SOLD! – The sale of the Washington Nationals to a group led by Ted Lerner and his son Mark was finally completed on Monday. The group wired the $450 million sale price to the offices of Major League Baseball, thus finally ending the saga of the wayward former Montreal franchise.  MLB purchased the team in 2002 from then-Expos owner Jeffrey Loria for $120 million, and yes folks, that’s a cool $330 million profit.  The first order of business for the Nationals’ new ownership will be to come to a resolution regarding free agent-OF-to-be Alfonso Soriano.  The Nationals would like to restock the depleted farm system with prospects, something that trading Soriano would go along ways towards doing, but team President Stan Kasten has also stated he would like to have Soriano stay.  Soriano himself reiterated his desire to stay in a recent meeting with Kasten but he also wants a no-trade clause, something Kasten – formerly in charge of both the Braves and Atlanta Hawks – has said he has never given any player.  Soriano turned down a 5-year, $50 million offer in the off-season, but as the July 31 trade deadline approaches, both sides continue to talk with GM Jim Bowden on Monday denying a deal is in place to trade Soriano to the White Sox.

 

Milestones Pt I – Pitching – Despite giving up 7 runs on 10 hits in 6+ innings of work, Greg Maddux beat the Mets on Monday night to earn the 326^th victory of his HOF career. This ties him with Eddie Plank for 12^th on the all-time list, just two behind John Clarkson and just three behind Steve Carlton.  Aramis Ramirez homered in the win and since July 6, the slugger is batting .373 (19 for 51) with 7 HR and 13 RBI (including 6 HR in his last 5 games).  Juan Pierre was 1 for 4 and stole a base and the free-agent-to-be is now batting .380 (41 for 108) since June 25 and is 12/14 in stolen base attempts in July.

 

Meanwhile, in Texas, the Yankees beat the Rangers 6-2 to help move future HOFer Randy Johnson past Red Ruffing into sole possession of 31^st place on the career list with his 274^th all-time win.  Jim Kaat is next up for Johnson with 283 career wins.

 

Milestones Pt II – Hitting – A couple of significant milestones were attained over the weekend.  Steve Finley on Sunday collected the 2,500^th hit of his major league career in the Giants’ loss to San Diego while earlier in the series Mike Piazza collected the 2,000^th hit of his HOF career. 

 

But Alex Rodriguez provided the weekend’s most dramatic milestone moment when he collected both his 2,000^th hit and 450^th home run on one swing of the bat.  The likely future HOFer was just 6 days shy of his 31^st birthday when he hit the home run, making him the youngest player in history to reach that homer plateau, surpassing his former Seattle teammate Ken Griffey Jr. who did it at 31 years and 261 days of age. 

 

Milestone Trivia Question Pt I – Rodriguez hit his historic 450^th home run against A.J. Burnett of the Toronto Blue Jays.  Can you name the pitcher who served up Griffey’s 450^th?

 

Milestone Trivia Question Pt II – Squeaking in just under the wire, Rodriguez also became just the 8^th player in history to record 2,000 hits before his 31^st birthday.  You may know that Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner are the only players in history to have done that before their 30^th birthdays, but can you name the last player before A-Rod to collect his 2,000 hit before his 31^st?

 

Milestone Trivia Question Pt III – When Griffey broke the record Rodriguez now holds it had previously belonged to HOFer Jimmy Foxx who had hit his 450^th career jack 276 days past his 31^st birthday.  Can you name the player who had held that record previous to Foxx? (answers below)

 

Milestones Pt III – Team – The Detroit Tigers on Monday matched a pretty impressive milestone themselves when they scored 5 runs in the first inning of their 9-7 win over Cleveland.  It marked the third straight game the Tigers had scored 5 or more runs in the opening frame and that made them the first team since the 1891 St. Louis Browns to achieve that feat. 

 

Juiced Update – Jose Canseco and the Long Beach Armada continued their season this weekend against the Reno Silver Sox following the Golden Baseball League’s All Star game last Tuesday in which Canseco made his disastrous pitching debut.  Canseco then went down on Friday after just one at bat with an injured back and has not played since as Reno took two of three from the Armada.  Former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bud Smith, he of no-hit fame, got the lone Long Beach win on Saturday, allowing just 2 runs (1 earned) on 3 hits over 7 innings to up his record to 2-4. Smith continues to build up his arm strength following three surgeries to his left shoulder.

 

The Longest Streak Pt I – Smith’s former team went into Monday night’s game in Colorado with the longest current winning streak in the majors at 4 straight.  But Jeff Francis took a perfect game into the 6^th and held St. Louis to just 2 hits as the Rockies snapped that string with a 7-0 win.  Clint Barmes went 2-for-2 for Colorado to extend his hitting streak to 12 straight, and since July 1, the resurgent shortstop is batting .365 (23 for 63) with 4 HR and 9 RBI, hitting safely in 16 of 17 games.  Four teams, the Angels, Mariners, Marlins and Nationals are now all tied for the majors’ longest current win streak at 3 games apiece.   

 

The Longest Streak Pt II – The Dodgers, meanwhile, have lost a major league worst 6 games in a row, as well as 11 of their last 12 and 15 of 21 overall in July to slide past the Rockies into last place in the NL West.  L.A. lost a tough one on Monday night, 7-6 in 11 innings to the Padres, after they had battled back to tie the game with 3 runs in the 8^th off of Scott Linebrink (last two games – 1.2 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 32.34 ERA).  J.D. Drew went 0-for-5 in the loss for L.A. and is now batting just .190 (8-for-42) without a home run and just 4 RBI since July 8.  Similarly Nomar Garciaparra was 0-for-4 and his average has sunk to .327 overall by going just 17 for 79 (.215) with 2 HR and 10 RBI in July.

 

The Longest Streak Pt III – Chase Utley extended his hitting streak to 24 games on Monday night, the longest hitting streak in the majors this year (with apologies to Jimmy Rollins).  Utley’s mark bests the 23-game streak of Edgar Renteria back in April and early May.  He is 41-for-102 (.402) since the streak began on June 23 in Boston.

 

Oh What a Relief! – The Minnesota Twins have continued their resurgence through the month of July (14-6 overall and 10-2 since the AS break) backed not only by solid hitting (team batting average in July of .316, second only to Atlanta), but also by some rather remarkable relief pitching.  For the month, Twins relievers – who aside from combining with Francisco Liriano on Sunday to strike out 17 batters – have thrown a total of 60 innings, allowing just 48 hits and 14 walks while striking out 49 and posting a fine 2.85 ERA.  Pretty darn good numbers to be sure, but if you look even deeper into those numbers, you’ll find Willie Eyre, who has struggled terribly this month, pitching 4.1 innings and allowing 10 runs (all earned) on 12 hits (20.77 ERA). If you subtract his numbers, the rest of the bullpen’s numbers get quite a bit more impressive.  In 55.2 IP without Eyre, the Twins pen has a combined 1.46 ERA for the month of July.  Now that’s what you call relief.

 

Quick Hits

 

Nick Swisher since June 1

29-for-154 (.188) – 6 HR, 14 RBI

Since July 1

9-for-56 (.161)

 

Bobby Crosby since June 1

30-for-148 (.203) – 1 HR, 13 RBI

Since July 1

10-for-65 (.154)

 

Eric Chavez since June 1

20-for-119 (.168) – 3 HR, 8 RBI

Since July 1

6 for 39 (.154) – 1 HR, 1 RBI

 

Chavez hit 8^th in the A’s lineup on Monday night.

 

Antonio Perez – 1-for-3 on Sunday – 7-for-71 for the year (.099)

 

David Ortiz since June 29

30-for-82 (.341) – 12 HR, 24 RBI

 

Manny Ramirez since June 30

29-for-84 (.345) – 6 HR, 20 RBI

 

Arizona’s Luis Gonzalez since July 1

26-for-66 (.394/.444/.682) – 2 HR, 12 RBI

 

Jose Reyes since July 5

7-for-36 (.194)

 

Jon Garland since June 30

4 GS, 28.2 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 25 H, 3 BB, 13 K, 1.26 ERA

 

Orlando Cabrera has reached base safely in 73 of his last 75 games.

 

Milestone Trivia Answer Pt I – Russ Ortiz, then of the Giants, was the pitcher who served up Griffey’s record breaking 450^th home run on August 9, 2001.  ~ sub trivial note pt i ~ In that same game, Barry Bonds hit the 49^th of his single season record breaking 73 home runs that season.

 

Milestone Trivia Answer Pt II – HOFer Robin Yount was the last player before A-Rod to reach 2,000 hits before his 31^st birthday, which he did back on September 6, 1986, just 9 days shy of that milestone day.  He achieved the feat with a 7^th inning single off of Don Schulze of the Indians.  ~ sub trivial note pt ii ~ September 6, 1986 also marked the last game of George Foster’s major league career (pinch hit walk).

 

Milestone Trivia Answer Pt III – DN&N would be very disappointed if you got this one wrong.  Before Jimmy Foxx, the player who reached 450 home runs the quickest was also the very first player ever to reach that mark.  The Sultan of Swat himself, Babe Ruth, hit his 450^th career home run 159 days after his 33^rd birthday against the Indians on July 18, 1928. ~ sub trivial note pt iii ~ July 18, 1928 was also the same day that Fort Wayne of the Central (Ind) League traded future HOFer Chuck Klein to the Phillies for Harvey MacDonald in one of the most lopsided trades in recorded history (big thanks to retrosheet.org for those sub trivial notes).

 

On Deck – Tuesday’s marquee match-up takes pace in Chicago as the Twins and White Sox continue their big showdown with Johan Santana (11-5, 3.00) going up against Jose Contreras (9-2, 3.43).  Santana has been struggling slightly in July, posting a 4.91 ERA in 4 starts after putting up a 1.05 mark in June while not allowing more than one unearned run in any of his 6 starts.  Contreras meanwhile has lost his last two straight decisions after having won his previous 17 in a row, and has won only twice overall since June 17.  He has faced Minnesota once this season back in April and allowed just 2 runs in 8 innings to get the win.  Santana has faced the White Sox twice this year and is 1-1 with a 1.93 ERA.

Questions or comments for Richard? Richard Van Zandt is a staff writer for Baseball Evolution who lives in San Francisco, California. You can reach him at richard@baseballevolution.com.