City of the Day

Flemington, NJ. 4 Players, 2 Active. First Player: Brian Snyder (1985-1989).

The small West Jersey town near the Pennsylvania border has produced four players, all since 1985, and all increasing in major league success. The first player was Brian Snyder, who only pitched 17 games over two seasons with the Mariners and A's, posting a 6.75 ERA. He is currently working with pitchers here in Fairfax County. Dan Smith debuted in 1999 with the Expos, going 7-12 with a 5.23 ERA over four years for the Expos and Red Sox. Out of the Montreal bullpen in 2002, he went 1-1 with a 3.47 ERA, earning a pair of saves. The only hitter ever produced by Flemington is Jack Cust, a power hitting outfielder. After playing in just 70 games for four separate teams from 2001-2006, Cust found his stroke in 2007 with his fifth team, the A's. In 124 games, he hit 26 home runs, knocked in 82 runs, and batted .256. In 2008, he set a career high with 33 home runs, though his average dropped to .231. After hitting 25 home runs in 2009, he saw a reversal of where his success was. He hit just 13 home runs in 2010, but batted a career high .272 over 112 games. After hitting three home runs for Seattle in 2011, he has spent all of 2012 at AAA. Between the Yankees' Scranton-Wilkes Barre and the Blue Jays' Las Vegas, he hit 20 home runs and batted .243.  Over ten years in the majors, he hit 105 home runs and batted .242, but hit 225 homers in the minor leagues. The only active pitcher is Charlie Morton, the Pirates' up and down righty. After a rough first three years to his career where he was 11-29 with a 5.98 ERA, he bounced back in 2011. Over 29 starts, he went 10-10 with a 3.83 ERA. He was pitching well this year until June Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the season. Over nine starts, he was 2-6 with a 4.65 ERA.  

News

Mistakes in the records from baseball's early days cloud the records, but Miami shortstop Jose Reyes bobbled Drew Stubbs' grounder for what may have been baseball's 500,000th error of all time.

The Yankees pulled back into first place alone, while the Dodgers tied the Cardinals for the second Wild Card spot.

Twins and Indians were eliminated from the AL Central race. Pirates snapped their seven-game losing streak.

Game Scores

Braves (83-63) beat the Nationals (89-56) 5-4.

Yankees (82-63) beat the Rays (78-67) 5-3.

Red Sox (66-80) beat the Blue Jays (65-79) 3-2.

Astros (47-99) beat the Phillies (73-73) 5-0.

Dodgers (76-70) beat the Cardinals (76-70) 4-3.

Pirates (73-71) beat the Cubs (57-88) 7-6.

Padres (70-76) beat the Rockies (58-86) 4-3.

Top Scorer: Brewers beat the Mets 9-6.

Standings

AL East: Yankees (82-63, .566 WPCT). AL Central: White Sox (78-66, .542). AL West: Rangers (86-59, .593).

NL East: Nationals (89-56, .614). NL Central: Reds (87-59, .596). NL West: Giants (83-62, .572).

AL Wild Cards: A's (84-61, .579) and Orioles (81-64, 559). NL Wild Cards: Braves (83-63, .568) and Cardinals/Dodgers (76-70, .521).

Bottom Team: Astros (47-99, .322). Longest W Streak: Tigers and Giants, 4 games. Longest L Streak: 8 tied with 2 games.

League Leaders

Offensive: Melky Cabrera (Giants), .346.  Home runs: Josh Hamilton (Rangers), 42.  RBI: Josh Hamilton, 123.  Stolen bases: Mike Trout, 45.

Pitching: Wins: Gio Gonzalez (Nationals), 19. K's: Max Scherzer (Tigers), 220. ERA: David Price (Rays), 2.54 (187.2 innings, 53 earned runs). Saves: Fernando Rodney (Rays), 43.

Top Performers

Offensive: Freddie Freeman (Braves): 3-4, triple, home run (20), RBI, 2 runs, AVG up .004 from .264 to .268, hitting streak to 4 games (7-15, .467 AVG).

Pitching: Francisco Liriano (White Sox): Win (6-11), 7 innings, 2 earned runs, 1 hit, 2 walks, 9 K's (160), ERA drop: 0.13 runs from 5.37 to 5.24.

Worst Pitching Performance: Scott Feldman* (Rangers): No decision, 2.2 innings, 6 earned runs, 7 hits, 2 walks, 2 K's (83), ERA jump: 0.35 runs from 4.97 to 5.32.

*100th career start.

-- 
Teams followed in this update: Boston Red Sox, Washington Nationals, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Colorado Rockies

If your team is not included, please leave a comment.

HR: home runs. RBI: runs batted in. AVG: batting average. SB: stolen bases. ERA: earned run average. WHIP: walks/hits per innings pitched. K's: strikeouts. WPCT: winning percentage

Zack Silverman