According to ELIAS – Jason Vargas & Ervin Santana

Vargas, 6-0 in June, wins 12th and evokes Saberhagen

Jason Vargas

A much-anticipated pitching duel between the Royals’ Jason Vargas and the Twins’ Ervin Santana turned out to be no contest, as Kansas City scored seven runs off Santana en route to an 8-1 win. Vargas had entered the game at 11-3 and Santana at 10-4, in what was only the second matchup of pitchers with double-digit wins totals before July 1 over the last 20 seasons. (The other such meeting came on June 16, 2002, in a Red Sox-Braves game in which Derek Lowe, at 10-2, opposed Tom Glavine, 11-2.)

Bret Saberhagen

Vargas secured his 12th win on Friday night, becoming only the second pitcher in Royals history to win 12 games before July 1 (Bret Saberhagen stood at 13-2 entering July in 1987). Vargas finished off a clean sheet for the month of June: six starts and six wins. The last Kansas City pitcher to win six games in a month was Saberhagen in September of 1989, after Bret had earned seven victories in August of that year!

According to Elias

Phil Hughes
Phil Hughes

Phil Hughes recorded his first out of the game (a strikeout of John Jaso) on his 40th pitch of the afternoon yesterday after he had already allowed four first-inning runs to the Athletics. The Twins took Hughes “off the hook” by tying the game in the ninth inning before Derek Norris hit a decisive three-run homer in the 11th inning in the A’s 7-4 victory at Minnesota. But let’s get back to Hughes, who became the first starting pitcher who needed as many as 40 pitches to register his first out of a game since the Dodgers’ Derek Lowe finally retired a batter on his 43rd pitch of a loss at Colorado on May 4, 2008.

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According to Elias

Derek Lowe threw a six-hit shutout in the Indians’ 5-0 victory over the Twins in Minnesota yesterday. Lowe’s gem snapped a streak of 214 consecutive starts without pitching a shutout. That was the fourth longest active streak entering Tuesday’s action, behind Freddy Garcia (247), Kevin Millwood (238) and Jeff Suppan (218). Prior to Tuesday, Lowe’s last shutout came on August 31, 2005 against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Only three players other than Lowe that were in the starting lineup for that game are currently on a major-league roster: Jerry Hairston Jr., Jayson Werth and Jason Repko (currently on the disabled list). Source: Elias