Brandon Morrow Stops Mets with 3-Hit Shutout; Dodgers 6 Games Up as Clayton Kershaw Dazzles Cardinals

Players of the Day for Saturday, May 19, 2012

American League

Morrow: 3-Hit
Shutout

The race in the AL East continues to heat up, with a couple of unlikely teams - Baltimore and Toronto - and one solid contender, Tampa Bay chasing an elusive crown.

Baltimore won its fifth straight, downing Washington, 6-5, in interleague play on Saturday, while Tampa Bay kept pace, two games back, with a 5-2 victory over Atlanta.

Lurking just four games out are the Toronto Blue Jays, winners of their fourth straight as they rode the arm of Brandon Morrow for a 2-0 win over the Mets. Improving to 5-2, Morrow tossed a sensational, 3-hit masterpiece, striking out eight Mets' batters, at one point setting down 13 in a row.

Morrow didn't allow any runner past second base, walked one, and threw 76 of 107 pitches for strikes. The win was Morrow's third career complete game shutout and second of this season. On May 5, he blanked the Angels in LA on three hits.

The Blue Jays can complete the sweep with a win Sunday in Toronto.


National League

Kershaw has Dodgers
6 Games up after
6-0 victory

In the only non-interleague game of the day, Clayton Kershaw buzzed through the St. Louis lineup with a 6-hit, complete game shutout for a 6-0 Dodger win over the Cardinals. It was the third straight win for LA, and the third consecutive loss for the Cardinals, both teams atop their respective divisions, though the Dodgers hold the largest lead in the majors, six games to the good over San Francisco in the NL West.

The Dodgers scored two runs in the fourth inning and put the game away in the seventh with a four-run outburst. Kershaw improved to 4-1 with the outing and didn't walk a single batter. He's walked only 12 this season, in nine starts over 61 1/3 innings. Saturday's victory was Kershaw's seventh career complete game and fourth shutout.

The Dodgers will be looking for a sweep of the three-game series Sunday in Los Angeles when the two division leaders square off in the featured Sunday night game on ESPN at 8:00 pm EDT.