Posted on August 24, 2006 by Andrew Flynn
Overnight Dispatches
From Rotoworld:
Jason Bay homered and doubled to key the Pirates’ 5-4 win over Atlanta Wednesday. The Canadian slugger drove in a pair of runs, giving him 89 on the season, while lifting his BA to .294. Bay is now batting a robust .322 since the All-Star break.
Chipper Jones hit his 19th home run of the season Wednesday night. That’s 350 career jacks for Chipper, pulling him into a tie with Chili Davis for the third-highest total by a switch hitter. Now just Mickey Mantle, 536, and Eddie Murray with 504, stand ahead of Jones among switch-hitting home run hitters.
Jose Reyes was 3-for-4 with a three-run homer to help the Mets hang on and beat the Cards 10-8 on Wednesday. Breaking out of an 0-for-12 slump. Reyes scored two runs, drew a walk, and stole two more bases to help pad his MLB-leading swipe total. Reyes now has 15 homers, 65 RBI, a .294 BA and 52 steals.
Mark Mulder was pounded for nine runs in three-plus innings by the Mets tonight in his return from a sore shoulder. The Cardinals might as well have given the game away when they had Mulder replace Anthony Reyes even though he struggled mightily in his final rehab start. Fortunately, they’re an NL team, so they can afford to give games away. Mulder threw only 40 of his 78 pitches for strikes and fanned just one batter. He might bounce back from this, but he can’t be used in even the deepest formats right now.
Armando Benitez pitched a perfect ninth with a one-run lead against the Diamondbacks to earn a save on Wednesday. Benitez was frustrated to be pulled from last night’s game and he let it show today. With perhaps his best fastball of the season, he got a tapper back to the mound and a fly to center before striking out Luis Gonzalez to end the game. If he keeps throwing like he did today, he won’t blow more than one or two more saves over the rest of the year.
Roy Oswalt yielded two runs in six innings and struck out seven Wednesday to beat the Reds in his return from a bruised right wrist. The Astros were down 2-1 when Oswalt through his last pitch, but the club came up with six runs in the top of the seventh and won 7-3. Oswalt improved to 16-1 against Cincinnati in his career, with the lone loss coming earlier this season. Oswalt hadn’t pitched since taking a liner off his wrist in his start on Aug. 14.