Kerry Wood is expected to make his second start of the year on Tuesday against Florida despite scrubbing his scheduled bullpen session on Sunday due to what was characterized as excessive soreness.

 

The Orioles recalled Hayden Penn (a 5^th round pick in 2002) on Sunday to make his first start of the season Tuesday.  On Monday, however, the O’s prospect was forced to undergo an emergency appendectomy.  Adam Loewen, the fourth overall pick in that ’02 draft, was recalled to take Penn’s spot on the roster, though having last pitched Friday, he is not likely to get the start on Tuesday.

 

Cuban defector Alay Soler was recalled on Monday to make his first major league start either Wednesday or Thursday.  He will be the 9^th pitcher to start a game this season for New York.

 

The Turtles – Trying to prove that slow and steady wins the race, Milwaukee’s Doug Davis (2-3, 5.14) is averaging 18.52 pitches per inning, the highest mark in the majors among qualifying starters.  Behind him and making up the rest of the top 5 are the Mariners’ Felix Hernandez (3-5, 5.84) at 17.98, Tampa Bay’s Seth McClung (2-5, 5.72) at 17.89, Ted Lilly (4-4, 4.15) of the Blue Jays (17.83) and Victor Santos (1-4, 5.69) of Pittsburgh (17.67).

 

And the Hares – Going into Tuesday’s start against Tampa Bay, Roy Halladay (5-1, 3.04) is averaging just 13.42 pitches per inning, the lowest mark in the majors.  Just behind him is D’Backs starter Brandon Webb (7-0, 2.44) at 13.43.  Rounding out the top five are Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang (4-2, 4.43) at 13.65, Cubs pitcher Greg Maddux (5-3, 3.76) at 13.93 and Astros rookie Taylor Buchholz (3-3, 4.35) at 14.03. 

 

McClung, meanwhile, seemed to have turned things around since beginning the year with a 10.90 ERA in his first 4 starts (21 R – 17.1 IP).  In his next 5 starts from April 26 through May 17, the right hander had an ERA of 2.50 and had not allowed more than 2 runs in any of them.  On Monday, however, the Blue Jays sent McClung reeling with 6 ER in 7 IP.

 

Reds starter Bronson Arroyo continued his strong start on Tuesday, earning his 6^th win by pitching 7 innings of 6-hit ball and allowing only one run.  Meanwhile, the offense gave him all the support he needed and more as Cincinnati won 15-5 in Milwaukee.

 

Go Long! – Jason Schmidt of San Francisco leads all ML pitchers (min 7 starts) with an average of 7.48 innings per start (67.1 IP/9 GS).  Arizona’s Webb, the ML leader in innings pitched (73.2), is second at 7.37.  A’s pitcher Dan Haren (7.26, 65.1 IP/9 GS), Giants right hander Jamey Wright (7.15, 64.1 IP/9 GS) and Cincinnati’s Arroyo (7.06, 70.2 IP/10 GS) round out the top five.

 

Go Short! – On the opposite end of the spectrum, Kansas City’s Jeremy Affeldt has thrown the fewest innings per start (min 7 starts) with an average of just 4.66 (37.1 IP/8 GS) despite going 6 innings on Monday.  Bruce Chen of Baltimore is next on the list (4.75, 38 IP/8 GS) followed by Kyle Lohse (4.79, 38.1 IP/8 GS) who last week was sent to the minors.  Josh Towers follows Lohse at 4.81 (43.1 IP/9 GS) and Oliver Perez is 5^th at 4.96 innings per start (44.2 IP/9 GS). 

 

How unhittable has pitcher Pedro Martinez been so far this season?  Undefeated (5-0) with a 2.82 ERA through 9 starts, the Mets’ ace has the highest K/9 ratio in the majors (10.38) as well as the lowest WHIP (0.84) and the lowest batting average against (.163).  His H/9 of just 5.04 is also the best in baseball, and he has allowed more than 4 hits in a game only once (6 in 6.2 IP on April 17).

 

Small Hiccup or Large Belch? – After allowing only 20 hits in his first 6 starts, Cubs rookie Sean Marshall allowed 9 runs on 9 hits in 3.2 IP to the Giants before bouncing back to give up just 1 in 6 scoreless innings against Washington.  Then yesterday, Marshall allowed 7 hits and 7 runs in 3.1 IP to the Marlins as Florida snapped a 7 game slide. 

 

A night after Josh Beckett won his 6^th of the year, Curt Schilling continued his revival on Tuesday, helping the Red Sox to take the first of three against the Yankees.  He held the Bombers to just one run and five hits in 8 innings to run his season record to 7-2.  For Schilling, it was career win number 199.  David Wells will return to the Sox on Friday to make his first start since April 12.

 

The Longest Streak Pt I – The Giants knocked off the Cardinals 9-2 on Monday to end St. Louis’ ML-best 5 game winning streak.  Jamey Wright held the Cards to just one run in 8 innings to earn his 5^th win of the year while lowering his ERA to 3.84.  The Dodgers, meanwhile, beat the Rockies 6-1 to take possession of the longest winning streak in baseball at 5 games and at the same time, pulled to within a half game of the division leading D’Backs in the West.  Korean born Jae Wong Seo out-dueled his fellow countryman Byung-Hyun Kim, allowing just 1 unearned run in 7 innings to even his record at 2-2. 

 

The Longest Streak Pt II – Detroit, on Monday, backed rookie Justin Verlander with 8 runs and the right hander made it stick in recording his first major league shutout against the bumbling Kansas City Royals.  It was Detroit’s ML leading 8^th shutout as a team on the year.  For KC, the loss extended their major league worst losing streak to 10 games.  Kenny Rogers will take the mound on Tuesday for Detroit going for his ML best 8^th win of the year.   

 

The marquee match-up of the night was in San Diego on Monday, where Jake Peavy of the Padres and Atlanta’s John Smoltz locked horns in a battle between two of the best pitchers in the game.  Peavy was in top form as he pitched 7 innings and allowed just 2 runs on 3 hits while striking out 16 Braves.  His counterpart Smoltz however, gave up just 6 hits and no runs in 7 innings, lowering his ERA to 3.12 as the Braves defeated San Diego 3-1.

 

The Giants, after knocking off St. Louis, are 6-1 in their last 7 games with a 1.43 team ERA, the best mark in the majors during that span by over a run per game.  The Dodgers in their last 7 are 6-1 with a 2.46 ERA. 

 

Meanwhile, Dodgers closer Eric Gagne is likely to begin a rehab stint by mid-week and could return to the team, possibly as soon as June 1. 

 

Chasing the Babe Pt. I – Barry Bonds did not homer on Monday night in the Giants win over the Cardinals and remains tied with the Babe at 714.  Jason Marquis (5-4, 5.08) goes for St. Louis on Tuesday night.  Bonds, for his career, is 4 for 6 (.667) with 2 HR against Marquis. 

 

DN&N’s is all about pitching today, but we’d be remiss if we did not mention that The Big Hurt returned to the South Side on Wednesday and hit two home runs (#’s 9 & 10 on the year; 457 career) against his former club.  Both of Thomas’ HR were hit off of White Sox starter Jon Garland, who also allowed Bobby Crosby’s 6^th of the season.  Garland has now served up 13 HR on the year, tying him for 2^nd in the majors behind only Carlos Silva of the Twins (15).  See, got you in there Frank!

 

And finally…

 

Chasing the Babe Pt. II – Bonds did not pitch on Monday and remains 94 wins behind Ruth on the all-time wins list.