Doug Fister Fans 13, Tigers Extend AL Central Lead

While Doug Fister struck out a career-high 13 batters Monday, the Detroit Tigers topped the Cleveland Indians 4-2 to extended their American League Central lead to 7 1/2 games.

The right-hander served up one earned run on four hits over eight solid innings to help complete the sweep to drive a huge wedge between the two teams and five the Indians their largest deficit of the season. Clearly, all the guy needed was a change of scenery, improving to 4-1 over seven starts since being acquired from the Seattle Mariners back in July.

The Tribe has been cursed by injury all year long, leading its division from April 8 until June 14, when the Tigers got hot. Cleveland took the lead again once, but has trailed Detroit since July 22. However, they'll play 11 of their next 14 games on the road, so we'll see how that goes for them. Any predictions for the AL Central?

[The Detroit News]

Will Tim Lincecum and the Giants Make the Playoffs?

Tim Lincecum and his San Francisco Giants are having a tough time these days.

Trailing the Arizona Diamondbacks by five games in the National League West all of a sudden, the Giants were shut out by the Chicago Cubs on Monday by a score of 7-0. They're going to need a ridiculous September in order to avoid missing the postseason this year with just 27 games left to play.

David Price is a Strikeout Machine

David Price enjoyed a career high in strikeouts Sunday during his Tampa Bay Rays 12-0 rout of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Not only were his 14 K's over seven innings a career-best for the left-hander, it marked a franchise record for the Rays. Tampa Bay pitchers as a whole set a team mark by fanning 18 batters overall, with reliever Brandon Gomes adding two over 1.3 innings and Cesar Ramos fanning two more to end it.

CC Sabathia is a Big Fat Strikeout Machine

CC Sabathia, or Captain Cheeseburger as we so fondly call him, was an absolute beast on the hill Tuesday.

The New York Yankees left-hander struck out a career-high 14 Seattle Mariners in his team's 4-1 victory, providing the Mariners with their 17th straight loss and himself with his 15th win on the season.

Sabathia flirted with perfection, not allowing a base runner until Brendan Ryan singled with one out in the seventh inning. And he fanned seven guys in a row at one point... just filthy dirty. Then he got a little tired I guess, cause he walked the first three batters of the following inning before being lifted for David Robertson... who struck out four more Mariners.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Tommy Hanson

Tommy Hanson is an animal.

The Atlanta Braves righty struck out a career-high 14 Houston Astros Sunday afternoon in his team's 4-1 win at Minute Maid Park. Hanson surrendered just one run on three hits, improving to 3-0 with a ridiculous 0.97 ERA in five career starts against the Astros. Pretty awesome.

Dan Uggla hit a two-run shot in the first inning off Brett Myers and Brian McCann went yard for another two runs in the sixth to give their starter all the run support he needed for the Braves sixth straight victory.

Hanson -- now 7-4 with a 2.59 ERA -- fanned five in a row early in the game before striking out last three batters he faced. Exclamation point! His 14 K's were the most by a Braves pitcher since the legendary John Smoltz had 15 back in 2005 against the New York Mets. He's now tied with Bud Norris for the most strikeouts ever in a game at Minute Maid Park.

Oh, and Tommy, lose the beard. You look 20 years older than you are, and chicks do not dig that. Besides, how many guys do you know that go by "Tommy" who have face muff? You're not Brian Wilson, man.

[Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

Cliff Lee is a Strikeout Machine

Cliff Lee and his devastating curveball reached double-digits in strikeouts for the sixth time this season in his Philadelphia Phillies' 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers Monday night.

Lee dominated with 10 strikeouts over seven shutout innings, bouncing back from one of the crappiest starts of the year in which he surrendered seven runs and three walks in just over five innings against the Washington Nationals last week. He walked one and allowed seven hits overall Monday, accumulating 100 K's on the season, which is a National League best.

Lee is hot on the trail of the career-high 185 strikeouts he reached last season, and apparently, he doesn't even have to try:

"I'm not trying to strike guys out at all. I'm trying to get them out as quick as possible. For whatever reason, it’s kind of gone that way."

Although Lee's double-digit strikeout total of six is super impressive this early in the season, he still has a ways to go before matching Curt Schilling's total of 15 he enjoyed as a Phillies hurler back in 1998.

[Philly Sports Daily]

Tim Lincecum Punches Out a Dozen Mets

Tim Lincecum struck out 12 New York Mets Wednesday evening in yet another dominating performance for a 2-0 win.

To make matters even more exciting, our favorite stoner hurler surpassed Christy Mathewson in Giants lore for most double-digit strikeout games in franchise history with 29, including three already this season. God, that's hot.

Big Time Timmy Jim gave up five hits over seven innings, using 127 pitches. He struck out his final five batters before four Giants relievers finished the job, including Brian Wilson, who worked a perfect ninth for his 10th save of the season.

The Mets struck out total of 16 times, which is a season-high for a nine inning game. Give them a break though, they just faced three Cy Young winners in four games between Lincecum, Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee.

Big Time Timmy Jim Fans a Baker's Dozen

Tim Lincecum struck out 13 San Diego Padres Wednesday evening, helping his San Francisco Giants earn their second win of the season by a score of 8-4.

He held the Padres to one run on three hits over seven solid innings, just two shy of his career high in strikeouts, without walking a batter. The Freaky Franchise was given a 3-0 lead in the first inning before fanning the first four guys he faced.

Lincecum, the NL strikeouts leader for three seasons running, struck out 10 or more for the 27th time in his short career, tying Jason Schmidt for the second-most by a Giants pitcher since 1900 when Christy Mathewson did it 28 times.

Fun fact: he's done it on four occasions against the Padres, every time at Petco Park.

Little Timmy Man-Handles Cardinals

Holy smokes.

Tim Lincecum (I think I'm in love) led his San Francisco Giants to a 10-0 victory Monday night, striking out eight St. Louis Cardinals over nine shutout innings. He walked none and allowed just two hits, dropping his ERA to 2.37 and earning his eighth win of the season. The Freak leads the pack in strikeouts with 132 already, which is seven ahead of the next guy, Atlanta Braves righty Javier Vazquez.

Travis Ishikawa lent his bat to the Cardinals' sixth loss in their last eight games with a three-run shot in the third inning off starter Brad Thompson. This put the Giants ahead 4-0 before they busted the sucker wide open with a five-run seventh off stunned rookie Clayton Mortensen in his major league debut. Welcome to the big leagues, buddy.

Halladay Hits DL, Richmond Shines

Scott Richmond absolutely lit up the Philadelphia Phillies Wednesday night.

The 29-year-old rookie struck out a career-high 11 over eight innings and got some hefty run support from his Toronto Blue Jays for a 7-1 win. Richmond surrendered just five hits and retired his last 13 batters, which is a nice turn-around after going 0-3 with a 5.81 ERA over his previous five starts.

Hamels' Badassery Knows No Bounds

Cole Hamels strutted his stuff in another dominant performance Thursday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, tossing a five-hit complete game shutout for a 3-0 victory.

Last year's World Series MVP, who is a lovely 4-0 with a 2.84 ERA over his last seven outings, needed just 97 pitches to finish the ass-whooping. He sent down 18 of his last 20 batters and let only two runners as far as second base, one of them on defensive indifference in the ninth... which barely even counts. Hamels struck out five and walked not a soul.

The 25-year-old Philadelphia Phillies lefty now has five complete games under his belt, three of which are shutouts. Yesterday's silencing of the Dodgers really says something about his talent, however, as they own the best record in baseball at 37-19. The Phils are right on their tails though, at 32-20.

Fun Fact from Elias: Hamels has not thrown a wild pitch in 344.2 innings. That's almost two years.

[Philadelphia Inquirer] | [The 700 Level] | [Philebrity] | [The Good Phight]

I'm Your Huckleberry

Roy Halladay chewed up and spit out one Los Angeles Angels batter after another Tuesday, fanning a career-high 14 in the Toronto Blue Jays' 6-4 victory.

The unbelievably awesome right-hander, hunting down his second AL Cy Young Award, earned his big league-best ninth win for his second complete game of the season. He allowed four runs with no walks and seven hits in his sixth straight decision, lowering his ERA to 2.77. Awesome.

Fun fact: Doc’s 14 K's were the most by a Jays hurler since Roger Clemens struck out 15 Baltimore Orioles a decade ago.

[MLB.com] | [The Blue Jay Hunter] | [Drunk Jays Fans]

There's the Timmy We Know and Love

The San Francisco Giants sure know how to waste a good pitching performance.

Tim Lincecum tossed eight incredible innings Saturday, allowing no runs on five hits, striking out 13 Arizona Diamondbacks batters. Last year's Cy Young award winner (who we've been a little worried about so far this season) threw 98 pitches, 74 for strikes. Holy smokes, it looks like our get well soon card worked.

So what did the 24-year-old righty do differently this time? He simply adjusted the landing point of his front foot, moving it back in front of the batter's box, where it belongs.

Too bad the Giants couldn't muster a single run behind him, finding themselves shut out by Doug Davis and losing the seventh of their last eight games. Boooooo.

[Fanhouse] | [Baseball Musings] | [West Coast Bias]

Too Cool for School

How awesome is Scott Baker? Awesome enough to strikeout four batters in a single inning.

Okay, I don't know how cool that is, but it's kinda rare. The 26-year-old righty fanned four Milwaukee Brewers in the third inning of Sunday’s 4-2 loss, becoming the first Minnesota Twins pitcher in history to do so.

Baker, who struck out a total of nine in the game, kicked off the third by getting Ryan Braun swinging before Prince Fielder whiffed, but the ball got away from catcher Mike Redmond to award Fielder first base. He then struck out Russell Branyan and Mike Cameron -- both looking -- on three pitches apiece to end the inning.

The last pitcher to get four Ks in an inning was Los Angeles Dodgers righty Brad Penny in 2006 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Over-achievers.

[Twinkie Town]

Chipper Jones Disagrees With Your Strikezone

After the Atlanta Braves dropped the tenth game of their last fourteen, awesome third baseman Chipper Jones had a few suggestions for home plate umpire Rick Reed and his crew.

The Braves struck out six times in their 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night, continuing their downward spiral in the NL East. Jones didn't whiff, but hit a solo shot in the fourth and had another RBI in the fifth when he walked with the bases loaded -- the at-bat that had him steaming.

"The first pitch to me with the bases loaded was in my batter's box, inside," Jones explained after the game. "Now you tell me how I'm supposed to hit that. We have to get QuesTec here in this ballpark. We've got to. Umpires have got to be held accountable. That's Little League World Series stuff right there."

The 1999 NL MVP, who ranks sixth in the league with a .328 batting average, was not happy to see Willie Harris and Kelly Johnson pop up in front of him and Mark Teixeira ground out behind him, but it was his own at bat that had him baffled.

Chipper called it a joke, making it clear that baseball could fine him whatever they wanted to. "Somebody's got to say something. I've got more walks than strikeouts in my career -- I know what a strike looks like," he went on to call the officiating "abysmal" and "awful" and that major league baseball should be ashamed.

In the ninth inning, with Andruw Jones on first and nobody out, Yunel Escobar failed to check his third-strike swing. The most ejected manager in the history of the game emerged from the dugout, calm as can be, to make sure the first base Blue made the correct call. Bobby Cox promptly returned without an argument, but reserve catcher Brayan Pena was tossed for arguing balls and strikes.

Atlanta's right fielder Jeff Francoeur said it best: the club can't put a streak together to save their lives.

[Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

Bizarre Shoutout for Johan Santana

Johan Santana pitched a four-hit shutout - with only one strikeout - as the Minnesota Twins took advantage of four errors and a struggling Jorge Sosa last night in a 9-0 victory over the New York Mets.

Receiving a rare lump of run support and a 5-run lead in the second, the lefty cruised through the game, throwing only 92 pitches to toss his fourth career shutout and sixth complete game.

He walked no one and retired 15 of his last 16 batters, waiting to strike anyone out until bewildering Paul Lo Duca in the ninth. In 157 lifetime starts, Cytana has never gone without at least one K, leading the American League in strikeouts each of the last three seasons.

Aside from his terrifying presence on the hill, Johan also doubled in the fifth for his first career extra-base hit. He came to the plate five times - a rare occurrence for an AL pitcher - and finished 1-for-4 with an unintentional walk and a run scored.

Michael Cuddyer drove in two runs, extending his hitting streak to 10 games and Jeff Cirillo had three hits for the Twins, who knocked 13 around Shea as Sosa lasted only 3.1 innings. He gave up seven runs - five earned - on eight hits for his shortest outing in nine starts.

After a dominating 8-1 victory Monday night, the slumping Mets managed only four singles and never advanced a runner past second base in their 12th loss in 15 games, not to mention the sloppy defense.

Mets third baseman David Wright slammed his glove into the dugout as he exited the field in the fifth, stomping into the tunnel after committing his second error of the game.

Before the game, Bert Blyleven declared he would shave his melon if Johan pitched nine shutout innings of baseball. So the next time we see the future Hall of Famer (Bert, that is) he'll be looking like Mr. Clean.

"I think he's trying to hide right now," Santana smiled. "Believe me, tomorrow it's going to happen... hopefully by game time he'll be bald."

[A Fan's View From Section 220]