Kerry Wood made his second start of the year on Tuesday night in Florida and though he walked 5, he allowed just 2 hits (including a Miguel Cabrera HR) in his 5 innings of work.  He left with the lead, but closer Ryan Dempster couldn’t hold it and the Marlins beat Chicago for the second straight night.

 

Chasing the Babe – Barry Bonds did not homer against the Cardinals on Tuesday and remains tied with Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list with 714.  Albert Pujols, on the other hand, hit his major league leading 23^rd home run to left directly over Bonds as the Cards beat up on their former teammate Matt Morris and defeated the Giants 8-5.  For Pujols, it was the first home run of his career in San Francisco.  Looking ahead, Bonds is 2 for 6 with 1 HR in his career against Wednesday’s starter Chris Carpenter. 

 

Hot and Cold ~

 

Scott Spiezio of St. Louis batted just .064 (3 for 47) last season for Seattle and began this year hitting just .125 (2 for 16) before rebounding to hit .361 (22 for 61) since then.  He is now batting .312 for the season.

 

Washington 1B Nick Johnson has slowed considerably since ending the month of April batting .341.  He has just 1 hit in his last 19 at bats and is batting just .205 in May to drop his overall average to .280.  

 

Brandon Phillips of the Reds has gotten hot again.  Over his last 5 games, Phillips has 10 hits in 19 at bats including a 2 for 5 on Tuesday against Milwaukee.

 

Prince Fielder is warming back up with 7 hits in his last 12 AB.  He was 2 for 4 with 3 RBI in the Brewers 7-3 loss to the Reds.

 

Pirate OF Jason Bay is scorching of late with 22 hits in his last 60 at bats (.367) over his last 15 games.  He has been held hitless in just two of those games and has 7 HR and 21 RBI over that span.

 

Notable Transactions ~

 

After placing OF Alex Escobar and SP Zach Day on the disabled list Monday, the Nationals now have a league high 9 players on the DL (including 5 on the 60-day list).  Washington now sports an entire starting rotation of wounded pitchers with Day joining John Patterson, Ryan Drese, Brian Lawrence and Pedro Astacio on the injured list.  Astacio however, began a rehab assignment on Monday and could be back soon.  

 

Phil Nevin began the year by hitting a very respectable .278 with 7 HR and 23 RBI in April.  After batting .145 (9 for 62) with no home runs and just 2 extra base hits in May, the Rangers on Tuesday recalled highly touted hitting prospect Jason Botts.  The switch hitting Botts was batting .318 with 10 HR and 32 RBI in 40 games at Oklahoma and the Rangers quickly inserted him into the lineup as the DH on Tuesday against the Angels.  He was 0 for 2 with two walks in the 7-6 loss to L.A. 

 

Reeling from 6 straight losses and losers of 14 of 19 in May, the Angels recalled Cuban slugger Kendry Morales on Tuesday.  Morales had been hitting .317 with 5 HR and 29 RBI in 41 games at Salt Lake.  The Angels inserted him into the lineup at 1B hitting 5^th against Texas and Morales responded with a base hit in his first at bat and followed that with his first ML home run in his second.  He was 3 for 5 on the night with 2 RBI and the HR as Los Angeles snapped their losing streak.

 

Jeff Nelson returned to the majors on Tuesday when the White Sox purchased his contract.  The 39-year-old right hander was signed to a minor league contract on May 2 and threw 5.1 scoreless innings at Triple-A Charlotte.  Nelson was with St. Louis in spring training but did not make the club despite not allowing a run and allowing just 1 hit and no runs in 5.2 IP.  He pitched a third of an inning against Oakland last night and did not allow a run.

 

The feel good transaction of the day belonged to the Brewers who designated Justin Lehr for assignment on Tuesday in order to make room on the roster for 32-year-old reliever Joe Winkelsas.  An 11-year minor league vet, Winkelsas had made just one previous appearance in the big leagues, way back in 1999 with Atlanta.  With the Braves, he pitched just a third of an inning and allowed 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk to post a career ERA of 54.55.  Last night Winkelsas redeemed himself with a scoreless third of an inning against the Reds, cutting his career ERA in half down to 26.87.

 

The Yankees activated Gary Sheffield from the DL and returned him to the lineup as the DH on Tuesday as New York took round two in their showdown with Boston, 7-5.  He was hitless in three at bats but drew a walk in the 7^th ahead of Alex Rodriguez’ key 3-run home run.  To make room on the roster for Sheffield, the Yankees designated Colter Bean for assignment.

 

Pressure! Pt I – Perhaps feeling the pressure of playing in New York, Rodriguez is batting just .250 with 3 HR and 9 RBI (80 AB) in the Bronx this season.  On the road, the star slugger is batting .299 with 8 HR and 26 RBI (87 AB).  Often criticized for his performance under pressure, his home woes are particularly evident in his BA with RISP.  At Yankee Stadium the slugger is batting just .182 (4 for 22) with 1 HR and 7 RBI and a .318 slugging percentage.  Away from home, A-Rod is hitting .333 (11 for 33) with 5 HR and 22 RBI and he is slugging .788 w/RISP. 

 

Pressure! Pt II – Albert Pujols has been the major league’s top hitter so far w/RISP.  In 35 at bats, Prince Albert is batting a stunning .527 (19 for 36) with 5 HR and 32 RBI.  Troy Glaus of the Blue Jays (.291, 14 for 48) leads all major leaguers with 8 HR and his 32 RBI are tied with Pujols for the most.  Other notables include the White Sox trio of Jim Thome (.471, 6HR, 26 RBI, 1.058 SLG), Jermaine Dye (.454, 5 HR, 26 RBI, .969 SLG) and Paul Konerko (.405, 3 HR, 26 RBI) as well as injured Giants OF Moises Alou (.455, 4 HR, 22 RBI), Lance Berkman of Houston (.378, 6 HR, 30 RBI) and Travis Hafner of the Indians (.355, 5 HR, 28 RBI).

 

Pressure! Pt III – Jose Lopez of the Mariners has been the most unlikely hero w/RISP, batting .438 (21 for 48) with 8 extra base hits and 29 RBI.  His 37 total bases are the second most in baseball (Glaus - 42).

 

Pressure! Pt IV – Given the success of the White Sox big three, it’s not surprising that Chicago has the highest batting average in baseball w/RISP at .299.  And if those three weren’t enough for opposing pitchers, utility man Pablo Ozuna is hitting .625 (5 for 8).

 

Konerko, Dye and Thome all homered in the White Sox 9-3 win over the A’s on Tuesday night.  For Thome, it was his AL leading 18^th of the season. 

 

In the Angels win over Texas, Vladimir Guerrero ran his hitting streak against the Rangers to 41 games.

 

Jorge Sosa pitched well enough to win last night but his solo home run was all the support he got as the Padres beat Atlanta 2-1.  Sosa has two hits this season, both home runs.

 

The Orioles were leading Seattle 5-4 when they erupted for 9 runs in the 9^th to secure the win.  Rookie Adam Loewen made his ML debut in relief, allowing 1 run in .1 IP. 

 

The Longest Streak Pt I – The Dodgers continued to ride Nomar Garciaparra’s hot bat to their ML best 6^th straight win Tuesday night in an 8-1 victory over Colorado.  Garciaparra had 2 hits, Kenny Lofton had 3 and Brad Penny threw 5 scoreless innings to get his 5^th win of the year.  Garciaparra is now hitting .370. 

 

The Longest Streak Pt II – The Royals jumped out to an improbable 4-0 lead over Kenny Rogers and the Tigers on Tuesday night before allowing 8 runs in the final four innings to lose 8-5 and run their ML worst losing streak to 11 games.  Kansas City entered the game with a major league worst 6.90 ERA from the 7^th inning on and saw that rise to 7.20 in the loss.  Todd Jones got his 14^th save for Detroit in the win.

 

Carlos Beltran’s home run off of the Phillies Ryan Madson leading off the bottom of the 16^th inning ended the longest game of the year with the Mets on top, 9-8.  5 hours and 22 minutes after it began, Beltran took Madson’s 105^th pitch over the right field wall to end the marathon.  Madson was beginning his 8^th inning of relief.  Darren Oliver threw four scoreless innings to earn the win.

 

On Deck – Wednesday’s marquee match-up pits rookie Cole Hamels of the Phillies (who will be making his third major league start) against Cuban born Alay Soler of the Mets in his major league debut.