MLB
Wednesday, September 8
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Streaking and Slumping Pitchers
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Streaking
Brett Myers, Houston Astros (10-7, 3.02 ERA)
Few pitchers have been as consistently good as the hard-throwing right-hander.
Myers has notched a quality start in 11 of his past 12 outings as opponents are batting a meager .249 against him this season. The former Phillies star has succeed by adapting his approach to whatever lineup he is facing. Over his past six starts, he has had more ground ball outs six times, more fly ball outs three times and the same number once.
And just as vital is the fact he likes to handle his own business, ranking sixth in the National League in innings pitched by lasting 191 frames.
Against the Cubs who he faces on Wednesday, Myers is 2-0 through three starts, posting a 1.59 ERA and a 26-4 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Cole Hamels, Philadelphia Phillies (9-10, 3.18 ERA)
The 26-year-old South Paw has been dynamite for the Phillies, despite his record being affected by poor run support.
The past three times Hamels has toed the rubber, he has allowed only two earned runs over 22 innings, including shutting out the opposition his two most recent outings. Over this dominant stretch, he has given up only 12 hits and only one home run and walked just four against 21 strikeouts.
"When you know that every pitch means something and you're able to still keep a good frame of mind and battle, you're not going to mess up as easy," Hamels told the Associated Press. "You understand that that one pitch is the game."
Slumping
Derek Holland (2-3, 4.93 ERA)
The 23-year-old left-hander has helped the Rangers by being a patch on their wounded rotation. But he has pitched more like a scrub than a band-aid.
Holland has yielded 10 earned runs over his past three starts, lasting only 15.1 innings and making his way out of the fifth only once. In just 34.2 innings this year, he has allowed 19 earned runs on 34 hits, including six home runs.
Making matters worse, he starts on the road against Toronto on Wednesday. Away from his own ballpark this season, he is 0-3 with a 9.24 ERA.
Derek Lowe (11-12, 4.53 ERA)
A 37-year-old with a sore elbow that has been bothering him for more than a month this late in the season? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Lowe has picked up an “L” three of the past four times he has taken the mound, seeing his ERA rise in each of his past three outings. Over that span, he has yielded 12 earned runs over just 16 innings.
What makes things worse is the way he has yielded the runs: the last three times he took the mound he has given up 19 hits, including four home runs, and walked five.
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Hot Lines: Today's best MLB bets
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New York Mets at Washington Nationals (-108, 8)
No team in baseball is swinging a hotter bat than the boys from the District of Columbia.
Over the past seven days – a span of six games – the Nats have scored an MLB-best 45 runs – three more than the next closest team, and are batting a Major League-leading .307 over that stretch, including an OBP of .384 that also is tops in the bigs.
The team has been gearing up for this stretch to getting hot for short stretches, scoring at least nine runs in one game of each of its past four series.
And that’s not good for the Mets. New York has a road ERA of 4.46 for the season and has been even worse over its past eight away games, yielding an average of 6.75 runs per outing.
"It's like anything else," Nationals hitting coach Rick Eckstein told the Washington Post. "You go about your day. You work hard. You plan, and you have a plan. When it works and it executes, everything is great. When you're not getting that key hit, when you're not doing that, it goes back to evaluating what adjustments you need to make. Sometimes, you've got to say, 'Nope, we've got the right plan. We've just got to keep plugging away.' The guys have done a nice job to battle and be real tough at the plate and execute."
Pick: Nationals.
Cleveland Indians at Los Angeles Angels (-145)
To put it simply, the Angels have waived the white flag.
On Tuesday, Los Angeles purchased the contracts of prospects Mark Trumbo and Hank Conger and recalled right-handers Matt Palmer and Bobby Cassevah and third baseman Kevin Frandsen from Triple-A Salt Lake.
Palmer, Cassevah and Frandsen all have seen time up in the Show this season, but none of them did enough to stick. Meantime, it will be a chance for Trumbo, a 24-year-old first baseman, who is hitting .301 with 36 homers and 122 RBI and Conger, a 22-year-old catcher, who is hitting .300 with 11 homers and 49 RBI, to earn a regular spot for next season.
"They're all players that we know can help us and fill out our depth chart," Angels manager Mike Scioscia told ESPNLosAngeles.com. "We'll see where they can fit in and if they can get a chance to get the feel of contributing in a big league environment. We're excited about some of the guys coming up, but we still have a group in there that we're going to move forward with."
Overall, the Angels are 3-7 in their past 10, six games under .500 and 9.5 games out of the first in the American League West. Good luck, rookies.
Pick: Indians.
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This Day in Baseball
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On September 8 in Baseball History...
1880 - The Polo Grounds in New York is leased by the new National Association Metropolitan club. The grounds, which have been used for polo matches, will be converted into the first commercial baseball park to be built on Manhattan Island. It opens three weeks later.
1905 - The Pittsburgh Pirates stranded eighteen runners in an 8-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds to set a National League record for men left on base.
1916 - Wally Schang of the A's homers from both sides of the plate against the Yankees. Only a handful of people see the rare feat on a rainy day.
1939 - Twenty-year-old Bob Feller becomes the youngest 20th-century pitcher to win twenty games, as Cleveland beats St. Louis 12-1.
1955 - The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Braves, 10-2, to clinch the National League pennant with a seventeen-game lead.
1958 - Roberto Clemente tied a Major League record by hitting three triples in a 4-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
1963 - Braves pitcher Warren Spahn ties Christy Mathewson with his thirteenth 20-win season by notching a 3-2 victory in Philadelphia. At forty-two, Spahn becomes the oldest twenty-game winner.
1965 - Bert Campaneris of the Kansas City A's played all nine positions before having to leave after a ninth-inning collision with Ed Kirkpatrick of the Angels. The Angels won, 5-3, in 13 innings.
1972 - Fergie Jenkins of the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3, for his 20th victory of the season. It was the sixth straight year that Jenkins won at least twenty games.
1980 - Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspendsFergie Jenkins indefinitely as a result of his August 25 drug arrest in Toronto. On September 22, the suspension will be overturned by arbitrator Raymond Goetz, the first time ever a commissioner's decision is overruled by an arbitrator.
1985 - Cincinnati's Pete Rose inserted himself into the lineup when the Chicago Cubs started right-hander Reggie Patterson. Rose singled in the first inning and again in the fifth inning to tie Ty Cobb with 4,191 career hits. Rose was retired in his other at-bats and the game was called because of darkness after nine innings with the score tied, 5-5.
1988 - National League president Bart Giamatti is unanimously elected baseball's seventh commissioner, and will succeed Peter Ueberroth in 1989.
1993 - Darryl Kile pitched baseball's second no-hitter in five days as the Houston Astros beat the New York Mets, 7-1.
1995 - Cleveland ends a postseason drought of forty-one years by clinching the American League Central Division with a 3-2 win over the Orioles.
1996 - Todd Hundley of the New York Mets became the ninth player to hit forty home runs during the season, breaking the Major League record set in 1961. Hundley's homer, in a 6-2 win over Atlanta, tied Roy Campanella's Major League record for homers by a catcher.
1998 - Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris' thirty-seven year-old home run record, lining historic No. 62 just over the wall in left field with two out in the fourth inning. McGwire's homer off the Chicago Cubs' Steve Trachsel set off a wild celebration in Busch Stadium.