Ken Griffey hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth Tuesday night, turning a 9-1 effort into a 9-3 loss. The homer, however, sends Griffey past Sammy Sosa on the all-time home run list, fifth behind Bonds, Aaron, Ruth and Mays. Since the start of the steroid scandals, Griffey gained as much stature as Sosa lost. Are people generally happy Ken passed Sammy, or doesn't it matter?

Manny Ramirez hit two more home runs for the Dodgers Wednesday night, having no problem with PETCO Park. Los Angeles won 7-2, extending their lead to 3 1/2 games. Manny this season has now played about 1/4 of his games with the Dodgers (27.5%), but has 41% of his home runs with his new team and 37% of his RBI. At this point, I have to believe Fox is rooting for a Dodgers-Red Sox World Series, just for the Manny story line. Of course, Brewers-Twins would save a lot of travel costs. :-)

T.J. Simers tries to get the Dodgers to talk about the playoffs, but they won't bite:

"Hopefully, we'll make the playoffs," Manager Joe Torre said, and sometimes he sounds so clueless.

The Brewers could mess it up if they fail to win the wild card, but right now I've got Lowe opening against the Cubs, Chad Billingsley following and then everything riding on the No. 3 starter.

If it's Penny, the guy who led Florida to a World Series win, and a healthy Takashi Saito closing the game -- the Dodgers have a shot of being a real force in postseason play.

"I don't disagree," Torre said when I listed the ideal rotation, placing Hiroki Kuroda fourth and everyone else beyond Lowe, Billingsley and Penny as no factor.

Lowe pitched previously in the World Series on two days' rest, so he can go in Game 4 for the Dodgers, setting up Game 5 for Billingsley. I just need to know where there's a good restaurant in Chicago.

"You sick so-and-so," Torre joked, "but I say that with love."

The Arizona announcers sounded totally defeated after the Arizona loss yesterday. Do they really think the Dodgers are incapable of another long losing streak? Or that the DBacks can't rip off six in a row at home against the Reds and Giants? I think Torre is right. It's much too early to be thinking playoffs.

Mike Jacobs went deep against St. Louis today for his 30th home run of the season. That matched Dan Uggla for the club lead and represents the fourth time the Marlins employeed two players with 30 homers. Hanley Ramirez stands at 29, so this will likely be the first season in which the Marlins produce three 30-HR players.

They only saw one season of thirty or more home runs in their first seven years of existence, 42 by Gary Sheffield in 1996. Since 2000, they've only missed in 2002 and 2006.

The Cardinals lead 2-1 as Albert Pujols hits his 32nd home run. That equals his total from 2007, Albert's career low.

Bleed Cubbie Blue lets out a sigh of relief after the Cubs big win against the Reds on Saturday. Alfonso Soriano hit three home runs to help the Cubs score 14 runs, as many as they scored in their six game losing streak. Soriano's home run total at Great American Ballpark goes to ten in just 92 at bats. A 9.2 AB/HR rate translates to 54 home runs over 500 at bats. Maybe the Reds should have been the team to pursue Alfonso when he was a free agent.

Nick Swisher homered for the only score so far in the White Sox/Indians game. Nick's power returned after the all-star break. He hit 12 home runs in 93 games before the break, 11 in 40 games since.

Javier Vazquez has not allowed a hit through four and walked just one batter as the White Sox lead 1-0.

It looked like Justin Morneau might not reach 20 RBI in a month for the first time this season. He came into Sunday afternoon's game against the Athletics with 18 RBI for August. He knocked in four runners today, including himself with a three-run homer. That brings his total for the season to 108.

Jim Thome hit career home run 536 to tie Mickey Mantle for 14th on the all-time list. His first inning shot gave the White Sox a 2-0 lead which they have maintained into the third inning.

Alex Rodriguez hit a solo shot for the Yankees, cutting the Toronto lead to 4-1. That's 547 career for Alex, placing him one behind Mike Schmidt for 12th on the all-time list. There's a 15 home run gap between Schmidt and Reggie Jackson, so Alex would need a very good September to catch Mr. October.

Geovany Soto drives in seven of the Cubs fourteen runs tonight, knocking out two doubles and a homer. He's doing a great job of getting on base in August, and his three extra-base hits bring his August slugging percentage over .500. The Cubs needed all seven of those RBI as they down the Pirates 14-9.

Vernon Wells home run streak continues as he goes deep tonight, his third game in a row with at least one long ball. He has four in that stretch, more than a quarter of his season total of 14. He's not just hitting home runs, as his three hits tonight give him nine in those three games. Combined with a strong six inning effort by Roy Halladay, the Blue Jays defeat the Rays 6-2. Tampa's lead over the Red Sox is down to 3 1/2 games.

The Texas Rangers pounded out ten extra-base hits tonight against Detroit, two double, two triples and six home runs. The only managed four singles. Byrd doubles twice, Metcalf homers twice, and Hamilton takes home a triple and a homer. It's the sixteenth time this season a team collected at least 10 EXBH in a game and the second time for the Rangers.

Even better, Kevin Millwood pitches a complete game, giving up six hits and one run. It's his second complete game of the season and lowers his ERA to 5.24.

Ken Griffey, Jr. hit his first home run with the White Sox in the second inning off R.A. Dickey. That long ball ties him with Sammy Sosa for fifth on the all-time home run list. It took a while to get there, as his last home game on July 30th. Griffey went 13 games without a dinger.

Dickey did not come out for the third inning, and Chicago leads Seattle 10-1 in the top of the fifth.

Jon Lester and Jeremy Guthrie came through with their pitching duel. The Red Sox took a 2-1 lead into the top of the eighth on solo homers by Bay and Varitek, while Huff provided a long ball for the only Baltimore run. With Ortiz on first after an error, however, Rocky Cherry pitches to Jason Bay, and Bay delivers for the second time, a two run shot to put the Red Sox up 4-1 and give them some insurance for the eighth and ninth innings. Bay's 3 for 4 tonight and is now slugging .569 for Boston.

Evan Longoria hit his third home run in four games since the all-star break, as the home run derby appeared not to hurt him. The homer was his 19th of the season; he's now just four behind Sizemore and Quentin for the AL lead. If Longoria were to catch the leaders and win the home run crown, he'd be the first rookie to do so since Mark McGwire in 1987.

Scott Kazmir pitched seven scoreless innings as the Rays down the Athletics 4-0. They'll at worst maintain their 1 1/2 game lead in the AL East.

Ryan Howard continues to make up for his slow start with an amazing July. He plates the first run of the night for the Phillies with a solo home run in the second. The gives him nine home runs in 14 July games and 17 RBI. The Phillies lead 2-0 in the top of the third.

Steve Kroner takes a look at some of the odd stats of Jack Cust.

One way to put Cust's season in perspective: When he gets to the plate, it's more likely that the ball won't be put in play than it will be. He has 364 plate appearances. Add two hit-by-pitches to his walk and strikeout totals and you get 183.

He's no action Jackson. He's leading the team in OBA despite a .229 BA. Those types of players can be shut down by good pitching however. If pitchers throw him strikes, he can't walk, and then he just becomes Dave Kingman.

Grady Sizemore likes his chances in the home run derby due to the short rightfield porch at Yankee Stadium:

"I may be a little more pull-conscious, but other than that, I'm not going to change my approach," said Sizemore.

Along with bringing bench coach Jeff Datz to pitch to him for the derby, Sizemore said he would try to use the fact that his left-handed swing is an advantage at Yankee Stadium. The right-field fence there is 11 feet closer to home plate than at Progressive Field.

If Berkman hits lefty (and why wouldn't he?) there will be five left-handed batters in the derby. My guess is this is why A-Rod isn't competing. It will be difficult for a right-hander to win this competition.

Rick Ankiel hit well tonight, going 3 for 3 with a home run as the Cardinals shut out the Pirates 6-0. The centerfielder drove in half the St. Louis runs, two of them coming on the long ball. The home run set a milestone for Ankiel as well. He's now hit more home runs (33) than he allowed as a pitcher (32).

Ryan Howard stays hot, leading off the second inning with his 28th home run of the season. That gives Ryan eight home runs in his last 10 games. He has 16 RBI to go with the eight dingers. He also extends his hitting streak to 14 games. Chase Utley carried the team early, Howard is carrying the team now.

I was being driven back from the auto repair shop this morning, and the radio was playing "Sunglasses at Night." I thought, I'll have to do a Corey Hart post today. Luckily, Hart homered this afternoon, helping the Brewers to an 11-1 victory over the Rockies. It was the 15th homer for Hart, bringing his slugging percentage up to .510 for the season. Fielder hit his second triple of the year, matchng his career high, and Gabe Kapler knocked out three doubles as the Brewers picked up a total of seven extra-base hits in the game.

Ryan Howard hit his 26th home run of the season to give the Phillies a 2-0 first inning lead over the Cardinals. The shot allows Howard to pass his teammate Chase Utley for the major league lead in home runs. After hitting five in June, Howard has six dingers in ten July games.

Update: Howard goes deep again in the 6th. If he keeps this up, he won't want to stop for the all star break. The Phillies lead the Cardinals 4-1 in the sixth.

Miguel Cabrera goes four for four with two homers as the Tigers pound the Indians 9-2. He came into the evening with a .471 slugging percentage and raised it to .495. Miguel has now collected ten his in his last five games with four home runs. This is what the Tigers expected when they made the trade in the off season.

Alex Rodriguez homers off Tim Wakefield to start the Yankees second inning, giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead. The homer is A-Rod's 536 career shot, tying him with Mickey Mantle on the all-time list. Alex reached that level four years younger than the Mick.

I wondered how the crowd would react, and despite the news on the gossip pages, Alex received a huge cheer and came out for a curtain call. Number 13 is now 13th on the all-time list.

J.J. Hardy has been dyn-o-mite lately, hitting two home runs today to bring his July total to six. He hit six through the first three months of 2008. He also doubled, making him 15 for 25 on the month with nine extra-base hits. The 11-6 win over the Pirates gives Milwaukee a 5-1 record in July, and they've outscored their opposition 39-23, over two runs per game.

Alex Rodriguez picks up the Yankees first hit of the night in the fourth, his 16th home run of the season. That gives him 534 for his career, tying him with Jimmie Foxx for 14th on the all-time list. Up next is Mantle at 536. I suspect that will be a big deal if he hits that one at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees trail the Rangers 2-1 in the fifth.

Update: Another milestone to watch for is Alex's 540th home run. His seasonal age in 2008 is 32. When he hits home run 540, he'll hold the record for most home runs through age 34.

B.J. Upton takes Masterson's first pitch over the fence in centerfield for a 1-0 Rays lead in the bottom of the first. The stands look as full as I have ever seen in Tampa Bay for a weeknight game.

Update Sheilds is dealing tonight. He's retired the first nine Red Sox batters, four on strikeouts. He's thrown just 31 pitches, 22 for strikes.

Update: Pedroia singles with one out in the fourth.

Update: With two out, Manny walks and Lowell singles to tie the game at one.

Adam Dunn hit his 20th home run of the year and drove in three to help the Reds to a 9-5 win over the Cleveland Indians. That's seven straight years of 20 homers for Dunn. He just missed eight straight with 19 in his rookie season of 2001.

He's hit at least 40 every season since 2004, and halfway through the season he's halfway there. He's in a very tight group at the top of the HR chart since the start of the 2004 season:

Most HR, 2004 through June 29, 2008

Slugger	Home Runs
David Ortiz	190
Alex Rodriguez	188
Adam Dunn	186
Albert Pujols	185
Mark Teixeira	160

That's impressive company for the Cincinnati slugger.

Carlos Delgado hits a second home run for the Mets and drives in nine runs as the Yankees fall 15-6. With 44 RBI on the season, 1/5 of Delgado's came in the afternoon end of the double header. With the win, the Mets sweep all three games at Yankee Stadium.

Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning to put the Braves up 4-0 on the Seattle Mariners. For Teixeira, it's the second home run of the game. The Braves first baseman is suffering a power outage this season. Even with those long balls, his slugging percentage is just .454, over 100 points lower than 2007 and about 70 points below his career average. That's going to make him a lot less desirable as a free agent next winter.

Update: Teixeira adds a third home run, this time a two-run shot in the seventh. It's his second three home run game, the first came against the Orioles on 7/13/2006.

Marcus Thames hit another home run last night, bringing his total to 14 for the season. With nine of his last eleven hits for home runs, Thames climbs high on the all-time list for highest percentage of hits for home runs.

All time leaders, percentage of HR for Hits (100*HR/Hits)

Slugger	Percentage
Mark McGwire	35.9
Kevin Roberson	32.8
Ryan Howard	30.5
Russell Branyan	29.2
Adam Dunn	29.0
Marcus Thames	28.8
Dave Kingman	28.1
Ken Phelps	27.8

Given Thames's poor OBA, he's much more like Dave Kingman than Dunn or Phelps.

Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi hit solo home runs in the second to put the Yankees up 2-0 on the Padres. That gives Alex 531 for his career. That puts him three behind Jimmie Foxx for 14th place and more importantly to New York fans, five behind Mickey Mantle for 13th place.

Update: Giambi adds a second home run for seventeen on the season, and the Yankees are up 7-0 on the Padres in the fifth. He's now slugging .598 on the season.

Carlos Beltran appears to be trying to save Willie Randolph's job as the Mets' centerfielder (DH in this game) hit two solo home runs so far tonight. That brings Beltran's total to ten on the season, and the Mets lead the Angels 4-1. His five home runs in June equal his combined April-May total.

He drinks a whisky drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink

Marcus Thames homers in his fourth consecutive game to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead in the second. He's also hit six homers in his last nine games. Almost all Thames offense is in his power as he has a .255 BA and a .328 OBA, but a .591 slugging percentage. Fifteen of his 28 hits have gone for extra bases.

Update: Thames hits a second home run in the game. The Tigers lead 3-2 in the top of the fifth. It's a big night for multi-homer games.

The Red Sox hit four home runs Sunday afternoon as they down the Reds 9-0. Since David Ortiz last played on 5/31, Boston is hitting for more power:

Red Sox 2008	March-May	June
Batting Average	.280	.283
Slugging Percentage	.441	.488

J.D. Drew hit his seventh home run since since Ortiz went down. He's hitting .447 with a 1.085 slugging percentage. Lowell, Ramirez, Youkilis and Casey are all putting up high slugging percentages in David's absence. So far, the Red Sox are weathering this injury just fine.

The balls are flying out of Minute Maid Park. Wednesday night, the Brewers and Astros combined for eight home runs in a 10-6 Milwaukee victory. This afternoon, five more have left the field and the Brewers lead 7-3 in the sixth. Needless to say, eight of the thirteen homers belong to the Brewers, with three coming off the bat of Corey Hart. He's driven in seven runs in the last two games.

Ryan Doumit continues his hot home run hitting with a two run shot in the first inning against Washington. He's homered in three straight games, a total of four in that time. He's now slugging .661 on the season. The Pirates lead the Nats 2-0.

Jason Giambi takes Justin Duchscherer deep in the second inning, the first home run Justin allowed in 41 2/3 innings, according to the broadcast. It's Giambi's 15th of the season, one more than he hit last year.

Congratulations to Ken Griffey, Jr. who hit the 600th home run of his career in the first inning tonight. He's the third player this decade to break the barrier. After his first decade in the majors, Ken seems a shoe in to challenge Aaron, but he struggled to get to his milestone. It shows just how quickly injuries can sap a player of his power.

Update: Volquez has a no-hitter through four. This may be one of those days where one event over shadows another, like Ryan throwing a no-hitter when Henderson set the stolen base record.

Update: Luis Gonzalez leads off the fifth with a single. The Reds lead the game 6-0.

Alex Rodriguez homered in the Yankees 3-2 loss to the Royals this afternoon, his 528th home run. When A-Rod debuted on 7/8/1994, Griffey led him by 165 home runs. Alex has that down to 72 now.

Fielder, Hardy and Braun each homer as the Brewers defeat the Diamondbacks 7-1. That gives the team eleven home runs in the last five games. The three-four hitters, Fielder and Braun have seven of those in 28 at bats. Milwaukee has won five in a row and are now tied with Astros for third in the NL Central, both 6 1/2 games behind the Cubs pending the outcome of the game in San Diego.

Dan Uggla keeps the pressure on Chase Utley for the title of most powerful second baseman. Uggla hit two home runs so far tonight to put the Marlins up 4-3 in the top of the fourth. That three multi-home run games for Dan this season.

Chipper Jones hits a three-run home run to put the Braves up 3-1 in the bottom of the first. That raises his average to .410. There's little sign of his cooling off.

Prince Fielder breaks a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the 8th, leading off the inning with a long home run way up off the steel support tower in centerfield. He's heating up as that was his third home run in his last four games.

After struggling to reach 500 home runs, Manny homers in his third straight game. Manny hasn't hit that many homers in Baltimore in his career. That's his 18th in 91 games. Boston and Baltimore are tied at two in the bottom of the seventh.

Chase Utley remains on fire, hitting his 21st home run of the season, a two-run shot off Bronson Arroyo in the first inning. He's homered in five straight games, and seven of his last eight. He's also one short of his total from last year in less than half the games.

Utley had a streak of homering in five straight games earlier this year. That's two pretty good streaks for one season. Mark McGwire had two streaks of four in 1998, and Bonds had two streaks of six in 2001.

Correction: I misread the game log earlier. I've corrected Utley's streak.

Chase Utley became the first major league player to reach 20 home runs this season with a solo shot against the Marlins this afternoon. Utley in his second home run hot streak of the season:

Chase Utley	Games	Home Runs
Through May 3rd	31	13
May 4th - May 24th	20	1
May 25th - June 1st	7	6

In the middle slump, all Utley's batting stats suffered. He posted an OBA and a Slugging Percentage of .306. With the game tied at five in the seventh, Utley might get a chance to hit another today.

Update: The Phillies score two in the bottom of the seventh to take game 7-5 and move back into first place by 1/2 game over the Marlins.

Manny Ramirez became the latest player of his generation to reach 500 home runs and the 24th overall. There are now nine players whose careers started in the mid 1980s or later who reached this milestone. Congratulations to Manny on his achievement!

The next question becomes, how high can he go? Manny's seasonal age is 36, and his skills as a batter started to diminish in 2007. It was the first year his slugging percentage fell below .500 since his cup of coffee in 1993. His playing time dropped in 2006, with Manny losing about 30 games to injury in both 2006 and 2007.

Prior to this season, Manny went through an intense training regimen. The result so far is a slugging percentage up 8 points and an OBA down 19 points. In other words, the falloff we saw from Manny in 2007 appears to be real. What has improved is Manny's ability to stay in the lineup, as he's played 54 of the Red Sox 58 games.

So it looks like Manny's new home run level is somewhere between 20 and 30 home runs a year, probably 25 on average. Even with his performance falling, Manny's coming off such a high level that he'll continue to be valuable for a few more years. That means he'll keep playing.

I don't know if it will be with the Red Sox, however. One thing that's helping Manny's cause right now is the large per year contracts given to Hunter and Andruw Jones. Given the relative performance, Manny's $20 million options don't look so bad. It could be the Red Sox want to spend that money long term, however. It's interesting that now that the option is near, Manny wants to stay in Boston and loves the Red Sox fans, etc.

Does he have four more years of 25 home runs in him? I'd say the odds are good. I'd expect him to pass Sosa, but not get to Mays.

Ken Griffey, Jr. hits a two-run homer in the first to put the Reds up 2-0 (Bruce singled in front of Griffey). That gives Ken 599, and Fox will cut into his plate appearances to see if he hits 600. Phillips followed with a big fly of his own, and the Reds lead the Braves 3-0 in the first.

Chipper Jones singled in the top of the inning to raise his BA to .412.

Paul Konerko is one of the players responsible for the power outage in the American League this season. Over his previous fifteen games, Konerko was not only batting .169, his ten hits turned out to be all singles. He finally showed some life tonight against the Rays, going two for four with a home run as the White Sox won 5-1. Konerko's and Thome's poor starts are one reason the White Sox may be able to hang on for the AL Central crown. At some point their likely to regress toward their career averages, improving the White Sox offense as they do.

Marcus Thames hit two two-run home runs Wednesday night as the Tigers took down the Angels 6-2. All five of Thames' home runs came off lefties this season.

Marcus is a powerful out machine, and that makes it tough to put him in the lineup every day. As you can see in his career splits, even against lefties, his .336 OBA is just adequate, which his .507 slugging percentage is very good. He generates some power against righties, but just sucks up outs with a .287 OBA.

If Thames had figured out how to improve his OBA early, he might have had a very productive career. Instead, his power alone keeps him in the majors to occasionally make a lefties life miserable, and otherwise sit on the bench.

Josh Hamilton helps take down the Rays 12-6 as he doubles and hits a grand slam to drive in five runs. That brings his RBI total to 58 in 53 games played (54 Rangers games). That puts him on a pace for 174, which would be 10 short of Gehrig's AL record. The last player to have more RBI than team games played was Manny Ramirez in 1999. He drove in 165 that season.

Jason Giambi just hit a home run over Boog Powell's food stand in Baltimore. It must be the moustache. The Yankees already have four hits and a 1-0 lead in the second, as they're having no problem with the lefty Burres so far tonight.

Update: Damon adds a three run shot, and New York leads 4-0. Both homers were by left-handed batters.

Update: Millar and Hernandez go back-to-back in the bottom of the second to cut the Yankees lead to 4-3.

Jason Giambi goes the opposite way and delivers a home run into monument park for a 3-0 Yankees lead. Five of the last six batters picked up hits for the Yankees and they now lead 4-0, still batting in the second. The homer makes Giambi 15 for 48 in May, bringing his average for the month over .300.

Gordon Edes presents some trivia on the Red Sox hitting two grand slams in a game. Drew and Lowell each went deep with the bases loaded today.

Alex Rodriguez hits a two-run homer in the six to cut the Orioles lead to 10-2. Otherwise, Daniel Cabrera is pitching very well, not allowing a walk so far tonight.

Dan Uggla just hit his fourteenth home run of the season, an upper deck job into left field. The solo shot off Owings extends the Marlins lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth.

Hendrickson was out after five having thrown 97 pitches while striking out seven. Owings is at seven strikeouts himself and still in the game.

Evan Longoria delivered a two-run homer in the top of the 13th Monday night to put the Rays on top of the Athletics 7-5. Tampa Bay held on for a 7-6 win. In his very short career, Longoria has hit four of his five home runs from the seventh inning on. He also seems to hit them in fairly meaningful situations. Two have come with the game tied, one with the Rays up by a run, one trailing by a run and one trailing by two.

Ryan Ludwick keeps supplying the Cardinals with power. He puts the Cardinals up 2-0 in the first with his 12th homer of the season. He now has 41 hits, and a Mark McGwire like 25 for extra bases. His .767 slugging percentage is more than twice his .342 BA, meaning is average hit is more than a double.

In his 68th at bat with the Athletics, Frank Thomas finally delivers a home run. There was no doubt about this one, as it clears the fence right over the 400 foot sign in centerfield. The shot with Jack Cust at first puts the A's up 2-0 after one.

The Tigers Matt Joyce hit his fourth home run of the season Saturday night, providing the winning cushion as the Diamondbacks fell 3-2. Joyce had an interesting minor league career as he advanced a level every season without doing much the last two years. At 23, however, he seems to have found his power stroke as he started the season with five home runs in 97 at bats at AAA, and how added four more in 30 at bats at the major league level. Someone thought they saw progress as a hitter where the stats weren't telling the whole story. So far, they are correct.

For the second game in a row, Alfonso Soriano hits two home runs. He's on a power tear right now, homering in five of his last six games, seven in total.

Nate McLouth may have the last swing, however, as he hits a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to great a five run tie.

Update: Soriano ends up going five for five, missing the cycle by a triple as he doubles in the ninth and scores. The Pirates, however, hang on to win 7-6.

Jayson Werth is due up third as the Phillies go to the bottom of the seventh. He'll come to the plate with three home runs and nine RBI under his belt with a three-run, grand slam and solo shot.

Update: Werth comes up with no one on, so he won't get the home run cycle in this at bat.

Update: Werth pops out in foul territory. Still a game to savor for the Phillies outfielder.

You can't spell Jayson without Jays, and Werth is single-handedly destroying Toronto tonight. In consecutive innings he hit a three run homer and a grand slam for seven RBI. He just needs a two-run shot and a solo homer for a home run cycle.

Update: Werth hit the solo shot in the 5th inning. We'll see if he can hit four, which is amazing all by itself, and if he can make it a two run shot.

Update: Here's the list of four homer games. Phillies have accomplished the feat three times previously, one fifth of the instances.

Alfonso Soriano homers in the first and second innings of this afternoon's game to drive in four of the Cubs six runs as they take an early 6-0 lead on the Pirates. Soriano now has 21 hits in May with six home runs and 11 extra-base hits.

The Braves established an 8-0 lead early, but the Phillies fought back, falling just short 8-6. Chipper Jones goes two for four to raise his league leading batting average to .418. It continues to be a very loud .400 he's hitting as the hits were a double and a home run, raising his slugging percentage to .705.

On the other side, Chase Utley moved back into the home run lead by hitting his 14th of the season. Ryan Howard homered also, extending his hitting streak to six games.

Ryan Braun didn't hit two homers tonight, but he did knock out a double and a triple. That helps the Brewers to a 5-3 win over the Dodgers. It's his fourth consecutive game with two extra base hits, and over the game he's raised his slugging percentage from .444 to .563.

Ryan Church continued his May slugging binge, knocking out a double and homer in for at bats as the Mets down the Nationals 6-3. Church is slugging .780 on the month, with 32 total bases in 41 at bats. He also drove in four runs tonight, one of the few Mets hitters able to take advantage of men on base. New York only plated six runs despite collecting fourteen hits and two walks.

Ryan Braun follows up his two home run performance from Sunday with another tonight. That leaves him one short of the record for consecutive games, and with the game in the top of the seventh inning, he should get a chance to tie it.

Eric Gagne is in to start the seventh with an 8-1 Brewers lead. It will be very difficult for Gagne to blow this game, but he's giving it a try as he starts by walking the leadoff batter.

Update: Braun grounds out to shortstop to end the seventh inning. It looks like he won't get three homers tonight.

The Florida Marlins keep winning. Dan Uggla hit his seventh home run of the season and the sixty sixth of his career. He started playing in 2006, and since that time, here's the list of players with more or as many homers as Uggla. It's not very long.

Renyel Pinto pitched two scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 0.76. He's cementing his status as the greatest baseball player named Pinto.

Joey Votto goes deep three times off three different pitchers as the Reds are now out to a 9-0 lead. He drives in four with the three shots.

For those of you who believe Dusty Baker wears out young pitchers, Edinson Volquez starts the seventh. He's close to 100 pitches, the field is wet due to rain, and the lead is not in jeopardy. The Cubs announcers questioned the wisdom of letting him start the inning.

Update: I believe that Dusty didn't have anyone up in the bullpen, either. Volquez has allowed two base runners this inning and Brenly noticed Edinson's body language says he's tired. He's already past his career high in pitches (112), and the Reds are leaving him in the game.

Update: He gets a strikeout to end the inning, setting a career high with 118 pitches thrown.

Update: Votto leads off the eighth with a chance for a four home run game.

Update: He grounds out to short.

Royals Authority is looking for the next Jack Cust.

Richie Sexson hit his seventh home run of the season tonight, tying him for second place among AL home run hitters. He's not hitting for a high average, but half his hits have gone for extra bases. If you're going to be an unproductive hitter, that's the way to do it.

The Astros came into the series against Milwukee with 30 home runs in 29 games. The bats came to life Friday as each home run raised money for muscular dystrophy, and continued as they hit nine homers in the three games. They use that power to sweep the Brewers, outscoring them 21-12 and are just 3 1/2 games out of first place pending the outcome of the Cubs/Cardinals game.

Pat Burrell won some Philadelphia hearts tonight as he hits a two-out, two-run homer to defeat the Giants 6-5 in ten innings. San Francisco scored in the top of the inning, as former Phillie Aaron Rowand hit a solo shot. After an Utley single and a Howard strikeout, Burrell hit the first long ball of the season off Brian Wilson. All six Phillies runs scored on two-run homers as Utley and Feliz went deep earlier.

Chase Utley hit home run number twelve tonight, bringing his major league leading total for the year to twelve. That's four more than any other player in the majors. He's picked a good year to try to lead the league in long balls, as no one else seems to be off to a great start.

He's hitting more than home runs as well. He also has ten doubles and a triple for twenty three extra base hits, more than half of his forty two hits. He's walked eleven times to push his OBA well over .400. He's the complete hitter this season.

The Tigers sweep the Yankees with an 8-4 victory tonight. The middle of the order did a lot of damage tonight as Ordonez, Cabrera and Guillen combined to go seven for thirteen with two walks, and Sheffield added two walks from the third spot. Magglio and Carlos picked up doubles, while Cabrera added a triple and a homer. The Quartet scored and drove in five runs as they were too much for Kennedy and Albaladejo, who each gave up four runs. This is exactly what the Tigers were expecting when they assembled this lineup.

I'm watching the San Diego feed of the Padres-Phillies game. As Howard steps up to lead off the bottom of the eighth, they run a graphic showing that he's hit the most home runs since the start of the 2006 season. As the announcer intones that stat, the first pitch comes in and Ryan deposits in the rightfield stands for a 3-2 Phillies lead. Producers love those moments, although as San Diego broadcasters, I bet they want that moment back.

Adrian Beltre hits his fifth home run of the season, a three-run shot in the top of the ninth to break a 2-2 tie with the Indians. Betancourt gave up three straight hits to start the inning, ending with the home run. That's three home runs allowed by Rafael in 11 1/3 innings.

Beltre is living up to his contract this season with a BA over .300, an OBA over .400 and a slugging percentage over .500.

Carlos Quentin ties the game 1-1 with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth. That's his third home run off Orioles pitching this season, half of his total. He's now slugging .605 on the season, proving to be a valuable pickup.

Daniel Cabrera is lucky to have allowed just one run so far. He's put ten men on base via a hit, walk or hit by pitch, but the White Sox left the bases loaded in one inning and two on in two other innings.

Troy Glaus's power took a dive this April. Coming into this season, Glaus had career totals of 277 homers and 241 doubles. He only played two season in which he collected more doubles than homers. In 2008, however, he started with eleven doubles and no homers. He was hitting the ball hard, just not out of the park. That changed today as he picked up his first tater of the season, a two-run shot to cap a four run Cardinals fifth inning. This is similar to what happened to David Ortiz last year, where he lost nineteen homer but picked up twenty three doubles.

The Cardinals defeated the Astros 5-1 as Kyle Lohse continues to be one of the best signings of the winter.

Matt Kemp picked up five RBI in the first inning tonight. His first time up he hit a sacrifice fly to cut the score in half 2-1. In his second plate appearance of the inning, his grand slam put the Dodgers up 10-2. Since April 15th, the Dodgers, seem to be an all or nothing team. The either score a ton of runs or very few. I guess the offense switch was set to on this evening.

Jason Giambi hits his second home run of the night, both to right center. He's now batting .190 but slugging .500. Eight of his eleven hits, three doubles and five homers, have gone for extra bases. With an .851 OPS, that's about the most productive .190 you'll ever see.

The Brewers defeat the Phillies 5-4, but Chase Utley is the first player to reach ten home runs. My SportingNews.com column today addresses the rarity of a second baseman leading the majors in home runs.

My latest column at SportingNews.com looks at why it's been 82 years since a second baseman led the majors in home runs.

Chase Utley extended his home run streak to five games with a solo shot in the sixth. He's trying to tie Long, Mattingly and Griffey with streaks of home runs in eight straight games.

The Phillies lead 9-5 going to the bottom of the ninth. Werth and Burrell also went deep.

Chase Utley just hit his second home run of the game to put the Phillies up 4-0. He's driven in all four runs with a solo shot in the first and the three-run homer in the fifth. His homer in the first extended his home run streak to four straight games.

Chase is now slugging .795, with sixteen of his twenty five hits going for extra bases. Six of his eight home runs, however, came at home.

Update: It's a good thing Utley hit the home run when he did. Reyes leads off the sixth with a triple, and three more hits later the Mets have scored three and they have a man on with none out.

Update: With one out, Beltran steals second, then scores on a bloop single to right. The game is tied at four.

Chipper Jones hit two home runs for the second game in a row, this time against the Dodgers. Jones has had a pretty consistently powerful career. Only three times since his first full season in 1995 has he slugged under .500. He now eight home runs away from 400, and is a .300/.400/.500 hitter for his career.

Chipper's 38 multi-homer games rank ninth since 1995. Sammy Sosa leads the pack with 58 in that time frame.

Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez go back to back in the first inning to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead over the Red Sox. (Girardi let Wang pitch to Ramirez in the first inning with a man on second and two out, and Manny doubled.) Alex moves ahead of Williams and McCovey and claims 15th place on the all-time home run list for his own. He's now a dozen behind Foxx for 14th place.

Travis Buck drives in all three Oakland Athletics runs as the A's take the game against Toronto in twelve innings, 3-2. Buck's doubles give him six on the season.

For his career, Buck averages a double every 11.5 at bats. That would be 52 in a 600 at bat season. Given that he's still young and should be improving, we might see 60 doubles from Travis someday.

Miguel Tejada makes a good first impression on the Houston fans as he hits a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the Cardinals 5-3. After eight shutout innings by Rodriguez and Brocail, Valverde blows a three run lead in the ninth. He gave up two walks, two singles and a double.

Lee, however, singled to start the inning and Miguel hit the first pitch for a home run. The Astros hit four dingers tonight after hitting seven in their first seven games.

Chris Young started hitting home runs in bunches on August 14 of 2007. Starting on that date, he leads the National League in long balls. Saturday's two home runs against Colorado marked the fourth time in that span of 47 games that Chris went deep twice. With that kind of power you wonder how long the Diamondbacks can afford to keep him in the leadoff spot.

David Ortiz and Jason Varitek both homered today as the Red Sox defeat Oakland 5-0. Those two seemed most discombobulated in Japan. Varitek got his first hits last night, and two more today. Big Papi finally delivered for the Red Sox this afternoon.

Harden was a bit wild but kept Boston off the scoreboard for five innings. The bullpen couldn't hold the fort, however. Meanwhile, Lester, Corey and Delcarmen had an easy time with the Athletics. The usually selective A's only managed three walks in the game.

Tom Tango looks at the reasons for the increase in home runs from 1993 on, and comes down on the ball. It's important to know that the ball is not technically juiced, but is manufactured at the high end of the allowable range. My theory (which I could never get ESPN to pursue) was that there was a change in manufacturing practices that produced a more consistent ball. That consistency was set at the high end.

My guess is that under older manufacturing techniques, hundreds of thousands of balls were manufactured before they were tested. I'm guessing as time went on, these balls became looser, and overall the balls tended to fall in the mid range of the specification. With the introduction of control charts into US manufacturing in the late 1980s, however, testing is done every 100 balls or so, and the second they get a little out of whack, the process is corrected. I talked to the manufacturer in 1993, and they told me at that time they were producing the most consistent ball ever. What they needed to do, however, was produce the mid-range ball, not the high range ball.

Alex Rodriguez hit his 54th home run tonight, driving in three and scoring twice. That gives him a new career high in runs scored (142) to go with his RBI high. He needs four more runs or RBI to reach a combined total of 300 for the season.

It's an interesting level to reach because it tells us something about the player and the team. To both score and drive in lots of runs, a player must get on base often and hit for power. You have to provide the batters behind you with opportunities for RBI, plus provide the power to drive in the runners on base when you come to the plate. But for both runs and RBI to be this high, you need a great team around you. The table setters need to be great at getting on base. The batters behind need to supply plenty of power themselves. So when you see a batter with these run and RBI numbers, you know you're seeing a great player in the middle of a great offense.

Update: Alex gets his third hit and fourth RBI of the night, giving him 155 on the season and a combined RBI + Runs of 297.

David Ortiz ended his streak of nine consecutive hits in the sixth inning tonight when he grounded out. Earlier in the game, he picked up his fifty second double of the season. With a .445 OBA and a .617 slugging percentage, imagine what Ortiz would have done with a healthy leg!

Prince Fielder goes deep to the opposite field as he delivers his second home run of the game and reaches the 50 home run mark. He and his dad Cecil become the first father-son combination to each reach 50 homers. Cecil hit 51 in 1990 for the Detroit Tigers. The Brewers lead 9-1 in the seventh as they try to gain a game on Chicago.

Alex Rodriguez, after a long drought, hits home run 53 on the season. It's a big one, too, a grand slam that puts the Yankees up 5-0 in the third as they try to clinch a playoff spot. That takes him to 151 RBI and 139 runs scored, a total of 290 on the season.

By the way, no player has ever ended a season with 53 home runs. There were seven 52 home runs seasons and five 54 home run seasons, but never a 53. Maybe that will change this year.

Carlos Pena hit his 40th home run today, putting him in a class with Tiger slugger Hank Greenberg. In 1936, Hank played just 12 games and hit one home run. He came back in 1937 to hit 40. Last season, Pena played 18 games and hit just one home run.

That's not the biggest difference between two seasons. McGwire hit three in his cup of coffee season of 1986, then game back to win Rookie of the Year honors with 49. Killebrew did something similar, although he played small parts of five season before becoming a regular in 1959, going from 0 to 42 home runs. But for players well into their careers, the 39 home run difference is a record.

Tampa Bay wins game number 63, avoiding 100 losses this year.

Vlad Guerrero goes deep in the first inning to plate the only run of the game so far as LAnaheim leads Chicago 1-0 in the third. The home run gives Vlad 25 on the season, the tenth season in a row Vlad reaches 25 home runs. It's also the fourth time he's reached 120 RBI in a season.

Prince Fielder set a new franchise record for home runs last night as his 46th of the season is the new Brewers mark. His teammates are calling for for him to be the Most Valuable Prince:

Prince Fielder's teammates describe him with words such as charismatic, special and unbelievable.

Francisco Cordero has other ideas.
"To me, he's got to be the MVP," Cordero said. "I think Prince is going to be the MVP in the National League."

If recent impressions help the voters decide, then Fielder may indeed get the nod. He's leading the National League in slugging percentage in September, with a very healthy batting average and OBA to go with it (although he's no Jack Wilson). With the Brewers winning last night and the Cubs splitting the double header with St. Louis, Milwaukee is back to one game out in the NL Central. A few more key home runs by Fielder over the last two weeks, and the votes and the division title my fall his way.

(The award should go to Hanley Ramirez or David Wright, although I wouldn't have a problem if Fielder took home the trophy. If Fielder does hit fifty home runs and Ramirez wins the MVP, he'll have two things in common with his dad, hitting 50 homers and losing the MVP award to a power hitting leadoff man.)

Alfonso Soriano hits a late game home run to give the Cubs a 3-2 lead over the Cardinals. That's his seventh home run in fifteen games this month. Of course, since he's hitting them from the leadoff spot he's only driven in 13 runs.

Update: Cubs win 3-2. Looper pitched a great game, giving up one run in seven innings, striking out five. But the bullpen gave up the big fly to Soriano, and that's all the Cubs needed. They now lead the Brewers by two with another game coming up tonight.

Prince Fielder hits his forty fifth home run of the season, reducing the deficit to two as the Reds lead 5-3 in the top of the eighth. With his 1 for 2 tonight, Fielder is hitting .415 in September with six home runs and an .854 slugging percentage. He's five home runs away from repeating his dad's feat of fifty home runs in a season. They'd be the first father-son duo to accomplish that.

David Wright hits a home run in the first inning to put the Mets up 1-0 on the Phillies. The Mets third baseman continues to have a fine second half, raising both his OBA and slugging percentages 100 points vs. before the All-Star break.

Alex Rodriguez failed to hit a home run against Toronto last night, bringing his odds of passing Maris down again. If he plays all sixteen remaining games, Alex should get about 71 more plate appearances. With his home run rate this season .0811 HR/PA, the probability of his hitting at least ten more home runs is 0.06, or about 1 in 16.

David Ortiz is back. He hit two home runs tonight, the second a two-run shot with one out in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 5-4. It was a very high fly ball into the first row of the seats in right. Delmon Young seemed to lose track of the ball; it was the kind of fly that he could have leaped and caught if he was in the right position. Ortiz drives all five runs and now has 40 RBI in his last 39 games.

Jim Thome hit his 499th career home run this afternoon to give the White Sox a 2-1 lead over the Indians. He's looking to become the twenty-third player to crack the 500 home run level, and the third this season. It looks like Manny Ramirez, the other player with a good shot at 500, will need to wait until next year.

Alex Rodriguez did not homer last night. Given his stats this season, he should come to the plate eighty more times in 2007. With a home run rate of .0821 per plate appearance, the probability of him hitting at least ten more home runs in those eighty PA is .1192.

Hanley Ramirez knocked out two home runs and a double Tuesday night to bring his extra-base hit total for the season to seventy-seven. It's very likely he'll end the year with eighty or more extra-base hits. There was a time when that was an impressive accomplishment. Take a look at the period from 1982-1992, the eleven non-strike seasons leading up to the offensive boom of the 1990s:

Players with 80+ extra base hits, 1982-1992

Player	Season	EXBH
Robin Yount	1982	87
Kevin Mitchell	1989	87
Don Mattingly	1985	86
Don Mattingly	1986	86
Cal Ripken Jr.	1991	85
George Bell	1987	83
Hal McRae	1982	81
Mark McGwire	1987	81
Juan Samuel	1987	80
Dave Parker	1985	80
Howard Johnson	1989	80

Just one dozen players accomplished the deed, and three of those came in the big home run year of 1987. From 1993 to 2006, players reached 80 extra-base hits 112 times, including three such seasons in the strike shortened 1995 season. (We've had two reach that level already in 2007.) Twenty years ago, a season like this would win Hanley the MVP, now it's a common occurrence.

Bengie Molina just hit his second home run of the game, both hard shots off Livan Hernandez. That gives him five home runs in seven September games. He hasn't hit more than four in any other month this season. The Giants lead 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth.

Alex Rodriguez went deep again today, hitting four home runs in the three game series at Kansas City and five in six games at Kauffman Stadium this season. Alex came up in 1994 but didn't hit his first home run in KC until 1999, and now has thirteen at the park. I'm sure after this weekend, Alex would like to finish the season hitting there.

The Yankees win 6-3, and it turns out to be a good weekend for their AL Wild Card hopes. The Mariners won today over Detroit, so with the Yankees sweeping Kansas City, they increased their lead over both the Tigers and Seattle. Wang won his eighteenth, keeping pace with Beckett.

Alex needs ten more home runs to break Maris' single season AL home run record. With A-Rod expected to get 85 more plate appearances this season and a home run rate (HR/PA) of .0828, he now has a 16.5% chance of at least 62 homers this year.

The two home runs tonight really boosted Alex's chances of hitting 62 home runs this season. I estimate he has 89 plate appearances left, and with his current rate of .0819 HR/PA, the probability of him hitting at least eleven more dingers is 11.1%. It was about 3% this morning.

Alex Rodriguez just hit his fiftieth home run of the season, a shot just over the fence in dead center field. He's the first Yankees right-hander to hit fifty in a season, and the first since Maris and Mantle in 1961. That's six for Alex in the first eight days of the month. If he can keep up that pace for sixteen more days he'll set a new AL single season record. It's the third time Alex broke the 50 barrier. He did it previously in his first two years with Texas.

Update: Alex goes deep again, a solo shot leading off the sixth inning. This time, he pulls it into the Yankees bullpen. He should turn his ankle more often. It's his eighth multi-homer game of the season. In addition, the broadcast said he set the record for a third baseman with 49. Schmidt hit 48 as a third baseman in 1980.

The two runs scored gives Alex 130 on the season. It's the third time he's both scored and driven in 130 runs. He could easily end up 140-140.

Update: It's the 63rd time a player reached 130-130 in a season. Babe Ruth is the only member of the 170-170 club. The last to reach 140-140 was Sammy Sosa in 2001, the twenty third player to accomplish the feat. However, you have to go back to 1949 and Ted Williams to find the penultimate accomplishment of the feat.

Update: Rodriguez is now the only player to set a single season major league record for home runs at two positions, shortstop and third base.

Alex Rodriguez hit his forty ninth home run of the season in a 3-2 Yankees victory over the Kansas City Royals. Breaks his record for most Yankees home runs by a right-handed batter, and increases his odds of break Roger Maris' AL record to 0.032, or 3.2%.

David Ortiz homered for the Red Sox tonight, a solo shot to tie the game at six. In 48 games since the All-Star break, Big Papi has hit 13 home runs and driven in 44. That compares to 14 home runs and 52 RBI in 91 games before the break. He was slugging well in the first half due to lots of doubles, but now he's adding the homers as well and his slugging percentage is up about 50 points in the second half.

The score remains six-all in the bottom of the sixth. Buchholz is in and walked the first batter he faced. We'll see how long he goes before allowing a hit.

Update: That didn't take long. Tyke Redman, the second batter in the inning picks up the safety.

Update: I forgot to mention that with the score tied and Wakefield out, he'll pick up his first no decision of the season.

Correction: I misread the line score. Papi's home run tied the game. I've modified the post to reflect that.

Alex Rodriguez still has a small chance at breaking Roger Maris' American League home run record. After hitting two home runs last night, Alex needs fourteen long balls to reach sixty two. Based on his performance this year, the probability of Alex hitting a home run in any given plate appearance is .0783 (48/613). He averages 4.44 PA per game, so with twenty two games left, he should get another 98 plate appearances. The probability of his hitting fourteen home runs in those 98 PA is 0.0205, or about 2%. The odds are double that for him at least tying Maris.

The Colorado Rockies lost to the San Francisco Giants last night 5-3. Barry Bonds hit his twenty sixth home run at Coors Field in the game. Barry's the all-time leader among visitors at Coors, although Sammy Sosa just didn't get enough games there.

Alex Rodriguez homers in the bottom of the seventh off Washburn to tie the Yankees-Mariners game at two. He also ties Mel Ott on the all-time list with 511 career home runs. He's about to move up the ranks fast, as his next long ball ties him with Eddie Mathews and Ernie Banks for 17th on the all-time list. He also keeps pace with Barry Bonds, who hit number 762 this evening.

Update: The Yankees load the bases with one out, bringing up Posada as a pinch-hitter. He walks to force in the go-ahead run as the Yankees take a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh.

Update: A-Rod hits two home runs in one inning as he starts and ends the scoring, hitting a two-run shot as the Yankees score eight in the seventh. They've added one in the eighth to make the score 10-2. In one night, Alex ties three greats, Ott, Mathews and Banks. He also ties his Yankees record for most home runs by a right-handed batter, 48.

Correction: Mathews, not Williams. Ted is the next person to tie at 521.

With 22 games left can he hit fourteen more and set a new AL record? It would be quite a finish to his season.

Wily Mo Pena hits his fifth home run in fifteen games for the Washington Nationals, the same number he hit with the Red Sox in 73 games. He's not hitting for any higher an average or getting on base much more, but he is smacking the ball when he hits it. The Natonals are up 6-1 on Florida in the seventh.

Alex Rodriguez hit home run number 45 today as he drove in four runs after having his bat confiscated.

Tampa Bay had Rodriguez's bat confiscated in a classic case of gamesmanship - one inning after umpires took away Akinori Iwamura's unusual model when Yankees manager Joe Torre questioned if it was legal.

"It's just retaliation. There's nothing wrong with Alex Rodriguez. He's a great player. It was tit-for-tat entirely," Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "I said, 'It's an illegal bat.' I said, 'I can't see inside it, but there might be something inside that bat. I don't have X-ray vision. He's got 45 home runs, it's Sept. 1.' That was my argument."

Both confiscated bats were sent to the commissioner's office for inspection.

Iwamura didn't have that luck, going 0 for 4 with a walk.

Alex's home run was his 164th since joining the Yankees in 2004. There's very tight race for most home runs in that time span between four players. Just six home runs separate David Ortiz from Adam Dunn, with Pujols and A-Rod in between. With all four over 160, each member of the quartet has a good chance to producing over 200 home runs in a five year span.

Ryan Howard delivers a home run in the bottom of the tenth to finish a 4-2 comeback victory over the Mets. It was a massive shot, hit the opposite way to left field, putting the Phillies just four games behind the Mets. The Mets bullpen wastes a stellar effort by Tom Glavine who pitched a short shutout, giving up eight hits (all singles) over seven innings, but walking none. But Philadelphia tied it off Feliciano in the eighth, then won it off Mota in the tenth.

Adam Eaton pitches okay, giving up two runs in 5 2/3 innings. He's now given up six runs to the Mets in 18 2/3 innings this year. But the bullpen allowed just one hit over 4 1/3 innings of work, keeping the Phillies in it until the home run heroics of Howard.

For the seventh consecutive season, Albert Pujols reaches the thirty home run level. That also represents Albert's entire career. He's now homered in five straight games and six of his last seven. The Cardinals might want to put some people on base however, as he only has eight RBI over the seven games. St. Louis leads the Marlins 6-4 in the eighth.

Luis Vizcaino manages to put two runners on base with two out, giving Anderson a chance to set a major league record for RBI if he hits a home run.

Update: Anderson hits the ball up the middle, but Betemit grabs it and throws him out to end the inning. Still a remarkable night for Garret Anderson. He sets an Angels record for RBI in a game and the club record for career grand slams.

I just turned on the Yankees-Angels game before going to bed, just in time to see Garret Anderson hit a grand slam. He's 4 for 5 tonight with two doubles and two homers, and he's driven in ten runs. The grand slam was his eighth as an Angel, breaking the record held by Garret and Joe Rudi. The Angels lead the Yankees 18-5 as the teams go to the top of the seventh.

Update: Anderson is one RBI away from the AL record held by Tony Lazzeri and two from the ML record. The Angels also scored five runs in an inning three times tonight.

In what's turning into a slugfest in Anaheim, Alex Rodriguez picked up his second RBI of the night, giving him 120 on the season. It's the eighth time he's reached that plateau. That's tied for third all-time. Jimmy Foxx and Joe DiMaggio each had eight 120 RBI seasons. Ruth is the all-time leader with eleven, and Gehrig is right behind him with ten. I guess it helps to be a Yankee.

Prince Fielder's HR tie with Alex Rodriguez doesn't last long, as A-Rod hits a two run shot in the top of the sixth in Anaheim to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead. He reaches the 40 home run plateau for the 8th time in his career.

Milwaukee leads the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-0 in the fifth inning. The Brewers have three home runs so far, one by the pitcher Gallardo, one by Hall and one by Price Fielder. The young Fielder's 39th ties him with Alex Rodriguez for the Major League lead. It's his ninth home run in August.

During their 21-6 run, the Diamondbacks have lost by five or more runs four times. It's a big reason their run differential is negative for the season.

With the Cardinals up 5-4, Lou Piniella brings in Carmen Pignatiello to face Rick Ankiel. The lefty-lefty matchup doesn't work as Ankiel takes the first pitch of the seventh inning deep the other way for his fourth home run. Ankiel is two for four today with a double and a homer, and has homered every 7.75 at bats. McGwire is the career leader in that category at 10.6. Bonds in 2001 and McGwire in 1998 were the only two players to be under 8.0 for a full season.

Update: The rain keeps coming down, and the tarp is out in the bottom of the seventh.

Update: The game resumes and the Cardinals hold on to win 6-4. They manage to cut their losses to one game in the standings to Chicago.

It's been a down home run year for David Ortiz, but he hits a big one tonight. Down 5-0, the Red Sox score two in the fifth, then load the bases for Big Papi. He delivers a grand slam that puts the Red Sox in the lead 6-5. Not a walk-off, but I'm sure it will do. :-)

Update: In the bottom of the sixth, Youkilis limps off the field, and he grabs at his hamstring.

Moises Alou is making the most of his time back from the disabled list. He hit his seventh home run of August tonight, tying Prince Fielder for the most in the majors this month. That's almost half of the Mets total of 16 in August. The Mets lead 4-1 in the fourth.

Shelly Duncan hits a two-out, three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to tie the Orioles at three. It breaks seventeen consecutive scoreless innings for the Yankees offense. All six of his home runs have come at home, and four of the six were hit with men on base.

The Orioles bullpen wastes another great start from a pitcher. Bedard went seven innings, striking out eight and allowing just four hits. He's the first pitcher to pass 200 K this season.

Update: Bradford get the Orioles out of the inning. They'll play extra frames in New York.

Magglio Ordonez slugs two home runs in one inning as the Tigers score eight in the second, and Ordonez drives in half of them. His two for two raises his slugging percentage to .600. The Tigers offense appears to be getting back in gear as they've scored 22 runs in the last three games.

Rick Ankiel picks up his third hit of the season in the first inning today, a two-run homer scoring Aaron Miles. He's hitting .333 with a 1.000 slugging percentage after nine at bats. This could turn out to be a great year-end story.

Update: Ankiel does it again. After a single, he hits another home run in the seventh. That's five hits, two singles, three home runs. The Cardinals are leading the Dodgers 6-1 in the 8th.

The Braves just managed to hold off the Mets today as New York scored three in the bottom of the ninth to give the Braves a one-run win, 7-6. One of those Braves runs came on a Mark Teixeira home run, his fourth since joining the team. So far, six of his ten hits with the Braves went for extra bases, and he's slugging .686 in his eight games with Atlanta. The Braves gain a game on the Mets over the three game series and are now just 3 1/2 out of first place.

The post about Ruth made me wonder if today's sluggers beat up on the bad pitchers of today. The Day by Day batting events go back to 2000, which makes it easy to figure out batter vs. pitcher stats. And since there is a great slugger whose career is covered by that time frame, I'll start with Albert Pujols. Pitchers are divided into bins based on their ERA in the season they faced Albert. The bins go from x.00 to x.99, with the x representing the bin number. So any stats Pujols gathered against Jake Peavy in 2004 go into the "2" bin, but in 2006 they would go in the "4" bin.

Albert Pujols vs. Pitchers, 2001-2007. Bin represents a range of one run of ERA.

Bin	PA	AB	H	HR	OBA	Slug	ABperHR
0	7	6	1	0	0.286	0.167	Infinity
1	80	69	17	2	0.342	0.391	34.5
2	440	383	101	21	0.356	0.48	18.24
3	1261	1096	344	65	0.399	0.571	16.86
4	1491	1285	417	97	0.413	0.63	13.25
5	759	642	242	51	0.470	0.702	12.59
6	301	250	91	23	0.463	0.748	10.87
7 or greater	193	150	70	15	0.577	0.853	10

So as you can see, the worse the pitcher, the better Albert performs. Let's check Bonds:

Barry Bonds vs. Pitchers, 2000-2007. Bin represents a range of one run of ERA.

Bin	PA	AB	H	HR	OBA	Slug	ABperHR
0	5	3	0	0	0.4	0	Infinity
1	70	45	6	3	0.443	0.356	15
2	388	258	69	19	0.512	0.535	13.58
3	1046	759	228	67	0.491	0.642	11.33
4	1397	988	322	120	0.521	0.765	8.23
5	663	467	167	58	0.545	0.807	8.05
6	246	168	69	27	0.594	0.97	6.22
7 or greater	157	104	41	16	0.596	0.904	6.5

Bonds kills everyone, but if you send a pitcher against him with an ERA of 6 or more, you're just asking to see a long ball. Now here's A-Rod. He's not as extreme as the others:

Alex Rodriguez vs. Pitchers, 2001-2007. Bin represents a range of one run of ERA.

Bin	PA	AB	H	HR	OBA	Slug	ABperHR
0	13	11	1	0	0.231	0.091	Infinity
1	80	71	8	0	0.213	0.169	Infinity
2	421	354	94	15	0.376	0.449	23.6
3	1464	1273	361	84	0.373	0.529	15.15
4	1825	1540	471	131	0.408	0.612	11.76
5	989	835	282	72	0.434	0.666	11.6
6	379	307	103	27	0.455	0.671	11.37
7 or greater	255	213	78	23	0.462	0.77	9.26

Notice that A-Rod's home run rate isn't that different once the pitcher's ERA goes over 4.00. He kills them all equally well. And let's finish with Manny Ramirez:

Manny Ramirez vs. Pitchers, 2001-2007. Bin represents a range of one run of ERA.

Bin	PA	AB	H	HR	OBA	Slug	ABperHR
0	7	5	1	0	0.429	0.2	Infinity
1	89	80	15	1	0.270	0.250	80
2	320	284	78	11	0.350	0.437	25.82
3	1179	993	279	66	0.391	0.542	15.05
4	1568	1330	432	94	0.421	0.614	14.15
5	888	731	250	61	0.452	0.67	11.98
6	381	314	127	35	0.509	0.834	8.97
7 or greater	254	201	70	23	0.478	0.746	8.74

For all the pattern is about the same. They mostly face pitchers with a seasonal ERA of four or higer, and they hit them very well as far as home runs are concerned. With the exception of A-Rod, these hitters keep getting much better as the pitchers get worse.

Jermaine Dye continued his hot start in August with two more hits and a home run in a 7-4 win over the Tigers. He's six for fourteen with three home runs in the month, a .429 batting average. He's hit ten home runs in twenty two games since the All-Star break, compared to twelve in seventy one games before. But his batting average hasn't come back until recently.

Vlad Guerrero broke out of his home run slump last night:

The first one was a high-arc shot that barely cleared the left-field fence. The second was a towering blast that left no doubt, landing halfway up the seats beyond the scoreboard in left-center.

With two swings of his mighty bat Thursday night at McAfee Coliseum, Vladimir Guerrero restored his standing as one of the most feared sluggers in baseball.

The All-Star game Home Run Derby champion, who had been mired in the longest power outage of his career, homered twice and drove in four runs to propel the Angels to a 6-4 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

Vlad hit .315 in the 30 games between homers, but he didn't dive in many runs, just 15. One third of his thirty nine hits went for doubles.

Joe Saunders allowed just two runs over 6 1/3 innings, staying undefeated at 5-0. He lowered his ERA to 3.10.

The White Sox take the game against the Yankees 13-9. After the 8-8 tie, Jermaine Dye delivered the game winning RBI in the fourth with a two run homer. He later hit a solo shot, and picked up two doubles as well for a dozen total bases on the day. He raised his slugging percentage almost 30 points today. The Yankees lose a game in both the Wild Card and AL East races.

In the first and second innings of the game against the Orioles, the Yankees load the bases for Alex Rodriguez. No player ever hit a grand slam for his 500th home run, according to the broadcast. Alex strikes out in the first, then grounds into a double play to end the second. The Yankees, with all the base runners, lead Baltimore 3-0 going to the bottom of the second.

Alex Rodriguez doesn't homer in the resumption of the suspended game. His 500th home run really will be his 500th home run. The Yankees win 8-7.

Carlos Beltran is certainly having an odd month.

Beltran hit a double and homer in the Mets 4-1 win over the Dodgers Friday night. He's only hitting .185 for the month, but nine of his twelve hits have gone for extra bases, giving him a .446 slugging percentage. So Carlos presents an interesting problem for opponents. In a slump, the right strategy is to go after him. But when he does hit he does a lot of damage. Unfortunately, most of this came with the bases empty. He's only four for thirty with men on base this month.

Andruw Jones is back in the swing of things.

(Photo: Todd Kirkland/Icon SMI)

Through the end of June, Andruw had hit twelve home runs and was just slugging .377. That's low for a career .500 slugger. He's found his home run swing since, however. He hit his seventh home run of the month tonight, a two run shot in the first to put the Braves up 2-0. Including that dinger, Jones is slugging .732 and as 18 RBI in 15 games. The Braves are happy to have the old Andruw back.

It turns out Andruw made a change. He's choking up on the bat:

Jones began choking up on the bat while the Braves were on their West Coast trip before the All-Star break at about the same time as his resurgence after the worst half-season of his career.

"It's a good idea," Cox said of choking up, which was common when the manager played but rare in this era. Bonds is one of the few hitters who does it.

"You have better bat control," Cox said. "You don't have to jump out to hit the ball. You can let it come to you. There's a lot of pluses. If it's good enough for Bonds, it should be good enough for a lot of people."

Ryan Howard homers for the third time in two games, tying the game with the Dodgers at one. His three homers against Los Angeles ties the most he's hit against a team this season. He's hit three against the Reds in four games and three against the Braves in nine games. He's only played three against the Dodgers.

Troy Glaus hit well tonight, smacking two home runs and a triple against Yankees pitching. The three-bagger was his first since 2005, and only the ninth of his career. It came very close to being his third home run of the game, hitting off the wall in the left-center power alley. It wasn't enough, however, as the Yankees outscored Toronto 6-4 to push the Blue Jays two games behind New York.

Ken Griffey goes deep in the second inning, a three-run homer to put the Reds up 5-0 over the Braves. It also gives him 587 for his career, breaking a tie with Frank Robinson for sixth place on the all-time list. He trails Sosa by 15.

Chris Duncan hit his 18th home run of the season in the first inning to give the Cardinals a short-lived 2-0 lead. Duncan is turning out to be a very good offensive player. Since the start of 2006, minimum 500 plate appearances, Duncan came into the day ninth in slugging percentage. He's ahead of more famous sluggers A-Rod and Manny.

The Mets beat the Reds 5-2 today, but I can't wait to see the replay of Adam Dunn's home run:

Adam Dunn knocked out a scoreboard panel with a long home run for Cincinnati, which has lost 14 of 20 on the road.

Prince Fielder follows Ryan Braun's three-run shot in the fourth with a home run of his own, giving Prince thirty on the season. That brings him to sixty for his career, doubling his career total coming into the season. His first thirty came in 628 at bats. He came into tonight's game with 324 ABs.

Braun continues to impress at the plate. With the 1 for 2 so far tonight, his OPS is 1.071. He also has scored 37 runs and driven in 35 in 41 games.

Matt Stairs and Alex Rios go deep leading off the sixth inning against the Red Sox. They're the third pair of hitters to lead off an inning with back-to-back homers tonight. The Blue Jays have narrowed the Red Sox lead to one run.

If Barry Bonds becomes the all-time home run king, he doesn't think his reign will last long:

Bonds, who turns 43 on July 24, entered the All-Star break with 751 homers, four shy of Hank Aaron's record. Rodriguez, who turns 32 on July 27, leads the majors with 30 home runs this season, raising his total to 494.

Asked whether A-Rod would make his reign short, Bonds quickly replied: "Oh, definitely."

"His talent is unbelievable. I don't think people really appreciate his talent. His eye-hand coordination, his actual strength, his actual recognition of the ball, those are things you can't teach," Bonds said. "It's great because I know what he knows and I can see what he sees. I'm just older and can't do it as often. Willie (Mays) told me 'I see what you see, I just can't do it anymore."'

In the past, the players who hit tons of home runs in their twenties faded in their thirties. The three players who reached 700 had three of the great late career surges ever. Given the year he's having at age 32, A-Rod would probably need 250 home runs to break the new record. That's still better than 30 home runs a year for eight seasons. It's certainly within his reach, but there's plenty of room for him to fall short. You just need to look no further than his former teammate Ken Griffey to see how a great young home run hitter can fall short of the record due to injury.

Justin Morneau picked up twelve total bases with his three home runs last night, but Adrian Beltre did him one better. Beltre went five for five versus the Athletics on Friday, hitting two homers and two doubles to go with a single. The thirteen total bases raised his slugging percentage from .441 to .480. Even his OBA went up eleven points, for a 50 point increase in OPS in one night. He's the fourth player to reach thirteen total bases in one game this season, the high for 2007 (it includes teammate Raul Ibanez on 6/11). On 5/28, Beltre also had two doubles and two homers for twelve total bases, meaning that 19% of his total bases came in two games! The Mariners picked up a game on the Angels with a 7-1 win.

Alex Rodriguez took a day off to rest his hamstring yesterday, and it paid off tonight. Alex is three for four with a single, double and a two-run homer to put the Yankees up 12-9 in a slugfest. New York got off to an 8-3 lead, but the Angels came back to tie the score at nine. They've gone to the top of the seventh.

Update: I forgot to mention A-Rod tied Gehrig and Fred McGriff with 493 home runs.

Chipper Jones hit two home runs last night one in the sixth to put the Braves up 7-6, and one in the eighth to finish the scoring as Atlanta took the game from the Dodgers 8-6. Jones is having another great season with a .329 BA, a .416 OBA and a .603 slugging percentage.

In his fifteenth year, is Jones a Hall of Famer? His career averages are very good, .305/.402/.544, a 300-400-500 hitter. That makes him a complete offensive player. He's scored as many runs (1232) as he's driven in (1238). He's close to 400 home runs and has over 2000 hits and 1000 walks. He's had only one off year, 2004. His defense left a lot to be desire over the years. What do you think? How much should counting stats vs. averages weigh in a Hall of Fame selection?

Jose Reyes hits a triple over Hunter Pence's head in centerfield, all the way out to the hill at Minute Maid. Reyes is so fast he came into third standing up, and Alomar had to put up the stop sign so he didn't go for the inside the park home run. He scores on a single by Ledee that hits first base and handcuffs Berkman.

Magglio Ordonez hit his 35th double of the year this afternoon against the Indians. He had gone twelve games without a two-bagger, but with 35 in 83 games, he's on a pace for 68 which would still break the single season record. The Tigers lead the Indians 9-3 in the seventh inning. Polanco, Sheffield and Guillen all went deep for Detroit.

Ryan Howard reaches the twenty home run plateau, knocking a shot into the rightfield bullen at the Juice Box. His two-run homer extends the Phillies lead to 6-1 over the Astros. Cole Hamels recovered from the rough outing in his last start. He's struck out eight in seven innings without walking a batter.

Burrell adds the fourth home run of the day for the Phillies, and they lead 7-1.

Kevin Hench examines David Ortiz's power failure:

The lousy selection of pitches to choose from has been compounded by the lousy hitting weather that has bedeviled Papi right out of the gate.

On April 6, in normally hitter-friendly Texas, Ortiz went 0-for-4 as Robinson Tejeda two-hit the Red Sox over seven innings with a gale-force wind blowing into the batters' faces. The teams combined for seven total bases. It was physically impossible to hit the ball out that day.

It was an omen.

The wind has blown in three directions at Fenway this season. In from left. In from center. And in from right. Longtime Red Sox analyst Jerry Remy who grew up in Fall River, Mass., and played for the Sox from 1978 to 1984 has remarked frequently this season that he's never seen the wind quite like this.

In a word, it blows.

Fenway is already murder on left-handed power hitters with right field darting out abruptly to 380 feet, but it's been playing to a par-7 this year for lefties. At least eight times Big Papi has hit a ball on the screws only to see it die on the warning track and disappear into an outfielder's glove

.

Ortiz only hit three home runs at Fenway this season vs. ten on the road. Note that Ortiz was a better road home run hitter in 2006, hitting 32 of his 54 away from Fenway. He's way off both those paces this season. And although the explanation of Ramirez having a bad season make a bit of sense, I think pitchers just decided that Ortiz is too dangerous. At this point, no one wants to challenge Big Papi. He's going to need to adjust to the new way pitchers treat him. He still has his plate discipline, and he's still hitting the ball hard as you can see in his doubles total. Eventually, he'll start hitting the mistakes out of the park.

Carlos Beltran hit two home runs for the second game in a row. It's not like CBP has been a great home run park for him. Before the second game of yesterday's double header, Carlos hit only two home runs in 26 games there. His power at that ballpark was for doubles, as he hit 14 of those. The two long balls give Carlos fourteen for the season, still way off his pace of last year when he hit 41.

Barry Bonds led off the eighth inning last night with the Giants trailing 3-2. Hernandez pitched him well, but Bonds worked the count to 3-2. Pitch four had nice movement over inside corner; Barry swung and pulled it foul. Pitch five just missed the low outside corner. It was close enough that a player without Barry's reputation for selectivity might have been called out. But after five good pitches, number six was a curve ball that hung in the strike zone. Bonds' eyes lit up. His swing was so perfect you knew it was gone as soon as the ball left the bat. The ball landed back in the right-center seats, and the crowd went wild. No matter how fans feel in other parts of the country, it sure looked like unanimous support at AT & T park. Six more to pass Aaron.

Livan through three strikes in that at bat. The two tough ones Bonds fouled off. The phat one Bonds crushed. It was an impressive piece of hitting, and a great example of why Barry is the greatest hitter of his generation; he swings at strikes and takes the balls better than anyone.

Joe Mauer comes to the plate in the top of the fifth with the bases loaded and hits a grand slam to put the Twins up 6-0. Verlander is wild tonight. All three of the base runners walked, and Justin allowed five in total but only three hits. Through four innings of work, Santana struck out three and walked none.

Verlander just gave up his fourth hit of the game, and it looks like he's not long for this game.

Jose Reyes' home run this afternoon was his seventh at Citizen's Bank Park, tying Mike Lowell and Adam Dunn for most by a visitor at that yard. Jose has over twice as many at bats there as Dunn, however, and quite a bit more than Lowell.

Sorry, I missed Frank Thomas' 500th home run earlier today. Congratulations to the Big Hurt on that milestone!

Update: Peter Schmuck notes that milestones aren't what they used to be.

The great hunt for round numbers has been going on since the game's Golden Age, and there was a time when fans from all over the major leagues would stop and express their collective awe at a 300th victory or a 500th home run.

That, of course, was before it happened every day.

Prince Fielder hit his NL leading 27th home run of the season, helping the Brewers to a 6-1 win over the Houston Astros. He remains on a pace to finish with a total in the high fifties. That would set a Brewers record by a wide margin. Richie Sexson twice hit 45 homers in a season, matching the total by Gorman Thomas. When he gets to 34, he'll be in the top ten. Eddie Mathews holds the Milwaukee record with 47 in 1953.

Ken Griffey, Jr. hits his 20th home run of the season to put the Reds up 1-0 on the Mariners. In his old home town, Griffey ties McGwire for seventh on the all-time home run list with 583. Given that he now has 20 home runs less than halfway through the season, there's a good chance of Ken joining Sammy Sosa at reaching the 600 level this season.

Update: Griffey hit a second home run in the game to pass McGwire. Unfortunately, those were the only two runs the Reds picked up in the game as they lose 3-2 to the Mariners.

Alfonso Soriano hit a home run for the third game in a row and in four of the last five. It's his eleventh homer of the month, and he's slugging .770 in June. The blast helped the Cubs to a 3-0 win over the White Sox. The Cubs take the Windy City Series 5-1, outscoring their cross town opponent 33-21.

Sammy Sosa hits number 600 against his former club, the Cubs. He becomes the fifth player to crack the 600 level behind Aaron, Bonds, Ruth and Mays. Now that he's reached the milestone, I wonder how long he'll stay with the Rangers. His OPS is just a bit over .750, so he's not exactly tearing up the league. It seems to me the Rangers could find a better DH.

Will Sosa get into the Hall of Fame? Or will the cork bat and steroid allegations hurt his chances?

Ken Griffey, Jr. hit home run number 582 tonight, helping the Reds to a 4-0 lead over the Athletics in the fourth inning. The solo shot leaves him one home run behind McGwire for seventh on the all-time list.

Magglio Ordonez continues his assault on Earl Webb's double record with his 34th two bagger of the year tonight. That puts Ordonez on a pace for 78 doubles, which would crush Webb's 67 in 1931. Even if Magglio returns to his career double rate, he should bang out another twenty-two this season, putting him at 56. This may end up being the best run at Webb ever. Could both the AL doubles and home run records fall in the same season?

Update: What might be even more amazing is that Sean Casey hit his first home run of the season today.

Correction: I can't add. 34+ 22 is 56. It's been a long day.

Home Run Derby remembers Sosa's milestone home runs in baseball cards. Look at the difference in body shape between 200 and 300.

And in an interesting coincidence, it's entry number 756 for that blog!

Prince Fielder hit home run number 26 in the bottom of the first to give Milwaukee a 2-1 lead over San Francisco. That puts him on a pace for 61. Even if he falls off a bit, he has a very good chance of reaching 50, would make Cecil and Prince the only father son combination to each hit 50 home runs each.

Barry Bonds delivers a home run at Fenway, adding that to the parks in which he's gone deep. Number 748 puts him eight homers short of the career record.

Alex Rodriguez hit home run number 26 this afternoon as the Yankees won a slugfest the with Mets 11-8. His two run shot puts him on a pace to break Roger Maris' American League record of 61 home runs in a season. Alex's current pace is for 63. If he should reach that level, he would be only the third AL player to reach 60 home runs, all for the Yankees.

Sammy Sosa hits number 599, a grand slam to put Texas on top of Cincinnati 7-4. The Reds have added two since then, but the slam remains the difference in the game.

Barry Bonds follows a Klesko single with a Boeing home run, number 747. That ties the Blue Jays at three. Josh Towers put a ball over the plate on the outside half, and Barry smacks it into the center field seats. He needs nine more for the record.

Troy Glaus continues to generate offense for the Blue Jays, smacking two home runs today to raise his OBA to .401 and his slugging percentage to .557. The problem for the Blue Jays concerning Glaus is that he's only playing about 2/3 of the team's games. Today was Toronto's sixty second game, and Glaus' forty third. The Blue Jays took the Dodgers 11-5 this afternoon.

Albert Pujols smacked two home runs this afternoon as the Cardinals took the Angels 9-6. That gives Albert six home runs in his last seven games, and this is his second multi-homer game in that stretch. He's driving in twelve runs during that time. Despite Albert's success, the Cardinals are only 4-3.

Carlos Pena continues his power output, keeping on pace for the best year of his career. He doubled and homered so far this afternoon, pushing his slugging percentage to .631. Eighteen of his forty hits so far went for extra bases. It's only 130 at bats for Carlos, so I'm not getting my hopes up that he's finally matured as a hitter. But right now, he's giving the Devil Rays a legitimate power threat at first base.

Albert Pujols hit two home runs today as the Cardinals defeated the Astros 8-6. The eight total bases bring his slugging percentage over .500. For his career, Pujols is a .621 slugger. It was a good day for St. Louis power as the Cardinals hit five homers in the game.

Victor Martinez homered today. His two run shot temporarily tied the game, but the Tigers come back with one in the second to take a 3-2 lead. The homer was Victor's sixth vs. the Tigers this season, meaning 3/4 of his his against the Tigers cleared the fence. He's 8 for 27 against Detroit after the homer, with 13 RBI. For the season, Victor's home run total is twelve.

Prince Fielder helps Milwaukee to a 4-3 win over the Marlins with his nineteenth home run of the season. That ties him with Alex Rodriguez for the major league lead. Prince is now slugging .641 on the season with 43 RBI.

Gary Sheffield gets the Tigers off to a good start with a two-run homer in the first against Tampa Bay. That's Gary's ninth homer in May, tying him with Justin Morneau for the most AL homers in the month. The Tigers lead 3-0 in the bottom of the first.

Update: Ordonez picks up his 26th double of the season. That puts him on a pace for 83 this season, which would crush the major league single season record. However, if Ordonez reverts to his career doubles rate for the rest of the season, he'd pick up another 27, so it's not safe to give him a good shot at Earl Webb yet.

Magglio Ordonez blasts two home runs tonight to raise his slugging percentage to .695. That gives him a dozen on the year, and with 21 doubles, a total of 33 extra base hits. With the Tigers in first place, the once derided Ordonez is looking like an excellent MVP choice.

Justin Morneau hit his eighth home run of May to help the Twins to a 3-2 lead against Texas. That ties him with Jack Cust for most May home runs in the AL, although Cust reached his number in just sixteen games. The Twins chased Robinson Tejeda in the top of the fourth after he failed to get the first two batters. He gave up seven hits and three walks, and at least four runs.

Update: Both runners score in the fourth, and Tejeda's line is complete with five runs allowed.

Ken Griffey, Jr. hit home run number ten on the season, a two-run shot that temporarily put Cincinnati ahead of Washington 2-1. For his career, home run 573 ties Harmon Killebrew for eighth on the all-time list.

Last night I noted that Prince Fielder was just off a fifty home run pace, one that would make him the first relative a fifty home run hitter to reach the same level. He hit another late in the game to give him fourteen on the year, and put his pace right on 50 homers. The Brewers won the game 9-5. Given that Hardy also owns fourteen long balls, both could reach the goal, a rare feat on the same team.

Prince Fielder hit home run number thirteen tonight for Milwaukee, helping them to an early 2-0 lead over the Dodgers. It's the 45th game for the Brewers, which puts Fielder on a pace for 47 home runs. It's not much of a stretch for him to reach 50. If that happens, I believe he'll be the first relative of a 50 home run hitter to reach that level as well. The Griffeys didn't do it. Neither Aaron ever did it. The Bonds' didn't do it. And while Greg Vaughn reached 50, his cousin Mo topped out at 44.

Go Prince!

Alex Rodriguez appears to have his home run stroke back again. Wakefield threw a knuckler that just hung in the strike zone, and Alex crushed it either into or over the bullpen (it was tough to tell from the broadcast). That three homers in three games for Alex after a bit of a drought. The Yankees lead 2-0 after one.

Magglio Ordonez took a Tim Wakefield knuckleball out of the park tonight for his eighth home run of the season. That extends his extra-base hit lead in the American League to 27. His extra-base hit total for 2007 is already higher than his total in 82 games in 2005 for Detroit. He seemed like a bad signing that season, but he's paying big dividends now.

J.J. Hardy is Dy-no-mite! He hits his twelfth home run of the season to put the Brewers ahead of the Phillies 4-2 and take sole possession of the NL lead in the category. It looks like the most important move the Brewers made in the off season was moving Hall to center and Hardy permanently to short.

Pat Burrell goes deep twice for Philadelphia as they take a 5-2 lead over the Cubs. Both come off Hill, the second chasing him from the mound after two batters in the sixth. Pat's driven in all five runs for the Phillies tonight.

Hamels also allowed two home runs, but both were solo shots.

The Phillies were trailing 3-0 in the seventh when they loaded the bases off Randy Johnson. Melvin went to the pen for Medders, and Manuel brought a surprise off the bench, Ryan Howard. The big slugger showed why he won the MVP in 2006, hitting a grand slam to change the deficit into a lead. The Phillies add two more and lead the DBacks 6-3 in the ninth.

Barry Bonds hit his eleventh home run of the season, leaving him eleven short of breaking Henry Aaron's record of 755. The solo shot raises Barry's slugging percentage to .818.

One of the more generous projections for Barry was in the Bill James Handbook. That predicted an OBA of .495 and a slugging percentage of .612 with 32 homers. Looks like he's going to blow by all those numbers sans a serious injury.

Alex Rodriguez slams his first home run since April 23rd. With two runs scored and two RBI so far tonight, Alex remains ahead of games played in both categories. In 31 games he has score 34 and driven in 39.

Barry Bonds delivers home run number ten on the season and 744 for his career to tie the Phillies at one in the second inning. Barry's on a pace for 56 home runs this year, which would take him most of the way to 800.

Alex Rodriguez picks up his first RBI since 4/23. His infield hit scored Damon from third and brings Alex's total to 36. He was off to such a great start, he still has nine more RBI than games played.

Update: Alex scores a run as well as the Yankees send 10 men to the plate in the first, scoring the first five runs of the game. That's 30 runs in 27 games for Alex. No one has driven in and scored more runs that games in a season since both Ruth and Gehrig accomplished the feat in 1931.

Update: The Mariners come back to tie the game at six. But in the bottom of the fourth, A-Rod comes up with men on first and second and two out and delivers a double to drive both in. The Yankees lead 8-6. Igawa's allowed three homers in the game.

Update: Igawa gives up two hits to start the fifth, and Torre brings in Mr. Bean. Coulter faces four batters, doesn't get an out, and four runs score to put the Mariners up 10-8. Vizcaino comes in and allows two more to score, and there's still no one out.

Keep your eye on Vlad Guerrero's RBI as the season progresses. With a two-run homer in the first today, the right fielder lifted his RBI total to 29 in 27 games. More RBI than games played is a rare event.

Barry Bonds hits home run number nine on the season and the 743rd of his career. The two run shot gives the Giants a 2-0 lead, but the Rockies come back to tie the game with two in the fifth. Barry now has scored and driven in 19 runs on the season.

Josh Willingham drives in all five Marlins runs tonight as they defeat the Mets 5-3. The leftfielder hit a bases loaded triple in the first and a two-run homer in the eighth. Josh now has collected 23 RBI in 25 games.

Alfonso Soriano leads off the Cubs/Pirates game with a home run over the centerfield fence off Tony Armas, Jr. That's the first home run of the year for Alfonso.

Update: The Pirates come back in the bottom of the first as the first three batters pick up hits off Ted Lilly. An error and a walk lead to a three-run first for Pittsburgh. They lead 3-1 in the second.

Update: Jacque Jones hits his first home run of the year in the top of the first, in almost the exact same spot as Soriano.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There's a nice comparison of Adrian Beltre's 2004 and 2006 swings at The Baseball Analysts. In the first comparison video, you can see how much faster he finishes the swing, indicating to me a faster bat.

Royals Authority explores the enigma that is Ryan Shealy.

Joe Duellman writes:

I just noticed that Adam Dunn is slugging under .500 despite hitting 40 home runs so far this season. That seems like something that would happen very rarely. Who is the last player to do this? Is it as uncommon as I think?

It's more uncommon than you think. The lowest slugging percentage by a 40 home run hitter is .506 by Jay Buhner in 1997. Jay hit 40 that year, but his batting average was just .243. After play tonight, Dunn is hitting just .233, and almost have his hits went for extra bases.

David Ortiz tied Babe Ruth's AL record for road home runs with his 32nd yesterday. The Red Sox play their last road game tonight, giving Big Papi a chance to break that mark.

This is an impressive record. Road statistics eliminate much of the noise of home parks. Fenway this year is a poor home run park. In the Fens, we've seen 150 home runs. Away, Red Sox games produced 214. I don't think they'll catch up over the final six games.

So this is an achievement that should not be dismissed. Fenway Park knocked a few homers off David's total. And remember, he missed a number of road games with his heart scare, so I would guess the number of road games he's played (76) is comparable to the number Ruth played in the shorter 1927 season. This really should go down as one of the great home runs seasons in the history of the league.

Barry Bonds hit his 26th home run of the season, moving past Hank Aaron for the most home runs in National League history, 734. He accomplished this in the city where Aaron spent more than half his career. I wonder if Selig was at the game, and if he'll congratulate Barry afterward? There's really no excuse for Bud not to be there.

Congratulations to Barry Bonds on reaching this milestone! I'm impressed he was able to get this far on his two bad knees and bad elbow. Aaron's MLB record now looks reachable in 2007, if anyone signs him to play.

In a wild game, won 13-12 by the Brewers, Barry Bonds tied Henry Aaron's National League record of 733 home runs. He doubled twice and drove in six runs. The three run shot in the sixth gave the Giants an 11-10 lead, bringing them back from a 9-4 deficit. But the Brewers scored three times in the bottom of the eighth to spoil Barry's moment and the Giants chances of making the playoffs.

The Marlins just intentionally walked Ryan Howard with a man on first and two out. He's getting the Bonds treatment. The fans stood and booed. Good for them. Walking Howard makes the Phillies offense better, not worse.

Update: Jeff Conine drives the ball up the middle for a base hit, scoring Utley from second. The walk backfires.

An umpire's bad call cost Ryan Howard a home run last night:

The game was scoreless and Cole Hamels was working on a no-no (which he carried into the seventh inning) when Howard came up with two outs in the sixth inning.

Howard had gone an eternity - OK, six games, but that's a lot for him - without a homer. It looked like the drought was over when he lofted a fly ball that cleared the 19-foot left-field wall. Hilgedick had the ball in his glove, but couldn't hang on. It fell onto the field, creating the impression that it hadn't cleared the wall and sparking a mini-controversy that may be talked about for years to come, especially if Howard finishes with 59, 60 or 61 homers.

Third-base umpire Larry Poncino, who unlike the rest of us doesn't have the benefit of using instant replay when making calls, watched Hilgedick get a glove on the ball at the top of the wall and ruled it fan interference. Instead of trotting around the bases with his 57th homer, Howard stopped at second with his 22d double.

Poncino later admitted to blowing the call - "It was over the fence. That's it," he said - and you can rest assured that he was privately ecstatic that this didn't turn out to be a one-run game. In the end, the call had little bearing on the outcome, an important, 7-2 Phillies win. But it might have a bearing on a slice of baseball history and an issue many people are batting around.

That non-home run might go down in history with Al Kaline's rained-out homer that left him with 399 for his career. It's sure to join the retrosheet list, at least.

Eric Chavez homered in the top of the second to put Oakland up 2-1. That shot is his 18th of the year. He started off with nine in April and finally doubled that total. It's the first time he's had more than one in a month since June. The Devil Rays tie it in the bottom of the second as Cantu takes Zito deep.

Art Kyriazis send this article from Saturday about Ryan Howard's great season since the All-Star break:

Now for the statistics portion of the story, in which Howard's amazing season has picked up incredible steam. In the past 16 games, he's 26-for-56 (.464) with 13 homers, 26 RBIs and 20 runs scored. He has 28 homers and 67 RBIs in the 54 games since the All-Star break, and hasn't gone more than four games without a homer in that span. His seventh multihomer game this season tied him with Dick Allen for the most in franchise history.

With 56 home runs, he's tied for the 15th best single-season total in Major League history, matching Hack Wilson (1930) and the twice-reached amount of his idol, Ken Griffey Jr. (1997-98).

Arthur points out that Ryan's on a 84 home run pace since the All-Star break. Howard's finish is very similar to Pujols' start, except even better. Ryan's OPS over this time is about 150 points better than Albert's at the beginning of the year, and we thought that was an incredible start to the season. So much for the theory that home run derbies ruin home run hitters.

If someone's playing with Barry Bonds on the San Francisco Giants this may not be the best way to start an article about a career year:

Ray Durham's transformation as a hitter extends from head to toe.

Start with Durham's mind, which has absorbed steady doses of advice from one Barry Bonds.

Proceed to Durham's eyes, through which he noticed a facet of his batting stance that he reclaimed after watching videotape.

Neither of these facets would have meant much without Durham's legs, which have endured numerous injuries since he joined the Giants in 2003.

Now Durham's healthy, enabling him to use his legs as the base for his swing that has made him one of the most productive second basemen in baseball.

Old player, often injured, talks to Bonds, starts hitting home runs, plays in the Bay Area. I know, he's smarter and lifting weights!

Bonds also has helped Durham between at-bats. When he's batting left-handed, the switch-hitting Durham studies how pitchers throw to Bonds to gain an idea of how they might approach him.

Perhaps more importantly, Durham said that while they're in the dugout, Bonds often will notice when a pitcher repeats a certain sequence of deliveries and points that out to teammates.

"Sure enough, I go up there and it's the same exact sequence," Durham said. "That's why I think I've done as well as I've done, because I can sit there and listen to him go through what the pitcher's thinking and what the catcher's going to call before he calls it. He's amazing."

This, of course, is the one thing people miss when evaluating Bonds. He's developed a great internal pattern recognizer over the years when it comes to pitchers, and knows what's coming. Pitchers might want to go out of their way to randomize what they throw to Barry, although I wouldn't be surprised if he could pick up subtleties in their deliveries and figure out what the pitch is anyway.

The seed for Durham's improvement was planted in mid-July, when he watched videotapes of his at-bats with the Chicago White Sox in 2000-01 and noticed that he crouched more at the plate then. Durham was an American League All-Star in 2000 and set his previous career high the following year with 20 homers.

"I saw my stance back then and looked at it now and it was night and day," Durham said. "... It's weird how you can do the same things early in the season and change one little thing and you take off."

Implementing that change forced Durham to adjust his physical regimen.

"I had to do a lot more work with my legs because I hadn't been on them, and I knew they probably would get a little tired," he said.

This might seem risky for Durham, who went on the disabled list twice each season in 2003 and 2004 with assorted leg injuries and was sidelined April 28-May 11 this season with a strained left hamstring. But he said that performing more stretching exercises -- "body-weight stuff, squats, lunges" -- has kept him on the field.

I don't mean to be so hard on Ray Durham. He's been a very good player for a number of years. But if you were developing a pattern recognizer for picking players who might be juicing, wouldn't he fit the bill?

Mike Piazza hits his 20th home run of the season in the second inning, a solo shot that helped San Diego to a 2-0 lead. The long ball put Mike's season slugging percentage over .500. The last time Piazza slugged that high was 2002 when he finished with a .544 mark. He hasn't hit over 20 home runs in a year since, but it looks like he'll top that mark this season.

Update: Atkins his a two-run shot in the top of the third to tie the game and eliminate this contest from the shutout competition. At age 26, Atkins' made an impressive leap in his second full season in the majors. His homer tonight was his 66th extra-base hit of the season after 45 in 2005. His double total alone is 43.

Albert Pujols put the Cardinals up 1-0 in the first with his 44th home run of the season. He needs three more to set a new career high, five more to reach 250 in six seasons.

In a comment to this post, a Phillies fan and good friend writes:

Since entering the league around the middle of last year, Howard has now hit 23 + 52 = 75 home runs in 1 1/2 seasons. He is on pace to hit 500 home runs before the age of 30 in about five seasons and clearly at this pace will pass Barry Bonds, Willie Mays and eventually Henry Aaron despite his late start and being 26 years of age.

No. First of all, he has 76 homers, not 75 (he hit 2 in 2004). Secondly, a great finish this year and three great season afterward puts him at 240 homers through age 29, which isn't quite 500. Albert Pujols, who is the same age, has 243 homers. In order to catch Albert in three years, Howard would need to outhit Pujols by about 60 homers a year. Even Babe Ruth, who got off to a late start due to being a pitcher, hit 163 homers through age 26.

The more interesting question is why Howard didn't get a chance to play until a Thome injury? Why was a player who hit for average, got on base and hit for power spending three years in A ball? If Philadelphia realized what they had, they could have signed a stop gap instead of Thome, and maybe Howard comes up in 2003 and has 150 homers already. And when I talk about first basemen being easy to find, I wonder how many teams might have traded for Ryan, since the Phillies were happy with Thome. He might get to 500 home runs, but if he were full time in 2004, that would be a lot more likely.

It's a big home run day as Albert Pujols slugs three homers to keep pace with Ryan Howard. At one point, Albert was running away with the home run race, but with the injury, he's now ten behind Ryan. They're in the sixth inning, so Albert should get a shot at four in the game.

Update: Pujols is coming up in the bottom of the seventh.

Update: On a 1-1 pitch, Pujols flies to the edge of the warning track in left. He's driven in all five runs today as the Cardinals lead 5-0. Reyes struck out 9 in his 6 1/3 innings of shutout ball.

A-Rod seems to have recovered from his west coast illness just fine. He hit two more home runs today, bringing his season total to 31. He drove in four runs for 103 on the season. That's five home runs and 12 RBI in his last four games. It will probably end up being an off year for Rodriguez in terms of power, but still a better season than he put up in 2004.

The Yankees have to be happy with Darrell Rasner's first start for New York. He allowed just one run over six innings while walking none. In 15 career major league innings he's allowed 10 hits and walked just 2. New York leads Minnesota 8-1 in the eighth inning.

Update: A-Rod drives in another run in the 8th with a single to give him five on the afternoon and 104 for the season.

Ryan Howard just hit his third home run of the game, blowing by the 50 home run mark to give himslef 52 on the season. He'll come up again in the 6-1 game for a shot at the single game record of four.

The record for a double header is five, and they will play a nightcap today.

Update: Howard is up in the 8th with one out and none on.

Update: McBride hangs one and Howard lines it into center field for a single. Thirteen total bases on the day isn't bad. He's now slugging .661 on the season.

Chipper Jones homers in the top of the first of game two versus the Phillies to give the Braves a 2-0 lead. In his last eight games, Chipper's collected nine hits, five of them for homers. He's not hitting for a high average, but he's making them count. He's driven in twelve runs in that time.

Update: The Phillies come back to tie the game at 2 with a run in the first and a run in the second.

Update: The Phillies take the lead as Victorino runs outside the first base line to reach first, driving in a run. The umps seem to make a "no harm, no foul" call as LaRoche could not have tagged him anyway. Doesn't seem right to me. The run would have scored anyway. Phillies lead 3-2.

Ryan Howard connects for his 49th home run, passing Mike Schmidt to claim the single season home run record for the Phillies. With a month to go, he's likely to shatter the record, and may become the first player since 2001 to reach 60 home runs in a season. Even more importantly, the shot ties the Nationals at two.

Barry's knees must be okay as he goes deep for the second time in the game. It's his first multi-homer game in exactly two years, also at Atlanta.

Carlos Beltran hits a solo home run in the first inning at Coors to help the Mets to a 2-1 lead over the Rockies in the second inning. It's his 24th road home run of the year, keeping pace with Ryan Howard for most long balls away from home in the National League.

Ryan Howard adds a three-run homer to the Phillies attack to make the score 9-3 over the Nationals. His 48th dinger of the season puts him ahead of the ill David Ortiz for the major league lead in homers. His 2 for 3 night puts his slugging percentage over .700 for the month of August.

Vernon Wells homered in a 10-6 Toronto win over the Royals today, bringing his total to 30. Twenty-three of those, however, have come in the stadium formerly known as Skydome. That ties him with teammate Troy Glaus for most home runs at home in the AL. Wells is having a decent season on the road, but he's slugging about 200 points lower away from his home park. He's an MVP at home, just a good player away.

Ted Lilly got the win but didn't pitch well. After giving up six runs in 5 1/3 innings, I doubt he minded leaving the game.

Correction: The Blue Jays beat the Royals, not the Devil Rays, though it's tough to tell the difference. :-)

Jermaine Dye hit two home runs and a double today to help Chicago to a 10-0 win over Detroit. Dye is now slugging .651, 170 points over his career average. His career high before this was .561in 2000. It's pretty unusual for a player to set career highs in power at this age (32). I wonder if we'll start hearing steroid rumors about him. Does anyone know if Dye changed his approach to hitting this year, or i