June 24, 2010 in Sports

Baseball notebook: Strasburg sets K record

The Spokesman-Review
 
Tags:baseballMLB
Associated Press photo

Nationals Stephen Strasburg suffered first big-league loss.
(Full-size photo)

By the numbers

6-0: Record of knuckleballer R.A. Dickey in his first seven starts for the New York Mets.

10-17: Record of the Tampa Bay Rays since May 23, when they had the best record in the major leagues.

.591: Batting average of St. Louis Cardinals’ Matt Holliday over last five games. He’s driven in 11 runs during hot streak.

18: Hitting streak of Kansas City’s Jose Guillen, who drove in game’s only run in Royals’ 1-0 win over Stephen Strasburg and Washington Nationals.

Stephen Strasburg showed off his high heat in the high humidity of a sweaty summer afternoon, setting another strikeout record.

He also suffered his first major league defeat.

The hard-throwing right-hander struck out nine and allowed one run over six innings in his fourth start, but the Washington Nationals were punchless again on offense in a 1-0 loss to the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday in Washington.

On the last batter he faced, Strasburg (2-1) got his 41st strikeout by freezing Scott Podsednik with an 83 mph curveball. That broke a record held by Herb Score, who fanned 40 in his first four major league starts for Cleveland in 1955.

Seventy-five of Strasburg’s 95 pitches were strikes. His ERA dropped to 1.78.

Marlins fire manager

Fredi Gonzalez was fired as manager of the Florida Marlins, whose search for a full-time successor began with a phone call to Bobby Valentine.

Gonzalez was dismissed with Florida at 34-36 and in fourth place in the National League East, 7 1/2 games behind first-place Atlanta.

Edwin Rodriguez, who has spent the past 1 1/2 seasons as manager of Triple-A New Orleans, took over as manager on an interim basis.

Also fired were bench coach Carlos Tosca and hitting coach Jim Presley. They were replaced on an interim basis by Brandon Hyde and John Mallee.

“Bobby Valentine is a candidate for this position. He was spoken to by me today,” club president David Samson said. “I told him Fredi had been dismissed, and that we were interested in speaking with him in the very near future about our opening.”

Valentine is working for ESPN. Earlier this month he was interviewed by Baltimore, but on Wednesday he withdrew his name as a candidate for that job.

Duke lands on DL

Pittsburgh Pirates left-hander Zach Duke was placed on the 15-day disabled list after a scheduled bullpen session was canceled because of his sore left elbow.

•The pierogi is back, but the Pirates say it’s not because anybody turned up the heat.

Pirates communications director Brian Warecki says the team has rehired 24-year-old Andrew Kurtz, who earns $25 per night to race around the stadium in a pierogi costume.

Kurtz was fired last week after using the Internet to criticize contract extensions given to general manager Neal Huntington and manager John Russell.
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