Pitching first: John Danks won his first career game. Hopefully the first of many.
Catching first: A couple of firsts for Gustavo Molina -- he gave A.J. Pierzynski his first complete day off, and he reached base for the first time with a walk in his final plate appearance. One has to wonder how big a fine Glen Perkins faces in kangaroo court for walking Molina on five pitches, after Molina grounded and lined out weakly, and struck out flailing away at three pitches.
Hitting first: With a 2-for-5 night including a double, Darin Erstad is now hitting .333/.377/.458 out of the leadoff spot. How does that compare to other leadoff hitters around the league?
- Grady Sizemore: .254/.405/.432
- Johnny Damon: .258/.380/.360
- Curtis Granderson: .314/.364/.667
- Ichiro: .274/.341/.410
- David DeJesus: .279/.379/.452
- Brian Roberts: .276/.366/.394
- Kenny Lofton: .240/.311/.376
Say what you will about
The Most Grindy Man in The World, but he's holding his own so far.
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Speaking of hitting, The Cheat
takes a good look at balls-in-play data worth checking out.
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Minor league round-up:
- Charlotte 9, Richmond 5
- Wiki Gonzalez had a monster game, going 2-for-5 with two homers and five RBI.
- Brian Anderson went 1-for-3 with two walks, scoring twice; Josh Fields went 1-for-5
- Heath Phillips was hit hard (5 1/3 IP, 10 hits, five runs), but the bullpen picked him up. Bret Prinz threw two scoreless innings, striking out four.
- Jacksonville 4, Birmingham 1
- Gio Gonzalez rebounded after getting pounded, throwing five scoreless innings. He gave up six hits, but only walked one while striking out seven.
- Dewon Day gave up a crooked number in his second straight outing -- three runs in an inning this time. He took the loss.
- Jason Bourgeois provided all the scoring with a solo homer; Thomas Collaro went 2-for-4 with two doubles; Jeremy Frost had a three-hit game.
- Salem 12, Winston-Salem 3
- Jason Rice and Joseph Torres walked 10 over the first five innings while giving up 11 runs.
- Adam Ricks drove in all three Warthogs runs; Daron Roberts had three hits, including two doubles.
- Kannapolis 6, Greenville 1
- The 3-4-5 combo of Chris Carter, Brandon Allen and Lee Cruz went 7-for-12 with 5 RBI; Allen had four of them.
- Justin Edwards threw six shutout innings, allowing three hits and zero walks while striking out two. His ERA stands at 1.99.
- Noe Rodriguez struck out three in two innings of relief, and has 23 strikeouts to nine walks in 16 innings.