THT Daily: A cycle and three homers
by Dave StudemanMay 08, 2008
Major League News for May 8
Player NewsYesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Game of the Day
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 RotoworldThe Diamondbacks and ace Brandon Webb have resumed talks on a long-term contract, and the Arizona Republic reports that the sides are getting closer to a deal. "Yeah, some progress has been made," Webb said. "We've been talking a little bit more. We've made some headway. We'll see where it goes." Webb is signed through 2009 with a 2010 option. A new deal would likely go three or four years beyond 2010.
Carlos Gomez hit for the cycle Wednesday against the White Sox, going 4-for-6 with three RBI and two runs in the Twins' 13-1 win. Gomez led off the game with his second homer of the season, tripled into the left-center field gap, blooped a ball into short left field that Carlos Quentin played into a double and then capped his huge night with an infield single off the pitcher's glove. Gomez was hitting .230/.247/.310 when he was benched for a game on April 23, and has gone 13-for-30 (.433) with two homers and four steals in eight games since. Rarely can anything overshadow a five-RBI game from Nick Punto, but Gomez managed to do it.
Cliff Lee shut out the Yankees for seven innings Wednesday, winning his sixth straight start. Just in case you thought his deal with the devil was only for April, Lee turned in another outstanding effort, striking out seven and walking zero while scattering six hits. His ERA is now down to an amazing 0.81 and Lee's 39/2 K/BB ratio in 44 2/3 innings suggests that he's been anything but lucky. There's plenty reason to remain somewhat skeptical given Lee's horrendous 2007 and unspectacular track record, but so far at least he's putting together a legitimate breakout season.
Joey Votto hit three of the Reds' seven homers Wednesday in a 9-0 rout of the Cubs. Votto went back-to-back with Adam Dunn in the second and with Brandon Phillips in the fifth before adding his third homer in the sixth. He had a chance for a fourth, but he grounded out against Michael Wuertz in the eighth. Paul Bako and Jerry Hairston Jr. also went deep for the Reds. Votto entered with no homers and two RBI in his last 12 games. Still, manager Dusty Baker has stuck with him as the starter at first base. A showing like today's guarantees that it will take a long slump to ever get him out of the lineup now.
Mark Mulder will meet with a team doctor this morning in St. Louis to have his twice surgically repaired shoulder looked at after he experienced fatigue late in his start Monday. "It's not sore, it's just a little shoulder fatigue," La Russa said. "Maybe he's been pushing too hard. ... We've said some things about not wanting to push him. We'll see what Dr. Paletta has to say." As poor as Mulder has been in the minors, it mgith well be best for the Cards if Mulder is forced to back off for a few weeks and begin his rehab assignment again. There's no one he should be replacing in the team's rotation right now.
Yesterday’s Results
American League CLE 3 NYA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 6 TB 2 (Recap and Boxscore) MIN 13 CHA 1 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 10 BOS 9 (Recap and Boxscore) KC 9 LAA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 6 BAL 5 (Recap and Boxscore) TEX 2 SEA 0 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 5 SD 2 (Recap and Boxscore) FLA 6 MIL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CIN 9 CHN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 4 WAS 3 (Recap and Boxscore) PIT 3 SF 1 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 5 ARI 4 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 4 STL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) NYN 12 LAN 1 (Recap and Boxscore)You can download a compact version of yesterday's boxscores from Heater Magazine.
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Today’s Games
National League --------------- San Francisco Giants at Pittsburgh Pirates, 12:35 PM (R) Matt Cain (1-2) vs. (L) Paul Maholm (2-3) San Diego Padres at Atlanta Braves, 1:10 PM (L) Wilfredo Ledezma (0-0) vs. (L) Jo-Jo Reyes (1-0) St. Louis Cardinals at Colorado Rockies, 3:05 PM (R) Kyle Lohse (3-1) vs. (L) Jorge De La Rosa (0-1) Philadelphia Phillies at Arizona Diamondbacks, 3:40 PM (R) Brett Myers (2-2) vs. (R) Brandon Webb (7-0) Milwaukee Brewers at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (R) Carlos Villanueva (1-3) vs. (L) Mark Hendrickson (5-1) Washington Nationals at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (L) John Lannan (2-3) vs. (R) Brandon Backe (2-3) American League --------------- Cleveland Indians at New York Yankees, 1:05 PM (R) Paul Byrd (1-2) vs. (R) Mike Mussina (4-3) Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM (R) Kevin Slowey (0-1) vs. (L) John Danks (2-3) Boston Red Sox at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (R) Josh Beckett (3-2) vs. (R) Justin Verlander (1-5) Tampa Bay Rays at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (R) Edwin Jackson (2-3) vs. (R) Jesse Litsch (4-1) Baltimore Orioles at Kansas City Royals, 8:10 PM (R) Daniel Cabrera (2-1) vs. (R) Luke Hochevar (2-1) Texas Rangers at Seattle Mariners, 10:10 PM (L) Kason Gabbard (1-0) vs. (R) Felix Hernandez (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 22 14 .611 0.0 21 1TB 17 16 .515 3.5 17 0
NYA 17 18 .486 4.5 17 0
TOR 17 18 .486 4.5 19 -2
BAL 16 18 .471 5.0 16 0
American League Central MIN 17 15 .531 0.0 16 1
CLE 16 17 .485 1.5 17 -1
CHA 15 17 .469 2.0 18 -3
KC 15 18 .455 2.5 13 2
DET 15 20 .429 3.5 15 0
American League West LAA 22 14 .611 0.0 19 3
OAK 22 14 .611 0.0 23 -1
TEX 15 20 .429 6.5 14 1
SEA 14 21 .400 7.5 16 -2
National League East Pwins Diff FLA 19 14 .576 0.0 16 3
PHI 20 15 .571 0.0 19 1
ATL 17 15 .531 1.5 21 -4
NYN 17 15 .531 1.5 17 0
WAS 14 20 .412 5.5 13 1
National League Central STL 22 13 .629 0.0 21 1
CHN 19 15 .559 2.5 21 -2
HOU 18 16 .529 3.5 18 0
MIL 16 17 .485 5.0 15 1
PIT 14 19 .424 7.0 14 0
CIN 14 21 .400 8.0 15 -1
National League West ARI 22 12 .647 0.0 22 0
LAN 19 15 .559 3.0 20 -1
SF 14 20 .412 8.0 12 2
COL 13 21 .382 9.0 14 -1
SD 12 22 .353 10.0 12 0
Game of the Day
There must have been a roller coaster on the field in Detroit last night, where the Tigers jumped out to 4-0 and 8-4 leads, Boston came back at 9-8 (thanks to a Mike Lowell home run and Dustin Pedroia single) but the Tigers captured the win in the bottom of the ninth (against Jonathan Papelbon), 10-9, on a two-out Placido Polanco single.BOSTON (9) VS DETROIT (10) - FINAL
BOSTON ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
J Ellsbury cf-lf 5 2 2 0 0 2 4 .281
J Lowrie 2b 3 0 0 1 0 0 4 .263
a-D Pedroia ph-2b 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 .304
D Ortiz dh 5 0 2 1 0 1 3 .233
M Ramirez lf 4 1 0 0 1 1 2 .316
C Crisp cf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .290
M Lowell 3b 5 2 3 3 0 0 0 .250
K Youkilis 1b 5 2 2 3 0 3 1 .317
J Drew rf 3 1 1 0 2 1 0 .281
J Varitek c 4 1 0 0 1 1 4 .247
J Lugo ss 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 .293
Totals 37 9 12 9 5 9 19
a-singled to left for J Lowrie in the 8th.
BATTING: 2B - D Ortiz (5, A Galarraga); J Lugo (7, A Galarraga); J Drew (4, B
Seay); M Lowell (6, T Jones). HR - K Youkilis 2 (6, 4th inning off A Galarraga
1 on, 2 Out, 6th inning off A Galarraga 0 on, 1 Out), M Lowell (2, 7th inning
off F Cruceta 2 on, 2 Out). SF - J Lowrie. RBI - K Youkilis 3 (25), J Lowrie
(6), D Ortiz (28), M Lowell 3 (5), D Pedroia (19). 2-out RBI - K Youkilis 2, D
Ortiz, M Lowell 3, D Pedroia. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - M
Ramirez 1, J Varitek 1, D Ortiz 2, J Lugo 1, J Lowrie 1. GIDP - J Lowrie. Team
LOB - 8.
BASERUNNING: SB - J Ellsbury 2 (13, 2nd base off A Galarraga/I Rodriguez, 2nd
base off Z Miner/I Rodriguez), J Drew (1, 2nd base off F Cruceta/I Rodriguez).
FIELDING: E - J Lugo (10, ground ball). DP: 1 (J Varitek-M Lowell).
DETROIT ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
C Granderson cf 6 0 0 1 0 3 1 .273
P Polanco 2b 6 2 5 3 0 0 0 .270
C Guillen 3b 5 1 2 1 0 1 2 .315
M Ordonez rf 5 1 3 1 0 0 1 .305
M Cabrera 1b 3 0 1 0 2 1 2 .260
G Sheffield lf 4 1 3 1 1 1 2 .202
M Joyce dh 5 1 2 1 0 1 4 .286
R Raburn pr 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .238
E Renteria ss 4 1 0 0 0 0 5 .280
I Rodriguez c 4 2 2 2 0 0 0 .252
Totals 42 10 18 10 3 7 17
BATTING: 2B - P Polanco (7, C Buchholz); I Rodriguez (10, J Tavarez). S - E
Renteria , I Rodriguez. RBI - P Polanco 3 (12), C Guillen (14), G Sheffield
(6), M Joyce (1), M Ordonez (24), I Rodriguez 2 (14), C Granderson (10). 2-out
RBI - M Ordonez, P Polanco 2. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - E
Renteria 2, M Ordonez 1, M Cabrera 1. Team LOB - 11.
BASERUNNING: CS - M Ordonez (1, 3rd base by H Okajima/J Varitek).
FIELDING: DP: 1 (E Renteria-P Polanco-M Cabrera).
----------------------------------------------------
BOSTON - 000 221 310 -- 9
DETROIT - 004 130 002 -- 10
Two outs when winning run scored.
----------------------------------------------------
BOSTON ip h r er bb so hr era
C Buchholz 4 10 5 5 1 6 0 4.50
J Tavarez 1 4 3 3 0 0 0 7.15
D Aardsma 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 2.70
J Lopez 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3.46
H Okajima (H, 7) 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 0.60
J Papelbon (L, 2-1; B, 1) 2/3 2 2 0 0 0 0 1.59
DETROIT ip h r er bb so hr era
A Galarraga 5 1/3 7 5 5 1 6 2 3.07
B Seay (H, 2) 1/3 1 0 0 0 0 0 2.79
Z Miner (H, 2) 1 1 2 2 1 0 0 9.33
F Cruceta (B, 1) 1 1/3 2 2 2 2 2 1 4.91
T Jones (W, 1-0) 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 2.77
WP - F Cruceta. IBB - J Drew (by T Jones). BALK - C Buchholz. HBP - J Lugo
(by A Galarraga). Pitches-strikes: C Buchholz 82-51; J Tavarez 17-12; D Aardsma
31-18; J Lopez 15-12; H Okajima 15-11; J Papelbon 18-11; A Galarraga 88-59; B
Seay 6-6; Z Miner 22-10; F Cruceta 33-17; T Jones 13-7. Ground balls-fly balls:
C Buchholz 3-3; J Tavarez 2-1; D Aardsma 1-2; J Lopez 2-1; H Okajima 0-1; J
Papelbon 2-0; A Galarraga 5-5; B Seay 1-0; Z Miner 3-0; F Cruceta 1-1; T Jones
2-0. Batters faced: C Buchholz 23; J Tavarez 7; D Aardsma 5; J Lopez 3; H
Okajima 4; J Papelbon 5; A Galarraga 24; B Seay 2; Z Miner 5; F Cruceta 8; T
Jones 5.
UMPIRES: HP--Jim Reynolds. 1B--James Hoye. 2B--Gary Cederstrom. 3B--Fieldin
Culbreth.
T--3:55. Att--38,062.
Weather: 60 degrees, drizzle. Wind: 15 mph, right to left.The 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.
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, with a focus on each team’s top prospects.ORG LVL PLAYER AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO Notes STL AAA Joe Mather........ 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 3 R TEX A+ Julio Borbon...... 5 3 2 0 0 1 1 4 RBI BAL A+ Brandon Tripp..... 4 2 0 0 2 1 0 5 RBI ! STL AA Allen Craig....... 4 2 0 0 2 0 1 COL AAA Ian Stewart....... 4 2 0 0 2 0 0 6 RBI ! WAN A+ C. Marrero........ 2 2 0 0 1 3 0 SF AAA Nate Schierholtz.. 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 4 RBI BOS AAA Chris Carter...... 4 2 1 0 1 0 1 4 RBI FLA AA C. Coghlan........ 5 3 1 0 0 0 0 2 SB DET A+ Garth Iorg........ 4 2 1 0 0 1 1 2 SB CHC A Kyler Burke....... 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 STL AAA J. Hoffpauir...... 4 2 1 1 0 0 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes CLE AA David Huff........ 7 4 1 1 8 0 0 LA A+ James Adkins...... 6 6 2 2 7 0 0 NYY A+ Ryan Pope......... 6 5 0 0 6 0 0 BOS AA Michael Bowden.... 7 1 0 0 3 1 0 SF A+ Benjamin Snyder... 7 4 0 0 5 2 0 12 GB TB A Glenn Gibson...... 5 4 3 3 6 3 0 CIN AAA Matthew Maloney... 7 7 2 2 2 0 0 TB A+ Lewis Rollins..... 5 9 4 4 7 0 1 11 GB STL AA Jesse Todd........ 3 2 0 0 6 3 0 NYY AAA Steven White...... 7 3 0 0 3 4 0 BAL AA David Hernandez... 5 8 4 4 6 3 0 COL AAA Gregory Reynolds.. 2 2 0 0 2 0 0
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Dave is the manager of the Baseball Graphs website.. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.