Alex Avila Lifts Tigers over Yankees; Jordan Shafer Helps Twins Down Royals in 10; Yusmeiro Petit Sets MLB Mark in Win over Rockies

Players of the Day for Thursday, August 28, 2014

American League

Alex Avila

Tightening the race in the Central division, Alex Avila delivered a walk-off, game-winner for the Tigers, banging one off the wall in right center with two down and two aboard in the bottom of the ninth for a 3-2 Detroit win over the visiting Yankees in an afternoon contest.

Jordan Schafer

Avila, who had just the one hit in three at-bats, did drive in the Tigers' first run, with a second-inning sac fly, scoring Nick Castellanos from third base. The Tigers took two of three from the Yankees on their final visit of the season to Motown.

In the evening, Minnesota scored six runs in the 10th inning to upend the Royals, 11-5, leaving Kansas City just 1 1/2 games up on the Tigers. Left fielder, Jordan Schafer, who spent the first half of the season in Atlanta, playing part-time for the Braves, went 3-for-5 and drove in four runs, including two in the extra inning. He also came around to score in the 10th on Brian Dozier's double.

Riding an eight-game hitting streak, Schafer is blooming with more playing time for the Twins, batting .328 with the Twins while going 12-for-27 (.444) during his hit streak.

Minnesota, in last place in the AL Central, avoided being swept at home with the win. The Royals close out August with three home games with Cleveland, beginning Friday, while the Tigers travel to Chicago for four games with the White Sox, including a double-header on Saturday.

National League

Petit: 46 Straight

Setting a major league record by retiring 46 straight batters, Yusmeiro Petit went six innings, striking out nine, as the Giants took their third straight over the faded Rockies, 4-1.

Petit retired the first eight batters he faced, before allowing a double to the opposing pitcher, Jordan Lyles. The Rockies scored their only run of the game when the next batter, Charlie Blackmon, singled home Lyles from second.

The record (previously set by Mark Buehrle in 2009) out of the way, Petit got back to business, allowing allowing just two more hits while keeping the Rockies off the scoreboard.

Petit's record run covered eight games, six of which were in relief.

The Giants gained a half game on the idle Dodgers in the West, and now trail LA by 4 1/2 games. San Francisco gained to within 1/2 game of the Cardinals in the wild card, and have a 1 1/2 game edge over the Braves for the second spot. Atlanta defeated the Mets, 4-1, Thursday.

On Friday, the Giants open a crucial series with central division-leading Milwaukee, hosting the Brewers for three games at AT&T Park.

Alex Avila Homers Twice, Drives Detroit to 3-2 Win over Royals; Wilson Ramos Goes 4-for-5 as Nationals Stay Hot

Players of the Day for Sunday, September 15, 2013

American League

Normally, the Detroit Tigers rely on Miguel Cabrera or Prince Fielder to drive in their runs, but in Sunday's 3-2 win over the Royals, it was catcher, Alex Avila's turn to be hero for a day in Detroit.

Alex Avila

Avila drove in all three of Detroit's runs with a pair of homers - his 10th and 11th of the season - the first, a second-inning bomb of Royals' ace Jeremy Guthrie, staking starter Max Scherzer to a 2-0 lead, the second, an eighth inning solo shot, came in the bottom half of the inning after the Royals had tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the frame.

Both the Royals second run and Detroit's third came after Scherzer had finished his work on the mound, giving up just one run on five hits over seven innings, so he failed again - thanks to the run allowed by reliever Drew Smyly in the eighth - to earn win #20 on the season. Scherzer struck out 13 and walked one batter, but his pitch count of 116 prompted manager Jim Leyland to pull the starter after seven full. Scherzer, the major league leader in wins, has been stuck on 19 his last four starts.

The win kept Detroit's lead in the AL Central at five games over the Indians. The Royals are eight back in the division and 3 1/2 out in the wild card race.

Detroit opens a four-game series at home against the Mariners on Monday. Scherzer will likely get another crack at winning his 20th when the Tigers host the White Sox on Friday, opening a three-game series.

Wild Card Update: The A's completed their sweep of the Rangers, winning, 5-1, sending texas to their sixth straight loss. Tampa Bay also took it on the chin, 6-4, to remain tied with the Rangers for the two playoff spots. Baltimore and Cleveland both won, while Boston took care of the Yankees, sweeping them three straight, 9-2.

AL Wild Card Standings (through 9/15)

Team	GB
Texas	--
Tampa Bay	--
Cleveland	-1/2
Baltimore	-2 1/2
NY Yankees	-3
Kansas City	-3 1/2

National League

Wilson Ramos

Wilson Ramos went 4-for-5 and drove in five runs, leading the Washington nations to their eighth win in their last nine, an 11-2 trouncing of the Phillies, a day after the Phillies had broken Washington's seven-game winning streak.

Ramos had three singles and a sixth inning solo homer as the Nationals crept closer to Cincinnati, clinging to the second wild card spot by 4 1/2 games. The Reds dropped a 6-5 decision in Milwaukee and remain 3 1/2 behind St. Louis and Pittsburgh in the NL Central. As it stands now, either the Cardinals or Pirates will take the first wild card spot, and, until recently, the Reds seemed to have the second slot sewn up, but the Nationals refuse to die.

Cincinnati and Washington don't play each other, but it could get dicey. With 12 games left, the Reds play their next six on the road - three at Houston and three at Pittsburgh. Then, they host the Mets for three and finish at home with three more against the Pirates. While the Red play the Mets, September 23-25, the Nationals will be at St. Louis before closing out the regular season at Arizona.

In Sunday's win, Nats' starter, Jordan Zimmermann improved to 18-8, leading the NL in wins. Zimmermann allowed two runs on seven hits over seven inning, striking out seven, with a pair of walks. No other NL pitcher has more than 16 wins.

Washington opens a three-game home series with NL East leading Atlanta on Monday.

Today's Trivia: Between Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb and Jimmie Foxx, which player had the highest career on-base percentage? (answer tomorrow)

Yesterday's Answer: Ted Williams is the career leader in on-base percentage, at .4817. Babe Ruth is second, .4739.

Tigers Sweep White Sox with 18-2 win; Marcum, Braun Lead Brewers Past Houston

Players of the Day for Sunday, September 4, 2011

American League

Miguel Cabrera

There were some big scores put up by some of the leading teams in the American League on Sunday - like Cleveland's 9-6 win at Kansas City, the Yankees' 9-3 win over Toronto, and the 11-4 beating Texas put on Boston - but none were more impressive than Detroit's 24-hit, 18-2 slaughter of the Chicago White Sox.

Alex Avila

While Matt Scherzer was picking up his 14th win against eight losses, allowing five hits and no walks while striking out six over seven innings, the Tigers were galloping around the bases, scoring multiple runs in four different innings. The big bats belonged to Miguel Cabrera, Alex Avila and rookie Andy Dirks, who only came on as a pinch-hitter in the 6th inning, smacking a two-run single, and later socked a two-run bomb in the 8th inning, going 2--for-2 with a home run and four RBI.

Cabrera went 2-for-4, with a 4th inning double that plated two runs and a 6th inning homer with Dirks aboard. The home run was Cabrera's 26th of the season. He had four RBI to up his total to 92.

Andy Dirks

Avila, who caught the whole game, was 4-for-6, with a pair of ribbies and two runs.

The Tigers swept the weekend series from the White Sox, winning the first two games, 8-1 and 9-8, sending Chicago back down to third place in the AL Central, 8 1/2 games back, while increasing their lead over second-place Cleveland to 6 1/2 games.

Milestones: Toronto's Jose Bautista hit his 40th home run of the season to lead the majors. Adrian Beltre collected his 2000th hit in the Rangers' win over Boston.

Ryan Braun

National League

It was a little different story over in the NL, where Shaun Marcum walked one and allowed just one hit over seven innings as the Brewers continued to demolish the competition with a 4-0 win over Houston.

Shaun Marcum

Marcum (12-5) struck out eight and had a no-hitter spoiled by Houston center fielder Jordan Schafer, who singled with one out in the 6th inning.

Ryan Braun provided the bulk of the offense with a solo homer in the 1st, a bases-loaded walk in the 4th and a run-scoring single in the 7th inning. He went 3-for-3 with three RBI. Braun is having an MVP-like year, batting .325 with 26 home runs and 94 RBI.

The win dropped Milwaukee's magic number for clinching the division to 13. They have a 9 1/2-game lead on St. Louis.

Avila Has 5 RBI to Pace Tigers over Baltimore; Posey Leads Giants Past Padres

Players of the Day for Wednesday, April 6, 2011

American League

Alex Avila

Suffering their first defeat of the season in a 7-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers, the Orioles find themselves tied for first place in the AL East with Toronto, thanks mostly to the #8 hitter in the Tiger lineup, catcher Alex Avila.

A native of Hialeah, Florida, Avila put on his own version of bird-killing, smacking a two-run double in the second inning, a two-run homer in the 4th, and capping off the night with a run-scoring single in the 8th.

With the exception of Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez's back-to-back jacks in the 5th inning, Avila accounted for all of Detroit's runs on a breakout night with 3 hits in four at-bats and five RBI.

With the AL East upside down, further notice that baseball is only one week into the current season was provided by the Central division, where Kansas City leads Cleveland and Chicago by 1/2 game. Meanwhile, Texas is off to a 6-0 start in the West.

National League

Buster Posey

Buster Posey is proving that his NL Rookie of the Year award was no fluke even though the San Francisco Giants haven't exactly looked like defending world champions.

San Francisco got its second win of the season against four losses, leaving the Giants in last place in the NL West as they topped the Padres by an 8-4 score.

Posey knocked his first homer of the season off San Diego starter, Tim Stauffer, in the opening inning, driving in Aubrey Huff from second. Huff had doubled after Freddy Sanchez's one-out triple got Stauffer into immediate trouble.

Working with a lead, the Giants put the game away with a 4-run sixth inning. Posey singled in a pair of runs, giving him 4 RBI on the night. He added anothre single to go 3-for-5, raising his batting average to .320.