Congrats to Ervin Santana, who no-hit the Indians yesterday afternoon. He struck out 10, walked just 1, and allowed an unearned run. He only has 6 wins on the season, but he's been pitching really well all year, and could be a bargain heading into next year.
Dustin Ackley helped the Mariners snap their 17 game losing streak with 3 hits and 3 runs batted in last night. The rookie is rapidly climbing up the second base ranks, and could very well be a top-5 2B coming into next year. He is now hitting .301 on the season and slugging .512.
Zack Greinke threw 6 2/3 shutout innings yesterday against the Cubs. He struck out 9, and has managed to lower his ERA to 4.50. Greinke seemed like he hasn't had that great of a season, but he actually has a career high in K/9 and career low in BB/9, but has been subjected to an extremely high HR/FB rate (16.5%) and extremely unlucky strand rate (57% of runners LOB).
Jon Rauch got the save in Toronto yesterday, and looks like he could be the more likely save candidate as he has gotten each of the last 2 chances.
Jacoby Ellsbury hit his 17th home run of the season, and is now tied with Adrian Gonzalez for 2nd on the Red Sox. He also has 60 RBI and 29 steals, and I think that he will come into next season as a top-10 player overall. There aren't that many players out there that will post a .300+ batting average, 20-25 homers, 40 steals, 100 runs, and 90 runs batted in.
Paul Maholm gave the Pirates a lot of what they needed last night: 7 IP, 1 ER and 8 K after the team lost in 19 innings on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, they still lost in 10 innings last night.
Joe Mauer hit his first homer of the season last night, and it's good to see. While I don't think that his 28 homer season was his regular level, he seems more likely to hit at least 10-15 going forward.
J.J. Putz got the save last night for the Diamondbacks, and David Hernandez was used in the 8th inning. You can safely drop Hernandez at any point if you were holding him for saves.
James Shields had a tough night against the A's, giving up 10 runs, all earned, against the A's. I watched a majority of his start, and it just seemed to be a bad night for him. I wouldn't put too much stock into it. He's going to have outings like this sometimes.
Altuve Watch - 3 for 5 last night, 7 game hitting streak.
You can find some analysis on the trades from yesterday here, including analysis of the Edwin Jackson trade from Humbled Fan here at Fake Teams and from Satchel Price over at MLB Daily Dish.