The Grand Re-Launching – The Astros and Twins did not disappoint on Thursday night at Minute Maid Field as Roger Clemens made his much anticipated return to Houston and pitched 5 solid innings, allowing 6 hits and 2 runs while walking 2 and striking out 4.  After the first batter in the game, Luis Castillo, reached on an error by Clemens himself, the Rocket showed the stuff that won him 7 Cy Young awards and proceeded to wipe Castillo out on a double play.  It was vintage Clemens, however he would labor, throwing 100 pitches (59 strikes) in his five innings, and he missed getting the 342^nd win of his storied career, instead getting tagged with his 173^rd career loss.  Minnesota phenom Francisco Liriano simply out-pitched the future HOFer to up his record to 7-1 and drop his ERA to 2.17.  Liriano allowed just 2 runs on 4 hits in 8 innings and Joe Nathan made Giants fans everywhere cringe a little further by collecting his 11^th save with a scoreless 9^th as Minnesota spoiled the return of the Rocket and won the game 4-2.

 

The Longest Streak Pt I – If you were to ask DN&N why we love baseball so much, we would simply point to Thursday night’s series finale on the South Side between the White Sox and the Cardinals for the answer. After watching Chicago belt out 40 hits and score 33 runs in the first two games of this set, we watched Anthony Reyes – just recalled earlier in the day to make the start – hold the Sox to just one hit all night long, carrying a no-hitter into the 7^th inning.  Ironically though, the one hit was all Chicago needed to extend their winning streak to seven, the longest current streak in the majors (Boston was off on Thursday and their WS remains at 6 games).  Jim Thome’s 49^th career Interleague home run in the 7^th broke up the no-no and the scoreless tie, and then Freddy Garcia and Bobby Jenks made sure it held up.  Garcia tossed 8 shutout innings, and allowed just 4 hits himself to earn his 9^th win of the season.  With the 8 zeros he put up, Garcia also moved to within a hair of Joel Pineiro for the all-time best ERA in IL play (see below). 

 

The Longest Streak Pt II – The Braves’ bullpen cost them again on Thursday, and this time it led to their 10^th straight loss, the longest current losing streak in baseball, and their longest since 1988 when they began that year 0-10.  A.J. Burnett threw well for the Jays in his return from the DL – 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 7 K – and B.J. Ryan survived 3 ninth inning hits to earn his 20^th save and lower his ERA to 0.49.  Chad Paronto and Mike Remlinger combined to allow two 8^th inning runs as the Blue Jays came from behind to win 3-2 and send the Braves to their 20^th loss in their last 22 games. 

 

Around the Horn – Thursday

 

Aside from the pitching of Anthony Reyes, the biggest positive for St. Louis in the loss to the Sox, was the return of their star slugger Albert Pujols to the line up.  The Cardinals managed to go 8-7 in Pujols’ absence and despite the Cards current three game losing streak, St. Louis is 4 games up on Cincinnati in the Central.  Pujols went 0 for 4 in his first action since June 3^rd.

 

Pedro Martinez got himself back on track, allowing just 2 runs on 2 hits in six innings to beat the Reds and win for just the second time since April.  He was backed by David Wright, who continued his hot hitting in June by hitting his 8^th and 9^th home runs this month.  He now has 25 RBI in June to go with a .378 batting average.  Jose Reyes had two more hits a day after cycling.

 

Scott Kazmir won his 9^th game of the year as Tampa improved its record in Interleague play to 8-1 and sent the reeling Diamondbacks into last place in the NL West with their 15^th loss in their last 17 games.  Kazmir allowed just 3 hits and 1 run in 7 2/3 innings in upping his record to 9-4 and dropping his ERA to 3.21.

 

The Royals poured on the hitting, scoring 15 runs as they extended their winning streak to a season high 4 games and sent the Pirates to their 8^th straight setback.  Joey Gathright was 0 for 2 a day after going 2 for 3 in his Royals debut. 

 

Down to their last out, Joe Borchard and Wes Helms hit back to back pinch hit homers to send it into extras as the Marlins scored 7 runs in the 9^th and 10 innings to win a wild one with Baltimore, 8-5.  Even more remarkable than that feat, however, was the way the Fish won the game in the 10^th.  After Hanley Ramirez opened the frame with a bunt single, Todd Williams missed too close to the plate as he tried to intentionally walk Miguel Cabrera, and the young slugger made him pay with the hit that brought home Ramirez and gave Florida the lead.  In the loss, Chris Ray blew his first save for the O’s in 19 opportunities.

 

To Omaha and Beyond – Jonah Nickerson threw 7 2/3 shutout innings on only 2 days of rest to push Oregon State past Rice 2-0 and send the Beavers to the College World Series Championship against North Carolina.  OSU shut out the Owls for the second consecutive night to set up a best of three finals showdown with the Tar Heels beginning Saturday night in Omaha.

 

The Amazing Gabe Kapler – When Gabe Kapler first reached the major leagues back in 1998, the strapping young OF with bulging muscles (listed at 6’2”, 210 pounds) was billed as the next coming of Mark McGwire (6’5”, 215 lbs).  While he didn’t homer in his first 25 AB in a brief September audition that fall, he did hit 18 the following year in 416 AB, an average of one every 23.11 trips to the plate.  Not quite reminiscent of the 49 that Big Mac hit (in 557 AB) in his rookie season with Oakland but at 24, Kapler had shown some promise of a bright future hitting home runs in the big leagues.

 

His sophomore season, he tailed off to just 14 round trippers in 444 AB (1/31.71) though he did hit .302, and then 17 more long balls the following year (483 AB – 1/28.41) gave him a total of 49 in 1,368 AB through three full seasons, a rate of 1 every 27.91 times at bat.  Again, not quite a McGwire-esque output, but hardly Duane Kuiper-like, either. 

 

Since that time however, Kapler has hit just 13 more HR in 934 at bats.  That meager output averages out to a rate of one HR every 71.85 at bats.  He even hit just 2 HR in 186 at bats while playing for Colorado in ’02 and ’03 (and slugging just .376).  He has not homered in his last 84 at bats since August 7, 2005 when he hit the 62^nd home run of his career in his 2,218^th big league at bat (1 per every 35.77 AB).  In 1998, McGwire hit his 62^nd home run in his 451^st at bat (1 per every 7.27 AB).  His career numbers (62 big league jacks in 2,302 career at bats / 1 per every 37.12 AB) more closely resemble the career numbers of Danny Bautista (62 HR in 2,517 AB) than those of the man who once chased the ghosts of Ruth and Maris.  Bautista weighed in at 5’11” and 170 pounds.

 

To be fair to him, though, Kapler (4 for 7 since returning June 16 from last season’s ruptured Achilles tendon) has a solid reputation in the Sox clubhouse and has proven himself to be a serviceable backup major league player, capable of playing all three OF positions.  It’s just that DN&N has long wondered about Gabe, such a muscular looking man that once held such promise.  To borrow from a long forgotten 80’s catch phrase, we ask you the question…Where’s the beef?

 

Career Interleague Leaderboard – Active Players – Through Thursday 6/22

 

Batting Average (min 350 AB)

1. Michael Young .361 (379 AB)

2. Darin Erstad .340 (583 AB)

3. Mike Piazza .340 (523 AB)

 

Earned Run Average (min 130 IP)

1. Joel Pineiro 2.278 (130.1 IP)

2. Freddy Garcia 2.284 (216.2 IP)

3. Jamie Moyer 2.56 (182.1 IP)

 

Hits

1. Derek Jeter 214

2. Johnny Damon 201

3. Darin Erstad 198

 

Wins

1t. Greg Maddux 19

1t. Aaron Sele 19

3t.Mike Mussina 18

3t.Freddy Garcia 18

 

Home Runs

1. Jim Thome 49

2. Carlos Delgado 41

3. Manny Ramirez 39

 

Saves

1. Mariano Rivera 45

2. Trevor Hoffman 35

3. Armando Benitez 29

(Troy Percival, still active but injured and unlikely to play ever again has 34)

 

RBI

1. Carlos Delgado 130

2. Jim Thome 118

3. Manny Ramirez 114

 

On Deck – Jose Contreras (7-0) on Friday night looks to extend the White Sox winning streak to 8 games and prolong his own streak of 15 consecutive winning decisions while taking on Andy Pettitte (6-7) and the Astros in Chicago.  Tom Glavine (10-2) meanwhile goes for his league leading 11^th win – and the 286^th of his career – in Toronto.  He’s matched up against Casey Janssen (5-5 – 12 ER in 6.1 IP over his last 2 starts).  Perhaps Friday’s most intriguing match-up pits the reigning NL Cy Young award winner Chris Carpenter (6-3) against the Tigers impressive rookie Justin Verlander (8-4) in Detroit.

 

On Saturday, Curt Schilling (9-2) takes on his former team in Boston going for win number 10, with Brett Myers (5-3) on the hill going for the Phillies.  Also, Kenny Rogers (10-3) will take the mound pitching for his 11^th of the year against Jeff Suppan (6-4) and the Cardinals.  

 

And finally, on Sunday, the D-Train (4-6) will go to New York to face the slumping Mike Mussina (8-3) in Willis’ first appearance at Yankee Stadium since his relief outing in game 1 of the 2003 World Series. 

 

Team PAMF – The Song Remains The Same – After another loss, things are looking mighty bleak for the PAMF slow pitch softball team.  DN&N reports a 1 for 3 at the plate with a heartbreakingly long drive to left that was caught for the game ending out.  In the field, however, we can report the defensive play of the game which came on a slicing, sinking line drive to right that held up long just enough to be caught and turned into a rather nifty inning ending double play when the runner on first strayed a bit too far off the bag.

 

It was a wild, wonderful day of baseball on Thursday and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.  Remember if you see something that you find interesting or unusual, we want to know about it.  E-mail us here and let us know your interesting tidbit or factoid and we’ll use it in the next DN&N.  Enjoy a wonderful weekend of baseball and we’ll see you back next week!