What a week we saw this past week. It started with Francisco Liriano throwing the first no-hitter of the season, it also saw Justin Verlander one up the kid with his no-hitter and near perfect game. Andre Ethier saw his run at history end with his hit streak at 30 games and Jacoby Ellsbury is now working an 18-game streak. We saw numerous umpires eject numerous players and saw some top prospects make their debuts. But more importantly, we saw the players on Mother's Day show their support for their mothers and the fight against breast cancer with players going as far as to wear all pink cleats this year. It was a great week indeed, let's recap it!
Arizona Diamondbacks: 15-18, 4 GB 3rd NL West. After going 1-3 in six starts with a 6.49 ERA the D'Backs have sent Barry Enright down to the minors. No word on who will replace him and if that's not bad enough, the team's trio of first basemen are drawing the ire of skipper Kirk Gibson. Someone needs to step up and win this job.
Atlanta Braves: 20-16, 4 GB 3rd NL East. The Braves have been surging lately as they surpassed the Nats in the standings this week and it's largely because of their pitching. As a team the Braves rank second in ERA, first in WHIP and second in opponents' batting average. If the offense picks up this team could be scary good.
Baltimore Orioles: 14-19, 5.5 GB 5th AL East. To say things are going bad in Baltimore would be an understatement. In their three-game sweep by the Rays on Mother's Day weekend, the Orioles never held a lead and saw BJ Upton torch them as he appealed his two-game suspension. SS J.J. Hardy could be activated today.
Boston Red Sox: 17-18, 3.5 GB 3rd AL East. SS Jose Iglesias was called up due to Marco Scutaro going on the 15-day DL and made his debut Sunday as a pinch runner for Jed Lowrie and scored the game-winning run in extras that night. Jacoby Ellsbury is attempting to make a run at the hitting streak as he's working on a 18-game hitting streak.
Chicago Cubs: 15-18, 4 GB 4th NL Central. The Cubs renew their rivalry this week with the St. Louis Cardinals and Ryan Theriot might be sought out for revenge when he made comments about being on the right side of the rivalry now. Jeff Baker hit a ground-rule double in Wrigley that means the ball hopped over the 11-1/2 foot fence.
Chicago White Sox: 14-22, 9.5 GB 4th AL Central. Paul Konerko was one of the few players to sport all pink cleats on Mother's Day and all he did was go 5 for 5 in the game. While Konerko undoubtedly took some ribbing from teammates he did back up his decision to wear them.
Cincinnati Reds: 19-16, 1 GB 2nd NL Central. Pitching was supposed to be a key aspect for the Reds but it wasn't until lately that this was true. In their last six games, Reds' starters are 4-0 with a 1.70 ERA and the Reds have won five of six in that stretch.
Cleveland Indians: 22-11, 1st AL Central. Jeanmar Gomez was designated to triple-A Columbus to make room for Carlos Carrasco which means that rookie Alex White will stay with the club for a little longer.
Colorado Rockies: 19-14, 1st NL West. Catcher Chris Iannetta seems to be the only one of the Rockies who seems comfortable at the plate as he's hit safely his last six games. The Rockies just went 1-5 on last week's road trip and managed to scored 16 runs, the Rockies need to be careful as the Giants are right on their heels.
Detroit Tigers: 18-18, 5.5 GB 3rd AL Central. Justin Verlander became the 27th pitcher in history to throw multiple no-hitters when he did so on Saturday in Toronto. The Tigers are now at .500 again on their season and things seem to be on the right track with Austin Jackson and Victor Martinez are heating up. One piece of bad news is slugger Miguel Cabrera has been playing through a bad back as of late.
Florida Marlins: 20-14, 3 GB 2nd NL East. Hanley Ramirez is struggling so bad right now that he's using bats from the 2009 season when he won the NL Batting Crown. Ramirez went 2 for 4 in Monday's game putting his average over the .200 mark. Tonight is a matchup of Aces as Roy Halladay squares off against Josh Johnson.
Houston Astros: 13-22, 7 GB 6th NL Central. Bill Hall was one of the numerous victims of the umpires in the past week. Although it seems that Hall was thrown out for no real reason as I've seen far more players get away with far more worse than that.
Kansas City Royals: 18-16, 4.5 GB 2nd AL Central. The Royals finally caved and called up their top prospect Eric Hosmer who was hitting .439 in the PCL. The rookie went 3 for 9 his first three games this weekend including plating his first RBI on Sunday. The job appears to be his to lose.
Los Angeles Angels: 20-16, 1st AL West. Vernon Wells is showing signs of breaking out of his slump, unfortunately for him he's now headed to the 15-day DL. In other news, manager Mike Scioscia won his 1,000th game as a manager on Sunday.
Los Angeles Dodgers: 16-20, 4.5 GB 4th NL West. Andre Ethier saw his 30-game hitting streak come to an end earlier in the week but Ethier picked back up after that. Also, manager Don Mattingly picked up his first ejection as a manager on Monday night along with Juan Uribe.
Milwaukee Brewers: 15-20, 5 GB 5th NL Central. Brewers fans got what they wanted out of Zack Greinke when he made his home debut Monday. Greinke went 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER with 9 K but the real highlight was the double play turned by the Brewers middle infielders.
Minnesota Twins: 12-21, 10 GB 5th AL Central. The Twins season has been so bad that they're now the worst team in baseball and they're missing three of their top hitters. The good news for the Twins is Francisco Liriano might be righting his stuff after no-hitting the White Sox last week.
New York Mets: 15-20, 8.5 GB 5th NL East. Bad news for the Mets and their pitching rotation, Chris Young is likely done for the season after re-tearing the anterior capsule in his right shoulder. Young was 1-0 in four starts with a 1.88 ERA and 2:1 K to BB ratio. Young now has to decide between surgery and rehab but either one is likely to end his season.
New York Yankees: 19-13, 1st AL East. Derek Jeter might have silenced the critics temporarily when he hit his first two home runs of the season Sunday in Texas. The new focus is now locked on Alex Rodriguez who hasn't homered in 14 straight games and is batting .170 with 1 RBI in that stretch.
Oakland Athletics: 19-17, 1 GB 2nd AL West. Josh Willingham was tossed out of Saturday's game and "bumped" umpire Bill Miller getting him a one game suspension. Willingham appealed and on Monday he had three-run home run and two-run single in the A's 7-2 win.
Philadelphia Phillies: 23-11, 1st NL East. Joe Blanton returned from the DL on Monday and helped the Phillies get a win, next the Phillies hope that Roy Oswalt will return too. Oswalt is hoping to return before the road trip ends and is eying a May 17th return.
Pittsburgh Pirates: 18-17, 2 GB 3rd NL Central. Stop the presses, the Pirates are over .500 on May 10th for the first time in seven seasons. While this may be a small step in the right direction, the Pirates still have had 18 consecutive losing seasons. If the Pirates are over .500 come the All-Star Break, then we'll talk.
San Diego Padres: 14-21, 6 GB 5th NL West. Hard to imagine that Aaron Harang and his five wins could be overshadowed in San Diego right now but it is largely due to the Padres hitting a league worst .216. It should also be noted that no other starter has more than one win on this staff while Mat Latos is still searching for his first win.
San Francisco Giants: 18-16, 1.5 GB 2nd NL West. The Giants have a lot of players on the DL right now with some of them coming off soon, which presents a problem for Bruce Bochy. Mark DeRosa, Andres Torres and Barry Zito are set to come off the DL soon but guys like Aaron Rowand, Pat Burrell and Nate Schierholtz have produced in the outfield. Meanwhile, Mike Fontenot has been lights out at shortstop and Ryan Vogelsong has pitched better than expected. Tough times ahead for Bochy.
Seattle Mariners: 16-19, 3.5 GB 4th AL West. It appears that not only are Milton Bradley's days in Seattle done but the troubled outfielder's day in the Majors might also be numbered. On Monday the Mariners designated Bradley for assignment allowing for younger players to come up see what they can do.
St. Louis Cardinals: 20-15, 1st NL Central. Things have been going well lately for the Cardinals until news broke today that Tony La Russa won't be managing the team today when they start a series with the Cubs. La Russa has a case of shingles that has been effecting vision in his right eye and has been causing him to be fatigued. No word on when he'll return to the team.
Tampa Bay Rays: 20-14, 2nd AL East. B.J. Upton also fell victim to the umpires as he was ejected and given a two-game suspension for his behavior on Wednesday. Upton appealed the suspension because he enjoys hitting in Camden Yards, hitting to the tune of .297/.350/.535 with nine homers and 31 RBI. Odds are he'll serve the suspension in Cleveland this week.
Texas Rangers: 18-18, 2 GB 3rd AL West. Staying healthy has been quite hard for the defending AL Champions this year as they've lost numerous guys in the bullpen and Josh Hamilton. Now you can add Nelson Cruz to the list too, as he's suffering from a strained right quad. If the Rangers can survive this, they could still contend for the AL West.
Toronto Blue Jays: 15-20, 5.5 GB 4th AL East. The Toronto Blue Jays got Jose Bautista and he picked up where he left off before missing five games with neck spasms. The Jays are also being careful with hard throwing Brandon Morrow who struggled in last night's start against the Tigers. Morrow saw a dip in his velo between the second and third innings causing some concern.
Wahington Nationals: 16-18, 7 GB 4th NL East. Things are so bad offensively right now for the Nationals that Jayson Werth is their leading qualified hitter with a .227 average. As a team the Nats are hitting .224, that's only eight points better than the Padres and their league worst .216 average.
Check back next week as I'll hopefully be on time and have the newest Check Swing ready come Monday! Have a great week!
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