Tuesday, September 26, 2006
9/25/06 recap
American LeagueJust a few weeks ago, it seemed that the Oakland A’s had the division won and could easily roll into the playoffs. Now, with just 6 games remaining, their lead has been cut to 5 games.
The A’s went into the bottom of the 9th with a 9-6 lead and closer Huston Street pitching, a seemingly sure win for Oakland. Mariners’ Adrian Beltre led off the inning with a ground-rule double, and that was followed up by 3 consecutive singles to load the bases and cut the lead to 2 runs. After a strike out for the first out, Jose Lopez hit a sacrifice fly to right to make it a one run game. All Street needed was to get one out. He eventually did, but not before Greg Dobbs singled to left to bring in the tying run. Oakland failed to score in the top of the 10th, as 3 batters went up to the plate and 3 batters went down swinging. In the bottom of the 10th, it was Kiko Calero on the mound for the A’s. Ichiro led off the inning with an infield single, and reached second on Calero’s wild pickoff attempt. Calero got a strike out and a fly out from the next two batters, and then intentionally walked Raul Ibanez, to put runners at 1st and 2nd with 2 outs. Willie Bloomquist went to the plate to take his first at-bat of the day, and he made it worthwhile. With a 2-2 count, he found his pitch and pulled it into left field, where Jay Payton had no chance of throwing out Ichiro, the winning run, at home plate.
While Oakland lost, the Angels steamrolled the Rangers, winning 8-3, thanks in part to Vladimir Guerrero’s 2 home runs, one of which was a 2-run homer in the first inning to get the scoring started. Joe Saunders pitched 7 innings for the Angels, allowing only 2 runs on 6 hits, for his 7th career win.
Once the AL West gets sorted out, all the AL playoff matchups will be set, as the Twins clinched their playoff spot today in an 8-1 victory over Kansas City. Minnesota received a home run and 2 RBIs each from Justin Morneau and Torii Hunter. Boof Bonser made his second consecutive quality start for the Twins, leaving with 2 outs in the 7th after allowing just 1 run on 2 hits. With 2 more wins, the Twins can have their highest win total since 1970, when they went 98-64.
Up in Toronto, Jays’ Shaun Marcum rebounded nicely from several consecutive struggling performances by pitching 8 innings and striking out 10 without allowing a run. The win gives the Blue Jays 2nd place in the AL East, half a game ahead of the Red Sox. The game was scoreless except for a 5th inning 3-run shot by outfielder Alex Rios and a 2-run shot by catcher Bengie Molina in the following inning.
The Yankees were apparently getting tired of losing to the Devil Rays, as they scored 16 times, 9 of those runs coming over the first 3 innings. Their score of 8 runs over the first two innings doubled their scoring for the series. The Yankees benefited from a 4 for 4, 4 RBI, one home run performance from Bobby Abreu and a 3 for 4, 4 RBI, one homer game from Hideki Matsui. Jaret Wright used the large run-support to his advantage, pitching 6 innings while only allowing 1 run, a Ty Wigginton solo shot, which would end up being the Rays only scoring. Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon and pitching coach Mike Butcher were ejected in the top of the first inning for arguing strikes and balls, which may have affected the team in a bad way and contributed to the 16-1 loss.
National League
The Astros are absolutely not going to step out of the race in the NL Central easily. With a 5-4 comeback win over the Phillies, they have won their 6th consecutive game. Combined with the Cardinals loss to the Padres, Houston is only 2.5 games out. Going to the top of the 7th, the Phillies were only 9 outs away from their 6th consecutive win, and a 1 game lead over the Dodgers. Rick White came in from the bullpen and recorded a quick out before walking a batter, which led to him being taken out of the game in favor of Matt Smith. Smith struck out Berkman, but then walked back-to-back batters to load the bases with 2 out for pinch-hitter Orlando Palmeiro. Geoff Geary took the mound as the Phillies 3rd pitcher of the inning, and quickly gave up a game tying, 2 run single to Palmeiro. Mike Lamb pinch-hit in the next at-bat and singled in the go-ahead run, and the Astros left the Phillies in the dust from there. Ryan Howard did not homer, but drove in two runs, raising his RBI total to 145 for the season.
On the other end of the battle, the Cardinals took their 6th loss in a row in a 6-5 loss to the Padres. Brian Giles doubled 3 runs in in San Diego’s 5 run 2nd inning. The Cards went into the bottom of the 4th trailing by a score of 5-3, but with 1 out and 2 on, Jim Edmonds changed that in his first at-bat in over a month. He took the first pitch for a strike, but connected with the following pitch and drilled it to deep right to tie the score at 5. There would be no miraculous comeback, however, as the Padres capitalized on a Brian Giles double that led off the 7th. Manny Alexander sacrificed perfectly to the pitcher, moving the runner to second, and Mike Piazza followed it up with a bloop single over the shortstop to drive in what would end up being the winning run.
The Dodgers did not play, so the Padres victory puts them 2 games up in the NL West, while the Phillies loss puts them back in a tie with the Dodgers in the wild card race.
The Reds are also hanging on in the NL Central, as an 8th inning 3 run homer by Ken Griffey Jr. (in his first at-bat in 3 weeks) led them to a 5-4 victory over the struggling Cubs, and Cincinnati is now only 3.5 games out in the NL Central.
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