ESPN More Sports

No team could use a stretch of favorable pitching matchups more than the Minnesota Twins, who entered Sunday with the worst record in the majors at 14-26. But, as teams far better than the Twins have learned the hard way, facing Zack Greinke at Miller Park is anything but favorable for opposing hitters.

Greinke won again at home Sunday, allowing just one run and striking out six as the Milwaukee Brewers smashed the Twins 16-4. It was Greinke’s 18th straight win in a home decision, with the last 14 coming since he arrived in Milwaukee from Kansas City.

With the win, Greinke became the first pitcher to win 18 straight home decisions since Kenny Rogers won 19 consecutive decisions at home with four different teams from 1997 to 2000.

Greinke and Rogers are two of the six pitchers with a win streak of at least 18 in home decisions in the live-ball era (since 1920). They’re joined by Roy Face, Frank Viola, Ray Kremer and Lefty Grove, who had two separate streaks of at least 18 wins in home decisions (18 from 1932-33, 20 from 1938-40).

Greinke hasn’t lost a home start since July 26, 2010, when he allowed eight runs over four innings in a 19-1 loss to the Twins.

Greinke wasn’t the only Brewer to make history Sunday. Jonathan Lucroy drove in seven runs, tying a franchise record. He joined Carlos Ruiz (May 2, 2012) as the only catchers to have at least seven RBI in a game in the last two seasons.

Elsewhere in the majors Sunday, Max Scherzer had a career-high 15 strikeouts, one shy of a Detroit Tigers franchise record, in a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Scherzer induced 26 swings-and-misses, the most by any pitcher this season and the most since Brandon Morrow had 26 on May 5, 2010 vs the Cleveland Indians.

Scherzer became the second AL pitcher to strike out at least 15 in seven or fewer innings in the last 90 years. Baltimore Orioles starter Mike Mussina struck out 15 in seven innings against the Boston Red Sox on September 24, 2000.

In other MLB action Sunday:

" Stephen Strasburg hit his first career home run and earned the win in the Washington Nationals 9-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Strasburg is now hitting .375 this season and has an extra-base hit in four of his last five games.

" Josh Beckett allowed one run on seven hits as the Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-1. Beckett has now won consecutive starts for the first time since August 2011 and has allowed one run in his last 14T innings.

" The Phillies fell to 1-5 in Cliff Lee’s starts this season after he allowed five runs, his most since July 2011, to the Red Sox. The Phillies were 22-10 in Lee’s 32 starts last season.

(The Tampa Bay Rays host the Boston Red Sox, Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.)

The American League’s most methodical starting pitchers will oppose each other in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Wednesday night: the Rays' Jeremy Hellickson and the Red Sox’s Clay Buchholz.

This season, Hellickson has averaged 24.4 seconds between pitches, second in the American League among starters behind Buchholz, who averages more than 25 seconds between pitches.

In fact, Boston’s starting pitchers haven’t been shy about taking their time on the mound. Each of the Red Sox's five starters rank in the top seven in terms of slowest paces in the American League this season.

This season, Buchholz is 4-1, but he owns the highest ERA among qualified starters at 8.31. Buchholz has four wins because the Red Sox have provided him with more run support than any other starter in baseball with 9.7 runs per game.

Buchholz has been even worse on the road. In two starts he has an 11.57 ERA and a 2.46 WHIP.

Buchholz has been so bad this season because everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. Buchholz this season:

• Has allowed 10 HR in 39 innings, giving him the highest HR-per-nine-innings-pitched rate at 2.3. (In 28 starts in 2010, Buchholz allowed just nine home runs.)

• Strikes out 4.6 batters per nine innings, which is the lowest rate of his career (career average: 6.7).

• Walks more than five batters per nine innings, the highest rate of his career (career average: 3.8).

• Is one of three starters who has walked more batters than he has struck out (Ubaldo Jimenez, Derek Lowe).

What Buchholz has done well is throw first-pitch strikes. He’s tied for the American League lead with Phil Humber at 69.5 percent. However, hitters are jumping all over Buchholz, swinging at 32 percent of his first pitches, the fourth highest rate against any American League starter. When hitters put that pitch in play, their batting average is .357.

Opposing Buchholz will be Hellickson, whose start will be the 203rd straight start for the Rays by a homegrown pitcher. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no other team this season has had every game started by players originally drafted by the organization.

Hellickson this season has allowed three earned runs or fewer in six of his seven starts. The lone exception was on April 14 against the Red Sox, when he allowed five earned runs and a career-high three home runs.

Overall, his 4.99 career ERA against Boston is his highest against any team.

Hellickson hasn’t been very efficient, throwing 16.8 pitches per inning, which ranks 43rd out of 53 qualified American League starters. (Buchholz has been worse, ranking 46th with 17.5 pitches per inning.)

He’s also struggled to get the final out of innings -- 12 of his 16 walks this season have been issued with two outs.

However, in five starts since his April 14 loss to the Red Sox, Hellickson has a 1.93 ERA. In fact, the Rays' pitching has settled into being the expected dominant pitching staff. In the past 28 games, Tampa Bay is 19-9 with a league-low 2.82 ERA.

In his first start against the Pittsburgh Pirates since striking out 14 in his MLB debut, falling one shy of the MLB record for strikeouts in a debut, Stephen Strasburg fanned 13 in just 6 innings Thursday night.

Strasburg deftly mixed up his fastball and off-speed pitches against Pittsburgh, registering seven strikeouts with a fastball and holding Pirates hitters to one hit with six strikeouts in eight at-bats ending with off-speed pitches.

He also kept the ball away, with 52.4 percent of his pitches (54 of 103) over the outer part of the plate. The Pirates were hitless with five strikeouts in six at-bats ending with pitches away.

And while Strasburg fell one punch-out short of his career high, he did set a personal record with 20 pitches resulting in swings-and-misses.

Strasburg’s start Thursday was the 24th of his career, making him the fifth pitcher to strike out 13 or more hitters twice his first 25 career games in the divisional era and first since Kerry Wood in 1998.

Thursday was the fourth time in Strasburg’s career he struck out at least 10 batters in a game, the most such games by a Nationals pitcher since the franchise moved to Washington in 2005. He also became the first pitcher in the history of the Nationals or Expos to register 13 strikeouts in six of fewer innings.

Elsewhere in the majors Thursday:

• Josh Hamilton homered in his second game since tying an MLB record with 4 HR on Tuesday. Hamilton, who became the first player with 6 HR in a series since Hee Seop Choi in 2005 according to Elias, now has more HR since Monday than Jose Bautista, Alex Rodriguez, Joey Votto and Albert Pujols have all season.

• Josh Beckett allowed 7 runs in just 2⅓ innings as the Boston Red Sox lost to the Cleveland Indians. It was Beckett’s first start since 2008 in which he allowed at least 7 runs in fewer than 3 innings. Boston’s six straight losses at Fenway Park matches its longest home losing streak since losing 12 home games in a row in 1994.

• Elias tells us the Baltimore Orioles became the first AL team to open a game with back-to-back-to-back HR when Ryan Flaherty, J.J. Hardy and Nick Markakis homered to start the bottom of the first inning. All five of the Orioles hits were HR Thursday, making Baltimore just the third team to have five or more hits with all hits being homers in the live-ball era (since 1920).

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

1. PENGUINS HANGING IN THERE: For the second straight game, the Pittsburgh Penguins won when facing elimination, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2. The two teams have combined for 50 goals in the series, tied for the fourth-most in a NHL playoff series. FROM ELIAS: In each of the first five games of the series the team that scored the first goal lost. It’s only the third series in NHL playoff history to follow that unusual pattern; the others were Pittsburgh vs. St. Louis in 1981 and Dallas vs. San Jose in 2008.

2. YANKEES SPOIL FENWAY PARTY: The Boston Red Sox had a 100-year celebration of Fenway Park but the New York Yankees spoiled the party. Clay Buchholz allowed five HR in a 6-2 loss. FROM ELIAS: Josh Beckett and Clay Buchholz have each allowed five HR in a game this season. It's the third time that a pair of pitchers on the same team gave up five plus HR in a game in one season. The other pairs: 2005 Phillies-- Vicente Padilla and Cory Lidle, and the 2009 Red Sox-- Beckett and Buchholz.

3. SPURS BLOW OUT LAKERS AGAIN: Kobe Bryant made his return after missing seven games with a shin injury, but it didn’t matter as the Los Angeles Lakers were blown out again by the San Antonio Spurs. FROM ELIAS: The Spurs are the first team to win two consecutive meetings against the Lakers by 20+ points since the Detroit Pistons in February 2005. That Pistons team reached the NBA Finals and lost to the Spurs.

4. PREDATORS BACK IN SEMIS: The Nashville Predators are the first team to advance to the conference semifinals, beating the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in Game 5 to win the series 4-1. It’s the second straight season that the Predators have advanced to the conference semis. They didn’t win a playoff series in their previous 11 seasons. As for the Red Wings, it’s the first time they were eliminated in the conference quarterfinals since 2006.

5. SOCCER SHOWDOWN: Barcelona hosts Real Madrid in El Clásico on Saturday, their second and final La Liga meeting of the season. With five games remaining, first-place Real Madrid leads second-place Barcelona by four points. Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo are tied for the league lead with 41 goals each this season. Both have broken the previous record of 40, set by Ronaldo last season. Barcelona is unbeaten in seven straight games against Real Madrid in all competitions, matching the longest unbeaten streak ever in the series, previously done by Real Madrid from 1932-35. Madrid hasn’t beaten Barcelona since last year’s Copa del Rey final. The match can be seen on ESPN Deportes and ESPN3 at 2 ET.

The Texas Rangers put on an awesome offensive display in Tuesday's 18-3 win over the Boston Red Sox. But tonight's pitching matchup features a pair of starters with a history of shutting down their opposition.

Let's take a closer look at Derek Holland's and Josh Beckett's performance so far this season as they prepare for this Wednesday Night Baseball meeting (7 pm ET, ESPN2).

Holland successful early
Holland has a 3.37 ERA and 0.83 WHIP through his first two starts in 2012. In particular, he's rated well in getting ahead of hitters early in the count, throwing his first pitch for a strike 67 percent of the time. In each of the previous three seasons, Holland's first-pitch strike rate has hovered between 56 and 58 percent.

Holland's fastball has averaged 93.9 miles-per-hour since the start of last season, a hair behind David Price for the distinction of hardest-throwing lefty starter in the majors. His fastball averages almost a mile-per-hour more than that of CC Sabathia and Clayton Kershaw.

Holland has faced the Red Sox three times previously, winning twice and posting a 2.95 ERA. In his last start against them, he pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing just two hits in a 10-0 win at Fenway Park.

Matchup to watch: Holland has won seven of the eight head-to-head battles he's had with Dustin Pedroia, holding him to just one base hit. Pedroia has worked his share of deep counts against Holland, but did not reach base in any of the three instances in which the count ran to 3-2.

Beckett's unusual start
Beckett's fastball velocity has been an early-season storyline.

Beckett's fastball is averaging 90.6 miles-per-hour through two starts. In his 1st 2 starts, Beckett has a total of four strikeouts in 12⅔ innings pitched. It’s the first time since June 2007 that Beckett has gone consecutive starts with less than four strikeouts. Beckett has never gone three consecutive starts without registering at least four strikeouts in a game.

Beckett has been able to get to two strikes on hitters, but has not finished them off at his usual success rate.

The four whiffs have come on 24 two-strike counts, a strikeout success rate of just 17 percent. From 2009 to 2011, Beckett fanned 43 percent of hitters against whom he got a two-strike count.

Since the start of the 2010 season, Rangers hitters have the lowest strikeout rate in the majors-- having fanned in just 15 percent of their plate appearances (the average major league hitters strikes out about one out of every 5.5 plate appearances.

Matchup to watch: Josh Hamilton is 6-for-14 with two home runs in his career against Beckett, with both home runs coming in 2010. Hamilton hit a 469-foot home run in Tuesday's win, the second-longest tracked home run at Fenway Park since the start of the 2006 season (Vladimir Guerrero hit a 484-foot home run there in 2006).

Hamilton has five home runs this season, all against pitches over the inner-third or middle-third of the plate. He's also 10-for-27 (.370 BA) in at-bats ending against pitches on the outer-third of the plate or further outside. Last season, Hamilton hit .262 against pitches thrown to that area.

Hamilton hasn't hit a home run against a pitch on the outer-third of the plate this season. But Beckett allowed three home runs on outer-third pitches to lefties in his first start of the season against the Tigers.

Mark Simon also contributed to this post

Eight more teams had their home openers today and several of them gave the hometown fans plenty to cheer about with some spectacular pitching performances.

Cain is able
The San Francisco Giants shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-0, as Matt Cain threw a complete game one-hitter with no walks and 11 strikeouts for the win. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Cain is the only pitcher to throw a one-hitter in the team’s home opener in Giants franchise history.

The only hit Cain allowed was a single to Pirates pitcher James McDonald. Elias also tells us that Cain is the first pitcher since R.A. Dickey in 2010 to throw a 1-hitter in which the hit was allowed to the opposing pitcher. The last Giants pitcher to do it was Hal Schumacher in 1935.

Cain worked his fastball in the middle of the zone and above, throwing 48 of his 60 heaters there.

The Pirates couldn’t handle the high heat, with just one hit and four strikeouts in 14 at-bats ending with a fastball.

Of Cain's 11 strikeouts, eight were on pitches out of the zone. The Pirates swung and missed at 58 percent of Cain's pitches out of the zone.

Hello, Hiroki
The New York Yankees blanked the Los Angeles Angels, 5-0, winning for the 14th time in their last 15 home openers. Hiroki Kuroda shined in his Yankee Stadium debut, tossing eight scoreless innings to earn his first victory in pinstripes.

Kuroda is the fifth Yankee pitcher to throw eight shutout innings in his Yankee Stadium debut in the Divisional Era (since 1969) and the first to do it since Jimmy Key in 1993 against the Royals. Kuroda shut down the Angels right-handed bats, who were 2-for-14 with five strikeouts when facing Kuroda.

Beckett bounces back
The Boston Red Sox kicked off their home schedule with a much-needed victory, crushing the Tampa Bay Rays 12-2.

The Red Sox broke the game open with eight runs in the eighth inning, scoring as many runs in that frame as they had in their previous three games combined.

Josh Beckett allowed just one run in eight innings, bouncing back from his first start of the season when he allowed five home runs against the Tigers. Beckett had success throwing to the glove side, as the Rays went 0-for-7 in at-bats ending with a pitch in that location.

Peavy pitches in
The Chicago White Sox sent the defending AL Central champions home with a 5-2 loss, snapping a 6-game losing streak to the Detroit Tigers. The White Sox have now won five straight and 11 of their last 13 home openers.

Jake Peavy, who went just 3-6 with a 6.11 ERA at home last season, was in fine form for the White Sox this afternoon. He allowed just two runs on two hits with eight strikeouts in 6⅔ innings to earn his first win of the season.

Peavy was able to finish off the Tigers hitters, who were 1-for-15 with eight strikeouts in at-bats ending with a two-strike count. The Detroit lineup also had trouble with his high pitches, going hitless with four strikeouts in six at-bats ending with a pitch up in the zone or above.

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

1. FINAL PAIRING AT THE MASTERS: Peter Hanson has a one-shot lead heading into the final round at the Masters Tournament. It’s the first time Hanson has a 54-hole lead at a major. Phil Mickelson is just one shot back after shooting a six-under 66. It’s the first time in his career that he shot six-under or better on the weekend in a major. He’s playing in the last group on Masters Sunday for the fifth time. He’s won the Tournament the previous three times.

2. BECKETT BLASTED BY TIGERS: Josh Beckett allowed five home runs as the Boston Red Sox lost 10-0 to the Detroit Tigers. Beckett didn’t allow his fifth home run last season until June 28. Meanwhile, the New York Yankees lost 8-6 to the Tampa Bay Rays. It is the first time since 1980 that the Red Sox and Yankees both started 0-2.

3. MOYER TAKES PLACE IN RECORD BOOKS: Jamie Moyer pitched five innings for the Colorado Rockies. The 49-year-old hurler was the second-oldest pitcher to start a MLB game. Only Satchel Paige was older (58 years old). He is the oldest player to pitch in a MLB game since Hoyt Wilhelm, who pitched at age 49 for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1972.

4. HOWARD SEEING 20-20: Dwight Howard had 20 points and 22 rebounds against the Philadelphia 76ers. It’s the 41st time that Howard has scored 20 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in game, tying Charles Barkley for the third-most and just one behind Hakeem Olajuwon for second-most since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976-77.

5. STAMKOS SCORES 60: Steven Stamkos scored his 60th goal of the season in the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 OT win over the Winnipeg Jets. Stamkos is just the fifth player to score 60 goals in a season since 1993-94 and the first since Alex Ovechkin scored 65 in the 2007-08 season.

6. LET THE POSTSEASON BEGIN: The NHL Playoff matchups are set with the New York Rangers getting the top seed in the East and the Vancouver Canucks getting the top seed in the West. Vancouver clinched the Presidents’ Trophy for the second-straight season. However, having the most points in the regular season doesn’t guarantee playoff success. The 2008 Detroit Red Wings were the only team in the last nine years to win the Stanley Cup after winning the Presidents’ Trophy.

What seemed so unlikely just a few weeks ago has now become a reality –- the Tampa Bay Rays have tied the Boston Red Sox for the AL Wild Card lead with just two games remaining in the regular season.

The Rays have risen to the top of the Wild Card standings for the first time since May 23, when they had a half-game lead over the Red Sox (and were tied for first with the New York Yankees).

Tampa Bay beat the Yankees 5-2 as James Shields fell one out short of his 12th complete game. He went at least eight innings for the 15th time this season, which is the most in MLB and one more than Justin Verlander.

B.J. Upton continued his hot hitting, with two doubles and two game-tying RBI. Upton has been a sparkplug for the Rays offense during their September run, batting .381 with 19 RBI in his last 22 games.

The Rays, who were nine games out of a playoff spot on September 2, are trying to become the first team in major-league history to overcome a deficit of nine games-or-more in September and make the postseason.

Boston’s September collapse continued with a 6-3 loss to the Orioles. The Red Sox are now 6-19 in September, which is tied for their second-most losses in the month in franchise history.

The Red Sox still have not won back-to-back games since August 27. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this stretch of 27 games is Boston’s longest since a 28-game run in 1994.

Josh Beckett allowed six earned runs in six innings for the second straight start, as the Red Sox starting pitching woes deepened. The rotation now has a 7.26 ERA in September, which would be the worst in any month by a Red Sox team (min. 20 games).

The St. Louis Cardinals remain one game behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL Wild Card race, following their 5-4 walk-off loss to the Astros in the 10th inning. It was the 13th walk-off loss for the Cardinals this season, the most in the NL and tied with the Angels and Mariners for the most in the majors.

Jaime Garcia struggled on the mound for the Redbirds, allowing four runs in four innings. The Cardinals had won his previous four starts and Garcia had a 1.74 ERA since September 6 before Monday night’s poor outing.

The Braves couldn’t widen their lead in the NL Wild Card race despite the Cardinals' loss, as they also lost 4-2 to the Phillies. The Braves are now 9-16 overall in September, the worst record among NL teams.

The Braves offense continued to flounder, as they scored three runs or fewer for the 13th time this month. They went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and are 1-for-16 in their last three games, all losses. They entered the month hitting .261 with RISP through August.

If 2011 numbers are any indication, the Boston Red Sox have the right pitcher on the mound to even the series with the New York Yankees on Wednesday (ESPN, 7 p.m. ET).

In his four starts against the Yankees this season, Josh Beckett is 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA. In the past 35 years, only three pitchers have posted an ERA of 1.00 or lower against the Yankees with at least 25 innings: Felix Hernandez (0.35 in 2010), Chuck Finley (0.57 in 1996) and Mike Caldwell (0.99 in 1978).

The key to Beckett’s success? The heart of the Yankees' order -- the 3-4-5-6 hitters -- are a combined 2-for-32 (.063) with 15 strikeouts. The only two hits belong to Robinson Cano (2-for-9).

That level of dominance was hard to envision after Beckett’s Bronx struggles in 2010, when he posted a 10.04 ERA against the Yankees. That was the fifth-highest ERA against the Yankees in the past 50 seasons (minimum four starts).

Last season, left-handed batters on the Yankees hit .354 with eight home runs against Beckett. This season, he has been able to neutralize them: a .156 batting average and one home run.

Beckett will be going for his fourth win against New York this season, a rare feat among Red Sox pitchers. Al Nipper went 4-0 with a 3.00 ERA against the Yankees in 1987, a season in which he won only seven other games. No Red Sox pitcher has won four against New York since, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

According to Elias, only three pitchers since 1995 have four wins against the Yankees in a season: Brett Cecil (4–0 in 2010), Roy Halladay (5–1 in 2008) and Chuck Finley (4–0 in 1996).

On the last day of August, Beckett looks for a positive end to a relatively shaky month. In five starts, he’s allowed seven home runs. Compare that to just nine in his first 20 starts. For his career, August is the only month in which Beckett has an ERA (4.53) over 4.00 or a record below .500 (18-20).

Beckett also looks to continue an impressive streak at home. In each of his first 11 starts at Fenway, he’s held the opponent to three runs or fewer. In the live ball era (since 1920), the Red Sox have had only two longer such streaks to start a season: Roger Clemens (15 in 1990) and Pedro Martinez (13 in 2000).

The Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers play the third game of a four-game series in Arlington on ESPN2’s Wednesday Night Baseball.

In what could potentially be a playoff preview in the American League, the Rangers play host to the Red Sox, a team they have had recent success against at home. Since 2009, Texas is 11-3 against Boston at home and has won four of the five meetings overall this season between the two teams.

On the mound

Josh Beckett probably wishes this game was being played next week when the calendar flips to September. During his career, August has been Beckett’s worst month to pitch in. This is the only month he’s under .500 and his ERA is the highest of any month he’s pitched in.

And, not surprisingly, he’s really struggled to prevent runs this month, allowing 11 ER in four starts, including eight in his past two starts. While his strikeouts and walks are not different from the first three months, he’s been hurt by the longball, giving up six HR in 24 innings after allowing nine HR in his first 133 innings.

Matt Harrison takes the mound for Texas. Harrison limited Boston to one run in 7 innings in his previous start against them this season, this after allowing seven ER in 6 innings in three games against the Red Sox in 2010.

For his career, Harrison has enjoyed pitching in August, prior to this year. He entered August with a 2.94 ERA, however, he’s struggled this month with a 5.16 ERA. He’s allowed more than three runs in three of his four starts this month, after doing that in just five of his first 20 starts.

Stat of the game

The Rangers are 4-1 against the Red Sox this year and 17-7 against them since 2009. That’s the best record by any team against the Red Sox in the past three years combined.

The Yankees and Red Sox play the rubber match of their three-game series in Boston at 8 ET on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN.

The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees may be tied atop the American League East standings, but the rivalry has hardly been even this season. Boston has won nine of the first 11 matchups in 2011, outscoring the Yankees 72-44, as the Red Sox look to win the season series for the first time since 2004.

On the mound

Josh Beckett is on the bump for the Red Sox, looking to continue his dominance over the Yankees this season. He’s won all three starts, allowing just two earned runs in 21 innings with 25 strikeouts.

How has he been so successful against the powerful Yankees lineup? Beckett has silenced the heart of the order, holding the 3-4-5-6 batters to just two hits in 32 at-bats.

His curveball has been nearly unhittable in the three starts, as the Yankees have only one single in 17 at-bats ending in Beckett’s hook this season.

Freddy Garcia, who is on pace to post the second-lowest ERA in his 13-season major league career, gets the call for the Yankees. Garcia is 8-4 career against the Red Sox, but has really struggled against them this season, with an 0-2 record and 10.13 ERA in three outings.

Garcia doesn’t have overpowering stuff, with a fastball that averages just 87 mph, the fifth-slowest fastball velocity among AL pitchers. Garcia has been at his best when the pressure has been highest, limiting opponents to a .191 batting average with runners in scoring position.

Matchups to watch

Mark Teixeira hit .351 and slugged .662 in 18 games against the Red Sox during his first season in pinstripes, but over the past two seasons he’s gone cold at the plate. He’s hitting just .198 in 29 games since then versus Boston, including 1-for-7 in the first two games of this series.

Kevin Youkilis may be having a subpar year compared to past seasons, but he’s always been a thorn in the Yankees’ side in his career. His .445 on-base percentage against New York is the highest among active players and his .950 OPS is sixth best (min. 200 PA).

Stat of the game

This will be the eighth time in the history of the rivalry that the Yankees and Red Sox have met on or after Aug. 1 tied for first place (the seventh time was on Friday night). According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Yankees have won the past five such games, starting with the game that decided the 1949 pennant.

Mike Stanton’s 24 home runs this season are well behind Jose Bautista for the MLB lead and a good distance away from Lance Berkman for the NL lead.
But Stanton still has a claim as the man who mashes the most.

Why? Because Stanton has hit 20 home runs this season that went at least 400 feet. That’s not just the most in the majors, it’s three more than anyone else in the league.

Doing the math tells us that 83.3 percent of Stanton’s home runs this season have gone longer than 400 feet. He averages 414.7 feet per homer this season; only Justin Upton (425.6) has a longer average distance.
But home runs don’t just travel far, they travel high as well – and that’s what Vlad Guerrero did against the Blue Jays. Guerrero’s moonshot reached 149 feet at its apex – the second-highest home run this season. Only Adam Dunn’s 150-footer scraped more sky.

Of course, high doesn’t always mean far. Despite its height, Guerrero’s home run had a distance of just 351 feet. In fact, none of the five tallest homers this season have even traveled a distance of 375 feet.

AROUND THE DIAMOND

-Emilio Bonifacio (26 straight games) and Dustin Pedroia (25) both extended their streaks. The last time MLB had concurrent 25-game hit streaks was September 29, 2005. Jimmy Rollins was sitting on 33 games and Michael Young was at 25. Young broke his streak the next day with an 0-for-4 against the Angels.

-On the other end of the spectrum, Craig Counsell is in an 0-for-41 slump for the Brewers. Elias says that his 41 straight AB without a hit is the longest streak in Brewers history, breaking the record of 38 owned by Greg Vaughn in 1990. It’s also the longest by any player for any team since Todd Zeile went 0-for-44 over the 1996-97 seasons.

-For the first time in team history, the Mets swept a four-game road series from the Reds. The Mets recorded their 32nd road win of the season – already matching their total from last season.

-Josh Beckett had never allowed a home run to the Royals despite tossing 55.2 innings against them in his career. He had also never lost to the Royals – a 6-0 record and 2.26 ERA against them. Both of those changed when Billy Butler homered in the fourth inning and the Royals won 4-3.

Sunday Night Baseball turned into Monday Morning Baseball as the Boston Red Sox defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 1-0 in 16 innings. This marked just the fourth game since 1990 to last 16 or more innings with only one run being scored.

It was the longest 1-0 game in Red Sox history (by inning) and the second-longest scoreless inning game in Red Sox history (longest was July 14, 1916, a 17-inning scoreless tie against the St. Louis Browns).

It matched the longest game in Rays history by innings, a 9-8 loss in 16 innings on April 1, 2003, also at home to the Red Sox.

One of the more remarkable things from Sunday night's game is neither pitching staff allowed more than five hits in the 16 innings pitched.

Before that only one team had pitched 16 or more innings and allowed five hits or fewer in the Divisional Era (since 1969).

Dustin Pedroia matched the Rays himself with three hits. He went 3-for-7, while the rest of the Red Sox players were 2-for-45.

In charge of shutting Tampa Bay down was Josh Beckett. He allowed just one hit in eight innings of work, after throwing a one-hit shutout in his last appearance against the Rays.

Beckett is the second pitcher in the Live Ball Era (since 1920) with consecutive starts against an opponent in which he went at least eight innings and allowed no more than one combined hit and walk in each.

As good as Beckett was, Jeff Niemann of the Rays matched him allowing just two hits in eight innings, while striking out 10 batters.

According to Game Score -- a metric devised by Bill James assigning a pitcher points using innings pitched, strikeouts, hits, walks, and runs -- Beckett and Niemann each had a Game Score of 86. This was arguably the best pitchers duel in 2011 as their combined Game Score of 172 was the highest by two pitchers in the same game this season.

It was the highest combined Game Score by opposing starters since July 10, 2010, when Travis Wood (93) and Roy Halladay (85) combined for 178 in a game the Phillies won 1-0 in 11 innings.

Beckett had success keeping the ball away from Rays hitters. Fifty-five of Beckett's 106 pitches were on the outer third of the plate or further outside, the highest percentage for Beckett this season. He got 13 outs in at-bats ending on those pitches, his highest total of the season.

Niemann got Red Sox hitters to expand their strike zone. Hitters swung at 38 percent of Niemann's pitches out the zone, his second highest in a start this season. Ten of his career-best 14 swings and misses and seven of his career-best 10 strikeouts came on pitches out of the zone.

The teams played another eight innings once the starters were taken out, with the total game time lasting 5 hours and 44 minutes. It was the second-longest game this season in terms of time played, with only the Reds-Phillies game on May 25 that lasted over six hours besting it. Coincidentally, both games were played on ESPN.

The Tampa Bay Rays host the Boston Red Sox on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Josh Beckett has had a very successful season, and when you boil it down to his performance against division rivals, it gets even better.

In seven starts against American League East opponents, Beckett is 6-0 with a 1.88 ERA. In his three starts against the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays, he's 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA. His only start against Tampa Bay this season was a one-hit shutout. (No pitcher has ever thrown two shutouts in the same season against the Rays.)

Beckett's success has been well-rounded this season, no matter what pitch he throws. The opponent batting average against three of his four main pitches (fastball, cutter, changeup) ranks in the top seven in the American League among starting pitchers. His curveball currently ranks ninth.

The pitch-by-pitch dominance has translated into overall dominance. What's left out is how economical Beckett's been. He ranks in the top four in ERA, opponent BA and WHIP, but throws only 97.7 pitches per outing, well down the MLB leaderboard.

When Beckett has gotten in trouble, he's done a great job of stranding runners. He leads the AL in left on base percentage, stranding 82.2 percent of the runners he's allowed on base.

Beckett's 2.27 ERA at the All-Star break was his best pre-break ERA of his career -- by far. In 2009, he posted a 3.35 ERA before the break for his previous best mark.

While Beckett's been lights out against division opponents, it's Boston's power surge that's helped it move to the top of the AL East. Since June 30, the Red Sox are 11-2, averaging 6.7 runs per game. In those 13 games they've hit 27 home runs, including four from Jacoby Ellsbury.

The American League leader in stolen bases, Ellsbury has 10 home runs from the leadoff spot in the order -- only Ian Kinsler (15) has more among AL leadoff hitters. Ellsbury is one of three Red Sox who rank in the top six in the American League in most wins above replacement this season.

Facing the Red Sox will be Jeff Niemann, who is 3-0 in four starts since coming off the disabled list. (He was 1-4 in six starts with a 5.75 ERA before going on the DL with a back injury.)

However, Niemann has had his share of struggles at home this season. His home ERA is more than two runs greater than his road ERA (5.53 versus 3.46), and he's allowing opponents to hit .325 at Tropicana Field.

The teams with the most wins in the majors start a three-game series tonight in Philadelphia as the Phillies (55 wins) and Braves (53) square off.

The red-hot Braves, who have won four straight and nine of their last 10, send Brandon Beachy to the mound, while the Phils (winners of seven of their last 10) counter with Roy Halladay. Halladay is 6-0 with a 2.69 ERA in his last nine starts and the Phillies have won each of them.

Halladay is 11-3 on the season, the seventh straight campaign that he has won at least 10 games by the break. Only three times since 1975 has a Phillies starter had 12+ wins before the break (Curt Schilling in 1999 and Steve Carlton in 1977 & 1980).

Beachy is winless in four starts against the Phillies, going 0-3 with a 5.00 ERA including his major league debut last Sept. 20 in Philly. The last time he faced them (May 13) he had to leave after two innings with a strained oblique. However, since returning from the DL, Beachy is 2-0 with a 2.65 ERA in three starts.

The Braves have won the last two series against the Phillies, taking two of three in each.

In other games Friday:

Josh Beckett and the Red Sox host the Orioles. From the Elias Sports Bureau: Beckett has permitted fewer hits than innings pitched in each of his last 11 starts, the longest single-season streak of that sort by a Red Sox pitcher since Pedro Martinez had an 11-game streak in the 2000 season. The last Red Sox pitcher with a longer streak of that kind was Carl Mays: 12 straight starts allowing fewer hits than innings, in 1918.

Also from Elias: Minnesota's Joe Mauer has a hit in each of his last six at-bats against White Sox starter Gavin Floyd. The longest current streak of consecutive hits by one active major-leaguer against another is eight, by Andruw Jones against Jason Marquis.