THT Daily: 2nd place shutouts
by Matthew CarruthAugust 28, 2007
Major league news for Aug. 28
LinksPlayer News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Top Minor League Performances
Stats
You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/
Links
Hidden game - The Good Phight looks at the impact of lifting Pat Burrell from tight games for defensive replacements.
Loaiza interests Dodgers - MLB Trade Rumors reports that the Dodgers are interested in Esteban Loaiza, who has had two strong starts since coming off the DL.
Wait till next year - Baseball America brings us this season's Arizona Fall League rosters.
Cy Worthy? - Rich Lederer looks at the leading candidates for the NL Cy Young.
End game - The Boston Globe pronounces the AL East race over, more or less.
King K - Jake Peavy is now the Padres' all-time strikeout king.
THT Links represents the best efforts of our editors in scouring the various tubes of the interweb for both relevant and irrelevant news items. If you have happened upon a story that we have overlooked or wish to give feedback of any sort, please notify us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Player News
Player news items are provided by RotoworldJohn Lackey pitched his seventh career shutout Monday against the Mariners to join Josh Beckett and Tim Wakefield as the league's only 16-game winners.
Seattle was held without an extra-base hit in a second straight game. The Mariners have managed just two doubles while losing three straight and falling three games back in the AL West. They're two ahead of the Yankees in the wild card. Lackey also blanked the Mariners on July 31 and has pitched 24 scoreless innings against the club this season. He's 8-1 with a 2.06 ERA against the AL West and 8-7 with a 3.88 ERA versus everyone else.
Pedro Martinez allowed an unearned run and five hits over six innings Monday for Single-A St. Lucie in his fourth rehab start.
A second straight nice result, but he's still facing 21-year-olds and he's doing it on five and now six days' rest. "I felt good overall," said Martinez, who threw 52 of 88 pitches for strikes. "I feel like I used all my pitches and I was getting more confident as the game went on. The first two innings I felt a little out of whack." It looks like Pedro will make one more rehab start and then join the Mets.
Tigers placed designated hitter Gary Sheffield on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Aug. 22, with a sore right shoulder.
Sheffield will miss at least the next 10 days, leaving Marcus Thames as the Tigers' primary DH. Cameron Maybin and Ryan Raburn will also continue to pick up at-bats.
Jermaine Dye hit the second of three straight homers in the seventh inning Monday in the win over the Devil Rays.
The White Sox were all set to go down quietly again until A.J. Pierzynski, Dye and Juan Uribe homered off Edwin Jackson to begin the seventh. Josh Fields later liner one over the left-field wall for a two-run shot with two outs in the inning, giving the White Sox a 5-4 lead that Mike MacDougal and Bobby Jenks were able to hold on to. Dye also homered Sunday. He's just four away from getting to 30 for the third straight year. Before arriving in Chicago, he had recorded just one 30-homer season, that coming with the Royals in 2000.
The Astros have fired both manager Phil Garner and GM Tim Purpura, FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal reports.
The Houston Chronicle has confirmed the news. We think owner Drayton McLane deserves his share of the blame for many of Purpura's mistakes, but that hardly means the GM was doing a good job, and Garner's ability to motivate his players was no longer making up for all of his shortcomings. The Astros are better off starting over with a new regime. Unfortunately, so much damage has already been done that a quick turnaround is unlikely. With so little in the farm system and McLane seemingly unwilling to spend for young talent, it's not going to be a very attractive GM opening. They should have changed directions before completely botching the draft this year and then failing to do anything to build for`the future at the trade deadline.
Yesterday’s Results
American League CHA 5 TB 4 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 8 MIN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 16 NYA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 6 OAK 2 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 6 SEA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 13 FLA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 9 NYN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 5 WAS 4 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 3 ARI 1 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 4 COL 1 (Recap and Boxscore)
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Cincinnati Reds at Pittsburgh Pirates, 5:05 PM (R) Elizardo Ramirez (0-1) vs. (L) Tom Gorzelanny (12-7) Atlanta Braves at Florida Marlins, 7:05 PM (R) John Smoltz (12-6) vs. (R) Rick Vanden Hurk (4-4) New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (L) Tom Glavine (11-6) vs. (R) Adam Eaton (9-8) Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 PM (R) Jeff Suppan (8-11) vs. (L) Rich Hill (7-7) St. Louis Cardinals at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (R) Braden Looper (10-10) vs. (R) Woody Williams (8-12) Cincinnati Reds at Pittsburgh Pirates, 8:35 PM (R) Bronson Arroyo (7-13) vs. (L) Paul Maholm (10-14) Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Brandon Webb (14-8) vs. (R) Justin Germano (6-7) Washington Nationals at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (R) Jason Bergmann (2-5) vs. (R) Chad Billingsley (8-4) Colorado Rockies at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (L) Franklin Morales (0-1) vs. (R) Matt Cain (6-13) American League --------------- Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Boof Bonser (6-10) vs. (R) Jake Westbrook (4-7) Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (R) Jason Hammel (1-4) vs. (R) Daniel Cabrera (9-13) Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) Daisuke Matsuzaka (13-10) vs. (L) Andy Pettitte (11-7) Detroit Tigers at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (L) Nate Robertson (7-10) vs. (R) Brian Bannister (10-7) Chicago White Sox at Texas Rangers, 8:35 PM (R) Gavin Floyd (1-2) vs. (L) Kason Gabbard (6-1) LA Angels of Anaheim at Seattle Mariners, 10:05 PM (R) Ervin Santana (5-12) vs. (R) Jeff Weaver (6-10) Toronto Blue Jays at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Jesse Litsch (5-6) vs. (R) Chad Gaudin (10-9)
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 80 51 .611 0.0 84 -4NYA 72 59 .550 8.0 78 -6
TOR 66 65 .504 14.0 70 -4
BAL 58 71 .450 21.0 61 -3
TB 51 80 .389 29.0 50 1
American League Central CLE 73 57 .562 0.0 71 2
DET 71 60 .542 2.5 72 -1
MIN 67 64 .511 6.5 68 -1
KC 57 72 .442 15.5 60 -3
CHA 57 74 .435 16.5 51 6
American League West LAA 77 54 .588 0.0 74 3
SEA 73 56 .566 3.0 66 7
OAK 65 68 .489 13.0 67 -2
TEX 58 72 .446 18.5 61 -3
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 73 57 .562 0.0 71 2
PHI 68 62 .523 5.0 69 -1
ATL 68 64 .515 6.0 71 -3
WAS 58 74 .439 16.0 55 3
FLA 57 75 .432 17.0 59 -2
National League Central CHN 66 63 .512 0.0 70 -4
MIL 65 65 .500 1.5 63 2
STL 63 64 .496 2.0 57 6
CIN 60 70 .462 6.5 60 0
HOU 58 73 .443 9.0 57 1
PIT 57 72 .442 9.0 58 -1
National League West ARI 74 58 .561 0.0 62 12
SD 71 59 .546 2.0 72 -1
LAN 68 63 .519 5.5 68 0
COL 67 64 .511 6.5 69 -2
SF 60 72 .455 14.0 66 -6
Wildcard Standings American League SEA 73 56 .566 0.0 NYA 72 59 .550 2.0 DET 71 60 .542 3.0 MIN 67 64 .511 7.0 TOR 66 65 .504 8.0 National League SD 71 59 .546 0.0 PHI 68 62 .523 3.0 LAN 68 63 .519 3.5 ATL 68 64 .515 4.0 COL 67 64 .511 4.5
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 CIN AAA Jay Bruce......... 4 2 2 0 0 0 0 LAA AAA Brandon Wood...... 3 1 0 0 1 1 2 3 R CLE AA Trevor Crowe...... 4 3 2 0 0 0 0 3 R STL AA Colby Rasmus...... 5 2 0 0 1 1 2 LA AAA Andy LaRoche...... 4 2 0 0 0 1 1 ARI AAA Carlos Gonzalez... 4 2 0 0 0 1 0 CLE AAA Andy Marte........ 3 2 0 0 0 1 0 BOS AAA Jacoby Ellsbury... 5 2 0 0 1 0 0 DET AA Jeff Larish....... 3 2 1 0 1 1 0 SEA AAA Jeff Clement...... 4 3 0 0 1 0 1 LA AAA Tony Abreu........ 5 2 2 0 0 0 0 MIL A+ Lorenzo Cain...... 3 2 1 0 0 2 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes SD AA Wade Leblanc...... 7 3 1 1 10 0 0 TB AAA Jeff Niemann...... 6 5 3 2 6 0 0 TEX A Kasey Kiker....... 7 3 0 0 9 3 0 HOU AAA Chad Reineke...... 8 4 0 0 5 0 0 CHC AA Donald Veal....... 7 7 3 3 5 0 0 SF AA Nick Pereira...... 8 6 2 2 8 1 1 BAL AAA Hayden Penn....... 6 7 1 1 5 0 0 FLA A+ Ryan Tucker....... 5 5 3 3 6 4 0 BOS AAA Clay Buchholz..... 5 5 5 3 4 3 0 9 GB TOR AAA Josh Banks........ 6 6 3 3 4 1 0 11 GB DET AAA Jordan Tata....... 7 4 3 3 6 5 0 TB AAA J.P. Howell....... 5 4 2 2 6 2 0 9 GB
THT Stats
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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.