THT Daily: Phillies in first
by THT StaffSeptember 17, 2008
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Game of the Day
Yesterday’s Home Runs
You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/ and an archive at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/thtdaily_index/
Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of Rotoworld |
| Dioner Navarro celebrates after singling in the winning run for the Rays in the ninth. (Icon/SMI) |
The Rockies announced that they're scratching Jeff Francis from his start Tuesday and shutting him down for the rest of the season. Uh oh. Francis has been dealing with renewed soreness in his shoulder in his last two starts. "There’s some discomfort," he said. "I don’t think it’s anything serious." Considering that he was on the DL earlier this season with something that also wasn't supposed to be serious, there's going to be good reason for concern entering 2009. Livan Hernandez will start in his place against the Padres.
Fernando Tatis suffered a separated shoulder while diving for a ball in Tuesday's game, ending his season. A sad ending to one of the year's feel-good stories. In his most extensive playing time in six years, Tatis hit .297/.369/.484 with 11 homers and 47 RBI in 263 at-bats for the Mets. Nick Evans and Daniel Murphy will be asked to step up with Tatis sidelined.
Erik Bedard will undergo exploratory surgery on his left shoulder next week. Dr. Lewis Yocum will perform the procedure. Whether Bedard will be ready for the beginning of 2008 won't be known until after the operation. Even if no major damage is discovered, the operation makes it much less likely that he'll be traded this winter.
Yesterday’s Results
Game recaps provided by Craig Calcaterra of Shysterball.Phillies 8, Braves 7: Phillies in Phirst! According to the box score, Ryan Howard hit a triple in the seventh inning. I'll track down the video later, but for now I can only assume that (1) the center and left fielders for Atlanta collided on the play and were both redered unconscious; and (2) the right fielder was attacked by a crocodile as he came over to retrieve the ball. And by the way, my James Parrdon has subsided, as the Braves' junkballing rookie gave up four runs on ten hits in four and a third.
Nats 1, Mets 0: At this point I am sort of hoping that Philly pulls away and that New York has to battle it out with Milwaukee for the wild card in a one-game playoff. Scientists would have to invent new equipment in order to calculate the levels of stress and anxiety such a game would would inspire among its participants.
Cubs 5, Brewers 4: Ned Yost watches this one on TV and chuckles. Another loss -- and the first NL loss for Sabathia -- but at least there was some fight in Milwaukee in this one. They rallied late, and had a chance to tie it in the ninth with runners on the corners. Prince Fielder struck out, however, and thus unsuccessfully endeth the first turn of the key on JumpStart 2008.
Marlins 5, Astros 1: Cecil Cooper has complained loudly about having to play putative home games in a stadium that so raucously favored his opponents. To make it up to him, Major League Baseball hastily scheduled this series in Florida, where the Marlins are certain to gain no advantage from any crowds at all.
Dodgers 6, Pirates 2: Chipper Jones -- who was all the rage the first half of the season -- went 73 games into the season before dropping below .400 for good. Manny Ramirez is now over 40 games into his NL career and he continues to hover over .400 himself. After this win, the Dodgers' playoff chances have increased to 99.7%.
Orioles 2, Blue Jays 0: Chris Waters, who has spent almost all nine of his seasons in professional baseball toiling in the minors, tosses a four-hit shutout. I make fun of games like these at this part of the season an awful lot, but if I'm honest, I truly love to see stuff like this. You know how these late callups go. Waters may never get another chance to pitch in meaningful big league game after the season ends. How great is it that he can now click a link on Retrosheet for the rest of his life and find a game like this one?
Reds 7, Cardinals 2: In a year in which they exceeded expectations for long, it's rather sad to see St. Louis skidding towards the finish line like this.
Rays 2, Red Sox 1: Anyone expect to see any of the doom and gloom stories about the Red Sox today like we saw about the Rays yesterday? Nah, me neither.
White Sox 6, Yankees 2: Being generous, Andy Pettitte has had, what, three decent starts since the All-Star break? Should we assume that he's retiring at the end of this season?
Rangers 5, Tigers 4: Yesterday I mentioned that the Tigers could have used Dan Petry in lieu of Dontrelle Willis. Today, following a simply stunning ninth inning collapse, I'm struck by the notion that Aurelio Lopez would have been preferable to Fernando Rodney.
Mariners 6, Royals 3: Attendance was listed as over 19,000. The fact that these two teams can draw that many people at this point in the season when Tampa Bay cannot absent a huge influx of Sox fans tells you a lot about the relative maturity and viability of the Tampa Bay market.
Rockies 10, Padres 3: Remember how exciting game 163 was between these two teams last year? Nah, me neither.
Diamondbacks 2, Giants 0: Danny Haren pitches a four-hit shutout and strikes out 12. He'll take it of course, but if he could have found a way to spread that goodness out over his past couple of starts, Arizona wouldn't be in this mess.
Indians 12, Twins 9: Francisco Liriano picked the wrong day to revert to April form (2.2 IP, 6 H, 8 R), and the Twins certainly weren't happy to see Victor Martinez revert to 2007 form (3-5, 3 RBI, walkoff homer). Two and a half back with eleven to play.
A's 8, Angels 1: You'd think that if the A's knew they had a whuppin' stick layin' around they would have broken it out a long time ago.
You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.
| First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports: |
Today’s Games
National League --------------- San Diego Padres at Colorado Rockies, 3:05 PM (R) Josh Geer (2-0) vs. (R) Livan Hernandez (1-3) Los Angeles Dodgers at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (R) Chad Billingsley (15-10) vs. (L) Zach Duke (5-14) St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (R) Todd Wellemeyer (12-7) vs. (R) Aaron Harang (4-16) New York Mets at Washington Nationals, 7:10 PM (R) Brandon Knight (0-0) vs. (R) Shairon Martis (0-2) Houston Astros at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Brandon Backe (9-12) vs. (R) Ricky Nolasco (14-7) Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM (L) J.A. Happ (0-0) vs. (R) Jair Jurrjens (13-9) Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 PM (R) Ben Sheets (13-8) vs. (R) Jason Marquis (10-8) San Francisco Giants at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (L) Jonathan Sanchez (9-10) vs. (R) Brandon Webb (20-7) American League --------------- Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Scott Baker (9-4) vs. (L) Cliff Lee (22-2) Chicago White Sox at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) Lance Broadway (1-0) vs. (R) Phil Hughes (0-4) Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (R) Brian Bass (3-4) vs. (L) David Purcey (3-6) Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:10 PM (R) Tim Wakefield (9-10) vs. (R) Matt Garza (11-9) Detroit Tigers at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Freddy Garcia (0-0) vs. (R) Dustin Nippert (3-4) Seattle Mariners at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (L) Ryan Rowland-Smith (4-2) vs. (R) Gil Meche (11-11) LA Angels of Anaheim at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Jered Weaver (11-10) vs. (L) Greg Smith (7-15)
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 TB 89 60 .597 0.0 83 6BOS 89 62 .589 1.0 92 -3
NYA 80 71 .530 10.0 79 1
TOR 80 71 .530 10.0 86 -6
BAL 67 82 .450 22.0 69 -2
American League Central CHA 84 66 .560 0.0 84 0
MIN 82 69 .543 2.5 84 -2
CLE 74 77 .490 10.5 79 -5
DET 70 80 .467 14.0 73 -3
KC 67 84 .444 17.5 63 4
American League West LAA 92 58 .613 0.0 82 10
TEX 75 77 .493 18.0 71 4
OAK 70 80 .467 22.0 72 -2
SEA 57 93 .380 35.0 62 -5
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 84 67 .556 0.0 87 -3
NYN 83 67 .553 0.5 83 0
FLA 78 72 .520 5.5 73 5
ATL 67 84 .444 17.0 73 -6
WAS 58 93 .384 26.0 60 -2
National League Central CHN 91 58 .611 0.0 93 -2
MIL 83 68 .550 9.0 81 2
HOU 80 70 .533 11.5 73 7
STL 78 72 .520 13.5 78 0
CIN 69 81 .460 22.5 66 3
PIT 63 88 .417 29.0 61 2
National League West LAN 79 72 .523 0.0 81 -2
ARI 74 76 .493 4.5 76 -2
COL 69 83 .454 10.5 68 1
SF 68 83 .450 11.0 64 4
SD 58 94 .382 21.5 63 -5
Wildcard Standings American League BOS 89 62 .589 0.0 MIN 82 69 .543 7.0 TOR 80 71 .530 9.0 NYA 80 71 .530 9.0 TEX 75 77 .493 14.5 National League NYN 83 67 .553 0.0 MIL 83 68 .550 0.5 HOU 80 70 .533 3.0 STL 78 72 .520 5.0 FLA 78 72 .520 5.0
Game of the Day
Rays 2, Red Sox 1 - FINAL
BOSTON ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
J Ellsbury lf 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 .269
D Pedroia 2b 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 .327
D Ortiz dh 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 .262
K Youkilis 1b 3 0 0 1 0 1 2 .310
M Lowell 3b 3 0 1 0 1 0 1 .275
J Van Every pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250
A Cora ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .283
M Kotsay rf 3 0 0 0 1 1 1 .214
J Lowrie ss-3b 4 0 1 0 0 2 2 .275
J Varitek c 2 0 0 0 1 1 2 .223
C Crisp cf 3 0 0 0 0 1 3 .286
Totals 30 1 5 1 3 6 12 ###
TAMPA BAY ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
A Iwamura 2b 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 .277
J Bartlett ss 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 .276
C Pena 1b 3 1 1 1 1 1 0 .246
E Longoria 3b 4 0 0 0 0 3 2 .278
C Floyd dh 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 .274
D Navarro c 3 0 1 1 1 0 0 .293
E Hinske lf 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 .244
J Ruggiano lf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .231
G Gross rf 3 0 0 0 0 1 2 .249
F Perez cf 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 .226
Totals 29 2 5 2 2 8 9 ###
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BOSTON - 000 001 000 -- 1 5 0
TAMPA BAY - 000 000 101 -- 2 5 1
One out when winning run scored.
----------------------------------------------------
BATTING: HR - C Pena (29, 7th inning off J Beckett 0 on, 0 Out). SF - K
Youkilis. RBI - K Youkilis (106), C Pena (89), D Navarro (47). Runners left in
scoring position, 2 out - C Crisp 1, M Lowell 1, J Lowrie 1, G Gross 1, A
Iwamura 1. GIDP - C Crisp, J Bartlett. Team LOB - BOSTON 6, TAMPA BAY 6.
BASERUNNING: CS - J Ellsbury (10, 2nd base by J Howell/D Navarro). FIELDING: E
- E Longoria (9, ground ball). DP: (J Beckett-D Pedroia-K Youkilis, J
Bartlett-A Iwamura-C Pena).
BOSTON ip h r er bb so hr era
J Beckett 8 3 1 1 1 7 1 3.96
J Masterson (L, 6-5) 1/3 2 1 1 1 1 0 3.18
TAMPA BAY ip h r er bb so hr era
A Sonnanstine 6 3 1 0 2 5 0 4.33
G Balfour 1 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.58
J Howell 1 1/3 2 0 0 1 0 0 2.36
D Wheeler (W, 5-5) 1/3 0 0 0 0 1 0 2.69
HBP - J Ruggiano (by J Beckett); C Floyd (by J Masterson). Pitches-strikes: J
Beckett 95-63; J Masterson 22-14; A Sonnanstine 93-60; G Balfour 14-11; J
Howell 21-12; D Wheeler 4-3. Ground balls-fly balls: J Beckett 10-7; J
Masterson 0-0; A Sonnanstine 7-7; G Balfour 0-4; J Howell 2-1; D Wheeler 0-0.
Batters faced: J Beckett 28; J Masterson 5; A Sonnanstine 23; G Balfour 4; J
Howell 6; D Wheeler 1. UMPIRES: HP--Gary Darling. 1B--Paul Emmel. 2B--Jerry
Crawford. 3B--Jerry Meals. T--2:51. Att--32,079. Weather: INDOORSThe following graph tracks the game's Win Probability, courtesy of Fan Graphs. You can also view live WPA graphs at Fangraphs during any ballgame all season long.
Yesterday’s Home Runs
The following stats are provided by Hit Tracker, which logs the projected “true” distance of each home run (if it were to land uninterrupted at field level) and its "standard" distance, which is corrected for weather conditions. Each homer is also categorized into one of three types: Just Enough (JE) for homers that cleared the fence by ten feet or less, Plenty (PL) for those that were sure home runs but not “blasts,” and No Doubt (ND) for true “blasts”—homers that cleared the fence by at least 20 feet and landed at least 50 feet beyond the fence.Hitter Team Pitcher Team True Stnd. # Type Jeff Baker COL Shawn Estes SD 450 412 10 PL Casey Blake LAD Jeff Karstens PIT 410 407 21 PL John Buck KC Brandon Morrow SEA 403 396 9 PL Asdrubal Cabrera CLE Francisco Liriano MIN 368 370 6 JE Jorge Cantu FLA Roy Oswalt HOU 380 384 27 PL David DeJesus KC Brandon Morrow SEA 410 403 11 PL Stephen Drew ARI Matt Cain SF 431 417 18 ND Prince Fielder MIL Ryan Dempster CHC 464 459 32 ND Prince Fielder MIL Carlos Marmol CHC 396 392 31 JE Ryan Garko CLE Francisco Liriano MIN 408 408 12 PL Jason Giambi NYY Gavin Floyd CWS 412 414 31 PL Troy Glaus STL Bronson Arroyo CIN 402 397 24 ND Adrian Gonzalez SD Ubaldo Jimenez COL 442 402 34 PL Jack Hannahan OAK John Lackey LAA 383 388 9 PL Ryan Howard PHI Mike Gonzalez ATL 388 387 45 PL Chris Iannetta COL Charlie Haeger SD 445 410 17 ND Jose Lopez SEA Brandon Duckworth KC 390 383 15 PL Victor Martinez CLE Joe Nathan MIN 397 400 2 PL Aaron Miles STL Bronson Arroyo CIN 390 390 4 ND Kendry Morales LAA Sean Gallagher OAK 383 388 1 JE Carlos Pena TB Josh Beckett BOS 348 347 29 JE Alexei Ramirez CWS Andy Pettitte NYY 380 383 18 PL Carlos Ruiz PHI James Parr ATL 391 395 4 PL Luke Scott BAL John Parrish TOR 422 430 23 PL Ryan Shealy KC Brandon Morrow SEA 428 421 5 PL Grady Sizemore CLE Eddie Guardado MIN 371 372 32 PL Chris Snyder ARI Matt Cain SF 400 387 16 PL Alfonso Soriano CHC C.C. Sabathia MIL 370 368 29 JE Jayson Werth PHI James Parr ATL 404 397 24 PL
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