High & Inside: NL Notes
He's human after all . . . sort of Nationals rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg, incredibly, lost a game Wednesday at home against the Royals. He allowed nine hits in six innings, but only one run in the 1-0 loss. Hardly a case of Superman exposed to kryptonite. Oh, and he struck out nine batters of the 18 outs he logged to set a major-league record for strikeouts (41) in his first four starts.
He's human after all . . . sort of
Nationals rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg, incredibly, lost a game Wednesday at home against the Royals. He allowed nine hits in six innings, but only one run in the 1-0 loss. Hardly a case of Superman exposed to kryptonite. Oh, and he struck out nine batters of the 18 outs he logged to set a major-league record for strikeouts (41) in his first four starts.
"For the most part, I went out there and threw strikes," Strasburg told mlb.com of the outing. "[I made] a couple mistakes, but they didn't really hit the ball hard except for a couple of times; they just found the holes. You know, that's baseball."
Strasburg is finding out what Phillies ace Roy Halladay already knows: It's hard to win with little or no run support.
Strasburg's Nats teammates garnered just six hits - none for extra bases - and no runs.
Retiring No. 20
Luis Gonzalez will have the honor of being the first Arizona Diamondback in the team's 13-year history to have his number retired.
Gonzalez, who wore No. 20 and played eight seasons for Arizona, is the franchise leader in virtually every offensive category, including games (1,194), hits (1,337), home runs (224) and RBIs (774).
He hit a franchise-record 57 home runs in 2001, and drove in the winning run against the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series with a bloop single in the ninth inning.
The number will be retired in a pregame ceremony Aug. 7. "It's a great honor," Gonzalez, now a special assistant with the Diamondbacks, told reporters. "I'm truly humbled by it."
Channeling Mitch Williams
Brewers starter Manny Parra matched a 35-year individual club record with four wild pitches against the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday and reliever Kameron Loe fired a fifth to set a team mark for wild pitches in a game.
Parra's worst throw came when his toss sailed over catcher Jonathan Lucroy's head while trying to intentionally walk Delmon Young in the sixth.
Noteworthy
The Padres sent catcher Dusty Ryan back to triple-A Portland. He filled in while starting catcher Yorvit Torrealba served a three-game suspension for making contact with an umpire. . . . the Mets promoted catcher Josh Thole from triple-A Buffalo and sent down lefthanded reliever Raul Valdes.