A Night in the American League

Every night The Big Guy breaks down the action in the American League.

Biggest Win

White Sox 4-Angels 2: Chicago remained hot as they picked up their 7th win in 10 games and remain 1.5 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers for the AL Central lead. Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski hit a home run in his fifth straight game and the bullpen allowed one run over four innings following start Francisco Liriano’s injury-induced exit after five. The loss sends Los Angeles into third place in the AL West, a half game behind the Oakland Athletics.

Best Hitter

The Detroit Tigers matched the White Sox with a 10-8 win over the Cleveland Racists. Detroits #1-2 hitters, Austin Jackson and Omar Infante combined to hit 8-12. With so many at-bats with Jackson on base, Infante’s 3 RBI earn him the nod. Overall, he went 4-6, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, 3 R. A fun fact on the .287 hitting Infante: in 366 at-bats, he has 13 walks. Nice .310 OBP, buddy.

Best Pitcher

The Tampa Bay Rays fell to division rival Baltimore Sunday, but don’t blame David Price. The 14-4 lefty went 8 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 5 K. Price lowered his ERA to 2.49. The Vanderbilt product has thrown at least 7 innings in each of his last nine starts, each of which have been quality starts.

Stat To Know

Detroit Tigers centerfielder Austin Jackson extended his hitting streak to eight games Sunday. The toolsy 25-year-old posted a single hit in his first seven games before breaking out for four hits against the Cleveland Racists on Sunday. His third season in the league has been quite a bounce back after his sophomore slump.

• Jackson in 2011: .249/.317/.374
• Jackson in 2012: .322/.409/.518

Tomorrow’s Note

The Baltimore Orioles will start a three game set against the Seattle Mariners. The AL West basement dwellers are 8-2 in their last ten, making Seattle the hottest team in the league. The home Orioles are 6-4 in their last ten. The red hot Jason Vargas will take the bump for the Mariners against Baltimore’s 24-year-old Chris Tillman.

A Night in the American League

Every night The Big Guy breaks down the action in the American League.

Best Win

Orioles 6-Ray 2: In a battle of second fiddle AL East teams, Baltimore found something they don’t run across too often. A quality start. Chris Tillman, a 6’5″ righty, went 6 IP, 2 ER for his third quality appearance in four starts this season. Baltimore ranks 26th in team quality starts but Tillman’s arm and left fielder Chris Davis’ bat (2-4, 4 RBI) pushed the O’s past Tampa Bay. Baltimore now leads Tampa Bay by one game.

Best Hitter

Edwin Encarnacion is doing his best to help Toronto Blue Jays fans deal with the grief of losing slugger Jose Bautista. The 29-year-old Dominican is enjoying a breakout season that continued last night when he went 2-4, HR, 3 RBI in a 10-4 victory over the red-hot Oakland Athletics. Encarnacion has eight extra-base hits in his last ten games.

Best Pitcher

Don’t tell anyone, but Jason Vargas is putting together one hell of a season in Seattle. The 29-year-old lefty allowed one hit over 8 IP as he earned his fourth consecutive win, this time against the Kansas City Royals. Despite pitching for a losing team (44-57), Vargas is fourth in the American League with 11 wins and third in the AL in innings pitched. The Mariners are 12-10 in Vargas’ starts. He posted a 1.46 ERA in July.

Stat to Know

Oakland Athletics starter Tommy Milone continued a troubling trend Thursday. After going 7 IP, 5 ER in Toronto, Milone’s road ERA sits at 5.77. His home ERA in spacious Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum is 0.91.

Tomorrow’s Note

Converted Toronto reliever Carlos Villanueva will make his fifth start of the season against the travelling Detroit Tigers. In 23.1 IP, Villanueva has a 2.35 ERA while starting. He is 5-0 this year with three of those wins coming in his last three starts.