THT Daily: Run Outbursts

by Matthew Carruth
May 25, 2008

Major League News for May 25

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 Rotoworld
Justin Duchscherer and Huston Street combined on a one-hitter as the A's shut out the Red Sox 3-0 on Saturday night.
Boston's road woes continued. David Ortiz broke up the no-hitter in the seventh inning. Kevin Youkilis immediately followed with a long flyball that appeared to have a shot at giving the Red Sox a 2-1 lead, but it was caught on the track. The A's went on to add a second run off Josh Beckett in the bottom of the seventh and an insurance run off Manny Delcarmen in the eighth. Duchscherer, who has had trouble in the run-support department, is 4-3 with a 2.16 ERA. He has a chance to remain pretty effective, but because of the likelihood of injury, he's a definite sell-high candidate.

The Dodgers are planning on shifting Nomar Garciaparra (calf) to the 60-day DL before Sunday's game.
Nomar was placed on the DL on April 26, so the move would guarantee that he's sidelined through June 25. With Blake Dewitt playing very well and Andy LaRoche still in the wings, there's little reason to think Garciaparra will ever again play regularly for the Dodgers.

Andruw Jones will undergo surgery on his sore right knee and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks.
A lot of Dodgers fans are probably pretty happy about this. The outfield is set with Juan Pierre, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier for at least the next month. Delwyn Young will get an occasional start when one from the group needs a day off. The Dodgers are going to call up Terry Tiffee to act as a pinch-hitter.

Evan Longoria had his first career two-homer game and drove in six runs as the Rays pounded the Orioles 11-4 on Saturday.
Both homers came off Steve Trachsel, but they'll count just the same as if they were off a major league pitcher. The top five hitters in the Rays' lineup combined 12 hits, five walks and all 11 runs and 11 RBI. Carlos Pena missed the cycle by a homer, and B.J. Upton went 4-for-4 with a walk. The win moved the Rays nine games over .500 for the first time in franchise history.

Kevin Millwood has been cleared to rejoin the Rangers' rotation and is scheduled to pitch Friday against the A's.
Millwood had been on the disabled list since May 11 with a strained groin. He threw 65 quality pitches in a simulated game Saturday morning. "My groin feels good, I didn't have any problems with it," Millwood said. "I felt my stuff and location was as good or better than it has been all year." He was 2-3 with a 4.88 ERA through nine starts before getting hurt.

Indians placed RHP Fausto Carmona on 15-day disabled list with a left hip strain.
The good news is that Jake Westbrook was able to get up to six innings in the minors last night, so he can slide right into Carmona's rotation spot next week. That means Aaron Laffey will get to stick around as the Indians' fifth starter.

Rockies placed outfielder Brad Hawpe on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 21, with a strained right hamstring.
Clint Barmes also went on the DL, leaving the Rockies quite short-handed. Ryan Spilborghs should be an everyday player while Hawpe is out, and he wouldn't be a bad short-term play in deeper mixed leagues. Seth Smith will play right field when Spilborghs moves over to center.

Dodgers purchased the contract of LHP Clayton Kershaw from Double-A Jacksonville.
The plan is for the 20-year-old Kershaw to make at least three starts, the first coming Sunday. He was 0-3 with a 2.28 ERA, 32 H and 47/15 K/BB in 43 1/3 innings in the Southern League. He walked 67 in 122 innings last year. Command is likely to be a big issue against major league hitters. Kershaw is a potential ace for the Dodgers, but he'll probably be quite inconsistent early on.

Phillies placed outfielder Jayson Werth on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right abdominal muscle.
Werth suffered the injury on a hard swing in the eighth inning of Thursday's game. It's a big loss for the Phillies, who will go back to Shane Victorino as their starter in center field. So Taguchi figures to play against lefties over Geoff Jenkins.

Yesterday’s Results

American League
NYA    12  SEA     6    (Recap and Boxscore)
TB     11  BAL     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     6  KC      0    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA     2  CHA     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE     5  TEX     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET    19  MIN     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     3  BOS     0    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
ATL     3  ARI     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
MIL     5  WAS     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     4  PHI     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT     5  CHN     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYN     9  COL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     4  LAN     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     7  SD      2    (Recap and Boxscore)

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 San Francisco Giants at Florida Marlins, 1:10 PM
  (L) Patrick Misch (0-0) vs. (L) Mark Hendrickson (6-2)
 Arizona Diamondbacks at Atlanta Braves, 1:35 PM
  (R) Micah Owings (5-2) vs. (L) Tom Glavine (2-1)
 Milwaukee Brewers at Washington Nationals, 1:35 PM
  (L) Manny Parra (2-2) vs. (R) Tim Redding (6-3)
 Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates, 1:35 PM
  (L) Ted Lilly (5-4) vs. (L) Paul Maholm (2-5)
 Philadelphia Phillies at Houston Astros, 2:05 PM
  (L) Cole Hamels (5-3) vs. (R) Chris Sampson (3-3)
 New York Mets at Colorado Rockies, 3:05 PM
  (R) John Maine (5-3) vs. (R) Aaron Cook (6-3)
 Cincinnati Reds at San Diego Padres, 4:05 PM
  (R) Matt Belisle (1-4) vs. (R) Greg Maddux (3-4)
 St. Louis Cardinals at Los Angeles Dodgers, 4:10 PM
  (R) Todd Wellemeyer (5-1) vs. (R) Chad Billingsley (4-5)
 San Francisco Giants at Florida Marlins, 4:35 PM
  (R) Matt Cain (2-3) vs. (R) Burke Badenhop (1-3)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Seattle Mariners at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM
  (L) Jarrod Washburn (2-6) vs. (R) Chien-Ming Wang (6-2)
 Texas Rangers at Cleveland Indians, 1:05 PM
  (R) Doug Mathis (1-1) vs. (L) C.C. Sabathia (3-6)
 Minnesota Twins at Detroit Tigers, 1:05 PM
  (L) Glen Perkins (1-1) vs. (R) Justin Verlander (2-7)
 Kansas City Royals at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM
  (R) Gil Meche (3-6) vs. (R) Dustin McGowan (2-4)
 Baltimore Orioles at Tampa Bay Rays, 1:40 PM
  (R) Daniel Cabrera (5-1) vs. (R) James Shields (4-3)
 Boston Red Sox at Oakland Athletics, 4:05 PM
  (L) Jon Lester (3-2) vs. (R) Joe Blanton (2-6)
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Chicago White Sox, 8:05 PM
  (R) John Lackey (1-0) vs. (R) Jose Contreras (5-3)

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     31  21 .596    0.0   30     1    
TB      29  20 .592    0.5   27     2    
TOR     26  25 .510    4.5   26     0    
BAL     24  24 .500    5.0   23     1    
NYA     24  25 .490    5.5   24     0    
American League Central     
CHA     26  22 .542    0.0   28    -2    
MIN     24  25 .490    2.5   22     2    
CLE     23  26 .469    3.5   26    -3    
DET     21  28 .429    5.5   23    -2    
KC      21  28 .429    5.5   19     2    
American League West        
LAA     30  21 .588    0.0   27     3    
OAK     27  23 .540    2.5   30    -3    
TEX     25  26 .490    5.0   24     1    
SEA     18  32 .360   11.5   19    -1    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
FLA     27  20 .574    0.0   24     3    
ATL     27  22 .551    1.0   30    -3    
PHI     27  24 .529    2.0   28    -1    
NYN     23  24 .489    4.0   24    -1    
WAS     21  29 .420    7.5   20     1    
National League Central     
CHN     29  20 .592    0.0   32    -3    
STL     30  21 .588    0.0   29     1    
HOU     29  22 .569    1.0   27     2    
MIL     23  26 .469    6.0   22     1    
PIT     23  26 .469    6.0   22     1    
CIN     23  27 .460    6.5   22     1    
National League West        
ARI     29  20 .592    0.0   30    -1    
LAN     25  23 .521    3.5   26    -1    
SF      20  29 .408    9.0   19     1    
COL     19  30 .388   10.0   20    -1    
SD      18  33 .353   12.0   17     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
COL AAA Joseph Koshansky.. 5  4  1  1  1  0  1  4 R
LAA A+  Peter Bourjos..... 3  3  1  0  0  1  0  3 SB
MIL A+  Taylor Green...... 3  2  1  0  1  1  0  
TEX AAA Taylor Teagarden.. 2  2  0  0  1  2  0  
OAK AA  Aaron Cunningham.. 4  2  1  0  1  0  0  
PHI AA  Jason Donald...... 2  1  1  0  0  3  0  
MIL AA  Angel Salome...... 5  3  2  0  0  0  0  
TOR A+  Brian Dopirak..... 5  2  2  0  0  1  2  
CLE A+  Carlos Rivero..... 4  3  2  0  0  0  1  
PHI A   Michael Taylor.... 5  3  2  0  0  0  0  
COL A   Darin Holcomb..... 4  3  2  0  0  0  0  
BAL A+  Brandon Tripp..... 4  2  1  0  1  0  1  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
TEX A+  Kasey Kiker....... 8  3  1  1  9  1  0  
CIN AAA Matthew Maloney... 7  3  0  0  8  2  0  
BOS AA  Michael Bowden.... 7  1  1  0  5  0  0  
STL AA  Jesse Todd........ 7  1  0  0  4  1  0  
OAK A+  Trevor Cahill..... 6  1  1  1  9  4  1  
LAA AAA Nick Green........ 6  4  4  4  7  1  1  
SF  A   M. Bumgarner...... 7  4  0  0  3  0  0  
MIN A   M. McCardell...... 4  1  1  1  5  1  0  
COL A   Bruce Billings.... 7  6  1  1  5  2  0  14 GB
SD  A+  Cory Luebke....... 5  4  3  3  7  1  1  
KC  A   Daniel Duffy...... 4  6  5  5  7  1  0  7 GB
OAK A   Craig Italiano.... 5  3  0  0  6  3  0

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Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.

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