Julio Borbon delivered a pinch-hit single in the bottom of the fourteenth as the Cubs beat the Reds 6-5. The Cubs tied the game in the eighth, and neither team scored for the next five innings.
Nate Schierholtz hit two triples in the game. He hit five last season and how has 17 for his career.
The Yankees and Athletics are also in the fourteenth inning in Oakland, tied at 2. Neither team has scored since the third inning.
The Texas Rangers lost Julio Borbon:
The Rangers made it official on Saturday morning when they placed starting center fielder Julio Borbon on the 15-day disabled list with inflammation of his left hamstring.
Borbon, who was hitting .270, left Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels when running down a fly ball in the top of the seventh inning.
It was a pretty hollow .270, however, as Julio’s OBP was a poor .305 and his slugging percentage was down at .348. The Rangers should be able to do better offensively at the position.
Jacoby Ellsbury hits a high fly ball to right center to start the Boston/Texas game. Nelson Cruz was underneath it, but Julio Borbon runs into Cruz and the ball falls for a two-base error. Borbon gets the error. Cruz waved his had to wave off Borbon, but it’s possible Nelson didn’t call the ball. Borbon had to go a long way to catch it. I appreciate that the centerfielder should catch everything, but a look at Cruz would have helped.
Update: The error hurts as the Red Sox score twice. Kevin Youkilis doubled and Adrian Gonzalez singled him in, as the dynamic duo gets started early. Ian Kinsler, however, gets one back as he leads off the bottom of the first with a home run.
Update: Kevin Youkilis bobbles the first ball hit to him for an error, putting Elvis Andrus on first with none out. So far, this is not a game for pitching and defense.
Update: Josh Hamilton hits into a double play to take some pressure off Jon Lester.
Julio Borbon celebrates his evil player status with his first home run of the season. Texas leads Florida 3-2 in the top of the sixth inning.
The Evil Player program selects Julio Borbon as Wednesday’s evil player. Borbon .280 BA hides his evil .298 OPB and .335 slugging percentage. He represents a perfect example of a player with a batting average that represents a high percentage of his offense. Add in that he’s only 8 for 14 attempting to steal, and his .280 BA appears rather hollow.
Hanson Wu of RotoBaseballBlog will post a guest article on Mondays. Enjoy!
Pickup’s is a weekly article by RotoBaseballBlog.com posted on Mondays – it highlights current players I would target who are available on the waiver market in a majority of leagues.
Julio Borbon: One of the most intriguing players heading into 2010 league drafts – Borbon showed tremendous speed last year and Texas is easily regarded as one of the best offenses in the majors. However, he stumbled out of the gate and lost his leadoff role to Elvis Andrus. Lately through a great homestand he’s come back to life, hitting .500 over the last week (9-18). Although it’s a slim possibility of him returning to the #1 spot in the lineup – he should score plenty of runs and steal bases if he can get on base.
Sean Rodriguez: Starting everyday now as the 2B for the league winning record Rays – Rodriguez is in the midst of a 13 game hitting streak (3-3 today with 2 SB) in which he’s belted 3 homers and driven in 11. He hit 30 homers in only 108 games at the AAA level in 2009. This kind of power at middle infield and playing for a good offense should definitely not be overlooked.
Brennan Boesch: I will admit I was one of the doubters when this youngster stormed through the gates of his call-up, given his near 50% O-Swing percentage it seemed only a matter of time before he dropped back down to earth. In fact, the opposite has happened – he’s hitting a cool .390 through June and continues the power surge (4 homers, 6 multihit games through last 10). He regularly hits 5th behind Ordonez and Cabrera which can only mean tons of RBI opportunities – even if his average dips a bit.
Aaron Heilman: Back to back ugly outings by Chad Qualls of the Diamondbacks has me thinking that A.J Hinch goes to Heilman for the next Save opportunity. Heilman was a solid setup man through ’07 and ’08 with the Mets; given the lack of better options in the Arizona bullpen and his consistency so far – expect him to pick up a few saves in the near future.
Aaron Harang: After a bad 2008 campaign following 3 straight successful seasons it appears as if the Harangutan never fully recovered. However, he’s thrown the baseball better of late – giving up no more than 2 earned runs in his last 3 starts. His velocity is actually near his career high so there’s no signs of injury here – he is however getting hurt by a high BABIP and home run rate. The Reds are a winning team this year and I can expect Harang to recieve above average run support – this will lead to some Wins if he can string together some more quality starts. I’d give him a shot based on his past track record and he’s still just 32 years of age.