Shutout Factoids - The seven games that ended with a shutout on Tuesday were the most in one day since June 4, 1972 when there were a record eight games that ended in a shutout.  The A’s led the charge that day with a pair of 2-0 wins over Baltimore.  Two other teams – San Diego and San Francisco – lost their games while scoring just one run.  Texas had scored the most runs by any team that day – 10 – in their shutout win over the Brewers.  With their 9-0 win over the Dodgers, the Brewers scored the most runs by any team Tuesday.

 

Shutout Trivia Question – Of the 7 teams to be shutout on Tuesday, only two were also shutout in 1972.  One of those teams – the Nationals – was located in another city at the time (Montreal) and was known as the Expos.  Can you name the only other team to be shutout yesterday as well as in 1972?  (answer below)

 

The Chase is Wild

 

Injuries keep the doubters doubting, but the Minnesota Twins just keep on winning, riding Johan Santana’s eight two-hit shutout innings to an 8-0 victory over the Devil Rays.  The win helped the Twinkies open up a game-and-a-half lead over the White Sox in the chase for the AL Wild Card.  Santana improved his record to 17-5 and dropped his ERA to 2.84 while striking out 12 and walking just 1 as Minnesota also gained another game on the slumping Tigers, whose lead in the Central has shrunk to a precariously low 4 games after their 4-3 loss at home to the Mariners.  Minnesota is now 25-5 in games started by Santana this season.

 

The Twins received help from the Boston Red Sox, who beat the White Sox on Tuesday 1-0 as Kason Gabbard threw 7 shutout innings in David Ortiz’ return to the Boston lineup.  Ortiz went 0-for-3, but received a thunderous ovation when he came to the plate in the bottom of the first.  Javier Vazquez allowed just 1 run and 3 hits in 8 innings while striking out 11 to take a tough luck loss. 

 

The Red Sox received good news on rookie closer Jonathan Papelbon, who was diagnosed Tuesday with a fatigued shoulder and will begin a strengthening program immediately.  No word on when he might pitch again.  The BoSox are 6 games behind Minnesota.

 

AL - Wild Card Leaders

Minnesota        - 80-57   –

Chicago            - 79-59 1.5

Boston             - 75-64 6.0

 

In the NL Wild Card chase, the Padres won their fourth in a row to extend their lead over the Phillies to 2 games and simultaneously pull to within just 1 game of the Dodgers for first place in the West.  Mike Piazza hit his 20^th HR of the season in the 5-4 win for San Diego and Trevor Hoffman got his 37^th save of the year to pull within five of Lee Smith for the all-time lead. 

 

The Phillies dropped a half a game back as the rain wiped out their game with the Astros Tuesday.  The game was rescheduled for September 25.  Houston now trails San Diego by 5 games.

 

The Marlins fell back to .500 – and 3 games behind the Padres – after being shutout by Claudio Vargas and two relievers in the Diamondbacks’ 4-0 win on Tuesday.  Dontrelle Willis had to leave the game in the 7^th, suffering from cramps and dehydration.  He is not expected to miss his next start.

 

The Reds turned things around on Tuesday, getting a complete game shutout from Bronson Arroyo to beat the Giants 3-0.  The win for Arroyo was his third in his last five starts after going winless in ten straight from June 24 through August 10.  The shutout was the first of his major league career.  His last professional shutout came on August 10, 2003 when he pitched a perfect game for Triple-A Pawtucket.  The win helped the Reds keep pace with the Padres and pulled them even with San Francisco; both are now 3 ½ games back of the Padres in the Wild Card chase.

 

The Braves dropped to 5 ½ back after the rain wiped out their game with the Mets.  They will play two on Wednesday.

 

NL – Wild Card Leaders

San Diego        - 72-66   –

Philadelphia      - 70-68 2.0

Florida             - 69-69 3.0

San Francisco   - 69-70 3.5

Cincinnati         - 69-70 3.5

Houston           - 67-71 5.0

Atlanta             - 66-71 5.5

 

Quick Hits

 

Jason Kendall is batting .371 (42-for-113) since August 6.

 

Albert Pujols has 5 hits in his last 10 at bats, all home runs. 

 

Derrick Lee has 12 hits in 29 AB (.414) since returning from the DL for the second time.

 

Ichiro needs just 16 more hits to reach 200 for the sixth consecutive season and just 13 more runs to reach 100 for the sixth straight year. 

 

J.J. Putz saved his 30^th game of the year in the M’s win over the Tigers.

 

Since July 17, Mike Napoli is batting .106 (9-for-85) and is slugging just .165.

 

Sean Casey with the Tigers - .255/.283/.363 – Detroit’s record since acquiring him on July 31 – 15-19 (.441). 

 

Pedro Feliz has 13 hits in his last 82 at bats (.159).  He is 1-for-17 in September, including 0-for-his-last-13. 

 

With a sixth inning single in the Padres win on Tuesday, Adrian Gonzalez broke an 0-for-17 skid.  He has just 2 hits in his last 20 at bats. 

 

Antonio Perez is 2-for-his-last-5 and has raised his season average to .105 (9-for-86) with his mini-spurt.

 

Lew Ford has just 3 hits in his last 25 at bats (.120), including 3-for-23 since returning from the DL in August.

 

In his last 7 outings covering 6 1/3 innings, Jeremy Accardo has allowed 9 runs on 13 hits (3 HR) with 2 BB and 1 K (12.80 ERA).

 

Craig Counsell has one hit in his last 23 at bats (.043) since his return from the DL. 

 

Shutout Trivia Answer – The Los Angeles Dodgers, shutout by the Brewers 9-0 on Tuesday, were also shutout on June 4, 1972 by Bob Gibson and the Cardinals 4-0.  Gibson turned in the performance of the day with his 5-hitter that was punctuated by a ninth inning home run.

 

Rookie of the Year 2006 Preview

 

With September upon us, the race for the 2006 post-season awards is now well underway.  Over the next three weeks, DN&N will preview the big three: Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and Most Valuable Player, culminating on the 26^th with our vote for each.  This week we kick it off with the Rookie of the Year candidates in both the American and National Leagues. 

 

The American League Rookie of the Year favorites with a month left to go in the season are primarily pitchers, led by starters Justin Verlander (15 wins), Francisco Liriano (10.74 K/9) and Jared Weaver (2.16 ERA, 1.00 WHIP) and closer Jonathan Papelbon (35 SV, 0.92 ERA).  But you shouldn’t overlook catcher Kenji Johjima (.293, 14 HR) or OF Nick Markakis (.376 in July and August).

 

There are quite a few more options in the National League, and that’s just counting the Florida Marlins.  Since voting began with Jackie Robinson in 1947, only twice – in 1991 in the AL and in ’97 in the NL – have as many as 12 players received votes for ROY.  The class of ‘97 in the NL, headlined by winner Scott Rolen, was one of the best ever with Livan Hernandez, Matt Morris, Andruw Jones and Vladimir Guerrero among the ranks.  This year’s ROY field could quite be one of the best ever. 

 

The record of 12 could be shattered with as many as 20 different National League rookies who have had season’s worthy of at least a courtesy vote.  The leaders reside in Florida, of course, with second baseman Dan Uggla (.291, 22 HR, 81 RBI, 94 R) and pitcher Josh Johnson (12-6, 2.99).  But they’ve got plenty of competition just from their own teammates – Josh Willingham (.280, 21 HR), Hanley Ramirez (.285, 104 R) and Scott Olsen (11-7, .234 BAA) – not to mention hitters like Ryan Zimmerman (.286, 18, 93), Josh Barfield (.284, 65 R), and Prince Fielder (.275, 24, 69), along with pitchers Matt Cain (11-9, .220 BAA) and Takashi Saito (17/19 SV, 2.05 ERA, 0.92 WHIP). 

 

Here to help you sort it all out are just a “few” statistical comparisons.  Stats are courtesy of espn.com and are updated through 9/4. 

 

American League ROY Candidates

 

AL ROY	TM	W	L	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	G	GS	CG	SO	HD	S	BS
Verlander	Det	15	7	3.27	165.0	157	63	60	16	52	112	26	26	1	1	0	0	0
Liriano	Min	12	3	2.19	119.0	88	31	29	9	32	142	27	15	0	0	1	1	0
Weaver	LAA	10	2	2.16	96.0	72	24	23	9	24	79	15	15	0	0	0	0	0
Lester	Bos	7	2	4.76	81.3	91	43	43	7	43	60	15	15	0	0	0	0	0
Sowers	Cle	6	3	3.42	76.1	73	30	29	9	17	30	12	12	2	2	0	0	0
Papelbon	Bos	4	2	0.92	68.3	40	7	7	3	13	75	59	0	0	0	0	35	6
Zumaya	Det	6	2	1.99	67.7	41	16	15	6	36	79	53	0	0	0	26	1	5

 

AL ROY	WHIP	K/9	BB/9	H/9	HR/9	BAA	OBP	SLG	OPS	GB/FB	GDP	RS
Verlander	1.27	6.11	2.84	8.56	0.87	0.254	0.315	0.387	0.702	1.20	17	6.55
Liriano	1.01	10.74	2.42	6.66	0.68	0.206	0.262	0.309	0.571	2.09	17	5.45
Weaver	1.00	7.41	2.25	6.75	0.84	0.207	0.263	0.334	0.597	0.64	5	5.91
Lester	1.65	6.64	4.76	10.07	0.77	0.294	0.381	0.434	0.815	1.03	8	7.64
Sowers	1.18	3.55	2.01	8.63	1.06	0.247	0.290	0.369	0.659	1.57	10	5.23
Papelbon	0.78	9.88	1.71	5.27	0.40	0.167	0.211	0.254	0.465	0.75	1	----
Zumaya	1.14	10.51	4.79	5.45	0.80	0.168	0.277	0.262	0.539	0.81	1	----

 

AL ROY	TM	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	HBP	SB	CS	AVE	OBP	SLG
Johjima	Sea	123	417	50	122	21	1	14	59	16	35	9	2	1	0.293	0.331	0.448
Markakis	Bal	123	391	61	119	21	2	14	56	34	60	3	2	0	0.304	0.363	0.476
Cabrera	NYY	104	382	65	108	19	2	7	42	46	43	1	11	5	0.283	0.361	0.398
Kinsler	Tex	98	344	54	101	24	1	11	47	33	53	3	9	4	0.294	0.356	0.465
Kendrick	LAA	51	190	18	55	18	1	2	21	8	31	4	6	0	0.289	0.330	0.426

 

AL ROY	OPS	RISP	SP2O	RO	NO	C&L	AB/HR	AB/K	AB/BB	PA/K	PA/BB	R/G
Johjima	0.780	0.376	0.340	0.306	0.288	0.254	29.79	11.91	26.06	12.69	27.75	0.41
Markakis	0.838	0.288	0.157	0.316	0.295	0.382	27.93