THT Daily: Two More In

by Matthew Carruth
September 21, 2008

Major League News for September 21

Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings

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
Dioner Navarro had three hits and an RBI as the Rays beat the Twins Saturday and clinched a playoff berth.
The Rays are leading the AL East division, but also have the Wild Card wrapped up just in case. Navarro's RBI was part of a three-run fifth inning that put the icing on the victory. He's batting .292 with 50 RBI in 114 games this year.

Alfonso Soriano drove in two runs with a single in the second inning to help the Cubs jump out to an early lead and clinch the NL Central with a 5-4 victory over the Cardinals on Saturday.
Soriano's drive scored Jim Edmonds and Mark De Rosa. DeRosa then doubled in a run in the fourth and then scored on a fielder's choice as the Cubs picked up a 5-0 lead heading into the fifth. The Cards countered with a four-run attack in the sixth, but the Cubs' bullpen held things together late. Soriano is hitting .289 with 74 RBI in 103 games this season.

Yesterday’s Results

American League
NYA     1  BAL     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
TB      7  MIN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     6  BOS     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
CLE     6  DET     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      5  CHA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
OAK     8  SEA     7    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAA     7  TEX     3    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
ATL     4  NYN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
PHI     3  FLA     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
SD      6  WAS     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
CHN     5  STL     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     4  MIL     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT     6  HOU     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI     5  COL     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
LAN    10  SF      7    (Recap and Boxscore)

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Milwaukee Brewers at Cincinnati Reds, 1:15 PM
  (R) Seth McClung (5-6) vs. (R) Bronson Arroyo (15-10)
 Houston Astros at Pittsburgh Pirates, 1:35 PM
  (R) Roy Oswalt (15-10) vs. (R) Ross Ohlendorf (0-2)
 San Diego Padres at Washington Nationals, 1:35 PM
  (R) Cha Seung Baek (5-9) vs. (L) Odalis Perez (7-10)
 New York Mets at Atlanta Braves, 1:35 PM
  (R) Mike Pelfrey (13-10) vs. (R) James Parr (1-0)
 St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM
  (R) Braden Looper (12-13) vs. (R) Ryan Dempster (16-6)
 Arizona Diamondbacks at Colorado Rockies, 3:05 PM
  (R) Dan Haren (15-8) vs. (R) Greg Reynolds (2-7)
 San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers, 4:10 PM
  (R) Matt Cain (8-13) vs. (R) Derek Lowe (14-11)
 Philadelphia Phillies at Florida Marlins, 4:10 PM
  (L) Jamie Moyer (14-7) vs. (R) Chris Volstad (5-3)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians, 1:05 PM
  (L) Dontrelle Willis (0-1) vs. (L) Scott Lewis (2-0)
 Boston Red Sox at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM
  (R) Daisuke Matsuzaka (17-2) vs. (R) Scott Richmond (0-2)
 Minnesota Twins at Tampa Bay Rays, 1:40 PM
  (L) Francisco Liriano (5-3) vs. (R) Andy Sonnanstine (13-7)
 Chicago White Sox at Kansas City Royals, 2:10 PM
  (L) John Danks (10-8) vs. (R) Brandon Duckworth (3-1)
 LA Angels of Anaheim at Texas Rangers, 3:05 PM
  (R) John Lackey (11-4) vs. (R) Scott Feldman (5-7)
 Seattle Mariners at Oakland Athletics, 4:05 PM
  (R) Brandon Morrow (2-4) vs. (R) Sean Gallagher (2-2)
 Baltimore Orioles at New York Yankees, 8:05 PM
  (L) Chris Waters (3-3) vs. (L) Andy Pettitte (13-14)

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      92  61 .601    0.0   87     5    
BOS     90  64 .584    2.5   92    -2    
NYA     84  71 .542    9.0   82     2    
TOR     83  72 .535   10.0   88    -5    
BAL     67  86 .438   25.0   71    -4    
American League Central     
CHA     85  69 .552    0.0   86    -1    
MIN     83  72 .535    2.5   85    -2    
CLE     77  77 .500    8.0   81    -4    
DET     71  82 .464   13.5   75    -4    
KC      70  85 .452   15.5   67     3    
American League West        
LAA     95  59 .617    0.0   84    11    
TEX     75  80 .484   20.5   70     5    
OAK     73  81 .474   22.0   74    -1    
SEA     57  97 .370   38.0   62    -5    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
PHI     87  68 .561    0.0   89    -2    
NYN     86  68 .558    0.5   86     0    
FLA     81  73 .526    5.5   77     4    
ATL     68  87 .439   19.0   74    -6    
WAS     58  97 .374   29.0   60    -2    
National League Central     
CHN     93  60 .608    0.0   94    -1    
MIL     84  71 .542   10.0   82     2    
HOU     81  73 .526   12.5   73     8    
STL     80  74 .519   13.5   81    -1    
CIN     72  82 .468   21.5   69     3    
PIT     65  90 .419   29.0   64     1    
National League West        
LAN     81  74 .523    0.0   82    -1    
ARI     77  77 .500    3.5   78    -1    
COL     71  84 .458   10.0   70     1    
SF      69  86 .445   12.0   66     3    
SD      60  95 .387   21.0   66    -6