THT Daily: Nats win three straight
by Dave StudemanJune 20, 2009
Major League News for June 20
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 RotoworldKevin Slowey grabbed a share of the American League lead in wins by holding the Astros to one run over six innings on Friday night.
The Twins topped the Astros 5-2. Slowey allowed just three hits -- all singles -- while walking four and striking out six. His ERA currently sits at a season-low 4.04. Slowey tied the injured Roy Halladay with his 10th win. He'll go for the league lead in wins in his next start against the Brewers.
Colby Rasmus enjoyed his first career four-hit game in a win over the Royals on Friday night.
He's had three three-hit games already, including two this month, but this was his first four-hit contest. The current front-runner for the NL Rookie of the Year drove in two runs with a double in the fifth inning. He scored twice in the 10-5 rout. His wicked .429 clip this month has brought his batting average all the way up to .285.
Andy Pettitte held the Marlins to a single run over seven innings in a 5-1 win on Friday night.
Pettitte's finest start of the year. He limited the Marlins to just three hits while not issuing a walk. The only run scored on a solo home run by Cody Ross in the third inning. He even drove in a run with a double in the second inning. Pettitte matched a season-high with seven strikeouts in the win, improving to 7-3 on the season. He now leads the Yankees in wins.
An MRI on Erik Bedard's ailing shoulder revealed no structural damage.
This is great news for Bedard and his fantasy owners. He will go back to his regular routine on Monday and if all goes well, he will be activated in 11 days for their series against the Yankees beginning on June 30. Since Bedard's had injury issues in the past, there's no guarantee that this plan will stick.
Jose Reyes (hamstring) performed light running drills and batting practice Friday.
This comes just two days after manager Jerry Manuel said that Reyes would need at least one week of rest before beginning rehabilitation. This marks Reyes's first baseball activity since partially tearing a hamstring tendon on June 3. While the Mets refused to even speculate on a timetable for their shortstop's return, this is positive news nonetheless.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League ATL 8 BOS 2 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 10 MIL 4 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 10 KC 5 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 5 HOU 2 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 5 LAN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 4 ARI 3 (Recap and Boxscore) National League NYA 5 FLA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) NYN 5 TB 3 (Recap and Boxscore) BAL 7 PHI 2 (Recap and Boxscore) WAS 2 TOR 1 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 8 CLE 7 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 4 CHA 3 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 7 PIT 3 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 7 SD 5 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 6 TEX 4 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Pittsburgh Pirates at Colorado Rockies, 8:10 PM (R) Charlie Morton (0-0) vs. (R) Jason Hammel (4-3) Inter-League ------------ Cleveland Indians at Chicago Cubs, 1:05 PM (R) Tomo Ohka (0-1) vs. (L) Ted Lilly (7-4) Milwaukee Brewers at Detroit Tigers, 4:05 PM (R) Dave Bush (3-3) vs. (R) Alfredo Figaro (0-0) St. Louis Cardinals at Kansas City Royals, 4:10 PM (R) Chris Carpenter (4-1) vs. (R) Brian Bannister (5-3) Tampa Bay Rays at New York Mets, 4:10 PM (R) James Shields (5-5) vs. (L) Johan Santana (8-4) Baltimore Orioles at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (R) Brad Bergesen (4-2) vs. (L) J.A. Happ (4-0) Toronto Blue Jays at Washington Nationals, 7:05 PM (L) Brett Cecil (2-1) vs. (L) Ross Detwiler (0-3) Houston Astros at Minnesota Twins, 7:10 PM (R) Brian Moehler (3-4) vs. (R) Scott Baker (4-6) Chicago White Sox at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (L) Clayton Richard (2-1) vs. (R) Johnny Cueto (6-4) New York Yankees at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) A.J. Burnett (5-3) vs. (R) Josh Johnson (6-1) Atlanta Braves at Boston Red Sox, 7:10 PM (R) Derek Lowe (7-4) vs. (R) Josh Beckett (7-3) Los Angeles Dodgers at LA Angels of Anaheim, 9:05 PM (R) Jeff Weaver (3-1) vs. (R) Jered Weaver (7-2) Texas Rangers at San Francisco Giants, 9:05 PM (L) Derek Holland (1-4) vs. (R) Matt Cain (9-1) Oakland Athletics at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (L) Brett Anderson (3-7) vs. (R) Walter Silva (0-0) Arizona Diamondbacks at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM (R) Billy Buckner (2-3) vs. (L) Jason Vargas (2-2)
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 40 27 .597 0.0 39 1NYA 38 29 .567 2.0 37 1
TOR 37 32 .536 4.0 38 -1
TB 35 34 .507 6.0 41 -6
BAL 30 37 .448 10.0 29 1
American League Central DET 36 31 .537 0.0 36 0
MIN 35 34 .507 2.0 37 -2
CHA 31 36 .463 5.0 31 0
KC 29 37 .439 6.5 29 0
CLE 29 40 .420 8.0 33 -4
American League West TEX 37 29 .561 0.0 35 2
LAA 36 29 .554 0.5 33 3
SEA 33 34 .493 4.5 31 2
OAK 29 37 .439 8.0 30 -1
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 36 29 .554 0.0 35 1
NYN 34 31 .523 2.0 33 1
ATL 32 34 .485 4.5 32 0
FLA 33 36 .478 5.0 31 2
WAS 19 46 .292 17.0 25 -6
National League Central MIL 37 30 .552 0.0 35 2
STL 37 31 .544 0.5 36 1
CIN 34 32 .515 2.5 33 1
CHN 32 31 .508 3.0 32 0
PIT 31 36 .463 6.0 34 -3
HOU 30 35 .462 6.0 29 1
National League West LAN 44 24 .647 0.0 42 2
SF 35 31 .530 8.0 34 1
COL 34 33 .507 9.5 36 -2
SD 29 37 .439 14.0 25 4
ARI 29 39 .426 15.0 31 -2
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 LA A Kyle Russell...... 3 3 2 0 1 2 0 LA A+ Pedro Baez........ 4 3 2 0 0 1 1 HOU AAA Brian Bogusevic... 5 3 0 0 2 0 1 4 RBI MIN AA Daniel Valencia... 4 3 1 0 1 0 0 3 R FLA AAA Cameron Maybin.... 3 3 0 1 0 3 0 3 R OAK AAA Aaron Cunningham.. 5 3 0 1 1 0 0 4 RBI LA A D. Strange-Gordo.. 4 2 1 0 0 1 1 2 SB SF A+ Buster Posey...... 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 ATL AA Brandon Hicks..... 4 3 1 0 0 1 1 CHW AAA Brandon Allen..... 4 3 2 0 0 0 0 MIL AAA Angel Salome...... 6 3 1 1 0 0 1 3 R BOS A Anthony Rizzo..... 4 2 2 0 0 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes CHW A Dexter Carter..... 7 1 0 0 7 1 0 PHI AA Kyle Drabek....... 8 4 0 0 5 0 0 14 OF TB AAA Wade Davis........ 7 4 3 1 9 2 1 LAA A+ Alexander Torres.. 6 5 0 0 6 1 0 SEA A Brett Lorin....... 6 5 2 2 5 0 0 LA AA Scott Elbert...... 5 3 4 3 10 5 0 OAK AAA Chad Reineke...... 6 4 2 2 7 1 1 SEA AAA G. Hernandez...... 5 6 5 5 8 3 0 BAL A+ Zachary Britton... 5 7 1 1 7 2 0 11 GB TOR AAA David Purcey...... 7 2 0 0 3 3 0 DET A Casey Crosby...... 5 2 0 0 5 3 0 NYY A- Arodys Vizcaino... 4 5 4 1 7 1 1
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NYA 38 29 .567 2.0 37 1
TOR 37 32 .536 4.0 38 -1
TB 35 34 .507 6.0 41 -6
BAL 30 37 .448 10.0 29 1
American League Central
DET 36 31 .537 0.0 36 0
MIN 35 34 .507 2.0 37 -2
CHA 31 36 .463 5.0 31 0
KC 29 37 .439 6.5 29 0
CLE 29 40 .420 8.0 33 -4
American League West
TEX 37 29 .561 0.0 35 2
LAA 36 29 .554 0.5 33 3
SEA 33 34 .493 4.5 31 2
OAK 29 37 .439 8.0 30 -1
National League East Pwins Diff
PHI 36 29 .554 0.0 35 1
NYN 34 31 .523 2.0 33 1
ATL 32 34 .485 4.5 32 0
FLA 33 36 .478 5.0 31 2
WAS 19 46 .292 17.0 25 -6
National League Central
MIL 37 30 .552 0.0 35 2
STL 37 31 .544 0.5 36 1
CIN 34 32 .515 2.5 33 1
CHN 32 31 .508 3.0 32 0
PIT 31 36 .463 6.0 34 -3
HOU 30 35 .462 6.0 29 1
National League West
LAN 44 24 .647 0.0 42 2
SF 35 31 .530 8.0 34 1
COL 34 33 .507 9.5 36 -2
SD 29 37 .439 14.0 25 4
ARI 29 39 .426 15.0 31 -2 