Freddie Freeman, Ben Sheets Win 7th Straight for Brave; Yoenis Cespedes Drives A's to Sweep of Twins

Players of the Day for Sunday, July 15, 2012

American League

July is turning into a very good month for the Oakland A's.

After losing three in a row to the Rangers to end the month of June, the A's avoided the sweep in that four game series with a 3-1 win on July 1, and have won eight of their last nine since.

Yoenis Cespedes

The latest victory was Sunday's 9-4 win over the helpless Minnesota Twins and a sweep of that series, their second series sweep of the month after taking Boston three straight prior to the all star break.

Leading the charge was Yoenis Cespedes, the rookie center fielder and part time DH who's having a whale of a season. Cespedes went 4-for-5 with his 11th home run - a solo shot in the second inning - and drove in three runs, boosting his RBI total to 42. Cespedes, a .283 hitter, also cashed in runners with singles in the first and sixth innings.

The A's have kept winning while the Rangers and Angels have had their share of struggles and are now eight games behind the Rangers and just three behind the Angels.


National League

Ben Sheets

Freddie Freeman

As hot as the A's are in the American League, the Braves are equally on fire in the NL East, winning their seventh straight with a 6-1 win over the Mets, sweeping the series, three games to none.

Ben Sheets, in his first major league appearance since July 2010, blanked the Mets on two hits over six innings, walking one and striking out five. Sheets threw 57 of 88 pitches for strikes and took a seat after the Braves scored all of their runs in the fifth inning, highlighted by Freddie Freeman's three-run homer, his 12th of the season.

Sheets got the win and Freeman raised his RBI total to 54, the 10th highest total in the league.

Atlanta kept pace with the Nationals, who lead the Braves and the NL East by three games.