Josh Beckett threw his first career no hitter on Sunday against the Philadelphia Phillies. It was the 21st in Dodgers history, which leads Major Leagues. Beckett did well mixing his pitches shutting down the Phillies bats being the oldest player to pitch a no hitter since Randy Johnson at the age of 40. Beckett joined a small list of pitchers who have both won a World Series and pitched a no hitter, joining names such as Gibson, Koufax, and Larsen. Beckett is now 3-1 with a 2.43 ERA. The Dodgers currently trail the Giants and need a boost such as this to get to where they want to be this season. It seemed to have worked, as the very next day Ryu pitched 7 no hit innings as well for the Dodgers. The Phillies had the second longest streak without being no hit, trailing only, believe it or not the Cubs. But now the Phillies are back on top of the list, as Josh Beckett, the 34 year old vet kept them hitless over 128 pitches, the last one being a called strike three against Chase Utley to finish the game off.
Kyle Blanks was suppose to be a key bat in the Padres lineup for years to come. But they were not impressed with what Blanks was offering, leading Blanks to be dealt away to the A's. Blanks made his first appearance as an Oakland A on Monday where he hit a HR and another base hit. Oakland looks to be a good home for Blanks, as he is filling in for the struggling Barton. The A's also acquired Jeff Francis after the Reds cut him. The Reds signed Jair Jurrjens to a minor league contract to fill in. Both pitchers are not currently at the Major League level, but are most likely the first to be called up if there are injury issues. The Red Sox finally went through with everyone has been waiting for as they signed Stephen Drew to a 1 year contract worth 10.2 million. With a struggling offense and a record that looks terrible, the Sox decided it was finally time to agree with Drew, they have had so many injury problems, from Napoli, Victorino, and Middlebrooks, the team is just on a huge slide.
The DL list just continues to rise, I am going to quickly mention some big names. First off, this may be a break for the Indians as neither of these bats have been very helpful, but Carlos Santana and Nick Swisher joined the DL and are no longer slumping in their lineup. Big time HR hitter Jose Abreu joined the 15 day DL, as bats such as Nelson Cruz and Edwin Encarnacion have passed him on the HR count. The Red Sox injury problems continue with both Buchholz (knee) and Dubront (shoulder strain) hitting the DL, creating more missing spots on the roster and rotation. Gio Gonzales has shoulder problems creating a gap in the rotation of the struggling Nationals. Votto is out with a leg injury, he hasn't been as productive as hoped with .257 average and 6 HRs. The Dodgers lost Uribe to a hamstring injury, while their rival enemy Giants are still missing Matt Cain who now has a hamstring problem and they stupidly lost reliever Casillia as he pulled his hamstring running to first base.
Funny stories of the week, first off a watch that belonged to the great Babe Rut was put up for auction and sold for more than 650K. That seems like a crazy amount for a watch, but it belong to the Babe a crazy fan could go for it and frame it up in his man cave to show off. Next, Giants outfielder Hunter Pence hates driving in the city of San Francisco and I don't blame him. So he always rides his scooter to AT&T Park, but it was stolen on Sunday. This left Pence in devastation, as he even put out an award for who ever was willing to return it to him. Wednesday afternoon, the scooter was returned though Pence had already ordered a new one. Pence was relieved and helped his team pick up the win against the Cubs that day. Going in further to that game, Tim Lincecum had pitched 5 no hit innings, but was taken out of the game due to high pitch count. Lincecum pitched a no hitter last July over 148 pitches, but his manager wasn't about to let him do that again. So the Giants ended up pitching a 2 hitter shutting out the Cubs 5-0
No comments:
Post a Comment