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Today’s Trivia: On Thursday, the San Diego Padres’ Ryan Ludwick makes his first trip back to St. Louis since getting traded. Who is the only player with 50 career home runs for both the Padres and Cardinals?

Quick Hits: Charlie Morton gets the start for the Pittsburgh Pirates today, which opens the door for all sorts of fun notes on notably poor seasons. But he isn’t the only young player suffering from a steep learning curve.

• Morton is 1-11 in 56 2/3 IP, which would be the most losses ever for a pitcher with fewer than 60 innings. Rick Langford (1986 Oakland Athletics) and Johnny Murphy (1942 New York Yankees) both had 10.

• Among pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched, Morton (9.05 ERA) has the highest ERA since 2000, when a pair of hurlers were even worse. One was Sean Bergman (9.66), but the other provides some hope for Morton. Roy Halladay had a 10.64 ERA that season, the highest ever for a pitcher who threw at least 50 innings.

• Morton has 11 losses in just 13 starts. The Elias Sports Bureau was able to provide some context looking ahead to today’s start. Over the last 30 seasons, the only NL pitcher with 12 or more losses in a span of 14 starts was Omar Daal for the Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks in 2000.

• After a hitless Wednesday, Oakland’s Chris Carter is now 0-for-24 this season (and in his career). If the season ended today, he’d have the third-most at-bats without a hit in a season for a non-pitcher. Last year, Houston’s Jason Smith finished 0-for-25. The all-time mark belongs to Hal Finney, who was 0-for-35 for the Pirates in 1936.

• When you allow pitchers into the equation, Bob Buhl’s 0-for-70 season in 1962 takes the cake.

• If Morton can take solace in Halladay’s season, there must be similar hope for Carter. How about a pair of Hall of Famers? Tony Perez was 2-for-25 in his first cup of coffee, while Brooks Robinson was 2-for-22.

• Taylor Teagarden is back up in spot duty for Texas. He has 30 strikeouts in 62 at-bats this season. Since 1900, the only player was more strikeouts in a season of 70 or fewer at-bats was Jack Cust (32 K in 65 AB) in 2002.

• Well, this one can only be characterized as bizarre. In 14 1/3 innings, Atlanta’s Mike Dunn hasn’t allowed an earned run. The last rookie with a season of more innings without allowing an earned run was Fernando Valenzuela, who went 17 2/3 innings in 1980. Here’s where it gets strange. Dunn has issued 15 walks – more than a walk per inning. If the season ended today, he’d hold the MLB record for most walks in a season without allowing a run. That distinction currently belongs to Bob McClure, who walked 14 in 1975, but was unscored upon.

Today’s Leaderboard: Troy Tulowitzki’s September has been astounding. But rather than show each leaderboard, take a look at how far ahead he is in several categories.

Key Matchups: Trying to get lefties in against Chad Billingsley, Bruce Bochy got creative with his lineup on Wednesday. Regulars like Pat Burrell and Jose Guillen were benched in favor of Eugenio Velez and Nate Schierholtz. But that should change with lefty Ted Lilly taking the mound on Thursday. Shouldn’t it? Burrell is just 1-for-9 in his career against Lilly, while Jose Guillen is 3-for-20 with nine strikeouts. The only lefty Guillen has a worse average against (min. 20 PA) is Billy Wagner.

Tim Stauffer gets the start for the Padres, who sit just a half game up on the San Francisco Giants. His 0.64 road ERA is the lowest in the majors (min. 25 IP), with Mariano Rivera (1.30) a distant second. However, Stauffer is 0-3 in three previous appearances against the Cardinals. Among active pitchers who have pitched at least 10 innings against St. Louis, Stauffer’s 10.13 ERA is the third highest.

Trivia Answer: Jack Clark is the only player with 50+ HR for both the Padres and Cardinals. In fact, no other player has 30 for both franchises.

Today’s Trivia: Among active managers, who has managed the most games without making the postseason?

Quick Hits: As the playoff races heat up, several players have some added incentive to extend the season. Here’s a look at notable players with an eye on October, who have never played in the postseason.

• Randy Winn just can’t find himself a playoff team. He’s played 1,698 career games without appearing in the postseason. That’s the most for any active player, and 37th most all-time according to Baseball-Reference.com. Winn joined the Seattle Mariners just after their early-decade dominance. Then he found himself with the San Francisco Giants as they transitioned away from Barry Bonds. After 12 seasons in the bigs, Winn still hadn’t tasted the postseason. Signing with the New York Yankees in the offseason would change that, right? New York released him in May after he hit just .213. Again, Winn had his chance to sign with a contender. On June 5, he signed with the first-place St. Louis Cardinals – a team that is now six games out.

• Michael Young may finally see his long wait come to an end. Making his debut the season after the Texas Rangers' last playoff appearance, Young has the second-most career games among active players who haven’t made the postseason.

• The Giants’ Aubrey Huff, who is third behind Winn and Young, could also find himself playing late into October for the first time. Prior to this season, Huff’s teams were 546-776 in games in which he appeared.

• Among all active pitchers, Francisco Cordero has appeared in the most games without appearing in the postseason. Like Young, he made his Rangers debut the year after their last postseason appearance.

• Roy Halladay has a Cy Young Award and perfect game, but Boof Bonser, Jorge Sosa and Brian Duensing all have something he does not: A playoff start. No active pitcher has made more starts without appearing in the postseason.

Today’s Leaderboard: Adam Dunn, who will be a free agent at the end the season, actually has the fourth-most career homers for a player with no playoff experience. With another typical season for him, he’ll be second behind the all-time leader. Ernie Banks has both the most career games and home runs without making the postseason.

Key Matchups: With a pivotal series about to begin in San Diego, the Giants need their bats to come alive. San Francisco has posted a 2-9 record against the San Diego Padres this season, largely courtesy of a .219 batting average in those games. Thursday’s starter, Matt Cain, has certainly suffered. The Giants offense has managed a total of five runs in his three starts against San Diego. So who might step up Thursday? Jose Guillen, who has four hits in his last eight at-bats, might be the man to give San Francisco a spark. He is 9-for-19 in his career against Jon Garland, though it’s been two years since they met.

• After snapping their three-game losing streak on Wednesday, the Atlanta Braves host the Cardinals in a matchup of faltering contenders. Adam Wainwright has had a great deal of success against the team that drafted him 10 years ago. He is a perfect 5-0 in five starts against Atlanta, having never allowed more than three earned runs. Derrek Lee, hitting .400 in his last five games, has only four hits in his last 26 at-bats against Wainwright.

Trivia Answer: Ned Yost, who took over as Kansas City Royals manager in May, has managed 1,063 games in the majors, but never brought his team to the postseason. Of course, part of the reason for that was his 2008 season in Milwaukee. Yost was fired with 12 games to go and his team tied for the Wild Card lead. Dale Sveum took over and the Milwaukee Brewers went just 7-5 but made the postseason.

• The Detroit Tigers’ Austin Jackson hit a leadoff home run on the first pitch that CC Sabathia threw. It was the seventh leadoff HR allowed by Sabathia in his career and the first since 2007. However, it's the first time Sabathia has allowed a HR on the first pitch of the game.

• Sabathia (7 IP, 2 ER) extends his streak of pitching more than six innings and allowing three earned runs or fewer to 15 starts, the longest streak by a Yankee since Ron Guidry (also 15) in 1978.

• From the Elias Sports Bureau: Sabathia is now undefeated in his last 19 home starts. That’s tied for the second-longest streak without a loss at home by a Yankees starter in franchise history.

• The Minnesota Twins' Jim Thome hit a walk-off HR in the 10th inning to give the Twins a 7-6 win. It was his 12th career walk-off, which is tied for the most in major league history. The other players with a dozen walk-offs: Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Frank Robinson and Babe Ruth.

• The Tampa Bay Rays roughed up Texas Rangers starting pitcher Tommy Hunter early on Tuesday. In the 1st inning, the Rays scored three runs on three extra-base hits and drew two walks. In his previous 13 starts, Hunter had allowed just one run and three extra-base hits, holding opponents to a .156 batting average. Tuesday was also the third time in his last four starts that Hunter lasted just three innings.

• The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s Torii Hunter robbed the Boston Red Sox’s Adrian Beltre of a home run in right field in the 2nd inning. According to Baseball Info Solutions, Hunter led the majors with five home run robberies from 2007 to 2009. This was his first of 2010.

• Ryan Kalish is the second Boston Red Sox rookie to hit a grand slam this season (Daniel Nava being the other). Boston is the first team since the 2008 Texas Rangers (Taylor Teagarden, David Murphy) with two rookies to hit a grand slam. The last time the Red Sox had two rookies hit a grand slam in the same season was 1992: John Valentin and Bob Zupcic.

• Paul Konerko hit his 30th home run, his sixth 30-HR season of his career (all with the Chicago White Sox). Only Frank Thomas (8) has more 30-HR seasons in franchise history.

• Jose Guillen hit his first home run as a member of the San Francisco Giants. Guillen now has hit a home run with 10 different teams (Pirates, Devil Rays, Diamondbacks, Reds, Athletics, Angels, Nationals, Mariners, Royals and Giants). Among active players, only the San Diego Padres’ Matt Stairs has hit a HR with more different teams (11).

• The San Diego Padres blanked the Chicago Cubs, 1-0. It’s their fifth 1-0 win of the season, matching the Dodgers for the most this season. As for the Cubs, they lose a 1-0 game for the first time since June 16, 2007 … against the Padres.

Forget about Shark Week, it's blowout week in baseball. We've now had an MLB game decided by 10+ runs for 6 straight days. The Elias Sports Bureau tells us that the last time this happened was from August 22-27, 2007.

Friday: Rockies 17, Cubs 2
Saturday: Cardinals 11, Pirates 1
Sunday: Diamondbacks 14, Mets 1
Monday: Brewers 18, Cubs 1
Tuesday: Astros 18, Cardinals 4; Giants 10, Rockies 0; White Sox 12, Tigers 2
Wednesday: Cubs 15, Brewers 3

Here are some more recaps from today's afternoon action on the diamond.

NL
Rockies 6, Giants 1
Ubaldo Jimenez tied a Rockies' franchise record with his major-league leading 17th win. He improves to 8-0 at home, and is 13-1 this season following a Colorado loss. Carlos Gonzalez (22, 23) had hit first career multi-HR game, and has six HR in his last seven games. Troy Tulowitzki added his 10th HR of the season, and first since coming off the DL. The Rockies have won 5 of 6 following their 8-game losing streak. The loss snaps a 4-game win streak for the Giants, who allowed as many runs as they had in the previous 4 games combined. Madison Bumgarner lasted only 4 innings, the shortest outing of his career.

Andres Torres (SF): 0-for-4, 4 K
•  First Giants player this season to record a game of 4+ strikeouts and no hits.
•  First since Fred Lewis on April 15, 2009.
•  Only one Giant has done it twice since 2000 - Aaron Rowand.
•  There are now only three teams in the MLB who have not had a player with 4+ strikeouts and no hits in a game this season: White Sox, Indians, Tigers.

Cubs 15, Brewers 3
Cubs score a season-high 15 runs and snap their season-worst 7-game losing streak. It is the most runs they have scored since August 14 of last season. Aramis Ramirez hits his second career pinch-hit HR (1st since 2002 with PIT). Starlin Castro has first career four-hit game while Geovany Soto gets his 3rd career 5-RBI game. Ryan Dempster improves to 14-3 career vs the Brewers.

Reds 9, Pirates 4
The Reds break game open with 6-run 7th inning including RBI doubles by Joey Votto and Jonny Gomes, an RBI triple by Laynce Nix and a 3-run HR by Paul Janish. It is the 15th time Cincinnati scores at least 9 runs this season. All four Pittsburgh runs were scored on home runs. Johnny Cueto allows 1 run and 3 hits in 6 innings to improve to 9-2 career vs the Pirates and 5-0 with a 1.55 ERA in his last 8 starts. Jeff Karstens falls to 0-4 career vs Reds and is 0-5 in his last 8 starts.

AL
Yankees 5, Blue Jays 1
Alex Rodriguez becomes the 7th player to hit 600 career HR when he hit a 2-0 fastball off Shaun Marcum in the first inning to center field. Rodriguez is the youngest to reach 600 HR (35 years, 8 days). Rodriguez snapped a streak of 46 at-bats since his last homer, the longest homerless streak ever between home run numbers 599 and 600. The homer came on the 3-year anniversary of his 500th HR, which was also in the first inning and also at Yankee Stadium and also in a game started by Phil Hughes. Derek Jeter (4-4, two doubles) has his 35th career 4-hit game, passing Joe DiMaggio and Bernie Williams for 4th-most 4-hit games by a Yankee in the live-ball era (since 1920). The Yankees snap their 3-game losing streak, which matched their longest of the season.

A's 4, Royals 3
Brett Anderson picks up his first win since May 29 and goes 7 innings, his longest outing of the season. After giving up 2 runs in the first, A's pitchers held the Royals to 1 run on 3 hits the rest of the way. Michael Wuertz struck out the side in the 9th to notch his 4th save, tying a career-high. The A's have won 11 of their last 14 against the Royals. The Royals have lost 8 of their last 10 on the road. Jose Guillen (0-4) falls to 3-41 (.073) in his last 11 games. Wuertz struck out the side in the 9th to notch his 4th save, tying a career-high.

Yesterday, we unveiled some of our midseason 2010 Next-Level Awards. Here are the rest of the honors:

The "Let's Go Home" award

For exemplary performance in the 7th inning and later.

Despite Baltimore's lowly place in the standings, Nick Markakis has been trying his best to keep them in the game. Among players with 100 plate appearances from the 7th inning onward, he has the best batting average (.384), and is among the league leaders in doubles (10).

Unfortunately, by the 7th inning, the Orioles are already trailing 58% of the time, and they're a ridiculous 1-51 when behind entering the 9th. That one win was the extra-inning, rain-delayed affair in Texas last Friday. Markakis can only do so much.

Runners-up: Joey Votto (.380), Angel Pagan (.379), Jose Guillen (.353).


And now (drum roll) on to the pitching side. For pitching awards, we used a minimum of 200 batters faced (as opposed to a certain number of innings), giving us 164 eligible recipients.


The "Tie 'Em Up" award

Some of the silliest-looking swings are when hitters chase balls way in on their hands. It's hard to get around quickly on an inside pitch, so even if you do hit it, it's generally not for power.

The best at tying 'em up? The Braves' Tim Hudson, who surrenders just a .116 batting average on pitches that are on the inner third or too far inside.

Hudson is doubly qualified for this award; his overall opponents' average is .219. That 103-point difference between the two is also the best among our qualifying pitchers.

Runners-up: Francisco Rodriguez (.143), David Price (.155), Mat Latos (.158)


The "Finish Him" award

If the best pitch in baseball is strike one, then strike three must be right behind it. For some reason, though, some pitchers can't get over that two-strike hump. Sometimes they get cute and try to trick a hitter into swinging at bad pitches. Sometimes they know a hitter is sitting on a pitch in the zone and will try to nibble.

The pitcher who gives up the least once he gets to two strikes is the Mariners' Felix Hernandez. You'd better get to King Felix early, because opponents only hit .117 off of him in two-strike counts. (And that's ALL two-strike counts; when it's 0-2 it drops to .089.) Before two strikes, though, his average against is a whopping .331.

A close second is Giants ace Tim Lincecum, at .121. With all those strikeouts, you'd expect he'd be good at closing the door. But his average allowed with zero and one strikes -- .367 -- is even worse than Felix's. In fact, the 246-point difference in Lincecum's averages is third-highest in the majors.

Other runners-up: Trevor Cahill (.131), Mat Latos (.132), Ervin Santana (.138).

And the worst? The Nationals' John Lannan, who allows a .293 average and has surrendered 11 of his 26 extra-base hits after he's got two strikes.


The "Souvenir Hunter" award

Tiger fans are going to show up to watch Justin Verlander pitch anyway. But bring your glove. Verlander is currently inducing the highest number of foul balls off the bats of opposing hitters (414). He barely lost this category (by three) to Cliff Lee last season. Obviously not all of those reach the seats. But it's an indication of how much trouble batters have catching up to Verlander's fastball which averages in the 96-mph range.

Runners-up: Phil Hughes (407), Johan Santana (402), Matt Cain (392).


The "Making Him Work" award

In this blog and others, we reference the "patience index" -- the average number of pitches that a batter sees during a plate appearance. We can do that for pitchers also. Because, again, it's not always innings that matter.

Jered Weaver of the Angels gets the nod for having the most pitches thrown per batter this season. He's faced 490 hitters and launched 2,088 balls toward them. That's 4.26 each. Only 33 of those batters bothered to put Weaver's first pitch in play, and a third of them got hits.

Runners-up: Rich Harden (4.25), Tyler Clippard (4.20), Bruce Chen (4.18).

Honorable mention: Appropriately, we'll close with the guy who's occasionally labeled the "greatest closer ever", Mariano Rivera. He actually comes in higher than Weaver, at 4.42 pitches for every batter faced. Alas, he doesn't face enough batters to make our minimum.

With the 2010 season at the halfway point (and with apologies to the purists who say the halfway point was actually at the end of June), we present a handful of Next-Level Awards to a few players who have excelled (or "de-celled"?) in our favorite categories so far this season.


Since all teams have played between 86 and 90 games at this point, we're using 275 plate appearances as our minimum for all hitting awards.

The "Friendly Confines" award

Although Target Field has confounded some power hitters, Twins CF Denard Span seems to enjoy the place. He has the biggest difference between his home and road batting average this season. In Minneapolis, he's hitting .357; elsewhere, it's .198. Ironically, all three of his home runs have been in road games; however, he does have more total extra-base hits (8 doubles, 5 triples) in the Twins' new home.

The average "home" advantage in the majors, by the way, is .016.

Runners-up: Vernon Wells (.322 in Toronto, .199 on the road); Martin Prado (.389/.273); Travis Hafner (.303/.189).

Honorable mention: Jason Giambi has taken a liking to Denver. He's batting .380 at Coors Field and only .173 away from it, although his 132 PA are not enough to qualify for our award.


The "Summer Breeze" award

No surprise here. Mark Reynolds, who shattered the single-season record for strikeouts in '09 after setting it in '08, is whiffing on 40.9% of his swings this season and again leading the majors in K's. That's 8% higher than anybody else who qualifies for the award.

Far-runners-up: Mike Napoli (32.9%), Adam Dunn (32.3%), Ryan Howard (30.8).


The "Gettin' Low" award

Pitchers are always trying to keep the ball down. It takes a special hitter to go down there and get it with any degree of success. In a very tight three-way race, the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera ekes out the best average in the majors on low pitches (down in the zone or below it).

Cabrera, at .3618, just beats out Justin Morneau and the Orioles' Nick Markakis, who both have identical low-ball averages at .3613. To his credit, Miggy also has seven homers on low balls, and more extra-base hits than the other two contestants. Markakis is the most patient of the three, chasing only 16% of balls below the zone.

Which brings us to....

The "Reach For The Stars" award

Vladimir Guerrero left Los Angeles (home of the stars), but he's still chasing them in Texas. Vlad has gone reaching for 38.4% of bad balls (out of the strike zone) this season, giving him a clear lead in that category.

Runners-up: Adam Jones (36.0%), Pablo Sandoval (32.2%), Jose Guillen (32.2%).

Fifth place belongs to Ichiro Suzuki, who has set all kinds of base-hit records so far in his career. You wouldn't think of him as someone who would swing at a lot of bad balls. In Ichiro's case, though, he succeeds in making contact and finding holes.

That begets...

The "Trashman" award

Cleaning up bad balls is messy work. Not a lot of hitters do it well. Ichiro does. In fact, he's got a 52-point lead when it comes to batting average on balls out of the strike zone. And he hits almost as well (.319) on balls outside the zone as he does on balls that are in it (.329).

Runners-up: The aforementioned Guerrero, despite swinging a lot, also makes pretty good contact on bad balls. He's hitting .267, followed by Markakis (.264) and Boston's Marco Scutaro (.244).

More awards, including a few for the guys who THROW the ball, will be posted tomorrow.

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.

Pitchers (like Ubaldo Jimenez) win games, but defenses save games.

Case in point, Sunday's road win for the Padres over the Phillies, a game that hung in the balance in the 10th inning when Placido Polanco tried to go first-to-third on a single to center field with one out.

Tony Gwynn Jr., in a play that would have made his father proud, made a terrific snag of the ball and threw on the run to third base to nail a stunned Polanco. One out later, game over.

Baseball Info Solutions charts plays in more than 80 categories, and groups them into two groups- "Good Fielding Plays" and "Misplays."

The definitions for each are very specific to encompass almost anything that could happen in the field.

Gwynn got credit for a "Good Fielding Play" for that 9th inning assist. He now has 11 "Good Fielding Plays" this season and more impressively NO misplays.

His net (good plays minus misplays) of 11 is the best of any centerfielder in baseball, two better than Astros centerfielder Michael Bourn.

Gwynn came up big when he was most needed. Let's look at who else did so on Sunday, a day that featured close games at every turn


That list starts with Jimenez, who got dinged for a home run and two runs, but nothing more in improving to 11-1 with a win over the Diamondbacks. How'd he do it?

The combination of 15 swings-and-misses (his second-most this season), only two balls hit in the air by right-handed hitters (who went 1-for-14 against him), and the coaxing of a double play in his first bases-loaded moment of the season, did the trick.

Brian Bannister became the second Royals pitcher in as many days to tame the Tigers, following up on Luke Hochevar's successful effort in beating Justin Verlander. Bannister got five strikeouts, four of them looking, and he got at least one whiff with each of four different pitches (fastball, curveball, slider, and change-up).

Bannister has won five straight decisions, and the combination of circumstances were the perfect storm for him. Deprived of a win against the Tigers earlier this season when his bullpen failed him, Bannister improved to 5-2 with a 2.16 ERA against the Tigers. He also, fluke or not, improved to 20-8 for his career in day games (he's 16-33 at night).

Speaking of day games, Jose Guillen had found the sunlight to his liking this season, adding a three-run home run to his ledger.

At bat and in the field, Robinson Cano was also an impact performer. He gave the Yankees the lead with an eighth-inning double, raising his batting average against fastballs (via Inside Edge video review) to .394 this season, second-best in the majors.

And did you notice how the Yankees positioned their infield defense against Jose Bautista in the ninth inning, pinching the middle of the diamond, by sliding Cano over a couple of feet from where a second baseman would normally play. That worked perfectly when Bautista lined one right at Cano for the second out.

That may at least partly explain why Cano entered Sunday ranked second in the majors in Baseball Info Solutions +/- rating for second basemen. The +/- rating compares how frequently a defender turns balls hit into outs, whether it be due to positioning, range, or any other factors that could come into play.

Two years ago, Cano ranked 35th-best in the majors. Now he's second-best. Something as little as a couple steps to the right can make a big difference in that regard.

Today’s Trivia: Who is the highest player selected out of the University of Oklahoma in the June MLB draft?

Quick Hits: The Elias Sports Bureau notes an interesting early season trend: NL teams are outscoring AL teams. The 14 teams in the AL are averaging 4.3 runs, while their counterparts in the NL are averaging 4.8. According to Elias, the NL has averaged more runs than the AL just once since the designated hitter was introduced in 1973. That was in 1974. With that in mind, let’s look at some early numbers involving the DH:

* Diamondbacks pitchers have more hits (10) than the designated hitters for the Yankees (8) or Twins (9).

* Eliminate the DH and pitchers for a moment. AL position players are hitting .251. NL position players are hitting .265.

* Designated hitters have combined to hit just .239. Only catcher (.233) and third base (.238) have produced lower averages in the AL.

* AL East teams are hitting just .204 at DH. Meanwhile, NL West pitchers are hitting .203.

* The Red Sox have scored three runs from the DH spot. The Rockies and Diamondbacks have five runs scored at pitcher, and the Brewers have three.

* The Royals and Jose Guillen are hitting .377 at DH, while the Rangers and Vladimir Guerrero are next at .327. The rest of the AL is hitting just .219 at DH.

* Dan Haren (5) has one fewer hit than Nick Johnson (6) despite 33 fewer at-bats. However, Johnson does lead the AL with 18 walks.

* Only centerfield (178) has struck out more than DH (173) in the AL.

* However, the DH spot has more home runs (29) than any other AL position.

Today’s Leaderboard: There are five teams hitting under .200 from the DH spot, with the Red Sox in the basement at .169. The Yankees are the next worst at .170.

Key Matchups: Most eyes will be on the pitching matchup in Washington today, as Ubaldo Jimenez squares off against Livan Hernandez. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it is just the second time in the last 90 years that a pitcher coming off a no-hitter will face one who is coming off a shutout. The other time? 1996 when Jim Bullinger met Al Leiter, who had just pitched a no-hitter. Although this one might be about pitching, there is still a very intriguing pitcher-hitter situation. Todd Helton is 33-69 (.478) in his career against Hernandez. That is the most hits Livan has allowed to a batter, and the most Helton has off of a pitcher.

An Bay Area native, CC Sabathia is just 5-7 in his career against the A's, and sports a 5.80 ERA, his highest against any AL team other than the Yankees. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean much for today’s start. He was 2-0 against the A’s last season and current A’s hitters are just 14-75 against the lefty, a .187 average.

Trivia Answer: In 1985, Oklahoma’s Bobby Witt was the third overall pick by the Rangers, selected after B.J. Surhoff and Will Clark.