THT Daily: HUGE comeback
by Dave StudemanJuly 01, 2009
Major League News for July 1
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 RotoworldJason Marquis became the first National League pitcher to reach 10 wins with a two-hit complete game shutout against the Dodgers on Tuesday night.
The Rockies won the game 3-0. Marquis needed just 86 pitches to do it. He faced just two batters over the minimum -- no walks -- and retired 19 consecutive batters at one point. He struck out three in the win. Marquis even helped himself a little with a two-run single in the seventh inning. He is now 10-5 with a 3.87 ERA through 16 starts this season. We doubt he can keep this up, but he's made for quite a story in the first half.
Nick Markakis hit a two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning to complete the biggest comeback in team history, as the Orioles topped the Red Sox 11-10.
Just incredible. The Orioles trailed 10-1 as they entered the bottom of the seventh, but chipped away with five runs off Justin Masterson. They added five more in the eighth against the combined efforts of Hideki Okajima, Takashi Saito and Jonathan Papelbon to stun the Red Sox. The comeback, capped by the two-run doubled by Markakis, was their biggest since September 2, 1956 when they fought from eight runs down to defeat Boston.
Hanley Ramirez homered and drove in four runs in a rain-shortened win over the Nationals on Tuesday night.
Ramirez just keeps trucking right along. He has driven in at least one run in nine straight games. His 33 RBI this month are second only to Albert Pujols, who has 35 of them this month. With the 2-for-4 night, Ramirez is nipping on the heels of league-leader David Wright with a .341 batting average.
Albert Pujols homered twice in a loss to the Giants on Tuesday night.
Okay, now this is getting ridiculous. Pujols now has 30 multi-homer games in his career, including seven -- SEVEN -- this season alone. He is leading the majors with 30 homers and 77 RBI and is currently on pace for a scary 62 bombs and 159 RBI.
Dan Haren limited the Reds to one run over seven innings in a 6-2 win on Tuesday night.
Haren just wasn't going to allow himself to lose this game. He was perfect over the first 3 2/3 innings before issuing a walk to Joey Votto. He didn't give up his first hit until a Jay Bruce single two outs into the fifth. Haren gave up four hits in all, striking out nine while issuing one walk. He had a perfect night with the bat, as well, going 2-for-2 with a double and his first home run of the year to move his batting average to .286 this season. He has now held the opposition to two runs or less in seven consecutive starts. He has a 2.19 ERA to go along with an astounding 0.81 WHIP in 115 innings this season. His 113/15 K/BB ratio is laughably great.
Josh Hamilton (abdomen) is expected to return to the Rangers lineup as soon as this weekend.
Hamilton says his surgically repaired abdomen is not sore, and he didn't have any problems in Monday night's rehab game at Double-A Frisco. He joins Triple-A Oklahoma City for a series that starts on Wednesday.
Jake Peavy's return is being pushed back after a re-examination of his ankle placed him back in a protective boot for two weeks.
Peavy was hoping he'd be cleared to begin throwing and working out after the examination, but he's now expected to be out at least five to six more weeks. Since he won't be back in uniform until mid-August, the Padres hands' are effectively tied in potential trade talks.
Pirates acquired OF Lastings Milledge and RHP Joel Hanrahan from the Nationals for OF Nyjer Morgan and LHP Sean Burnett.
Milledge, a 24-year-old former first-round pick of the Mets, is currently rehabbing from a broken finger. He is expected to be healthy in the next week or two. Milledge started the '09 season 4-for-24 and was quickly demoted to Triple-A, but is still one heck of a talent. If he's ever able to pull it all together, the Pirates could be in for a real treat.
Yankees acquired outfielder Eric Hinske from the Pirates for RHP Casey Erickson and catcher-outfielder Eric Fryer.
The Yankees also received about $400,000 to cover over half of Hinske's remaining contract. The 32-year-old outfielder, upset with his lack of playing time, reportedly asked for a trade out of Pittsburgh last week. He won't get many more at-bats with the Yanks, but at least he's now on a contender. Hinske hit .255/.373/.368 with one home run and 11 RBI in 106 at-bats for the Pirates.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League BAL 11 BOS 10 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 8 SEA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) TB 4 TOR 1 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 11 CLE 4 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 2 KC 1 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 5 OAK 3 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 9 LAA 5 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 5 PHI 4 (Recap and Boxscore) FLA 7 WAS 5 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 6 CIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) MIL 6 NYN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 3 CHN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 6 STL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 3 LAN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 4 HOU 3 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Washington Nationals at Florida Marlins, 12:10 PM (R) Jordan Zimmermann (3-3) vs. (R) Josh Johnson (7-1) New York Mets at Milwaukee Brewers, 2:05 PM (R) Mike Pelfrey (5-3) vs. (R) Yovani Gallardo (8-4) Colorado Rockies at Los Angeles Dodgers, 3:10 PM (R) Jason Hammel (5-3) vs. (L) Clayton Kershaw (5-5) Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (R) Randy Wells (2-3) vs. (R) Virgil Vasquez (1-0) Arizona Diamondbacks at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (R) Jon Garland (4-7) vs. (R) Johnny Cueto (7-4) Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM (L) Cole Hamels (4-4) vs. (R) Jair Jurrjens (5-6) San Francisco Giants at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:15 PM (R) Matt Cain (9-2) vs. (R) Adam Wainwright (8-5) Houston Astros at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Brian Moehler (4-4) vs. (R) Walter Silva (0-1) American League --------------- Tampa Bay Rays at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM (R) James Shields (6-5) vs. (L) Ricky Romero (5-3) Boston Red Sox at Baltimore Orioles, 1:35 PM (R) Josh Beckett (9-3) vs. (R) Brad Bergesen (5-2) Minnesota Twins at Kansas City Royals, 2:10 PM (L) Glen Perkins (3-4) vs. (R) Gil Meche (4-7) Detroit Tigers at Oakland Athletics, 3:35 PM (R) Justin Verlander (8-3) vs. (L) Dallas Braden (5-7) Seattle Mariners at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (L) Jarrod Washburn (4-5) vs. (L) Andy Pettitte (7-3) Chicago White Sox at Cleveland Indians, 7:05 PM (R) Jose Contreras (2-7) vs. (L) Jeremy Sowers (2-5) LA Angels of Anaheim at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Jered Weaver (8-3) vs. (R) Kevin Millwood (8-5) 06/30 16:14:53
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 47 30 .610 0.0 46 1NYA 44 32 .579 2.5 43 1
TB 44 35 .557 4.0 48 -4
TOR 41 38 .519 7.0 43 -2
BAL 35 42 .455 12.0 34 1
American League Central DET 43 34 .558 0.0 41 2
CHA 39 38 .506 4.0 38 1
MIN 40 39 .506 4.0 42 -2
KC 33 43 .434 9.5 32 1
CLE 31 48 .392 13.0 36 -5
American League West LAA 42 33 .560 0.0 39 3
TEX 41 35 .539 1.5 40 1
SEA 39 37 .513 3.5 36 3
OAK 32 44 .421 10.5 34 -2
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 39 35 .527 0.0 39 0
FLA 40 39 .506 1.5 37 3
NYN 37 39 .487 3.0 37 0
ATL 36 40 .474 4.0 36 0
WAS 22 53 .293 17.5 28 -6
National League Central MIL 42 35 .545 0.0 40 2
STL 41 38 .519 2.0 40 1
CIN 37 38 .493 4.0 36 1
CHN 36 38 .486 4.5 37 -1
HOU 36 39 .480 5.0 35 1
PIT 36 41 .468 6.0 39 -3
National League West LAN 49 29 .628 0.0 48 1
SF 42 34 .553 6.0 41 1
COL 41 36 .532 7.5 42 -1
SD 34 42 .447 14.0 29 5
ARI 31 46 .403 17.5 34 -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 TB AAA Matthew Joyce..... 5 4 2 0 1 0 1 3 R CIN AAA Chris Heisey...... 4 3 2 0 1 0 1 SF A+ Thomas Neal....... 5 3 2 1 0 0 1 NYY AA Jesus Montero..... 3 2 0 0 2 1 0 BOS A+ Yamaico Navarro... 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 SEA A+ Alex Liddi........ 5 3 2 0 0 0 1 3 R STL AAA Brett Wallace..... 4 3 1 0 1 0 0 TOR A T. Pastornicky.... 3 2 1 1 0 0 0 SEA A+ Tyson Gillies..... 6 4 0 0 0 0 2 3 SB KC A+ Mike Moustakas.... 3 3 1 0 0 1 0 BAL A+ Pedro Florimon.... 3 2 2 0 0 0 0 LA A Kyle Russell...... 3 2 0 0 1 1 1 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes PHI A Jason Knapp....... 5 2 1 1 12 2 0 CHC AAA Mitch Atkins...... 8 3 1 1 7 0 0 CLE AA Fausto Carmona.... 7 4 1 1 5 0 1 TB A Joseph Cruz....... 6 5 1 1 4 0 0 12 GB OAK AAA Chad Reineke...... 7 5 0 0 4 1 0 12 GB ATL AAA Todd Redmond...... 6 6 5 3 8 0 2 NYM AAA Jonathon Niese.... 8 5 3 2 4 1 1 17 GB SF AAA Kevin Pucetas..... 7 3 1 0 2 1 0 13 GB CIN A J.C. Sulbaran..... 4 2 3 0 6 3 0 NYY A- Arodys Vizcaino... 4 3 2 2 7 2 1 HOU A Ross Seaton....... 5 6 3 3 5 2 0 SF AA Henry Sosa........ 5 4 0 0 3 1 0
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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.