THT Daily: What a Meche
by Dave StudemanJune 17, 2009
Major League News for June 17
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Top Minor League Performances
You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldAn MRI on Chris Young's inflamed right shoulder showed no structural damage.
Young is optimistic he'll avoid the disabled list. "The good news is the news was as good as it could be," he said. "Structurally, everything checked out. So we're not talking about a long time. Let's get it healed. But I'm not thinking disabled list." Hopefully he's being honest with himself.
Felix Hernandez threw a complete-game two-hit shutout in a 5-0 win over the Padres on Tuesday night.
A fantastic start for King Felix in a remarkable pitchers' duel. Hernandez gave up a single to Kevin Kouzmanoff in the second inning, but didn't allow another one all the way until Tony Gwynn's leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth. Hernandez struck out six and walked four, improving his ERA to 2.77. It's the third career complete game shutout for King Felix. Now at 7-3, he's finally putting it all together.
Twins placed outfielder Denard Span on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to June 10, with vestibular neuritis of the right ear.
Span is still feeling the effects of an inner ear infection. According to the Twins' assessment, he wouldn't have been able to play until after the weekend. It makes sense to throw him on the disabled list and call up some needed depth.
Jorge De La Rosa was tagged for seven runs over 2 1/3 innings in a 12-4 loss to the Rays on Tuesday night.
There goes the winning streak, and possibly De La Rosa's spot in the rotation, as well. He gave up eight hits, including two home runs, while walking one and striking out four. De La Rosa has a 5.81 ERA through 13 starts this season. Despite flashes of dominance at times, he is just way too wild to be relied upon.
Albert Pujols finished 1-for-2 with two walks and a solo home run Tuesday as the Cardinals dismantled the Tigers.
The dinger, which traveled an estimated 456 feet, pushed Pujols into the MLB home run lead. The 29-year-old All-Star is batting .326/.446/.701 with 23 home runs and 58 RBI in 221 at-bats this season. He also leads the National League in runs scored, slugging percentage and OPS.
Gil Meche tossed a complete-game shutout as the Royals topped the Diamondbacks 5-0 Tuesday night in Kansas City.
Meche looked unstoppable on the mound, and for the most part was. He fanned six batters while issuing just a single walk and four hits. His ERA fell to 3.31 and his WHIP to 1.34. The veteran hasn't allowed an earned run in two straight starts. He'll face the Cardinals next.
Ivan Rodriguez homered and matched the major league record for games caught on Tuesday night against the Rangers.
He's now tied with Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk with 2,226 games behind the dish. He'll have a chance to break the record against his former team on Wednesday. His fifth inning homer was the only offense the Astros could muster against Kevin Millwood.
Ian Kinsler homered twice and scored three times in a win over the Astros on Tuesday night.
He was 3-for-4 with a walk on the night. Kinsler led off the game with his 17th home run and followed that up with his 18th home run just an inning later. They were his first extra-base hits since June 7. Kinsler's nine career leadoff homers are a Rangers record.
Derek Jeter (ankle) was pulled from Tuesday's game mostly as a precaution.
"He was just not running real well, and when we took the lead, it was time to take him out," manager Joe Girardi said. Jeter had no tests done, but it's unlikely he'll be in the lineup Wednesday. We'll call him "day-to-day."
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League NYN 6 BAL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 8 FLA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 5 WAS 3 (Recap and Boxscore) MIL 7 CLE 5 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 5 ARI 0 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 8 PIT 2 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 6 HOU 1 (Recap and Boxscore) National League TOR 8 PHI 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 7 ATL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 11 DET 2 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 12 COL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 5 OAK 4 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 5 SD 0 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 8 SF 1 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Atlanta Braves at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (R) Javier Vazquez (4-5) vs. (R) Micah Owings (3-7) Inter-League ------------ Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM (L) John Danks (4-5) vs. (R) Ryan Dempster (4-3) LA Angels of Anaheim at San Francisco Giants, 3:45 PM (R) Matt Palmer (6-0) vs. (R) Tim Lincecum (6-1) New York Mets at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) Tim Redding (0-2) vs. (R) Koji Uehara (2-4) Washington Nationals at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (L) John Lannan (3-5) vs. (R) Chien-Ming Wang (0-4) Toronto Blue Jays at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (R) Scott Richmond (4-3) vs. (L) Jamie Moyer (4-5) Milwaukee Brewers at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Jeff Suppan (5-4) vs. (L) David Huff (2-2) Florida Marlins at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM (L) Andrew Miller (2-2) vs. (R) Brad Penny (5-2) Houston Astros at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Russ Ortiz (3-2) vs. (L) Matt Harrison (4-4) Arizona Diamondbacks at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (R) Max Scherzer (3-4) vs. (R) Zack Greinke (8-2) Pittsburgh Pirates at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (R) Ian Snell (1-7) vs. (L) Francisco Liriano (2-7) Detroit Tigers at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM (R) Edwin Jackson (6-3) vs. (R) Todd Wellemeyer (5-6) Tampa Bay Rays at Colorado Rockies, 8:40 PM (L) David Price (1-0) vs. (R) Aaron Cook (5-3) Seattle Mariners at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (L) Garrett Olson (1-1) vs. (R) Chad Gaudin (2-5) Oakland Athletics at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Trevor Cahill (3-5) vs. (R) Hiroki Kuroda (1-2)
Standings
The graphics next to each team are called "sparklines.” They depict each team’s performance over the last month. Each "up" bar is a victory and a "down" bar is a loss. There are horizontal lines for home games and red bars represent games decided by two runs or less. "PWins" is short for Projected Wins, based on each team’s Run Differential, and is often a better measure of a team’s true strength. Other team graphs and stats can be found on our Team Page.American League East Pwins Diff BOS 39 25 .609 0.0 38 1NYA 37 27 .578 2.0 35 2
TB 35 31 .530 5.0 40 -5
TOR 35 31 .530 5.0 36 -1
BAL 27 37 .422 12.0 26 1
American League Central DET 34 30 .531 0.0 34 0
MIN 33 33 .500 2.0 35 -2
CHA 30 34 .469 4.0 29 1
KC 29 34 .460 4.5 29 0
CLE 29 38 .433 6.5 32 -3
American League West TEX 36 27 .571 0.0 34 2
LAA 34 29 .540 2.0 32 2
SEA 31 33 .484 5.5 29 2
OAK 27 36 .429 9.0 28 -1
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 36 26 .581 0.0 34 2
NYN 33 29 .532 3.0 32 1
FLA 32 34 .485 6.0 30 2
ATL 30 33 .476 6.5 29 1
WAS 16 46 .258 20.0 24 -8
National League Central MIL 36 29 .554 0.0 35 1
STL 35 30 .538 1.0 35 0
CIN 32 31 .508 3.0 32 0
CHN 30 30 .500 3.5 31 -1
PIT 30 34 .469 5.5 32 -2
HOU 29 33 .468 5.5 28 1
National League West LAN 43 22 .662 0.0 41 2
SF 34 30 .531 8.5 33 1
COL 31 33 .484 11.5 33 -2
SD 28 35 .444 14.0 24 4
ARI 27 38 .415 16.0 28 -1
Top Minor League Games
The following list, provided by First Inning, includes the top minor league batting (based on Runs Created) and pitching (based on Game Score) performances from yesterday.ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes PIT A+ Pedro Alvarez..... 4 2 0 0 2 0 0 6 RBI ! ATL A+ F. Freeman........ 3 2 0 0 2 0 0 SD A Blake Tekotte..... 5 3 0 1 0 0 1 2 SB NYM AA Nick Evans........ 4 2 2 0 0 0 0 SEA AAA Adam Moore........ 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 4 RBI PHI AA Michael Taylor.... 4 2 1 1 0 0 0 CIN AAA Drew Stubbs....... 3 2 1 0 0 1 0 SF AAA Kevin Frandsen.... 4 2 0 0 1 1 0 PHI A Zachary Collier... 4 2 1 0 0 0 1 PIT A Robbie Grossman... 5 2 1 0 0 0 0 CHC A Ryan Flaherty..... 4 2 0 0 1 0 0 4 RBI BOS A+ Luis Exposito..... 4 2 0 0 1 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes COL AA Jhoulys Chacin.... 7 2 2 2 10 1 1 LAA AAA Trevor Bell....... 9 2 0 0 4 0 0 NYY AA Z. McAllister..... 7 9 4 3 8 0 0 13 GB SF AA Tim Alderson...... 7 2 0 0 5 2 0 CHC A Aaron Shafer...... 5 1 0 0 5 1 0 HOU A Jordan Lyles...... 6 5 3 3 6 2 0 MIN A+ Tyler Robertson... 6 4 1 1 5 2 0 CLE A Curtis Haley...... 6 3 2 2 4 2 0 11 GB NYM A Jeurys Familia.... 6 7 3 3 6 2 0 LAA AA Jordan Walden..... 7 7 3 1 6 3 0 12 GB TEX A Martin Perez...... 2 1 0 0 6 2 0 TEX AAA Neftali Feliz..... 6 8 4 4 3 0 0
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