James Shields is a Complete Animal

James Shields is on fire this season.

The Tampa Bay Rays righty became the first pitcher in franchise history to throw three straight complete games after their 5-1 win over the Houston Astros on Friday night.

Shields, now 8-4 with a 2.29 ERA, allowed three hits and struck out nine with one walk. He leads the big leagues with six complete games this season, and hadn't thrown more than five in his entire career with his last coming in 2008.

Rays manager Joe Maddon said there was "no superlative that is adequate" for Shields performance this season. So he went with this:

"That’s really good stuff."

Shields became the fourth pitcher over the last five years to win three complete games, after Brandon Webb did it in 2007, CC Sabathia in 2008 and Cliff Lee in 2010. And the season isn't even half over yet.

[ESPN]

They Say Good Things Come In Threes

Badassery abounded in triplicate last night for Mariners' tradebait hurler Cliff Lee and Twins centerfieder Denard Span.

Lee pitched his third complete game in as many tries, defeating the World Champion Yankees. Despite giving up two homers to Nick Swisher, Lee pitched his little heart out to go all nine last night. He was lights out against A-Rod, who went 0-4 last night, and issued just one walk - his first in thirty eight innings - to drive up his trade value before the deadline. It was his fifth complete game of the season, which is hard to come by these days.

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]

Brandon Webb: Back to Business

Like Brandon Webb was going to let back-to-back losses mess with his game. Pssh.

The 2006 NL Cy Young Award winner was back in dominant form Saturday night, tossing his eighth career shutout to help snap the Arizona Diamondbacks' five-game skid with a 4-0 win over the Washington Nationals.

Webb (10-2, 2.69 ERA) allowed a total of six singles in his 14th career complete game (second this year) striking out eight batters. And boy, did he work fast. The game lasted just one hour and 52 minutes for the shortest contest in the history of Chase Field. That should quiet the Bud Selig Bitchfest for a while.

That's all for this girl today, off to the Dome to see if the Twins can manage to avoid a Bronx Bombers sweep this afternoon. Happy June!

[AP]

Greg Maddux Has Still Got It

After 685 major league games, Greg Maddux has still got it.

The veteran righty pitched his first complete game in two years last night, in a 7-1 San Diego Padres victory over the Cincinnati Reds.