Sunday, May 27, 2007

Overbay Heroic in Jays' 9-8 Win; Delgado's 5 RBI Lifts Mets

American League Lance Overbay hit a 2-run home run (7) and singled in the game winning run in the 13th to complete a 3-7, 4 RBI day in Toronto's 9-8 win at Minnesota. Seattle catcher Kenji Johjima banged a 4th inning grand slam and Richie Sexson has a 3-run shot in the 9th as the visiting Mariners pounded Kansas City, 9-1. Johjima, from Sasebo, Japan, in his 2nd full season, may be a real fantasy find, batting .324 with 7 homers and 22 RBI. He's had at least one RBI in each of his last 5 games. Last season, he quietly hit .291 over 140 games driving in 76 runs and smacking 18 homers. Mariners' center fielder, Ichiro Suzuki, extended his hitting streak to 19 games, currently the longest in the majors. C.C. Sabathia became the 4th AL pitcher to reach 7 wins, as visiting Cleveland stretched their lead in the AL Central to 1 1/2 over Detroit with a 6-3 win. Sabathia wasn't razor sharp, but good enough to go 7 innings, allowing 3 earned runs on 6 hits and a walk while fanning 6. The highlight of the game may have been Marcus Thames' 4th inning broken bat home run which cleared the wall in right center with ease. Why isn't this guy starting? Kelvim Escobar (6-2) won for the 5th time in his last 6 starts, occluding the Yankees in a 3-1 Angels win in NY.
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Escobar allowed just 6 hits and a walk over 7 innings, allowing 1 earned run while getting 8 Yankees on Ks, including Alex Rodriguez twice and leadoff hitter Bobby Abreu 3 times. He also stopped Derek Jeter's 19-game hitting streak, limiting the shortstop to an 0-4 effort. The West-leading Angels are 4 1/2 in front of Seattle, while the Yanks dropped to 11 1/2 behind Boston and tied for 3rd in the AL East. The Angels will look to complete the sweep of the Yankees on Sunday afternoon. Other AL Scores Tampa Bay @ Chicago White Sox, rained out Baltimore 8 Oakland 3 - B. Roberts, 3-4, 3 RBI, SB (17) Boston 7 Texas 4 - Red Sox, 7-3 last 10 gms. National League The NY Mets cemented their dominance in the NL East with a 7-3 win at Florida on Saturday, highlighted by a pair of home runs by Carlos Delgado (right) who smacked a two-run shot in the 3rd inning, followed by a 3-run blast in the 5th. The Mets' first baseman also singled and scored in the 2nd inning, giving him 3 hits in 5 at-bats. Delgado, who's been in a prolonged early-season slump, was moved down to 5th in the batting order and responded with his 4th and 5th homers. A perennial RBI leader, he now has 28 on the year. The Mets lead Atlanta by 3 1/2 games and surging Philly (8-3 in their last 11) by 6 1/2. The Phillies won at Atlanta, 6-4, to go over .500 for the first time this season (25-24). Antonio Alfonseca worked the ninth inning, allowing just one hit for his first save since 2002. San Diego's rookie starter, Justin Germano, tamed the Milwaukee Brewers over 6 innings, en route to a 4-2 home win for the Padres and Germano's 3rd win without a loss in 4 starts. Germano allowed only 5 hits without walking a batter, giving up 2 earned runs on solo home runs by Geoff Jenkins and Ryan Braun. Germano's stats are bordering on the ridiculous. Through 25 innings pitches, his ERA is 1.08 and WHIP is 0.76. Not a strikeout artist, Germano has only 9 Ks, but has only walked two. The Padres' win, coupled with LA's 4-2 loss to the Cubs, put those two into a tie for 1st place in the NL West at 28-21. Arizona is one game back (28-23). Aaron Cook hurled his first complete game of the season and 5th of his career, as the Colorado Rockies knocked off the Giants, 6-1, in San Francisco. Cook allowed just 5 hits and 4 walks, and kept Barry Bonds grounded, inducing groundouts to 1st, short, and twice to 2nd. Bonds has now gone homerless and without an RBI in his last 14 games. Saturday's 0-4 effort reduced his batting average to a pedestrian .265. Bonds had been at .329 on May 8, when he last homered. Other NL Scores St. Louis 8 Washington 6 Pittsburgh 9 Cincinnati 5 Arizona 5 Houston 4 - C. Lee, HR (10), 3 RBI (44) leads NL, J. Valverde, S (18) leads NL

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