2010

At Fenway Park, Jose Bautista establishes a new Blue Jay record for home runs in a season when he hit his 48th, a two-run blast on a 3-2 fastball thrown by Michael Bowden. The 29 year-old outfielder, who has never gone deep more than 16 times in a year, breaks the mark established by George Bell in 1987.

2010 – The Giants lose a frustrating game to the Dodgers, 1 – 0, on a fielding error by Juan Uribe. Barry Zito suffers his 9th consecutive loss in spite of giving up only one hit in 5 2/3 innings. The Dodgers’ run comes in the 6th after they load the bases on a hit batsman and two walks; with two outs, Casey Blake bounces a ball towards the mound, which SS Uribe fields but bobbles, allowing Reed Johnson to score. Clayton Kershaw throws a four-hit shutout for the win, even though Matt Kemp’s single is Los Angeles’s only base hit of the contest.

Reid Brignac hits a walk-off homer in the 11th inning to lead the Rays to a 1 – 0 win over the Yankees and puts Tampa Bay into first place in the AL East. Brignac enters the game in the 9th inning, after Carl Crawford is ejected for arguing a called third strike, but his blast off Sergio Mitre ends a great pitching duel that started with CC Sabathia and David Price facing each other.

The Padres stop the Rockies’ 10-game winning streak with a 6 – 4 win at Coors Field. Miguel Tejada drives in 4 runs and Ernesto Frieri records his first career win in relief of rookie Cory Luebke, while Heath Bell earns his 41st save of the year.

The Giants defeat the Padres, 6 – 1, and the two teams are now tied for the lead in the NL West. Tim Lincecum, who went through a rough patch in August, putting up an 0-5 record with a 7.82 ERA, wins his third straight September start and drives in two runs with a single. However, the Giants lose OF Andres Torres for two weeks as he undergoes an emergency appendectomy.

The Phillies take the lead in the NL East on Roy Oswalt’s four-hit complete game shutout of the Mets, 3 – 0. Oswalt is now 6-1, 1.98, since being acquired from Houston at the trading deadline. Meanwhile, the Cardinals’Albert Pujols bangs two homers against Tim Hudson as the Braves lose, 7 – 3, to fall one game back of the Phils.

For the 10th consecutive campaign, starting with his rookie year, Albert Pujols drives in 100 or more runs. Only Al Simmons, with 11, has more seasons with 100 RBIs to start a career than the Cardinals’ first baseman.

Jim Thome connects for career homer No. 587 to pass Hall of Famer Frank Robinson for eighth place on the all-time career list. The Twins DH’s historic round-tripper, which he blasts in the top of the twelfth inning at Progressive Field, is the lone run scored in Minnesota’s 1-0 victory over Cleveland.

Meanwhile, in a struggle between the top two teams in the NL West, the Padres shut out the Giants, 1 – 0, to move one game ahead of their chief rivals. Tim Stauffer pitches 6 scoreless innings and the game ends when Pads closer Heath Bell strikes out Buster Posey and Yorvit Torrealba guns down pinch runner Darren Ford at second base on a stolen base attempt. Torrealba had earlier driven in the game’s only run with a solo home run.

The Marlins lose, 11 – 4, to the Phillies, but Dan Uggla goes deep in the 8th to become the first major league second baseman with four 30-homer seasons.