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Troy Tulowitzki knocked in seven of the Colorado Rockies nine runs Wednesday in their 9-6 win over the San Diego Padres. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Tulowitzki is the second player in MLB history with more than 10 home runs and more than 25 RBI in any 14 games of September/October (Hank Greenberg did it in 1940 with 12 HR and 31 RBI). He also tied Ralph Kiner (1949) for the most home runs through the first 15 games of September with 11 (hit two on Wednesday). The Rockies’ club record for homers in a month is 12, accomplished most recently by Matt Holliday in 2007.

• The Tampa Bay Rays moved back into first place in the American League East after posting a 4-3 win over the New York Yankees Wednesday. This was the fifth time in the last six meetings the game was decided by one run, including all three games in this series in Tampa (they play a four-game set in New York beginning Monday, September 20). Dan Johnson’s go-ahead HR in the bottom of the seventh inning – his second HR of the game – was the game-winner. Four of his five HR this season have come against the Yankees and Red Sox.
  
  

  Yankees and Rays
  Head-to-Head This Season

  	NYY	TB
  Wins	6	8
  Runs	69	71
  Hits	121	121
  HR	19	19
  >> Start four-game series in NY on Monday

  While the Rays own the edge in victories in their season series against the Yankees this season these two teams have battled each other extremely close. The Rays have outscored the Yankees by just two runs, while both teams have 19 home runs, and 121 hits in the 14 games they have played against each other.

In the Los Angeles Angels 7-0 win over the Cleveland Indians, Bobby Abreu stole his 20th base of the season. Abreu now has 20 SB in 12 consecutive seasons, the longest active streak in the majors.

• Justin Maxwell of the hit his third career grand slam in the Nationals’ 4-2 win over the Atlanta Braves. Maxwell has nine career home runs, three of them are slams. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last player to hit three slams in his first 9 career homers was David Eckstein (2001-02).

Tyler Colvin hit his 20th HR for the Chicago Cubs against the St. Louis Cardinals. Colvin is just the 4th Cubs rookie all-time to hit 20+ home runs.

Quick Hits: The Orioles parted ways with Dave Trembley today. Let’s take a look at what else they’ll need to fix in order to become competitive again.

• Their starting pitchers are 9-27 with a 4.91 ERA, 4th worst in the majors.
• They’ve converted nine of 19 save opportunities (47.4 percent), worst in the majors.
• They’re 6-21 against their own division this season.
• They’re batting a league-worst .217 with runners in scoring position.
• They’ve scored just 3.3 runs per game, worst in the AL.

Today’s Trivia: Today is the 36th anniversary of 10-Cent Beer Night at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. In the lineup that day for the Rangers were three future managers. One of them was Toby Harrah, who coached half of a season with the Rangers after replacing Bobby Valentine in 1992. The other two led their teams to World Series appearances in the 1990s. Can you name them?

Today’s Leaderboard: One of the only players getting the job done for the Orioles this season has been Jeremy Guthrie. One of the keys to his success has been battling back when he falls behind in the count. In three-ball counts, batters have a .400 OBP against Guthrie – the lowest in the majors.

Key Matchups: David Eckstein may be one of the most unlikely players to have success against Roy Halladay, but he is batting .407 with a .926 OPS in his career against the Phillies’ ace.

Nyjer Morgan is 5-10 in his career against Aaron Harang. In each of his last two games against Harang, both in 2009, Morgan led off the game with a hit.

Trivia Answer: Jim Fregosi, who led the Phillies to the 1993 World Series, started at first base. Mike Hargrove, who led the Indians to the World Series in 1995 and 1997, entered the game in the 5th inning at first base.

Today’s Trivia: On Sunday, Joakim Soria became the all-time saves leader among pitchers born in Mexico? Whose record did Soria break?

Quick Hits: Let’s take a look at some of the more stunning ratios as we hit the three-week point of the young season.

* Brian McCann has 16 walks and only four strikeouts. Rather amazing for a player who has never had more walks than strikeouts, and had only 49 walks compared to 83 strikeouts last season.

* David Eckstein only has fanned once in 63 plate appearances. No qualifying player last decade had a PA per K greater than 30.0. In fact, the last to do so was Tony Gwynn in 1995.

* A ridiculous 79 percent of Kelly Johnson’s hits have been for extra bases. His career high is just 46 percent. Meanwhile, all 16 of Juan Pierre’s hits have been singles.

* According to Baseball-Reference.com, 33 percent of the fly balls hit by Travis Snider have been infield flies.

* With a 4.33 groundout to air out ratio, Derek Jeter is on track to lead the majors in that category for the second straight year.

* Ryan Rowland-Smith has allowed more home runs (six) than he has strikeouts (five), and has the worst strikeout percentage in the majors.

* Of all the fly balls to the outfield against Cole Hamels, 20.6 percent have been home runs, easily the highest percentage in the majors.

* Carlos Silva has a 0.63 WHIP. Last season, he allowed 0.73 extra-base hits per inning pitched.

* Carl Pavano has a 17-to-1 K-BB ratio. Last season, he had three walks in his first recorded inning of work.

* The Astros pitching staff surprisingly leads the majors with a 2.62 K-BB ratio.

* The Giants, Padres, and White Sox have more strikeouts than hits allowed.

* Of the hits allowed by the Pirates, 45 percent have gone for extra bases. Meanwhile, it’s just 25 percent for the Tigers, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

Today’s Leaderboard: The Indians have struck out only 90 batters in 18 games, but have walked 77. That is just 1.17 strikeouts for every walk. Over the last 20 years, the worst K-BB ratio belonged to the 1995 Brewers at 1.16. Last decade, only the 2000 Angels (1.27) had a K-BB ratio below 1.3.

Key Matchups: One way to know if Vernon Wells is really back? If he hits Josh Beckett like it is 2006. That was the last year Wells made an All-Star team, and that honor was largely courtesy of Josh Beckett and the Red Sox. In his first 10 games of 2006 against Boston, Wells hit eight home runs. Four of those came off Beckett. However, Wells is just 3-for-18 off of the right-hander since.

Zach Duke is 0-5 with a 7.38 ERA at Miller Park, as the Pirates have lost 21 straight there. That’s the longest road losing streak against a single opponent in Pirates history. Duke’s head-to-head matchups with Corey Hart are the complete opposite of what you’d expect. Hart is a .444 career hitter in Pittsburgh against Duke, but just .150 at home.

Trivia Answer: Aurelio Lopez had 93 saves over an 11-year career that ended in 1987. Considering there have been 68 Mexico-born pitchers in MLB history, Soria’s total is rather small for a “save king.” Countries that can boast a pitcher born there with more saves: Germany (Craig Lefferts, 101), Vietnam (Danny Graves, 182), and Japan (Kazuhiro Sasaki, 129).

Today’s Trivia: Who is the all-time home run king while wearing No. 42 on the back of his jersey?

** On the day where baseball honors Jackie Robinson, everyone will be wearing number 42. Mariano Rivera is the last remaining player to call that number his own. Using Baseball-Reference.com’s Oracle of Baseball, you can get from Jackie Robinson to Mariano Rivera in a mere 4 steps. Robinson played with Gil Hodges who played with Ed Kranepool who played with Jesse Orosco who was Rivera’s teammate ever so briefly in 2003.

Quick Hits: Inspired by Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira both being homerless after 38 plate appearances, here are some other players with an unexpected zero in a stat column:

* Taylor Teagarden is hitless in 18 plate appearances, which is seven more than the next player, Andres Torres.

* Pedro Feliz has nine hits but has not scored a run.

* Rafael Furcal has 12 hits but zero RBI.

* Fresh of a 100-RBI season, Nick Markakis does not have one in 39 plate appearances.

* Jason Giambi has 10 plate appearances, but hasn’t hit a ground ball.

* Albert Pujols finished second in the NL with 45 doubles this season, but doesn’t have one this year. Of course, he does have those 5 home runs.

* Carlos Pena is tied for the MLB lead with five infield hits. Denard Span, who had 40 infield hits last season, doesn’t have one.

* Ramon Troncoso has thrown 5 2/3 innings with a 1.59 ERA but has no strikeouts.

* Wilton Lopez has allowed five hits, but zero singles.

* John Danks has allowed 10 hits, but none for extra bases.

* In 2006, Jake Westbrook led the majors by inducing 35 double plays. In 14 GIDP situations this season, he hasn’t had one.

Today’s Leaderboard: April 15 is Tax Day, so let’s see which bullpens have been the most taxed this season. The Nationals have averaged 4.4 innings per game out of their pen, which is currently sporting a 5.86 ERA. The Mets have the second most used relief staff, but sport a 2.08 bullpen ERA.

Key Matchups: Notoriously difficult to strikeout, David Eckstein has yet to fan this season in 31 plate appearances. But that hasn’t traditionally been the case against Tim Hudson, who has struck out Eckstein 13 times in 66 at-bats. No other pitcher has struck out Eckstein even half as many times.

Scott Kazmir has a 2.67 lifetime ERA against the Yankees, and it’s easy to see why. Derek Jeter is a .111 (4-36) hitter against him, his worst average against any pitcher he has faced 20 times. Alex Rodriguez has hit just .125 (3-24) against Kazmir, his second worst average against any pitcher he’s faced at least 30 times. However, this might be the game where Mark Teixeira breaks out. He is 7-for-11 against Kazmir with five walks.

Trivia Answer: Mo Vaughn, who wore No. 42 for his entire career, hit 328 home runs, most of anyone wearing that number.