BASEBALL: MLB’s Upticks & Drawdowns; Rockies Win Series Versus Giants // Tennis: the Italian Open, Results.
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MLB --- IN professional American baseball a lot can happen in a week’s time, or in a day, for instance, the San Francisco Giants dropped from first to third place in the National League West, while second place team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, they are now the NL West’s leading ballclub, with last week’s third place franchise, the Colorado Rockies, behind Arizona by only one game on Monday, then back in third place on Tuesday with a game behind the Diamondbacks, and the Giants back in second place today---Phew!
In the NL Central, the leading St. Louis Cardinals (28-15) maintained “unexpectedly” a single game edge above the ever-improving Cincinnati Reds, and in the NL East the 26-18 Atlanta Braves increased its lead over division number two, the Washington Nationals, today the Braves being three games up.
In the American League West, the 29-16 Texas Rangers’ seven-game lead over second place team, the Oakland Athletics, dropped back by two in number of wins. Last week’s number two, the current 20-25 Seattle Mariners, now holds third position in the AL West.
In the AL Central, the 26-17 Cleveland Indians increased its lead to three games up, while in the AL South the 28-16 New York Yankees are leading the Boston Red Sox by one win.
The Texas Rangers are still leading both leagues, but only by a single game. Directly behind are the Cardinals, and at the heels of the Cards are the Yankees, Red Sox and the Reds.
Among last week’s third place teams within each of the six MLB divisions, the AL West’s Rockies and the NL West’s Athletics advanced to second place, having added three wins. All other third place teams have remained in position, three winning but two games and two not winning any. The last place teams of the six MLB divisions haven’t budged in the standings, though the AL Central’s 18-23 Minnesota Twins moved from last to fourth position only for a day.
Least number of wins is still the fate of the Miami Marlins and the Houston Astros, both with 12 wins against 32 losses.
The remaining surprises are the 18-25 Los Angeles Dodgers, 17-27 L.A. Angels and the 20-23 Chicago White Sox, neither holding higher positions within their respective divisions and leagues. Each finished last season well above .500 and showed promise for upward mobility this year.
The upside of surprise belongs to AL Central’s number one club, the 26-17 Indians, which finished last year fifth from the bottom, both leagues.
The MLB changes of the past week, during which no game was won in the same manner, is surely a putdown vs. viewers who say watching one baseball game a year is the same as seeing the remaining 4,859.
Colorado Rockies --- Were it not for last night’s Colorado Rockies 5-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks last night, the possibility of a three-game sweep of the Diamondbacks would still underscore another possibility, that of the Rockies returning to first place within the National League West by, say, Monday of next week. Could the Rockies now take the Diamondbacks down for two, winning the series? Yes, if they could play as they had during three of four games versus the San Francisco Giants, a series that ended on Saturday with a 10-2 victory.
Not seen in the wins vs. the Giants was a Rockies team that until then in May had rarely advantaged having runners in scoring position, that is, couldn’t push them home during two-out situations. Nor in the first weeks of May had Rockies hitters operated above-the-margin enough times; only a few could hit appropriately against the particular challenge being faced at the plate, and the Rockies pitching staff couldn’t keep from giving away more runs than the Rockies had accrued.
But facing the Giants, the Rockies equation included good hitting, fine pitching and superb field-defense in “near-perfect” balance, and that could be from what’s been an essentially above-the-margin crew, best addressed by the numbers, e.g., the Rockies 15 current season wins against NL West opponents are not only across-the-board, that is, not only have the Rockies defeated each of the four other NL West franchises this year, they have defeated each two or more times. The Rockies have also won games against two of this year’s top five MLB teams, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves, and five of the team’s wins have included nine or more runs, which translates into one run gained per inning.
The merry month of May hasn’t been merry for the Rockies , but they finished April at 16-11 and they held first place in the NL West twice, though briefly. Despite having experienced 28 innings in May without having posted a run, Rockies batters haven’t been a zero bunch, not with shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, outfielders Carlos Gonzalez and Dexter Fowler, first baseman Todd Helton and catcher Wilin Rosario likely to be the five players contributing more significantly during critical situations as the season continues, also being the hitters that in May anchored the Rockies to sufficient credibility, i.e., “out of the range of data planted by the Houston Astros and the Miami Marlins," both being last place teams within their divisions. During the Rockies last road trip, three of Tulowitzki’s five hits were extra-base hits, and more than a dozen of his RBI’s have produced a lead in games played. In addition, since his rookie year, 2007, Tulowitzki has hit 138 home runs (as of last Friday). That averages out to almost 28 per year, five years straight. It also means that Tulowitzki has led all MLB shortstops in home runs accrued since 2007. Moreover, teammate, Carlos Gonzalez, he’s leading the NL in number of runs achieved so far this year, 31 as of Friday, while Dexter Fowler has been the fourth player in MLB history to have blasted six home runs during his first 10 games played. And, the Rockies Todd Helton ranks as one of baseball’s top extra-base hitters (966, career), a record within which places him as 20th in the MLB in achievement of doubles, 573. Wilin Rosario Rockies pitching staff is much improved, 11-8 at home, 21-20 on the road, ERA 3.8.
Last night, the Rockies went down primarily from inability to counter Diamondbacks starting pitcher, Patrick Corbin, surely an ace; he’s won nine games per nine starts for the Diamondbacks this year. Tonight could be iffy, with the DB’s Ian Kennedy facing the Rockies Jhoulys Chacin. Kennedy holds a 2-3 record this year, ERA 4.8, and Chacin is 3.3, ERA 4.0. The Rockies line-up will be needed to offset any Chacin drawbacks, especially during the first four innings of play.
Following the Colorado/Arizona series will be 10 more Rockies games vs. NL West franchises, perhaps the best 2013 opportunity for the Rockies to regain primacy.
Tennis --- While not as famous as, or as important for worldwide media coverage as are the Grand Slam French, Wimbledon and U.S. Open events, the Italian Open is definitely world-class tennis and important to its competitors for positions in the year’s rankings and for future seeds.
Otherwise, Rome
Nadal took the title at Rome
This year’s Italian Open win is a seventh Rome
Williams, a 15 Grand Slam event winner, won her fourth title in a row this year at Rome
By virtue of consistency, Nadal and Williams could dominate the French Open, to be held at Paris
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