by Todd Lammi
The Philadelphia Phillies, with the top offense in the National League, continue to club home runs as they now have three players in double digits. Chase Utley went 3 for 4 with 4 RBI and hit his 11th home run of the season. Raul Ibanez (15) drove in three runs and has now driven in 14 runs in his last seven games and Ryan Howard (10) hit a solo shot. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Thursday…
Hitters:
The Minnesota Twins erupted for 20 runs against the Chicago White Sox in a 20-1 victory. Joe Mauer went 3 for 4 with 6 RBI including his eighth home run of the season and is now hitting .417 on the year. Michael Cuddyer went 4 for 6 and hit his sixth home run of the season while adding 3 RBI and Matt Tolbert added his first long ball of the year and drove in four.
Todd Helton went 3 for 5 with 5 RBI and hit his fifth home run of the season. Helton is now hitting .338 on the season.
Robinson Cano went 3 for 4 with 3 RBI and hit his eighth home run of the season. Cano is now batting .317 on the year with 25 RBI.
Jason Bay hit his 13th home run of the season and drove in two runs, jacking his RBI total up to 44, two behind Evan Longoria in the American League.
Mary Reynolds went 2 for 3 and drove in three runs, with two coming on his 12th home run of the year. Reynolds also stole his 10th base of the year and is currently on pace for a 40-40 season.
Pitchers:
Edwin Jackson allowed three runs in eight innings and struck out seven to pick up his fourth win of the season.
Nick Blackburn threw seven shutout innings and struck out two to pick up his third win of the year.
Carl Pavano allowed three runs in six innings and struck out eight to move to 4-4 on the season.
Matt Garza allowed two runs in 6 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts in a no decision. Garza has allowed three runs or less in his last five starts.
Kris Medlen’s first major league start was not a good one for the Atlanta Braves. Medlen walked five and allowed five runs in three innings to suffer the loss and seemed overwhelmed by nerves in the start. He also hit a batter, threw two wild pitches and had a balk called against him. His counterpart Aaron Cook of the Colorado Rockies tossed a complete game shutout with three strikeouts.
Joba Chamberlain left his start in the first inning after taking a line drive from Adam Jones above his right knee. Chamberlain faced two more batters before being removed from the game. X-Rays were negative on the knee and his status for his next start is up in the air.
Jon Lester allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings with four strikeouts to pick up his third win of the year.
Adam Wainwright allowed one run in 8 2/3 innings and struck out seven to move to 4-2 on the year. Wainwright has allowed one run in back-to-back starts.
Two young guns squared off in the Arizona Diamondbacks – Florida Marlins game, although both starting pitchers did not factor in the decision. Max Scherzer allowed three runs in six innings and struck out 10, while Andrew Miller had his second good start in a row since returning from the disabled list, surrendering two runs in seven innings with nine punchouts.
