Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.Adam Kennedy: 5-for-7. Mark Ellis: 4-for-6. Orlando Cabrera, Kevin Youkilis, and J.D. Drew: 3-for-5 each. Six other players with two hits. Five more with a single hit. 35 in all, and nary a home run to be found. Boston's Clay Buchholz and Oakland's Vin Mazzaro each gave up nine hits in the game, and Boston was able to piece together five runs in the third to end up with a 6-2 lead after six innings. But as they say, that's when things got interesting.
Oakland scores one in the seventh on a Ryan Sweeney single. 6-3 Boston. Kennedy adds an RBI single in the eighth. 6-4 Boston. Drew scores on a sac fly in the bottom of the eighth to stake the Red Sox to a three run lead with Jonathan Papelbon on his way to the mound to seemingly end the hit barrage. But on this night, not even Papelbon was immune to the Oakland bats.
With two outs and a runner on third, back-to-back hits have the A's within one. After Ellis steals third, an infield single by Rajai Davis scores the tying run, handing Papelbon his third blown save of the season. In extras, Oakland puts two runs up in the 11th inning, with the second of those runs coming as the result of a key steal by Davis. As is obivous by now, the A's had no qualms trying to nab every bag they thought they could get. After the 34th and 35th hits of the game lead off the bottom of the 11th, Andrew Bailey is able to strand the tying run on third to record the save.
There you go. 35 total hits. Not one of the seven Sox pitchers escaped the outing without giving up a hit, while the A's pen was just good enough to win.
Bits From the Box Scores
• For half of the White Sox-Twins game, it looked like Mark Buerhle might do the impossible and be perfect in back-to-back games. A sixth-inning walk ended that fantasy, and the Twins were able to dink and dunk their way to a win, chasing Buerhle from the game with five earned runs charged to the Chicago pitcher. Buerhle did break the record for consecutive batters retired with 45 in all spanning three games, so big congrats to him!
• Mark DeRosa has now homered in three consecutive games, with the latest a three-run job with two outs in the eighth inning of last night's game. Much of the focus of the post-trade St. Louis offense goes to Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday (and rightly so), but DeRosa is loving hitting in front the two mashers. His multi-eligibilty at second, third, and in the outfield make him one of the better second-half investments in the league.
• Chad Billingsley and Adam Wainwright were locked in a pitching duel until the bottom of the sixth, when the Cardinals hit everything Billingsley threw at them for a six-run inning. Wainwright continued to cruise and now has throw seven straight quality outings. The St. Louis pitcher has been a workhorse, pitching at least six full innings in every start dating back to early April.
• Everth Cabrera stole two bags off Bronson Arroyo, giving him six in his last six games. He's also 9-of-16 in his last four games and makes an excellent pickup for those lacking in steals. Adrian Gonzalez homered for the second straight game, predictably heating up the minute I had to play him in a head-to-head league. The buy-low window is closing fast.
• It was tough for many owners to start Scott Kazmir yesterday, as the Tampa Bay lefty had been all over the map since coming off the disabled list in late June and had to take on the Yankees in this start. But against the league's best offense, Kazmir threw seven innings in what was his longest outing to date, allowing just one run in the process. Great step forward for Kazmir, and his owners will be more confident next time out.
• Check your free agency pool for Nyjer Morgan. Since Washington made the trade for the true centerfielder at the beginning of July, he's hit .389, stolen 13 bases, and scored 17 runs. He added a steal, a homer, and three RBIs last night. Hitting atop a very good Nationals lineup, Morgan has the potential to keep providing help in runs and stolen bases for the rest of the year.
• Rafael Soriano blew a save for the first time since mid-May in Atlanta's loss to Florida. You really can't complain about the eight saves the undisputed Braves closer has given you this month though. Across the dugout, Leo Nunez picked up his third win of the season despite giving up a homer himself.
• Apparently you can run on Miguel Montero. Chase Utley nabbed a couple bases in the Philles-Diamondbacks game, and Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino. The Flyin' Hawaiian also added a homer in the contest, as did Mark Reynolds, who hit a monster two-run blast off Brad Lidge in the ninth inning to make it a one-run game. Lidge rebounded to get the save after the home run. Reynolds has a 12-game hitting streak and still hasn't slowed down a bit.
• Rough week for Brian Fuentes owners. After giving up four runs on Monday without recording an out, Fuentes gave up two runs last night, again without recording an out. His ERA jumps from 2.78 to 4.29 after the two lousy outings. Jason Bulger cleaned up the mess for his first major-league save.
The Afflicted: Roy Oswalt left his start in the second inning with a back strain and will probably be placed on the disabled list. Oswalt was on his way to his customary big second half, so this is a big blow to fantasy teams. Ian Kinsler left the Rangers game with a strained hamstring and will likely miss some time. A rotator cuff tear will keep Randy Johnson out until at least September, making him droppable in all leagues. Also droppable is Chien-Ming Wang, as the Yankee pitcher is having season-ending surgery to his shoulder. Scott Richmond is back with Toronto and should start Friday. Chris Snyder gets activated, but Montero should remain the starter in Arizona.Lineup Lock Time: The action kicks off at 2:20 ET today.
