Active career win leader adds another

My guess if you were to ask the casual baseball fan or many other ball fans who is the active career leader in victories you would get many answers. Many would say Andy Pettitte or even other might say Tim Wakefield, but they would be incorrect. In fact there are just two active players with over 200 wins, Pettitte with 229 and the leader Jamie Moyer.

Moyer struggled early against the Astros but managed to pull it together to pick up the win thanks to a very timely 2 run homer by Ryan Howard. With this win Moyer moved within 41 wins of 300. It is a remarkable feat for the 47 year old as he started out his career so slowly. In his first 6 seasons of ball he won just 34 games and missed the entire 1992 season due to injury. As a 31 year old he had just those 34 victories and would certainly be an improbable choice to win 100 games, let alone 200 or 250. Now he is just one win away from 260 which would put him into a tie for 40th in career wins. He is a treasure to watch pitch.

CC Sabathia flirted with a no hitter as he pitched 7 2/3 innings before allowing a line drive single to left off the bat of Kelly Shoppach. He pitched in total control but he was helped by outstanding defensive plays by Alex Rodriguez and Mark Texiera. It would have been nice to see a no-no this early in the season. Shawn Marcum pitched into the seventh earlier in the week if you remember. CC picked up win #137 of his career.

In the battle of two staff aces Josh Beckett took on Zach Greinke. Thanks to the support of 5 HR from his Red Sox teammates, including a pair from Jason Varitek, Beckett picked up career win #107. Greinke has not pitched as well so far this year and finds himself at 0-1 on the season. It would be a welcome bonus if Zach could find some run support.

Rookie Jason Heyward of the Braves picked up HR #2 of his career and how about Nelson Cruz pounding out #4 of the season to tie Vernon Wells of the Jays. All in all it was a great day of ball from the oldest to the youngest.