by Todd Lammi
Could we be seeing the return of the juiced ball? It is not too often you see multiple players breaking their career high in home runs a fifth of the way into the season, regardless of how low the bar is set. Such was the case Wednesday night, as Jason Bartlett has now matched his career high in home runs with 5 at game 33 on the season. Bartlett went 3 for 4 and is now hitting .369 on the year. Ryan Theriot hit two home runs giving him five on the season, two better than his career high. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Wednesday…
Hitters:
Victor Martinez went 3 for 4 and connected for his seventh home run of the season. Martinez is now hitting .385 on the year.
Fernando Tatis went 3 for 5 and drove in four runs on his second home run of the year. Tatis should see additional at bats at first base with Carlos Delgado out of the line up.
Nick Johnson went 4 for 5 and drove in two runs, boosting his batting average to .333. Knowing the injury risk he carries, it might be time to sell high on him. His career high for at bats in a season is 500 back in 2006.
James Loney erased the goose egg from the home run column, hitting a three-run shot off of Jamie Moyer. Loney went 3 for 5 with 4 RBI in the game.
Brian Roberts went 3 for 4 with two runs and two RBI coming on his 5th home run of the year. He also stole his fifth base of the season.
Rickie Weeks went 3 for 5 with three runs score and slugged his ninth home of the season.
Adrian Gonzalez hit two home runs and has now homered four time in the last three games.
The Houston Astros exploded for 24 hits and 15 runs against the Colorado Rockies. Lance Berkman went 4 for 4 with three runs, Miquel Tejada went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI and Geoff Blum knocked in five runs.
Chris Ianetta went 3 for 4 with five RBI and hit his seventh home run of the season.
Gerardo Parra was recalled from AA by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Parra started in centerfield and homered in his first at bat.
Nolan Reimold will be called up tomorrow by the Baltimore Orioles with Adam Jones and Luke Scott nursing injuries.
Pitchers:
Cliff Lee tossed seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts to pick up his second win of the season. Despite a 2-5 record, he sports a 3.00 ERA and has only allowed more than three runs in two starts this year.
Shairon Martis allowed one run in seven innings and struck out two to move to 5-0 on the season.
Randy Wolf allowed one run in six innings with eight strikeouts to pick up his second win of the year. Wolf is holding opposing batters to a .198 batting average so far on the year.
Ross Ohlendorf allowed one run in six innings with five strikeouts to pick up his fourth win of the year. Ohlendorf’s whip ratio of 1.07 ranks 10th in the National League.
Closers:
Troy Percival saw his ERA balloon from 2.00 to 6.00 after allowing four runs in 1/3 of an inning.
