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If you’re looking for a microcosm of the past month for Miami Marlins OF Giancarlo Stanton and San Francisco Giants P Tim Lincecum, look no further than the blast Stanton hit off of Lincecum in Miami’s 7-6 win Friday night.


The home run, a solo shot which came in the fourth inning, traveled 431 feet and was the first ball to hit the home run sculpture at Marlins Park. It was Stanton’s second straight game with a long ball, the third time this month that he has homered in back-to-back games.

As Stanton has gone this season, so have the Marlins. When he struggled in the opening month, hitting only one home run, the team sat in last place. In May, however, he has been on a tear. His 10 home runs this month are the most in baseball, and his OPS of 1.120 is almost double what it was in April. Miami, meanwhile, is right in the thick of the NL East.

Then there’s Lincecum. The NL Cy Young Award winner in 2008 and 2009 struggled yet again on Friday, allowing six earned runs and walking four batters in 5 2/3 innings. Lincecum was rolling along until he was rocked for five runs in the sixth, including a three-run bomb at the hands of Chris Coghlan. The defeat drops Linceum’s record this season to 2-5 and raises his ERA to 6.41.

The Marlins were able to get to Lincecum by putting the ball in the air. Of the 17 balls they put in play against him, 13 were hit in the air, the fourth-highest percentage against him since 2009. The Marlins also were able to lay off the righty’s offspeed stuff, swinging at just 31 percent of those pitches. And they had only five swings-and-misses with him on the mound.


The Giants are now 0-5 in Lincecum’s last five starts, only one of which he made it through six innings. Much like Stanton, Lincecum also got off to a rough start in 2012. He started to turn it around at the end of April, but he has hit the skids again in May. He has only one quality start on the year.

While the Giants remain in second place, they will need improved pitching from their ace if they want to keep pace with the Dodgers. On the other hand, if the new-look Marlins continue to get red-hot hitting from Stanton, they could be a factor in the division race in the months ahead.

First place in the NL East is on the line this weekend as the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals kick off a three game series tonight at Turner Field. The Nationals currently hold a one-game lead but need to win at least two games in Atlanta to remain atop the division on Memorial Day.

The Braves look to reverse their recent slump and avoid a season-high fifth straight loss. The league’s second-best offense averaged just two runs per game and was hitless in 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position as they were swept by the Cincinnati Reds earlier this week.

Atlanta sends veteran Tim Hudson to the mound in the opening game tonight. Hudson is 14-3 with a 2.05 ERA in his career versus the Nationals/Expos franchise, the second-most wins and best ERA among active pitchers against the team.

Hudson has also not allowed more than three earned runs at home in his last 19 starts. That’s the longest current streak of consecutive home starts allowing three or fewer earned runs, and the longest by a Braves pitcher since Greg Maddux reeled off 23 such starts from 1993-95.

The Nationals enter the series having won three of their last four games, getting strong performances from their top three studs in the rotation – Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann and Gio Gonzalez – before losing to Cole Hamels and the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.

Tonight Ross Detwiler takes the ball for the Nationals. Detwiler had the last non-quality start by a Washington pitcher when he allowed a season-high six runs in Saturday's 6-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.

Detwiler allowed a total of eight earned runs in his first six starts combined (2.10 ERA), but has given up 10 earned runs in 10 innings (9.00 ERA) over his last two outings. Lefties are 3-for-7 with two extra-base hits against him during that span, after he held them to just two hits in 29 at-bats (.069 BA) in his first six starts this season.

Splitting Aces
Two aces who have had uncharacteristic struggles this season face off in south Florida tonight when Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants visit Josh Johnson and the Miami Marlins.

A two-time Cy Young winner, Lincecum has a career-worst 6.04 ERA and just one quality start this season. He has allowed at least four earned runs in six of nine starts, after doing so just seven times in 33 starts last year.

One major issue appears to be a significant drop in fastball velocity, along with a shrinking difference between the speeds of his heater and changeup. His fastball is averaging just 89.9 mph this season, after averaging 92.2 mph last year, while his changeup velocity has barely moved (83.7 mph in 2011, 83.1 mph in 2012).

Johnson struggled early on, going winless with a 6.69 ERA in his first six starts, but is 2-0 with a 2.14 ERA over his last three outings. His fastball has become much more effective, as opponents are hitting .125 against the pitch in his past three games, compared to .391 in his first six starts.

One of the greatest improvements Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Kyle Kendrick made from 2010 to 2011 was his effectiveness against left-handed batters. As a right-handed pitcher, it was an issue for him in 2010 as they hit .312 with a .902 OPS and strikeout rate of just under 10 percent. In 2011, those numbers improved to .234 BA, .763 OPS and a 13.0 percent strikeout rate. And entering Monday, his 2012 performance against left-handers had continued to improve, with a .200 BA, .585 OPS and a strikeout rate north of 15 percent. And then the Arizona Diamondbacks came along.

Monday's action stopped Kendrick's improving trend right in its tracks. The Diamondbacks may have been aware of the trends, but they may have been paying attention to a different one - in four career appearances against Arizona, Kendrick had allowed a line of .357/.379/.607 (BA/OBP/SLG) to left-handed hitters, compared to a .234/.333/.404 line against right-handers. On Monday, left-handed batters registered four hits in eight at-bats against Kendrick, including two extra-base hits.

It becomes additionally painful when one considers who was supposed to start Monday's game - Cliff Lee. Not only has Lee held Diamondbacks lefties to a .229/.222/.314 line in his career, very few pitchers have been tougher on lefties overall since Lee came to the National League - he ranks fourth among starters in opponents batting average (.191) and second in OPS (.501).

For some historical perspective on just how ineffective Kendrick's start was, consider that he became the first Phillies starter to allow 10 or more hits and and seven or more earned runs in three or fewer innings pitched since Mike Mimbs did so on May 11, 1996. In fact, it's only the fourth time it's been done since 1980.

Sabathia leaning on slider: CC Sabathia's slider was effective on Monday against the Texas Rangers – he threw it to register six of his eight strikeouts. Sabathia threw a total of 34 sliders, increasing the number of times he's used the pitch for the third consecutive start. It also continues a multi-year trend of increased slider usage; Sabathia threw it 12.9 percent of the time in 2010, 22.9 percent last season and 27.3 percent this season. The merits of such an increase can be debated, but what cannot be is the effectiveness it has had this season – only one qualified starting pitcher has a higher strikeout rate with the slider than Sabathia (Jered Weaver).

Lincecum velocity issues remain: Tim Lincecum’s season-long struggles with his fastball continued in the win over the New York Mets. His average velocity on the pitch continues to drop, going under 90 MPH for the first time since July 2010. Despite the issues with his fastball velocity, Lincecum threw it 70 times, which is 21 more than he used it in his previous 2012 high.

Overall, his average fastball velocity now stands at 90.1 this season, compared to 92.2 last season. He has yet to hit above 93.1 miles per hour this season, whereas he topped out at 96.6 last season.

Sunday’s pitchers lacked the flash or pizzazz of Saturday’s, when the top three vote getters in last year’s AL Cy Young race, and the top two finishers in the NL Cy Young race took the mound.

And there was no Philip Humber coming out of nowhere to pitch a perfect game.

But there were some pretty good pitching performances.

Let’s take a look at some of Sunday’s pitching highlights:

Redbirds soar with Lohse
Winning pitcher Kyle Lohse allowed one run in six innings. He has gone six innings and allowed one earned run or fewer in each of his first four starts this season.
The last Cardinals starter to have four games in a row to start the season of at least six innings pitched and one earned run or fewer allowed was Larry Jaster in 1968.

Want to have a good game? Pitch against Pirates starter Erik Bedard. In four starts this season, the Pirates have scored just three runs for Bedard, managing one against the Cardinals on Sunday.

Magic Wandy
Wandy Rodriguez pitched seven scoreless innings, yielding just three hits to shut down the red-hot Los Angeles Dodgers and Matt Kemp.
Rodriguez’s curveball was sharp, netting him 10 outs. He had six strikeouts with the hook on Sunday, matching the total he had with the pitch in his first three starts of the season.

Of the 15 pitches Rodriguez threw Kemp, only two were fastballs. Kemp fouled out on a changeup, flied out on a curve, and then struck out swinging at a curve against Rodriguez. His 10-game hitting streak was snapped.

The 12-0 win marked the Astros largest margin of victory in a shutout win over the Dodgers in franchise history.

All Smyles, but no win
The Elias Sports Bureau confirmed that Drew Smyly is the first Detroit Tigers pitcher ever to start his first three career games and allow one run or fewer in each of them. Smyly got a no-decision in the Tigers loss to the Texas Rangers.

Josh Hamilton homered again for the Rangers, giving him seven in the team's first 16 games. He's the fifth player in Rangers history with that many home runs in that few team games, joining Pete Incaviglia, Alex Rodriguez, Ian Kinsler, and Nelson Cruz.

The Buck (and his team) stops Pujols
Albert Pujols was 0-for-4 and his homerless streak to start the season now sits at 65 at-bats after his Los Angeles Angels lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2.

Pujols was 0-for-11 in the series with three fly outs, three ground outs, three strikeouts, and a lineout. He did reach base once on an error.

Looking ahead to Monday
Bigger names take the mound Monday, with the most attention being paid to Tim Lincecum.
Tim Lincecum will start for the San Francisco Giants against the New York Mets in the second game of Monday’s doubleheader at Citi Field. Lincecum is 0-2 with a 10.54 ERA in his first three starts of the season, but is 3-0 with three earned runs allowed in 28 innings in his last four starts against the Mets.

Lincecum’s fastball velocity has averaged 90.2 miles-per-hour in the first two starts of the season, down two miles-per-hour from his average in 2011. His strike percentage with his fastball is 58 percent. It has consistently been either 63 or 64 percent in each of the three previous seasons.

Hitters have also feasted on Lincecum’s breaking pitches, with 10 hits against them in the first three starts. Last season, in his first three starts, he allowed only two hits with his breaking balls.

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


1. SAVING THE DAY: FROM ELIAS: Henrik Lundqvist made 39 saves to lead the New York Rangers to a 1-0 win in Game 3 of their series against the Ottawa Senators, one day after the Kings’ Jonathan Quick stopped 41 shots in a 1-0 victory at Los Angeles. Since the NHL began officially recording shots on goal more than 50 years ago, the only other goaltender to make 39-or-more saves in a 1-0 shutout in a non-overtime game was Martin Brodeur against Carolina in 2009 (44 saves). The Rangers’ 1-0 victory was only their second playoff win by that score since 1941. Lundqvist accounted for that other 1-0 win as well, beating the Capitals by a lone goal in Washington in 2009.

2. LeBRON FINISHES STRONG: FROM ELIAS: LeBron James scored Miami’s final 17 points in the team’s victory over the New Jersey Nets on Monday night. James is the fourth player to score 17 straight points for his team in a game this season, joining Deron Williams (18 on March 4), Chris Paul (17 on February 22) and Mo Williams (17 on January 22). Prior to James, the last player to score his team’s final 17 points of a game was Denver’s J.R. Smith on April 13, 2009.

3. VERLANDER THROWING HEAT: Last year’s AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander got his first win of the season as the Detroit Tigers won 3-2. Verlander had a complete game on 131 pitches, one shy of his career-high. He threw 19 fastballs in the ninth inning. Of those, seven were over 98 MPH. His final pitch of the night was 100.3 MPH, tied for the fastest pitch he threw ALL GAME. Since 2009, Justin Verlander has the highest average fastball velocity for any starter in the ninth inning. He is also the only starter in that time frame to throw a pitch over 100 MPH in the ninth.

4. HALLADAY OUTDUELS LINCECUM: Roy Halladay won a battle of Cy Young pitchers, allowing two earned runs in 8 innings as the Philadelphia Phillies won 5-2 over the San Francisco Giants and Tim Lincecum. FROM ELIAS: Halladay has registered a win while pitching at least seven innings and allowing two-or-fewer runs in each of his first three starts of the season, something he also did in his first three starts in his first season with the Phils in 2010. In the 36 seasons preceding Halladay’s arrival, only one other Phillies pitcher that started the season with the team registered a win, seven plus innings pitched and two-or-fewer runs allowed in each of his first three starts: Dennis Cook in 1990.

5. WORKING OVERTIME: FROM ELIAS: The Utah Jazz defeated the Dallas Mavericks by a score of 123-121 in a triple overtime contest on Monday night. Utah has now played two games that have gone to at least triple overtime this season, losing a quadruple overtime game in Atlanta on March 25. Over the last 50 seasons, only five other teams have played multiple games that have gone to at least three overtimes in a single season: Phoenix in 1997-98 and 2005-06, New York in 2006-07, New Jersey in 2010-11 and Atlanta in 2011-12.

One of the hot topics every spring is improved or falling velocity among pitchers. While small sample size caveats apply at this stage, there are a handful of interesting storylines developing on the topic.

Stephen Strasburg
Through two starts this season, the trend of Stephen Strasburg's velocity dipping has continued. When he first came up, he succeeded off of fastballs approaching 100, with a changeup around 90.

However, since his return from Tommy John surgery, he seems to be evolving into more of a pitcher.

His fastball velocity is down more than 2 miles per hour, but his changeup is also down nearly the exact same amount, keeping the separation between the two pitches at 7.0 miles per hour. That's right around his career average.

Ubaldo Jimenez
Much has been made of how Ubaldo Jimenez is not the same pitcher he once was. There’s no question he’s pitching with a different arsenal than 2009 or 2010, as his average and maximum velocities are well down.

However, after a multi-year increase in the use of his diminished fastball, he has decreased the frequency with which he’s throwing it early in 2012.

That formula has worked -- his strike rate with the pitch has increased from less than 61 percent to nearly 64 percent from 2009-11.

Tim Lincecum
What's plaguing Tim Lincecum? It could be his fastball. He’s down several miles per hour from last season -- both in terms of average and maximum velocity -- and the results have been opponents having much greater success against said fastball.

Unfortunately, Lincecum hasn’t compensated the diminished velocity with improved command. His strike rate with his fastball has declined each season since 2009, with a huge drop so far in 2012 -- going from 63 percent last season to less than 54 percent this season.

Brian Wilson
Over the past few seasons, Brian Wilson has been among the best closers in baseball. However, there’s a disturbing trend developing, with both his average fastball velocity (92.4 MPH, down from 96.5 in 2009) and his maximum fastball velocity (95.1 MPH, down from 102.2 in 2009) having dropped each season since 2009. This season has continued that downward trend.

Plenty of pitchers are able to get by with diminished velocity. Unfortunately, it appears that Wilson has had trouble surviving the dip in velocity so far. His overall strikeout and walk rates are headed the wrong way, corresponding with the velocity drop.

Over the past three years, his strikeout rate has been cut almost in half and his walk rate has nearly doubled.

Starting Pitching Overview
The one potential saving grace for these pitchers is the tendency for pitcher velocities to increase after we exit April. In each of the previous two seasons, the number of starting pitchers who averaged 93 MPH or more on their fastballs in April increased by the end of the season.

As you can see, while the league average fastball velocity peaked in July at last season, the single largest month-to-month increase was from April to May.

For eight innings on Wednesday, Justin Verlander pitched like the reigning American League MVP and Cy Young winner. Twenty-three pitches later, the Detroit Tigers were on the way to their first loss of the season.

Verlander needed just 81 pitches to get through the first eight innings against the Tampa Bay Rays with the Tigers leading 2-0. That brought him to 16 scoreless innings with just three hits allowed on the season. In the ninth, he allowed four runs after surrendering three hits and a walk.

Verlander was the first pitcher to throw eight scoreless innings before allowing four or more runs in the ninth inning to take a loss since Tim Hudson for the Atlanta Braves on Sept. 22, 2005, against the Philadelphia Phillies.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he’s the first starting pitcher to pick up a loss after allowing no runs on one hit or fewer in the first eight innings of a game his team led entering the ninth since Mark Langston of the Seattle Mariners in 1989. Langston took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before losing to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Verlander struggled with his fastball in the ninth inning, seemingly from over-throwing the pitch. In his first 16 innings this season, Verlander averaged 93.1 mph on his fastball, reaching a maximum velocity of 97.9. On 13 fastballs in the ninth inning against the Rays, every pitch came in above that average. He measured as high as 99.5 mph and averaged 97.2 during the frame.

Even with the extra oomph, the Rays were able to get to Verlander because he was leaving the ball over the plate. Entering the ninth, opposing hitters were 2-for-25 against Verlander’s fastball as he threw only eight percent down the heart of the plate. In the ninth inning, he threw 31 percent of his fastballs straight down the middle, including two hits by the Rays.

Quick Hits

• With the Tigers and Arizona Diamondbacks losing and the Minnesota Twins winning, every major-league team has at least one win and one loss.

• Six days after tying a career-high by allowing 10 hits against the St. Louis Cardinals, Josh Johnson didn’t make it out of the fourth inning against the Phillies after allowing a career-high 11 hits.

• Peter Bourjos hit the second inside-the-park home run in Target Field history. The ball traveled 372 feet and would have been out of 10 ballparks.

• Tim Lincecum lasted just 2⅓ innings against the Colorado Rockies, his shortest outing in 157 career starts.

• The Oakland Athletics won in the bottom of the 12th inning when Jonny Gomes was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. It was the first time game-ending hit by pitch since … Brad Lidge hit Gomes as the Washington Nationals beat the Philadelphia Phillies on August 21, 2011. From Elias, it was the first game to end with back-to-back hit batters since 1966.

• Stephen Strasburg tossed six scoreless innings, topping 100 pitches for the first time in 19 career starts with the Nationals.

Wondering why those who are in the top 10 were picked in those spots? Here are some numbers to know about each of the top 10 players in the ESPN 500.

Albert Pujols –- Pujols is in very elite company. He’s one of six players to hit 400 career home runs and bat at least .325. The other five: Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig and Stan Musial. Pujols’ 445 home runs through his first 11 seasons are the most all-time through a player’s initial 11 years in the majors.

Roy Halladay -- Halladay has 170 wins and a 2.97 ERA, averaging almost 210 innings per year over the last 10 seasons. The last pitcher to average 17 wins and 200 innings a season, over a 10-season span, and do so with a sub-3.00 ERA was Greg Maddux from 1995 to 2004.

Miguel Cabrera -- Cabrera has led the American League in at least two significant offensive categories in three of the last four seasons. Cabrera’s .977 OPS over the last six seasons trails only Albert Pujols in that span.

Justin Verlander -– Verlander won both the AL MVP and Cy Young awards in 2011, the first pitcher to win both since Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley in 1992, and the first starter to do so since Roger Clemens in 1986. Over the last three seasons, Verlander leads the majors in wins (61) and strikeouts (738) and is third in opponents BA (.221).

Felix Hernandez -- Hernandez and Roy Halladay are the only two pitchers to average 240 innings per season over the last three seasons, and his ERA, when adjusted for ballpark, ranks second to Halladay in that span as well.

Ryan Braun –- Braun has led all major league outfielders in batting average (.318), RBI (328), runs (323) and doubles (122) over the last three seasons. The 2007 NL Rookie the Year and 2011 NL MVP has hit 161 HR in his first five seasons, the 10th-most by a player in his first five seasons.

Clayton Kershaw –- Kershaw is second to Roy Halladay among National League starters in both wins and ERA, but leads in strikeouts and opponent batting average over the last two seasons.

Troy Tulowitzki -- Over the last three seasons, Tulowitzki has 89 home runs, 34 more than any other player whose primary position is shortstop. His OPS+ of 134 also tops all shortstops in that span. Tulowitzki also ranks third among shortstops over the last three seasons in Defensive Runs Saved.

Tim Lincecum –- Since making his debut in May of 2007, Lincecum has struck out at least 10 batters in a game 31 times, the most in the majors over that span. His 977 strikeouts over the last four years is tops among all pitchers.

Robinson Cano -- Cano has led major-league second baseman in both slugging percentage and OPS in each of the last two seasons. This season, he will likely break the Yankees record for career home runs as a second baseman, a mark currently held by Tony Lazzeri (147- eight more than Cano) that has stood for more than half a century.

With a 5-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays Tuesday night, New York Yankees starter Ivan Nova captured his 12th straight win. Nova went 7.2 innings and allowed six hits and no earned runs. His 12 straight wins by a rookie starter are the most since Larry Jansen of the 1947 Giants did the same.

The Yankees now have a six-game lead over the struggling Boston Red Sox, their largest margin of the season. New York can clinch a playoff berth with a win in one game of Wednesday's day-night doubleheader with the Rays.

Here's a next-level look at how Nova got the win:

Nova threw his fastball less often than he normally does. Fifty-three of his 103 pitches (51.5 percent) were fastballs, below his season average of 61.3 percent.

Rays hitters were 3 for 14 in at-bats ending with Nova's fastball. Overall, hitters are hitting .196 in at-bats ending with Nova's fastball in September; they hit .297 against it before that.

Left-handed hitters were 2 for 11 against Nova, and he had success keeping the ball away from those hitters.

Thirty-one of his 52 pitches to lefties (59.6 percent) were outside, above his season average of 50.9 percent entering Tuesday. Rays lefties were 0 for 5 in at-bats ending with an outside pitch from Nova.

Rays hitters were 1 for 15 against Nova with men on base, including two double plays.

Nova stayed out of hitters' counts. Fourteen of his 103 pitches (13.6 percent) came when he was behind in the count, his second-lowest percentage in a start this season.

Elsewhere in the AL East, the Red Sox could not take advantage of the Rays loss and remained two games ahead of Tampa Bay in the American League wild card race. Starter Erik Bedard struggled against the Baltimore Orioles, throwing 76 pitches in 2.2 innings of work and allowing four runs (one earned), in a 7-5 loss. This is the 14th straight game in which the Red Sox did not get a quality start.

The Red Sox are now 5-15 in September, which is as many losses as they had in September and October of last season.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Red Sox have gone 22 straight games without winning two in a row. That's their longest such streak since the 1994 team had a 28-game run in May and June of that season.

The Red Sox used seven pitchers in their Tuesday loss to the Orioles. Since rosters expanded on September 1, the Red Sox have used at least five pitchers in a game nine times. They have used at least five pitchers in 45 percent of their 20 games this month.

Jonathan Papelbon recorded his second blown save of season. He'd converted 25 straight save chances and allowed his first run since July 16.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Clayton Kershaw got the better of Tim Lincecum and picked up his 20th win in the Los Angeles Dodgers' 2-1 win over the San Francisco Giants. The loss snapped the Giants' eight-game win streak and moved the Dodgers above .500 for the first time since they were 14-13 before games of April 30.

The Elias Sports Bureau tells us Kershaw is the fourth-youngest pitcher in Dodgers history to win 20 games in a season and the third since 1942 to defeat the Giants for win number 20 of the season.

Kershaw (20-5, .800) joins Justin Verlander (24-5, .828) and Ian Kennedy (20-4, .833) as pitchers with at least 20 wins and a winning percentage of .800 or better in 2011. There have been only two seasons in major-league history in which at least three pitchers won 20 or more games with a winning percentage of .800 or higher: 1910 (Russ Ford of the Yankees, King Cole of the Cubs and Chief Bender of the A’s) and 2002 (Barry Zito of the A’s, Randy Johnson of the Diamondbacks and Pedro Martinez of the Red Sox).

Dan Braunstein contributed to this story.

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw (who pitches Wednesday) leads the National League in strikeouts (231), is tied for first with Johnny Cueto of the Cincinnati Reds in ERA (2.36) and trails Ian Kennedy of the Arizona Diamondbacks by one for the most wins (Kershaw has 18).

Eight pitchers have won the pitching triple crown (wins, ERA, and strikeouts) a combined 11 times since the Cy Young Award was first given out in 1956. All 11 of those seasons resulted in a first-place finish in Cy Young voting.

If Kershaw were to win, it wouldn’t be shocking for the award to go to a player from a losing team (the Dodgers are currently three games under .500). It’s happened 15 times including each of the last three seasons. The Seattle Mariners Felix Hernandez (2010) and Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals (2009) won the AL Cy Young, and the San Francisco Giants Tim Lincecum took home the NL award in 2008.

However, if teammate Matt Kemp were to win MVP he would become just the sixth winner from a losing team since the Baseball Writers started giving the award in 1931.

If Kemp and Kershaw were to pull off the double they would be the 19th set of teammates to do so but could be the first from a losing team.

Seventeen of the previous 18 teams that had both a Cy Young Award winner and a league MVP went to the playoffs with the exception being the 1962 Dodgers, who won 102 games but lost a best-of-three playoff to the Giants for the pennant. The worst team in terms of win percentage was the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies, who were 91-71 (.562).

(San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies play the second game of their three-game series, Wednesday at 7 ET on ESPN.)

Last year, the Giants celebrated a trip to the World Series with a win in Game 6 of the NLCS at Citizens Bank Ballpark. With the two of the three best records in the Senior Circuit this year, these two teams are on a collision course to meet again in the league championship series.

The Phillies entered this series, which they started with a 7-2 win Tuesday, on a roll. They have won their last nine series and haven’t lost consecutive games since a four-game slide May 31-June 4. Even better, they have lost back-to-back home games just once this season, on April 18-19 against the Brewers.

The Giants have the second-best record in the National League behind the Phillies, and arguably have been the most resilient team in baseball. Their 18 wins in their last at-bat are tied for the most in the major leagues, and they also have an MLB-best 29 comeback wins.

On the Mound
Cole Hamels takes the mound for the Phillies looking for his NL-best 13th win. He's allowed three runs or fewer in 12 of his last 13 starts, during which he has a 2.25 ERA. Much of his success this season has been a result of his nearly unhittable changeup.

Hamels has held batters to a .133 average in at-bats ending with his changeup, fourth-best among NL starters. He’s gotten an MLB-best 145 swings-and-misses on the pitch, and 57 strikeouts, the most in the NL. In his last start, the Padres went 0-for-8 with five strikeouts against the pitch.

Tim Lincecum, whose start was pushed back a day because of the flu, has made three career regular-season road starts against the Phillies. Despite a 3.66 ERA, the Giants have lost all three of those starts.

Lincecum has allowed just one home run in his last eight starts, including none in his last three road starts.

Opponents are hitting .212 against Lincecum curveballs in 2011 compared to .362 last season. The biggest difference is that he’s getting more swings and misses. His miss percentage is 31.7 percent on curves this year. Last year it was 20.9 percent.

Lincecum has had control problems this season, which are related mostly to his changeup. More than 60 percent (61.4) of his changeups have been thrown for strikes in 2011, way down from 70.8 percent in 2010.

Matchup to Watch
Cody Ross, the NLCS MVP last year, looks to continue his success at the plate when facing Hamels. Ross has nine hits in his last 22 at-bats against the southpaw, including four home runs. Ross is the only player to hit four long balls against Hamels.

Stat of the Game
The Giants lead the majors with a 27-13 record in one-run games. They are on pace for 42 one-run wins. That would tie the major-league record for one-run victories, set by the 1978 Giants.

Coming into Wedneday's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw, San Francisco Giants' ace Tim Lincecum was 0-3 this season against pitchers named Clayton.

Lincecum can now add a fourth loss to that list and his second to Kershaw, all because of a single pitch.

With the game scoreless in the seventh inning, Lincecum coughed up a solo home run to Dodgers C Dioner Navarro. That hit proved to be all the offense Kershaw needed, as he held on for the win, 1-0.

Kershaw threw eight shutout innings, allowing just three hits and a walk, while striking out 12 to improve to 11-4 this season.

It is the sixth time Kershaw has struck out 10 or more batters in a game this season - tied with Cliff Lee for most in MLB.

Lincecum, meanwhile lasted seven innings, tallying seven strikeouts and allowing five hits.

Kershaw went to his curveball more often than usual to put Giants hitters away. Ten of his 26 two-strike pitches (38.5 percent) were curveballs, above his 12.9 season average entering the start.

Five of Kershaw's strikeouts were with his curveball, matching his most in a start in the last three seasons.

Four more of Kershaw's strikeouts came with his slider, giving him nine strikeouts on the day with offspeed pitches. He leads the league in strikeouts, mostly because of his ability to punch hitters out with his breaking ball pitches.

ELSEWHERE AROUND THE DIAMOND:
• Vance Worley continued his stretch of strong starts as he allowed one earned run in eight innings for his sixth victory of the season as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-1.

Worley has now made six consecutive starts with five or more innings pitched, while allowing one earned run or fewer. The only other Phillies pitcher in the Live Ball Era (since 1920) with a streak that long is Steve Carlton, who did so in six straight in 1972. Jimmy Rollins homered from both sides of the plate against the Cubs, the second time in his career that he has accomplished that feat (August 12, 2006 vs. Cincinnati Reds).

• In a 14-3 rout of the Florida Marlins, all nine San Diego Padres players scored a run en route to leading by at least 13 runs through two innings for the first time since May 31, 1994.

The last team overall prior to the Padres to be up by at least 13 runs through two innings was the Cubs, who on August 14, 2009 led 14-0 over the Pirates.
The Padres have won three of four overall, as Aaron Harang (5⅓ IP, 3 ER) has not lost since May 2.

For the Marlins, Ricky Nolasco (1⅓ IP, 9 ER) becomes the first pitcher this season to allow nine or more earned runs in fewer than two innings pitched; it happened four times last season.

Hanley Ramirez hit his tenth home run; he's now hitting .366 over his last 25 games.

Tim Lincecum pitched seven scoreless innings while striking out 12 batters as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Minnesota Twins. This marked the fourth time this season that Lincecum struck out at least 10 batters while allowing one earned run or fewer, the most such games in the majors.

According to Elias, it was the fifth time in Lincecum's five-year major-league career that he recorded 12 or more strikeouts in a game in which he did not allow a run. The only other big-league pitchers with more than one such game over the last five seasons are Felix Hernandez, Jake Peavy and Justin Verlander, with two each.

Lincecum was nearly unhittable on Thursday, as the Twins missed on 24 swings, matching the second-most misses against any pitcher in a start this season.

All 12 strikeouts against Lincecum were swinging, tied for the most swinging strikeouts by a pitcher in a start this season. Out of Lincecum's 12 strikeouts, 10 were on pitches the Twins chased out of the strike zone.

When the Twins did make contact, they hit the ball on the ground. Nine of the 11 balls in play against Lincecum were on the ground, and the Twins hit just two balls out of the infield all game (both by Michael Cuddyer).

Lincecum had success keeping the ball down in the zone. Lincecum's 60 pitches down in the zone or below it are his most this month, and he got eight of his strikeouts on those pitches.

His changeup was devastating. He threw 20 of 22 changeups for strikes. Lincecum's 90.9 strike percentage with his changeup is his highest in a start in the last three seasons. The Twins swung at 18 of Lincecum's changeups, missing on 10. All were on pitches down in the zone or below, even though Lincecum threw just 14 low changeups.

Nationals Managerial Change

Despite having won 10 of his previous 11 games and leading the Washington Nationals back over the .500 mark, Jim Riggleman resigned as manager following Thursday's victory over the Seattle Mariners.

Elias tells us this is only the second time in modern major-league history (since 1900) that a team has had a mid-season managerial switch with the club having posted a .900 or higher winning percentage over its last ten or more games. The previous instance was by the 2007 Mariners, when Mike Hargrove stepped down on July 1 with Seattle on an eight-game winning streak and having won 10 of its last 11 games.

Hargrove was replaced by his bench coach, who, believe it or not, was John McLaren, the man who will be taking Riggleman's place in Washington (for the interim). McLaren led the Mariners, 45-33 at the time, to a 43-41 record over the remainder of the 2007 season.

On May 11, the Boston Red Sox lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, falling to 17-20. With their win vs Toronto Saturday, they are now an MLB-best 21-6 since that loss. The Red Sox are in the midst of a season-high eight game win streak thanks to an offensive explosion.

They tallied a season-best 16 runs in their latest victory over the Blue Jays and have scored five or more runs in each of the wins during the streak. That streak of eight straight wins with five runs scored in each game is the longest in the majors this season.

It's the longest such streak by the Red Sox since they did it in 10 straight games in 2006. Since 1980 Boston has done so only one other time, when they had a 10 game streak during the 1995 season.

As a team the Red Sox are batting .319 with a .530 slugging percentage during the streak. They have 100 hits over this stretch, 40 of which have been extra-base hits.

At the forefront of this offensive explosion has been David Ortiz who hit his 16th home run of the season on Saturday (June 11). That is the earliest he has hit his 16th home run since 2006, when he went on to hit 54 home runs.

Ortiz is one of three Red Sox regulars hitting .400 or better during the win streak joining Jacoby Ellsbury (.450 batting average) and Adrian Gonzalez (.406). Gonzalez, with an RBI on Saturday, has now driven in a run in each of his last eight games, the longest streak of his career.

Elsewhere around the diamond:

• Despite a loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jose Reyes (2-for-4) of the New York Mets notched his MLB-leading 32nd multi-hit game this season in just 61 games played. Reyes is the only player in franchise history with 30 or more multi-hit games in the teams first 64 games played of a season.

It's still early but if Reyes can keep up this pace, according to Elias he would be the first player since Joe Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1937 to finish a season with multiple hits in more than half of his games (minimum: 100 games played).

• Tim Lincecum allowed a career-high seven earned runs in four innings pitched in the San Francisco Giants loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

How bad of a day was it for Lincecum? Game score, a metric devised by Bill James, measures a pitcher's single-game performance based on on IP, runs, hits, strikeouts and walks. The average score is around 50 and most games are between 0-100. According to this metric, Lincecum's performance was the worst of his career.

The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 on Monday behind seven strong innings from Cliff Lee. He struck out 10 Dodgers and walked only one, his sixth double-digit strikeout game this season.

He had six 10-K games last season after entering 2010 with just three such starts in his entire career.

It's his fifth game this season with 10 strikeouts and one walk or fewer, easily the most in the majors (five pitchers are tied with two such games). He's the second Phillies pitcher in the Live Ball Era (since 1920) with five such starts in a season; Curt Schilling had eight in 1997 and seven in 1998.

The Elias Sports Bureau points out that it's the 12th time in Lee’s past 38 regular-season starts that he struck out 10 or more batters (since May 16, 2010). He reached double figures in strikeouts in only three of his 193 major-league starts up to that point.

Elias also tells us that among Phillies pitchers in the Modern Era (since 1900), only Schilling (10) in 1998 and Steve Carlton (12) in 1972 reached 100 strikeouts in fewer starts than Lee, who made his 13th start Monday.

In the night's final game, Tim Lincecum struck out only five hitters as the San Francisco Giants beat the Washington Nationals in extra innings. He had five strikeouts after the first two innings, and when he got Jerry Hairston swinging to end the second, it was the 1,000th punchout of his career.

Hairston was the 3,692nd batter that Lincecum faced in his career. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Lincecum is the fourth-fastest pitcher to 1,000 career strikeouts since 1900 in terms of batters faced. Only Billy Wagner, Octavio Dotel and Kerry Wood were faster.