Big Papi Sidelined – Sox Ship Continues to Sink

 

The Red Sox season continued to disintegrate on Monday as the team announced that David Ortiz would be sidelined indefinitely with an irregular heartbeat.  After suffering a recurrence of the problem that hospitalized him overnight on August 19 during the Boston Massacre, he was sent back to Boston to undergo further tests to determine the cause of the problem.  Without Big Papi or Manny Ramirez in the lineup, the Sox were pounded by the A’s 9-0 in Oakland to drop 7 full games behind the Yankees and 6 behind Minnesota in the Wild Card.  The A’s were backed by 7 shutout innings from Esteban Loaiza and home runs by Adam Melhuse, Nick Swisher and Frank Thomas.  For Thomas, his 28^th HR of the year and 476^th of his career moved him past Willie Stargell and Stan Musial on the all-time list.  The loss was Boston’s fourth in a row. 

 

Notable Roster Transaction Pt I – Detroit on Sunday recalled their top pick in this year’s amateur draft, Andrew Miller, to fill the role of second lefty in Tigers’ pen.  The 6’6” hurler made three relief appearances at Class-A Lakeland, pitching 5 scoreless innings and two hits and 1 walk while striking out 9.  His fourth professional appearance could be in Yankee Stadium tonight.

 

Notable Roster Transaction Pt II – Miller will be playing with Dmitri Young, brother of Delmon, who was the first player selected in the 2003 draft.  On Monday, Delmon Young was summoned to the big leagues to replace the injured Jonny Gomes on the Tampa Bay roster.  Delmon Young, you’ll remember, was suspended for 50 games earlier this year for throwing a bat at an umpire while playing for Durham.  He is expected to suit up in uniform tonight in Chicago.

 

To Williamsport and Beyond…

 

Congratulations to the boys from Columbus, GA, who beat the little leaguers from Kawaguchi City in Japan to win the Little League World Series.  Backed by solid pitching from Kyle Carter – 3 hits, 11 K in a complete game effort – and a two-run home run from Cody Walker, the kids from Columbus made it two in a row from different U.S. cities for the first time since ’81-’82.  DN&N, however, would like to express appreciation for the effort of Japanese catcher Ryoya Koike in blocking Carter off the plate after Carter had run through a stop sign.  Carter never got within two feet of home as Koike gave a Mike Scioscia-like example in protecting the dish.

 

Quick Hits

 

Clint Barmes spiked his average back up to .240 on August 4, but since then has gone just 12-for-75 (.160), including 0-for-his-last-18, to drop back down to .226. 

 

Gary Bennett is red hot filling in for the injured Yadier Molina, going 11-for-his-last-18 (.611) with 4 HR and 9 RBI including his walk-slam on Sunday, his second walk-off hit in two days.

 

Alex Rodriguez is 4-for-his-last-28 (.143) with 1 extra-base hit (HR), two RBI, 2 BB and 16 K prompting Reggie Jackson to say, “New York’s stuck with him and he’s stuck with New York.”

 

Joe Borchard is batting .182 (14-for-77) since June 18, threatening to push his career average (currently .202) back under the Mendoza Line. 

 

Doug Mirabelli is batting just .091 (2-for-22) since August 15. 

 

Bill Hall has 30 home runs.

 

The Longest Streak Pt I – With an infield hit on Sunday, Taveras became just the 42^nd player in history – and just the 22^nd National Leaguer – to hit safely in 30 straight games.  Overall Taveras is batting .349 (45-for-129) during the streak but .421 (16-for-38) with 7 multi-hit games in his last 11.  It is the 5^th streak of 30 games or longer in this decade, and the 15^th since 1980.  There had been just 7 streaks of 30 games or longer between Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game streak in 1941 and Kenny Landreaux’s 31 gamer in 1980, the longest of which was Pete Rose’s 44-gamer in ‘78.

 

The Longest Streak Pt II – The Marlins won their 8^th in a row on Monday, giving them the longest current win streak in the majors.  Dan Uggla hit a monster home run into the upper deck, his 20^th of the year, and Josh Johnson lowered his league leading ERA to 2.87 in the 4-2 win over Milwaukee.  Johnson (12-6), a fourth round pick of the Marlins in the 2002 draft, helped Florida pull to within 2 games of the Reds in the chase for the Wild Card. 

 

The Longest Streak Pt III – The loss for Milwaukee was their fourth straight, tying them with the Red Sox, Reds (6-5 losers in L.A.), Cubs (11-6 losers in Pittsburgh), and the idle Devil Rays for the longest current losing streak in the majors. 

 

The Longest Streak Pt IV - Felix Hernandez’ 5-hitter on Monday against the Angels made him the youngest pitcher since Steve Avery in 1990 to throw a shutout and ended the Mariners remarkable 20-game losing streak against division opponents.  The intra-division losing streak had been the longest since divisional play began in 1969. 

 

On Deck – Detroit and New York begin a big three game showdown in the Bronx Tuesday with the slumping Tigers (13 losses in their last 19 games) sending Nate Robertson (11-10, 4.10) to the mound opposed by Chien-Ming Wang (15-5, 3.81).  The Yankees are just 2-4 since the Boston Massacre and only 11-11 in the month of August outside of that series sweep.  Wang has faced Detroit just once this season, allowing 5 runs on 8 hits in 4 innings on June 1.  He has a 3.12 ERA in his last 6 starts, which includes a 5 run, 13 hit outing in just 5 1/3 against the Angels on August 13.  Robertson is just 1-4 with a 5.03 ERA for the month, though that mark was just 2.96 before his last start against the White Sox (10 runs, 9 hits – 6 2/3). 

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.