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Five teams won in walk-off style Tuesday, tied for the most walk-off wins on a single day this season.

The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants 2-1 in 11 innings on Martin Prado's third career walk-off hit. It’s the second straight night the Braves won via walk-off, their major-league-leading 22nd last-AB win this season. It’s their 10th walk-off win, tied with the Giants for second-most in the bigs (Royals – 11). It's the Giants' eighth walk-off loss, only six teams have more.

The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 in 11 innings on Garrett Jones’ second career walk-off HR. It’s the 11th last-AB win for the Pirates this season, only four teams have fewer. For the Cardinals, it’s their 11th walk-off loss this season, tied for the most in the major leagues.

The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 on Mark Kotsay's 10th career walk-off hit (second this season, both with the bases loaded). The Brewers have won 18 of their past 20 games for just the second time in franchise history. It’s their 18th final-AB win -- only three teams have more -- and L.A.'s fourth walk-off loss, only three teams have fewer.

The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs 6-5 on a walk-off grand slam from Brian Bogusevic, just his second career home run and first career walk-off hit. The Astros have the fewest wins in baseball, but eight of them have come via the walk-off -- only four teams have more this season. It’s Carlos Marmol’s eighth blown save this season, tied for the major league lead.

And in the night’s final game, the Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in 14 innings on a Juan Pierre walk-off single, his seventh career walk-off RBI. The White Sox have just four walk-off wins this season, they entered the game tied for last in the majors in that department. It’s the ninth walk-off loss for Cleveland, only four teams have more this season.

Today’s Trivia: Want to feel old? Los Angeles Angels starter Tyler Chatwood was born 16 days too soon to be the first pitcher born in the 1990s. Who was the first pitcher born in the 1980s to appear in an MLB game?

Quick Hits: Let’s take a look at some surprising league leaders so far this season.

• Howie Kendrick leads the majors with five HRs off of left-handed pitchers. That’s three more than he had last season.

• Your MLB leader in triples? Sean Rodriguez with three. Though he’s hitting just .206, six of his seven hits this season have been for extra bases.

• Jonny Gomes leads the league with five home runs in day games, one more than he had last season.

• Juan Pierre has been caught stealing five times already. The last time an AL player was caught more in April? 1988, when both Rickey Henderson and Mark McLemore were caught six times.

• Billy Butler has already been intentionally walked five times, just three shy of his career high. Over the past 50 years, the most intentional walks for an AL player in April is seven (Ken Griffey Jr. in 1993 and Travis Hafner in 2007).

• Teammates Ryan Raburn (25) and Austin Jackson (24) have struck out more than any other hitters. Combined, those two have more strikeouts than 22 of the other 29 outfields in baseball.

• A.J. Burnett already has six wild pitches. Over the past 50 years, only three AL pitchers have had more in April: Ricky Romero in 2010, Jaime Navarro in 1997 and Bobby Witt in 1986.

• Clay Buchholz has allowed six home runs, after allowing seven all last season. But that’s not even the more surprising number in the AL. Erik Bedard’s seven home runs allowed are the most in the majors. He’s never allowed more than 19 in a season.

• David Price has already hit four batters, most in the majors and one shy of his career high.

• Brad Thomas has pitched just 6 2/3 innings, but has still allowed the most sac flies this season (5).

Trivia Answer: In April 2001, CC Sabathia became the first pitcher born in the 1980s to appear in a game.

Chicago Cubs
Tom Gorzelanny: In August, he threw 68.0 pct of his fastballs for strikes, which is well above his average of 63.0 pct in the 1st 4 months of the season.

Chicago White Sox
Juan Pierre: In August Pierre set the table for the White Sox. He hit .354 (45-127), which is well above his .284 season batting average. His OBP was .397 compared to his season OBP of .352. Prior to his 45 hits in August, Pierre’s previous high for hits in a month this season was 32 in May.

Los Angeles Angels
Trevor Bell: Look for Bell to rely less on his slider and throw more changeups in his start against the Seattle Mariners. Mariners hitters have hit .205 (99-484) against changeups compared to the league average of .247. Seattle’s offense has done better against the slider, batting .254 (159-626) compared to the league average of .221.

Los Angeles Dodgers
Andre Ethier: Hitting .188 (12-64) and slugging .359 (21.3 AB/HR) against non-fastballs since the All-Star break. For comparison, Ethier hit .333 (37-111) and slugged .640 (12.5 AB/HR) prior to All-Star break.

New York Mets
Mike Pelfrey: .190 opp BA (4-21) vs curveball this season, 23 points better than the league average (.213). The Braves enter Wednesday hitting .238 against curveballs.

New York Yankees
A.J. Burnett: His fastball has been lit up this season plus it hasn't been very accurate. Take a look at how Burnett's effectiveness with the fastball compares to the rest of the league.



Texas Rangers
Tommy Hunter: Opponents hit .325 (25-77) off Hunter’s fastball in August after hitting .244 (47-193) in June and July.

Clay Buchholz has a miss percentage against his changeup of 47.1 (81/172), well above the league average of 31 percent.

Before the All-Star break, Marlon Byrd was hitting .387 (75/194) off the fastball and .290 (18/62) on the slider; after the All-Star break he is hitting .340 (16/47) off the fastball and .154 (2/13) off the slider. Since the All-Star break he is hitting .333 (3/9) on the curveball, compared to .258 (8/31) before the break.

Juan Pierre hit .478 (11/23) against LHP during his 16-game hit streak which ended on Tuesday.

Opponents are hitting .121 against Jered Weaver's changeup (league average: .258) and his strike percentage is 75 percent (league average: 62 percent). For his career, opponents are hitting .177 against his changeup with Weaver throwing the pitch for a strike 54 percent of the time. The Kansas City Royals are hitting just .136 (league average: .258) vs. the changeup this season.

Opponents are hitting .242 (24-99) against Chad Billingsley's curveball in 2010, up from .154 in 2009. Matt Kemp's slugging percentage when ahead in the count is .719 (69/96) (league average: .585).

David Wright is hitting .376 (35-93) vs. lefties this season (league average: .261).

Javier Vazquez is allowing an average of just .086 (3-35) since June 1 against his curveball. Prior to June 1, batters were hitting .333 (12-36) against the pitch.

The Texas Rangers are batting .257 vs sliders, and slugging .368. Opponents are hitting .321 vs. Javier Vazquez's slider, with a slugging percentage of .604.

• The White Sox Juan Pierre stole his 500th career base on Thursday against the Tigers. He's the 37th player in MLB history to reach the milestone.
Pierre has the most stolen bases among active players, 100 more than the next closest player, Tampa Bay's Carl Crawford.

Notes on some of Thursday's starting pitchers:

• The Angels Dan Haren is winless in his last nine starts (0-6), the longest start streak he's gone in his career without a win. His last win was June 12 against the Cardinals. Camden Yards might be the best place for Haren to end his drought. He's 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA in four starts at Baltimore.

• Texas Rangers starter Tommy Hunter will pitch tonight in Seattle for the first time this season following a loss (8-1). He's allowed nine home runs in 11 starts, but eight of them have come in his last five outings. And while he's been perfect at home (6-0, 2.53 ERA), Hunter's road ERA is 5.21.

• Hunter will face off against the Mariners Felix Hernandez. Seattle's ace has a 2.90 ERA, but he's winless in his last four starts (0-3), thanks in large part to a lack of run support. In his last four starts, the Mariners have scored a total of five runs. Hernandez's run support this season is 3.30, which ranks fifth in the American League, among pitchers who have made at least 15 starts. Oddly enough, the top two in the A.L. are Hernandez's teammates: Ryan Rowland-Smith is first (2.95 run support) and Jason Vargas is second (3.00).

• Tim Lincecum has yet to allow more than one home run in any of his 22 starts this season. In fact, you have to go back to July 20, 2008 (a span of 68 starts) to find the last time Lincecum gave up two home runs in a start.

• The Braves' Jair Jurrjens is scheduled to start tonight at home against the Giants. He has a 1.71 ERA at home (3-0), and a 7.63 ERA on the road (0-4).

• After allowing three home runs on May 31 to the Diamondbacks, Chad Billingsley has gone nine straight starts without allowing an opposing hitter to go deep.

Quick Hits: Here’s a look at some players who are crushing fastballs this season [source: Inside Edge]:

* Marlon Byrd is hitting .422 off fastballs this season, tops in the majors among players with at least 50 at-bats.

* Jose Bautista, Paul Konerko and Kelly Johnson are tied for the MLB lead with 9 HR off fastballs this season.

* Chase Utley leads the majors with a well-hit average of .450 against fastballs

* John Buck leads the majors with a 1.298 OPS vs fastballs

* Juan Pierre has swung and missed on just 2.6 percent of fastballs he has offered at this season.

* Travis Hafner is batting .545 (6-11) off fastballs 95 mph or faster.

* Shane Victorino leads the majors with four HR off fastballs 93 mph or faster.

Today’s Trivia: Today is the six-year anniversary of Randy Johnson’s perfect game. Can you name the only player other than Johnson to throw a perfect game while wearing No. 51?

Today’s Leaderboard: Sticking with the fastball theme, here are the leaders, according to Inside Edge, in slugging percentage vs fastballs 93 miles per hour or faster. Thanks to his league-leading four home runs, Victorino also leads in slugging percentage.

Key Matchups: Miguel Tejada is one of the few hitters who have Zack Greinke figured out. In his career against Greinke, Tejada is 5-9 with a home run.

It’s doubtful that anyone on the Red Sox is looking forward to facing CC Sabathia tonight, but two guys should be particularly uneasy about tonight’s matchup. Dustin Pedroia is batting .053 (1-19) in his career against Sabathia. Adrian Beltre hasn’t been much better, posting a .063 average (1-16).

Trivia Answer: Dallas Braden

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome to the debut of the TMI Power Poll. Each week a panel of 8 from the ESPN Stats & Info group will tackle a different topic and rank the top ten players/teams/items in that category. But we encourage you to get involved. Let us know why we're wrong, where we got it right and suggest future topics.

Since it is Opening Day (for most teams anyway), we lead off with the top 10 leadoff hitters. Corny? Absolutely, but it is an interesting topic for sure.

What makes a good leadoff hitter? It used to be that most would say a nice batting average and a lot of stolen bases would do the trick. Those numbers are definitely still relevant, but there are so many ways to look at things nowadays. Runs created, pitches seen, extra bases taken… Imagine the possibilities.

The majority of our panel was aboard the Ichiro bandwagon. Not much to dislike when it comes to the Mariners leadoff hitter – Ichiro has been a model of consistency. In each of his nine MLB seasons, he has at least 200 hits, 25 steals, a .300 BA and a .350 OBP. Last season Ichiro slugged a career high .465 and grounded into just 1 double play.

All that and much more were considered… You know our number one, so here's the rest of our best leadoff hitters (first-place votes in parentheses):Others receiving votes: Julio Borbon, Juan Pierre, Grady Sizemore, Alfonso Soriano, Ian Kinsler, Skip Schumaker, Stephen Drew, Kosuke Fukudome, David DeJesus, Marco Scutaro, Andrew McCutchen and Dexter Fowler.

Quick: Who was the only player to steal 20+ bases without getting caught once in 2009? If you said Pablo Sandoval then I’ve got news for you…

You are dead wrong.

The correct answer is Chase Utley. During the regular season, Utley went 23-for-23 in stolen base attempts and just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, he went 3-for-3 in the post-season. If you go back to 2008, Utley is 28 for his last 28. Except for the “Chase” part, his name isn’t exactly synonymous with speed, yet he found himself among some of the fastest names in the game last year:

Most Consecutive Steals
2009 Regular Season

Carl Crawford, 30
Chase Utley, 23
Michael Bourn, 21
Jacoby Ellsbury, 18
Ian Kinsler, 17

So how did Utley – a man with 60 career steals from 2003-2008 – find himself ranked with guys who have stolen 60 in a single season? A little bit of speed, surprise, smarts and luck.

For starters, Utley did most of his damage later in at bats. Most of the top base stealers run early and often. As a means for comparison, I took a look at the top three base stealers of 2009 and three successful veterans.



Pretty much all of the base stealers listed above were more successful when stealing on the first three pitches too. Only Ellsbury was slightly more successful running on four plus pitches.

If anything, Utley’s success rate on steals proves how smart of a player he is. Utley picked his spots well, running on fastballs 47.8 percent of the time. Compare that to Ellsbury who ran on fastballs 58.6 percent of his attempts, or Jeter, who ran on fastballs 57.1 percent of the time. He also took advantage of Ryan Howard’s bat, stealing 16 of his 23 bases (plus his three post-season steals) while opposing pitchers were pre-occupied trying to get the slugger out. And does anyone remember that savvy steal of home?

Of course, you can’t ignore the fact that Utley got a little lucky. Two of his stolen bases came after he was picked off, he just beat the throw to second. Ten of his steals were against lefties too, so it’s not like he’s always running on slow delivering right-handers.

His secret is out now and with such a high success rate, pitchers will likely be taking notice. How long can Utley continue his perfect run? We’ll have to wait and see. Needless to say though (and painfully obvious too), the Chase is on…

Programming alert: Today on ESPN, Utley and the Phillies will meet the Yankees at 1 ET.

For further reading, this topic was broached earlier this winter in Hot Stove U.