Stats of the Day: Torii in elite Twins company
Minnesota veteran becomes eighth player in franchise history with at least 200 homers
Here are four interesting items from around the big leagues on Thursday:
• Torii Hunter went 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs to aid the Twins in their 8-4 victory over the Red Sox. Hunter's homer was the 339th of his career, and his 200th with the Twins. He is the eighth player in franchise history to hit at least 200, joining Harmon Killebrew (559), Kent Hrbek (293), Bob Allison (256), Justin Morneau (221), Tony Oliva (220), Kirby Puckett (207) and Gary Gaetti (201). Hunter's 339 home runs place him in a tie with Boog Powell, Dave Parker and Tino Martinez for 96th all-time.
• Batting leadoff in the Twins' win, Minnesota's Brian Dozier went 2-for-5 with two runs scored. He now owns a .982 OPS in 160 plate appearances while batting leadoff this season. Among the 29 players in the Majors with at least 100 plate appearances in the leadoff slot, Dozier's .982 OPS is the third highest, behind Jason Kipnis' 1.051 and Joc Pederson's .988. The highest OPS ever for a Twins leadoff hitter with at least 400 plate appearances in the slot belongs to Chuck Knoblauch, who posted a .966 in 1996. The Twins are 25-10 with Dozier hitting leadoff and 7-11 when he doesn't start in that spot.
• Michael Wacha worked seven innings of one-run ball and picked up his eighth win as the Cardinals defeated the Dodgers, 7-1. Wacha, 23, is the youngest Cardinals pitcher to have at least eight wins through the team's first 54 games since Paul Dean (then 21) was 8-0 in 1934.
Video: STL@LAD: Wacha holds Dodgers to one, earns win No. 8
• In the Reds' 6-4 win over the Phillies, Brandon Phillips had three hits (including a double), drove in two and stole a base. In his 10-year career with Cincinnati, Phillips has 1,497 hits, 464 extra-base hits and 165 steals. He is three knocks shy of becoming the 10th player in Reds franchise history to collect 1,500 career hits. With two more, he will tie Ted Kluszewski for 10th on the all-time list for the club. Phillips is one of seven players in franchise history to have at least 450 extra-base hits and at least 150 steals. He joins Bid McPhee, Edd Roush, Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, Dave Concepcion and Barry Larkin.
Friday's milestones watch
• Albert Pujols is one homer shy of passing Jimmie Foxx and taking sole possession of 17th place all-time and two homers shy of tying Mickey Mantle for 16th. Pujols is one extra-base hit shy of tying George Brett for 15th all-time.
• David Ortiz needs one home run to tie Carlos Delgado for 31st all-time and three RBIs to tie Willie McCovey for 36th all-time (using Elias' standard of only counting RBIs since 1920; using MLB.com, Ortiz would tie McCovey for 42nd).
• Francisco Rodriguez is one save shy of tying Troy Percival for ninth all-time.