Matt Davidson, Miguel Gonzalez Boost White Sox; Eric Thames Continues Home Run Barrage For Brewers

Players of the Day for Monday, April 24, 2017

American League

Rookie slugger Davidson

Matt Davidson hasn't had many at-bats this season (38), but he's making people stand up and take notice.

In an eight-run sixth inning, Davidson had two hits and three RBI. The White Sox DH set a career high with three hits and tied his single-game best with four RBI. Davidson started the scoring in the big inning with an RBI double and ended it with a two run single. Earlier, he launched a solo shot in the second, his fourth home run of the season, to give Milwauke a short-lived 1-0 lead. He's batting a solid .368 with 14 RBI after yesterday's show.

The decisive inning in the White Sox's 12-1 rout of Kansas City was Chicago's highest-scoring inning in five years.

Gonzalez: 3-0

Starter Miguel Gonzalez had more than enough support to get to 3-0. He threw eight innings of two-hit ball, giving up a sole unearned run in the third, on a booted ground ball by third baseman, Todd Frazier.

Gonzalez was cruising, at one point setting down 12 straight Royal would-be hitters. He struck out five and issued one walk.

The Sox evened their record at 9-9 and are just a game behind AL Central co-leaders, Detroit and Cleveland. Chicago hosts the Royals for game two of their three-game series at 8:10 pm ET Tuesday night.

National League

Eric Thames is absolutely crushing it this season for the Brewers.

Thames: 10 HRs leads majors

Thames socked a pair of home runs, improving upon his major league lead in the dinger category. Thames has ten. Nobody else has more than seven. He's batting .373 and has 17 RBI since returning from a two year stint in Korea where he had 105 homers in the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Previously, the slugger played two seasons (2011, 2012) in the majors, with Toronto and Settle.

While the Brewers were piling up 10 runs over the first four innings, Thames was doing his part with a solo shot in the first and a two-run blast in the second as the Brewers went on to whip the Reds, 11-7, in the first game of their three-game set in Milwaukee.

The two squads will be back at it again Tuesday night for game two of the series. Game time is 8:40 pm ET.

Wei-Yin Chen No-Hits Seattle Over Seven; Miguel Gonzalez, White Sox End Yankee Streak At Eight

Players of the Day for Tuesday, April 18, 2017

American League

The streak is over.

Miguel Gonzalez

Miguel Gonzalez and the Chicago White Sox ended the longest winning streak in the majors this season - eight straight - with a decisive, 4-1 win over the New York Yankees at the Yankee stronghold in the Bronx.

Regarded as one of the best young teams in the majors, the "Baby Bombers" started the season 1-4 before embarking on the streak, which included three-game sweeps of visiting Tampa Bay and St. Louis. All bu the first win were at Yankee Stadium.

A six-year veteran, Gonzalez was just short of magnificent in earning his second win of the season for the 7-6 White Sox, taking a three-hit shutout into the ninth inning before surrendering a single to pinch-hitter Chase Headley and walking Brett Gardner to put runners on first and second with out out. He was lifted for reliever David Robertson, who walked in the only run scored by the Yankees before getting out of the jam, leaving the bases full of Yankees at the end. The run, however, was credited against Gonzalez, who has thrown only one complete game shutout in his major league career.

Gonzalez was a model of efficiency, throwing just 88 pitches, fanning four and issuing the lone walk in the ninth. Gonzalez has an ERA of 2.84 after 19 innings of work.

Chen: No hits over 7

The win tied the series at a game apiece, with the result leaving Chicago a game back of Detroit in the AL Central and the Yankees tied with Baltimore and Boston for first place in the East. The rubber game is set for a 7:05 pm ET start on Wednesday.

National League

Full of surprising starts by teams like Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Arizona and Colorado, the Miami Marlins are making waves of their own in the East division, holding onto second place, just 1/2 game behind Washington after they topped the Seattle Mariners, 5-0, Tuesday night.

Their 8-6 record was put on a high note by starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen, who not only blanked the Mariners for seven innings, but didn't allow a single hit before being lifted after throwing 100 pitches.

Chen set down every batter he faced with the exception of two walks he issued in the fourth and seventh innings, though neither base-runner proved a problem. He also plunked Nelson Cruz in the seventh, but managed to get the final two outs of the inning without further incident.

A pair of relievers came in to finish up for the Marlins. Kyle Barraclaugh surrendered the only Mariner hit of the game in the ninth. Chen got the win. He is 2-0.

The series is tied, 1-1, with the finale Wednesday at 12:40 pm PT in Seattle.

Orioles Extend Lead on Miguel Gonzalez Shutout; Adam LaRoche Drives in Five as Nationals Down Dodgers in 14 Innings

Players of the Day for Wednesday, September 3, 2014

American League

Gonzalez: 4H ShO

Wednesday night at Camden Yards, Baltimore reduced its magic number to clinch the AL East to 15 with a 6-0 win over the visiting Reds.

Miguel Gonzalez (8-7) tossed a four-hit, complete game shutout at the Reds, striking out eight while issues only one walk.

Gonzalez didn't allow a hit until Ryan Ludwick singled with one out in the fifth inning. In the eighth, Gonzalez worked out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam caused by an error and a pair of singles.

The win was the second straight by Baltimore over the Reds. The series concludes Thursday night at 7:05 pm EDT.

Elsewhere, Seattle inched to within 1/2 game of Detroit for the second wild card with a 2-1 win over the A's, who have seen their lead in the West division vanish and now may be in danger of losing the top wild card spot, haing lost two straight and seven of their last ten. They lead The Tigers by just three games now.

Cleveland and the Yankees are four games behind the Tigers, with Toronto 4 1/2 back.

National League

Adam LaRoche

Adam LaRoche, who didn't get off the bench until the ninth inning, had himself quite a game as the Washington Nationals topped the Dodgers, 8-5, in 14 innings, taking two of three in LA.

Pinch-hitting for Tyler Moore in the top of the ninth, LaRoche tied the game at 2-all with a two-run homer off reliever Kenley Jansen. Washington took a 3-2 lead later in the frame, but the Dodgers tied the game at three in the bottom of the ninth, when Andre Ethier scored on Jayson Werth's error.

In the 12th, LaRoche singled in two more runs only to see Carl Crawford re-tie the game at 5-all with a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning. Finally, over five hours into the game, LaRoche put the Nats up for good, grounding into a fielder's choice which sent Ian Desmond home from third. The Nationals added two more and set down the Dodgers in the bottom of the inning.

LaRoche has 20 homers and 75 RBI on the year.

The game lasted five hours and 34 minutes, both teams emptying their respective benches. Washington used 10 pitcher and 26 players in all; the Dodgers ran eight hurlers to the mound and used 25 players.

The result left Washington with a seven-game lead in the NL East and a magic number of 17. The Dodgers maintained their two-game edge over the Giants in the West.

St. Louis upped their lead in the Central to three games with a 1-0 win over Pittsburgh while the Brewers fell to the Cubs, 6-2, their eighth straight loss.

Nate McLouth, Miguel Gonzalez Lead Orioles; Homer Bailey Goes Six Scoreless for Reds

Players of the Day for Saturday, March 30, 2013

Grapefruit League

Miguel Gonzalez

Wrapping up exhibition season, the Orioles celebrated their Grapefruit League championship by pounding on the Mets in a 7-1, 1-hit victory.

Nate McLouth

Nate McLouth socked a pair of solo homers to supply more than needed runs for starter Miguel Gonzalez, who gave up the only hit by the Mets, a single by Marlon Byrd, who came around to score on Ruben Tejada's sacrifice fly.

Gonzalez worked the first five innings, fanning five while issuing just the one hit and one walk. Five Oriole relievers proceeded to the mound thereafter to finish off the Mets - and Spring training - in hitless fashion.

The Orioles finished up with a 19-9 record, 2 1/2 games better than the Tigers and Braves.

Bailey: 6IP, 1H, OER

Cactus League

Cincinnati didn't have a very successful exhibition season in terms of wins (13-20), but they managed to finish up in good style, with a 7-0 blanking of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Homer Bailey worked six innings for the victory, his second win with one loss, shutting out the D'Backs on one hit while striking out seven

Baily had a modestly successful 2012 with the Reds, going 13-10 in 33 starts. His 3.38 ERA spanned 208 innings. He is expected to have another solid season as the Reds try to win the NL Central again. They won it by nine games over the Cardinals in 2012.

Saturday marked the end of Spring Training for all major league clubs. On Sunday, the Rangers visit Houston to kick off the regular season as the Astros have defected from the NL Central to the AL West, so it's an AL opener.

The Astros haven't been competitive in the NL Central for the better part of two decades, so they were the likely team to be booted from the NL to even up the leagues at 15 teams each, with five teams in each division. Houston, with its record of fantastic failure in the NL, can now begin to set records for mediocrity in the AL West. We wish them luck.

More clubs will be in action on Monday, April 1, with 12 games on what is the official opening day.