The Longest Streak Pt Ia – Brad Hawpe hit his 17^th home run of the season and drove home the go ahead run in the 9^th as the Rockies snapped the Dodgers’ 11-game winning streak on Wednesday with a 3-1 win in L.A.  Jeff Francis allowed just 1 run in 7 1/3 IP, but got a no-decision as the game remained tied at one apiece until Hawpe’s single off of Takashi Saito gave the Rockies the advantage.  The win streak was the Dodgers’ longest since they won 11-in-a-row during the 1993 season.  They finished that year 81-81. 

 

The Longest Streak Pt Ib – The Dodgers’ loss leaves the New York Mets with the longest current winning streak in the majors.  Pedro Martinez allowed just 2 runs on 3 hits as the Mets beat San Diego to win their fourth straight.  The win, Martinez’ 9^th of the year, was the 206^th of his career, tying him with Curt Schilling for 97^th all-time.  The two runs he allowed came on solo home runs by Mike Piazza, giving the catcher 415 in his career, and leap-frogging him past Darrell Evans for 39^th all-time.

 

The Longest Streak Pt IIa – In a matinee contest in Oakland, Carlos Lee’s first home run as a Ranger gave Texas the only run they would need to end their four game losing streak.  However, just to be sure they went out and scored 13 more, putting an abrupt end to the A’s six game winning streak.  Lee’s HR was one of five in the game the Rangers hit, with four of those coming off of Barry Zito, who gave up 6 runs in 5 innings to get the loss.  Vincente Padilla threw 7 scoreless innings in the 14-0 stomping of Oakland to up his record to 12-7.  Meanwhile, the Cleveland Indians, backed by a complete game shutout from Jake Westbrook (9-7, 4.18) and three hits from Shin-Soo Choo (batting .387 with 2 HR and 9 RBI for the Tribe), broke their four game slide by beating the Angels 4-0.

 

The Longest Streak Pt IIb – Countdown to 3,000 – Texas and Cleveland winning on Wednesday left two new teams as holders of the longest current losing streak in the majors.  In Houston, the Astros’ 14-1 thumping of Pittsburgh extended the Pirates’ losing streak to 4 straight games.  The Astros hit six home runs in the game to support Roy Oswalt, who allowed just 1 run on 4 hits in 6 innings to get his 9^th win of the year.  Oswalt hit one of the six home runs himself, his first career HR, while Aubrey Huff hit two and Craig Biggio hit his 16^th of the year.  Biggio was 2-for-4 in the win, leaving him 97 hits shy of 3,000 for his career.  Meanwhile, in Kansas City, the Royals stunned the Red Sox with a remarkable come-from-behind win in the 9^th against Jonathan Papelbon to extend the BoSox’ losing streak to four straight, tied with Pittsburgh for the longest current losing streak in the majors.  Mike Sweeney, playing in his second game since returning from the DL, drove home Mark Grudzielanek to hand Papelbon his 5^th blown save of the year and give KC it’s first walk-off win of the season.  Papelbon’s ERA rose to 0.94 in the loss. 

 

The Longest Streak Pt III – Chasing DiMaggio – Manny Ramirez hit a two-run home run in the first inning of Wednesday’s loss to extend his career best hitting streak to 24 straight games.  Ramirez was 2-for-3 on the game and he is now batting .398 (35-for-88) with 8 HR and 26 RBI during the streak which is now tied with Nomar Garciaparra’s 1998 24-gamer for 11^th longest in Red Sox history.  Dom DiMaggio set the team record in 1949 when he hit safely in 34 straight.  Against Thursday’s starter Runelvys Hernandez, Ramirez is 1-for-3 lifetime. 

 

Quick Hits

 

In his 12 wins this season, opponents are batting .186 against Jason Marquis in the first inning.  In his 10 losses, hitters are batting .486 in the opening frame.  Overall he is getting hit at a .316 clip in the first inning this season.

 

Tony Gwynn Jr. was optioned back to Nashville to make room for Jose Capellan who was activated on Wednesday.  Gwynn in his first stint at the big league level went 7-for-15 (.467), including 4-for-10 as a pinch hitter. 

 

Tomas Perez went 10-for-13 in a 3-game stretch from July 25-30 and has now followed that up by going 0-for-his-last-11. 

 

Mark Teixeira is now slugging .652 since the all-star break. 

 

Ryne Sandberg’s time in the top 100 all-time in hits came to an end on Wednesday as the HOFer was passed on the career list by Ken Griffey Jr. who collected the 2,387^th hit of his HOF-worthy career in the Wild Card leading Reds come-from-behind win over St. Louis. 

 

On Deck – Thursday’s marquee match up pits one of the game’s bright young stars going up against one of the game’s greatest ever.  Pittsburgh’s 24-year-old Tom Gorzelanny (2-2, 4.41) will make his seventh start of the season, and 8^th of his career, against 44-year-old Roger Clemens (3-4, 2.32) who will be making the 681^st start of his career, and 10^th of the season.  Gorzelanny has improved steadily in each of his last three starts, culminating in a strong outing against the Cubs in which the lefty pitched 8 scoreless innings while allowing just 2 hits to record his second career win.  His ERA in his last three starts is 1.71.  Clemens, meanwhile, goes for the 345^th win of his major league career having allowed no more than 3 ER in any of 9 starts this year.  He is 3-1 with a 3.35 ERA in six previous career starts against the Pirates.

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.