Article:Baseball Notebook: Smoltz Notches 3000th Strikeout; Loses Game

Smoltz Notches 3000th Strikeout: Loses Game

John Smoltz 3-1 notched the 3000th strikeout but lost the game last night before the hometown crowd last night in Atlanta. The loss put a damper on the 3000th strikeout celebration. Smoltz pitched 7 innings and allowed 1 run, 5 hits and struck out 10 while walking none. John Lannan 1-2 took the win for the Nationals but his strong pitching performance was overshadowed on this special night for Smoltz.

Jorge Campillo relieved in the ninth inning for the Braves but his throwing error ended up with the Nationals scoring 5 runs with 4 of them being unearned. The Nationals won the game 6-0 but John Smoltz will remember this game the rest of his life and the 3000th strikeout should insure his entering the Hall of Fame even though he probably never will reach the 300 win mark. He wasn't a starter for 4 years so that kept him from being much closer to 300 wins and he has 210 wins presently.

Smoltz with 3006 strikeouts should pass Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling if they don't return from the disabled list this season. Next on the list would be Bob Gibson who has one more strikeout than Schilling. So he could move from his current 16th position to the 13th position on the list by the end of this season. Smoltz needs 187 more strikeouts this season to move into 12th positon and pass Ferguson Jenkins.

I can't help but wonder why Bert Blyleven continues to be overlooked in the Hall of Fame voting since he has 287 wins and 3701 strikeouts. Only Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton have more strikeouts.

Brewers Win 5th Extra Inning Game

The Brewers have played 20 games this season and they have played in 6 extra inning games winning 5 of the 6 games. Since last Wednesday the Brewers have played in four extra inning games and have won 3 of those 4 games. Five different relievers have won when the Brewers won in an extra inning game this year.

C.C. Sabathia finally registered his first win of the season against the Royals but it is nothing to get too excited about since the Royals are one of the worst hitting teams in the majors. Next Sunday he will face Chien-Ming Wang 4-0 of the Yankees which should be a better indicator of how Sabathia fares against a top notch team....Casey Blake drove in 6 runs last night for the Indians giving him 16 for the season.

Jacoby Ellsbury hit two home runs last night and raised his batting average to .308 after hitting .212 only five days ago. Three of the top five hitters in AL are with the Red Sox. Dustin Pedroia leads the AL with a .364 average. Kevin Youkilis and Manny Ramirez are third and fifth with .354 and .342 averages respectively....Josh Hamilton picked up his 20th RBI of the season. Only Pat Burrell has more to lead the majors with 22....A win by the Rays today could move them into fourth place in the AL East ahead of the Blue Jays and if the Yankees lose today they would be only a half game behind the third place Yankees.

Chien-Ming Wang 4-0 became the second pitcher in AL to have a perfect 4-0 record along with Daisuke Matsuzaka....The Tigers who started the season with a 2-10 record have been 6-3 since then and yesterday they put together a well pitched game from Justin Verlander 1-3 and a rejuvenated offensive attack with Miguel Cabrera and Magglio Ordonez hitting home runs. The 8-13 Tigers are only a game and a half behind the third place Royals in the AL Central. Royals are slumping with a 5 game losing streak.

Not many A's fans would bet money before the season that after the first 21 games of the season that Dana Eveland would be leading the starters in wins with 2 or that Joe Blanton 1-4 would be the only starter with a losing record. On top of that they have 8 home runs as a team while Chase Utley has hit 9 by himself. Yet the A's are still tied for first in AL West with the Angels. Despite the few home runs they are 6th in runs scored in the AL and have scored more runs than the Yankees and Indians....Ichiro Suzuki is hitting .258 which is 74 points below his lifetime average of .258. Just when you think he won't have 200 hits he will get hot and wind up with over 230 hits.

Prince Fielder's batting average jumped from .215 to .250 after his 3 for 3 game yesterday....Gabe Gross scored the winning run on Gabe Kapler's single yesterday for the Brewers and Gross kept on running till he got to the airport to take a plane so he could join the Rays after being traded for a minor league pitcher. It was ironic that Kapler would drive in Gross with the winning run since Kapler is the one that is staying with the team and Gross is now with the Rays. The decision though was a no-brainer with Kapler hitting .382 and Gross hitting .209. With Mike Cameron returning from his 25 game suspension next week somebody had to go and Gross was the odd man out. Another factor was that Tony Gwynn is back on the roster after minor league rehab so they are playing with four outfielders as of today.

Ted Lilly 1-3 became the last Cubs pitcher to record a win this season as the Cubs won their 5th straight game and their 8th win in their last 10 games. Ronny Cedeno hit a grand slam homer and drove in 5 runs while Kosuke Fukudome was 3 for 3 and raised his average to .357....After giving up 36 runs in their last 3 games the Pirates ended their 6 game losing streak with a win over the Marlins. With the season about 1/8 over they are on a pace to win 64 games this season far short of the 82 wins they need to end 16 years of sub .500 seasons.

With all the early season buzz about Johnny Cueto an even better Edinson Volquez reminded who the best pitcher for the Reds really is. It is Volquez with a 3-0 record and he has an ERA of 1.21. The other 4 Reds starters only have 3 wins combined. He is 3rd in the NL in ERA behind only John Smoltz and Ben Sheets....The Astros blew a 7-3 lead and had to hang on to defeat the Padres 11-7.

What a difference a year has made for Hunter Pence. The sophomore jinx has hit Pence hard after having a great debut season in 2007. Last year he hit 17 home runs and drove in 69 runs in and hit .322. So far this season he is hitting only .230 and hit his first home run of the season yesterday. His hitting has improved lately with his average being .160 on the 16th of April and now it is .230....The Phillies have to be disappointed in the hitting of Pedro Feliz who has 3 homers and 8 RBI's. He is projected to hit 23 homers which would be about average for him but ESPN.com projects him to have only 62 RBI's. One encouraging stat is that he has an on base percentage of .303 which is two points less than his .305 percentage of 2004 which is the only season he went over the .300 mark in on base percentage.

Is Barry Zito Going to Win a Game This Year?

Yesterday the Giants staked Barry Zito to an early 3-0 lead but after 4 innings he was trailing 5-3. With his 0-5 record he can longer be considered the ace of the staff. Tim Lincecum 3-0 is the new ace as far as I am concerned since he is only starter with a winning record and Zito and Matt Cain are a combined 0-7 this season. Zito is projected to finish the season with a 0-39 record by ESPN.com and is projected to give up 262 hits in 193 innings. I can't see how they could project him to lose 39 games since most starters who don't miss a start finish with 34-36 starts. Brandon Webb won his fifth game without a loss in the game. Webb didn't win his fifth game last season until June 1st enroute to a 18 win season. ESPN.com projects him to have a 29-5 record but that is not likely to happen.

Chase Utley's home run streak ended at 5 games but he still drove in 2 runs and Pat Burrell drove in 2 giving Burrell the major league lead. Last season after games of April 22nd Burrell had 2 home runs and 7 RBI's while this season he has 7 home runs and 22 RBI's. Last year he didn't hit his 7th homer till May 20th and didn't drive in his 22nd run till May 17th.

Last Pitchers to Win 25 Games

Steve Carlton is the last NL pitcher to post 25 or more wins in a season when he won 27 for the Phillies in 1972 which is 36 years ago. Bob Welch was the last win 25 games or more when in 1990 he posted 27 wins for the A's which is 18 years ago.