Article:Baseball Notebook: Rays Have Best Winning Percentage in Majors

Rays Have Best Winning Percentage In the Majors After Memorial Day Win

The Tampa Bay Rays have the best winning percentage in the majors at .608 after winning 7-3 over the Rangers. The Rays have been 15-5 since the day Scott Kazmir 4-1 pitched his first game this season. Kazmir has held lefthanded hitters to a .107 batting average with righthanders hitting .208 against him. He has a night ERA of 0.90 and a home ERA of 0.47. After his first start which he lost he has won four in a row and given up 2 runs in the last 26 innings for a 1.50 ERA. Despite having 16 hits in their 7-3 win yesterday over the Rangers Cliff Floyd left 7 runners stranded.

The media apparently is not paying much attention to Dioner Navarro who is hitting .369 and has an on base percentage of .412. If not for his recent stay on the disabled list he would be leading the AL in hitting but lacks enough at bats to qualify to be the leader. Navarro is hitting 142 points higher than his .227 average of 2007. Evan Longoria is hitting .341 in his last ten games with 3 homers and 12 runs batted in.

Eric Hinske is having his best season since he hit 24 homers and drove in 84 runs in his 2002 rookie season with the Blue Jays. B.J. Upton is leading the team in hitting with a .308 average but Carl Crawford is the only other regular player hitting higher than .267 with his .280 average.

Yankees Fall Back Into Last Place After 6-1 Loss to the Orioles Garrett Olson 4-1 outpitched Darrell Rasner 3-1 as the Orioles took a 6-1 win from the Yankees. Olson allowed no runs and 3 hits in 7 innings while Rasner didn't pitch that badly allowing one run and 5 hits in 6 innings but the Yankee bullpen alowed 5 more runs to cross the plate. Hideki Matsui hitting .331 was the only player on either team hitting over .300 with Nick Markakis and Brian Roberts leading the Orioles hitters with a .258 average among players who played in the game.

The Yankee loss came on a day when all the other AL East teams won and dropped their record to 25-26 and fell into last place 6 games behind the first place Rays. It is safe to say that not many if any experts predicted the Yankees would be 6 games behind the Rays on the 26th of May. Still it is too early to count the Yankees out who were 14 and a half games out of first place last year late in May and still made the playoffs.

Blue Jays Thump Royals 7-2

Shawn Marcum 5-3 pitched the Blue Jays to a 7-2 over the Royals yesterday with Bret Tomko 2-6 taking the loss. The Royals and Blue Jays combined have only 69 home runs which is 8 less than the major league leading Phillies with 77. The Royals are last in the majors having scored 81 runs in 51 games which is 110 runs less than the major leading Cubs with 291 runs in 51 games.

White Sox Defeat Indians 6-3 In Twelve Inning Game

The White Sox scored three times in the top of the twelfth inning to defeat the Indians 6-3. Orlando Cabrera and A.J. Pierzynski at the top of the White Sox batting order were 7 for 11 in the game and Carlos Quentin drove in his 44th run of the season. The White Sox had 17 hits despite Jermaine Dye having an 0 for 5 game and Paul Konerko an 0 for 6 game. The White Sox have now won 10 of their last 12 games. Bobby Jenks posted his 100th major league save in the extra inning contest.

Angels Defeat Tigers in 1-0 Pitcher's Duel

Bobby Seay walked Garret Anderson with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth for a 1-0 walkoff win for the Angels over the Tigers. Kenny Rogers and Jon Garland pitched seven scoreless innings before leaving the game. The win extended their lead in AL West over the idle A's to two games.

Braves Hand Webb Second Consecutive Loss Behind Hitting of Texeira By 7-3 Score

Mark Texeira drove in 4 runs for the Braves in their 7-3 defeat of the Diamondbacks and Brandon Webb 9-2 lost his second consecutive game and in his two defeats he has allowed 10 runs with 7 of them being earned and has given up 16 hits in 11 innings. Webb who had recorded 18 ground outs in his May 8th win over the Phillies only had 2 ground outs yesterday an indication he wasn't locating the ball the way he wanted to. He made 100 pitches yesterday in only 5 and 1/3 innings. Jair Jurjjens had to leave the game with two out in the fifth inning because of blisters robbing him of a chance to win his sixth game of the season.

Brewers Defeat Nationals 4-3 In Eleven Inning Contest

Gabe Kapler singled in the winning run for the Brewers in their eleventh inning 4-3 victory over the Nationals. The Brewers remained 6 games behind the first place Cubs with the win but the win left them 3 games under .500. I am sure the Brewers management is contemplating their next move if Ned Yost can't get the Brewers back on track soon.

Phillies Pound Rockies 20-5

The strange thing about this game is that the Rockies scored three runs in the top of the first to take a 3-0 lead but were outscored 20-2 the rest of the game. Chase Utley led the Phillies offense with a 3 for 6 game with 6 RBI's including his 16th homer which tied him for the major league lead with Lance Berkman. Pedro Feliz was 4 for 6 and drove in 4 runs while Chris Coste was 3 for 6 and also drove in 4 runs.

Ryan Howard drove in 3 runs in the contest. Jamie Moyer 5-3 won his 235th major league game. Only Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina have more wins among active players. The Phillies remained in a second place tie in NL East with the Braves with both teams 2 1/2 games behind the Marlins who also won yesterday.

Dempster Pitches Cubs To 3-1 Win Over Dodgers

Ryan Dempster 6-2 pitched the Cubs to a 3-1 win over the Dodgers with Derrek Lee hitting his 12th homer of the season and Aramis Ramirez hitting his 9th of the season. Lee and Ramirez ended the game with 36 runs batted in each. The Cubs moved back into first place in the NL Central with the win and now are a half game ahead of the Cardinals and a game and a half ahead of the Astros.

Marlins Defeat Mets 7-3 Despite 2 Homers By Reyes

On a day when rumors were swirling around that Willie Randolph may be fired but later was told he still had his job for the time being the Mets lost again for the ninth time in their last 12 games. The first place Marlins won 7-3 and the Mets fell to 6 1/2 games behind the Marlins and are only 2 1/2 games ahead of the last place Nationals. Ricky Nolasco 4-3 took the win for the Marlins while Mike Pelfrey 2-6 took the loss. Jose Reyes hit two homers in the game but they were wasted when the first four hitters of the Mets were all 2 for 4 but the next four hitters were a combined 1 for 14 in the game.