Nate Freiman Lifts A's to Sweep of Astros; Martin Prado Powers Daimondbacks over Padres, 6-5

Players of the Day for Sunday, May 26, 2013

American League

Oakland completed its three-game sweep of the Astros with a 6-2 win in Houston, creeping to within 4 1/2 games of NL West leader, Texas.

Nate Freiman

The A's scored five of their runs in the fourth inning, highlighted by rookie Nate Freiman's double, which sent two Oakland players across the plate.

In the sixth, Freiman added the finishing touch for the A's with his second major league home run, a 425-foot blast to center. Bartolo Colon surrendered nine hits over seven innings, but kept the Astros off the scoreboard, fanning nine. Houston's two runs in the eighth inning were of no consequence.

Winners of eight of their last nine, the A's picked up a game on the Rangers, 4-3 losers in 13 innings at Seattle.

Next stop for the A's is back to the Bay area, where they host the Giants for two games, Monday and Tuesday, before a pair of games across the Bay.

National League

Martin Prado

The NL West continues to be the most-hotly-contested division in baseball, with the Giants, Diamondbacks and Rockies all intent on grabbing an early edge, though none have been particularly successful at establishing themselves as the team to beat.

With San Francisco taking two of three from the Rockies with a 7-3 win and Arizona topping San Diego, 6-5, Sunday, the race is as undecided as ever.

At the end of the day, the Diamondbacks and Giants are deadlocked on top, with the Rockies a game out.

Arizona's win was one of six major league games decided by one run on Sunday, the decisive blow coming off the bat of Martin Prado, who doubled home Jason Kubel in the seventh, giving the D'Backs a 6-4 lead. The Padres countered with a run in the eighth, but that was all she wrote.

Prado finished the day 4-for-4 with two doubles and a pair of singles. He scored once and drove in one, boosting his batting average from .242 to .257. Prado terrorized San Diego pitching, going 8-for-12 in the series, which Arizona took, two games to one.

With interleague play beginning in earnest on Monday, the Diamondbacks play two at home with the Rangers and then head to Arlington, Texas, for a pair of games.

Today's Trivia: From 1992 to 2002, the NL Cy Young Award was hoarded by two pitchers, each of whom won the award four consecutive times. Can you name them?

Yesterday's Answer: White Sox hero, Frank Thomas, was the last AL player to win consecutive MVP awards, in 1993 and 1994.

JP Arencibia Leads Jays Rout of Mets; Justin Verlander Tosses 1-Hitter at Pirates; Martin Prado Helps Braves Retain NL East Edge

Players of the Day for Friday, May 18, 2012

American League

Verlander: 1-hitter

Arencibia: 2HR 6RBI

Friday kicked off a weekend of interleague games, some of which were outright mismatches, such as Toronto's 14-5 home victory over the Mets in which JP Arencibia cracked a pair of home runs and drove in a career high six RBI, going 3-for-5.

In Detroit, Justin Verlander held the Pirates hitless until one out in the eighth inning, when Josh Harrison broke up the no-hit bid with a single up the middle. Verlander finished with a one-hitter, striking out 12 and walking a pair in a 6-0 Tiger win. Verlander threw 76 of 109 pitches for strikes, improved to 5-1 and took over the AL strikeout lead with 68.

Martin Prado

National League

Atlanta's Martin Prado went 2-for-4 with a double and a home run, drove in one and scored three times as the Braves padded their NL East lead over Washington to 1 1/2 games with a 5-3 win at Tampa Bay. The Nationals lost a tight, 2-1, extra-inning contest to the Orioles in D.C. on Nick Markakis' solo homer with one out in the top of the 11th inning. The O's lead the AL East by two full games over the Rays.

Interleague play continues through the weekend, except for one NL series between St. Louis and the LA Dodgers due to the imbalance in the number of teams between the two leagues.

Hudson, Prado Lift Braves; Braden Shuts Out Rangers

Players of the Day for August 28, 2010 American League If the Oakland A's are going to run down the Texas Rangers in the AL West, they're probably going to need the kind of pitching provided by Dallas Braden in Saturday's 5-0 blanking of the division leaders. Braden, who tossed a perfect game against Tampa earlier in the year, evened his record at 9-9 with a powerful performance from the mound, throwing 86 of 120 pitches for strikes, allowing just four hits without walking a batter and striking out one. It was Braden's fifth complete game of the season and second shutout. The Rangers were never able to put more than one runner aboard in any inning and went down in order in five of the nine frames, From the 4th through 7th innings, Braden set down 13 straight potential hitters. The win evened the series at Texas at a game apiece. The two will settle their score on Sunday. With the win, Oakland moved back to 8 1/2 games behind, but time is slipping away. Texas hasn't played well of late, going 9-9 since August 10, but the Athletics have not taken advantage, going 8-9 over the same span. National League In the NL East, the race has boiled down to two teams, the Braves and the Phillies. After both teams notched wins on Saturday, it's still Atlanta in the driver's seat, two games to the good over Philly. Atlanta continues to get timely hitting and outstanding pitching. In beating the Marlins brains out, 14-3, Tim Hudson (left) did the hurling, while Martin Prado (right) did the hurting. Making his own case for Cy Young consideration, Hudson improved to 15-5 with seven powerful innings, silencing the Florida bats on six hits and a walk, fanning a season-high 13 batters. He allowed just one earned run. The Braves gave Hudson more support than he needed, scoring six times in the second inning, including a walk to Prado which forced in a run. Prado singled in two more in the 3rd and socked his 15th home run of the season in the 7th. Overall, Prodo went 2-for-5 with five RBI. The Phillies gutted out a 3-1 win in San Diego to keep pace.

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.