Another day, another Garret Anderson home run, another Los Angeles/Anaheim Angels win! It's beginning to sound like a broken record, but this is good news if you happen to be an Angels fan or where fortunate enough to grab "G.A." in your fantasy league when he first started getting hot. With a 4-3 win last night, the Angels have now won seven of their past nine games and opened up a 7 1/2 game lead in the American League West race. Over that nine game stretch, G.A.'s been nothing short of amazing - 6 home runs, 17 RBI's, 10 runs scored, and even a stolen base to go along with a .438 batting average!!! If you go back to cover his past 14 games, he has 8 home runs and 27 RBI's!!! Actually, G.A.'s been an absolute RBI machine for about the past month and a half - in his 45 games beginning July 19th, he has hit .293 with 11 home runs and 52 RBI's to go along with 27 runs scored. For those of you other numbers fiends out there, that's a 187 RBI pace!!! - Incredibly, that RBI pace is still short of the 191 that Hack Wilson put up in 1930 in only 154 games! Just shows you how truly great that 1930 season of Wilson's was.
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After a very difficult stretch where they lost 11 of 12 games, the Los Angeles Dodgers have suddenly seen their fortunes change. Brad Penny bobbed and weaved through seven innings at Wrigley Field in Chicago, allowing only one earned run despite giving up seven hits and three walks. Penny was clearly not at his best as he only struck out two batters, but he made good pitches when it counted, inducing the Cubs to ground into three double plays. Matt Kemp continued his hot hitting, going 4-for-5 to raise his batting average to .344. Jonathan Broxton and Takeshi Saito contined to pitch masterfully in the closing innings, each pitching a scoreless frame to secure Penny's 16th win on the year. Broxton now has a 2.13 ERA on the year, while Saito's ERA is a microscopic 1.31. Saito has a reasonable chance of breaking Eric Gagne's Dodger record ERA for a closer of 1.20 which was set in 2003. With their 13th win in their past 19 games, the Dodgers are now within just three games of the Arizona Dimaondbacks and San Diego Padres for the National League West division lead and Wild Card spot. The Dodgers looked hopelessly out of things just three weeks ago... Now, they look like they just might indeed be the playoff team we saw during the early part of the season.
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Meanwhile, back on the other coast, the Washington Nationals continue to demonstrate the resilency which has marked their first season under manager, Manny Acta. After a horrific second half of August, which saw them lose 12 of 15 games, including the final seven, the Nats came into yesterday's game against the Florida Marlins in the midst of a three game winning streak. Shawn Hill pitched an effective 6 1/3 innings for the Nats, allowing three runs and eleven hits, walking none and striking out six. Unfortunately for Hill, he left the game without a chance to win as Dontrelle Willis kept the Nats in check for seven innings, only allowing single runs in the first and third innings. Willis got into trouble in the bottom of the seventh as with one out, Nook Logan doubled and Felipe Lopez singled. Lee Gardner was then summoned from the Marlins pen and promptly got Ryan Zimmerman to hit a line drive right at the second baseman Alfredo Amezega, who doubled Lopez off of first...
Chris Schroeder pitched a scoreless ninth for the Nats, and the Marlins would then bring on their closer Kevin Gregg. Gregg has been a pleasant surprise for the Marlins this year, closing 28 games in 30 opportunities. Given his 93% success rate, the Nats chances at winning seemed slim at best. Gregg immediately got into trouble though as he walked leadoff man Dmitri Young. Ryan Langerhans (yes, he cleared waivers) then pinch ran for Da' Meathook... After an Austin Kearns strikeout, Wily Mo Pena singled to put Nats at first and third. Ronnie Belliard then fouled out weakly to first, and that set the stage for Jesus Flores. Earlier in the game, Flores dropped not one, but two foul pop-ups. While they didn't have any impact in the game, they did force a few extra pitches to be thrown. Flores then lined a ball deep to left field chasing home both Langerhans and the slow footed Pena to give the Nats an improbable come-from-behind 4-3 win!
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In other sports news, Phil Mickelson announced he will not play in this week's FedEx Cup event - Tiger Woods and Ernie Els had missed prior events. Perhaps tour commissioner Tim Finchem needs to listen to the tour's players a little more - it's a huge revenue and ratings loss when one of the big names isn't there. Maybe next year he will cut back on the pro-am tournaments that are part of the series and also spread out the tournaments so that the players can have a little more time with their families as their children begin the school year.
At the U.S. Open tennis championships in New York, there will be no "battle of the sisters" as Serena Williams was ousted by #1 seed Justin Henin by a 7-6, 6-1 score... #3 seed Jelena Jankovic takes on the 12th seeded Venus tonight, the winner will get to take on Henin... On the men's side, #2 Rafael Nadal was upset by #15 seed David Ferrer in four sets by a 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 6-2 score. Tonight, the much awaited feature match pits #1 seed Roger Federer against #5 Andy Roddick. We all hope A-Rod can win, but he's been unable to do much against Tiger's buddy Federer the past several years...
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