THT Daily: Winning Ugly
by Dave StudemanApril 08, 2008
Major League News for April 7
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 RotoworldTorii Hunter hit a go-ahead solo homer in the eighth and then won the game with a grand slam in the ninth as the Angels beat the Indians 6-4 on Monday night. After SportsTime Ohio had already proclaimed Jhonny Peralta the player of the game. It was a bad call with Joe Borowski still to make an appearance. After Hunter broke a 1-1 tie in the eighth, the Indians scored three times off Francisco Rodriguez and Scot Shields in the ninth. However, it wasn't nearly enough, as Borowski could get just one out before Hunter launched a curveball into the left-field bleachers to end it. It was the 10th career grand slam for Hunter, and it gave him his first five-RBI game since April 6, 2006. He's currently tied with D'Backs teammates Chris Young and Mark Reynolds for the major league lead with four homers.
Scott Spiezio pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor drunken driving and hit-and-run charges and received three years probation. Spiezio will also undergo a three-month alcohol program, attend two Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and complete 80 hours of community service because of the incident that took place in December. The Braves surely knew that Spiezio would be facing this kind of punishment when they signing him to a minor league deal last week.
Rich Harden is slated to start Saturday after being scratched from his scheduled start Tuesday. There's still been no reason given for his absence. It might not be an injury if they've already scheduled his return. Chad Gaudin will face the Blue Jays tomorrow.
Justin Duchscherer has been scratched from his scheduled start Wednesday after an MRI showed that he has a strained biceps. "I'm hoping it's just one start," Duchscherer said. "They said I can't throw for a few days and I might need a cortisone injection. When I came in today, I was hoping I'd make my next start, but they said there's inflammation in there we've got to calm down a little bit." The A's have yet to officially announce who will take Duchscherer's place against the Blue Jays, but it looks likely that Chad Gaudin will be activated from the disabled list to make the start after being scratched from his scheduled minor league rehab outing Monday.
Francisco Rodriguez left Monday's game in the ninth inning with an apparent ankle injury. K-Rod probably wasn't hurt anymore than usual, but he had blown the save by allowing two runs against the Indians, and the Angels wanted Scot Shields in there before things could get any worse. Given the way Rodriguez was struggling, he might benefit from a couple of weeks off. If it happens, either Justin Speier or Shields would close. Shields would normally be the backup, but Speier is the better pitcher right now.
Derek Jeter will miss at least one game with a strained left quad, but he's not expected to land on the disabled list. Wilson Betemit will fill in for Jeter on Tuesday and possibly for the rest of the week. The Yankees may call up Alberto Gonzalez to help out defensively if they don't think Jeter will be back within a few days.
Howie Kendrick left Monday's game in the fourth inning with a right thumb injury. Kendrick apparently was hurt in his first at-bat. He stayed in and played a couple of more innings in the field, but Erick Aybar took over next time his spot in the lineup came up. Kendrick is probably day-to-day.
Koji Uehara, who officially qualified for free agency eight days into Japan's season, announced Monday that he intends to play in the U.S. next season. Uehara would have made the jump last winter, but he barely missed being eligible. The 33-year-old right-hander would have viewed as a No. 2 or No. 3 starter a few years ago. Now he's something of a question mark because of arm problems and his team's decision to make him a closer. He would like to return to the rotation and probably will get that opportunity in the majors.
Yesterday’s Results
American League BAL 5 SEA 4 (Recap and Boxscore) NYA 6 TB 1 (Recap and Boxscore) CHA 7 MIN 4 (Recap and Boxscore) LAA 6 CLE 4 (Recap and Boxscore) National League FLA 10 WAS 7 (Recap and Boxscore) PHI 5 CIN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) HOU 5 STL 3 (Recap and Boxscore) CHN 10 PIT 8 (Recap and Boxscore) ARI 9 LAN 3 (Recap and Boxscore) COL 2 ATL 1 (Recap and Boxscore) SD 8 SF 4 (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 --------------- Philadelphia Phillies at New York Mets, 1:10 PM (L) Jamie Moyer (0-0) vs. (L) Oliver Perez (1-0) Cincinnati Reds at Milwaukee Brewers, 8:05 PM (R) Johnny Cueto (1-0) vs. (R) Jeff Suppan (1-0) St. Louis Cardinals at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM (R) Brad Thompson (1-0) vs. (R) Shawn Chacon (0-0) Atlanta Braves at Colorado Rockies, 8:35 PM (R) Jair Jurrjens (1-0) vs. (R) Ubaldo Jimenez (0-1) Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona Diamondbacks, 9:40 PM (R) Chad Billingsley (0-0) vs. (L) Doug Davis (0-1) San Diego Padres at San Francisco Giants, 10:15 PM (L) Randy Wolf (0-0) vs. (R) Tim Lincecum (1-0) American League --------------- Baltimore Orioles at Texas Rangers, 2:05 PM (L) Brian Burres (0-0) vs. (R) Jason Jennings (0-1) Detroit Tigers at Boston Red Sox, 2:05 PM (L) Kenny Rogers (0-1) vs. (R) Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-0) New York Yankees at Kansas City Royals, 4:10 PM (R) Phil Hughes (0-0) vs. (R) Brian Bannister (1-0) Oakland Athletics at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM (R) Chad Gaudin (0-0) vs. (R) AJ Burnett (1-0) Seattle Mariners at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:10 PM (L) Erik Bedard (0-0) vs. (R) Matt Garza (0-0) Cleveland Indians at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM (R) Jake Westbrook (0-1) vs. (R) Ervin Santana (1-0)
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 BAL 5 1 .833 0.0 4 1TOR 4 2 .667 1.0 5 -1
NYA 4 3 .571 1.5 3 1
TB 3 3 .500 2.0 4 -1
BOS 3 4 .429 2.5 2 1
American League Central CHA 5 2 .714 0.0 5 0
KC 4 2 .667 0.5 4 0
CLE 3 4 .429 2.0 3 0
MIN 3 5 .375 2.5 3 0
DET 0 6 .000 4.5 1 -1
American League West LAA 5 3 .625 0.0 4 1
TEX 3 3 .500 1.0 4 -1
OAK 3 4 .429 1.5 4 -1
SEA 2 5 .286 2.5 3 -1
National League East Pwins Diff FLA 4 3 .571 0.0 2 2
ATL 3 4 .429 1.0 5 -2
PHI 3 4 .429 1.0 3 0
NYN 2 3 .400 1.0 3 -1
WAS 3 5 .375 1.5 4 -1
National League Central MIL 5 1 .833 0.0 5 0
STL 5 2 .714 0.5 5 0
CHN 4 3 .571 1.5 4 0
CIN 4 3 .571 1.5 4 0
PIT 3 4 .429 2.5 3 0
HOU 3 5 .375 3.0 4 -1
National League West ARI 5 2 .714 0.0 6 -1
SD 5 3 .625 0.5 4 1
LAN 4 3 .571 1.0 4 0
COL 2 5 .286 3.0 1 1
SF 1 6 .143 4.0 1 0
Game of the Day
It wasn’t a pretty sight, but the Cubs blew a seven-run lead but then went on to defeat the Pirates, 10-8 in 12 innings. There were 19 walks, five errors, three wild pitches and a passed ball in the Pittsburgh home opener. The Cubs scored their winning runs in the 12th without a hit.Cubs 10, Pirates 8 - FINAL
CHICAGO CUBS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
A Soriano lf 6 1 1 0 1 1 2 .094
R Johnson cf 3 2 1 0 2 0 2 .308
vb-D Ward ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000
F Pie pr-cf 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .188
D Lee 1b 5 1 2 0 2 1 2 .400
A Ramirez 3b 6 1 1 2 0 1 6 .200
K Fukudome rf 5 1 3 1 2 1 1 .458
M DeRosa 2b 5 2 1 1 2 2 5 .320
G Soto c 7 1 3 2 0 0 7 .261
R Cedeno ss 5 0 1 3 0 0 3 .286
J Lieber p 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000
C Marmol p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
T Lilly p 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 .000
K Hart p 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 .000
C Pignatiello p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
B Howry p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
va-M Fontenot ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .429
M Wuertz p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
R Theriot ss 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 .200
Totals 49 10 13 9 11 8 35 ###
PITTSBURGH ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
N McLouth cf-lf 6 0 3 2 1 1 0 .441
F Sanchez 2b 6 0 0 1 0 2 4 .263
J Bay lf 4 0 1 0 0 1 2 .182
T Yates p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
hc-A LaRoche ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .087
J Grabow p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
M Capps p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
hd-Z Duke ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .000
E Meek p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
R Doumit c 4 1 2 0 1 0 1 .458
B Bixler pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
R Paulino c 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .222
X Nady rf 5 1 2 0 1 0 3 .387
D Mientkiewicz 1b 3 1 0 0 3 0 1 .250
J Bautista 3b 4 2 2 0 1 0 6 .214
L Rivas ss 6 2 2 1 0 0 4 .318
T Gorzelanny p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
P Dumatrait p 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
ha-C Gomez ph 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 .400
F Osoria p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
D Marte p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
hb-N Morgan ph-cf 3 0 0 0 1 1 1 .222
Totals 46 8 13 5 8 6 22 ###
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CHICAGO CUBS - 016 001 000 002 -- 10 13 3
PITTSBURGH - 000 502 100 000 -- 8 13 2
----------------------------------------------------
ha-reached on infield single to third for P Dumatrait in the 4th; va-flied out
to left for B Howry in the 7th; vb-reached on error for R Johnson in the 10th;
hb-walked for D Marte in the 6th; hc-grounded to first for T Yates in the
8th; hd-struck out swinging for M Capps in the 11th.
BATTING: 2B - M DeRosa (3, T Gorzelanny); R Cedeno (1, P Dumatrait); G Soto (1,
F Osoria); D Lee (4, F Osoria); J Bautista (3, M Wuertz); R Doumit (1, J
Lieber); X Nady (2, J Lieber). 3B - N McLouth (1, T Lilly). S - J Bautista. SF
- A Ramirez , F Sanchez. RBI - G Soto 2 (6), K Fukudome (6), R Cedeno 3 (3), A
Ramirez 2 (3), M DeRosa (4), L Rivas (2), C Gomez (6), N McLouth 2 (9), F
Sanchez (2). 2-out RBI - L Rivas, C Gomez, N McLouth, M DeRosa. Runners left in
scoring position, 2 out - R Johnson 1, A Ramirez 2, A Soriano 1, R Cedeno 1, G
Soto 3, L Rivas 2, X Nady 2, F Sanchez 1, J Bautista 1. GIDP - A Ramirez. Team
LOB - PITTSBURGH 12, CHICAGO CUBS 15. BASERUNNING: SB - K Fukudome (2, 2nd base
off J Grabow/R Doumit), R Theriot 2 (3, 2nd base off M Capps/R Paulino, 2nd
base off E Meek/R Paulino), F Pie (2, 2nd base off M Capps/R Paulino). CS - N
McLouth (1, 2nd base by T Lilly), N Morgan (1, 2nd base by M Wuertz/G Soto).
FIELDING: E - T Gorzelanny (1, throw); R Cedeno (1, throw); A Ramirez (2,
throw); M DeRosa (2, ground ball); L Rivas (3, ground ball). PB - G Soto. DP:
(L Rivas-F Sanchez-D Mientkiewicz).
CHICAGO CUBS ip h r er bb so hr era
T Lilly 3 2/3 7 5 5 2 1 0 9.72
K Hart 1 1/3 2 2 2 1 1 0 4.15
C Pignatiello 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 13.50
B Howry (H, 2) 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 12.27
M Wuertz (B, 1) 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 0.00
J Lieber (W, 1-1) 3 2 0 0 2 2 0 0.00
C Marmol (S, 1) 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1.50
PITTSBURGH ip h r er bb so hr era
T Gorzelanny 2 1/3 6 7 7 4 2 0 10.80
P Dumatrait 1 2/3 2 0 0 1 1 0 0.00
F Osoria 1 3 1 1 0 1 0 6.00
D Marte 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 16.20
T Yates 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.59
J Grabow 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0.00
M Capps 2 1 0 0 0 3 0 7.36
E Meek (L, 0-1) 1 0 2 2 5 0 0 27.00
F Osoria pitched to 3 batters in the 6th.
K Hart pitched to 2 batters in the 6th.
C Pignatiello pitched to 2 batters in the 6th.
J Grabow pitched to 1 batter in the 10th.
WP - T Gorzelanny, E Meek 2. IBB - R Doumit (by B Howry), D Mientkiewicz 2
(by J Lieber), D Lee (by E Meek), K Fukudome (by E Meek). Pitches-strikes: T
Lilly 80-50; K Hart 32-19; C Pignatiello 8-0; B Howry 9-3; M Wuertz 23-17; J
Lieber 35-23; C Marmol 13-10; T Gorzelanny 70-36; P Dumatrait 25-15; F Osoria
24-19; D Marte 13-7; T Yates 26-17; J Grabow 30-17; M Capps 42-25; E Meek
36-11. Ground balls-fly balls: T Lilly 2-7; K Hart 2-1; C Pignatiello 0-0; B
Howry 1-2; M Wuertz 3-1; J Lieber 4-3; C Marmol 1-1; T Gorzelanny 3-2; P
Dumatrait 2-2; F Osoria 2-1; D Marte 1-2; T Yates 1-5; J Grabow 0-2; M Capps
1-2; E Meek 1-2. Batters faced: T Lilly 19; K Hart 7; C Pignatiello 2; B Howry
4; M Wuertz 7; J Lieber 13; C Marmol 4; T Gorzelanny 16; P Dumatrait 8; F
Osoria 7; D Marte 3; T Yates 6; J Grabow 5; M Capps 8; E Meek 8. UMPIRES:
HP--Alfonso Marquez. 1B--Andy Fletcher. 2B--Mike Reilly. 3B--Scott Barry.
T--4:47. Att--37,491. Weather: 62 degrees, partly cloudy. Wind: 11 mph, in from
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 CIN AAA Jay Bruce......... 5 2 0 1 1 0 1 NYM AA F. Martinez....... 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 PIT AAA Andrew McCutchen.. 5 2 0 0 1 0 1 TB AAA Reid Brignac...... 6 2 0 0 1 0 2 TOR A+ Travis Snider..... 3 1 1 0 0 2 0 CIN A+ Chris Valaika..... 5 4 0 0 1 0 0 3 LD SF AAA Brett Harper...... 6 4 2 0 1 0 0 5 RBI ! OAK AA Brian Snyder...... 4 2 0 0 1 2 1 4 RBI WAN AA Ian Desmond....... 4 2 1 0 1 0 1 TEX AA C. Davis.......... 4 2 1 0 1 0 0 TEX AA Emerson Frostad... 4 3 2 0 0 0 0 COL AAA Joseph Koshansky.. 3 1 1 0 0 1 0 ORG LVL PLAYER IP H R ER SO BB HR Notes SD AAA Wade Leblanc...... 6 4 1 1 11 1 1 PHI AA Carlos Carrasco... 5 3 1 1 7 2 0 CIN A+ Travis Wood....... 5 2 0 0 7 2 0 MIN AAA Kevin Mulvey...... 6 5 0 0 5 1 0 MIN A Brian Kirwan...... 6 1 0 0 4 1 0 FLA AA Brett Sinkbeil.... 5 3 2 2 5 3 0 CLE AA Ryan Edell........ 6 5 0 0 3 0 0 STL AAA Mitchell Boggs.... 6 3 1 0 2 1 0 14 GB NYY A Z. McAllister..... 5 4 0 0 5 2 0 9 GB NYY AAA Heath Phillips.... 2 0 0 0 2 1 0 STL A+ Tyler Herron...... 3 3 1 1 2 0 0 OAK A+ Jared Lansford.... 4 8 5 5 3 0 0 8 GB
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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.