Interleague Leaderboard – Pt I – Team Leaders – The bulk of the Interleague play schedule begins today, prompting DN&N to take a look at the all-time Interleague Leaderboard, where we find the red hot Oakland A’s at the top with the best all-time IL winning percentage at .596 (96-65).  The Yankees are next with a .591 mark (94-65), while the Marlins are third overall and tops in the NL with a .580 WP all-time in Interleague play.  The worst team all-time in Interleague action is currently the Pirates, who are now at .403 (50-74) after this year’s first round of play.  The Orioles are just 65-95 (.406) against NL teams while the D’Rays, after starting this year by sweeping the Marlins in May, now have a .407 mark (59-86).  Tampa Bay had finished the year last season with the worst all-time Interleague play WP at .394.

 

Interleague Leaderboard – Pt II – Division Leaders – The NL East has had the most Interleague success with a collective .532 winning percentage, including this season’s opening round of play back in May.  The AL East, despite the Yankees’ success, has the worst collective winning percentage of any division at .473.  This year, the NL West so far has been king with an 8-4 (.667) record against their AL foes, while the NL East and the AL West, both 5-7 (.417), have the worst collective records in IL play.

 

Interleague Leaderboard – Pt III – Pitching Leaders – Aaron Sele, earlier this season, won his 19^th career Interleague game, tying him with Greg Maddux for the all-time lead among active players.  Maddux failed to win his 20^th earlier this season against the White Sox, while Sele helped the Dodgers sweep the Angels.  Mike Mussina is next on the list with 18 wins, Mark Mulder has 17 and both Livan Hernandez and Freddie Garcia have 16 wins apiece to round out the top five.  Al Leiter, now retired, also had 17 in his career. 

 

The career Interleague leader in ERA is Joel Pineiro who has a 2.18 mark going into this stretch of play.  Freddie Garcia shut out the Cubs over 8 innings earlier this year to lower his IL ERA to 2.26, second best all-time.  He goes tonight against the Reds.  Rounding out the top five are Jamie Moyer (2.63), Johan Santana (2.67) and David Wells (2.74).  Randy Johnson coming into this season had been third on that list but his six earned runs allowed against the Mets in just 5 innings bumped him from 2.53 to 2.75. 

 

Mariano Rivera is 1^st all-time in IL saves by a wide margin with 44.  Troy Percival, unlikely ever to pitch again, is next with 34.  Trevor Hoffman (32), Armando Benitez (27) and Eric Gagne (26) make up the rest of the top five.  None of those five recorded a save during the rivalry weekend series back in May.

 

Trivia Question – Pt I – Can you name the pitcher with the worst career ERA (min 30 IP) in Interleague play? (Answer below)

 

Trivia Question – Pt II – Can you name the batter with the worst career batting average (min 100 AB) in Interleague play? (Answer below)

 

Interleague Leaderboard – Pt IV – Batting Leaders – After going 5 for 12 against Houston this year, Michael Young is now the all-time batting leader in Interleague play (min 350 AB) at .348.  Mike Piazza, just 3 for 12 against Seattle in May, dropped to .344 for the second best mark all-time.  Darin Erstad (.340), Nomar Garciaparra (.330) and Vladimir Guerrero (.328) make out the rest of the top five.  Larry Walker, with 332 AB, retired with a .346 career average in IL play.

 

Derek Jeter got 6 hits against the Mets while Erstad was on the DL in May and that allowed Jeter to break the tie between them for the most hits in IL action.  He now has 204.  Erstad remains at 198, followed by his teammate Garrett Anderson (191), Johnny Damon (190) and Ivan Rodriguez, who has 185 career IL hits.

 

Carlos Delgado has 127 RBI, tops in IL play among active players, followed by Jim Thome with 114, Manny Ramirez (110), Jason Giambi (107) and Garrett Anderson (105).  Sammy Sosa retired with 109 IL RBI. 

 

Jim Thome tops all players, active or not, with 47 home runs hit against teams in the opposite league.  He hit his 47^th earlier this year against the Cubs.  Delgado with two against the Yankees back in May, now has 41 lifetime IL homers, tying him with Rafael Palmeiro for second all-time.  Ramirez (37), Barry Bonds (37) and Ken Griffey (36) are 3 through 5 among active hitters.  Sosa also had 37 in his career.  Bonds’ 37^th, hit earlier this season against the A’s, was the 714^th home run of his major league career.

 

Interleague Leaderboard – Pt VI – League Leaders – The National League leads the American League in all-time Interleague victories by a slim 1,126 to 1,113 margin. 

 

The Longest Streak – Pt I – The Mets won for the 8^th straight time on Thursday, sweeping Philadelphia to extend their lead over the Phillies to 9.5 games.  While winning for the 9^th time in 10 road games, the Mets also scored in the first inning of all 8 straight wins.  David Wright homered again, his 14^th, and Billy Wagner recorded his second save in the series, also his third of the year against his former teammates.  The Mets are 19 games over .500 and have the best record in baseball at 42-23.  They next host Baltimore and Kris Benson over the weekend. 

 

The Longest Streak – Pt II – Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Washington all lost again on Thursday and head into Interleague play in a four-way tie for the longest current losing streak in the majors at 4 games.  Philly hosts Tampa Bay and the Yankees travel to the Nation’s capitol to play the Nats.  Something will have to break in Atlanta, though, as the Braves welcome the Red Sox to town. 

 

Noteworthy

 

The commissioner’s office moved quickly, suspending Randy Johnson on Thursday for five games for intentionally throwing at Eduardo Perez on Wednesday night in the Yankees 6-1 win over Cleveland.  Unless appealed, the suspension will begin on Friday. 

 

The Red Sox on Thursday traded David Riske to the White Sox in return for Javier Lopez.  Riske adds desired depth to the White Sox bullpen while Lopez gives Boston the left handed specialist they have sought.

 

As expected, the A’s placed Frank Thomas on the DL in advance of Interleague play Thursday.  The Big Hurt, who left the game on Wednesday night with a quad injury, has been battling hamstring problems the last few weeks.  Moneyballer Jeremy Brown was recalled for the third time this season from Sacramento where he was hitting .277 with 6 HR.  Brown did not play in his first two trips to Oakland.  Meanwhile, Esteban Loaiza started and won on Thursday afternoon, hours after being arrested for reckless driving and driving under the influence.  It was Loaiza’s second win since signing in the off-season for $21 million. 

 

Casey Blake went on the DL with a muscle strain in his left side.  Blake, who was leading the league in hitting at .354 as recently as May 24, has just 9 hits in his last 56 at bats (.161) dropping him to .304 overall. 

 

A day after losing his SS job, Juan Castro was traded by Minnesota to the Reds for a minor leaguer. 

 

Snake Bit – Redux – Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick was quoted in an interview Thursday as saying that he did not think that Jason Grimsley was the only Arizona player to have enhanced his performance.  He then went on to suggest that there had been rumors that Luis Gonzalez might have been cheated, though he did not go so far as to accuse his star OF.  Gonzalez has not homered in his last 50 games and has just 1 RBI in his last 51 AB.

 

Trivia Answer – Pt I – Tim Redding has the worst all-time ERA in Interleague play among pitchers with 30 or more IP.  In 40.2 innings, Redding has allowed 45 earned runs on 60 hits to post a 9.96 earned run average. 

 

Trivia Answer – Pt II – Willie Harris has the lowest average among major leaguers with at least 100 IL at bats.  Harris has just 14 hits in 102 at bats to record a .137 batting average in Interleague play.

 

On Deck – Roger Clemens makes his final minor league tune up against the New Orleans Zephyrs on Friday as he prepares to return to the Astros on June 22 against the Twins.  Clemens is 23-12 all-time against the Twins but has not faced them in an Astros uniform.

 

Clemens Interleague Factoids – Clemens has a 3.76 ERA all-time in Interleague action.  His ERA against NL teams while pitching in the AL is 4.06.  His ERA against AL teams while pitching for Houston is 2.21.

 

In the Hole – Other interesting Interleague match-ups over the weekend include Brandon Webb against Kevin Millwood on Friday, as well as Kris Benson facing Pedro Martinez and his former mates in New York on Saturday.  On Sunday, Curt Schilling will go for his 10^th of the year opposed by John Smoltz (4-5).  Tom Glavine goes for career win number 285 against Adam Loewen, who will be gunning for career win number 1. 

 

Getting Ugly – Things got ugly for the PAMF slow pitch softball team as a 9-run 6^th turned a 3-2 lead into an 11-3 deficit.  DN&N reports a 1 for 3 with an RBI at the plate, but overall, a very discouraging night for team PAMF.  Season average - .619 (13 for 21). 

 

Correction – DN&N would like to thank colleague Tony Aubry for pointing out a statistical error in Wednesday’s edition when we reported Cleveland as leading the majors in runs scored.  We’re not sure what went wrong, but we’re blaming sleep depravation for the inaccuracy.  The Blue Jays, reported to be second with 364 runs were actually 1^st with 368, while Tony’s Yanks were second with 366 runs.  Sorry for shortchanging the Bombers, Tony!  And remember, if you see a mistake, or see something else interesting around the league that we have missed, make sure to e-mail us and maybe we’ll use it the next edition of DN&N.  Have a great Interleague weekend!