MLB roundup: Jose Abreu loves dingers, Omar Infante loves RBI
Abreu has hit more home runs through April than anyone ever in the history of rookies playing baseball in April.
David Banks
White Sox "rookie" Jose Abreu homered again Sunday and drove in four more runs, giving him 10 home runs and 31 runs batted in on the year. The White Sox record for RBI in a month is 36.
Ventura had 33 RBIs in July 1991. Baines has the club record 36 in June '87. Abreu now chasing down the coaching staff.
— Doug Padilla (@ESPNChiSox) April 27, 2014 Abreu wasn't the only White Sox on display in Chicago's 9-2 win over Tampa Bay. 29-year-old rookie Scott Carroll started the game and pitched 7⅓ innings, giving up just one unearned run.
Omar Infante drives in six in 9-3 Royals win over Orioles
When the Royals signed second baseman Omar Infante, they might not have envisioned him as the team’s primary run producer ... or maybe they did. Their general manager is Dayton Moore after all. Infante came into Sunday’s game with 11 RBI -- second on the team to left fielder Alex Gordon. He has a safe lead now. He went 2 for 3 with a home run, a walk, and six runs batted in. He now leads all second basemen in RBI.
James Shields was excellent again for Kansas City, pitching seven innings of two-run ball with six strikeouts and just three hits allowed. The Royals pulled back to .500 (12-12) with the win.
Johnny Cueto & Julio Teheran blank each other, Braves win, 1-0
Cueto and Teheran matched one another with right innings of three-hit, shutout performances and handed a scoreless game off to their respective bullpens. Cueot struck out 11 batters and Teheran whiffed five. Each club used three relievers as the game stretched into extra innings. Finally, Manny Parra allowed an RBI-single to Freddie Freeman and the Braves moved to 17-7 on the year.
via 24.media.tumblr.com (h/t @JAGDrummer)
The Braves pitching staff as a whole had an ERA of 2.14 coming into the game, and after Teheran’s spectacular outing, Atlanta’s rotation can boast a sub-2.00 ERA and a sub-1.00 WHIP as a unit.
Houston has finally beaten Oakland
The Astros won, 5-1, in their first win over the A's this year and just their fifth win against Oakland since 2012. Those two teams are in the same division -- just in case you haven't been paying attention over the last two years. If you haven't, it's okay, because it sort of looks like Houston hasn't been paying attention either. They are 9-17 so far in 2014. Extrapolated, that would put them at about 56 wins on the year -- 34.6 win percentage.
And that would be an improvement over last year’s 51-111 finish. So, they’re trending in the right direction at least, right?
In any event, they managed to beat the A's on Sunday, which must feel good. Even if the Astros are rebuilding, and even if they do have one of the best minor league systems in baseball, it's unpleasant to be absolutely dominated by one team in such dramatic fashion. Now they just need to figure how to beat the Rangers one or two times.
Houston starter Collin McHugh followed up his amazing 12-strikeout performance on Thurdsay against the Mariners with 8⅔ innings of one-run ball. He struck seven and walked three, and got some help from Jose Altuve -- 2 for 4, 2 RBI, HR -- and Jonathan Villar -- 2 for 4, 2 RBI, 2 runs scored.
See More:
