Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.We've seen our fair share of no-hitters and perfect games get busted up in late this season, maybe even more then our fair share. In fact, if Jonathan Sanchez hadn't finally made it all the way through nine innings back in early July, I'd think there was some sort of conspiracy against the no-hit bid in 2009.
Sunday, Brett Anderson took a perfect game into the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Angels. But, just like most of the attempts for perfection this season, the Angels found a way to play spoiler. This time it was Bobby Abreu in the seventh inning.
Abreu also was responsible for breaking up Anderson's perfect game, grounding a clean single through the left side with two outs in the seventh. Anderson promptly picked him off.
Anderson threw eight innings of two-hit baseball, striking out six batters while walking none. On most days, that's still good enough for the win. Unfortunately for Anderson, John Lackey can pitch too, and he has a great track record against the A's.
"It was fun. I always like getting into those," said Lackey, who is now 15-4 with a 2.66 ERA in 27 career starts against the A's. "That kid (Anderson) is good. He's got great stuff. He's going to be around for a long time."Lackey threw nine innings of three-hit baseball, striking out six as well.
The pitching duel was finally settled in the tenth with an Abreu home run off closer Andrew Bailey.
Bits From the Box Scores:
• Russell Branyan popped his 23rd home run of the season on Sunday. Only seven major league hitters have more home runs and only three of those have a higher batting average.
• In the midst of the "will he be traded and to whom?" saga, Roy Halladay just continues to pitch. He threw a complete game Sunday against the Red Sox striking out seven for his 11th victory. His four complete games this season are bested only by Zack Greinke's five.
• Only a triple away from the cycle on Sunday, Prince Fielder continued to put on a hitting spectacle. Over the past month he's batting .337 with seven home runs and 16 RBI.
• J.A. Happ threw seven innings of shutout baseball on Sunday earning his seventh win of the season with no losses. Since June 27th he's gone at least seven innings in each of his five starts and has an ERA of 1.46 over that time.
• Matt Cain earned his 11th win on Sunday going seven innings and allowing only one earned run and striking out eight. Only Jason marquis has more wins this season then Cain.
• Showing signs on Sunday of breaking free from the power outage in July, Mark Teixeira hit a home run and a double to lead the Yankees past the Tigers. It was only Teixeria's second double and third home run of July, and only his seventh RBI.
• Luke Hochevar was dominating on Sunday striking out nine batters in 6.1 innings. He only gave up two earned runs but settled for a no-decision. The former first-round pick out of the University of Tennessee was riding a three start win streak prior to yesterday.
• Breaking news: Albert Pujols did not hit a home run on Sunday. He's not a machine, ok. He's just Albert.
• He leads Major League Baseball with 12 wins and has a 3.49 ERA. Why isn't Jason Marquis on your fantasy team?
• Matt Kemp went 3-for-3 on Sunday with a home run (his 12th) and a stolen base (his 20th). Now that looks like the guy we were all fighting over on draft day.
• Don't look now but the Atlanta Braves are starting to score runs for their starting pitchers. They put up 11 on Friday night for Jurrjens. Last night they threw up seven for Javier Vazquez. If Vazquez and Jurrjens start getting run support, their fantasy value will skyrocket. Both pitchers have sub-three ERA's this season but have been killed by poor run support. Keep an eye on these two and the Braves hitters.
• Ian Kinsler belted two home runs yesterday including a walk-off in the 12th inning. Kinsler has 22 taters on the season.
The Afflicted: Reds catcher Ramon Hernandez will hit the disabled list today and should have knee surgery Tuesday. He's expected to miss four to six weeks. Grabbing Ryan Hanigan is a great idea right about now in deep leagues or two-catcher leagues. Diving for ball on Saturday cost Nelson Cruz some at-bats on Sunday. It turns out that Cruz has a small fracture in his right ring finger. He's listed as day-to-day and could be back in the lineup on Monday. Joel Zumaya re-aggravated the stress fracture in his shoulder and arthroscopic surgery could be in the cards. We'll know more later.
Lineup Lock Time: Our schedule today kicks off at 7:05 PM ET when four teams begin action.
