Wednesday, September 27, 2006
9/26/06 recap
American LeagueThe A’s have finally accomplished the mission they’ve been trying to finish since Saturday: They clinched the AL West. The Athletics scored 5 runs in the first 2 innings, including a 3 run homer by Milton Bradley, and didn’t look back from there. Rich Harden pitched 5 scoreless innings in his 2nd start since returning from the DL. Since then, he has allowed only 1 run and struck out 12 in 8 innings.
An Oakland win on it’s own wouldn’t mean a clinched division, though. The Angels had to lose a game too, and they did. Angels’ starter Kelvim Escobar struggled through 1.2 innings, allowing 5 runs. It was all Texas would score in the game, but the Angels offense could not get the job done.
The Twins have already clinched their playoff spot, but they aren’t done yet. They want the division. They rolled past the Royals in a 3-2 victory in which Johan Santana picked up his league-leading 19th win of the season. Closer Joe Nathan pitched for the 4th consecutive game to earn his 36th save of the season. The game was tied until the bottom of the 8th when Luis Rodriguez hit a sacrifice fly scoring Torii Hunter to give the Twins the 3-2 lead that they would not give up.
The Twins did not gain any ground on the Tigers in the AL Central, however, as the Tigers also won. Backed by a 3 hit, 0 earned run performance by Jeremy Bonderman and 3 RBIs from Placido Polanco, the Tigers managed a 4-3 victory over the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays loss, combined with the Red Sox 5-1 defeat of the Rays, puts them back in 3rd place, half a game behind the Sox.
Orioles’ pitcher Hayden Penn can not seem to catch a break. He was finally able to give up less runs than innings pitched for back-to-back starts, but had to leave after only 3 innings because of a strained lower back. As of today’s game, he has now allowed 26 runs in 17 innings for a 13.76 ERA.
The Indians mowed down the White Sox in a 6-0 victory, as C.C. Sabathia pitched 8 innings allowing no runs and striking out 11. It was the first time since July 7th, and only the fourth time all year, that Sabathia pitched a game without allowing any runs. For the White Sox, Javier Vazquez struck out 12 batters, making for a total of 23 strike outs in the game, but allowed 6 runs and got no support from the offense.
National League
Just one week ago, the Cardinals were comfortably perched atop the NL Central with a 7 game lead over the Reds, and 8.5 games over the Astros. Now, for Cardinal fans, that seems like months ago. The Cards lost yet another game, for their 7th straight loss, while the Astros won again for the 7th game in a row. In one week, that comfortable 8.5 game cushion has become a stressful 1.5 game lead. Even the Reds refuse to give up; they defeated Florida 5-3 for their 3rd win in a row to cut their 7 game deficit to 2.5 games.
The Cardinals thought they had finally caught a break when Jim Edmonds plated 2 runs with a 5th inning single to give St. Louis a 5-2 lead. They were wrong. Cy Young candidate Chris Carpenter held the Padres to 2 runs until the 7th, when he allowed a 2 run double to Josh Bard to cut the lead to 1, and, after a strikeout, the go-ahead 2 run double to Mike Cameron. The Padres added another run in the 8th and Trevor Hoffman finished off the 7-5 win with his 480th career save.
The Astros held up their end of the comeback attempt by defeating the Pirates 7-4. The Astros rallied for 3 in the 1st, but Houston starter Andy Pettitte was unable to hold the lead, giving up 3 runs in the 2nd on home runs by Jason Bay and Jose Bautista. Craig Biggio hit a clutch 2 out RBI single in the top of the 3rd to give the Astros a new lead, one that Pettitte would hold.
The Dodgers did not lose any ground to the Padres, and took a 1 game wild-card lead over the Phillies, with an 11-3 defeat of the Rockies. They took a 3-1 lead into the 5th inning and a Nomar Garciaparra two-run homer broke the game open. They later added 6 more runs to their total to win for the 2nd consecutive game.
The Phillies could not keep up with the Dodgers, though, losing 4-3 to the Nationals. Rookie catcher Chris Coste led off the 9th inning with a double against Nats’ closer Chad Cordero. The next two batters failed to advance the runner, but Chase Utley attempted to revive the rally by sending a single up the middle to make it a 1 run game. The next at-bat was a big one. It was Ryan Howard, with his 58 home runs on the season, at the plate as the potential tying run. He fouled off the first pitch from Cordero. The next pitch he made contact with and hit deep to center, sending everyone to their feet… but the ball landed in left fielder Alfonso Soriano’s glove, just short of the wall.
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