THT Daily: Double Dip in Boston

by Matthew Carruth
April 23, 2009

Major League News for April 23

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 Rotoworld
A visit with Dr. Lewis Yocum Wednesday revealed “laxity or looseness” in David Riske’s ulnar collateral ligament.
Riske, who underwent elbow surgery last September, could now be facing Tommy John surgery. He’ll try to rehab the ligament over the next three or four weeks before a decision is made, but it’s probably safe to count him out this season.

Dan Haren struck out nine in seven scoreless innings Wednesday in a victory over the Rockies.
Tony Pena and Chad Qualls finished the shutout, which gave Haren his first win of the year. He needed to be sharp, as the offense scored only two runs, even with Haren chipping in with a single. It was actually a scoreless game when he threw his final pitch, but the Diamondbacks scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh. Those were just the second and third runs they’ve scored in his four starts this season.

Melky Cabrera hit a walkoff homer in the bottom of the 14th as the Yankees beat the A’s 9-7 on Wednesday.
It was his second homer of the contest. Before the new Yankees Stadium opened last week, Cabrera had 23 homers in 1,447 at-bats, an average of one every 62.9 at-bats. Since the first game in the new park, he has four homers in 14 at-bats, a slightly better ratio. The Yankees might as well stick with him in center while he’s hot. Brett Gardner is hitting just .240/.282/.300 so far.

Tim Wakefield was credited with his second straight complete game Wednesday as the Red Sox beat the Twins 9-1 in seven innings in the first game of a doubleheader.
The game was called due to rain after the Red Sox scored four times in the seventh. The scheduled night game between the two teams is still on for now, but it’s possible it will be postponed and played tomorrow, which had been a scheduled off day. Wakefield, who took a no-hitter into the eighth in his previous start, allowed one run and five hits today. The complete game was his 32nd, breaking a tie with Bartolo Colon and Jamie Moyer and putting him into seventh place on the active list. He was 13th at the end of last year, but Greg Maddux, Curt Schilling, Mike Mussina and Kenny Rogers all retired.

Yesterday’s Results

For the full scoop regarding yesterday’s games, read “And That Happened” at Shysterball.

American League
CHA     8  BAL     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS    10  MIN     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
BOS     7  MIN     3    (Recap and Boxscore)
NYA     9  OAK     7    (Recap and Boxscore)
TOR     8  TEX     7    (Recap and Boxscore)
KC      2  CLE     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
DET    12  LAA    10    (Recap and Boxscore)
TB      9  SEA     3    (Recap and Boxscore)

National League
MIL     3  PHI     1    (Recap and Boxscore)
ATL     1  WAS     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
CIN     3  CHN     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
HOU     6  LAN     5    (Recap and Boxscore)
PIT     7  FLA     4    (Recap and Boxscore)
STL     5  NYN     2    (Recap and Boxscore)
ARI     2  COL     0    (Recap and Boxscore)
SF      1  SD      0    (Recap and Boxscore)

Check out Fangraphs’ scoreboard to see all the games in action.

Today’s Games

National League
 ---------------
 Milwaukee Brewers at Philadelphia Phillies, 1:05 PM
  (R) Dave Bush (0-0) vs. (L) Cole Hamels (0-1)
 New York Mets at St. Louis Cardinals, 1:40 PM
  (R) Livan Hernandez (1-0) vs. (R) Kyle Lohse (2-0)
 Cincinnati Reds at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 PM
  (R) Aaron Harang (1-2) vs. (R) Carlos Zambrano (1-0)
 Los Angeles Dodgers at Houston Astros, 8:05 PM
  (R) Chad Billingsley (3-0) vs. (L) Wandy Rodriguez (1-1)
 
 American League
 ---------------
 Kansas City Royals at Cleveland Indians, 12:05 PM
  (R) Gil Meche (1-0) vs. (R) Anthony Reyes (1-0)
 Tampa Bay Rays at Seattle Mariners, 6:40 PM
  (R) James Shields (2-1) vs. (R) Felix Hernandez (2-0)
 Chicago White Sox at Baltimore Orioles, 7:05 PM
  (R) Bartolo Colon (1-0) vs. (R) Adam Eaton (0-2)
 Texas Rangers at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 PM
  (R) Kevin Millwood (1-1) vs. (R) Scott Richmond (1-0)
 Detroit Tigers at LA Angels of Anaheim, 10:05 PM
  (R) Edwin Jackson (1-0) vs. (R) Matt Palmer (0-0)

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
TOR     11   5 .688    0.0   11     0    
BOS      9   6 .600    1.5   10    -1    
NYA      9   6 .600    1.5    6     3    
BAL      7   8 .467    3.5    5     2    
TB       6   9 .400    4.5    7    -1    
American League Central     
CHA      8   6 .571    0.0    8     0    
DET      8   6 .571    0.0    9    -1    
KC       8   6 .571    0.0    9    -1    
MIN      7   9 .438    2.0    5     2    
CLE      5  10 .333    3.5    7    -2    
American League West        
SEA      9   6 .600    0.0    8     1    
TEX      6   8 .429    2.5    7    -1    
LAA      5   9 .357    3.5    6    -1    
OAK      5   9 .357    3.5    6    -1    


National League East        Pwins  Diff
FLA     11   4 .733    0.0    9     2    
ATL      7   8 .467    4.0    7     0    
PHI      6   7 .462    4.0    6     0    
NYN      6   8 .429    4.5    7    -1    
WAS      3  11 .214    7.5    5    -2    
National League Central     
STL     10   5 .667    0.0   10     0    
CHN      8   5 .615    1.0    8     0    
PIT      9   6 .600    1.0   10    -1    
CIN      8   6 .571    1.5    6     2    
HOU      6   9 .400    4.0    6     0    
MIL      5   9 .357    4.5    5     0    
National League West        
LAN     10   5 .667    0.0   11    -1    
SD       9   6 .600    1.0    8     1    
SF       6   8 .429    3.5    6     0    
ARI      6   9 .400    4.0    5     1    
COL      5   9 .357    4.5    6    -1

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
ARI A   Reynaldo Navarro.. 4  3  2  1  0  0  0  
CLE A+  L. Chisenhall..... 5  2  1  0  1  1  0  5 RBI !
PHI A   Travis D'Arnaud... 4  3  2  0  0  0  1  4 RBI
TOR A+  Eric Thames....... 4  3  1  1  0  0  0  
COL AAA Carlos Gonzalez... 5  2  1  1  0  1  1  6 RBI !
TEX A+  M. Moreland....... 4  1  0  0  1  2  0  
COL AAA Eric Young........ 6  2  1  0  0  0  2  2 SB
FLA A+  Matt Dominguez.... 4  2  1  0  0  1  1  3 R
TEX A+  Engel Beltre...... 4  1  1  0  0  1  1  
CHW A+  Jordan Danks...... 4  3  0  0  0  1  1  
CIN AA  Todd Frazier...... 4  2  1  0  0  1  0  
TB  AA  Desmond Jennings.. 3  1  0  0  1  0  0  

ORG LVL PLAYER            IP  H  R ER SO BB HR  Notes
MIL A   Cody Scarpetta.... 6  3  1  1 10  2  0  
LA  A+  C. Withrow........ 5  3  1  1 10  2  0  
NYY AAA Philip Hughes..... 8  6  1  1  7  1  0  
HOU A   Ross Seaton....... 6  4  1  1  6  1  0  
CHC A   C. Carpenter...... 5  1  0  0  6  2  0  
BOS A   Casey Kelly....... 5  2  0  0  4  0  0  11 GB
SF  A+  M. Bumgarner...... 5  5  1  1  5  0  0  
ARI A   Trevor Harden..... 7  5  1  1  5  1  1  12 GB
TEX A   Martin Perez...... 5  3  2  2  6  2  1  
BAL A+  Zachary Britton... 5  4  2  1  4  2  0  
TOR AAA Bradley Mills..... 6  5  3  3  4  3  0  
STL AAA Jesse Todd........ 1  0  0  0  3  0  0

First Inning’s Major and Minor League Daily Reports: