New King of K's

When I used this space to declare Adam Dunn the new King of K's, predicting he could possibly eclipse Reggie Jackson's career record of 2,597, it looked like he was going to break his own single-season record of 195.

Dunn's strikeouts slowed down considerably in the second half, and Phillie phenom Ryan Howard came on strong breaking the record last night with 2 K's to total 197.
Don't expect Howard to sit out in the last weekend of a pennant race, so it's a good chance he'll crack 200.

Howard also broke the record for strikeouts in 2 consecutive seasons. Bobby Bonds held the record with 376 in his first two full seasons(1969: 187, 1970: 189). Note: Bonds never again struck out more than 150 times in a season.
With 181 last year, Howard now has 378 strikeouts over the last 2 years.

Bobby Bonds held the single season record for 35 years with 189. That number has now been topped three times in the last four years.

Good article on the men who came close to this record, and those who chickened out.

Hard Luck Cain

The best 7-16 pitcher in the game.
In his last four starts, Matt Cain has an ERA of 2.08 and a WHIP of 0.88
Sounds pretty good, until you see he's 0-2 in those starts.

In games where he's given up 2 or fewer runs, he is 5 - 7 with 6 no-decisions.
With a little run support, Cain could be 16 - 7 instead of 7 - 16.

Bummer in Baltimore

When I first discovered baseball, the Orioles were the big threat of the American League. Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, Brooks Robinson, four 20-game winners in one season!

Now, they are a game away from the AL East cellar, a place almost exclusively reserved for the Devil Rays.

Since their embarrassing for the ages 30-3 loss on Aug. 22, the O birds have gone 3-18, and their bullpen has an ERA of 11.19. These are the guys you count on to shut things down giving up more than one run/inning. More of a concern is that the bullpen is averaging close to 7 walks/9 IP and 14 hits/9 IP in this time. Allowing over 20 baserunners per 9 innings is not a formula for success.

Like the Giants, a team with a beautiful ball park but nothing to show