Chasing Mr. October – Ken Griffey belted career home run number 556 on Thursday in the Reds’ 8-4 win over Houston, helping to extend the Reds lead in the Wild Card race to 2 ½ games and leaving Junior just 7 home runs shy of Reggie Jackson for 10^th on the all-time list. Griffey hit a two-run shot off of Taylor Buchholz in the Reds 3-run 1^st to help set the tone for the night and Adam Dunn continued his blazing-hot stretch with three more hits, including his 31^st home run to extend his career best hitting streak to 7 straight games. Despite the home run for Griffey, he is batting just .173 (14-for-81) in July. Dunn however, has not only hit safely in his last 7 straight at bats but with two walks Thursday, he has reached base safely in 9 straight plate appearances. Since July 3, Dunn is batting .407 (33-for-81) with 5 HR and 22 RBI and has even stolen three bases (and struck out 20 times…shhhh).

 

The Longest Streak Pt I – Alfonso Soriano, now and through Monday’s trade deadline playing in possibly his last game as a National, hit his 7^th leadoff jack of the season – and 21^st of his career – to help propel Washington past the Giants and extend their win streak to 6 straight games, the longest current streak in the majors. The home run was Soriano’s 32^nd overall on the year. Rookie Ryan Zimmerman hit a two-run shot for Washington in the win, his 13^th, but it was Nick Johnson’s two-out, two-run 8^th inning single that broke the game open and gave the Nats the lead they would not relinquish. Livan Hernandez, also rumored to be on the block, upped his stock with 7 strong innings and picked up the win as the Nats survived two home runs by Eliezer Alfonzo. His two-run 9^th inning shot off of closer Chad Cordero pulled the Giants to within a run. The Giants’ rookie catcher is now batting .301 (37-for-123) with 9 HR and 22 RBI since being recalled after a series of concussions put Mike Matheny on the DL in early June. For San Francisco, it was their fourth straight loss since briefly capturing first place in the NL West, tying them with Texas for the second-longest losing streak in the majors behind only…

 

The Longest Streak Pt II – … the Dodgers, who have lost 8 straight games, giving them possession of the longest losing streak in the majors. L.A. did not play on Thursday and rookie Chad Billingsley (1-3, 4.26) will take the mound today as they try to end that slide against baseball’s hottest team. Tony Armas Jr. (7-5, 4.33) will go for the Nats.

 

The Longest Streak Pt III – Baseball’s hottest hitter, Chase Utley, extended his hitting streak to 27 games on Thursday with a fifth inning base hit off of Claudio Vargas in the Phillies 5-2 win over Arizona. The streak is the longest in the majors this year, and tied Utley with Billy Hamilton for the third-longest hitting streak in franchise history. Hamilton set the team mark in 1894 which Ed Delahanty then broke in 1899 by hitting safely in 31 straight. Jimmy Rollins now holds the club mark with his 38-game streak that began last season with his final 36 games and ended this year after his first two. Utley is now batting .402 (47-for-117) since the streak began.

 

Back-to-Back Jack! – The Cubs hit back-to-back home runs on Thursday not only for the fourth time this season but also for the fourth time in a week. Todd Walker and Michael Barrett turned the trick against Jeff Weaver and the Cards, Aramis Ramirez and Phil Nevin did it against New York on Tuesday, and Ramirez and Jacque Jones did it to the Mets on Monday. Last Thursday, Barrett and Ramirez got the trend started with back-to-back jacks against the Astros.

 

Quick Hits

 

Mike Lieberthal broke a streak of 160 AB without a home run dating back to September 10, 2005, with his first of the year off of Vargas in the Phillies’ win.

 

Luis Gonzalez continued his recent upswing with his 10^th HR of the season and his 5^th in his last 13 games. He is batting .461 (24-for-52) during that stretch.

 

Scott Olsen is 7-1 with a 2.19 ERA and has not allowed more than 3 runs in any of his 11 starts since May 29^th. His ERA in his first 8 starts before that date was 6.64.

 

Rich Hill is 0-4 with a 9.53 ERA (22.2 IP, 29 H, 24 R, 24 ER, 18 BB, 12 K). Note to Hill, see above.

 

Josh Willingham is batting .210 (17-for-81) with 2 HR and 8 RBI since June 27.

 

Mike Piazza is batting .442 (23-for-52) with 5 HR and 14 RBI since July 4. His season average is .304.

 

Fernando Tatis had two hits and an RBI on Thursday. His third inning single was his first major league hit since June 13, 2003 against Keith Folke, then of Oakland.

 

Free Swinger Update Pt I – It’s time once again to check in our favorite free swinger, Jeff Francoeur. Despite his 20 HR and 71 RBI, last season’s ROY runner up has been struggling nearly all year at the plate and DN&N thinks his offensive troubles can be directly tied to his lack of patience at the plate. He is batting .261 for the year, but his OBP is a mere .285 as the ultimate free swinger has drawn just 9 bases on balls in 437 total plate appearances. He thrives when he sees a pitch he likes early (he’s batting .330 – 29-for-88 – when swinging at the first pitch) or when he gets ahead in the count (.311, 37-for-119) but he struggles badly when he falls behind (.188, 26-for-138 with 0 BB). Francoeur’s OBP is the fifth worst in the majors among hitters who qualify, and his 419 AB are the most of any player with less than 10 walks.

 

Free Swinger Update Pt II – While Francoeur by far has the most AB without double digits in walks, we wondered who else had an itchy trigger finger at the plate. Among all players with less than 10 walks, Juan Uribe at 302 has the second most AB with less than 10 walks (9). Johnny Estrada has drawn 8 walks in 282 AB and Miguel Olivo has 5 BB in 240 AB.

 

Free Swinger Update Pt III – Francoeur has been averaging a walk once every 46.56 AB and we wondered how that ranked him among free swingers around the league. What we found was that while he was walking at a strikingly low rate, it wasn’t the worst rate in the majors; in fact it was only 3rd. Among hitters with less than 10 walks and a minimum of 150 AB, Neifi Perez ranks as the toughest batter to walk, having drawn just 4 walks in 195 AB, a rate of one every 48.75 times at bat. Second on this list is Miguel Olivo who has drawn just 5 walks in 240 AB, once every 48 at bats. However, lowering the bar just tad to 140 AB finds even Shane Costa (3 BB in 146 AB, 1 every 48.67 AB) and Todd Hollandsworth (3 in 144, 1 every 48) sliding in ahead of our favorite free swinger.

 

Free Swinger Update Pt IV – Francoeur went 132 at bats this season before drawing a walk after beginning his career last season by going 127 AB without a free pass. With that in mind we wondered who has now come to the plate the most often this year without drawing a walk. To that end, we found Minnesota backup catcher Mike Redmond – signed Thursday to a two-year extension – who has batted 114 times this season without drawing a single walk. The only other player with at least 100 AB without a walk is the Tigers backup catcher Vance Wilson, who has an even 100 AB without taking a free pass. Robb Quinlan gets an (dis-)honorable mention with his 1 free pass in 133 at bats on the year.

 

Free Swinger Update Pt V – Francoeur’s rank in OBP (172 out of 176) has DN&N wondering who has got enough AB to qualify that is actually getting on base less frequently. That distinction is held by a quartet of shortstops, led by Uribe, who with his 9 walks in 302 AB has a .270 on-base percentage. Next up between Uribe and Francoeur are Ronny Cedeno at .272, Angel Berroa at .273 and Clint Barmes at .274.

 

On Deck – The game DN&N is most eagerly anticipating for Friday will take place in San Jose between the Giants’ class-A ball club and the Visalia Oaks, Tampa Bay’s High-A team. Gregorio Martinez (6-6, 3.83) gets the ball for the Giants while Jonathan Barratt (5-3, 3.50 – 18 K, 2 BB in his last 11 IP) will go for the Oaks. DN&N will be on hand to personally check out the Giants future closer Brian Anderson, who leads all minor leaguers in saves with 29 (in 29 opportunities). Anderson has appeared in 41 games this year and has posted a 1.27 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP. San Jose pitchers will have their hands full with Visalia’s big sluggers Reid Brignac (.315/.371/.540, 19 HR, 72 RBI) and Patrick Breen (.286/.391/.546, 21 HR, 63 RBI), but the Oaks player DN&N is most excited to see is Evan Longoria, the 3^rd overall pick in this year’s amateur draft. Longoria began his professional career with the Hudson Valley Renegades, playing in 8 games and batting .424 (14-for-33) with 4 HR and 11 RBI before quickly getting promoted to Visalia where he has been putting up some impressive numbers as well. In his first 23 games there, covering 89 at bats, he is batting .371/.453/.708 with 8 HR and 23 RBI while in the field, the college 3B turned SS has made just 2 errors in his first 31 professional games.

 

Have a great weekend everybody and if you have a chance to get out to a game, any game, do it and enjoy! See you back on Tuesday.

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.