More No-Hitters Through Five

Yet again, another young pitcher has a no-hitter broken up by the first batter of the sixth inning. This time it was Milwaukee's Manny Parra, who got into some trouble in that inning and ended up with the line 5 1/3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 7 K. Ryan Braun and Gabe Kapler homered for the Brewers as they moved to 4-1 with their 5-4 win over the Giants. Ray Durham drove in 2 (his first RBI of the year) to tie Bengie Molina for the team lead. The Orioles Luis Hernandez is one of seven O's with at least 2 RBI.

Who is tied with the O's for the AL East lead? That would be the Tampa Bay Rays, as they beat the Yankees 6-3. Jonny Gomes homered and drove in 4 and Edwin Jackson had a quality start for Tampa (6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K) as they drop New York below .500 at 2-3.

In Chicago it was a battle of Lee's as Houston's Carlos went 3-4 with a home run, but the Cubs' Derrek one-upped him by going 4-4 with a long ball of his own. Roy Oswalt had a rough start (6 2/3 IP, 10 H, 6 R, 1 BB, 0 K) for the Astros while Kerry Wood pitched a perfect ninth to save the Cubs' 9-7 victory.

After a quick start Washington is now 3-3 after their 5-4 loss to the Cardinals. St. Louis pitcher Adam Wainwright shut the Nationals down (8 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 4 K) as only Nick Johnson (3-4 with a two-run homer) was able to really get to him.

Former Orioles and professional not-very-good catcher Paul Bako delivered in the bottom of the ninth with a single to lead the Reds over the Phillies 4-3. Philadelphia second baseman Chase Utley continued his hot hitting by going 2-3 with an RBI.

Clay Buccholz first start of the season for Boston didn't go exactly as planned as the Blue Jays jumped all over him and the two guys that followed him out of the pen to beat the Red Sox 10-2. Gritty David Eckstein scrapped his was to a 2-5 day with 3 RBI.

Livan Hernandez picked up his second win of the year as the Twins beat the Royals 6-4. Justin Morneau got out of an early season slump with a 2-4 day - he homered and drove in 4. KC's Gil Meche struck out 5 in 5 1/2 but also gave up 6 runs on 6 hits.

Jake Peavy showed why he won the Cy Young last year with a complete game two-hitter against the Dodgers. Peavy gave up one run and struck out 8. Brad Penny gave up 4 in the first and LA pitching was able to keep the Padres off the board for the rest of the game, but it wasn't enough.

The Detroit Tigers are still winless on the season as they fall to the White Sox 5-3. Brandon Inge is making the most of his playing time while Curtis granderson is on the DL, and he went 2-3 with a homer and 3 RBI. Tigers' starter Dontrelle Willis had his own no-hitter going through five and ended up only giving up one hit. Unfortunately for Detroit, he also walked 7 and gave up 3 runs in 5 IP.

I was able to catch part of the Braves-Mets on TV as Atlanta won 11-5. John Maine started out looking good for New York - I don't remember him ever throwing 96 mph. Though he K'ed 5, he gave up 4 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks in 4 IP. Tim Hudson had a quality start for Atlanta and Kelly Johnson had a pinch-hit grand slam to seal the victory.

It was CC Sabathia vs. Dana Eveland in Oakland, but Eveland was the one who looked like a Cy Young winner (7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 7 K) as Sabathia gave up 4 runs in 5 1/3 IP. A's second baseman Mark Ellis homered and drove in 3 as the A's won 6-1 over the Indians.

Mike Jacobs hit a grand slam to lead the Marlins over the Pirates 7-4. Florida leads the NL East with a 3-2 record.

Colorado's bats were kept quite by Brandon Webb and Arizona hit 3 HR (two by Chris Young and one by Justin Upton - that's a HR in each of his last three games) to take a 7-2 victory. Rockies ace Jeff Francis got knocked around for 5 runs on 12 hits.

Angels' pitcher Jeff Weaver had another good start (7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 6) and the LA bats put up 2 runs on 12 hits against Kevin Millwood to lead the team to a 2-1 win over the Rangers. LA is where they should be - sitting atop the AL West.