Way to Go, Placido Polanco

Placido Polanco has re-injured his surgically repaired left elbow.

The Philadelphia Phillies third baseman hyper-extended his elbow on a swing in the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday. Ouch. He attempted to play some defense in the bottom half of the inning, but was replaced by Wilson Valdez in the second.

"It’s just a day-to-day thing I think. When I’ve had it before, I never stopped playing. But since I had surgery, they took me out."

Half of Phillies Infield on the DL

Sucky news out of Philadelphia today: the Phillies just lost half of their starting infield to injury.

Second baseman Chase Utley and third baseman Placido Polanco have both landed on the 15-day disabled list, with a sprained right thumb and sore left elbow, respectively. They have both been sent back to Philly to get checked out and see exactly how long they'll be out of commission.

Utley jammed his thumb while trying to stretch a single into double during the fourth inning of his team's 7-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds Monday night, but remained in the game until the ninth inning, when he was replaced by a pinch hitter because his thumb was tender.

Misshapen Melon Helps Tigers Roll

Placido Polanco went deep twice to help his Detroit Tigers beat the hobbled New York Yankees Wednesday night, by a score of 6-2.

Polanco hit leadoff bombs -- his first and only two of the season -- in the sixth and eighth innings. This, after going 4-for-5 with two runs scored in Detroit’s 6-4 win Tuesday night during the series opener, raises his batting average to .228.

So, after starting the season off at a miserable 2-10, the Motor City Kitties find themselves creeping back up to .500 baseball at 13-15, winning seven of their last nine games.

In other Tigers news, with the return of reliever Francisco Cruceta, the club has traded Jason Grilli to the Colorado Rockies for Class-A righty Zach Simons to make room on the roster.

[AP]

Fun With Polls: AL Batting Title

With a tight race for the American League Batting Title in the works, we thought it would be interesting to see who our readers think will pull ahead in the end.

As it stands today, Ichiro Suzuki leads the AL hitters with a .354 batting average with 11 games left in the Seattle Mariners' regular season.

Placido Polanco's Errorless Streak Remains Intact

Detroit Tigers second baseman Placido Polanco's perfect party ended Friday night. After a crappy throw in the first inning of the series opener against the New York Yankees, his record for second baseman of 147 consecutive games without an error slipped through his fingers.

...is still rolling at 148 games.

The streak, which began on July 1, 2006, is still intact after official scorers took the error away from Polanco and handed it to Marcus Thames.

Polanco fielded a chopper from Melky Cabrera and tried to run down Johnny Damon, making a poor throw to first that left both base-runners safe.

The apparent thought process on removing the error from Polanco's responsibility is that Thames should have been able to stretch and dig out the throw.

The big league mark for consecutive errorless games by any infielder is 193, set by Steve Garvey from 1983-85.

[Rotoworld]

Polanco Errorless, Chokes On Water

Congratulations to Detroit Tigers infielder Placido Polanco and his horribly misshapen head for setting a big league record for second basemen on Monday by going 144 consecutive games without an error.

The record, which Polanco tied on Sunday, was previously held by Luis Castillo when he still played with the Minnesota Twins.

The all-time mark for infielders is 193 games, set by Steve Garvey, who accomplished the feat between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres from 1983-85.

[Mack Avenue Tigers]