Three Mike Lowell Doubles Ignite Red Sox; Ubaldo Jimenez Notches 6th Win for Rockies

Players of the Day for Monday, May 3, 2010 American League Doubles are nice. Players love hitting them almost as much as home runs. Stroking a double into either of the outfield gaps or down the lines is a nice feeling. Doing it three times in a game usually translates into being named Player of the Day, and that's just what the Red Sox's Mike Lowell did on Monday as Boston clobbered the Angels, 17-8. Lowell went 4-for-4 with a walk, so reached base safely in all 5 plate appearances. His barrage began with a single in the second 2nd inning, though he was forced out at second on a fielder's choice. He came up again in the third, this time with two aboard, whom he plated with a drive deep to center field for his first double and 2 RBI. After taking a walk in the 4th inning, Lowell smacked his second and third two-baggers in the 6th and 7th, driving in a run and scoring each time. By the time he crossed the plate in the 7th, the Red Sox were well on their way to the 20-hit, 17-run outburst. Lowell drove in four runs and scored twice, as his teammates added four homers and four doubles of their own. Lowell has only played in 13 games this season, though he's likely to begin seeing more playing time as Boston desperately needs an RBI bat like his. He has 12 hits in 40 at-bats (.300) and 8 RBI. National League San Diego still leads the NL West, though their lead is a slim one game over the Giants. Three back are the Colorado Rockies, at 13-13, thanks largely to Ubaldo Jimenez, who has accounted for nearly half their wins, getting his 6th without a loss in Colorado's 5-2 win over the first-place Padres. Jimenez threw 120 pitches over 7 complete innings to nail down the win, allowing one earned run on four hits and 2 walks while striking out a season-high 13 batters. The baker's dozen of Ks earned him the top spot in the NL strikeout race. Jimenez leapfrogged past 11 other hurlers, including Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay, Chris Carpenter, Dan Haren, Josh Johnson (42), Tim Lincecum (43), to top them all with 44. Jimenez also leads the league in wins (6) and is tops among NL starters with a ridiculous 0.87 ERA, qualifying him for the early-season pitching triple crown.

Escobar Powers Braves past Reds; Lowell's Late-Inning Heroics Lift Red Sox

Apologies for the delay in today's post. There was a major outage in Time Warner's system, and I did not have access much of the day. Players of the Day for Saturday, April 25, 2009 American League The game took 4 hours and 21 minutes to play. There were 28 hits and 27 runs scored off of 12 pitchers. When it was all over, the Red Sox had outslugged the Yankees, 16-11, and were one game away from a three-game sweep of their arch-rivals. Striking the key blows for Boston was Mike Lowell, who turned a 10-9, 7th-inning Yankee advantage into a 12-10 Boston lead with a three run homer just inside the foul pole and over the Green Monster in left field. An inning later, Lowell again delivered, this time with a bases-loaded double, plating three more runs. In five at-bats, those were Lowell's only two hits, but they were good for 6 RBI, giving him 22 and the AL lead, by one, over Tampa's Carlos Pena. National League Atlanta shortstop Yunel Escobar singled, doubled and homered in four at-bats, driving in four runs and scoring three times as the Braves dealt the Reds their second straight home loss, by a 10-2 score. In his third year with the Braves, Escobar is looking to have a breakout season, after hitting 10 homer and driving in 60 runs in 2008. Batting second in the order may not give him too many RBI opportunities, but the Braves are also counting on him to improve on the 71 runs he scored in 136 games last year.

Boston's Lowell, Drew, are Grand; Miller Blanks AZ as Marlins Sweep

Players of the Day from Thursday, May 22, 2008 American League Mike Lowell (left) and J. D. Drew (right) each hit grand slam homers as Boston won their 7th straight, an 11-8 Fenway slug-fest over the KC Royals. Drew hit his slam in the second inning and also singled and scored in the sixth, before the bases got loaded and Lowell delivered his bomb. Lowell also singled and doubled and scored three times on the night. While the Boston efforts were spectacular, they barely outshone those of the Royals' Jose Guillen (4-5, double, homer, 3 runs, 3 RBI) and Miguel Olivo (3-5, 2 doubles, homer, 1 run, 5 RBI). Going unnoticed with all the balls leaving the yard was Daisuke Matsuzaka winning his 8th game without a loss. Despite pitching poorly (5 2/3, 6 hits, 6 BB, 3 ER 7 K), Dice-K now stands alone as the AL's only 8-game winner. Notes: While the Sox have opened up a healthy 2 1/2 game lead over the Rays in the East with seven straight wins, the White Sox have won 8 straight and pulled 3 1/2 ahead of the Twins and 4 1/2 beyond the Indians, who have lost six straight, in the Central. The Angels lead Oakland by 2 1/2 in the West. National League Andrew Miller worked 7 scoreless innings, allowing just 5 hits and a walk while striking out nine, as the Florida Marlins downed Arizona, 4-0, completing a three-game series sweep of the NL West leaders.

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Miller, 4-3, got his work in, throwing 107 pitches, before retiring at the end of the 7th. In his last four starts (in which he's recorded 3 wins), Miller has lowered his ERA from 9.12 to a nearly-respectible 5.33 and has helped keep the Marlins in first place. Notes: Though the Marlins scored just 10 runs in their series sweep of the Diamondbacks, Florida pitchers gave up just 3 runs, keeping them 1 1/2 ahead of the charging Braves (5 straight Ws) and Phillies (3 straight). Meanwhile, the Dodgers, idle on Thursday, have climbed to within 2 1/2 games of Arizona in the West.

Soriano's 5-for-5 Falls Short; Lowell Gets Sox Started

Players of the Day from Saturday, May 17, 2008 American League With Tampa Bay losing to St. Louis, 9-8, Boston had a chance to tie for first place in the AL East with a sweep of their double header with Milwaukee. After winning game one, 5-3, Mike Lowell got the Red Sox off early in game two, doubling in a pair in the first inning and cracking a two-run homer in the 3rd en route to a 7-6 win over the Brewers, who have now lost four straight. The Sox are percentage points behind the Rays in the standings, but the two teams are deadlocked in first with the Rays at 25-18 and the Sox at 26-19. Notes: The White Sox took a 1/2-game lead over the Indians in the AL Central with a 3-1 win at San Fran, joining the Cubs as same-state division leaders. With Florida and Tampa Bay tops in their respective divisions, if either the Dodgers or Giants catch Arizona, then California would own first place in both Western divisions. National League Despite losing, 7-6, to the Pirates on Saturday, the Chicago Cubs remain in first place in the NL Central. Even with the loss, the Cubs have won seven of their last nine and lead St. Louis by 2 games. And they didn't go down easily on Saturday. If Alfonso Soriano had gotten a little more help from his teammates - or maybe another at-bat - Chicago might have come away with the W. Soriano went 5-for-5, with a double and two solo homers, scoring three times and driving in three.

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It was the second straight game with two homers for Soriano and his 6th and 7th in his last six games. Prior to his 5-hit performance on Saturday, he had two hits in each of his last five games, and has raised his batting average from .223 to .295. His slugging percentage increased from .372 to .598. Soriano, who missed the last half of April due to injury, has returned with a vengeance, hitting safely in every game he's started since May 2 - 13 straight. Notes: Lance Berman continues to amaze, hitting his major league-leading 16th home run in Houston's 6-2 loss at Texas last night.

That's a Wrap: Red Sox Sweep Series

Boston 4 Colorado 3 - The Boston Red Sox completed their second World Series sweep in 4 years, topping the Colorado Rockies, 4 games to none, to capture the 2007 Championship. Boston, in their last trip to the World Series in 2004, bested the St. Louis Cardinals by the same margin. Outside of Boston, the remainder of the baseball universe hopes sweeping the fall classic doesn't become a habit. Sunday night's affair went along the same lines as the previous three games, with Colorado failing to generate any offense against Boston's starter, Jon Lester, who cruised through 5 2/3 innings without allowing a Colorado run. Lester (right) allowed three hits, walked three and struck out three in a commanding performance, similar to the other three Boston starters, Josh Beckett, Curt Schilling and Daisuke Matsuzaka, each of whom worked into at least the 6th inning and earned a win. By the time Lester left the game, the Red Sox had established a 2-0 lead, and expanded it to 3-0 on Mike Lowell's solo homer in the 7th. Lowell, who batted .375 over the course of the four games, was named MVP of the series. Colorado got one back in the bottom of the 7th on Brad Hawpe's solo shot to right, but Bobby Kielty homered in Boston's half of the 8th to make it 4-1.

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Mike Timlin got the last out in the seventh and the first out in the bottom of the 8th inning, but after Garrett Atkins tightened the score to 4-3 with a 2-run blast off Hideki Okajima, closer Jonathan Papelbon came on to get the final five outs and clinch the sweep and send the title back to Boston. Papelbon was magnificent in his closer role, earning saves in games 2, 3, and 4, while allowing no earned runs and only 2 hits and no walks, while fanning 3 in 4 1/3 innings overall. Though the Rockies didn't win a game, they came close in games 2 and 4, losing both of them by a single run, but Boston's starters were much better and their bullpen a lot more effective than Colorado's. In the hitting department it was no contest. Boston batted a cumulative 47-141 (.333) in the four games, while the Rockies managed only 29 hits in 133 at-bats for a disappointing .218 batting average. Colorado led the National League with a .280 team batting average during the regular season. Boston's starters were the story, however, allowing just 4 earned runs in 23 1/3 innings for a combined ERA of 1.55 in their four starts. Series MVP Lowell (right), was the ultimate hitting star in the middle of Boston's potent lineup going 6-for-16 with 3 doubles, a home run, 4 RBI and 6 runs scored. He was the only player from either squad to score at least one run in each game. Boston has now won 8 straight World Series games and finished 2007 by winning seven straight through the playoffs and series. Their post-season record for 2007 was 11-3, having swept the Angels in the ALDS and taking 4 of 7 from the Indians in the ALCS. Boston outscored Colorado 29-10. In the AL Championship Series they scored 51 runs to Cleveland's 32, and outscored the Angels 19-4 in the ALDS, for a cumulative post-season score of 94-46. Spring training begins in just over four months.

Griffey, Dunn lead Reds to 5th straight; Lowell propels Red Sox

American League Boston 14 Chi White Sox 2 - The Red Sox are on cruise control and Mike Lowell (right) is one of the big reasons why. Lowell connected for 4 singles in 6 at-bats, drove in two runs and scored a pair, as Boston hammered the White Sox for the third straight day. Boston took both ends of a double-header - 11-3 and 10-1 on Friday prior to Saturday's drubbing. Lowell leads the team in hits, with 150, and RBI, with 92. His .324 batting average is just .001 shy of David Ortiz' team lead. Lowell's hitting backed Tim Wakefield's 7 shutout innings as the knuckler joined teammate Josh Beckett the majors' only 16-game winners. NY Yankees 7 Detroit 2 - The Yankees remained 6 1/2 behind the Red Sox as Chien-Ming Wang (15-6) kept the Tigers in check for his 15th win. Wang allowed one earned run on five hits over 8 innings of work. Johnny Damon tripled and homered to spark the offense. The Yanks picked up a game on wild card leader Seattle and now trail the Mariners by 2 games. Cleveland 9 Kansas City 4 - Detroit's pain was Cleveland's gain. The Indian's improved their AL Central lead to 2 1/2 games over the Tigers with a drubbing of the Royals. The Indians banged out 17 hits - 9 for extra bases - with 7 of the 9 regulars getting at least 2 knocks. Victor Martinez had two doubles and his 19th home run from 5 at-bats, drove in 2 runs and scored 3 times. Minnesota 8 Baltimore 1 - Almost without notice, the Twins have snuck back into the AL Central fray with their 4th straight win. Torii Hunter smacked a 3 run homer in the 6th inning and drove in another with a double in the 8th. Hunter has 90 RBI on the season. The Twins trail the Indians by 5 1/2. Other AL Scores Oakland 3 Tampa Bay 14 Seattle 3 Texas 5 = Mariners still 1 game back of Angels in AL West Toronto 9 LA Angels 2 National League LA Dodgers 3 NY Mets 4 - The Mets extended their dominance in the NL East as both the Phillies and Braves were losing Saturday. New York has opened a 7-game lead on both as they squeaked by the Dodgers to take the second straight in the 3-game series. Tonight's finale is ESPN's featured game. Atlanta 4 St. Louis 5 - The Cardinals refuse to die, picking up a game on both the Cubs and Brewers in the NL Central race. The Cards ended up just 3 games behind Chicago as they scored all of their runs in the 6th inning, batting around on loser Tim Hudson (15-6). The Cardinal bullpen worked the final five innings, with Jason Isringhausen fanning two in the ninth for his 26th save. Chi Cubs 1 Arizona 3 - The D-Backs kept their slim 2-game lead over San Diego intact with more solid starting pitching, this time from Doug Davis (11-11), who scattered 6 hits over 7 innings while striking out 8. Jose Valverde picked up his 39th save, tops in the majors. San Diego 4 Philadelphia 3 - The Padres kept pace in the West with four homers accounting for all of their runs, and now lead the wild card standings by four games over the Phillies and Braves. Mike Cameron, Milton Bradley and Kevin Kouzmanoff all had solo shots, and pinch hitter Terrmel Sledge's solo slug to center provided the winning margin in the ninth. The Philadelphia bullpen, overworked and under pressure, gave up a lead again, sending the Phillies to their 4th straight loss. The Padres have won 4 straight. Florida 7 Cincinnati 11 - Adam Dunn (left) hit his 36th home run and Ken Griffey Jr. (right) knocked career #591 as the Reds slugged their way to their 5th straight win and are just 7 1/2 games out in the Central division. Over the five game span, the Reds have scored 35 runs, but their average margin of victory is just 2.2 runs per game. A little pitching could put the Reds right in the thick of things. Other NL Scores Pittsburgh 4 Houston 1 Washington 1 Colorado 5 Milwaukee 2 San Francisco 6 - Brewers, 3 straight losses

Lowell's Big Night; Maine Halts Mets' Skid

American League Cleveland 3 Detroit 12 - The Tigers teed off on C.C. Sabathia to the tune of 7 earned runs on 0 hits over 4 innings, closing the gap on the 1st-place Indians to a single game. Carlos Guillen, Gary Sheffield and Placido Polanco all homered off Sabathia, with Guillen driving in 4 runs and Sheffield three. Justin Verlander (10-3) took the win for the Tigers. Tampa Bay 4 Boston 15 - Boston completed its sweep of the Devil Rays, sending them to their 11th straight loss, the longest losing streak in the majors this season. The Sox were relentless, scoring 13 runs in the first 3 innings and banging out 21 hits for the whole game. Mike Lowell (right) was especially effective, whacking a home run and four singles in 6 at-bats, driving in 5 while scoring 3 times. Coco Crisp hit a grand slam in the 1st. Josh Beckett picked up his 12th win against just 2 losses in his final start before the All-Star game. Baltimore 6 Chi White Sox 11 - Tadahito Iguchi nearly hit for the cycle, with a double, triple and home run in 4 at-bats. Iguchi drove in 3 and scored 3 times. Other AL Scores Minnesota 6 NY Yankees 7 - H. Matsui, GW HR (10) Tampa Bay 4 Boston 15 LA Angels 5 Texas 2 - K. Escobar, W (10-3) Seattle 2 Oakland 3 National League Atlanta 8 LA Dodgers 6 - Chipper Jones became Atlanta's all-time home run leader, belting a pair of solo shots against the Dodgers Thursday night. Chipper hit one in the 6th inning, tying Dale Murphy's mark, and another in the 8th, breaking it. Jones has 15 homers this season and 372 lifetime. The 6th-inning shot broke a 6-6 tie and the 8th-inning dinger was icing on the cake. Atlanta's win was the Dodgers' loss, keeping LA a game back of San Diego in the NL West. NY Mets 6 Houston 2 - John Maine (right) improved to 10-4, striking out 9 over 7 2/3, while allowing 2 runs on six hits and 2 walks. Carlos Delgado went 4-4, as the Mets ended their 4-game skid. Chi Cubs 4 Washington 2 - The Cubs are determined to make the NL Central race interesting, winning for the 8th time in their last 10 games to close to within 4 1/2 of division leader Milwaukee. Milwaukee 3 Pittsburgh 6 - While the Cubs were winning the Brewers were losing their third straight to the lowly Pirates, after winning the first game of the 4-game series. The Pirates beat up on All-Star Ben Sheets, getting to him for 5 runs on 8 hits over 6 innings. Pittsburgh starter, Tom Gorzelanny, close to having an All-Star season himself, got the win, allowing only 3 earned off 4 hits and 2 walks. Adam LaRoche slammed a pair of homers, drove in 3 runs and scored 3. Other NL Scores Florida 3 San Diego 2 San Francisco 3 Cincinnati 6 Arizona 2 St. Louis 3

Red Sox, Braves Trade Beatings; Wright Doubles Mets' Pleasure

Note: During Interleague play, home teams are reported by league. Saturday's Peak Performers and Fabulous Flops American League Flip-flopping in Beantown The Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves played a double-header on Saturday due to a Friday rainout and the two games could not have been more dissimilar. The only thing they had in common was a decidedly one-sided attribute as the Red Sox won the opener, 13-3, before Atlanta came back with a 14-0 blanking in the nightcap. In the first game, Mike Lowell (right) was the hitting star, with a grand slam home run, a double and 2 singles in 5 at-bats, tallying 5 RBI and scoring twice. The Sox blasted 4 homers off 3 different Braves' pitchers. Revenge was sweet and swift in the 2nd game, as Chipper Jones knocked out his 12th home run in the 1st inning and leadoff 2nd baseman Kelly Johnson doubled, tripled and hit a 2-run home run, driving in 5 runs. The Braves didn't need that much offense as John Smoltz worked his mound magic over 7 innings, allowing just 3 hits and a walk while fanning 7. A pair of relievers worked the 8th and 9th to preserve the shutout. Other AL Scores

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Seattle 7 San Diego 4 Detroit 8 St. Louis 7 - T. Jones, S (14) Cincinnati 10 Cleveland 5 Florida 7, Tampa Bay 2 - D. Willis (W, 6-3) 7 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K LA Angels 6 LA Dodgers 2 - Angles 4 straight wins, lead AL West by 3 gms. Oakland 4 San Francisco 2 - J. Cust, 3-run HR (8), B. Bonds, no HR last 9 gms. National League Lyle Overbay tripled in a run in the 3rd and smacked a 3-run homer in the 4th to lead Toronto to a 13-2 pounding of Philadelphia. Overbay finished 2 for 5 with 4 RBI, scoring 3 times. Third baseman David Wright (right) socked 2 2-run home runs in his only official plate appearances, walked 3 times, stole a base and scored another run as the Mets beat the Yankees again, 10-7. The Mets will try for a sweep of their metro rivals on Sunday. Yankee catcher Jorge Posada went 4-5 to boost his batting average to an AL-best .386. Other NL Scores Minnesota 5 Milwaukee 2 - Brewers lost 7 of last 9, J.J. Hardy HR (14) leads NL Cubs 11 White Sox 6 - D. Lee, pinch-hit GS HR (3) Arizona 9 Pittsburgh 8 - T. Clark, pinch-hit GS HR (6), J. Valverde, S (15) Houston 6 Texas 1 - C. Biggio, 2-5, needs 30 more hits for 3000 Baltimore 3 Washington 2, 11 innings Colorado 6 Kansas City 4

Red Sox Bang Up Yankees; Cain Trims D-Backs

Sunday's Peak Performers and Fabulous Flops American League Manny Ramirez got it started with his 2nd home run in the third inning. Three batters later, J. D. Drew, Mike Lowell (right) and Jason Varitek had all hit balls out of Fenway Park, tying a major league record (4 consecutive HRs) held by four other teams. All four homers were off rookie Yankee starter Chase Wright. Lowell later connected for a 3-run shot that sunk the Yankees, 7-6 and gave Boston a 3-game home sweep over their AL East rivals. Here's a trivia question that should stump your friends. Of the five times that teams have hit 4 straight homers, which player was part of two of them? Answer: J. D. Drew, who did it last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sept. 18 against San Diego. Better yet, he was also the 2nd of the 4 both times. Nick Markakis doubled, tripled, drove in 3 and scored twice in 4 at-bats to help the Baltimore Orioles to their 4th straight win and 2nd place in the AL East. The O's 7-3 win over visiting Toronto completed a sweep of the 3-game set and left them 1 1/2 games behind the streaking Red Sox, who have won 5 straight. The Sox head to Baltimore for a pair on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Other AL Scores Detroit 6 Chicago White Sox 5, 12 innings LA Angels 6 Seattle 1 - E. Santana (W, 2-2) 7 inn., 1 ER Cleveland 6 Tampa Bay 4 Texas 4 Oakland 3 Kansas City 3, Minnesota 1 - J. De La Rosa (W, 2-1) 8 inn., 5 hits, 0 ER National League Barry Bonds smacked his 740th home run, leading the San Francisco Giants to a 2-1 win over visiting Arizona. Bonds' 6th home run of the season left him 15 shy of Hank Aaron's all-time career record of 755. The story in San Fran this weekend was the Giants' pitching which held the Diamondbacks to 3 runs while sweeping the 3-game series. Russ Ortiz, Barry Zito and, on Sunday, Matt Cain (right) stymied the D-Backs, stretching their losing streak to 4 games. Cain was dominant, hurling a complete-game, 3-hit performance for his 1st win of the season. Despite the 1-1 record, Cain, who became a full-time starter for the Giants last season, lowered his ERA to 1.53 and is sporting a mind-blowing 0.83 WHIP. The Giants haven't exactly been generous in run support, scoring only 8 runs in Cain's 4 starts this season. Dan Uggla rapped out a 2-run homer, a 3-run homer and a single in 5 at-bats, drove in 6 runs and scored 3 times to help the Marlins double up the visiting Washington Nationals, 12-6.

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Kelly Johnson singled and homered twice in 4 at-bats, drove in 4 runs and scored 3, spoiling the day for Tom Glavine and the Mets and giving the Braves sole possession of 1st place in the NL East. Scott Rolen went 5-6, including a solo home run and a 2-run triple, drove in 3 and scored 3 times, but teammate Albert Pujols stole the show with his 5th home run of the season, a 10th-inning, 3-run walk off variety that sent the visiting Cardinals to a 12-9 win over Chicago and a 2-1 spilt in their weekend series. Other NL Scores Pittsburgh 7 LA Dodgers 5 - C. Duffy, 2 SB, 3 R Milwaukee 4 Houston 3 - Brewers 1.5-gm lead in NL Cent. Philadelphia 9 Cincinnati 3 - R. Howard, HR (2) Colorado 4 San Diego 2