Around the Majors: June 3rd

by Mike Trovato

PITCHING MILESTONES

















Randy Johnson will take the mound tonight as the San Francisco Giants take on the Washington Nationals, as the Big Unit will make his first attempt to win his 300th career game. The Giants are just 25-25, but are 18-9 (.667) at home this season. The woeful Nats are 6-20 on the road, and are an NL-worst 2-8 over their last 10 games. Johnson is 4-3 lifetime against Washington, but interestingly enough, only three teams have tagged the Unit for a higher BAA . Washington has hit .249 against the 6'10" lefty; the Mets (.279), Rays (.271) and Cardinals (.257) are the only other clubs to hit better against Johnson.

The accolades of Randy Johnson make him a surefire first ballot Hall of Famer. Johnson has 4,843 strikeouts, and should he hit 5,000 before he calls it quits, he would join Nolan Ryan as the only pitchers to accomplish that feat. He has a World Series ring as well as a World Series MVP award, and 5 Cy Young awards. The Big Unit is 135 games over .500 (299-164) for his career, and may be the last pitcher to reach 300 wins for a long while. Only four other active pitchers have over 200 wins: John Smoltz (210 wins, 42 years-old), Pedro Martinez (214 wins, 37 and current free agent), Andy Pettitte (220, 37), and Jamie Moyer.

Moyer, 46, just picked up his 250th career win on Sunday in Philadelphia's 4-2 victory against Washington. Moyer allowed just one ER through 6 innings, walking none and striking out four. He is 4-5 on the season.

Ironically, the Nationals may very well wind up being on the losing end of two milestone victories in a 5-day period- Moyer's 250th and Johnson's 300th.


HOT HITTING

Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki carries a 26-game hitting streak into Wednesday's game against the Baltimore Orioles. Suzuki has recorded 46 hits (35 singles) and 13 multi-hit games during the streak, including eight 2-hit games, three 3-hit games, and two 4-hit games. Suzuki's average has shot up from .291 to .353 since May 5th, the last time he put up an 0-for performance. Ichiro is well on his way to a 9th straight season with 200+ hits and a .300+ average. He is the second player with a hitting streak of at least 25 games this season (Ryan Zimmerman, 30).

Joe Mauer has had an absolutely, unbelievably stunning start to his 2009 season. Mauer, who missed all of April battling kidney trouble and an injury to his right sacroiliac joint, has shown no ill-effects since his May 1st return. He does not have enough at-bats to qualify for rankings yet but in his 102 at-bats, Mauer is hitting a mind-blowing .431, has a .516 OBP, and is slugging a Barry Bonds-esque .873. In 29 games played, Mauer has failed to record a hit in just 5 contests. Mauer's 12 HR are already tops for all catchers, and his 35 RBI are just three less than Cleveland's Victor Martinez, but in less than 1/2 the at-bats. Mauer is running away with the lead in the All-Star voting at catcher for the American League. He is 360,000 votes ahead of Jason Varitek.

Pat Burrell who? Raul Ibanez has been on fire since taking over as the Philadelphia Phillies' everyday left fielder in 2009. After 13 seasons in the American League with Seattle and Kansas City, Ibanez' destruction of the National League has been quite noticable. Ibanez, who turned 37 on Tuesday, leads the Phillies in every major batting category. His 43 runs are tied for most in the majors; his 51 RBI are tied for second best. Ibanez' .716 slugging percentage is by far the highest in the league, and he trails only Adrian Gonzalez in home run category, after blasting his 18th and 19th home runs on Tuesday, en route to a 5-RBI night against the San Diego Padres.