Today’s brief examines which slugger tied Lou Gehrig, which player with a .921 OPS at home carries a .288 SLG on the road, which hitter has a .649 winning percentage when he’s in the lineup, the baseball equivalent of “if a tree fell in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound” and more.

Pirates first baseman Adam LaRoche had two hits, a homer, two runs, two RBIs and a walk.  Since the All-Star break he’s batting .365/.431/.654 in 52 at-bats.  Forget the old “tree falls in an empty forest” bit and substitute “Pirate player posts 1.085 OPS” and end with “does anyone notice?”

Giants starter Barry Zito hurled seven scoreless innings to up his record to 7-15.  It’s amazing to me how there’s no outrage over the crash of Barry Zito.  Yeah, we all felt he was overpaid, but we all thought he was going to be kind of good, right?  Maybe not $129 million good, but still good right?  Did anyone predict him to be 18-28 bad at the beginning of the contract?  Imagine if A-Rod had ever been this bad?  The heat from the fans and the media would have been enough to blow up a small country.

Red Sox outfielder Jay Bay had three hits, two homers, four RBIs and a stolen base.  He’s batting .348 since the deal.  But his Zone Rating and Range Factor have both been below Manny’s totals and Manny was considered a dismal failure as a fielder.  Left field in Fenway might be the toughest outfield position to play.  At least the toughest to play and put up good defensive stats.

Rays designated hitter Cliff Floyd had two hits, a homer and two RBIs.  The Rays are now 37-20 when Floyd plays in a game.

Brewers pitcher C.C. Sabathia scattered 11 hits in a complete-game effort in which he threw 130 pitches.  The Brewers have no way of knowing if Sabathia is coming back next year so why not work him like a rented mule while they do control his rights?

Tigers designated hitter Gary Sheffield had three hits, a homer, two runs and two RBIs.  It was his 493^rd lifetime homer, which places him 25^th on the all-time home run list, tied with Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff.

A’s pitcher Kirk Saarloos replaced the injured Justin Duchscherer and pitched 3.2 scoreless innings with three strikeouts to pick up his first win of the season.  It was his first outing in the majors since April 17^th.  Saarloos is a fine back-end rotation guy, swing starter or reliever.  Or at least he’s those things when he’s on the A’s.  He’s got some bad gopher ball tendencies, which really blew up on him last year in Cincinnati (18.2 percent HR/FB ratio).  But there’s other teams out there with big ball parks that he could help, and no one claimed him when the A’s designated him for assignment earlier in the year.

White Sox outfielder/first baseman Nick Swisher had two hits, a homer, two runs, three RBIs and a walk.  When Swisher moved to Chicago this season, everyone was excited about the numbers he could put up away from Oakland.  And he’s done what was expected of him in Chi Town.  At home he’s got a .384 OBP and a .537 SLG for a .921 OPS.  But he seemingly forgets to pack his bat when they hit the road.  He’s got a .242 BABIP which has led to a .197/.319/.288 line.  It’s the dreaded U.S. Cellular Field hangover.