MLB
Thursday, September 9
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Hot Lines: Today's best MLB bets
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Texas at Toronto (+100, 9.5)
Thursday is a big day for Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Shawn Hill - it’s his first MLB start since April 2009. Hill is coming back from his second Tommy John surgery.
"It's special," Hill, who grew up in Georgetown, Ont., told reporters. "Aside from being in Toronto, which is a whole separate issue, coming back from a second Tommy John, it's been a rough two years battling injuries.
"It's special in that sense. Then, obviously, coming home to pitch in front of friends and family and getting to sleep at my parents' house."
Nothing like some home cooking before making your big comeback.
Pick: Jays
St. Louis at Atlanta (-120, 7)
St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright is getting pretty sick of losing. He has dropped four straight starts for the first time in his career. The 6-foot-7 right-hander gave up two runs on seven hits over five innings against the Cincinnati Reds in his last outing, striking out six while walking one.
"I don't like losing one game, much less four in a row," Wainwright told reporters after that game. "I won't lose again."
Pick: Braves
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Streaking and Slumping Pitchers
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Streaking
Rick Porcello (8-11, 5.20 ERA), Detroit Tigers
Porcello heads into Thursday’s start having allowed just five earned runs over his last three starts – spanning 21 innings. He won 6-4 at Kansas City in his last outing, giving up four runs on seven hits while striking out five to stretch his winning streak to three.
Matt Cain (10-10, 3.18 ERA) San Francisco Giants
The 6-foot-3 right-hander has pitched the Giants to victory in each of his last three starts, though he picked no-decisions in two of those games. He has 20 strikeouts and a 3.80 ERA over that stretch.
Slumping
Adam Wainwright (17-10, 2.34 ERA) St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis’ big lefty is looking to put an end to a four-game losing streak, the longest losing streak of his career. He hasn’t been all that bad, giving up 13 runs over the skid while striking out 26, but he isn’t happy about it. Wainwright had won three straight before this losing streak took over.
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This Day in Baseball
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On September 9 in Baseball History...
1914 - George Davis of the Boston Braves pitched a 7-0 no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies.
1918 - In Game Four of the World Series, which is being played early because of World War I, Babe Ruth bats in two runs on a triple in the fourth and pitches seven scoreless innings before the Cubs tie it in the eighth. But Ruth and the Red Sox get the win when Phil Douglas throws away the game, first by a wild pitch, then an error.
1922 - Baby Doll Jacobson hit three triples to lead the St. Louis Browns to a 16-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
1936 - The New York Yankees clinched their eighth American League pennant with a doubleheader sweep of the Cleveland Indians, 11-3 and 12-9. The Yankees finished 19 1/2-games ahead of the Detroit Tigers for the largest margin in Yankee history.
1945 - Dick Fowler of the Philadelphia Athletics pitched a 1-0 no-hitter against the St. Louis Browns.
1948 - Rex Barney of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitched a 2-0 no-hitter against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds.
1953 - Mickey Mantle's two-run home run off Chicago's Billy Pierce caps a seven-run fifth inning, as New York wins 9-3 at Yankee Stadium. Returning to center field after the fifth, Mantle is photographed blowing a huge bubble with a wad of gum. Manager Casey Stengel will publicly rebuke the Mick, who will apologize for the indiscretion. However, Mantle does get an endorsement fee from the Bowman Gum company.
1965 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitched his fourth no-hitter, a perfect game, against the Chicago Cubs. Koufax fanned 14 in the 1-0 victory while Cubs pitcher Bob Hendley allowed only one hit - a double by Lou Johnson.
1970 - Bowie Kuhn hands Denny McLain his third suspension of the year, this one is for carrying a gun, plus other unspecified charges, and ends McLain's season with a 3-5 record.
1977 - In the second game of a doubleheader in Boston, Tigers rookies Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell debut together. They will hold down the second base and shortstop jobs in Detroit for a record nineteen years.
1987 - Nolan Ryan struck out sixteen to pass 4,500 for his career as the Houston Astros beat the San Francisco Giants 4-2. Ryan struck twelve of the final thirteen batters and fanned Mike Aldrete to complete the seventh for his 4,500th strikeout.
1988 - Bruce Sutter joins Rollie Fingers and Rich Gossage as the third pitcher to save 300 games as Atlanta beats San Diego 5-4 in 11 innings. It is the last save of his career.
1990 - Oakland beats New York 7-3 to complete a twelve-game sweep of the Yankees this year. The season sweep is a first for the Yankees.
1992 - Robin Yount became the 17th player to reach 3,000 hits in the Milwaukee Brewers' 5-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians. Yount singled to right-center off Cleveland's Jose Mesa in the seventh inning.
1993 - Baseball joins the other major sports and expands the postseason as well as its divisions. The measure passes by a 27-1 vote with Texas, one of two teams other than the new expansion teams never to go to the postseason by the old setup, as the lone dissenter.
1997 - Mark McGwire becomes only the second player in history to hit fifty home runs in consecutive seasons (Babe Ruth did it twice) and the first to hit fifty in a season with two different teams. McGwire, who started the season with the A's, hits his 50th of the year for the Cardinals in a 7-6 loss to the Giants. In 1998 and 1999, McGwire will become the first player to hit fifty home runs three- and four-straight years.
1998 - The New York Yankees officially clinched the American League East title, the earliest in American League history, beating the Boston Red Sox 7-5. The Yankees improved to 102-41, 20 1/2-games ahead of second-place Boston.