Email a Friend
RSS
digg it
Printer Friendly
Mobile Alerts
Sphere IT
Save This PageNotes
TODAY
Cleveland at Chicago White Sox (8:10 p.m.). Cliff Lee (11-1, 2.34 ERA), tied for the major league lead in wins and second in the AL in ERA, matches up with John Danks (5-4, 2.62 ERA) who has the AL's third lowest ERA.
SUNDAY STARS
NO HITTERS
A day after Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo did not allow a hit in a 1-0 loss to the Dodgers, the Angels allowed hits -- three of them -- but no runs in a 1-0 win. That's three hits and one unearned run in two games for the offensively challenged Dodgers, who are hitting just .234 for the month. The Dodgers have scored 83 runs in June, tied with the Nationals for the fewest in the majors.
SLUGGER
White Sox designated hitter Jim Thome hit his 522nd career homer in Chicago's 5-1 victory over the Cubs, moving him past Ted Williams and Willie McCovey into sole possession of 16th place all-time.
MUCH BETTER
The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3 to complete a remarkable first-half turnaround. The Rays are 49-32, the most victories midway through a season by a team that had the majors' worst record the season before, according to Stats, Inc. The only team with a better half-season winning percentage than the Rays' .605 after having the worst overall record the previous season was the 1903 New York Giants, who were 45-25 (.643). The 2001 Cubs were 48-33 at midseason after going 65-97 the year before.
MUCH WORSE
The Colorado Rockies lost their seventh straight game, 4-3 to the Detroit Tigers. After their 81st game on Saturday, they were 32-49, giving them the fewest wins at the halfway point for a team a year after making the World Series since the Florida Marlins in 1998, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. That Marlins team was dismantled a year after winning the World Series, and went 28-53 in their first 81 games.
OVER .500
The Tigers won their fifth straight game and 15th in their last 18, 4-3 over Colorado. Detroit has a winning record for the first time this season.
RETURN
Edwin Encarnacion, back in the Reds lineup after missing five games with back spasms, hit a two-run homer in a 9-5 win over Cleveland. . . . Mets RF Ryan Church was activated from the disabled list and went 2-for-4 in his first game since June 6, a 3-1 win over the Yankees. He'd been slowed by the effects of his second concussion this year.
