I’m Miles Miller!

Moment of the week:  Jonathan Sanchez of the Giants pitched the first no-hitter of the year.  In fact, he was a teammate’s error away from a perfect game (no walks).   There’s a lot to this story.  Sanchez is one of the most unprobable candidates for a no-no.  He was demoted from the rotation last month after going 2-8 with a 5.50+ ERA and only got the start because Randy Johnson and his 300+ wins got placed on the DL.  Meanwhile, Sanchez’ gem was against the Padres, who managed only 3 hits the night before against Tim Lincecum (so they got 3 hits in 18 innings).  So this game probably says more about the Padres than Sanchez. 

Other quirky moments from the last couple weeks:

• Alan Embree of the Rockies got credit for a win without throwing a pitch.
• Joel Hanrahan got his first win of the season Thursday for the Nationals, even though he was at home as a member of the Pirates.
• John Smoltz’ first 3 starts this season were against last place Washington, Oakland, and Baltimore, going 0-2 with a 6.60 ERA.  His big stride on Saturday came against the Kansas City Royals. 
• Baltimore comes back from down 9 runs to beat the Red Sox 11-10.   The next day, Boston came back from 4 runs down to win 6-5.
• The Cardinals began an inning with the first 5 batters getting a single, double, triple, home run, and walk (not in that order, mind you). The next batter also singled.
• From the beginning of June through July 7, the Mets went 11-22, scoring one or fewer runs 13 times. Meanwhile, the other team from New York City went 13-2 from June 24-July 9. 
• It’s tough being in the AL East: Toronto lost 10 out of 13 in their recent stretch against the Yankees, Rays, and Orioles to drop 2 games under .500.
• The Angels swept the Yankees in Anaheim even though they were without their entire starting outfield.  On their recent home stretch, they fell behind by 4+ seven times and won four of those games.
• Last Saturday, Robinson Cano or Brett Gardner ended the first 9 innings for the Yankees.
• Jason Bay got on base 5 times on Sunday without a hit.
• Joe Mauer finished the first half going 0-9 in his last two games, lowering his average to .373.
• Michael Bourn of the Astros had 8 hits over the last week and scored 10 runs.