Category: MLB (Page 386 of 448)

ESPN News is reporting that the Los Angeles Dodgers are currently in talks with former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre. In similar news, Joe Girardi has accepted a three-year deal to become the new manager of the Yankees.

Both of these moves make sense. Torre is a perfect fit for the Dodgers seeing as how they’re already built to win. They have a nice balance of young and veteran players and just need a strong manager to put all of the pieces together. It’s no secret that the Dodgers have had chemistry problems in their club house and many feel that current manager Grady Little has done nothing to solve the issues. There’s also a rumor that Torre would bring former Yankees first basemen Don Mattingly to L.A., which makes sense considering Mattingly’s son, Preston, is a former first round pick of the Dodgers and currently is in their farm system.

As for Girardi, he was rumored as a potential candidate to replace Torre last year when the Yankees lost to the Tigers in the first round of the playoffs. Girardi also turned down an offer to manage the Baltimore Orioles midway through the 2007 season and speculation was that he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to be the next Yankees skipper. Looks like the decision paid off.

Apparently Alex Rodriguez is only about the money. Who knew? A-Rod opted out of his contract with the Yankees and now is free to sign with any team (any team, right, like the Royals actually have a shot). Surely the Red Sox are currently moving some finances around to at least make an offer.

“I got a call from Alex tonight, and he is going to opt out,” Scott Boras, Rodriguez’s agent, told The Post last night during Game 4 of the World Series. “He was just too unsure with new ownership talking about a transition where the organization is going right now. He is not sure what is going to happen with [free agents] Mariano [Rivera] and [Jorge] Posada, and if Andy Pettitte is coming back. He needs more time to assess where the Yankees are going in the future.”

He’s opting out because he’s not sure if Rivera, Posada and Pettitte are coming back? Oh what a load of crap. A-Rod could give a sqaut about anybody else. He’s just ready to get out of the pressure-cooker that is the Bronx. He needs to go to a team that only cares about selling tickets and not playing in September (like say, the Giants for example). That way he can collect a paycheck and not ever have to worry about producing in the clutch.

Let’s get the talk going – where does A-Rod land? The Red Sox and Cubs come to mind, but I think the dark horse is the Giants.

Red Sox 4, Rockies 3
For the second time in just four seasons, the Boston Red Sox swept their NL counterpart to win the World Series.

The Sox did nothing unusual to win Game 4, just good ol’ fashion pitching and timely hitting. Youngster John Lester pitched wonderfully for such a pressure-packed situation, limiting the Rockies to only three hits and no runs in 5.2 innings. Fellow rookie pitcher, Hideki Okajima, allowed Colorado to get back into the game by giving up a two-run Garrett Atkins dinger in the eighth, but stud closer Jonathan Papelbon eventually closed the door on the comeback. Offensively, Boston did nothing special. They got two RBI singles in the first and fifth innings from David Ortiz and Jason Varitek, respectively. Then got a long ball from Mike Lowell in the seventh and another from pinch hitter Bobby Kielty in the eighth. Four runs was all Lester and the pitching staff needed to secure a victory.

For the Rockies, the series was just never meant to be. Their effort in the postseason was remarkable, but they caught a hot Red Sox team with a ton of momentum. People are going to talk about the layoff, which certainly was an issue for Colorado. However, Boston flexed its muscles and in the end, there was too much power in both the Red Sox lineup and pitching staff for the Rockies to contend with for an entire seven game series.

Red Sox 10, Rockies 5
Boston got a great contribution from two unlikely heroes Saturday night, powering past Colorado, 10-5 in Game 3 of the World Series. Jason Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia shredded Rockies pitching, combining for seven hits, four RBI and three runs at the top of the Red Sox lineup.

Boston took a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning, but when Colorado cut the deficit to 6-5 in the seventh and eighth innings, Ellsbury and Pedrioa were at their best. In the bottom of the eighth Ellsbury doubled to right field, scoring Julio Lugo. Pedroia then broke the game open, following with a two-run double of his own and giving Boston a 10-5 lead.

The Red Sox got yet another solid pitching performance in this series, this time from Daisuke Matsuzaka. Dice-K went 5.1 innings, yielding just two runs on three hits. Boston is now one win away from winning its second World Series titles in three seasons.