Daily Baseball Blog: 4/22

Did You Know

Philip Humber's perfect game yesterday was just the 21st in Major League history and the first since Roy Halladay perfected the Marlins on May 29, 2010. In fact, no perfect games were thrown from the games beginning in 1871 until Lee Richmond tossed one June 12, 1880. Then, five days later, on June 17, future Hall of Famer John Montgomery Ward tossed a perfect game over the Buffalo Bisons. Nearly 24 years would pass before the next one was thrown by Cy Young on May 5, 1904. After Addie Joss tossed a perfecto in 1908 and then Charlie Robertson perfected the Tigers on April 30, 1922, no perfect games would be thrown for 34 years until Don Larsen tossed a perfect game in the 1956 World Series, the largest gap in perfect games in history. No pitcher has thrown two. Humber joins Mark Buehrle, Roy Halladay and Dallas Braden as the only active pitchers with perfect games under their belts.

This Day in Baseball History

4/22/1876: The first National League game is played between the Boston Red Caps and Philadelphia Athletics. Boston won 6-5 on strong pitching by 20-year-old Joe Borden. He would go on to win 11 games against 12 losses, finishing with a 2.89 ERA in his only season.

News

White Sox pitcher Philip Humber pitched a perfect game over the Mariners.

Longtime catcher Ivan Rodriguez will officially announce his retirement Monday in Texas.

The Cincinnati Reds won their 10,000th game as a franchise, dating back to 1876.

Cubs traded Marlon Byrd (0 HR, 2 RBI, .070 AVG, 0 SB, 2012 age: 34) to the Red Sox for Michael Bowden (0-0, 3.00 ERA, .200 BAA, 2012 age: 25) and a player to be named later.

Indians signed Johnny Damon (2011 stats: 16 HR, 73 RBI, .261 AVG, 19 SB, 2012 age: 38) to a minor league deal.

The Washington Nationals drew their 15,000,000th fan in franchise history.

Pirates pitcher A.J. Burnett returned from the DL and pitched seven shutout innings against the Cardinals.

The Red Sox traded for Marlon Byrd after seeing outfielders Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury go down with injuries. Byrd was off to a slow start this year, having just three singles to show for 43 at bats for a .070 average. Prior, however, the veteran has had many solid years. His breakout year was 2003 with the Phillies, when he hit 7 home runs and batted .303 in 135 games. Byrd followed that up with a couple of years of mediocrity, he re-established himself with Texas in 2007. In 109 games, the 29-year-old hit 10 home runs and batted .307. After another solid 2008, he had his best year in 2009. In 146 games, the Boynton Beach, Florida native hit 20 home runs, knocked in 89, and batted .283 with eight stolen bases. He joined the Cubs in 2010 and finished with 12 home runs and batted .293. Last year, he hit nine home runs and batted .276 in 119 games, his worst year since he hit five home runs and batted .223 with the Nationals in 2006. Over his 11-year career, he hit 81 home runs, knocked in 438, and batted .278 with 49 stolen bases in 1,069 games.

The Cubs acquired Michael Bowden from the Red Sox, a pitcher who has been stuck between AAA and the majors over the past half decade. He was a star coming up through the Red Sox' system from 2005-2009, going 33-25 with a 3.15 ERA in 106 games (103 starts) between every level from the GCL up through AAA. He got his chance in the majors in 2008, when he earned the win in a stellar five-inning start. Since then he is back and forth between AAA Pawtucket and Boston. He never pitched more than 20 innings in a Major League season. The year he pitched 20 was 2011, when he posted a 4.05 ERA in 14 relief appearances. Over his five-year major league career, he was 2-2 with a 5.61 ERA and .295 BAA in 39 games (two starts).

Game Scores

Nationals (12-4) beat the Marlins (7-8) 3-2 (10 innings).

Yankees (9-6) beat the Red Sox (4-10) 15-9.

Padres (4-12) beat the Phillies (7-8) 5-1.

Cubs (4-11) beat the Reds (6-9) 6-1.

Dodgers (12-3) beat the Astros (5-10) 5-1.

Brewers (7-8) beat the Rockies (7-7) 9-4.

Rays (8-7) beat the Twins (5-10) 4-1.

Braves (10-5) beat the Diamondbacks (7-8) 3-2.

Top Scorer: Yankees beat the Red Sox 15-9.

Standings

AL East: Yankees (9-6, .600 WPCT). AL Central: Tigers (10-5, .667). AL West: Rangers (12-3, .800).

NL East: Nationals (12-4, .750). NL Central: Cardinals (10-5, .667). NL West: Dodgers (12-3, .800).

AL Wild Cards: Indians (8-5, .615) and Blue Jays/White Sox (8-6, .571).  

NL Wild Cards: Braves (10-5, .667) and Mets (8-6, .571).

Bottom Team: Royals (3-11, .214). Longest Winning Streak: Braves, 5 games. Longest Losing Streak: Royals, 9 games.

League Leaders

Offensive: AVG: Matt Kemp (Dodgers), .474 (27-57). Home runs: Matt Kemp, 9. RBI: Matt Kemp, 22. Stolen bases: Emilio Bonifacio (Marlins), 9.

Pitching: Wins: 7 tied with 3.  K's: Felix Hernandez (Mariners) and Justin Verlander (Tigers), 31. ERA: Brandon Beachy (Braves), 0.47 (19.1 innings, 1 earned run). Saves: Javy Guerra (Dodgers), 7.

Top Performers

Offensive: Colby Rasmus (Blue Jays): 3-4, 2 home runs (3), 4 RBI, 3 runs, AVG up .041 from .234 to .275, hitting streak to 5 games (8-19, .421 AVG).

Pitching: Philip Humber (White Sox): Win (1-0), 9 shutout innings, no hits, no walks, 9 K's (16), ERA drop: 1.06 runs from 1.69 to 0.63.

Worst Pitching Performance: Rick Porcello (Tigers): Loss (0-1), 1 inning, 9 runs (8 earned), 10 hits, 1 walk, 1 K (9), ERA jump: 4.48 runs from 1.84 to 6.32.

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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. BAA: batting average against. K's: strikeouts. WPCT: winning percentage

Zack Silverman