Domonic Brown Homers Again as Phillies Jack Marlins; Coco Crisp Leads Streaking A's, 10-2 over Brewers

Players of the Day for Monday, June 3, 2013

American League

Coco Crisp

For a while, it looked like the Texas Rangers might just run away and hide in the AL West. That was until the Oakland A's had other ideas and began keeping pace and then making up ground on the front-running Rangers.

Oakland won its fourth straight Monday - and 13th of their last 15 - battering the Milwaukee pitching staff for 19 hits in a 10-2 rout.

At the top of the A's order was Coco Crisp, who stroked his sixth home run, two singles and a double, scored twice and drove in a run as the A's pulled to within 1 1/2 games of idle Texas, leaving the rest of the division far behind. The Angels and Mariners are 11 games out, with Houston bumbling along at 21-37, 15 games behind with the worst record in the AL.

Crisp didn't get his season off to a blazing start, but he's been picking it up of late, batting .405 (15-for-37) over his last 10 games. The 4-for-5 effort pushed his batting average to an even .300.

The win was in the opener of a three-game set at Miller Stadium in Milwaukee. The A's and Brewers go at it again Tuesday night at 8:10 pm EDT.

National League

Domonic Brown

Whatever Domonic Brown has done to produce the numbers he's putting up, he should jest keep doing it.

Brown socked yet another homer Monday night - his ninth in his last 10 games - leading the Phillies to a 7-2 harpooning of the Marlins, keeping pace with Atlanta in the AL East. The Braves were, likewise, 7-2 winners, in their series opening home game with the Pirates.

Along with his two-run homer, Brown knocked out a pair of singles, going 3-for-4 on the night, extending his hitting streak to eight games with his fifth multi-hit game over his last six.

In the span of less than two weeks, Brown has gone from bit player to superstar for the Phillies, batting .447 (17-for-38) with nine homers and 17 RBI in his last ten games, a streak that has made him the league leader in home runs (17) and tied for fourth in RBI with 42.

The Phillies host the Marlins in game two of the series at Citizens Bank Park, Tuesday at 7:05 pm EDT.

Today's Trivia: What pitcher unleashed the most wild pitches in the NL in 2010 and then led the AL in WPs in 2012? (answer tomorrow)

Yesterday's Answer: Billy Hatcher batted .750 in the 1990 World Series, won by his Cincinnati Reds in four straight over Oakland. Hatcher was 9-for-12 but the MVP award went to pitcher Jose Rios, who won two games for the Reds.