National League Review

Who’s Hot

Clayton Kershaw

The Dodgers starting pitcher got the win in the Dodgers 4-0 win against the San Francisco Giants. Kershaw went 9 innings, getting the complete game shut out while striking out 7 Giants batters. Kershaw improved to 8-7 on the season with a 2.95 ERA on the season. Kershaw’s 9 innings pitched made him number 1 in the N.L. in innings pitched with 149.1 this season

R.A. Dickey

The New York Mets starting pitcher improved his league lead in wins with a victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks Sunday. Dickey got his 14th victory of the season, going 7 innings giving up 1 run off just 4 hits, while striking out 8. Dickey improved to 14-2 on the season with a 2.83 ERA which is 9th in the N.L. Dickey is also 2nd in both strikeouts with 147 and innings pitched with 146.1.

Anthony Rizzo

The Cubs young 1st baseman was the hero of the day, as his 2 run homer beat the Cardinals 4-2 in extra innings. Rizzo went 3-4 with 2 singles to go along with his walk off homer. Rizzo is now batting .333 on the season with 7 homers since being called up from the minors late in June. Rizzo is just 22.

Corey Hart

The Milwaukee Brewers right fielder, Corey Hart, went 4-5 despite the Brewers 11-10 loss to the Washington Nationals. Hart had 2 singles, a double, a homer, and a RBI in Sunday’s ball game. Hart’s homer gives hime 19 on the season, which ranks him 9th in the N.L. in homers. Hart is now batting just .267 on the year, raising his average 7 points in the game.

Cincinnati Reds

The Cincinnati Reds are now 61-40 on the season after winning 10 games in a row and 14 of their last 16 games. The Reds are now 3 games ahead of the Pittsburg Pirates for the lead in the N.L. Central. Much can be said about the pitching staff, as they have given up just 57 runs in 151 innings which gives them a 3.91 ERA during the run. The Reds have also averaged 4.6 runs a game during the span.

Who’s Not

 

Brian LaHair

The Cubs all-star 1st baseman/outfielder has struggled mightily his last 10 games going just 5-32 and striking 15 times. LaHair went 0-3 in Sunday’s game against the Cardinals, including 3 strikeouts. LaHair started the season out hot, batting .390 in the month of April. Since April LaHair’s batting average has steadily been declining since. LaHair batted .253 in May, .231 in June, and just .203 in July. LaHair looked like he could have become one of the oldest rookie of the year’s at season start, but his luck is vastly fading away as he’s batting just .267 on the season.

James McDonald

The Pirates starting pitcher, James McDonald, has struggled his last 4 starts, going 1-2 during the span. McDonald got the loss Sunday against the Astros going just 5 innings and giving up 5 runs. Over his last 4 starts, McDonald has gone a total of 20.2 innings while giving up 21 runs in those innings. McDonald is 10-5 on the season, but his ERA has gone from 2.37 to 3.38 on the season over his last 4 starts.

 Jonathan Sanchez

The Colorado Rockies starting pitcher, Jonathan Sanchez, has now lost or gotten a no decision in every start this season since his first start. The Rockies pitcher got the loss against the Cincinnati Reds 7-2 Sunday. Sanchez went just 4.2 innings while giving up 6 runs off 8 hits. Sanchez is now 1-8 on the season with a 8.32 ERA on the year.

 

 

 

Coach Tom

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Good

R.A. Dickey- The Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey won his 6th straight start and in similar fashion to his last outing. For the 2nd straight start R.A. Dickey gave up just 1 hit. Dickey went 9 scoreless innings while 13 lowering his ERA to a staggering 2.00 on the season. Dickey now leads the league in wins (11), strikeouts(101), ERA(2.00), and whip(0.89).

Joey Votto- The Reds 1st baseman added to his league leading average to .368 going 2-4 with a homer and 2 RBIs in Mondays 9-10 loss against the Cleveland Indians. After lossing his 14 game hit streak, Votto has started another  7 game hit streak.

Brian Bixler- The Astros 2nd baseman improved his average to .313 on the season after going 3-5 including a homer, a double, 2 runs scored, and 3 RBIs. It was Bixler’s first home run of the season as he has just played in 13 games this year after returning from injury in April.

Cubs bats- The Chicago Cubs batters slugged 5 homers, 12 runs, and 15 hits against the crosstown rival Chicago White Sox. 5 Cubs players had at least 2 hits including Castro(3), Lahair(2), Soriano(2), Valbuena(3), and Soto(2) and 8 of the 9 starters had a hit. This was the Cubs highest scoring game of the season.

Aramis Ramirez- The Brewers 3rd baseman improved his average by .10 points to .262 after going 3-3 including a double, a homer, a walk, and 3 RBIs. Aramis went 3-3 a day after having just 1 hit in 7 at bats.

Aaron Hill- The Diamondbacks 2nd baseman had a career day going 4-4 including a homer, a triple, a double, and a single to wrap up his first career cycle. Hill is the 297th player in MLB history to hit for the cycle. Hill improved his average by .12 points to .284 on the season.

Melky Cabrera- The Giants outfielder continued to keep pace with Joey Votto on the N.L. lead for batting average going 3-5 including 3 singles while improving his average to .364 on the season.

The Bad

Pablo Sandoval- the Giants DH for the day went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts on the day. Sandoval’s average dropped .12 points to .302 on season ending his 7 game hit streak.

David DeJesus- The Cubs outfielder was the only Cub batter to not have a hit against the Chicago White Sox. DeJesus went 0-3 Monday while the rest of the team had 15 hits.

Mike Minor- The Braves Starting pitcher went 5.2 innings while giving up 4 hits, 4 runs, and 3 walks. Minor’s ERA is now a staggering 6.04 on the season and Minor has won just 1 game over his last 10 games.

The Ugly

Brett Myers- The Astros relief pitcher was only able to get 2 outs in his outing Monday against the Kansas City Royals giving up 8 hits and 5 earned runs. This was by far Myers worst outing of the season raising his ERA  from 1.99 to 3.86 on the season

 

 

Coach Tom