The Cardinals' Chris Duncan went 2-3 with his 19th HR and drove in his 49th, 50th and 51st runs of the season. With slash stats of 294/387/569, one can only conclude last season's 22 HR effort was not a fluke. Overall, in 538 major league ABs, he has 41 HRs and a slash line of 292/372/580.
The Diamondbacks sent OF Jeff Salazar back to AAA despite his .333 AVG and good defense in order to activate veteran Jeff DaVanon. With two successful major league stints under his belt (last September with Colorado), Salazar is now entering official 4A territory.
The Yankees' Kei Igawa was awful once again with five innings, seven hits, four bases-on-balls and two HRs allowed. He mitigated the damage by striking out seven. Unfortunately for the Yankees, Igawa is just a AAA starter and proof the Japanese leagues are not quite equivalent to the major leagues.
Has anyone noticed that players who rely on speed that come off injuries seem to steal bases in their first game back? After being plunked by a Justin Verlander fastball and removed from the game, Ichiro Suzuki started at DH and stole a base. After missing six games with a quadriceps injury, Rockies CF Wily Tavares returned to the line-up and stole two bases.
In the first game played with Jason Kendall in transit to the team, the Cubs started Koyie Hill at catcher. He homered to make the case that he should be the back-up and rookie Geovanny Soto should go back to the minors. Kendall is a proven veteran, but, at this point, he does not appear to be much better than either Hill or Soto.