Saturday's Streaking and Slumping Starting Pitchers
Streaking
Randy Wells (Chicago Cubs)
The way the season is going for Chicago, the 27 year old just might end the year as its best starter.
Wells (10-8, 2.45 ERA) has allowed only one earned run in his past 12 2-3 innings. For the month of September, he is 1-1 with a 0.71 ERA and six strikeouts and just two walks. The last time Wells took the mound he lasted six innings and gave up only one earned run to the Mets. The right-hander’s 2.45 ERA is the eighth-lowest in the NL, and figures to improve against the lowly Reds, a team Wells has shut down twice this year and is among the major’s worst against right-handed pitchers.
"He's pitched exceedingly well," Cubs manager Lou Piniella told the Associated Press. "What a nice job, huh? Where would we be without this young man?"
John Danks (Chicago White Sox)
Welcome to one of the few bright spots for the White Sox pitching staff this season.
Danks (12-9, 3.84 ERA) has been one of the team’s most consistent starters this year, putting together a streak of six straight quality starts during the season’s stretch run. During that span, Danks is 3-1, yielding just 12 earned runs over his past 40 2-3 innings. In his most recent start, he held Boston to just three runs over six innings, including four strikeouts and only one walk.
Slumping
Scott Richmond (Toronto Blue Jays)
The right-hander is in such a deep slump, he hasn’t seen the sun for weeks.
Richmond (6-9, 4.76 ERA) has allowed at least four earned runs in each of his past four starts. Over the past 16 innings, he has given up 16 earned runs on a staggering 24 hits. Even worse, he has struck out just 11 batters against eight walks over the same span. In Richmond’s most recent start, a 6-3 loss to the mediocre Twins, he allowed all the runs on eight hits over six innings.
"We've played a couple teams in the wild card. We're trying to be spoilers," Richmond told the Associated Press. "We're trying to stir the pot a little bit and fell short."
But Richmond’s been just short the past few months. He hasn’t won since June 24.
Sergio Mitre (New York Yankees)
Things couldn’t have gone much worse for Mitre in his last start.
The 28 year old was tagged for 11 runs on 11 hits in just 4 1-3 innings of a 14-8 loss to the Blue Jays. Mitre is 3-2 this year, but has an absurd, 7.02 ERA and has lasted more than six innings just once this season. He is still feeling the effects of taking a line-drive to his right forearm late last month. It’s a good thing the Yankees score runs by the boat load.
L.A. Dodgers (84-58) at San Francisco (76-65)
The Dodgers will try to hand the fading Giants their fourth straight loss when they send newly acquired right-hander Vicente Padilla (2-0, 2.76 ERA with Los Angeles) to the mound opposite Jonathan Sanchez (6-11, 4.03) at AT&T Park.
Los Angeles scored eight runs in the final four innings to beat the Giants 10-3 on Friday night, dropping the Giants to 7½ games behind the N.L. West leaders. The Dodgers have now won three of their last four in northern California and eight of 13 against San Francisco this season.
Los Angeles is on further runs of 20-8 on Saturdays, 39-18 in divisional games, 5-1 on the road, and 6-2 against winning teams. San Francisco is also on a plethora of positive streaks, including 44-20 as a home favorite, 5-1 on Saturdays, 4-1 in the second game of a series and 4-1 at home against winning teams.
This is Padilla’s fourth start for the Dodgers, who have won each of the previous three. Since arriving from Texas, Padilla has allowed five runs in 16 1/3 innings, and all three wins have come in the division. He hasn’t faced the Giants since 2005 when he was with the Phillies, but he shut them down, allowing two runs on three hits over eight innings of a 10-2 win in San Francisco.
Sanchez has had some tough luck in his last three outings, going 0-1 with a superb 2.37 ERA. In fact, he has allowed just seven runs in his last five starts covering 31 innings, but the Giants are just 2-3 during this stretch. San Francisco has also lost each of Sanchez’s last five outings against the Dodgers, including three this season as he’s allowed 11 runs (nine earned) in 15 innings of work (5.40 ERA).
The Dodgers are several “under” runs, including 21-7-3 overall, 16-6-1 on the road, 13-4-2 against N.L. West rivals and 7-1-1 against winning teams. San Francisco has topped the total in 10 of Sanchez’s last 16 home starts, but otherwise the “under” has been the play for the Giants, including 7-2 in their last nine overall, 20-9 in their last 29 when favored and 5-0-1 in Sanchez’s last six outings overall.
ATS ADVANTAGE: UNDER
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Baseball Today
SCOREBOARD
Saturday, September 12
Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco (9:05 p.m. EDT). The NL West-leading Dodgers face the contending Giants in the middle game of a weekend series. Right-hander Vicente Padilla is scheduled to face San Francisco lefty Jonathan Sanchez.
STARS
Friday
-Clayton Mortensen, Athletics, limited the Twins to one run on five hits over six innings for his first big league win, 12-5 over the Twins.
-Jair Jurrjens, Braves, worked eight scoreless innings, overcoming another light offensive showing behind him in the Braves' 1-0 victory over the Cardinals.
-Aaron Hill, Blue Jays, had four hits and Toronto extended Detroit's slump with a 6-4 victory.
-Yorvit Torrealba, Rockies, hit a three-run double in the ninth inning off closer Heath Bell to lift Colorado to a 4-1 win over the Padres.
-Geovany Soto, Cubs, homered for the first time since July 10, and Chicago beat the Reds 6-4 for its first four-game winning streak in nearly two months.
-Ryan Braun, Brewers, hit his 100th career homer and drove in three runs to help the Brewers breakout of a week-long hitting slump with a 6-3 victory over the Diamondbacks
HIT MAN
Derek Jeter broke the New York Yankees' hits record held by Lou Gehrig for more than seven decades with an opposite-field single in the third inning against Baltimore. It gave Jeter 2,722 hits, one more than Gehrig, whose Hall of Fame career was cut short by illness in 1939. The captain kept right on going, too, with an RBI single in the fourth, but New York lost to Baltimore 10-4.
STALLED BY RAIN
Ichiro Suzuki's pursuit of another milestone was put on hold when the Seattle Mariners game against the Texas Rangers was postponed by rain. The perennial All-Star needs four hits to reach 200 for a ninth straight season, an accomplishment that would break a more than 100-year-old record. Suzuki is trying to break a record set by "Wee'' Willie Keeler, who had eight straight 200-hit seasons from 1894-1901.
SHUT IT DOWN
Baltimore pitcher Koji Uehara will miss the rest of the season because of a right elbow injury that has sidelined him since June. Uehara had been trying to rehab his elbow in time to return to the last-place Orioles this month as a reliever, a role he could fill next year. He finishes the season 2-4 with a 4.05 ERA in 12 starts.
TINY INVADER
Three days after Rafael Nadal was kissed by an intruder at the U.S. Open, there was an even stranger invader at the Tigers-Blue Jays game at Comerica Park - a 6-year-old boy. At the end of the seventh inning, as the Tigers were coming onto the field to warm up, the boy jumped out of the crowd and ran to the pitcher's mound. As his baseball cap fell off, he grabbed the ball that had been left for Tigers pitcher Brandon Lyon and raced back to the stands next to the Toronto dugout.
HOMERS
Ryan Braun became the second-fastest active player to hit 100 with his two-run shot in the first inning of Milwaukee's 6-3 victory over Arizona on Friday. It was his 29th of the season, and his first since Aug. 28. Philadelphia's Ryan Howard hit his 100th home run in his 325th game.
SNAPPED
Joel Pineiro lost for the first since since June 28 in a 1-0 defeat to the Braves. He had been 8-0 with a 3.09 ERA in 12 starts since his last loss against the Twins. He allowed one run on five hits in seven innings while benefiting from double play balls to end the second, third and fourth, matching his season high with seven strikeouts and walking two.
ON A ROLL
Joe Saunders won his fourth straight start, allowing three hits over seven innings and retiring his final 15 batters in the Angels' 7-1 win over the White Sox.
RELIEF, THE PAIN KIND
Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton received a third injection for a pinched nerve in his back, and the two-time All-Star won't be available for "at least seven days'' according to general manager Jon Daniels.
SPEAKING
"I didn't know that they were going to do that, so that sort of caught me off-guard. It's a special moment for me, it's a special moment for the organization. To get an opportunity to share it with my teammates was a lot of fun.'' - Yankees captain Derek Jeter on his teammates coming onto the field to congratulate him after he got his 2,722nd hit to pass Lou Gehrig for the Yankees' hit record in the third inning of a 10-4 loss to Baltimore.