by Todd Lammi
After being bumped from the rotation, Scott Richmond returned to the hill as a starter on Wednesday night in grand fashion. Richmond allowed one run in eight innings and struck out a season-high 11 hitters to notch his 5th win of the year. In other fantasy baseball news around the diamond on Wednesday…
Hitters:
Mark Reynolds homered for the 18th time this season, connecting off of Zack Greinke. Reynolds has homered five times in his last 10 games while collecting 14 RBI during that stretch.
Aaron Hill went 3-for-5 and slugged his 15th home run of the season. Hill drove in three runs giving him 47 on the season and he is now batting .315 on the year.
Corey Hart went 3-for-5 with three RBI and belted his ninth home run of the year. Hart has now driven in 1o runs in his last seven games while raising his batting average 21 points.
Curtis Granderson returned to the lead-off spot, going 3-for-4 with two home runs and a stolen base. Granderson now has 16 home runs on the season to go along with 11 stolen bases.
Aubrey Huff went 2-for-3 with three RBI and delivered his ninth home run of the season. Huff has a modest five game hitting streak going and is now up to 44 RBI on the year.
Matt Wieters hit his first career home run, taking Tim Redding deep for a two-run blast in the second inning. Wieters is now hitting .240 on the season.
Rookie Andrew McCutchen hit his first major league home run, connecting for a two-run shot off of Francisco Liriano. McCutchen is now hitting .339 since being recalled from Triple-A.
Troy Tulowitzki hit a three-run home run off of David PRice for his ninth home run of the season. Tulowitzki has four home runs in his last 10 games with eight RBI during that stretch.
Evan Longoria homered for the second consecutive game, giving him 16 home runs on the season. Longoria is second in the American League with 60 RBI, leaving him three behind Jason Bay.
Jose Lopez homered for the fifth time in his last nine games, giving him 10 home runs on the year. Lopez has knocked in 13 RBI during that span, plating runners in eight out of nine games.
Jason Werth hit a solo home run, number 11 on the season, and has now homered three times in his last four games.
Pitchers:
John Danks allowed one run in seven innings with nine strikeouts to even his mark at 5-5. The win broke a two game losing streak for Danks who has allowed three runs in his last 14 1/3 innings.
John Lannan allowed two runs in 8 1/3 innings with four strikeouts to pick up his fourth win of the season. Lannan has allowed two runs or less in his last three starts, going 2-0 during that span.
Brad Penny tossed five shutout innings and struck out three to improve his record to 6-2 on the year. Penny picked up his 100th career win and will remain in the rotation with John Smoltz returning to action next week as the Boston Red Sox for now are saying they will go with a six-man pitching rotation.
Max Scherzer allowed two runs in six innings with five strikeouts to even his record at 4-4. Despite allowing runs for the first time in his last three starts, he still managed to lower his ERA for a third straight start.
Ian Snell picked up his first win since April 18th, allowing two runs in six innings with six strikeouts. It seemed like he had turned the corner in 2007, but his stats have been trending downward the last two years. His control has gradually deteriorated, going from a 2.6 K/BB ratio in 2007, to 1.52 in 2008 to his current number of 1.29.
Trevor Cahill hurled 5 1/3 scoreless innings with three strikeouts to earn his fourth win of the year. Cahill continues to whittle away at his overall ERA, lowering it for a six consecutive start.
Closers:
Trevor Hoffman blew his first save of the season, allowing two runs in the ninth inning against the Cleveland Indians.
Mike MacDougal picked up his forst save of the season for the Washington Nationals. McDougal’s line has been much better since coming over to the National League at the end of May. MacDougal currently has a 1.29 ERA in 6 2/3 innings.
