THT Daily: Jenks settles for tie
by Matthew CarruthAugust 21, 2007
Major League News for August 21
Today’s LinksPlayer News
Yesterday’s Results
Today’s Games
Standings
Top Minor League Performances
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Player News
Player Headlines are courtesy of RotoworldNeeding to retire one more batter to set a major league record, Bobby Jenks gave up a single to the Royals' Joey Gathright to start the bottom of the ninth before recording the save in a 4-3 game on Monday. Jenks hadn't pitched in eight days since getting up to 41 consecutive hitters retired, and it showed when he tried to unleash his curve tonight. Gathright, who missed a double or a triple down the left-field line by a foot on the second pitch of the at-bat, fouled off two curves left in the middle of the plate before hitting a third through the left side of the infield. Jenks then got an out on a sac bunt before retiring the next two batters. He'll have to settle for a share of the record, which was set by the Giants' Jim Barr in 1972.
Mark Teixeira hit a pair of three-run homers in the Braves' 14-4 rout of the Reds on Monday. Back-to-back two-homer games have given Teixeira nine bombs in 18 games for the Braves. He also doubled, walked and scored a total of four runs tonight. To say he's on fire since joining the NL East would be an understatement.
Pedro Martinez allowed two unearned runs over five innings Monday in his rehab start for Single-A St. Lucie. Martinez lowered the number of pitches he expected to throw after waking up Monday with a sore neck, but he was happy with his effort. "I got groundballs when I wanted and those are the things that I want to see," he said. "Regardless of what happens, if they go through or whatever, I just want to get those ground balls." Martinez likely will pitch in the minors again on Saturday or Sunday.
Royals agreed to terms with second baseman Mark Grudzielanek on a guarantee of the 2008 player option in his contract. Terms weren't revealed. Grudzielanek's player option only applied if he reached an undisclosed number of plate appearances, and he may not have gotten there after missing time with knee problems this season. He would have earned either $4 million or $4.5 million under the terms of the option, depending on just how many plate appearances he received. The Royals are probably getting him for a slightly lesser amount here ($3.5 million?). Grudzy has turned in a fine offensive season when healthy, hitting .306/.346/.447 in 333 at-bats, and he's still above average defensively. Since the team failed to acquire a young second baseman at the deadline, bringing him back isn't a bad move. The Royals have managed to get Esteban German plenty of playing time without making him an everyday player anywhere.
Ben Sheets, on the DL with a sprained finger, developed a blister in the sixth inning of his simulated game Monday, leaving his status uncertain. "A little blister popped up," Sheets said. "It didn't hurt. It just popped up." Sheets threw well for five innings, and the length of the outing (assuming 15 pitches per inning) suggests that the Brewers were strongly considering activating him this weekend. Now he's probably going to remain on the DL into September. Fortunately, the blister was caught early. Perhaps he won't miss too much more time.
Mets acquired first baseman Jeff Conine from the Reds for shortstop Jose Castro and outfielder Sean Henry. Conine was someone the Mets were interested in prior to the deadline, and the Reds had little reason to hold on to him, as he wasn't going to be a draft pick this winter. Cincinnati will replace him with Jorge Cantu. Conine, who is believed to be leaning towards retiring at season's end, will be used primarily as a pinch-hitter on the Mets.
Miguel Cabrera didn't start Monday's game after he arrived late to the ballpark. Cabrera was in the dugout at the start of the game, but he apparently wasn't on time when the rest of the team reported to the ballpark. Cabrera has frustrated the Marlins with his attitude at times, but this will probably be just a one-day benching for him. Alfredo Amezaga started at third base.
Yesterday’s Results
American League BOS 6 TB 0 (Recap and Boxscore) Lowell: 2B, HR; Wakefield: 7 IP, 0 R OAK 6 TOR 4 (Recap and Boxscore) Blanton: 7 IP, 0 R CHA 4 KC 3 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 9 MIN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) Ibanez: 2 HR, Johjima: 2 2B, HR LAA 7 NYA 6 (Recap and Boxscore) 10 innings National League SF 8 FLA 7 (Recap and Boxscore) Molina: 4 for 5 STL 6 CHN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) Ankiel: 2B, HR; Rolen: 2 2B ATL 14 CIN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) Teixeira: 2 HR, 6 RBI WAS 7 HOU 0 (Recap and Boxscore) Redding: 7 IP, 0 R MIL 9 ARI 0 (Recap and Boxscore) Fielder: 2B, HR; Gallardo: 6 IP, 0 R PIT 4 COL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) 11 innings
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Today’s Games
National League --------------- Los Angeles Dodgers at Philadelphia Phillies, 7:05 PM (R) Brett Tomko (2-10) vs. (R) Kyle Kendrick (5-3) Atlanta Braves at Cincinnati Reds, 7:10 PM (L) Jo-Jo Reyes (0-1) vs. (L) Bobby Livingston (3-3) San Diego Padres at New York Mets, 7:10 PM (R) Chris Young (9-4) vs. (R) John Maine (13-7) Washington Nationals at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (R) Joel Hanrahan (2-1) vs. (L) Wandy Rodriguez (7-11) Florida Marlins at St. Louis Cardinals, 8:10 PM (R) Daniel Barone (0-1) vs. (R) Adam Wainwright (11-9) Pittsburgh Pirates at Colorado Rockies, 9:05 PM (R) Tony Armas (2-3) vs. (R) Elmer Dessens (1-1) Milwaukee Brewers at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (R) Dave Bush (9-9) vs. (R) Livan Hernandez (9-7) Chicago Cubs at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (R) Jason Marquis (10-7) vs. (R) Tim Lincecum (7-3) American League --------------- Cleveland Indians at Detroit Tigers, 7:05 PM (R) Fausto Carmona (14-7) vs. (R) Jair Jurrjens (0-1) Texas Rangers at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM (L) John Rheinecker (1-1) vs. (L) Erik Bedard (12-4) Oakland Athletics at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (R) Danny Haren (13-4) vs. (R) Dustin McGowan (8-7) Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7:10 PM (L) Jon Lester (1-0) vs. (R) Andrew Sonnanstine (2-8) Seattle Mariners at Minnesota Twins, 8:10 PM (L) Jarrod Washburn (8-10) vs. (R) Scott Baker (6-5) Kansas City Royals at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (R) Leo Nunez (2-0) vs. (R) Javier Vazquez (10-6) New York Yankees at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (R) Mike Mussina (8-8) vs. (R) Kelvim Escobar (13-6)
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 75 50 .600 0.0 77 -2NYA 70 55 .560 5.0 77 -7
TOR 63 61 .508 11.5 66 -3
BAL 57 65 .467 16.5 62 -5
TB 47 77 .379 27.5 45 2
American League Central CLE 68 55 .553 0.0 66 2
DET 67 57 .540 1.5 67 0
MIN 62 62 .500 6.5 63 -1
CHA 55 69 .444 13.5 51 4
KC 55 69 .444 13.5 59 -4
American League West LAA 73 51 .589 0.0 69 4
SEA 70 52 .574 2.0 63 7
OAK 62 64 .492 12.0 65 -3
TEX 54 69 .439 18.5 56 -2
National League East Pwins Diff NYN 70 53 .569 0.0 68 2
ATL 66 59 .528 5.0 67 -1
PHI 65 58 .528 5.0 66 -1
FLA 56 69 .448 15.0 58 -2
WAS 56 69 .448 15.0 52 4
National League Central CHN 63 60 .512 0.0 66 -3
MIL 64 61 .512 0.0 61 3
STL 59 62 .488 3.0 54 5
HOU 56 69 .448 8.0 55 1
CIN 54 70 .435 9.5 55 -1
PIT 53 70 .431 10.0 54 -1
National League West ARI 71 55 .563 0.0 60 11
SD 66 57 .537 3.5 68 -2
LAN 64 60 .516 6.0 63 1
COL 63 61 .508 7.0 66 -3
SF 55 70 .440 15.5 61 -6
Wildcard Standings American League SEA 70 52 .574 0.0 NYA 70 55 .560 1.5 DET 67 57 .540 4.0 TOR 63 61 .508 8.0 MIN 62 62 .500 9.0 National League SD 66 57 .537 0.0 PHI 65 58 .528 1.0 ATL 66 59 .528 1.0 LAN 64 60 .516 2.5 COL 63 61 .508 3.5
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 LAA AAA Brandon Wood...... 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 BOS AAA George Kottaras... 5 3 0 0 2 0 0 WAN A+ Justin Maxwell.... 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 4 RBI OAK AA Cliff Pennington.. 6 2 1 0 1 0 1 OAK A- Matthew Sulentic.. 4 2 1 0 0 1 0 OAK AA Brian Snyder...... 3 2 2 0 0 2 0 TB A+ Sergio Pedroza.... 3 2 0 0 2 0 0 OAK AA Richie Robnett.... 4 2 0 0 1 1 0 COL AAA Joseph Koshansky.. 4 2 1 0 0 0 1 PIT AAA Andrew McCutchen.. 5 3 0 0 0 0 0 TOR AAA Adam Lind......... 5 2 1 0 0 0 0 PHI A Adrian Cardenas... 4 2 1 0 0 1 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes LAA AA Nick Adenhart..... 6 5 1 1 7 2 0 DET AAA Andrew Miller..... 3 1 1 1 5 0 0 OAK A Trevor Cahill..... 6 1 0 0 10 3 0 LA AA Clayton Kershaw... 6 2 0 0 8 2 0 TB AA Wade Davis........ 7 2 2 2 5 1 0 CHW AA Gio Gonzalez...... 5 4 2 2 6 3 0 HOU AA Felipe Paulino.... 6 7 3 2 7 2 0 FLA A+ Aaron Thompson.... 8 5 1 0 3 1 0 14 GB BAL AA Radhames Liz...... 3 2 0 0 6 2 0 MIL AA Corey Thurman..... 8 4 3 3 7 3 1 MIL AAA Adam Pettyjohn.... 6 6 5 5 7 1 1 BOS AAA Abe Alvarez....... 3 0 0 0 2 0 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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