by Todd Lammi
It was light day for fantasy baseball teams on offense on Friday night, as 15 teams scored two runs or less.The Colorado Rockies were the only team to score in double digits, erupting with a nine-run seventh inning to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 11-4. Dexter Fowler hit his third home run of the season and Ian Stewart hit his ninth. Recent call up Carlos Gonzalez arrived late for the game and appeared in the 8th inning, going 0 for 1. Albert Pujols (18), Ryan Ludwick (9) and Yadier Molina (4) all went deep for the Cardinals. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Friday…
Hitters:
Adam Lind followed up his 5 for 5 night, by going 2 for 4 with a home run. Lind’s recent hot streak has raised his batting average 33 points in his last seven games.
Pablo Sandoval went 2 for 4 with two RBI and delivered his fourth home run of the season. Sandoval is now hitting .306 on the season with 24 RBI on the year.
Carlos Lee went 2 for 5 and drove in four runs on a grand slam, giving him 10 home runs on the season.Lee is now batting .317 on the year with 35 RBI.
Luke Scott homered for the second straight day, and has now homered in six of his last nine games with 18 RBI during that stretch.
Pitchers:
Justin Verlander tossed eight shutout innings with seven strikeouts, but lost his seventh win of the season when Fernando Rodney allowed two runs in the ninth inning. Verlander who last lost on April 17th has allowed five hits or less in six of his last seven starts.
Ricky Romero allowed three runs in seven innings with five strikeouts to pick up his first win in a month and a half.
Kevin Millwood hurled seven shutout innings with five strikeouts to improve his record to 5-4 on the season. Millwood has allowed three runs or less in five of his last six starts.
Carlos Zambrano pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings with seven strikeouts to notch his fourth win of the year and his 100th career victory. Zambrano helped his cause by hitting his second home run of the season and is now hitting .269 on the year.
Yovani Gallardo scattered two hits in eight shutout innings with six strikeouts to up his mark to 6-2 on the season. Gallardo has had scoreless starts in two of his past three outings.
Mike Hampton allowed one run in seven innings with five strikeouts to even his mark at 4-4. Hampton has allowed one run in back-to-back starts while dropping his ERA by a full run over those two appearances.
Carl Pavano pitched nine scoreless innings with six punch outs to gain his sixth win of the year. Pavano has allowed four runs in his last 23 1/3 innings with 16 strikeouts.
Dallas Braden allowed one run in seven innings with seven strikeouts to even his record at 5-5. Braden has allowed three runs or less in four consecutive starts while going 2-0 during that stretch.
Felix Hernandez allowed one run in seven innings with seven strikeouts in a no decision. His inconsistency is the only thing keeping him from taking the next step to one of the top pitchers in the game. In his last nine starts, Fernandez has had four outings with zero run, two outings with one run and three outings with five or six runs allowed.
Closers:
Some people scoffed earlier this year when I said Jonathan Broxton was the best reliever in the national league. He picked up his sixth win Friday night to move to a perfect 6-0 on the season. He has allowed only nine hits in 28 innings of work with 45 strikeouts on the year.
