SDP 76-57 [0-2 in SEPT] SFG 74-61 [1-1 in SEPT] (3 GB) MLB.com: Skid reaches eight at hands of Rockies Jason Giambi and Troy Tulowitzki each hit a two-run homer to lift Colorado to a 4-3 victory over the Padres before a crowd of 21,877 at PETCO Park and hand San Diego its eighth consecutive loss. MLB.com: Second-half struggles continue for Zito Known for performing impressively in the season’s second half, Zito lost his seventh consecutive decision. And the Giants began their crucial three-city, 10-game trip with a misstep as they fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2.
PHI 77-58 [3-0 in SEPT] SFG 74-61 [1-1 in SEPT] (3 GB) MLB.com: Hamels’ gem helps Phillies knock out Crew MLB.com: Second-half struggles continue for Zito
MIN 78-57 [2-1 in SEPT] CHW 73-60 [1-0 in SEPT] (4 GB) MLB.com: Fox pitches in as Twins rally past Rangers Matt Fox had not been in line to be one of the Twins’ September callups. In fact, the right-hander probably wasn’t even on the organization’s radar for one. Yet there Fox was on Friday night at Target Field, making his Major League debut in a 4-3 Twins win over the Rangers and pitching in a situation that even he might not have been able to envision 24 hours earlier. MLB.com: Earl postpones series opener in Boston The White Sox active pursuit of the American League Central-leading Twins has been postponed one day by Hurricane Earl.
Former prized right-hander Mark Prior, who hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2006 because of a long list of injuries, has agreed to terms with the Rangers and will report to Triple A Oklahoma City on Saturday. Prior, who turns 30 on Tuesday, signed in early August with the Orange County Flyers of the Golden Baseball League. He tossed 11 innings without allowing an earned run, and opponents hit only .135 against him. MLB.com: Rangers sign Prior to Minor League deal
NYY 85-50 [3-0 in SEPT] TBR 83-51 [2-0 in SEPT] (1.5 GB) MLB.com: Yanks motor on to seventh straight win With Derek Jeter getting a routine day off Friday, Yankees manager Joe Girardi trotted out a lineup with Brett Gardner and Curtis Granderson hitting first and second, respectively, for the first time this season. It turned out to be a pretty good idea. Yes, in their 7-3 win over the Blue Jays, the Yankees were propelled by a little G-force at the top of the order. The pair of speedy left-handed-hitting outfielders combined to reach base seven times, score four times and drive in four runs, tormenting Toronto pitchers all afternoon. MLB.com: Garza tops O’s to kick off Rays’ road trip Matt Garza yielded a run on five hits to win his third straight decision, and the Tampa Bay Rays didn’t lose any ground in the playoff race, earning a 4-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night in the opener of a nine-game road trip.
ATL 78-57 [1-2 in SEPT] PHI 77-58 [3-0 in SEPT] (1 GB) MLB.com: Braves can’t pick up Kawakami in Florida [Kensh in] Kawakami struggled to find the strike zone, and when he did, the Marlins produced the early damage that allowed them to cruise to a 6-1 win over the Braves on Friday night at Sun Life Stadium… Kawakami, who has gone 1-10 with a 4.85 ERA in 16 big league starts this year, delivered a second-inning RBI single that accounted for his club’s only run. MLB.com: Hamels’ gem helps Phillies knock out Crew [Cole Hamels] allowed just three hits in seven scoreless innings Friday in a 1-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers at Citizens Bank Park… Hamels improved to 3-3 with a 2.00 ERA in his past 11 starts.
BOSTON—After a spring and summer of silence in Los Angeles, Manny Ramirez is suddenly very chatty as a member of the Chicago White Sox. One of the side benefits of Ramirez switching teams is that he is back in one of his former haunts—Fenway Park—this weekend. Although Friday’s game was postponed more than four hours before the scheduled first pitch, Ramirez was at Fenway in the afternoon and more than willing to engage with a small group of reporters outside the visitors’ clubhouse. Ramirez was openly apologetic for the sour way his memorable tenure with the Red Sox ended. “Everything was my fault, but you have to be a real man to realize when you do wrong,” Ramirez said. “It was my fault, right. I already passed that stage. I’m happy. I’m on a new team.” Another revealing comment Ramirez made is that if the Red Sox had been awarded the waiver claim for his services instead of the White Sox, he would have approved a move back to Boston for the stretch run. Johnny Damon, another member of the historic 2004 Red Sox, wouldn’t veto his no-trade rights after Boston claimed him from the Tigers last month.
After Tommy John surgery, another operation to repair a torn tendon and, most recently, a procedure to fix his damaged left shoulder, Mike Hampton is beginning to feel like an overhauled Chevy. “I’m as close to a bionic man as you’re going to get out there,” he said Friday. ... Even at 37, after 15 years in the majors and three major operations, Hampton still felt like he had something left, like he could help a big-league team. The Arizona Diamondbacks did, too, and gave the two-time All-Star his return ticket to the majors on Friday, purchasing his contract after a two-week stint at Triple-A Reno. Besides attempting to show teams he can still pitch, Hampton could also achieve his 13th career DL stint (which would extend his streak to six straight seasons with a DL stint).
A regular Morgan the Escapist! While Rizzo allowed that some of Morgan’s “mistakes” were “disconcerting,R 21; and called him a “young and aggressive player who should have known better,” he said he had little to no problem with most of what Morgan did. That list includes running into Cardinals catcher Bryan Anderson last Saturday, railroading Marlins catcher Brett Hayes on Tuesday night and then jawing with fans about it, and charging the mound and punching Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad on Wednesday. Rizzo said Morgan has been frustrated with his slow start to the year, but praised the outfielder’s improvement in the second half of the season. That improvement has been modest, statistically - Morgan is hitting .270 after the All-Star break, compared to .252 before it - but Rizzo said it’s too early to give up on the 30-year-old, stressing that he’s young in his career because of his late start in baseball after his hockey career. And Riggleman said he thought the suspensions levied on Friday - Morgan’s eight-game punishment, Doug Slaten’s three-game suspension and a pair of games each for third-base coach Pat Listach and himself - were “a little bit heavy.
(Disclosure: Dom Amore is ~~~NOT~~~ voting for the Cy Young this year.) So who gets it? First, I am going to eliminate King Felix Hernandez from the pack, although, if I were building a team he might be my first pick. Hernandez’s numbers are impressive - a 2.38 ERA over 211 innings with 200 strikeouts - but he is nonetheless 10-10. He got ripped off last year, in my opinion, with a 19-5 record he should have been the Cy Young winner over Zach Greinke. Not this year. Wins matter. The most important thing a starting pitcher does is win games, and though a starter has less control over his decisions than he used to in the days of complete games, he still has a lot to do with it. Sabathia doesn’t have 19 wins by accident. He has them because he holds leads, finds ways on nights when he doesn’t have it, such as in Chicago last weekend, and goes deep into games, deep enough to allow his team to bypass shaky middle relievers and get right to the closer. For this reason, I have usually used three wins as a benchmark margin. If Pitcher A has three more wins than his nearest competitor, I am likely to go with him for the Cy Young if the other numbers are reasonable close. In comparing starters, innings pitched is a big stat for me, too, because a pitcher throwing 230 innings has pitched through fatigue and helped his team, for the aforementioned reasons, more than the guy who has averaged six innings per start and throws, say, 190 innings. The ERA can be misleading - some pitchers win 8-0 and lose 3-2, others win 8-4 and 2-1. It’s when you give up those earned runs that makes the difference in winning and losing. Pitching isn’t like a golf tournament where the lowest aggregate score wins, it’s Match Play - the job of a starting pitcher is to match the other guy on each given time out. This is why a great pitcher can win a ton of games for a bad team, like Steve Carlton in 1972, while others, no matter how talented, seem to find their way to .500 no matter what kind of team they’re on, such as A.J. Burnett.
Boy, is Sandberg gonna be pissed. Cubs general manager Jim Hendry says he had lunch with Ryne Sandberg but did not formally interview the Hall of Famer for the manager’s job. They dined together this week in Albuquerque, where the Triple-A Iowa affiliate was playing. Sandberg, the legendary Cubs second baseman, manages the club and is a candidate to take over in Chicago after the season. Hendry says the Cubs are “not in any rush to complete the interview processes.” Lou Piniella announced in July that he planned to retire at the end of the season. But Piniella wound up stepping down on Aug. 22 because his mother was seriously ill.
Waters breaks from Eagles or something… Actress Kaitlin Olson has given birth to a baseball baby - she went into labor during a Los Angeles Dodgers game on Tuesday. Olson and husband Rob McElhenney became parents to Axel Lee McElhenney on Wednesday afternoon, but the actress’ contractions started the night before at Dodger Stadium. She tells People.com, “I went into labor at the Phillies/Dodgers game on Tuesday night. As soon as (Phillies star) Ryan Howard hit a three-run home run, we felt comfortable leaving to go have our baby. We love him like crazy, even though he made us miss the second half of the game.”
Leaving the Mets with less than a seven-per-cent solution for their great hiatus. The Braves hold a slim two-game lead over Philly, so I’m sort of surprised to see the Braves with a 73.6-percent chance of winning the division to the two-time NL pennant-winning Phillies’ 23.1 percent chance. Then again, these computer-generated things don’t take into account past performance and “intangibles.” Or wait, maybe they do, and they’ve worked the Eric Hinske World Series factor into the equation. Hinske, for any who might have forgotten, has played in the past three World Series for three different team. Dude is a serious good-luck charm, as well as being a team leader and a big reason why the Braves’ vaunted clubhouse chemistry is so, well, vaunted this year. But seriously, no, the coolstandings.com site doesn’t factor in that stuff. They run simulations of the season, use remaining strength of schedule, remaining home-road breakdown, that kind of thing. They do not, however, factor in injuries or trades. So I don’t know, but I’d imagine if they did that would only help the Braves, right? Then again, the Phillies got Roy Oswalt, so who knows? Anyway, there it is, Braves with a 73.6 percent chance of winning the division and 93.6 percent chance of making the postseason as either division winner or wild card.
Le Krach Davis? All the challenges of the past were worth it for Max St-Pierre. • Being a 10-year-old loving the game, but “not making contact for the first year I played,” he said. • The language barrier, about which he once said, “The pitchers thought I was dumb because of my (French-Canadian) accent. I couldn’t communicate with them.”... They all became worth it when St-Pierre found out Tuesday that after 14 years in the minors he was finally being called up to the big leagues. On Wednesday in the Tigers clubhouse at Target Field, the “chill bumps” as he called them had disappeared but not the excitement. “The bumps lasted an hour, though,” he said. When asked if he’d ever known anyone who spent more time in the minors before getting to the majors, manager Jim Leyland said, “Yeah, me. Eighteen years.”
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