The hottest teams in Baseball are in NL Central; Houston  15-6 leads by 1/2 game with Cincinnati 15-7 in 2nd and St Louis  14-7 in 3rd, down by a full game.  Each of the teams has won 8 of their last 10 games.

In the AL Central, the Chicago White Sox are the easily the hottest
club in the in the AL at 14-7, winning 8 of last 10.   And Boston still sits atop the AL East at 13-8, winning 6 of their last 10.

The NY Mets in NL East have cooled off just a tad at 14-7, winning 5 and losing 5 of last 10 games.

Meanwhile, the Phils 9-11 win one, then lose one and vise versa and sit in 2nd place behind the Mets by 4 1/2 games.

In the NL East, the New York Mets won their games on Tuesday and Wednesday over the San Francisco Giants 4-1 and 9-7 (in 11 innings) despite Barry Bond’s homers; a solo blast in the 2nd inning on Tuesday and a 2 run homer driving in Moises Alou and knotting the score at 7 and driving the game into extra innings.  Bonds is now at 711 homers for his career, 3 behind Babe Ruth at 714.

On Tuesday, Mets starter Steve Trachshel (2-1) pitched 6 innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits with Billy Wagner (S5) notching the save and Giant starter Jamey Wright (2-1) getting the loss after pitching 8 innings and giving up 4 runs on 10 hits. 

On Wednesday, neither starter was involved in the decision, Billy Wagner blew his 2nd save opportunity and reliever Darren Oliver (1-0) got the win for the Mets going the last 1 1/3 innings as the Mets won the game with 2 runs in the top of the 11th.  Giant reliever Scott Munter (0-1) got tagged with the loss.  The Mets have an open day tonight and begin a 3 game series with the Atlanta Braves on Friday.

The Phillies were a wash over Tuesday and Wednesday losing to Colorado by a 7-6 score on Tuesday with Rockies reliever Ramon Ramirez (1-0) notching the win in relief of starter Miguel Asencio who gave up 6 runs on 7 hits in 3 2/3 innings while Brian Fuentes (S3) got credit for the save.  Phils starter Gavin Floyd (1-2) was tagged with the loss 7 runs on 6 hits in 3 1/3 innings.

On Wednesday, the Phils returned the favor, knocking off the Rockies 9-5 for starter Ryan Madison (2-1) who gave up 4 runs on 10 hits in his 5 innings of work.  Rockies starter Jason Jennings (1-1) was the losing pitcher giving up 7 runs on 9 hits in his 5 innings of work.  David Bell (3 HR) hit a 3 run homer in the 3rd to stake the Phils to a 7-1 lead.   Tom Gordon was again strong in finishing out the game pitching a perfect 9th inning with 2 strikeouts.  The Phils have taken 2 0f 3 from the Rockies with the get-away game this afternoon.

The Houston Astros defeated the L.A. Dodgers on Tuesday by a 4-3 score in 14 innings and on Wednesday by an 8-5 score.  On Tuesday, neither of the starters was in on the decision as Astro Reliever Ezquiel Astacio (2-0) got the win pitching a scoreless 14th inning although giving up 3 walks.  Dodger reliever Hong-Chih Kuo (0-3) took the loss giving up the winning run in the bottom of the 14th.

On Wednesday, Wandy Rodriguez (4-0) pitched 7 innings of 2 run, 5 hit ball in getting the win for Houston while Dodgers starter Odalis Perez
(3-1) gave up 7 runs on 11 hits in 4 1/3 innings in taking the loss.  Lance Berkman (8 HR) laced a 2 run homer in the 3rd inning for Houston and Jason Repco 3 HR) also hit a 2 run homer in the 5th for the Dodgers.  Houston took 2 o 3 from Los Angeles, has an open day today and start a 3 game series with Cincinnati on Friday.

The Cincinnati Reds beat the Washington Nationals 6-5 on Tuesday and 5-0 on Wednesday sweeppng its 3 game series with the Nationals and winning their 4th consecutive game.

On Tuesday, Cincinnati starter Dave Williams (1-2) won, pitching 5 innings of 4 run, 9 hit ball, David Weathers (S6) chalking up the save and Washington Starter Billy Traber (1-2) couldn’t get through the 2nd inning, pitching 1 1/3 innings and posting the loss.

On Wednesday, Cincinnati starter Bronson Arroyo (4-0)pitched 8 innings of runless ball and combined with relievers Kent Mercker and David Weathers to shutout the Nationals.  Washington starter Ramon Ortiz (0-3) took the loss pitching 6 2/3 innings and giving up all 5 runs on 7 hits.  Cincinnati has an open date today.

The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday and Wednesday by 6-3 and 4-3 scores to sweep the 3 games series.  St. Louis has the open date today and opens a 3 game series with Washington on Friday.

For more scores from Tuesday, Wednesday or tonight, click here, here and here.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 27th, 2006 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.