Climbing the Ladder with the National League 6/15/2008
by Scott Powers
Natural rivalries heat up
Friday marked the beginning of round no. 2 of interleague play.
Two NL teams have struggled against the AL in the early goings of the season. Through Saturday, the Milwaukee Brewers had lost all five games against the Boston Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins.
The San Francisco Giants, meanwhile, dropped five between the Chicago White Sox and the Oakland Athletics.
At the bottom of the NL West, the Colorado Rockies have put together a few wins but still couldn’t get out of the cellar.
Perhaps most notable among their wins this week were those that came Wednesday and Saturday – both without a Rockies RBI.
On Wednesday, Ubaldo Jimenez matched Tim Lincecum for seven innings in the longest-ever scoreless game at Coors Field. It wasn’t until the bottom of the ninth that Garret Atkins came home on Bengie Molina’s dropped tag.
Three days later, four Rockies pitchers corroborated on a shout-out as they scored two runs on two White Sox errors. The two wins without an RBI were the first two in Rockies’ history.
The San Diego Padres have also played some good ball. They’ve won eight of 10 to sandwich themselves in the middle of the division race.
Giving the Padres more to celebrate, Jake Peavy made his return from the DL Thursday, going six strong innings in a 9-0 blowout of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers maintained their one-game lead over the Padres, in second place behind the Arizona Diamondbacks, the only division team with a winning record.
Ken Griffey Jr. got his 600th home run Monday, which sparked controversy as the Florida Marlins season ticket holder who caught the ball rebuffed requests from Cincinnati Reds officials to return the ball to Griffey.
Now a fan named Jason Kimball claims to have caught the ball first only to have it wrestled away by the aforementioned Marlins season ticket holder.
The Reds are now in last place in a competitive NL Central, nearly even with the Houston Astros and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Chicago Cubs, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Brewers find themselves in the top of the division.
The Cubs, however, received bad news Wednesday despite Ryan Dempster’s first complete game since 2002. Alfonso Soriano will miss six weeks with a broken finger after being hit by a pitch.
Likely replacing Soriano at the top of the Cubs order and in left field will be Reed Johnson, who has come up big already since the injury.
Thursday he was hit by the first pitch he saw for a walk-off win over the Braves, and his three-run bomb Saturday was enough to defeat his former team, the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Cubs can look forward to the end of next week when they will face the first-place Chicago White Sox at Wrigley Field. This will be the first time ever that they’ve met while both in first place of their respective divisions.
In the East, the Philadelphia Phillies managed to expand their lead over the Marlins, who have lost three in a row. The Phillies offense has put up big numbers lately, now just five runs behind the Cubs for best offense in the league. The pitching hasn’t been shabby, either, good for a close third-best.
At the bottom, the Washington Nationals have fallen further behind the leader than any other NL team, a full 13 games back. To make matters worse, Elijah Dukes made headlines for fighting with manager Manny Acta.
Interleague play is that time of year for the AL to remind everyone of their superiority over the NL. This week will be an indicator.
