Article:Baseball Notebook: Around the Bases April 17th

= Baseball Notebook =

Around the Bases April 17th

Chien-Ming Wang found out how much an earned run average can fluctuate early in the season when he came into the game last night with an ERA of 1.23 and left the game four innings later with a 3.81 ERA. His mound opponent Clay Buchholz saw his ERA go from 3.27 to 6.75. The winning pitcher LaTroy Hawkins has an ERA of 7.00. After last Sunday's game Alex Rodriguez was hitting .260 but by the end of Wednesday's 15-9 win over the Red Sox he was hitting .313.

David Ortiz picked up one hit in five at bats to raise his average to .121. After 58 at bats he has only one home run and 4 RBI's. It has been 54 years since the Red Sox scored this many runs in a game at Yankee Stadium.Josh Beckett 1-1 faces Mike Mussina in today's game....After being outscored 17-0 last Saturday and Sunday the Tigers have come back to score 30 runs in their last 3 games as they posted their third straight win. A big part of the resurgence has been the hitting of Miguel Cabrera who has hit 2 homers and drove in 8 runs in those 3 wins. His average has jumped from .175 after Sunday's game to .264.

In that time span his slugging percentage has changed from .275 on Sunday to .472 yesterday.His OPS was .558 on Sunday and is now at .822. The win over the Indians yesterday moved the Tigers into a tie for last place with the Indians. The division has been turned upside down this year with the Tigers and Indians looking up at the first place White Sox, the second place Royals and third place Twins. The Tigers got a boost from the performance by Armando Gallaraga who replaced Dontrelle Willis and gave up one hit in 6 2/3 innings to win in only his second major league start.

Rangers and Blue Jays played for 14 innings in Toronto before the Rangers won the game 7-5 with two runs in the top of the 14th inning. Milton Bradley was 2 for 3 with 5 walks but only scored once as the Rangers left 19 on base....Rays need Scott Kazmir and Matt Garza back soon since they are 3-7 in their last ten games. Edwin Jackson leads Rays starters with 2 wins....Jose Contreras 1-1 won his first game of the season in his 3-1 win over the Orioles yesterday.

It took five starts but Gil Meche won his first game of the season and if the Royals can have Meche, Brian Bannister and Zack Greinke all pitching well at once they have a chance to contend in the AL West. They are now 9-6 while a year ago on this date they were 3-10....Felix Hernandez 2-0 pitches a complete game win over the A's and allowed only one run.

Brandon Webb 4-0 became the first 4 game winner in the majors this season as he defeated Barry Zito 0-4 and the Giants lost to the Diamondbacks 4-1. Last season Webb didn't win his fourth game until May 26th....Roy Oswalt 1-3 pitched the Astros to a 2-1 win over the Phillies. He had allowed 13 earned runs combined in his last two starts.The win tied the Reds for last place in the NL Central with identical 6-9 records. Kyle Kendrick 1-2 pitched well giving up only 2 runs and 4 hits in 7 innings. If he pitches this well the rest of the season he should have 15 wins by the end of the season if he gets more support from the offense.

Tim Hudson 2-1 only lasted 3 innings last night as the Braves lost to Mark Hendrickson 3-1 and the Marlins 6-5. Mike Jacobs hit his 6th home run of the season for the Marlins which ties him for the major league lead with Derrek Lee and Carlos Pena also having 6 home runs. Jacobs didn't hit his 6th home run last season until July 13th ....Carlos Zambrano 3-1 pitched and hit the Cubs to a 12-3 win against the Reds. Zambrano allowed 2 runs in 7 innings and was 3 for 4 at the plate and drove in a run. Derrek Lee hit his 6th home run of the season. Josh Fogg 1-2 won't be in the Reds rotation long if he continues to pitch like he did yesterday as he pitched 2 innings and gave up 9 runs and 7 hits as his ERA balloned from 7.00 at start of the game to 13.09 at the end of the game.

Adam Wainwright 2-1 pitched and hit the Cardinals to a 5-4 win over the Brewers as he gave up 2 runs in 7 2/3 innings and hit his first home run of the season. The Brewers could have used Gabe Kapler but he injured his shoulder as he hit the wall in batting practice before the game. Jason Kendall who was hitting .538 on April 10th is 1 for 18 since then lowering his average to .341....Rockies blasted the Padres 10-2 behind the pitching of Mark Redman 2-1 and a 15 hit attack.Redman allowed 2 runs and 3 hits in 5 innings and the bullpen threw 4 innings of scoreless and hitless relief.

Brad Penny 2-2 gave up no earned runs in the 8-1 shellacking of the Pirates. After 15 games Andruw Jones has no home runs and only 2 RBI's. He is showing some signs he may be breaking out of the slump with 4 hits in his last 11 at bats. He had only 3 hits in his previous 36 at bats and has raised his average from .100 on Sunday to .157 after the game yesterday.

Players From the Past: Ron Necciai

Ron Necciai Born: June 18, 1932 in Gallatin, Pennsylvania

Major League Debut: August 10, 1952 Final Game: September 28, 1952

On May13, 1952 Ron Necciai pitched one of the best games in the history of organized baseball when he struck out 27 batters in a nine inning game for Bristol in the Class D Appalachian League. Four hitters for Welch the opponent that day reached base on a walk, an error, being hit by a pitch and catcher let a third strike get past him so he struck out four batters in the ninth inning. The passed ball gave Necciai the chance to record his 27th strikeout of the game.

In his next start he struck out 24 batters which gave him 51 strikeouts in 2 games. Before being promoted from Bristol he had 109 strikeouts in 43 innings while with Bristol and had an ERA of 0.42.

In 1952 he was called up the Pirates late in the season and had a 1-6 record with a 7.08 ERA. In 54 2/3 innings he gave up 43 earned runs and 63 hits. He struck out 31 and walked 32 while in the majors and he never pitched in the majors again after sustaining a rotator cuff injury at a time when Tommy John surgery was unheard of.

The following link leads to the best article I have found about Necciai:

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1066032/1/index.htm