Pittsburgh Pirates
- Pittsburgh has won four straight games, after losing five in a row. Won a season-high five straight games from 5/16-20.
- The Pirates have posted four straight winning series at home. They have gone 7-4 in the first 11 series played at PNC Park this season.
- Only once before in the 13-year history of interleague play have the Pirates won eight or more games.
- Enter today's action ranked third in the National League with a .268 batting average. The Bucs rank second among NL teams with a .363 on-base percentage this month while also ranking third in average and tied for third in runs scored.
- Team has won nine of their last 11 home games and 10 of their last 13 and have outscored their opponents 167-127 this season at PNC Park.
- In 11 minor league starts this season, SP Charlie Morton went 7-2 with a 2.26 ERA.
- San Francisco is tied with the Yankees for having the 3rd-highest winning percentage in the Majors since April 17, going 37-27. Only Boston (.662) and Los Angeles (NL) have a higher mark.
- IF Pablo Sandoval has the 2nd-highest average in June (.405) and sits behind Albert Pujols with eight home runs this month.
- Giants pace the Majors with 578 strikeouts this season - 9 more than the Florida Marlins.
- Team has not committed an error in a season-high seven games and have just one miscuse in their last nine contests.
- SP Ryan Sadowski has been much tougher on right-handed hitters in his career, holding them to a .209 average compared to a .281 mark versus lefties.
- The Twins lost to the Cardinals esterday by a score of 5-3. Minnesota scattered just six hits as they faced seven different Cardinals pitchers. They left seven runners on base and went 2-for-6 with RISP.
- Minnesota has posted a 3-8 record in Sunday games - making them just 8-15 on the weekend this year.
- Pitchers have yet to record a hit in 19 at-bats. Since Interleague play began in 1997, Twins pitchers have never had a season in which they didn't record at least one hit.
- SP Francisco Liriano is 6-1 with a 2.68 ERA in seven career Interleague starts. NL opponents have batted .20 with 55 strikeouts.
- Liriano is 0-3 with a 9.95 ERA in three daytime starts this year.
- A win today would give the Phillies their first series win since taking 2 out of 3 from the Mets on June 9-11. The Phillies have lost four straight series - all against the NL.
- OF Jayson Werth ranks 2nd among all MLB players in Interleague HR (8), trailing only Albert Pujols (9) and ranks 4th in RBI (17).
- Allowed just 11 unearned runs all season, the lowest in the Major League's.
- In their last seven games, Philadelphia has hit .333 with RISP - raising their overall average from .250 to .256 - ranking 9th in the NL.
- SP Jamie Moyer is 13-5 with a 3.37 ERA over his last 26 road starts dating to last season. The Phillies are 18-8 over that span.
- Moyer has pitched six or more innings in 28 of his 36 starts against the Blue Jays.
- SS Cristian Guzman has hit safely in 10 straight games - posting a .426 average over that span. Guzman's 10-game run is his 11th career double-digit hit streak.
- John Lannan has recorded a quality start in 32 of 52 career starting assignments. Since April 11, the date of his second start of the season, Lannan's 2.94 ERA ranks 7th in the NL.
- The Nationals are 4-2 when Lannan faces teams outside the NL East and 1-8 in intradivision contests.
- Last night's loss dropped Kansas City to a season-high 11 games under .500.
- 11 of the last 16 runs given up by KC have come via the home run. For the record, the Royals continue to lead the American League in fewest homers allowed.
- For the first time since the 2004 season, the Royals will record a sub-.500 mark against the National League. From 2005-08, KC combined to go 42-30 - tying for the fifth-best Interleague mark in the Majors over that span.
- SP Zack Greinke is 7-5 with a 4.47 ERA in 19 career Interleague games. His 2.08 road ERA places him sixth in baseball and fourth in the AL.
- With a 35-36 record, the Cubs look to return to the .500 mark for the 16th time during the 2009 campaign.
- The Cubs last faced lefty starters in three-straight games against the Mets at Shea Stadium, September 22-24 of last season, with Chicago going 2-1.
- On the year, Cubs catchers have gunned down 19 baserunners attempting to steal - that's tied for fourth-most in the majors (Yankees 22).
- SP Carlos Zambrano has tossed at least 7 innings in each of his last three starts since June 10 and looks to go at least 7 in four consecutive starts since August 2006.
- Chicago has seen all six games of this road trip and nine of their last 10 games decided by two runs or less.
- Zambrano has seven interleague wins - one shy of Jon Lieber's club record (8).
- Russell Branyan entered the 2009 season a career .204 hitter versus left-handed pitching with just four home runs in the last four years. He's batting .301 vs LHP this season, with five home runs.
- The Mariners lead the Majors with a 2.87 ERA in June - leading the Chicago Cubs, Boston, Tampa Bay and Dodgers.
- Seattle is 8-2 in "rubber matches", including winning five consecutive games to decide a series.
- Ichiro has multi-hits in seven consecutive games, which matches his career-high.
