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Dan Haren of the Los Angeles Angels will be looking to change his fortunes around when he gets the nod tonight against the Seattle Mariners (10:10 ET). He enters having lost four straight starts for the second time in his career, having previously done it in 2005. While Haren does have a 5.79 ERA in that stretch, the Angels have managed a total of two runs in those four games.

The Angels are 1-8 in his nine starts, and only Haren and Chris Volstad of the Chicago Cubs have seen their team lose eight of their starts this season. In addition, only teammate Ervin Santana has received worse support in the AL. The Angels have scored more than three runs just once in Haren's nine starts.

Ike Davis Slumping
The New York Mets are four games over .500 despite Ike Davis having one of the worst seasons in the majors. Davis has the second-lowest batting average among qualifying players, including a .065 average at home, and based on WAR, Davis is the least valuable player in the majors.

When he is making contact this year, Davis has seen a very high percentage of his balls in play turn to outs. Among all players this season, Davis' .188 batting average on balls in play is the lowest.

Last year, Davis found considerable success against the fastball, batting .343 with an OPS of 1.100. This year, those numbers have dropped to .157 and .448.

Other Key Notes
- Ichiro Suzuki was just 2-18 vs Dan Haren last season. He's a .227 career batter vs Haren.
- Hunter Pence is 7-12 (.583) in his career vs Jake Westbrook.
- Philip Humber has a 7.86 ERA since his perfect game.
- Albert Pujols has 3 HR, 8 RBI in his last nine games.
- Cincinnati Reds have a season-high five-game win streak.

Adam Wainwright regained some of his 2009 and 2010 magic on Tuesday, tossing his third career shutout and first since August 6, 2010.

For a guy who had a 9.78 ERA in his previous four home starts this season, the shutout must have been an especially sweet breath of fresh air for Wainwright.
Here's a look at what made him so succesful:

• Wainwright lived around the edge of the zone with his fastball, especially with two strikes. Fifteen of the 18 (83.3 percent) two-strike fastballs he threw were within four inches of the edge of the zone, both in and out. In his first eight starts this season, 59 percent of his two-strike fastballs were in that location. All four of his strikeouts with his fastball were around the edge; he had only six strikeouts with his fastball there in his first eight starts.

• Wainwright threw 68 fastballs among his 111 pitches (61.3 percent), his highest percentage since coming back from Tommy John surgery and second highest since 2009.

• Wainwright also used his signature curveball to put hitters away. He recorded six outs with his curveball, including four via strikeout, without allowing a hit.

• Wainwright was efficient. He recorded 10 outs on either the first or second pitch of the at-bat, his most in a start since 2009. He averaged just 12.3 pitches per inning, well below his season average of 16.8.

Elsewhere around MLB:

How long had it been since Roy Halladay last lost to the Nationals franchise? They were the Montreal Expos, Halladay was with the Toronto Blue Jays and Halladay had only 27 career wins at the time. The year was 2002. Halladay now has 192 career wins, and had won 11 straight decisions against the Nationals/Expos before this loss.

Albert Pujols' mashed his fourth home run this season and 449th of his career. That ties him with Jeff Bagwell and Vladimir Guerrero for 35th on the all-time HR list. Next up is Carl Yastrzemski with 452.

Ricky Nolasco picked up his 69th career win, passing Dontrelle Willis for the most in Marlins franchise history. Josh Johnson (50) and A.J. Burnett (49) are third and fourth on that list.

Phil Hughes again struggled with the longball. Before Hughes, the last pitcher to allow a HR in each of his first nine starts of a season was Runelvys Hernandez who did so in 12 straight back in 2006 for the Kansas City Royals.

(The Los Angeles Dodgers host the St. Louis Cardinals, Sunday at 8 ET on ESPN)

The post-Albert Pujols era is in its first season in St. Louis, and right now the Cardinals do not appear to miss the second-most prolific home run hitter in franchise history.

In fact, the Cardinals are in first place in the National League Central thanks in part to some savvy offseason moves.

Carlos Beltran and Rafael Furcal have been two of the three most effective free agent signings. Beltran’s 1.9 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is tied with Kelly Johnson for the highest this season among 2012 free agent signings. Furcal is third with a 1.8 WAR.

In fact, Beltran and Furcal are part of an interesting 2012 trend: rejuvenation of older players once thought to be done.

• Carlos Beltran (35) Leads NL in home runs (hasn’t hit 30 HR since 2007)
• Rafael Furcal (34) .351 BA ranks 4th in NL (.231 BA in 2011; didn’t play 100 games in either of last 2 seasons)
• Derek Jeter (37) .355 BA ranks 3rd in AL (hit .282 in previous 2 seasons)
• David Ortiz (35) 3rd in AL in OPS and 4th in BA (hit .257 from 2008-10)
• Paul Konerko (36) .367 BA is 2nd in AL (hit .240 in 2008)

Beltran has 13 home runs through 40 games, the most he’s ever hit in his team’s first 40 games. (Before 2012, the most HR Beltran hit in his team’s first 40 games was 11 in 2004.) In addition to leading the National League in home runs, Beltran ranks fifth in OPS (1.036).

He’s also two stolen bases from becoming the eighth player in major-league history with 300 HR and 300 stolen bases. With a .861 career OPS, he’d join Willie Mays, Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds as the only 300-300 players with an .850 OPS.

As good as Beltran has been, Furcal has been just as impressive. He’s hitting .400 this month, which is the fourth-highest NL average in May behind David Wright (.436), Andrew McCutchen (.420) and Carlos Ruiz (.411) Furcal also is one of the best NL hitters with two strikes. His .293 average with two strikes is third in the National League.

One part of Furcal’s success is that he isn’t so pull happy. Last season, Furcal pulled 42 percent of all balls that he put in play. In 2012, that percentage is down to 34 percent.

Furcal and Beltran are also two of the most prolific active switch hitters. Beltran ranks third among active players with 1,956 hits and Furcal is sixth with 1,739.

Two of this season’s most surprising starters face each other on Friday in Los Angeles, as the St. Louis Cardinals' Lance Lynn (6-1, 1.81) meets the Los Angeles Dodgers' Ted Lilly (5-0, 2.11).

Both Lynn and Lilly are getting great results on their fastballs, and Lynn’s fastball is generating a lot of swings and misses in the zone (see chart).

Opponents are hitting a major-league low .150 against Lynn’s fastball, and .162 against Lilly’s heater.

As good as Lilly's fastball has been, his changeup has been even better. Opponents are 1-for-27 (.037) on at-bats ending in Lilly’s changeup.

If Lilly earns the win, he will be the first Dodgers starter to begin the season 6-0 since Kaz Ishii in 2002. Before that it was Orel Hershiser in 1988.

Verlander Feasts on National League Teams
It's no surprise that Justin Verlander has the highest miss percent this season on fastball in the strike zone at 26 percent. That's one reason he's dominated in Interleague play, which starts on Friday.

Verlander, who will face the Pittsburgh Pirates, is 15-2 with a 2.94 ERA in 20 interleague starts. That’s the best win percentage in interleague play among pitchers with at least eight decisions.

Time to Panic About Albert Pujols Adrian Gonzalez?
So Albert Pujols has gone deep in back-to-back games. With three on the season, Pujols has one more than the Boston Red Sox' Adrian Gonzalez.

Gonzalez last homered on April 17. That’s 106 at-bats without a home run. In that span, 280 players have gone deep at least once.

Typically, Gonzalez' power stroke is going the other way. Last year, 12 of his 27 home runs were hit to the opposite field. In 2012, he doesn’t have one.

One reason for that is Gonzalez isn’t hitting outside pitches for power. Last year he hit .310 with a .518 slug percentage on outside pitches. This season? His average is .163 and slug percentage is .204.

Earlier this season, Ervin Santana couldn’t get any run support. Against the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday, he took matters into his own hands.

Santana started the season by losing his first six starts. His 5.59 ERA in that span didn’t help, but the Los Angeles Angels offense made picking up wins impossible.

After scoring three runs in Santana’s first start of the season, the Angels were shut out in his next five starts. Thanks to our friends at Elias, we know that this stretch was the first time in major-league history that a team failed to score a run in five straight starts by a pitcher.

Through their first 37 games, the Angels have been shut out eight times. The last American League team to be shut out this frequently early in the season was the 2003 Detroit Tigers, who finished 43-119 that season.

Santana turned the corner in a 6-2 win over the Minnesota Twins last week and was even better against the A’s Tuesday afternoon. He picked up his second straight win by striking out nine in 7⅔ shutout innings.

Santana was especially effective with his slider. He recorded six of his nine strikeouts on the pitch, with Oakland hitters missed on 12 of their 23 swings. Those 12 swinging strikes are the most that he has recorded with his slider in the last two seasons.

In addition to the six strikeouts, the A’s recorded outs all four times they put his slider in play. It was the first time since Santana’s no-hitter last July that he did not allow a hit with the pitch.

Santana was also able to mix in his changeup to keep the seven lefties in the Oakland lineup off balance. He threw 17 changeups, all to left-handed hitters, his most in a start in the last four seasons and didn’t surrender a hit on the pitch.

Mike Trout scored three of the four runs in support of Santana, finishing the game with three hits and his third home run of the season. After struggling against fastballs last season, Trout is hitting over .300 with all three homers against heat this season.

Albert Pujols also recorded one of his best games at the plate so far this season, rapping out three hits and driving in two runs. Three of his six multi-hit games this year have come against the Athletics, including both three-hit games.

Around the Diamond
• Bryce Harper went deep for the second straight game. According to Elias, he’s the fifth number one pick to hit his first two home runs in back-to-back games, joining Josh Hamilton, Chipper Jones, Ken Griffey Jr. and Darryl Strawberry.

• Edwin Encarnacion hit his 12th home run of the season, with nine of them at Rogers Centre. In the last two years, 23 of his 29 homers (79 percent) have been at home. That’s the highest percentage in the majors over that span.

• Derek Lowe induced 22 outs on groundballs as he became the first pitcher since Scott Erickson in 2002 to toss a shutout without recording a strikeout.

• After allowing only seven total runs in five April starts, Colby Lewis has allowed six-or-more runs in each of his starts in May.

Hammer time comes to Sunday Night Baseball (8 ET, ESPN) as Josh Hamilton and the Texas Rangers host the Los Angeles Angels in the rubber match of their three-game series.

Hamilton has already had quite a week, with nine home runs and 15 RBI in six games. With a home run on Sunday, he can become the first player with 19 home runs in his team’s first 35 games of a season. Albert Pujols (2006 Cardinals) and Cy Williams (1923 Phillies) had 18 home runs after 35 team games.

He needs one homer to match Shawn Green (2002), Albert Belle (1995) and Frank Howard (1968) for the most home runs in a seven-game span with ten.

In fact, Hamilton has almost outproduced the Angels on his own since Monday. Compared to his nine homers and 15 RBI since Monday, the Angels have driven in 18 on four home runs in the same span.

It hasn’t just been Hamilton for the Rangers this season. The Rangers and Cardinals are both outscoring their opponents by more than two runs per game. No other team is averaging more than one more run scored than its opponent.

Jered Weaver will look to slow down Hamilton and the Rangers offense. He is looking to start a season 6-0 for the third time in his career. Only nine pitchers, none of them active, have done that in major-league history. The record is four seasons by Roger Clemens.

Weaver has allowed just one run in his last 23 innings, but has struggled in Arlington. In 13 career starts at Rangers Ballpark, he has posted a 2-6 record with a 4.55 ERA. The only ballpark where he has a worse ERA in more than three starts is Fenway Park, where he has a 7.16 ERA in six starts.

Weaver has been able to succeed by relying on his fastball early and expanding his repertoire as the game progresses. He throws fastballs 77 percent of the time the first time through the order but only relies on heat 54 percent of the time after that.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Albert Pujols has struggled since joining the Angels in the offseason. Entering the year, his 1.037 OPS was the sixth-highest in major-league history. So far this season, his .514 OPS is the fourth-lowest in the American League.

His biggest problem has been identifying pitches outside the strike zone. He drew a walk against the Rangers on Saturday, snapping a career-long streak of 14 straight games without a free pass.

In his first 11 seasons, he drew a walk in 13 percent of his plate appearances – so far this year, he’s drawing walks only 5 percent of the time. He is swinging at pitches outside the zone 36 percent of the time, compared to a league average of 28 percent.

The American League West was supposed to be a two-team race between the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels.

However, not only are the Angels in last place in the West, but they are seven games behind the first-place Rangers.

The series begins Friday with C.J. Wilson making his return to Texas after signing the largest free agent contract by a starting pitcher in the offseason. And a big matchup will be how Wilson handles the red-hot Josh Hamilton, who has hit six home runs in his last four games.

Wilson hasn’t been one of the American League’s elite pitchers against left-handed hitters, but he’s been better than most. Lefties are hitting .174 and slugging .239 against Wilson. He’s also struck out 36 percent of the left-handed hitters he’s faced (18-50) and allowed only one home run.

Hamilton is hitting .381 against left-handed pitching with four home runs.

Opposing Wilson will be Yu Darvish, who signed the second-largest contract by a starting pitcher in the offseason.

Darvish has many pitches, including two different curveballs. Almost 15 percent of Darvish’s pitches this season (98 of 661) have been curveballs, and opponents are hitting just .059 against it. That’s the lowest batting average this season against a pitcher who has thrown at least 75 curveballs.

Darvish has been tough on right-handed hitters this season (.196 BA, 9-46), which does not bode well for the struggling Albert Pujols.

Based on the numbers, Pujols can expect to see a heavy diet of off-speed pitches from Darvish. Pujols is hitting .239 against fastballs and .125 against off-speed pitches (changeups, curves, sliders).

As good as Darvish is against righties, left-handed bats have teed off on his fastball. Left-handed batters are hitting .457 against his heater, another reason why the Angels might see a lot of off-speed pitches from Darvish.

It was a long wait for Albert Pujols to hit his first home run of 2012.

It wasn’t quite as long a wait for the Baltimore Orioles-Boston Red Sox marathon game on Sunday to end, but it was quite entertaining.

And then the day was capped off by a teenage phenom stealing home on Sunday Night Baseball.

Let’s review the most noteworthy nuggets regarding each of these Sunday storylines.

Pujols, finally!
Albert Pujols homered on his 111th at-bat of the season, on a 2-2 slider from Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Drew Hutchison.

Thus ended, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the longest homerless drought to begin a season by any player who entered that season with at least 400 career home runs.

The previous mark was set by Eddie Murray, who was homerless in his first 109 at-bats of the 1996 season.

It also marked Pujols’ first extra-base hit of the season on an offspeed pitch. He entered Sunday with only five hits on offspeed pitches all season.

Through the first 28 games of last season, Pujols was only hitting .245, but he had seven home runs.

His fewest home runs through his first 28 games in a season was five, in 2002 and 2008.

He’s hit as many as 15 home runs in his first 28 games, doing so in 2006.

Orioles Magic lives at Fenway Park
The Orioles completed a three-game sweep of the Red Sox, but it took a remarkable effort by a position-player pitcher to finish Baltimore’s first sweep at Fenway Park since 1994.


Chris Davis started the day as the designated hitter and his afternoon at the plate was a forgettable one— 0-for-8 with five strikeouts and a double play.

But the conclusion to his afternoon, one that lasted more than six hours, was memorable. Davis became the first American League position player to earn a win since Rocky Colavito of the 1968 New York Yankees, triumphing thanks to a three-run home run by teammate Adam Jones off Red Sox position player turned reliever, Darnell McDonald.

Elias had two amazing notes from Davis’ day:

Davis became the first player to go 0-for-8 in a game in which he pitched since Leon Cadore for the 1920 Brooklyn Robins against the Boston Braves. The neat thing about that: Cadore pitched 26 innings in a game that finished in a tie.

He was also the first player to go 0-for-8 and earn a win since Hall-of-Famer Rube Waddell for the 1905 Philadelphia Athletics against those same Red Sox. Waddell not only won-- he pitched a 20-inning complete game.

Harper Does Something Unusual
Bryce Harper has had a knack for wowing fans through his first eight games and did so again on Sunday night. He stole home as the Philadelphia Phillies attempted a pickoff at first base.

It was the third steal of home on a pickoff attempt over the past two seasons. The success rate on players attempting to steal home in any fashion over that span is 29 percent.

Elias noted that the 19-year-old Harper became the first teenager to steal home since the Angels’ 19-year-old Ed Kirkpatrick of the Los Angeles Angels against the Philadelphia Athletics on May 5, 1964, nearly 48 years to the day.

By now, everyone knows Albert Pujols is struggling. It’s not news. On the heels of a $240 million contract, he’s having the worst start to a season in his career.

But he may be sitting at rock bottom right now. For the first time this season, Pujols was not in the Angels' starting lineup on Saturday. And it was due to a managerial decision, not an injury.

Pujols was hitting .296 (16-for-54) with four RBIs, seven doubles, a .333 OBP and a .426 slugging percentage through April 19. Considering he also had no homers, those numbers weren’t very good, but they weren’t awful.

But since April 20, Pujols has really gone downhill. During that span, he’s hitting .093 (5-for-54) with one RBI, one extra-base hit, a .140 OBP and a .111 slugging percentage.

Since April 20, Pujols has the worst batting average, OBP and slugging percentage in baseball.

Pujols has gone 37 regular-season games (27 this year, final 10 last year) without a multi-RBI game, the longest streak of his career. His previous longest streak was 27 games in 2002.

And we all know about how Pujols has no homers in 108 at bats this season, the longest single-season streak of his career. Mike Trout hit his first homer of the season for the Angels on Saturday. He now has one more homer than Pujols in more than 100 fewer at-bats this year.

Much of Pujols’ struggles this season can be attributed to his inability to hit offspeed pitches. He’s hitting .114 this season (5-for-44) against changeups, curveballs and sliders with zero extra-base hits and two RBIs.

Pujols is chasing 46 percent of offspeed pitches thrown to him outside of the strike zone this season.

OTHER MLB NOTES FROM SATURDAY
Troy Tulowitzki committed his seventh error of the season in the Rockies' 26th game. He committed six errors all of last season in 140 games.

Adam Dunn's home run had a true distance of 438 feet, the longest home run given up by Jose Valverde since the start of the 2006 season. Valverde blew his second save of the season after not blowing any last season.

The Red Sox have lost nine of their past 10 games at Fenway Park. It’s the first time they’ve lost nine of 10 games at Fenway Park since 1994, when they lost 12 straight home games in June that year.

Stats & Info insights into this morning's top sports stories

1. SANTANA GETS NO SUPPORT AGAIN: FROM THE ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU: Ervin Santana became the first pitcher in MLB history to start five straight games in which his team was shut out. The Angels lost 4-0 to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday, and Albert Pujols went 0-4. Pujols has now gone homerless in 108 consecutive at bats to start the season, the longest single-season streak of his career. He's 2-20 with two singles during the Santana "shutout" streak.

2. HELP ME RONDO: FROM THE ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU: Rajon Rondo became the first player in NBA history to record 17 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists and four steals in a playoff game. It is his seventh career triple-double in the playoffs, which is tied with LeBron James for sixth-most all-time. Rondo was suspended by the league in Game 2 of this series, and he becomes the first player in NBA playoff history to record a triple-double after missing his team's previous game.

3. TIGER MISSES CUT: Tiger Woods missed the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship - his eighth career missed cut on the PGA TOUR. He missed the cut at this event in 2010, meaning this is the first event that he's missed the cut twice during his professional career. Phil Mickelson needed to make a putt on final hole to avoid missing the cut as well - if he had missed it, it would've been the first time they both missed the cut in the same PGA TOUR event.

4. BRAVES COME BACK: The Atlanta Braves trailed the Colorado Rockies 5-0 after one inning on Friday, but came back for the 9-8 win in 11 innings. FROM THE ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU: it is the first time the Braves overcame a 5-0 1st inning deficit since October 1, 1991 when they beat the Reds 7-6 despite trailing 6-0 after the first inning.

5. CINCO DE MAYO: It is Cinco de Mayo, so your fifth "Top Thing to Know" is going to be five fun mini-facts about today's action:

1) The last time a horse won the Triple Crown (1978), Kentucky had just won the NCAA Tournament - sound familiar?

2) The last time a Kentucky Derby was run on Cinco de Mayo (2007), Floyd Mayweather Jr. fought Oscar De La Hoya. Street Sense and Mayweather Jr. were the winners.

3) The only time a horse won the Triple Crown when the Kentucky Derby was run on Cinco de Mayo was in 1973, when the legendary Secretariat accomplished the feat.

4) The longest active win streak on Cinco de Mayo is by the Tampa Bay Rays, who have won their last six. The longest active losing streak is by the Miami Marlins, who have lost their last five.

5) Great news for Dallas Mavericks fans, for one day at least - no defending NBA champion has ever been eliminated from the playoffs on May 5.

The Tampa Bay Rays scored seven runs in the first four innings to roll past the Oakland Athletics for their 10th straight win at Tropicana Field. That’s the second-longest single-season home winning streak in franchise history, trailing only an 11-game run in 2008.

The Rays are the first American League team to start 13-1 at home since the Minnesota Twins won 14 of their first 15 home games in 2002. In 2009, the Los Angeles Dodgers were the last MLB team to start 13-1.

David Price was able to shut down the Athletics with the combination of his fastball and slider.

Sixty-three percent of Price’s pitches were fastballs, and the A’s went 0-for-11 with five strikeouts in at-bats ending with the heater.

With two strikes, Price went with his slider to end the at-bat. He threw 11 of his 15 sliders with two strikes and recorded six strikeouts. That’s his most whiffs with the slider since 2009.

He didn’t even need to stay in the zone to retire the opposing hitters. Over half of his pitches (56 of 106) were outside the strike zone. The Athletics swung and missed on 58 percent of pitches outside the zone, including six strikeouts. Price hadn’t induced as many chases on pitches outside the zone in a start since his rookie season.

With the win, Price improves to 30-3 at home in his career when getting at least three runs of support.

Around the Diamond
• Albert Pujols went four at-bats without a home run on Friday. His 108 at-bats without a home run this season are his longest single-season streak in his career, passing a 105 at-bat streak last season. Two long homer droughts were snapped Friday, as Shin-Soo Choo (67 at-bats) and Mark Reynolds (66 at-bats) hit their first of the season.

• Also in Anaheim, the Los Angeles Angels were shut out with Ervin Santana on the hill for the fifth straight time. Thanks to our friends at Elias, we know that this is the first time in major-league history that a starting pitcher has received no run support over five straight starts (11 pitchers had gone four straight starts without a run scored on their behalf).

• Wilson Ramos hit a bases-loaded single in the 10th inning as the Washington Nationals beat the Philadelphia Phillies to pick up their MLB-leading fifth walk-off win of the season.

• Mark Teixeira went 2-for-3 with a home run against Bruce Chen, improving to 11-for-22 with seven homers in his career against Chen. That is the most home runs he has hit against any pitcher in the majors.

• Stephen Strasburg allowed two home runs to right-handed hitters; entering the game, he had only allowed one homer to a righty in his career.

• Jerry Hairston Jr. went deep for the Dodgers, and has now hit a home run for six different teams since 2009. No other player has hit homers for as many teams in the same span.

• The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the New York Mets 5-4, snapping a nine-game losing streak in one-run games. According to Elias, that was the second longest streak in franchise history; the Diamondbacks lost 13 consecutive one-run games in 2004.

• Jamey Carroll singled in the first inning to snap a streak of 47 hitless at-bats for the Twins. Elias reports that it was the longest hitless at-bat streak by a team in a season since the San Diego Padres also went 47 at-bats between hits in June 1995.

Andrew Davis contributed to this post.

A lot of attention is being paid to Albert Pujols and his homerless streak to start the season (101 at-bats, 107 plate appearances). The focus on Pujols is justified, but it has taken the attention away from another question about the lack of power in major-league baseball:

Why haven’t any pitchers this season hit a home run?

Entering play on Thursday, there have been 881 plate appearances and 750 at-bats by pitchers this season, and none of those led to a round-tripper. This season is the first time since 1994 that there was not a home run hit by a pitcher before the end of April.

It's also the fifth season without a pitcher home run before the end of April since the American League adopted the designated hitter rule in 1973. The latest a pitcher hit a home run in a season during that timeframe was 1983, when reliever Rick Behenna hit one on June 8. Ironically, the opposing starting pitcher, Fernando Valenzuela, hit a home run later in that same game.

2012 is the 40th season since the start of the designated hitter, so you can split that timeframe into four 10-year segments. A prevailing theory is that power numbers for pitchers might fade because they no longer are used to hitting as much as they did before the DH rule.

But the power numbers have increased as the years have worn on. Home runs by pitchers before May 1 since the American League adopted the DH in 1973:

• 2003-2012: 28
• 1993-2002: 32
• 1983-1992: 21
• 1973-1982: 23

Back to Pujols, who remains homerless in 2012. The most consecutive at-bats in a season Pujols has gone without a home run is 105, and that was last season. Before 2011, Pujols had never gone more than 79 at-bats without going deep.

Pujols ranks 37th all-time with 445 home runs, but has gone 130 at-bats dating to last season since his last regular-season HR. The longest homerless drought among players ranked in the top 10 belongs to Babe Ruth, who went without 173 at-bats to end the 1918 season without a home run, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Also according to Elias, only two players in the top 10 all-time in home runs never had drought that reached triple digits: Hank Aaron (92) and Jim Thome (88).

Jered Weaver threw the 10th no-hitter in franchise history as the Los Angeles Angels beat the Minnesota Twins 9-0 to sweep a series for the first time this season. It was the 250th regular-season no-hitter in MLB history.

Since the Angels entered the American League in 1961, no major-league team has more no-hitters. The Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers also have 10 no-hitters in that span.

Weaver was able to shut down the Twins without needing to go to his secondary pitches. Nineteen of his 28 outs (including Chris Parmelee, who reached on a passed ball after striking out) were on fastballs. Six of his nine strikeouts were recorded on fastballs, with two on sliders and one on a curveball – his only out on a hook all night.

Since the start of the 2009 season, Weaver has relied on his fastball 56 percent of the time. Against the Twins on Wednesday, he went with the heat on 75 of 121 pitches (62 percent). While the outs came more easily than normal, his percent of pitches for strikes - 64 percent - was the same in the no-hitter as over the last four seasons.

It was the second no-hitter in major-league history thrown on May 2. The other was tossed by Fred Toney of the Cincinnati Reds in 1917.

The Halos have been brightest on Wednesday recently. With Weaver’s gem, the last three Angels' no-hitters have been thrown on Wednesday. Ervin Santana no-hit the Cleveland Indians last year, the first no-hitter for the Angels since Mark Langston and Mike Witt combined to allow no hits against the Seattle Mariners in 1990.

It was the first time that the Twins fell victim to a no-hitter since May 17, 1998, when David Wells threw a perfect game at Yankee Stadium.

Combined with Philip Humber's perfect game in April, this is the earliest in the calendar that two no-hitters have been thrown since 1994 (when there were three at this point). Last season was a near miss, as Francisco Liriano and Justin Verlander both threw no-hitters in the first week of May.

Weaver is the fifth pitcher overall, and the second in Angels history, to throw a no-hitter the year after being the runner-up in Cy Young voting. The last was Kevin Brown, who threw a no-hitter for the Florida Marlins in 1997 after finishing behind John Smoltz in NL Cy Young voting in 1996.

On the offensive side, it was the third straight game that the Angels hit two home runs. In the first 22 games of the season, they only had two multi-homer games.

Albert Pujols was one of the few hitters that didn’t benefit during the Angels’ 15-hit attack. He went 1-for-5 and has failed to hit a home run in his last 130 regular-season at-bats.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, 247 players have hit a home run this season.

Albert Pujols is not one of them.

Pujols’ 0 HR in 92 at-bats this season is the third-longest homerless streak to start a season by a player with at least 400 career HR, according to Elias. Only Eddie Murray (109 in 1996) and Ken Griffey Jr. (98 in 2010) had longer streaks.

Pujols was supposed to be the talk of southern California, not the Los Angeles Dodgers Matt Kemp, who leads the National League in all three Triple Crown categories.

Kemp (.425, 12 HR, 25 RBI) had a season-high four RBI on April 14 against the Padres. That’s as many RBI as Pujols has this season.

Let’s go a little deeper.

Kemp struck out 159 times last season, 101 more than Pujols. Yet, a month into the season, Pujols is the hitter who has seen more two-strike counts. Kemp has thrived in such situations. Pujols has not (see chart).

Let’s go even deeper on Pujols’ two-strike issues.

Pujols has 98 plate appearances this season; 53 of those plate appearances have ended in two-strike counts (55 percent). From 2009-11, 41 percent of Pujols’ plate appearances went to two strikes.

What led to this?

Early in at-bats, Pujols is fouling off more pitches and taking more strikes. He is putting the ball in play on less than 40 percent of swings in early counts; usually, he puts about half of his swings early in an at-bat into play.

There are other areas in which the difference between Kemp and Pujols is distinct.

• Kemp has been able to sneak the ball through holes, getting hits on 40 percent of his groundballs. Pujols is hitting right into infield shifts, with just three hits on 30 groundballs.

• Kemp is crushing breaking pitches (11-26, 2 HR, 5 RBI) and Pujols is making no impact against them (4-26, 0 XBH, 1 RBI).

Normally the right-handed Pujols would be crushing left-handed pitchers. Last year he hit nearly .300 and slugged over .600 against southpaws, but in April this year he is just 4-for-25 and has a slugging percentage of .240.

From 2001-11, Pujols entered the month of May with at least five home runs. So how many HR can be expected from Pujols the rest of the season?

According to Elias, seven players have finished with 40 home runs after not going deep once in April. The most was 54 by Babe Ruth in 1920. The most recent was Alex Rodriguez, who hit 42 HR in 1999.

ESPN's Home Run Tracker analyzes video of each home run hit this season and as far back as 2006. Each month, the tracker will detail the best and worst home runs, as well as some other interesting statistics pertaining to the long ball. Below are the notable home runs for the month of April.

Power Surge: (Player with highest combined HR distance)
2011 Winner: Jose Bautista
March/April Winner: Matt Kemp
Kemp is off to a torrid start, with 12 home runs that have traveled a true distance of 4,802 feet. That’s a longer true distances than the Padres, who have hit 11 home runs, and the Cubs, who have hit the fewest HR (9) entering May. Kemp's 12 home runs are two shy of the record set by Albert Pujols in 2006 and Alex Rodriguez in 2007 for the most home runs by April 30.

No Doubter (Longest true distance)
2011 Winner: Prince Fielder (486 feet)
March/April Winner: Travis Hafner (481 feet)
On April 15, Cleveland’s DH hit a home run of the Royals Luis Mendoza, the longest HR of his career. Hafner’s previous long was 454 feet in 2006. The 481-foot shot is the longest HR by an Indian since the beginning of our database (2006).

Wall-Scraper (Shortest true distance)
2011 Winner: Asdrubal Cabrera (320 feet)
March/April Winner: B.J. Upton (323 feet)
On April 24, Upton hit a home run off Ervin Santana that hit off the left-field foul pole. Chris Iannetta hit a 324-foot HR off Phil Hughes, the only other player this season to hit a home run less than 345 feet.

Moonshot: (Highest Apex - maximum vertical height a ball reaches)
2011 Winner: Mark Reynolds (161 feet)
March/April Winner: Todd Helton (162 feet)
On April 14, Helton hit a walk-off home run off J.J. Putz. The ball hung in the air for 6.92 seconds, the highest apex HR since Alex Rodriguez reached 169 feet on Sept 11, 2009.

Liner: (Lowest Apex)
2011 Winner: Carlos Peguero (39 feet, twice)
March/April Winners: Curtis Granderson/Luke Scott (49 feet)
Ervin Santana, who gave up the shortest HR of the month, also gave up the lowest apex. On April 13, Santana served up a 349-foot solo shot to Granderson that had an apex of 49 feet. Scott matched Granderson with a 387-foot laser off Mark Lowe, which also never got higher than 49 feet off the ground.

Mother Nature: (Most climate-impacted HR)
2011 Winner: Luke Scott
March/April Winner: Miguel Cabrera
Even the best need help from time to time. On April 26, Cabrera hit a 382-foot home run off Hector Noesi, but a 15 mph wind gust helped the ball carry an extra 62 feet. Without the wind, it would have been a routine fly out.

Server: (Pitcher who allowed the greatest cumulative distance)
2011 Winner: Bronson Arroyo
March/April Winner: Ervin Santana
In addition to giving up the shortest and the lowest apex home runs, Santana’s 10 home runs allowed traveled a total distance of 3,844 feet.

Launching Pad: (Greatest cumulative distance in one stadium)
2011 Winner: Rangers Ballpark in Arlington
March/April Winner: Rogers Centre
Thirty-eight HR have been hit in Rogers Centre thus far, with a total distance of 15,072 feet. Chase Field in Arizona finished second, totaling 12,803 feet. Conversely, only six HR were hit at AT&T Park in April.