Orioles 7, Yankees 1 — “How soon can we get Pettitte out of the courtroom and into the Bronx?” Of the 10 SPs with at least 4 starts who have yet to top a 50 Game Score, two are Yankees.

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— The Pirates scored more than 5 runs for the first time this year. Their streak of 21 straight games of 5 runs or less is the longest to start a season since 1972, when the Brewers went 31 games. (That club ended up scoring 6+ 26 times and finished 9th out of 12 teams in both R/G and OPS+.) Pittsburgh’s streak was the longest in the NL since the 1919 Braves went 23 games.

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— Wade Miley held the Marlins hitless into the 6th inning, picked up his third win and dropped his ERA to 1.29. Joining the rotation after Daniel Hudson went down, Miley has not allowed an earned run in two starts totaling 12.1 IP, 3 hits, 3 walks and 13 Ks. Continue reading →

On the same night that the 1st overall pick of 2010 made his big-league debut, the 68th pick in that draft, Drew Smyly, earned his first win by holding the Yankees to 1 run on 2 hits in 6 innings, with 7 strikeouts.

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First, Ozzie Guillen torched his relationship with Miami’s ethnic Cuban community (among many others).

Then, Bobby Valentine picked an odd time to casually rip one of his team’s best and most beloved players.

Now, this: Delmon Young was arrested in Manhattan on a misdemeanor charge of “aggravated harassment hate crime” during the Thursday/Friday overnight.

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Thursday night in Chicago, the BoSox raked Philip Humber for 9 earned runs in 5 IP, saddling him with a 17 Game Score. Is that the worst follow-up to a perfect game?

Here are the next starts for the 17 perfect game pitchers since 1918:

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And in the pasture, methinks — a.k.a. center field.

In Thursday’s matinee, rookie Kirk Nieuwenhuis started the Mets’ attack with a leadoff triple in the home 1st and scored the game’s first run. It might have remained their only run, but Miami closer Heath Bell had an unprecedented loss of control in the 9th, walking four batters to force in the tying run. And then with 2 out, Nieuwenhuis came up and banged a 1-0 meatball off the wall in RF to win the game with his third hit 0f the day. Continue reading →

Paul Konerko‘s 400th HR was a game-tying shot in the 9th inning on the first pitch from Grant Balfour.

It’s the 12th time a Konerko HR in the 9th inning or later has won or tied the game or put his team in front. That’s 3.0% of his career HRs.

What’s your gut feeling on how Konerko’s rate compares to those of contemporary sluggers? The answer is below the jump.

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Playing a little catch-up here; thirty teams generate a lot of box scores! Any neglect of your team is unintentional….

Tuesday — Nationals 3, Padres 1: Yowza! At 13-4, Washington remains on pace with the franchise’s best start (and last playoff edition), the 1981 Expos. They also lowered their team ERA to 2.21, half a run below the next-best NL team, and have allowed just 3 HRs all year. Continue reading →

Last Tuesday, Arizona’s Joe Paterson came in to pitch the 8th inning and surrendered hits to the first two men. Although he escaped that jam, the fact that those hits came from the Pirates — the worst-hitting team so far, one that’s already had two games of 2 hits or less — gave a hint that his really bad week was just getting started.

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