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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 ALCS returns to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington for Game 6 tonight as the Texas Rangers look to clinch a berth in the Fall Classic.

With a win, the Rangers will be just the fifth team to win the ALCS in consecutive seasons. The select group they’ll join includes the Orioles (1969-1971), Athletics (1972-1974 and 1988-1990), Blue Jays (1992-1993) and the Yankees (1998-2001).

The Tigers will need to overcome history to make it to their second World Series in the last 25 seasons. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, teams trailing 3-2 in a best-of-seven series have emerged as winners just 27 times and have lost 62 series.

On the Mound
The Rangers send lefty Derek Holland to the mound tonight, who is coming off the shortest postseason start in franchise history when he allowed three runs on four hits in just 2⅔ innings in Game 2.

One issue for Holland in that game was that he left too many pitches up in the zone. Half of his 76 pitches were in the upper third of the zone or above, his second-highest percentage in a start this season. Two of the four hits he allowed were on those pitches, including a three-run homer by Ryan Raburn.

The Tigers give the ball to Max Scherzer, hoping that he can give them another strong outing and force a decisive Game 7. Scherzer is 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA in three postseason games this year.

Scherzer was knocked out of his ALCS Game 2 start in the seventh inning when Nelson Cruz sent a 94-mph fastball over the fence. The Rangers have pounded his heater this season, slugging over .600 in at-bats ending in the pitch over four games.

X Factor
The Texas rotation, which ranked third in the AL in ERA and fifth in innings pitched in the regular season, has been inconsistent in October. No started has gone more than six innings in any of their nine postseason games, which matches the 2005 Angels for the longest streak of its kind within a postseason.

The Rangers bullpen has pitched 23 of the 47 innings in the LCS and has carried the team with a 1.17 ERA, compared to a 6.38 ERA by the starters. That would be the lowest ERA by any team in a single League Championship series all-time (min. 20 IP).

Players to Watch
Miguel Cabrera has played in 12 LCS games and has a hit in all of them, batting .348 in 46 career at-bats. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that’s the second-longest LCS hit streak to start a career by any player, behind Greg Luzinski who it in his first 13 LCS games from 1976-1980.

Nelson Cruz has homered in four of the seven games in his career in which the Rangers had an opportunity to clinch a postseason series, according to Elias. Cruz has a .320 (8-for-25) batting average in those seven games.

Saturday marked the third time the Detroit Tigers have lost in Game 1 of the ALCS. Bad news for Tigers fans, they went on to lose each of the two previous series, 1987 to the Minnesota Twins and 1972 vs the Oakland Athletics.

Still this is a familiar position for the Tigers this postseason and they will again turn to Max Scherzer to bail them out of a 1-0 series hole.

Schherzer was up to the challenge in the ALDS against the New York Yankees throwing six scoreless innings while allowing only two hits. He became the third pitcher to do so in a postseason game against the Yankees in Yankee Stadium (other two are Warren Spahn and Cliff Lee).

In that Division Series start against the Yankees, Scherzer relied on his changeup to neutralize a Yankees lineup loaded with tough left-handed hitters. Yankees lefties were 0-for-5 with three strikeouts in at-bats ending with a Scherzer changeup and missed on five of their 11 swings against the pitch.

Scherzer threw his changeup 26 percent of the time in his two LDS appearances, well above his season average of 20 percent, but he'll likely feature it less against a righty-heavy Texas Rangers lineup.

In three starts against the Rangers this season, Scherzer is throwing his changeup just 15 percent of the time, the least often of any opponent he's faced at least twice.

Instead, expect to see more fastballs and sliders from Scherzer, which could be trouble for the righty, as the Rangers have pummeled his fastball this season.

The Detroit Tigers were outscored 28-17 in five games, but won the series with two one-run wins and one two-run win. Eleven runs is the biggest run differential for a team that won a League Division Series.

The New York Yankees struggled with runners in scoring position throughout the series. In Game 5, the Yankees were 2-for-9 but did not score on either hit. In the three losses, the Yankees were 3-for-21 with runners in scoring position and left 26 runners on base.

Before leaving the game in the seventh game with a mild oblique strain, Delmon Young became the first Tigers player to hit three home runs in a postseason series. When Don Kelly and Young hit consecutive first-inning pitches out of the park, they became the first Tigers to hit back-to-back postseason home runs.

A tight forearm forced Ivan Nova from the game after two innings. In those two innings, he had recorded six swings-and-misses, a personal record for the first two innings. The Yankees ended up using seven pitchers, tied for the most ever in a winner-take-all postseason game. All four teams to use seven pitchers have lost the game.

Robinson Cano hit a solo home run in the fifth inning to get the Yankees on the board. It was Cano’s eighth career postseason home run. Both of Cano’s home runs in the ALDS came off sliders. Including the postseason, 10 of his 30 home runs came against the slider, the most of any pitch type.

Max Scherzer recorded four outs while serving as the bridge from starter Doug Fister to the Tigers bullpen. Scherzer was able to keep the Yankee hitters off-balance with his changeup. Including the regular season, New York hitters missed on 16 of 36 swings (44 percent) against Scherzer’s changeup. In the ALDS, the Yankees were 0-for-8 with four strikeouts.

Mariano Rivera barely had the opportunity to pitch in the series. He threw five pitches in the ninth inning of Game 5 and just eight for the entire series. That’s the fewest pitches that Rivera has thrown in 32 career postseason series. The Yankees have lost all four series where Rivera threw 28 pitches or less.

Jose Valverde, meet Grover Cleveland Alexander. They are the only two pitchers to finish a road win in a winner-take-all one-run game at Yankee Stadium. Pitching for the Cardinals, Alexander was on the mound when Babe Ruth was caught stealing to end the 1926 World Series.

Alex Rodriguez struck out to end the game and finished the ALDS going 2-for-18 with six strikeouts. It was the second straight year that Rodriguez struck out for the final out of the Yankees season. The Elias Sports Bureau reports that he is the first player to strike out for his team’s final out in consecutive postseasons and the sixth player to make the final out (regardless of type) in two straight postseasons.

Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox wrap up their three-game series tonight on Sunday Night Baseball at 8 ET on ESPN2. Detroit, who has won 15 of the last 20 matchups, is looking for its second sweep of Chicago this season.

Yesterday, the Tigers scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to rally for the 9-8 win. All three runs came off White Sox closer Sergio Santos, who had not allowed a run on the road yet this season. The Tigers seven-run comeback was their largest of the season, while the White Sox blew their largest lead of the season.

On the Mound
Mark Buehrle takes the ball for the visiting White Sox tonight. When he’s on the hill, don’t think about getting a snack or you might miss an entire inning. He averages just 15 pitches per inning, sixth-fewest among AL starters.

Lowest ERA in AL
Since May 1

Justin Verlander	2.04
Mark Buehrle	2.47
Josh Beckett	2.51
Jeremy Hellickson	2.69
Ervin Santana	2.89

Buehrle had a miserable start to the season, going 1-3 with a 5.12 ERA in six April starts. But he’s turned it around since then, with a 10-3 record and 2.47 ERA in his last 20 starts. His 2.47 ERA since May 1 is second in the AL behind only Justin Verlander.

Buehrle has dominated the Tigers in recent starts, with a 7-1 record and 2.96 ERA since August 3, 2007, and is 18-9 against them for his career.

Max Scherzer is scheduled to be on the mound for the Tigers. Scherzer’s ERA has risen more than a run from last year (3.50) to this year (4.52). The longball has been a problem for him, as he’s already surrendered 25 homers after allowing 20 in 2010. Five of those home runs have come on pitches out of the strike zone to right-handed hitters. Last season, he allowed none.

Scherzer, however, has pitched well against the Pale Hose this season, with a 1.64 ERA in 22 innings. He has just one win to show for it, though, as the Tigers have scored only four runs in the three games he’s started.

Cabrera

Matchup to Watch
Miguel Cabrera, who hit a walk-off homer to complete the Tigers’ comeback on Saturday, has crushed White Sox pitching this year. He’s hitting .353 with five homers and 12 RBI in 14 games. That comes one year after he hit a miserable .161 with just two homers in 16 games in 2010.

Stat of the Game
The Tigers entered September 1 in first place in the AL Central. However, the last three times the Tigers led their division on the morning of September 1, they failed to win the division at the end of the season (2009, 2006, 1988). Only in 2006 did they still make the playoffs as the wild card.

-- Mark Simon contributed to this post

Facing a Cleveland Indians lineup stacked with eight lefties, Detroit Tigers starter Max Scherzer relied on his changeup more than he has all season, helping the Tigers push their lead in the American League Central to 2 1/2 games over the Indians.

He threw 34 changeups among his career-high 127 pitches (26.8 percent), a season high in both raw number and percentage.

For the season, Scherzer has thrown his changeup 28 percent of the time to lefties and just 9 percent of the time to righties.

Scherzer also commanded it well, keeping his changeup on the outer third of the zone to Indians lefties. He threw 28 of his 32 changeups (87.5 percent) to lefties away, his highest percentage the past three seasons in starts in which he threw at least 20 changeups.

Indians hitters were just 1-for-9 in at-bats ending in a changeup away.

Scherzer did all this despite mostly falling behind Friday.

He started just 12 of 27 hitters (44.4 percent) with a first-pitch strike, his second-lowest percentage in a start this season.

However, he battled back by getting Indians hitters to expand their strike zone.

Despite throwing just five of his 15 pitches in 1-0 counts in the strike zone, Scherzer threw 12 of his 15 pitches in those same counts for strikes, meaning he went to just three 2-0 counts.

Indians hitters missed on nine of their 13 swings when they were ahead in the count, including missing all four times they swung against Scherzer's changeup.

Overall, Scherzer induced a season-best 20 swings and misses, including seven on his changeup.

Meanwhile, despite taking the loss opposite Scherzer, Indians starter Josh Tomlin was still able to continue his run in the record books.

Tomlin (6 2/3 IP on Friday) has thrown at least five innings in all 37 starts of his MLB career. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s tied with George Winter for the second-longest such streak since 1900; Winter’s streak spanned the 1901 and '02 seasons.

After scoring only 14 runs combined in four games entering Wednesday's contest with the Cleveland Indians, the Boston Red Sox have now hammered out 14 runs in each of their last two games, with Thursday's victim being the Detroit Tigers.

This marked the eighth time since 1919 that Boston scored at least 14 runs in back-to-back games, and first time since July of 1998.

Much to the relief of Red Sox fans, at the forefront of this offensive outburst is Carl Crawford, who had two triples as part of his second straight four-hit game. He's just the fourth different Red Sox player (joining Dustin Pedroia, Jim Rice and Wade Boggs, who did it three different times) with consecutive four-hit games in the divisional era.

Crawford's also the first Red Sox player with at least four hits and at least two extra-base hits in consecutive games since Del Pratt did it in back-to-back games on August 23-24, 1921.

In the last two games alone Crawford has raised his average from .212 to .244 and seen his slugging percentage jump from .293 to .368 during that same stretch.

While all the talk following the game centered on Boston's offense, entering Thursday's contest the buzz surrounded the man tasked with shutting it down. Heading into the game, Max Scherzer was 3-0 in five home starts with a 0.77 ERA, the lowest ERA for a Tigers pitcher in his first five home starts of a season since 1945, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Scherzer's home ERA is now 2.43 following the Tigers' 14-1 loss to the Red Sox.

Scherezer faced three batters in the second inning without recording an out before exiting. Almost all the damage was done by the seven left-handed hitters in Boston's lineup. Nine of the 15 batters Scherzer faced reached base, and six of the seven hits he allowed were to left-handed batters.

Elsewhere around the majors:

• After using eight different relief pitchers on Wednesday in their 19-inning win over the Cincinnati Reds, Cliff Lee gave the Philadelphia Phillies bullpen a much-needed day off, throwing eight innings. But it was his bat that contributed almost as much as his arm. Cliff Lee had two hits and three RBI, without the benefit of a home run. He's just the fifth Phillies pitcher since Divisional Play began in 1969 to do that.

Jay Bruce did hit a two-run home run off Lee. It was Bruce's 10th home run in the month of May, currently tied with Jose Bautista for the most in the month of May.

• The Florida Marlins defeated the San Francisco Giants 1-0 behind Anibal Sanchez who pitched the third shutout of his career. It marked just the fifth time in franchise history that a pitcher threw a 1-0 shutout. Sanchez has allowed zero earned runs in four of his last seven starts.

As for the Giants, their first game without Buster Posey displayed their offensive deficiencies that could prevent them from reaching the playoffs. According to 10,000 simulations done by Accuscore.com, the injury dropped the Giants' chances of making the playoffs to 44.4 percent if he is out for the entire season.

Chicago White Sox
They owned the league’s lowest WAR from designated hitters (-0.8) last season. If Adam Dunn’s WAR this season is somewhere around 3.4 (approximately what it would have been over the last six seasons if he didn’t have to play any defense), then he should greatly impact an offense that ranked seventh in runs in the American League in 2010.

Has Gordon Beckham turned the corner? Last season he entered the All-Star break with a .216 batting average and .581 OPS. But in the second half, he hit .310 with an .877 OPS.

Cleveland Indians
Their bullpen rated among the best in the American League in the second half of the 2010 season. Among the standouts was Chris Perez, who was amazing after the All-Star break (16 saves in 17 chances, 0.63 ERA, 28 ⅔ IP, 0 HR allowed, 32 K). Among pitchers with at least 60 innings, Perez's 1.71 ERA was the sixth lowest by an Indians pitcher in the expansion era (since 1961).

Shin-Soo Choo ranked second in the American League in Wins Above Replacement at 7.3, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

Detroit Tigers
Their starting rotation may have an emerging star in Max Scherzer, whose 2010 season did a 180 after a brief demotion to the minor leagues. He was 1-4 with a 7.29 ERA when he was sent down, but returned to go 11-7 with a 2.46 ERA in his final 23 starts.

Justin Verlander averaged a Game Score of 61 over his last 17 starts in 2010. To put that into perspective, Roy Halladay, the NL Cy Young Award winner last season, averaged a Game Score of 63 for the entire season. In other words, Verlander pitched at a near-Cy Young-level over the second half of his season.

Kansas City Royals
The quintent of Kyle Davies, Jeff Francis, Luke Hochevar, Bruce Chen and Vin Mazzaro appear to be the Royals' rotation to start the season. Those five pitchers combined to have a 7.2 WAR last season. As starting pitchers, their respective MLB ranks in that category were 85th, 91st, 93rd, 110th and 133rd last season.

In four seasons, Joakim Soria has 132 saves and a WHIP of 0.99. Mariano Rivera is the only other pitcher with 130 saves and a WHIP under 1.00 since 2007.

Minnesota Twins
Justin Morneau was an MVP contender last season before suffering a season-ending concussion. Despite missing the final 78 games of the season, Morneau finished as the team's leader in Wins Above Replacement (5.3). However, the Twins offense actually averaged more runs per game after his injury (5.0) than it did before (4.7).

Closer Joe Nathan is back after missing a season because of Tommy John surgery. He saved at least 35 games each season from 2004 to 2009. The only players with more consecutive seasons with 35 saves are Trevor Hoffman and Robb Nen (seven each).

-- Justin Havens, Paul Carr and Derek Czenczelewski contributed to this report

The Florida Marlins, widely criticized for failing to spend money, have locked up their second rotation piece to a multi-year contract, agreeing with right-hander Ricky Nolasco on a 3-year/$26.5 million deal. It was just under a year ago that the Marlins committed to Josh Johnson for four years, and now they will have both starters through at least 2013.

The Marlins commitment to Nolasco could signify that the team is expecting the sort of breakout that Nolasco’s peripherals have indicated is coming for years. Few pitchers have been as perplexing as Nolasco; over the last two seasons, Nolasco’s ERA has lagged well behind his supporting statistics. In other words, he has the ERA of a No. 4 starter and the peripherals of a No. 1.

In fact, Nolasco was the only starting pitcher between 2009 and 2010 (combined) to post a strikeout rate per nine innings of 8.5 or greater and an ERA of 4.75 or greater (min. 300 IP).

If Nolasco is wildly underperforming his peripherals, what could be the cause of it besides potential 'bad luck'? For starters, the Marlins defense has been one of the worst across-the-board over the last two seasons, ranking 15th in the National League in team-wide Defensive Runs Saved (-51) and 16th in Plus/minus (-79), both courtesy of Baseball Info Solutions. The Marlins received below-average defense, according to Defensive Runs Saved, at all four non-catcher infield positions, as well as in center field.

Though some of those fielders will be back in 2011 -- Dan Uggla is gone and the third base situation is up in the air -- Nolasco's combination of plentiful strikeouts and minimal walks seems destined to put him in line for a breakout season at some point in his career. Over the last two seasons, Nolasco ranks fourth among starting pitchers in baseball in strikeout-to-walk ratio, and three of the other four in the top five have won a Cy Young award at some point in their careers.

Put it all together, and the Marlins have assembled a front three portion of their starting rotation -- Johnson, Nolasco and Javier Vazquez -- that is unmatched in its ability to register strikeouts. In fact, among pitchers with at least 300 innings pitched over the past two seasons, the Marlins are the only team in baseball scheduled to go into 2011 with three starters who have averaged 8.5 strikeouts per nine innings or better over that span. Only two other teams even has two such starters -- the Detroit Tigers with Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer and the San Francisco Giants with Tim Lincecum and Jonathan Sanchez.
So while the Marlins might be banking on a breakout from Nolasco to justify the contract, they are putting their money on a pitcher whose underlying statistics justify the faith.

Saturday Notables from the Elias Sports Bureau:

The Detroit Tigers' Max Scherzer has a 1.72 ERA over his last eight starts dating back to July 31. Over that span, only two pitchers have a lower ERA (minimum: 50 IP): the Seattle Mariners' Felix Hernandez (1.07) and the Houston Astros' Wandy Rodriguez (1.63). Scherzer, Hernandez and Rodriguez are all scheduled to start Saturday as well.

Felix Hernandez has started 16 games this season in which he has pitched at least six innings and allowed three or fewer earned runs and failed to get a win. Over the last 15 seasons, only one other pitcher has had that many such starts: the San Francisco Giants' Matt Cain (16 in 2007). The last American League pitcher with at least 16 such starts: Bert Blyleven for the Twins in 1972 (16).

The Baltimore Orioles' Jeremy Guthrie goes for his 10th win of the season tonight against the Tigers. Winning 10 or more games in three consecutive seasons doesn't seem like a big accomplishment, but doing it for a team that ends the season at least 25 games below .500 is. Over the last 30 seasons, only two pitchers won at least 10 games in three consecutive seasons for a team that was at least 25 games below the .500 mark: Scott Kazmir with Tampa Bay (2005-07) and Ben Sheets with the Milwaukee Brewers (2001-04). (The Orioles are currently 33 games under .500.)

The Giants can take sole possession of first place with a win over the San Diego Padres. Over the last 10 seasons, the Giants have been in first place this late in the season only once and that was in 2003 when they won the National League West.

With a win Saturday night over the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cincinnati Reds will end their streak of nine straight seasons with a losing record. Cincinnati has had only two other stretches in which they had at least nine straight losing seasons: 1929 to 1937 and 1945 to 1955.

Some notes from Thursday's early baseball games:

Cardinals 11, Braves 4
• The St. Louis Cardinals win for just fourth time in their last 16 games. The Atlanta Braves have lost six of their last eight.

• Adam Wainwright snapped his four-game losing streak and improved to 6-0 in his career vs the Braves (best W-L vs them of any active pitcher). He's the first pitcher to start his career 6-0 against the Braves since Ron Robinson (1984-89).

• Albert Pujols, who entered with one HR in his last 11 games, hit his first HR vs the Braves since August 24, 2008. He now has 99 RBI, one shy of his 10th straight 30 HR/100 RBI season.

• Colby Rasmus tied a career-high with four hits and had his second career multi-homer game. The last Cardinal with a four-hit, two-homer game against the Braves was George Hendrick in 1978.

• Jair Jurrjens lost at home for the first time this season (now 6-1).

Rockies 6, Reds 5
• The Colorado Rockies win their 12th straight September game against the Cincinnati Reds, as they sweep their four-game series.

• The Reds have now been swept in a four-game series on the road by both the Rockies and the Philadelphia Phillies.

• Chris Nelson, in his seventh MLB game, won the game with his first career steal of home. It was a straight steal in bottom of the eighth inning. He's the third rookie to steal home this season.

• Nelson was inserted as a pinch runner after Jason Giambi drew a walk. Nelson was then replaced at 1B by Todd Helton to start the ninth. Thus Nelson's ONLY appearance in the boxscore is as a pinch runner who stole home.

• According to Elias, the last time this happened was June 11, 1985. Gary Pettis ran for Bob Boone in a California Angels loss to the Texas Rangers. He stole home and then was replaced by Jerry Narron in the field.

• Aroldis Chapman got his first career hold, getting Carlos Gonzalez to ground into a double play with the bases loaded in the seventh-inning. His 12 fastballs averaged 100.3 MPH and maxed out at 103.0 MPH.

• The Rockies get their 19th last at-bat win, tying the Reds for 4th-most in MLB.

• The Reds blew a five-run lead. It's their 21st blown lead resulting in a loss this season, which is tied for second fewest in MLB.

• According to the Elias Sports Bureau it was the fourth time this season that the Rockies won a game after trailing by at least five runs, tying the Tigers for the most such wins in the majors. It was the third time this season that the Reds lost a game after leading by at least five runs, tying the Red Sox, Rangers and Nationals for the most such losses in the majors.

Rangers 4, Blue Jays 2
• Texas Rangers' starter Colby Lewis snapped his seven-game losing streak and four-game road losing streak.

• Mitch Moreland had a career-high 3 RBI.

• Neftali Feliz became the fourth rookie in MLB history with a 35-save season and is two shy of the MLB rookie record set by Kaz Sasaki in 2000.

• Jose Bautista hit his 44th HR, which is tied for third most in a season in Blue Jays history. His 28 HR at home are the 2nd most in Blue Jays history.




Tigers 6, White Sox 3
• The Detroit Tigers win their third straight and have won six of their last eight games.

• The Tigers had 13 hits, all singles. That is the most hits in a game without an extra-base hit by the Tigers since May 11, 2004 when they 14 singles in a loss vs the Oakland Athletics - their last win in such a game was June 12, 1993 vs Toronto (15 singles).

• Johnny Damon had a team-high four hits, his 36th career four-hit game and first as a Tiger.

• Rick Porcello improves to 4-0 in his last four starts (5-11 in first 20 starts). He now sports a 4.09 ERA since returning from his minor league demotion. He and teammate Max Scherzer have both been much improved since returning to the club after being sent down following early struggles.

• The Chicago White Sox have lost three straight after winning seven in a row.

Today’s Trivia: We’ve got a tremendous lefty showdown tonight in Tampa – Cliff Lee against David Price. Both will likely find their names on some Cy Young ballots at the end of the season. When was the last time that two left-handed pitchers finished 1st and 2nd in Cy voting in a season? When was the last time it happened in the AL?

Quick Hits: Pitchers love getting ground ball outs and pitching coaches love preaching to play to your defense. Let’s take a look at which hitters and pitchers have ratios at either end of the spectrum:

Derek Jeter has been beating the ball into the turf more than any other AL hitter. He has a 3.30 groundout-to-flyout ratio, which blows away second place on the list (Juan Pierre, at 2.28).

Meanwhile, the man who frequently bats behind Jeter in the order is a polar opposite. Nick Swisher’s 0.66 ratio is second-lowest on the list, narrowly behind Jhonny Peralta’s 0.65

Chalk up the Cleveland Indians as a team that pitches to the ground ball. Justin Masterson is the leader in groundout-to-flyout ratio among pitchers, and two other Indians (or former Indians) ranked in the top eight in that category – Fausto Carmona and the departed Jake Westbrook.

In the NL, a pair of Central division batters – Michael Bourn and Skip Schumaker – are the groundout-to-flyout frequenters. Maybe the biggest surprise comes at third on the list – Jason Heyward, with a 1.92 ratio.

Roger McDowell and Dave Duncan seem to be kindred spirits, with their pitching staffs following in tow. Of the top four groundout-to-flyout pitchers in the NL, two are Braves (Tim Hudson, Derek Lowe) and the other two are Cardinals (Jaime Garcia, Adam Wainwright).

On the other end of things, the San Francisco Giants have three starters in the top five of pitchers who get flyouts most frequently. Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez and Barry Zito are all among the league leaders in that category.

Today’s Leaderboard: How would you like to be Jon Rauch on Sunday – entering the game trying to continue the dominance after Kevin Slowey pitches seven no-hit innings? It didn’t end well for Rauch, who allowed a double to the second batter he faced, ending the no-hitter and eventually the shutout.

Lucky for Rauch, it was a relatively low-leverage situation, at least numbers-wise: his team was up 4-0 with only nine outs needed to polish off the A’s. But which guys have entered games in high-leverage situations the most this season? Interesting to see two Boston Red Sox pitchers on this list:

High leverage is defined here as the first PA of a pitcher’s appearance having a leverage index of 1.5 or higher. A leverage index of 1.0 is considered average, with the greater index indicating the higher pressure. By the way, Rauch has 21 high leverage appearances this season.

Key Matchups: Max Scherzer has only faced four active New York Yankees batters in his career, but he’s made them look silly. Lance Berkman, Curtis Granderson, Austin Kearns and Mark Teixeira are a combined 3-16 (.188 BA) against Scherzer. Those batters have eight strikeouts in 18 AB.

You could see why Kevin Correia might not be thrilled about taking the mound at Wrigley Field tonight – Correia has a 17.47 ERA in five games there, including one start. That’s his worst ERA of any ballpark where he’s made a start. In his last outing, a start with the Giants, Correia didn’t make it out of the fourth inning and allowed seven earned runs.

More on the potentially epic lefty matchup tonight in Tampa. Let’s breakdown their Opp BA numbers, tale-of-the-tape style:

Moral of the story? It’s better to go lefty-lefty against Lee rather than Price. And while Lee excels in keeping runners off base in the first place, Price thrives once they do get on.

Trivia Answer: Randy Johnson and Tom Glavine finished 1-2 in 2000. The NL hasn’t seen a lefty Cy winner since the Big Unit won his last in 2002. To find two leftys that finished 1-2 in the AL, you have to go all the way back to 1979, when Mike Flanagan won and Tommy John took second.

In a battle of aces, the Yankees and CC Sabathia get the better of Roy Halladay and the Phillies in a World Series rematch. Sabathia allows three runs on five hits to improve to 4-0 at Yankee Stadium this season. Roy Halladay entered Tuesday's game having given up three home runs TOTAL on the season, all to right-handed hitters. Tuesday the Yankees hit three home runs, all from the left side (Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher, Mark Teixeira). Tuesday was the ninth time in Roy Halladay's career that he allowed three or more home runs in a game - four of those have come against the Yankees, including the last three. We break down how CC Sabathia held on to the lead the Yankees gave him in this edition of The Closer.

How CC Sabathia beat the Phillies:

- Tough to hit: according to the Inside Edge trackers, Sabathia only allowed one well-hit ball all night, his lowest total in any start this season
- 30.8 miss percentage, his second highest percentage in any start this season
- Mixed speeds well: opposing hitters were 0-6 against off-speed pitches (.193 entering Tuesday)
- Owned righties: RHB were 2-for-19 on Tuesday (.105; .233 entering Tuesday)


How Josh Johnson dominated the Rangers while getting a no decision:

- Got hitters to go fishing: 38.3 percent chase percentage, his second highest percentage in a start over the past two seasons
- Allowed no walks for only the second time this season
- Allowed no extra base hits for only the third time this season
- Kept the ball down: 63.2 percent groundball percentage, his second highest percentage in a start this season


How Max Scherzer mowed down the Nationals:

- Attacked the strike zone: 63 of Scherzer's 112 pitches were in the strike zone, his highest total this season. Five of his nine strikeouts were in the strike zone and four were called.
- Kept hitters off balance: According to Inside Edge, Scherzer threw 19 changeups to go along with his mid-90s fastball. The Nationals swung at 10 of them, missed on five and struck out on four - all swinging. Scherzer now has nine strikeouts on his change over his previous two starts. He had only 12 over his previous 10 starts.

Avid TMI readers may recall that during spring training, we took our first foray into trying to retool the quality start metric (if you don’t recall, click this link).

With the Rangers and Twins dueling on Sunday Night Baseball at 8 eastern this evening, and lots of talk over the last two seasons about Nolan Ryan’s efforts to fix the Rangers starting pitching staff, we thought it would be an appropriate time to take a look at some results, of which Ryan would figure to be most proud.


The results of our initial study (done via regression analysis) told us that the two elements of a pitching line that best predicted whether a team won or lost were the starters innings pitched and the number of earned runs allowed.

Using the data from the regression, we were able to figure out the team’s chance of winning for any possible innings/earned runs combination by a starting pitcher. And finally, we defined our “Superior Start” statistic as any outing where the starter gave his team at least a 75 percent chance of winning the game.

Now that we’ve passed the quarter pole in the baseball season, let's take a look at some leaderboards.



Ubaldo Jimenez and Roy Halladay top our list for pitchers with the most “Superior Starts” with seven such outings. Jimenez has completely baffled hitters this season. His league and park adjusted ERA+ this season is 515, over 150 points better than second-place Jaime Garcia. According to our friends at AccuScore, Jimenez actually has a 26 percent chance of winning 25+ games, a feat which has not been accomplished since Bob Welch in 1990. Halladay, fresh off of his perfect game, has kept the all-of-a-sudden offensively challenged Phillies afloat in his first season in Philadelphia.

And with a hat tip to Tom Tango, we now bring you our "Inferior Start" metric. These are the pitchers who have the most starts this season with an innings/earned runs combination that gives the team less than a 25 percent chance of winning that game.



As you can see, Charlie Morton tops (or bottoms?) this list of inferiority. All six of Morton's Inferior Starts have actually had a team win probability less than 19 percent, well below our 25 percent threshold.

Interestingly, our Inferior Starts leader Charlie Morton has a 1-9 record, which is the inverse of our Superior Starts leader Ubaldo Jimenez, who is 9-1.

As for tonight’s starters, Scott Baker enters with a pair of Superior Starts for the Twins, one fewer than team leader Francisco Liriano, and one more than his opposing moundsman, Rangers starter, Derek Holland. Baker also has a pair of Inferior Starts, though none have come in the month of May.

We will be updating this leader board periodically throughout the season. Hopefully this sheds a little more light on who is a quality starter, and who is a superior one. We think we can come up with something for which both the math and Nolan Ryan agree.

Alok Pattani and Mark Simon also contributed to this project.

Today’s Trivia: Happy 92nd birthday to Bobby Doerr, the oldest living player inducted into the Hall of Fame. Who was the only American League player with more hits than Doerr in the 1940s?

Key Matchups -- Miguel Cabrera has hit safely in eight straight at-bats against Luke Hochevar, whom he faces tonight in Kansas City. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is tied for the longest active streak of hits in consecutive at-bats against a pitcher. Also eight for their last eight are: Mark Grudzielanek against Nate Robertson, Andruw Jones against Jason Marquis, and Miguel Olivo against Billy Wagner.

John Lackey gets his introduction to the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry Wednesday, and there is one Yankee in particular who probably wishes he’d go back to Anaheim. Alex Rodriguez is a .176 career hitter against Lackey, his worst batting average against anyone he has faced 50 times. He is just one for his last 22 against Lackey, including 11 strikeouts. A-Rod has 1,739 strikeouts in his career, but no pitcher is responsible for more of them than Lackey. The two have faced each other 61 times. Rodriguez has struck out 23 times.

Today’s Leaderboards-- Max Scherzer, a Missouri alum, makes his Tigers debut in Kansas City. While his stuff is not in question, it remains to be seen how efficiently Scherzer can pitch. Last season, he averaged 18.0 pitches per inning, most among MLB starters. Clayton Kershaw, who also starts today, was second at 17.7.

Like Scherzer, Rich Harden is debuting for his new AL team and looking to prove that he can go deeper into games. He averaged 17.7 pitches per inning last season, but did not have the innings to qualify in that category. Interestingly, part of the reason for Harden’s inefficiency is the fact that no one can make contact against him. Last season, 33.9 percent of swings against Harden were swings and misses. That ranked him among closers like Jonathan Broxton and Joe Nathan, and was far above any other starter.

Trivia Answer: In a decade in which many players, including Doerr, missed significant time while serving in the military, Lou Boudreau played all 10 seasons and finished with an MLB-best 1,578 hits. Boudreau’s arthritic ankles led to him being classified as ineligible for military service.