The Longest Streak Pt I – Boston matched their third longest winning streak in club history as Curt Schilling out-dueled Tom Glavine in the first Fenway matchup of 200+ game winners since 1978 (Luis Tiant vs. Jim Palmer).  Schilling tossed 7 strong innings, surrendering just Carlos Beltran’s two run HR to earn his 10^th win of the year. David Ortiz hit the 200^th home run of his career to help extend the Sox’ winning streak to 12 games, now three games shy of the club record of 15 straight, set back in 1946.  Jonathan Papelbon got back on the horse and pitched a perfect ninth for his 24^th save of the year. Coco Crisp made a game saving catch in the 8th as Boston also ran their Interleague record to 14-1.  For the Mets, this is the first time this season that they have lost 3 straight games.  On Friday, Jason Johnson will make his first start for the Sox trying to extend the winning streak to a baker’s dozen.  He will be opposed by no less than Dontrelle Willis.

 

The Longest Streak Pt II a – 13 was enough for Pittsburgh, as the Pirates finally snapped their franchise record losing streak on Thursday, bouncing back from Jim Thome’s game tying, pinch hit home run in the 8^th inning to win on a Freddy Sanchez walk-off jack leading off the bottom of the 9^th.  Sanchez, dissed by DN&N in our NL All-Star picks on Tuesday, collected four hits to raise his now league leading average to .363, 1 point higher than Nomar Garciaparra’s .362.  Jose Contreras kept his streak of 16 consecutive winning decisions alive as he earned a no-decision despite allowing a very un-All-Star-like 6 runs on 12 hits in 5 1/3 innings as the White Sox record in IL play dropped to 12-3.

 

The Longest Streak Pt II b – Meanwhile, Omar Vizquel delivered an All Star worthy performance both in the field and at the plate. His 8^th inning hit brought home the go-ahead run to help Giants finish off a 3-game sweep of the Rangers with a 2-1 win on Thursday.  With closer Armando Benitez unavailable due to a sore elbow, Jeremy Accardo earned his 3^rd career save, and second of the series. The Rangers losing streak hit 5 games, the longest current losing streak in the majors.  Michael Young, the all-time IL batting leader at .355 (142 for 400), went 0 for 3 in the game, 2 for 9 in the series and is just 3 for 16 (.188) during the club’s current losing stretch.

 

On Deck – Speaking of the longest streak, Miguel Tejada’s 1,000^th consecutive major league game highlights what’s on deck for the weekend.  The O’s shortstop has not missed a game since May 31, 2000 while playing for Oakland, and currently has the 7^th longest consecutive games played streak in major league history.  Joe Sewell is next up on the list at 1,103 games followed in order by: Billy Williams (1,117), Steve Garvey (1,207), Everett Scott (1,307), Lou Gehrig (2,130) and of course, former Oriole great Cal Ripkin Jr., who played the last of his 2,632 consecutive games on September 19, 1998.

 

Thursday Notables

 

Ken Griffey homered for the fourth straight game, the 16^th time this season and the 552^nd time in his career, helping the Reds to beat KC 6-5.  It was also the 40^th of his career in IL play, moving him past Barry Bonds into sole possession of 5^th place on the all-time list (one behind Manny Ramirez and Rafael Palmeiro).  Bobby Keppel, meanwhile, became the 353^rd pitcher to give up a HR to Griffey.

 

The A’s saw Huston Street blow his 6^th save of the year, and second in a row, yet persevered to win the game in 14 innings when pinch hitter Antonio Perez drew a game winning bases loaded walk.  Perez came into the AB 4 for 49 (.082) on the year with 24 strikeouts.  Interestingly, though, 3 of his 4 hits have been for extra bases (2 DBL, 1 HR). 

 

Team PAMF – Clinging somehow to some small playoff hope, team PAMF pulled out a big win on Thursday.  A win next week and we might just be able to get in there, but don’t ask me how.  A 5-3 lead slipped away in the 6^th before a 6-run 7^th put it away for an 11-5 victory.  Yours truly put up a 2 for 3 with an RBI and a walk (yes, me taking a walk in softball, hard to believe) to raise the season average to .593 (16 for 27) with 9 RBI. 

 

Before I get to my American League All-Star picks, I want to let you know that DN&N will be off until next Thursday.  Of course we’ve got the upcoming 4^th of July holiday to celebrate and I certainly want to wish everyone the best and safest holiday possible.  But also I want to wish my wife a very happy birthday.  We will celebrate the occasion on Sunday with a pre-celebratory dinner on Saturday at La Fondue and I’ll be using the time off to take care of her right.  I hope you all have a great weekend and a happy 4^th of July and we’ll see you back next Thursday.  Carla, I love you and Happy Birthday!!!  Now onto the AL pitchers!

 

DN&N’s American League All-Stars – Pitchers

 

No matter which way you slice this pie, somebody is getting left out.  In fact, several somebody’s, actually.  Such is the depth of the American League when it comes to pitching in 2006.  As I did with the NL, I am taking 12 pitchers – 8 starters and 4 relievers – one less than was selected last year.  I feel that for one 9 inning game, a team ought to be able to get by with 12 pitchers, so I instead went with the extra position player (and yes, I still left Ryan Howard out).  However, as tough as some of the selections in the position player category were, this category was by far the toughest to choose from.  Even if I’d selected 13 pitchers, you wouldn’t be able to take every deserving pitcher.  One thing is absolutely certain though and that is that there is no shortage of excellent AL pitching candidates for this season’s mid-summer classic in Pittsburgh. 

 

Starting Pitchers (All statistics through 6/29)

Pitcher	Tm	W	L	ERA	IP	H	ER	BB	K	WHIP	K/9	H/9	BB/9	K/BB	BAA	RS
Santana*	Min	9	4	2.59	118.1	94	34	20	124	0.96	9.45	7.16	1.52	6.20	0.216	4.94
Liriano	Min	8	1	2.21	73.1	56	18	19	82	1.02	10.10	6.89	2.34	4.32	0.212	5.77
Halladay	Tor	9	2	3.07	108.1	101	37	13	57	1.05	4.75	8.41	1.08	4.38	0.250	6.48
Mussina	NYY	9	3	3.28	112.1	99	41	22	100	1.08	8.03	7.95	1.77	4.55	0.231	6.09
Schilling	Bos	9	2	3.61	107.1	103	43	13	96	1.08	8.07	8.66	1.09	7.38	0.252	6.20
Contreras	ChW	8	0	3.15	91.1	75	32	25	64	1.09	6.32	7.41	2.47	2.56	0.221	6.01
Lackey	LAA	5	5	3.31	106.0	81	39	37	77	1.11	6.54	6.88	3.14	2.08	0.209	5.18
Rogers	Det	10	3	3.44	104.2	94	40	25	59	1.14	5.10	8.12	2.16	2.36	0.243	6.54
Bonderman	Det	7	4	3.65	106.0	94	43	29	102	1.16	8.66	7.98	2.46	3.52	0.235	4.16
Beckett	Bos	10	3	4.64	97.0	83	50	31	82	1.18	7.61	7.70	2.88	2.65	0.226	7.52
Verlander	Det	10	4	3.13	103.2	94	36	31	65	1.21	5.67	8.20	2.70	2.10	0.248	6.68
Buehrle	ChW	9	4	3.22	111.2	112	40	28	47	1.25	3.80	9.06	2.27	1.68	0.262	5.88
Johnson	NYY	9	6	4.84	100.1	95	54	33	85	1.28	7.64	8.54	2.97	2.58	0.248	8.07
Robertson	Det	8	3	3.14	100.1	94	35	36	70	1.30	6.29	8.45	3.24	1.94	0.251	5.65
Benson	Bal	9	5	4.21	104.2	100	49	37	49	1.31	4.23	8.64	3.20	1.32	0.258	6.19
Zito	Oak	8	4	3.46	109.1	93	42	51	85	1.32	7.01	7.67	4.21	1.67	0.237	4.61
Kazmir	TB	9	5	3.59	100.1	99	40	38	108	1.34	9.71	8.90	3.42	2.84	0.254	4.49
Garcia	ChW	10	4	4.65	102.2	112	53	26	60	1.34	5.28	9.86	2.29	2.31	0.274	6.40

 

Relief Pitchers (All statistics through 6/29)

Pitcher	Tm	W	L	ERA	IP	H	ER	BB	K	WHIP	K/9	H/9	BB/9	K/BB	BAA	SV	BS
Ryan	Tor	1	0	0.47	38.0	17	2	8	45	0.66	10.66	4.03	1.89	5.63	0.138	21	1
Papelbon	Bos	2	1	0.46	39.1	22	2	6	41	0.71	9.44	5.06	1.38	6.83	0.159	23	2
Nathan	Min	5	0	1.91	33.0	21	7	4	47	0.76	12.82	5.73	1.09	11.75	0.176	13	1
Street	Oak	1	3	3.74	33.2	25	14	5	29	0.89	7.86	6.78	1.36	5.80	0.198	18	5
Otsuka	Tex	2	3	2.38	34.0	27	9	4	28	0.91	7.41	7.15	1.06	7.00	0.221	15	2
Rivera	NYY	4	4	1.88	43.0	33	9