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Fireworks could fly tonight on Wednesday Night Baseball (ESPN2, 7 ET) when the Washington Nationals take on the Philadelphia Phillies.

Tonight will be Cole Hamels first start against the Nationals since admitting to intentionally plunking Bryce Harper in the back in the first inning of a game on May 6 (a 9-3 Phillies win).

Harper might have gained his revenge already as he went 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored against Hamels after being intentionally hit.

One of the reasons Hamels said he hit Harper was because he thought Harper was getting calls that a rookie shouldn’t.

In the two games against the Phillies before being plunked, Harper took 25 pitches that were called balls. Of those 25, four were actually in the strike zone (16.0 percent), according to Inside Edge pitch-location tracking. Only Jayson Werth (5) saw more such pitches in the two games for either team.

The Phillies were not as fortunate. Only seven of 89 called balls against their hitters were in the strike zone (7.9 percent), meaning that they caught a break less than half as often as Harper.

Pitching Matchup
Edwin Jackson is off to the best start of his career. He is striking out hitters at the highest rate of his career (8.0 K/9) while walking fewer batters than ever (1.7 BB/9 – 10th-best in the NL). He correspondingly is on pace to have the lowest qualified ERA of his career at 3.31.

The key to Jackson’s success might be as simple as getting ahead in the count more often. He had been improving slightly each season, but took a leap to another level this season as he has thrown a strike 66 percent of the time on his first pitch, 14th-best among MLB starting pitchers (the league average is 59 percent). From 2009-11, Jackson never had a first-pitch strike percentage higher than 58.

Since dropping his first start of the season, Hamels is 6-0 with a 2.20 ERA and a .212 opponent batting average over his last seven starts.

His seven straight quality starts is tied for the second-longest active streak in the majors and he’s helped keep a Phillies team afloat that’s battling a host of injuries.

Hitters to Watch
Adam LaRoche is 4-for-16 lifetime against Hamels, but all four of his hits have gone for extra bases, including three home runs, giving him a 1.208 OPS against Hamels.

Since being plunked, Harper is just 15-for-56 (.246 BA), but has picked things up recently. Over his last 10 games, Harper is hitting .325 (13-for-40) with six RBI.

ESPN Stats & Information continues its weekly stat-based roundup of notable moves from the past week.

Washington Nationals Sign Edwin Jackson
Last season Jackson posted an ERA of 3.79 despite ranking seventh in MLB in hits allowed. How unusual was that combination of run prevention and baserunners? He was the only qualifying pitcher in the majors with an ERA below 4.00 that also gave up at least 10 hits per nine innings pitched.

Jackson managed that feat by allowing an OPS of .869 with the bases empty and a .665 mark with runners on. That was the largest difference among all qualifying pitchers that had a higher OPS with the bases empty versus with runners on.

A 120-point spread in his BABIP allowed with nobody on base compared to all other plate appearances may explain part of that difference.

However, opponents didn't seem to hit the ball much harder versus Jackson in either situation.

According to video review by Inside Edge, batters hit the same percentage of "well-hit" balls (24%) against Jackson regardless of whether there were men on base or not.

So what can Nationals expect out of Jackson in 2012? Only four other pitchers since 2000 finished with an ERA under 4.00 while also giving up 10-plus hits per nine innings.

The good news is that one of those pitchers was Andy Pettitte in 2001, who went on to post a 3.27 ERA the following season and a 3.78 ERA over the final nine seasons of his career.

The bad news is that the other three pitchers were Carlos Silva (2005), Josh Towers (2005) and Aaron Cook (2008) – who combined for zero sub-4.00 ERA seasons following their unusual low-ERA/high-hit total year.
-- Katie Sharp

Cleveland Indians Sign Casey Kotchman
Kotchman, at least last season, fared better than what the Indians had at first base in 2011.

Kotchman upped his on-base percentage from .280 in 2010 to .378 in 2011, with a batting average on balls in play that improved from .229 to .335 and a walk rate that improved slightly.

Kotchman's BABIP went up because his number of ground ball hits nearly doubled, going from 30 to 58, though his ground balls hit only increased by 41 from the previous season.

Kotchman and Texas Rangers catcher/first baseman Mike Napoli led the majors with the largest on-base percentage jump (98 points) in the majors, among the nearly 150 players who had at least 400 plate appearances in each season.

Indians first basemen had an on-base percentage of .302 and .319 over the last two seasons, the latter ranking 23rd among the 30 major-league teams in 2011.

Defensively, the Indians two primary first basemen, Matt LaPorta and Carlos Santana combined for 69 Good Fielding Plays and 41 Defensive Misplays & Errors in 1,367 innings.

That's based on video review from Baseball Info Solutions, which watches and tags plays into more than 80 categories of good/bad. A good play for a first baseman might be something like scooping a throw out of the dirt. A misplay may be for something such as dropping a return throw from a teammate on a double-play attempt.

Kotchman had fewer Good Fielding Plays (55), but had less than half as many Defensive Misplays & Errors (20) in a similar number of innings (1,222).

Kotchman’s average of one Defensive Misplay & Error per 61 innings was third-best among major-league first basemen who played at least 900 innings (approximately 100 games) at first base.
-- Mark Simon

The emphasis in the 2011 World Series shifted from pitching to hitting in Game 3 and the ramifications were such that both teams will have some fatigued relievers in Sunday night’s Game 4.

In the fourth through sixth innings, the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers combined for 17 runs, more than twice as many as were scored in the first two games. They had just five fewer hits over those three frames than in the 18 innings of Games 1 and 2.

This could play a major role not just in this game, but for the rest of the series.

With that in mind, here are a few things to watch for in Game 4

Mound Matchup
The last time Edwin Jackson was on the mound, the Cardinals celebrated a trip to the World Series following their 12-6 win in Game 6 of the NLCS. Jackson, who got just six outs in the game, became a historical footnote as the second starter in major-league history to allow three homers in two innings or fewer in a postseason game.

Two of the three longballs he allowed in that game came on inside pitches to right-handed batters, a spot that has given Jackson trouble all season. Righties are slugging .642 in at-bats ending with a pitch on the inner third of the zone or closer this season, a rate that is nearly 200 points higher than the league average.

The tailing fastball of Rangers starter Derek Holland against right-handed hitters could be worth watching on Sunday night. That pitch was among Holland’s most effective during the regular season. According to the data from Pitch F/X (the pitch-tracking system in major-league ballparks), his fastball averaged 11 inches of “tailing break,” the most among starting pitchers in baseball.

The Tigers were ready for it in Game 4 of the ALCS. Their right-handed hitters got four hits against it, including home runs from Miguel Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta in the first two innings. That’s as many hits as he allowed on fastballs away to right-handed hitters in his last seven regular-season appearances (spanning 119 pitches).

Pujols and Freese the perfect combo
Albert Pujols and David Freese each have 16 RBI this postseason, marking only the second time in postseason history that two teammates have had at least 16 RBI in a postseason. Three members of the 2002 San Francisco Giants did it- Rich Aurilia (17) Barry Bonds (16), and Benito Santiago (16).

Neither has faced Derek Holland in a major league game. But Pujols is 8-for-17 against left-handed pitching this postseason, including his home runs against Mike Gonzalez and Darren Oliver. Freese has been all-or-nothing against lefties. He’s 6-for-15, but with seven strikeouts.

Cruz Control Nelson Cruz is 2-for-10 in the World Series with a home run, but the Cardinals have done their best to limit his damage. He’s whiffed four times in the three games, twice on pitches at the very top of the strike zone, twice on pitches down around his toes.

The Cardinals approach has been virtually the opposite of how the Tigers pitched to Cruz in the ALCS. In that six-game series, Tigers right-handed pitchers threw Cruz 40 pitches (out of 90 total) on the inner-third of the plate, or that missed inside.

In the three World Series games, Cruz has seen 38 pitches from right-handers. Only four have been inner-third or missed inside.

The NLCS is back in Milwaukee for Game 6, where the Milwaukee Brewers will try to avoid elimination tonight. This will be just the second Game 6 the franchise has played in its 43-year history. The first one didn’t go so well – a 13-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1982 World Series.

However, the Brewers are happy to be playing at the friendly confines of Miller Park. The Brew Crew is 10-5 all-time in home postseason games, which is tied with the New York Mets (26-13) for the all-time best home winning percentage in the postseason (min. 15 games).

The Cardinals are looking to clinch a World Series berth for the 18th time in franchise history, which would put them in a tie with the Giants and Dodgers for the second-most appearances all-time, behind only the Yankees (40).

On the Mound
The Brewers send Shaun Marcum to the mound with their season on the line. Marcum has struggled in his last six starts since the beginning of September, with a 8.18 ERA and 1-4 record over that span. Prior to this recent slide, he was 12-5 with a 3.11 ERA in 29 starts.

Marcum is an off-speed specialist, throwing his fastball less than 30 percent of the time this season, but it was his heater that the Cardinals pounded in Game 2 of the NLCS.

Of the six fastballs the Cardinals swung at, four went for hits, including two doubles and a homer. The three extra-base hits were the most against his fastball in any start this season.

Edwin Jackson takes the mound in this potential pennant-clinching game for the Cardinals. In his last two starts in Milwaukee, including Game 2 of this series, he has a 2.38 ERA and walked just one of the 47 batters he faced.

He had a lot success when he was able to keep the ball down, as the Brewers went a combined 1-for-13 in at-bats ending on pitches in the bottom third of the zone and below, and missed on 12 of their 28 swings at those pitches.

Inside the Series
Including the playoffs, these teams have now played each other 23 times this season and the Cardinals have won 12 times, outscoring the Brewers by just four runs. So it would be no surprise if this series went the distance…

…And research by the Elias Sports Bureau confirms this. There have been 89 seven-game postseason series where a team trailed 3-2. Forty-nine of those 89 series, or 55 percent, went to a winner-take-all Game 7.

Edwin Jackson's success will be largely predicated on his ability to maintain the success he’s had using the slider as a putaway pitch over the last seven weeks.

In his last 11 appearances, including his NLDS start against the Phillies, Jackson has had great success finishing hitters off with his key pitch. He’s used it to get 42 outs, while yielding only five hits. His ratio of getting better than eight outs for every hit he’s allowed with that pitch is twice the rate that he was getting this season prior to that.

The difference over the last couple of months for Jackson is the location of the pitch. Earlier in the season, Jackson hung a few too many to right-handed hitters over the middle of the plate. But in the last month, the pitch has had a greater drop, hitting the edges of the plate, or tumbling out of the strike zone.

The heat maps above show the difference in Jackson’s slider location in July and August versus what it was in September.

The Brewers have seen plenty of Jackson’s slider over the last two seasons, and they’re a bit overeager against it. Jackson has gotten strikes with his slider nearly 70 percent of the time against the Brewers since 2010. They’ve chased more than half of the ones he’s thrown out of the strike zone. Comparitively, other teams chase that pitch from him about one-third of the time.

Over the last two seasons, Jackson has rung up 18 strikeouts of Brewers batters in four games. Twelve of those have been on the slider, 11 of them swinging-- and all 11 on sliders out of the zone.

David Freese knocked in four runs with a go-ahead two-run double and his first career postseason home run to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Edwin Jackson won his first postseason start and the teams will head to Philadelphia for a winner-take-all Game 5 on Friday night.

Jackson threw his breaking pitches more than in any start since joining the Cardinals -- 33 of his 77 pitches (43 percent) were breaking balls, which accounted for all four of his strikeouts.

The Phillies chased 10 of the 15 slider Jackson threw out of the strike zone, his highest chase percentage (67 percent) with his slider this season. Helped by the Phillies chasing, 85 percent of his sliders were strikes, also his highest this season. Phillies hitters were 2-for-10 with three strikeouts in at-bats ending with a Jackson slider.

After hitting .400 (4-for-10) with runners in scoring position in Game 1, the Cardinals’ batting average in those situations decreased for the third consecutive game (1-for-5 in Game 4), but they left just three runners on base, a day after tying a franchise postseason record by stranding 14 runners.

The Phillies looked like they were ready to put the series away early when their first three batters went double, triple and single on Jackson’s first five pitches. But they recorded just four hits -- all singles -- the rest of the way.

Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley -- who doubled and tripled, respectively, to start the game -- are 15-for-29 with six doubles and 11 runs scored combined in the series.

Utley has really turned it up through four postseason games (.462/.588/.769) compared to his poor September (.205/.295/.337).

Cleanup hitter Ryan Howard went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, the 10th three-strikeout game of his postseason career, easily the most all-time -- only one other player has more than half as many. His career postseason strikeout rate of 40.4 percent is also the highest in MLB history (minimum 100 PA).

Roy Oswalt took his first career loss in a postseason start and the Phillies lost for the first time ever in Game 4 of the Divisional Series (3-1).

The Phillies had won each of their previous six postseason games in which they had a chance to eliminate an opponent, dating to 2008, matching the second-longest such streak in MLB history (according to Elias).

Former Cy Young award winners Chris Carpenter and Roy Halladay will square off in Game 5 Friday night. Elias tells us it’s just the third time in major-league history (the Cy Young award was introduced in 1956) that previous award winners will face one another in a winner-take-all postseason game.

Pedro Martinez was involved in each of the first two back in 2003 -- in Game 5 of the ALDS against Barry Zito and in Game 7 of the ALCS against Roger Clemens.

The Philadelphia Phillies look to wrap things up on Wednesday in Game 4 of the National League Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. A look at some key storylines going into the evening:

Inside the Series
The Phillies took Game 3 on Tuesday, and history shows the importance of that. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, when a five-game Division Series is tied after the first two games, the winner of Game 3 has gone on to win the series 19 of 23 times since 1995.

Philadelphia is 3-0 all-time in Game 4 of a divisional series. In fact, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Phillies have won each of the last six postseason games in which they had a chance to eliminate an opponent. The streak, which dates to 2008, is tied for the second longest in MLB history. The A’s won nine straight potential series clinchers from 1973 to 1990.

On the Mound
Roy Oswalt takes the mound for the Phillies, boasting a 5-0 career record in 10 postseason starts (note: his loss in the 2010 NLCS came in relief). According to Elias, he would be just the fifth pitcher to win his first six postseason decisions as a starter. Orlando Hernandez won his first eight. He is followed by Cliff Lee (seven), Orel Hershiser (seven) and Lefty Gomez (six).

Oswalt is 2-0 with a 3.15 ERA in three career postseason starts against the Cardinals. However, he hasn’t faced them in the playoffs since Game 6 of the 2005 NLCS.

The Cardinals counter with Edwin Jackson, who after 173 regular season starts is making his first in the postseason. In 2008, Jackson’s 14 wins were tied for the most on the Tampa Bay Rays, but he was relegated to the bullpen for the postseason.

Jackson hasn’t lost since August 20, a span of seven starts in which he is 3-0 with a 3.02 ERA. His success has come from a consistent ability to work out of jams. As Elias notes, opponents are batting .339 with the bases empty against Jackson, the highest such average among qualifying pitchers. However, he also held opponents to a .216 batting average with runners in scoring position.

Matchups to Watch
In what could potentially be his final game in a Cardinals uniform, Albert Pujols will face a familiar foe in Oswalt. No one has more career plate appearances (102), hits (30) or home runs (seven) against Oswalt. That success has carried over to the postseason, when Pujols is 4-for-9 with two home runs and four RBI against Oswalt.

Jackson has only one career start against the Phillies, and a limited track record against their key players. However, keep an eye on Shane Victorino solely for where he hits in the lineup. Opposing No. 5 hitters combined to hit .353 with 6 HR, 18 RBI and a 1.103 OPS against Jackson this season. Only Joe Saunders (1.124) allowed a higher OPS from the five spot.

The Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals play the rubber match of their three-game series in St. Louis at 8 ET on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN.

The Rockies probably would prefer the game take place on a different day of the week -- Colorado is 2-16 (.125) on Sundays and 53-48 (1.10) the rest of the week, and has been outscored 99-43 in the 16 losses.

The Rockies have lost 16 straight games on Sunday, tied with the 1960 Phillies for the longest single-season losing streak on Sundays since 1900.

On the mound

The Rockies send Esmil Rogers to the mound on his 26th birthday. Rogers is 5-1 with a 4.91 ERA as a starter this season (six starts).

Rogers has pitched well on the road as a starter in his career. This year he is 4-0 with a 3.33 ERA and .276 opp BA in four road starts (1-1, 9.35 ERA and .351 opp BA in two home starts).

None of the past 11 pitchers to start a game on their birthday have won. These 11 pitchers are a combined 0-8. The last starting pitcher to win on his birthday was Randy Wells -- Aug. 28, 2010, for the Cubs against the Reds.

The Cardinals counter with Edwin Jackson. Since being traded to St. Louis, Jackson is 1-2 and has allowed 11 earned runs and 27 hits.

Jackson has struggled against the Rockies in his career. He has allowed at least five earned runs in each of his five starts against them and has never pitched more than five innings in any of those starts.

His 17.28 ERA against the Rockies is the WORST by any active pitcher against a team (minimum five starts). The next-worst is Jose Contreras, with a 9.79 ERA facing Texas.

Matchups

Matt Holliday was a key part of the Rockies' run to the World Series in 2007, winning the National League Championship Series MVP that year. Since leaving the team, he’s had a lot of success against them.

He’s hitting .378 (17-for-45) and slugging .644 with a 1.106 OPS, including three doubles and three home runs against the Rockies in his career. His .378 BA and 1.106 OPS are both his second best against any team he’s had at least 50 PA against.

Troy Tulowitzki is hitting .388 with 17 HR in wins (54 games), and just .220 with six HRs in losses (60 games). That’s the highest batting average in wins on the team and the second-lowest batting average in losses among the regulars (min. 300 PA).

Stat of the game

In the 63 games without at least one of their core players (Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman, Albert Pujols), the Cardinals average 4.3 runs per game and hit .257, and are 34-29. In the 55 games where the three players are all in the starting lineup, they average 5.2 runs per game and are hitting .284, and are 29-26.

Francisco Liriano's no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox was the 248th in major league history and 246th in the regular season. Liriano walked six and struck out two, becoming just the second pitcher since 1900 to have four more walks than strikeouts in a no-hitter according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Pittsburgh’s Cliff Chambers walked eight and struck out four when he no-hit the Braves in 1951.

Francisco Liriano’s no-hitter last night is a great example of a statistical oddity in baseball. Looking inside the numbers at the no-hitter, Liriano did not do much differently than in his previous 5 starts that yielded a 9.13 ERA. In fact in some cases, his numbers were worse.

His miss pct on his “out pitches” (changeup and slider) were actually worse than his season total

On top of that, Liriano's no-no wasn't all that special. Last year, Edwin Jackson, Liriano's opponent on the mound Tuesday, threw a no-hitter against the Tampa Bay Rays also in a 1-0 game. In fact, the strike percentage, called strikes and three-ball counts from both of those games were nearly identical.

Although it's the first no-hitter of this season, Liriano's was the seventh this decade. From 2000-2009, there were a total of 15 no-hitters.

Here's more on how Liriano was able to no-hit the White Sox:

• He adjusted to the White Sox as the game went on. Chicago swung at just 34.1 percent of Liriano's pitches, the lowest percentage against the Twins' left-hander over the last three seasons. From innings 1-3, Liriano threw just 38.7 percent of his pitches in the strike zone. That number increased to 43.6 in innings 4-6 and 48.6 in innings 7-9.

• The White Sox did not hit the ball out of the infield in the last four innings, as Liriano threw 59.6 percent of his pitches down in that span, compared to 46.5 in the first five innings.

• Twenty-one of Liriano's 26 changeups were low. He got five outs with his changeup in the last four innings (including a double play), and none left the infield.

• Liriano had six innings of 12 pitches or less. It's even more impressive considering that he threw first-pitch balls to 19 of the 30 White Sox hitters he faced.

While Liriano got the no-no, one could argue that he wasn't even the best pitcher in U.S. Cellular Field Tuesday. Jackson and reliever Matt Thornton outpitched Liriano in several categories.

Finally, Liriano was just the second active starting pitcher to throw a no-hitter after previously undergoing Tommy John surgery joining Anibal Sanchez of the Marlins.

The Cincinnati Reds' Aroldis Chapman made his major-league debut and struck out the first batter he faced. He retired the side in order in the eighth inning, throwing eight pitches (seven for strikes) and topping out at 102 MPH on the radar gun.

Chapman’s role with the Reds in the final five weeks of the season bares comparison to when the Los Angeles Angels called up Francisco Rodriguez late in 2002.

After beginning the season as a starting pitcher in Triple-A, Chapman moved to the bullpen and was dominant in 26 relief appearances. Opponents hit just .156 off him while he registered a WHIP under one. He had a K/BB ratio greater than four and a K per 9 IP of nearly 15. He also improved his groundout/air out ratio from 0.83 to 1.47 when he moved from starter to reliever.

Go back eight years when Rodriguez made his debut. Prior to being called up in 2002, “K-Rod” made 27 Triple-A relief appearances with very similar numbers to Chapman. Rodriguez also made 23 Double-A relief appearances, while Chapman made 13 starts before moving to the bullpen.

In five regular-season games late in 2002, Rodriguez pitched 5⅔ scoreless innings, allowing three hits, two walks and struck out 13. He then went on to pitch 18⅔ innings in 11 postseason games, allowing 4 ER on 10 hits and struck out 28 batters.

Other Notes From The Night:

• Edwin Jackson has now struck out at least 10 batters in three straight starts, matching the longest such streak in Chicago White Sox history. Floyd Bannister did it in 1985, and Ed Walsh did it in 1910.

• The New York Yankees' Phil Hughes won his 16th game of the season. In the divisional era (1969), only Andy Pettitte (21-6 in 1996) won more games in a season at age 24 or younger for the Yankees. (Steve Kline also won 16 games in 1972.)

• In his eighth year in the majors, the Yankees' Mark Teixeira has now hit at least 30 home runs in seven consecutive seasons. Hank Aaron had 15 30-HR seasons, the most in MLB history. The most consecutive 30-HR seasons by Aaron? That would also be seven, from 1957-63.

• Derek Jeter now has one hit in his last 25 at-bats. He hit .239 in August, his worst batting average for a calendar month since April 2004.


• The Texas Rangers have won each of C.J. Wilson's last five starts. Cliff Lee has started immediately following Wilson in that span, and the Rangers have lost all five of those games.

• With the Toronto Blue Jays winning on Tuesday, it means all five AL East teams had winning records in August. The last time there was a division of five-or-more teams all finishing above .500 in one month was the National League Central in June 1996.

• The New York Mets have allowed a club record 10 grand slams this season, which also is the most in MLB.

From the Elias Sports Bureau: The Chicago Cubs have now allowed at least 14 runs in seven games this season. That's the most games allowing 14+ runs in a single season by a Cubs team since the 1897 team had 12 such games.

• The St. Louis Cardinals have been shut out in back-to-back games for the second time this season. Prior to 2010, that had not happened to the Cardinals since 1995.

Today’s Trivia: Today is Rollie Fingers’ birthday, which means they’re probably celebrating in both Oakland and Milwaukee. After all, both the A’s and Brewers have retired Fingers No. 34 jersey. Fingers is one of just nine players in history to have his jersey retired by more than one team.

So your question is – which two other players have a jersey No. 34 retired in MLB? Hint: one of the two, like Fingers, is part of the nine-member club that has had a jersey retired by multiple teams.

Quick Hits:
Move to the edge of your seat tonight when Hiroki Kuroda comes to the plate. Kuroda has managed to go 0-40 at bat this season and is on the verge of history. Only eight previous players since 1901 have had an 0-fer season with at least 40 at-bats. Can we get Kuroda out of his “slump” by delving deeper into his numbers?

• Of his 40 at-bats, 18 have ended in strikeouts. Those K’s have come at inopportune times, too – his only two plate appearances with the bases loaded? They ended in strikeouts. His 14 at-bats with the game tied? Six ended in strikeouts.

• Two pitchers in particular have especially feasted off Kuroda’s meekness. Aaron Harang has faced him five times and Edwin Jackson has faced him four times. Kuroda, obviously, has gone o-fer against both.

• If you believe in OPS+ (which is OPS adjusted for league and ballpark), you probably don’t believe in Kuroda. His OPS+ checks in at -85, almost as impressive as it is awful. Among anyone who has batted more than 20 times this season, that’s the worst. But have no fear Kuroda – the wunderkind is close behind. Stephen Strasburg’s OPS+ is a not-much-better -73.

• But it’s not ALL bad for Kuroda – twice, he’s drawn a walk! That gives him a whopping .048 on-base percentage. In fact, on one of those occasions, he even scored a run. It came against Bud Norris and the Astros, when Manny Ramirez drove Kuroda in. It’s the only time Kuroda has touched home plate this season.

• Maybe place discipline is what’s killing Kuroda. Only eight times this season has he reached a three-ball count. Only seven times has he seen a 2-0 count.

• So how many chances does he have left? Well, figure he’ll make about seven more starts this season, including tonight. He’s averaging 2.08 PA per start. So bank on Kuroda getting about 14 or 15 trips to the plate the rest of the year. Talk about drama. Only two players have gone 0-50 or worse in a season: Bill Wight in 1950 and Bob Buhl in 1962.

Today’s Leaderboard:
It’s always fascinating when a batter gets the green light (or sometimes gives himself the green light) to break one of the unwritten rules of baseball and swing on a 3-0 count. But so far this season, batters have swung on a 3-0 count 6.1 percent of the time. In fact, Adam Dunn and Jose Bautista each have two home runs this season on 3-0 counts. So maybe the rule isn’t that ironclad.

With a nod to a batter’s decision as the count move along, let’s look at the times where batters are MOST likely to take the bat off their shoulder, and in which count they’re most likely to get a hit.

Key Matchups:
• Lock J.D. Drew up for treason – he shows no respect for the King. King Felix that is, who has faced Drew 23 times and allowed Drew to dishonor him for a .400 BA and 1.028 OPS. Among the 47 batters who Felix Hernandez has faced as often as Drew, Drew’s OPS ranks third. In their most recent showdown, July of last year, Drew homered off Hernandez.

• If the Rangers are thinking ahead, they’ll take as many pitches as they can from Brian Duensing to scout his stuff. Duensing is a potential playoff opponent, and only four Rangers batters have ever hit against him. Elvis Andrus, Josh Hamilton, David Murphy and Michael Young are a combined 3-16 (.188 BA) against him.

• Carlos Lee hasn’t seen a ton of Roy Halladay, but when he has, he’s hit him. Lee has three homers off of Halladay is just 23 at-bats. Among all the other batters who have faced Halladay, only Luke Scott and Justin Morneau have as many homers in as few at-bats. Lee has a career .639 slugging percentage against Halladay, but that might be on its way down – in their previous meeting this season, Lee went 0-4 with two strikeouts against Halladay.

• Speaking of Halladay, he has a chance to win the pitching triple crown this season (ERA, Wins, Strikeouts).

Although it’s slightly more commonly done than the batting triple crown (30 pitching triple crowns vs 13 hitting triple crowns since 1900), it’s still a remarkable accomplishment. Entering Wednesday, Halladay led the NL in ERA and strikeouts, and was only one behind Adam Wainwright and Ubaldo Jimenez in wins.

Jake Peavy last won the pitching triple crown in 2007 and it has been won three times in the last eight seasons, but in the National League, it’s only been won four times since Sandy Koufax won three in a four-year span (1963, 65, 66).


If the remarkable happens and we get a pitching and hitting triple crown in the same season, then we start talking some real baseball history. A pitching and hitting triple crown hasn’t been won in the same season since 1966, when Frank Robinson and Sandy Koufax won them. Both of those players now have plaques in Cooperstown.

If Pujols/Votto and Halladay win their respective triple crowns in the National League, they’d be the first National Leaguers to win their respective triple crowns in the same season since 1894. It’s happened twice before in the American League -- in 1901 (Nap Lajoie and Cy Young), and 1934 (Lou Gehrig and Lefty Gomez)

Trivia Answer: Kirby Puckett has his No. 34 retired by the Twins, and Nolan Ryan has his No. 34 retired by BOTH the Rangers and Astros. Ryan also has his No. 30 jersey retired by the Angels.

Just for fun – Puckett went 1-4 against Fingers in his career, managing a single in his first-ever at-bat against Fingers.

Another weekend day game between AL East foes at Rogers Centre, some more history for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Brandon Morrow struck out 17 Tampa Bay Rays and was just one ground ball away from one of the more dominating no-hitters in MLB history on Sunday. Alas, Evan Longoria's grounder bounched off of Aaron Hill's diving attempt at it and Morrow was forced to strike out Dan Johnson to secure the 1-0 win.

Morrow joins an elite club of Blue Jays pitchers to lose a no-hitter when they were just one out away. Roy Halladay gave up a hit to Bobby Higginson of the Detroit Tigers back in 1998 when he was one out away. But Morrow has nothing on Dave Stieb, who lost three no-hitters in a two-season span between 1988 and 1989, including two in back-to-back starts.

The only Blue Jays no-hitter ever thrown was by Stieb on September 2, 1990 at the Indians.

Maybe we should have seen an effort like this coming from Morrow. On September 5, 2008, Morrow threw 7.2 hitless innings against the New York Yankees in his first MLB start. It was broken up by a Wilson Betemit double that actually scored a run. Morrow is now the ONLY pitcher to take a no-hitter through five innings three times this season.

The Tampa Bay Rays seem to have no-hitters on their brain as they narrowly escape becoming the first team in MLB history to be no-hit three times in a season. In fact, of the last six no-hitters across the bigs, the Rays have been involved in four of them (one by Matt Garza while three have come against them).

Instead of wallowing in what might have been, we should celebrate what Morrow did achieve. 17 strikeouts is one shy of the club record that Roger Clemens set against the Royals back in 1998. The list of pitchers with a one-hit shutout along with 17 Ks in the live-ball era (since 1920) is just three names deep. Curt Schilling in 2002 with the Diamondbacks, Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game back in 1998 and now Morrow.

Some other crazy facts:

•Home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg was also behind the dish for Anibal Sanchez and Ubaldo Jimenez's no-nos. The last umpire to have home plate for two no-hitters in a season was Drew Coble in 1990.

•On July 26 (two weeks ago tomorrow), Morrow turned 26 years old. Check out the ages of the pitchers who threw the five no-hitters this season: Ubaldo Jimenez (26), Dallas Braden (26), Roy Halladay (33), Edwin Jackson (26) and Garza (26). From July 30, 1973 until the end of last season, there were just five total no-hitters thrown by a pitcher who was exactly 26 years of age.

•According to Bill James' metric "Game Score," which is a one-number summary of how good a pitcher's single-game performance is, Brandon Morrow's 17-strikeout, 2-walk, one-hitter got a score of 100. That is tied for the 4th-best single-game pitching performance since 1920. It was the highest by any pitcher in a single game since Randy Johnson scored 100 in his perfect game back in 2004.

Today’s Trivia: Jonathan Sanchez struck out seven consecutive Colorado Rockies on Tuesday, something that only Francisco Liriano and Stephen Strasburg have done this season. What’s the MLB record for most consecutive strikeouts in a game and who holds it? (Hint: a San Diego Padres lineup featuring Cito Gaston batting third was the opponent in that game)

Bonus: It’s Roger Clemens’ birthday today – what is Clemens’ personal record for consecutive strikeouts in a game and against which team?

Quick Hits: On the other No. 600 home runs now that Alex Rodriguez has launched his...

Like Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr.’s 600th came in the first inning. But Griffey went 0-3 with a strikeout in the rest of his at-bats in that game.

Sammy Sosa’s 600th not only came against his former team (the Cubs), it was the first of back-to-back home runs. Frank Catalanotto followed Sosa with a blast off Jason Marquis. But neither Sosa, Catalanotto nor Marquis are still with their teams from that game.

Barry Bonds’ milestone bomb also came against his former team, the Pirates. It was served up by Kip Wells, whom Bonds batted .500 against (5-10) with 2 HR in his career.

Hank Aaron chose a Hall-of-Fame pitcher, Gaylord Perry, to hit his 600th against. Guess who batted third and fourth for Perry’s teammates on the Giants that day? Willie Mays and Willie McCovey. McCovey homered in that game too, the 353rd of his career.

Speaking of Mays, it was good that he hit his home run when he did. Mays didn’t homer for the rest of the season (granted there were only six games left), and batted .167 the rest of the way.

Babe Ruth’s 600th home run came against the St. Louis Browns at Sportsmans Park, and at a good time for the Yankees. That game was the second of a seven-game win streak, in the midst of a (not a typo) 20-game road trip for the Yanks.

Today’s Leaderboard: Mike Lowell was welcomed back to the Boston Red Sox lineup on Tuesday with a standing ovation from the Fenway Park crowd and then promptly hit a first-pitch home run. It’s the first first-pitch HR of the season for Lowell, who only swings at the first pitch 21 percent of the time (in limited action) this season.

So let’s take a look at the guys who usually go up hacking on the first offering. You can probably guess No. 1 on this list.

Guerrero’s seven HR on the first pitch lead MLB, but he’s tied with several other sluggers – Vernon Wells, Geovany Soto, Colby Rasmus and MLB home run leader Jose Bautista.

Key Matchups: Edwin Jackson starts tonight against his former team (one of several former teams), and he’ll be happy to see Johnny Damon in the Tigers lineup. Damon is batting .154 (4-26) in his career against Jackson and slugging just .192. Damon’s only career extra-base hit against Jackson actually came this season in interleague play when Jackson was a Diamondback.

Aaron Rowand has 33 career PA against Ubaldo Jimenez – only two players have more – but familiarity hasn’t bred success. Rowand is batting .200 against Jimenez with more strikeouts (nine) than hits (six). Jimenez figures to attack Rowand rather than Pablo Sandoval, who is batting .400 (10-25) and slugging .680 in his career against Jimenez.

Carlos Lee is batting .189 in his career against Chris Carpenter, including 11 strikeouts. Lee is Carpenter’s 2nd-most popular strikeout victim; only Jason Bay (13 K) has more whiffs against Carpenter.

Trivia Answer: Tom Seaver is the record holder, striking out 10 straight in April 1970. Seaver struck out the final 10 Padres batters of the game. Clemens’ personal record is eight straight, done in his record 20-K game against the Seattle Mariners in April of 1986. Clemens victimized Phil Bradley four times in that game.

Why Yankees starter CC Sabathia beat the Mariners:

- Despite allowing a season-high 9 offspeed pitches to be put in play, hitters went just 2-11 (2 K) and are now 6-64 against them over his last 6 starts (8-15 in previous 2 starts).
- Narrowing the above note to just change ups, hitters were 0-6 and are now 1-25 over his last 6 starts (4-5 in previous 2 starts).
- Finished off 11 of 12 hitters that reached 2 strikes (92 percent; MLB avg is 72) despite striking out just 4 batters (33 percent; Sabathia's avg was 45 entering today)

Why Angels starter Jered Weaver beat the Rangers:

- Threw 24 curveballs (21.2 pct of his pitches), 2nd-most in a start this season.
- This kept hitters off his heater: 1-for-15 (.067) vs fastball (.218 before Thursday).
- Also helped other pitches: 41.7 chase pct vs sliders/change ups (2nd best this season), hitters just 1-for-6 vs those 2 pitches.

Why A's starter Trevor Cahill beat the Orioles:

- Hitters were 0-8 against offspeed pitches; 0-15 over last 2 starts.
- Hitters were 4-16 against fastballs (.211 BA for the season is 2nd among AL starters).
- Kept over half of his pitches down in the zone, inducing hitters to go 1-12 (3-32 over last 3 starts).
- Hitters were 0-10 when they reached 2 strikes, 0-23 over last 2 starts.



BOUNCING BACK
Despite the Mets losing for the 9th time in his last 12 starts, Johan Santana bounced back from a tough stretch with his 1st quality start since June 2. The key for Santana was his ability to finish the job when the count got to 2 strikes. Recently, opposing hitters had been able to fight him off and eventually get hits:




LOOKING AHEAD TO FRIDAY

BOSTON RED SOX
Opposing Orioles starter Brad Bergesen has struggled this season with his fastball, his primary pitch, allowing a .356 batting average against. The Red Sox are especially strong against the fastball, hitting .304 and slugging .531.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Against the Diamondbacks Edwin Jackson, teams are batting .200 (23-115) with 49 strikeouts when seeing his slider. The Dodgers are hitting .214 against sliders this season, with just 10 of their 58 home runs and 160 of their 550 strikeouts against the pitch.

NEW YORK YANKEES
The Yankees lost to Brett Cecil and the Blue Jays on June 4th when they chased 50.7 pct of Cecil's pitches out of the strike zone (most in a Cecil start this season). That game was a rarity - the Yanks' highest chase pct in a game this season - as they currently rank 28th in the majors in chase pct (20.4).

In his June 4th loss to Toronto, A.J. Burnett allowed a season-high 3 HR (since matched). Burnett threw 41 curveballs (most in a start this season), but all 3 Blue Jay HR came against fastballs.

You often hear talk about "five-tool players" in baseball. We had plenty of hitting for average on Sunday (Jose Guillen and Josh Hamilton both extended their hit streaks to 21 games). We had some power-- more than 70 extra-base hits and two dozen home runs (including the longest one by distance this season). Fielding and throwing didn't give us too many issues.

Baserunning, on the other hand...

No matter which game you watched, there was bound to be at least one of those "head-scratcher" plays. The ones where you look at your TV and say, "what was he thinking?" At the risk of Monday-morning, er, Sunday-night quarterbacking, we present a sampling of the unnecessary, and sometimes obscure, outs that were run into on the basepaths Sunday.

Tampa: Justin Upton on third. Chris Young grounds back to the pitcher. Upton gets run back and tagged out. Young thinks the defense isn't paying attention and tries to take second, where he's also tagged out.

Tampa: Pinch runner Carl Crawford doubled off first when Sean Rodriguez lines one to third base.

Chicago: Gordon Beckham strikes out, but his backswing gets in the way of Geovany Soto as he tries to nail a stealing Alexei Ramirez. Ramirez gets called out for the interference of his teammate.

Cincinnati: Corky Miller thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double.

Anaheim: Jason Giambi thrown out at third trying to advance on a pitch in the dirt.

New York: Jeff Francoeur thrown out trying to tag and take third on a ball to shallow right.

Oakland: Jose Tabata's ground ball hits runner Pedro Alvarez between first and second. Oh, by the way, it's the final out of a one-run game.

(Bonus question: If you're keeping score, how do you write THAT down?)

Florida: Jorge Cantu is called for interference while trying to break up a double play at second base. The batter, Dan Uggla, is called out as a result.

Milwaukee: Rickie Weeks thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double.

Baltimore: Miguel Tejada thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double.

Baltimore: In the bottom of the eighth in a tie game, Julio Lugo legs out a double and then immediately gets himself picked off second.

(Bonus answer: Infield single for the batter. The putout is awarded to the closest fielder, in this case the first baseman.)

** The trunk with the Mets' bats in it finally arrived back at Citi Field. Six consecutive Mets batters went double, homer, homer, triple, single, single, during the fifth inning on Sunday. That's 15 total bases in a single inning. The Mets hadn't had 15 total bases in a GAME since last Tuesday.

** The aforementioned triple was off the bat of Jason Bay, marking his 1,000th career hit. The last time a player had a triple for his 1,000th career hit was almost exactly three years ago, when then-Oriole Aubrey Huff did it on June 29, 2007.

** The Pirates committed four errors and managed to lose Sunday's game to Oakland without allowing an earned run. Even for them, that's impressive. They haven't done that since June 29, 2002, when the Tigers scored on a missed catch at home plate and a passed ball to beat them 2-1.

** One afterthought on the Oakland/Pittsburgh series: On Saturday, the two teams donned "throwback" uniforms from the 1970s. (They say styles have a 30-year cycle, so watch for neon green to make a comeback soon.) But you have to forgive those two teams for wanting to "turn back the clock". During the '70s they combined for five world championships, including four straight from 1971-74. Since then, they have ONE (Oakland's in '89).

** Jamie Moyer didn't quite pitch IN the '70s, but at the rate he's going, he might well pitch INTO his 70s. Moyer became the all-time leader in home runs allowed on Sunday when Vernon Wells took him deep in the third inning.



Bonus question #2: Those 42 parks include ALL of the current 30 stadiums except two. We'll spot you Target Field because it just opened. What's the other current park where Moyer has yet to surrender a dinger? ** After being no-hit by Edwin Jackson on Friday, the Rays put together a two-hit attack against Arizona on Sunday. They did at least score a run this time. Ironically, the last team that was held to two or fewer hits twice in a series was these same Diamondbacks. That was in late May against the Giants.

** Combined with their amazing five-hit performance on Saturday, the Rays ended up with seven base hits over the entire three-game series. The Elias Sports Bureau tells us that the last team to finish with seven or fewer hits in a three-game series was the 1965 New York Mets. They were one-hit by the Milwaukee Braves on both September 10 and 11 before "exploding" for five hits (and a 1-0 victory!) in the series finale on the 12th.

Bonus answer #2: Busch Stadium in St Louis. Moyer surrendered three long balls in the PRIOR Busch Stadium (which closed in 2005), but has made only two visits to the current building.