MLB
Friday,September 17
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Streaking and Slumping Pitchers
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Streaking
Randy Wolf, Milwaukee Brewers (11-11, 4.53 ERA)
The hard-throwing South Paw has entrenched himself as the Brew Crew’s No. 2 start by becoming one of the more reliable pitchers in the National League.
He won’t go eight innings and he won’t strike out 14 batters, but he won’t implode and put his side in a huge hole before the squad even makes its way through the order. Since Aug. 1 – a span of eight starts – Wolf has a 3.14 ERA and a 35:17 strike-to-walkout ratio.
In his past two outings, Wolf has gone 14.2 innings and yielded just three earned runs, including picking up a victory against the two-time defending National League champion Philadelphia Phillies.
Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners (11-11, 2.39 ERA)
The 24-year-old right-handed fireballer continues to quietly put together one of the strongest seasons of any pitcher in the Majors.
Hernandez allowed four earned runs over 6.1 innings in his most recent outing against the Angels, but his defense did him no favors by committing three errors. Prior to that, he hadn’t allowed an earned run over his previous 33.1 innings. Over his past seven starts, he has given up only five earned runs in 51.1 innings.
Hernandez leads the American League in ERA and innings pitched (225.2) and is second in strikeouts (214).
"I mean, for him to put up as many zeros as he has, his [won-lost] record shouldn't reflect [badly on] what he's done," Mariners second baseman Chone Figgins told the Associated Press. "The Cy Young is basically for the best pitcher. But if he doesn't get runs, that's not his fault. If his other numbers are up there than he deserves it and he should get it. But if I know him, he's going to continue to go out there and pitch to win."
Slumping
Brett Cecil, Toronto Blue Jays (12-7, 4.12 ERA)
The young left-hander is a building block for the team’s foundation for the future, but he may have show a crack in his most recent outing.
Cecil last only two innings of a 9-8 loss to Tampa Bay. He allowed seven earned runs on eight hits, including a home run and just three strikeouts against two walks. Overall in his past six outings, he has allowed at least five hits each time and fewer than seven only once.
Between Triple-A Las Vegas and Toronto this season, Cecil has thrown 166 innings, already nearly 30 more than last year.
Kyle Lohse, St. Louis Cardinals (3-7, 6.85 ERA)
The right-hander has yet to notch a quality start since coming off the disabled list on August 15. Even worse, he hasn’t lasted six innings since a 6-2 win over
Washington on May 17.
The past three times he has toed the rubber he has allowed 14 earned runs over just 15.1 innings, including 27 hits and three walks. Overall, the team is 2-3 in his past five starts and has won just four of his past 10 outings this year.
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Hot Lines: Today's best MLB bets
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New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles (+142, 9.5)
It’s hard to find a hotter team in the Majors than the Orioles.
Baltimore is an American League East-best 8-2 in its past 10 games and has managed to split its past six against the Bronx Bombers. The key to the team’s success? Well, when you were worse than the Pirates for most of the season, there’s a lot of room for improvement.
The past seven days the team has been batting a sparkling .310 to go with a sterling .377 on-base percentage and scoring a respectable 31 runs. The team has a lack of power – only four home runs and 10 doubles over that stretch – but consistently gets on base and puts pressure on opposing pitchers.
Orioles pitching also has been doing its part the past week, posting a spectacular 2.95 ERA and allowing opponents to hit a meager .221 over that span.
Believe in Baltimore.
Pick: Orioles.
Cincinnati Reds at Houston Astros (+102, 7)
Reds hitters heard that left-hander Wandy Rodriguez was starting for Houston on Friday. And they aren’t intimidated.
Cincinnati bats have absolutely raked against left-handed hitters this year. The Reds have hit for power, smacking a staggering 55 home runs off South Paws this season, along with 75 doubles and seven triples. The team also can hit for average, batting .267 against lefties with a fantastic .346 on-base percentage.
Rodriguez has had some success against the Reds this season, but overall Cincinnati has won seven of nine meetings with their division rivals, averaging better than 6.2 runs per game. Conversely, the Astros are scoring just 2.9 runs per game against the Reds.
Pick: Reds.
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This Day in Baseball
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On September 17 in Baseball History...
1900 - Tommy Corcoran of the Reds uncovers a wire in the coaching box that leads across the outfield to the Phils' locker room, where reserve catcher Morgan Murphy is reading the opposing catcher's signs and relaying them to the Phils' coach by a buzzer hidden in the dirt.
1906 - Playing as Sullivan, Columbia University junior Eddie Collins makes his debut at shortstop with the Philadelphia Athletics. He gets one hit off Ed Walsh and strikes out twice. Collins will play twenty-five years in the Major Leagues, bat .333, and become a member of the Hall of Fame.
1912 - Center fielder Casey Stengel breaks in with Brooklyn and has four singles, a walk, two stolen bases, and two RBI in the 7-3 win over Pittsburgh.
1930 - Cleveland's Earl Averill drove in eight runs with three consecutive home runs to lead the Indians to a 13-7 victory over the Washington Senators in a doubleheader opener. Averill added another homer in the second game, which the Senators took 6-4, and set an American League record with eleven RBIs in the twinbill.
1931 - On his 32nd birthday, outfielder Earl Webb of the Red Sox sets a Major League record for doubles with sixty-five. He will finish the season with sixty-seven.
1941 - Stan Musial has two hits in his Major League debut as the Cardinals beat the Boston Braves. Musial, who started the season in the Western Association (Class C), will hit .426 in 12 games.
1947 - Jackie Robinson is named Rookie of the Year by The Sporting News two weeks before the season is over. At year's end he has hit .297 and led the league in stolen bases and sacrifices. He has fourteen bunt hits, and in a game against the Cubs in June, scores from first base on a sacrifice.
1955 - Future Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson gets two hits in his first game as the Orioles top the Senators 3-1.
1964 - Mickey Mantle gets his 2,000th career hit and his 450th home run as the Yankees whip the Angels 6-2 to lock on to first place for good with a two percentage point lead over the idle White Sox and Orioles.
1966 - Cleveland pitchers set an American League record by fanning nineteen batters in the first nine innings of a ten-inning 6-2 win at Detroit.
1968 - Gaylord Perry of the San Francisco Giants pitched a no-hitter against the St. Louis Cardinals for a 1-0 victory.
1979 - Royals third baseman George Brett collects his 20th triple of the season in a 16-4 romp over the Angels. Brett becomes the sixth player ever, and the first since Willie Mays in 1957, to collect twenty doubles, twenty triples, and twenty home runs in the same season. He will finish with totals of 42, 20, and 23.
1980 - After surrendering a two-run home run to Rusty Staub, Rick Langford is removed with two outs in the ninth inning of Oakland's 6-4 win over Texas, ending his consecutive complete-game streak at 22.
1981 - Fernando Valenzuela sets the National League rookie record with his eighth shutout of the season, a three-hitter to beat the Braves, 2-0. He had shared the record with Irv Young (1905), Grover Alexander (1911), and Jerry Koosman (1968).
1983 - The Chicago White Sox clinch their first-ever American League West championship, beating Seattle 4-3 on Harold Baines's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth.
1984 - Reggie Jackson, at thirty-eight, became the thirteenth player in Major League history to record five-hundred home runs. No. 500 came off Kansas City pitcher Bud Black. His homer came exactly seventeen years after he got his first career hit.
1984 - Rookie Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets struck out sixteen Phillies in a 2-1 loss at Philadelphia. Five days earlier, Gooden fanned sixteen Pittsburgh Pirates, tying a Major League record for thirty-two strikeouts in two consecutive games.
1988 - Jeff Reardon became the first to save forty games in both leagues as the Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-1. Reardon, who saved forty-two for the Montreal Expos in 1985, pitched the ninth inning for his fortieth save in forty-seven opportunities.
1996 - Hideo Nomo pitched a no-hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers and beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-0. Nomo walked four and struck out eight.
1998 - Denny Neagle put Atlanta's pitching staff into the record books as he improved to 15-11 with a 1-0 victory over Arizona. Neagle's victory made the Braves the first Major League team with five 15-game winners since the 1930 Washington Senators. Neagle joined Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Kevin Millwood.