Players of the Day for Saturday, September 19, 2009
American League
Is the race for the AL East pennant over? If
Mark Teixeira has anything to do with it, it is all but a done deal. In Saturday's
10-1 thumping of Seattle, Teixeira blasted his 36th and 37th home runs of the season, single and tripled in 5 at-bats, drove in 5 runs and scored twice while C.C. Sabathia was on the mound, grinding down the Mariners on 4 hits for his 18th win against 7 losses. Sabathia worked 7 innings and did not allow an earned run.
Tsixeira is two homers behind league-leader Tony Pena, who is out for the season, and his 118 RBI lead the AL. He has a solid lead over Evan Longoria (108) and Boston's Jason Bay (107).
The Yankees lowered their magic number to 9, but the Red Sox are still lurking, just 6 games back. With the wild card pretty much assured, Boston can play loose and take aim at their long-standing rival over the final two weeks of the season, and the schedule says they have a shot to catch New York.
After the Yanks close out their series in Seattle Sunday, they head to LA for three games with the Angels, who have a history of beating even the best Yankee teams. After that, the Yanks head back to the Bronx, for three game with Boston and then three with the Royals. They close out the season in Tampa for 3 games in October.
The Red Sox have it a little easier. Once they close out in Baltimore Sunday, it's 4 games in Kansas City, then the Yankee series, followed by a 7-game home stand: three against Toronto and four with Cleveland.
National League
The Dodgers took another step closer to the NL West title with a resounding
12-1 win over the Giants, as Rafael Belliard slugged a first-inning grand slam and
Jon Garland evened his record at 11-11 with 8 solid innings on the mound.
Garland was on his game, allowing just 7 hits while fanning 3. The Gaints' only run came in the first inning and was unearned.
The win kept the Dodgers 5 games ahead of Colorado in the division, dropping their magic number to 9. Once the Dodgers are done with the Giants - their series ends tonight in Chavez Ravine - it gets a lot easier for LA, with their next 9 games at Washington, Pittsburgh and San Diego before they finish up at home with Colorado for three games. The Dodgers hope that by the time October rolls around and the Rockies come to town, those games will have no meaning in the divisional race.
NOTES: The Rockies continue to press closer to the wild card spot, beating up on Arizona Saturday, with a 10-4 win. That win, coupled with the Giants' loss, has them 3 1/2 up in the wild card. The Rockies play their next nine games at home, hosting the Padres, Cards and Brewers.
In the AL, the Twins beat Detroit for the second straight game, winning 6-2, to pull to within 2 games of the division-leading Tigers. Michael Cuddyer's 3-run homer in the 8th provided insurance as Minnesota rallied for 5 runs in the inning. The Tigers and Twins finish their series at the Metrodome on Sunday
Maybe it's time to move Jim Thome a little higher up in the batting order, though considering how he's done recently, even batting in the #7 spot Tuesday night, just keeping him in the lineup - anywhere - is probably a good idea.
Thome mashed his 17th home run of the season - and 581st of his career (two behind Mark McGwire) - with a man aboard and no outs in the bottom of the 10th inning to provide the Twins with their fifth straight win, especially sweet because it was against AL Central rival Chicago.
Trailing 6-5 after the White Sox's Alexi Ramirez homered to tie the game in the 9th and put Chicago ahead with an RBI single in the 10th, Delmon Young singled to lead off the Twins' half of the inning. Thome followed with his rip to right, a two-run shot that put the Twins four games to the good over the White Sox and sent the partisan crowd home happy with the 7-6 extra-inning win.
One of the hottest hitters in either league right now, Thome has homered in four of his last six games, all wins for the Twins. Over that span he's 9-for-21 (.429), with 13 RBI. Tuesday night's 3-for-5 effort was good for 3 RBI, tying him with Goose Goslin at #30 on the career RBI list, with 1609. Thome singled twice before hitting the game-winner, his first inning hit bringing home Jason Kubel with the 4th run of the inning, though Minnesota was unable to hold their early lead.
The Twins and White Sox go at it twice more before parting company. The Sox need to win at least one of the remaining two games of the series or risk falling out of the race.
National League
With the rest of the division in one kind of funk or another, the San Diego Padres are threatening to run away with the NL West.
Jon Garland hurled seven inning of shutout ball at the Chicago Cubs Tuesday for the Padres' third straight win and eighth of the last nine, taking a commanding five game lead over second place San Francisco.
Mike Adams allowed a hit in the 8th for his 27th hold of the year and Heath Bell gave up a leadoff single in the 9th, but fanned two and got Blake DeWitt on a long fly that Ryan Ludwick caught in the right field ivy at the wall for his league-leading 36th save in the Padres' 1-0 win over the Cubs.
Garland allowed just four hits while walking three in his seven shutout innings, extending his scoreless streak to 17 innings. In his last start, he allowed the Pirates just one hit in six scoreless innings of a 3-0 San Diego win August 12.
Garland is 12-8 with a 3.25 ERA. His three strikeouts against the Cubs gave him 100 on the year, the first time he's reached that level since 2006.
