Jose Bautista is an Animal

Jose Bautista homered not once, but twice in his team's 3-2 win over the New York Yankees Monday night.

Count 'em: that's a big league-leading 40 bombs on the year for the Toronto Blue Jays slugger.

This game was pretty intense to begin with. In the sixth inning, both benches and bullpens cleared after Yankees rookie Ivan Nova, making his first ever big league start, fired a pitch just over the head of catcher Francisco Cervelli.

That's a Record

Apparently, all the Washington Nationals have to do to pack 41,517 people into Nationals Park is play the Boston Red Sox.

In front of a record-setting crowd, the Sox absolutely tore apart the Nats pitching, starting with John Lannan for an 11-3 victory in their first visit to the nation's capitol since 1971. Among chants of "Let's go Red Sox!" Boston batters knocked out 17 hits, including a 4-for-4 Jason Bay's 19th homer of the season. Jacoby Ellsbury also had four hits, highlighted by the first two-triple game of his young career.

Manny Acta had a few complaints about his team's poor performance, including this gem in reference to his shaky bullpen, who surrendered eight runs on eight hits with four walks.

"These guys are supposed to just go out there and keep us in the game," the Nationals skipper said. "And they can’t do it."

No, they really can't.

Also, welcome to the big leagues, Dusty Brown.

[Boston Herald] | [SawxBlog] | [Nats 320] | [SOX & Dawgs]

Edwin Jackson Shuts Down O's

Edwin Jackson simply dominated the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, pitching eight spectacular innings of two-hit ball to lead the Detroit Tigers in a 3-0 shutout.

Jackson (5-3, 2.30 ERA) allowed only three men to reach base and faced only two hitters over the minimum. The 25-year-old righty fanned seven over 101 pitches before skipper Jim Leyland cock-blocked the opportunity for his second career complete game just an inning too early. Boooo!

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]

Doc Halladay: I'm Your Huckleberry

Toronto Blue Jays All-Star righty Roy Halladay has won his first three starts of the season, party due to some great pitching performances, but mostly because the Jays have scored 26 runs behind him during those three contests. That makes things just a bit easier on the guy.

Doc, along with his trusty cutter, curveball and sinker, tossed seven dominant innings Thursday against the Minnesota Twins, allowing just one run (on a fielder's choice) and eight hits without a walk in his team's 9-2 victory. The win -- highlighted by eight strikeouts -- improves Halladay's record to 8-0 against Minnesota, who recently snapped a nine-game losing streak against the Jays, just to lose two more in a row. Yes, Harry Leroy Halladay the III has the Twins' number. Toronto took three of the four-game series in commandeering fashion.

Smooth Transition

CC Sabathia is now 3-0 as Beermaker and it's been a smooth transition to say the least.

El Capitán Chorizo tossed his second consecutive and 21st career complete game Friday, a four hitter that led the Brewers to a 9-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants. The hefty lefty retired 17 straight batters until Fred Lewis crashed the party with a leadoff single on an error in the seventh.

Ervin Santana: He's Magical

Ervin "Magic" Santana is off to a promising start for the Los Angeles Angels, after a not-so-spectacular 2007.

After capping last season with a horrid 7-14 record and 5.76 ERA -- an even uglier 1-10 record and 8.38 ERA at Angels Stadium -- The Other Santana and his consistent flamethrower shutout the Kansas City Royals with a 4-0 victory Monday night, tossing a complete game, four-hit gem with nine K's.

Over 31 KC at-bats, 21 batters saw three or fewer pitches, while seven of the remaining ten were wrung up.

With Nos. 1 and 2 starters John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar on the disabled list, Santana has stepped up in a big way for The Halos. So far this season, the 25-year-old righty has compiled a 6-0 record and a 2.02 ERA over 7 starts.

Even teammate Joe Saunders, who is doing his share of carrying the team at 6-0 with a 2.61 ERA, is awestruck.

"I just want to hang out with him," Saunders said.

[USA Today]

The Tribe Mean Business

And business is good.

In case you don't believe in the 78-57 Cleveland Indians yet, maybe their latest 8-game winning streak will convince you.

Paul Byrd pitched a four-hit shutout to lead the Tribe in a 7-0 blanking of the once-rival Chicago White Sox Saturday night to give themselves a 5.5-game cushion over the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central.

Cleveland's last nine-game winning streak came in June of 2005. They'll have the opportunity to match that today at 1:05pm ET with Jake Westbrook on the hill in the series finale against Jose Contreras and the Sox. Then, it's off to Minnesota to dominate another division opponent.

With 16 intra-divisional games remaining in September, it's do or die for Cleveland right now. And it looks like they're going anywhere but down.

[Let's Go Tribe] | [Tribe Report]

Brad Penny: Check Out McFly!

Remember Brad Penny? He's the Los Angeles Dodgers hurler that likes to strike batters out with his barn door open.

Penny has made his way to mid-season, boasting an 11-1 record and a 2.33 ERA. The flame-throwing righty is 10-0 vs. NL teams, with his only loss coming against the cross-town Angels back in May during Interleague play.

Monday, Penny held the Philadelphia Phillies to one run on four hits, striking out eight in the Dodgers' 10-3 victory, bringing his total of fanned batters to 90 in just 123.2 innings.

And yes, ladies. He's single.

Check out a Blown Coverage interview with Sooze here.