You probably don't have any idea who James Shields is. There's no shame in that, spending a lot of time thinking about Tampa Bay Devil Ray pitchers has never been a recipe for anything but insanity. But Shields is 5-0 after beating the Royals 4-2 yesterday. He took a two-hitter into the eighth inning, the ninth straight start that's seen him pitch at least seven frames. In all 12 of his starts, in fact, Shields has left the game with the Rays leading or tied. That would be impressive for a member of the Red Sox or Mets but for a Devil Ray? That's a miracle equal to anything the Maccabis ever pulled off.
- The Red Sox have no friends in the scheduling department. Their game with the Yankees ended after midnight on Sunday and then they had to haul ass to Oakland to start a series with the A's. Of course the schedulers had nothing to do with that game going 11 innings and nothing to do with Kyle Snyder delivering a meatball that Eric Chavez pounded into the early midnight sky. The 5-4 win came after Alan Embree blew a save in the ninth, long after Dan Haren handcuffed the weary Red Sox lineup for seven-plus innings and was helped by Mark Ellis' cycle. No one had done that against the Sox since Andre Thornton in 1978. It must have been quite a flight.
- Having a guy juiced up on the 'roids hitting behind him isn't stopping teams from intentionally walking Vladimir Guerrero. The Twins gave Vlad a pair of intentional passes and Gary Matthews responded with a run-scoring single and a grand slam to pace the Angels 16-3 victory. Jered Weaver was the beneficiary of the offensive explosion, picking up his fifth win with seven solid innings while Boof Bonser's performance was reminiscent of his first name.
- Alfonso Soriano likes playing for Alan Trammell. He homered for the second straight game since Lou Piniella started serving his suspension and the Cubs won for the second day in a row, 7-2 over the Brewers. It's actually the third straight day for a homer with Soriano, if you're one of those stickler types but we think it's a far better story if his hot streak coincides with Sweet Lou's absence. Your own opinion on the matter is valued.
- Earl Weaver believed that the sacrifice bunt was a way of guaranteeing you wouldn't have a big inning. He was proven right in the first at Philadelphia yesterday. Chase Utley, only the Phillies best hitter, bunted with runners on first and second with no one out and moved them over. But Barry Zito walked Ryan Howard intentionally and the Giants got out of the inning unscathed en route to an 8-1 win. Zito got the victory, but that's not surprising. After all his team gave him more than four runs in support.
(AP Photo/Steve Nesius)
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