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The San Francisco Giants recalled catcher Steve Holm from Triple-A Fresno on Tuesday to be Bengie Molina’s backup.

Current backup Eliezer Alfonzo was told after Tuesday night’s game with Washington that he would be optioned back to Fresno. He was batting .091 with one RBI in five games for the Giants since they called him up July 1, nine days after he completed a 50-game suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.

Alfonzo insisted at the time he never knowingly took steroids but did take medicine in December while home in Venezuela for bronchitis.

“We might have brought him up a little early after he missed time with the suspension,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “There was concern about him getting a little rusty. We want him to do some catching and work on some things defensively.”

Holm, set to start Thursday for the Giants to give Molina a day off, traveled from Round Rock, Texas, where the Grizzlies opened a series Tuesday. If you are looking for baseball tickets visit TickCo Premium Seating site.

“It’s been two straight mornings getting up at 3:30,” Holm said.

Holm, who was on San Francisco’s opening day roster, batted .324 (11-for-34) with three doubles and nine RBIs and hit safely in seven of 11 games for Fresno since being sent down.

The Giants also activated infielder/outfielder Dan Ortmeier from the disabled list and sent him outright to Fresno where he had his rehab assignment. He had been sidelined since late May with a broken left middle finger.

When Jimmy Rollins saw New York reliever Duaner Sanchez come out to pitch the ninth inning instead of starter Johan Santana or closer Billy Wagner, he went straight to the batting tee to stay loose.

It didn’t matter that he was due up sixth and the Philadelphia Phillies trailed by three runs. He thought they had a chance.

The ever optimistic NL MVP was right.

Philadelphia feasted on New York’s makeshift bullpen for six runs with Wagner unavailable because of an injury, and Rollins hit a go-ahead two-run double to help the Phillies to an 8-6 victory Tuesday night to take back sole possession of first place in the NL East.

“It started last year,” Rollins said, referring to the Phillies’ comeback from seven games behind the Mets with 17 to play to win the division. “You never give up.”

The teams entered the three-game series tied for first after the Mets trailed the Phillies by 5 1/2 games on July 4. The Florida Marlins are tied with New York, one game back.

Robinson Cano is hitting .522 since the All-Star break. The New York Yankees are even better: 5-for-5.

Bobby Abreu hit a go-ahead homer in the sixth inning and drove in three runs, leading the surging Yankees past the Minnesota Twins 8-2 on Tuesday night, their ninth consecutive victory at home.

Derek Jeter added a two-run double and Cano continued his typical second-half tear with two RBI singles, his fifth straight multihit game as New York improved to 5-0 since the break.

“We’re playing great right now,” Cano said. “We’re doing our job with men on base better than the first half.”

New York’s effective bullpen came through again after Darrell Rasner was pulled in the sixth, and the Yankees (55-45) reached 10 games over .500 for the first time this year. They moved within 3 1/2 games of first-place Tampa Bay in the AL East, the closest they’ve been to first since play concluded on May 14.

The Houston Astros, believing their season can still be saved, acquired pitcher Randy Wolf from San Diego on Tuesday in exchange for minor leaguer Chad Reineke.

Wolf, an NL All-Star in 2003, is 6-10 with a 4.74 ERA in 21 starts for the Padres this season. The 31-year-old is in his 10th season and will play for his fourth team. He previously played for Philadelphia (1999-2006) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (2007) before joining the Padres this season.

The left-handed Wolf will start for the Astros in Milwaukee on Sunday, general manager Ed Wade said.

Wolf, in Cincinnati where the Padres were playing the Reds, was caught off-guard by the trade.

“When it ultimately happens, you’re shocked a little bit,” Wolf said. “I didn’t really think about it. I think any team would have been, in some way, a surprise.”

The Milwaukee Brewers optioned left-handed reliever Mitch Stetter to Triple-A Nashville on Tuesday, making room on the roster to activate Jeff Suppan to start against the Cardinals.

Stetter was 2-1 with a 2.78 ERA in 23 appearances over two stints. He has held opponents to a .160 batting average, and went 1-0 with a 1.74 ERA since recalled on June 20, but was vulnerable because he has minor league options remaining. Please visit PBR Tickets Site beacuse you can find a lot of great deals for baseball tickets

Manager Ned Yost said the pitcher understood, and said “There wasn’t a lot of things we could do.”

The move left Brian Shouse as the lone left-hander in the bullpen, limiting Yost’s late-inning flexibility. Shouse was 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA in 29 games.

“I don’t have two lefties, so of course it changes things,” Yost said. “But it’s not anything that’s unmanageable. You take with what you’ve got and you go.”

In the shadow of a baseball stadium that rose from a mud-caked disaster area after Hurricane Katrina, Tulane’s players and coaches loaded a bus, their hopes of reaching the College World Series still intact.Across town, the University of New Orleans also is harboring dreams of a trip to Omaha. The team finished practice at a ballpark where upper rows offer views of gutted homes near the edge of campus.

“We’re still submerged in the reality of the hurricane,” UNO coach Tom Walter said. “There still aren’t a lot of restaurants open (near campus) and the few that are have limited hours. There’s not a lot of shopping, drug stores, things like that. It’s better than it was a year ago, but it’s still slow.”

There are all sorts of complaints about the pace of recovery since the storm struck more than two years ago, but college baseball is not one of them.

For one night at least, the Chicago Cubs are the best team in baseball. It’s a title they might not give up without a fight.

Alfonso Soriano’s two-run single capped a late charge for the streaking Cubs, who won their fourth straight by beating the Colorado Rockies 8-4 Thursday night.

At 33-21, the Cubs have the best record in the majors and one more win than Boston, Tampa Bay, the Los Angeles Angels and St. Louis.

“We have a good team,” Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee said. “We expect to win. We’re just living up to our own expectations.”

In a sometimes sloppy game, the Cubs outlasted their visitors. Chicago scored five runs in the last two innings as Rockies pitchers committed two throwing errors that led to three unearned runs. Colorado lost its fourth straight and ninth in a row on the road.

At 20-34, the Rockies are tied with Seattle for the worst record in baseball.

Nearly two months into the season, the San Diego Padres have yet to win three straight games.

That will change if they can beat the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night.

“One more. Let’s get one more,” Adrian Gonzalez said after he and Kevin Kouzmanoff homered on consecutive pitches with two outs in the seventh inning to give the Padres a 4-2 win over the Nationals on Tuesday night in a matchup of last-place teams.

“Let’s get some of kind of winning streak and see if we can build on that,” Gonzalez said. “It’s good to get two in a row. Let’s go out there tomorrow and have the same intensity and excitement and hopefully we can get something rolling.”

The worst team in the NL, the Padres (20-33) have won consecutive games only four times this season.

Gonzalez’s opposite-field shot to left on an 0-1 pitch from Charlie Manning (0-1) was his 10th homer in May and 15th overall. He hit a three-run shot with two outs in the 18th inning on Sunday to give the Padres a 12-9 win over Cincinnati.

I was recently reading an article on how pitchers in fantasy baseball are severely undervalued. It says that fantasy experts suggest spending spending a minimum of 60% of your money on hitting, and a maximum of 40% of it on pitching even though pitching counts for exactly half of the scoring. (If your in a league that does not draft with dollars, but in a serpentine form then take this non-literally)

In most leagues 14 hitters and only 9 pitchers count towards the scoring but this is because you need 8 positions to fill and usually some utility. Simple math shows you have 55% more hitters to produce your offensive stats. The actual ratio of players who are hitters to players who are pitchers is 61:39, so perhaps this is why experts give more money to hitting, but why? This line of reasoning is completely wrong. Since there are fewer pitchers and 50% of the scoring comes from pitching, the average price of pitchers should be more than the average price of hitters.

Some common argument you hear for hitters over pitchers

•You need to draft more hitters than pitchers

So what? You can still divide your money fairly equally between them just spend a little less per hitter than per pitcher.

•Pitching performance is less predictable than hitter performance

This could be true if you were comparing the average pitcher to the average hitter, but if you draft a quality pitcher wouldn’t you be able to predict quite accurately how well they will perform. In addition some pitching categories are easier to predict than hitting categories. If he stays healthy, wouldn’t you expect Johan Santana to get alot of strikeouts?

•Pitchers get injured more than hitters do

Actually this is not true, in a study done in 2001 by Stan Conte, it states that an average pitcher has a 23.7% chance to go on the DL. A hitter on the other hand has a 27.9% chance of going on the DL. Of all those hitters the shortstop is the most likely to go on the DL with a whopping 38.4% chance!

Also when pitchers do go on the DL they tend to stay on it longer with an average of 16.6 days on the DL and conversely the hitter stays on it an average of 13.9 days.

The last thing I want to talk about strays a little bit off the topic of this page but when your trying to decide between a great starting pitcher or a great closer take the starting pitcher. For example if your staff needs a total of 7 pitchers, 4 starters, and 3 closers. If you have one great starter, 220 innings pitched and a 2.25 ERA and the rest of your staff are average, (average for starters being 220 innings pitched and a 4.00 ERA, and average for closers being 70 IP and a 3.50 ERA), then you will have a total of 430 ER, 1090 IP, and a 3.55 ERA. If you have a superior closer and the rest of your staff is average then you will have a total of 462 ER, 1090 IP, and a 3.81 ERA. Now obviously you realize the big difference in ERA but also notice the 32 ER difference, how will you make that up?

And just to highlight the importance of having a great starter even more, if you have 3 superior relievers and 4 average starters your totals will be 439 ER, 1090 IP, and 3.62 ERA. Now, superior starters can help more in wins, strikeouts, ERA, and WHIP but if your hurting in saves then choose the closer.