Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand.
--Wes Westrum
So who had a good day yesterday? We have to start with the man who didn't go anywhere. A.J. Burnett pitched a three-hit shutout over Arizona...
... and Jose Contreras blanked his old Yankee mates for 7 innings, in the White Sox 2-1 victory.
Dustin McGowan wasn't the only celebrated prospect winning his first major league game last night. The Mariners 19 year old phenom, Felix Hernandez, made a memorable home debut - 8 shutout innings, just 5 hits, no walks, and 6 Ks. Eddie Guardado worked the ninth in the 1-0 victory.
Jeff Francouer went 4-4 with an RBI in the Braves win over the Giants. Of course, he has yet to draw his first major league walk, so his OBP is "only" .439. But he has 8 2B and 8 HR in 81 at bats, for a nifty .827 slugging percentage. He's 21 years old! Has anybody, ever, burst onto the major leagues like this?
Chan Ho Park fanned 8 Mets in 5.2 IP, which is not bad. Even better, Park led off the third ining with a single against Pedro Martinez, and later scored the first run of a three-run inning, after which the Padres never looked back. It's possible - possible - that the Padres have finally righted the ship. They're above .500!
Vlad Guerrero hit a third inning grand slam off Rich Harden, and round one of the AL West showdown went to the Angels. This is a little reminiscent of last week, when the Braves and Nationals spent sveral days atop the NL East with identical records, and then played each other three times. The charging Braves swept the sagging Nats and took command of the division. But Oakland has been the hottest team in the AL, and the'll send the hottest pitcher in the league out tomorrow... that Zito fellow.
The day's games:
AL
Chicago (Garcia 11-5, 3.83) at New York (Small 3-0, 3.15) 1:05
Texas (Rogers 11-4, 2.77) at Boston (Arroyo 9-7, 4.24) 7:05
Tampa Bay (Fossum 6-8, 3.89) at Baltimore (Lopez 10-6, 4.74) 7:05
Detroit (Robertson 5-10, 4.11) at Toronto (Chacin 11-6, 3.36) 7:07
Cleveland (Sabathia 7-9, 5.27) at Kanss City (Greinke 3-13, 6.02) 8:10
Los Angeles (Santana 6-5, 4.91) at Oakland (Zito 11-8, 3.65) 10:05
Minnesota (Radke 7-10, 3.71) at Seattle (Pineiro 4-7, 5.89) 10:05
NL
St.Louis (Suppan 10-8, 4.34) at Milwaukee (Sheets 8-7, 3.10) 2:05
Cincinnati (Milton 5-12, 6.75) at Chicago (Hill 0-1, 7.00) 2:20
San Francisco (Correia 1-3, 4.75) at Atlanta (Smoltz 12-6, 2.83) 7:05
Arizona (Halsey 8-7, 3.70) at Florida (Vargas 2-0, 2.55) 7:05
Washington (Hernandez 13-4, 3.37) at Houston (Rodriguez 6-5, 6.11) 8:05
Pittsburgh (Redman 5-12, 4.61) at Colorado (Cook 0-1, 6.97) 9:05
New York (Benson 7-4, 3.72) at San Diego (Lawrence 6-11, 4.43) 10:05
Philadelphia (Myers 10-5, 3.32) at Los Angeles (Penny 5-7, 3.49) 10:10
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050809234022999