1. The Angels are now 2-0 in games that Albert Pujols homers. Pujols hit a three-run homer last night as the Angels topped the White Sox, 7-2. Jerome Williams (4-1) won his fourth straight decision and became the first pitcher in franchise history to win his first seven home starts with the club. Just in case you didn’t know: Just four years ago, Williams was pitching for the Long Beach Armada of the independent Golden Baseball League and last season was pitching for the Lancaster Barnstormers in the independent Atlantic League.
2. Let’s hear it for the ageless wonder Jamie Moyer (2-3) who beat Arizona, 6-1. Moyer allowed one earned run on six hit and two walks in 6.1 innings. He struck out five, but that wasn’t the big story of the game. With two outs in the 4th, Moyer hit a roller between the pitcher’s mound and first and beat it out and two runners scored. The two RBI tied Moyer’s career high set against Pittsburgh when he was with the M’s in June 2004. At 49 years and 180 days, Moyer is now the oldest batter to get an RBI topping Julio Franco‘s previous record of 49 years and 25 days.
3. It was a proud night for the Detroit Tigers: not only did they lose 11-7 to the lowly Minnesota Twins, but each member of the infield made an error. The Twins  Josh Willingham had three hits and is hitting .299 with seven homers and 22 RBI.
4. The Billy-Ball.com newsroom talks a lot about the the great games that Felix Hernandez pitches that he ends up with a no-decision or a loss. No such discussion today as the King (3-3) gave up 10 hits and six earned runs in  3.2 innings in the Mariners 9-3 loss to the Tribe. On the other hand, Ubaldo Jimenez actually pitched well, or at least well enough, as he gave up five hits and three runs over six innings.
5. In case you haven’t noticed, the Yanks are now 8-9 in May after their 8-1 loss to the Blue Jays last night. The loss was a combination of poor pitching from Hiroki Kuroda and poor hitting as they managed only three hits off Kyle Drabek and company. Edwin Encarnacion hit 13th homer, J.P. Arencibia hit his fourth, Kelly Johnson hit his eighth, and Jose Bautista hit his ninth. While Bautista is still hitting only .199, in 23 April games, Bautista hit .181 with three homers and 10 RBI and in 15 May games he’s hit .226 with six homers and 10 RBI.
6. After an 11-11 April, despite their 2-1 loss to the Rays last night which ended a five-game winning streak, the Boston Red Sox seem to be playing better baseball despite their 6-9 May record. The reason for Red Sox Nation optimism is that in the last six games, Sox pitchers have allowed five runs. Jeremy Hellickson (4-0 2.77 ERA) allowed one run and five hits in six innings, striking out six and walking two. He’s won six straight games. The We’ll See Dept.: Adrian Gonzalez who hasn’t homered in 103 at bats promised to hit one tonight.
7. It took two tying runs in the top of the 9th and then an Adam Jones homer in the top of the 15th, but the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Kansas City Royals, 5-4 last night. Overall, the Orioles are 5-2 in extra-inning games, but 5-0 on the road. They have won in 10 in Los Angeles and Chicago, 13 and 17 in Boston, and now 15 in KC.
8.  The Phillies (19-19) are back to .500 for the first time since May 3 after beating the Cubs, 9-2 as Kyle Kendrick and the bullpen held the Cubs to three hits. From the Just Doesn’t Feel Right Dept.: After 119 at bats, Alfonso Soriano hit his first homer of the season. It was his 342nd career homer and it tied Ron Santo for 87th place on the all time HR list.
9. The Houston Astros topped the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-3, last night. I mention this only because I find it interesting that both teams now have a 16-21 record. Oddly, the Brewers were 16-21 last season as well before ending the season with a 96-66 record. The Astros won their 16th game in their 45th game of the season. The Astros’ Carlos Lee hit his first homer since April 2. It was his 352nd of his career which enabled him to pass Dick Allen and Todd Helton and tie Ellis Burks for 81st place on the all time dinger list.

Carlos May turns 64 today and played in the majors for 10 seasons from 1968 to 1977. He is the brother of former major leaguer Lee May.

We celebrate May’s birthday because he was the last and only player to wear his birthday on the back of his uniform.

Okay, if you thought that Yu Darvish would be this good, if I wore a hat, I would tip it in your honor.

Last night, Darvish went 7.2 innings as his Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-1, as Darvish moved to 6-1 on this season. His ERA is now 2.33 and his WHIP is 1.327.

Let’s take a look under the hood at some of the numbers that have produced these lofty results.

1. In 52 innings, he has struck out 58, averaging 10.0 whiffs per 9 innings, 25.8% of all plate appearances against Darvish end in a strike out.
2. Major league pitchers average 63% strikes on pitches thrown, Darvish averages 60%. MLB pitchers average 15% swings and misses; Darvish averages 20%.
3. Batters are hitting .222 against him with a BAbip of .293, we can see there is nothing lucky about those numbers.
4. In his eight starts, Darvish has thrown five Quality Starts and has averaged 6.5 innings and 109 innings per start.
5. Lefties are hitting .248 against Darvish with just one homer. Righties are hitting .174 with three homers.
6. Clean-up batters are hitting .190 with one homer against Darvish, but leadoff batters are hitting .385 with one homer. The 3-4-5  batters in the lineup are hitting .212.
7. Batters don’t want to fall behind on Darvish: When batters are ahead on the count they are hitting .300, on even counts they are hitting .211, and when Darvish is ahead he holds batters to a .169 average.
8. With the bases empty, batters are hitting .252. With runners on base, with a runner on first, or runners in scoring position Darvish hold batters to a .184 batting average.
9. In eight starts, Darvish has produced 65 ground balls, 58 strikeouts, 44 fly balls, 27 line drives, and one bunt.

AL
Mariners (Hector Noesi) at Indians (Zach McAllister), 12:05
Twins (P.J. Walters) at Tigers (Doug Fister), 1:05
A’s (Brandon McCarthy) at Rangers (Matt Harrison), 2:05
Orioles (Brian Matusz) at Royals (Luke Hochevar), 2:10
White Sox (Chris Sale) at Angels (C.J. Wilson), 3:35
Yankees (Phil Hughes) at Blue Jays (Drew Hutchison), 7:07
Red Sox (Felix Doubront) at Rays (Matt Moore), 7:10

NL
Reds (Mat Latos) at Mets (R.A. Dickey), 1:10
Diamondbacks (Trevor Cahill) at Rockies (Juan Nicasio), 3:10
Cardinals (Adam Wainwright) at Giants (Matt Cain), 3:45
Pirates (James McDonald) at Nationals (Jordan Zimmermann), 7:05
Marlins (Ricky Nolasco) at Braves (Brandon Beachy), 7:10
Phillies (Roy Halladay) at Cubs (Chris Volstad), 8:05
Brewers (Shaun Marcum) at Astros (J.A. Happ), 8:05
Dodgers (Aaron Harang) at Padres (Edinson Volquez), 10:05

1. 

   The Phils celebrating Hunter Pence's walkoff homer

   The Angels celebrated their 4-0 victory over the Oakland A’s by announcing about 90 minutes after the game that they had fired hitting coach Mickey Hatcher   and promoted Jim Eppard from Triple-A Salt Lake. The Angels have been shut out a club-record eight times already this season.

2. Talking about the Angels, Albert Pujols moved back over the .200 mark for the first time since May 3 by getting three hits and two RBI in the victory over the A’s. Interestingly, all three hits were of the infield variety in Pujols’ second three hit game of the season. Pujols has four two-hit games, 17 one-hit games and 13 no-hit games.
3. On last note (I promise) from the Oakland loss to the Angels: Bartolo Colon started for Oakland and in the words of the great baseball analyst B.B. King, “The thrill is gone.” In Colon’s first six starts in April, Colon had an ERA of 2.53 with a batting average against of .214. In his three starts in May, Colon has a 9.00 ERA and a .414 BAA.
4. The Windy City has the two top home run hitting first basemen: Bryan LaHair, whose Cubs lost after Yadier Molina‘s RBI single with two outs in the 9th gave St. Louis a 7-6 victory, hit his 10th homer of the season in the loss. And, Paul Konerko, whose White Sox lost 10-8 after the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Raburn and Austin Jackson all homered in an eight-run 6th inning, hit his seventh homer of the season. No first baseman has hit more than the Chicago duo; Adam LaRoche and Freddie Freeman are next with six apiece.
5. On the subject of home runs, Boston’s DH David Ortiz hit his eighth homer of the season in Boston’s 5-0 win over the Mariners. Ortiz, who has been taking turns at first base as Adrian Gonzalez has been shagging flies in right in anticipation of interleague play, passed Hall of the Very Gooder Dwight Evans to move into 56th place on the all time HR list, with 386.
6. In the White Sox loss, catcher A.J. Pierzynski had five hits in a game for the second time in his career. The first time was when the Sox beat the Orioles 13-11 on  July 29, 2006.
7. The Phillies had a walkoff win last night as Hunter Pence hit his second homer of the game to give his mates a 4-3 win over the Astros. Pence connected off former Philadelphia closer Brett Myers (0-1) with one out in the 10th to give the Phillies their first three-game winning streak of the season (!). Pence set up his own heroics by committing a critical 9th inning error that led to two tying 9th inning runs. This was the eighth time in Pence’s career that he had a two-homer game and the third walkoff of his career.
8. Josh Johnson won his first game of the season as the Marlins topped the Pirates, 6-2. Johnson (1-3) had gone winless in 12 starts since his last win on April 19, 2011. Stephen Strasburg took his first loss of the season as the Padres topped Washington, 6-1. We now know the extent of what the Padres need to beat a pitcher like Strasburg. As Nats manager delicately explained postgame, Strasburg’s Hot Stuff ointment from his shoulder got into a more sensitive area. File this under: one strike and two balls.
9. Derek Lowe shut out the very sad Minnesota Twins, 5-0. It was Lowe’s 10th career complete game, and first since he was a Dodger pitcher on Aug. 26, 2008. This was his fourth career shutout, and his first since Aug. 31, 2005, for the Dodgers at San Diego. Lowe had two shutouts in 2005 for LA and tossed his first shutout on April 27, 2002 when as a member of the Red Sox he no-hit the Devil Rays.

In his no-hitter, Lowe struck out seven. In fact, in his 364 career starts, Lowe has struck out at least one batter in 351 of those games (going 152-117). In 13 starts, he has struck out no one, going 2-8 with last night pitching his first complete game shutout with no whiffs. Last night, Lowe became the first pitcher to throw a shutout without a strikeout since Scott Erickson for Baltimore against Kansas City on April 28, 2002.

Here are the last 25 no-strikeout complete game shutouts:

Having watched the Seattle Mariners a little more closely over the last five games I must admit to having been stunned how weak this team looks at every aspect of the game. In past years losing four of five to the Yankees and the Red Sox was de rigueur for the M’s, but this isn’t “past years,” neither team is particularly healthy or dominant. However, the Mariners looked overmatched in every aspect of the game having been outscored 23-5 in their four losses and beating the Yanks once, 6-2.

After scratching out a run in the 9th on Monday in their 6-1 loss to Boston and were shut out by Josh Beckett and the Sox pen yesterday, 5-0, the talk around the Billy-Ball.com newsroom was how inept Seattle looked at the plate. So we took a deeper look at some of the numbers….

1. The Mariners are hitting .233 as a team, 27th in the majors. Their .287 OBP is 29th in the majors. As a frame of reference, Trevor Plouffe of the Twins has a .288 OBP to go along with his .133 batting average.
2. The M’s are 9-14 on the road and 7-8 at home and as hard to believe as awful as they have looked as a visiting team, their batting average on the road is .248 compared with .205 at home.
3. Mariner clean-up batters are 28-for-149 a .188 batting average which is not as bad as their #8 batter who is hitting .183 but not as good as their #9 batters who are hitting .190 and their #2 batters who are hitting .204.
4. If Mariner batters have an 0-2 count their batting average on the next pitch is .028 (3-107). Overall, after an 0-2 count Seattle batters are hitting .118 (30-255).
5. The Mariners don’t hit well with runners in scoring position (.228) but they hit worse with the bases empty (.221).
6. As an inning progresses the Mariners batters go downhill hitting .250 with no outs, .246 with one out, and .198 with two outs.
7. So far this season, in 38 games, the Mariners have scored two (2) runs in the 8th inning. They have scored only eight in the 5th inning.
8. Only 7.1% of all Mariner plate appearances end in a walk. Only the Angels have a lower percentage in the AL (6.6%) and the AL average is 8.4%. No team in the AL has seen fewer 3-0 counts than the M’s who have seen just 58. The Rays lead the AL with 82.
9. Overall, the right-handed Mariner batters are hitting .214. Against lefty pitchers the righty batters are hitting .222; against righties, they are hitting .208.

This looks like another long, painful season for Mariner fans.

Josh Beckett put together a great game for the Red (Hot) Sox yesterday as he celebrated his 32nd birthday yesterday. No, Red Sox Nation did not buy him a new set of golf clubs but didn’t have to boo him off the field either.

Beckett joined the group of pitchers who have pitched well on their birthday this season and continued the streak of birthday boys who have pitched on the birthday and not suffered a loss.

Take a look:

AL
Red Sox (Clay Buchholz) at Rays (Jeremy Hellickson), 7:00
Mariners (Felix Hernandez) at Indians (Ubaldo Jimenez), 7:05
Twins (Nick Blackburn) at Tigers (Rick Porcello), 7:05
Yankees (Hiroki Kuroda) at Blue Jays (Kyle Drabek), 7:07
A’s (Tommy Milone) at Rangers (Yu Darvish), 8:05
Orioles (Tommy Hunter) at Royals (Felipe Paulino), 8:10
White Sox (Gavin Floyd) at Angels (Jerome Williams), 10:05

NL
Dodgers (Chris Capuano) at Padres (Clayton Richard), 6:35
Pirates (Erik Bedard) at Nationals (Gio Gonzalez), 7:05
Marlins (Mark Buehrle) at Braves (Mike Minor), 7:10
Reds (Mike Leake) at Mets (Johan Santana), 7:10
Phillies (Kyle Kendrick) at Cubs (Matt Garza), 8:05
Brewers (Randy Wolf) at Astros (Bud Norris), 8:05
Diamondbacks (Patrick Corbin) at Rockies (Jamie Moyer), 8:40
Cardinals (Jaime Garcia) at Giants (Madison Bumgarner), 10:15

The new edition of the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia is now available at http://www.baseball-encyclopedia.com.

“Lee Sinins’ Complete Encyclopedia is best reason yet developed to own a computer. I think I must own a copy of every baseball encyclopedia there is or ever was, and occasionally I find that I still need to pull out one of the others, but not very often; the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia covers 97% of my needs. Whether I’m working or playing, calculating or daydreaming, the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia pops up to help out. I turn it on in the morning; I turn it off when the house is on fire. Otherwise, I’m using it.”–Bill James

1. It’s mid-May and Boston is 16-19, Detroit is 17-18, the Phillies are 17-19, and Arizona and the Angels are 15-21.
2. It’s mid-May and Adam Dunn now has 12 homers one more than he hit all of last season.
3. It’s mid-May and Albert Pujols is hitting .197 and Jose Bautista is hitting .194.
4. it’s mid-May and the Giants have already committed 37 errors in 34 games. The Orioles and Padres have each committed 34 errors in 35 games.
5. It’s mid-May and John Danks‘ ERA is 6.46 and Ivan Nova‘s ERA is 5.44.
6. It’s mid-May and the Rockies, Twins, and Padres have already used eight starting pitchers.
7. It’s mid-May and in eight starts each Dan Haren and Justin Masterson each have one win which is one more than Josh Johnson has in seven starts.
8. It’s mid-May and the San Diego Padres have hit 13 homers.
9. It’s mid-May and the Minnesota Twins have won 10 games.