From the Boxscores

 

Derek Jeter extended his hitting streak to 22 straight games, going 1-for-5 in the Yankees 8-4 win over the Rays.  It’s the longest hitting streak by a Yankee since Don Mattingly hit safely in 24 straight in 1986.  He also stole his 30^th base of the year in 33 tries.

 

Alex Rodriguez committed his 23^rd error of the year in the win, the most among all AL third basemen and 1 shy of Chad Tracy for the most in the majors.

 

Tony Gwynn Jr. went 1-for-9 in the Brewers double header split with Pittsburgh.  In the second game, Ben Sheets was perfect through the first 6 innings. 

 

Ian Snell had 10 K in 7 innings in the first game of the DH to win his 13^th of the year.  Salomon Torres picked up his seventh consecutive save in his last seven outings since taking over the closing duties for the injured Mike Gonzalez.  He’s allowed just 1 ER in his last 15 1/3 innings (0.59) and has a 1.35 ERA since July 1.

 

September call-up Adam Lind went 3-for-5 in Toronto’s 10-0 over Seattle and is batting .464 (13-for-28) overall.  Fellow recall John Hattig went 2-for-3 and is 6-for-13 (.462) overall.  A.J. Burnett threw 8 shutout innings with 11 K in the win.

 

Alfonso Soriano, 1 SB shy of joining the 40/40 club, was caught stealing third and picked off second in the Nats 4-2 loss to Arizona.  Connor Jackson went 3-for-4 in the win, and has 10 hits in his last 20 at bats.  Nick Johnson committed his 15^th error of the year, the most among all major league first basemen.

 

Eric Bedard threw seven shutout innings for Baltimore in their 4-0 win over Boston and has a 2.27 ERA in his last 15 starts since June 21.

 

Gabe Kapler was 1-for-3 in the loss and is now gone 74 at bats without a home run, batting just .208 (15-for-72) since he last went deep on July 4. 

 

Jason Marquis for St. Louis gave up four runs in 1 inning of work to drop to 14-15 on the year Wednesday.  In the first inning of his 31 starts this season, he has an ERA of 7.84 – 31 IP, 39 H, 27 R, 27 ER, 19 BB, 13 K. 

 

Kansas City won for the 7^th time in 11 games in September on Wednesday.  They must win 7 times in their last 16 games to avoid losing 100 games but must face the Angels two more times, the Twins four times and Detroit – against whom they are 1-11 for the year – six more times.

 

The Chase is Wild

 

Minnesota received a double whammy on Wednesday, losing not only their game with Oakland 1-0, but also losing Francisco Liriano for the season with a recurrence of the elbow pain that kept him sidelined since August 7.  Liriano left after throwing 28 pitches and said he felt a “pop” in his troublesome elbow on a pitch to Nick Swisher.  After throwing a slider to Bobby Kielty two pitches later, he let his pain show and was removed from the game immediately.  “Obviously he won’t be pitching again,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire told reporters.  Meanwhile Dan Haren shut down the Twins offense tossing 8 scoreless 3-hit innings to earn his 14^th win of the year.  The Twins remained two games behind the fading Tigers, who lost 11-3 at home to Texas.  But Minnesota saw their lead in the Wild Card shrink back to a game-and-a-half over the White Sox, who beat Los Angeles 9-0 behind a nearly perfect Freddy Garcia. 

 

Garcia did not allow a base runner until Adam Kennedy’s two-out hit on a 3-2 pitch in the eighth inning. His 14^th win of the year also helped Oakland extend their lead over the Angels to 5.5 games.  The Rangers saw Gary Matthews Jr. hit for the cycle in his first four at bats and Carlos Lee hit two home runs as Texas jumped all over Justin Verlander and the Tigers.  Matthews became the 14^th player in history to achieve a natural cycle – all four legs in sequential order – completing the feat in the sixth inning with a home run off of Mike Maroth.

 

AL Wild Card

Minnesota        – 85-60 –

Chicago            – 84-62 1.5

 

The Padres maintained their lead in the Wild Card race at a game and a half by clobbering the Reds 10-0.  Mike Piazza hit a three run home run – the 419^th round tripper of his career - and Jake Peavy threw six scoreless innings to lower his ERA in his last 10 starts to 2.12.  The Reds fell 3.5 games behind San Diego with the loss.

 

Philadelphia, meanwhile, gained a half a game despite the Padres win by sweeping a doubleheader from the Braves.  They are now second in the Wild Card chase, a game and a half back, after winning the pair by scores of 6-5 and 7-2.  The Phillies are 24-16 since August 1.  Atlanta’s run of 14 consecutive playoff appearances took a big hit as they fell 6.5 games back with just 17 games left.

 

The Giants battled back from down 8-1 to make it close, pulling to within a run on Barry Bonds’ 9^th inning home run, but lost the game 9-8 to drop to 2.5 games behind San Diego.  Before the game, the Giants placed Armando Benitez, suffering with arthritis in both knees, on the 60-day DL, ending the embattled closer’s season.  Billy Sadler – a sixth round draft pick in 2003 – was recalled from Fresno and became the 17^th player drafted by Brian Sabean to spend time on the Giants roster this season.

 

In Florida, Joe Borowski blew his 7^th save in 40 chances as the Mets came from behind for the second straight night to beat the Marlins in extra-innings 7-4.  The Fish scored four runs off of Tom Glavine, including a go ahead two-run home run from Josh Willingham in the sixth that followed the Mets 3-run rally in the top of the frame.  But Borowski couldn’t hold it as Florida failed to keep pace with the Padres, falling 3 games off the pace in the Wild Card chase.  Willingham also doubled in a run in the fourth and is now batting .377 (49-for-130) since August 10^th with 10 HR and 21 RBI. 

 

The Astros kept their slim Wild Card hopes alive by beating St. Louis 5-1 behind Roy Oswalt’s 8 1/3 one-run innings and Lance Berkman’s 40^th home run of the season.  The Astros are 4.5 games behind the Padres.

 

NL Wild Card

San Diego        – 75-69 –

Philadelphia      – 74-71 1.5

San Francisco   – 73-72 2.5

Florida             – 73-73 3.0

Cincinnati         – 72-73 3.5

Houston           – 71-74 4.5

 

Weekly All-Time Leaderboard Update

 

A look at the All-Time Leaderboard from the past week reveals a few interesting tidbits. Among those are…

 

Barry Bonds hit the 732nd home run of his career Wednesday, pulling him to within 23 of Hammerin’ Hank’s all-time mark of 755.  It also left Bonds 1 short of Aaron’s NL record of 733 and pushed him past Eddie Murray for 8^th on the all-time RBI list with 1,918.

 

Frank Thomas’ streak of 6 consecutive games with a home run left him with 484 in his career, 9 behind Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff – the only players who stand between Thomas and 500 career HR.

 

Andruw Jones needs one home run to tie Darryl Strawberry for 84^th on the all-time list.

 

Jeff Kent passed Johnny Bench for 67^th all-time with 1,377 RBI.

 

Alex Rodriguez moved passed Ron Santo, Carlton Fisk and Duke Snider into 76^th place all-time with 1,336 RBI and overtook Darrell Evans for 94^th all-time in runs with 1,348.  He also hit the 462^nd home run of his career Wednesday to tie Juiced Canseco for 29^th all-time.

 

Luis Gonzalez tied Ruben Sierra and former home run king Roger Connor for 81^st all-time in RBI with 1,322.

 

Kenny Lofton remained two SB behind Dummy Hoy for 17^th all-time but did manage to pass Hoy and tie Harry Hooper for 70^th all-time in runs with 1,429.

 

Dave Roberts stole his 200^th career base.

 

Omar Vizquel passed Lloyd Waner and Ozzie Smith on the career hit list and now has 2,561 lifetime, placing him 89^th all-time.

 

Mike Piazza moved past Bob Johnson and Del Ennis and is now 98^th all-time in RBI with 1,287.

 

Carlos Delgado needs one hit for 1,700 in his career and 4 RBI to tie Johnson for 100^th all-time.

 

Jeff Conine collected the 1,900 hit of his career.

 

Mike Mussina’s 238^th career win broke a tie with Clark Griffith and Waite Hoyt for 55^th all-time.  He needs one to tie Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown. 

 

Jaime Moyer’s 213 career win broke a tie with Chief Bender for 83^rd all-time and he also moved by John Clarkson for 64^th all-time with 1,981 strikeouts.  His next win will tie him with Rick “Big Daddy” Reuschel. 

 

Billy Wagner moved ahead of Jose Mesa for 12^th all-time in saves and now has 322 in his career.

 

Tom Gordon moved past Darold Knowles, Clay Carroll, Mike Williams and Jesse Orosco and is now tied with Dave Giusti for 63^rd all-time in saves with 145.

 

Joe Nathan moved past Mark Wohlers for 87^th all-time with his 120^th career save.

 

Brad Lidge, prior to getting burned once again by Albert Pujols, tied John Wyatt, Ron Reed and Braden Looper for 100^th on the all-time save list with 103.

 

Francisco Rodriguez saved his 100^th career game.

 

Alan Embree appeared in his 700^th career game.

 

Jason Schmidt moved past Chief Bender and Larry Jackson and tied Bret Saberhagen for 96^th on the all-time strikeout list with 1,715. 

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.