THT Daily: 7 RBIs
by Dave StudemanJuly 18, 2009
Major League News for July 18
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 RotoworldRoy Oswalt limited the Dodgers to one run as part of a complete game 8-1 win on Friday night.
This is the guy you want on your side when the second-half begins. Oswalt is now 68-20 after the All-Star break for his career. He held the Dodgers to a mere four hits, improving to 6-4 on the year. The only run scored on an RBI groundout by Russell Martin in the third inning. Oswalt struck out five while not walking a batter. He'll face Albert Pujols and the Cardinals next time out.
Jim Thome homered twice and drove in a career-high seven runs in a win over the Orioles on Friday night.
Thome hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning and added a grand slam in the sixth. He has 14 RBI over the course of his last three games, increasing his total to 57 for the season and 1,545 for his career -- good enough for 41st all-time. Currently at 557 home runs, Thome is within six of Reggie Jackson, 12th all-time.
Evan Longoria was 2-for-5 with a go-ahead two-run homer in a win over the Royals on Friday night.
Sidelined from the All-Star game due to an infection on his right ring finger, Longo drove in three runs on Friday night. His eighth-inning two-run blast was the difference in an 8-7 victory. After struggling through June and the early part of July, Longoria-owners hope the injuries are behind him.
Albert Pujols homered twice in a win over the Diamondbacks on Friday night.
Insane. Another multi-homer game for El Hombre. That makes eight this season and 31 for his career. He currently leads all major leaguers with 34 home runs and 89 runs batted in. It seems hosting the 2009 All-Star Game didn't leave him too exhausted.
Doug Brocail (hamstring) is scheduled to begin a minor league rehab assignment with Triple-A Round Rock on Monday evening.
Brocail, on the disabled list since May 4 with a left hamstring strain, is expected to spend at least a week in Triple-A. "You could see he worked very hard on his arm strength," pitching coach Dewery Robinson said Friday. "Even though he was down with a leg injury, he made sure his arm stayed in shape. That was one of his biggest concerns. Obviously, he's worked very hard at that end of it. Now he just needs to face hitters in game situation."
Gary Sheffield's injury is being termed a "right leg cramp."
Sheffield looked destined for the disabled list when the injury first happened, but should only miss a day or two if the diagnosis is correct. We'll be sure to keep you updated if his status changes.
Clay Buchholz was victorious in his first start of the season against the Blue Jays on Friday night, allowing one run over 5 2/3 innings.
A solid outing for Buchholz, but he had trouble putting batters away. He allowed just four hits against three walks and three strikeouts, giving way to Daniel Bard with two runners on in the sixth. While he was expected to be up for just one start, the solid effort will surely raise more speculation as to why he's simply biding time in the minors.
Aramis Ramirez homered in a win over the Nationals on Friday night.
He's batting .225 since his return from the disabled list on July 6. Not only was it his first home run since coming back, it was also his first extra-base hit.
J.J. Putz played catch Friday afternoon for the first time since undergoing elbow surgery in early June.
Putz is working toward a mid-August return. "It's one thing to come back and feel good and be able to pitch, but I am not going to come back until I am ready to pitch at the level and efficiency where I can dominate," he said. "I am not going to go out there with anything less than my best stuff."
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League NYA 5 DET 3 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 4 TOR 1 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 12 BAL 8 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 6 CLE 2 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 8 KC 7 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 7 LAA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 5 TEX 3 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 11 NYN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 6 FLA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 3 WAS 1 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 4 MIL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 2 SF 1 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 6 ARI 1 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 8 LAN 1 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 5 SD 3 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- New York Mets at Atlanta Braves, 4:10 PM (L) Johan Santana (10-7) vs. (R) Kenshin Kawakami (5-6) San Francisco Giants at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (L) Barry Zito (5-9) vs. (R) Charlie Morton (1-2) Chicago Cubs at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (R) Randy Wells (4-4) vs. (R) Jordan Zimmermann (3-4) Milwaukee Brewers at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (L) Manny Parra (3-8) vs. (R) Aaron Harang (5-9) Philadelphia Phillies at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Joe Blanton (6-4) vs. (R) Josh Johnson (8-2) Arizona Diamondbacks at St. Louis Cardinals, 7:15 PM (R) Dan Haren (9-5) vs. (R) Adam Wainwright (10-5) Colorado Rockies at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Jason Hammel (5-4) vs. (R) Kevin Correia (6-7) Houston Astros at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (L) Mike Hampton (5-6) vs. (L) Clayton Kershaw (7-5) American League --------------- Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM (R) Justin Verlander (10-4) vs. (L) CC Sabathia (8-6) Boston Red Sox at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM (R) Brad Penny (6-3) vs. (L) Marc Rzepczynski (0-1) Baltimore Orioles at Chicago White Sox, 4:10 PM (R) Brad Bergesen (6-3) vs. (L) Mark Buehrle (9-3) LA Angels of Anaheim at Oakland Athletics, 4:10 PM (R) Jered Weaver (10-3) vs. (R) Vin Mazzaro (2-5) Seattle Mariners at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (L) Jarrod Washburn (6-6) vs. (R) Tomo Ohka (0-3) Tampa Bay Rays at Kansas City Royals, 7:10 PM (L) Scott Kazmir (4-5) vs. (R) Zack Greinke (10-5) Minnesota Twins at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Scott Baker (7-7) vs. (R) Scott Feldman (8-2)
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 55 34 .618 0.0 53 2NYA 52 37 .584 3.0 50 2
TB 49 41 .544 6.5 52 -3
TOR 44 47 .484 12.0 48 -4
BAL 40 49 .449 15.0 39 1
American League Central DET 48 40 .545 0.0 47 1
CHA 46 43 .517 2.5 45 1
MIN 46 44 .511 3.0 48 -2
KC 37 52 .416 11.5 36 1
CLE 36 55 .396 13.5 41 -5
American League West LAA 50 38 .568 0.0 47 3
TEX 48 40 .545 2.0 47 1
SEA 47 43 .522 4.0 43 4
OAK 38 50 .432 12.0 40 -2
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 50 38 .568 0.0 49 1
ATL 45 45 .500 6.0 46 -1
FLA 46 46 .500 6.0 44 2
NYN 42 47 .472 8.5 40 2
WAS 26 63 .292 24.5 34 -8
National League Central STL 50 42 .543 0.0 50 0
CHN 45 43 .511 3.0 45 0
HOU 46 44 .511 3.0 43 3
MIL 46 44 .511 3.0 44 2
CIN 43 46 .483 5.5 39 4
PIT 39 50 .438 9.5 43 -4
National League West LAN 56 34 .622 0.0 55 1
SF 49 40 .551 6.5 49 0
COL 49 41 .544 7.0 50 -1
ARI 38 52 .422 18.0 41 -3
SD 36 54 .400 20.0 33 3
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 SEA A+ Joseph Dunigan.... 5 3 0 0 2 0 2 3 R TEX AAA C. Davis.......... 5 3 3 0 0 1 1 TOR AAA J. Arencibia...... 4 4 1 0 1 0 0 SD A+ James Darnell..... 3 1 0 0 1 2 2 DET AA Casper Wells...... 5 3 0 0 1 0 2 FLA AA Logan Morrison.... 2 2 1 0 0 2 0 OAK AA Corey Wimberly.... 4 2 2 0 0 0 0 TEX AAA Justin Smoak...... 5 2 2 0 0 0 0 OAK AAA Daric Barton...... 3 2 1 0 0 2 0 BOS A- Derrik Gibson..... 2 1 1 0 0 2 0 SD A Jaff Decker....... 5 3 1 0 0 0 0 HOU A Jay Austin........ 4 2 1 0 0 1 2 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes SEA A+ Steven Hensley.... 8 3 3 3 10 1 2 STL AA Lance Lynn........ 7 3 0 0 7 1 0 BAL AAA C. Tillman........ 7 7 1 1 7 0 0 COL AA Jhoulys Chacin.... 8 3 0 0 6 3 0 MIL AAA Christopher Cody.. 7 7 1 1 6 1 0 12 GB SD A Simon Castro...... 5 3 3 3 7 2 0 CLE AAA Hector Rondon..... 6 7 1 1 5 0 0 MIN A+ David Bromberg.... 6 7 3 3 6 1 0 BOS AA Junichi Tazawa.... 5 5 1 1 4 0 0 TEX A Carlos Pimentel... 3 1 0 0 5 1 0 STL A+ Richard Castillo.. 6 8 2 2 6 2 0 TEX A Neil Ramirez...... 6 2 1 1 4 1 1
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Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.