Thursday's Peak Performers and Fabulous Flops
American League
Justin Morneau (right) drove reliever Brian Stokes' 9th inning offering over the wall in left field for a walk-off home run as the Twins won at home over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 3-2. It was Morneau's 3rd homer of the season and came with nobody on and no outs in the bottom frame. Last year's AL MVP, Morneau is off to a reasonably good start, batting .250 with 3 home runs and 9 RBI.
Plate Struggles in Kansas City: The Royals are off to another poor start, and most of the blame can be placed firmly on the middle of the batting order, which has failed to produce any kind of consistent offense. Through 10 games, the 3-7 Royals are averaging just 3.1 runs per game, and while they haven't been shut out yet, they've scored just 1 run in four games, the latest being last night's 12-inning 2-1 loss at Baltimore.
The prime suspects for the Royals' sluggish bats are the regular 3-4 hitters,
Mark Teahen (5-30, 1 HR, 3 RBI, .167) and
Mike Sweeney (4-24, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .167). Rookie third baseman
Alex Gordon (3-33, 1 HR, 2 RBI, .091) is doing a credible plate impersonation of reliever Tom Gordon thus far. He hasn't panned out, though the Royals are hoping for betting things. Seriously...
Cleveland leadoff man
Grady Sizemore is sizzling at the plate with a .364 batting average and 4 home runs in just 6 games. His latest - a solo shot in the 6th - helped the Indians to a 4-2 win over the Angels last night in Milwaukee, the unofficial home of the Indians while snow played havoc at Jacobs Field, and gave Cleveland a 2-1 edge in their series with the Angels. In addition to his homer, Sizemore was also aboard for
Travis Hafner's 3-run shot in the 8th, his 1st of the year. Sizemore has scored 9 times and stolen 3 bases thus far.
Sponsor:
Box scores, stats and more: MLB at Yahoo Sports
National League
Philadelphia's
Jimmy Rollins (right) touched up Mets' starter
Tom Glavine with a solo home run to lead off the game and a 2-run shot in the second inning, but it was all the offense the Phillies could produce as Glavine allowed only 2 other hits through 6 innings of work and the Mets won at Shea, 5-3.
Rollins, who said back in January that he considered the Phillies the "team to beat" in the NL East, has tried his best to back up those words. He's batting .278 with 5 home runs, but not getting much support from the rest of the lineup, especially last season's NL MVP,
Ryan Howard, who's hit just one dinger this season and is batting .212. The Phillies are 2-7.
The other headline for this game was the showdown of 40+ pitchers, Glavine and the Phillies' Jamie Moyers. Glavine got the bragging rights and the win and is now just 8 shy of 300 for his career. Last night's was his 50th win as a Met. He won 242 games with the Braves from 1987-2002, winning 20 or more in a season 5 times.
Maybe the Nationals just have to get out of RFK Stadium. They opened the season with a 9-game home stand and promptly lost 8 of those games, but turned things around last night in Atlanta as starter
Jason Bergman blanked the Braves on 1 hit over 6 innings en route to a 2-0 road win. Bergman did not figure in the decision, as 3 relievers finished up what he started.
Sponsor:
Baseball history comes alive at Baseball Almanac
No comments:
Post a Comment