THT Daily: Clinching
by Matthew CarruthSeptember 29, 2007
Major League News for September 29
Player News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Stats
You can always find the most recent THT Daily at http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/content/thtdaily/
Player News
Player news items are provided by RotoworldC.C. Sabathia earned his 100th career victory by allowing three runs over seven innings Friday against the Royals.
Sabathia joined teammate Fausto Carmona and Chien-Ming Wang at 19 wins, leaving him one behind Josh Beckett for the AL lead. The Indians' win tonight means they've clinched home-field advantage in the ALDS. They'll host the Yankees, while the Red Sox face the Angels. They're currently tied with Boston for baseball's best record at 95-65.
Melvin Mora delivered a game-winning bunt single with two outs in the 10th against the Yankees on Friday to give the Red Sox the AL East title.
The Red Sox will finish alone in first place in the AL East for the first time since 1995. The Orioles had to score three runs in the ninth off Mariano Rivera to send tonight's game into extra innings. The Yankees put the go-ahead run on third with one out in the top of the 10th, but neither Jose Molina nor Jasom Giambi could get it home. The Orioles did the same thing in the bottom of the inning. Kevin Millar struck out for the second out, but Mora ended it with a terrific bunt down the third base line.
Brandon Webb threw seven innings and allowed two runs on Friday as the Diamondbacks snapped the Rockies' 11-game winning streak.
Jose Valverde walked two in the ninth, but he was able to preserve the 4-2 victory. Webb is 3-0 in his last four starts. He finishes 18-10 with a 3.01 ERA. It won't be good enough to get him another Cy Young Award, but he should probably finish second behind Jake Peavy.
Cole Hamels struck out 13 over eight scoreless innings in a dominant effort Friday against the Nationals.
The Phillies won 6-0 to keep the pressure on the Mets. Hamels threw 116 pitches, well above his supposed limit of 100. It would have been one thing in a one- or two-run game, but the Phillies finished scoring in the seventh and could have taken Hamels out one inning earlier. The playoffs are extremely important, but if the Phillies hope to be in this position again in the future, they're going to need a healthy Hamels.
Yesterday’s Results
American League BAL 10 NYA 9 (Recap and Boxscore) BOS 5 MIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 5 TB 4 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 5 DET 2 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 5 KC 3 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 2 OAK 0 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 6 TEX 4 (Recap and Boxscore) National League FLA 7 NYN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 6 WAS 0 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 6 CIN 0 (Recap and Boxscore) ATL 7 HOU 2 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 6 MIL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) STL 6 PIT 1 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 4 COL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) LAN 8 SF 3 (Recap and Boxscore)
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Florida Marlins at New York Mets, 1:10 PM (L) Chris Seddon (0-1) vs. (R) John Maine (14-10) Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati Reds, 3:55 PM (L) Rich Hill (10-8) vs. (R) Aaron Harang (16-5) Washington Nationals at Philadelphia Phillies, 3:55 PM (L) Matt Chico (6-9) vs. (R) Adam Eaton (10-9) San Diego Padres at Milwaukee Brewers, 3:55 PM (R) Chris Young (9-8) vs. (R) Dave Bush (12-10) Atlanta Braves at Houston Astros, 7:05 PM (R) Jeff Bennett (2-0) vs. (R) Brandon Backe (2-1) St. Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Pirates, 7:05 PM (R) Adam Wainwright (13-12) vs. (L) Tom Gorzelanny (14-9) Arizona Diamondbacks at Colorado Rockies, 8:05 PM (R) Edgar Gonzalez (8-3) vs. (L) Mark Redman (1-4) San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers, 10:10 PM (L) Travis Blackley (0-0) vs. (R) Chad Billingsley (12-5) American League --------------- Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 PM (R) Edwin Jackson (5-15) vs. (R) Jesse Litsch (7-9) LA Angels of Anaheim at Oakland Athletics, 4:05 PM (R) Kelvim Escobar (17-7) vs. (L) Dallas Braden (1-8) New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (L) Andy Pettitte (14-9) vs. (R) Daniel Cabrera (9-17) Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox, 7:05 PM (R) Justin Verlander (18-6) vs. (R) Gavin Floyd (1-5) Minnesota Twins at Boston Red Sox, 7:05 PM (R) Carlos Silva (13-14) vs. (R) Tim Wakefield (16-12) Cleveland Indians at Kansas City Royals, 7:10 PM (R) Jake Westbrook (6-9) vs. (R) Gil Meche (9-13) Texas Rangers at Seattle Mariners, 10:05 PM (R) Kevin Millwood (10-13) vs. (R) Miguel Batista (15-11)
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 95 65 .594 0.0 101 -6NYA 92 68 .575 3.0 97 -5
TOR 82 78 .513 13.0 86 -4
BAL 69 91 .431 26.0 70 -1
TB 65 95 .406 30.0 65 0
American League Central CLE 95 65 .594 0.0 91 4
DET 87 73 .544 8.0 88 -1
MIN 78 82 .488 17.0 79 -1
CHA 71 89 .444 24.0 66 5
KC 68 92 .425 27.0 73 -5
American League West LAA 93 67 .581 0.0 89 4
SEA 86 74 .538 7.0 78 8
OAK 75 85 .469 18.0 78 -3
TEX 75 85 .469 18.0 78 -3
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 88 72 .550 0.0 86 2
NYN 87 73 .544 1.0 85 2
ATL 84 76 .525 4.0 88 -4
WAS 72 88 .450 16.0 69 3
FLA 70 90 .438 18.0 71 -1
National League Central CHN 84 76 .525 0.0 86 -2
MIL 81 79 .506 3.0 82 -1
STL 76 84 .475 8.0 69 7
CIN 71 89 .444 13.0 73 -2
HOU 71 89 .444 13.0 71 0
PIT 68 92 .425 16.0 69 -1
National League West ARI 90 70 .563 0.0 79 11
SD 89 71 .556 1.0 89 0
COL 87 73 .544 3.0 89 -2
LAN 81 79 .506 9.0 82 -1
SF 70 90 .438 20.0 75 -5
Wildcard Standings American League NYA 92 68 .575 0.0 DET 87 73 .544 5.0 SEA 86 74 .538 6.0 TOR 82 78 .513 10.0 MIN 78 82 .488 14.0 National League SD 89 71 .556 0.0 COL 87 73 .544 2.0 NYN 87 73 .544 2.0 ATL 84 76 .525 5.0 LAN 81 79 .506 8.0
THT Stats
Access all of THT’s stats here…
{embed="content/2005stable"}
Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.