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| Bobby Jenks worked a perfect ninth inning for his 10th save in 12 chances as the White Sox defeated Barry Zito and the Giants on Saturday night. |
Our View: Jenks has rounded into form nicely after a slow start. The right-hander has 12 strikeouts in 18 innings, he's allowed five walks and carries 1.96 ERA.
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| Scott Linebrink, who has become the primary setup man for the White Sox, pitched the eighth before giving way to Bobby Jenks who worked the ninth for his 10th save in 12 chances on Saturday night. |
Our View: Linebrink, after having a disappointing 2007 campaign, has returned to the form that made him the onetime closer to replace the ageless Trevor Hoffman. Linebrink has 11 strikouts in 18 innings, has allowed three runs and walked five, and his 1.47 ERA with an occasional save opportunity this season, makes him a solid option in deep formats.
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| Barry Zito, allowed two runs on eight hits, walked six and struck out four but was still the pitcher of record as the Giants lost 3-1 to the White Sox. |
Our View: Zito became the first Giants pitcher to open a season with eight losses since Jesse Burkett in 1890.
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| Mark Buehrle allowed one run on seven hits, walked three and struck out one while pitching into the seventh inning as the Chicago White Sox scored a 3-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night. |
Our View: Buerhle, who has scuffled this season, dueled with Barry Zito who also pitched well enough to win. Buerhle managed to loser his 5.81 ERA over a half a run with his winning effort.
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| Dave Bush allowed four runs on five hits, walked two and struck out two in a no-decision versus the Red Sox on Saturday night. |
Our View: Bush, much like his mound opponent Tim Wakefield, is expected to keep his team in the game and eat innings due to the Brewers injured arms.
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| Boston starter Tim Wakefield gave up three runs and six hits in 5.1 innings and left the second game of the doubleheader with a 5-1 lead. Unfortunately the Sox were unable to hold the lead resulting in a no-decision for the knuckleballer. |
Our View: Wake has had an up and down 2008 campaign, but he is in the rotation to keep his club in the game and eat innings, the latter he has struggled to do.
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| Mike Timlin pitched the ninth for his first save and the Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-6 on Saturday to complete a sweep of their day-night doubleheader. |
Our View: Jon Papelbon saved the first game of the doubleheader and the team decided not to bring him back for the second time.
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| Mike Lowell hit a two-run homer and doubled in a pair of runs, and the Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-6 on Saturday and complete a sweep of their day-night doubleheader. |
Our View: Lowell has been on fire since suffering an early season slump and injury. The third baseman now has five home runs and 15 RBI in May.
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| Brian Fuentes worked the ninth for his fifth save in seven chances and the Colorado Rockies scored a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday night. |
Our View: It wasn't easy for Fuentes. He gave up a leadoff single to Delmon Young and a two-out walk to Harris before getting Mike Lamb to swing and miss to end the game.
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| Matt Herges, pitching in relief of Roks rookie Greg Reynolds, threw a scoreless seventh and eighth innings to earn his second win of the season. |
Our View: Herges, who admitted using performance-enhancing substances, re-signed with the Rockies last November has been a staple in their bullpen.
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| Carlos Gomez was out of the Saturday night lineup at Coors Field with a sore right wrist, injured while making a catch against the wall in center field in the ninth inning of Friday's game. |
Our View: It was the second game in three night's Gomez has been out of the lineup. He missed Thursday's game to the flu. Consider the speedy outfielder day-to-day.
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| Greg Reynolds, Colorado's first-round draft choice and the second selection overall in the 2006 draft, worked six scoreless innings, allowing three hits. The right-hander walked two and struck out two in the no-decision. |
Our View: Reynolds had a nice matchup for his second start. The light-hitting Twins allowed the rookie to lower his 6.35 ERA to 3.09 in one single start. Reynolds will have some good, and some very bad performances, until he can hone his craft.
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| Livan Hernandez retired the first 15 batters he faced before Jeff Baker hit a double to left leading off the sixth inning in Saturday night's loss to the Rockies. Hernandez allowed eight hits and three runs in 7.1 innings, and drove in a run with a bunt. |
Our View: A very nice effort by Livan at Coors field on Saturday nigh, and he deserved better than a loss for his work.
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| Max Scherzer isn't quite ready for the big time. In his second loss, and the teams third in his starts, the big right-hander has command issues. While Scherzer didn't allow an earned run, he put his teammates in a position to fail by walking an American League pitcher, who had all of three minor league at bats, with two outs in the fifth inning. The result were two unearned runs and ultimately a Diamondbacks loss. |
Our View: This start made it clear that when Doug Davis returns at the end of the month, Scherzer will go to the pen to get some long relief work, build some mental toughness and harness his change-up.
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| Todd Jones pitched the ninth for his sixth save in six chances. |
Our View: The Tigers are in for a long season with their bullpen, rotation and Jones as their closer. And while they sport a solid lineup top to bottom, it was more than obvious tonight that they're also soft at the corners defensively.
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| Armando Galarraga allowed two runs on one hit, walked five and struck out three and the the Detroit Tigers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2 on Saturday, snapping a five-game losing streak. |
Our View: Galarraga took advantage of an impatient D'Backs lineup and benefited from Arizona mental mistakes to win his third game of the season. The effort will make it very difficult to pull him from the rotation once Dontrelle Willis returns to active duty.
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| Tim Hudson suffered his third loss of the season as the Oakland Athletics beat the Atlanta Braves 5-4 on Saturday night. In the loss the right hander allowed five runs on five hits, walked five and struck out three. |
Our View: After a string of strong outings, Hudson was obviously not on his game, and against his old team for that matter. Hudson's ERA climbed to 3.06 in the loss.
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| The Braves rallied from a 5-1 deficit with three runs in the ninth off Huston Street, who came into the game in a non-save situation. Street allowed three runs on three hits, didn't allow a walk and struck out one. |
Our View: Street's ERA went from 3.63 to 4.91 in the effort.
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| Rich Harden allowed one run on four hits, walked one and struck out eight over seven innings for his second win of the season. |
Our View: Harden and the A's ended Atlanta's eight-game home winning streak and the hard-throwing right hander was allowed to throw 100 pitches in his second start off the disabled list. Dare we suggest his owners put him on the market after this impressive outing?
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| Jack Cust hit a solo home run and the Oakland Athletics beat the Atlanta Braves 5-4 on Saturday night to end a season-worst four-game losing streak. |
Our View: Cust has become a popular free agent pickup of late. The A's slugger has five home runs, 21 runs scored and 13 RBI while hitting .239 on the season. Those numbers don't explain his popularity.
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| George Sherrill pitched a perfect ninth inning, striking out one, for his 17th save in 19 chances. |
Our View: Sherrill has four saves in the four Orioles games this week.
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| Ryan Zimmerman remained hot on by hitting a solo home run off winning pitcher Brian Burres on Saturday night. |
Our View: Zimmerman now has eight home runs on the season to go along wtih 22 runs and 24 RBI.
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| Brian Burres allowed two runs on four hits, walked two and struck out three and the Baltimore Orioles held on to beat the Washington Nationals 6-5 on Saturday night. |
Our View: Burres evened his record at 4-4 on the season, lowered his ERA to 3.44 and has been a pleasant surprise for the shocking 23-19 Orioles.
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| Nick Markakis homered and drove in three runs and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Washington Nationals 6-5 on Saturday night for their fourth straight victory. |
Our View: Markakis has scored 26 times, recorded 22 RBI, stole six bases and is hitting .265 on the season.
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| Roy Oswalt, who reportedly was pitching hurt, left in the seventh after allowing consecutive singles and throwing 111 pitches. Oswalt was hit hard for most of the night allowing six runs on 11 hits, waling one and striking out only one. |
Our View: If in fact Oswalt was pitching with an injured groin, he was doing so from the first inning on. The right-handed veteran three outs in the first inning were all hard hit line-drives.
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| Lance Berkman extended his hitting streak to 16 games and matched Pete Rose as the only players since 1956 with 31 hits in a span of 50 at-bats. Berkman finished 2-for-3 with a walk to raise his season average to .399.
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Our View: After his major league-best 16th homer leading off the fourth, Berkman had a single in the sixth that matched Rose's 31-of-50 stretch for Philadelphia in 1979.
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| Vicente Padilla matched his victory total from last season by winning his fourth consecutive decision over five starts and his sixth of the year as the Rangers wore out the Rangers for the second consecutive game. The right-hander allowed two runs and five hits over seven innings. |
Our View: Padilla struggled early but the Astros were not able to get the big hit.
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| Phillies starter Adam Eaton allowed four runs on eight hits in five innings to remain winless in nine starts this season. |
Our View: Eaton walked two and struck out three in the loss. His K:BB ratio (27:24) is just not acceptable for a pitcher who only has a 4.98 K/9 Rate.
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| Rod Barajas pitched 6.1 strong innings and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-3 on Saturday night.
Burnett allowed two runs on four hits, walking three and striking out eight. |
Our View: Burnett and the Jays rotation continue to keep the light-hitting lineup in games, and head into Sunday afternoon's game with their best, Shaun Marcum.
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| Rod Barajas hit two homers, including a grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-3 on Saturday night. |
Our View: Barajas has played in 22 games this year and compiled 63 at-bats. The backup catcher has scored six runs, has nine RBI and is hitting .254 on the season.
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| Rod Barajas hit two homers, including a grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-3 on Saturday night. |
Our View: Barajas has played in 22 games this year and compiled 63 at-bats. The backup catcher has scored six runs, has nine RBI and is hitting .254 on the season.
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| Scott Olsen allowed three runs on seven hits, walked five (two intentionally) and struck out three in a no-decision on Saturday night. |
Our View: Olsen wasn't sharp in his effort but kept his team in the game until the offense unloaded in the seventh inning.
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| Florida shortstop Hanley Ramirez was 0-for-3 with a walk and three strikeouts in Saturday night's win over the Royals. Earlier in the day, the Marlins formally announced the $70 million, six-year contract extension for Ramirez at the site of their future ballpark.
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Our View: The Royals pitched Ramirez away the entire night and the All Star shortstop was fooled in most of his at-bats.
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| Following up on an earlier report, Rangers' outfielder Josh Hamilton , the major league RBI leader, left Saturday night's game against Houston because of general soreness, this according to ESPN. Hamilton asked manager Ron Washington to move him to right field for Saturday night's game and had already talked about taking Sunday off as well.
"I'm sore from that first-inning catch, or almost-catch," Hamilton said before the game. "I landed on my shoulder and right hip. I must have kicked myself in my left calf or something, because it's killing me." |
Our View: Daily transaction owners might want to replace Hamilton for the Rangers Sunday afternoon game at Arlington Park.
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| Mike Jacobs was in the starting lineup for the first time since May 7, when he had a tight right quad. His triple to right-center in the fourth inning and hit his 10th home run in the seventh helping the Marlins to a 7-3 victory over the Royals on Saturday night. |
Our View: Jacobs made a splash in his first game in almost two weeks. He now has 18 runs and 27 RBI on the year.
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| Brian Bannister gave up six runs on seven hits in 6.1 innings of work falling to the Marlins 7-3 on Saturday night. The right-hander walked two and struck out five in the loss. |
Our View: Bannister was strong in the early innings, but gave up two runs in the fourth and then fell apart in the seventh.
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| Wes Helms hit a three-run, pinch-hit homer and the Florida Marlins beat the Kansas City Royals 7-3 snapping a season-high four-game losing streak. |
Our View: Helms has played in 34 games this year, but has only 71 at-bats. In those plate appearances Helms has 13 RBI, seven runs scored and is hitting .225.
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| Josh Hamilton was forced to leave Saturday's game in the fifth inning due to what is being reported as "exhaustion."
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Our View: For now the Ranger slugger is considered day-to-day, and we will offer more on the left-handed outfielder when the information is available.
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| A day after losing his first game of the season, Nationals right-hander Shawn Hill had a cortisone shot and fluid taken out of his right elbow on Saturday, this according to MLB.com.
The injury is not considered serious, but there is a possibility he may not make his next start, against the Phillies at Nationals Park on Wednesday. |
Our View: For now, Hill will not have an MRI.
The good news is the pain in not in the area where he had elbow reconstruction in 2004. The pain is located behind the elbow.
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| The Royals extended Joakim Soria to a three-year contract with an additional three options for 2012, '13 and '14.
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Our View: This is the fashion in which the Royals will be signing their youth, and according to sources will become more of the MLB norm in the future.
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| Jeff Suppan gave up four runs on nine hits in six innings, and lost for the third time in four starts as the Boston Red Sox beat the Brewers 5-3 on Saturday. The Brewers have lost three straight overall.
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Our View: Suppan struggled from the start. After retiring the first two batters in the first, Suppan walked Ortiz, hit Ramirez on the left hand and allowed Kevin Youkilis' single. J.D. Drew then walked to give Boston a 1-0 lead. The Brewers right hander threw 31 pitches in the first inning.
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| Jonathan Papelbon got the final three outs to help the Boston Red Sox beat the Brewers 5-3 on Saturday. The right-hander recorded his 12th save, despite giving up a solo homer to Ryan Braun with two out. |
Our View: Papelbon has actually been mortal in May, but continues to get the job done.
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| David Ortiz hit a three-run home run to help the Boston Red Sox beat the Brewers 5-3 on Saturday in the opener of a doubleheader. |
Our View: Ortiz' shot was his eighth of the season and pushed his RBI total to 32 on the year.
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| Daisuke Matsuzaka remained unbeaten, holding Milwaukee to a pair of unearned runs pitching into the seventh inning and the Boston Red Sox beat the Brewers 5-3 on Saturday.
Matsuzaka, who won his seventh game of the season, gave up seven hits over 6.2 innings and tied the Angels' Joe Saunders for the AL lead in wins. |
Our View: Dice-K held the Brewers scoreless until two outs in the seventh, when Rickie Weeks reached on a fielding error and Mike Cameron homered to left.
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| Ervin Santana, who was coming off his worst outing of the season, gave up four runs on five hits in six innings in Saturday's 6-3 loss to the Dodgers. He walked three, hit a batter and struck out five.
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Our View: The Angels' right-hander was tagged for nine hits and five runs in 5.2 innings at Tampa Bay last Sunday, but was not involved in the decision.
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| Chan Ho Park made his first start for the Dodgers in almost seven years, limiting the Angels to two runs -- one earned -- over four innings. The 34-year-old right-hander gave up three hits, walked two and struck out three. He left with the Dodgers up 4-2.
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Our View: Because Park pitched just four innings, Hong-Chih Kuo earned the win by shutting out the Angels for four innings.
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| Blake DeWitt hit a two-run home run in the second inning to help defeat Ervin Santana and the Angels 6-3 on Saturday. |
Our View: DeWitt continues to make a case that the Dodgers don't need Nomar Garciaparra.
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| With the demotion of Chuck James, Jorge Campillo is a candidate to take over the empty slot in the starting rotation. |
Our View: The 29 year old right-handed Mexican leaguer has been dominate in long relief this year, striking out 17 in 21 innings.
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| Delmon Young, who was 3-for-4 on Friday night, added 13 points to his average. In 15 May games he has six multi-hit games. |
Our View: Young raised his average from .260 to .276 and currently the Twins outfielder is all or nothing in games played.
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| Dana Eveland fell a third of an inning short of recording a quality start on Friday night. The left-hander allowed two runs on six hits in 5.2 innings. |
Our View: The A's starter gave up both runs in the six inning and four of his six hits.
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| It had to eventually happen to Joakim Soria. The KC closer was finally scored on Friday night as Jeremy Hermida hit a 2-run home run in the ninth inning to pull the Fish within one run. Soria was able to strike out the next two hitters and secure his 11th save of the season. |
Our View: The two-run home run finally gave Soria something other than zero's next to his ERA. In 17.1 innings of work Soria has allowed five hits, two walks and struck out 20 and now has an 1.04 ERA and 0.40 WHIP.
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| Joey Gathright is starting in center field on Saturday night with David DeJesus in right. Gathright is leading off as the Royals square off against Florida and left-hander Scott Olsen. |
Our View: Gathright is a spark plug from the leadoff spot and leads the Royals in stolen bases.
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| After giving up a second inning run, Aaron Harang scattered six hits over five scoreless innings. The right-hander walked one and struck out five in a game the Reds won 4-2. |
Our View: Harang wasn't involved in the decision but was impressive in his work. The Reds ace lowered his ERA to 3.12.
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| Adam Dunn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off Masa Kobayashi, rallying the Cincinnati Reds to their season-high fifth straight victory Saturday, 4-2 over the Cleveland Indians. |
Our View: Dunn's third homer in three games has helped his HR Rate (14.2), but his average is still a puny .211.
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| Just when the closer-less Indians believed they had a replacement for the injured Joe Borowski, the player blows up in the ninth inning. Adam Dunn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off Masa Kobayashi , rallying the Cincinnati Reds to their season-high fifth straight victory Saturday, 4-2 over the Cleveland Indians. |
Our View: If the failures of Borowski, Rafael Betancourt and Kobayashi had been converted saves, the Indians at the top of the standing in the AL Central.
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| Ubaldo Jimenez tossed his second straight quality start against the Twins on Friday night. While throwing a quality effort against the Twins isn't anything to do flips over, the right-hander has looked good in his last two efforts. |
Our View: Jimenez's Achilles is his lack of command. His 29 walks in 47 innings is concerning. His next start is against the light-hitting Giants should offer him another opportunity at success, but his control issues will create issues against more adept lineups.
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| Gary Sheffield is scheduled to get Saturday night off with Matt Joyce playing left field for the second straight game. |
Our View: With the Tigers playing in an NL Park, Sheff is sitting against right-handers. It's possible that the veteran will be back in the lineup on Sunday when Arizona sends Randy Johnson to the mound.
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| George Sherrill picked up his 16th save in 18 opportunities on Friday night, pitching a perfect ninth inning. Sherrill has been good despite his lack of command. His 10 walks in 20 innings is concerning and his K Rate is south of his 2007 numbers. |
Our View: In his defense, the southpaw is in a different environment and has a different role than the one he held with Seattle, and one of this two blown saves was a game in Oakland when he entered the game with the bases loaded and one out. He proceeded to record two ordinary outs -- but gave up a game tying run in the process.
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| Joaquin Benoit earned his seventh hold of the season on Friday by setting down the side in the eighth inning. The right-hander has held opponents scoreless in seven of his eight appearances in May. |
Our View: The Rangers success in the first half of the month has benefited owners who stuck with the Rangers hard-thrower.
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| Brian Giles' four hits on Friday night offers evidence that the Padres right fielder is the hottest hitter on a club with cold bats. The four hit performance brought his numbers to a respectable - .288/.386/.436. While his slugging percentage is soft, the veteran has learned that elevating the ball in PETCO is a fruitless effort. |
Our View: Tracking his numbers one will find that Giles' fly ball percentage is down over 5 percent in the last two seasons, while his strike out to walk and average have improved.
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| The egnigmatic Jonathan Sanchez had one of his good starts on Friday night. The left-hander allowed only a two-run homer to Alexei Ramirez in the seventh inning over 6.2 innings of work. |
Our View: Sanchez set the tempo and was in control of the game, and his command was spot on, at least for him. When the southpaw can keep his walks to a minimum he can be dominating. However, it's difficult to get too excited about an Giant pitcher, they rarely get the run support they deserve.
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| Adam Wainwright struggled for the second straight start against Tampa Bay on Saturday. The right hander allowed four runs on 12 hits in 5.2 innings. It would have been worst but the Rays continued to run themselves out of innings. |
Our View: The Cardinals' opening-day starter gave up six earned runs in six innings in his previous outing at Milwaukee.
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| Matt Garza failed to make it out of the fifth inning on Saturday versus the Cardinals. It ended what had been a brilliant run by Tampa starters. A run in which the rotation had combined for a 1.03 ERA.
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Our View: Garza had nothing on Saturday, and his focus couldn't have been worse. He didn't trust his stuff and nibbled the entire afternoon.
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| Albert Pujols homered and had two RBI on Saturday, beginning a new streak, a day after his 42-game streak of reaching base ended. |
Our View: Pujols and the Cards won for only the third time in 11 games on Saturday. And the win was for the most part -- fortunate. Expect the Redbirds, their players (e.g. Ludwick) and their record to begin falling back to earth.
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| Ryan Ludwick hit his second home run of the game on Saturday afternoon and the Cardinals won in 10 innings 9-8 over the Tampa Bay Rays. |
Our View: Ludwick has 10 home runs, 25 runs, 28 RBI and is hitting .336 on the season. If there were ever a time to sell high on a player, it's Ludwick's time. His value will never be higher and this kind of production won't continue.
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| B.J. Upton was 3-for-5 in Saturday afternoon's loss to the Cardinals. The center fielder added two runs to his stat line. Upton's power numbers can't be found. His at-bat to home run ratio is just under 50:1, far below last year when the young outfielder hit 24 home runs in 474. |
Our View: Upton was caught stealing in the fifth inning on Saturday was an easy out trying to advance to third on Evan Longoria's game-tying sacrifice fly when the throw to the plate was cut off. Both plays were ill advised, especially when he was trying to advance from second to third with two outs. Ill advised is being nice actually, it was a stupid decision and was just one of the plays that cost the Rays a win.
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| Andy Pettitte was dealt his fifth loss of the season on Saturday, as the Yankees were defeated by the Mets 7-4 at Yankee Stadium. Pettitte allowed three runs on seven hits over six innings, with two walks and seven strikeouts. |
Our View: Pettitte is now 3-5 for the season, with a 4.42 ERA. He has allowed four or more runs in three of his last five starts, and hasn't won since April 20, when the Yankees beat Baltimore 7-1.
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| Derek Jeter had a solid outing in Saturday's 7-4 loss to the Mets. Jeter went 3-for-4 with two RBI and notched his second homer of the year, which came off of Mets' ace Johan Santana. |
Our View: Jeter now has 22 hits, two homers, seven RBI, and 11 runs scored over 14 games in May.
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| David Wright went 3-for-5 with two RBI and blasted his eighth homer of the season in Saturday's 7-4 win over the Yankees. |
Our View: Wright raised his average to .279 and has 34 RBI over 40 games. He registered his sixth stolen base in today's victory as well.
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| Johan Santana collected his fifth win with the Mets in Saturday's 7-4 victory over the Yankees. Santana allowed four runs on seven hits over 7.2 innings, with two walks and five strikeouts. |
Our View: He surrendered three home runs in the game, but the Mets scored enough runs for him to win. He is now 3-0 over five games at Yankee Stadium.
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| Brad Penny has been scratched from his next start due to arm stiffness, according to the AP. Penny was scheduled to take the hill on Sunday in the finale of the "Freeway Series" against the Angels. |
Our View: Derek Lowe will make the start on Sunday in his place on three days rest. The severity of Penny's ailment is yet to be determined.
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| Matt Capps claimed his 10th save of the season on Saturday, as he helped Pittsburgh edge the Cubs 7-6. His save wasn't pretty though, as he allowed one run on two hits in the ninth inning (with one strikeout). |
Our View: Capps remains a quality fantasy closer, and has nailed down a save in 10 of the Pirates' 22 wins so far in 2008.
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