When betting main league baseball it's extremely wise to pay attention to the numbers, as teams and players seem to own specific pitchers or clubs, but also struggled mightily against others. We warned you at the start off of the year about Johnson for the Yankees.
Randy Johnson is 5-2 by means of seven starts. But that's not as great as it looks.
Facing a Tampa lineup missing Jorge Cantu, Aubrey Huff and Julio Lugo, Johnson gave up five runs on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings Thursday night, letting the Devil Rays remain in the game until the Yankees finally broke it open for a 10-5 victory.
Such games have turn out to be routine. In his prior commence, against Toronto on Saturday, Johnson allowed six runs on six hits in five innings. The Yankees bailed him out by scoring 17 runs.
That method might function now. It will not in October.
"Right now he's not as great as he's going to be," manager Joe Torre stated of Johnson, 42. "Let's put it this way: We do not have any concerns. ... This is just regular pitching stuff."
Johnson has allowed 19 earned runs in his last 23 innings, bumping his ERA to five.02. But he is 5-2 simply because the Yankees have averaged just over nine runs over his seven starts.
The divorce of lengthy time mates Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox and former pitching coach Lee Mazzone, has made life miserable for both of their teams. The Braves avoided dropping to 10 games behind inside the National League East when they broke a four-game losing streak Sunday by beating the New York Mets 13-3. Still, the nine-game deficit beginning the day was the Braves' largest since Aug. 11, 1993.
That was the third year of their unprecedented string of 14 division crowns (there was no champion within the strike-shortened 1994 season). The streak remains alive but appears in jeopardy with the Mets' emergence.
Baltimore starter Bruce Chen gave homers to Kevin Mench and Mark Teixeira in his last commence against Texas and Chen was battered for 11 hits and eight runs (seven earned) in four innings as he fell to 0-4. RHP Jim Brower, who ended the week ahead of all relievers with the most earned runs allowed at 14, essentially the most walks with 11 and most hits allowed with 17. Their new pitching coach is Mazzone.
The Boston Red Sox team slugging percentage of .409 entering April 28, is ranked 22nd in baseball. The Red Sox finished within the leading two in slugging every single of the past 3 seasons. Couple of teams succeed whilst digging themselves holes, as well as the 2006 Red Sox have proved no exception to that trend. For that reason, the truth that Boston had been outscored by its opponents by a 25-13 margin in very first innings prior to Wednesday raised some thing of a red flag.
The Sox own just a 5-9 mark when their opponents score initial, something that has now happened in specifically half of the team's games. It truly is a pattern that the team is eager to reverse.
With Thursday's 7-4 win, the Sox now have an 11-3 record when they score initial. If the recent awakening of the Boston bats (20 runs throughout the very first three games of a homestand) points to far more such nights, then the team may well be able to breathe a bit simpler.
RHP Bobby Jenks of the Chicago White Sox continued silencing the critics who jumped on him in spring training, saving his ninth game in nine opportunities Thursday. His velocity on his fastball is still on the rise, but the impressive thing with Jenks has been his other pitches, specifically his curveball. The Sox swept the two-game series against the Mariners and in doing so won their 10th consecutive house game, tying a franchise record. They have won 19 of 23 overall, becoming the very first team in the majors to reach 20 wins.
Because acquiring swept within the 2000 American League Division Series against the Mariners, the Sox are now 8-17 at Safeco Field.
The Indians' inconsistent pitching staff cost the team an additional game Thursday, as Cleveland lost 12-4 at Oakland. Starter Jason Johnson (2-2) lasted just two innings and gave up seven runs.
Johnson had a 1.83 ERA soon after his initial 3 starts, but his ERA inside the last 3 starts is 9.64. That's the type of inconsistency that has plagued the Indians within the initial five weeks of the season.
Equally distressing to the Indians is that Johnson has averaged much less than five innings per start off in his last 3 starts. Not pitching deep into games has been a difficulty for Indians starting pitchers because the beginning of the season, along with the two innings Johnson pitched Thursday was a reminder of that shortcoming. As a result of the starters' inability to consistently pitch six or seven innings, the bullpen has been overworked. The result has been that the pitching overall has been wildly inconsistent.
That lack of consistency has sabotaged a terrific start to the season offensively. The Indians are at or near the best of the league in most offensive categories, but yet they're just one game over .500 (15-14).
The Indians failed to hit a double Thursday, snapping a streak in which they had at the very least 1 double in 43 consecutive games, dating to last year.
RHP Jason Johnson's career record against Oakland fell to 1-8 right after he was roughed up Thursday.
RHP Jake Westbrook, who will begin Friday night in Seattle, has a 9.17 career ERA in eight appearances, six starts, against the Mariners.
C Victor Martinez has reached base in 43 consecutive games, dating to last year. That's the longest such streak inside the majors given that Jim Edmonds reached in 47 straight games from June to August 2004.
DH Travis Hafner has homered in his last four games. In his last four games, Hafner is hitting .389 (7-for-1

with four home runs and 13 RBIs.
When RHP Carlos Silva surrendered a two-out, fourth-inning walk to former teammate 1B Doug Mientkiewicz on Thursday night, it snapped a streak by Twins pitchers of far more than three 1/2 games without allowing a walk. The first walk of the homestand (four games in) ended a 33-inning streak that spanned 133 plate appearances.
The Twins' 1-0 loss to the Royals on Thursday night was their very first 1-0 loss given that the same team handed them one at Kansas City last Aug. 31 � beating the Twins with a run within the bottom of the ninth inning following the Twins failed to score regardless of 13 hits and a walk.
The Twins have been shut out four times already this season, which includes 3 times in their past seven games. This following they thought they improved the lowest-scoring lineup within the AL in 2005 � which didn't get shut out until May 9 last year and was shut out only four times until Aug. 26. The 2005 Twins had been shut out 10 times all season.
CF Tori Hunter's infield single inside the fifth inning Thursday was the 34th of the season for the Twins, who entered the day tied with Baltimore for the significant league lead.