Starlin Castro Deals Cards Loss with 6 RBI in Cubs Win; Carlos Santana's Slam Keeps Cleveland Playoff Hopes Alive

Players of the Day for Friday, September 18, 2015

American League

Castro: 2 HR, 6 RBI

Santana: Grand Slam

With the chance of reaching the playoffs still alive and well, the Cleveland Indians pounded White Sox starter, Chris Sale, with a six-run third inning, all of the runs unearned, capped by a grand slam by Carlos Santana.

Sale eventually worked seven innings and took the loss (12-10), as the Tribe cruised to a 12-1 win in the opener of a three-game series in Cleveland.

The win left the Indians three games behind Houston for the second wild card spot, and just two games behind the twins, the three teams vying for the final post-season berth in the AL.

The Yankees, despite a 5-1 loss to the Mets in the opener of their three-game subway series at Citi Field, have the first wild card in sight, leading Houston by four games.

Cleveland returned to .500 with the victory, at 73-73, and will face the White Sox at Progressive Field in game two, Saturday at 7:10 pm EDT.

National League

Beware the Cubs.

After taking three of four in Pittsburgh, winning the final three games of their four-game series, the Chicago Cubs returned home to welcome in their next victim, the St. Louis Cardinals, greeting the current NL Central leaders with an 8-3 stomping, courtesy of six RBI from second baseman, Starlin Castro.

Helping the Cubs to a 3-0 lead with an RBI single in the first, Castro later broke a 3-3 tie in the fifth inning with a two-run homer, followed the next inning with a three-run blast that put the game away, the Cubs winning their fourth straight, in the process, closing the gap on the Pirates in the wild card race to a mere one game as Pittsburgh lost to Zack Greinke and the Dodgers, 6-2.

The Cubs are just six games behind the Cardinals, the Pirates, five out, though time is of the essence, with just 15 games remaining on the regular season schedule.

The Cardinals used eight pitchers in the game, the Cubs, seven, even though only 15 hits were produced by both teams, the Cardinals getting only five base hits.

Game two of the three-game series will start Saturday at 1:05 pm EDT, the Cubs hoping that later in the day the Dodgers will knock down the Pirates once again, and, with a win, Chicago will be tied for second place in the division and for the wild card.

Shin-Soo Choo Homers as Rangers Close in on Houston; Starlin Castro Powers Cubs Past Cardinals

Players of the Day for Tuesday, September 8, 2015

American League

Shin Soo-Cho

Starlin Castro

As baseball season droned on through the summer and August turned to September, the Texas Rangers emerged as one of the hottest teams in the league.

Winners of nine of their last 12, including Tuesday's 9-6 win at Seattle, the Rangers find themselves just one game behind AL West leader, Houston, and closing fast.

A month ago, Texas had been given up for dead, but since August 12, the Rangers have gone on an 18-7 tear, while both Houston and the LA Angels have floundered.

The win at Seattle was the second straight for the Rangers, with two more games to go in the four-game series with the Mariners.

Shin-Soo Choo's third inning, three-run homer off Seattle starter, Taijuan Walker, put the Rangers ahead by a 4-0 score, a point from which they were never challenged.

Mitch Moreland, Rougned Odor and Joey Gallo also homered for the Rangers.

Choo has 17 home runs on the season, to go with a .255 batting average and 64 RBI.

Game three of the series is slated for a 7:10 pm PDT start at Safeco Field.

National League

Starlin Castro belted a three-run homer in the second inning and doubled in another run in the seventh, leading the Chicago Cubs to their fifth straight victory and second in a row against the homesteading St. Louis Cardinals.

On the heels of Monday's 9-0 blowout, the Cubs took the second of the three-game series by an 8-5 score, putting up a pair of runs in the first and four in the second inning, sending St. Louis starter, Michael Wacha to an early shower, after having been banged around for six runs on six hits over four innings.

Chicago put up two more runs in the top of the seventh before the Cardinals responded with a five-spot in the bottom of the frame.

Castro also walked in the first inning and scored on Anthony Rizzo's 29th home run giving the Cubs a 2-0 start.

Game three of the series will have the Cubs looking for the road sweep. Game time is 1:45 pm EDT at Busch Stadium.

Ryan Raburn Goes 4-for-5 in 14-4 Tiger Victory; Starlin Castro Leading NL in Hits

Players of the Day for Monday, September 12, 2011

American League

The Detroit Tigers took another step - make that two steps - closer to becoming the AL Central Division champion, knocking off the second place White Sox, 14-4, Monday in Chicago.

Ryan Raburn

With a win and a loss to their closest pursuer, the Tigers reduced their magic number from seven to five and appear to be well on their way, holding an 11 1/2 game lead over both the White Sox and Indians.

Detroit knocked out 21 hits, four of them by Ryan Raburn, batting down in the #9 hole in the Tigers' power-laden lineup. Raburn began his assault on Chicago pitching with a second inning home run, a solo shot, his 13th of the year, and proceeded to go 4-for-5 with a double, two singles, scoring three times and driving in three.

Detroit has pulled away in the division, winning ten straight games, the most they've won in a row since getting 11 straight in 1968, the year they beat St. Louis in the World Series, four games to three.

In the East, the Yankees beat the Mariners, 9-3, pounding starter Felix Hernandez with nine hits and six runs in six innings. The Tampa Bay Rays remained on fire, whipping Baltimore, 5-2, to pull to within seven of the Yankees and three behind the idle second place Red Sox, who are also the AL wild card leader.

In the West, the Angels dropped a 6-3 decision to the A's, dropping them to three games behind the front-running Rangers.

National League

It's been a rough season for both the Cubs and the Reds, but Chicago shortstop Starlin Castro is making the best of it and making a name for himself in the process.

Castro's 190 hits
leads NL

Castro delivered another super game performance by going 3-for-4, with two doubles and his ninth home run of the season, knocking in three runs and scoring four times as the Cubs downed the Reds, 12-8, in Cincinnati.

Castro is batting .308, 6th in the NL, and his 190 hits leads the league. The slick-fielding middle infielder has scored 86 runs, driven in 61 and has 32 doubles, nine triples and 21 stolen bases.

Around the NL, the Braves and Cardinals were both losers, keeping Atlanta's lead in the wild card race at 4 1/2 games. The Braves have lost four straight, three of them to the Cardinals, who swept a weekend series in St. Louis.

The Phillies lost the Houston, 5-1, but Atlanta's loss knocked their magic number for clinching the East down to five. Arizona and San Francisco both won, which kept the Diamondback's lead in the West at 8 1/2 games.

A-Rod Slam, 6 RBI Grounds Orioles; Castro Goes 4-for-5, Ups Average to .393

Players of the Day for Saturday, April 23, 2011

American League

Alex Rodriguez

Managers and pitchers around the American League know there's one rule when playing the Yankees that must be heeded: Don't walk Mark Teixeira! And especially don't walk him to load the bases.

This simple rule prevents one from having to pitch to Alex Rodriguez, which is generally not a good thing.

Well, the Orioles broke the rule and the result was as expected. Reliever Jason Berken had already given up back-to-back homers to Jorge Posada and Rod Martin (his second of the game) and the Yankees were killing the Orioles at Camden Yards, 9-3, so in came Clay Rapada, who issued a walk to Derek Jeter, a single to Curtis Granderson and then - oh, no! - walked Mark Teixeira to load the bases.

Manager Buck Schowalter, sensing what was coming, replaced Rapada on the mound with Josh Rupe, who offered to A-Rod a fat meatball of a pitch in the form of a high fastball. The result was a deposit of one baseball into the left field stands, four runs and A-Rod's 22nd career grand slam, breaking a tie with the now-retired Manny Ramirez and one behind the late, great Lou Gehrig, the all-time grand master of the grand slam.

Rodriguez had already driven in two runs with a double in the first inning, so the slam gave him six RBI on the night, pushing him past Carl Yastrzemski into #12 all-time, with 1847. The rest of the club chimed in, hitting five homers total, for a 15-3 spanking of the fast fading (8-11) O's.

National League

Starlin Castro

The Cubs really have something in their second-year shortstop, Starlin Castro.

That he would become a regular - and a good one - was apparent after his rookie season, in which he batted .300, stole 10 bases and scored 53 runs in 125 games.

So far this year, Castro's making 2010 look like a warm-up to the real deal.

In Chicago's 10-8 home win over the Dodgers, Castro collected four more hits - three singles and a double - drove in three runs, scored twice and swiped his third base of the season.

Going 4-for-5 boosted his batting average to .393, amazingly good for only third in the National League. Matt Holliday leads the league at .412 and the Dodgers' Matt Kemp is second at .402, but Castro's hit a cool .422 over the last 10 games with his second 4-hit game in a week. He's had three hits in a game five times already.

His hot play has helped the Cubs back to a 10-10 record, just 1/2 game behind the Cardinals and Reds in the NL Central.

Cabrera Leads Cleveland over Baltimore; Cubs, Castro Snap Colorado Streak at Seven

Players of the Day for Saturday, April 16, 2011

American League

Orlando Cabrera

As reported here yesterday, Cleveland and Kansas City are locked into a battle for first place in the upside-down AL Central.

On Saturday, the story got even better as both the Royals and Indians won, while the rest of the division - Detroit, Minnesota and Chicago - all took losses. The co-leaders improved to 10-4 as Kansas City blanked Seattle, 7-0, and the Indians pounded Baltimore for the second straight day, 8-3.

Cleveland was powered by second baseman Orlando Cabrera, who went 2-for-4 with four RBI and three runs. Cabrera got things started in the second inning, driving in the first Cleveland run on a fielder's choice and coming around to score on Matt LaPorta's double.

In the 3rd inning, Cabrera singled home another run and scored and capped off his performance with a two-run blast in the 7th.

The Indians amassed 13 hits overall and seek to sweep the three-game series on Sunday. Likewise, the Royals are looking for a sweep of the Mariners.

National League

Starlin Castro

Starlin Castro had a pair of singles, a double, a home run and drove in three runs as the Chicaco Cubs ended the Rockies' win streak at seven games with a 17-hit assault.

The Cubs haven't had much to cheer about this season, but the 8-3 win over the NL West leader got them back to .500, at 7-7, and into the thick of the NL Central race.

Castro has been solid all along, his 4-for-5 effort boosting his team-leading batting average to .397. Called up early in 2010, Castro made a bid for rookie of the year by batting .300 over 125 games.

The Cubs are just two games behind the Reds in the division with St. Louis and Milwaukee tied for second place 1 1/2 back. Chicago will try to take the series at Colorado with a win Sunday afternoon.