Another nugget to chew on from Elias:

* Joe Saunders improved to 14-5 in the Angels’ 9-2 win at Fenway
Park on Wednesday, tying for the major league lead in wins. No Angels pitcher had
won 14 games by the end of July since Chuck Finley and Mark Langston
both won 14 in 1991.

These are from the sports info-gathering outfit Elias:

LACKEY LOSES NO-HITTER IN NINTH INNING
* John Lackey lost his no-hit bid with one out in the ninth inning
on Tuesday night when Dustin Pedroia singled. It’s been 50 years since
a visiting pitcher threw a no-hitter against the Red Sox at Fenway Park;
the Tigers’ Jim Bunning did that on July 20, 1958. In the half-century
since Bunning’s no-no, only two visiting pitchers have taken a no-hitter
into the ninth inning at Fenway Park: Lackey and Mike Mussina.
Mussina’s bid, on September 2, 2001, was a perfect game broken up with
two outs in the ninth inning by a Carl Everett single.

Lackey came close to becoming only the second pitcher since 1975 to
throw a no-hitter against the defending World Series champions. The two
most recent pitchers to do that were Nolan Ryan in 1990 (against
Oakland) and Dick Bosman in 1974 (also against Oakland).

The Angels just announced that their flagship station KLAA 830-AM will be the Southern California affiliate for all Notre Dame football games this fall. Notre Dame’s football season starts Sept. 6 against San Diego State. Here is the 2008 Notre Dame football schedule:

09/06/08 vs. San Diego State Notre Dame, Ind. 3:30 p.m. ET
09/13/08 vs. Michigan Notre Dame, Ind. 3:30 p.m. ET
09/20/08 at Michigan State East Lansing, Mich. 3:30 p.m. ET
09/27/08 vs. Purdue Notre Dame, Ind. 3:30 p.m. ET
10/04/08 vs. Stanford Notre Dame, Ind. 2:30 p.m. ET
10/11/08 at North Carolina Chapel Hill, N.C. TBA
10/25/08 at Washington Seattle, Wash. 5:00 p.m. PT
11/01/08 vs. Pittsburgh Notre Dame, Ind. 2:30 p.m. ET
11/08/08 at Boston College Chestnut Hill, Mass. TBA
11/15/08 vs. Navy Baltimore, Md. 12:00 p.m. ET
11/22/08 vs. Syracuse Notre Dame, Ind. 2:30 p.m. ET
11/29/08 at USC Los Angeles, Calif. 5:00 p.m. PT

Asked about recording the 1,000th strikeout of his career Friday, John Lackey said he didn’t even realize he had reached the milestone. His victim on No. 1,000, Kevin Youkilis, was arguing with the umpire and Lackey thought his cheers were actually jeers for Youkilis.

Now that he realizes it was No. 1,000, what does he think?.

“It means I’m a long way away from Nolan (Ryan),” he said referring to Ryan’s record of 5,714 strikeouts.