Ibanez Slams Yankees in Return to New York

Here’s what’s happening in baseball:

Yesterday’s Games 5/16

Seattle 12  New York Yankees 2

Former Yankee Raul Ibanez continued his torrid and clutch hitting at Yankee Stadium with a pair of home runs, including a grand slam off Phil Hughes who didn’t make it out of the first inning after allowing seven runs, as the Mariners busted the game wide open.  Hisashi Iwakuma baffled Yankee hitters all night for his fifth win, actually raising his ERA to 1.84 in nine starts.

Los Angeles Dodgers 3  Washington 1

In his first start since coming off the DL, Dodger starter Zack Greinke looked sharp, allowing just one run and no walks in just under six innings as Los Angeles won the game and the series 2-1.

Pittsburgh 3  Milwaukee 1

Wandy Rodriguez gave up just one run in seven innings, and Neil Walker hit a two-run single in the sixth for the Pirates as they won a close game and the series two games to one.

St. Louis 4  New York Mets 2

St. Louis rookie Shelby Miller labored through nearly six innings of shutout ball and the Cardinals completed the sweep of the Mets in St. Louis.

Houston 7  Detroit 5

Carlos Corporan hit a tiebreaking double in the top of the ninth, and Brandon Barnes saved the game with a catch up against the wall in the bottom of the ninth on a bases loaded drive by Miguel Cabrera to end the game and give Houston a rare win.

Chicago Cubs 6  Colorado 3

Jeff Samardzija did it all on Wednesday, striking out seven Rockies batters in eight innings while hitting a two-run home run to help his cause as he won his second game of the year and gave the Cubs the series win.

Chicago White Sox 9  Minnesota 4

Adam Dunn went 3-4 with a double, two home runs and five RBI for Chicago to support Dylan Axelrod who won his first game of the season.

Arizona 5  Atlanta 3

Eric Chavez drove in three runs and Paul Goldschmidt hit three doubles as the Diamondbacks roughed up Atlanta starter Tim Hudson for five runs in five innings to win the game and the series two games to one.

Kansas City 9  Los Angeles Angels 5

Lorenzo Cain went 2-5 with three RBI and Billy Butler knocked in a pair as the Royals scored seven times in the second to break the game open and win the series 2-1 in Anaheim.

Texas 6  Oakland 2

Nelson Cruz homered for the third time in five games, becoming the first Ranger to reach double digits this year, and Alexi Ogando didn’t allow a hit until the sixth inning as he picked up his fourth win of the year.

Boston 9 Tampa Bay 2

Boston scored eight times in the third inning, highlighted by a Stephen Drew grand slam, and Tampa Bay starter David Price exited in the middle of the inning with a strained pride, I mean triceps.  John Lester pitched seven strong innings for the Red Sox to improve to 6-0.

Cleveland 10  Philadelphia 4

Jason Kipnis went 3-4 with a homer and three RBI, and Nick Swisher and Mike Aviles also cleared the fences as the Indians beat up on Cole Hamels and the Phillies.

Toronto 11  San Francisco 3

Adam Line and J.P. Arencibia each hit two-run home runs for Toronto as they pounded the Giants and completed a two-game series sweep at home.

Cincinnati  4  Miami 0

Shin-Soo Choo went 4-5 with a pair of solo home runs while Mike Leake and three relievers combined to shutout the Marlins again in Miami.

San Diego 8  Baltimore 4

Alexi Amarista had three of San Diego’s 17 hits, including a double and a home run, and the Padres finished the road sweep in Baltimore.

A.L. MVP Watch:  Mike Trout, OF, Los Angeles Angels.  Trout went 2-3 on Wednesday with a homer, two runs scored and two RBI, and is on pace to hit 32 HRs with 117 RBI, 28 stolen bases, and 109 runs scored.

N.L. MVP Watch:   Shin-Soo Choo, OF, Cincinnati.  Choo went  4-5 on Thursday with two home runs and is on pace to hit .321 with 36 HRs and 133 runs scored.

History - 1906 World Series

Winner:  Chicago White Sox defeat the Chicago Cubs in six games 4-2.

The White Sox finished the regular season with the worst batting average (.230) in the American League and pulled off an incredible World Series upset against the north side rival Cubs.  After splitting the first four games, the White Sox erupted for 26 hits in the final two games to win the series, despite hitting just .198, which was slightly better than the .196 hit by the Cubs.  Hall-of Famers playing in the series include for the White Sox shortstop George Davis and pitcher Ed Walsh, and for the Cubs, pitcher Mordecai “three-Finger” Brown (who lost parts of two fingers in a farming accident), first baseman Frank Chance, second baseman Johnny Evers, and shortstop and manager Joe Tinker.    

News & Notes:  The Phillies signed pitcher Carlos Zambrano to a minor league deal.

Trivia – Today’s Question –  In 2008 Carlos Zambrano of the Chicago Cubs became the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter a neutral site.  Where did he throw his no-hitter, why was the game played at a neutral site, and what team did he no-hit?

Yesterday’s Question – The Baseball Hall of Fame inducted five players in the inaugural 1936 ceremony.  Name them.

Answer – Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Warren Spahn & Babe Ruth.

Vegas Bet:  Lastly, here’s an actual bet you can make in Las Vegas casinos: Over/Under 16 combined strikeouts by Justin Verlander and Yu Darvish today.

Yesterday’s Bet: Over/Under 8 strikeouts tonight by Detroit pitcher Max Scherzer against Houston.

Result: Under.  Scherzer struck out 7.

Standings
American League

American League East
Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent.	West	L10	Strk
N.Y. Yankees	25	15	.625	-	13-8	12-7	10-6	7-3	4-4	7-3	L 1
Baltimore	23	17	.575	2	9-8	14-9	9-6	5-4	7-4	6-4	L 2
Boston	23	17	.575	2	13-10	10-7	12-8	5-5	6-4	3-7	W 1
Tampa Bay	20	19	.513	4½	14-7	6-12	7-11	4-5	4-2	7-3	L 1
Toronto	17	24	.415	8½	9-12	8-12	8-15	6-7	1-2	7-3	W 4

American League Central
Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent.	West	L10	Strk
Detroit	22	16	.579	-	13-7	9-9	4-2	5-6	10-6	5-5	L 1
Cleveland	22	17	.564	½	11-8	11-9	4-9	9-6	6-1	7-3	W 1
Kansas City	20	17	.541	1½	10-8	10-9	6-8	9-6	2-1	3-7	W 1
Minnesota	18	19	.486	3½	9-10	9-9	6-4	7-10	4-2	5-5	L 2
Chi. White Sox	17	21	.447	5	8-9	9-12	4-4	7-9	5-4	5-5	W 2

American League West
Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent.	West	L10	Strk
Texas	26	14	.650	-	11-4	15-10	5-1	3-4	16-6	7-3	W 2
Oakland	20	22	.476	7	10-10	10-12	4-9	1-6	15-7	2-8	L 2
Seattle	19	21	.475	7	11-9	8-12	5-3	2-4	11-13	6-4	W 1
L.A. Angels	15	25	.375	11	8-11	7-14	1-3	6-5	7-15	4-6	L 1
Houston	11	30	.268	15½	6-16	5-14	1-6	2-8	8-16	3-7	W 1

National League

National League East
Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent.	West	L10	Strk
Atlanta	22	18	.550	-	9-5	13-13	11-4	6-4	4-6	4-6	L 2
Washington	21	19	.525	1	12-9	9-10	8-8	7-9	1-2	6-4	L 2
Philadelphia	19	22	.463	3½	9-11	10-11	10-6	3-8	4-3	5-5	L 1
N.Y. Mets	14	23	.378	6½	9-12	5-11	7-10	1-6	3-6	2-8	L 6
Miami	11	29	.275	11	5-13	6-16	7-15	2-8	1-5	3-7	L 4

National League Central
Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent.	West	L10	Strk
St. Louis	26	13	.667	-	12-6	14-7	8-2	13-7	5-4	8-2	W 3
Cincinnati	24	16	.600	2½	16-6	8-10	12-7	10-8	0-0	8-2	W 5
Pittsburgh	23	17	.575	3½	12-8	11-9	10-5	10-7	2-4	6-4	W 2
Chi. Cubs	17	23	.425	9½	9-12	8-11	5-5	5-11	5-6	6-4	W 1
Milwaukee	16	22	.421	9½	10-11	6-11	0-0	8-13	7-8	2-8	L 2

National League West
Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent.	West	L10	Strk
San Francisco	23	17	.575	-	15-7	8-10	4-3	4-6	15-6	5-5	L 2
Arizona	23	18	.561	½	12-11	11-7	4-3	6-3	12-10	7-3	W 2
Colorado	21	19	.525	2	11-7	10-12	4-2	4-5	11-8	3-7	L 1
San Diego	18	21	.462	4½	10-8	8-13	4-2	3-4	9-12	6-4	W 2
L.A. Dodgers	17	22	.436	5½	11-13	6-9	6-3	5-1	5-16	4-6	W 2

Thursday 5/16 Schedule with probable pitchers in parentheses.  My picks to win are highlighted.  Yesterday’s Picks: 5-10  Overall: 249-199

 

1:45 PM	N.Y. Mets	Niese (2-4)	@	St. Louis	Wainwright (5-2)
7:05 PM	Seattle	Harang (1-4)	@	N.Y. Yankees	Pettitte (4-2)
7:05 PM	Milwaukee	Burgos (1-1)	@	Pittsburgh	Liriano (1-0)
7:10 PM	Boston	Doubront (3-1)	@	Tampa Bay	Cobb (4-2)
7:10 PM	Cincinnati	Latos (4-0)	@	Miami	Fernandez (2-2)
8:05 PM	Detroit	Verlander (4-3)	@	Texas	Darvish (6-1)
8:40 PM	San Francisco	Cain (2-2)	@	Colorado	Chacin (3-2)
10:05 PM	Chi. White Sox	Quintana (2-1)	@	L.A. Angels	Williams (2-1)
10:10 PM	Washington	Strasburg (1-5)	@	San Diego	Volquez (3-3)