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Sports by the Numbers MLB Stat of the Week

259 Coco Crisp is batting (.259) with two homeruns this season - and depending on your perspective, you could say his seven-game suspension for charging the mound against Rays' pitcher James Shields probably helps Boston. Crisp was wrong and he knows it - and good for Shields for hitting him, too bad five Rays' players got suspended while only three Red Sox players will have to sit out a bit. Tampa's Carl Crawford got suspended four games, and his response was to say, "Our guys got caught on tape." His manager, Joe Maddon, said, "I defend everything our guys did." Good for you, Joe - keep those "Devil" free Rays battling all year if you can.

Honorable Mentions

4 The San Diego Padres became the first team in baseball history to win (4) consecutive games by a score of 2-1. Scott Hairston hit a walk-off homerun in the tenth inning on Saturday night to beat the New York Mets, leading catcher Michael Barrett to say, "We are on an unbelievable roll." Well, sort of, they have won four in a row and seven out of ten - and now they are only eight games out of first place with only the third worst record in the league.

5 Joe Crede hit (5) homeruns in three games this past week. The White Sox third baseman hit one on Wednesday, two on Friday, and two on Saturday - which is pretty impressive, but when I went online first thing this morning to check the box scores on mlb.com the first thing I saw was a headline that said, "Joltin' Joe hammers Twins." Now, come on - as impressive as his offensive numbers were this past week, referring to him as "Joltin' Joe" is truly offensive. He isn't wearing pinstripes, he isn't playing in the Bronx, and - no offense Joe - he isn't DiMaggio.

6 First the good news for Yankees fans - Johnny Damon did in fact get (6) hits on Saturday, including the game-winner against his old club as the Yankees rallied past the Royals for a 12-11 victory. Damon tied a club and league record by getting six hits in a nine-inning game. Now the bad news - Andy Pettitte gave up ten earned runs in six plus innings of work. Pettitte has won only twice in his last nine starts, while his ERA has soared from 2.45 to 4.99 during that stretch.

346 The Chicago Cubs scored (346) runs during their first 61 games - the highest total in the majors - but that rather large number apparently meant nothing on Friday to Dodgers' starter Hiroki Kuroda, who posted these rather tidy numbers in a 3-0 victory over Chicago: 9 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 11 Ks.

400 Chipper Jones hit career homerun number (400) on Thursday against the Florida Marlins. He became just the third switch-hitter in history to reach that plateau, and when asked about belonging to a group that includes Hall of Fame legends Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray as the only other members, Chipper said, "To be lumped in with those guys is what I'm shooting for. This is a step closer but still a long, long way from those guys - they set the bar really high."

 

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