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Baseball fan following baseball since 1955. Have been fortunate enough to have seen Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Johnny Bench, Roberto Clemente and Dale Murphy play baseball in Kansas City and Houston. Served in Army in Hawaii and Vietnam with 25th Infantry Division.More By Niteowl049
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Baseball Notebook: Around the Bases May 7th
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Gavin Floyd Two Outs From No-Hitter
Joe Mauer is the last batter on the Minnesota Twins a pitcher would want to face when they are two outs from pitching a no-hitter. Gavin Floyd was in that situation against the Twins, and Mauer doubled to end the no-hitter.
Floyd has been a different pitcher this season. In his last two seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, he had ERA's of 10.04 and 7.29. Last year, his ERA was 5.27 with the Chicago White Sox. This season, he is 3-1 and has a 2.50 ERA and has given up only 20 hits in 39 2/3 innings. Last year, he had 49 strikeouts and 19 walks in 70 innings but this year he has 19 strikeouts and 18 walks in 30 less innings. The main thing is that he is the only White Sox starter with a winning record, and is leading the starters in ERA.
Jermaine Dye is off to a slow start this season. He is 5th on the team in homers (4) and 5th in RBI's (12). The White Sox have six starters hitting .257 or lower this season, with Joe Crede hitting .257, Paul Konerko at .220, Orlando Cabrera at .214, Nick Swisher at .196, and Juan Uribe at .195. Swisher is in a horrendous slump with only one homer and 3 RBI's since the 17th of April and after the first five games in May, he is 1 for 17, hitting .053 for the month.
Slumping Tigers Lose 5th in a Row
The Detroit Tigers lost to Tim Wakefield (3-1) yesterday as Wakefield allowed only 2 hits in 8 innings, as the Boston Red Sox defeated the Tigers 5-0. Since the Tigers swept the New York Yankees, they were swept themselves by the Twins, and if they lose to the Red Sox today they will have been swept by them as well. It is hard to believe a team with this powerhouse batting order can only manage 2 hits, but that is exactly what happened yesterday. The big guns of the Red Sox, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, both hit their 7th homers of the season. Ortiz is officially out of his slump. His batting average for May is .429 with 2 homers and 6 RBI's and is slugging .810 in May.
Chamberlain Sets Up Yankee Loss
The Yankees were ahead 3-2 in the eighth inning when Joba Chamberlain entered the game. Instead of setting up Mariano Rivera for a save in the ninth inning, the setup man gave Rivera the day off when he let three runs cross the plate in the eighth inning in the 5-3 loss to the Indians.
Highlights of Other Games
Andy Sonnanstine (5-1) pitched the Tampa Bay Rays to a 5-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. With the Yankees, Blue Jays, and Orioles losing yesterday, the Rays distanced themselves from all those teams and remained 3 and a half games behind the Red Sox.
Brian Bannister (3-4) has lost his 4th game in a row after winning 3 in a row. The Kansas City Royals were 8-5 on the 14th of April, but have been 6-13 since then. Garret Anderson drove in all 5 runs for Los Angeles Angels in their 5-3 win over the Royals.
The Oakland Athletics won 4-2 over the Baltimore Orioles in a game that had no extra base hits by either team, as the two teams combined to hit 13 singles. Emil Brown drove in his 28th run of the season for the A's and Frank Thomas was 2 for 3 raising his average to .212 and to .273 with the A's. He is hitting .333 for the month of May.
Sidney Ponson (2-0) won again for the Texas Rangers in a 10-1 win over the Seattle Mariners, and also lowered his ERA to 1.33. Michael Young, David Murphy, and Josh Hamilton drove in 3 runs each in the contest; Hamilton extended his Major League leading RBI total to 36.
Nate McLouth continued his torrid hitting for the Pittsburgh Pirates, hitting his 8th and 9th homers of the year in their 12-6 win against the San Francisco Giants; McLouth now has 23 RBI's this season. Xavier Nady drove in his 31st and 32nd runs of the season, which tied him with Lance Berkman for the NL lead in RBI's.
Chipper Jones raised his average to .426 and hit his 10th homer of the season in the Atlanta Braves' 5-3 win over the San Diego Padres. Jones is now 60 points ahead of second place Rafael Furcal who is hitting .366.
Carlos Zambrano (5-1) pitched the Cubs to a 3-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
Mike Jacobs hit his 9th homer of the season in the Florida Marlins 3-0 shutout win of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers were 11-6 on the 19th of April, but have been 5-10 since then.
Lance Berkman was 5 for 5, and Carlos Lee drove in 5 runs for a 6-5 defeat over the Washington Nationals by the Houston Astros. On the 19th of April, the Astros were 6-12, but have been 11-4 since then for a 17-16 record.
Ryan Ludwick was 4 for 4 for the St. Louis Cardinals in their 6-5 win against the Colorado Rockies. Braden Looper (5-1) was 2 for 3, raising his average to .385. Rick Ankiel hit his 6th homer and threw out two runners at third base.
Randy Johnson (2-1) won his 286th game in a 6-4 defeat over the Philadelphia Phillies. The win tied him with Robin Roberts of the Phillies. Johnson needs one more win to tie Bert Blyleven with 287 wins and 2 wins to tie Tommy John with 288 wins. The only other pitcher he needs to pass on the way to 300 wins is Bobby Mathews (297).
Blake DeWitt led the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 3 for 4 game with 4 RBI's in the 5-4 defeat over the New York Mets. Juan Pierre finished April hitting only .250, but with him hitting .458 in May his average is now .316.
Not Your Run of the Mill Stats
Batting
Extra Base Hits
AL - Manny Ramirez 19
NL- Chase Utley 26
Home Runs Per At Bat
AL - Carlos Quentin HR every 12.5 AB's
NL - Chase Utley HR every 10.3 AB's
Grounded Into Double Plays
AL- David Ortiz 8
NL- Pedro Feliz, James Loney 8
Stolen Base Success
AL - Jacoby Ellsbury 11 for 11 100%
NL - Michael Bourn 13 for 13 100%
Batting Average With Runners in Scoring Position
AL - Emil Brown .484
NL - Ryan Doumit .526
Least Missed Swings
AL - Ichiro Suzuki - 15 of 232
NL - Cesar Izturis 6 of 157
Pitching
Lowest Batting Average Allowed
AL - Gavin Floyd .149
NL - Ben Sheets .171
Strikeouts Per Nine Innings
AL - Javier Vazquez 8.94
NL - Chad Billingsley 11.76
Run Support Per Nine Innings
AL - Chad Gaudin 7.75
NL - Brad Penny 8.93
Least Home Runs Allowed
AL - Chien-Ming Wang 1 in 45 Innings
NL - Jair Jurrjens 1 in 44 Innings
Blown Saves
AL - Hideki Okajima & Jamie Walker 3
NL - Eric Gagne 5
Best Catchers Throwing Out Base Stealers
AL - Joe Mauer 6 of 15 40%
NL - Paul Bako 7 of 18 38.9%
Worst Catchers Throwing Out Base Stealers
AL- John Buck 0 of 14 0%
NL - Carlos Ruiz 2 of 16 12.5%
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