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Jamie Moyer will make his ninth start of the season for the Colorado Rockies on Monday when he faces the Miami Marlins.

Forty games into the season and the Rockies will look to the 49-year-old lefty to be the first Colorado pitcher to win back-to-back starts this season. (Moyer beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in his last start.)

The Rockies are the only team that does not have a pitcher who has won consecutive starts this season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Moyer will oppose Mark Buehrle, marking the first time in almost four years that opposing starters had made a combined 1,000 starts. On Sept. 19, 2008, Barry Zito and the Giants beat Greg Maddux and the Dodgers, in what turned out to be the final loss of Maddux's career.

Also when Moyer takes the mound on Monday at Marlins Park, it will be the 50th major-league stadium he’s pitched in during his 25-year career. The only active stadium that Moyer has not pitched in is Target Field in Minnesota. Among players to debut since 1900, Moyer has pitched at the most parks (regular-season games only), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The matchup will also feature a pitcher with more than 250 wins (Moyer, 269) against one who has thrown two no-hitters. According to Elias, the last time a pitcher with at least 250 wins opposed a pitcher with at least two no-hitters was June 21, 2005, when Randy Johnson faced Hideo Nomo.

- Kenton Wong, Doug Kern and Nate Jones contributed to this post.

Wondering why those who are in the top 10 were picked in those spots? Here are some numbers to know about each of the top 10 players in the ESPN 500.

Albert Pujols –- Pujols is in very elite company. He’s one of six players to hit 400 career home runs and bat at least .325. The other five: Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig and Stan Musial. Pujols’ 445 home runs through his first 11 seasons are the most all-time through a player’s initial 11 years in the majors.

Roy Halladay -- Halladay has 170 wins and a 2.97 ERA, averaging almost 210 innings per year over the last 10 seasons. The last pitcher to average 17 wins and 200 innings a season, over a 10-season span, and do so with a sub-3.00 ERA was Greg Maddux from 1995 to 2004.

Miguel Cabrera -- Cabrera has led the American League in at least two significant offensive categories in three of the last four seasons. Cabrera’s .977 OPS over the last six seasons trails only Albert Pujols in that span.

Justin Verlander -– Verlander won both the AL MVP and Cy Young awards in 2011, the first pitcher to win both since Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley in 1992, and the first starter to do so since Roger Clemens in 1986. Over the last three seasons, Verlander leads the majors in wins (61) and strikeouts (738) and is third in opponents BA (.221).

Felix Hernandez -- Hernandez and Roy Halladay are the only two pitchers to average 240 innings per season over the last three seasons, and his ERA, when adjusted for ballpark, ranks second to Halladay in that span as well.

Ryan Braun –- Braun has led all major league outfielders in batting average (.318), RBI (328), runs (323) and doubles (122) over the last three seasons. The 2007 NL Rookie the Year and 2011 NL MVP has hit 161 HR in his first five seasons, the 10th-most by a player in his first five seasons.

Clayton Kershaw –- Kershaw is second to Roy Halladay among National League starters in both wins and ERA, but leads in strikeouts and opponent batting average over the last two seasons.

Troy Tulowitzki -- Over the last three seasons, Tulowitzki has 89 home runs, 34 more than any other player whose primary position is shortstop. His OPS+ of 134 also tops all shortstops in that span. Tulowitzki also ranks third among shortstops over the last three seasons in Defensive Runs Saved.

Tim Lincecum –- Since making his debut in May of 2007, Lincecum has struck out at least 10 batters in a game 31 times, the most in the majors over that span. His 977 strikeouts over the last four years is tops among all pitchers.

Robinson Cano -- Cano has led major-league second baseman in both slugging percentage and OPS in each of the last two seasons. This season, he will likely break the Yankees record for career home runs as a second baseman, a mark currently held by Tony Lazzeri (147- eight more than Cano) that has stood for more than half a century.

In a game that featured a combined 36 strikeouts -- a modern-era record for a game lasting 14 innings or fewer -- the San Francisco Giants defeated the San Diego Padres on a walk-off home run by Nate Schierholtz in the 14th inning.

It was his second home run of the game, the first Giants player with a multi-homer game that included a walk-off home run since Bengie Molina did it in April of 2008, also against the Padres.

Schierholtz, who hit his first home run in the fourth inning, became the first Giants player to hit two homer 10 innings apart in the same game since Barry Bonds who did so in September of 2001.

It marked the latest walk-off home run in the history of AT&T Park. In fact you have to go back to 1996 for the last time a Giants player hit a walk-off home run in the 14th inning or later. That was Tom Lampkin, whose three-run home run in the bottom of the 15th inning lifted the Giants to a win over the Florida Marlins.

Speaking of the Marlins they notched a walk-off victory on Mike Stanton's solo home run in the 10th inning to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies. It was Stanton's first career walk-off home run, and a rather special one according to Elias.

At 21, Stanton was the third-youngest player since 1900 to hit a walk-off home run against the Phillies. Eddie Mathews was 20 years old in 1952 when he hit a game-ending homer for the Boston Braves, and Alex Gonzalez was a "younger 21" than Stanton when he did the same for the 1998 Marlins.

While these games provided some late heroics, no game was more exciting on Wednesday than the tilt between the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals. The Reds narrowly escaped with a 9-8 victory in 13 innings -- after holding an 8-0 lead through five innings.

Elias tells us it was the first time in 57 years that the Cardinals lost a game after erasing a deficit of eight or more runs. On July 17, 1954 at the old Busch Stadium, St. Louis rallied from down 9-0 to tie the Giants, but New York won in 11 innings, 10-9.

Elsewhere Around the Diamond:

Jair Jurrjens continued his stellar 2011 campaign with six innings of one-run ball as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Colorado Rockies. Jurrjens heads into the All-Star break with a 12-3 record and a 1.87 ERA. According to Elias he is the first Major League pitcher to head into the break with 12 or more wins and an ERA below 2.00 since Randy Johnson in 2000.

Perhaps more impressive, he is just the third Braves pitcher all-time to have accomplished the feat joining Greg Maddux in 1998 and Tom Glavine in the 1991 season.

Jurrjens is a strong possibility to start for the National League in the All-Star Game, something Maddux and Glavine each did that season.

Recently anything James Shields has started he's gone on to finish. For the third consecutive game Shields pitched a complete game as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Houston Astros. He is the first pitcher in Rays history to throw three consecutive complete games.

Shields hasn't just been piling up innings, but he's also been keeping players off the bases. In each of the starts he's allowed five hits or fewer, just the fourth pitcher since 2000 to compile such a streak.

Two of the previous three -- Roy Halladay in 2003 and Randy Johnson in 2000 -- went on to win the Cy Young award. You have to go back to Greg Maddux in 1998 for the last time a starter did so in four consecutive outings.

This is already Shields' sixth complete game this season, which sets the record for most in a season in franchise history. He is only the sixth pitcher with six complete game victories in his team's first 76 games in the last 20 seasons.

The list is rather impressive with Pat Hentgen in 1997, Randy Johnson in 1994 and John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and David Cone in 1992.

Shields continued to dominate with his changeup, relying on it as an out pitch even more than usual. He recorded 18 of his 27 outs with the pitch.

Astros hitters were 0-for-17 with five strikeouts and a double play on at-bats ending with a Shields changeup.

Just three of his 30 two-strike pitches were fastballs, his lowest in a start in over two years. As a result, all nine of his strikeouts were with his offspeed pitches. All 24 of Shields' strikeouts over his stretch of three consecutive complete games have been with offspeed pitches.

While the Astros were outdueled by Shields, Houston's staff did complete an extremely rare feat. The Astros had three pitchers pitch Friday, all with the last name Rodriguez (Wandy, Fernando, Aneury). Our good friends at Elias passed along this gem. This was the first game in the modern era (since 1900) that a trio of teammates with the same surname pitched in the same game.

Elsewhere around the diamond:

• Jon Lester became the latest pitcher to go for his 10th victory only to come up short as the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Boston Red Sox. According to Elias, excluding 1981 (strike delayed season), the last time that the Majors didn't have a 10-game winner until at least June 25 was in 1950. Four pitchers earned their tenth wins of the season on June 28 that year (Art Houtteman, Bob Lemon, Preacher Roe, and Johnny Sain).

-- Dan Braunstein contributed to this report

Today’s Trivia: When Bartolo Colon, 37, takes the mound Wednesday for his first start with the New York Yankees, he will be the oldest pitcher to start a game this season. Who currently holds that distinction?

Quick Hits: With some of the hottest pitchers set to take the mound, Wednesday sets up to be quite a day for pitching.

• Of the 34 starters scheduled for Wednesday, 11 have an ERA under 2.00 and nine are looking to start 3-0 or better. Eight of the MLB’s top ten in ERA draw starts Wednesday.

• Gio Gonzalez, Justin Masterson, Aaron Harang, Jered Weaver and Matt Harrison are all scheduled to pitch. Each has allowed 1 ER or fewer in 6+ innings in each of their first three starts. (According to baseball-reference.com), the last pitcher to start a season with four straight such starts was Cliff Lee in 2008 (who did it in five straight).

• The last time multiple pitchers started the season with four straight starts of 1 ER or fewer in 6+ innings was 1998: Chuck Finley and Greg Maddux.

• Weaver (4-0, 1.30 ERA) looks to become the first pitcher in MLB history with five wins by April 20, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

• He faces Harrison (3-0, 1.23 ERA), who looks to be the first Texas Rangers pitcher to win each of his first four starts since Darren Oliver in 2001.

• Gonzalez (2-0, 0.47 ERA) faces the Boston Red Sox with the MLB’s best ERA. He’s boasts a streak of 17 scoreless innings and opponents are 0-for-13 with RISP.

• Masterson (3-0, 1.33 ERA) has held right-handed hitters to a .103 BA (3-for-29).

• Jaime Garcia (2-0, 1.35 ERA) takes on the Washington Nationals. In his career, he is 4-1 with a 1.17 ERA. In seven career April starts, he’s never allowed more than two earned runs.

• Dustin Moseley is 0-3 despite a 1.83 ERA. A big reason? The San Diego Padres haven’t scored a run in any of his three starts. According to Elias, the only pitcher in the last 30 years whose team was shut out in each of four consecutive starts was Arizona's Randy Johnson in June-July 1999.

• Harang (3-0, 1.50 ERA) draws the second start of the day for San Diego. He looks to become just the third pitcher to win his first four starts of a season with the Padres. Only Randy Jones (1976) and Andy Hawkins (1985) have done so. Dennis Rasmussen won his first four starts with the Padres in 1988, but was a midseason acquisition.

Trivia Answer: Derek Lowe, who also takes the hill Wednesday, is the oldest pitcher to start a game so far this season. Also 37, he’s just eight days younger than Colon. Last season, Jamie Moyer (47) and Tim Wakefield (44) were the oldest to start a game.

Today’s Trivia: The Connecticut Huskies now are 3-0 in the men’s basketball championship games. Can you name the only two MLB franchises with multiple appearances that have never lost the World Series?

In the spirit of last night’s national championship game, let’s look at the topics du jour: Low scoring and lots of misses.

• Consider former Houston Astros outfielder Cory Sullivan the Butler of baseball. Last season, he went 12-for-64 at the plate, just like the Bulldogs did from the field on Monday night. Sullivan is one of 22 players to go exactly 12-for-64 in a season, a list that includes Phillies’ manager Charlie Manuel, Greg Maddux and Hall-of-Famer Bill Mazeroski

• In four games, the entire Seattle Mariners pitching staff has had only 22 swings-and-misses, three more than Jonathan Sanchez had in his lone start.

• The Chicago Cubs' Starlin Castro has taken 25 swings this season and doesn’t have a single swing-and-miss.

• The Oakland Athletics have an MLB-low 10.7 swing-and-miss percentage thus far. With only 16 swing-and-misses, Oakland has only two more than Miguel Olivo’s 14 in 14 plate appearances.

• Fun fact: The Minnesota Twins had more doubles (4) on Monday than Butler had two-point field goals (3).

• According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the St. Louis Cardinals have been held to three runs or fewer in each of their first four games of a season for the first time since 1980.

• The Tampa Bay Rays, according to Elias, are the first team since the 2007 Cardinals and the first American League team since the 2003 Detroit Tigers to score one run or fewer in each of their first three games to open the season.

Birds, Bucs and Barbecue
The Baltimore Orioles (4-0) and Kansas City Royals (3-1) currently are in first place in their divisions, while the Pittsburgh Pirates (3-1) are a half-game out of first in the National League Central. From 2005-2010, the Pirates had the fewest wins in the majors (388) followed by the Royals (394) and Orioles (411). All three of the Royals’ wins have come in their last at bat. They’re the fifth team in the last 10 seasons to have at least their first three wins come in their last at-bat, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Last season, the Royals were 3-86 when trailing at the beginning of the 9th inning. They are already 1-1 in that situation in 2011.

The Pirates are 3-1, and haven’t even had their home opener. Last season the Pirates were 17-64 in road games, matching the 1963 Mets for the worst such record in the past 65 years. Pittsburgh had separate road losing streaks of 17 and 14 games.

The last time the Orioles allowed one or fewer runs in four consecutive games at any point in the season was 1995. That was a string of five consecutive shutouts. The O’s are one win shy of last season’s April win total (5-18).

Trivia Answer: The Florida Marlins (2-0) and Toronto Blue Jays (2-0) are the only franchises that have been the World Series multiple times but never lost.

More incredible notes from Cliff Lee's complete game victory Tuesday over the Tampa Bay Rays, giving the Texas Rangers their first postseason series victory ever:

• Lee won his sixth straight decision as a starter to begin his postseason career, tied for third-most all-time with Lefty Gomez. The record is eight by Orlando Hernandez.

• Lee had the fourth CG win on the road in a winner-takes-all game in the last 40 years, and the first since John Smoltz for the 1991 Atlanta Braves.

• Lee has won five straight postseason starts in which he pitched seven or more innings, and only Bob Gibson, Dave Stewart and Red Ruffing have longer streaks in major league history.

• Lee became the sixth starting pitcher to win two road games in a single postseason series, allowing one run or fewer in each. The last was Roy Oswalt for the 2005 Houston Astros in the NLCS.

• Lee's 21 strikeouts are the third-most in a single series for an AL pitcher since 1920.

• Lee threw his fifth postseason game with seven or more IP and no walks, which ties Christy Mathewson for the second-most ever. Greg Maddux has the record with seven such games.

• Lee's Game Score of 82 made it the fifth game this postseason of 80 or better. That ties an all-time record for a single postseason, set in 1967 (when there were five in a seven-game World Series) and tied in 1997.

• That Game Score is tied for fourth-best by a starting pitcher in a winner-takes-all postseason game. Sandy Koufax (1965 Los Angeles Dodgers), Jack Morris (1991 Minnesota Twins) and Ralph Terry (1962 New York Yankees) were the only three with a higher Game Score and they all did it in Game 7 of the World Series.

• There were four complete games in the LDS in which the pitcher allowed one run or fewer, the most since the 1986 LCS also had four.

FROM THE ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU:

• The Rangers became the first team in MLB history to score twice from second base on infield outs in a postseason game. The last teams to do it even once was the Baltimore Orioles in Game 5 of the 1970 World Series in the Cincinnati Reds. Before Tuesday, the Rays had never allowed it to happen once in any game, regular season or postseason.

• During the regular season there were three instances of a runner scoring from second base on an infield out.

• Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz both hit three home runs in the series, becoming the second pair of teammates in major league history to hit three HR apiece in a postseason series of five-or-fewer-games. The other pair was Babe Ruth (three HR, all in one game) and Lou Gehrig (four HR) in the Yankees four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1928 World Series.

After going 15-1 with a 2.20 ERA and starting the All-Star Game for the National League, some experts wondered how many games the Colorado Rockies' Ubaldo Jimenez would win.

The answer will, most likely, be 19.

Despite eight scoreless innings on Saturday against the St. Louis Cardinals, Jimenez didn't factor in the decision -- a 1-0 loss in 11 innings.

Unless the Rockies bring Jimenez back on Sunday in an attempt to get him one more victory, he'll join an extremely small list of pitchers since 1933 who failed to win 20 games after having 15 victories at the All-Star break.

In Jimenez's first 18 starts of the season, the Rockies were 16-2. In his last 15 starts, Colorado went 6-9.

Saturday was the eighth time since the break that the Rockies scored two runs or fewer in a game started by Jimenez. In the first half of the season, Colorado scored two runs or fewer when Jimenez was on the mound in just three games.

With Roy Oswalt now officially out of Houston, it’s worth recounting his importance to the organization with which he’s spent his entire career. Even while on winning teams in the first half of the previous decade, Oswalt spent much of his tenure with Houston out of the national spotlight. Here's some perspective on his significance with not only the Astros franchise, but in baseball history in the state of Texas.

•  Oswalt has 143 wins since being called up to the majors with Houston in 2001. In that span, no other Astro has won more than 59 games (Wandy Rodriguez). His total of 143 victories since the beginning of the 2001 season is 28 more than any other pitcher in the National League (2nd is Greg Maddux, 115), and three more than any other pitcher who did it entirely for one organization (Mark Buehrle, 140).

•  Oswalt started Game 3 of the 2005 World Series – the first ever World Series game played in the state of Texas. Between the Colt .45’s/Astros and Rangers, there were 12,519 major league baseball games played (regular season and playoffs) in Texas before Roy started that game on October 25, 2005.

•  In Oswalt’s seven postseason starts, the Astros went 5-2. Roy’s personal postseason record is 4-0. Nolan Ryan’s was 1-2. No pitcher has recorded more postseason outs in Astros history than Oswalt – 134. Ryan, the man synonymous with baseball in the state of Texas, recorded 123 playoff outs in an Astro uniform.

•  Oswalt pitched 1,932 innings as an Astro. Only Larry Dierker and Joe Niekro have thrown more innings for the franchise. Since 2001, no other Astro has even 1,000 innings pitched. The two men who are closest to Oswalt in that span, Wandy Rodriguez and Wade Miller, combined are still more than 350 innings short of Roy’s total.

•  Oswalt won 20 games twice – in 2004 and 2005. Nolan Ryan never won 20 games as an Astro. Mike Scott only did it once, as did J.R. Richard and Dierker. Only one other pitcher in team history won 20 games twice: Niekro. There have been 12 19+ win seasons by pitchers in team history, and Oswalt has a quarter of them.

•  The Astros have won three playoff series in their somewhat meager history. Oswalt won two of the clinching games in those series, both of which came on the road: Game 5 of the 2004 NLDS against Atlanta, and Game 6 of the 2005 NLCS in St. Louis – the game AFTER Albert Pujols' soul-crushing home run off Brad Lidge. Game 6 of that series was the last game ever played in the old Busch Stadium.

Last offseason, a different Roy was traded after being the most important player for his franchise for about a decade. One can argue that Oswalt meant far more to the Astros than Roy Halladay did to the Blue Jays – Oswalt's successes in the postseason gave Houston baseball fans some of their fondest memories. Now, it’s official that the two men named Roy, trapped in baseball mediocrity for the past few years, will be on the same staff in Philadelphia.

Four players from our One2Watch4 series (which kicked off the TMI blog in March), had impact performances on Sunday.

Rays ace Matt Garza improved to 3-0 by dominating against the Red Sox on Sunday. Garza, among the best right-handers in baseball against left-handed hitters, held Boston lefties to a 1-for-11 showing in the victory.

* - Won Cy Young Award

Shin-Soo Choo went 11-for-19 with three home runs and 11 RBI this week, leading the Indians to a 4-2 record in that time. Of note is Choo's early success against opposing pitchers' sliders. Sunday, Choo's decisive grand slam came off a Gavin Floyd slider. Last year, Choo struck out 30 times against sliders, walking just eight times. Already this season, Choo has four walks against the pitch, with only one strikeout.

Jay Bruce, struggling all season, hit his first two home runs of the year, giving him six career multi-homer games. The two RBI Bruce had matched his total from the first 12 games of the season.

Carlos Gonzalez was a would-be hero for the Rockies, hitting a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning before Jason Heyward stole some of his thunder. Gonzalez has made an impact all year with his bat, though this was the first time he’d done so for power. He’s played in nine games this season and had a hit in eight.

Today’s Trivia: Happy Birthday to the 1995 Atlanta Braves. Well, three of them at least. Greg Maddux, David Justice and Steve Avery were all born on April 14. Maddux posted an NL-best 1.63 ERA in 1995. Can you name the two other pitchers on that team that won an ERA title at some point in their career?

Quick Hits: April has not been kind to leadoff hitters thus far, a trend spotted by Baseball Tonight researcher Mark Simon. With the obligatory acknowledgement that we are only 10 days into the season, let’s take a look at the hole at the top spot in the order.

* Apparently, leadoff is the new seventh. Leadoff batters are hitting .249 with an OBP of .316. Meanwhile, the seventh spot is a collective .250 with an OBP of .316

* The No. 1 hitter in the Texas Rangers lineup is 1-28 with no walks. Cincinnati Reds pitcher Mike Leake had more hits than that in his MLB debut. The No. 1 hitter for the Braves is 2-29. Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Edwin Jackson had two hits in an inning.

* The primary culprits have been Julio Borbon (1-25), Melky Cabrera (2-26), and a pair of Padres: Everth Cabrera (1-15) and Tony Gwynn, Jr. (1-11).

* In all, ten teams are hitting under .200 from the top spot in the order.

* Thirteen No. 1 hitters have an on-base percentage below .200 (minimum 15 PA)

* Though Carlos Gonzalez has the highest leadoff average (.393), Jimmy Rollins has arguably been the most productive leadoff hitter thus far. He’s hitting .391 with a .516 on-base percentage. The catch? Rollins appears on his way to the disabled list. Shane Victorino, his likely replacement atop the lineup, is a career .227 hitter from the top spot.

Key Matchups: Bobby Abreu has nine career home runs against Javier Vazquez, which is five more than he has against any other pitcher. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Elias Sports Bureau unearthed a fascinating element to their head-to-head history. Abreu has three multi-homer games against Vazquez, making him the first to do that against one pitcher since Willie McCovey against Bob Buhl.

Looking to guide the Astros to their first win, Brett Myers is 4-2 in his career against the Cardinals. However, the current Cardinals lineup might indicate a different story. Six Cardinals regulars have faced Myers before, and they’ve combined to hit .392 with nine home runs in just 79 at-bats. For once Albert Pujols is bringing down the rest of the group. He is a .310 hitter against Myers with “only” two homers in 29 at-bats.

Today’s Leaderboard: Five players that have made at least 20 plate appearances have yet to strikeout this season. The most surprising would have to be Ivan Rodriguez, who fanned 92 times last season. With one strikeout in 34 PA, Chase Utley just missed the list. He had 110 strikeouts last season.

Trivia Answer: If you guessed Tom Glavine and John Smoltz... sorry, they never led the league in ERA. Alejandro Pena (1984) and Jason Schmidt (2003) would be the correct answers.