Category: MLB (Page 335 of 448)

– The Boston Red Sox avoided a sweep at the hands of their rivals when they beat the New York Yankees 9-2 Sunday night. David Ortiz homered for the Sox and starter Jon Lester picked up his ninth win of the season. With the Tampa Bay Rays’ 6-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals, Boston is now one game out of first in the AL East, while the Yankees sit three games back.

– Mike Jacobs went 3 for 4 with two home runs, five RBI and two runs scored for Florida on Sunday, but the Marlins couldn’t hold on to a 5-0 lead and lost to the Chicago Cubs 9-6 at Wrigley. Derrek Lee (17) and Alfonso Soriano (16) each homered for the Cubs while former Notre Dame wide receiver Jeff Samardzija picked up his first big league save.

– With the Cubs’ victory, the Milwaukee Brewers dropped a game back in the NL Central after losing 11-6 to the Houston Astros. Jeff Suppan dropped to 5-7 on the year in a losing effort, but Ryan Braun did hit his 28th home run of the year. The difference in this game was a Geoff Blum two-run shot in the fifth that gave Houston an 8-4 lead.

– Johan Santana threw a complete game in the New York Mets’ 9-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. Santana gave up just one run on six hits and struck out five to improve to 9-7 on the year. He got help from Fernando Tatis (7), Ramon Castro (6) and David Wright (20), who all homered in the win. Albert Pujols hit his 20th dinger of the year in a losing effort for the Cards.

– The Big Unit picked up his fourth straight victory as the Arizona Diamondbacks swept the San Francisco Giants with a 7-2 win on Sunday. Chad Jackson (12) and Mark Reynolds (21) each homered for Arizona while Johnson gave up no runs in seven innings pitched. Barry Zito continues to be a waste of roster space and cold hard cash in San Fran, yielding six runs on six hits in just five innings of work to drop to 5-13 on the year.

– Oakland A’s starter Brad Ziegler set a MLB record for scoreless innings to start a career. After pitching two innings the A’s 6-5 win over the Texas Rangers on Sunday, Ziegler has not given up a run in 27 innings. Nice job rook.

Boston Red Sox GM Theo Epstein recently said that if Manny Ramirez were willing to waive his no-trade clause, the club would be willing to trade the power-hitting outfielder. Well, apparently Manny is willing to waive the clause to play for somebody else.

“If the Red Sox are a better team without Manny Ramirez, they should trade me; I will not object,” said Ramirez in a telephone interview with ESPNdeportes.com on Sunday.

“I don’t have any preferences: I could choose a team that offers me the best conditions or one in the chase for the postseason. I don’t care where I play, I can even play in Iraq if need be. My job is to play baseball,” added Ramirez.

Ramirez, .298, with 16 home runs and 63 RBIs this season, returned to the Red Sox lineup on Saturday to face the New York Yankees after missing the two previous games due to pain in his right knee.

Love the third-person reference. The Red Sox don’t need this. They’re trying to win their third title in five years and are in the thick of a hot AL East race. If Ramirez doesn’t want to play in Boston anymore, then fine. The club should deal him for some high-end future prospects and move on. Yeah it creates a huge hole in the middle of the order, but sometimes distractions outweigh talent in sports.

The New York Yankees have yet to lose since the All-Star Break.

Yes – those New York Yankees. The one’s many pundits have forgotten about because they were consumed by the sexier first-half story of the Tampa Bay Rays.

I don’t know if I qualify as a pundit, but I certainly forgot about the Yankees when they dropped more than six games back in the AL East pre-All-Star Game. It’s exciting to talk about clubs not named the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, and it’s great that new teams like the Rays are competitive this year.

But after eight straight wins – the latest coming in a 10-3 rout of the Red Sox in Boston on Saturday – it’s time to start paying attention to the Bronx Bombers again. Everyone knows about the All-Star lineup, but now the pitching is finally starting to come together. Vets Mike Mussina (13-6) and Andy Pettite (12-7) have both bounced back from brutal 2007 campaigns, plus youngster Joba Chamberlain (2.30 ERA) is starting to flash his immense talent. And is Sidney Ponson really 6-1?

Pitching is the key to the Yankees success this year. Pitching is the key to the Yankees’ success every year. After adding yet another quality bat in Xavier Nady (.327 BA) and more bullpen help in Damaso Marte thanks to a recent trade with the Pirates, the Bombers have once again put themselves in a tremendous position to make a second half run.

Comment fodder: Will the Yankees’ pitching hold up? How much will Nady and Marte add to the club? Or if you can’t stand the Yankees, can the Rays and Red Sox keep the Evil Empire from reaching the postseason?

Can somebody get Rich Harden some help? His Chicago Cubs teammates certainly won’t.

Since he was acquired from the Oakland A’s just under a month ago, Harden has struck out a total of 30 batters in just three starts. And yet he has zero wins to show for his effort because the Cubs have blown opportunities in a variety of ways.

In his Cubs debut on July 12, he struck out 10 Giants batters and exited in the six inning with a 7-0 lead. San Fran rallied for seven runs over the final two innings to hand Harden a no-decision. In his second outing, Harden limited the Diamondbacks to one run on one hit over seven innings while striking out another 10 batters. He took the loss as Arizona shutout Chicago 2-0. And in his latest start Saturday, Harden struck out 10 Marlins in rout to another no-decision as the Cubs lost 3-2 in 12 innings.

This is a Cubs team mind you, that has scored 538 runs this season – best in the Nation League, second best in all of MLB. And yet, they continue to leave Harden out to dry. It’s nice when a trade works out like Harden has for Chicago, but the Cubs have failed to capitalized on the acquisition and continue to be one of the worst second half teams thus far at 3-9.