Daily Baseball Update: 8/31

Historical Individual Seasons: Carlos Silva 2005
Stat Line: 9-8, 3.44 ERA, 1.17 WHIP.  Age 26.
Silva's 2005 season was by no means legendary.  He was 9-8 with a 3.44 ERA and didn't even get any votes for the AL Cy Young (Bartolo Colon won that award by going 21-8 with a 3.48 ERA).  However, despite those good, but not great marks, he set two all time records that year.  The first was for least walks per nine innings in a season in the modern era (post 1900) at just nine in 188.1 innings.  That's just 0.43 walks per complete game.  He never walked more than two batters in any month of the season and didn't even walk his first batter until his third start of the season.  Even that first was just of the intentional variety to Garret Anderson, an eventual .293 career hitter with 287 home runs.  His first unintentional walk did not come until his sixth start on May 14th, when he walked David Dellucci in the 4th inning.  Over the course of the season, he issued just one walk, an intentional one at that, to a right handed batter (Craig Monroe, who hit 20 home runs and batted .277 for the season).  The other record he set in 2005 was for the least pitches thrown in a nine inning complete game.  On May 20th against Milwaukee, he went the distance on five hits and no walks, tossing just 74 pitches en route to a 7-1 win at the Metrodome.  The Brewers lineup that day included such hitters as Geoff Jenkins (25 HR, 86 RBI, .292 AVG), Carlos Lee (32 HR, 114 RBI, .265 AVG), and Lyle Overbay (19 HR, 72 RBI, .276 AVG), but Silva made it through on just 74 pitches.  Facing thirty batters, he averaged just 2.5 pitches per batter and 8.2 pitches per inning.  He also tossed a complete game on June 23rd on just 91 pitches.  He went nine innings again on July 18th and threw just 85 pitches.

News
Mariners traded Michael Morse (13 HR, 27 RBI, .227 AVG, 0 SB, age 31) to the Orioles for minor leaguer Xavier Avery (3 HR, 35 RBI, .259 AVG, 29 SB at AA and AAA, age 23).
The Braves were the first team to clinch a winning record for the season.

Game Scores
Mets (61-72) beat the Nationals (68-66) 3-2.
Red Sox (80-56) beat the White Sox (56-77) 4-3.
Yankees (71-63) beat the Orioles (71-62) 8-5.
Phillies (62-73) beat the Cubs (56-78) 6-5.
Dodgers (79-55) beat the Padres (60-74) 9-2.
A's (76-58) beat the Rays (75-58) 4-3.
Tigers (79-56) beat the Indians (71-63) 7-2.
Top Scorer: Dodgers beat the Padres 9-2 and Rockies beat the Reds 9-6.

Standings
AL East: Red Sox (80-56, .588 WPCT).  AL Central: Tigers (79-56, .585).  AL West: Rangers (78-56, .582).
NL East: Braves (82-52, .612).  NL Central: Pirates and Cardinals (78-56, .582).  NL West: Dodgers (79-55, .590).
AL Wild Cards: A's (76-58, .567) and Rays (75-58, .564).  NL Wild Cards: Pirates/Cardinals (78-56, .582) and Reds (75-60, .556).
Bottom Team: Astros (44-90, .328).  Longest W Streak: Braves, 5 games.  Longest L Streak: Marlins, 5 games.

League Leaders
Offensive: AVG: Miguel Cabrera (Tigers), .358 (173-483).  Home runs: Chris Davis (Orioles), 47.  RBI: Miguel Cabrera, 130.  Stolen bases: Jacoby Ellsbury (Red Sox), 50.
Pitching: Wins: Max Scherzer (Tigers), 19.  K's: Yu Darvish (Rangers), 236.  ERA: Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers), 1.72 (204 innings, 39 earned runs).  Saves: Craig Kimbrel (Braves), 43.

Top Performers
Offensive: Garrett Jones (Pirates): 3-4, double, home run (13), 4 RBI, run, AVG up .005 from .235 to .240, hitting streak to 1 game (3-4, .750 AVG).
Pitching: Francisco Liriano (Pirates): Win (15-6), 8 shutout innings, 2 hits, 2 walks, 6 K's (135), ERA drop: 0.17 runs from 2.74 to 2.57.
Worst Pitching Performance: Anthony Bass (Padres): No decision, 1.2 innings, 5 earned runs, 5 hits, 1 walk, 0 K's, ERA jump: 1.03 runs from 4.08 to 5.11.

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Teams followed in this update: Washington Nationals, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers
If your team is not included, please leave a comment.
HR: home runs.  RBI: runs batted in.  AVG: batting average.  SB: stolen bases.  ERA: earned run average. WHIP: walks/hits per innings pitched.  K's: strikeouts. WPCT: winning percentage
Zack Silverman