MLB san francisco Giants

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Braves have their longest winning streak of the year.

OK, it's only four games. But before Thursday night, Atlanta was the only team that had not won four straight at some point this season.

And where has it gotten the Braves? Not out of fourth place in the NL East – yet within two games of the first-place Phillies, their victims the past three games.

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Rich Aurilia and Dave Roberts turned their first passion (baseball) into a career, and now they're trying to do it again with their newest passion.

Aurilia, a veteran Giants infielder, and Roberts, a recently-retired outfielder, are soon going to be bottling the first vintage of their own wine.

No, Aurilia and Roberts aren't stepping on the grapes themselves, but neither are they simply slapping their name on someone else's company.

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

"This concludes our test of the emergency attendance enhancement system. We now return to the regularly scheduled season."

Yes, the 13th season of interleague play wraps up Sunday, except for a Cubs-White Sox makeup game. We have survived six San Diego-Seattle games (that's more zeroes than an A-Rod paycheck).

We didn't learn much we didn't already know: the system has inherent flaws and the American League rules.

For the sixth straight year, the AL has had** the better record in interleague play – 129-108 going into today.

Take out Cleveland and Oakland, and the AL is 119-84.

"It probably is" as big a gap between leagues as in past years, one AL team official said, "until you get to the World Series. Then it doesn't matter."

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

The NL Wild-Card Race
Team	W	L	GB
Brewers	37	32	-
Giants	37	32	-
Rockies	37	33	1/2
Cubs	34	32	1 1/2
Mets	35	33	1 1/2

You Oughta Know ...
There are now five teams within 1 1/2 games of the NL wild-card lead.

San Francisco on Monday lost to Oakland for the first time in the past six Bay Bridge Series meetings to fall into a tie with idle Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, the Mets beat the Cardinals and the Rockies took advantage of six (!) wild pitches to beat the Angels, so both picked up a full game.

So Colorado is a 1/2 game back, and the Mets and Cubs are 1 1/2 out.

It bodes for a fun race. A year ago today, only three teams were within five games of the NL wild-card lead and Tampa Bay had a three-game lead on the AL side.

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Catcher Buster Posey, who signed for a record $6.2 million bonus less than a year ago, is about to be promoted from the Giants' Single-A affiliate.

"I don't know if it's going to be Double-A or Triple-A, but that discussion is ongoing," San Francisco general manager Brian Sabean told FanHouse on Monday.

Posey, the No. 4 pick in last year's draft, is one of the top hitting prospects in baseball. He is hitting .328/.425/.545 with 11 homers in 66 games at San Jose. Posey was in big league camp for most of the spring. The fact that the Giants are considering moving him as high as Triple-A less than a year into his pro career indicates that he's on the fast track.

Giants catcher Bengie Molina is signed only through the end of this season, so Posey's development will no doubt play a role in the Giants' decision-making on Molina.

SAN FRANCISCO -- After the San Francisco Giants got swept by the Los Angeles Angels last week, it made it easy to dismiss their prior hot streak as the result of a soft schedule full of Nationals, Diamondbacks and Marlins.

Then they did something this weekend that just might force you to pay attention. They swept the Texas Rangers, who came to AT&T Park in first place in the AL West.

"When you look back at a series like this, beating good teams, that's when you realize that we're a real threat," said Barry Zito, who carried a no-hitter in the seventh in Sunday's 3-2 victory.

The Giants are now 37-31, leading a crowded National League wild card race.

Best 1-2 punch in baseball? Maybe Josh Beckett and Jon Lester.

Best young 1-2 combo? Probably Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain.

Best young 1-2 starters you may not have heard of? Josh Johnson and Chris Volstad.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Nationals may have just needed the spark of their manager's impending firing to get rolling. They have now won a season-high four games in a row, including Saturday's 5-3, 12-inning victory over the Blue Jays. What's more, the Nats have taken those four from the Blue Jays and Yankees, two teams with winning records in the American League.

"We really feel like we can win every game," Nationals outfielder Willie Harris said. "When you're losing ballgames, you get a gut feeling you're going to lose a game somehow. Things are going well for us now."

Harris was first supposed to bunt with the score tied in the 12th, but he failed. Then he was going to hit-and-run, but he failed at that, too. Finally he swung away, and hit a game-winning homer. After the game, Nationals president Stan Kasten pulled Acta aside and said something to him. Acta then told a reporter:

"I'm not getting fired."

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Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Indians had a night to forget on a day they honored a movie about their days as lovable losers. The Brewers and famed announced Bob Uecker were in town for a memorable night in which Uecker's team was on the right end of a few big homers.

The Indians led 8-3 in the fifth and 12-7 in the eighth before the Brewers scored seven runs to win, including four on Prince Fielder's first career grand slam. Fielder's big blast was set up by three consecutive Indians walks, which Uecker must have called by saying "Ball Four. Ball Eight. Ball 12."

"Overall, it was a very bad night on the mound," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "We continually got ourselves in bad situations. They kept coming, and we kept making it tougher on ourselves."

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Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Subway Series is finally living up to the hype on the field that Big Apple seamheads give it off the field. Friday, Luis Castillo made one of the most memorable fielding gaffes lately to cost the battered and reeling Mets a win. Saturday, Yankees walking injury relief pitcher Brian Bruney ripped record-setting closer Francisco Rodriguez for his antics on the mound just prior to Castillo's flubbed popup.

The series finale had a bit of everything.

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