Patterson Stays Hot as Jays win 3rd Straight; Kershaw Blanks Marlins

Players of the Day for Sunday, May 29, 2011

American League

There are hot streaks, and then there's Corey Patterson.

Corey Patterson

Following his five-hit game on Saturday, Patterson went out Sunday and made it a weekend to remember, going 4-for-5 with three RBI in Toronto's 13-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Patterson picked up where he left off, singling and scoring in the first inning, popping his 4th home run of the season - with one aboard - in the 4th, driving home another run in the 5th with a single and singling one more time in the 7th.

Over the past two games, Patterson has nine hits in 12 at-bats (.750) and has raised his batting average from a pedestrian .268 to all-star level .301. The Blue Jays, after dropping the opening game of their home series, took three straight from the Sox, and trail Boston in the AL East by three games, though they remain in fourth place. The Yankees are one game back of the Red Sox and the Rays 1 1/2 out.

National League

Most National League teams have been trying to figure out ways to cool off the Florida Marlins. The LA Dodgers seem to have at least part of the solution as they took the rubber game of their three-game series from the Marlins, by an 8-0 score, Sunday.

Clayton Kershaw

Rafael Furcal's first home run of the season - a two-run shot in the 3rd - was more than enough cushion for Clayton Kershaw, who went the distance, allowing just two hits while fanning 10 for his first shutout of the year.

In complete command, Kershaw struck out four of the first six batters he faced, gave up a leadoff single to Omar Infante in the 3rd and then allowed just a 4th inning walk and a 7th inning double the rest of the way.

While the Dodgers are 5 1/2 out in the NL West and six games under .500 (24-30), Kershaw is putting together a fine season. He's 6-3, with a 2.62 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP. He needed just 116 pitches to notch his second career shutout. His 87 strikeouts leads the NL, one better than the Phillies' pair of Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay, who each have 86 punch-outs.

Corey Patterson Stars for Blue Jays; Chris Iannetta Exacts Rockies Revenge

Players of the Day for Saturday, May 28, 2011

American League

As a guy with 212 steals and a lifetime batting average of .254, Corey Patterson has found himself batting in just about every slot - from leadoff to the bottom of the order - in his 11-year major league career. Now with his sixth different team, the speedy outfielder may have found the sweetest spot of all, batting second, right in front of Toronto's Jose Bautista, and on Saturday he made the most of it.

Corey Patterson

In Toronto's 9-8, 14-inning win over the White Sox, Bautista did his part, going 3-for-4 with three RBI and three runs, including his 20th home run of the season, a three-run, 1st inning blast.

Patterson was seeing the best pitches, however, going 5-for-7 and scoring four times. The first four hits off Patterson's bats were all singles; the last one came in the 14th, a leadoff, walk-off solo homer hit deep into the right field seats, giving the Blue Jays their second straight win over the still-struggling Sox.

With the win, the Blue Jays hung in the AL East race, 3 1/2 games behind Boston. The White Sox have much work to do in order to get back into contention in the Central, however. They are in 4th place, trailing Cleveland by 9 1/2 games.

Patterson, by the way, is having possibly his best years at the plate, batting .287 with 21 RBI and 25 runs.

National League

Chris Iannetta

After being pounded by the Cardinals, 10-3, on Friday, the Colorado Rockies were looking for a little payback on Saturday in the second of their three game series with St. Louis.

Thanks to catcher Chris Iannetta, they got plenty of it.

The five year veteran led an 18 hit attack with two homers as the Rockies buried the Cardinals, 15-4, but just two home runs doesn't tell Iannetta's entire story. He also had two singles, going 4-for-5 at the plate, driving in six runs.

His 1st inning single highlighted a six run uprising, bringing around two runs, and both homers were two run shots, his 6th in the 4th inning and his 7th of the season in the 8th, completing the Colorado scoring.

The Cards are probably not going to take it too hard as they still lead the NL Central by 2 1/2 games, though the Brewers did get one game closer by topping the Giants, 3-2. The Rockies are in third place, 3 back in the West, though Arizona has sliced San Francisco's lead to a mere 1/2 game. The Diamondbacks hammered Houston, 11-3.