French Takes No-Hitter Into 7th; Hamels, Phils Close to Within One Game of Braves

Players of the Day for Friday, September 3, 2010 American League With fans focusing on pennant races and post-season positioning, little notice has been given to send-division teams and upcoming players like Seattle's Luke French, who tossed seven inning of 1-hit ball at the Cleveland Indians Friday. Given a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st, French dueled with Cleveland starter Fausto Carmona, who pitched well (4 hits, 1 ER) but didn't get any run support as the Mariners held on for the 1-0 home win. French took a no-hitter into the 7th inning, but gave up a one out walk to Shin-Soo Choo before Shelley Duncan scratched out a single. French worked out of trouble, getting Jayson Nix to line into an inning-ending double play, one of two the Mariners turned. Nix evened his record at 4-4, lowering his ERA down to 3.66. With an 0-2 record and 6.27 ERA as of August 1st, French has gone 4-2 since, including two straight wins in which he's allowed just one earned run. National League Cole Hamels was tough as nails in Philadelphia's 1-0 win over Milwaukee, allowing just three hits over seven innings in his most important start of the season. Plagued by a lack of run support, Hamels has been going to the hill knowing he can't give the opponents anything, which is exactly what's he's done in his last two starts. On Sunday, Hamels blanked the Padres on four hits over 8 innings. With Friday night's outing, he hasn't allowed a run in 18 innings. Despite outstanding numbers (3.18 ERA, 1.18 WHIP), his last win before beating the Padres was on July 11, fittingly, a 1-0 win over the Reds. Nine times this season, Hamels has allowed two earned runs or less and come away with either no decision or a loss. Because of the lack of runs scored when he's on the mound, his record is just 9-10. On Friday, the Phillies managed to score only one run in the second inning, but Hamels made sure it stood up. The win put the Phillies just one game behind AL East leader, Atlanta, as the Braves were downed by the Marlins 6-1 and have lost two straight. The Phillies have won four in a row and are in perfect position to run down the Braves and take control of the division they've won the past three seasons.

Sabathia Stops A's on One Hit; Utley Slams, Drives in Six for Phillies

Players of the Day for Thursday, September 2, 2010 American League When the Yankees have C.C. Sabathia on the hill at home, there are no worries. The big man has owned every team he's faced from his high position since the middle of last season. Oakland came forth in an attempt to knock the king from his throne, but came up empty, as Sabathia won his 16th straight decision from the Yankee Stadium bump. The only hitter to have any success was second baseman Mark Ellis, whose single in the 2nd inning proved to be the only hit any Oakland batter would have on the day. Sabathia, boosted to a lead courtesy of two Curtis Granderson homers, steamrolled through the A's for eight innings, walking three and striking out five for his 19th win of the season against five losses. Jonathan Albaladejo came on in the 9th and mopped up, without allowing a hit. In 21 starts, Sabathia has not lost at Yankee Stadium since the 2009 all star break and currently leads the majors in wins. The 5-0 win increased New York's AL East lead over idle Tampa Bay to a contentious 1 1/2 games. National League With an assist from the NY Mets - who beat the Braves, 4-2 - the Phillies picked up a game on the NL East leaders with a scary 12-11 victory at Colorado. The Phillies were down, 6-3, entering the 7th inning, but they erupted for seven runs, five of which were accounted for by Chase Utley, who singled home Placido Polanco with the first score of the inning and later smacked a grand slam off Rockies' reliever Matt Raynolds, the fifth of seven pitchers used by Colorado. Utley knocked in a run with a sac fly in the 5th, bringing home Joe Blanton from third, and finished the night 2-for-5 with six RBI. The home run, his 12th of the year, was Utley's first since returning from the disabled list on August 17. The Phillies, who have won three straight, cut a game off Atlanta's lead in the division and trail by just two games. NOTES: Two races worth watching are the AL Central, where Minnesota clings to a 3 1/2 game lead over the White Sox, and the NL West, which looked to be sewn up by the Padres until recently, as they have dropped seven straight. The Giants have become the main beneficiary of the Pardes' sudden collapse, now behind by just three games, and leading the wild card chase as well. San Francisco is in an enviable position.

David Price Stops Blue Jays; Tommy Hanson Gets Braves Past Mets on 1 Hit

Players of the Day for Wednesday, September 1, 2010 American League In his first season as a full-time starter for Tampa Bay, David Price was good, though not great. He finished 2009 with a 10-7 record, passable for any young pitcher fitting into a rotation for the first time. This season, however, Price has been sensational. After laying it all on the line in a 2-1 win over Toronto, Price finds himself in the midst of a tight pennant race with the Yankees and an even tighter push for the AL Cy Young award. Price worked eight strong innings in the win, allowing a single run on four hits and two walks. He struck out seven, improving to 16-6 on the year. Even though he's pitched well and the Rays have won three of the last four games he's started, it was his first win in nearly a month, the last W coming on August 9. But the improvement in Price's overall number is impressive. Beyond the additional six wins this season over last, his ERA is down to 2.92 (4.42 last season) and his WHIP is a respectable 1.24, down from 1.35 in 2009. While his walk total of 67 is still a bit high, his 161 strikeouts have him tied for 8th most in the league with teammate James Shields and the Rangers' Cliff Lee. Price is vying for Cy Young honors with a host of hurlers around the league, including Boston's Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester, the Yankees' C.C. Sabathia, Texas' C.J. Wilson and Oakland's Trevor Cahill. Tampa's win kept them one game behind the Yankees in the AL East. Boston is 8 games off the pace and Toronto all but out of it, 14 games back. National League Atlanta just keeps rolling along, winning their fifth straight with a 4-1 win over the Mets, as Tommy Hanson left after allowing just one hit in seven innings of work. Hanson (9-10) walked just one batter and struck out three. With a three-run lead, manager Bobby Cox decided that Hanson's 96 pitches were enough for the young hurler and pulled him for Jonny Venters in the 8th, who proceeded to allow the only Mets' run of the evening. Billy Wagner worked a perfect ninth for his 31st dave of 2010. The Braves remained three games ahead of the Phillies in the NL East.

Bautista Smashes 42nd Homer; Cardinals Fall to Astros, Rodriguez

Players of the Day for Tuesday, August 31, 2010 American League Tampa Bay needed a win to stay even with the Yankees atop the American League East, but the Toronto Blue Jays pasted a 10-spot on them in the 6th inning and that was that, leading to a 13-5 thrashing by the homer-happy Jays. Toronto batters left the yard three times during the game, the big blast a three-run bomb off the bat of ML-leading Jose Bautista, his 42nd of the year, which closed out the 10-run 6th inning. Bautista, making a serious bid for AL MVP, added another RBI in the 7th with a single, going 2-for-3 on the night and raising his RBI total to 103, only four behind Miguel Cabrera's league-leading total. With the three home runs on Tuesday, the Blue Jays crossed the 200 mark, with 201 now in hand, in pursuit of the major league record of 264, set by the 1997 Seattle Mariners. With exactly 30 more games to play, the Bue Jays are unlikely to reach the post-season, but they may make a serious run at that team home run record, as hitting two per game is a rather routine occurrence in Toronto these days. With the Yankees beating Oakland, 9-3, the Rays fell one game behind in the standings. Toronto is still in 4th place, 13 games out. Boston occupies third place, 8 games off the pace. National League Whatever happened to the Cardinals after they swept the Reds three weeks ago and took over first place in the NL Central, isn't going away. With their 3-0 loss to Wandy Rodriguez and the Houston Astros, the Cards have won only five times in 17 games after their three-game sweep of the Reds and are now seven games back in the division. Rodriguez, whose 3-10 start contributed greatly to the Astros falling out of the race early on, has gone 8-2 since June 24 and lowered his ERA from 6.09 to 3.71. He's allowed just one earned run in his last 14 innings. Against the Cardinals on Tuesday, he allowed none, on two hits and two walks, while striking out six over seven innings, improving to 11-12 on the season. Cincinnati has enjoyed the demise of the Cardinals, their closest pursuer in the NL Central. Since the aforementioned sweep, the Reds have put together a nice 13-4 run and appear on track to take the division handily.