THT Daily: Two-run sacrifice fly
by Dave StudemanJune 08, 2009
Major League News for June 8
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 RotoworldChris Iannetta (hamstring) is hoping to return from the disabled list Tuesday.
Iannetta is currently rehabbing with Triple-A Colorado Springs, and will play his final game there Monday night. The catcher has been out since May 24 with a strained right hamstring. He was batting .231/.350/.510 with eight home runs and 18 RBI before he was sidelined.
Jose Valverde (calf) is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment with Double-A Corpus Christi on Wednesday.
Valverde cruised through a two-inning simulated game on Sunday. "I feel good," said the Astros' closer. "Everything's working." If all goes well, he'll spend just two days in the minors before rejoining the Astros over the weekend.
Frank Francisco was unavailable for a third consecutive game Sunday due to lingering shoulder soreness.
Rangers manager Ron Washington is hopeful his closer won't require another stint on the disabled list, but it's a strong possibility. "No one has mentioned to me that it could be a DL," manager Ron Washington said. "We're going to have our doctors check him out again and make sure what course we need to take." C.J. Wilson will continue filling in.
After getting Saturday off, Jimmy Rollins returned to the lineup as a No. 6 hitter on Sunday and went 2-for-4.
Rollins entered in a 2-for-22 slump, if someone who has hit .200 all year long can still be said to be in a slump. This switch could have taken place a month ago. We'll see if it works out.
Mark Reynolds hit a three-run homer in the top of the 18th and the Diamondbacks bullpen pitched a ninth straight hitless inning in the bottom of the frame Sunday in a 9-6 victory.
After Juan Gutierrez and Chad Qualls gave up five runs in the ninth, Jon Rauch, Esmerling Vasquez, Clay Zavada and Leo Rosales combined to hold the Padres hitless over the rest of the game. Chase Headley nearly broke up the run with a drive to the wall in left in the 18th, but Ryan Roberts made a terrific running catch to keep it intact. Reynolds' homer came off infielder Josh Wilson, as the Padres decided against pushing their luck any further with Chad Gaudin, who threw two scoreless innings two days after starting Friday. Incredibly, the Diamondbacks are now 8-0 all-time in games that last at least 15 innings.
Tigers manager Jim Leyland said Miguel Cabrera didn't suffer a setback with his strained hamstring before leaving Sunday's game.
Cabrera, though, clearly was less than 100 percent. "The trainers told me that he wouldn’t hurt himself any worse, and he said he felt good, but I hate playing someone that can’t go full speed," Leyland said. "I didn’t like what I was seeing from him at all, so I got him out of there." Perhaps Cabrera will play one of the two games in Monday's doubleheader.
Justin Upton came out of Sunday's game in the 10th inning after injuring his left shoulder on a swing.
B.J. has had problems with his shoulder popping out of joint during swings. One wonders if the same thing happened with Justin today. He's likely day-to-day.
Clete Thomas hit a go-ahead grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Tigers beat the Angels 9-6 on Sunday.
Thomas replaced Miguel Cabrera when he departed in the fourth inning due to injury. He stepped to the plate in a 5-5 game with two outs in the bases loaded and belted a homer to left off reliever Jason Bulger. Fernando Rodney gave up a run in the ninth in a non-save situation, but ultimately closed out the contest. The win improves the Tigers to 30-25 on the season.
Roy Halladay hurled a complete game shutout as the Blue Jays topped the Royals 4-0 on Sunday.
Halladay gave up seven singles, but he walked none and didn't yield any extra base hits. He's now 10-1 on the season, with no other pitcher in the majors yet recording nine wins. He also has three complete games already, putting him behind only Zack Greinke. Perhaps most amazingly, Halladay has issued all of 12 walks in 100 innings this season.
Yesterday’s Results
For the full scoop regarding yesterday's games, read "And That Happened" at Shysterball.American League TEX 6 BOS 3 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 4 TB 3 (Recap and Boxscore) TOR 4 KC 0 (Recap and Boxscore) CLE 8 CHA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) DET 9 LAA 6 (Recap and Boxscore) OAK 3 BAL 0 (Recap and Boxscore) SEA 4 MIN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) National League ATL 8 MIL 7 (Recap and Boxscore) SF 3 FLA 2 (Recap and Boxscore) NYN 7 WAS 0 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 6 CIN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 6 PIT 4 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 7 STL 2 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 7 LAN 2 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 9 SD 6 (Recap and Boxscore)Check out Fangraphs' scoreboard to see all the games in action.
Today’s Games
National League --------------- Colorado Rockies at St. Louis Cardinals, 2:15 PM (R) Jason Marquis (7-4) vs. (R) Brad Thompson (0-1) San Francisco Giants at Florida Marlins, 7:10 PM (L) Randy Johnson (5-4) vs. (L) Sean West (0-1) Pittsburgh Pirates at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 PM (L) Zach Duke (6-4) vs. (R) Kenshin Kawakami (3-6) Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres, 10:05 PM (R) Jon Garland (4-5) vs. (R) Jake Peavy (5-6) American League --------------- Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox, 2:05 PM (R) Armando Galarraga (3-6) vs. (L) Clayton Richard (2-1) Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees, 7:05 PM (R) Andy Sonnanstine (4-5) vs. (L) Andy Pettitte (5-2) Toronto Blue Jays at Texas Rangers, 8:05 PM (R) Casey Janssen (1-2) vs. (R) Scott Feldman (5-0) Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox, 8:11 PM (R) Jeremy Bonderman (0-0) vs. (R) Jose Contreras (0-5) Minnesota Twins at Oakland Athletics, 10:05 PM (R) Anthony Swarzak (1-2) vs. (L) Josh Outman (3-0)
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 NYA 33 23 .589 0.0 31 2BOS 33 24 .579 0.5 33 0
TOR 32 27 .542 2.5 32 0
TB 29 29 .500 5.0 34 -5
BAL 24 33 .421 9.5 23 1
American League Central DET 30 25 .545 0.0 31 -1
MIN 28 30 .483 3.5 29 -1
CHA 26 30 .464 4.5 25 1
KC 24 32 .429 6.5 24 0
CLE 25 34 .424 7.0 29 -4
American League West TEX 33 23 .589 0.0 31 2
LAA 28 27 .509 4.5 27 1
SEA 28 29 .491 5.5 26 2
OAK 25 30 .455 7.5 26 -1
National League East Pwins Diff PHI 33 22 .600 0.0 31 2
NYN 30 25 .545 3.0 29 1
ATL 27 28 .491 6.0 26 1
FLA 27 31 .466 7.5 26 1
WAS 15 40 .273 18.0 21 -6
National League Central MIL 33 24 .579 0.0 31 2
STL 31 26 .544 2.0 29 2
CHN 28 26 .519 3.5 28 0
CIN 29 27 .518 3.5 29 0
PIT 26 30 .464 6.5 28 -2
HOU 25 30 .455 7.0 25 0
National League West LAN 39 20 .661 0.0 38 1
SF 29 26 .527 8.0 28 1
SD 26 30 .464 11.5 23 3
ARI 25 32 .439 13.0 26 -1
COL 24 32 .429 13.5 28 -4
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 SD A+ Logan Forsythe.... 5 3 2 0 1 0 1 STL AA Daniel Descalso... 4 3 1 1 1 0 0 3 R TB A Timothy Beckham... 4 4 2 0 0 1 0 OAK A+ Jemile Weeks...... 2 2 1 0 0 3 0 COL A Delta Cleary...... 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 BOS AA Lars Anderson..... 3 2 2 0 0 1 0 SF AA Brandon Crawford.. 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 MIN AA Wilson Ramos...... 5 3 2 0 0 0 0 CIN AA Zachary Cozart.... 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 MIL AAA Alcides Escobar... 4 3 2 0 0 0 0 CIN AAA Drew Sutton....... 4 3 2 0 0 0 1 SD A Jaff Decker....... 4 2 0 0 1 1 1 5 RBI ! ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes CIN AA Travis Wood....... 9 3 0 0 11 0 0 TOR AAA Bradley Mills..... 7 4 0 0 11 0 0 ARI AA Jarrod Parker..... 6 5 2 2 9 0 0 BAL AA Jake Arrieta...... 7 3 0 0 5 0 0 CIN AAA Homer Bailey...... 7 7 0 0 6 0 0 LA A+ C. Withrow........ 6 3 1 1 5 1 0 BOS A Stolmy Pimentel... 5 4 1 1 6 1 0 BAL AAA C. Tillman........ 5 4 3 3 7 1 1 HOU A Ross Seaton....... 6 5 2 2 5 2 0 ATL A+ Richard Sullivan.. 6 5 2 2 5 2 0 11 GB BOS AA Junichi Tazawa.... 6 4 1 1 6 2 1 NYM AAA Jonathon Niese.... 6 6 2 2 4 1 0 12 GB
| First Inning's Major and Minor League Daily Reports: |
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.
<< Return to Article