Oofta, as my Mom would say. The Astros got swept by the Tigers, were beaten so badly, that even though not much was expected of them, the players had a closed-door meeting after Justin Verlander nearly no-hit them. They were outscored in the four-game sweep 37-8. They’ve lost six in a row. And now, they are indeed, on track to lose more than the Mets record of 120 games.
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How about them Giants? A three-game sweep of their rival Dodgers in dramatic fashion with Posey‘s walkoff HR on Friday, Quiroz in a 10th-inning walkoff HR on Saturday, and Matt Cain finally showing his old form in today’s nationally televised 4-3 defeat. They Gigantes have now won six in a row and are back in first place. The poor Dodgers had Hanley Ramirez back for four games before he returned to the DL with a hamstring injury sidelined him in Friday’s game.
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The Rangers made a statement. They swept the Red Sox, who were the hottest team in the league.
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Roy Halladay is probably going on the DL. He got spanked- hard- again.
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Playoff picture if the season ended today:
NL West: Giants [Last Week: Diamondbacks/Rockies tied]
NL Central: Cardinals [Last Week: Pirates]
NL East: Braves [Last Week: Braves]
NL Wild Cards: Rockies & Reds [Last Week: Diamondbacks/Rockies & Cardinals]
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AL West: Rangers [Last Week: Rangers]
AL Central: Tigers [Last Week: Royals]
AL East: Red Sox [Last Week: Red Sox]
AL Wild Cards: Royals & Yankees [Last Week: A’s & Yankees]
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Now let’s take a look at the league leaders in all 10 statistical categories that our Fantasy League competes in:
Runs
1) 31: Austin Jackson
2) 26 (two tied): Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Gonzalez
4) 25 (two tied): Shin-Soo Choo, Nate McLouth
[Last week leaders falling out of Top 5: Coco Crisp (2-T), Adam Jones (2-T), Matt Carpenter (4-T)]
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Home Runs
1) 12: Justin Upton
2) 10: John Buck
3) 9 (five tied): Chris Davis, Edwin Encarnacion, Bryce Harper, Mike Morse, Mark Reynolds
[Last week leaders falling out of Top 5: J.P. Arencibia (T-4), Anthony Rizzo (T-4)]
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RBI
1) 36: Miguel Cabrera
2) 32: Prince Fielder
3) 31: Mike Napoli
4) 30: Chris Davis
5) 29: John Buck
[Last week leaders falling out of Top 5: Brandon Phillips (3)]
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Stolen Bases
1) 12: Jacoby Ellsbury
2) 11: Juan Pierre
3) 10: Starling Marte
4) 9: Nate McLouth
5) 8 (three tied): Everth Cabrera, Coco Crisp, Jean Segura
[Last week leaders falling out of Top 5: none]
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Batting Average
1) .385: Miguel Cabrera
2) .379: Carlos Santana
3) .368: Carlos Gomez
4) .361: Torii Hunter
5) .348: Troy Tulowitzki
[Last week leaders falling out of Top 5: Chris Johnson (T-1st), Bryce Harper (4)]
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Wins
1) 6: Clay Buchholz
2) 5 (five tied): Yu Darvish, Jason Hammell, Lance Lynn, Matt Moore, Jordan Zimmermann
[Last week leaders falling out of Top 5: Doug Fister (T-4), Matt Harvey (T-4), Jon Lester (T-4), Justin Masterson (T-4), CC Sabathia (T-4), Adam Wainwright (T-4)]
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Saves
1) 12 (two tied): Jason Grilli, Sergio Romo
3) 11 (two tied): Jim Johnson, Mariano Rivera
5) 10 (two tied): Addison Reed, Rafael Soriano
[Last week leaders falling out of Top 5: Rafael Betancourt (T-4), Craig Kimbrel (T-4), Brandon League (T-4), Joe Nathan (T-4), Tom Wilhelmson (T-4)]
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Strikeouts
1) 72: Yu Darvish
2) 57: A.J. Burnett
3) 54: Max Scherzer
4) 52 (two tied): Clayton Kershaw, Jeff Samardzija
[Last week leaders falling out of Top 5: Felix Hernandez (4), Ryan Dempster (5)]
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E.R.A.
1) 1.01: Clay Buchholz
2) 1.07: Jake Westbrook
3) 1.55: Madison Bumgarner
4) 1.55: Justin Verlander
5) 1.56: Matt Harvey
[Last week leaders falling out of Top 5: Matt Moore (2), Anibal Sanchez (4)]
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WHIP
1) 0.75: Jordan Zimmermann
2) 0.76: Hisashi Iwakuma
3) 0.82: Matt Harvey
4) 0.84: Madison Bumgarner
5) 0.88: Mike Minor
[Last week leaders falling out of Top 5: Yu Darvish (3), Carlos Villanueva (4)]
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So there you go.