Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.You Oughta Know ...
That Joe Torre can manage a little bit. Torre, who for a great part of his managing career was known as a loser, got his 2,195th managerial win Thursday night to pass Sparky Anderson and move into fifth on the all-time list.
Incredibly, Torre has taken his team to the postseason in 13 consecutive seasons, and given the Dodgers' ever-expanding lead in the NL West, he's likely to make it 14 in 2009. Even with the loss of Manny Ramirez, Los Angeles is 13-4-5 in 22 series this season, including taking two out of three from Oakland this week.
"If you told me a dozen years ago that I'd be in this rarefied air, I'd tell you you're full of baloney -- because I certainly started way under .500 when I took over the Yankees in 1996," Torre said. "But I have to thank George Steinbrenner for putting me in a position to do this. I've admired what Sparky did for all those years, and I'm proud to be in that company."Torre was 894-1003 as a manager when the Yankees hired him in 1996. Since then, he's 1301-868.
From the Trainer's Room ...
We already knew Dontrelle Willis wouldn't make his next scheduled start on Saturday, now we know why. Or at least the Tigers think they do. Willis was placed back on the 15-day disabled list Thursday with a recurrence of the anxiety disorder that plagued him at the beginning of the season. For his part, Willis doesn't think his struggles are mental:
"I have so many moving parts, I feel it's mechanical. I'm not a conventional guy, never have been. But I'll get myself right, and hopefully the third time is a charm."Not content, apparently, to simply put one of its starters on the shelf, Detroit also benched slumping outfielder Magglio Ordonez "indefinitely," according to manager Jim Leyland.
Numbers Game ...
Deja vu, anyone? Probably not in the case of the Kansas City Royals. For the second straight night, K.C. lost to the Diamondbacks 12-5, but the similarities in the line scores don't end there. The Royals also made three errors each night, pounded out 13 hits on Wednesday and 12 hits on Thursday and scored three runs in the ninth inning in each contest.
In Their Own Words ...
"I think a lot of guys are [expletive ticked] right now. Absolutely, without a doubt. We were talking makeup dates, Monday - [in July]. We were going to play 21 games in a row [without a day off]. I don't know if the gate was worth it. I don't know if there are a lot of guys [upset], but I'm one of them." -- Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell on the decision, made initially by Boston management, to play the Marlins despite an ominous forecast. The Sox wound up losing to the Marlins 2-1 in a rain-shortened five-inning game, but it didn't hurt them in the AL East standings, thanks to the Yankees' 3-0 setback to the Nationals.
Advance Scouting ...
Sneak out of work and get your weekend off to an early start with the two most tortured franchises in the game. The Indians head to Wrigley Field for a matinee against the Cubs (1:05 PM ET). It's been a combined 162 years since either club hoisted a World Series trophy, but try not to focus on that. Instead, hone in on the excellent starters, Chicago's Rich Harden, who will make his second start since returning from the DL, and Cleveland's Cliff Lee, who has been proving 2008 was no fluke for the better part of two months.
