Prado Shining in Leadoff Spot; Pineiro Shuts Out A's as Angels Sweep

Players of the Day for Sunday, May 16, 2010 American League Here come the Angels, and there go the A's. After a rough start to the season, Joel Pineiro is getting his act together, and the Angels are loving it. Pineiro extended his scoreless streak to 18 innings, setting down the A's on 4 hits with a complete game 4-0 shutout. The win completed a 3-game sweep for the Angels, getting them to just 1/2 game back of the upstart - and fast-fading - Athletics. The A's have lost 5 straight and are 2 games behind AL West-leading Texas, looking over their shoulder at the onrushing Angels. Pineiro has been just short of brilliant over his last three starts, though this was the first win he's had in nearly a month. Sunday's outing was his best work of the season, needing just 98 pitches to get through the entire game, striking out 5 and giving up just one walk, which came in the 9th inning, the only frame in which he allowed more than one baserunner for the A's. His record improved to 3-4; the scoreless inning streak will likely continue when Pineiro next takes the mound at St. Louis this coming Friday as interleague play begins. The Cardinals let Pineiro go after posting a 15-12 record for them in 2009. National League As the month of April came to a close, the Atlanta Braves saw their season slipping away in an uncharacteristic 9-game losing streak. Outscored 44-17, the Braves were suffering from poor pitching and a lack of offense. Bobby Cox, in his final season managing the team, made a few minor adjustments and hoped for the best. One move was to push 2nd baseman Martin Prado up the lineup, from third to the second spot. That helped, and the Braves began winning again, to the tune of 10 of their last 15. The leadoff spot was still a problem, however, and this past Friday, Cox finally pulled the plug on Nate McLouth, who's batting average had sunk to .167. Prado moved into the leadoff spot and responded with a pair of hits, one a 9th inning, 2-RBI single that sent the Braves to a 6-5 win over Arizona. McLouth, delegated to the #8 spot, also responded with a 3-run homer. On Sunday, Prado is still adjusting to batting first in the order, but he seems to be getting the hang of it. In Atlanta's 13-1 pounding of the Diamondbacks, Prado led off with his 5th homer of the season, singled in the 3rd, led off the 6th inning with another solo shot, then finished the Atlanta scoring by singing home McLouth in the 8th. Prado's line for the day: 4-for-6, 2 homers, 3 RBI, 2 runs. He's batting .323, his 50 hits good for second in the NL, behind the Cubs' Marlon Byrd (51). Better yet, the Braves are winning again, now just one game under .500, at 18-19.

Pineiro Sharp in Win over Royals; Iwamura a Find for Pirates

Players of the Day for Monday, March 29, 2010 American League Joel Pineiro has the Royals' number. After throwing 6 2/3 innings of 2 hit ball against them in a 10-2 Angels win, Pineiro, has gone 11 2/3 innings against the Royals over his last two starts of the Spring and allowed exactly one earned run on 7 hits. At least the Angels know who to have in the rotation whenever they play Kansas City during the regular season. In Monday's final tune-up prior to the regular season, Pineiro had good enough stuff to allow just one run, walking two and striking out a pair. With John Lackey gone to Boston, Pineiro should be able to pick up most of the slack. Last season with the Cardinals, the Puerto Rican righty was 15-12, with a 3.49 ERA. National League The Pittsburgh Pirate may have gotten a good deal when they acquired Akinori Iwamura from the Rays for righty Jesse Chavez. In Monday's 13-1 beat-down of Houston, their new starting second baseman batted leadoff and delivered a homer, two singles, 3 RBI and 3 runs in 5 at-bats. Iwamura missed most of last season due to injury, but managed to get in 69 games for the Rays, batting a solid .290 with 28 runs, 22 RBI and 9 steals in 10 tries. The Pirates were in need of both a leadoff hitter and a second baseman, so Iwamura fit like a glove. He's hitting .282 so far in pre-season for the Bucs. MLB Preview: Pittsburgh Pirates Looks like another long season in Pittsburgh. As of Monday's exhibition games, the Pirates were a game behind the lowly Nationals in Florida's Grapefruit League, a position in which Pirate teams have found much comfort over the past few years. Pittsburgh has finished dead last in the NL Central each of the last three seasons and four out of the last five. Only in 2006 did they manage to finish second-last, when the Cubs managed to supplant them at the bottom. After 99 losses in 2009, the Pirates can only look up heading into the new season, but there's not much upside to this lineup of cast-aways and no-names. The most recognizable names are probably shortstop Bobby Crosby or 3rd baseman Andy LaRoche, neither of whom hit better than .260 (Crosby was a .223 hitter), hit many homers or drove in many runs. This is a team that thrives on mediocrity. The biggest thrill for Pirates fans are the stars from visiting teams. With starters such as Paul Maholm, Zach Duke and Ross Ohlendorf - who combined for 30 wins and 35 losses, there aren't too many reasons to believe the Pirates will win with pitching and defense, and even less chance that they'll clobber people with their hitting. Regardless of what the future book has them down as (250-1), they have about as good a chance of winning the World Series as Cloris Leatchman winning a beauty pageant. Slim to none. By early May at the latest they will be in their comfort spot, looking up at the rest of the division.

BoSox, Bay Blast Nats; Pineiro Grounds Out Mets

Players of the Day for Tuesday, June 23, 2009 American League The Boston Red Sox expanded their AL East lead to five games, knocking off the Nationals, 11-3, while the Yankees lost at Atlanta. Already the league leader in RBI entering Tuesday's games, Jason Bay added to his total by driving in three runs with a solo homer in the second inning and plating two more with a single in the 8th. Bay singled twice more in the game, going 4-for-6 and also scored three runs. He's now established a comfortable lead in the RBI category with 69, 8 better than Tampa's Evan Longoria. In the home run department, Bay's 19 dingers put him in third place behind Carlos Pena (22) and NY's Mark Teixeira (20). National League With a 1.13 WHIP and an ERA of 3.40, one would expect Joel Pineiro's record to be better than 6-8, but that's what it is after Pineiro induced 22 ground outs with his exceptional sinker, leading the Cardinals to a 3-0 victory over the Mets. Pineiro was in complete control throughout, allowing just 2 hits and one walk overall while fanning just one for the complete game shutout, the 5th shutout and 12th complete game of his career. He allowed just one hit over the first eight innings, a harmless single by Luis Castillo in the third inning. Castillo also walked to open the sixth, though he was caught stealing for the first out of the inning. Pineiro threw an even 100 pitches (62 strikes) to snap a string of five straight losses. Over that span, Pineiro didn't pitch all that poorly, never allowing more than 4 earned runs in any outing, but the Cardinals didn't exactly support him, scoring a total of 12 runs in the five losses.

Pineiro 3-Hits Cubs; Wakefield Rebounds for Red Sox

Players of the Day for Tuesday, May 19, 2009 American League Following a rough outing against the Angels, in which he was touched up for 7 runs on 11 hits in 4 2/3 innings, Boston's 42-year-old Tim Wakefield rebounded with his best performance of the season in a key game against the AL East leading Toronto Blue Jays. Wakefield, getting the start in the opener of the three-game set at Fenway, went 8 solid innings, allowing just one earned run - Kevin Millar's 5th inning homer - on 5 hits and two walks. The Boston bats produced just enough runs to down the Jays 2-1 and close to within 2 1/2 games of the division lead. Jonathan Papelbon pitched a perfect ninth to record his 11th save. Wakefield improved to 5-2. National League The St. Louis Cardinals have cooled off after a torrid start, but are still in the thick of the NL Central race. By topping the Cubs, 3-0, on Tuesday, St. Louis pulled into a 2nd place tie with Chicago, 3 games back of Milwaukee. With the Cardinals' bats slumbering, Joel Pineiro went the distance, shutting out the Cubs on 3 hits, allowing no walks and striking out 5. Pineiro, who was expected to solidify the Cardinals' rotation last season, but finished with a 7-7 record, got his fifth win of the season against just two losses. It was Pineiro's 10th complete game and 4th shutout of his 10 year major league career. NOTES: The Yankees and Brewers are each riding 7-game winning streaks. New York has clawed to within 3 1/2 games of the lead in the AL East, but still trail Boston by a game and Toronto. The Brewers have vaulted to the top of the NL Central with their good fortune, establishing a 3-game lead over both St. Louis and Chicago. The Yankees' Alex Rodriguez homered for the 4th straight game. His bat has been instrumental in getting New York back to winning ways.