Today is the 2^nd anniversary of Randy Johnson’s perfect game for Arizona against the Atlanta Braves.  It was also the last no-hitter thrown in the Majors making this the longest no-hitter drought since WWII.  The longest stretch in Baseball history without a no-no is 3 years and 41 days. 

 

Cub rookie Sean Marshall gave it his best shot, but came up just short in a bid to end that drought on Wednesday.  Marshall allowed Washington just 1 base hit over 6 innings and three relievers combined to finish the one-hitter as the Cubs shut out the Nationals for the second consecutive night.  For the season, Marshall has allowed just over 6 hits per 9 IP. 

 

The entire NL West finished play on Wednesday night above .500 and were separated by just 2 games.

 

Wild One In The Wild, Wild West – A day after the Yankees and Rangers played a wild one in the Bronx, Arizona nearly battled back from a 10-0 deficit, getting as close as 11-10 before the Padres pulled away to squeak out a 14-10 win in the desert.  OF Brian Giles had four hits and 7 RBI for the Padres as they regained first place in the wild, wild West. 

 

Florida’s rookie middle infield duo, 2B Dan Uggla and SS Hanley Ramirez, are batting .320 and .331 respectively, while “veteran” 3B Miguel Cabrera is hitting .329.  Those three give the 11-27 Marlins hope that the current rebuilding process will be a short one. In the short term however, Florida on Wednesday saw the Braves come from behind to win for the third consecutive night, this time on a 3-run walk off HR by Chipper Jones in the bottom of the 11th.  Ramirez, meanwhile, is day-to-day with a mildly strained shoulder. 

 

After giving up 4 runs in 5.1 innings (6.75 ERA) to begin the year, Angel closer Francisco Rodriguez has been spotless since, recording 6 saves in 6 ops and giving up just 4 hits and no runs while striking out 13 and walking 2 over 10.1 innings. 

 

For all of the Royals shortcomings, Tuesday night’s walk-off victory by the Indians in the bottom of the 9^th exposed possibly their biggest deficiency.  From the 7^th inning on, the Royals pitchers have a combined ERA of 7.06, far and away the worst in the majors and nearly a run and a half worse than the Astros’ mark of 5.60 which stands as the next worst.

 

Hit The Lights! – Going into play on Wednesday, the Tigers team ERA in day games was 4.14 (14^th overall) but that mark dropped to a ML best 2.57 under the lights (the Mets are the second best at night with a 3.36 ERA). 

 

Red hot Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo (5-1, 2.03 ERA and 1.15 in his last 5 starts) took on ice cold Pirates Pitcher Oliver Perez (1-5, 7.71 ERA) on Wednesday, and naturally, Perez out pitched Arroyo.  Perez gave up just 2 runs on 5 hits in 6 innings while Arroyo gave up 4 runs on 9 in 6 innings as the Pirates beat the Reds 7-2.

 

Hike! Pt I - The Diamondbacks, without a left handed pitcher on their roster, enlisted Arizona Cardinals rookie lefty QB Matt Leinart to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Wednesday.  Manager Bob Melvin joked, “We’ll get the radar gun on him.”  The D’Backs then watched as a Brian Giles field goal in the 7^th quarter sealed the Padres 14-10 win. 

 

Hike! Pt II - Former Stanford quarterback and current Florida OF Joe Borchard, 1 for 1 on Wednesday, has batted a combined .232 this season for the Mariners and Marlins to raise his career batting average to .198 in 354 career at bats.  There’s been no word on whether Mario Mendoza plans to begin attending Marlin games.

 

The Twins, on Wednesday, continued the overhaul of their starting rotation by demoting Kyle Lohse to Rochester following another rough outing in which he surrendered 5 runs in just 2.2 innings.  Lohse is 2-4 with an 8.92 ERA overall and has allowed 57 hits and 38 runs in 38.1 innings.  Boof Bonser, who was acquired along with Francisco Liriano and Joe Nathan from San Francisco for A.J. Pierzynski, got the call and will make his major league debut against the Brewers on Sunday, the day after Liriano makes his first start of the year.

 

Minnesota then sent their ace Johan Santana out to face Detroit under the lights and though he was nasty as usual (8 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 12 K, 1 BB), Tigers rookie Justin Verlander combined with Todd Jones to shut the Twins out despite not striking out a single batter.  In doing so, the Tigers lowered their ML best team ERA in night games to 2.45. 

 

Chasing 1,000 – Mets 1B Carlos Delgado needs just 2 more runs scored to reach 1,000 for his career; Red Sox C Jason Varitek needs to play just three more games to reach a thousand; Astros 1B Lance Berkman is just 4 hits from 1,000.

 

Chasing the Babe – Bonds took a DNP on Wednesday as the chase for the Babe was put on hold until Friday night in Oakland, across the Bay from AT&T Park. 

 

In the meantime, Bonds’ teammates on Wednesday pounded the Astros for the third consecutive night, this time by a score of 10-1 to push themselves over .500 for the first time since May 3 and to within 2 games of first place.  Bonds, of course, did not homer in the series, but the Giants didn’t need him to.  In their sweep of Houston, San Francisco outscored the Astros by a combined score of 34-5.

 

Pedro Feliz kept up his scorching hot May in the win by going 2 for 5 with 3 RBI and another home run.  He has 4 in his last 6 games and 9 on the year.  In 17 games so far this month, Feliz has been held without a hit just twice and is batting .380 with 7 HR and 18 RBI (including 10 in the three game set with Houston). 

 

Boston 2B Mark Loretta had two more hits on Wednesday to continue his recent tear.  After ending April hitting just .218, Loretta has raised his batting average to .294 by hitting .424 (25 for 59) in May.  He has hit safely in 12 of his last 14 games.

 

The Longest Streaks - Detroit’s win over Santana on Wednesday night kept them tied for first in the Central with the White Sox and extended their ML best win streak to six games.  On the opposite side, Kansas City saw Travis Hafner beat them for the second straight night, this time with a grand slam and that loss, coupled with the Reds setback in Pittsburgh leaves those two teams tied for the longest losing streak in baseball at 5 games. 

 

Free Swingers Update Pt I – Jeff Francoeur drew no walks once again on Wednesday (though he did extend his hitting streak to 15 games) and the ultimate free swinger now has just 1 walk in 171 at bats this year.  Angel Berroa (134), Yuniesky Betancourt (130) and Placido Polanco (129) are the only other batters now with over 100 AB and just 1 walk.  Rondell White drew his second walk on Wednesday night to drop out of the running.

 

Free Swingers Update Pt II – Matt Diaz, that other free swinger in Hotlanta, extended by one his lead over Omar Infante in the race for the most AB without a walk.  Diaz now has 53 at bats without drawing a single walk while Infante sits on 45. 

 

The Nationals appear to be just a formality vote away from finally being sold.  MLB owners are set to vote today (likely 30-0) to approve the sale of the former Expos franchise to a group headed by Ted Lerner and Stan Kasten.  Once the deal closes sometime between June 15 and the All-Star break, MLB will clear a cool $330 million.  Those are American, not Canadian dollars.