MLB Musings

Jered Weaver (4.2IP, 8H, 8ER, 2BB, 3K) coming off of his week-long suspension suffered his worst outing of the year. He allowed 3 HR in the loss. Weaver saw his ERA increase to 2.13 from
1.78 after the beating. Joel Pineiro's woes continue as he allowed 3 hits and 2 earned runs in 2 innings of relief. Edwin Encarnacion went 2-for-4, 2R, and 3RBI's. He also hit his 11th homer of the season. Thus far in August, he has a .417 BA, 2HR, and 6 RBI. Adam Lind smacked a grand-slam and drove in 5RBI for the Jays. This after the Jays coaching staff had been working on adjusting his batting stance. It was his first dinger in 15 games. Maybe the correction will get him going for the remainder of the year. Ricky Romero (7.0IP, 2H, 1ER, 2K) was sharp. His only blemish was a solo shot hit by Alberto Callaspo in the 5th inning. Romero has allowed only 4 runs over his last 4 starts and saw his ERA fall from 3.27 to a stellar 2.87 for the year.

Jorge Posada (3-for-5, 1R, 6RBI), in his first game playing since he was officially benched last Sunday, clubbed a grand slam to lead the Yankees to a 9-2 drubbing of the Rays. Curtis Granderson (2-for-4, 2R, 1RBI) continues to make a case for MVP consideration hitting his league-leading 33rd HR off of Jeremy Hellickson (4.1IP, 8H, 4ER, 2BB, 4K). He now also has a league-leading 94 RBI's. Granderson has gone yard 5 times in his last 5 games. It was Hellickson's worst outing of the year.

Yuniesky Betancourt accounted for the only run of the game when he homered off of Kevin Correa (6.2IP, 7H, 1ER, 3BB, 3K) in the second inning as Milwaukee downed Pittsburgh 1-0. Marco Estrada (5IP, 1H, 0ER, 0BB, 5K), Takashi Saito, LaTroy Hawkins, Francisco Rodriguez, and John Axford (34th SV) combined for the 3-hit shutout.

Colby Lewis (6.1, 3H, 1ER, 0BB, 8K) stymied the A's bats and picked up his 11th win of the year. He has not pitched well this season at home. Coming into today's contest he had a 5.15 ERA and a 2.21 HR/9 in Arlington.

Tim Lincecum (7.0IP, 2H, 0ER, 3BB, 10K) toyed with Marlins and picked up his 11th win as the Giants blanked Florida 3-0. Brian Wilson earned his 35th save. Jeff Keppinger (2-for-4, 1R, 1RBI) did the damage for the Giants homering off of Javier Vazquez (7.0IP, 5H, 3ER, 10K) in the first inning. Vazquez was at one time questionable for tonight's contest because he was visiting his ailing wife in Puerto Rico.

Josh Tomlin (6IP, 4H, 1ER, 1BB, 2K) continues to impress as he picked up another win to improve his record to 12-5 as the Indians downed the Twins 3-1. Asdrubal Cabrera (2-for-3, 1R, 3RBI, 1SB) hit a 3-run homer (his 20th) off of Brian Deunsing (6.2IP, 9H, 3ER, 2BB, 9K) to account for all of Cleveland's runs. Chris Perez, after a miserable two months, converted his second straight save in two nights without allowing a run.

Ryan Howard (2-for-4, 2R, 4RBI) clobbered his 25th homer of the year and drove in his league leading 95th RBI. Howard now is batting .257/.344/.495 for the year. Roy Oswalt (7.0IP, 6H, 3ER, 1BB, 5K) in his second start since coming off the DL (back) got the win. John Lannon (3.0IP, 4H, 7R, 1ER, 5BB, 1K) who struggled picked up the loss for the Nationals.

Dan Uggla (2-for-3, 2R, 1RBI) hit his 27th homer, a solo shot off of Randy Wells, but it was not enough as the Cubs downed the Braves 8-4. Uggla extended his hitting streak to 33 games. Starling Castro, Darwin Barney, and Tyler Colvin accounted for 10 of the Cubs 14 hits. Michael Bourn stole his league leading 43rd base for the Braves.

Ryan Roberts (2-for-4, 2R, 2H, 3RBI) belted his 16th homer leading the Diamondbacks to a 6-4 win over the Mets. Mike Pelfry was forced to leave the game in the fifth inning after being struck on the elbow by a Gerardo Parra line-drive. Daniel Hudson (8IP, 8H, 4R, 2ER, 2BB, 2K) won his 12th game and J.J. Putz pitched a scoreless 9th to pick up his 29th save.

Tim Stauffer (3.0IP, 7H, 9R, 9ER, 2BB, 1K) became the third pitcher in 2 days (CC Sabathia and Carlos Zambrano the others) to give up five home runs as the Reds hit 7 HR in all, and crushed the Padres 13-1. Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Miguel Cairo, Ryan Hanigan, and Todd Frazier each made victims of Stauffer. Hanigan and Cairo then each added another homer after Stauffer had long hit the showers.

Carlos Gonzalez (2-4, 1R, 4RBI) hit a 3-run blast off of Jaime Garcia (5.0IP, 6H, 5R, 5ER, 4BB, 3K) leading the Rockies to a 6-1 victory over the Cards. Jason Hammel (6.1IP, 5H, 1ER, 3BB, 1K) picked up the win. Albert Pujols (0-for-4) and Matt Holliday (0-for-3, 1R, 1BB) each went hitless.

Matt Scherzer (7.0 IP, 7H, 5R, 4ER, 0BB, 10K) settled down after spotting the Orioles 5 runs in the second inning, and the Tigers came back to win 6-5. The Orioles jumped out in front when Blake Davis (2-for-4, 1R, 3RBI) hit a 3-run blast and Vladimir Guerrero (2-for-4, 1R, 2RBI) connected for a 2-run shot off of Scherzer. Miguel Cabrera (1-for-2, 1R, 3RBI) clubbed his 23rd HR of the year, a 2-run homer off of losing pitcher Jeremy Guthrie (5.2IP, 8H, 6ER, 2BB, 1K). Jose Valverde picked up his 35th save for the Tigers.

Paul Konerko (1-for-4, 1R, 2RBI) and Tyler Flowers (2-for-3,1R, 1RBI) each homered off of losing pitcher Luke Hochevar (6.0IP, 8H, 5ER, 3BB, 4K) as the Chi-Sox defeated the Royals 6-5.
Jake Peavy (6.2IP, 9H, 4ER, 1BB, 6K) was involved in a no-decision. Jesse Crain (1.1IP, 2H, 0BB, 0K) picked up his 7th win. Chris Sale (1.0IP, 1K) pitched a perfect 9th to earn his 4th save.

Clayton Kershaw (8.0IP, 6H, 1ER, 1BB, 9K) improved his record to 14-5 as the Dodgers beat the hapless Astros 6-1. It was another dominant performance for the 23 year-old left hander. He now has an NL-league leading 193 K's. Matt Kemp (1-3, 1R, 2RBI) smashed his 27th home run of the year off of Wandy Rodriguez (6.0IP, 6H, 5R, 2ER, 2BB, 3K). Kemp now has an impressive .319/.393/.575 slash line.

Casper Well (2-for-4, 1R, 2RBI) and Ichiro Suzuki (1-for-4, 1H, 1RBI) homered off of Josh Becket (5IP, 8H, 5ER, 1BB, 6K) as the normally light hitting Mariners defeated the Red Sox 5-4. Felix Hernandez (7.0IP, 9H, 4ER, 2BB, 2KK) labored but was able to gut out the victory. He allowed round-trippers to Jacoby Ellsbury (2-for3, 1R, 2RBI) and Dustin Pedroia (1-for-4, 1R, 1RBI). Brandon League retired all three batters he faced in the ninth, including 2K's, to pick up his 28th save.