Yesterday’s daily recap
Posted by Andy on May 23, 2011
(This is written by John Autin. Please post lots of comments so we can show him that he should be writing these in separate threads, not burying them in the comments on other posts.)
Speaking of shutouts ... it's time for something else we see almost every day: the nightly recap!
-- James Shields put up the highest game score yet this year, a 93, with his 3-hit blanking of Florida. Shields set a personal best with 13 strikeouts, and did not walk a batter.
-- Roy Oswalt became the 10th pitcher this year to take a loss while allowing 1 run in 7+ IP. Matt Harrison was just a little better, going 8.1 scoreless innings as Texas beat the Phils, 2-0.
-- Rick Porcello had the best game of his career, stifling the Pirates on 1 hit through 8 IP, using just 84 pitches. The losing pitcher was Paul "My teammates, why have you forsaken me?" Maholm, who allowed 2 runs in 5 IP. Maholm is 1-7 with a 3.65 ERA; Pittsburgh has averaged 1.4 runs in his 10 starts, including 3 shutouts.
-- The record for GIDP in a season (since it became an official stat) is 36, held by Jim Rice. Only 14 players have ever hit into 30+ in a year. I mention this because Albert Pujols had his 14th GIDP today, although the Cards still took the rubber game of this rivalry series. But the real story of this game is that the Royals, after rallying from a 7-1 hole, lost the game in the 10th with a general meltdown featuring a walk, a throwing error, a hit batsman, and two more walks, each forcing in a run; their comeback in the bottom half fell short.
-- Royals rookie Aaron Crow continued his near-perfect season with a scoreless inning; in 22.2 IP so far, Crow has allowed just a 2-run HR, and has stranded 11 of 12 inherited runners. Much skepticism was expressed when Crow made the club out of spring training, in light of his career 5.26 ERA in the minors. But the 2-time 1st-round draft pick is picking up more believers every time out.
-- Sergio Romo earned a win with 2 scoreless IP as SF beat the A's, 5-4 in 11 innings. Nate Schierholtz had the biggest blow, a pinch-hit 2-run HR that tied the score in the 8th off Grant Balfour, who had not allowed a run in his previous 14 games. It's the first time this year that Romo has gone more than an inning, as the Giants have used him pretty much as a "righty specialist." While Romo has been very successful in the role -- fanning about half the righties he's faced and holding them to a BA in the .120s -- the strategy is still puzzling. Over his career, Romo has actually been markedly more effective against lefty batters, holding them to a .188 BA and .276 SLG (1 HR in 202 PAs), compared to a .196 BA and .334 SLG by righties (10 HRs in 356 PAs). Well, you can't argue with success ... I guess!
May 23rd, 2011 at 7:36 am
Please keep these coming. I've always been looking for something like this but haven't found it (the Early Bird - or whatever B-R was putting out was good but it didn't last too long)
May 23rd, 2011 at 7:59 am
Infinite times better, than trying to glean anything useful from Yahoo, or wherever. Many thanks.
May 23rd, 2011 at 8:15 am
I agree with David G. This is something I've been looking for as well. Please keep it coming.
May 23rd, 2011 at 8:27 am
Great update, lots of info. keep it coming dude!
May 23rd, 2011 at 8:36 am
More wine for Polyphemus, the son of Neptune!
And, more of this for the readers of this blog!!!!
May 23rd, 2011 at 8:50 am
I love reading the JA recaps, and also would like to see them get the attention they deserve in their own thread. Keep 'em coming....
May 23rd, 2011 at 9:22 am
Thanks John Autin. The recap is great!
I enjoy your posts in the threads as well.
May 23rd, 2011 at 9:26 am
Splendid stuff that I've been enjoying in the comments - a true "baseball-reference" take on the day's events that would be great to see more formalized.
May 23rd, 2011 at 9:42 am
Well done! Keep 'em coming. Your commentary turns the raw numbers into a 3D picture.
May 23rd, 2011 at 9:53 am
Nice, JA! Of course, if these recaps do get their own threads, I will miss JA's apologies for thread hijacking. 🙂 A small price to pay, though, I guess!
May 23rd, 2011 at 10:47 am
How about the Mariners starting pitching? I've tried to find a way to see what the record is, but the M's have had 9 consecutive games where their starter went 7+ IP while allowing 2 or fewer runs. In 5 of the last 6 games, the starter K's at least 9. In 5 of those 9 starts, the starter has given up ZERO runs.
5/12/11- Jason Vargas vs. BAL, 9 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO, 101 pitches, 68 strikes
5/13/11- Doug Fister vs. CLE, 8 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO, 107 pitches, 76 strikes
5/16/11- Michael Pineda vs. MIN, 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 SO, 99 pitches, 70 strikes
5/17/11- Felix Hernandez vs. MIN, 8 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 9 SO, 109 pitches, 66 strikes
5/18/11- Jason Vargas vs. LAA, 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 SO, 115 pitches, 75 strikes
5/19/11- Doug Fister vs. LAA, 8 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO, 110 pitches, 79 strikes
5/20/11- Erik Bedard vs. SDP, 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 SO, 92 pitches, 65 strikes
5/21/11- Michael Pineda vs. SDP, 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 SO, 99 pitches, 69 strikes
5/22/11- Felix Hernandez vs. SDP, 8 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 13 SO, 114 pitches, 75 strikes
Also, of those 4 runs they've allowed in those 9 games, 3 of them (all Fister) came on 3 solo home runs.
It amazes me how I haven't seen anything about this outside of the Mariner broadcasts.
May 23rd, 2011 at 10:54 am
It'd be interesting to look at GIDP rates. How often does a guy come up to bat with a runner on 1st and less than 2 outs? How often does he hit a GIDP? Is this a consistent "skill"? Does it correlate with GB%? Would tracking the change over a guy's career give any indication into his changes in raw speed? What else might be at play besides GB%, speed, and luck?
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:08 am
Hi , i wrote this in Phillies still chucking shutouts , but I see this thread is for another baseball topics
It seems to me , that this year in MLB are a lot of triples.
I don't remember to see that many triples every year. In last years it was rare , now we have average from 3 to 6 every day.
5/22 Youkilis + Yadier Molina + Braun + Fowler + Kotchman + Kearns [6 , 15 games day]
5/21 Tulo [1 , 15 games day]
5/20 Choo + Espinoza + Ramos + Joyce [twice] + Smith S. + Kubel + Peguero, C [8 , 15 games day]
5/19 Granderson + Gardner + Jeter + Miranda [4 , 15 games day]
5/18 Patterson C. + Johnson E. + Hart [3 , 15 games day]
5/17 Homser + Denorfia + Patterson [3 , 11 games day]
On 5/19 NYY had 3 triples , I guess it's rare nowadays to see something like this.
PS. Sory for English
Greg/Rrr
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:14 am
One glaring omission is how bad the Braves offense has been this year. Thank goodness for the pitching staff (minus Huddy's last start)...
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:26 am
According to his player page, Pujols has 13 GIDP in 54 opportunities (.2407).
For his career, he has 216 GIDP in 1643 opportunities (.1315).
He is hitting into DPs at nearly twice the rate as he has for his career. With a bit more time, I can break out his career arc to see if this has been a trend or if this year is completely abberational.
FWIW, he's had 1643 opportunities in 1605 career games. He's had 54 opportunities in 47 games this year, so he has had more opportunities to hit into DPs than usual, which also adds to the inflated total. But, something is indeed off.
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:30 am
GIDP is one of the strangest leader-boards in BB history.
You have to be a good hitter or even a great hitter to make it to the top 50 list but it's such an odd mix of players. You have slow players like Lombardi, Torre, Simmons, Staub, I-Rod, B. Robinson, Murray, Gaetti, Killebrew, Piazza, Perez, C. Davis and George Scott. But then you have guys with good speed like Aaron, Clemente, Winfield, F. Robinson, Mays, G. Brett, Rose and Jeter.
Then you have some of the greatest offensive players in bb history like Musial, Boggs, Gwynn, Vlad, Chipper Jones, Kaline, Ripken, Manny, Banks, Sheffield, Singleton, & Palmeiro,
Then you have very underrated guys like Santo, Bell, D. Evans and Olerud.
And then you have very overrated guys like Rice, Garvey
Then you have guys that played forever and never walked like Baines, Oliver, Franco, and Buckner.
then you have current players like Tejada, Edgar Renteria, Maglio, and Paul Konerko.
and then there's Tony Pena and Dave Concepcion who I never would have thought they'd be on this list.
May 23rd, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Yes yes. Putting this in a post is awesome. I subscribe to the RSS feed so don't see the comments generally, and didn't even know a nightly recap existed. I love the fun little random facts.
May 23rd, 2011 at 12:43 pm
John Q-
As with most any counting stat, it makes sense that elite players would dominate the leader board, since opportunities will play such a huge role in accruing a high number. My hunch is you'd also expect more from middle-of-the-order sluggers, since they'd be more likely to come to bat with runners on AND, generally speaking, they aren't necessarily the most fleet of foot. Guys like Jeter are a bit of a surprise, but I suppose a guy with so many PAs and who I'd guess is a ground ball hitter could have those qualities undermine his speed.
May 23rd, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Funny, I just had the career DP discussion on another board. Concepcion seems surprising at first blush but:
- he played forever
- he was not asked to sacrifice much at all
- he spent the 1st half of his career on ridiculously stacked Reds teams so even though he batted 7th/8th he still had lots of opportunities
- after the Big Red Machine fell apart, he actually spent much of the early 80's batting 2nd or 3rd - remarkably he has more PA in the 3rd spot than anywhere else
BTW, haven't seen much discussion of it anywhere but Pujols is really, really having a bad season for him. HIs APril was the worst full month of his career (throw out June 2006 when he missed time and played 10 games) by quite a bit and he's following it up so far with an equally dreadful May (more walks, less power - sub .400 SLG). Unless he picks it up a lot in the next week plus, 3 of his 6 worst calendar months in the majors will have come since last July. . . . worth noting.
May 23rd, 2011 at 1:13 pm
All-time GIDP rates of top GIDP guys:
Ripken: 350/2618 .1337
I. Rodriguez: 336/2145 .1566
Aaron: 314/2938 .1069
Yaz: 325/2966 .1096
Winfield: 319/2395 .1332
These numbers are the GIDP and PAs when batting with a runner on 1st and less than 2 outs. For some reason, the total GIDPs in the splits does not match perfectly with the number on the leaderboard; those numbers are 350, 335, 328, 323, 319. I'm not sure why the discrepancy. I first assumed it must be because they somehow grounded into DPs via another means (e.g., guy on 2nd, 1 out, gets thrown out at 1st and runner gets caught advancing to 3rd); this wouldn't explain Winfield Yaz having MORE in the splits, so I'm not sure. Even so, the difference is small and, assuming it is an atypical situation, doesn't really tell us what we are really seeking.
Is there a way to use the PI to do this search on a larger scale? I'm still learning to work it. It'd be curious to see larger trends, including what the "average" is and how the rate stat correlates with GB/FB%, SB, SB%, and anything else that may be at play.
May 23rd, 2011 at 1:59 pm
JA, I'm a bit late with kudos, but great job! May it be the first of many nightly/early morning recaps.
Your recaps give so much to respond to!
A separate thread could spring up off of each paragraph.
You've overcome your self-admitted procrastination and lack of courage.
JA, gotta ask. Tell me to mind my own business but did you know your post was going up as a separate blog?
Either way, congratulations, John Autin. The jury of your peers salutes you.
May 23rd, 2011 at 2:04 pm
@21
Sorry, just got the answer to my question in the previous blog. Was reading backwards today.
May 23rd, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Will Pujols regret not taking the Cardinals offer? I'd guess that the Cards would be reluctant to reduce their offer (not wanting to sour their relationship), but if he has a bad season they may. The $300M offers from other teams won't be there if he continues to play this way.
May 23rd, 2011 at 3:14 pm
Re: JA's posts: please keep them coming, as they are absolutely fantastic. Every time JA posts in a thread, I'm entertained, informed, surprised, or all of the above. His contributions are easily among the most solid of all commenters on the site.
And JA, if you're concerned with having to keep it up, don't call it "daily" and just post when you can. I, for one, would appreciate when you can post and would NOT count it against you when you couldn't.
May 23rd, 2011 at 3:52 pm
As I hope my comments have indicated, this post is engaging and stimulating in a variety of ways and hopefully is the first of many!
May 23rd, 2011 at 6:13 pm
We need more recaps like this. Keep 'em coming, JA !!!
May 23rd, 2011 at 6:33 pm
I agree with Pcg. JA, no need for the pressure of "Daily." As often as you are inspired is how often as I'd like to see your recaps.
May 23rd, 2011 at 7:16 pm
@ many
Is the star of the show going to make an appearance in here? Or have we embarrassed him with all the accolades.
I agree with KJ and Pcg, JA, that you shouldn't feel pressure to post every day. Two or three times a week and debate with us about our reponses.
You would be an excellent complement to Andy, Neil P., Raphy and Sean.
May 23rd, 2011 at 7:23 pm
Not only has JA not made an appearance on this thread, but he isn't responding to my emails. I am turning every dial I can to try to get him to start posting on his own. Now apparently I am resorting to shame.
May 23rd, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Andy, I don't think you did anything wrong in hijacking his nightly recap but I would be upset if we have offended him in some way.
May 23rd, 2011 at 8:05 pm
@28
Oops, missed Steve L., in my post ....sorry.
May 23rd, 2011 at 8:31 pm
I would be surprised if we have offended him. I certainly hope we didn't as well.
May 23rd, 2011 at 8:56 pm
@32
I meant by we everyone in here, not you and I.
May 23rd, 2011 at 10:55 pm
@29, Andy -- "Down the stretch they come ... and Shame wins it by a nose!"
To everyone above -- thank you very much for the encouragement. Please take my word that the only thing that has kept me from going "above the line" is ... well ... irrational fear. (And maybe a slight Hamlet complex.) But as Jimmy Piersall once wrote, "Fear Strikes Out."
I have to get in touch with Sean and get him to set up my account (again). As soon as possible, I will be bringing you my ... um ... baseball whatchamacallits. And if I may quote the Moose -- not Skowron, but Bullwinkle -- "This time, for sure!"
P.S. In the future, I expect someone to take me to task when I miss the biggest hitting stories of the day, like Asdrubal Cabrera going 5 for 5 with 2 HRs (now slugging .522), and Colby Rasmus drawing 5 walks.
P.P.S. Anyone know why Sunday's KC-STL game is entirely missing from B-R? It's not listed in the "Daily Recap," and Rasmus isn't listed among the "Top Performers." And on the teams' Schedule and Results page, there's not even a scheduled game listed for Sunday. There's one other game missing, too; only 13 out of 15 are listed.
May 23rd, 2011 at 10:56 pm
@34
Yay, heeeeeee's back! 🙂 🙂
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:11 pm
@5, Steve -- After looking up the reference, I'm not sure if I'm being hailed or insulted. But "More wine for Polyphemus, the son of Neptune!" is just too damn funny to quibble over whether or not I'm being called a Cyclops. 🙂
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:15 pm
@34
JA, isn't Asdrubal Cabrera something like 8 for 9 in his last two games?
So many juicy tidbits from the Yankees game alone. Joe Girardi intentionally walking Juan Rivera of all people. Girardi leaving Posada in to hit against a lefty with Rodriguez on second in the bottom of the eighth despite the fact he has no hits agianst a left hander this year. Given all the Posada talk in BRef recently, that has to be an interesting call.
There are going to be few questions asked of Girardi by the NY ink-stained wretches after the game tonight...... oh, wait, reporters don't use ink any more.
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:20 pm
@15, BSK -- Pujols is hitting WAY more ground balls this year. His GB/FB ratio so far is 1.00, well above his previous career ratio of 0.69. His line drive rate is down from a career 21% to 16% this year. And he's making contact a little more often; his K rate so far is his lowest in 5 years.
Meanwhile, his walk rate is down, and he's averaging more PAs than usual; he's on pace for a career-high 641 AB, about 50 more than he's ever had before.
All these factors -- plus the increase in opportunities you noted, and perhaps some bad luck -- add up to his whopping DP total. (Which, by the way, is 14; B-R is mysteriously missing yesterday's Cards-Royals game.)
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:23 pm
@10, Dr. Doom -- Fear not! No doubt I'll be guilty of hijacking my own thread on a regular basis. In fact ... apologies in advance for the tangents!
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:42 pm
@11, Genis -- Unfortunately, I don't know of a way to search for team starting pitching streaks. But the Mariners' 7-game run allowing 2 runs or less is impressive enough on its own. There hasn't been a longer streak since 2002, when Arizona had 8 such games (and I think we know which 1-2 punch was leading that charge). Seattle's 7-game streak is just the 12th since 1995; Houston had one last year (after trading Oswalt), San Diego the year before.
Since you mentioned Fister ... is he ever going to get some run support? He's 2-4 with a 2.93 ERA. His run support average of 2.97 is misleading; Seattle scored 13 in one game -- as many as they've scored in his other 8 starts combined. In his last outing, he allowed 1 run in 8 IP, but got no decision. He got weak support last year, too -- but then, the whole rotation suffered to about the same degree. (Except Cliff Lee, who got about 50% more run support in his 13 starts than the rest of the rotation averaged.)
It's nice to see Bedard pitching again ... knock on wood!
May 24th, 2011 at 12:12 am
And now for an incredibly selective and biased Monday night recap:
-- Welcome to the big leagues, Charlie Furbush! Detroit's 25-year-old lefty debuted in relief of Phil Coke, who left after 3 innings with an ankle injury. Furbush, a starter, picked up the win with 3.2 tidy innings. He was pitching very well at AAA Toledo, with a 0.93 WHIP and 10.7 K/9 in 8 starts. Furbush is just the 3rd pitcher in the last 9 years to earn a win in a relief debut of 3+ innings. (If I am too effusive in my praise, perhaps it's just a touch of sympathy -- how would you like to grow up with that last name?)
-- Jose Bautista got the compulsories out of the way early, hitting a solo shot (his 19th) in the 1st inning off Bartolo Colon. Bautista remains on a steady 65-HR pace. (Sorry, Neil L., but I'm still measuring his pace by Toronto's games played, not his own.) As Neil L. noted, Yankee manager Joe Girardi made some curious choices in the 6th inning, when Toronto scored 5 times off Colon. Two intentional walks early in the inning came around to score, and after Colon walked the rookie Eric Thames to force in a run for a 3-1 lead, Colon was left in to face the powerful J.P. Arencibia, who cleared the bases with a double to deep CF. Perhaps the 6th inning is too soon to go to the bullpen these days, especially when you only really trust 3 guys. Arencibia is hitting .252 but slugging .525; his .273 isolated power ranks in MLB's top 10.
-- Cleveland. Won. At home. With a late rally. Asdrubal. Is on fire. Hit his 10th HR in the 4th. Doubled in the game-winner in the 8th. "Asdrubal Cabrera" can be anagrammed as "Barracuda Blares."
That's all for tonight, folks. Hope to be running on my own steam soon.
May 24th, 2011 at 3:03 am
🙂
May 24th, 2011 at 7:22 am
I hope not as well.
To be honest, the public recruitment could easily be embarrassing or annoying for someone who is turning you down because he doesn't want the spotlight. Has he said a firm no, or just not really responded? If the former, I think you should probably stop with the full court press. Maybe ask him to reconsider in a couple months, and if you are really looking for another contributor, move on to your next choice.
May 24th, 2011 at 7:26 am
Well, happy to see that JA has taken the bait, after all.
Good luck, John. I think you will be excellent.
May 24th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Random notes:
-- From May 10-16, the Padres scored at least 6 runs in 6 straight games, for a total of 51 runs. But in their next 7 games, the Pads have totaled 7 runs, no more than 2 in any game, batting a combined .202 with 1 HR. For the season, they have been held to 1 run or less in 16 of 48 games, including 9 shutouts. The team record for the divisional era is 27 shutouts, by the 1972 Rangers; San Diego is on pace for 30 shutouts.
-- The Phillies literally scored a week's worth of runs Monday night. The 10 runs they racked up (all in the first 4 innings) equaled their production for the previous week, covering 6 games. And since this happened in Chase Utley's first game of the year, I suppose we'll see a spate of articles about what a difference he makes just by being in the lineup. I won't make a big fuss about that, but I think, in the long run, Utley's actual performance will be a far bigger factor than the emotional lift he gives his mates. And yesterday's performance wasn't much -- 0 for 5 with a strikeout and a couple of deep flyouts. Meanwhile, Cincinnati's 6-game skid has dropped them from 1.5 in front to 3.5 games behind the Cards.
-- On this date a year ago, John Danks stood at 4-3 with a 2.37 ERA, while Alexi Ogando was a reliever in the minors. Last night they faced off, and Ogando continued his brilliant transformation to SP with his first career CG and shutout. Ogando is 5-0, 1.81 in 9 starts, with an 0.87 WHIP and K/BB ratio above 3. Meanwhile, Danks went the distance but fell to 0-7, 4.34; the White Sox are averaging 2.5 R/G in his 10 starts.
May 24th, 2011 at 1:47 pm
More notes from Monday night:
-- Last year must seem a long time ago for Kenley Jansen, the Dodgers reliever who in just one season made the conversion from minor-league catcher to big-league smoke-blowing pitcher. Jansen was almost unhittable in 25 games last year, averaging 4.0 H/9, 13.7 K/9 and a 0.67 ERA, with no HRs allowed. But this year has been a reality check from the get-go: Jansen allowed 4 runs on 4 hits in his first outing, yielded 5 runs in 1/3 IP in another game, and last night had a 2-out meltdown resulting in his first blown save and leaving him with a 6.30 season ERA. With 2 out (both down swinging) and a man aboard, Jansen faced Houston pinch-hitter Angel Sanchez representing the tying run. Sanchez has about as little power as any non-pitcher in the game; he has 1 HR in over 400 career PAs, and his .062 career ISO is the 4th-lowest among active players. But Jansen walked Sanchez, then allowed a double-steal, putting the tying run in scoring position. (As you might expect of a "newby" pitcher, Jansen does not hold runners well; base-stealers are 12 for 12 against him in his 47 career IP.) Michael Bourn doubled home both runners for the tie, and after Jansen hit Cliff Barmes, Hunter Pence singled home the game-winner. Jansen is still racking up strikeouts -- 33 in just 20 IP -- and his control, while problematic, is about the same as last year. But his line-drive rate is up sharply, his BABIP has gone from improbably low to improbably high, and he's allowed 3 HRs. He's got some work to do ... but he's only 23 and he has plenty of "stuff." I saw him pitch the first 2 games of his career last year against the Mets, and I can't recall seeing so many uncomfortable swings; Jansen retired all 6 batters faced on just 17 pitches, with 4 Ks.
May 24th, 2011 at 11:55 pm
(Nobody's reading this any more, but since my attempt to blog has hit a temporary technical snag, here I go again....)
Tuesday, 5/24:
-- In their first game since Fred Wilpon's self-indulgent and ill-considered digs at his team were published, the Mets ballclub made a statement: "He's right." They were crushed by the Cubs and the struggling Ryan Dempster, 11-1. The Mets made 3 errors and as many uncharted miscues; were out of the game by the 2nd inning; walked the #8 hitter to force in a run; allowed a pinch-hit 2-run single to Carlos Zambrano; and lost Jason Bay to another niggling injury (though perhaps "loss" is too strong a word to apply to Bay).
-- With reliable relievers scarce in the Minnesota bullpen, Ron Gardenhire let Nick Blackburn toss a career-high 127 pitches in a CG win over Seattle, 4-2, snapping the Mariners' 6-game win streak. The tiebreaking run in the 7th scored on a balk by Doug Fister.
-- The Yanks trailed 3-1 after 7, but rallied with 2 in the 8th and 2 in the 9th for a walk-off 5-4 win. Ricky Romero allowed 1 run in 7 IP, but 3 straight relievers allowed at least 1 run in less than 1 IP. C.C. Sabathia went the distance.
-- Jair Jurrjens went 7.2 scoreless IP and improved to 6-1, 1.56. That Edgar Renteria trade isn't looking so good, Tigers fans....
-- How long until Aaron Heilman is placed on the DL -- or designated for assignment? Heilman allowed 5 runs in 1 inning tonight, raising his season ERA to 9.20. He has allowed 27 hits in 14.2 IP this year. His combined ERA for 2008-11 is 4.90.