Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That reigning NL Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum is actually better this year, which makes it seem like a long time ago that we wondered how he'd top his 2008 season. Lincecum has erased all memory of that slow start by stringing together 23 consecutive scoreless innings, including seven against the Astros on Saturday.
Lincecum is now 9-2 with a 2.23 ERA, lower than last year's 2.64 ERA. He's looking like a strong candidate to start the All-Star Game in St. Louis, which would be a nice way of making up for last year. Lincecum was picked to go to the game in New York, but he was too sick to attend.
"It would mean a lot -- the hard work paid off," said Lincecum. "If I do happen to start, it will make up for the fact I didn't even make it to the field last year."
As a team, the Giants have now pitched two shutouts in a row for the second time in a week. Previously, they hadn't done it since 2002.
NEW YORK – Thanks in part to the influence of a 300-game winner, and the brother of a 300-game winner, the Rangers no longer have to try to out-slug people.
In the most remarkable turnaround of the season, Texas' pitching staff is actually pretty good, with a 4.46 ERA after shutouts Thursday and Friday and allowing three runs Saturday. If the Rangers can keep it there all year, it would mark the first time since 1993 the franchise had an ERA better than 4.50.
Not coincidentally, Texas leads the AL West at 35-26, the second-best record in the league.
"This is my third year here," right-hander Brandon McCarthy said, "but in two years I got sick to death of hearing, 'Texas pitchers stink. Texas pitchers stink.'
"Now we can turn those tables a little bit, be the group that maybe changes that whole mindset. It would be an awesome accomplishment."
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... The Rockies are 4 1/2 games out of the NL wild card after Thursday's 5-4 victory over the Brewers.
OK, so they're still four games under .500, and fourth in their division. But Colorado has won eight straight games – all on the road, no less – to climb toward respectability.
"It's hard to expect to win eight in a row, but we definitely are a team capable of doing it," [Ian] Stewart said. "Our pitching has been unbelievable these last eight days. Timely hitting with runners in scoring position, keeping innings alive. Everything has kind of been going our way. We know we can be this good, so we just have to continue to play this way."
MLB Power Rankings:Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.
Let me put this simply: you want no part of being No. 1 in the FanHouse MLB Power Rankings. It just brings discord, losing and possibly suspensions to your baseball team. Such was the case with the white-hot Dodgers and Manny Ramirez, who now have to deal with a 50 game-ban of their star slugger. Who's doomed this week? Let's just say that no one would be too shocked if they weren't there again next Wednesday.
Quirky lefty. Big curve ball. Part of the Big Three that carried the A's all those years. Signed ginormous contract with the Giants. Became the highest-paid fifth starter in baseball.
You can forget that last part.
Now into Year 3 of that $126 million deal, Zito finally seems ready to deliver.
"Barry is back," a National League scout told FanHouse. "He's pretty close to what he was. I'd say he's 80 percent of what he was, at least. He's got his velocity back. He's not back to 2002, when he won the Cy Young, but he's a competitive, championship-level pitcher again."
Bobby Scales has been in the minor leagues since 1999, and he has never played in the majors. Until today. When the 31-year-old right-hander faces off against Tim Lincecum (gulp!) Tuesday afternoon, it will mark his first time in a major league batter's box after nearly 4,000 plate appearances in the minor leagues.
Scales joined the Cubs roster as a replacement for Carlos Zambrano, so it looks like his stay may be short. Zambrano's rotation spot comes up Friday, and the Cubs will then be activating Randy Wells to fill-in. Assuming no one falls injured in the meantime -- or Scales doesn't start tearing the cover off the ball -- he's the logical candidate to be sent back down.
There are a plethora of two-start pitchers hurling in week five (Monday, May 4th - Sunday May 10th) of the fantasy baseball season. There are 58 total this week and you late sleepers are luck that all of the Monday games are night games. You won't need to set you lineups until 7:05 PM ET.
[Update: 7:48 AM ET] : Two games were rained out yesterday. The Mets and Phillies did not play and the Angels and Yankees were rained out as well. Here is the fallout from those two postponed games as it relates to two-start pitchers.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what's ahead.
You Oughta Know... That the Giants suddenly don't look so awful. They've won five in a row, tied with the Cardinals for the second longest active winnings streak in the majors. (Yes, the Red Sox have won nine in a row, but unless you somehow missed the endless highlights on SportsCenter, you know all about their 16-11 victory over the Yankees.)
Randy Johnson failed in his bid for win No. 297, leaving down 2-0 after just 3 1/3 innings, but the Giants bullpen gave up one run the rest of the way, while the offense put together a decent performance. The Giants are 8-8, having righted themselves quickly after going winless on their first six-game trip of the year.
Despite Johnson's rough outing -- and he's been just inconsistent enough that this quest for No. 300 could take a while -- the Giants have won with pitching. Their ERA during the winning streak is 1.37, including a pair of dominant games from Tim Lincecum.
MLB Power Rankings:Where we care what you've done for us lately when we break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world each week.
HAVE YOU HEARD? YANKEE STADIUM HAS A WIND TUNNEL!!! Does it matter/is it real? Probably not. In fact, it might actually be on the other end of the spectrum of importance when compared to MLB Power Rankings. This week, we welcome another brand new No. 1 at the top of our rankings, although, all spoiler alerts aside, it's from the same division as last week! Debate the quality of your team, after the jump.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
NEW YORK – Thanks in part to the influence of a 300-game winner, and the brother of a 300-game winner, the Rangers no longer have to try to out-slug people.
Starting Five
SAN FRANCISCO -- Remember 
Starting Five
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
