California Wins the Little League World Series

Congratulations to the boys from Huntington Beach, California, winners of the 2011 Little League World Series. First Baseman Nick Pratto delivered a bases loaded single with two outs in the bottom of the 6th inning to score pinch runner Eric Anderson from third base giving California the 2-1 victory over Japan. It was just a terrific game between two really good teams.

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Just a lot of really great things to talk about in this one. Let's start with the starting pitching. Braydon Salzman and Shoto Totsuka were both extremely effective. Salzman, featuring a 72 mph fastball, went the distance for California allowing just 1 unearned run on 3 singles and more impressively he struck out 9 without walking a batter. Totsuka meanwhile pitched into the 5th before leaving due to pitch count restrictions (Pitchers could not face a new batter once they hit 85 pitches) and he was no slouch either. He surrendered a solo home run to California catcher Hagen Danner in the 3rd, but otherwise he was able to pitch his way out of trouble, bearing down when he had to and keeping the Japanese in the game.

Now the defense. Japanese second baseman Kenny Igeta was phenomenal the entire tournament and today was no exception as he made a number of fine plays. Starting rightfielder Kazuto Takakura made a terrific running catch down the rightfield line in the bottom of the second to rob a hit from California third baseman Dylan Palmer with a runner on. Pratto made a fine catch on just a rocket of a throw from second baseman Christian Catano to end the top of the 6th... Sure, there were a handful of errors, but it wasn't as though they were just throwing the ball over the place or booting balls right and left. It was really good baseball, and it was a lot of fun to watch.

Finally, the individual accomplishments by some of these kids can't be left out. Danner led the tournament in hits with 11, hit a pair of homers including the one in the Championship Game, and caught the whole game while calling all of the pitches. Salzman recovered from a scary line drive against Rhode Island earlier in the tournament that deflected off the brim of his hat, but he stayed in that game and then came back to throw a complete game today. Japan's Yoshiki Suzuki led the tournament with 3 home runs, and despite going 0 for 3 in the final, he contributed on defense throwing out runners at third and home while playing first base. And finally Pratto, the winning pitcher in the U.S. Title Game against Montana, who went 3 for 4 and delivered the game winning walkoff hit.

And then to have the game end with the bases loaded, two outs, bottom of the last inning... I mean, what more could you really ask for in a Championship Game? The game capped off a highly successful tournament that broke the all-time attendance record. Thanks largely in part to a local team from Keystone, Pennsylvania making a deep tournament run, over 400,000 fans attended the tournament this year.

Strasburg Excels at AAA

After 4 rehab starts in A-Ball, Stephen Strasburg made his AAA debut tonight and didn't disappoint. Strasburg retired the first 15 hitters he faced before finally surrendering back to back singles to start the 6th. He was removed following the second base hit after having thrown 64 pitches, 47 of them for strikes. His final line: 5+ innings, 2 hits, 1 run, 7 strikeouts in what was easily his best performance thus far. Strasburg's fastball topped out at 98 miles an hour and the Rochester Redwings lineup, the AAA farm team for the Twins, was completely overmatched.

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Strasburg has now thrown 14 1/3 innings over 5 rehab starts. He's allowed 8 runs on 13 hits, allowing opposing hitters to bat just .224 and he has 25 strikeouts against just 3 walks. Strasburg will likely make one final minor league rehab start, this time for AA Harrisburg on September 1st and as of right now he appears to be on track to debut for the Nationals on or about the 6th of September. If that's the case he should debut at home against the Dodgers.

Verlander first to 20 Wins

It wasn't pretty, but Justin Verlander won his 8th straight start making him Major League Baseball's first 20 game winner this season. The Tigers Ace was touched up for back-to-back solo home runs in the 5th and surrendered two more runs in the 6th,  but he was bailed out by his offense as the Tigers retook the lead in the top of the 7th and held on to defeat Minnesota 6-5. It marked the first time in nearly a decade that a pitcher has reached 20 wins before the beginning of September. Curt Schilling was the last pitcher to accomplish the feat doing so in 2002. It is also marked a career high for Verlander whose previous best was 19 wins back in 2009.

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As Verlander continues to win games, and as Detroit begins to pull away in the AL Central (the division lead is currently 7 games), the MVP buzz surrounding him will only continue. I still think he's going to have to do something really special to be able to sway the voters who don't believe pitchers are worthy of winning the award, but if you've been watching what he's been doing lately, you have to realize that he's already having a really special season. He hasn't lost a game since July 15th against the White Sox and it's not inconceivable that he could win 24+ games. His next start is schedule to be on Thursday against the Royals where it's looking like he'll face off against 22 year old rookie Danny Duffy. Verlander is already 3-0 against Kansas City this season with a 1.59 ERA allowing just 13 hits in 22 1/3 innings.

Cunningham Becomes MLS All-Time Leading Scorer

It probably wasn't under the circumstances that he would have hoped for, but 35 year old Columbus Crew striker Jeff Cunningham became Major League Soccer's All-Time Leading Scorer today with his 134th career goal. In the midst of his 14th MLS season, Cunningham converted a penalty kick against the Seattle Sounders to move ahead of Bolivian Jaime Moreno and into sole possession of first place on the all time scoring list. Unfortunately, the Crew were down 4-0 at the time of the goal and Cunningham's goal did nothing to influence the end result of the match.

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The Jamaican-born Cunningham started his MLS career back in 1998 after being taken by the Crew with the 9th pick in the draft out of the University of South Florida. He was a scorer right from the beginning netting eight goals as a rookie. Since then, he's scored at least 10 goals on seven separate occasions and led the league in scoring twice (in 2006 with Real Salt Lake and 2009 with Dallas). He spent his first 7 seasons in Columbus before bouncing around between teams for the second half of his career. After stops in Colorado, Salt Lake, Toronto and Dallas, he rejoined the Crew this season. While he's served primarily as a substitute, he's now scored a pair of goals this season, the first of which was a game winner in the 90th minute in a 1-0 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Cunningham is one of just 6 players in MLS history to score at least 100 goals. The others are Jaime Moreno (133), Ante Razov (114), Landon Donovan (114), Jason Kreis (108), and Taylor Twellman (101).

Matt Kemp Joins 30/30 Club

Matt Kemp drilled his 30th home run of the season last night off of Rockies reliever Matt Reynolds making him the 35th player in Major League history to hit at least 30 homers and steal at least 30 bases in a single season. In total the feat has been accomplished 55 times, but all but 11 of those have occurred in the past 25 years. Since 1987, at least one player has accomplished the feat every year with two exceptions: the strike shortened season of 1994 and 2010.

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It's an interesting cast of names when you get down to it. Some of them are expected, true speed/power guys like Carlos Beltran, Barry Bonds, Alfonso Soriano, Bobby Bonds... But there's also some surprises: Dante Bichette, Joe Carter, Jeff Bagwell (twice) and Jose Cruz Jr.

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Kemp's reaching this accomplishment is certainly not one of those surprises. In each of his 6 Major League Seasons, he's seen his home run numbers increase. Additionally, this is the third time he's eclipsed the 30-steal plateau. Now he finds himself in a position to achieve an even rarer milestone: the 40/40 season. Until Jose Canseco accomplished the feat in 1988 for the A's, it had never been done. Since then only three other players have eclipsed it: Barry Bonds in 1996, Alex Rodriguez in 1998 and Alfonso Soriano in 2006. With 32 games remaining for the Dodgers, Kemp now has an outside shot to become the 5th member of the 40/40 club. To do so he'll need to hit 10 more home runs and steal 7 more bases. However, he hit only 4 home runs apiece in July and August so unless he reacquires his power stroke he'll likely come up just a little short. Still, his chase will keep the Dodgers watchable for the next month even though they're out of contention. The Dodgers continue their series at home against the Rockies tonight.

Shields Fires 10th Complete Game of Season

James Shields fired a complete game 7-hitter against Toronto yesterday as the Rays defeated the Blue Jays 6-1. It marked the 10th time this season that Shields has gone the distance for Tampa making him just the 2nd player since the year 2000 to reach double digit complete games in a single season. Shields struck out 12 and finished the game throwing 125 pitches. As I touched on last week, the modern era isn't really conducive to complete games. Pitch counts and closers work against pitchers in the sense that more often than not, they're coming out of the game early. To give you an idea how special it is what Shields has been able to do, he has more complete games than all but 3 of baseball's 30 teams. The Brewers and Cubs have only one and the San Diego Padres don't have ANY!

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To find a season when a pitcher last threw more complete games than Shields - CC Sabathia also threw ten in 2008 - you have to go all the way back to 1999 when the Big Unit, Randy Johnson, threw 12 complete games for the Arizona Diamondbacks. With 33 games remaining in the regular season for the Rays, Shields likely has 6 starts remaining with a chance to equal Johnson's mark.

Here's a quick rundown of Shields 10 complete games

4/19 - vs Chicago Whitesox - 9 IP 4 H 1 R 1 BB 9 K - 105 pitches - W 2-1
4/24 - @ Toronto Blue Jays - 9 IP 4 H 0 R 2 BB 7 K - 95 pitches - W 2-0
5/22 - @ Florida Marlins - 9 IP 3 H 0 R 1 BB 13 K - 126 pitches - W 4-0
6/14 - vs Boston Red Sox - 9 IP 5 H 0 R 3 BB 5 K - 110 pitches - W 4-0
6/19 - vs Florida Marlins - 9 IP 4 H 1 R 0 BB 10 K - 110 pitches - W 2-1
6/24 - @ Houston Astros - 9 IP 3 H 1 R 1 BB 9 K - 106 pitches - W 5-1
7/10 - @ New York Yankees - 8 IP 4 H 1 R 1 BB 5 K - 102 pitches - L 1-0
8/9 - vs Kansas City Royals - 9 IP 6 H 0 R 3 BB 8 K - 117 pitches - W 4-0
8/16 - @ Boston Red Sox - 8 IP 3 H 3 R 1 BB 6 K - 114 pitches - L 3-1
8/26 - @ Toronto Blue Jays - 9 IP 7 H 1 R 1 BB 12 K - 125 pitches - W 6-1

More Hardware for Barcelona

The European Super Cup is an annual match between the winner of the Champions League and the winner of the Europa League. And now it's another piece of hardware that Barcelona can add to their collection. Barcelona defeated FC Porto 2-0 today behind goals from Lionel Messi in the first half and from newcomer Cesc Fábregas in the second to earn their second title in the last ten days (last week they won the Spanish Super Cup over Real Madrid). The reigning Portuguese and Europa League Champs fought valiantly, but any chance they had to come back was done in by two ejections late in the match forcing them to finish with just nine players. The win marked the 12th trophy that Barcelona has won under coach Pep Guardiola in his 4 years at the helm. It also marked just the 4th time in Barcelona's storied history that they'd won the Super Cup, the last time being 2009.

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Barcelona kicks off its quest for more titles next week as the open up play in La Liga hosting Villareal on Monday. They will start Champions League play a few weeks later where they are paired up with AC Milan, BATE Borisov and Viktoria Plzen.