Article:Baseball Notebook: Red Sox Win in 13 Innings

Red Sox Win 5-3 On Youkilis Walkoff Homer

Yesterday I didn't turn the Red Sox-Cardinals game on till I finished watching the Braves-Mariners game. It was the 9th inning and the Red Sox were leading the Cardinals 3-2 with Jonathan Paplebon coming in from the bullpen to nail down the win. Instead Paplebon got down to one strike from winning the game when Adam Kennedy hit a liner over the head of Coco Crisp that drove in the tying run and sent the game into extra innings.

The two teams remained tied until the bottom of the 13th inning when Tony LaRussa brought in Mike Parisi and when they showed his stats on the screen I had a feeling he would lose the game since batters were hitting .347 against him and his ERA was over 7.00. Kevin Youkilis came up to bat with a runner on and drove a towering homer over the fence to win the game.

Pettitte, Giambi Lead Yankees To 4-1 Win Over the Reds

Andy Pettitte 8-5 pitched six scoreless innings as he pitched the Yankees to a 4-1 win over the Reds to avoid a sweep and are 8-2 in their last ten games. The other 8-2 teams are the Twins, Tigers and Royals from the AL Central division. Pettitte has won 5 of his last 7 starts with the other two games no decision contests. He hasn't lost since May 17th with only one start remaining in June. Pettitte has not given up a homer in his last three starts.

Jason Giambi was the hitting star for the Yankees with a 3 for 3 day and drove in his 41st and 42nd runs of the season. Darrell Rasner 4-4 is slated to start against Tom Gorzelanny 5-6 on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 601st home run off of Kyle Farnsworth for the only run by the Reds. Johnny Cueto 5-8 took the loss but pitched well giving up only one run in five innings while striking out seven and walking none.

Teixeira Hits Three Homers In Braves 8-3 Defeat of Mariners

Mark Teixeira hit three homers yesterday in the Braves 8-3 win over the Mariners. Tim Hudson 8-5 took the win by hurling seven shutout innings while allowing four hits. Carlos Silva 3-9 took the loss and is on his way to his third straight season with a losing record.

The Braves will try to even their record at 39-39 if they defeat the Brewers who will be in town today but it won't be easy with Ben Sheets 8-1 taking the mound for the Brewers against Jo-Jo Reyes with a 3-4 record.

Ichiro Suzuki was 0 for 5 and lowered his season average to .288. With the Mariners having only six games left this half Suzuki needs 10 hits to have 100 hits. He is trying to have 200 hits for the eighth straight season.

Around the Bases

Prince Fielder hit his 15th and 16th homers in the 7-3 win by the Brewers against the Orioles. Manny Parra 7-2 took the win as the Brewers climbed to within two games of the second place Cardinals....Carlos Lee hit his 17th homer as the Astros defeated the Rays 3-2. Evan Longoria hit his 12th homer tying him with Eric Hinske for the team lead....The Twins won their sixth game in a row with a 5-3 win over the Diamondbacks. Livan Hernandez 8-4 took the win over Brandon Webb 11-4. Webb has lost his last two starts and in those starts he pitched 10 innings allowing 12 runs and 17 hits. His earned run average for the month of June is 6.04.

Royals defeated Giants in a 11-10 slugfest. Tim Lincecum pitched his worst game of the season as he gave up 5 runs in 5 innings. It was the first time Lincecum failed to pitch into the sixth inning....Justin Duchscherer 8-4 pitched the A's to a 7-1 win over the Marlins. Emil Brown drove in two runs which were his first RBI's since May 25th and he is hitting .160 in June. Ryan Sweeney was the only A's player hitting higher than .279 among the starters with his average of .292. The A's had seven players hitting .250 or lower in yesterday's game. The A's pitchers have the best ERA in the majors with a 3.43 ERA.

Mike Pelfrey 4-6 won his second straight start after losing 6 in a row earlier as the Mets won 3-1 over the Rockies....Angels defeated Phillies 3-2 and sent the Phillies to their fifth straight defeat. All five Phillies starters each lost in those five games. Jered Weaver 7-7 took the win for the Angels while Cole Hamels 7-4 took the loss....Vicente Padilla 10-3 pitched the Rangers to a 5-3 win over the Nationals. The Rangers have four players who have a chance of driving in 100 runs this season with the season almost half over. Josh Hamilton 76, David Murphy 51, Milton Bradley 48 and Ian Kinsler 47.

Dustin McGowan 5-4 defeated the Pirates 8-5 in the Blue Jays win....Cubs defeated the White Sox 7-1 with Ryan Demptster 9-2 taking the win and Javier Vazquez 7-6 taking the loss for the White Sox. The White Sox could only mangage two extra base hits in the contest. Aramis Ramirez hit his 14th homer of the season and the Cubs won their 14th straight game at Wrigley Field. The Twins moved to within a game and a half of the White Sox. Since June 9th the White Sox have lost a 3 game series to the Tigers, lost 2 of 3 to the Rockies, swept the Pirates in 3 games series and now have been swept themselves by the Cubs in a 3 game series.

Justin Verlander 4-9 won his second straight decision as the Tigers defeated the Padres 5-3. Verlander walked five and struck out 10. The Tigers are in third place and 5 games behind the first place White Sox. They are three games under .500 and on June 1st they were 8 games under .500 and 6 games behind the White Sox so they are not making much headway in trying to get past the second place Twins who have won six in a row. Ivan Rodriguez hit his 2nd homer of the season in 218 times at bat. Adrian Gonzalez hit his 21st homer for the Padres....Chad Billingsley 6-7 pitched the Dodgers to a 4-3 win over the Indians.

Rookies at Halfway Mark

With the season almost half over very soon this is a good time to see how the rookies are doing in 2008.

American League

Hitting

Jacoby Ellsbury leads AL rookies in hitting among qualified players with a .276 average. David Murphy leads in hits with 81 and doubles with 21....Evan Longoria leads in homers with 12 and Murphy leads in RBI's with 51 with Longoria second with 37 and he has about 70 less times at bat than Murphy....Ellsbury is far ahead in stolen bases with 34 to 6 by second place Ryan Sweeney....Ellsbury also leads in on base percentage with a .354 mark. Longoria leads in slugging at .480 and OPS at .811. Daric Barton leads in walks with 38....Longoria leads in strikeouts with 62.

Pitching

Greg Smith leads AL rookies in ERA with a 3.51 mark but Armando Galarraga has a 3.03 ERA but should have enough innings to qualify soon and will probably be the leader then....Smith also leads in walks allowed with 36 and in strikeouts with 64....Galarraga leads in wins with 7....Smith and Luke Hochevar lead in losses with 5....Masa Kobayashi leads in saves with 4.

National League

Hitting

Kosuke Fukudome leads NL rookies in hitting with a .297 average with Joey Votto next with a .289 average....Fukudome also leads in hits with 78....Geovany Soto leads in doubles with 20....Soto and Votto are tied for the NL rookie home run lead with 12 each....Soto leads in RBI's with 43....Eugenio Velez leads in stolen bases with 8....Fukudome also leads in walks with 48....Soto also leads in strikeouts with 65....Fukudome leads in on base percentage with a .404 mark....Soto leads in slugging at .508 and OPS at .866.

Pitching

Jair Jurjjens leads NL rookies in wins with 7....John Lannan and Johnny Cueto have the most losses with 8 each....Jurrjens also has the lowest ERA with a 3.20 mark....Phil Dumatrait has the most walks with 40 and Cueto has most strikeouts with 81...Manny Acosta leads in saves with 3.