Andre Ethier wasted little time becoming the first major league player in two years with a 30-game hitting streak.

Texas Rangers left-hander Matt Harrison was finally mowing down an opposing lineup again, starting to resemble the pitcher who began this season by winning his first three starts.

Before he could really turn around, Brendan Ryan was being lifted off the ground to get a good view of the scrum that was about to take place.

Under any other circumstances, Torii Hunter would have had a two-run double. This time, the RBI single was just fine with him.

A birthday tribute and a little icing on the cake, too.

Chase Headley was left with a bittersweet feeling after the San Diego Padres beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-3 in 11 innings on Friday night.

Gordon Beckham knew it wasn't a run-on-contact situation. The ball needed to get all the way through the infield before he could head home.

By the 11th inning, the Cleveland Indians didn't have many options in a bullpen that was already spent after a 12-inning win at Oakland the day before. So it was left to long man Justin Germano to keep it going as long as he could.

Ubaldo Jimenez delivered the kind of performance the Colorado Rockies have been waiting for, a strong outing that wasn't perfect but offered a glimmer of hope that the ace might soon be dominant again.

The Arizona Diamondbacks found a new way to lose a game in spacious Petco Park.

In reply to Triple City in Seven Run Cubs 6th Trips A's at Fitch Park :

Yes.

And its Derrick

In reply to Triple City in Seven Run Cubs 6th Trips A's at Fitch Park :

went to University of Virginia, nice place for it. Wonder if he got the ball back?

In reply to Spreading around a little Sports Illustrated Cover jinx...:

More like 75%, Captain Exaggeration.

In reply to Spreading around a little Sports Illustrated Cover jinx...:

you must be seeing double there Captain Morgan.

Dellin Betances got some love in this week’s Prospect Hot Sheet, being named the sixth hottest prospect in the minors. The High-A Tampa Yankees have the fourth worst record in all of the minor leagues (coming into tonight), so yeah, they’ve been pretty bad. Sorry for the short recap, but it’s been a long day… [...]

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Phelps dominant in Scranton win

Three straight losses qualifies as a crisis around these parts, but the Yankees righted the ship tonight thanks to their fourth starter and the guy that was supposed to hit ninth before a head cold befell Nick Swisher. Let’s quickly recap… Give it up to Ivan Nova, the kid just had the best start of [...]

Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog

Nova, Grandy carry Yanks to much needed win

Major league baseball players have voted Angel Hernandez as one of the most incompetent umpires in the game. His continued employment is clear evidence that MLB does not care about putting the best umpires on the field.

Hernandez was behind the plate for Friday's Twins/Red Sox game and his calls on many of Tim Wakefield's pitches were shockingly bad, even by the low standards fans now expect from most umps. Here is a graph of Hernandez's calls on all of Wakefield's pitches.
I count 15 pitches that should have been called strikes for Wakefield, but were not. Here are three of plate appearances.

Justin Morneau, 1st inning
Called strike, ball, ball, ball, ball:

Michael Cuddyer, 2nd inning
Ball, ball, ball, called strike, called strike:

Denard Span, 4th inning
Called strike, ball, ball, swinging strike, ball, L8:

Here is the graph for Scott Baker's pitches, with far fewer bad calls (two of those led to Dustin Pedroia's walk in the first inning):

San Francisco 2B Freddy Sanchez hit a game-ending RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Giants to a 4-3 victory over Colorado on Friday night. Sanchez, who returned to the starting lineup after sitting out Thursday's game with a sore right thumb, finished 1 for 5 with a pair of strikeouts.

18 Vote(s)

Colorado SP Ubaldo Jimenez (0-2) allowed just one run and two hits in six innings during the Rockies' 4-3 loss to San Francisco on Friday night. Jimenez matched a season high with seven strikeouts, but he also yielded a staggering five walks while claiming his third no-decision of the year. It was the most walks Jimenez has surrendered since he issued six against Cincinnati on Sept. 6, 2010. The

16 Vote(s)

Bulls guard Derrick Rose shook off the sore ankle he's been dealing with and showed why he's the league MVP on Friday night in Atlanta. Rose sliced up Atlanta for a career-high 44 points as the Bulls seized control of the Eastern Conference semifinals with their best performance of the postseason, romping to a 99-82 victory over the Hawks in Game 3. "Derrick was in attack mode, obviously," coach

13 Vote(s)

Hawks guard Kirk Hinrich was inactive for Game 3 on Friday night as Atlanta hosted Chicago. Coach Larry Drew has said he's not counting on Hinrich to play during the series as he continues to deal with a strained right hamstring. Hinrich suffered the injury while driving for a basket late in Atlanta's series-clinching victory against Orlando. The Bulls beat the Hawks, 99-82, to gain the 2-1 serie

12 Vote(s)

Couture registered a goal and an assist in Friday's Game 4 loss to Detroit.

16 Vote(s)

Bergeron left Friday's series-clinching win over the Flyers early in the third period after being popped by Philly's Claude Giroux.

20 Vote(s)

Niemi picked up 36 saves Friday evening, but the Sharks fell short, losing Game 4 by a score of 4-3.

12 Vote(s)

Thomas stopped 22 of 23 shots Friday night to help Boston to a 5-1 win over Philadelphia and a 4-0 series victory.

10 Vote(s)

Lucic scored his frist and second goals of the post-season as Boston downed Philadelphia 5-1 on Friday night.

13 Vote(s)

Texas Southern's Dominique Worthern and Alabama State's Scott Benson shot 2-under 70s in windy conditions Friday on PGA Golf Club's Ryder Course to share the first-round lead in the 25th PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship.

18 Vote(s)

Two weeks ago, Ivan Nova seemed to be pitching for his spot in the rotation. At the very least, he was close to pitching for his spot in the rotation. The Yankees always downplayed it, but through three starts, Nova had struggled to give the Yankees distance and his outings seemed to be getting progressively [...]

The Red Sox fell for the third straight game, losing 9-2 to the Minnesota Twins.

If there's one pitcher who neutralizes an opposing offense's skill, it's Tim Wakefield. On any given night, the knuckleball can make the best offensives teams look silly, and the worst offensive teams look like world-beaters.

Tonight, it was the latter.

The Twins scored early, and they scored often. A Trevor Plouffe solo shot in the first inning put the Twins up 1-0. It didn't stay that close for long, as a three-run second followed on the back of four singles, a walk, and a rather controversial balk.

The balk came with men on the corners. Tim Wakefield bluffed to third, fired to first, and caught Denard Span in a rundown. Or so it seemed. As the Sox walked off the field, home plate Angel Hernandez called for a balk, scoring Ben Revere from third, and then ejected Terry Francona as the irate manager came out to argue.

Francona's ejection did seem to fire up the team for a bit. J.D. Drew gave the Red Sox their first run of the night with a loud home run to right field in the bottom of the second, and was followed in the fourth by Adrian Gonzalez, who hit a very long ball over the Monster to give the Sox their second.

Unfortunately for the Sox, however, things quickly got away from Wakefield again in the fourth, with a couple more singles and a walk loading the bases before a Danny Valencia scored two more on a line drive off the Monster. The Twins added two more when a ball off the bat of Drew Butera kicked off of Jed Lowrie's glove and into left field.

Alfredo Aceves spared the bullpen the rest of the game with a strong performance out of the pen, but the Sox could mount no more offense off the Twins, falling 9-2.

Jaime Garcia comes out for the eighth inning with a perfect game intact. He struck out eight through the first seven innings, and he’s thrown 51 of 75 pitches for strikes. He’s scheduled to face Prince Fielder, Casey McGehee and Yuniesky Betancourt. The Cardinals lead 6-0. Update: Fielder grounds out to Pujols unassisted for the [...]

This weekend, Husby and I are off to Galveston for the weekend for a little birthday celebration so I’ll leave yall with the Pirates series matchups: Friday, it’s the Wand Man vs lefty Paul Maholm – one of their 1st rounders who actually worked out for them – he came up in 05 and has put [...]Read the full original article...

On the same day Angel Pagan suffered a setback in his rehab from injury, his replacement showed he can be quite stable. Jason Pridie, called up two weeks ago when Pagan went down, hit a 3-run homer in the 6th inning to give the Mets the lead for good in a 6-3 win. The Dodgers [...]

Where to begin. The Braves got their first three runs in the third inning. They had a chance in the first when Martin Prado reached on an infield single/E6 and Alex Gonzalez turned a long at-bat into a solid single to left, but Chipper struck out, McCann popped out on the first pitch, and Dan [...]

In a game between teams short on cash, Jason Pridie came up with the money hit.

Gio Gonzalez pitched seven effective innings and the Oakland Athletics ruined Eric Hosmer's much-anticipated major league debut with a 3-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.

First came a flurry of strikeouts from the Washington Nationals' bullpen. Next, the relief corps pulled off two narrow escapes.

Curtis Granderson homered twice into the upper deck, rookie Ivan Nova limited the Texas Rangers to two singles while pitching into the eighth inning, and the New York Yankees ended their season-worst three-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory Friday night.

Take away one inning, and Baltimore Orioles rookie Zach Britton had a fine outing against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Cliff Lee was almost unhittable.

Paul Maholm is still getting little support from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona was upset with one of the umpires when he charged out of the dugout and had a beef with two of them by the time he returned.

Ron Roenicke hopes that perhaps less is more for his slumping Milwaukee Brewers.

Trailing by a run in the 10th inning, the Florida Marlins were on the verge of another comeback when they put runners at the corners with none out.

In reply to Triple City in Seven Run Cubs 6th Trips A's at Fitch Park :

gotta luv it!

go Cubs go

In reply to Spreading around a little Sports Illustrated Cover jinx...:

Guyer homers.

In reply to Spreading around a little Sports Illustrated Cover jinx...:

So what you're saying is that they really wanted Jennings, but they're saving him.

That's possible. I just think .356/.412/.606/1.018 trumps .288/.405/.433/.837. Guyer is coming off a much better year, too.

In reply to Triple City in Seven Run Cubs 6th Trips A's at Fitch Park :

16 K through 7 for Cliff Lee, but down 3-0 and up to 117 pitches, doubt he'll get a chance to break record.

Derek Lowe with a no-hitter through 6 in same game.

In reply to Triple City in Seven Run Cubs 6th Trips A's at Fitch Park :

and Victorino singles to lead-off inning

In reply to Triple City in Seven Run Cubs 6th Trips A's at Fitch Park :

but Phillies trailing Braves 3-0 going into the bottom of the 7th. Anniversary of Kid K 20K game today as well.

In reply to Triple City in Seven Run Cubs 6th Trips A's at Fitch Park :

yikes, i was too slow on the draw with the post.