Sunday Trends and Indexes 07/01

[Udog]

Baseball Today - July 1



SCOREBOARD

Monday, July 2

Arizona at St. Louis (8:10 p.m. EDT). Braden Looper returns from the DL for the Cardinals, squaring off against Brandon Webb.

STARS

Saturday

-Chad Gaudin, Athletics, gave up one hit in seven innings to lead Oakland past the New York Yankees 7-0.

-Ryan Braun, Brewers, went 4-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs in Milwaukee's 13-4 rout of the Chicago Cubs.

-Jeff Francis, Rockies, allowed three hits in seven innings and Colorado downed Houston 5-0.

-Carlos Beltran, Mets, hit two homers to lead the New York Mets to an 8-3 win over Philadelphia.

-C.C. Sabathia, Indians, became the first 12-game winner in the league after a 8-6 win over Tampa Bay.

-Ben Broussard, Mariners, tied a career-high with four hits and Seattle beat Toronto 8-3.

BELTRAN'S BOMBS

Carlos Beltran hit a pair of homers for second straight game, leading the New York Mets to an 8-3 victory over Philadelphia on Saturday. Beltran had a pair of solo homers off Cole Hamels on Friday, helping the Mets complete a sweep of a day-night doubleheader. The last time he hit two homers on consecutive days was last July 29-30 at Atlanta.

SNAPPED

The Chicago Cubs lost 13-4 to Milwaukee on Saturday, snapping a seven-game winning streak. ... Magglio Ordonez's 15-game hitting streak ended in Detroit's 8-5 loss to Minnesota.

STREAKS

Corey Hart extended his hitting streak to 16 games in Milwaukee's 13-4 pounding of the Chicago Cubs on Saturday. Ben Sheets won his sixth straight decision for the Brewers. ... Pittsburgh topped Washington 7-2 to hand the Nationals their fifth straight loss. ... Atlanta won for the fifth straight time, 6-5 at Florida. ... Seattle has won seven straight following a 8-3 win at home against Toronto.

PROTEST

Despite a much-publicized effort to display fan discontent during the Pittsburgh Pirates' 15th consecutive losing season, only a few thousand fans at most in the crowd of 26,959 left their seats in protest following the third inning of Saturday night's game against Washington. Only about 100 fans were seen leaving the ballpark immediately following the third, and it appeared that many of the fans who vacated their seats returned not long after leaving.

DEBUT

Boston's Jacoby Ellsbury, a 2005 first-round draft choice who was called up from Triple-A to fill in for an ailing Coco Crisp, became the first American Indian of Navajo descent to play in the majors, according to the Red Sox. He singled in the third inning of a 5-4 loss to Texas on Saturday for his first hit.

FOR THE RECORD

Barry Bonds hit his 376th double with the Giants in Saturday's 4-1 win over Arizona, tying him with his godfather, Hall of Famer Willie Mays, for most in San Francisco history.

SPEAKING

''That's efficiency.'' - White Sox pitcher Ryan Bukvich after throwing one pitch to earn the win in Chicago's 3-1 win over Kansas City on Saturday. Bukvich retired Emil Brown on a popup for the last out in the ninth and Chicago scored twice in the tenth to give the right-hander his first win of the season.

July 2

1903 - Washington outfielder Ed Delahanty went over a railroad bridge at Niagara Falls and drowned. The exact circumstances of his death never were determined.

1909 - The Chicago White Sox stole 12 bases, including home plate three times, in a 15-3 rout of the St. Louis Browns.

1930 - Chicago outfielder Carl Reynolds homered in the first, second and third innings, leading the White Sox to a 15-4 win over the New York Yankees. Reynolds, the second player in history to hit home runs in three consecutive innings, had two inside-the-park homers.

1933 - Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals 1-0 in an 18-inning game. He allowed six hits and no walks. In the second game of the doubleheader, the Cardinals were blanked 1-0, with Roy Parmelee outdueling Dizzy Dean.

1941 - Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees hit a home run to extend his hitting streak to 45 games, surpassing Willie Keeler's record of 44 straight games for the Orioles in 1897.

1963 - Juan Marichal of San Francisco beat Warren Spahn and the Milwaukee Braves 1-0 in 16 innings on Willie Mays' homer.

1986 - Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox fell short of a record-tying 15th consecutive winning decision when the Toronto Blue Jays scored three runs in the eighth inning for a 4-2 victory.

1995 - Hideo Nomo of the Los Angeles Dodgers became the first Japanese player picked for baseball's All-Star game. Nomo was the NL's leader in strikeouts and second in ERA.

2002 - A record 62 home runs were hit in the major leagues, breaking the mark of 57 set April 7, 2000. Raul Ibanez homered twice for Kansas City, making him the record ninth player to hit at least two in a game. San Francisco's Damon Minor, Tsuyoshi Shinjo and Reggie Sanders each homered twice as the Giants became the 16th team to have three players with multiple homers in a game, an 18-5 win against Colorado.

Today's birthdays: Angel Pagan, 26; Greg Dobbs, 29; Sean Casey, 33; So Taguchi, 38.

[Udog]

MLB
Sunday Night Baseball


Game: Minnesota Twins (42-37) at Detroit Tigers (46-33)

Line: -162, 9 ½

Arms race

Both pitchers for tonight’s Sunday Night Baseball action have very clear objectives.

Minnesota Twins hurler Scott Baker (2-2, 5.77 ERA) has the tall task of completing a three-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers, something the Twins haven’t done in Comerica Park since 2004. Tigers pitcher Jeremy Bonderman (8-1, 3.90 ERA), meanwhile, has the job of avoiding the brooms when he goes for this ninth win.

Bonderman suffered his first loss of the season Monday against the Texas Rangers. The right-hander only allowed two earned runs during seven innings but made a throwing error in the third that led to two unearned runs. Bonderman did set a season-high with nine strikeouts but couldn’t do enough to avoid his first loss in 21 starts stretching back to 2006.

Baker showed his potential Tuesday when he held the Toronto Blue Jays to just one run in over seven innings of work, but he only received a no-decision to show for it. The three-year pro has been plagued with command issues throughout his career. Still, his 32-10 strikeout-to-walk ratio shows some improvement.

Baker hasn’t faced Detroit yet this year but posts a 2-1 record and a 4.13 ERA in four career starts versus the Tigers. Bonderman hasn’t had much luck against Minnesota in his five years in the bigs. He is 2-6 with an ERA above 6.00 in 12 starts against the Twins.

Who’s on first?

Reigning American League MVP Justin Morneau might return to his usual home at first base on Sunday night after spending three games at the designated hitter spot.

Morneau was placed as the DH since returning from a chest injury he suffered in a home plate collision last week. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire told MLB.com that the club was concerned about the injury affecting Morneau’s swing and didn’t want any action in the field slowing his progress.

"I'm not a fan of DHing, never have been," Morneau told reporters. "But if that means I get to play, whatever, it doesn't really matter to me."

Morneau took fielding practice this weekend and following some ground-ball work told the team he’s moving better and feeling healthy. Minnesota has started Jeff Cirillo at first while Morneau recovers. Cirillo is also battling injury, playing through some soreness in his knees.

Lack of motivation in Motown

The Tigers’ road record has made a bundle for bettors, going 27-15 away from home while compiling 12.87 units (If you wagered $100 on the Tigers in each of their road games you'd be up $1,287) on the season.

However, their less-than-impressive 19-18 home win/loss total has the Detroit faithful scratching their heads and double-checking their wallets.

“(The media) have been telling us, 'Don't think of a pink elephant,' but we're thinking of a pink elephant now,” Tigers reliever Jason Grilli told the Detroit News. “I have no clue what it is. Being at home is where you always want to play.”

Detroit’s pitching staff has a 4.85 ERA at Comerica Park (4.11 ERA on the road) while its bats average 5.6 runs per home game. Away from Detroit, the Tigers drive in more than six runs per road game and lead the majors with a .291 batting average outside of Comerica.

Detroit is 4-7 at home this month and will have started its current 12-game homestand 1-5 if the Twins sweep tonight.

Sheffield-less shuffle in Tigers lineup

Sean Casey has replaced suspended slugger Gary Sheffield at the 3-spot in the Tigers batting order. Sheffield was originally suspended three games for arguing balls and strikes earlier this week but the league cut that back to two.

Casey went 1-for-3 with a walk on Saturday night, the first game Sheffield sat out. Casey is batting an even .300 on the season but has knocked only one home run. Sheffield, with 18 dingers this season, will return Tuesday against the Cleveland Indians.

Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland had already made adjustments to his lineup this week when third baseman Brandon Inge sat out three games due to back spasms.

Inge blames his troublesome back on a toe injury for which he had a protective plate put on his left cleat. The plate is keeping him off balance and causing his back to act up when he swings a bat or fields ground balls. Infielder Omar Infante has taken over at third base until Inge can return. Inge may sit out tonight's game but does have some extra time to rest due to the late start.

[Kaptain]

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