Full schedule of games yesterday – including a battle of first-place teams in New York.
Indians 8, Orioles 3: The O’s slide continues, as they drop their 6th game in a row. Cleveland knocked Baltimore starter Jeremy Guthrie and a couple relievers around to the tune of 13 hits (10 combined between Travis Hafner, Orlando Cabrera, Travis Buck, and Matt LaPorta), and they end the day tied for the best record in the AL.
Yankees 5, Rangers 2: Freddy Garcia pitched six shutout innings in his first start of 2011. Big off-season signing Rafael Soriano gave up New York’s only runs; that’s 4 earned for him on the year, compared to only 12 total in 2010 (in 62.1 IP). Offensively, it was Mark Teixeria and Robinson Cano each taking Derek Holland deep for the Yankees.
Royals 7, Mariners 0: The Indians got to 10-4 today, but the Royals got their first. They dropped 5 runs on Felix Hernandez, while shutting down the M’s bats (not exactly the toughest thing in the world to do). Alex Gordon extended his hitting streak to 10 games with his 3-4 day.
Red Sox 4, Blue Jays 1: Josh Beckett pitched a gem (7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 9 K), picking up his second (and Boston’s third) win of the year. With Carl Crawford on the bench with lefty Jo-Jo Reyes making the start for Toronto, Jed Lowrie went 3-5 (including a home run) out of the lead-off spot for the Sox.
Reds 11, Pirates 2: Drew Stubbs went deep for the Red. So did Ramon Hernandez (a grand slam). Jonny Gomes homered twice. 11 runs, and that’s with Miguel Cairo batting second! Cincinnati led the NL in runs scored last year, and they’re at the top of the leaderboard again so far in 2011 (or, at least they were when this game ended).
Braves 4, Mets 2 (Game 1): Atlanta also hit four home runs (Chipper Jones, Freddie Freeman, and two from Alex Gonzalez), but they didn’t do anything otherwise. The four solo shots were enough for Derek Lowe and the Braves’ pen though.
Braves 4, Mets 0 (Game 2): Not a good day for the Mets, as they got swept in the double header. Jair Jurrjens made his first start since coming off the DL (7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K) and George Sherrill and Scott Linebrink finished off the shutout by striking out 5 of the 6 batters they faced. Erik Hinske got the start at first in this one and went three for four.
Rays 4, Twins 3: Minnesota looked like they were in control of the game on the back of Scott Baker’s nice start (7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 6 K), but the Rays didn’t fold in the later innings. After scratching out a run in the 8th to cut the Twins’ lead to 3-2, Ben Zobrist led of the 9th inning by taking Joe Nathan deep to tie the game. Three walks with a pitching change in between later, and the stage was set for Johnny Damon to once again be the hero. His walk-off single makes it five straight games in which he’s knocked in the winning run for Tampa Bay.
Angels 7, White Sox 2: Perhaps Gavin Floyd was tired of the stories about the Sox bullpen too, so he decided to not even put them in the position of blowing a lead (6 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 2 HR). Solo home runs from Paul Konerko and Carlos Quentin were the totality of Chicago’s scoring, but Howie Kendrick and Hank Conger countered with longballs of their own for LA – and with men on base.
Astros 5, Padres 3: Mat Latos only allowed six baserunners in 6.1 IP (while K’ing 6), but 5 of them came around to score. Sometimes things just get strung together like that – it took walk-walk-single-walk-single (with a groundout in there) for Houston to break a 3-3 tie and push a couple runs across in the 7th inning.
Giants 5, Diamondbacks 3: Barry Zito had to leave the game in the second inning with a sprained foot (though not before giving up two runs and making an error),but Guillermo Mota picked him up with 4.1 innings out of the pen – the longest outing of his career – giving up just one run and striking out four. On the other side of the ball, the Giants pounded out 12 hits against Arizona starter Joe Saunders (plus one more versus a reliever) but scored only 5 runs despite a two-run homer from Buster Poesy.
Cubs 8, Rockies 3: This game went from close (3-1) to not close (8-1) when Felipe Paulino came out for the 7th and gave up 5 runs while only retiring one batter. Starlin Castro went 4-5 with a double and a homer for the Cubs, as they got back to .500. Even with the loss though, the Rockies still have the best record in the majors at 11-3.
A’s 6, Tigers 2: This one was more or less all Oakland, even though A’s pitchers walked more batters than they struck out (6 vs. 5). Detroit just had a tough time cashing in baserunners. In fact, one of the Tigers two runs scored on Daric Barton’s 5th error of the season. What’s going on there? His corner infield mate – the usually sure-handed Kevin Kouzmanoff – already has 4 errors as well.
Cardinals 9, Dodgers 2: Remember when I said the Reds led the NL in scoring at the time their game ended? That was because the Cardinals hadn’t played yet. The St. Louis offense started out the year sputtering, but they’ve been mashing lately. Lance Berkman didn’t even play in this one, but the right-fielder still produced; that would be Allen Craig, who went 3-4 with a home run. Doesn’t even matter who they put out there, I guess.
