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The Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers play Game 3 of the ALCS Tuesday night, with the Rangers leading the series 2-0. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, entering this year, teams up 2-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series have won 58 of the 71 series.

Inside the Series
Texas has won seven of its last nine road postseason games overall, and has won each of its last three Game 3’s. All-time, the Rangers are 6-2 in LCS games. Detroit has won seven of its last eight Game 3’s and in LCS Game 3’s, they are 4-0 (all four of those games were at home, too). Overall, the Tigers have won six of their last eight home postseason games.

On the Mound
Colby Lewis is scheduled to start for the Rangers. Lewis is 4-0 in five starts over the last two postseasons. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, among pitchers to debut in the last 80 years, only four – Juan Guzman, Livan Hernandez, Orlando Hernandez and Cliff Lee – have gone 5-0 over their first six career starts in the postseason.

Lewis has allowed two or fewer runs in each of his first five career postseason starts. That’s tied for the second-longest streak to begin a postseason career, behind only the six starts of Sandy Koufax.

Against Detroit, Lewis is 2-2 with a 7.48 in six games (five starts) in his career. However, Lewis struggled with the Tigers this season, going 0-1 with a 15.95 ERA in two starts. One player Lewis has struggled with, especially this year, is Alex Avila, who is hitting .333 (3-for-9) in his career against the righty. Two of Avila’s three hits against Lewis are home runs, with both coming this season.

For Detroit, Doug Fister takes the mound for his second career postseason start. In his first start (Game 5 of the ALDS against the New York Yankees), Fister allowed only one earned run in five innings. Fister is 1-1 with a 3.68 ERA in two starts against the Rangers this season.

Players to Watch
The Rangers bullpen has not allowed a run in the ALCS so far. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Texas’s relievers combined for 12⅔ scoreless innings in its first two games against Detroit. No team has ever combined for more relief innings in the first two games of a postseason series without allowing a run. The previous best mark for a team’s bullpen had been the 1984 San Diego Padres, whose relievers pitched 12⅓ innings in the first two games of the 1984 World Series, which coincidentally was also against the Tigers.

For Detroit, Austin Jackson has struggled to begin his postseason career, striking out 14 times in 25 career at-bats. The only players with more K’s in their first 25 career at-bats are Reggie Sanders (17) and Darryl Strawberry (15).

It’s been called the Year of the Pitcher II, and the drop in offense this season has been well-documented. There’s been no shortage of outstanding pitching performances recently, as three of the six best-pitched games this season -- according to Bill James’ Game Score -- have come in the past week.

On June 14, Justin Verlander threw a two-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts, allowing his first hit with one out in the eighth inning. Verlander’s Game Score of 94 is the best in baseball this season, surpassing James Shields' 93.

That same night, Shields threw a five-hit shutout to beat the Red Sox and Jered Weaver got into the act as well -- he threw his own five-hit shutout in a win over Seattle.

One night later, Josh Beckett threw a one-hit shutout, striking out six and walking nobody, tied for the fifth-best Game Score (91) this season at the time. Livan Hernandez also threw a shutout that night -- his second since July 2004 -- with six strikeouts and no walks.

Cliff Lee threw a two-hit shutout the next night, the sixth shutout in the majors in three days. Pitchers gave hitters a two-day break before Seattle’s Jason Vargas threw his second career shutout (and second this season) against Lee’s Phillies on Sunday.

Shields got back in the action Sunday as well, allowing four hits and striking out 10 in a complete game victory, but didn’t get a shutout because of an unearned run. Verlander also went the distance, allowing four hits and one run. Those performances got them a spot in our Cross-Sport Power Rankings.

Monday night, Tim Hudson threw eight shutout innings in a win over the Blue Jays, and Clayton Kershaw threw a two-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts, racking up a 93 Game Score.

Kershaw finished his shutout by striking out the side in the ninth inning. According to Elias, the last Dodgers starter to finish a shutout by striking out the side in the ninth was Sandy Koufax in his perfect game in 1965.

With all these standout performances on the mound, teams are looking everywhere for offense, and they’ve been finding it lately from the pitchers who’ve been holding it down.

Lee got at many hits as he allowed Thursday, the first Phillies pitcher to allow two hits or fewer in a shutout and get a pair of hits since Steve Carlton in 1980 (according to the Elias Sports Bureau). He’s 8-for-20 with two doubles, four RBI and a stolen base in his past nine starts.

Daniel Hudson allowed one run in a complete game victory Friday, and added an RBI double off of Edwin Jackson -- for whom he was traded last season. The next night, Ubaldo Jimenez got his second win of the season, driving in two runs in a one-run win.

Monday night, three pitchers got it done at the plate: Jake Arrieta got his first career hit and RBI in a win over the Pirates. Kershaw drove in two runs in the Dodgers’ 4-0 win -- raising his batting average to .294 -- and he has as many hits this season as he had in his first three seasons combined.

Finally, Tim Hudson hit a two-run homer in the Braves’ 2-0 win. According to Elias, he’s the fifth pitcher in the past 40 seasons to pitch in a game and hit a home run that accounted for all of that game’s runs.

The Washington Nationals' Adam Dunn hit a 479-foot home run Tuesday at Atlanta -- the third longest HR this season behind Josh Hamilton (485 feet on June 27) and Colby Rasmus (483 feet, also on June 27). Dunn owns the third- and fifth-longest home runs of the season. Interestingly enough, the five longest home runs this season have all been hit by left-handed batters.

More significant is the fact that it's the seventh straight season Dunn has hit at least 35 home runs, which is tied for the fifth longest streak in baseball history. Only one left-handed hitter has a longer streak than Dunn: Rafael Palmeiro hit at least 35 HR in nine straight seasons from 1995-2003.

Also in the Nationals' 6-0 over the Atlanta Braves, pitcher Livan Hernandez hit his 10th career HR and drove in two runs. He now has 77 career RBI, two shy of the Arizona Diamondbacks' Mike Hampton for the most among active pitchers.

• The Philadelphia Phillies' Cole Hamels struck out a season-high 13 batters in 6⅔ innings against the Florida Marlins. From the Elias Sports Bureau: Hamels is the first Phillies pitcher since 1900 to strike out 13 batters in fewer than seven innings.

• The New York Yankees' Jorge Posada hit his first career pinch-hit, go-ahead home run in the 10th inning or later to give the Yankees an 8-7 win against the Tampa Bay Rays. From the Elias Sports Bureau: The last Yankee to hit a go-ahead, pinch-hit HR in extra innings was Matt Nokes on May 8, 1993 at Detroit. Posada had been 0-for-10 this season as a pinch-hitter prior to hitting the home run.

• From 2005 to 2008, there were three left-handed pitchers who won at least 45 games and an ERA under 3.60: Johan Santana, CC Sabathia and Scott Kazmir. That seems like a distant memory for Kazmir, who is now 0-5 in his last seven starts and 1-9 in his last 12.

Today’s Trivia: The New York Yankees' Derek Jeter has had double-digit home runs in 15 straight seasons, but never eclipsed 30 HR. That’s tied for the third longest such streak. Who holds the record for consecutive 10+ HR seasons without hitting 30 or more?

Quick Hits: On Monday, Alex Rodriguez made it 13 straight seasons with 100 RBI. That tied Jimmie Foxx and Lou Gehrig for the longest streak all time. Not to be outdone, Jeter picked up his 150th hit. He’s now done that in 15 straight seasons. Only Hank Aaron (17) and Pete Rose (16) had longer streaks.

So who else is looking to extend streaks in 2010?

• Perhaps the most notable consecutive season streak belongs to the Seattle Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki. He needs 21 hits in the final 24 games to make it 10 straight 200-hit seasons. He already holds the record with nine straight, having passed Willie Keeler last season.

• Alex Rodriguez needs eight home runs to reach 30 for the season. It would be his 13th straight season with at least 30 HR, which would tie Barry Bonds’ record. Rodriguez currently is tied with Jimmie Foxx for the second-longest streak.

• The St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols is well on his way to a 10th consecutive season with a .300 batting average and .950 OPS. Only two players have double-digit streaks with that combination: Lou Gehrig did it in 12 straight seasons, while Ted Williams managed 17 straight.

• With 112 strikeouts, the Los Angeles Angels' Bobby Abreu has already made it 13 straight seasons with 100 or more. Only Reggie Jackson and Carlos Delgado can share that distinction in major-league history.

• With his 14th straight 20-save season, the Yankees' Mariano Rivera has already broken Lee Smith’s record. With his next save, he will tie Trevor Hoffman’s record of eight straight 30-save seasons. Hoffman’s streak will be coming to an end this year.

• The Washington Nationals' Livan Hernandez (9-10) needs two more starts to join Phil Niekro as the only pitchers since 1901 with 13 straight seasons of 30 starts and 10 losses.

• The Tampa Bay Rays' Carlos Pena needs four home runs to join Gorman Thomas as the second player in history with three straight seasons of 30 HR with a batting average below .250. Pena currently his hitting .205

• The Philadelphia Phillies' Ryan Howard entered the season hoping to join Babe Ruth as the only players with five straight 45-HR, 135-RBI seasons (Ruth had six). However, at 26 HR and 88 RBI, Howard will have to settle for a tie for the second-longest streak with Sammy Sosa.

• Can the Florida Marlins' Dan Uggla maintain his incredible statistical consistency? To start his career, Uggla has had four straight seasons hitting between 27 and 32 home runs with between 88 and 92 RBI. In MLB history, the only other player to have consecutive seasons in between those totals was Eddie Mathews, who did it for two straight. With 29 HR and 87 RBI, Uggla is essentially already where he normally finishes.



Tuesday’s Leaderboard: In Yunesky Maya and Dillon Gee, both the Nationals and Mets send out starting pitchers who are making their MLB debuts today. It’s the first time opposing starters are making debuts since Rick Porcello and Ricky Romero last season. For the Nationals, it will be their 14th starting pitcher of the season, three more than any other team. With their 11th starter, the Mets are now tied for second most.

Key Matchups: Ryan Howard is 9-for-20 with five home runs in his career against the Marlins' Chris Volstad. In fact, all five long balls have come in his last 13 at-bats. The only pitcher that he’s taken deep more is Tim Hudson (six).

As for Hudson, he hasn’t allowed an earned run to the Pittsburgh Pirates in his last three starts, spanning 22 innings. Take a look at the Pirates' roster and the outlook is not great. Active Pirates position players are 3-for-39 against Hudson, which equates to an .077 batting average.

Trivia Answer: Al Kaline had 10+ home runs in each of his final 20 seasons, but never hit 30. The next longest streak belongs to Harold Baines at 18. Both players had 29 as their career high.

Quick Hits: When Luke Gregerson walked Matt Wieters on Sunday, it snapped a streak of 118 batters faced without issuing a walk. The Padres’ reliever still sports the best BB per 9 IP among relievers this season. Let’s take a look at some other interesting numbers coming out of the bullpen:

• Pedro Feliciano has already appeared in 40 games. With 19 games to go before the All-Star break, he’s on track to break Mike Stanton’s Mets record of 49 appearances before the break. Over the last 30 years, Salomon Torres’ 53 pre-break appearances for the 2006 Pirates are the most for any reliever.
• Opponents are hitting just .104 against Jose Valverde. Over the last 50 years, the lowest opponent batting average for a pitcher with at least 50 innings was .133 against Eric Gagne in 2003.
• The Astros’ Wilton Lopez has not allowed any of 19 inherited runners to score, nor have any of the 14 runners inherited by Joe Thatcher scored. According to STATS LLC, the best inherited runners scored percentage over the last 30 years belongs to Robb Nen, who allowed only one of 28 to score in 1994.
• Mike Adams and Gregerson are tied for the MLB lead with 17 holds. Thus, both teammates are on pace for almost 40 holds, breaking the record of 36 shared by Tom Gordon (’04 Yankees) and Scott Linebrink (’06 Padres), according to STATS LLC.
• The Padres’ 2.52 bullpen ERA is on pace to be the lowest since the 2003 Dodgers (2.46).
• The bullpens for the Braves and Tigers are both 16-6. That .727 win pct would be the best since the 1998 Yankees bullpen went 28-9 (.757).
• The Diamondbacks’ 7.14 bullpen ERA is on track to be the highest over the last 50 years –- and it’s not even close. The 2007 Rays had a 6.16 bullpen ERA. Opponents are hitting .304 against Arizona’s bullpen, which would be the highest since opponents hit .315 against the Tigers pen in 1953.

Today’s Trivia: The Yankees and Diamondbacks meet on Monday for the 10th time since Arizona took Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. Only three Diamondbacks who appeared in a game in that World Series are still active somewhere in the majors. Can you name them?

Today’s Leaderboard: According to STATS LLC, the Padres have allowed only 15.4 percent of inherited runners to score, on pace to be the lowest over the last 35 years. Meanwhile, the Angels have allowed 48.2 percent of inherited runners to score. That would be the second highest in the last 30 years, behind only the 2003 Royals (48.7).

Key Matchups: Derek Jeter is a .448 career hitter against Rodrigo Lopez, whom he faced extensively as AL East foes from 2002 to 2006. That’s his fourth highest average against a pitcher he has faced at least 30 times. His four home runs and 11 RBI are both the second most he has against any pitcher, with five HR and 13 RBI against Sidney Ponson leading the way.

Jason Kendall has an 11-game hitting streak against Livan Hernandez dating back to 1998. A .353 career hitter against Hernandez in 26 plate appearances, the two first squared off in 1997, the only game in which Kendall didn’t get a hit.

Trivia Answer: Craig Counsell, Miguel Batista and Rod Barajas are the only active major leaguers who appeared in the 2001 World Series for Arizona.

A few weeks back, we put forth the idea this could be the Year of the Pitcher in the National League. Little has changed since then.

But with the calendar nearing Memorial Day — the traditional one-third mark on the baseball season — the question is: Who is the best pitcher in the NL?

To weed through the very strong field to determine the answer, we'll use three Baseball Prospectus metrics that measure starters, counting only those who have pitched at least 50 innings, and awarding points in the same manner of the new Cy Young voting system that will be unveiled in November by the Baseball Writers Association of America — 10 points for first place, seven for second, five for third, three for fourth and one for fifth.

First, let's look at SNLVAR (support-neutral league value above replacement),which gauges how many more wins a starting pitcher provides throughout the course of the season than would a replacement-level player, which represents someone who could be claimed off waivers or purchased off a Triple-A roster:

Next, we will look at FRA (fair run average). This is a simple statistic: It measures how many runs per nine innings a pitcher allows while also including the number of baserunners a starter bequeaths to his bullpen when pulled in the middle of an inning.

Finally, we'll take into account BP's newest pitching metric, SIERA (skill-interactive earned run average). This stat estimates ERA through walk rate, strikeout rate and ground ball rate while eliminating the effects of park, defense and luck.

Tally the three metrics up with the scoring system and the top three are: Jimenez (20 points), Lincecum (16) and Halladay (15). In case you're wondering, Jimenez is ninth in SIERA with a 3.35 mark.

Jimenez would certainly be the pick of the BBWAA if voting were held today because he is putting up eye-popping numbers in the traditional statistical categories. The Colorado Rockies right-hander shut out the Arizona Diamondbacks for eight innings on Wednesday night to raise his record to 9-1 and lower his earned run average to 0.88 through 10 starts. The 26-year-old has allowed just 42 hits in 63 1/3 innings to go with 61 strikeouts and 24 walks.

So whether you look at it through the prism of the new statistics or the old ones, Jimenez has clearly been the NL's best pitcher through the first third of 2010 season.

John Perrotto is editor-in-chief of BaseballProspectus.com.

You've probably seen stories on other websites citing Livan Hernandez as one of the luckiest pitchers in baseball in 2010, and Cole Hamels one of the unluckiest.

A look at their BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) would tell you that they've probably been helped (Hernandez), and hurt (Hamels) by their defense this season. But looking solely at BABIP doesn't tell us that for sure.

But now our group has found a way to offer more concrete proof of how much a pitcher is being helped/hurt by his defense.

Here's how:

In our book, The Fielding Bible – Volume II we spent a lot of time trying to separate defense from the legendary “pitching and defense” that wins ball games. We took individual defensive performances and broke them down to provide accurate defensive assessments.

What I soon realized was that by isolating defensive performance we also managed to come up with the roots of a system to evaluate pitchers independent of their defensive environment.

Sometimes the defense makes a nice play and helps out the pitcher. Other times, it falls between two miscommunicating fielders for a hit.

Often, the fielder is standing in just the right spot at the right time. None of this is under the pitcher’s control, but he gets credit for it regardless of the outcome.

If life were fair, these anomalies would even out over the course of a season.

Based on the characteristics of each ball in play (location, trajectory, etc.), I calculated the approximate chance that the average defense converted the ball in play to an out.

I added up this probability for every ball in play over each game and over the full 2010 season to arrive at an expected number of hits allowed given the distribution of balls in play.

Without boring you with the details and adjustments I made (for now), I’ll present a list of the “luckiest” and “unluckiest” pitchers this season (please note that our BABIP calculation may differ from others due to differing treatment of bunts)

The 3 Luckiest
1- Livan Hernandez
Hits Allowed: 40
Expected Hits: 55

Conclusion: Hernandez has allowed 15 fewer hits than expected. Had he allowed 15 more hits, his BABIP would have risen from .183 to .267

2- Doug Fister

Hits Allowed: 40
Expected Hits: 52

Conclusion: Had Fister yielded 12 more hits, his BABIP would jump from .225 to .294

3- David Price
Hits Allowed: 45
Expected Hits: 55

Conclusion: Had Price allowed 10 more hits, his BABIP would rise from .241 to .300.

Hernandez, he of the 19 strikeouts against 18 walks in 55 innings pitched, rates as the most fortunate pitcher in baseball. Based on the locations and trajectories of Livan’s balls in play, we’d expect 15 extra hits to have fallen in. But instead, those plays became outs.

One rule of thumb is to expect every pitcher’s Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP) should move toward the league average (around .300) as the season progresses.

In each of the three cases, we find their Expected BABIP to be closer to the league average than their current BABIP.

The 3 Unuckiest

1- Brad Bergesen
Hits Allowed: 60
Expected Hits: 48

Conclusion: The Orioles have played poor defense behind Bergesen. An average defense would have turned 12 more outs on the balls he allowed into play, cutting his BABIP from .327 to .251.

2- Doug Davis
Hits allowed: 48
Expected Hits: 39

Conclusion: Had the Diamondbacks performance behind Davis matched that of an average defense, his BABIP would drop from .400 to a more reasonable .320.

3- Cole Hamels

Hits Allowed: 60
Expected Hits: 51

Conclusion: Hamels is bound to catch a break at some point. His BABIP of .316 would be 55 points lower if the normally-good Phillies defense had performed well for him.

In theory, utilizing hit locations and trajectories will lead us to better pitching evaluations. The next step is to refine the technique and evaluate its predictive power on historical data, and hopefully we'll get the chance to follow that up with further study in the future.

It is widely accepted that 1968 was the year of the pitcher. Bob Gibson had a 1.12 ERA and 13 shutouts; Denny McLain won 31 games; and run scoring reached such depths that the height of the pitcher's mound was lowered to 10 inches from 15 inches for the 1969 season.

However, 2010 is starting to shape as another banner season for pitchers, at least in the National League.

At Baseball Prospectus, we use a metric called SNLVAR (support-neutral league value above replacement) to gauge how many more wins a starting pitcher provides throughout the course of the season than would a replacement-level player, someone who could be claimed off waivers or purchased from a Triple-A roster. A pitcher with an SNLVAR of 7.0 would be seven wins better than a replacement-level player, and that is considered the benchmark of an outstanding season.

Before Wednesday's action, 11 NL pitchers were on pace to finish the season with at least a 7.0 SNLVAR:


Since 1954, the earliest season from which play-by-play data are available to compute SNLVAR, no more than seven National League pitchers have had a mark of 7.0 or better in one season. In 1968, just three pitchers reached that level: Gibson, Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman. (Remember, SNLVAR is neutralized relative to the run-scoring context. So, for example, Tim Lincecum's 2.48 ERA last year was roughly equivalent to about a 1.65 ERA in 1968.) Instead, 1997 was really the year of the pitcher. Here is a look at the seven pitchers who reached the magic 7.0 level in the NL that season:

Now that's a pretty strong group of pitchers. Maddux and Glavine are locks to make it into the Hall of Fame as 300-game winners, Martinez and Smoltz also are likely to be elected and few would be surprised if Schilling is immortalized in Cooperstown. Meanwhile, Brown had 211 career victories, and Kile's career was cut short when he died at age 33 in 2002.

Can the 2010 group of NL starters top that? The 11 pitchers on pace for a 7.0 SNLVAR are an accomplished group, including Cy Young Award winners (Halladay, Lincecum, Zito), 20-game winners (Hudson, Oswalt), a 19-game winner (Wainwright), a guy who threw a no-hitter (Jimenez), All-Stars (Hernandez, Penny) and two of the top young starters in the game (Garcia, Hanson). However, the peripheral stats for Hernandez, Hudson, Zito and Penny make it seem unlikely that those four can maintain their current performance. But even if those four miss out on our magic number, we'd still have seven pitchers with an SNLVAR of at least 7.0.

Thus, it could be a fun season -- if you're not a National League hitter.

John Perrotto is editor-in-chief of BaseballProspectus.com.

Livan Hernandez saw his unlikely scoreless streak end at 17 innings yesterday, as he gave up the first of two solo home runs that would give him his first loss of the season. It was the kind of start that serves as a lesson for why wins and losses don't matter, as the Nationals offered no run support. But the loss does nothing to taint what has been the best April of Livan's career, coming in a season where even the most optimistic of projection systems saw him as a 5.00 ERA pitcher. There are a lot of explanations for why Hernandez won't be sustain his success going forward -- his 9-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio, for instance -- but none more so than a hitless streak that would make Ubaldo Jimenez jealous.

Hernandez has pitched from the stretch in 29 plate appearances this season, and in none of those has he allowed a hit. In all, opponents are hitting a ridiculous .000/.138/.000 when their teammates are on base against Livan, which explains why two solo home runs on Thursday are the only runs that have crossed the plate in the 24 innings Hernandez has pitched this season.

At FanGraphs, we track a stat called Left on Base Percentage, which monitors the rate that pitchers strand baserunners. League averages usually hover between 70 and 72 percent, and while better pitchers can routinely be above-average, pitchers of Livan's ilk see a great deal of variance. Stranding runners is a huge part of run prevention, which is why the season Hernandez had his best LOB% (2003 - 78.7 percent) corresponded with his best full-season ERA (3.20). And the year of his worst LOB% (2008 - 64.8 percent) led to a career-worst ERA (6.05). This season, Livan's Left on Base Percentage is a perfect 100 percent, a rate difficult to sustain for three starts, much less an entire season.

In his career, which spans 2,750 innings, Livan has been identical with the bases empty (.780 OPS allowed) and with runners on base (.782 OPS allowed). His stuff doesn't get better from the stretch, his delivery isn't more deceptive. People will say that Hernandez is succeeding because he is "bearing down" with runners on base. This is not true. He is merely in the midst of an amazing stretch of good fortune. While a career revival makes a good story, this is a tale more likely to end with regression to the mean, and another below-average, innings-eating season for Hernandez.

Bryan Smith is a writer for FanGraphs.

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.

The season is only 2 weeks old, but some surprising names find themselves atop some statistical categories entering Monday.

Who has the most hits in baseball? Odds are prior to the start of the season, you wouldn't have said Scott Podsednik, Placido Polanco or Franklin Gutierrez would lead baseball in hits with 21 on this date. Podsednik leads baseball with a .457 BA.

Even more bizarre, Ivan Rodriguez leads the NL with a .444 BA.

I'm sure everyone thought Jorge Cantu would be the player with the most RBI with 16.

No Joe Nathan, no problem. The Twins Jon Rauch has the most saves with 6.

Felix Hernandez or CC Sabathia have to lead the AL in strikeouts, right? Wrong. That honor goes to the Orioles Brian Matusz with 23, one fewer than Tim Lincecum's ML-leading total 24.

Of course Lincecum leads baseball in K per 9 then... Wrong again. Fellow Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez has a higher K per 9 than any starter in baseball (12.41).

Your ML leader in XBH? None other than Blue Jays SS Alex Gonzalez with 11. In fact 11 of his 17 hits have gone for extra bases.

Stop the presses, a Nationals pitcher leads baseball in ERA. We told you Stephen Strasburg was the real deal. Wait. It's not Strasburg you are talking about? Nope. Livan Hernandez has yet to allow a run in 16 innings this season. In case you missed it, Hernandez' ERA is almost 6 over the last two years. Matt Garza leads the AL in ERA at 0.75.

Obviously the Blue Jays knew Ricky Romero would have the lowest opponent BA among AL starters at this point (.143). Why else would they have traded Roy Halladay? And if you guessed a Cardinals starter led the majors in Opp BA, you guessed right. Except it's not Adam Wainwright or Chris Carpenter we're talking about. We'd be talking about Jaime Garcia, who has held opponents to a .116 BA this season.

Lost among a no-hitter, a funky 20-inning tilt and suspended game resumptions, some other players of note managed to make some noise on Saturday.

Why Giants starter Tim Lincecum won:

• Miss pct of 34.1, has increased in all three starts this season
• Mixed it up: Threw only 54 pct fastballs, down from 63 pct the last three seasons
• As a result, hitters were 0-for-10 vs. non-fastballs (.212 vs. non-fastballs first two starts)

Why Astros starter Roy Oswalt won:

• Was deadly with two strikes. Cubs hitters were 1-13 with a single and six strikeouts in 2-strike counts, lowering his 2-strike opp BA to .214 in 2010 (MLB average .184). In particular, the Cubs were 0-8 with five strikeouts on outside pitches in 2-strike counts.
• Kept the ball (and the Cubs) down. Chicago hitters were 0-17 on pitches down in the zone with five strikeouts. Oswalt was at his best on the low outside corner in particular, holding Cubs hitters to 0-8 with four strikeouts on pitches low and away.

Why Angels starter Joe Saunders won:

• Kept his fastball down. Blue Jay hitters were 1-9 against low fastballs from Saunders, and 74.1% of his low fastballs were located for strikes (63% in the strike zone).
• Controlled the count. Saunders threw 70% of his first pitches for strikes, and only went to a 2-0 count once. Saunders went to 3-ball counts on three hitters all afternoon.
• Kept leadoff men off base. Saunders retired seven of the eight leadoff men he faced.

Why Nationals starter Livan Hernandez won:

• Kept Brewers off-balance with slider early in the count. With less than two strikes, Milwaukee hitters were 0-7 against Hernandez's 25 sliders on Saturday, despite making contact on all 11 of their swings.
• Let his fielders do the work with men on base. With runners on base, the Brewers were 0-9 despite putting nine of their 19 swings in play and only missing two swings.

HITTERS OF THE NIGHT

Derek Jeter: 3-4, 2-run HR

Jeter hit his third HR of the season on Saturday, a screaming line drive to left field, and added two singles in the Yankees' 7-3 win. He had a single and a HR on pitches on the inner third, a spot that's historically been his toughest part of the strike zone. Jeter seems to have made an adjustment, getting to the inside pitch with authority so far this season. From 2007-09, Jeter slugged .370 on inside pitches and .479 on pitches thrown middle and away. So far in 2010, Jeter is slugging .688 on inside pitches and .559 middle/away.

Tim Lincecum: 3-4, 3 RBI

Lincecum had the first multi-hit game of his career on Saturday, and as our David Bearman pointed out, is hitting .428 (3-7) with 3 RBI this season while holding opponents to just .178 (13-73) with only 2 earned runs allowed. Lincecum was aggressive, seeing only 10 pitches in his four plate appearances and all three of his hits came on the second pitch of the at-bat. Lincecum was 2-for-2 on 0-1 counts, giving him six hits on 0-1 counts, the most hits on any count in his career.