David Ortiz, AL Home Run Leader And Other Baseball Notes

Boston Red Sox DH David Ortiz hit two HRs yesterday and now has 10 this season.  That total ties him with three other players (Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli and Carlos Quentin) for the American League lead.  Since beginning the year 3-43, Big Papi has hit .312 and is hitting 354/447/692 in the month of May.  If there is a chance of buying Ortiz for less than a 2nd round pick, it is very small.

In the marquee pitching match-up of the day, Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians and Edinson Volquez of the Cincinnati Reds faced off.  Lee entered with a 0.67 ERa and Volquez with a 1.12.  Cliff Lee circa 2007 showed up and left the game with a 1.37 while Volquez saw his ERA rise just a smidge to 1.33 despite walking four to bring his season total to 30 in 54.1 innings.  I wonder if the Cliff Lee owner would trade him for Edinson Volquez and vice versa.

The Seattle Mariners sent C/DH Jeff Clement to AAA following yesterday's game.  He was just 8-48 with 20 Ks so I can't argue that he deserved to stay up.  I wonder how much rope RF Wladimir Balentien has.  He is only 14-64 so far with 23 Ks and just four walks.  Clement drew seven free passes - one less than Jose Lopez and Yuni Betancourt combined with 329 ABs.  There's a hint to the M's offensive problems here somewhere.

St. Louis Cardinals' rookie reliever Chris Perez picked-up his 1st major league win.  He pitched the 9th inning of a tie game which the Cards won in their final AB.  Ryan Franklin has a lock on the interim closer's role, but he has just 11 Ks versus 10 BBs in 22 innings of work.  Additionally, he has more fly outs than groundouts, too.  If Jason Isringhausen struggles all season, I'd bet on Franklin's peripherals that Perez gets a closing shot by season's end.