batting average to .386.

U.S.S. Mariner blasts the organization for moving Morrow into the rotation:

Brandon Morrow threw an inning on April 3rd, an inning on April 10th, and an inning on April 14th. During spring training, his longest outing was two innings, he threw 8 1/3 total innings in the month of March. In his professional debut last year in the Arizona and Cal Leagues, his longest outing was three innings.

The last time Brandon Morrow threw more than 3 innings in a ballgame was May 5th, 2006 against the Stanford Cardinal.

And now, he's being asked to go into a severe hitters park and make his first major league start, after having spent the entire spring being used as a reliever, and then sitting on his hands for the better part of April.

At least he should be rested. :-) I don't have a huge problem with this, unless they really try to extend the outing. If they limit him to 75 pitches or five innings, it's probably okay.

In case you didn't notice, Barry Bonds leads the NL in slugging percentage. He doesn't seem to be drawing an inordinate amount of intentional walks this year, either. Of course, he's only been up seven times this season with men on base and first open.

Alex Rodriguez sits in the sweet spot. He's combining timely hitting with lots of men on base to deliver a large number of RBI for the Yankees this season. In the majors this year, only Bobby Abreu came up with more men on base, and Alex ranks sixth in RBI perecentage among players with at least 25 runners on base. The Yankees are creating opportunities and Alex is taking advantage of them. It reminds me of Juan Gonzalez's 1998 season. At the All-Star break that year he came to bat with the most runners on base, and drove in the highest percentage. He entered the break that year with 101 RBI.

The first link also shows the Phillies big problem this season. The team is doing a very good job of setting up Utley and Howard, but the big bats are just not taking advantage of the situation.

Rich Hill pitched his third excellent game last night, combining with Dempster for a 3-0 shutout of the Braves. With his four hit performance last night, Hill allowed just eight hits in 22 innings this season. That's the biggest difference between Hill this year and in previous seasons, the balls in play are not falling for hits. In previous seasons, his batting average allowed on balls in play was .307. This year, it's a mere .148. Looking at his line drive percentage this season, it's clear batters are having a tough time squaring up his pitches.

I'm curious what Cubs fans believe changed for Hill. The news story quotes Hill, but he doesn't say anything technical:

His game plan is relatively simple.

"Just going out there and staying consistent and stay with the same philosophy I've had for a while now," he said. "Stay aggressive and stay on the attack. Hitters know that. They know 'if we get Hill today, he's aggressive and going to come after us. We have to get up and swing the bats.' You turn it around and put it on them."

Did he develop a new pitch? Did he improve his changeup? Is it just luck? The STATS scouting report on the FoxSports page indicates the wind is blowing in at Wrigley this year. Could that be it?

Rangers fans may find his difficult to believe, but luck is on the side of the Rangers offense this season. So far in 2007, the Rangers scored 70 runs, 15 more than predicted by the runs created formula. Instead of ranking near the bottom of the majors in runs scored per game, they're in the middle of the pack.

Basically, while the overall offense is terrible, the Rangers hit great with runners in scoring position. They're hitting .317 in that situation vs. .217 overall. On top of that, 9 of their 19 home runs came with men on base. Their long balls account for 32 of their 70 runs scored.

Texas needs to find a way to get more men on base. A .291 team OBA is just not going to cut it the rest of the season. Luck has a way of running out.

It's a New York state of mind today as the teams from the Bronx and Queens battle for first place in their divisions. The Yankees are in Boston, trailing the first place Red Sox by one game. Andy Pettitte faces the Red Sox for the first time since Sept. of 2003. He's 13-5 against Boston for his career with a 3.01 ERA. Since arriving in Boston, Schilling holds a 6-3 record against the Yankees, but with a 4.35 ERA. He tends to pitch very well against New York, but sometimes gets hammered.

The Yankees are leading the majors with 6.5 runs per game, almost 2 more per game than the Red Sox. But Boston leads the AL in ERA with a 2.58 mark, about a run better than New York.

The team with the second highest runs per game in the majors plays in Queens. Their 6.21 runs per game is matched by their MLB leading 2.40 ERA. They host the Braves this evening as Tim Hudson faces Mike Pelfrey. The Mets lead the division by 1/2 game. Hudson is off to a great start as batters are hitting just .157 against him. He's faced a scoring position situation just 8 times and only allowed one hit, accounting for his 0.86 ERA. Walks hurt Pelfry. In his short career, he issued sixteen free passes in 27 innings pitched. Luckily for him, the Mets bullpen is very strong, allowing just a .181 BA and a .281 OBA so far this season.

Enjoy!

What causes this?

Florida Marlins slugger Miguel Cabrera left Thursday's game against the New York Mets after two innings with a stiff torso.

Rigor Mortis? The Marlins can ill afford to lose their best offensive player for any length of time.

The Mets poured it on after Cabrera left the game, scoring six runs in the third. Beltran picked up two doubles and a homer to help New York to an 11-3 win over the Marlins. The Mets outscored them 20-5 in the two game series.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

It looks like Felix Hernandez stopped throwing in time:

"I think 10 to 20 days is a reasonable estimate," Khalfayan said when asked when Hernandez might again pitch in a game. "That's as good a news as you can get from an elbow injury."

If Hernandez continued to pitch with the strain, he could have stressed elbow so severely he would have required elbow-ligament replacement surgery.

The question for me is, was this caused by his mechanics? And if so, do the Mariners work on changing those to prevent this injury from recurring?

Forbes publishes their annual value of major league teams. Maury Brown criticizes the piece here. I'm somewhat surprised at the debt level of the Yankees, but that does include the new stadium. Given that Steinbrenner's group paid $20 million for the team in the early 1970s, and it's worth $1.2 billion now, you'd think they had a lot more equity. But they've invested well, not only in players who help them win, but in media as well. The Yankees are also the only team with an operating deficit.

The Diamondbacks chase Jake Peavy in the sixth inning after he gave up eight hits in two innings. Arizona fights back to a two run deficit, but Medders allows two home runs in the seventh to extend the Padres lead to 9-5.

Jeff Kent provided some offense today as the Dodgers picked up an easy win against the Rockies 8-1. He knocked out three hits, scoring twice and driving in two. But one of his hits was a double, the 507th of his career, breaking a tie with Babe Ruth for 39th on the all-time list. He need 21 more this year to tie Frank Robinson for 30th all time.

I didn't see the game today, but in 19 innings this season Zach Duke allowed 19 earned runs. Why is he pitching so badly?

"Command, period," Tracy said. "He was not locating his sinker, and there were a lot of balls that had a lot of plate and were elevated. When he does that, he's going to get hit."

Duke saw it the same way.

"My command is not where I want it to be," he said. "But they hit some tough pitches. I couldn't believe they hit 'em as hard as they did. Maybe they were just too comfortable up there."

I'm interested in what Pittsburgh fans think. Is it just control, or has Duke become more predictable? Hitting tough pitches hard strikes me as knowing a tough pitch was on the way.

With two out in the bottom of the ninth, Borowski falls apart. Phelps homers, then three hits and a walk cuts the lead to 6-5 and brings up A-Rod in a game winning situation. Alex delivers a homer over the centerfield fence for the 8-6 win!

Who needs pitching?

Update: My friend Jim Storer called as the ball sailed over the fence and wants to know why Borowski stayed in so long? Probably because the pen pitched 11 2/3 innings in the previous two games.

By the way, is A-Rod the new Ortiz? :-)

Update: The April home run record is 14 set by Albert Pujols last year. Griffey holds the AL record with 13 in 1997.

The walks are catching up to Livan Hernandez today. In two innings, he's walked four, and the Padres made use of a sacrifice fly and a single to score two runs. San Diego leads Arizona 2-0 in the third.

Update: Livan gets hammered in the third. He walks another batter, but gives up four hits, including a triple to Peavy (the first of his career) and five runs. The Padres are off to a 7-0 lead.

Francisco Cordero picked up his fifth save today and Milwaukee held on to take a 7-5 victory over Pittsburgh. He's only allowed one hit in seven innings, no runs, and after striking out the three batters he faced today, thirteen strikeouts. He only threw 12 pitches to retire the side, nine for strikes.

Jamie Moyer was nearly unhittable for eight innings, surrendering two hits and no runs. But Zimmerman led off the ninth with a double, and scored on a Young double. That brought in Gordon, who hit Kearns and gave up a bloop hit to Chruch. The bases are loaded for Fick with no one out. The Phillies lead 4-1.

Update: Fick hits a sacrifice fly to drive in Young. First and second, one out for Schneider.

Update: Schneider grounds out to first, but moves the tying run into scoring position for Snelling.

Update: Snelling strikes out looking at a curve ball. Phillies win 4-2. Moyer gets the deserved win as he doesn't depend on the offense for much, and shuts down the Nationals on four hits and four walks.

Victor Martinez breaks open a tight pitching duel in the Bronx with a three-run homer in the top of the seventh. That puts Cleveland up 5-2, equalling their output of the previous two games.

Fausto Carmona gave the Tribe six very good innings, allowing just two runs and throwing 97 pitches. At that pitch level, I assume he's done for the day, but he's in line for the win.

Alex Cora triples in pinch runner Julio Lugo in the top of the ninth to put the Red Sox on top 4-3. That brings Cora's career triples close to his career home runs. He's hit 28 triples and 31 homers.

Crisp follows with a sacrifice fly to give Boston a bit of insurance.

Update: Papelbon comes on to walk a batter but strikes out two to preserve the win for the Red Sox. He's allowed just one hit and two walks in 5 1/3 innings while striking out 11.

Manny Ramirez finally picks up his first home run of the season. It's timely two, as the two run shot in the eighth ties the game at three and prevents Roy Halladay from picking up a win.

Update: This is the third year in a row Manny homered late. In 2005, it was on 4/16 and in 2006, 4/21.

J.J. Hardy puts the Milwaukee Brewers up 2-0 in the bottom of the first with his second home run of the season. The Brewers lead the NL Central despite coming into the games having been outscored by one run.

Update: The Brewers score four in the first. Zach Duke is throwing strikes (22 of 27 pitches), but Milwaukee is hitting them.

Frank Thomas homers in the bottom of the first to tie the Boston/Toronto game at one. It's only the seventh home run allowed by the Boston staff this season. It's the first allowed by Tavarez, and no Red Sox pitcher allowed two home runs yet.

Ryan Howard sits out today's game against the Nationals with a leg injury:

The reigning NL MVP hurt himself running out a fielder's choice grounder in the 10th inning Wednesday night but stayed in for the rest of Philadelphia's 5-4 loss in 13 innings.

Howard went 0-for-5 Wednesday to drop his average to .213 for the season.

The Phillies listed him as day-to-day, saying he sprained the ligament that connects the tibia to the fibia just below the knee.

Here's a place that deals with tibia injuries:

First Doctor: Get on parade! Come on! We haven't got all day, have we? Come on, come on, come on. (the patients painfully get themselves into line) Hurry up ... right! Now, I know some hospitals where you get the patients lying around in bed. Sleeping, resting, recuperating, convalescing. Well, that's not the way we do things here, right! No, you won't be loafing about in bed wasting the doctors' time. You - you horrible little cripple. What's the matter with you?

Patient: Fractured tibia, sergeant.

First Doctor: 'Fractured tibia, sergeant'? 'Fractured tibia, sergeant'? Ooh. Proper little mummy's boy, aren't we? Well, I'll tell you something, my fine friend, if you fracture a tibia here you keep quiet about it! Look at him! (looks more closely) He's broken both his arms and he don't go shouting about it, do he? No! 'Cos he's a man - he's a woman, you see, so don't come that broken tibia talk with me. Get on at the double. One, two, three, pick that crutch up, pick that crutch right up.

The patient hobbles off at the double and falls over.

Patient: Aaargh!

The Soxaholix offers two fine strips, one on the lack of love for Tim Wakefield on the site, the other obiviously by a guest writer.

The best pitching matchups of the day are in the western afternoon games. Livan Hernandez and Jake Peavy go head-to-head in San Diego. Livan is walking lots of batters, but so far his hits allowed are low, and no balls left the park against him. Low numbers of home runs isn't his forte, so those walks may eventually come back to bite him. Peavy's not producing his usual high rate of strikeouts, but batters are having a tough time hitting him. He's allowed a .157 oppositions batting average so far, with an great .221 OBA. None of the hits he allowed went for extra bases.

In San Francisco, Kip Wells continues his recovery from a blood clot against Noah Lowry. Left-handers find Kip tough to hit this season, as they're just 3 for 30 against the righty. Lowry comes into today's game with 6 walks and five strikeouts in 13 innings. Still, his OBA allowed is in the mid .200s, a fine place for any pitcher.

Seattle sends Jarrod Washburn against Johan Santana as they await word on Felix Hernandez. Although not a strikeout pitcher, Washburn does well against the Twins in that category, striking out 57 and walking 15 in 71 2/3 innings during his career. With 25 K in 20 innings, Johan Santana comes in with the best K per 9 in the AL.

Enjoy!

Albert Pujols visited Barry Bonds' home park last night and both sluggers delivered home runs. Albert picked up three hits to raise his average to the Mendoza line, and his two-run homer in the third inning gave the Cardinals a 4-1 lead at the time. Bonds waited until the eighth inning when his solo shot tied the game at five. That sent the game to extra innings. Rich Aurilia won it with a single in the twelfth.

Both bullpens pitched well last night, as was the case across the majors (four extra-inning games yesterday). Despite a no-hitter by Buehrle, major league starters yesterday posted a 4.11 ERA while relievers were over a run lower at 3.09. They struck out more per nine and gave up far fewer home runs per 9 IP. For the year, relief ERAs are running about .5 runs lower than starters, and the big difference is home run rates, 0.7 per 9 for relievers, 0.9 for starters.

Before bed last night, I caught a minute of the Diamondbacks game. The announcers praised Webb's changeup, noting that he gained control of it last night. The results were a career high thirteen strikeouts in eight innings. The Arizona Republic expands on that story line:

The mistake took a potential victory away from Webb, who struck out a career-high 13 in an overpowering performance. After allowing three singles and a run in the first inning, everything clicked for Webb, who began mixing his pitches with devastating results, at one point striking out six consecutive batters.

Mostly throwing his sinker to get ahead in the count, he'd occasionally finish them off with a change-up, like he did to get Khalil Greene swinging in the first. Or get them with his slow curve, the pitch he threw to Adrian Gonzalez in the third. Or he'd keep coming at them with his sinker, which he did to strike out Terrmel Sledge in the first.

Arizona won the game in extra innings. David Wells pitched seven strong innings, although he did walk a batter with the bases loaded in the seventh to put Arizona briefly up 2-1. Wells, in my mind, would be the least likely pitcher to issue a bases loaded walk.

The Angels lost their second player to a hit by pitch injury as Howie Kendrick visits the disabled list with a broken bone in his left hand:

Kendrick, hit by a Chad Gaudin fastball in the seventh inning Tuesday night, returned to Southern California on Wednesday for an MRI test and CT scan, which revealed a non-displaced fracture at the base of his middle finger.

No timetable was given for his return, but Kendrick, whose hand was not placed in a cast, is expected to be out at least a month to six weeks.

The Oakland Athletics miss Guerrero due to his taking a pitch on the hand in Boston. Those two players represent a good chunk of the Angels offense.

Felix Hernandez wasn't the only pitcher lifted for elbow tightness last night. Rodrigo Lopez left the Rockies game against the Dodgers after four good innings with the same complaint.

But beating the Dodgers is more than just another victory, even when Lopez had to depart after four innings at Coors Field because the right elbow tightness that forced his start to be pushed back from Sunday flared up.

...

Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said Lopez's situation will be re-evaluated today, but Lopez made it apparent he is headed to the disabled list.

He said he felt he would be out "at least two weeks," but he had some hope because he said the trainers told him the problem was a muscle issue, not structural.

It's too bad for the Rockies because Lopez is off to a great start. He's not putting people on base with walks, so when the inevitable hits come, they're doing less damage. So far, his ERA is 1.59, with a 1.64 at Coors.

Felix Hernandez left Wednesday's Mariners game with elbow tightness. Although Hargrove remained optimistic, the story points to a more ominous outcome:

Elbows are always a serious business.

Any Mariners doubting that could walk across the field and ask the Twins about that nagging elbow tightness that their own star hurler, Francisco Liriano, complained of last season before being declared out until 2008.

Or, the Mariners could just tap Seattle relief pitcher Arthur Rhodes on the shoulder -- of his non-throwing arm -- and ask about the career-threatening elbow injury he's dealing with.

For the record, Hargrove's gut was overflowing with positive vibes about Rhodes when he first reported some elbow tightness back in spring training.

U.S.S. Mariner is overwrought:

Now we just hold our breaths and hope like crazy, because without Felix, rooting for this team is about as much fun as having your eyelids ripped out.

I don't think it's quite that bad, unless Jeff Weaver is pitching. :-) Lookout Landing blames it all on Scrappy the Scapegoat:

Scrappy better hope for Scrappy's sake that Felix gets healthy.

Meanwhile, we wait and see. My predictions of a suprise season by the Mariners was based on Felix pitching like he did in the first two games for the entire season. The probability of the Mariners making the playoffs went way down last night.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Carlos Zambrano allowed two home runs and five runs this evening in six innings. He walked five. His ERA after four starts is a high altitude 7.77. At this point, I have to assume the Cubs are having second thoughts about completing the contract extension. He's now allowed six homer on the season, after giving up just 21 and 20 the previous two seasons. No control and long balls; that's not a pitcher worth tens of millions of dollars.

When my eighth grade algebra teacher saw us on the golf course, he'd tell us, "Hit 'em far and not too often." That seems to be Jason Lane's approach this season. He picked up two hits in the Astros 7-2 win over Cincinnati, a double and his third home run. That makes four extra-base hits out of five total, including three home runs. He's hitting just .227 (with the same OBA), but slugging .682. No word on how well he putts.

Felix Hernandez left the game against the Twins in the first inning after throwing a slider. He put his hands up, called for the trainer, and came out of the game. It wasn't clear if he hurt himself on that pitch, or was hurting all game. He allowed 2 hits and 2 walks before coming out, and the Twins scored three runs in that inning. They now lead 5-0 in the bottom of the second.

Mark Buehrle pitches a no-hitter against Texas, facing just 27 batters but allowing a walk. He struck out eight Rangers, but still pitched efficiently, using only 105 pitches to complete the game. He lowered his ERA over two runs. It's only the third time Texas suffered through a no-hitter, although their pitchers have tossed five.

The Yankees and Mets won by identical 9-2 scores tonight. The Mets hit Dontrelle Willis early, scoring four times in the first and then poured it on, chasing the big lefty after five innings and eight runs. Dontrelle's ERA went up nearly two runs tonight.

Jose Reyes led the attack offensively, picking up four hits and doubling twice. That raises his OBA to .453, a great number for any hitter and certainly for a leadoff man.

In The Bronx, Kei Igawa picked up his first major league win, throwing 92 pitches over six innings, with a very good ball/strike ratio (30/62). The bullpen continues to shine, pitching three hitless innings, walking two. The Yankees outscored the Indians 19-5 in these two games, and in Yankee Stadium they've pushed across 52 runs in seven games.

"That must be a homer, Simpson, 'cause the pitcher just said, 'D'oh.'"

Kenny Mayne is a SportsCenter ad.

Tomo Ohka allowed three home runs to the Red Sox tonight, including Doug Mirabelli. That brings his season total to six in just 16 2/3 innings. That better than three per nine. His career average is just over one per nine, so this is pretty unusual for him. The Red Sox take the game 4-1 behind a solid outing by Tim Wakefield.

Alex Rodriguez hits his ninth home run of the season, a two-run shot that extends the Yankees lead over Cleveland to 8-2. It almost seems that Alex absorbed all the home run power from the usual sluggers who are off to a slow start. He's now just two behind Thome, Stargell and Musial, and twenty behind Yankees great Lou Gehrig.

After getting off to a good start, Gary Matthews, Jr. continued his slump today with a 1 for 4, making him 3 for his last 24. And that looks as bad as it sounds, as none of the hits went for extra bases, he's drawn zero walks or contributed any sacrifices of any kind. His OBA for the season is .302.

Yes, it's all small sample sizes. But I find it interesting that the two big leadoff men signed over the winter are starting off with OBAs more in line with their careers than their career years (the other being Soriano).

The Baltimore Orioles spent the winter rebuilding their bullpen, and today they saw their investment pay dividends. Bedard was gone from the game in the sixth, but the Orioles pen pitched 3 1/3 no-hit innings to preserve a 6-4 win. The relievers struck out four and walked one, giving them 51 K and 18 walks in 53 1/3 innings. I'll take that from any bullpen.

The Tigers ace pitched seven very strong innings, the 1-2 hitters did an excellent job setting the table, but Detroit fell to the Royals 4-3 in extra innings. Bonderman did not walk a batter, did not allow a home run and struck out six. Granderson and Polanco reached base five times in ten plate appearances, but only scored two runs. The support staff didn't get the job done. The 3-4-5 hitters combined for a 1 for 13 day with a walk, while the bullpen suffered from three trouble, allowed three hits, three walks and three runs in three innings. KC took the game 4-3 in ten innings, getting a good start from Meche and four strikeouts in two innings from winner Joakim Soria.

The Phillies moved Brett Myers to the bullpen today, bringing Jon Lieber into the rotation. In another Phillies post from today, Philadelphia fans are complaining about the move.

Myers is very extreme this season. His strikeouts are very high, but so are his home runs and walks. It strikes me that in the short time a reliever is in the game, you want to minimize the chance of a home run. It doesn't do the Phillies much good if Myers comes in, strikes out the side, but allows a walk and a homer. He's a better pitcher than this. The Phillies should give him the time he needs to find his control again.

We're back from my daughter visiting schools and hobnobbing with fellow sabermetricians. My latest Baseball Prospectus column is up, responding to reader comments about last week's column. A subscription is required.

Metsblog.com links to a post about Billy Wagner working more efficiently this season. Striking out batters is his strength, so I'd be concerned if his K rate drops too much.

Last night whle we were talking to Bill James, I asked about insurance on long-term contracts. It was my understanding that insurance companies wouldn't go longer than three years anymore. Bill thought that was right. He also told us the Red Sox talked about insurance on Matsuzaka, but he never heard how that worked out. He gave us two reasons why so many long term deals were offered over the off-season.

1. The GMs who made the deals probably won't last until the end of the deal, so it's going to be someone else's problem.
2. The Red Sox expected the cost per season to go up more than it did. Instead, teams extended contract length. Bill's feeling is that many of these teams don't expect to get contributions from these players toward the end of their contracts. Instead of paying the same money over five years, they're paying it over seven or eight.

Charlie Manuel blew up at a critic last night:

Most of the time he answers those critics amiably and with little animosity, but last night was not one of those times. On the heels of a lifeless, 8-1 loss to the Mets, with his most incessant critic prodding him to throw a clubhouse tirade, Manuel instead unleashed a profanity-filled 10-minute tongue-lashing toward the critic inside his office, adding an extra dose when their eyes met in the clubhouse minutes later.

"I think they see me angry more than you think [they] do," Manuel said as his emotions heated up. "I think maybe you don't see me angry. I can show you that I can get angry."

"Maybe if you did that to a player, you think that would work?" taunted the critic.

The rest was not for family consumption.

It's not fair, but part of a manager's job is to deal with the press. Manuel did that poorly last night. The other thing that bothers me is this:

As Manuel said before last night's game, "Here, they are going to blame the manager. And if that's the way it is, that's OK. But look: I don't strike out and I don't miss a popup and I don't make baserunning mistakes. And we're talking about major league players."

Those were sentiments expressed often by Bowa, especially amid his final season.

Manuel was also not on the field in the sixth inning when the Phillies recorded three outs on the Mets - and needed to be waved into the dugout by the umpires. This offseason, coaches were hired ostensibly to firm up the fundamentals this team is so often lacking. Nothing has changed. They still stall going uphill.

So Charlie is blaming the players. That isn't leadership. There's another part of the story where Manuel talks about being the same manager he was in the minors. That's fine, but he was a teacher. I'm not sure this team needs a teacher as much as they need a leader.

The Phillies are in the Goldilocks situation. Bowa was too tough. Manuel is too nice. They need a manager who's just right. I hear Davey Johnson's looking to get back in the game.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Orioles and Devil Rays matchup this afternoon with two under-performing aces on the mound. Erik Bedard enters the game with a 2-1 record but an ERA over five. He's struck out batters and kept his walks low, but balls in play are falling for hits or landing out of the park. Scott Kazmir suffers from the same problem. He's already allowed four home runs in 20 innings pitched. This could turn out to be a high strikeout, high scoring game.

In Oakland, another battle of aces as John Lackey battles Dan Haren. Dan owns the lower ERA, but John picked up two wins while Dan was saddled with two losses. The faced each other on April 7th, the difference being an unearned run in a 2-1 Angels win.

Dontrelle Willis takes on the Mets and John Maine this evening. Lefties are just 1 for 18 against Dontrelle, helping to compensate for the fact that right-handed batters are hitting .356 against him. The best way to describe Maine so far in 2007 is wild but unhittable. Despite walking eight in 11 2/3 innings, his opposition OBA is just .292 as he allowed just six hits.

Rodrigo Lopez is doing a great job of keeping batters off base so far this season. He'll take on a Dodgers team tonight that sports a .326 OBA. That seems low, but this season it's in the middle of the league. He'll face Derek Lowe who is putting men on base at a .337 clip but limiting them to one base at a time.

Finally, the rejuvenated Carlos Silva faces the best pitcher in the majors so far this season, Felix Hernandez. The King comes into the game with 17 scoreless innings. He's given up just four hits and four walks. Silva's close, having allowed just one run in two starts, but somehow that translated to an 0-1 record. Loading up on lefties against Carlos appears to be a good strategy this season.

Enjoy!

Jeff and Jered Weaver each took the mound last night, Jeff against the Twins and Jered facing the Athletics. Jered made his first start of the season and pitched okay but lost. He allowed four runs in six innings, but the strikeouts weren't there. He picked up four last night, but averaged 7.7 per 9 IP in 2006. His strike percentage, 59%, was low also. It looks like the younger Weaver is still working back to full health.

Chad Gaudin pitched an excellent game, as the Athletics won 4-1.

Jeff got creamed again, giving up seven runs in six innings. His ERA stands at 15.75, and opponents are hitting .436 against him. It's not a good way to start the season, and we now know why so few teams were willing to offer him a contract over the winter.

Ramon Ortiz continues to shine for Minnesota. He's really embraced the no walks philosophy of the Twins as he issued none last night, but he also didn't strike anyone out. Still, his ERA sits at a stellar 2.05 and the Twins take home an 11-2 win.

The San Francisco Giants blanked the Rockies for 16 consecutive innings over two nights. Zito and the bullpen combined for a shutout on Monday, then Tuesday evening Matt Cain spun a gem, allowing just two hits and three walks over seven innings. Unfortunately, Cain didn't get the relief support of the previous day. Chulk gave up a leadoff, pinch-hit home run to Steve Finley to cut the score to 3-1. A bunt single was followed by a caught stealing and a lineout. Then the Rockies got lucky. Two infield singles and two walks set up a bases clearing double by Torrealba, and the Rockies win 5-3. Even Torrealba's hit was almost caught:

Former Giants catcher Yorvit Torrealba then won the game with a three-run double, a high fly to left that kept carrying in the thin air. Todd Linden raced long and hard to reach the ball and nearly caught it, but it ticked off his glove, the game was lost and Bochy was forced to answer two questions that might become painfully familiar:

Are blowups by this young bullpen inevitable?

Did he think about sticking with his starter for another inning?

Given that the Giants were within inches of being out of the inning three times, it seems more like bad luck to me.

Hirsh is working out well for Colorado. Three starts, a 3.38 ERA, 16 K and 5 BB in 18 2/3 innings.

The Day by Day Database will be updated late today due to technical difficulties with my laptop.

David DeJesus played a very good game in Kansas City's 7-6 loss to Detroit this evening. His 4 for 5 raises his OBA to .422, an excellent level for a leadoff man. He's 27 this year, peak age for a hitter. He's a very solid ballplayer, and it looks like the Royals played his contract status right, as he won't become a free agent until after his prime years.

Richard Hoyland writes:

I'm watching the Braves and the Nats at RFK tonight. The Nats are wearing various versions of Virginia Tech ballcaps. Nice touch---somebody's thinking in that organization.

Has anyone noticed if other organizations are doing anything similar?

It appears that playing against Daisuke Matsuzaka brings out the best in the opposing pitcher. Tonight, Gustavo Chacin held the Red Sox to one run over 6 2/3 innings. Matsuzaka pitched well again, striking out ten and walking just three. Unfortunately, five of the six batters to reach against him came in the same inning, leading to two runs. That was enough to pin a loss on the Red Sox 2-1. The Red Sox have scored just six runs in Dice-K's three starts. If this keeps up, everyone's going to want to face Matsuzaka. :-)

I'm still on the road, but just got back to my hotel room to see the Yankees are leading the Indians 8-3. I missed Bill James' Q & A to the class since I got the time wrong, but saw a very nice presentation on the minor leagues by Andy Andres, Tony Massarotti and Ted Trey (owner of the Worcester Tornadoes). Afterward, a few of us were talking with Bill and he asked how many wins the Yankees would earn this year. I thought 90 to 95, but most thought I was over estimating based on the New York pitching. But tonight is a perfect example of my argument. The offense is so good, the pitching staff just needs a 4.50 ERA for a big season. Chase Wright comes up, gives them five innings, and allows three runs. Meanwhile, the offense just bombs Jake Westbrook, chasing him from the game after 1 2/3 innings. That score held up through seven innings so far. This staff just needs to be okay, and my opinion is they're good enough.

I'm off to sit in on Andy Andres sabermetric class at Tufts. Bill James is the guest tonight. Pie grounded out in his first plate appearance. Gorzelanny is tossing a two-hitter at the Cardinals. San Diego leads Chicago 3-1 in the second and the Pirates are up 6-1 batting in the seventh.

Adam LaRoche makes Earl Weaver proud with a three-run homer in the third inning off Adam Wainwright. The Pirates take an early 5-0 lead after scoring two in the first. Thanks to two errors in the first inning, one of those runs in unearned.

The homer raises laRoche's slugging percentage to .300.

It's too bad the Cubs aren't playing the Tigers today.

Update: I'm also looking forward to the eventual matchup against Oscar Villarreal.

Cardinals Diaspora vents frustration about Albert Pujols:

But for the first time in roughly 5 years Albert Pujols stepped into the box with the bases drunk, a closer on the ropes and a chance to salt away a comeback win that should have never happened- and I kind of got the feeling like he wouldn't get the job done. As much as the Waterboy and I tried to fool each other into thinking the W was imminent, deep down we weren't confident. Solomon Torres was. 3 pitches and an infield fly later, the crowd filed out with 45,000 similar thoughts- what happened to Albert?

The conundrum is hard to verbalize, though. I mean, this man has pretty much been the epitome of clutch for his entire career. He's made the extraordinary look routine and the routine look like child's play. His determination made him not only the most feared hitter in MLB, but a Gold-Glove fielder as well. So to sit here and bitch is like telling Gissele to toss off because she's got a mole on arm. On the other hand, I think we can all agree on the fact that Pujols is way, way off. He's way out in front of pitches, his patience is shot- it's a hot mess.

Please repeat after me: "Anything can happen in 100 at bats."

Albert Pujols has 47 at bats so far this season. The 95% confidence interval for hits for a career .330 hitter is 9 to 21. Albert is 8 for 47, which puts him just barely of the the range. Okay, maybe you should worry a little, but two hits today and he's back at the low end of the range. Another two weeks like this however, and Cardinal fans can really start to worry.

Reselling tickets may get easier for Orioles and Ravens fans:

Scoring last-minute tickets to an Orioles or Ravens game would be as easy as a stroll downtown under a bill introduced in the City Council yesterday that would lift a prohibition against reselling tickets within a mile of the Camden Yards sports complex.

Supporters said they hope the measure would boost the Orioles' lagging attendance by making it easier for ticket holders to unload their extra tickets among the throngs of fans outside the park, rather than throwing them out and leaving seats empty.

...

The proposal only allows sales at or below the face value of tickets - keeping the scalping of tickets in the area illegal.

They should lift the ban on scalping, too. If tickets are available at the box office, few will pay a premium to a scalper. If they're not available, ticket holders should be allowed to obtain fair value for the seats. Still, this is a move in the right direction.

The Feed comments on a story about "Fight Money" in Japan:

Kei Igawa or Hideki Matsui could provide some more information about the system. The money sometimes comes from management or sometimes right from the manager's pocket and no two teams use the same system. Igawa said that he would receive in the neighborhood of $1,000 for a good performance while with the Hanshin Tigers but sometimes you received gifts other than money from the team or from sponsors. Matsui, for example, received several cars for his successes while Igawa got hot plates. That sounds bad but the mighty Matsuzaka played for Seibu, who didn't give fight money, and would have to figure out what to do with two dozen cans of coffee after a big win.

This works in Japan because players are paid less money than here in the US. However, I'd like to see an All-Star payout, rather than the current system of awarding a league home field advantage. Get a sponsor to put up a significant amount of money that the players on the winning team get to split. Make it a winner take all game with a $10 million purse to be split by the active players and the manager. Then you'll get a meaningful game.

The day starts off at 1 PM EDT with a battle of good, young pitcher as Tom Gorzelanny faces Adam Wainwright. The Pittsburgh lefty issued just one walk so far this season while striking out nine. Wainwright's wilder, issuing seven walks, but he's been tough with runners in scoring position. Both bring ERAs under 2.00 into the game.

In New York, Chase Wright makes his major league debut for the Yankees:

Wright made great strides in the past couple of seasons. A third-round draft pick in 2001, he went 13-21 with a 4.80 ERA between 2001 and 2004. Wright excelled in 2005-06, going a combined 22-7 with a 2.90 ERA. In spring training this year, he had a 2.84 ERA in four games.

"He's gotten command of the fastball," Cashman said, "and he has a pretty special changeup."

Andy Pettitte, another homegrown lefthander, was nearly 23 when he made his Yankees debut April 29, 1995. Wright is a little older than that, but Pettitte still had advice.

"The big thing is you just can't change what you've been doing if you've been successful," Pettitte said.

Of course, Ron Guidry was another Yankees lefty who was really a late bloomer. He earned cups of coffee at ages 24 and 25, then became a full time starter at 26. His career worked out just fine. Wright takes on Jake Westbrook, who is issuing a high number of walks this season. That's never a good idea against the selective Yankees lineup.

The Red Sox start an important run against two injury riddled AL East opponents as they send Daisuke Matsuzaka against the Blue Jays and Gustavo Chacin. The unusual movement in Dice-K's pitches might best be reflected in his platoon stats. Left-handed batters are hitting just .227 against the righties, while right-handers are batting .300. Chacin may be around the plate too much this season. He allowed just one walk so far, but four home runs.

Sammy Sosa visits one of his old haunts, the south side of Chicago as the Rangers play the White Sox:

Tonight, when the Rangers start a three-game series at the White Sox, Sosa will be appearing in Chicago for the first time since he reportedly left early from the Cubs' season finale in 2004. The appearance will be fleeting - Sosa isn't expected to start against right-hander Jon Garland, so he'll only be on the field for batting practice - but it might be just enough to raise the ire of Chicagoans who are still miffed at the one-time king of the city.

"I don't know what to expect," said Sosa, who is expected to play Wednesday against lefty Mark Buehrle. "I don't want to know. I'm just looking forward to it. Hopefully, they'll realize the effort I've put into trying to come back. We'll see what happens."

Two years is a long time to hold a grudge.

Jered Weaver makes his first appearance of 2007 as the Angels visit the Athletics. Oakland is just 7 for 51 against Weaver, all in the Coliseum. Chad Gaudin takes the mound for Oakland. His starts have been short, but he's only allowed three earned runs in 10 2/3 innings while striking out nine.

Enjoy!

Correction: Fixed the location of the Yankees game.

Brad Penny remains undefeated as he pitched seven innings in the Dodgers 5-1 defeat of the Diamondbacks. Once again, however, he walked more than he struck out. For the season, he's pitched 20 1/3 innings, allowed 17 hits, 8 walks but only six strikeouts. Amazingly, his ERA stands at 0.89. He can certainly live with that walk rate, but at some point I'd expect the hits allowed to go up if he doesn't start striking out batters. Martin talks about what's changed for Penny:

"He's using his splitter more than ever," catcher Russell Martin said. "That's been the equalizer. He doesn't have to reach back and throw as hard."

Penny is 5-0 with a 1.75 earned-run average in April the last two seasons. So far he has pitched the way he did the first half of last season when he went 11-2.

"He's not out there grunting on every pitch, trying to throw 110 mph," Manager Grady Little said.

The splitter often results in a strikeout, however, as batters swing over the diving pitch. I'm guessing batters are making contact with Penny's and beating it into the ground. The Hardball Times shows his groundball percentage way up this season.

Barry Zito spun six shutout innings in Colorado Monday night. His curve ball was working in that unfriendly environment.

Then the Giants scored 16 runs over their next two games (separated by two rainouts) and Zito held the Rockies to three hits over six innings with a mesmerizing array of well-spotted fastballs, curveballs and especially his stealth pitch, the changeup.

He wasn't efficient, and his control was a bit off as he walked three, but the Giants dominated the game winning 8-0. Vizquel went 4 for 5, but only raised his average to .262.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Thanks to Rocky Top Talk.

Matt Chico walked five Braves in five innings tonight. He also hit a batter but allowed just one run. Renteria grounded into two double plays, erasing leadoff runner reaching base. The Washington bullpen took over and pitched brilliantly, allowing just one hit while striking out four. Saul Rivera posted two excellent innings, throwing 17 of 22 pitches for strikes as the Nationals take home the victory 5-1.

Baltimore scores five runs on five hits in the seventh inning to erase a four-run deficit and move ahead of the Devil Rays 8-7. In the play by play, there was the rare back to back doubles in which the second two-bagger leaves a 2nd and 3rd situation. Both eventually scored.

Alfonso Soriano came within an inch of making a shoe string catch off a Clay Hensley single, but the ball bounces into his glove, allowing Cruz to score from third. What's worse, Soriano limps off the field with what looked like a hamstring injury. Given that his OBA is .288 so far this season, it might actually help the Cubs. I wonder if the Cubs will be ordering Pie soon?

The Orioles so far tonight out hit the Devil Rays 7-4, picked up three extra-base hits to Tampa Bay's one, but are losing 7-3 in the sixth inning. That's because the DRays drew eight walks to the Orioles 2. A wild pitch and a hit batter by Baltimore added to the lack of control. The impressive thing is that Tampa Bay's most selective hitter, Iwamura isn't even in the lineup.

Update: The Orioles also committed three errors on one play.

Zack Greinke allows a single and two walks to set up Ivan Rodriguez with two outs in the bottom of the first. He hits a ball just over the yellow line in right-center for his first grand slam as a Tiger. The wind seems to be carrying balls out to center as DeJesus gets fooled on the next fly ball to center than blows out after he originally ran in on the ball.

Update: Greinke issues his third walk of the evening, and the Royals pull him from the game. He walked just one coming into action this evening.

The Phillies postponed their game with the Mets tonight. So the teams get two days off in a row.

Home Run Derby names their "All 42 Team."

Troy Glaus and B.J. Ryan joined Reed Johnson on the disabled list today. With the Jays and Yankees losing significant players to injury, this opens up a big window of opportunity for the Red Sox. Eleven of Boston's next thirteen games are against Toronto and New York.

The Cincinnati Reds sign Ryan Freel to an extension through 2009. No word on the money yet. From the story linked to at Redleg Nation, they're not to thrilled about this signing. Freel is 31, and posts a good OBA. With no power, he's not going to get a ridiculous amount of money, and OBA always is valuable. I'm guessing it's a good deal, since it doesn't go out very far into the future.

The Red Sox take today's game 7-2, sweeping the Angels in the three game series. It would be an understatement to say Boston pummeled LAnaheim. The combined score of the three games favored the Red Sox 25-3. The road trip so far mirrored their opening home stand. The Angels finished that set of games 5-2, scoring 28 runs to their opponents 16. On the road so far they are 1-5, getting outscored 37-15.

David Ortiz launched his fourth home run of the season to make the score 7-1 in favor of Boston. With his 2 for 2 today (with a double), Ortiz's averages are back to their usual fine levels, .300 batting, .400 OBA, .700 slugging.

Vlad Guerrero left the game in the first inning after being hit by a pitch, but it doesn't appear to be serious.

The Angels and Red Sox are playing, and Orlando Cabrera gives LAnaheim the early lead with a homer into the monster seats. It's the first home run for both Cabrera and Beckett.

Update: The Red Sox get the run back in the bottom of the first on a Lugo double and a Youkilis single. Ortiz adds a double to keep the threat going.

Update: Manny singles them both in. Looks like no magic for Ervin Santana today.

Update: Drew reaches on an error, then Lowell doubles and the Red Sox are up 5-1. They should start swinging at the first pitch so they can make this game official quickly.

Update: Cora picks up the fourth double of the inning for the Red Sox, and that extends the score to 6-1. Boston is averaging better than two doubles per game.

As of 11:30, the Boston grounds crew was working on the field. Expected start time is 12:15 PM.

Jack Cobra details the problems he sees with the Cubs during the first two weeks of the season.

Offense is still down vs. last year, but the gap narrowed a bit over the weekend. Note that MLB is way behind in games played due to all the bad weather:

Offense through first two weeks of the season.

Category	2006	2007
Games	182	169
Runs	1854	1430
R/G	10.2	8.5
Home Runs	452	288
HR/G	2.5	1.7

Here's a list of slugging percentage trailers. Look at the number of big names in the bottom 40. Gary Sheffield, Manny Ramirez, Mark Teixeira, Ryan Zimmerman, Carlos Delgado, Lance Berkman, Frank Thomas and Ken Griffey all make an appearance. And if you keep going, you see more big names that are slugging under .400. I would expect most of the people listed above to end up with pretty good seasons. What we may be seeing is simply a collective slump by some of the big guns.

Dan Lewis challenges you to beat his 25-year Mets team.

Ben McGrath profiles Manny Ramirez in the latest issue of the New Yorker. He evens lands a rare interview with the player. In looking into what makes the future Hall of Famer tick, we find that Manny simply wants to play baseball.

"They say, 'Manny being Manny,' but we used to say, 'That's Manny,' " Steve Mandl, the baseball coach at George Washington High School, on Audubon Avenue at 193rd Street, said recently, as he stood sentry by the locker-room door before a midmorning gym class. "It wasn't crazy stuff--it's just that he didn't really care about anything other than playing. Even team pictures--it wasn't important to him. You had to drag him by the hair. But if you said we had a game at three o'clock he'd, like, want to sit out there at seven o'clock in the morning, waiting."

The other thing I learned is that Manny doesn't keep track of the count. He wants to know if he has two strikes, but he doesn't care how many balls are in the count. That's why you see the umpire telling him to take a base when he walks.

Duquette had been following Ramirez's career since high school, but he now concedes that he had no idea "exactly how unique" his new left fielder was. "When Manny first came to the Red Sox, he would stand in the batter's box, and the umpire would call ball four, and he would get back in the batter's box," Duquette, who is now the president of the fledgling Israel Baseball League, told me. "He did this in his first series at Fenway Park and again on his first road trip." After the third such incident, Duquette ventured down into the locker room. "I said, 'Manny, let me ask you something. I was just wondering why you get back in the batter's box after ball four.' He said, 'I don't keep track of the balls.' He said, 'I don't keep track of the strikes, either, until I got two.' Then he said, 'Duke, I'm up there looking for a pitch I can hit. If I don't get it, I wait for the umpire to tell me to go to first. Isn't that what you're paying me to do?' "

It's a fascinating read.

Detroit plays host to a great matchup between two young pitchers as Kansas City's Zack Greinke faces Justin Verlander. Verlander started twice so far and did not allow an earned run in either contest. However, he's only received one run in support, so he hasn't earned a decision yet. And although he's allowed two earned runs in his two starts, Greinke pitched much better. He's struck out 12 and walked just one, while is nearly even with 8 walks and 9 K.

Freddy Garcia makes his 2007 Phillies debut tonight as they host John Maine and the New York Mets. Maine's put some runners on base, but opponents are 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position, accounting for his low ERA. Garcia returns from a biceps injury, but his velocity appears to be down:

Asked to reminisce about the Garcia who used to pitch brilliantly against his teams in Cleveland, Manuel said, "You're talking about a guy who threw a 92-97 mile-per-hour fastball with sink. He threw a really heavy ball. He was a power pitcher."

Was being the key word. Garcia rarely hit 90 mph in spring training and made a courtesy 91 mph clocking on single fastball during his rehab start in Clearwater last week -- and that pitch was rumored to be a good yard out of the strike zone.

That said, Garcia's velocity was down last season with the White Sox, yet he managed to win 17 games. As for his confidence following the sore-arm scare, Garcia said that he thought he could go eight innings Sunday.

Given the likely cold temperatures in Philadelphia tonight, I doubt he'll go anywhere near that long.

The Diamondbacks and Dodgers fight for first in the NL West this evening. Brad Penny takes on Edgar Gonzalez. Penny, like Maine, is bending but not breaking. He's allowed a .340 OBA so far, but opponents are just one for ten with runners in scoring position. Five of the six runs off Edgar so far came via four home runs. If he can keep the bases empty, the long balls won't hurt him too much.

Enjoy!

Correction: Fixed the division that holds the Dodgers and Diamondbacks.

The Red Sox changed today's starting time from 10:00 am to noon. Right now it's stopped raining here in western Massachusetts, but that has little to do with the weather in Boston. I'm a bit surprised they're not going to play a double header, especially with the early start.

None of the postponements yesterday have been rescheduled. We're going to have a summer full of double headers and a lot of lost off days.

Bob Melvin made the right choice at first base yesterday:

Manager Bob Melvin sounded pained before the game when asked about his decision to start Clark over first baseman Conor Jackson for a second day in a row. Melvin explained that he wanted another left-handed bat in the lineup against Rockies starter Byung-Hyun Kim, emphasizing that Jackson still should be considered the club's everyday first baseman.

You can't argue with the results. Clark blasted a towering, 420-foot, two-run home run to the left of the batter's eye in center field in the first inning, then connected for a solo shot to lead off the fourth.

No reason to feel pain. Jackson hasn't shown much power vs. righties yet. The more he sees, the better he'll get, but the Diamondbacks need to win games as well. It's a selective platoon, and that's fine.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The first base ball boy at Dodger Stadium just took a ricochet in the face. He got into position to field the ball, but it hit off the side wall and bounded right into his kisser. He spun around, fell on his side and he's just laying there on his back.

Update: He's sitting up now.

Update: He started walking off the field with someone supporting him on each side, but ended up going off on his own power.

I just wanted to say thank you to notsellingjeans for the kind words.

Wilson Valdez knocked out three hits so far tonight, raising his average to .455 through five innings. But this is also a typical 2007 game for the third baseman as all he has to show for it is one RBI. Despite all the ten hits and two walks in 22 at bats, Valdez scored just three runs and drove in the same. He's hit well with men on base but not in scoring position. He's advancing runners, but no one is advancing him.

Both Mike Mussina and Carl Pavano hit the disabled list for New York. It's not clear yet who the Yankees are going to call up, but the staff is likely to get a lot younger over the next two weeks.

Toronto also puts a major member of their staff on the DL, as B.J. Ryan goes down with an elbow injury. And in what might be an ominous sign, he's going to visit Dr. Andrews.

Mariano Rivera gets his first save opportunity of the year, and blows in by giving up a three-run homer to Marco Scutaro. You could tell Scutaro was trying for the long ball with two outs and two on, as he took a mighty hack at the previous pitch which was high in the air but way foul. He then straightened out enough to hit the leftfield foul pole and win the game for the A's. Given the small number of home runs Scutaro hit in his career, and the small number Rivera allowed in his career, this has to be a very low probability outcome.

It almost ended just like yesterday. Oakland scored two in the first, and nothing the rest of the way. Meanwhile, the Yankees scraped back scoring four runs, three on sacrifice flies. But unlike yesterday, the Yankees bullpen couldn't keep the A's off the board. Oakland wins 5-4.

With a 10-4 lead over Texas in the sixth inning, Seattle's offense finally came to life. They've scored 18 runs in the last two games after managing just 20 in their first six games. New designated hitter Jose Vidro finally delivered some power as he goes deep twice, driving in four of the ten runs. Ichiro picked up three hits, and may be ready to go on one of his tears that pushes his batting average up quickly.

Of course, it could just be the Texas pitching. :-)

The Braden Looper experiment continues to work as the former reliever picks up his second win as the Cardinals defeat the Brewers 10-2. He struck out three in six innings, but he allowed just five hits. Still his strike percentage was low, and you have to wonder how long this will last.

What's more worrisome is Ben Sheets. In his five innings of work he walked three and struck out just two. And since his complete game on opening day, he's been hittable. Ben Sheets at 100% makes the Brewers a much better playoff contender.

Kyle Lohse keeps fooling the the Cubs today. He gets into trouble in the sixth with runners on first and third with none out, but strikes out Jones and Lee, then gets Barrett to fly out to right to end the inning and preserve the one-run lead. He's struck out ten today, the first time he's gone into double digits in a game.

Update: Lohse goes eight innings, striking out 12. Stanton and Weathers pitch the ninth, Weathers walking Lee but that's it. The Cubs pitchers allowed just two hits while striking out thirteen, ten by Ted Lilly. That's two games today in which the losing team outpitched the winning team with a low hitter.

The White Sox one-hit the Indians and lose. A bases loaded walk to Sizemore in the 4th pushed across the Indians second run of the game. In all Contreras walked five in his five innings of work, including three in that inning. Sabathia gave five hits and three walks in his eight innings of work, but also struck out 10 batters along the way. C.C. moves to 3-0 on the season.

The Blue Jays defeat the Tigers 2-1 in a very quickly played ballgame. Both teams threw just 113 pitches, the Tigers with 69 going for strikes, the Blue Jays 68. It should be dubbed the Ray Miller game; "Throw strikes. Change speeds. Work fast." They finished the game in 2:08.

Scott Olsen runs into trouble in the third inning, allowing five hits and two walks before he's pulled from the game. His big mistake was walking Tim Hudson when Hudson was set to bunt after the leadoff batter reached. The Braves lead 5-1 and Vanden Hurk is on in relief.

Grady Sizemore doubles and scores in the first inning to put the Indians on top 1-0. The hit raises his OBA to .500, and give Grady 11 runs in 9 games. In the last 50 years, only one player posted a season with more runs scored than games played (at least 100 games played), Rickey Henderson in 1985. Right now four other players also have more runs scored than games played, but given their places at the top of the order, Reyes, Rollins and Sizemore are the most likely to make a run at this. (The other two are A-Rod and Abreu.) Sizemore's better career OBA, however, may mean he's the most likely among those three.

With two weeks of the season nearly in the books, no one is running away with a division. All three AL divisions offer races where four teams are less than two games out of first place. All three NL divisions find three teams less than two games out of first place. The Orioles and Brewers own the longest current winning streaks at three games. Almost every game is meaningful.

Three games are already underwater. The Red Sox, Mets and Phillies all postponed their games. The Marlins and Braves are scheduled to play, and a win by the Fish creates a three-way tie for first play in the NL East. Scott Olsen takes on Tim Hudson. Olsen is suffering from unusual wildness early, as he's walked nine and struck out five in 10 1/3 innings. Hudson's doing a great job of keeping opponents off base, allowing a .111 BA and a .216 OBA so far this season.

Ben Sheets tries to extend the Brewers winning streak against the Cardinals Braden Looper. So far, the switch from reliever to starter worked out well. Looper comes into the game with a 2.08 ERA, but I still worry that the lack of strikeouts will eventually catch up with him. Sheets in fifteen innings still hasn't walked a batter, although his lack of strikeouts also makes me wonder if he's returned to full strength yet.

The Yankees and Athletics play the rubber game of their series with Andy Pettitte facing Rich Harden both with sub-2.00 ERAs. Both pitchers are likely to be pushed to go deep in this game, with the two previous extra-inning games taking a toll on the bullpen. Harden will need to go after the selective Yankees lineup to stay efficient.

And finally, the Padres and the Dodgers celebrate Jackie Robinson day on the National stage. Chris Young and Randy Wolf get the call tonight. Young wrote his senior thesis at Princeton on Jackie Robinson. He's holding opponents to a .288 OBA so far this year. Wolf's been having trouble with right-handed batters this season, allowing all four of his walks to that side of the platoon.

Enjoy!

Update: Baltimore postponed their game with KC, and Pittsburgh postponed both ends of their double header with the Giants.

How Can You Walk With Four Balls is a new blog devoted to baseball. His latest post remembers a group of Americans not only shut out from the game during the early 1940s, but from a normal life as well.

The Detroit Tigers Weblog uses data from MLB.com's enhanced gameday to present a new view of Joel Zumaya's outing from the other day. Cool stuff. Joe Sheehan presented data from this system earlier this year.

On the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in the major leagues, it seems appropriate to review Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season. Jonathan Eig presents a narrative tough to put down. I like to skim books to get a feel for the story, but I found myself reading page after page and letting the time slip away.

Eig provides not only the story of Robinson in that year, but of the struggle for civil rights as a whole in the mid 1940s. Huge demographic shifts took place at that time as soldiers returned from the war, and black Americans among them pushed for eqaul treatment. A wave of relocation brought many black southerners north looking for better jobs, and created an atmosphere in New York City where integration on the baseball diamond would soon become forced. Branch Rickey was stayed ahead of the curve, which allowed him to integrate on his terms.

Eig delves deeply into Robinson the man. We get a clear portrait of Robinson's willingness to fight for his rights on two bus ride stories. One, in which he refuses to go to the back of the bus while in the army, led to his court martial. The other, in which he used the power of the purse to persuade a gas station owner to allow the players to use the washroom. Those incidents stand in stark contrast to his first trip to spring training. Airlines found excuses not to fly Robinson and his wife Rachael all the way to Daytona. They ended up on a bus, sitting in the penultimate row. But the driver demanded they move all the way to the back, and Jackie did without argument. It was the first case of him following Rickey's orders to have the strength not to fight back and thanks to the author's prose, we feel Robinsons' struggle with those moments.

Eig takes us through the cheers and catcalls, the worries and the triumphs of that amazing season. He describes the scene when the Dodgers returned home from a western road trip in September that won them the pennant:

As the Dodgers stepped down onto the train platform along Track Thirteen, some of the less recognizable players mixed with the crowd and escaped, their hats pulled over their faces. Not Robinson. As he walked toward a phone booth, eager to call his wife, some five hundred people -- most of them men, most of them white -- moved with him. He took off running, got to the phone booth ahead of the crowd, and slammed shut the accordion door. When he finished his call, half a dozen policemen rescued him, forming a circle, and, like the front line of the UCLA football team, clearing a path. Robinson took off for the IND subway line, where several pursuing fans begged for the privilege of paying his five-cent fare. At last, he reached his train and climbed aboard. And still, dozens of giddy admirers trailed him. They squeezed into his subway car, their destination of little matter, happy enough just to be along for the ride.

Robinson didn't mind. The Dodgers were winners. He was going home to his wife and son.

"I'm tickled silly," he said.

This season, think about honoring Jackie Robinson by reading this fine story of his great 1947 season. It reminds us how lucky we and the game are that Robinson succeeded.

The Yankees pitching staff did not allow an earned run last night. After three unearned runs came across in the first inning, the Bronx hurlers combined for twelve straight scoreless innings against the Athletics. Rasner allowed four hits in the first inning, but just one over his next four and one third. The bullpen walked four, but the A's could just scrape out two hits to go with those.

The Yankees offense wasn't great last night, either, but Alex Rodriguez hit his seventh home run to get the team on the board, and Jason Giambi launched a shot to centerfield in the 13th for the game winning run.

Both pens are depleted right now as two extra-inning games in a row took their toll. Both teams will be looking for long outings from Andy Pettitte and Rich Harden this afternoon.

Does it occur to anyone else that LaTroy Hawkins should never be entrusted with a close game. Apart from the 1999 season when he converted his 14 save opportunities, Hawkins owns a terrible record in that area. Even with 1999 counted, his conversion rate is just 64%. Hawkins enters the game in the bottom of the eighth last night with a one run lead, allows a home run followed by a walks, which eventually scores on a sacrifice fly. The Rockies lose, and in just 5 1/3 innings this season, Hawkins picked up three losses. Maybe he should just be used in mop up situations.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Although he didn't figure in the decision tonight (they won 6-4), Daniel Cabrera continued to show he's improved his control from last season. He walked just one and struck out five in his five innings of work, giving him five walks on the season to go with 19 strikeouts. In 2006, he walked 104 while striking out 157. He's more than doubled his K/BB.

The Mariners scored over four runs today for just the second time in seven games. Looking at the final boxscore, it's not hard to see why they're offense is off to a poor start. Even with a pretty good day hitting, the averages for the starters are abysmal. Ichiro, Beltre, Vidro, Sexson and Betancourt are all below the Mendoza line, and Lopez is the only starter hitting over .250. The good news is that these hitters aren't that bad, so maybe they'll all get hot at the same time as well.

Curt Schilling pitched eight shutout innings against the Angels today, but it wasn't a typical high strikeout game for Curt. He rung up just four Ks on the day, along with one walk. But even though the Angels put 24 balls in play, they only managed four hits. Schilling will take that batting average against any day.

Jimmy Rollins extends his home run lead in the National League with sixth long ball of the season. That's about a quarter of his total of 25 from 2006. The Phillies lead 5-4 in the sixth inning. Hamels only struck out two so far today, and allowed a three-run homer to Jason Lane.

Hector Carrasco's wildness put him in and out of trouble through the first three innings. In the third, he allows a leadoff triple to Hinske, but strikes out Ortiz and pops up Manny. He then walks Drew and Lowell (Drew get the IBB), but he looked like he would get out of the inning unscathed again when Varitek hit a hard line drive right at Gary Matthews in center. Gary didn't read the ball well, however, and the ball kicked off his glove for two runs. The Red Sox by 2-0,and Schilling's allowed just one hit through three.

B.J. Ryan could not preserve a one-run lead in the top of the ninth innng as he walked the bases loaded, then gave up a double to Marcus Thames. The Tigers pushed across two more runs in the inning for a 10-7 Detroit win over the Blue Jays. It's been a tough start for Ryan as he's blow two saves in five opportunities. His ERA stands at 12.46.

The Cubs and White Sox came out at different ends of a shutout today. The Cubs stopped Cincinnati cold, blowing out the Reds 7-0. Rich Hill walked four but only allowed three hits as he kept the Reds in check for seven innings. That brings his ERA down to 0.64, and two shutout innings from the bullpen lowers their ERA to 3.10. In 29 innings, the pen struck out 36 batters, including four today.

Out in Cleveland, the Indians' Paul Byrd appeared for the first time this season and gave the Tribe six shutout innings. Byrd's not a big strikeout pitcher, but he delivered five today. So far, the closer role fits Borowski as he picks up his fourth save in four opportunities.

The walks and home runs got to Orlando Hernandez today as he allowed three of each in five+ innings as Washington takes a 6-1 lead on the Mets in the sixth. Meanwhile, Shawn Hill walked just one today and kept the ball in the park. He's allowed seven hits, however, and the Mets get one back in the bottom of the sixth.

The Nationals and Mets offer a compelling pitching matchup this afternoon as Shawn Hill faces Orlando Hernandez. Hill's minor league career was best described by his minuscule walk and home run rates. So far this season, he's showing that form in the majors. He just needs a little run support. Hernandez sports a 1.38 ERA in his two starts despite doing the opposite. He's allowed walks and home runs, but he's kept the hits down with opponents batting just .175 against him.

Cole Hamels earned his 1.38 ERA by pitching great in all aspects of the game. Now he just needs the Phillies offense to help him get a win. He'll oppose Woody Williams and the Astros. Williams is taking pitching to contact to the extreme this season as he's only struck out two batters in 10 2/3 innings. As one might expect, with all the balls in play, his hit totals are up.

If you're looking for a high scoring game, something might give in Pittsburgh today as Barry Zito (8.18 ERA) matches pitches against Tony Armas (13.50 ERA). Neither of these teams were high scoring until they combined for 13 runs yesterday. Or, if you prefer AL action, Edwin Jackson (6.35 ERA) visits Sidney Ponson (12.71 ERA). The Devil Rays are just 1/2 game behind the Yankees and Orioles for third place in the division.

Yesterday I found a place to buy a pack of Topps baseball cards, and the best card in the pack was Jake Peavy. He'll match up against the Dodgers' hired gun Jason Schmidt. The eight hits Jake allowed so far all fell for singles, making his slugging percentage allowed lower than his OBA allowed. Half of the hits against Schmidt fell for extra bases, negating his otherwise good pitching numbers.

Enjoy!

There were plenty of wild plays in Oakland last night:

Travis Buck decided from the moment he made contact that he would stretch his hit into a triple.

The rookie wanted to test center fielder Johnny Damon and did so - barely.
Three batters later, Buck scored the winning run on Bobby Kielty's bases-loaded grounder in the bottom of the 11th inning, and the Oakland Athletics rallied for a 5-4 win over the New York Yankees on Friday night.

"I basically made that decision coming out of the box," said Buck, whose father grew up a Yankees fan. "Damon doesn't have that strong of a throwing arm. I wanted to test it. ... Crossing the plate with the winning run to beat the Yankees ... I'm still trying to calm down."

The included a dropped pop up, and juggled pop up, a nearly great play by Mientkiewicz on the game winning grounder.

The Devil Rays won the biggest game in their existence last night. Scott Kazmir outpitched Johan Santana, the best pitcher in the majors to end Santana's home winning streak:

Despite striking out 10 in seven innings, including five of the last six batters he faced, Santana (2-1) lost at home for the first time since Aug. 1, 2005. He was 17-0 during that stretch, and the Twins won all 24 games their two-time Cy Young Award winner pitched.

Santana gave up six hits, four runs and one walk, which came in a three-run fifth by the Devil Rays - who erased a 10-game losing streak at Minnesota. This was their first victory here since June 3, 2004, when Santana was also the victim.

Tampa Bay, which leads the majors with 16 homers, also matched a team record by hitting a home run in 10 straight games - first done from Sept. 18-28, 2000.

Kazmir paced himself better, delivering 113 pitches in eight strong innings. He only struck out six, but did not issue a walk. Iwamura drew the only two base on balls in the game. He now has 10 on the season, more than 1/3 of the Devil Rays total.

The Devil Rays showed last night with decent pitching, they can compete with anyone. The next step for the franchise is to find more pitching.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Dontrelle Willis picked up his third win of the season as the Marlins blew out the Braves 11-4. The Fish found five runs in the first inning and never looked back. Willis pitched an easy seven innings, walking just one and striking out five. The top of the Marlins order, Ramirez, Uggla and Cabrera reached base a combined ten times, scoring five runs.

Roy Halladay and Jeremy Bonderman battled each other to a 1-1 tie after nine innings. Halladay pitches the tenth, but Rodney relieves in the bottom of the inning and allows three hits and the winning run as Toronto remains in first place with a 2-1 win. It's the first extra-inning complete game in the majors his Mark Mulder accomplished it on 4/23/2005. It's also only the third of the decade. Roy Halladay picked up the other one as well, on 9/6/2003. There were 15 during the 1990s, including three in 1990 by Dave Stewart.

The Yankees scratched Carl Pavano from tomorrow's start:

Pavano was pushed back to Tuesday's game against the Cleveland Indians at Yankee Stadium as a precaution. He felt the problem in his throwing arm during his previous start Monday night and informed the Yankees afterward about it, then was told he'd be skipped upon arriving at the Oakland Coliseum on Friday. Right-hander Darrell Rasner will start Saturday in the middle game with the defending AL West champion Athletics.

Pavano threw seven innings in an 8-2 win over the Minnesota Twins on Monday, giving up six hits and two runs for his first victory since May 22, 2005.

"I'm just going to give it a little extra time to get out of there," said Pavano, who threw long toss Tuesday and Wednesday. "It just didn't feel like it should feel. I'm not frustrated at all. It's just something I've got to deal with. That's just the way it is."

If things keep going like this, the average age of the Yankees rotation will be 23 by the end of the year.

Barry Bonds homered twice tonight to lead the Giants over the Pirates 8-5. It's the first time he homered at his old home town since August of 2004. That puts Barry at 737, eighteen homers behind Aaron.

Carl Crawford sends a ball into the left field corner and never slows down as he comes all the way around the bases for an inside the park home run. So far, Kazmir is outpitching Santana as the Devil Rays lead the Twins 4-2 in the seventh.

Lou Piniella picked the wrong man, Ohman, to enter the game in the fifth. Since his two walks, the Cubs pen pitched five innings, allowing just one walk (in the ninth) and striking out eight. If he starts with Wuertz instead, the Cubs might win this game. We'll see if the offense can come through in the bottom of the ninth.

Update: Jacque Jones singles with one out to bring up Derrek Lee.

Update: Lee strikes out swinging. It's up to Barrett.

Update: Barrett dumps an 0-2 pitch into right field for a single. Jones moves to second. Weathers will face Floyd.

Update: Flyod flies out to left to end the game, and the Reds move to 6-4 and stay in first place in the NL Central.

The first seven Reds batters reach base against Zambrano, chasing him from the game. He leaves with the bases loaded and a 5-4 lead. Ohman enters in relieve and walks Hatteberg to tie the game. He then walks Valentin to put Cincinnati on top, throwing just one strike to the two batters. Carlos out hit the Reds 2-1 coming into the inning, but Cincy picked up five hits in the inning so far. The bases are still loaded, still no outs as the Reds have batted around.

Update: Wuertz enters the game and strikes out three in a row to keep the deficit to one run. An impressive eleven pitch performance.

Earlier today I noted the falloff in offense. I've been wondering if age has anything to do with it. In 2005, batting age was at the highest level since World War II. After a couple of years going down, it's jumped again. Age is measured as average age per plate appearance. So it matters who you play, not who is on the roster (click on the chart for a larger image).

The average batting age in 2007 is 29.6 years. So the average hitter is playing past his peak. It may not be a huge factor, but it's something else to consider when evaluating what's going on.

Carlos Zambrano just picked up his second hit of the game, his first home run of the season. With a double earlier, he's half way to the cycle. He came into the game with a career .352 slugging percentage, and that's his 11th career dinger and 14th career double.

The Cubs knock out four straight hits with two outs in the bottom of the first to take a 2-0 lead on the Reds. The four for seven raises Harang's batting average allowed to .310. The middle of the Cubs order is generating most of the offense for the team this season.

The Reds visit the Cubs this afternoon as the two staff aces face off at a freezing Wrigley field. Aaron Harang's done every thing right so far this season, keeping the ball in the park, keeping his walks low, and accumulating a high number of strikeouts. Zambrano pitched poorly against the Reds in his first start but better against the Brewers. He's already allowed four home runs on the season.

Two first place teams continue their series as Bonderman and the Tigers face Halladay and the Blue Jays. Bonderman's given up four of the five runs he's allowed this year in the first inning. So far this season, Halladay is dominating left-handed batters, as that group is just 4 for 26 against the righty.

If you like left-handed strikeout artists, tune in to the Devil Rays and Twins tonight as Scott Kazmir faces Johan Santana. The big difference between the two is control and stamina. Eleven of Kazmir's fifteen strikeouts came in the first three innings this season. Santana is pretty consistent inning to inning.

Enjoy!

The AL Central holds a nice lesson in how standings are calculated today. The Tigers, Twins and Indians all own the same winning percentage, .667, but the Indians are listed as 1/2 game behind the other two. Which is right? Winning percentage is the appropriate way to rank teams as 1st or tied for 1st. WPCT is a window into the long term probability of teams winning. Games behind is a measure of the difference in games over .500 (1/2 the difference actually). So if the Indians were to play three games to catch up to the same total as Detroit and Minnesota, and won two out of three, the teams would be tied. The winning percentage wouldn't change, but the games back would. In extreme case, the team in first place can actually be games behind the second place team!

The Cleveland Indians made Jake Westbrook a rich man, signing him to an extension through the 2010 season. We don't know the money yet. Jake pitched over 210 innings the last three seasons and is good at two of the three pillars of pitching, low walks and low home runs. Given his low number of strikeouts, however, he's very dependent on his defense.

Bill Pennington describes the grass root movement that led to a unique way to honor Jackie Robinson on Sunday:

Sixty years after Jackie Robinson shook the baseball establishment and broke the sport's color barrier, an unforeseen grassroots movement by today's players has suddenly shaped the way Major League Baseball will commemorate the anniversary. Hundreds of players will wear Robinson's No. 42 retired by baseball 10 years ago in ballparks across the country on Sunday, the anniversary of Robinson's first appearance with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

While the tribute has received baseball's approval, it grew spontaneously from a request by the Cincinnati Reds' Ken Griffey Jr., who asked Commissioner Bud Selig earlier this month if he could wear the number on April 15. What has evolved since is surprisingly organic for a group of famous, feted athletes with multimillion-dollar contracts.

As word of Griffey's gesture spread, small groups of players -- among them stars like Barry Bonds, Dontrelle Willis and Gary Sheffield -- decided also to wear 42 that day. Soon, there was a representative from every team. The Los Angeles Dodgers then decided to have their entire roster wear 42.

Now, there are six major league teams that plan to have everyone in uniform wearing No. 42 -- players, coaches, manager and bat boys. Those teams are the Dodgers, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Houston Astros.

Willie Randolph sums it up best:

"Maybe the best thing about this year's tribute is that it came from the players," said Mets Manager Willie Randolph. "You hear these jokes that the modern player doesn't know anything about baseball history. But it's pretty clear that most of them do appreciate what Jackie Robinson did for them -- for all of them."

Hear! Hear!

Runs per game are way down this season over the previous year. So far it's huge:

Offense through second Thursday of the season.

Category	2006	2007
Games	137	132
Runs	1475	1080
R/G	10.8	8.2
Home Runs	359	219
HR/G	2.6	1.7

Some attribute this to the cold weather, but the problem with that is runs are down in lots of ballparks where the weather is nice. While the biggest drop is at PNC in Pittsburgh, where the weather was brutal, Anaheim, Minnesota, Oakland, Toronto, Arizona, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego all saw big declines. I'm still blaming small sample sizes, but the weather isn't anywhere near the whole reason.

Update: I wonder if the climate controlled balls are making the difference?

There's a new blog, Sports Trash Talking, that encourages you to rag on your favorite team's rivals. Here's an explanation:

What's up guys! My Name is AJ and I started this blog. My intention for this blog is to create a different style of sports blogging. Instead of contributing your own input about your favorite team, I want you all to talk the best trash you can about your teams rival, or just any sports team you dispise. Let me make on thing clear: this blog is for trash talking sports teams only. I dont not want to see people talking trash on a personal level. If that's what your interested in, please take it somewhere else. The longterm goal is to start weekly or monthly promotions where contests will be set up, highlighting a certain game, where bloggers will have the chance to win tickets to such rivalry games. The more bloggers we have on the site the quicker this can happen. Also, when creating your blog name, plese try include some reference to your favorite (Clipps#1fan). This way is someone takes offense to your blog, they can retaliate, therefore stimulating more trash talking. So tell your friends, and start talking trash. I am eager to see what everyone has to say.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Everything went wrong for the Devil Rays in the ninth inning against the Twins tonight. In the top of the ninth, things started out well as Zobrist singled and Crawford doubled. But with the ball relayed to Castillo, Zobrist got caught between third and home. The throw came to Mauer, who ran Zobrist back to the bag, where Carl Crawford had just advanced. So Crawford heads back to second. Mauer tags, Zobrist, then throws to Casilla to complete the double play. Instead of the go-ahead run at third and none out, the DRays ended up with the bases empty and two out.

Then in the bottom of the ninth, Stokes gets ahead of Morneau 1-2. However, Justin crushes the next pitch into the seats for a walk-off home run. Poor execution on the bases costs Tampa Bay the win.

Correction: Fixed spelling of Zobrist.

While it looked like John Smoltz would dominate his match with Jason Bergman, the two dueled through six shutout innings. Bergman only allowed 1 hit but four walks in his six innings of work. Meanwhile, Smoltz is through seven with only two hits and two walks surrendered to the Nationals. They're in the eighth now still tied at 0.

Update: Smoltz goes wild in the 8th, hitting a batter, walking one and throwing a wild pitch to set up two run scoring singles. Yet, well over 100 pitches, Smoltz finishes the inning. Does Cox think none of his relievers are as good as a tired Smoltz?

Jimmy Rollins takes Glavine deep again, putting the Phillies back on top 3-1. That's two home runs in two innings for the leadoff hitter, and he now leads the NL with five on the season.

The Padres placed Josh Bard on the disabled list.

San Diego Padres catcher Josh Bard was put on the 15-day disabled list Thursday with a strained groin sustained the night before in a 4-0 victory against the San Francisco Giants.

Bard was off to a slow start, but he was 3 for 4 with runners in scoring position.

Jimmy Rollins leads off the game against the Mets with his fourth home run of the season. That ties him with Dunn and Cabrera for the NL lead.

Update: The Mets tie the game on three straight singles off Moyer. The last was on an unusual hit and run, as Reyes tries to steal third, and Beltran hits the ball through the spot vacated by the third baseman.

Mark Prior continues to decline physically:

Mark Prior's first extended spring outing ended badly on Thursday when the injury-plagued right-hander was forced to leave his start early.

Prior experienced discomfort in his right shoulder, according to a statement by the Cubs.

Prior is scheduled to see orthopedic specialist Dr. Lewis Yocum in California for further evaluation over the next several days.

Cubs general manager Jim Hendry confirmed Prior was removed from the game against minor league hitters, but declined to comment on the injury without having all the details.

I'm starting to believe he'll never pitch again.

The Mariners Red Sox game is going to be delayed due to the weather.

Update: They've called the game. It will be made up on May 3. Seattle certainly is going to have a busy travel schedule.

Travis Hafner sends a ball into the concourse in right center field. It's his first dinger of the season, and comes after two Scott Shields walks to give the Tribe a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the 8th. He nailed a high fastball a long, long way.

Update: Borowski comes on the pitch the ninth. He walks one, but strikes out Reggie Willits to end the game and preserve the 4-2 victory. That moves Cleveland to 4-2 and into first place in the AL Central.

Grady Sizemore moves into a tie with Ian Kinsler for second place in the AL home run race with four as his solo shot in the sixth inning ties the Angels at one.

Update: The Angels take a 2-1 lead in the top of the 8th and Roberto Hernandez leaves the game with an injury suffered covering first base.

It seems like the Angels and Indians want to get out of town quickly today. Moseley and Sowers aren't throwing a lot of pitches so far. Through three, Moseley threw 41, Sowers 34. Not surprisingly, there's no score. Moseley is throwing about 50/50 balls/strikes, while only 9 of Sowers pitches went for balls.

Jaret Wright on his shoulder:

"It only hurts when I throw," Wright said.

LAnaheim and Cleveland finish up their series in Milwaukee today, where snow is kept out by the roof on Miller park. Dustin Moseley faces Jeremy Sowers. Jeremy doesn't strike out a lot of batters, but he was unusually wild in his first start, walking five in six innings of work. Moseley was just the opposite, striking out four in his six innings with no walks.

Weather looks bad for a number of scheduled games, but it looks like the Nationals get to play the Braves tonight as Washington tries for a second win. It's going to be rough for them as John Smoltz takes the mound for Atlanta. Smoltz was a bit wild against the Met in his last start, but Washington doesn't have the selectivity of the New York hitters. With Jason Bergman on the mound for the Nationals, this looks like another lopsided loss for Washington.

Enjoy!

Eric Wilbur at NESN wants the Red Sox to sign Alex Rodriguez if the Yankees third baseman opts out of his contract:

OK, so Red Sox fans love to hate him almost as much as Yankee fans do, but that would certainly pass. After all, besides the whole infamous slap (which never hurt Boston in the first place) where does the hatred stem? If the Red Sox couldn't work out a deal and Rodriguez ended up with say, Detroit, would Boston feel the need to have a boiling ire every time his name comes up?

By signing with Boston, Rodriguez would finish what the two parties tried to accomplish back in 2003, which seems like an eon ago. Rodriguez would get to play in an atmosphere perhaps even more intense than the Bronx, without the added pressure of 86 years hovering over his head. And if he proves he can do it here, the reward it twofold, not only will it define his baseball legacy, it will be the ultimate middle finger to the fans in New York who have had an irrational hatred for him the last three seasons, mainly because he isn't Jeter.

Cashman may have already sealed New York's fate by declaring they won't re-negotiate with Scott Boras if they decide to opt out. Maybe that makes it easier for the Red Sox to swoop in and steal him away without getting into a bidding war between the two highest payrolls in the game. One hundred eighty million for six years? It sounds preposterous, but it could be the money A-Rod gets come next winter.

Eric forgets the Varitek fight. I think he's also mistaking Cashman's intent. Brian's not going to re-negotiate the contract now, just like he's not going to re-negotiate Rivera's contract. But if A-Rod puts up great numbers and does become a free agent, there's no reason to believe the Yankees won't be in the mix of teams trying to sign him. If nothing else, they'll push his price to Boston as high as they can.

The Dodgers shut out the Colorado Rockies last night 3-0. Brad Penny started and last 6 1/3 innings. And while he did allow only two hits, he walked four with just three strikeouts. The Rockies hitters as a group are being decently selective this season. They've walked 31 times in 309 at bats for an OBA that is 75 points above their BA. But with a team batting average of just .239, that's not saying much. They're taking the pitches they should be taking, but not hitting the ones they can smack.

Normally I complain when Greg Maddux leaves a game after 75 pitches when he's having success. Last night, Maddux threw six shutout innings, but gave way to the bullpen. In San Diego, however, that strategy works. Meredith, Linebrink and Brocail combined for three perfect innings of relief work, striking out three along the way. All told, the Giants only managed six hits against the Padres staff as San Diego took home a 4-0 victory.

The Giants team batting line reads like a bad middle infielder from 1968. The offense hold a .232 BA, a .289 OBA and a .307 slugging percentage. That kind of hitting gets individual players released. And with an 0 for 4, Bonds fell below the Mendoza line with a .192 batting average.

Jerry Narron removed Edwin Encarnacion from the game last night. The third baseman did not run out a pop fly. It appeared to be an honest mistake, but Narron sent the proper message:

Narron said the 24-year-old Encarnacion, in his third big league season, has always hustled for him. He added that Encarnacion likely would be back in the lineup when the Reds open a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field Friday.

"I love him," Narron said. "I think he's going to be a great player. He messed up. But doggone it, you can't be messing up in this game like that by not hustling. If you don't know where the ball is, you run until you find out where it is.

"He has never dogged it," Narron said. "It was probably an honest mistake, but it was a mistake."

Good for Jerry. He didn't get mad, he talked to the player, and sent a message not just to Edwin, but to the whole team.

The Toronto Blue Jays start the day tied with the Yankees for best runs per game in the major leagues. Each scored 52 runs in 8 games, 6.5 per game. So far, however, the Yankees runs involve an element of luck, while Toronto's runs estimate pegs their total exactly.

Toronto's OBA sits 22 points higher than New York's. But they really shine in power. While the Yankees hit 10 home runs to the Blue Jay's 8, Toronto banged more doubles than the Yankees have extra-base hits. That gives the Canadians a 60 point lead in slugging percentage.

Will it last? Consider two of the big guns in the first week of the season are Aaron Hill and Royce Clayton. Both have OBAs of about .440 and slugging percentage well over .500. I don't expect that to last. But Overbay and Thomas haven't warmed up yet, so there's hope that Toronto can continue to produce a high number of runs.

Oliver Perez walked seven batters in 2 2/3 innings on Wednesday night, helping the Phillies to their second win of the season 5-2. It's the wildness that hurt Perez's career returning. During his fine 2004 season, Oliver walked just 3.7 per 9. Over the next two years, however, that would rise to 5.8 per 9. Last night was an example of control at its worst.

The amazing thing to me, however, is that the Phillies only scored three runs off Perez:

The third inning was awful for Pérez and the Mets. After getting two quick outs, Pérez allowed the next six batters to reach base. The Phillies loaded the bases on a single and two walks. But this time, Pérez walked Wes Helms on four pitches and Aaron Rowand on seven, then hit Rod Barajas with a pitch, giving the Phillies a 3-0 lead.

Breaking the game open with a hit wasn't on the menu last night, but it's good to see the Phillies practicing good selectivity.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Felix Hernandez finishes off the Red Sox with a strikeout of Youkilis. His one hitter gives him seventeen straight scoreless innings to start the season. He's allowed just four hits and four walks while striking out 18. The Mariners take the game 3-0.

Matsuzaka pitched okay. He retired Ichiro four times, but the rest of the Mariners found a way to pound out eight hits. And Johjima, who faced Dice-K quite a bit in Japan, managed two doubles. Still, on most days, the Red Sox will take seven innings and three runs from their starter.

By the way, Will Carroll wrote that the pitch that struck out Sexson was the gyroball.

Mike Mussina left the game against Minnesota in the third inning:

After allowing consecutive hits to Luis Rodriguez and Alexi Casilla at the start of the inning, Mussina went to a 2-1 count against Luis Castillo, then motioned for someone to come from the dugout. Pitching coach Ron Guidry visited the mound, followed by a trainer and manager Joe Torre, and Mussina walked off after the brief conference.

Stay tuned. The Yankees are leading 1-0 despite only picking up one hit. A-Rod drove in the run with a sacrifice fly.

The Red Sox are coming up in the bottom of the eighth to face Felix Hernandez. They trail 3-0 and have yet to collect a hit.

Update: Drew leads off with a single. There goes the no-hitter.

Update: That's all the Red Sox get as Hernandez still has not allowed a run this year.

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

I just finished the radio show, and through the whole thing one eye was on Felix Hernandez. He just struck out Manny Ramirez to end the seventh and he's yet to allow a hit. What started out as a coming out party for Matsuzaka may be introducing the next Roger Clemens. He's struck out five and walked just two, and he's pitching very efficiently.

The Brewers Marlins suspended game is now in the 13th inning. Maybe someone will get lucky and score a run. :-)

Jose Guillen blasts a 3-0 pitch off the leftfield wall, but he's held to a single by a good throw by Manny. Johjima follows with another ball to deep left, more down the line, than lands for a double. Betancourt brings Guillen in on a sacrifice fly to left and a close play at the plate.

Correction: Had the wrong Guillen.

Dice-K starts off Ichiro with three diving pitches. The first one is called a strike, the second one is fouled off, and the third one is wasted low and inside. Matsuzaka then tries to hit the inside edge of the plate twice, but Ichiro takes to run the count to 3-2. Finally, a sinking fastball induces Suzuki to bounce back to the box for the first out. Round one to Matsuzaka.

Update: Matsuzaka gives up a single, but no runs in the first inning.

Update: Felix Hernandez can pitch, too. He retires the Red Sox in order on eleven pitches, two grounders and a pop out.

The Baseball Musings Radio Show is coming up in a little while at 8 PM EDT. You can leave questions during the show in the TPSRadio Chat Room at Stickam. I really recommend you stop by the chat room. Lots of people make for a lively discussion and helps me with the show. (I'll remove this after the broadcast.)

Jermaine Dye knocks out his first home run of the year, a two-run shot to tie the game at 3 in the top of the 8th. Dye is off to a slow start this season, as his two hits today just raises his average to .167.

Update: The White Sox score three time in the top of the ninth, the big hit a double by Paul Konerko to drive in the final two runs. Chicago takes a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth as Street fails to hold the tie.

Update: Jenks retires the side in order in the bottom of the ninth, and the White Sox take home the 6-3 win. The Oakland bullpen wastes five good innings from Joe Kennedy. Oakland staters have a 1.98 ERA, but are just 2-4 on the season.

Joe Kennedy's pitches five okay innings, allowing five hits and three walks. But all the hits were singles, and he was able to spread them out enough to allow just one run. As a fifth starter, the A's will take that everytime. Calero comes on in relief in the sixth with Oakland still leading 3-1.

The Oakland Athletics hit three doubles off Mark Buehrle in the first inning, leading to three runs. The White Sox pick up three singles in the second to cut the lead to 3-1. A nice demonstration of the multiplicative power of extra-base hits.

Princeton graduate and pitcher Chris Young wrote his senior thesis on Jackie Robinson, titled, "The Impact of Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball on Racial Stereotypes in America: A Quantitative Content Analysis of Stories about Race in the New York Times." The story of that thesis and Young learning about Robinson the man from Don Newcombe makes one of the best Robinson stories I've read this week.

This is a message to Al Bethke. Did you get the e-mail I sent you? My new address is dfpinto@verizon.net.

I don't quite understand La Russa's use of Adam Wainwright today. He's making the second start of his career. The weather looks on the cold side. Adam's pitched well, but in the seventh he became wild, hitting a batter and walking two, leading to a run on a sacrifice fly. La Russa finally pulls him after 113 pitches. That seems a little too long to leave him in. The game is tied at two with men on first and third and two outs in the bottom of the seventh.

Update: Springer comes in and loads the bases on a walk. Eldred then hits a ball to the fence in center that Taguchi tracks down for the third out. The Pirates and Cardinals go to the eighth tied at 2.

Update: Duncan homers in the top of the ninth off Torres to put the Cardinals up 3-2. Pujols picked up a hit to put his batting average at .176.

Update: Franklin finishes the game for the win, allowing just a walk in the ninth. Both teams lived up to their low scoring ways so far this season. The Cardinals scored three runs in each of the three games, and won all of them.

1967 American League Pennant Race is an historical blog "Documenting the Greatest Pennant Race of All Time." Stop by and say hi.

So far today, Albert Pujols came to bat four times with nothing to show but a walk. He's now batting .152, 5 for 33. That's the worst start of his career through April 11.

Pujols	BA through April 11
2001	.345 (10/29)
2002	.314 (11/35)
2003	.281 (9/32)
2004	.320 (8/25)
2005	.250 (5/20)
2006	.304 (7/23)

His slow start is one reason the Cardinals are scoring under three runs a game so far this season. They lead the Pirates 2-1 in the seventh.

The Baseball Musings radio show will be on TPSRadio tonight at 8 PM EDT. Check out TPSRadio's other sports programming as well.

You can stop by the chat room at TPSRadio during the broadcast and leave a comment. We're now using Stickam for the chat, so there are no logins required. Also, feel free to leave a question in the comments to this post and I'll be happy to answer it on the air.

My latest Baseball Prospectus article looks at attendance trends over the last century (subscription required).

Another snow postponement, this time in Chicago.

Bill Nye offers the greatest primer on why pitches move I've ever read. As with most of his work, it's both technical and accessible. And he also gives a perfect explanation of why Matsuzaka is so good:

As a guy who loves the game, who loves the science of it, but is not the foremost authority on who's who, Matsuzaka reminds me of Livan Hernandez. They both seem to just throw without working as hard as everybody else does. They have a smoothness and an efficiency that most pitchers just don't have.

So, Daisuke is able to rotate his wrist and his shoulders and position his hips so that he can alter the spin he puts on the ball without injuring himself. He can throw conventional fastballs and side-spinning gyroballs. And, he throws each of these pitches in just about exactly the same way, with his body in the same position, so that each pitch starts out looking exactly the same to his opponents. Batters are continually thrown off, pun intended again.... He varies the speed and the spin constantly. So you never quite know what's coming even though you have a pretty good idea where it's coming from. We'll see how spun out teams get this season against this Doctor of Spin.

Please read the whole thing.

Thanks to my lovely wife Marilyn for the link.

The feud between Jose Guillen and Brendan Donnelly escalated last night after Donnelly struck out Jose and then hit Johjima with a pitch. Jose, ever the calm soul, handled the situation well:

Yesterday, in a game that was 14-1 in the eighth inning, Donnelly fanned Guillen on three pitches, punctuating the strikeout with a gesture that caught Guillen's ire.

Guillen had to be restrained from going after Donnelly, and the benches and bullpens emptied. When the game resumed, Donnelly hit the next batter, Kenji Johjima, prompting an immediate ejection from plate umpire Phil Cuzzi.

Jose wants to settle it on the field of honor:

"If he wants to take care of this problem, our clubhouses are pretty close, so he can have one of the batboys come get me outside and we can take care of this as men. That's it. That's all I have to say."

How about this? One of them stands on first base, the other on third. Each gets a bucket of balls and the two throw at each other until one falls down.

The Chronicle of the Lads questions the strategy involving Erick Aybar stealing.

Ichiro Suzuki on the hype surrounding tonight's game against Daisuke Matsuzaka:

Ichiro says he can tell it's a big deal "because I can look out in center field and see a Dunkin' Donuts sign in Japanese.' "

Time to make the donuts.

Boston hosts the pitching matchup of the day as Felix Hernandez and the Mariners face Daisuke Matsuzaka and the Red Sox. Both pitched outstanding game in their first starts, combining for 15 innings, 3 walks and 22 strikeouts.

Of course, the even bigger matchup comes when Dice-K faces Ichiro. It's the stuff of legend in Japan, as the indispensable Matsuzaka Watch tells us:

Daisuke Matsuzaka is the same kind of person for the Japanese. He transcends mortal man in a way, because he has forged his own legend on the biggest stages in baseball. Koshien, Rookie of the Year, the Sawamura Award, the Japan Series, and finally the World Baseball Classic. All that remains is a Cy Young and a World Series championship. Matsuzaka has the potential to mean as much to Japan as Ichiro. Ichiro was the pioneer and the trailblazer, but Matsuzaka is the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Yamato. He walks the path that Ichiro cleared, but he does it as an anointed national treasure. A kind of royalty.

The upcoming series between the Red Sox and the Mariners carries with it a significance that perhaps will not be understood until both heroes have retired. I was at the first meeting between Ichiro and Matsui, and it was electric at Yankee Stadium. This meeting, in contrast, is a direct confrontation, where the Yankees and Mariners series was merely a sideshow act. When Matsuzaka takes the mound in the top of the first and stares down Ichiro it will be watched by more people that you can possibly imagine. It will be scrutinized more than any at bat has ever been scrutinized in the history of the sport, perhaps. Japanese television will run the highlights, not for days, but forever. This will be the Japanese people's living and breathing irresistible force meeting the flesh and blood immovable object.

He includes video of the first meeting between the two in Japan. Ichiro struck out three times in the that game before drawing a walk.

Meanwhile, down in New York Oliver Perez sees if he can continue to shake off the last two years of lousy pitching against the hapless Phillies (it's too bad someone can't bottle and sell hap.) Despite years in the NL, Eaton only pitched at Shea twice, stopping the Mets both times with impressive numbers.

And out in Arizona, two rookies face each other after impressive debuts. Matt Belisle held the Pirates to one run on one walk and six strikeouts, while Micah Owings one-hit the Nationals for five innings. He's yet to allow a run.

Enjoy!

All four western games played Tuesday night ended with a one-run difference. The Giants raised their scoring average half a run as they held off a late charge by the Padres to take the contest 6-5. The Giants bullpen won't want to see Adrian Gonzalez again as he homered off both Kevin Correia and Armando Benitez late in the game make it a close one. Benitez now owns two saves, but he also owns a 7.71 ERA. On the positive side for the Giants, Matt Morris pitched another decent game, although for the season he's walked more than he's struck out. He's on his way to Rueterville. The Giants also moved Bonds to fourth in the batting order, which for some reason had magical effects:

Bochy had wanted Bonds to hit third so he would bat in the first inning in every game. Bochy also thought he might be able to remove Bonds for defense earlier in games, better preserving his legs.

But after watching the Giants score 14 runs in their first seven games, Bochy decided the benefits were outweighed by a lineup imbalance that had four lefties or switch-hitters atop the lineup followed by three right-handers.

...

"This isn't going to be a back-and-forth thing," Bochy said. "That's not the message I want to send to the club, that I'm a panic guy who shoots from the hip with my lineups. It's important we settle in and have a stable lineup. I don't want these guys to think I'm going to change it just because we had a bad week. That's not going to be the case."

Isn't that what you did, Bruce?

The Reds/Diamondbacks game started as a slugfest with five home runs in the first four innings, but then neither team scored for six straight frames. Finally, in the bottom of the 11th, a Jackson single and a Hairston double ended the game. The Reds were 8 for 39 in the game, the DBacks 9 for 40, and both teams knocked out 17 total bases. The two starters lasted seven innings, allowing six hits and four runs. The game was even all around.

Brett Tomko impressed in his 2007 debut, but it was an unusual start for him. He walked more batters than usual (three in six innings), but he also struck out more than usual (nine total). That made him pretty unhittable as Colorado managed just one hit.

But Rodrigo Lopez pitched his second strong game, and the Rockies were able to tie the game at one in the seventh. But Byung-Hyun Kim gave up his one hit and walk back to back, setting up a sacrifice fly in the eighth for the winning run. It was the Dodgers fourth one-run game of the season, and the third time they held their opponent to just one run.

And in the lone western AL game, the Athletics eked out a win over the White Sox 2-1. Jon Garland and Mike MacDougal held Oakland in check for eight innings, allowing just three hits and three walks. But in the ninth, the A's found Jenks an easy target. They knocked out four hits, culminating in a two-out single by Mark Ellis with the bases loaded to push the winning run across the plate from third. It's the third 2-1 game the A's played in their last four, with Oakland taking home the victory in two of them.

The Day by Day Database is up to date with all the completed games from yesterday. The umpires suspended the Brewers and Marlins game last night during the third rain delay, tied at 2 in the top of the 11th. In the past, that would have been called a tie and the game replayed:

The Milwaukee Brewers and Florida Marlins will be the first major-league teams to benefit from the rule amendment for suspended games.

Play was suspended Tuesday night - actually at 12:03 this morning local time - during the third rain delay of the game with the Brewers and Marlins tied, 2-2, after 10 innings at Dolphin Stadium.

Under the rule amended over the off-season, the game will resume tonight where it was halted, with the Brewers coming to bat in the top of the 11th. That resumption is set for 6 p.m., with the regularly scheduled game between the teams to follow.

I actually liked the old tie rule because it was quirky. But with travel schedules difficult, this new rule is much better for today's game.

Maury Brown interviews Lewis Wolff about running the Athletics and building a new stadium. I thought his answer about stadium size was illuminating:

BizBall: One interesting aspect is the seating that crosses over an access street next to left field. Given the space involved (143 acres), you could have easily designed something more expansive. Was the idea to design an intimate stadium that harkens back to the tight spaces of the older neighborhood ballpark designs?

Wolff: What we wanted to do is two things: one, when my group of geniuses that are helping, when we analyze the attendance and the displacement of major league parks, you'd be surprised to find the number that can easily live with 32 or 35 Thousand seats. Number one, we are in the smallest two team market in Major League Baseball. And two, we have a lot of distractions in our area beside professional sports. So our economics have worked backwards to a point. And we also want to maintain a reasonable profile, so we don't make it such a park that is totally elitist, and I don't think there are any, but we are not trying to satisfy a totally different market. We are trying to satisfy the market we have. So we feel that what we have come up with, we are comfortable is the right size for us.

And if demand goes up, so will the ticket prices.

The first three hitters in the Red lineup all homered tonight. Dunn put the Reds up 1-0 in the first, then Hamilton and Phillips went back to back in the third to restore the Reds lead to 4-3. Cincinnati had just six home runs coming into the game.

Update: Arizona ties the game in the bottom of the fourth on a Snyder home run. With Tracy going deep earlier, five balls already left Chase Field tonight.

The Indians score seven runs for C.C. Sabathia, but the Indians bullpen almost gives away a four-run lead as LAnaheim scores three runs over the last two innings to lose 7-6. With two of Sabathia's runs of the unearned variety and iffy pitching from the bullpen, it almost looked like the 2006 Indians again. However, a win is a win, even if their first home victory comes in Milwaukee.

Update: An alert reader notices that the Indians in Milwaukee out-drew the Orioles, 19,031 to 18,594.

In a 2-2 game in Pittsburgh, the Pirates load the bases with one out in the top of the 12th. Schumaker lifts a fly ball to shallow left. Bennett tries to score on the out, the throw bounces into Paulino in plenty of time, but the catcher doesn't have a tight grip on the ball and the slide dislodges it from Ronny's glove. The Cardinals take a 3-2 lead to the bottom of the 12th.

Zack Greinke pitches another nice game, and this time the Royals score some runs as they defeat the Blue Jays 6-3. Zack worked six innings, striking out five and walking none. That's 13 innings, 12 K and one walk for Greinke so far, good enough for a 1.38 ERA. Tony Pena, Jr. picked up his fourth triple of the season. That gives him 8 hits, and the four triples represent all his extra-base hits.

Nate Robertson and Curtis Granderson combined to help the Tigers defeat the Orioles 3-1 this evening. Robertson did everything right tonight as he pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings to reduce his ERA to 1.38. He picked up five strikeouts, one walk and saw better than two-thirds of his pitches go for strikes. Meanwhile, Granderson added two doubles, a walk and two runs scored. That makes seven of his nine hits on the season good for extra bases and raises his slugging percentage to .815.

Ian Kinsler continues to beat the sophomore slump. Kinsler homered for the third time this season and his slugging percentage now stands at .895. My question is, how long do you wait before moving the second baseman up in the lineup? When do you decide he's for real and start batting him fifth?

Tim Hudson is fooling the Nationals left and right. Through four innings he's struck out seven, walked one and has yet to allow a hit. It's really not fair to throw a good pitcher against Washington this year.

On a positive note, the Braves scored just one run against Matt Chico so far. He's struck three so far, but Andruw Jones took him deep. Apart from that, he appears to have some Zeppo on the ball.

Update: Belliard gets a bloop single with two out in the fifth.

Alex Rodriguez just boffed Boof, taking him deep on a 3-2 pitch for a 2-0 Yankees lead. That's A-Rod's third first-inning homer of the season.

Zack Greinke strikes out Frank Thomas in the fourth inning after falling behind him 3-1. The big slugger takes an inside fastball that tails back and catches the edge of the plate. Thomas was the victim on half of Zack's four Ks tonight, and he expressed great displeasure with the umpire on the latest call. It was a very good pitch, however.

Rick Vanden Hurk makes his major league debut for the Marlins and strikes out five through the first three innings. Claudio Vargas puts down six via the strikeout, but the Marlins touch him for a run as Jacobs drives in Uggla. The Fish lead 1-0 after three.

Rock Me TV attends Mets opening day. They include an interview with the Imus van.

In keeping with the whole Major League theme, the Indians were supposed to give away "Wild Thing" Vaughn glasses today.

Update: Kelly Shoppach produces the first Indian home runs of the year with a two-run homer. The Indians mascot even did the Bernie Brewer slide! The Indians take a 2-0 lead over the Angels. It was Kelly's first appearance of the season. That gives him a perfect 1.000 BA, 1.000 OBA and 4.000 slugging percentage to start the year!

Update: For people confused, first Indian home runs refers to the first runs in a home game, at least the first official runs.

The decision to make Dan Wheeler the Astros closer almost hit a speed bump today. Entering the game with a four-run lead, Wheeler gave up four hits and two runs, but managed to hang on to preserve the win for Sampson. In a more typically close Astros game, however, that performance would lead to a blown save. It seems to be the ninth inning today would actually be a good place for Lidge to work. The lead was big enough that if Brad worked into trouble, Wheeler could come in to limit the damage. Now, of course, there are as many questions about Dan as there were about Brad.

The Red Sox are carving up the Mariners today. Beckett allowed just two hits in his seven innings of work while striking out eight. Twenty two Red Sox players earned their way on base out of forty three who batted so far. Even Jason Varitek picked up threee hits! Boston leads Seattle 14-1. The Mariners were more than just a little rusty today.

It's not a good afternoon for former Cardinals pitchers as Jason Marquis allows four straight hits in the top of the first, culminating in a two-run double by Luke Scott. The Astros take an early 3-0 lead on the Cubs.

Jamie Mottram found a new favorite Oriole.

Josh Beckett retires the side in order in the top of the first, striking out Ichiro on a pitch that was so high and outside of the strike zone that not even Suzuki could get to it. In the bottom of the inning, a walk, three singles and a sack fly give the Red Sox an early 2-0 lead. Jeff Weaver isn't fooling anyone.

Update: Crisp doubles with two out to make the score 4-0.

Update: Weaver lasts just two innings and allows seven runs, all earned. Nine of the fifteen men he faced reached base by a hit or a walk. The Red Sox lead 7-1 in the third inning.

Aki Fever is spreading. I got mine last night.

The Donut promotion returns to the Marlins. If they score six runs in a game, ticket holders get two circles of dough and a coffee free. Given the Marlins offense so far (.380 OBA, .559 slugging percentage), season ticket holders are going are going to put on a few pounds.

I'm not sure if the Boston Red Sox are playing the final home opener of the season or the penultimate one. Cleveland fell one out short of playing their first home game before the snow wiped out their weekend, so they did go through opening ceremonies and such. But playing their first official home game in Milwaukee is hardly a home opener. Nonetheless, Boston hosts the Mariners, who haven't played since last Wednesday. For some reason, the Seattle scheduled Jeff Weaver for tonight, instead of trying to get an extra start out of Felix Hernandez. (However, we do get Hernandez vs. Matsuzaka tomorrow!) Jeff faces Josh Beckett, who turned in five solid innings against the Royals in his season debut. Fenway treats Weaver poorly, as Jeff amassed a 6.28 ERA in eight appearances there, mostly on a 1.88 HR per 9 IP.

And as mentioned, Cleveland is home on the road as they face the Angels in Milwaukee. It's Magic Santana vs. Milliliter Sabathia in a faux home opener for the Tribe. C.C. cruised in his first start as the Indians scored early and often against Jose Contreras. Santana pitched a stellar game in his debut, holding the Rangers to 4 hits and 1 walk over seven innings.

Zack Greinke hopes for more support from the Royals tonight as he face the Blue Jays and Josh Towers tonight in Toronto. Greinke pitched an excellent game against Matsuzaka, striking out seven and walking just one. The Royals need a lot more performances like that from Zack to have a chance at being decent this season. He's can't do it alone, however, and the Royals managed just 19 runs in their first seven games. Towers isn't likely to have that problem, as the Blue Jays are averaging seven runs per contest in their first six games.

Enjoy!

Marc Hulet likes what he sees when the Devil Rays bat:

On thing that struck me while watching the game was that it felt like I was watching the New York Yankees bat when the Rays' heart of the lineup was at the plate. It was the same feeling that these guys were going to get a hit each time up to the plate and that it was going to take a miracle to get them out. Dukes played a big part in that with his more patient approach. They aren't there yet but Baldelli, Crawford, Young, Dukes and even B.J. Upton and Iwamura could one day strike fear in pitchers like Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui and Bobby Abreu

.

That's a pretty bold prediction. I still have my doubts are Baldelli and Crawford's ability to get on base. If they were going to be really outstanding, we would have seen it by now. But as for the other youngsters, the sky's the limit.

Jimmy Rollins stands firm in his belief that the Phillies are the team to beat:

Rollins stood in the middle of the small visitors' clubhouse, making himself easily available to anyone who wanted to ask him a question. He wasn't surly, or even defiant. He even had a sense of humor about the way the crowd had given him the New York treatment, waving to them as he came off the field in the eighth inning, as the "Jim-my Roll-ins, Jim-my Roll-ins," chant echoed throughout Shea.

"The crowd was great," he said with a laugh. "They are fans, they're supposed to get on the other players, and try to get under your skin. I like that, I really do."

Above all, Rollins was firm in his position that he'd said what he'd said for a reason, and he had no regrets.

"I don't have to defend it," he said. "If I didn't feel it, I wouldn't have said it. I try to tell it the way it is. Sometimes it needs to be said.

"It's like with your wife. If you don't tell her you love her, even though she knows it, (she) still wants to hear it. With us, the feeling is there, that, 'Hey, we are good,' but sometimes you need to hear it to really believe it."

Good for him. Now he and the Phillies just need to prove it.

Chris Carpenter goes on the disabled list, as his elbow turns out to be worse than thought:

Cardinals staff ace Chris Carpenter was placed on the 15-day disabled list Monday after an MRI exam in St. Louis revealed arthritis and a previously undiscovered impingement in his right elbow.

The next thing we'll hear is that the rest didn't work and he'll require surgery.

Coming up on Worse Than Thought, Jason Schmidt's hamstring!

Rick Braun notes that life imitates art this week (if you can call it art):

In 1988, Milwaukee County Stadium played the role of Cleveland Municipal Stadium in the movie "Major League." Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker played the role of Doyle, the Indians' radio broadcaster whose style was "juuuuuust a bit outside."

Fast forward 19 years, and this time it's Milwaukee's Miller Park playing the role of Cleveland's Jacobs Field.

Doug Melvin wants Milwaukee fans to show up:

"If you're a true baseball fan, you should come out here," Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said Monday at Miller Park. "I would recommend coming out. I know I probably would. You get a chance to see two teams that you don't get to see very often.

"Both of them have a lot of good players. Grady Sizemore is one of the top young players in the game. You get a chance to see Vlad Guerrero, Francisco Rodriguez and (Scot) Shields. The Angels' bullpen is very good.

"So they do have a chance to see two very talented American League teams."

I hope there's a good crowd.

After Braden Looper's fine outing, Get Up, Baby introduces the Dave Duncan Geniusometer.

Scott Hatteberg tells his manager when he doesn't see the ball well against a pitcher:

"The one thing I appreciate is that if there is a left-hander in the game, if it is a guy he doesn't see well, Hatteberg says so," manager Jerry Narron said. "He wants to win, he wants to bat, and it isn't that he doesn't have confidence in himself. It's just that he isn't afraid to tell me if he isn't seeing the ball well."

Hatteberg doesn't think it's a heroic attitude.

"Hey, I want to play as much as anybody," he said. "But when he asks me how I hit certain pitchers, I give him an honest answer. I'm at the point in my career where personal goals don't mean much. I want to win. I don't need to prove anything. If there is a guy I can't hit, we have some capable guys behind me who might do a better job."

Hatteberg quickly cited two pitchers, "Damaso Marte (Pittsburgh) and Brian Shouse (Texas), guys against whom I've never got a hit."

In fact, Narron sent Hatteberg to pinch-hit against the Pirates on Sunday, but when Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy brought in Marte, Narron pulled Hatteberg for Juan Castro, who drilled a run-scoring double.

I'm surprised this is spun in a positive way. Wade Boggs used to do this (although he would say he had the flu) against tough lefties and was criticized for not wanting to hurt his batting average.

Pitching ruled the night in the western games on Monday night. If like me, you went to bed after the Padres broke up Matt Cain's no hitter and scored a single run, you didn't miss anything. Cla Meredith and Trevor Hoffman made that run stand up as the Giants fell 1-0, wasting a truly fine performance by their young starter. Chris Young, however, did pick up the win and now holds a 2.13 ERA and a .213 opponents batting average.

The Giants offense is truly pathetic. They're scoring 2.0 runs per game, the lowest in the majors. The team offensive averages are .232/.294/.320, numbers that would get a slick fielding shortstop release these days. The Giants are hitting just .202 with runners in scoring position. Even the Nationals scored more runs!

The Diamondbacks took their home opener by a hair, defeating the Reds 3-2. Bronson Arroyo was tough early, but allowed single runs in the sixth and seventh to leave the game tied. Doug Davis allowed his single runs in the second and fourth, but the game came down to #3 hitter Orlando Hudson. His solo home run with two out in the 8th off Saarloos set up Valverde for the save. Hudson raised his slugging percentage to .636 with his two hits last night, just what you want from a #3 hitter.

Jose Contreras rebounded from his poor opening day start, limiting the Athletics to one run over six innings as the White Sox took the game 4-1. Even with that performance, his ERA remains over 10. Rich Harden made two mistakes, home run balls to Thome and Podsednik, both solo shots. The league is hitting just .178 off Rich after two starts.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Brian Giles drives a Matt Cain pitch deep to left of center, and Dave Roberts makes a great tumbling catch to preserve Cain's no-hitter through five. Cain is already over 80 pitches, however, so we'll see how long Bochy lets him go if he keeps the no-hitter intact.

Update: Cain is at 87 pitches through five innings.

Update: Cain strikes out Bard and Cameron in the 6th as he retires the side in order. He's walked four in the game, but that's it.

Update: Cain is at 98 pitches through six innings, but no one is warming up in the bullpen. Cain may need to pitch a no-no to win, as Chris Young is also throwing a shutout.

Update: Young gives up a double but strands the runner. Still scoreless as Cain comes out for the bottom of the seventh.

Update: Greene doubles down the leftfield line to start the seventh. That's it for the no-hitter, but for the moment the double shutout is still intact.

Update: After a walk and a sacrifice bunt, pinch hitter Blum hits a sacrifice fly on a long foul out. Winn might have been better off dropping that ball. Cain's pitched seven one-hit innings, but he's losing 1-0. Young is in line for the win after coming out of the game for Blum.

The Blue Jays gave A.J. Burnett plenty of run support tonight as they defeat the Royals 9-1. The Jays pounded out 14 hits, six for extra bases. That gives them 42 runs in six games, an average of seven per contest. If Burnett's performance tonight is more of what we're going to see from him the rest of the year, with that offense the Jays are in good shape.

Alfredo Amezaga steps in for an injured Hanley Ramirez and picks up two hits from the leadoff spot, including a double. Carbrera drives him in with a sacfly, and later drives in Uggla after a double with Miguel's third home run of the season. The lucky third baseman now owns 11 RBI in 7 games. The Marlins defeat the Brewers 5-3 to move their record to 5-2, tied with the Mets and 1/2 game behind the Braves.

Alex Rodriguez took Ponson deep inthe sixth inning for his fifth home run of the year. His slugging percentage now stands at 1.080. Even more importantly, the Yankees are getting a good game from a starting pitcher. Pavano finished five innings, allowing just one run. He's only thrown 57 pitches so far.

Rob McMillin writes:

David -- I don't normally flog my blog or anything thereon, but I've heard so many gripes about the new MLB Gameday (slow, big memory consumer, gets slower as the game progresses, takes up too much screen real estate) that I decided to do something about it. As a daily feature on 6-4-2, I'm going to start providing retro Gameday links to all the day's games. This should mostly be working; there are probably a couple teams for which this won't work because of the sloppy way that MLBAM chose to build their site (there are multiple conflicting team IDs used in various segments), and I'll fix those as I find them. All the two-team city teams are working correctly, and most of the rest of them are okay, too.

The first such post is here:

http://6-4-2.blogspot.com/2007/04/dodgers-home-opener-gift-retro-gameday.html

I thought your readers might appreciate knowing.

Thaks, Rob!

Akinori Iwamura singled and drove in the first two Tampa Bay runs tonight. Right now, he's batting .556 with a .636 OBA. The Devil Rays may get the steal of the year on this deal.

Update: With men on 2nd and 3rd in the bottom of the third, one out, Iwamura made a Graig Nettles type play. Lofton hit a hard liner between Akinori and the bag. He leaped, extended and caught the ball, saving two runs. He followed that up fielding a hot grounder from Catalanotto to end the inning. The DRays still lead 2-0.

The Carl Pavano/Sidney Ponson matchup could turn out to be a real slugfest. The first three Yankees pick up hits, two of them because they're placed just right. The Yankees lead 1-0 in the first.

Update: Ponson gives up two more on a Posada double, then Pavano retires the Twins without allowing a run in the bottom of the first. It's 3-0 Yankees after one.

Jason Schmidt appears to pull a hamstring covering first base on a Nomar Garciaparra error. He comes out of the game in favor of Hendrickson.

Update: The Dodgers defense is really sloppy today. Kemp didn't know where the wall was when he crashed into it. Garciaparra makes an error, then Martin makes a throwing error to allow Matsui to steal second and take third. Then on a shallow fly ball, Pierre gets a bad jump. He needs to dive to make the catch which allow Kaz to tag from third and score easily. The Rockies lead 4-2 in the fifth.

Daniel Cabrera issued no walks against the Tigers today as he pitched well into the 8th for a 6-2 Orioles victory. Daniel issued 104 walks in 2006 in just 148 innings. He's one of the projects that Leo Mazzone helps turn the Orioles around in 2007.

Mike Hampton won't pitch in 2007:

Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Hampton will have surgery on his left elbow on Tuesday in New York and will miss the 2007 season, the team announced Monday.

Hampton, who had Tommy John surgery on his left elbow performed by Dr. Dave Altchek on Sept. 26, 2005, visited Altchek Monday in New York after experiencing more pain in the elbow.

Altchek found that Hampton, 34, has a torn flexor tendon in the elbow.

I'm not sure how much Atlanta was really depending on Mike, but now they know to move on.

Jeff Baker drives a ball to the right field wall in the top of the fourth. Matt Kemp goes back, leaps, crashes into the wall and falls into a clump on the ground. He's taken out of the game, walking off on his own power, but his right arm looks injured. The Rockies take the lead on the triple, 2-1, then extend it to 3-1 on a a bobbled infield hit.

Update: Jason Schmidt homered for the Dodgers only run. It's the seventh of Jason's career.

Adam Everett homers off Bob Howry to put the Astros back on top 5-3. Adam is a career .362 slugger. Coming into today, 19 of his 33 homers came in Houston. For his career, his road slugging percentage is .329. Needless to say, Howry should be a bit embarrassed.

Update: Houston takes the game 5-3. Wheeler becomes the first Astros pitcher to convert a save opportunity.

The Mets defeat the Phillies 11-5. Jon Lieber is charged with two earned runs, but they are unearned to the team.

Alfonso Soriano reaches on a force out, then uses his speed to score. He picks up his stolen base of the season, then scores from second on an infield hit. Jones chopped one over the pitcher's head. Biggio barehanded it and threw to first where Berkman couldn't handle the throw. Soriano was running all the way, and once the throw was dropped there was no chance of getting Alfonso. That ties the Astros at 3 at the end of seven innings.

The Mets load the bases in the bottom of the 8th against Geoff Geary. They gave away an out on a poor bunt with men on 1st and 2nd; the Phillies were able to get the lead runner. But Franco walks to bring up Reyes, who hits a ball to shortstop. It would be a tough double play, but Rollins boots it and all hands are safe. The Mets tie the game at 5, and Hamels won't get a win.

Update: With Lo Duca up, Geary throws a pitch over the catcher's head to give the Mets a 6-5 lead.

Update: Lo Duca walks, prompting Manuel to finally pull Geary. Lieber comes in and Beltran hits a sacrifice fly to give the Mets a two run lead.

Update: Wright puts an exclamation point on the inning with a two run double off the fence down the left field line. It's 9-5.

Update: Alou drives in two more. The Shea fans are really getting on Jimmy Rollins, but I can't really hear what they're saying. I assume it's "Team to beat!"

Update: The Phillies finally get out of the inning. They'll face Wagner in the top of the 9th.

Chad Durbin allowed the Orioles to score four runs in the third inning for a 4-1 lead over the Tigers. I'm a bit surprised the Tigers picked up Durbin. They're supposed to be deep in pitching, yet they pick up someone whose career proved he's not a major league pitcher.

The Braden Looper experiment is working well so far. He pitches seven shutout innings in the second start of his career, lowering his ERA to 2.08. If the Cardinals can hold the 3-0 lead, he'll pick up his first win as a starter.

Update: Isringhausen retires the Pirates in order in the ninth for a 3-0 Cardinals win.

I've been doing a twice weekly column on sports at the AT&T Blue Room, under the blue room Buzz. They also host a feature there on athlete's homes and the latest visits Ivan Rodriguez. Enjoy.

Ryan Howard and Abraham O. Nunez both go for a Reyes pop up behind the pitcher's mound. The two collide with Ryan's right forearm smacking into Nunez's head. He was down for a minute, but stays in the game. Howard drops the ball, and the alert Reyes ends up at second base.

Update: Reyes goes to third on a ground out and scores on a sacrifice fly. The Mets take a 3-2 lead on an unearned run.

Maine did not last long. He gave up five hits and six walks in 4 2/3 innings, but given the Phillies poor timing of their hits, he only allowed two runs.

Update: Howard makes up for the error with a three-run homer off Burgos. The Phillies lead 5-3 in the 7th.

Update: The Mets score in the bottom of the seventh, but a diving catch by Shane Victorino saves the tying run. The Phillies lead 5-4 going to the 8th.

Albert Pujols doubles and Scott Rolen singles to put the Cardinals up 1-0 in the fourth inning against the Pirates. It's Albert's second hit of the day, and raises his batting average over the Mendoza line to .208. Rolen, despite a horrible batting average, drives in his sixth run. He's 3 for six on the season with runners in scoring position.

Cole Hamels allows a bases loaded single to Jose Valentin which brings in two Mets runs and gives New York a 2-1 lead at the end of four. Burrell had a chance to throw out Delgado on the play, but Pat's throw to the plate was a bit wide and Carlos made a nice slide inside the third base line, fading away from the catcher and grabbing the plate with his hand for the second run.

Cole Hamels singled, then came around to score on a walk, a sacrifice and failed fielder's choice, and a sacrifice fly (for Strat-o-Matic players, it was a Fly Ball A). That's the first run allowed by Maine this season, and the Phillies lead 1-0.

Once again, the Indians and Mariners double header won't happen. The two teams now face four makeups during the season. Maybe it's time to bring back the triple header! (Thanks to Maury Brown for the alert.)

Update: Both teams have an off-day on April 16th. The Mariners are traveling to Minnesota that day, and the Indians just need to make a hop to New York. That seems like a reasonable day to play a double header.

Cleveland also has a day off in the middle of a home stand on April 30th. But the Mariners are in the middle of a home stand as well, so they're not going to fly out and back. May 21st looks like the next time both teams were going to travel anyway. Seattle is headed to Tampa Bay, and Cleveland goes to KC. So the teams could make this up by the end of May if they choose.

Update: MLB and the two teams moved the upcoming Angels series to Miller Park in Milwaukee. There is precedent for this as the Marlins played games in Chicago because of a hurricane.

http://www.ballssticksstuff.com/2007/04/goosebumps.htmlBalls, Sticks and Stuff is a little too pessimistic this morning, but he makes a good point:

Every year it seems, the Phillies start out slow, then go on a hot streak to get us all excited, before finally missing the playoffs by a game or two, maybe three, but whatever the final total, it always finalizes on the final weekends.

If they miss out by a game or two again, they can blame their failure to play .500 ball in the first week of the season.

Correction: Added the link.

Oriole Post is at Camden Yards and will try to live blog the festivities.

The Texas Rangers are going to ease Eric Gagne back into the closer role:

Washington and Daniels proved they're in control of the club Sunday, when Washington revealed Gagne will work his way back into the closer's role.

No matter how much respect management has for a player, it can never let him dictate his situation, because it sends a bad message to his teammates.

That doesn't mean management needs to be dictatorial. It simply means management must work with the player to reach a compromise that's best for the team.

Having Gagne pitch in non-save situations for a little while is as good as it gets. It's not what Gagne wants, because he yearns for the pressure and the responsibility of pitching the ninth inning.

Of course, as we saw in last night's Texas game, there can be plenty of pressure earlier than the 9th inning. Just because the Rangers are going to bring him out to start the ninth for a while, there's no reason they can't use him with the game on the line in the seventh.

The Mets open the penultimate season at Shea Stadium today with a good matchup of young pitchers. Cole Hamels and John Maine both sport 0.00 ERAs after one start. The two pitchers both worked seven scoreless innings in their 2007 debuts, with low walks and hits and a good number of strikeouts. Mets fans should be in for a treat this afternoon.

The Pirates open their ballpark tied for first place in the NL Central, and they'll host the defending division champions the St. Louis Cardinals. It's a game in which both offenses are struggling. Pittsburgh batters are getting on base at a .286 clip, while the Cardinals are only slightly better at .288. The big difference in the teams is the distribution of runs on the pitching staff. The Cardinals starters are good, but the bullpen bleeds runs. The Pirates starters hold a high ERA, but the bullpen's been untouchable. Ian Snell faces Braden Looper this afternoon.

And out west tonight the Athletics open at home with their best pitcher, Rich Harden, taking on the White Sox and Jose Contreras. The two pitched completely different first starts. Harden dominated the righties in the Mariners lineup as they went 0 for 15 with seven strikeouts. The only hits and walks against Rich came off the bats of the lefties. Eight of twelve batters reached base against Contreras, and in 1+ innings of work he allowed a cycle.

Enjoy!

Nick Piecoro in the Arizona Republic wonders if the Diamondbacks sweep of the Nationals was due to Arizona's good play or Washington's ineptitude:

Then again, sweeps involving the Nationals may soon become commonplace around here. With their starting rotation reduced to three journeymen, a rookie and John Patterson, the Nationals didn't have the lead at any point during this series and have led only once this season, when Dmitri Young's walk-off single won Wednesday's game against Jorge Julio and the Florida Marlins.

They didn't get a single hit with runners in scoring position in the first three games of the series, and after going just 2 for 9 in those situations Sunday, finished the series 2 for 33 in that department.

Washington isn't hitting well overall, but all their averages drop about 100 points with runners in scoring position.

MLB considers moving the upcoming Angels-Indians series to Anaheim due to the bad weather in Cleveland. I'm guessing the probability is low, since the Indians would lose ticket sales and the Angels travel schedule would be rough.

Curt Schilling writes a lengthy post on last night's game, and what I like is that I learned something new (emphasis added):

I spoke at length in spring training about 'pitching to contact' and I am not sure some people understand what that means. Maybe it means different things to different guys but to me it means getting hitters to hit the ball in counts I used to try for the swing and miss. That's first pitch and behind in the count breaking balls. For years my 'breaking ball' was the split for the most part. The split is a pitch I have never, ever, tried to throw for a strike. It gets swung at because it spends ¾ of the time 'in' the strike zone, and when thrown right, is a ball when it reaches the plate. I've always thrown a very high percentage of strikes but I would bet that a very large portion of those strikes are balls, made strikes by contact or swings and misses. It goes back to a philosophy I tried hard to learn and pitch by which is this. The key to pitching is being able to throw a ball when they are swinging, and a strike when they are taking. The key to that is being able to know when those two will happen. That's what made the 3-2 walk to Shealy so wrong in KC. I knew he was taking, I knew I could beat him with a fastball, yet I still forced myself to throw a split, a pitch I know I am not throwing for a strike. You never stop learning, you never stop making mistakes, but I think the key to getting better as you get older is making the same mistakes less.

It's pitching as a poker game.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

It was good to see Terry Francona bring in Papelbon with one out in the 8th inning tonight. The game was on the line at that point with men on first and third and one out. Coming up were Texas' two best hitters, Young and Teixeira. It was the ultimate save situation, and Papelbon struck out Young and induced a pop out from Teixeira. Now we'll see how he holds a one-run lead in the ninth.

Schilling pitched a very good game. It will be interesting to see how he compares this to his first start on his blog later.

Update: Papelbon gets another pop up and two strikeouts to retire the side in order in the ninth. The Rangers looked like they had no chance against Jon tonight. David Ortiz supplies all the offense with two home runs, driving in all three Boston runs.

Aaron Cook did almost everything right today. In his start against San Diego he threw strikes, worked efficiently and didn't issue a walk. The only mistake he made in his nine innings of work was a home run that just reached the PETCO porch off the bat of Jose Cruz, Jr. That was enough to send the game into extra innings innings where Greene tripled off Hawkins and scored on a Kouzmanoff single for a 2-1 Padres win. Cook outpitched Peavy, but not by enough.

The Oakland Athletics pitching staff combined to allow just one run today, allowing a low scoring offense to pick up a 2-1 win. The A's pitchers struck out nine and walked just two, and lowered the team ERA to a mere 2.59. It's tough to believe with that few runs allowed, their record is just 3-4. They've scored 22 runs and allowed 23 in their seven games.

I know Barry Zito is an unusual individual, but does he think he's getting paid by the run? He gave up eight in six innings to the Dodgers, raising his ERA to 8.18. But Giants fans shouldn't worry too much, he has seven years to bring that ERA down.

So far this season, the Cardinals big three hitters remained quiet. Today, Pujols and Rolen combined to collect four hits and six RBI as Albert goes deep and Scott doubles. Despite the outburst, the two are still hitting under the Mendoza line. Their offense was more than enough today to send Houston to a 10-1 loss.

Kip Wells pitched a great game, seven one-hit innings with seven strikeouts. He lowered his ERA to 1.38 and now has 14 K in 13 IP this season. Kip's never been a great strikeout pitcher, and you wonder how much his circulatory problems hurt him as a pitcher in the past.

Craig Counsell picked up a single, double and triple today and drove in three as the Brewers defeated the Cubs 9-4. Counsell's only picked up four hits on the season, but three of them went for extra bases. His batting average isn't stellar, but he's slugging over .500.

I just noticed that Jake Peavy looks like Steve McQueen. If they ever remake The Great Escape, Jake can be the Cooler King!

Jeremy Bonderman pitches well today gets a no decision. He's made two starts this week, going six innings in each, and the Tigers managed to score just three runs with Bonderman in the game. Today Brandon Duckworth handcuffed them, despite not throwing a high percentage of strikes. The Tigers could manage just four hits off the pitcher who compiled a 7.19 ERA over the last three seasons.

Update: I read the box wrong. Bonderman didn't get any support, but a three run ninth gave the Tigers the victory.

I'm watching a San Diego home broadcast on DirecTV. In the past, these broadcast were not available for distribution on DirecTV. But here it is! I wonder if that was part of the compromise of cable getting Extra Innings.

Orlando Hudson picked up two hits today, including a double as the Diamondbacks defeated the Nationals 3-1. That puts Hudson's averages at .379/.441/.552. I know it's early, but I wonder why Melvin selected Hudson as his #3 hitter. Based on his career averages, he's one of the least likely hitters on the team for the job. I wonder if Arizona is looking at some of the Markov Model research that seems to indicate you don't need a great hitter batting third? Whatever the reason, Hudson certainly responded so far.

Jorge Julio pitched in his fourth game today as the Marlins closer and pitched poorly for the third time in a row. He loaded the bases with one out before Lee Gardner came in to pick up the first save of his career on a foul out and strike out. It seems the Marlins need to find someone else who can pitch in the ninth.

Aaron Heilman allows three doubles and two runs in the eighth inning to hand the Braves a 3-2 victory over the Mets. Heilman only allowed 13 doubles all last year and a total of 20 extra-base hits (out of 73) for a .332 opponents slugging percentage. Those doubles are the first three hits he's allowed this season.

The Pittsburgh bullpen continues to impress as they allowed no runs in three innings today to reduce their ERA to 0.90. They weren't perfect, as they allowed one of Duke's inherited runners to score. Overall, the pen has struck out 14 and allowed just 13 hits. The win moves Pittsburgh into first place in the NL Central.

Any Which Way the Wind Blows introduces the Player Likability Percentage.

It is simply the number of times a player has been booed according to a Google search on the player's name divided by the number of times a player has received a curtain call according to a Google search on the player's name. So, Times Booed/Number of Curtain Calls.

It seems there's no end to the use of search engines!

John Danks doesn't give up a hit until the fourth inning, when Joe Mauer singles off him. Not a bad way to start your major league career. Unfortunately, the Twins seemed to size him up as Cuddyer follows with another single and then Morneau blasts a fast ball deep into the rightfield seats. The Twins lead 3-0. Santana's been a bit wild, allowing three walks in the first two innings.

Ryan Zimmerman breaks up the no-hitter on a double over the head of Eric Byrnes. Eric didn't do a very good job of going back on that ball.

Kazmir loses a little in the bottom of the fifth. He gives up a double and single to the 8 and 9 hitters, Clayton and McDonald, then Reed Johnson takes him deep for a 4-2 Toronto lead. It's also the first inning in which Kazmir fails to strikeout a batter.

Livan Hernandez keeps putting the Nationals down as he's completed five no-hit innings. He's walked three, and his ball/strike ratio isn't great, but that speaks to just how bad the Washington offense is playing. He's at 76 pitches, but my guess is Livan's pitch count can go pretty high if he doesn't allow a hit.

Scott Kazmire strikes out the first two batters in the third before Reed Johnson finally gets wood on the ball and pops out 20 feet in front of the plate. In that inning, the Jays looked totally over-matched. Kazmir now has 8 strikeouts through three innings. If he wasn't up to 48 pitches already, I'd say he had a good chance to challenging the 20 K mark this afternoon.

Update: Just one K in the 4th as Kazmir gets Frank Thomas to bring his total for the game to 9. At one point he struck out six in a row, setting a franchise record.

Darrell Rasner makes it five bad starts in a row for the Yankees pitchers as a three-run homer by Bako gives Baltimore a 5-3 lead in the fourth inning. That makes the ERA of the Yankees starters 10.13.

Update: Rasner ends up going another 1/3 of an inning, lowering the Yankees starters ERA to 9.97.

Through the first 1 1/2 innings in Tampa Bay, all the outs came on strikeouts as Halladay battles Kazmir. Scott gave up a home run to Wells for the only run of the game. Iwamura grounds to second with Young at second for the first non-K out in the bottom of the second.

Update: Elijah Dukes gets caught stealing on a pickoff, but stays in a run down long enough to allow Delmon Young to score from third and tie the game at 1. No strikeouts for Roy in that inning.

Matt Treanor picked up his second career triple today, part of a four-run Marlins second. I love to see Matt do well, since he's someone who really loves playing the game.

Ryan Howard breaks his slump with a two-run double in the bottom of the first for the Phillies. It's the big slugger's first extra-base hit of the season and helps Philadelphia to a 3-0 lead after one.

Jose Reyes picked up his fifth walk of the season leading off for the Mets today. In 2004, Reyes picked up five walks for the season in 53 games. It's been a huge area of improvement for Reyes. Yesterday, the Fox team was comparing him to Rickey Henderson. That's a little premature. By the time Rickey had completed his age 23 season, he posted three OBAs over .390 and set the single season stolen base record. But if Reyes keeps drawing walks at this rate, he could come close to Rickey for the rest of his career.

Alex Rodriguez comes up with men on first and third in the first inning and blasts his third home run in two games. This one goes the opposite way to right field. That means no part of the park is safe, as his first yesterday went down the left field line and the grand slam landed in center. That gives the Yankees a 3-0 lead after one inning.

Update: The Yankees fans don't like Kevin Millar. He's booed as he comes up in the top of the second, then answers the boos with a two run homer. The Yankees lead is down to 3-2. That's Millar's second hit of the season and his first for extra bases.

Today is the anniversary of Henry Aaron setting the career home run record, passing Babe Ruth as Aaron smacked his 715th long ball. I saw the replay on Fox yesterday, and the color was awful. It almost looked black and white. I just saw the same replay on Baseball Tonight, and the colors were vibrant. I wonder if ESPN took the time to restore the video? It's the best I've seen that home look in years.

Evan Grant notices the selectivity of the Rangers hitters:

The game-time temperature was 38 degrees, the coldest in the park's 13-plus seasons, and it only turned colder as the night wore on. Had the Rangers not eventually lashed out 14 hits, you might have suspected they weren't swinging for fear of stinging their hands.

Not so. The Rangers were simply following the pattern that has made Oakland so successful. They took no swing before it was time.

"The more pitches we see, the better we become," Washington said. "We start seeing pitches better and getting better pitches to hit, and we start hitting them."

Just like with the A's, it often looked like they were wasting opportunities. Maybe so; they did leave 12 brave men stranded to fend for themselves in the hypothermic conditions. But they also created enough chances to make those wasted opportunities simply look as if they were setting up the Boston pitching staff.

So far, they're drawing a good number of walks, making their OBA 100 points higher than their team batting average. They just need to raise their batting average from a Mendoza like .203.

Baseball Crank points to an article about a successful switch pitcher who may end up drafted this season. In case you're wondering, a pitcher must announce what arm he's going to use before an at bat begins, and keep using that same arm while facing a batter. So switch hitters get the advantage against a switch pitcher.

Zach Segovia debuts for the Phillies today against Scott Olsen and the Marlins. Since returning from Tommy John surgeryy, Segovia's hits, walks and home runs allowed in the minor leagues are very good. We'll see if he can translate that to major league success today.

John Danks pulls a tough assignment for his major league debut. He'll face Johan Santana in a very cold Chicago ballpark this afternoon. Danks struck out more than a batter per inning in his minor league career, something Johan Santana's done in his major league career.

And if the Indians can get in a second game against the Mariners, Fausto Carmona takes a spot in the Indians rotation against Felix Hernandez. Fasusto gained some infamy last season when he blew all three of his save opportunities as the Indians tried to use him as a closer. However, as a starter in 2006, he had a tendency to give up the long ball. Hernandez pitched eight fantastic innings in his first start. Wedge make want to stack his lineup with lefties as LHB reached base four times against Felix in his first start, and he only allowed five base runners.

Enjoy!

Update: The Indians postponed the double header once again. They'll try to play two tomorrow afternoon at 4:30. At some point, they'll need to find a mutual off-day for the two teams to make up the games, I assume in another double header.

I wondered if any of the New York tabloids would use Mr. April for a headline about A-Rod's grand slam yesterday. A-Rod makes both the front and back page of the Daily News with positive banners. For some reason, the NY Post page won't load. If anyone sees it, let me know.

But the back page of Newsday comes through for me. Yes, it would be too much to ask to drop the negativity for one day.

On another note, Hideki Matsui strained a hamstring and will be out until the Oakland series. Torre doesn't want him playing on the artificial turf in Minnesota.

Update: Positive headlines on both the front and back pages of the New York Post as well.

Marcus and Brian Giles reached base six times in nine plate appearances against Colorado last night. Because of them, the 1-2 slots in the San Diego lineup combined for a .444 OBA so far in 2007, the best in the National League. Here's the top five for the major leagues:

Team	1-2 OBA
Indians	.567
Tigers	.459
Padres	.444
White Sox	.441
Reds	.432

(I'm somewhat surprised the White Sox are there with Podsednik and Erstad at the top of the order.)

The strange thing, however, is that while they're getting on, they're not scoring. The two combined for six runs so far. Overall, San Diego is hitting fine with men on base and runners in scoring position, but they've gotten little production out of the four and five holes. So if the number three hitter doesn't drive them in, they remain ducks on the pond.

The Day by Day Database is up to date. Happy Easter to all who are celebrating the holiday!

The Toronto bullpen pitched the second half of the game after Ohka saw a big lead greatly reduced. The four pitchers used were close to perfect as they combined to allow just one hit while striking out eight and walking two in 4 2/3 innings. Two of those Ks came with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth. That lowers the bullpen ERA of the Blue Jays to 3.63.

Sammy Sosa blasts his first home run of the 2007 season, extending the Rangers lead to 7-3 over Boston in the sixth inning. He hit it to the left side of centerfield, but he knew it was gone as he gave it the Sammy hop. He needs eleven more to reach 600.

The Ducksnorts 2007 Baseball Annual is a perfect book for any Padres fans or for anyone looking to gain a better understanding of the Padres organization. Geoff Young, long time blogger at Ducksnorts presents the material in his usual fascinating way. His mix of opinion and numbers makes for an enjoyable read throughout. There's something there for everyone.

I especially liked the chapter on Kevin Towers' trades. He breaks down the best and the worst. Interestingly, his best is one that will surprise people. It netted negative win shares for the Padres, but benefited the organization in many other ways. That's the kind of insight Geoff brings to the book. He's able to look beyond the numbers to support his opinions.

His review of the history of the Padres made me realize just how few great players called the city home. They've had incredible right fielders, and of course Trevor Hoffman, but at almost every other position I said to myself, "That's the best they could do?"

So if you want to read a complete, in-depth review of the 2006 San Diego season, if you want to learn how this team was built, or even if you're just interested in some history about the organization, the Ducksnorts 2007 Baseball Annual is the book for you. Geoff presents numbers, opinions and history in a very enjoyable style. Don't miss this book!

Freakonomics presents their annual baseball post with the suggestion that research underway there points to batter protection making a difference. However, make sure you read J.C. Bradbury's comment.

It's always seemed to me that protection should decrease the OBA of the batter protected, making it a counter productive strategy. Protection is supposed to prevent walks to a batter. But we know that if you take away walks, you reduce a player's OBA to his batting average, and for the great majority of players, that's a lower number.

Carlos Lee and Lance Berkman find their power strokes tonight as they each hit home runs. Throw in Ensberg, and the three are five for eleven with three runs and three RBI. More importantly, with Oswalt on the mound the Astros lead the Cardinals 5-1 in the top of the 8th.

According to the Red Sox broadcast, tonight's game sets a record for lowest temperature for a game at the Ballpark in Arlington.

MLB.TV is also being blacked out on Saturday afternoons due to Fox exclusives.

For his career, Gil Meche allows home runs at a rate of 1.2 per nine innings. The Tigers took him deep three times today to earn a 6-5 win over the Royals. One of those homers came off the bat of Curtis Granderson, who is now slugging .938. He's doing a terrific job in the leadoff slot so far this season.

Adam Dunn picked up his third home run of the season and walked three times as the Red defeated the Pirates 7-5. I also like the fact he's batting second in the Reds lineup. It almost looks like Narron used the lineup analysis tool to create his order. Dunn now struck out four times in five games. If he keeps up that rate, he'll cut his strikeouts by more than 60.

Update: Dunn's home run today was really a dropped ball:

Adam Dunn hit a home run that bounced off right fielder Xavier Nady's glove and into the seats. Nady thought he caught the ball and cocked to throw, only to peer into an empty glove.

"I'd like to hit every home run 500 feet, but I hit it in the air and the wind took it and it went a lot farther than I thought," Dunn said. "Strange? Yes, I've never had anything like that happen."

So I wonder what negative thing the New York papers are going to say about Alex Rodriguez hitting a two-out, two-strike, walk off grand slam? All he did today was drive in six of the Yankees runs with two homers, a double and a walk, and he also scored four. I'm guessing the headline tomorrow in at least one paper will be "Mr. April."

Of course, if Jeter doesn't draw that clutch walk with a man on first, A-Rod never gets the chance to hit the homer.

Carlos Zambrano outpitched Ben Sheets this afternoon as the Cubs defeat the Brewers 6-3. Ben still hasn't issued a walk, but the Cubs took advantage of his being around the plate, knocking out nine hits against him and twelve for the game. Zambrano allowed two more homers to bring his season total to four, but as they were both solo shots he was able to survive the blasts.

Derrek Lee continues to lead the offense. He picked up three more hits today to raise his batting average to .429 and his OBA to .478.

The Orioles roughed up Kei Igawa in his Yankees debut. Markakis homered in the first, which was answer by a two-run shot by Alex Rodriguez. But Igawa allowed four hits and a walk in the second, leading to four runs, and the Yankees trail 5-2. Kei is still in the game, however, and pitched a scoreless third.

We don't know if Seattle and Cleveland will ever play. The Indians postponed the double header scheduled for today. They'll play a traditional single admission double header tomorrow, and make up the other game sometime during the season.

The Cubs and the Brewers get the action started early with a matchup of aces. Carlos Zambrano faces Ben Sheets, and the two are coming off very different opening day starts. Sheets was nearly perfect, tossing a complete game two-hitter, while Zambrano was wild, walking five in five innings.

It was a good week for Japanese players as Matsuzaka and Iwamura showed they can play in the major leagues. Today, Kei Igawa debuts for the New York Yankees. He'll try to be the first Yankees starter this year to complete five innings of work. The Orioles send Steve Trachsel against him. Trachsel doesn't strike many people out, and I'm not sure you want the Yankees offense putting lots of balls in play against you.

Gil Meche tries to repeat his opening day success against the Detroit Tigers and Mike Maroth. The Detroit lefty missed most of the 2006 season with an injury, but was posting the best ERA of his career when he went down.

Tom Glavine and John Smoltz face each other as starters for the second time since Tom left Atlanta, the first time at Turner Field. Smoltz still strikes out batters as he approaches his 40th birthday, and that continues to make him a valuable pitcher. Glavine hasn't fared well against his former team, going 3-9 with a 5.68 ERA against Atlanta in his time with the Mets.

And Felix Hernandez is scheduled to pitch the night cap against the Indians. Hernandez was magnificent in his 2007 debut, striking out 12 while walking 2. He'll face Jason Davis, making his first start since 2005. Davis allows about the same (high) OBA as a starter and reliever, but his low slugging percentage allowed from the pen rockets as a starter.

Enjoy!

MLB won't investigate Francisco Rodriguez for illegal substances on his cap.

Rodriguez denied the allegations, saying the substance was built-up resin from his use of a rosin bag on the mound. Major League Baseball agreed.

Angels GM Bill Stoneman said baseball disciplinarian Bob Watson called the team and said "there's nothing to it, nothing to investigate."

K-Rod pulls the old bloggers aren't experts defense:

"It's easy for a guy sitting at his desk, watching television, to put pictures on the Internet," Rodriguez said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "But I hope he has something better to do than to mess with people. He has no clue what he's writing about. I don't even know who he is."

Zumsteg, reached by e-mail, told the Times "I understand where from his side it seems like he's been singled out and persecuted for what's a fairly common practice, and if baseball's going to crack down on him they should certainly look around the league at other pitchers with pine tar on their hats. I brought this up as something I found interesting in connection with my work on the book, and it's not at all personal."

On top of all that, The Cheater's Guide Blog is down.

The Houston Astros lost their fourth game in a row, this time to the St. Louis Cardinals. The 4-2 score means the Astros run total for the season stands at 10, or 2.25 per game. That a tough obstacle for any pitching staff to overcome. The big reason rests with the heart of the order. Berkman, Lee and Ensberg combined to go 7 for 40 so far, a .175 batting average. And that BA represents nearly all their offensive output. None of the seven hits went for extra bases, and Berkman's two walks are the only base on balls. And just for good measure, they struck out more than they've hit (10 vs. 7). This should be one of the best middle of the orders in the division, but until they start hitting, the Astros are going to find it difficult to win.

Oakland fans worried about using Joe Kennedy as a fifth starter coming into the season. But last night he matched Dustin Moseley of the Angels as each gave up one run in six innings. Moseley pitched better; he threw more strikes, and didn't walk anyone, but Kennedy's start was great for a back of the rotation guy. The difference last night was the bullpen, as Jay Witasick allowed three runs in the seventh, giving the Angels a 5-2 victory and the most wins in the American League.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Oliver Perez pitches the fourth fine start by a Mets starter this season. No walks, six strikeouts in seven innings and only 82 pitches thrown. I didn't think Mets pitching was going to be better than okay this year, but the people who ravaged the Mets hurlers in the comments to this post need to rethink their position.

Rich Hill retired the first fifteen Brewers he faced tonight, but Corey Hart homered off him leading off the sixth inning. Hill struck out five so far without walking a batter. The Cubs lead 6-1. DeRosa, with his second homer of the season, drove in two.

Any Which Way the Wind Blows is a brand new blog (today!) that will try to focus on the fringes of baseball minutiae. Stop by and say hello.

With one out to go for a win, umpires called the Seattle-Cleveland game. What's worse, in a game that wasn't officially played, Victor Martinez suffered a leg injury:

Indians catcher Victor Martinez strained his left quadriceps while running to first base in the third inning of Cleveland's frosty home opener on Friday against the Seattle Mariners.

Martinez hit a grounder to third baseman Adrian Beltre, who misplayed the bouncer for an error. Martinez didn't see Beltre's bobble as he hustled down to first, but he came up limping just as he approached the bag.

While the other stats disappear, the strain stays the same.

The Orioles rough up Mike Mussina, scoring six runs in four innings on eight hits, three walks and a hit batter. In three games, no Yankees starter went more than 4 1/3 innings. Baltimore leads 6-2 in the bottom of the fifth.

Micah Owings just completed five innings against the Nationals. He's a bit wild, having walked three and hit two, but the Nationals picked up just one hit. The Diamondbacks lead 2-0, but with 97 pitches thrown, Owings will need to depend on the bullpen if he's going to get the win.

Update: Chris Young helps out with a three-run homer to extend the Arizona lead to 5-0.

The Mets lead the Braves 2-0 in the bottom of the third. So far, they're hitting Redman hard, with four of their five hits going for extra bases. Jose Reyes picked up the 41st triple of his career. Since the start of the 2003 season, only Crawford and Pierre have more, and in a lot more at bats.

Update: Reyes picks up his second triple of the game in the sixth to help extend the Mets' lead to 5-1 over the Braves.

Update: That's Reyes' third multi-triple game. Since the start of the 2003 season, Carl Crawford hit two triples in a game five times, and three other players did it twice.

The Mariners/Indians game is in a delay with the Tribe one out away from an official game, leading 4-0. Paul Byrd has not allowed a hit but walked three. The Indians drew six walks in the first four innings.

The Mariners/Indians came was delayed, and that gave Betancourt time to return from his testimony today. He's in the starting lineup and was part of a catching Sizemore stealing in the first.

The Texas Rangers pick up their first win of the year, defeating the Red Sox 2-0. Given the way their offense performed so far in 2007, they're going to need a lot more pitching performances like that. Both teams picked up three hits, but a steal, an error and timely hitting helped the Rangers score.

I've had three cable subscribers write me about problems with their cable systems offering Extra Innings. One person had problems with bandwidth, one with blackout restrictions, and one with a small cable company that's not carrying the package.

The blackout problem is due to MLB's rules, but if anyone is experiencing problems like the other two and wants to switch to DirecTV, let me know. If I refer you, you'll get a $50 credit over your first five bills, and so will I. My e-mail address is in the navigation section at the right. Let me know and I'll send you the info on how to get the $50 credit.

Robinson Tedeja leaves after seven innings. Maybe Ron Washington thinks his luck was about to run out with the starter, but I always think if someone's going well, let him pitch until he shows signs of tiring. You never know if the new guy (in this case Benoit) is going to have a bad day.

Manny made a bad throw earlier today, so I should I should praise a good defensive play as well. He just made a nice running catch over his shoulder as he ran back toward the leftfield wall, just on the edge of the warning track. The fact that Manny can make plays like that is one of the infuriating things about his defense. You get the feeling sometimes he doesn't try.

The Red Sox are baffled by Robinson Tejeda today. Through four innings, he's only allowed an infield hit to J.D. Drew. The Boston hitters keep getting under the ball, with lots of fly outs and pop outs so far. Robinson is yet to record a strikeout, and he has walked one batter.

Update: Tejeda continues to be very efficient. Through seven innings he's thrown just 77 pitches, 45 for strikes. Mirabelli struck out, the only K for Robinson. The only mark against him is three walks, but the Rangers will take that.

Sammy Sosa drives in the first Texas run of the day with a check swing single. He stopped his bat halfway through his swing, then looked surprised that the bat made contact. He finally took off for first base as the ball fell in shallow right field.

Update: In the second inning, poor defense costs the Red Sox a run Pedroia commits an error allowing Wilkerson to score. Brad steals second, then scores on a Laird single. The ball was hit straight to Manny, who makes a weak throw to the plate. Manny should have hit Mirabelli on the fly from that location, but the throw fell well short of the plate and rolled to Doug. Even then, if Mirabelli picks up the ball cleanly, he still had a chance to tag Wilkerson. It's 2-0 Texas.

And the Rangers are running wild on Wakefield. Laird steals a base, also!

Sports Illustrated launched Fungoes recently, a new blog with daily posts by a number of fine baseball bloggers. Stop by and say hi.

Interesting, despite his great performance yesterday, there's been a big selloff of Daisuke Matsuzaka on ProTrade. His value spiked well before his first start, and while he's still the second most valuable pitcher on Protrade, he's at the same level as Carlos Zambrano. Given their different levels of success in their first starts, that surprises me. Maybe the hype just wore off. But of the top three most valuable pitchers, Johan Santana, Dice-K and Carlos Zambrano, only Matsuzaka pitched a truly great game in his first start.

The Jays are turning on the lights, 'cause they're radioactive:

The major league club announced yesterday that nuclear operator Bruce Power, which supplies more than 20 per cent of the province's electricity, has gained national rights to plaster its logo and name throughout the Rogers Centre and during game broadcasts.

Under the five-year agreement, Bruce has also agreed to supply nuclear power to the Rogers Centre. In return, it gets the right to use the phase "Rogers Centre, powered by Bruce Power" in its own marketing and promotion campaigns.

Duncan Hawthorne, chief executive of Bruce Power and chair of the Canadian Nuclear Association, called the deal a "win-win" and said the advertising will give the company a higher profile in Toronto and across the country.

That should make the Rogers Center the greenest stadium in the major leagues. Now, if they could harness the wind power from strikeouts...

The White Sox postponed their game against the Twins tonight due to predicted cold temperatures and wind.

Micah Owings makes his major league debut for the Arizona Diamondbacks today as he faces Jerome Williams of the Washington Nationals. Owings is most famous as the pitcher the Yankees didn't get in the Randy Johnson deal, but in his 1 1/2 seasons in the minor leagues he's gone 17-3. His great strength is keeping the ball in the park, as he's allowed just 8 home runs in 184 innings. Having him make his first start against the Nationals in Washington is also a good idea, as Washington is not the best offensive team in the league. This is a chance for him to build confidence with a win.

The St. Louis Cardinals move Adam Wainwright out of the bullpen and into the rotation tonight as they travel to Houston to face the Astros and Wandy Rodriguez. Wainright showed impressive control as a reliever in 2006, striking out 72 and walking just 22 in 75 innings. Rodriguez hasn't been a magic Wandy for the Astros in his brief career. While his pitching lines aren't outstanding, they don't look as bad as his ERA. That's because once men get on, hitters really start teeing off on Rodriguez.

Finally, the Mets and Braves meet in Atlanta in a battle of undefeateds. Oliver Perez is the latest reclamation project for Rick Peterson. If he can return the lefty to his 2004 glory, the Mets will end up with a real steal. Mark Redman takes the hill for the Braves. He was a last minute replacement when Mike Hampton went down with an injury. He hasn't pitched well since his 2003 season with the Marlins, as his strikeouts plummeted.

Enjoy!

Yuniesky Betancourt is expected to miss Seattle's game today to testify in the trial of Gustavo Dominguez. Dominquez is accused of smuggling ballplayers directly from Cuba to the United States, and Betancourt was among those allegedly brought in. Dominguez didn't do so well, however:

In what must seem a bitter twist of fate to Dominguez, Medina-Santos testified on Thursday that the agent lost hundreds of thousands on the targeted trips. After Betancourt made it U.S. shores, he got another agent, signed a multi-million dollar contract and never paid Dominguez, according to testimony.

"This baseball business was a failure,'' Medina-Santos testified on Thursday.

Dominguez seems like small potatoes in the human smuggling game. At least he should get some sympathy for helping people escape from Cuba.

Both west coast games offered drama in the ninth inning last night. Mike Piazza saved his first home run of the year for his first at bat against Francisco Rodriguez, breaking a 3-3 tie and evening Oakland's record at 2-2. K-Rod doesn't allow many home runs. He gave up 12 in his rookie season of 2003, but that was just the 16th allowed since. Chad Gaudin also pitched a decent five innings for the A's, allowing two runs on two solo shots.

In San Francisco, the Giants were cruising toward victory with a 5-1 lead when Steve Kline entered to pitch the ninth. He recorded the first two outs, the the Giles brothers took over, picking up a double and a single. That set up a call to Benetiz, one of the few times you'll see the closer brought in to actually put out the fire! Brian Giles takes second to open the first base bag, Benetiz walks Gonzalez to bring the tying run to the plate, and Bard delivers a two run single. (There seems to be a rule among relievers with men on base. If can hurt your teammates ERA without losing the game, let the inherited runners score.) Benetiz then popped up Cameron for the final out. And the praise rang out:

"I'm happy to get the win for Bochy, my first save, the first win for Matty," Benitez said, adding that Morris returned the favor by expressing complete faith in the closer.

"He said, 'I have confidence in you. I know what you can do. Any game I pitch I want you to finish,' " Benitez said.

Matt's a good teammate.

Sam Mellinger notes an important improvement in Zack Greinke's game:

It's only one game, but it's worth keeping an eye on Greinke's strikeout totals. Even when he was chosen Royals pitcher of the year as a rookie in 2004, he had just 100 strikeouts in 145 innings. This spring, he struck out 27 batters in 24 innings.

Against Boston, four of his seven strikeouts were looking.

"That's one thing I never did in the past was strike guys out looking," Greinke said. "Mainly, I never really struck guys out period. But looking would never happen."

Strikeout rate is an important indicator of pitcher success. With seven yesterday, Zack's K per 9 stands at an excellent 9.0.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

After Daisuke's performance this afternoon, the Japanese contingent in the Tampa Bay/New York game comes through as well. Iwamura singles and walks, and Hideki Matsui just picked up his second hit of the night, a two run single that ties the game at six after seven innings. Matsui did a nice job of pulling the ball hard past Upton.

Update: Iwamura leads off the 8th with a double into the left center gap.

Update: Iwamura comes around to score on a wild pitch. It's been a poor defensive game for the Yankees tonight.

Update: And Iwamura's run is the difference as the Devil Rays pick up their first win of the season 7-6.

Elijah Dukes leads off the sixth inning with a hard line drive home run that left the park in about two seconds. That two in two games for Dukes, and breaks a 4-4 tie.

Iwamura follows with a single followed by the classic, "Just out of the reach of Jeter."

Update: Josh Paul just hit a single up the middle, sort of. It wasn't that far from Jeter, and Derek maybe took one step toward it before giving up. Somebody who is recording this game, take a look at that hit and tell me what you think. A good shortstop at least dives and knocks the ball down.

Update: A hard hit grounder goes by Cano this time as Iwamura scores from second to make the score 6-4 DRays. That ball was hit very hard, so Cano didn't have much of a chance to grab it.

Derek Zumsteng presented pictorial evidence a couple of days ago of Francisco Rodriguez using a substance on the brim of his cap to doctor the ball. Now, MLB is investigating.

Two years ago Donnelly was caught with pine tar on his glove. Is someone on the Angels staff encouraging this kind of thing? Scioscia comes from the Dodgers system, where legend has it this stuff was taught to everyone.

Andy Pettitte runs into trouble in the second inning. With two out, he allows two hits, two walks, and a wild pitch. He then threw what looked like a second WP, but it didn't get far from Posada and Andy covered the plate and tagged Upton for the third out. It's 1-1 going to the bottom of the second.

Jason Bergmann throws 50 pitches in the top of the first inning as Arizona picks up three runs. He walked three and struck out one, and was lucky to get out of the inning with just three runs allowed. At this rate, he'll be out of the game after two innings.

Alex Rodriguez comes up with a big hit in the first. With Cano on first and two outs, A-Rod drives a pitch to the wall in right center, just missing a home run, but bringing Cano around to score with a double. The Yankees take a 1-0 lead after one inning.

The Phillies draw five walks in the bottom of the ninth, but pick up no hits and the two runs pushed across just aren't enough as the Braves sweep with an 8-4 score today.

Romero and Papelbon finish off the Royals, and Daisuke Matusaka earns his first major league win. It was an impressive outing, and he showed signs of why the Red Sox were willing to invest in bringing him to Boston. Once he warmed up, he showed great movement and great location on his pitches. Tickets for opening day at Fenway just got a little more expensive today.

And the Royals have to be happy with Zach Greinke's outing. With better defense, this game might still be tied. Two fine 2007 debuts.

The youngsters on Atlanta are pounding the Phillies this afternoon as the Braves sit on an 8-1 lead in the sixth inning. Kelly, Thorman and McCann each drove in two today, Johnson with his first home run of the season. That's three straight games with two RBI for McCann.

It wasn't a good stay for starters in the Indians/White Sox game. Mark Buehrle left the game in the second inning after he was hit with a line drive. He's okay. Sowers walked five and struck out one in six innings of works, but the White Sox managed just two runs against him. The game is tied at 3 in the top of the ninth. Michaels had the best day hitting with a single, double and home run.

Update: With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, Hernandez hits Pierzynski to give the White Sox the 4-3 win. Given all the base runners (13) the White Sox put on, it seems they were very inefficient at scoring today.

With Greinke gone, Ortiz hits a soft fly down the leftfield line, and agains the shift it goes for a double.

Update: Ortiz tags and goes to third on a long fly by Manny Ramirez, then scores on a wild pitch by Peralta. The Red Sox lead 3-1.

Update: It's freezing there, but Ortiz was sweating on the bench after all that running.

Update: Crisp delivers his first hit of the season with men on 1st and 3rd and two outs to give the Red Sox a 4-1 lead. It's the first hit in twelve chances for the Red Sox with runners in scoring position.

Matsuzaka starts the seventh, but the Red Sox have the bullpen working.

Update: Shealy strikes out swinging to start the inning. Daisuke goes over 100 pitches.

Update: Gload strikes out swinging. That's 10.

Update: Buck flies out to center to end the inning. According to the broadcast, the record for strikeouts in a Red Sox debut belongs to Don Aase with 11.

Update: Matsuzaka is done, as is Greinke. Matsuzaka Watch pretty much nailed the prediction of Dice-K's line.

Zack Greinke allows a clean double to Drew leading off the inning, but strands him at third, finishing the inning with a strikeout of Crisp. With over 90 pitches thrown, he's probably done for the day. Kansas City fans have to be overjoyed with this performance. He held the Red Sox to two runs, when he got into trouble he didn't panic. A fine return as a starter.

And he might not lose as DeJesus rises and knocks the ball out of the park leading off the bottom of the sixth. Dice-K left a fast ball over the plate, and David got all of it. It's 2-1 Boston.

Update: German bloops one to center for consecutive hits for the Royals. Teahen tries to keep the rally going.

Update: The strike'm out, throw'm out DP clears the bases. Teahen was caught looking on a nice pitch on the outside corner. The stadium thought German was safe, but it was a very close play, but I thought he was out. Brown follows with a double, so the CS saves a run.

Update: Matsuzaka gets ahead of Gordon with splitters, then freezes him with a pitch on the low outside corner. That's eight strikeouts for Dice-K through six. He's at 96 pitches, so we'll see if he comes out for the seventh.

Update: Wow. Grienke comes out for the seventh and uses just six pitches to retire the side. He gives up a single to Pedroia, but erases him with a double play.

Alex Gordon fights off an inside pitch, breaks his bat, but dumps a single into left for his first major league hit. The Royals get the leadoff batter on in the 5th.

Update: Buck makes up for his last strikeout with a two-out single to center. Crisp lets the ball skip off his glove, and Gordon goes to third.

Update: Pena hits a nubber between the plate and the mound. Dice-K makes a nice play and throw to end the inning.

Jason Marquis pitches six good innings, but Lou lifts him after 82 pitches. Maybe it was too early as the bullpen allowed four runs and the Reds take the rubber game of the series 5-2. Hatteberg was involved in three of those runs as he singled and scored the tying run in the sevent and hit a two-run homer to ice the lead in the 8th.

Lugo doubles leading off the fifth. He then tries to steal third, and Buck throws the ball away for the Red Sox insurance run.

Update: Greinke strikes out Ortiz for the third time in the game. David tried to check his swing on a low pitch but couldn't. Maybe Zack could make a career out of pitching to Ortiz in the ninth. :-)

Matsuzaka strikes out the side in the bottom of the fourth. He's hitting the outside corner against righties, his curve ball is diving away from lefties, and just to be different he got Brown to swing and miss at high heat. The fourth inning was the Matsuzaka we've been hearing about all winter. My advice to the AL after watching that inning: Be afraid, be very afraid.

Ross Gload doesn't get back fast enough on a Mike Lowell fly to the wall, and Lowell gets a double leading off the fourth. Last season, the Royals had a low DER, but the Probabilistic Model of Range showed that they also were presented with difficult balls to catch. These plays are examples of that. Three of the hits were on difficult balls to field, but really good fielders make the plays.

Update: That's all the Red Sox get as Greinke gets a fly, ground and strikeout to end the inning. Zack stands at five strikeouts and one walk through four innings with 68 pitches thrown.

Daisuke starts the third with a three pitch strikeout of Buck. His breaking ball is really starting to move now, and Buck didn't stand a chance as his last pitch came back over the outside corner for strike three.

Update: A groundout and a fly out finish the third, still 1-0 Boston.

David Ortiz strikes out looking for the second time. The pitch looked low, but on the side angle replay it appeared to be at the level of the front knee. Ortiz complains to the ump, but to no avail. So far, despite giving up three hits, Greinke's been more impressive than Matsuzaka so far.

Update: For the second time in the inning, Gordon knocks down a ball but can't make a play, leading to an infield hit. On the first one, hit by Lugo, he had a chance to make the play if he comes up with the ball cleanly. So two of the four hits might be blamed on the fielders. Greinke gets out of the inning, however as Drew hits a nubber in front of the plate.

Matsuzaka strikes out Gload to end the second inning. Ross was the first batter in the game to see really good movement on Matsuzaka's pitches. It's still 1-0 after two innings.

DeJesus fouls off Matsuzaka's first major league pitch, then with the count 1-1 lines the third pitch into left center for a single.

Update: German grounds to the second baseman for a force. Matsuzaka won't have an infinite ERA!

Update: Teahen walks on a 3-2 pitch. There was one pitch in the sequence where I thought Dice-K hit the outside corner, but the ump called it a ball.

Update: Brown ends the threat as he bounces back to the box, and Daisuke starts the double play. It seems, however, that Matsuzaka's pitches are staying up. We'll see if he gets more control of that as the game progresses.

Zack Greinke, after walking Youkilis on a full count, comes back and catches Ortiz looking on two perfect pitches on the outside corner to record the strikeout. Two outs for Manny.

Update: Teahen still needs to work in right. Manny Ramirez hit a fly ball deep but catchable. Teahen totally misjudged it and let it go over his head and bounce off the wall. If he ran all the way back to the wall, he could make the catch. The Red Sox lead 1-0.

Update: Greinke gets Drew the same way he got Ortiz, looking at two pitches on the outside corner. He allowed a run but pitched well. I like the way he stayed out of the center of the plate.

Grady Sizemore makes an early bid for the AL MVP award as he leads off the game against the White Sox with his third home run of the season. His early season slugging percentage is 1.273.

DirecTV is broadcasting the game in HD today. Right now, the stands don't look very full.

Jason Marquis put down the Reds efficiently through three innings, throwing just 33 pitches. So far, most of the Cubs with new contracts are performing well. DeRosa homered today for the game's only run and he's hitting over .500 so far. Aramis Ramirez is also over .500, and of course they received a great game from Lilly last night. They're just waiting for Soriano to produce.

Update: The Reds get to Marquis in the fourth as singles by Phillips and Encarnacion tie the game at one.

No game in Detroit this afternoon:

Thursday afternoon's Blue Jays game against the Tigers has been postponed due to poor weather conditions. Temperatures in Detroit dipped below freezing and the forecast called for snow.

The contest was rescheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET on Sept. 10, when Toronto and Detroit previously shared an off-day. The only other season series between the clubs is a four-game set on April 12-15 in Toronto.

Cardinals Diaspora seems to be taking the start of the season in stride.

People. Friends, if I may. I'd like to sit here and tell you the sky isn't falling. Unfortunately, the sky is falling. And it's falling quickly. Oh, did I mention this weekend Lance Berkman is ready to check swing 4 "home runs" into the Crapford Boxes. Johnny Drama had it right all along...the pain has just begun.

Deadspin presents the best headline on the new MLB iNDemand deal. What's interesting to me is that we now see a clear tactic that works for MLB in negotiating a deal. They threaten to take something away, act very seriously about it, and then trade it for what they really want. In the previous contract negotiations with the MLBPA, they did this with contraction. This year, it was exclusivity and the threat of cable losing subscribers. After 30 years of ineptitude, someone at MLB finally got smart.

These are not bluffs. I have no doubt MLB would have closed down two teams in 2003 if they could. I have no doubt they would have given DirecTV the exclusive if the cable deal didn't work out. And by not bluffing, they keep this strategy viable.

Every once in a while there's a game that stands out among all others, and today that game takes place in Kansas City. Daisuke Matsuzaka makes his major league debut. Matsuzaka Watch examines the hype:

The way people are talking about the Matsuzaka debut, it's as if we're about to witness the prophecy of the Archangel Gabriel's "end of days", or at least the coming of the Nazgul to the American Midwest. Spring Training has been very exciting and a lot of people have come to know Daisuke Matsuzaka a bit better for having seen him firsthand. You'd have thought that the mythical version of his background would have subsided just a bit with a closer personal experience with the pitcher, but in fact it has grown. To paraphrase Verbal Kint:

He's become a myth, a spook story that managers tell their hitters at night. Don't take your swings, and Daisuke will get you. Ty Cobb always said 'I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him. Well I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Mike even offers a prediction for today's line, and it's very good. He believes the veteran will take advantage of the Royals young hitter with his fastball, and fool the veterans with the change. If he comes anywhere near the predicted game, a legend will be born.

And Mike also notes with the lack of sleep in the country, tomorrow would be a good day to invade Japan. :-)

Not to be lost in all this, however, is another important debut. Zack Greinke makes his first major league start since leaving the Royals last year to deal with his depression. He made three relief appearances at the end of 2006, but this is totally different. I'm not sure if it's genius or lunacy to put him on the mound this afternoon. The Matsuzaka crush means most of the media won't be interested in Zack. But then again, he's performing on a world stage today, and you'd think that would bring some pressure. It looks like the former is holding for now, as the Kansas City Star wrote nothing about Greinke on their Royals page today, although they quote him in the long Dice-K article:

"I'm amazed that every single question revolves around him," says Zack Greinke, who will start for the Royals in Matsuzaka's debut this afternoon.

It's two unknowns facing each other today. Both potentially great, but one drawing all the attention. I can't wait to see what happens.

Enjoy!

The Boston Red Sox can't be too happy with their rotation right now. Schilling didn't command his pitches on Monday, and Beckett was wild last night:

Kevin Youkilis's two-run home run, Mike Lowell's two-run double, and two hits by J.D. Drew, including an RBI double, made an easy winner of Josh Beckett, who threw more balls (48) than strikes (46) in five innings but allowed just two hits and a run.

That sort of pitch count probably won't do against the better teams in the American League. Beckett got lucky last night. He's also lucky that Matsuzaka debuts today, as all the media is concentrated on him.

Rich Harden aced his 2007 ace exam last night, shutting out the Mariners for seven innings. Seattle managed just three hits off him as Harden struck out seven and walked just two. At Atheltics Nation, BaseballGirl gushes:

My goodness, how much do I love Harden! Someone once described having Harden on the A's like having a awesome new toy, one that you don't get to play with very often, and one that you have to play with very carefully, but it's the best toy that you've ever had and sometimes you can't believe you even have it.

The Athletics offense clicked last night, too, picking up 13 hits and 9 runs. The run total more than doubled their output from the previous two games.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Pirates sweep the Astros, taking tonight's game by a game of 5-4. With Milwaukee losing to the Dodgers, the Pirates could be in sole possession of first place come tomorrow morning. The Pirates bullpen continues to to pitch well, allowing just one hit in four innings, a solo homer by Biggio in the ninth. Chacon retires all six batters he faces, throwing 14 of 19 pitches for strikes. Pirates fans should enjoy this while it lasts.

Barry Bonds hits his first home run of the season, a shot into the leftfield stands. That's 735. Young worked Barry outside in the at bat, and on the previous pitch, Barry took a pitch low on the outside corner that looked like a strike to me. If it's not Barry, another batter might have been rung up on that location. Young brings the next pitch up a bit, and Bonds tomahawks it out of the park for a 1-0 Giants lead.

Update: In Bonds' second plate appearance, Cain hits the outside corner on another two strike pitch, but once again doesn't get the call. However, this time Barry grounds out.

Once again, Ryan Madson allows a home run in extra innings and the Braves take a 3-2 lead in the top of the 11th. Scott Thorman's shot just clears the fence as he reached for a ball on the outside corner.

Update: Just saw the funniest thing. Bob Wickman is walking around the mound after getting the first out in the bottom of the 11th. He's blowing on his hand while Chipper Jones comes over to the mound to clean his spikes. All of a sudden, Chipper says something and Wickman jumps! He didn't know Chipper was there and was taken by surprise. Chipper had to keep his glove over his face so people didn't see him laughing.

Update: Wickman allows a single but gets the save to move Atlanta to 2-0.

Braden Looper makes his first start after years of working exclusively as a reliever and does a good job. He allows three runs over six innings, walking just one. Unfortunately, the Cardinals scored nothing in support, and the Mets finally found their power stroke. Beltran hit the first Mets homer of the season, a two run shot off Looper, and later in the game Reyes and Beltran each take Hancock deep.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals offense continues to flounder. Maine took a shutout into the seventh, holding the Cardinals to just one hit and one walk so far. The much maligned Mets staff is looking very good so far.

MLB and iN Demand reached a deal. If you have cable, you might already be getting MLB Extra Innings.

Major League Baseball announced today that iN DEMAND has entered into a seven-year agreement in principle to carry the MLB EXTRA INNINGS subscription package of out-of-market games and will distribute the MLB Channel, which is scheduled to launch in January 2009.

No details about the deal yet, and no word if Dish Network will reach a similar deal.

Ted Lilly made his contract look like a steal tonight as he gave the Cubs seven innings of three hit ball. Showing excellent control, Ted delivered 69 of his 100 pitches for strikes, setting down nine without contact. The Cubs lead 4-1 in the top of the ninth.

Interestingly, Dunn was not a strikeout victim. It seems he's taking making contact seriously.

It's cold in Philadelphia tonight, but the staters were hot as Tim Hudson and Cole Hamels matched up for seven innings. They left with the score favoring the Phillies 1-0. Hamels showed the control and power that made him such a valued prospect, striking out 8 and walking just one as he kept the Braves scoreless. Hudson was tough to hit, but a bit wild. He walked four while allowing just two hits. One of those, however, was to the backup catcher, Carlos Ruiz, a solo home run for the only run of the night until the eighth.

Shane Victorino might have cost the Phillies a victory, however. He doubled in Rollins to make the score 2-0, but then was thrown out at third with Howard up for the second out. Ryan walked, then Utley doubled off the right field wall. Howard tried to score, but a perfect relay by Johnson nailed the first baseman at the plate.

Gordon comes on for the save, but gives up a double to Francoeur and then a homer to McCann, and the starters are out of it. It's 2-2, whereas Shane holding at second probably gives the Phillies the margin of victory.

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

The Baseball Musings Radio Show is coming up in a little while at 8 PM EDT. You can leave questions during the show in the TPSRadio Chat Room at Stickam. I really recommend you stop by the chat room. Lots of people make for a lively discussion and helps me with the show. (I'll remove this after the broadcast.)

Jeff Baker pinch hit for the third time this season this afternoon, and picked up his third hit. The homer and two singles givens Jeff a 1.000 BA, a run scored and two RBI. If he keeps this up, they'll need to find a starting job for him.

His hit was part of a big day for the Rockies offensively as they knocked out five doubles in an 11-4 victory over the Diamondbacks. Todd Helton went 2 for 5 to lower his batting average to .417. Looks like he's healthy again.

I'm not sure what the Rockies saw in Rodrigo Lopez. Someone who allowed that many home runs doesn't seem like a Coors pitcher. But he showed good control today, striking out five and walking none in his seven innings of work. He did allow a homer, but the solo shot did little damage and he's now 1-0.

There seems to be something about Santanas pitching at home. Johan Santanta hasn't lost in the Metrodome since August 1, 2005. Ervin Santana extended his home record to 20-5 in 32 starts. He pitched seven strong innings, striking out six with just one walk as the Angels sweep the Rangers 5-3. Brandon McCarthy, who looks like he should be overpowering on the mound, did not record a single strikeout in six innings of work.

The Indians, trying to add to an 8-7 lead in the top of the eighth, load the bases with none out. David Aardsma answers the call from the bullpen and strikes out Michaels, Peralta and Barfield to end the inning and preserve the one-run difference. He threw 11 pitches, 9 for strikes. Most impressive.

Update: The game ends with the tying and winning run on base for the White Sox. Joe Crede sends a high fly ball to the wall in left field, where Jason Michaels makes a basket catch as he falls on his butt. It was the most un-aesthetic catch I've ever seen, but he got the job done. Sizemore came over and hit him a couple of times in celebration as the Indians take the game 8-7.

The Wasington Nationals prevented a Marlins sweep at the last minute, scoring three runs in the ninth off Jorge Julio to take a 7-6 victory. Julio faced seven batters, allowing five hits and a walk, including a bases loaded single by Dmitri Young to drive in the game winner.

Messenger only threw 11 pitches in the 8th. He was pitching well (Pinto did the same thing earlier, three outs on 11 pitches). It really seems if you have someone pitching well that hasn't thrown much, you're better off leaving them in rather than rolling the dice with a new pitcher.

The Toronto Blue Jays bat with the tying run at third base after scoring seven runs in the top of the eighth off two Tigers relievers, Grilli and Rodney. Glaus, who singled earlier in the inning, hits a fly ball to right that fools Ordonez, but stays up long enough for Magglio to pull it down for the third out. It's now 10-9 Tigers going to the bottom of the ninth. Rodney's ERA goes to 21.60.

Update: Todd Jones does his job and the Tigers win the game 10-9.

Gary Matthews, Jr. just made another great catch, robbing Michael Young of a home run at the centerfield fence. He's making the Rangers really miss him.

Update: Matthews then leads off the inning with a high chop that lands behind McCarthy for a single. A wild pitch and two singles later the Angels lead 1-0. Not surprisingly, Guerrero drove in the run with another hit against the Angels.

Update: The Angels score four in the first, ruining McCarthy's debut with Texas.

Ryan Church brings the Nationals back into the game agains the Marlins with a three-run homer off Sanchez, cutting the Marlins lead to 6-4. For his career, Ryan's a pretty poor hitter with runners in scoring position, batting just .221 coming into today.

Curtis Granderson and Placido Polanco are having a grand time against the Blue Jays today. The 1-2 hitters reached base in five of their six plate appearances and Curits hit a Grand(erson) slam. The pair scored three and drove in five of the Tigers nine runs, six charged to starter A.J. Burnett. The Tigers lead 9-0 in the top of the fifth. The Jays could forfeit at this point and it wouldn't make a difference!

Jake Westbrook walks the first two White Sox batters, and Jim Thome makes him pay with a three run homer, his first of the year. The replay from the third base camera showed a perfect swing by Thome. The ball was sinking a bit, and Thome swung with a perfectly angled uppercut that put the bat in the same plane as the ball. The result was a souvenir for a fan.

Update: The lead doesn't last too long as the first four Indians batters hit for the cycle to start the second inning, capped by Marte's first hit and homer of 2007. The Indians storm back against Garland to take a 4-3 lead as snow flakes fall among the players.

For those of you who subscribe, today marks the debut of my Baseball Prospectus column. It's called The Big Picture, and I'll be using the space to explore issues related to the health of the game. I'm always interested in feedback, so let me know what you think. Thanks to the good people at BP for the opportunity!

Miguel Cabrera keeps up his demolition of the Washington Nationals pitching staff. Through three innings today he's already picked up two hits, including his second home run of the season. That raises his batting average to .778. He's raised each of his three averages for three straight seasons, and he's off to a good start to do it again. The scary thing is that at 24, he's still a few years from his peak. In fact, he'll become a free agent right at the top (like A-Rod), so we should see a record breaking contract at that point. The Marlins lead the Nationals 5-0 in the third.

The Baseball Musings radio show will be on TPSRadio tonight at 8 PM EDT. Check out TPSRadio's other sports programming as well.

You can stop by the chat room at TPSRadio during the broadcast and leave a comment. We're now using Stickam for the chat, so there are no logins required. Also, feel free to leave a question in the comments to this post and I'll be happy to answer it on the air.

The weather canceled the game between the Devil Rays and Yankees. The teams are scheduled to play tomorrow, but there's no word if they'll schedule a double header. Northern teams tend to push these games into warmer time periods, and they have plenty of opportunity with Tampa Bay in the same division. The two teams meet in New York in July and September. I suspect we'll see a split admission DH during the July series.

Nick of Nick and Nick's Twins Blog attended the game in Minneapolis last night and likes the way Minnesota is running the bases:

Aggressiveness on the basepaths is something that I have been preaching for the Twins. They have a lot of singles hitters, but most of those guys have great speed and can move around the bases in many different ways. This is something the Twins should take advantage of. Being aggressive on the bases can hurt you, like it did on Monday night with Justin Morneau being thrown out twice trying to advance, but it can also be a huge help, and it was probably the biggest reason the Twins won last night's game.

Maury Brown wants to know if you are one of the 5000 Extra Innings subscribers who can't switch to DirecTV.

Andy Pettitte returns to Yankee Stadium in a Yankees uniform this afternoon as New York hosts Tampa Bay. For his career, Pettitte owns a .730 winning percentage at The House that Ruth Built, going 81-30 with a 3.46 ERA. He'll face Jae Seo, a pitcher who performed well for the Mets in 2005, but lost the control that made him so good that year in 2006.

It's a battle of H's in Philadelphia as Tim Hudson tries to bounce back from the worst season of his career vs. young Cole Hamels. Hudson upped his strikeouts in 2006, but, in a reversal of logic, increased his hits allowed. If that's a function of luck, maybe Tim will bounce back in 2007. Hamels struck out more than a batter per inning in 2006, and three times more than he walked. If he can bring his home runs down a little bit, he'll contend for the Cy Young award.

Tomorrow is Bronson Arroyo's anniversary of his Reds debut. He homered against the Cubs in that game, and gets another chance today as he faces one of the new Cubs millionaires, Ted Lilly. After an off year in 2005, Arroyo found his strikeout pitch again and kept his walks low to become one of the better #2 starters in the league. Back in the early part of the decade, Lilly was a pitcher with some potential. It turned out he's a .500 pitcher with an ERA in the low 4.00s at best. It's earned him a nice payday, but at age 31 he's really unlikely to ever be better than that.

A pitcher with plenty of potential is Brandon McCarthy, makes his Texas Rangers debut against Ervin Santana and the LAnaheim Angels. In his brief career, McCarthy's pitched better as a starter, allowing a .287 OBA, about 30 points lower than as a reliever. Santana is a different pitcher in Anaheim than on the road. His batting average and OBA are about 60 points lower at home, and his slugging percentage drops about 160 points.

Enjoy!

The Mets pitchers so far allowed a .348 OBA. That's high for a staff. But that number gets cut down by the number of ground double plays induced. Overall, New York pitchers allowed 16 Cardinals to reach base via a hit, walk or hit by pitch in sixty nine plate appearances. But if you remove the seven runners taken out on double plays, the effective OBA against the Mets is just .246, which is excellent.

The Mariners and Angels joined five other teams in starting the season 2-0. (Only one of eight series that have gone two games ended in a split so far). Seattle showed it could win with offense last night:

Richie Sexson slugged his second home run in as many nights, and this time the rest of the Mariners offense jumped on board with a four-run explosion in the seventh inning that included a two-run blast by Yuniesky Betancourt and a run-scoring triple by Ichiro Suzuki.

My opinion coming into the season was that Seattle's offense was a big underrated, so we'll see if this shows up. The Oakland staff did some things right, as they did not issue a walk in the game, and starter Joe Blanton struck out seven in six innings. Twice, however, they allowed two-run homers. That's the problem for the staff in the first two games. Despite doing a good job of keeping the opposition off base, the three home runs allowed drove in seven runs.

The combination of Gary Matthews, Jr. and Vlad Guerrero is proving to be a deadly one. Gary reached base four times, scoring twice, and Vlad collected four hits and three RBI in an 8-3 win over the Rangers.

Vladimir Guerrero still wields a big, ugly stick and he is still willing to beat the Rangers silly with it. From the first pitch he saw in the first game of the season right on through Los Angeles' 8-3 win Tuesday, Guerrero hasn't let up on the Rangers one bit.

How bad has it been?

Guerrero, whose RBI total in the first two games has matched the entire Rangers' lineup run production, entered the season with a .431 career average against the Rangers. It's gone up.

It's pretty amazing. In 56 games against the Rangers, Vlad failed to get a hit just twice.

The most positive thing to say about the Rangers offense right now is that they are working pitchers. They forced Escobar out of the game last night after 5 1/3 innings by getting him to throw 103 pitches, and worked Lackey the same way on Monday. Eventually, they'll do that to a team with a poor bullpen and score some runs.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Rockies hope to see improvement at shortstop and catcher this season with a pair of rookies manning the positions. The new blood paid off tonight as Troy Tulowitzki delivers a game tieing double with two out in the eleventh inning, and Chris Iannetta follows with the game winning single. The Rockies even their record with the Diamondbacks in a pitcher's duel for Coors, 4-3.

The Mets pitchers allow the Cardinals just one run for the second straight game. Orlando Hernandez pitches seven innings of one-run ball, but does not strikeout a batter. That's the longest he's even gone in a game without recording a K, and is only his third major league performance in which he failed to register at least one strikeout. Still, with all the balls in play the Cardinals had a tough time scoring hitting into three double plays on the evening. The Mets have now outscored the Cardinals 10-2 in two games.

Update: The stats were right, the first name of the pitcher was wrong.

Johnny Estrada picked up two more hits and scored two runs tonight in the Brewers 4-3 win over the Dodgers. That's four on the season in six at bats, and with a walk and HBP his OBA stands at .750. Brewers catchers posted a .307 OBA in 2006, so Estrada looks like an improvement. Martin, the Dodgers catcher, also provided some offense on his side as he picked up three quarters of the cycle with a single, double and home run. The rest of the team picked up just four hits, however.

Salomon Torres retires the Astros in order for the second night in a row, picking up his second save of the season. With the 3-2 win, the Pirates are off to a good start, but their offense really isn't clicking. Pittsburgh was 38-41 in one and two runs games last year, which is what you'd expect. Maybe they're starting a lucky streak.

Extra Innings is carrying the MASN broadcast of the Orioles game tonight, and the picture looks beautiful. Looks like they fixed their problems.

Ronny Paulino picks up his first hit of the season at an opportune time as he drives in the tying run in the top of the eighth off Dan Wheeler. It's the second blown save for the Astros in two games. Nady follows with an RBI single to put the Pirates on top 3-2. The X-Man homered earlier for Pittsburgh's first run, his second in two games.

Ian Snell and Jason Jennings are making batters miss a lot tonight. The two have combined for 16 K through five innings, Snell with 10 and Jennings with 6. Neither issued a walk so far, and both allowed one run.

Beaten by the Mets on Sunday, Chris Carpenter's next start gets pushed back due to an elbow inflammation. Much of the predicted success of the Cardinals assumes a healthy Carpenter, so you can understand why St. Louis is very careful with him.

Scott Olsen looks like Dontrelle Willis tonight as he's collected as many hits as he's allowed through five innings. Olsen picked up a single and double in two at bats, scoring one of the five Florida runs. He's also doing his real job, shutting out the Nationals.

The Padres pitching staff set down the geriatric Giants hitters easily today. The Giants who reached base could only manage one at a time as seven singles and two walks was the total output of the San Francisco offense. Peavy and two relievers combined to strike out eight, and threw only 50 balls in 142 pitches.

Zito allowed two earned runs in this five innings, but the bullpen did nothing to keep the Giants in the game the rest of the way. The Padres generated eight hits in four innings against the San Francisco relievers, making the whole staff work early in the season. A disappointing debut for Bochy, but an excellent one for Black.

The Marlins first four batters reach without the aid of a hit, but Willingham takes care of that. A walk, a hit batsman and some poor defense led to two runs and the bases loaded with none out in the top of the first. Frank Robinson should be happy he's not managing this team.

Hill comes back and strikes out Bouchard looking for the first out of the inning.

Update: That didn't last long. Olivo singles up the middle to make the score 4-0.

Update: De Aza, the centerfielder, puts an end to the misery with a double play grounder to second. The Marlins have now outscored the Nationals 13-2 in 9 1/2 innings.

Heath Bell pitched Bonds well. He wasn't afraid to try to back Barry off the plate, and finally got him to fly out the other way to left. With the score 7-0 Padres, Barry's day is likely over. He finishes one for three with a walk and a single, a .500 OBA.

Rock Me TV makes programs for the web. They took their cameras to Yankee Stadium yesterday to talk to the fans on opening day.

Keep your eye out for more sports programs from them, as they'll attend the Shea opener as well.

Peavy issues his first walk of the game, losing Barry Bonds leading off the fourth. Once Jake fell behind he tried to keep the ball low and inside. He hit the corner once, but missed on pitch five to give Barry the base.

Barry Zito issues the first walk of the game to Mike Cameron leading off the fourth. He goes to second on a groundout then scores on a Bard single to put the Padres up 2-0 early. Overall, however, both pitchers are doing a great job of throwing strikes.

Update: A Feliz error helps extend the inning, and the Padres load the bases with one out before Zito issues his second walk, this time to Cruz, driving in the Padres third run.

Update: Zito induces Peavy to hit into a double play to end the inning and limit the damage.

Bonds comes up with two out and none on. He swings and misses at the first pitch, a high, outside fastball. He fouls off the second, also on the outside of the plate, then takes the waste pitch for ball one.

Peavy goes low and outside and Bonds takes for ball two, then takes another low pitch for ball three. The sixth pitch is over the plate but dives at the last second, and Bonds fights it off with the bat handle. It rolls down the third base line, but no one is there on the shift and Barry earns his first hit of the season.

Update: Bonds follows that up with a stolen base. He's not fast, but his experience allowed him to get a huge jump, and it wasn't even close. He gets thrown out at home, however, when Gonzalez can't handle Greene's throw from short on a potential ground out and Barry tries to score from second.

The Giles are batting .500. Marcus grounds out to start the game but Brian doubles for the first Padres hit of the season.

Update: Adrian Gonzelez earns his new salary by taking Zito the other way for an RBI single and a 1-0 Padres lead.

Update: That's all for the Padres. Bonds bats third in the bottom of the inning.

The Giants are hosting the All-Star game this season, so to promote that, they're introducing their former all stars. They just started introducing the Hall of Famers, so that's why the start of the game is being delayed. They just introduced McCovey, and he's on crutches. Does anyone know why?

Update: They just introduced Mays and Barry Bonds together. I know Willy's shrunk some with age, but Barry appears much taller. Mays is listed at 5' 11", 180, Bonds 6'1", 228 lb. By today's standards, Mays wasn't that big. Of the players who appeared so far in 2007, the average height is 6' 1.4" and the average weight is 201 lb. In 1957, it was 6' 0.6" and 187 lb.

The Giants are going through introducing the team right now. Barry Bonds received a strong, positive ovation.

If you're going to work for a sport's commissioner, you should work for MLB:

Baseball's central office paid $77.3 million in salaries and benefits to 231 employees, the report said. The NFL paid $41.5 million to 839 employees in 12 months ending March 31 last year and the NHL $13.9 million to 56 employees in the year ending June 30, 2005, when staff was reduced because of a lockout.

Bud received $14.5 million in 2005, although some of that was for expenses. It sounds like he's making more money as commissioner than as an owner! By the way, I don't have a problem with this at all. It just speaks to the success of the game.

Orlando Hudson asked for an autograph from Peter Coors yesterday:

A flattered Coors not only signed a ball, he went into the Diamondbacks' clubhouse to meet Hudson. Said Coors: "I don't ever remember an athlete doing that before. It was pretty cool."

I guess we know the brand of Hudson's favorite beverage!

Oriole Post didn't like the quality of the broadcast he watched on MASN last night.

Being that we are in 2007, I expected (wait, assumed) better from MASN. Well, I am going to go into the O's Xtra show in a bit, but I'm very peeved about the game broadcast itself.

The picture was not sharp or clear and the sound was very lackluster. I have DirecTV at home along with a 27" LCD in my main room. I have VHS tapes that play better on the TV through a VCR than what I saw and heard last night on MASN.

For those of you, who didn't see the game, the picture was fuzzy, some colors were distorted and you had to squint and refocus your eyes to see anything.

I'm going to give MASN a chance, but right now, I am not pleased at all, and it's kind of an embarrassment to the Orioles and the hard working people of the network.

I've watched a number of MASN broadcasts of Nationals games on DirecTV over the last two years and they were fine. I wonder what the difference is? Sometimes, on road games, broadcasters take the other teams' video feed and put their own audio over it. It's possible they didn't get a good feed from the Twins, but I don't know.

The last opening game takes place this afternoon as the San Diego Padres travel to San Francisco to take on the Giants. Bruce Bochy manages against a team he knows well, although there are plenty of new faces in the Padres dugout. It's ace against ace as Jake Peavy faces Barry Zito. Jake seems to be recovered from a shoulder problem that caused his ERA in 2006 to be half a run higher than his career average. He racked up plenty of strikeouts during spring training. Zito gets to face pitchers regularly for the first time in his career. We'll see if his strikeout number go up this season as a result.

And Barry Bonds begins his chase of Henry Aaron's all-time home run record. Barry's popped three dingers off Peavy in 28 at bats, somewhat better than Bonds' career home run rate. I wonder how the fans of San Francisco (his biggest supporters) will react to him since the amphetamine revelations of the winter time?

As other teams number two pitchers take the mound, I can't say I'm all that impressed. The Hernandez brothers both pitch, with Orlando and the Mets facing Kip Wells and the Cardinals. Kip suffered from a blood clot in 2006, limiting him to nine unspectacular starts. Of course, he was also unspectacular in 2004 and 2005. Orlando Hernandez had his health problems, too. Don't expect him to go deep in games, especially with a shortened spring training.

Livan Hernandez leads the Diamondbacks against the Rockies and Jeff Francis. The move to the Diamondbacks seemed to rejuvenate Livan a bit as he managed to give Arizona almost an inning more per start than he did with Washington. Francis almost met my Cy Young qualification last year (any Rockies pitcher with an ERA under 4.00 deserves a vote for the award) with a 4.16 ERA. He was particularly good at home in 2006, posting a low 4.30 ERA at the tough pitcher's park.

Enjoy!

As always, Maury Brown remains on top of this story. There is no longer a deadline for negotiations to end. This is bad. Deadlines force the sides to compromise, other wise things will just drag out indefinitely. It's fine to let the deadline slip if you're close, but it's better to set a new one not too far in the future.

The second post is to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal that puts Kerry and Specter in their proper place. (By the way, if I were Arlen I'd change the spelling of my last name to Spectre and start carrying around a cat.)

Update: Actually, since I'm allergic to cats, I'd probably carry a Schnoodle instead.

At NCAA FanHouse, Michigan State complains about the commericals on MLB.TV:

New this year, every time you start watching a new game, you've got to watch a 15-second Right Guard commercial ... the same 15-second Right Guard commercial, every single time, where an idiot fights a deer, and then is impressed that his deodorant doesn't have him reeking like he just spent two weeks in the hole after a 1.5-second altercation with a deer.

Maybe I'm just being selfish, but I kind of feel like the $130 I paid for MLB.TV Premium should take care of that. I don't think that's asking too much. I paid for this product, it's not fair to make me watch a freaking commercial on top of that. 15 seconds every time doesn't sound like a big deal, but ... it's enough to make me miss an at-bat, and through the course of the season, all these 15-seconds are going to add up to hours. I could really use those extra hours to stick burning pins into the nipples of my Bud Selig voodoo doll.

Someone also complained about this in the comments yesterday. All I can say is, thank goodness they're not showing HeadOn ads!

The sale of the Tribune Company halted contract talks between the Cubs and Carlos Zambrano:

Just when it looked like the Cubs were oh-so-close to signing ace pitcher Carlos Zambrano to a contract extension, the impending sale of the team has changed all that, at least for now.

Cubs president John McDonough admitted today that he and general manager Jim Hendry would have to get together on the Zambrano situation.

"Ideally, in a perfect scenario, we'd like to keep Carlos, who represents, I think, what we're looking for," McDonough said this afternoon during a conference call with reporters covering Opening Day at the Great American Ball Park. "It's that incredible passion and enthusiasm... I think, however, all of this needs to be addressed at the appropriate time.

That's too bad for Carlos. One of the reasons players like to get these things done before opening day is that they may perform poorly during the season, driving their value down. Carlos is not off to a good start in that regard.

Hat tip, Bleed Cubbie Blue.

J.C. Bradbury publishes an opinion piece in the New York Times on how expansion caused the offensive boom of the last decade plus. My comments on the original blog post are here. There's a lot of reason for the spike in offense. Expansion, homer friendly parks and new training regimens would have gotten us most of the way there without PEDs.

Cliff Corcoran offers pictures from opening day at Yankee Stadium, including shots of the new park under construction behind left field.

Curt Schilling gives the low down on his lack of command yesterday at 38 Pitches. He basically wasn't able to adjust during the game:

Anytime I get to a 3-2 count I am bothered, but getting behind and into deep counts on primarily fastballs is a bad sign. You have to have the ability to make adjustments off mistakes, something I've always felt I do, and today I am not sure I did it more than once.

The Angels defeated the Rangers in the late game last night, 4-1. 6-4-2 Was there, and recaps Gary Matthews overall good night.

The Rangers offense was disappointing at best. Lackey wasn't sharp, walking four batters in five innings, but the Rangers couldn't hit him. Their only run came on a Kinslef homer after a foul pop error, so Lackey could have walked away from that game with no runs allowed. On the bright side for Texas, Blalock picked up two hits. We'll see if Washington's magic works on the third baseman.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

A Mariners fan sent this picture from Safeco today.

Mike Napoli drops a foul pop and Ian Kinsler makes him pay, launching a ball into the fountains. The home run cuts the Angels lead to 2-1.

Update: Matthews drops a ball in deep center to keep the Rangers inning going. It looks to me that he's doesn't have a feel for exactly where the wall is yet.

Update: Lackey loads the bases with two walks, then Blalock battles him, launching a liner to center on the 10th pitch. Matthews runs in and makes the catch to end the threat. The Rangers are doing a good job making Lackey work, as they've drawn four walks and John is close to 70 pitches thrown.

With a runner on third and two out, Mark Teixeira launches a deep fly ball to right center. Matthews runs, leaps, and snow cones the ball, just short of the wall. It will make the highlight films, but I got the feeling Gary leaped too soon. He had room and time to get under the ball. The snow cone could easily have been a botched catch for a run.

I just rewatched it a couple of times to make sure, and yes, if he keeps running he makes the catch without jumping.

Update: It's a good day for Matthews so far as he walks leading off the bottom of the first and scores on a Guerrero double to put the Angels up 1-0.

Update: In the bottom of the second, Kotchman sends a ball to the top of the wall in center. Lofton jumps, but can just tip the ball as it goes over the fence. It's quite possible Matthews makes that catch.

The Minnesota Twins didn't need a great pitching performance from Johan Santana today as they score seven runs to defeat the Orioles by three. Morneau picked up where he left off last season, knocking out three hits, although twice he was erased from the base paths. Luis Castillo also added three base knocks, as those two accounted for half the Twins hits.

Given the state of the rest of the Twins rotation, they'll need this kind of performance most nights to keep winning.

Brad Lidge wastes no time blowing a save. He comes into the ninth of the Pirates/Astros game with a 2-1 lead, then Nady takes his first pitch into the Crawford boxes to tie the score at two. Lidge doubled his home run rate last season, and is off to a poor start here in 2007. That wastes a solid 7 2/3 innings from Roy Oswalt, although if the offense generated a decent amount of runs, that homer wouldn't be a problem.

Update: The Pirates complete the comeback as Jason Bay homers off Qualls in the top of the ten for a two-run lead, and Torres retires the side in order in the bottom of the 10th to give Pittsburgh a share of the NL Central lead. The bullpen won this game, throwing three innings of one-hit ball. The starter, Duke, allowed the ball to be put in play, allowing just one walk and a hits batter. The Astros hit .333 against him, but only plated two runs. The Astros went 1 for 5 with men in scoring position.

I'm somewhat surprised Felix Hernandez came out for the eighth inning. He was at 98 pitches after seven, but retires the A's giving up one hit in the inning. Felix is done now, having struck out a dozen batters, walking just two and allowing three hits. He threw a total of 109 pitches, 76 for strikes.

Just to be clear, I'm glad he went eight innings, but managers today seem to be so hung up on the 100 pitch limit, especially for a youngster, I thought it was unusual for him to pitch that extra inning.

Update: Putz comes on to preserve the shutout, although he allows a double. It's a big win for Seattle, as they are now halfway to their win total against Oakland last year. More importantly, Felix Hernandez pitched the way he's expected to pitch. It looks like all that off-season work did wonders for his control.

With the bases loaded, Cirillo delivers a single to plate the tying run. Morneau tries to score from second, but is out at a collision at the plate with Bako. Paul's chin is cut on the play, you can see blood dripping from it as he talks to the trainer afterward. The game is stopped, Bako gets a bandage and comes out to continue catching. Tough guy. That was a shot Morneau delivered, clean but powerful. It's 3-3 in the top of the fifth.

Luke Scott breaks a 0-0 tie in the bottom of the fifth of the Pirates/Astros game. After a single by Ensberg, Luke takes Duke deep for the 2-0 Houston lead. Oswalt's only used 59 pitches through five innings. Duke has yet to strike out a batter or issue a walk.

The Orioles are get to Johan Santana in the fourth, scoring three times on doubles by Huff and Gibbons. Santana walked two already, which is high for him. The Orioles lead 3-2 in the middle of the fourth.

With runners at first and second with one out, Vidro hits a comebacker to Haren, who turns and throws to Crosby covering at second to try to start the double play. The ball hits Bobby's glove and pops out to load the bases. Ibanez takes advantage of the error to deliver a sacrifice fly, then Sexson smashes a ball over the centerfield fence for a 4-0 Mariners lead. Haren pitched a great game up to this point, and should be sitting on the bench.

Travis Buck picks up his first major league hit, a double over Ichiro's head in centerfield. It's only the second hit off Hernandez in the game. Geren actually sacrifices Buck to third! Given that the game is 0-0 in the sixth, and both pitchers are being extremely stingy, that seems like a very good strategy.

Update: Kendall fails to make contact for the third time today, striking out, taking away the sacrifice fly.

Update: Stewart strikes out as well. That's nine for Hernandez through six innings.

Torii Hunter follows Justin Morneau's solo shot with one of his own on the next pitch. The Twins give Johan Santana an early 2-0 lead.

The Mile High Ballpark played like a thin-air stadium today as the Diamondbacks come back with three runs in the 8th inning to take the opening day contest 8-6. The teams combined for 23 hits and 9 walks. It came down to a better job by the DBacks bullpen as they combined to strike out nine if four innings of work, allowing just one run. The Rockies pen managed just one strikeout, while Hawkins gave up three hits and three runs for the loss.

Felix Hernandez and Dan Haren are retiring batters easily today. Hernandez issued one walk so far, striking out five along the way. Haren's put down the first nine Mariners batters using just 33 pitches. This is going to be a good one.

Update: With two out in the fourth, Jose Vidro slams a ball up the middle for the first hit in the game.

Johan Santana mixes in one of each out, getting a K, and fly and a grounder to retire the Orioles in order in the top of the first.

Joel Peralta gets the last five outs after Gil Meche pitches a fine game and Kansas City finishes opening day tied for first in the AL Central. The Royals knocked out twelve hits and five players produced multi-hit games. Schilling struck out five in four innings, but was hittable otherwise as he gave up eight hits and five runs. We'll see what Curt has to say about this start later.

Felix Hernandez looks nasty as he strikes out Jason Kendall looking. He put great movement on all his pitches. So far, they've all moved sharply late.

Update: Hernandez retires the side in order, striking out Bradley as he tries to check his swing. Felix is hitting 98 on the radar gun, and his pitches are diving all over the place. This is what Mariners fans are expecting from him.

Update: Haren does the same thing a bit more efficiently. He retires the side in order, but uses just eight pitches to do that.

Gil Meche gives up a single to Pedroia and leaves the game with one out in the eighth to a standing ovation. He strikes out six and walks just one as he holds the Red Sox on one run and leaves just five out for the bullpen to pick up. Between Meche and Pena, Dayton Moore looks like a genius today.

Update: Joel Peralta comes on in relief. He gives up a single to Lugo, but comes back to strike out both Youkilis and Ortiz to end the threat.

Jeff Baker pinch hit for the Rockies in the bottom of the sixth and homered to give the Rockies a 6-5 lead over the DBacks. Baker, in his career has now hit seven home runs in 96 at bats, a fine rate of one every 13.7 at bats.

Brad Hawpe singles to start the fourth for the Rockies, then rookies Tulowitzki and Iannetta follow with a double and a single to help Colorado to a three run inning, tying the game at five.

Then in the top of the fifth, with Snyder at second, Iannetta picks him off with a great snap throw to Tulowitzki, with the shortstop doing a good job of blocking the way back to the bag.

Mark Grudzielanek picks up his third hit of the afternoon and drives in two more runs as the Royals get to Schilling for three more runs in the fourth inning. Curt has struck out five, but when the opposition makes contact, the balls are falling in. Eight of fifteen balls in play went for hits so far.

Orlando Hudson is batting third for the Diamondbacks today. I'd say most people don't see Orlando as a three-hole hitter, unless you use the Lineup Analysis Tool. Hudson responded with with three hits so far, including a double, two runs and an RBI. So far, the move by Melvin is working well as the Diamondbacks hold a 5-2 lead over the Rockies.

Now that there's fewer games on, I'm checking out the new interactive features on Extra Innings. While watching a game on the non HD channels, you can press the menu button and get a choice of batting stats, pitching stats, or a boxscores, as well as quickly switch to Strike Zone or the mix channel. You can also get standings and leaders. The standings seem to be updated as games end, but the leader boards look like they're through the previous day. Not a bad feature at all.

Cleveland picked up eleven runs early and cruised to a 12-5 win over the White Sox. C.C. Sabathia threw strikes, using 91 pitches over six innings, 61 for strikes. He let the White Sox hit the ball as he struck out just two and allowed three runs. New addition Trot Nixon picked up three hits and scored three times from the two slot in the order. Trot could alway get on base.

Tony Pena, Jr., the last minute Royals shortstop starts his Kansas City career with a triple to the wall in left center. He's not known for his offense, but he got all of a Schilling changeup. That's his first career triple and fourth extra-base hit.

Update: Grudzielanek is up. I thought he was going to miss the start of the season. I guess he's a fast healer. He singles in Pena, Mark's second hit of the day. The Royals lead 2-1 in the bottom of the second.

Carlos Zambrano may be getting the big money, but Aaron Harang was the ace today as the Reds stopped the Cubs 5-1. Supported by two homers from Adam Dunn, Harang pitched seven strong innings, allowing six singles and two walks.

Soriano singled in four trips, as did the Cubs other big money player, Aramis Ramirez.

Brandon Webb walks the first three Rockies he faces, and Hawpe singles in two as Colorado takes a 2-1 lead after one. Webb only walked 50 in 235 innings in 2006.

Alex Gordon comes up for the first plate appearance of his career against Curt Schilling with the bases loaded.

Update: Gordon strikes out on a nice splitter. Gordon put up a nice fight, however.

Update: Shealy is a bit more selective and draws a walk to tie the game. That's all the Royals get, however, they work Schilling for even more pitches than Meche. Looks like it will be a long day for the bullpens.

The Blue Jays and Tigers bullpens held the other's offense scoreless for three innings, but in the 10th the Blue Jays nicked Rodney for two runs, and that's all B.J. Ryan needed for the save. Toronto's pen allowed just one hit while walking two.

Bonderman got off to a rough start, but didn't allow a run after the first inning. Halladay showed his typical control, walking just one while striking out four.

Ben Sheets puts in the opening bid on the 2007 Cy Young award, tossing a complete game two hitter as the Brewers down the Dodgers 7-1. Sheets need just 103 pitches to record 27 outs, only three via the K. He walked none, however, and his only mistake was the home run to Kent. That was an emphatic return to the top of the Brewers rotation.

Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz combine in the first inning to deliver the Red Sox a 1-0 lead over the Royals. Kevin singled, and David followed with a double to left center to drive Youkilis all the way home. Overall, the Sox worked Gil Meche for 27 pitches.

The Marlins two big money players paid off today as Miguel Cabrera picked up three hits, two walks and four RBI and Dontrelle Willis allowed two runs, one earned over six innings for the 9-2 Marlins win over the Nationals. The Marlins infield showed its offensive muscle as they accounted for nine of the thirteen hits and seven of the nine RBI.

Mariano Rivera finishes off the Devil Rays, throwing thirteen pitches to strike out all three batters he faced. The Yankees win the game 9-5. This strikes me as a type of game we'll see from the Yankees often this season, okay pitching with a lot of offense. The Yankees picked up 12 hits, 4 walks, 2 HBP and 2 home runs.

The Diamondbacks rough up Aaron Cook early as the first three batters collect singles and Arizona takes an early 1-0 lead.

Chad Paronto retires the Phillies in order in the ninth to save a win for the regular closer, Bob Wickman. The Braves bullpen allowed just two hits in four innings, although they did walk three. Still they kept runs off the board until the Braves offense could get the job done, and the Braves get off to a good start on the road.

Myers pitched a fine game, striking out 9 over 7 2/3 innings, but the three runs he allowed was too much for the Phillies to overcome today. With that offense, Myers should win most of these.

After Abreu singles in the Yankees seventh run of the game, Alex Rodriguez follows with a home run to center on the first pitch off Salas. He gets a standing-O and a curtain call. The game is ending much better than it started for Alex.

Edgar Renteria hits a two-run shot off Madson to put the Braves up 5-3 in the top of the tenth.

Johnny Damon left the Yankees game today with cramps in both his legs. Did he get dehydrated, or is it something more serious?

Through five innings, Carlos Zambrano has walked five and allowed five runs. That doesn't make his negotiating position stronger.

Shane Victorino doubles with two out in the bottom of the ninth to bring up Ryan Howard with the score tied at 3. After Wickman falls behind Howard, the Braves decide to walk him and face Utley.

Update: Utley pops out foul to the third baseman Jones to end the inning and create the first extra inning game of the season.

Update: The Tigers strand a base runner in the bottom of the ninth, and they take the Blue Jays to extra innings.

Alex Rodriguez singles to start the Yankees seventh, steals and scores on a Giambi single. The Yankees lead 6-5.

In a 3-3 game, the Braves load the bases in the top of the ninth, but Gordon strikes out Pena to end the inning. The Phillies now get a chance for the first walk-off hit of the season.

Update: The Tigers are in the bottom of the 9th, also tied at 3. We'll see if either home teams prevents extra innings.

Ben Sheets is making quick work of the Dodgers today. Through five innings he's thrown just 62 pitches, allowing just one hit, a home run to Kent. He's yet to issue a walk. Looks like Ben is healthy again, great news for the Brewers.

The Cleveland Indians are pounding the White Sox, leading 11-2 in the top of the third. Contreras did not get an out in the top of the second, and Masset hasn't fared much better. Four Indians already have multiple hit games, with Nixon and Hafner picking up three each. Sabathia can cruise the rest of the way in this one.

Elijah Dukes leads off the fifth for the Devil Rays with his first home run of his career, a shot over the 400 foot sign in centerfield. That cuts the Yankees lead to 3-2.

Update: Upton and Crawford follow with singles, and a stolen base in between means the game is tied at 3. Pavano might be wearing out here.

Update: Baldelli singles with one out to drive in run number four and give Tampa Bay a one-run lead. That's it for Pavano.

Adam Dunn connects on a two strike pitch for the first home run of his season. He's trying to make better contact this season, and he had a nice uppercut on a sinking pitch. The Reds take an early 2-0 lead on Carlos Zambrano.

Update: Dunn hits a second home run in the game and the Reds lead 3-0. I love when a player is on a 324 home run pace!

Miguel Cabrera is still building toward his prime, and he just keeps getting better. So far, he's hit a double and a two-run homer so far, driving in four of the Marlins six runs.

Correction: The Marlins, not the Nationals. The Nats are feeling Miguel's wrath.

The Indians are jumping on Jose Contreras early, as the first four batters all knocked out hits, including a leadoff home run by Sizemore. Blake finally grounds into a force for the first out, but the Indians lead 2-0 in the top of the first.

It's never his fault when something goes wrong.

I'm checking out Strike Zone Channel, part of the DirecTV superfan package. It's already better than I thought. Instead of being a studio show that shows highlights, they actually switch to games live when there's something interesting happening. That's very cool.

Gary Sheffield drives in the first run of the year for Detroit with a sacrifice fly. The Tigers now trail the Blue Jays 3-1.

Smotz and Myers are putting on a clinic through three innings. They've split 75 pitches, combining to throw 53 strikes. Smoltz struck out five Phillies so far, while Myers struck out two Braves and walked one.

Update: Of course, as I write that post, McCann homers to give the Braves a 2-0 lead. The Braves catcher now owns half the cycle, with a double earlier in the game.

Alex Rodriguez comes up for his first plate appearance of the season with men on first and second and one out.

Update: Kazmir works him low and inside to a full count, then goes outside and Alex swings and misses at ball four. Both runners move up on a stolen base, however, and Kazmir is pitching to Giambi.

Update: Giambi singles to center, driving in two. The Yankees are working Kazmir, he's already over 20 pitches this inning. He's gotten the two righties (Jeter and Rodriguez) but the three lefties all picked up singles.

Update: Matsui walks. Posada'sup, but I wonder if he should bat left-handed.

Update: Posada pops out to end the inning. The three righties up in the inning made all the outs.

Hanley Ramirez picks up where he left off in 2006. The ROY doubles, steals third and scores on a Jacobs single to put the Marlins up 1-0 on the Nationals.

Update: As noted in the comments, Ryan Zimmerman tripled his first time up, but the Nats fail to score.

Carl Crawford takes a 1-1 pitch the opposite way to start the Devil Rays season with a single.

Update: Crawford steals second. The ball popped out of Posada's hand, but Crawford had the base stolen anyway.

Update: Pavano runs the count full to Zorbist, then gets the shortstop to swing and miss.

Update: Baldelli pops up a pitch foul, and A-Rod fails to catch it. He was the only player who saw the ball, but it the fans don't care. Baldelli bounces back to the pitcher to end the inning with no damage.

The Blue Jays and Tigers get the first pitch in today, Bonderman walking Reed Johnson on five pitches.

Update: Reed Johnson steals second with Overbay at the plate. Reed looks like a civil war general with that beard.

Update: Overbay doubles over the head of Monroe to put the Blue Jays on top 1-0.

Update: Bonderman is off to a poor start, giving up a single to Wells and a second run to the Jays.

New York Magazine profiles David Wright and wonders if he's a little too perfect. I just want his video room:

When asked a question almost mandatory for wealthy, modern athletes--how many flat-screens do you have?--Wright uses both hands to count. "A lot," he says, unable to remember exactly. "I was at the ESPN Zone--you know it? In Times Square? Anyway, I based my media room on how they do their TVs. I've got five in there so I can watch every football game."

If his baseball career falls apart, he can always open a sports bar in his apartment!

I just called the radio station that reported the story, and it was indeed a hoax. I'm very sorry to have been fooled by this, but being April 2nd, I assumed the jokes were over. My apologies to all. The DJ who pulled this wasn't on the air yesterday, so he decided to do it today. What a jerk.

Happy Opening Day! It's the best day of the year and for some reason still isn't a national holiday. Every game is big today, but here's the best of the best.

The Yankees open in the Bronx with the most unlikely pitcher on mound, Carl Pavano. He last pitched on June 27, 2005 in Baltimore. Injuries major and minor forced the Yankees to alter their rotation, putting Carl in the spotlight. It's a chance for him to prove to jaded Yankees fans that he really wants to pitch in New York. He'll face Scott Kazmir, a pitcher the Devil Rays hope anchors their staff for years to come. He also always reminds New York Mets fans of the trade they wished they never made.

Jeremy Bonderman takes the mantle of Tigers ace today as he makes the opening day start. His record, ERA and innings pitched improved every year since he was a rookie during the Tigers terrible 2003 season. At age 24, he's reached the top. He'll face perennial Cy Young contender Roy Halladay. Roy's always had great control, with nearly a K/BB of nearly 3 for his career. With the Tigers a team that doesn't draw many walks, Roy's strength plays against the Tigers' weakness. Gary Sheffield makes his debut in a Tigers uniform, and we'll see if his selectivity can make a difference in that aspect of the Detroit game.

After two seasons of fighting injuries, Ben Sheets returns as the ace of the Milwaukee Brewers. He'll face Derek Lowe, as free agent hire Jason Schmidt does not get the number one assignment. When Ben is right he's among the best pitchers in the league, and the good Dodgers lineup will be an excellent test for him.

The two defending Cy Young winners each get to start today. Brandon Webb travels to the Mile High City to face Aaron Cook and the Colorado Rockies. Brandon's pitched very well at Coors during his career, with a 3.88 ERA in ten starts. Cook's 2006 was successful despite a poor strikeout rate. He only allowed 17 homers however, and limited damage due to walks.

The AL champion, Johan Santana, faces someone who might be poised to challenge the lefty for this year's Cy Young award, Erik Bedard. Santana is the complete package of power power and control. Bedard made a big move in that direction last year, cutting down on his walks without sacrificing his strikeouts.

There's plenty of other great matchups out there. Tom Bridge offers his opening day credo. Enjoy the day and may your favorite team win!

Joe Aiello of Big League Baseball Report interviewed me late last week about the upcoming season. You can listen at his blog.

View from the Bleachers notes an AP story on the sale of the Cubs. I'm someone who thought the Tribune company did a poor job of delivering a winner to Chicago. I hope Sam Zell does better. No word on how this might effect the Zambrano negotiations.

Update: I misunderstood the article. Zell bought the Tribune, but he's going to sell the Cubs. Start saving that pocket change for a chance to buy a great franchise!

Matthew Swarner asked for your predictions on how the divisions would play out in 2007. He gather those plus ones he found on the web and counted the votes. He weighted the vote by the position, so a first place vote was worth 1, second 2, and so forth. Lowest total wins the division. Here's the voting and the predicted order of finish.

			NL Central
	1	2	3	4	5	6
St. Louis	27	22	14	4	2	0
Milwaukee	19	18	20	10	2	0
Chi Cubs	16	20	19	11	3	0
Houston	7	9	12	32	8	1
Cincinnati	1	2	4	11	42	9
Pittsburgh	0	0	0	1	9	59

 

 

			NL West
	1	2	3	4	5
LA Dodgers	33	15	16	2	1
San Diego	11	35	15	4	1
Arizona	22	16	19	7	3
San Fran	1	2	10	37	17
Colorado	0	0	6	18	43

 

 

			NL East
	1	2	3	4	5
NY Mets	32	25	12	0	0
Philadelphia	27	27	14	1	0
Atlanta	10	16	29	14	0
Florida	0	2	13	53	1
Washington	0	0	0	1	68

 

 

			AL Central
	1	2	3	4	5
Cleveland	40	22	9	9	0
Detroit	23	28	25	4	0
Minnesota	12	25	25	17	1
Chi W Sox	5	6	21	48	0
Kansas City	0	0	0	1	79

 

 

 

The rest after the jump.

Carlos Zambrano extended talks with the Cubs on a contract extension. According to 3ManLift, he'll wind up with $85 million for five years, Zito money.

BallHype is a new site combining sports content aggregation and social networking features. It officially launches today. You can join for free and post your own thoughts, as well as rate other posts as good or poor. Stop by and say hi.

The sides are still negotiating. The longer they go, the more likely they are to reach a deal.

My daughter just heard on the radio that Curt Schilling broke his arm in a car accident in Kansas. I'm looking for a story now.

Update 8:10 AM: Still nothing on the web, but our local radio station says that Schilling stepped off a curb this morning and was grazed by the side-view mirror of an SUV. There's no official word from the Red Sox, but Curt either has a bone bruise or a fracture. Daisuke Matsuzaka might end up pitching the opener this afternoon. Stay tuned.

Update 10:20 AM: It's been too long without confirmation of this story, so like a lot of people in the comments I'm becoming suspicious. I just wrote a friend from ESPN and he hasn't heard anything about this. I'm checking with others who might know something.

Update 10:49 AM: The Schilling story is indeed a hoax. Somehow, the DJ on that station doesn't realize that April Fools Day jokes don't work on April 2nd! I'm sorry to have fallen for it.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Mets defeat the Cardinals 6-1 to claim first place in the NL East and the best record in baseball. :-) The Mets defense performed well tonight, turning four double plays and getting a diving catch from Alou and a throw to prevent a run from Beltran. Valentin was impressive at second, both starting and turning double plays. The Mets were also aggressive on the bases, going for the extra bag whenever the opportunity arose. Mets fans should be very happy about the way the team played tonight.

The Cardinals main problem was timing. They posted 10 hits, but were just one for seven with runners in scoring position.

Real opening day is tomorrow, with games starting from 1 PM to 10 PM Eastern. Set your Tivos!

The Mets score one in the top of the ninth for a 6-1 lead, but bring in Billy Wagner anyway to finish the game.

The Cardinals load the bases in the 8th off the Mets bullpen, bringing up Rolen. Heilman comes in to try to prevent a rally.

Update: Heilman gets a hard ground ball up the middle, and Valentin makes a nice diving stop to start the double play and end the inning. Mets still lead 5-1 after eight innings.

David Eckstein doubles in Adam Kennedy for the Cardinals first run of the season. He's then thrown out at the plate on a Wilson single. Carlos Beltran makes a perfect throw from center to nail him at the plate.

Update: Glavine loads the bases with two out for Molina. This is why you don't want Yadier batting fifth.

Update: Molina breaks his bat and sends a humpback liner into Reyes' glove for the third out.

Carpenter gets a bit wild in the top of the fourth, and the Mets take advantage to score three runs so far, all coming with two outs. They lead 5-0.

Adam Kennedy marks his return to the Cardinals with a triple with one out in the bottom of the third. We just need a home run now to see the first of each hit of the season in this game.

Update: On a 1-1 pitch, Carpenter tries to squeeze, a good play in that situation. The Cardinals did everything right, but the ball caught the lip of the front of the plate and just died there. It was pretty easy at that point for Lo Duca to throw out Kennedy at third. No runs for the Cardinals in the third.

Carlos Delgado drives an outside pitch to the fence in left field for the first extra-base hit of the season, a double that drives in two runs. The Mets take a 2-0 lead.

Wright grounds out to Pujols to end the inning. Albert demonstrates his range, picking up the ball half-way to second base. That's why he did so well in PMR last year.

Moises Alou gets the first hit of the season for the Mets, and Shawn Green takes advantage of Eckstein's height by lining one just above David's glove. Alou managed to take third on the hit to left, a risky move with two out.

Update: Valentin hits a hard grounder down the first base line, but Pujols makes the play for the third out.

David Eckstein starts the Cardinals offensive season with a bloop single to left.

Update: Preston Wilson grounds to Wright, who along with Valentin turn a pretty double play to clear the bases for Pujols.

Update: Glavine gets Pujols to fly out on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning. Glavine threw a very nice change-up 3-1 to get a swing and miss out of Albert.

Chris Carpenter throws the ball low and inside to Jose Reyes, who takes it for ball one. The 2007 season is underway!

Update: Reyes grounds out on a 2-2 pitch to Albert Pujols.

Update: Carpenter retires the side in order on three ground balls, although on the last one, Kennedy booted a hard ground by Beltran. He recovered, however, and just nipped Carlos at first base.

Richard Owen describes teaching his two grandsons to fish and hunt, Brian and Marcus Giles.

The San Diego Padres agree to a four-year deal with Adrian Gonzalez, with an option for 2011. This means the Padres own the slugging first baseman through the peak of his abilities and his arbitration years. At a bit over $2 million a year, this could end up being a great deal for San Diego.

When I think about who might win the NL MVP, the candidates come easily. Albert Pujols and Ryan Howard are at the peak of their production and already great hitters, and you can easily throw out half a dozen other likely candidates. But in thinking about the AL candidates, I found myself naming older players (Manny Ramirez, A-Rod, Vald Guerrero) or young ones (Mauer, Morneau). I wasn't coming up with names in the prime years of production, so I looked to see who was playing this year with a seasonal age between 25 and 28 (born from 7/1/1978 to 6/30/1982). So here's some names at an age where you might see an MVP season:

• Hank Blalock. Disappointing is the word for Blalock so far. Maybe if Ron Washington works some magic, he'll return to the form of his early career. I don't hold much of a chance of him winning the MVP, but now's the time for him to break out.
• Carl Crawford. Carl does things sports writers like. He hits for a high average, runs well, and has some power. If he can get his homer total over 30, he'll pull in some votes.
• Jhonny Peralta. He'll need to return to his 2005 numbers, but any time a shortstop posts a great offensive season, he should be an MVP candidate. How much his defense holds him back only the voters know.
Alex Rios. His power took a big step forward in 2006, and he'll need to take another to have a shot at the award. And avoid freak illnesses.
• Nick Swisher. His on base average and slugging percentage are fine, but he needs to make them great to win the award from first base. His low batting average makes him less appealing to voters.
• Mark Teahen. Like Rios, Teahen needs to keep improving his power numbers. A poor offense around him will hurt his RBI totals, which voters love.
• Mark Teixeira. His 2005 number put him seventh on the MVP ballot. If he can crack 40 homers or more, he'll move up from that spot.
• Kevin Youkilis. Youkilis' seasonal age is 28 this year and he's never shown a lot of power. He's a long shot.

If you think I missed some age appropriate AL player, let me know.

Where's Kernan notes that opening day means redemption for both the Yankees and Mets. He also points out the no-win situation in the Bronx for Mets fans:

If the Yankees win, they are not happy, and if the Yankees lose to Tampa Bay, they are not happy because that means that Scott Kazmir will have pitched another good game, the pitcher who should be the Mets Opening Day starter, if the club had not traded him.

I suppose Kazmir could pitch badly and the Yankees still lose...

Think about sending a few dollars to The Rey of Hope Foundation.

Following up on the A's post from earlier, Oakland finalized their roster and Travis Buck makes the team. That means Swisher plays first and Buck starts in the outfield. That's a decent arrangement. The pitching is still a pray for rain scenario after the Har-Har's, but the offense looks a bit better right now.

The Twins lost their radio voice today:

Hall of Fame broadcaster Herb Carneal, whose smooth baritone narrated Minnesota Twins games for the past 45 seasons, died Sunday morning of congestive heart failure.

Carneal, 83, was part of the club's radio play-by-play team for all but the first year of the team's existence in Minnesota.

"Herb Carneal's voice was the signature element of Twins baseball for multiple generations of fans," said club president Dave St. Peter, a longtime friend of Carneal's. "Clearly, he was one of the most beloved figures in Minnesota sports history."

My thoughts go out to his family and friends. This is the second year in a row the Twins are starting the season with the loss of an important colleague on their minds.

The 2007 baseball season gets underway tonight, although Monday is still opening day in my mind. But the Mets visit the Cardinals on ESPN, and the game counts. It's a rematch of last year's NLCS. Glavine faced Jeff Weaver twice in that series, but tonight he draws Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter. Over the last three seasons, Carpenter's ERA ranks third in the majors behind Clemens and Santana (300 IP minimum). He hasn't faced the Mets much in the regular season, however, since joining the Cardinals. His one start against the men from Queens resulted in seven shutout innings and seven strikeouts in 2005.

Tom Glavine ranks 16th on that same ERA list, posting a 3.66 ERA over that same three-year time span. He starts this season 10 wins shy of 300, trying to become the third of his generation to reach that plateau.

Glavine's facing Pujols resulted in mixed success for the pitcher. Albert banged out nine hits in twenty at bats vs. Tom, but all fell for singles. Not a great performance, but he minimized the damage as much as possible.

It's a perfect matchup for opening night, the World Champions vs. the league runner up. Enjoy!

The Biz of Baseball is staying on top of the Extra Innings negotiations, and has a dedicated page for updates on the subject.

The NL West shapes up as another division any team can win. From the Dodgers to the Diamondbacks, the West will be decided by the strength of improvement from rookies or decline from veterans. Don't be surprised to see a repeat of the jockeying for first place that happened last season.

With San Diego, the key to success is Jake Peavy. The Padres ace suffered from a bad shoulder in 2006. A healthier Peavy contends for the Cy Young award. His strikeouts were great this spring, 27 in 23 innings pitched. He did allow three homers and nine walks, the walks a little on the high side for him. But the strikeouts are a very good sign. If the Padres can get another season of improvement from Chris Young, they'll trot out a fine 1-2 punch at the top of their rotation.

That's actually a theme for this division. With the possible exception of the Rockies, each teams owns an excellent pair of pitchers at the top of the rotation. Which franchise ends up with the best staff depends on how they fill out the other three spots. The Padres give two-fifths of their starts to ancient pitchers, Greg Maddux and David Wells. Given their ages, both are huge question marks, especially now that Wells was diagnosed with diabetes. David did not put up very good numbers in spring training, allowing a ton of hits.

There are some positives on offense as well. The replacement of Josh Barfield with Marcus Giles looks like it will bring about a short term improvement at the position. Marcus is declining, but right now he brings more wins to the Padres than the maturing Barfield would. Kouzmanoff put together a great spring, and should add lots of life to the Padres offense from third base. There just aren't a lot of places on this team where the Padres might get worse. Cameron and Brian Giles are at an age when decline happens, but the up arrows on offense should balance that. The Padres are at least as good as 2006, and probably better.

The Dodgers 1-2 punch comes from Jason Schmidt and Derek Lowe. And while these two are good, there's not much upside there. The Padres can expect Peavy to bounce back from injury, the Giants are counting on Cain to improve, and the Diamondbacks hope Randy Johnson's surgery returns him to form. But with Lowe and Schmidt, what you see is what you get. Backing them up is Randy Wolf, who hasn't pitched a complete season since 2003, Brad Penny who walked twice as many as he struck out this spring and Brett Tomko, who reduced his walks but raised his home runs last season.

I thought the Dodgers would put together a better mix of youth and veterans on offense. Their farm system receives praise, but they send down James Loney and bring in Luis Gonzalez and Juan Pierre. In addition, Garciaparra, Frucal and Kent are more likely to decline that improve. Still if the youngster who are bound to get some playing time can balance that with improvement, the Dodgers look as good as 2007, if not a bit better.

Every year I think the Giants are going to be lousy due to their age, and every year I look at the stats and am surprised that the Giants are competitive within the division. Barry Bonds, playing three quarters of a season, on two bad legs and with a bad elbow still managed to post 25 win shares, an excellent total for any player. Vizquel and Durham still put together fine seasons, and the rest of the lineup is solid. With Bonds appearing to be healthiest he's been in the last couple of seasons, and Aaron's record in his sights, I actually expect him to improve. Still, the assumption has to be that the offense overall is going to decline due to age.

The rotation actually contains some players under 30. Zito makes the ace of the staff a couple of years younger, and Cain and Lowry are pitchers on the rise. However, you need to take points back from the rotation for the return of Russ Ortiz. Russ was so bad in 2006 the Diamondbacks decided to eat his contract rather than letting him stink up the pitching staff anymore. It strikes me that based on 2006 win shares, the Giants and Padres are pretty even. However, with youth on the Padres and age on the Giants, the Padres are more likely beat my expectations while the Giants don't.

The Arizona Diamondbacks front office knows how to build a ball club. I thought my analysis would put them near the top of the division, but that's not true. The problem is that Arizona puts a number of young but unproven players on the field. Jackson, Drew, Young, Quentin and Owings promise to be very good, but it's tough to predict all of them will have outstanding seasons in 2007. With Randy Johnson looking healthy, there's a big reason to believe I'm underestimating the Diamondbacks success this year. But my guess is that they're still a year away from the playoffs.

I also like the direction the Rockies are heading. They bring into the mix Chris Iannetta and Troy Tulowitzki, two players who posted great numbers in the minor leagues. Catcher and shortstop were two weak spots for Colorado in 2007, and these two players likely make the Rockies solid at seven of the eight non-pitching spots.

The pitching staff needs to solidify the gains made in 2006. If the Rockies offense does improve, the staff doesn't need to be great to win. A 4.50 ERA can take this team a long way.

I can imagine scenarios where any team in this division gets the right breaks and finishes first. There's not that much difference top to bottom. But I need to name an order, so here it goes:

1. Dodgers
2. Padres
3. Rockies
4. Giants
5. Diamondbacks

You can pull names out of a hat and do just as well. Will Randy Johnson turn in a superb season along with some great rookies and push Arizona to the top? Was the Rockies pitching staff for real last season? Is Bonds going to amaze us again at his advanced age? Can Peavy and Young be the best top of the rotation in the division? Can the Dodgers veterans put up one more great year?

In four of the six divisions we'll have solid four team races. It's looking like a great year for baseball fans, right down to the wire.

Once again the AL East looks like it has for the last decade. Two strong teams at the top, two evenly matched teams in the middle, and a poor team at the bottom.

The Yankees once again put together an amazingly good squad. When I calculate wins for the core players, the good teams come out in the high 60s or low 70s. The bullpens and reserves make up the rest of the total. But when you calculate the core for the Yankees, they come out to 84 wins. The really scary thing about that number is that it's a floor, not a ceiling. It assumes very low contributions from Hideki Matsui and Carl Pavano. The lineup consists of eight superior players and Doug Mientkiewicz. The Yankees could easily score 900 runs with this lineup, and if they decide they need to score more, they should be able to replace Doug at first with a slugger.

The pitching staff isn't at the same level, but the Yankees picked up three prospects over the winter who might turn out to be major league ready this season. So if Pavano or Wang or Pettitte turn out to be hurt, there's something in reserve. And the nice thing, with that offense, a team ERA of 4.50 still means they'll likely win the division.

The Red Sox end up with the second best core in the majors, but still seven games behind the Yankees. They put four superior offensive players in their lineup, Ramirez, Ortiz, Drew and Youkilis. They also work in a little youth with Dustin Pedroia. The twenty-three year old posted great minor league numbers for any position, let alone a middle infielder. He and a healthy Coco Crisp should boost the offense.

The big story on the pitching side, of course, is Daisuke Matsuzaka. The $100 million pitcher has the potential to be anything from an average starter to a Cy Young candidate. When the Red Sox watched Matsuzaka they saw a breaking pitch that was undetectable. That's what made Pedro so unhittable when he pitched for Boston. If that pitch turns out to be as good as the front office thinks, Matsuzaka will wind up much closer to the Cy Young end of the scale. Combine that with Beckett keeping the ball in the park, and there's two more arrows pointing in the direction of improvement for the Red Sox.

However, they've traded 150 innings of Jonathan Papelbon for 150 innings of Julian Tavarez or some other replacement pitcher. Papelbon returned to the bullpen as the Red Sox could not find a legitimate closer to replace him. It improves chances of the Red Sox keeping a lead late, but they may not get as many chances with Tavarez starting.

The Toronto Blue Jays finished in second place in 2006, but they'll be hard pressed to repeat that level. While the Yankees and Red Sox improved their rosters, the Blue Jays put Royce Clayton in the middle of their infield. Not only does Royce not contribute offensively, he showed very little range in 2006. It's not like they're the Yankees with eight great players around him, and decent offensive shortstops are not easy to come by.

The best place to find improvement on the Jays is in two players who spent time on the DL in 2006. A.J. Burnett and Alex Rios both should contribute more to the team in 2007 just by staying healthy. And designated hitter Frank Thomas can still hurt the opposition, especially in a hitter's park like the Rogers Center. But look for older players like Glaus and Zaun to decline some.

Halladay and Burnett give the Jays a solid 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation, but the 3-5 starters leave a lot to be desired. It's going to take some luck for Toronto to make the playoffs in 2007.

The Baltimore Orioles are actually very close to the Blue Jays in terms of core wins. Toronto edges them out by the difference between former Oriole B.J. Ryan and current Baltimore closer Chris Ray. But Ray pitched well last year in his new role, and he's still young enough to continue to develop as a closer.

The Orioles own two high power position players in Tejada and Hernandez, and Nick Markakis may become the third. Both the veterans play tough defensive positions as well, making their offense even more valuable. The rest of the lineup is solid but not great. The weakest link in the order is Gibbons at designated hitter. But, like the Yankees, if DH is an offensive problem, it's one that's easy to fix.

Erik Bedard lowered his walk rate in 2006, and his ERA went down with it. The Orioles hope Daniel Cabrera can do the same thing in 2007. Cabrera walked 104 batters in 148 innings last season. He's going to need to cut that in half to have much success in the majors. The rest of the rotation is retreads, the Orioles favorite kind of player. On the strength of their offense, they'll battle Toronto for third place, but it looks like another year out of the playoffs for the birds.

And bringing up the rear once again are the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. This is an organization moving in the right direction. They've abandoned the practice of constantly bringing in washed up veterans to salvage the team. They're going with youth, but it will take some time to develop. But I'd much rather watch a team that's going to improve than one that is destined to decline.

The offense is coming along better than the pitching. Navarro, Zorbist, Young and Upton are going to get a chance to play. Even if two turn out to be great, the DRays will show improvement in 2007. The staff behind Scott Kazmir remains iffy. The Rays need to find some pitching talent to complement their hitters before they can really make a move in the east.

So I see the division finishing:

1. Yankees
2. Red Sox
3. Blue Jays
4. Orioles
5. Devil Rays

It's possible age catches up with the Yankees, and they come back to the pack. That would make the division race a lot more interesting.

The Baltimore Sun publishes a good story on Nick Markakis' background. It includes a bizarre accident that killed Nick's best friend:

Taylor Scott Randahl died April 14, 2000. An avid mountain biker, Randahl was riding home when a car going in the opposite direction hit a deer. The deer went across the road and knocked the 16-year-old off his bike. Markakis said Randahl died about two hours after the accident.

"I never did get to see him again," said Markakis, his quiet voice filled with regret. "I was with him earlier that day, but he was cremated."

Nick plays in memory of his fallen friend. The whole article is well worth the read.

Nick Piecoro examines how the Diamondbacks plan to control costs by keeping their farm system stocked:

Young players eventually get expensive through arbitration and free agency, which makes constantly replenishing the talent supply vital. Ken Kendrick, the Diamondbacks' managing general partner, said the club has made this a focal point the past few years.

"The money that maybe some teams have spent on major league payroll, we've spent in the development side of the business, which encompasses the scouting director, assistant scouting director, scouts, player development, all of those things," Kendrick said.

"There are a number of additional staff on board with the Diamondbacks now than in the years when I first got involved. That budget has increased pretty substantially and we think if you get the right people and spend a certain amount of money and do a good job, that's a way that you can continue to be competitive for a long period of time."

That's the right idea. The next couple of seasons will show if they can execute on the plan.

Injuries are throwing Oakland into a bit of disarray as the season starts. With Dan Johnson out for half a season and Durazo not hitting, the A's are going with Todd Walker as their starting first baseman. Now, Loaiza comes down with a last minute injury:

In a little more than 36 hours, Loaiza went from being the No. 2 starter in the A's rotation to No. 5, and the disabled list is a possibility. The timing couldn't be worse for the A's, who are required to submit their 25-man Opening Day roster to the league by noon today. They open the 2007 season Monday afternoon in Seattle.

"(Loaiza) spoke to me today and said he still feels tightness and that it could potentially get worse (if he pitched)," Geren said prior to Saturday's game at AT&T Park. "My first guess is he may go on the DL. If he couldn't pitch two days ago, and he can't pitch today, I can't see how he would be ready for a major league game five days from now."

Loaiza's injury is being called a strain of his right trapezius muscle, though the pitcher said it's not the same type of problem that sidelined him last season when he went to the disabled list with a left trapezius strain.

"I've had this before and it usually goes away in two to three days with my usual workout," Loaiza said. "This time it's not going away."

Given that the candidates for the fifth slot in the rotation were pretty awful in spring training, this does not bode well for the A's in April.

MLB extended the negotiations for Extra Innings past the 11:59 PM March 31, 2007 deadline. That's probably good news. If nothing else, it gives MLB better cover if the deal falls through. If they really wanted a DTV exclusive, they could have packed up last night. It appears more and more that the exclusive deal was a way to force the other two carriers to meet MLB's desires for more money and carriage of the Baseball Channel.

Tim Brosnan, M.L.B.'s executive vice president for business, said that the deadline would expire at the end of today.

"We continue to talk," he said, "and we wouldn't have extended the deadline if we didn't think we could bring everybody in."

We'll see if tonight's deadline is flexible as well.