This is what you should be talking about today….

Nine to Know

1. The Pirates are 24-17 their best start since the 1992 Bucs opened at 24-17. That team finished with 96 victories, the last time Pittsburgh finished the season with a winning record.
2. Jacoby Ellsbury has gone 6-for-his-last-46 and has produced 137 outs (AB-H+CS+GDP+SF+SH), the most in baseball.
3. Ryan Braun leads the majors with seven intentional walks while the Rays, as a team, have one.
4. Since the start of the 2012 season, Jonathan Papelbon has picked up 45 saves. Over that same stretch, eight Red Sox relievers have earned 44 saves.
5. Hard to believe, but the Padres are hitting just .202 with no one out in an inning and the Braves are hitting just .206.
6. Hard to believe, but righty Nationals batters when facing lefties are only hitting .207 and Yankee righties are hitting their area code, .212.
7. Blue Jays catchers have only thrown out 1-of-7 base runners attempting to steal third.
8. Braves pitcher Tim Hudson is 6-for-19 this season at the plate (.319) while Dodgers utility guy Luis Cruz is 6-for-69 (.087).
9. Last season, in 76 appearances over 74.2 IP, Fernando Rodney walked 15 batters. This season, in 16 appearances over 15.1 IP, Fernando Rodney has walked 15 batters.

I can’t help but wonder if when Texas Ranger’s mucky-muck Nolan Ryan awaited last night’s game between Yu Darvish and Justin Verlander he perhaps he thought back on some of the classic match-ups of his career.

After the game, I remembered the Fenway game on May 5, 1989, in which Roger Clemens and the Red Sox defeated Bobby Valentine‘s Rangers and Nolan, 7-6, with Ryan going 6.1 allowing five runs (four earned) to take the loss, and Roger winning but giving up five earned runs in seven innings.

But maybe, after seeing Verlander struggle, Ryan was thinking about another Fenway appearance, this time on May 7, 1989, this time pitching for the Angels against the Sox’ Mike Torrez, when Ryan lasted all of two-thirds of an inning allowing six runs (four earned) on four hits and two walks.

Last night, Yu Darvish pitched decently, but not brilliantly and Justin Verlander was, well, lousy.

Darvish threw a career-high 130 pitches to get through eight innings in the Texas Rangers’ 10-4 win while Verlander (4-4) allowed eight runs on six hits with two walks and three strikeouts in 2.2 innings, his shortest outing since going two innings in a 14-6 loss to the New York Mets on June 22, 2010.

Games in which Justin Verlander has allowed 7+ runs

Darvish finished strong retiring 15 of the final 16 Tigers he faced allowing four runs and matched his season low with six strikeouts.

Darvish also allowed two homers, his third straight game with two gophers.

Longest streaks by pitchers allowing 2+ homers in a games

Marco Scutaro extended his hitting streak to 15 games in the Giants 8-6 victory over the Rockies. The Rockies held a 6-0 lead in this game before the Giants rallied to take their 10th straight from Colorado.

Adam LaRoche stretched his streak to 13 games in the Nationals win over the Padres last night. LaRoche hit .136 in April and is hitting .354 this month.

Matt Kemp and Joe Mauer each had the night off last night which I’m sure didn’t please either of them as they are riding 14-game streaks.

Here are this season’s longest streaks

The ChiSox Jeff Keppinger drew his first walk of the season last night.

It was with the bases loaded and it forced in the eventual winning run as the White Sox rallied with three runs in the 8th to beat the Los Angeles Angels, 5-4.

It took Keppinger 141 PA to draw his first walk of the year, by far the most of any batter this season.

Nine to Know

The one walkers by PA

Of the nine, four are from Chicago

Justin Verlander was battered by the Rangers but the most damaging blow was a three-run homer by Geovany Soto. That was just the second homer allowed by Verlander all season while winning pitcher Yu Darvish has allowed two homers in each of his last three starts.

The Cardinals’ Jake Westbrook went on the DL on May 9 with right elbow inflammation, but you couldn’t tell his elbow was bothering him based on gopher balls. Westbrook has pitched 39 innings this season without allowing a homer.

Here are the dozen best starters at keeping the ball in the park.

Stephen Strasburg broke a seven-start winless streak last night as the Washington Nationals topped the Padres, 6-2.

Strasburg had never thrown a pitch beyond the 7th inning but last night he allowed two runs, one earned, on three hits while striking out four and walking three in eight full innings.

When he think of going seven starts without a win, one would jump to the conclusion that Strasburg has been pitching poorly.

That’s simply not the case.

Nine to Know

The best ERAs for staters (min. five starts – 2013) in losses

Another reason to love Lauren Shehadi

I know Mike Veeck and, in spite of that, I’m crazy about the guy.

On May 11, Veeck’s St. Paul Saints of the independent American Association hosted the Gary SouthShore RailCats.

Mike, the team’s part-owner, hosted the fans.

Mike did not host the umpires playing an umpireless game.

According to a very fun article in today’s New York Times, the idea came from one of Mike’s graduate students at the Citadel, where Veeck teaches marketing. Thomas McQueeney, a South Carolina real estate agent and author of two books, proposed having fans behind the plate raise placards to call balls and strikes, and others along the baselines to call plays in the field, with a majority ruling.

“I recognized it was a great idea,” Veeck said. “I kept looking at that thing and kept it for the longest time.”

It reminded Veeck of one of his father’s best-known and most frequently copied promotions, Grandstand Managers Day, when fans voted on lineups and game strategy.

Veeck got Hamline University, whose baseball team also uses Midway, to sponsor the event to publicize its law school. Instead of umpires, one robed judge settled disputes with players from the East Tonka Little League of Minnetonka, Minn., sitting in “jury boxes” along the first- and third-base lines, 12 in each, to decide close plays by raising “Safe” or “Out” signs. The teams’ catchers called balls and strikes.

Read the article; as Mike always says, “Fun is Good” and he’s right.

AL
Rays (Jeremy Hellickson) at Orioles (Jason Hammel), 7:05
Mariners (Brandon Maurer) at Indians (Ubaldo Jimenez), 7:05
Blue Jays (Mark Buehrle) at Yankees (Hiroki Kuroda), 7:05
Tigers (Rick Porcello) at Rangers (Nick Tepesch), 8:05
Red Sox (Clay Buchholz) at Twins (Vance Worley), 8:10
White Sox (Chris Sale) at Angels (C.J. Wilson), 10:05
Royals (James Shields) at A’s (Jarrod Parker), 10:05

NL
Mets (Matt Harvey) at Cubs (Edwin Jackson), 2:20
Reds (Tony Cingrani) at Phillies (Cliff Lee), 7:05
Diamondbacks (Trevor Cahill) at Marlins (Kevin Slowey), 7:10
Dodgers (Hyun-jin Ryu) at Braves (Paul Maholm), 7:30
Brewers (Wily Peralta) at Cardinals (Jaime Garcia), 8:15
Giants (Madison Bumgarner) at Rockies (Jorge De La Rosa), 8:40
Nationals (Gio Gonzalez) at Padres (Burch Smith), 10:10

INTERLEAGUE
Astros (Jordan Lyles) at Pirates (Jeanmar Gomez), 7:05

AL
Mariners 3, Yankees 2
Red Sox 4, Rays 3
Rangers 10, Tigers 4
White Sox 5, Angels 4

NL
Mets 5, Cardinals 2
Pirates 7, Brewers 1
Reds 5, Marlins 3 (10)
Giants 8, Rockies 6
Nationals 6, Padres 2