I was just looking at the VORP difference between Manny Ramirez and Jason Bay. Manny's VORPr (runs per game) is .378, Bay is .309. Over 54 games that mean Manny would generate 20.4 runs over replacement, Bay 16.7. Four runs isn't much over 1/3 of a season.

Juan Pierre is the highest ranked Dodgers leftfielder at 0.029. Over 55 games, that's 1.6 runs over replacement. Manny would be at 20.8. That's two wins, and can easily make the difference in the pennant race in the NL West.

When I told my wife Manny Ramirez as going to play for Joe Torre, she said:

He worked for Steinbrenner and survived cancer, he can handle Manny.

Manny gets traded to the Dodgers. Verizon refuses to fix my DSL so I'm blogging from my phone. More later.

Update: The Red Sox get Jason Bay.

Update: The Pirates get four players in the deal, including Moss and Hansen, and Laroche from the Dodgers.

Update: Most of this deal was to get rid of Manny, but the reporters on NESN say that the Red Sox wanted to keep Bay away from the Rays.

Ken Rosenthal says the three-way deal that would move Manny Ramirez is dead.

Curt Schilling is his usual frank self in this interview:

On Manny's effort running up the first-base line on a ground ball behind third base during John Lackey's no-hit bid on Tuesday night.

"I laugh at the fact that people are like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe that... on this night he didn't...," like that night was any different than any other night for him. .. It's stunning to me that it just was OK I guess, the other day for things to go the way they went. It's gonna be funny to watch all the people jump if Manny does get traded and things happen, how many people in the media area going to come out of the woodwork and say, 'you players are idiots, you let him be like this for so long,' and the media's given him, for the mos part, every bit the free ride everybody else has... I thought it was telling the other night when someone asked about Manny's run down to first and I thought Terry's answer was something like, 'well, he does that a lot.' Think about that. That's someone saying, 'what do you think about this guy half-assing down the line and the manager saying, 'yeah, that happens a lot.' Again, things you kind of look at and go, 'What, we just move on?' Why is that the breaking point for people. Why after all this stuff in all the years, why is that like the breaking point?"

I wrote my answer three years ago.

I believe the same thing is true of Manny. It doesn't matter that Manny is better than Sosa over his full career. What matters is that people are willing to excuse his actions because of his greatness. Once Manny's production falls to a level that's easily replaced, the fans won't be so forgiving. Rather than pleas to keep Manny when he wants to sit out a game, Red Sox fans will be calling for his head.

This deal makes no sense to me, unless Dye or Thome is secretly injured:

Despite all his achievements, Griffey's productivity has been limited in recent years due to injuries. It is unclear where the White Sox plan on playing him, since they have Carlos Quentin and Jermaine Dye playing the corner outfield positions. Griffey has played primarily in right field over the last two seasons for the Reds.

Griffey is no longer the fielder who won 10 straight Gold Gloves patrolling center field for the Mariners, so, unless the White Sox think he can return to center, perhaps he is headed for some time at first base. Chicago's current first baseman, Paul Konerko, is hitting .214 with nine homers and 35 runs batted in this season.

If you want to replace Konerko, it probably makes more sense to put Thome there and DH Griffey. We'll see what happens.

Update: Fox says Griffey accepted the deal.

It looks like the Marlins picked up Arthur Rhodes. Rhodes missed a season due to Tommy John surgery, but has pitched well in 22 innings this season. His strikeouts are high, he hasn't allowed a home run, but his walks are high.

Game On offers the top five replacements for Manny Ramirez. I'm surprised they didn't include Ted Williams's severed head.

Because my internet access is iffy today, here's a post that you can use to comment on whatever happens this morning and this afternoon.

Manny Ramirez continues to act like he wants to be traded:

No one disputes Ramirez is on the market. His often turbulent relationship with the Red Sox took a new twist Sunday when he said, "I'm tired of them. They're tired of me."

On Wednesday, he spoke by telephone with ESPNdeportes.com.

"The Red Sox don't deserve a player like me," Ramirez said. "During my years here I've seen how they have mistreated other great players when they didn't want them to try to turn the fans against them."

As for the Marlins, I disagree with this:

The trade would seem improbable because Ramirez makes nearly as much as the Marlins' entire roster - he's in the final guaranteed season of his eight-year, $160 million contract. The Red Sox have options for each of the next two seasons at $20 million.

The Marlins' payroll of $22 million is by far the smallest in the majors. They're among the most surprising teams in the majors, and a 7-5 victory Wednesday over the New York Mets left them 11/2 games behind NL East leader Philadelphia. The Mets fell a half-game behind the Phils.

The Marlins are sitting on all their revenue sharing money. They can not only afford Manny, they probably have enough money to corner the market on Ramirez's if they could pry Aramis from the Cubs. :-) This is the kind of deal Florida should have made in 2006. We'll see if they make it now.

The Yankees open a four game series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anahiem (LAnaheim Angels, for short) this evening. These are the two hottest teams in the majors. Starting July 12th, the Angels are 12-2, the Yankees 10-4. LAnaheim pretty much put the AL West in their pocket, opening up an 11 1/2 game lead. Meanwhile, the Yankees climbed to one game out of the wild card. The Angels just helped that cause with a sweep of Boston.

Since Mike Scioscia took over the Angels at the beginning of the 2000 season, LAnaheim is the only American League team with a winning record against the Yankees, 38-33 (regular season). This is the first time Mike face Joe Girardi, however.

Jon Garland faces Andy Pettitte. Garland has a habit of giving up extra-base hits with men on base. Eight of his 14 homers are of the multi-run variety. Home runs are a problem for Pettitte also. He's already allowed 14 after giving up 16 all last season.

The Cubs go for a sweep as they try to get Rich Harden his first win as a Cub. In three starts Rich earned a 1.04 ERA, but only lasted 17 1/3 innings. He'll face David Bush, who is posting a 2.14 ERA in July.

Anibal Sanchez returns for the Marlins as they face Colorado and Jorge De La Rosa.
Sanchez last pitched 5/2/2007, after four starts made it clear his control was gone. So was his shoulder. He's walked 10 in 28 rehabilitation innings while striking out 25. De La Rosa is 3-1 in July despite a 5.06 ERA. He gives up a lot of hits for a pitcher who strikes out over nine batters per nine innings, as opponents hit .284 against him.

The White Sox and Twins finish up their series with John Danks facing Scott Baker. A win by the Twins nets them a two game pickup for the series. Baker combines the ability to keep the ball in the strike zone with the ability to prevent hits, as both his batting average and OBA allowed are low. Danks strikes out more batters, but walks more as well. Both pitchers are enjoying excellent results this season.

Finally, a big showdown out west as the Diamondbacks visit the Dodgers. Brandon Webb, one of Arizona's two aces takes on Derek Lowe. Webb posts a 2.59 ERA on the road where he's allowed just three home runs in 83 1/3 innings, a rate of 7.2 per 200 innings. Lowe posts a 2.71 ERA at home.

Enjoy!

Find World Series odds for all these teams at Bodog Sportsbook.

Both the Cubs and White Sox won Wednesday night, extending their leads in the two Central Divisions. The Cubs are three for three in the four game series, dropping Milwaukee four games back and into a virtual tie with St. Louis for the Wild Card lead. The Northsiders are sending a pretty strong message, going into Miller Park and outscoring the Brewers 20-7, despite Milwaukee throwing their three best starters.

The three losses by Milwaukee also allowed the rest of the league back into the wild card race, as the Mets, Marlins and Dodgers are now all in striking distance of top second banana.

The White Sox prevented a sweep in their four game series with an 8-3 win over the Twins. Gavin Floyd and Carlos Quentin starred, Floyd pitching into the eighth with one run allowed and Quentin collecting three hits and four RBI, including a double and home run.

Livan Hernandez gave up five earned runs in four innings. His ERA is high, but except for the occasional start like last night, he has been going deep in games. At what point, however, does the 5.48 ERA become a liability? When do the Twins pull the trigger and replace him with Liriano?

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

My DSL is still down, so I'm back blogging from Friendly's.

It seems every time I see the Royals doing something good, Mike Aviles is in the middle of it. He doubled in the tenth, moving the go-ahead run to third where Guillen drove him in with a sacrifice fly. It was his second double of the game, and Aviles now holds eighteen on the season in 49 games. That works out to 59 over 162 games. He's slugging .528. He's old for a rookie at 27. He's in his prime, and ne's using that to make the most of his opportunity. The Royals defeat the reeling A's 4-3. Oakland picks up 13 hits in the game, a lot for only three runs.

Bilfer at The Detroit Tigers Weblog thinks Detroit should have received more for Pudge:

Farnsworth kind of fills a need, but not that well. The Tigers don't take a huge hit in terms of production and aren't giving up on the season. But my issue is that I think the Tigers could have done better for Pudge. He's having a good year at a hard to fill position. Factor in the loss of a draft pick and it's not good. No young player coming back? Not awful, but Dave Dombrowski failed to maximize Pudge's value. Yankees win this one easy.

Update; Replacement Level Yankees Weblog picks up on the free agent angle as well and likes the deal.

Brad Ziegler pitches three scoreless innings to push his scoreless innings streak to 30 innings. His shutout relief appearance allows Oakland to tie Kansas City at three with a run in the seventh. Street is on to pitch the ninth.

Ziegler already set the record for consecutive scoreless innings at the start of a major league career. I guess he sets his sights on Hershiser now.

More Cubans baseball players defect.

"Rumors were swirling around a couple of days ago. There were denials everywhere. Both players ate the pre-game meal, then went back to their rooms at the university and got dressed to go on the bus, and they didn't get on the bus," said Hayter.

Hayter there's also talk that two more players might have defected.

"Unfortunately we can't really get involved in these problems and it's up to the team's managers," said Hayter. "The international body is discouraged by all of this. We, as an organizing committee, don't want it to happen because it weakens their team."

Good luck to those players with their new won freedom. I feel really bad that the Cuban team got weaker.

The Tampa Bay Rays defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 this afternoon to finish their road trip 4-3. Given that they didn't win a game on their last trip, this was a very good result. It coincides with the Red Sox having trouble at home, and another Boston loss tonight extends the Rays lead to three games.

Carl Crawford picked up two hits, a double and a triple. Crawford's career was progressing nicely, his averages rising every season. With this being his age 26 season, Carl should be breaking out instead of regressing. If he can turn this season around, the Rays could get the offensive boost they need without needing to make a trade.

With my home DSL down, I'm taking advantage of free WiFi at the Longmeadow Friendly's. Many thanks to the folks at Friendly's for not charging like Starbucks.

If anyone reads this in the Longmeadow area and wants to come by to talk baseball, feel free to join me.

Brian Cashman reunites Alex and Ivan Rodriguez. With A-Rod and I-Rod in the fold, can E-Rod, O-Rod, U-Rod and sometimes Y-Rod be far behind!

The Tigers get Kyle Farnsworth. Cashman admits the move is a gamble:

"Pudge is an everyday guy," Cashman said. "You get an everyday catcher who will catch your staff for nine innings ... versus someone who is doing an outstanding job for us in the eighth inning.

"It is robbing Peter to pay Paul, no doubt about it."

Jose Molina's defense is great, but the Yankees lose little with Pudge behind the plate and gain a good deal of offense. I-Rod is very hot over his last 30 games, coming out of a 1 1/2 year OBA slump. I guess the hope is:

1. Pudge gives them enough offense that they have big leads in the eighth inning.
2. Veras and Marte are able to shoulder the load, with occasional help from Mariano Rivera picking up a long save.

The Yankees are certainly going for playoffs. I get the feeling they're going to try to win one more before George dies, but without giving away the farm. It's going to be tough.

Updates will be light due to a failure on my DSL line. I'm not sure when it will be up again.

Carl Crawford at age 27 is having a poor season at the plate. Both his OBA and slugging percentage are not only below his career averages, but poor for a corner outfielder. Crawford continues to excel at one stat, however. He tripled in the first inning to put the Rays up 1-0. It was the ninth triple of the season for Carl and the 83rd of his career. Since he started playing in the 2002 season, Crawford collected 10 more triples than any other player in the game (if Rollins doesn't triple today).

It looks like there's a 50-50 chance that Jason Bay could end up with the Rays. More OBA and some pop is just what the team needs, and Bay is a good choice.

My latest article on SportingNews.com looks at how a loss of Manny Ramirez would effect the Red Sox runs and wins. Over a third of a season, the Red Sox don't lose that much, and a good trade might even help them.

Of course, there is something to be said for concentrating offense in one player. A great player is more likely to get hot in a short series, which really helps in the playoffs. Manny demonstrated that last year.

Over the last few days, however, I've come to the conclusion that the Red Sox should trade Manny, just to send a message. A Keith Hernandez trade, if you will. Send him to San Diego where his power will disappear. Send him to Seattle so he can know what it's like to play for a lousy team. Send him to Washington with the proviso that Washington exercices his option and dooms him to also ran status for two more years.

He's no longer a lovable goof ball. He's no longer so good that he'd be impossible to replace. His actions the last month strike me as a player who wants to be traded. His pushing the traveling secretary, sitting out games, and his non-hustle in the middle of a no-hitter all send the message Manny wants out. Grant him his wish. At some point, the other players will start wondering why they can't get away with the crap Manny pulls, and then the Red Sox have real problems.

Tyler Kepner shared an elevator ride with Brian Cashman last night after the Yankees loss:

I missed the early elevator to the clubhouse after Tuesday's game, and the one I got included General Manager Brian Cashman. If you ever wondered how hard this job can be on him, you wouldn't after seeing his face.

...

The elevator stopped at the ground floor, Cashman's stop. "I hate this game," he said, and he walked off into the lobby, toward the parking lot. He had a long drive home to Connecticut, with plenty more time to think about a tough game.

It's Cy Young candidate Wednesday. Cliff Lee goes for his 15th win tonight as he pitches against Nate Robertson and the Tigers. A win would give Cliff nearly 1/3 of the Indians wins this season. With two months left in the season, it would also make it possible for Lee to win 25 games.

Joe Saunders brings his 13-5 record to Boston to face Josh Beckett. Saunders has a 3.55 ERA against the Red Sox in two starts, despite walking six and striking out just four. The Red Sox have done most of their hitting against Saunders with two out, not allowing them to extend the inning. The Red Sox scored just two runs total in Beckett's last two starts as he fell to the Angels 4-2 and to the Yankees 1-0.

Edinson Volquez goes for his 13th win against the Astros. His 5.27 July ERA has taken him out of the NL lead in that category, however. Home runs are the problem this month as he's allowed four so far.

Ryan Dempster tries to make it three in a row for the Cubs against the Brewers as he faces Manny Parra. Dempster is only 1-3 on the road this season, however. He's neck and neck with Zambrano for best starter on the Cubs this season. Parra is no slouch, either. He's 5-1 at home, and has only allowed 2 of his 9 home runs at Miller Park.

Dan Haren leads the NL in ERA at 2.56, and pitching in San Diego should help that number. He has a 1.29 ERA against the Padres this season.

Last but not least, Chris Carpenter returns to the Cardinals rotation today. Chris is 51-19 with a 3.14 ERA in his St. Louis career. If he can come anywhere close to those numbers he'll improve the team's chances of making the playoffs.

Enjoy!

Bodog Sportsbook has all your baseball gambling needs!

Gregg Zaun expressed his desire to be traded during an mlb.com interview Tuesday:

Zaun became the first Jay to openly express interest in leaving the club yesterday when he told mlb.com it would "probably be a good thing" if he were traded to a contender. After beginning the season as the team's frontline catcher, Zaun has recently been relegated to the backup's role by the emergence of Rod Barajas.

"I'm just disappointed that he went to the media with this," general manager J.P. Ricciardi said when told of Zaun's comments. "We have a good enough relationship that he can talk to me."

Ricciardi ends up looking a bit foolish over that remark:

The 37-year-old catcher said he had requested a trade from Ricciardi "quite a ways back." Zaun is in the final year of a two-year, $7.25 million (all figures U.S.) deal.

"We'll gladly move him if we can find someone who wants him and that's where we're at," Ricciardi said. "Right now, there's been no takers for him, there's been no inquiries about him."

He's a switch hitting catcher who still posts a decent OBA. I find it tough to believe no one is interested in him at all. Maybe the Jays are asking for too much.

The Diamondbacks optioned Micah Owing to the minor leagues. Major League teams can't sustain a pitcher with a 9.00 ERA.

In 1993, the Atlanta Braves faced a problem. They consistently trailed the San Francisco Giants in the middle of July by 8 or 9 games. Their first baseman, Sid Bream, hit like a poor shortstop. So they traded three prospects for Fred McGriff, having an off year for the Padres. The three prospects amounted to very little, but McGriff caught fire power wise and helped the Braves to a great comeback. (The change of park probably helped.)

Tuesday, trailing the NL East leader consistently by 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 games over three weeks, the Braves trade a top hitting first baseman away. While Casey Kotchman is no Sid Bream, he's still hitting below average for a major league first baseman.

First Basemen, 2008

Stat	Teixeira	Kotchman	ML Average
Batting Average	.283	.287	.271
On-Base Average	.390	.327	.354
Slugging Percentage	.512	.448	.454

The Braves have changed. Frank Wren made a trade that turned a strength into a weakness. John Schuerholz did just the opposite during his tenure. He was excellent at identifying a weakness on the Braves, and trading for or signing a player to shore up the position. Wren certainly has a huge hole in the outfield with Jeff Francoeur and needs help in the back of the rotation. By not addressing the real weaknesses of the team, Wren shows that he doesn't understand the model that made the Braves successful for well over a decade.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Dodgers defeat the Giants 2-0 to finish the evening. There were 11 teams tonight that held their opponents to two runs or less. Two of them loss. Two other teams were shutout 3-0. At least there were a lot of runs in the Seattle-Texas game.

Doug Davis gets a strikeout, comebacker, and fly ball to retire the Padres in order in the sixth. Eighteen up, eighteen down. He's thrown 81 pitches. His high for the season is 123, but it's the only time he went over 110.

Update: Giles singles to center with two out in the seventh. Now Davis needs to concentrate on holding a 3-0 lead.

Update: Alex Romero just made a fantastic catch in deep rightfield to end the Padres eighth. Gerut came up to pinch-hit with the bases loaded, and launched a bomb to the COX sign in right. Romero ran full speed back to the wall and stuck out his hand to make the catch without breaking stride. The Diamondbacks hold on to their 3-0 lead going into the ninth.

Update: The Diamondbacks win 3-0.

The Mariners and Rangers engage in a back and forth hit fest. Texas jumped out to a 7-0 lead, then led 9-3 after five innings. The Mariners fought back, however, and took a 10-9 lead with two in the top of the ninth off C.J. Wilson, his fourth blown save of the season.

J.J. Putz, however, could not hold the one run lead, losing the battle of initialed closers. Ramon Vazquez, playing way above his career norms, picks up his fourth hit of the game, a double with two on. Both runners score and Texas walks off with an 11-10 victory.

In addition to Vazquez's four-hit showing, four Rangers picked up three hits each and two Mariners did the same. All told, the two teams combined for 33 hits. They put lots of balls in play as there were only nine strikeouts and three walks. With three hit batters, the two teams were 33 for 75 when putting the ball in play, a .440 average.

Texas is only 5 1/2 games out of the wild card.

Doug Davis retires the side in order in the fifth, striking out the last two batters. He's struck out five total so far. He's also induced seven ground outs.

The Minnesota Twins eek out a one-run victory over the White Sox, the second of their four game series. This pulls Minnesota even with Chicago in the totally unimportant win column (TUWC). However if the Twins win tomorrow night, they will have pulled even in the All Freakin' Important Loss Column (AFILC), and somehow make up a loss. :-)

Mauer and Morneau did most of the damage against Chicago, driving in five of the six runs on the night. The two have combined for 130 RBI this season.

Aubrey Huff went four for four tonight as the Orioles downed the Yankees 7-6. Huff doubled and homered, his solo shot in the ninth proving to be the game winner as New York scored three times in their final at bat but fell a run short. With Alex Rodriguez homering earlier in the game, the two remained tied for fifth in the AL in long balls with 22.

Doug Davis is perfect through four innings.

The Cubs defeat the Brewers 7-1 as Carlos Zambrano pitches eight shutout innings. His nine strikeouts represents a season high. He upped his Ks without upping his walks, as he issued just two free passes.

Sheets, who had walked nine Cubs in two starts, only issued one tonight. The Cubs, however, hammered pitches in the zone as they collected eleven hits in 5 1/3 innings off the Brewers ace. That was good for six runs and the Cubs cruised the rest of the way. Chicago extends their NL Central lead to three games, and the Brewers are now just one game ahead of the Cardinals for the wild card lead. The Cubs should feel good right now. The Brewers threw their two best pitchers in the first two games of this series and Chicago walked away with wins in both games. The Cubs sure look like the team to beat in the National League this season.

The Cardinals keep pace in the NL Central with an 8-3 win over the drained of talent Braves. Albert Pujols homers and doubles, driving in one and scoring three times. After a long home run drought, Albert has three dingers and two doubles in his last four games, bringing his slugging percentage back over .600.

There have been a number of well pitched games tonight. Oliver Perez joins the list as he allows one run over six innings and the Mets down the Marlins 4-1. He finishes up a great July in which he's allowed five earned runs in 32 2/3 innings, good for a 1.38 ERA. Delgado added his ninth home run of the month. That's almost 40% of his season total. The Mets maintain their 1/2 game lead over the Phillies.

The Mets broadcast just mentioned that John Maine suffered a strain of his rotator cuff. It's not clear than he'll need to go on the disabled list, but with days off, the Mets could go two turns through the rotation without Maine.

The Washington Nationals lose to the Phillies 2-1. Brett Myers goes seven innings, allowing just one unearned run. Collin Balester lasts six innings. He allows two runs walks none and struck out five. It's the fourth time in the last five games that the Nationals starter pitched well enough to win, but the offense just couldn't provide support. The team owns an amazingly inept offense right now, having scored 10 runs in their last seven games.

While the Red Sox fell to the Angels, the Rays received a great pitching performance from Matt Garza. He pitches a shutout, allowing just five hits as the Rays down the Blue Jays 3-0. Facing Roy Halladay, Garza had to be at his best, and he walked one and struck out five. Eric Hinske had the big blow, a solo home run in the third. That was all Garza needed as he picks up his ninth win lowers his ERA to 3.56. It's Garza's second complete game of the year and his career.

The win extends the Rays lead in the AL East to two games. It's one of the first times this season when Tampa Bay was able to gain on Boston with the Rays on the road and the Red Sox at home.

The previous post on the no-hitter is here.

Lackey comes out for the ninth. He'll face Ellsbury, Pedroia and Youkilis. Pedroia has walked tonight, one of two base runners against Lackey.

Update: Ellsbury strikes out swinging. It's just the fourth K of the game for John. The Red Sox have been putting the ball in play, just not with authority.

Update: Pedroia falls behind 0-1, but gets a pitch he can hit and pulls it past Maicer Izturis at short to break up the no-hitter. Youkilis follows with a shot off the billboard above the Green Monster to make the score 6-2. A great effort by Lackey, and now K-Rod gets ready in the bullpen, just in case.

Update: Manny walks, but Lowell grounds out to end the game. The Angels move to 7-1 against the Red Sox and increase their road winning percentage, the best in the majors. Lackey throws 120 pitches, 81 for strikes.

Ichiro Suzuki singled in the first inning tonight, bringing his combined hit total in the Japanese and North American major leagues to 3000. Congratulations to Ichiro on reaching that career milestone at only 34 years old.

John Lackey hit J.D. Drew, but that's the only batter to reach for the Red Sox through four innings. The Angels have touched Clay Buchholz for four runs so far as LAnaheim looks to go 7-1 against the Red Sox this season.

Update: Lackey retires the side in order in the fifth.

Update: Lackey walks Pedroia but gets the other three batters. He's 2/3 of the way to a no-hitter.

Update: With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Manny hits a hard grounder to Figgins at third. He fields it in foul territory, takes a second to set himself, throws high, but Quinlan jumps, catches it and tags the bag to get Manny. The crowd booed, as it looked like Manny wasn't hustling. The replay showed him running to first, but he didn't seem to be busting it. There was a look on Figgins face like, "I can't believe I have time to throw this guy out from this deep."

Lackey ends the inning by getting Lowell on a grounder to third, and John is now six outs away from a no-hitter with the Angels leading 6-0.

Update: Manny remains in the game in the top of the eighth despite his lack of hustle.

Update: Lackey retires the side in order in the eighth. This game in even more remarkable given Lackey's history at Fenway. In his career, he's allowed a .362 batting average at the park. He's really only had one good game, and he last just two innings in that.

It's been 50 years since an opponent threw a no-hitter at Fenway.

Chase Utley hit his first home run in 15 games. His fourteen game home run slump was more than just a power outage. His OBA was just .306 and his slugging percentage was even lower at .304. Philadelphia leads Washington 2-0 in the fourth.

The Mets start the top of the first with three doubles, but only pick up one run. The Marlins caught Jose Reyes trying to stretch his into a triple.

The Marlins picked up back-to-back doubles with two out in the bottom of the inning, and the game remains tied at one in the middle of the third.

I notice Ken Griffey, Jr. isn't in the Reds lineup tonight. Is he just getting a night off, or is he on the move? I don't see any stories on the net.

Baseball Digest Daily just sent an email that Mark Teixeira is headed to the Angels for Casey Kotchman.

More details to follow but according to 890 ESPN Boston, the Atlanta Braves traded Mark Teixeira to the Angels for Casey Kotchman and more. Thanks to our own Brian Joseph for the update.

More to come.

Update: Here's the story from SportingNews.com:

The Los Angeles Times reported on its website today that the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have acquired the slugging first baseman from the Atlanta Braves for first baseman Casey Kotchman and minor league pitcher Stephen Marek. The Angels pulled Kotchman off the field at Fenway Park this afternoon to inform him of the trade.

Kotchman is a super two, meaning the Braves control him for three more years as he avoided arbitration with a $1.45 million deal this season. There really isn't much of a comparison between the two first basemen. Kotchman's had two good years in terms of OBA, but for his career it's just .327. He has little power for the position with a career .426 slugging percentage.

Teixeira is just three years older, still in his prime, and averages a .373 OBA/.526 slugging percentage for his career.

Marek might turn out to be okay. He's putting up a decent ERA in his first season at AA, and for his career his strikeouts look good, while his HR are a just okay. Frankly, I suspect the Braves could have done better with the two draft picks they'd recieve if Teixeira walked.

The Angels made a very good deal here. With the best record in the league despite not having the best run differential, Teixeira could help them live up to that record the rest of the way.

Don't I write this post every year? Jose Guillen is not happy with his situation:

Left fielder Jose Guillen wants out of Kansas City pronto, according to a source who spoke to ESPNdeportes.com on condition of anonymity.

Guillen feels the Royals have not kept the promises made when he signed for three years and $36 million during the offseason, said the source. But the main reason he is in "living hell in Kansas City" is a foul relationship with manager Trey Hillman.

"Guillen and Hillman are not on speaking terms, they don't talk," said the source. "Guillen is definitely not happy, he's not comfortable and he would do anything he can in economic terms to ease his way out of Kansas City."

Would either side do Jose Guillen for Manny Ramirez straight up?

The Phillies did indeed add JA Happ to the major league roster today.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

JA Happ seems to be the center of the Phillies trade speculation right now. He is going somewhere, either to the major league roster or away in a trade. We just don't know where yet. Happ owns great K and HR numbers in the minor leagues.

Sometimes, one game really stands out from all the others. Today, Carlos Zambrano faces Ben Sheets as the Cubs and Brewers continue their battle for the NL Central title. Zambrano reinvented himself this season after posting a 3.95 ERA in 2007. He reduced his walks from 4.2 per 9 innings last year to 3.0 this season. He appears to have cut down on his strikeouts to gain that control, but the added bonus is fewer home runs allowed as well.

He doesn't do as well on the road, however. His walk rate is higher, and it show in a 3.84 ERA away from Wrigley. He's also suffered some bad luck in his two outings against Milwaukee this season in terms of decisions. Despite allowing the Brewers just one run in two starts, Carlos does not have a decision. Both games resulted in 4-3 Milwaukee wins, with the runs coming late in the game.

The first of those was on opening day, when Zambrano and Ben Sheets matched shutouts into the seventh inning. After three season in which injuries limited Sheets time on the mound and effectiveness, he's back very close to his 2004 levels. The strikeouts aren't quite as high and the walks aren't quite as low as that season, but those stats are still very good. He's 1-0 against the Cubs in his two starts, but Chicago has been able to work him for walks. Sheets allowed 31 free passes this season, but nine of them (29%) accrued to the Cubs in just 11 1/3 innings (8.4%). With only five hits, however, the Cubs couldn't do much with the base on balls.

The only other game that comes close to this in terms of pitching is the Tampa Bay/Toronto game where Matt Garza faces Roy Halladay. If you're looking for a great pitching matchup, however, find a way to watch the Cubs and Brewers.

Enjoy!

Get all your MLB baseball odds at Bodog Sportsbook!

Dave Cameron looks at Mark Teixeira's value in trade and concludes he would not be a difference maker for any of the potential suitors.

I have to disagree that Boston is out of it. It's possible there is some multi-team deal that allows the Red Sox to move Manny and replace his offensive productions with Teixeira at first and Youkilis is left, or upgrading another weak position. I think the odds of it happening are low, but it depends on how much Boston wants to get rid of Manny right now.

Nomar Garciaparra may be headed to the disabled list for the third time this season:

The Dodgers' pursuit of a shortstop before Thursday's non-waiver trading deadline could intensify after an MRI exam Monday on Nomar Garciaparra's left knee revealed a minor sprain of his medial collateral ligament.

Similar injuries typically sideline players for about two weeks, meaning the shortstop could be headed for the disabled list for the third time this season.

Nomar is actually hitting for power in his short time healthy with the Dodgers, actually plugging the offensive gap at shortstop.

The Dodgers failed to gain ground on the Diamondbacks last night. They fell behind San Francisco 7-0. They did rally for six runs before the Giants bullpen shut them down with 3 2/3 one hit innings. They remain a game back in the NL West, one game under .500.

John Maine wanted to pitch through the pain in Florida Monday night, but his coaches would not risk a bigger injury:

"I said I was sore, but capable of pitching," said Maine.

That was good enough for the Mets to give him the ball, but by the fourth inning pitching coach Dan Warthen was growing concerned.

The Mets let him go out for the fifth, but quickly knew he wouldn't finish.

"I didn't like that his arm angle dropped," Warthen said of Maine's body language, figuring compensation for the shoulder could lead to problems elsewhere. "We were worried he might blow out his elbow."

As they should be. Maine is too valuable to the rotation right now to take any risks. It cost the Mets the game, but it did not cost Maine the season.

I'll be making my weekly appearance on 1010XL in Jacksonville, FL at 7:55 AM EDT.

The Padres knocked around Micah Owings Monday night, continuing the misery for the Diamondbacks pitcher. He started the season in fine form, posting a 3.73 ERA through his first 10 starts. Since, however, he's made eight starts and four relief appearances. Over that time his ERA stands at 9.21. He's striking out one fewer batter per nine innings while walking 1.6 more. He was giving up a good number of home runs early, and the long balls have gotten even worse. He gave up two more last night, accounting for five of the eight runs he allowed.

Clearly, nothing is going right for Owings right now. In a tight division race, the Diamondbacks can't afford to send out a pitcher who is highly likely to lose the game. I really wonder if he's hurt. His fall seems so severe that it makes you wonder if he's covering up an injury, maybe something minor that is just throwing off his mechanics.

The good news from the game is that Greg Maddux broke his win-less streak, finally picking up win 351. He didn't pitch great, but he didn't need to with Owings outing.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

After three rough outings, Kevin Slowey returned to his late June form, tossing his second shutout of the season, this time against the Chicago White Sox. Slowey pitched very efficiently, using just 102 pitches to finish the game, 71 for strikes. He issued just one walk in the game. He's only allowed 16 free passes on the season in 96 2/3 innings. The Twins move 1 1/2 games behind the White Sox.

Roy Oswalt returned to the Astros rotation tonight and made one big mistake. He loaded the bases in the third and Adam Dunn delivered a grand slam. That shot tied Dunn with Ryan Howard for the NL and Major League lead in homers with 30. The shot put the Reds up 4-3, but Cueto allowed two runs in the bottom of the inning, and that was all the scoring on the night. Oswalt walks one and strikes out five in his five innings of work, good enough for his eighth win.

Salomon Torres pitches the ninth for the Brewers and allows three walks, two hits, and two runs to break the 4-4 tie. Derrek Lee doubled in the go-ahead run, and DeRosa picked up a single to add some insurance. The Brewers staff had only walked three through the first eight innings.

Update: Marmol gets the job done in the bottom of the inning and the Cubs take game one 6-4.

The Orioles rout the Yankees 13-4 tonight at Yankee Stadium behind the pitching of Jeremy Guthrie and and the hitting of just about everyone. Adam Jones had a big night. The youngster went 3 for 6, missing the cycle by a double. He hit a grand slam and wound up with five RBI on the night. He's batting .304 in July after a .323 June, and that trade is paying off for the Orioles.

A stiff shoulder forced John Maine out of the Mets game against the Marlins after allowing just one run over 4 1/3 innings. He had walked one and struck out six. The Mets managed to take a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the eighth, but the back of the bullpen burned them as Smith and Schoeneweis combined to give up six hits and five runs in the inning. The Marlins take the game 7-3.

Ricky Nolasco did not get the decision, but pitched well. He allowed two runs in six innings, walking none and striking out eight.

The Red Sox may have some interest in Miguel Tejada:

The Boston Red Sox have contacted the Astros about Miguel Tejada, and the All-Star shortstop wouldn't be intimidated about playing at Fenway Park if a deal is made.

According to a person familiar with the talks, the Red Sox would like Tejada if they ultimately trade Manny Ramirez.

It seems the Red Sox may be taking a trade for Manny more seriously than I thought they would.

I just went to get a glass of water with Russell Branyan at the plate. As I left, I thought, I should stay in case Branyan hits a home run. I didn't stay, and of course, Russell ties the game with his 12th of the season. The Cubs and Brewers are knotted at four in the top of the eighth.

In the battle between the best road team and the best home team, the road team takes the game 7-5 as the Angels defeat the Red Sox. Hunter and Kotchman combined for five RBI in the sixth inning as both homered off Daisuke Matsuzaka, sending him to his second loss of the season. The Red Sox fail to gain ground on the Rays who lost earlier in the evening. It was only the fourth time this season Dice-K allowed more hits than innings pitched.

With the bases loaded and one out in the seventh, Derrek Lee hits what appears to be a double play grounder. The Brewers get the out at second, but a good take-out slide by Reed Johnson sends Week's throw out of play, and the Cubs take a 4-3 lead. That's it for Sabathia, who throws 124 pitches. He only strikes out three in the game.

The St. Louis Cardinals demolish the Atlanta Braves tonight by a score of 12-3. Joe Mather goes 3 for 5, missing the cycle by a triple. The seven total bases increase Mather's slugging percentage to .450.

The Pirates defeat the Rockies 8-4, helped by a 3 for 5 night by Doug Mientkiewicz. That raises his OBA to .388 and even though he offers no power, he's having his best offensive season since 2003. He's seeing righties almost exclusively, but he's also posting a .370 OBA against lefties.

The Cleveland Indians pick up more extra-base hits than the Tigers collect hits as the Indians battery helps beat the Tigers 5-0. Kelly Shoppach doubles and homers while Paul Byrd pitches 7 2/3 shutout innings. The Indians picked up six extra-base hits on the game while Byrd allowed just four hits, all the Tigers earned in the game.

J.J. Hardy and Ryan Braun hit back-to-back home runs off Ted Lilly in the bottom of the sixth to tie the Cubs at two. Lilly's now allowed 25 home runs this year, three short of his career high set in each of the last two seasons.

Update: Corey Hart doubles in Prince Fielder and the Brewers take a 3-2 lead. Hart is out trying for third.

A.J. Burnett increased his trade value today, holding the first place Rays to one unearned run over seven innings. Burnett struck out ten Tampa Bay batters as the Blue Jays took the game 3-1 for A.J.'s 12th win. Despite the Toronto righty looking good lately (2 runs allowed or less in each of his last four starts), the Blue Jays say he won't be traded.

Denard Span hits his first major league home run in a four-run third inning to put the Twins up 4-0 over the White Sox. Span's two-run shot was followed by a Morneau homer with one on later in the inning. The White Sox have four hits through five innings, all singles.

The Cubs have four hits so far against CC Sabathia, two by Alfonso Soriano. The leftfielder led off the game with a double and scored the Cubs first run, then homered in the third for the Cubs second run. The Brewers are yet to score off Lilly. Soriano came into the game 8 for 25 against CC with three home runs.

Update: Sabathia leads off the bottom of the third with a single. He's 4 for 17 on the season.

Chris Sprow takes a look at the dangers of throwing a curveball at a young age. It's not the pitch itself that's the danger:

"It's not the pitch that's the problem," says Andrews. "It's the fact that kids who are throwing curveballs at the youth levels are generally dominant because young kids can't hit it," Which means that the kids who throw curveballs at that age will be trotted out to pitch as much as possible--and to throw their 'out' pitch as much as possible.

"We've tracked Little League games right through the Little League World Series, and as the competition grows, the kids throw curveballs up to 70 percent of the time," said Glenn Fleisig, PhD, Director of Research, ASMI, who co-authored the study with Andrews. "It's good that Little Leagues have enacted rules on pitch counts, but for say, a kid in the Dominican, if you see an unusually developed curveball at an early age, who knows the mileage on that arm?"

We'll see what happens with the Athletics 16-year-old, Michael Inoa.

Via Janak J Parekh, Brian Bannister is a fan of the Hardball Times.

The Marlins scheduled Anibal Sanchez to pitch on Thursday. The team keeps getting better.

Jorge Posada and the Yankees opted for surgery on the catcher's shoulder:

Posada was debating whether to have the surgery or to try to come back after rest and rehabilitation. But after Posada's batting practice session today at Yankee Stadium, GM Brian Cashman said surgery was "the obvious way to go."

Recovery from the surgery could take up to six months, which means Posada may not be ready for the start of spring training next year.

Jose Molina is pretty much an offensive black hole, but he's doing a great job with the pitching staff and controlling the running game. This may lead to the Yankees going after one of the Texas catchers.

Joe Maddon wants to "eradicate assumptionism." Time to mock up a tee shirt.

The Braves place their best hitter and best pitcher on the disabled list:

The Braves also optioned left-hander JoJo Reyes to Triple-A Richmond. Atlanta recalled pitcher Charlie Morton and catcher Clint Sammons from Richmond and activated reliever Jeff Bennett from the disabled list.

At 7 1/2 games back, the Braves are not out of it, but this sure isn't going to make it easy for a comeback. I would guess this would make a Teixeira trade somewhat more likely.

Four big series kick off tonight, three of them involving head-to-head division battles. First off, however, the Angels visit the Red Sox. This pits the team with the best home record in baseball (Boston, 37-13, .740) against the team with the best road record in the majors (LAnaheim, 33-19, .635). Jered Weaver faces Daisuke Matsuzaka. Weaver's put together five good starts in a row, upping his strikeout rate and lowering his hits allowed. After a rough outing in his first start after returning from the disabled list, Matsuzaka also reeled off five straight stellar outings, posting a 0.88 ERA.

The Mets travel south to Miami to take on the team that won't go away, the Florida Marlins. A sweep of the three game series by Florida puts the Marlins ahead of the Mets by one game. They'll start with Ricky Nolasco hosting John Maine. The Mets righty has seen his ERA go up every month this season. He's currently at 5.73 for July with 14 walks and four home runs in 22 innings. Nolasco pitched very poorly against the Mets in 2006, but since won both his starts against New York.

Both Chicago teams hit the road to meet the challenge of the second place teams in their divisions. The Cubs send Ted Lilly against the Brewers recent acquisition, CC Sabathia in a battle of left handers. The Brewers need to take three of the four games in the series to grab the NL Central lead. Sabathia is 4-0 since joining Milwaukee, with three straight complete games. He's allowed a .180 batting average and a .244 OBA. Lilly reached 10 wins for the sixth consecutive season. He's upped his career K per 9. It was 7.7 through 2007, 8.4 this season.

Finally, the White Sox head to the land of 10,000 lakes to try to knock the Twins out of the race. This is also a four game series, and the Twins need to sweep to claim first in the AL Central. Mark Buehrle starts for the White Sox. He's putting up number extremely similar to 2007; low walks, a good home run rate and a low strikeout rate. Despite an ERA well below four, he's once again a .500 pitcher. Kevin Slowey takes the hill for Minnesota. After finishing June on a strong note, Slowey slowed down in July. Three bad outings has him with a 9.00 ERA for the month.

Enjoy!

Find all your baseball betting needs at Bodog Internet Sportsbook!

Kevin Kaduk at Big League Stew discusses Ken Griffey, Jr. and his throat slashing gesture toward Jeff Brantley. Kevin is trying to remember a piece of history:

(I also seem to remember Griffey being mad at ESPN for something, but the exact details are not ringing a bell and Internet searchin' is proving fruitless.)

I was there. I believe it was during the 1997 playoffs, Griffey was upset with something Peter Gammons said, also probably about his fielding. He told ESPN he would not talk to them during the playoffs and convinced his teammates to boycott ESPN as well, getting them all F*** ESPN tee shirts. ESPN tried to smooth things over through Harold Reynolds. I remember Griffey being on speaker phone in the news room, with the coordinating producer of Baseball Tonight trying to reach an understanding with him. Griffey was unable to explain his reasons for the boycott and was unwilling to work with the higher ups at ESPN to fix the situation. (Given that ESPN broadcast the first round of playoffs at the time, not being able to talk to one of the teams was a big deal.)

Griffey may be a clean player, but he's no saint.

The Baltimore Sun bought out Roch Kubatko and he'll be moving his blog elsewhere. He also reports in the post that the Orioles rotation is about to undergo an overhaul.

With Matt Treanor not getting healthy as quickly as expected, the Marlins could turn out to be a good trading partner for the Texas Rangers. Florida stock-piled pitching the last few years, and the Rangers own plenty of catchers. Seems like a perfect match.

Cardinals Diaspora examines rumors that St. Louis might trade for A.J. Burnett or Roy Halladay. Halladay's cost would be very high in terms of prospects, so a trade for Burnett sits at a higher probability.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

With Francisco Liriano pitching at AAA Sunday, he won't be available for the Twins series against the White Sox.

Liriano walked one and struck out nine. He is 10-2 with a 3.28 ERA at Rochester.

Why are they wasting all these pitches at Rochester? Does he have anything left to prove there?

Brad Ziegler set a record Sunday:

Ziegler pitched two scoreless innings Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum to take sole possession of the record for consecutive shutout innings at the start of a career. His 27 scoreless innings passed George McQuillan, who set the mark at 25 with Philadelphia in 1907.

On a day that fellow reliever Jerry Blevins and closer Huston Street had their own milestones in the A's 6-5 win over Texas, it was Ziegler who made the most significant mark on baseball history and was asked to send his cleats and hat to Cooperstown.

"I've never had anything handed to me in my career, and that makes this even more satisfying," said Ziegler, who twice has endured skull fractures, was released and relegated to an independent league and was asked to completely revamp the pitching delivery after his stellar minor-league numbers went unnoticed.

He's given up very few hits for a pitcher with low strikeout and walk totals. Opponents are hitting just .188 against him with no extra-base hits. He's striking out just 4.3 per nine innings. The Oakland defense must be playing great behind him.

Aaron Hill joins the list of players taking a very long time to recover from a concussion:

"I've heard all the stories," Hill said of the Matheny case. "He was telling Jeremy, `Just tell him don't push it; it's the worst thing to do.'"

Hill is heeding Matheny's words. And if avoiding stress is the way to go, then there's a certain serendipity that he and the Jays were able to reach agreement on a guaranteed multi-year contract in May. Goals collide. Hill won't worry about his future and the Jays aren't pressured to rush him back. Perfect.

"You could look at it that way," Hill said. "Obviously, for anybody it's nice to have that security. But even if it didn't happen, I'm still young. I still have a long time to play. It would have been one year of a setback."

The Jays were 30-25 with Hill playing, 23-27 without him.

Baseball Time in Arlington notes that with four catchers in the Rangers fold, teams are inquiring about the availability of Gerald Laird.

Not surprisingly, the Rangers' catching quartet is at the forefront of those talks. At least 20 teams have inquired about at least one of Laird, Saltalamacchia, Ramirez or Teagarden, with the Cincinnati Reds - who reportedly assigned a scout to McAfee Coliseum to watch Laird on Sunday - and New York Yankees thought to be the most interested parties to such a potential deal.

It makes sense. Good catching talent is tough to develop. With an abundance of talent at the important defensive position, Texas should be able to fill other holes, either now or over the winter.

Tony La Russa blames Ryan Franklin's troubles on "jumbled roles." I guess that's La Russa's way of putting the blame on himself. I was watching an opponents broadcast of a Marlins game the other day, and the announcers were talking about the Florida relievers role. They quoted the pitching coach that the role of the relievers was to get outs whenever Fredi (Gonzalez) gave them the ball. If a pitcher can't get outs because he doesn't understand his role, then that pitcher doesn't really belong in the major leagues.

Franklin's problem is that he gives up too many home runs. For his career, he's allowed 30.0 home runs per 200 innings. On top of that, his strikeouts are low. So you're putting a pitcher in a save situation where lots of balls get put in play, and the pitcher tends to give up long flies. Is it any wonder he blows some games? Or many he's been distracted his whole career.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

David Ortiz's home run ties him with Jimmie Foxx for 8th on the Red Sox home run list. He should be sixth soon enough as Doerr has 223 and Vaughn is sixth with 230.

Clayton Kershaw wins his first game today, a 2-0 victory over the Washington Nationals. That takes his record to 1-3 in ten starts. Jason Bergman once again pitches well, but gets no support from his team. The Nationals have scored three runs or less in 12 or Bergman's 15 starts.

There are two out in the second inning and Sidney Ponson has already allowed six hits and four runs. He's not fooling anyone with the slow, straight stuff.

Barry Zito lost his 13th game of the season as the Diamondbacks pepper him for six runs in six innings. Once again, his control betrayed him as he walked five batters and allowed six hits. I wonder if Zito ends up with more losses than the NL leader in wins?

Randy Johnson shutout the Giants through seven, not walking a batter. However, he allowed nine hits while just striking out two. I would suspect that kind of performance against a better offense won't result in that low a score. Johnson is now just eight wins away from 300.

The Ace Report bemoans the loss of pitcher like Mark Mulder, who finish what they start.

Mike Aviles hit his fifth home run for the Royals today, part of a 6-1 win over the Rays. Since the start of the 2007 season, Kansas City has 10 home runs from their shortstops, four of them from Aviles in 41 games.

Rain delays the start of the Yankees-Red Sox game. Luckily, TNT is showing the Wizard of Oz. Right now, some guy in a turban is telling the fortune of a young woman, but Ozzie Smith must show up at some point.

ESPN noted two interviews Manny Ramirez gave today. In one, to ESPN Deportes, Manny said he would approve a trade if the Red Sox found one. In the other, to the Boston ESPN radio station, he said both sides were sick of the other, and that he likely wouldn't be traded, because the Red Sox could not get enough value back.

Update: TNT finally fixed the color on the broadcast. So far, however, there are lots of short people, but no shortstops. I'm not sure what lollipops have to do magical defense?

Update: A green woman just appeared. She seems to be taking her love of the Oakland Athletics a bit too far.

Update: Okay, the young woman is off to see the wizard. She's going to the Emerald City, however. I would think she'd be making her way to Busch Stadium. I hope she can get tickets at the gate.

Update: Mmmm. The scarecrow just showed up. Maybe this is a Batman movie. Ozzie was a pretty good hitter with the Cardinals.

Update: The Tin Man is a fan of Oil Can Boyd! None of the trees impressed me with their fast apples, however.

Update: Green woman has quite the heater.

Update: The game is getting underway in New York. Someone let me know if the young woman meets Ozzie Smith in St. Louis.

Jake Peavy pitched a game more typical of what we expect from the Padres ace today. He struck out ten today in seven innings, only the second time he reached double digits in strikeouts. In 2007, he reached that level nine times in 34 starts. He allows just one run in the game as the Padres win 3-1. That lowers Peavy's ERA to 2.67, second in the National League.

The Orioles broke their Sunday losing streak with a 5-2 win over the Angels.

The Baltimore Orioles had just ended a run of 15 straight losses in Sunday games, defeating Ervin Santana and the Los Angeles Angels 5-2, and Trembley made it clear he was tired of talking about the quirky streak.

"No questions about Sunday. It's done, it's dead, put it to rest," the manager said.

Baltimore won its first Sunday game of the season, April 6 against Seattle, before being outscored by a combined 83-43 in compiling the longest skid on one day of the week since Arizona dropped 15 successive Saturday games in 2004.

One would think the Angels would never lose on Sunday...

The Phillies and Braves produce three five-run innings as Philadelphia keeps pace with the Mets by a score of 12-10. If chicks dig the long ball, they would love this game as the two teams produced seven home runs. A rain delay forced the starters out early, and the bullpens were not up to the task. The Braves score five runs early, then the Phillies reeled off twelve straight scores, allowing them to withstand a five-run eighth by Atlanta. With 79 home runs in 53 games, the Phillies are averaging 1.5 home runs per home game.

There was a rumor that the Yankees wanted Jarrod Washburn to start tonight's game against Boston, but no deal went down. Washburn, however, increased his trade value this afternoon with a fine outing against the Toronto Blue Jays. The Mariner's right-hander held Toronto to one run over eight innings, lowering his ERA to 4.50 as Seattle took the game 5-1. Washburn pitches a bit better than his ERA. His walks are low and his home runs are reasonable (23.7 per 200 innings). Seattle didn't lose any interest sending him to the mound today.

Ubaldo Jimenez goes six shutout innings as the Rockies rout the Reds 11-0. Jimenez finishes July with a 5-1 records, allowing 8 runs in 41 1/3 innings for a 1.74 ERA. That's five wins in a row for the Rockies and five of their last 10. With Arizona winning big, they're not likely to pick up a game in the west, however.

Jim Edmonds makes a great diving catch with two out in the top of the ninth to end the game and the Cubs win 9-6. Chicago was down 5-0 early, but they worked their way back to a 6-5 deficit. Derrek Lee tied the game with a solo home run in the seventh, and that opened the flood gates as Chicago scored three more times in the inning for the final score. Chad Gaudin and Jeff Samardzija combine for three perfect innings as Samardzija earns his first big league save. The Brewers are losing big in the bottom of the ninth, so the Cubs may be back in first place by the end of the day.

Update: The Brewers lose 11-6. Jeff Blum drove in four runs with two homers, half of the runs Jeff Suppan allowed today. Chicago increases their lead by one game over both the Brewers and the Cardinals.

The Twins take down the Indians 4-2. Both starters, Blackburn and Sowers pitch well and deep into the game, but neither bullpen comes through. Dennys Reyes allows Cleveland to tie the game at two, while Rafael Perez gives up two runs in the ninth to lose the game for the Indians. Two of the Twins four runs scored on outs.

Meanwhile, Detroit managed a 6-4 win over the White Sox. Both teams hit two home runs, all solo shots. Zach Miner showed unusual control, walking none and striking out five. He came into the game with more walks than strikeouts. Ivan Rodriguez went four for four and is now hitting .354 since the start of June.

The Twins win and the White Sox loss puts Minnesota 2 1/2 games back of Chicago in the AL Central. The two team open a four game series in the Twin Cites tomorrow. Minnesota needs to take three out of four to keep the pressure on Chicago. So far, the White Sox lead the season series 7-4. They don't play again until the penultimate series of the season.

The Mets stay in first place in the NL East with a 9-1 win over the Cardinals. Home runs, which helped make Lohse such a great signing, were a problem today as he allowed three in the game. Santana allowed one, good for the only run for the Cardinals as Johan allowed just five hits and one walk. He earns his first complete game for New York, throwing 118 pitches, 81 for strikes. The one run pulls his ERA below three at 2.93.

Fourteen of Johan's 18 home runs allowed have gone for solo shots.

Johan Santana walked the first Cardinals batter he faced, erased him on a double play, and retired everyone else he's faced through four innings. The Mets lead that game 2-0. The Indians lead Minnesota 1-0 as Jeremy Sowers is perfect through four. He's struck out three while Santana has just one K. The Mets have never had a pitcher throw a no-hitter.

Update: Troy Glaus leads off the fifth with a single to break up the no-hitter in New York.

Update: Sowers, however, gets another 1-2-3 inning and he's perfect through five.

Update: The Twins get two hits in the sixth, leading to two runs and a 2-1 lead over the Indians.

Richard Sandomir is covering the day at the New York Times Bats blog.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

The Cardinals and Mets finish their series as Kyle Lohse faces Johan Santana. Both are having somewhat surprising seasons. Lohse, the last minute signing by the Cardinals enjoys a 12-2 record and a 3.35 ERA. Although he's 6-1 both home and away, his ERA is over 1.50 runs higher away from Busch Stadium. Santana, the covetted prize of the off-season, is just 8-7 despite a 3.05 ERA. His 2.59 ERA at Shea is only good for a 4-3 record.

Randy Wolf makes his first start for the Astros against the streaking Brewers and Jeff Suppan. It's not clear why Houston wanted a pitcher with a 4.90 ERA over the last three seasons, other than Ed Wade knows him from Philadelphia. In eight seasons there, his lowest ERA was 3.20 and he only posted marks below 4.00 twice. Suppan, a right-hander, is getting pounded by right-handed hitters this season, allowing a .531 slugging percentage.

Eric Hurley and the Texas Rangers try to gain more ground in the wild card race as they take on Dana Eveland and the Oakland Athletics. The A's are 5-10 since trading Rich Harden, falling out of the AL West race and barely hanging on in the wild card race. Hurley's ERA is low for his stats, but he's pitched extremely well with men on base and runners in scoring position. He's allowed a .216 BA in former situation and a .211 BA in the latter. Eveland gets by with a high number of walks due to a low number of home runs. His slugging percentage allowed is less than his OBA allowed.

Finally, the Yankees can move into the lead in the AL Wild Card race with a win over the Red Sox tonight. Sidney Ponson opposes Jon Lester. Ponson's K, BB and HR numbers with the Yankees are terrible, yet he's 2-0. No wonder New York was looking at Jarrod Washburn as a replacement. Lester pitched a five-hit shutout against the Yankees on July 3rd. He owns two of Boston's five complete games this season.

Enjoy!

Check out the latest baseball odds at Bodog Internet Sportsbook!

The Cardinals 14 inning victory over the Mets Saturday night resulted in both the NL East and NL Central races getting tighter. The Mets lead the Phillies and Marlins by one game, while the Cubs and Brewers are tied for the NL Central lead with Cardinals three games back.

Right now, there are three division races involving three teams within three games of first place, two division races where two teams are less than four games apart and only one blow out race (the AL West). All in all, there are 19 teams in first or ten games out of first place. It a very exciting race, and we've already seen a number of substantial comebacks. I've been trying to score the season to see if it is indeed tighter than others through 7/26, and the best I can do right now is look at the standard deviation of winning percentage among the 30 teams:

Through games of July 26th in the given season.

Season	WPct STD
2007	0.0587
2000	0.0612
2008	0.0658
2005	0.0692
1999	0.0704
2004	0.0742
2006	0.0745
2002	0.0838
2001	0.0842
2003	0.0856
1998	0.0871

Last year at this time the races were close, but there were few really bad teams. Cleveland had yet to go on their streak that buried the rest of the AL Central. In 2000, there were more big division leads, but few really bad teams.

So in 2008, we seem to have a good mix for tight division races. A few bad teams allow the decent teams to put together winning streaks. Combined with none of the good teams being truly outstanding (even the Angels, the only team over .600, are far exceeding their projected winning percentage), and almost every division is up for grabs. It should be a fun last two months of the year.

Colorado defeated Cincinnati Saturday night for their fourth win in a row and their eighth in their last nine games. In every win they've allowed three runs or less. That's balanced by a 16 run loss to the Dodgers. Still, even with that high score, Colorado has allowed just 32 runs over the nine game stretch.

That's the story of the whole month, too. The Rockies allowed three runs or less in 14 of their 22 games, helping them to a 15-7 record. The team ERA for the month, however, is 4.71, due to 54 of their runs allowed coming in four games.

The starting staff posts a 4.48 ERA for the month, but again, four bad starts accounts for the high level. Overall, the staff is walking less than three batters per nine innings and allowing just 17.4 home runs per 200 innings. The Rockies pitching is now solid. Just six games out of the lead in a weak division, the Rockies may want to look for a bat that helps now if they trade away some pitching.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Brewers come back with two runs in the seventh and two runs in the eighth to defeat the Astros 6-4. The win puts Milwuakee into a tie with the Cubs for first place in the NL Central. Ryan Braun hits his 27th home run to tie the game. He's hit 7 home runs and drove in 20 runs so far in the month of July, four of those homers and 12 of those RBI coming since the All-Star break.

Homer Baily gives up 15 hits in 4 2/3 innings, but only five runs. Fourteen of the hits were singles, and he issued only one walk. The Rockies have left nine men on base.

The Yankees defeat the Red Sox 10-3 to keep their winning streak alive. They now trail the Red Sox by one game, but are even in the All Freakin' Important Loss Column (AFILC). A win tomorrow and the Yankees take over the wild card lead.

After finishing April one game under .500, they've been going up by powers of two since. The Yankees played May two games over .500, then four over in May, and now they are 14-6 in July.

Chris Carpenter will return to the Cardinals on Wednesday. Let's hope it goes better than Mulder's return.

Texas takes another game from the reeling Athletics, 9-4. Josh Hamilton drives in three more runs with his 24th home run, bringing his RBI total to 103 in 104 Rangers games.

Damaso Marte makes his Yankees debut, coming in to face David Ortiz with men on first and second. New York was up 7-3. Marte strikes out Ortiz, doing his job as a LOOGY.

On a separate note, did David Ortiz lose weight? He seems to be a less big Papi.

Down 9-3, the Phillies comeback with seven runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 10-9 lead. Mike Hampton pitches poorly in his return to the majors. He allows six earned runs in 4+ innings of work. The bullpen doesn't help much as they not only allow the three runners they inherited to score, but give up another four on top of that.

It seems the members of Red Sox Nation are upset with Manny taking himself out of he lineup in what turned out to be a 1-0 loss. He's in the lineup today and wasn't welcomed fondly by the crowd. He's 0 for 2 but did drive in a run. The Yankees lead 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth.

The Braves get to Cole Hamels for nine runs in the fourth inning today, scoring three on a home run by Mark Teixeira. Five of the runs were unearned, as both Utley and Hamels committed errors in the inning. He's had four shorter outings in his career.

Back-to-back doubles by Jeremy Hermida and Jorge Cantu, both with two out in the 12th push the Marlins ahead 3-2. Kevin Gregg retires the side in order in the bottom of the innings and the Marlins take home the win. The Brewers can move into a tie for first in NL Central with a win over Houston tonight. Florida is now 4 1/2 out of the wild card, 1 1/2 out in the East. With Anibal Sanchez expected to return next week, Josh Johnson back and Volstad pitching well, this team suddenly has a good rotation to go with their power offense.

The Yankees are sending two different players on the back end of the Pirates deal.

The package the YankeesNew York Yankees surrendered for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte is not as originally reported. It is fronted by outfielder Jose Tabata and pitcher Ross OhlendorfRoss Ohlendorf , but the other two pitchers the Yanks gave up in the trade are Jeff KarstensJeff Karstens and Daniel McCutchen.

The original trade did have Phil Coke George Kontos in it, but the Pirates had enough concerns about the medical reports on Kontos and Coke that they decided to do Karstens and McCutchen instead.

I like what Lou Piniella did with his pitchers today. Rich Harden struck out 10 over five innings, allowing one run. His pitch count was in the upper eighties, however, so Lou went to Sean Marshall in the sixth. Rather than bringing in a new pitcher every inning, however, Lou allowed Marshall to pitch three. He allowed the tying home run (the second of the game by Jeremy Hermida) but that was it. When your starter and long reliever give up two runs over eight innings, teams are going to win most of those games. Right now, however, it's tied at two in the bottom of the ninth.

Update: With one out in the ninth, DeRosa hits a ball in the hole. Ramirez makes a strong throw, and DeRosa makes a head-first slide into first. He's called out, and the first base coach, Sinatro and Lou Piniella both get tossed arguing. Trammell is managing now as the teams go to extra innings.

Update: By the way, WGN showed a two angle replay that showed DeRosa was indeed out.

The Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Mariners this afternoon 8-3. That's five wins in a row for Toronto, putting them temporarily seven games out of the wild card and eight games out of the division lead. They've scored 35 runs in the five games as their offense is starting to come around. Granted, these games were all against last place teams, but a run at the playoffs has to start somewhere.

It looks like the Indians are being both sellers and buyers. They trade a minor leaguer to the Cardinals for Anthony Reyes. He's a pitcher who was great in the minors but struggled in the majors. Maybe the Indians think they can turn him around with Meloan. They give up Luis Perdomo, who looked pretty good in the low minors.

The Dodgers acquired Casey Blake for two minor leaguers, pitcher Jonathan Meloan and catcher Carlos Santana. Even if Blake falls back to his career norms, he'll be a big improvement over this season's Dodgers third basemen.

I assume the Indians are looking at Santana to replace Martinez when he eventually moves to first base. He was rising slowly through the Dodgers system. After a poor 2007 he's rebounded with an excellent 2008. Meloan posted great strikeout, walk and home run numbers in the minors. Pitching at AAA this season, however, he's walked a ton of batters.

This looks like a good trade for both teams as the Dodgers are solid at catcher and Blake is a good but not great player. Cleveland will be looking for Santana to make a smooth transition to the majors.

Wrigley Field offers a great matchup of pitchers who just recently joined their teams as Chris Volstad takes on Rich Harden. Volstad hasn't pitched as well as his ERA indicates. However, he does a very good job of keeping batters off base. With none on, he's allowed a .244 OBA. However, with men in scoring position, opponents hit .333 against him with a .538 OBA. He just keeps those situations to a minimum. Harden has allowed one run in two starts for the Cubs but has yet to see a win.

Two pitchers return from the disabled list today. Mike Hampton is scheduled to pitch against Cole Hamels and the Phillies, but I think the odds are 50-50 he injures himself during his warmup. Fausto Carmona takes the hill for the Indians after missing two months of the season. With Cleveland 13 games out, it's probably too late for him to help this season.

Finally, Brandon Webb takes on Tim Lincecum in San Francisco. Lincecum is having a rough July. His strikeouts and walks are still good, but his home runs are up and so are his hits allowed. Webb had his rough month in June. He's not getting the wins in July, but his ERA is 2.67 for the month. It's two runs lower than June, despite nearly identical stats. Opponents hit .300 against him with runners in scoring position during June, .094 in July.

Enjoy!

Find the latest baseball betting odds at Bodog Sports!

The Brewers and Rays ended streaks. The Brewers lost for the first time in nine games, and the Rays won for the first time on the road in July. Milwaukee remains one game behind the Cubs, and Tampa Bay takes a one game lead on the Red Sox.

Josh Hamilton drove in two runs in a 14-6 Texas rout of Oakland. That gives the Randers slugger 100 RBI in 99 games played. He also hit his 23rd double and home run.

The White Sox pull off a nice comeback as they score five runs in the last three innings to beat Detroit 6-5 and extend their lead over the reeling Twins to 3 1/2 games.

Philadelphia falls into a tie with Florida as a 1-0 Atlanta lead in the ninth turns into an 8-2 Atlanta win. Lidge, in a non-save situation, had his worst outing of the year.

The Diamondbacks stayed a game ahead of the Dodgers and returned to the .500 level with a 10-2 win over the Giants. Dan Haren continues to make his bid for the NL Cy Young with a no walk, nine strikeout performance.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

After Kyle Farnsworth allows two bases runners while recording just one out, Mariano Rivera comes on to record the five-out save. I was listening to the game, and it appears the strikeout of Lowell for the second out in the ninth was way inside. It seems there was rather poor umpiring in the game, according to the Red Sox announcers.

The Yankees win 1-0 to extend their post-break winning streak and move two games behind the Red Sox for the Wild Card. It's their seventh straight win against a team directly ahead of them in the wild card race.

Joba Chamberlain gets the win, and once again throws a ball that goes over Youkillis's head. It hit the bat for a strike. The Red Sox announcers thought Joba should be thrown out at that point, but I'm not sure. Earlier, I was listening to the Yankees broadcast, and they mentioned how Youkillis tends to dive into pitches. Kevin was 0-3 with two strikeouts against Joba tonight, so maybe Chamberlain found a way to intimidate the Red Sox first baseman.

Francisco Rodriguez allowed a run tonight but still picked up a save as the Angels defeat Baltimore 6-5. He allowed a two hits with two outs, but fortunately for LAnaheim, the home run came before the double. He now has five saves in seven Angels games since the All-Star break.

Joba Chamberlain comes out of the game against the Red Sox after seven shutout innings. He out-pitched Beckett, allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out nine. Beckett allowed nine hits and one walk over his seven innings, but just one run. In other words, given a 1-0 lead, Joba protected it for five innings.

Does anyone still think that Joba is more valuable as a reliever? I'm guessing most other pitchers the Yankees might start would be losing this game. The offense, as typical in a Chamberlain start is not working, but kudos to Jason Giambi. With a man on third and the shift on, he intentionally grounded a ball to the abandoned shortstop spot for a hit and an RBI.

Carlos Gomez injured himself making a catch:

Minnesota Twins center fielder Carlos Gomez was immobilized and taken from the field on a cart after crashing into the padded wall while making a spectacular catch in the first inning of Friday night's game against the Cleveland Indians.

After a long run, Gomez jumped as he neared the wall and caught Ben Francisco's drive before slamming into it on his right side. He crumpled on the warning track and, while in obvious pain, shoveled the ball to left fielder Delmon Young. As Gomez writhed around grabbing his lower back, Sizemore tagged up and scored all the way from second base.

Gomez remained on the ground for several minutes and was attended to by trainers for both teams before being placed on a backboard and lifted onto a cart.

I hope it's not too serious.

There's been a number of rumors about Jason Bay and Xavier Nady lately. The Nady rumors are over:

Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte from Pittsburgh for Jose Tabata, Ross Ohlendorf, Phil Coke and George Kontos.

Peter Abraham also has a good analysis of the trade at the link. Nady is hitting well above his career norms. If he falls back to his career averages, he'll just be okay. If he keeps up the .383 OBA, he'll be great for New York.

Update, 7/26/2008, 4:25 PM EDT: The Yankees and Pirates changed the back end of the deal.

The Cubs call up Jeff Samardzija to compete with the White Sox Javier Vazquez for best Scrabble name. "Jeff Samardzija" comes in at 46, while "Javier Vazquez" still leads at 53. I like the real reason Lou Piniella gave to have Jeff take Kerry Wood's roster spot:

"We're going to put him in the bullpen and probably use him in the middle to get his feet wet," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "The sooner we get him in, the better. He's throwing strikes and getting people out. We'll give him a nice opportunity and see what he can do."

Strikes and outs is what pitching is all about.

J.C. Bradbury posts his thoughts on Mark Teixeira.

Correction: Fixed the link.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

LyfLines notes the Red Sox and Rays home/road schedules heavily favors Boston the rest of the way.

The Yankees post All-Star break schedule turned out to be perfect for the Bronx Bombers. They've faced the three teams in front of them in the wild card race in order. They passed the Athletics with a sweep, they passed the Twins with a sweep, and now can pass the Red Sox (by percentage points) with a sweep. The series starts with a great pitching matchup as Joba Chamberlain makes his first start in Fenway, facing Josh Beckett. Joba needs to extend his number of innings pitched per game. He's averaging just over five innings per start so far. Beckett is posting a 5.68 ERA in July. His strikeouts are down since the start of June. He was averaging 10.1 K per nine through the end of May, 6.5 since. Last season, a stint on the disabled list helped keep Beckett sharp late. I wonder if he could use a two week vacation now?

The Rockies visit the Reds with Aaron Cook facing Edinson Volquez. Cook holds a slightly higher ERA on the road this season as he's walked about twice as many batters away from Coors. Volquez is undefeated at home despite allowing more power there. He's given up 17 extra-base hits at Great American Ballpark, nine on the road.

The Cardinals are three games back in the Wild card race as they take on the Mets at Shea. Albert Pujols has hit just one home run in July. If he stays at that level, it will be his worst month for home runs in terms of games played. Meanwhile, Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado hit five homers on the month and is slugging .712 for July.

Enjoy!

Find World Series odds for all these teams at Bodog Sportsbook.

The Oakland Athletics added 20 players in their various trades dating back to the winter:

With five minor-leaguers arriving in the past three weeks in the Harden and Blanton trades, the influx of talent is keeping A's director of player development Keith Lieppman hopping.

"It's kind of fun to play with," Lieppman said Thursday. "I feel like I'm dealt a new hand every day, and it's aces and kings all the time."

The team is now on the outer edges of the pennant race, but still having a good season despite trading away a number of their stars. Now it's up to Lieppman and Beane to turn these Kings and Aces into a championship team.

Gordon Edes points out that the Boston offense performed just as well with David Ortiz on the DL as they performed before Ortiz's injury:

Consider the numbers, before and after Ortiz's injury:

Batting average: .280 before; .279 after.

Runs per game: 5 before; a hair over 5 after.

Home runs per game: 1.05 before; 1.15 after.

On-base percentage: .353 before; .360 after.

Slugging percentage: .441 before; .450 after.

Boston designated hitters posted a .308/.425/.496 line during David's time on the disabled list. That's not quite vintage Ortiz in power, but they obviously didn't lose much. Of course, a lot of that come from giving Manny most of his at bats at DH during that time. With Manny moving to left (if he knee allows it) and Ortiz returning, I suspect the Red Sox offense will get better but the defense might get a little worse.

Jimmy Rollins was benched Thursday for showing up late to the game.
Still, the pattern troubles - and it is a pattern now. On June 5, manager Charlie Manuel benched Rollins in the middle of a game for failing to run out a fly ball. This past weekend, there was concern about another base-running lapse on a play where Rollins should have scored but didn't. Now, this.

The word "leadership" gets tossed around all the time in sports, and Rollins has had it tossed into his lap plenty. He has accepted it. He has to understand what it means, and that the last thing this struggling team needs right now is drama, especially leadership drama.

Of course, it's easier to be a leader when you are having a good season. Rollins BA slipped 30 points, and his slugging percentage slipped 100 points from last year. That, more than his attitude, is what needs to be corrected.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Milwaukee Brewers sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in comeback fashion as Ryan Braun hits a two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning to make the final score 4-3. Solomon Torres struck out the three batters he faced in the bottom of the ninth for his 19th save. Braun is slugging well over .700 in July.

The Blue Jays won the suspended game from last night 5-1. A win today in the regular game brings Toronto back to .500.

Carlos Delgado delivers a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the eighth to give the Mets a 3-1 lead. Both Moyer and Perez pitched great games, Moyer allowing just one run over seven innings, Perez striking out 12 in 7 2/3 before loading the bases and yielding to Aaron Heilman.

The hit give Carlos 16 RBI in 20 July games. He also ended the inning trying to make third base on the hit.

It appears that Jim Bowden asked for too much in trying to trade Jon Rauch and ended up with too little. A frustrated baby bear could not be reached for comment.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

The Phillies and Mets play the rubber game of their series at Shea this afternoon, the winner leaving with the NL East lead. It's a battle of left-handers as Jamie Moyer faces Oliver Perez. A win today by Moyer gives him 240 for his career, tying Jamie with two other left-handers, Herb Pennock and Frank Tanana, for 53rd on the all-time list. Moyer pitched well against New York this year, posting a 3.38 ERA in three starts. Perez has returned to his walking ways of 2005-2006, issuing 5.2 per nine innings.

The Marlins open a four-game series with the Cubs in Chicago. Florida sits one game out in the NL East, while the Cubs are one game up in the NL Central. The series also has wild card implications, however. The Marlins are currently five games back of Milwaukee for the wild card, so catching an NL Central team is important if the Marlins can't win the NL East. Scott Olsen opens against Carlos Zambrano. Olsen's ERA soars on the road to 4.93 as he allows 44.6 home runs per 200 innings away from Miami. Zambrano has only allowed three home runs in night games this season, covering 89 innings.

Finally, the Brewers go for a sweep of the Cardinals as Ben Sheets visits Todd Wellemeyer. The Milwaukee staff held St. Louis to just six runs in the first three games. Sheets is on a roll, as he's struck out 20 in 16 2/3 July innings. Wellemeyer, who started so well for the Cardinals, is slumping. His July ERA stands at 7.15. He's allowed 30 hits in his last 22 2/3 innings, 11 for extra bases.

Enjoy!

Bodog Sportsbook has all your baseball gambling needs!

The CC Sabathia trade is looking pretty good right now for the Brewers. After a rough first outing that Milliliter still managed to win, he's pitched three complete games, shutting out the division rival Cardinals Wednesday night. Here's the four game stretch. Notice how he's gotten better with each start. In addition, the three complete games haven't been that taxing. He did throw 122 pitches in the first one against Cincinnati, but brought that down to 110 pitches against the Giants and just 106 against the Cardinals. He now has six complete games on the season, tying his career high.

CC is striking out 8.5 batters per nine while walking just 2.2. He's allowed just one home run in his 33 innings pitched. His rate with Cleveland was 21.3 per 200 innings pitched.

Looking at CC from the batters perspective, they've hit just .180 against him, and their slugging percentage (.243) is lower than their OBA (.244). They are just 1 for 19 with runners in scoring position and have collected just five hits with men on base.

The Brewers now sit just one game behind the Cubs. Milwaukee is 9-3 since CC first started for them. This is exactly the kind of boost Doug Melvin was looking for when he decided to pull out all the stops to win this season.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Chipper Jones left tonight's game against the Marlins with a hamstring injury.

Adam Dunn knocked out two hits this afternoon, including a grand slam as he drove in five of the Reds nine runs in a 9-5 victory over the Padres. Dunn continues a great month. He's now 18 for 59 in July, a .305 BA. With nine home runs, he's tied Ryan Howard for the major league lead and is slugging .780. Of course, the Blue Jays couldn't use that kind of performance.

Oriole Central posts an interview with Brian Roberts.

Alexi Casilla fails to cover second base quickly on a ground ball to third with men on first and second. He got the force at second, but failed to get out of the inning. Justin Christian follows with a two-run double to break a scoreless tie. I'm sure Gardenhire will have words for Casilla in the dugout.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

There's lots of afternoon baseball on the first Wednesday after the All-Star break. Greg Smith and James Shields hook up in Tampa Bay with the Rays holding on to a 1/2 game lead in the AL East. The two own similar ERAs, but Shields is doing a much better job of keeping his walks issued low. Smith does a better job of keeping the ball in the park.

Gaining on the Rays are the New York Yankees, undefeated since the break. They go for a sweep of the Twins as Mike Mussina hosts Glen Perkins. The Minnesota lefty relies on his defense, as he strikes out few and walks even fewer. So far it's worked as his ERA is under 4.00 despite allowing a .292 BA. Mussina allows a high average, too, but an even lower walk rate keeps his OBA allowed at .314.

Brett Myers returns to the rotation tonight against the Mets. He gave up nine earned runs in 27 minor league innings. Maine has walked seven and struck out six in 11 2/3 innings against the Phillies.

Enjoy!

Get all your MLB baseball odds at Bodog Sportsbook!

Howard Sinker believes the Twins should call up Francisco Liriano:

Right now is the time to move one of the young starters to long relief and see what Liriano can do. Having a second lefty in the rotation trumps the current arrangement, and the pitcher who gets demoted (Slowey or Blackburn) needs to see this as a chance for the Twins to make a serious run at the division -- in the same way that a trade for a right-handed bat is going to cost the current right-handers some playing time.

Besides, there's probably going to be a key game or two when the Twins are going to need a spot starter, even if all arms stay healthy. (Think road rainouts and the potential for a doubleheader or two.)

The Yankees, a team struggling offensively, scored 20 runs in two games against the Twins. The last time the Twins face Chicago, they gave up 40 runs in four games. With the White Sox series starting next week, the Twins could use a better arm in the rotation.

The Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Chicago Cubs Tuesday night 9-2. That takes the Cubs record since the All-Star break to 1-4. They've scored 13 runs in those five games, but only four in the four losses. What happened to the offense?

One thing is that the team appears to be a bit less selective. The leading team in the NL in walks drawn took only nine base on balls in the last five games. They seemed to be getting that back last night, however, as they did collect five against the Diamondbacks.

The biggest factor, however, appears to be a slump by the middle of the lineup. The table setters, the 1-2 hitters, are getting on base quite well. So far there's little offense behind them, however. The 3-4-5- hitters have combined for seven hits in 60 at bats with one double and one home run. This resulted in just five RBI despite the 1-2 hitters reaching 20 times in the five games.

The biggest culprit is Aramis Ramirez in an 0 for 20 slump, but Lee and Soto are also not delivering. Should Cubs fans be worried? Probably not. These are not hitters who have been playing over their heads crashing to earth. These are good hitters going through a slump at the same time. It won't last, but while it does, the NL Central turns into an exciting pennant race.

The Brewers won another from the Cardinals on Tuesday night, moving them just a game behind the Cubs, while the St. Louis remains two back. It's any team's division right now.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Johan Santana goes eight innings against the Phillies, allowing two runs. With Billy Wagner unavailable, Duaner Sanchez comes in to get the save. He starts a ninth inning that so far has resulted in the Phillies scoring six runs, taking an 8-5 lead. The radio announcers noted that Santana threw 105 pitches, and wonder why he didn't come out for the ninth. He's gone over 110 pitches six times this season. The Mets just brought out their fourth pitcher of the inning.

Update: Heilman gets the Mets out of the inning. New York will need to score at least three runs against Lidge.

Update: The Mets score one in the 9th but fall 8-6. The Phillies open up a one-game lead over New York.

Rick VandenHurk starts for the Marlins tonight after a stint in the minors. He holds the Braves hitless through five innings, but walks five and throws 94 pitches. He's lifted for Joe Nelson in the sixth, and Nelson immediately gives up a single to Chipper Jones. The Marlins lead 3-0 in the top of the sixth.

Beyond the Boxscore analyzes the deal that sends Randy Wolf to the Astros:

I suppose my only problem with Houston's part of this deal is why? The price isn't too great, but being double digits back doesn't, nor should it, inspire an all ready aging ballclub to add a soon to be leaving piece.

I does seem like a useless move, unless they think they can sign Wolf, or Wade is hoping to get a draft pick for the free-agent loss.

The Arizona Diamondbacks acquire Jon Rauch from the Nationals for Emilio Bonifacio. Arizona's closer Brandon Lyon blew five saves this season, as did Rauch. I have not yet seen how Arizona is planning to use Jon, but for the moment I'll assume he'll be the setup man. That pretty much leaves Washington without a closer. Maybe they think the job isn't that difficult. :-) Rauch walked a lot of batters early in his career, but his control improved and the last two seasons he's been very good.

The Nationals think Bonifacio will develop into a lead-off hitter. Looking at his minor league stats, I really don't see it. Overall, it doesn't seem like a very good trade for Washington.

The Nationals also extend Cristian Guzman's contract two years.

I received this E-Mail from GotCast.com:

MLB.com is looking for a fan to guest host MLB.com's "The Dish". Baseball Musings has a great readership and I was hoping you could let them know of our search. One fan from this casting will be a host on "The Dish". Here is the info for MLB.com's "The Dish" hosting.

Good luck to whomever tries out!

Baseball Tonight is starting a new series on all-time franchise players. They're looking for your help. Visit the link, vote and email!

I like Big League Stew's take on A-Rod signing with the William Morris agency:

Let me put it this way: When Torii Hunter, who has a smile straight off a Hollywood billboard and a personality to match it, is only pulling down $500K, you know there's a problem.

Yeah, yeah. I know that golf offers up more affluent products and goofy gadgets to slap one's name on. I know that basketball hands out mega-million shoe deals to anyone who has a second to stop and sign a contract. I know that baseball hasn't helped itself with the steroid mess.

But why should baseball, which holds a coveted nostalgic position as America's pastime and shows off its players 162 times per year without hiding them behind masks or under helmets, be at such a disadvantage?

The answer is, it shouldn't, which is why when A-Rod heads over to William Morris for his first consultation, Bud Selig and his pals need to make sure they're riding shotgun. A-Rod's problem is baseball's problem.

In the 1990s, Peter Gammons pointed out to me that labor problems in baseball led to MLB not promoting players. They'd promote the game, but not individuals. Basketball did just the opposite. Baseball doesn't really want big name stars, because they'll command more money. If A-Rod and his ilk want to earn more from endorsements, they need to get MLB to promote them as they promote the game.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

This is priceless.

Joe Blanton makes his Philadelphia debut as he faces Johan Santana and the Mets in New York. Blanton faced the Mets twice in his career, not allowing a run in fifteen innings of work. He struck out 10 and walked just one. Santana pitched well against the Phillies this season, striking out 16 and walking one in 15 innings pitched. The winner claims sole possession of first place in the NL East.

On the west coast, Daisuke Matsuzaka goes for his 11th win in his 17th start against R.A. Dickey of the Mariners. Amazingly, Dice-K walks 1.8 more batters per nine innings than the knuckleballer. Matsuzaka remains tough to hit, however, allowing a .178 BA with runners in scoring position. Dickey seems to be adopting the Dice-K strategy in July. He's walked 11 in fifteen innings but allowed just two runs.

Enjoy!

Find all your baseball betting needs at Bodog Internet Sportsbook!

The Texas Rangers shut down the Chicago White Sox Monday night behind the pitching of Scott Feldman and three strong innings by the bullpen. Feldman made one mistake, a gopher ball to Carlos Quentin that plated the White Sox's only run. Hamilton and Blalock went deep for Texas, account for five of the six Texas runs. That gives Hamilton 98 RBI in 96 games he's played, and 100 Texas games. That puts him on a pace for 159 RBI this season.

With the Oakland loss to Tampa Bay, the Rangers move into second place in the AL West, 8 1/2 games behind the Angels (who fell last night to the Cleveland Indians). They are also 5 1/2 games back in the AL Wild Card race. Starting on 4/25, Texas is 45-32, the fourth best record in the majors.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Rich Harden and Randy Johnson are giving the fans a treat tonight. Each threw a shutout through five innings. The Diamondbacks took a slim 1-0 lead on the Cubs in the sixth as Alex Romero hit his first Major League home run. Each pitcher has walked just one batter. Johnson as struck out four, Harden nine.

Holding a 9-0 lead after seven innings, the Tigers score 10 runs in the eight inning off the Royals. Trey Hillman left Jimmy Gobble take one for the team as he was allowed to walk four and give up seven hits in one inning of work. He was almost out of the innings after getting consecutive outs, but the next four batters reached and Gobble was lifted for Leo Nunez. Leo allowed all three inherited runners to score, maximizing Jimmy's ERA.

Matt Joyce is four for six and just needs a double for the cycle.

Salomon Torres blows a save for the Brewers, allowing the Cardinals to tie the game in the ninth. For his effort, however, he gets the win as the offense delivers three runs in the top of the tenth and Torres pitches a scoreless bottom of the inning. That brings the two teams into a tie for secord place in the NL Central and at the top of the Wild Card standings.

Rickie Weeks, with his job threatened by the acquisition of Ray Durham, went 2 for 5 with a three-run homer tonight.

Evan Longoria hit his third home run in four games since the all-star break, as the home run derby appeared not to hurt him. The homer was his 19th of the season; he's now just four behind Sizemore and Quentin for the AL lead. If Longoria were to catch the leaders and win the home run crown, he'd be the first rookie to do so since Mark McGwire in 1987.

Scott Kazmir pitched seven scoreless innings as the Rays down the Athletics 4-0. They'll at worst maintain their 1 1/2 game lead in the AL East.

The Yankees pulled within a game of the Twins, easily defeating them by a score of 12-4. The whole team hit well, but three struggling players turned in fine performances. The 6 through 8 players, Cano, Cabrera and Molina combined for a seven for fourteen night with four runs scored. Cano added a home run. That was more than enough runs for Ponson, who goes to 6-1 on the season. The Yankees are undefeated in four games since the break, and now sit 2 1/2 games behind the Red Sox for the wild card, pending the outcome of the Boston game in Seattle.

Adam Jones went 2 for 4 Monday night in an 8-3 Orioles win over the Blue Jays. The acquisition from Seattle got off to a rough start. Through the end of May he was hitting just .245 with an OBA below .300 and an OBA in the mid .300s. Since, however, he's hit much better. With tonight's game, he's batting .327 with an OBA over .360 and a slugging percentage in the .480s. The Orioles are starting to get the value they hoped for in the young player.

Jorge Campillo continues to show marvelous control as he shutout the Marlins for seven innings, walking just one batter while allowing two hits and striking out six. That lowers the former Mariners ERA to 2.83. He's walked just 20 batters in 92 1/3 innings. A few more innings and he'll be in the NL ERA race.

Chipper Jones went one for four and the probability of his hitting .400 keeps falling.

Jorge Posada went on the disabled list Monday, and this time the rest of the season is in doubt:

Posada said he was planning on starting a rehab program Monday before discussing his options with Altchek. Posada, who acknowledged more damage in his shoulder beyond an injured labrum, could miss part of next season if he waits to have surgery.

It was a tough call to re-sign Posada to a new contract. I understand the Yankees were rewarding him for many years of great service, but that contract doesn't really look good right now. I expect Jorge, if surgery is successful, will take Giambi's place at first, since I don't expect New York to re-sign Jason. I wonder how Posada's season will also effect the Red Sox's offer to Varitek.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

The Milwaukee Brewers travel to St. Louis for a wild card showdown with the Cardinals. St. Louis leads by one game, and both teams are also trying to gain on the Cubs. Seth McClung faces Joel Piniero. The more interesting matchup, however, may be Pujols against Braun. So far this season, Braun is batting .485 against the Cardinals with four home runs and a .500 OBA. Pujols owns a .526 OBA with one home run. With those two generating offense Milwaukee leads the season series 5-4.

The Yankees took care of one wild card rival over the weekend, and now face the Minnesota Twins. Nick Blackburn takes on Sidney Ponson. The offenses are going in different directions this month, the Twins scoring 5.73 runs per game, the Yankees 4.2 runs per game. The Twins are only a game better than the Yankees on the month, however, 10-5 vs. 9-6.

Finally, a battle of first-place teams in Arizona as the Cubs play the Diamondbacks. Rich Harden faces Randy Johnson. Harden got off to a good start with Chicago, striking out 10 in his first 5 1/3 innings of work. The Big Unit continues to fool batters often enough to have struck out 95 while walking 28. However, when he doesn't fool them, he gets hit hard, leading to the second highest ERA of his career.

Enjoy!

Check out the latest baseball odds at Bodog Internet Sportsbook!

Ray Durham found himself in a division race Sunday. He stayed with the Giants during the game even though he knew he was traded because he didn't want to suit up against his former team:

An emotional Durham could only stand to be in the Giants' dugout for a few innings during the series finale against Milwaukee, but was prepared to make the switch right afterward and head to St. Louis with the Brewers. The 36-year-old second baseman, in his sixth season with San Francisco and the final year of a two-year contract, had to approve the deal.

"He's a veteran guy that can come in here and help our club," Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin said. "We're trying to add as many good players as we can. We're trying to win this thing."

I like that quote from Melvin. That attitude was evident in the Sabathia trade, as they didn't insist on signing CC. After an off year in 2007, Durham came back strong in 2008, posting a .385 OBA. Rickie Weeks is at .326, based mostly on a very low batting average. Durham should improve the club.

The Giants get Steve Hammond, who has excellent strikeout and walk numbers in the minors. At 26 he's mature, and his path to the majors should be short. They also receive Darren Ford, a non-slugging outfielder.

Bottom line, I like that Milwaukee is pulling out all the stops to win this thing. They may end up a poor team for a few years afterward, but it's been a very long time since the city saw a championship baseball team.

This is a sad story. Baltimore's Adam Loewen fractured his elbow for a second time, ending his pitching career. He'll try to reinvent himself as an outfielder, a la Rick Ankiel:

Rather than rehabilitating again, Loewen is expected to report to the instructional league this fall and try to reinvent himself as an outfielder. Loewen hasn't faced live pitching regularly since 2003, when he played first base for Chipola Junior College in Marianna, Fla., batting .353 with a homer and 38 RBIs in 45 games.

"If I did choose the other path of pitching, it would be a long road with no clear ending," said Loewen, who pitched in seven games this season, starting four of them. He last pitched July 6 against the Texas Rangers, leaving the game after feeling elbow pain. "This is not a simple decision, but it's right there in front of me and it was easy to make for me.

Good luck to him. Playing in the National League, Ankiel was hitting all along. He had four extra-base hits in 2000. Working for Loewen is that he's only 22 years old, so he's relearning hitting while he's still growing toward his athletic peak.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

I'm away with my family on vacation this week, so blogging will be light.

With two runs allowed on two home runs today, 13 of Cole Hamels last 18 runs allowed came via the long ball. In his last eight starts, he's allowed nine solo homers and two with a man on first. Cole owns a 2.72 ERA in those starts, but the Phillies are just 4-4 in those games.

It was appropriate that on a Sunday both Jesus Flores and Jesus Colome played for the Washington Nationals. Flores delivered a 5 for 6 day (all singles as he scored two and drove in two runs. Colome was not as miraculous, allowing a run in his one inning of work. That made the final score 15-6 in favor of the Nationals.

I don't know why they don't play Flores more. Is his defense so bad they can't afford the bat?

The Yankees defeated the Oakland Athletics today 2-1. That was their ninth win of the season when scoring 2 runs or less. They've lost 25 in that situation. In 2007, they went 2-31 scoring two runs or less. They've played more low scoring game than last year, showing their offense has fallen on hard time, but this season, the pitching is making up the difference.

I'm back from Atlanta after flight delays and traffic delays. In my absence, five of the six division races tightened. The Yankees swept the Athletics, the Rays took two out of three from Toronto, and the Angels swept the Red Sox. That puts the Yankees 4 1/2 back in the division and three back in the wild card.

The Twins took two out of three from Texas while the White Sox lost two out of three to Kansas City. That puts Minnesota 1/2 game back in the AL Central.

The Dodgers took two out of three from the Diamondbacks to force a tie for first place in the NL West. Both teams are two games under .500.

The Cubs lost two out of three to the Astros, while the Brewers swept the Giants, outscoring them 24-10. The Cardinals swept the Padres 30-20 over four games. St. Louis and Milwaukee are two and three back of the Cubs respectively. It looks like this division is the class of the National League.

Finally, the Marlins took two out of three from the Phillies while the Mets split four with the Reds. That puts the Mets into a tie for first place with the Marlins 1/2 game out. That gives us three three-team races, two two-team races, and the Angels, the luckiest team in terms of run difference running away with the AL West. It should be an exciting finish to the season.

It's Cy Young Sunday as a number of pitchers competing for the award take the mound this afternoon. It starts with the MLB leader in ERA, Justin Duchscherer facing Andy Pettitte and the Yankees. With wins in the first two games of the series, the Yankees passed Oakland moving into third place in the wild card race. Since June 1st, Duscherer holds a 1.48 ERA, allowing just 33 hits in 61 innings. Pettitte pitched one of his better games against Oakland earlier in the season, allowing just one run in eight innings while striking out six.

The Phillies and Marlins see who wins their series today as Cole Hamels faces Josh Johnson. Expect the Fish to run on Cole as base stealers are 10 for 11 against him. Johnson showed great control in his first game back from a year on the disabled list, striking out six and walking none in five innings of work.

The Mets send Mike Pelfrey against Edinson Volquez in Cincinnati. After an 0-5 May, Pelfey is 6-0 in June and July. Volquez is on a pace to allow 8.5 home runs over 200 innings.

The Brewers are gaining on the Cubs as Manny Parra goes for the sweep of the Giants against Tim Lincecum. Parra walks a batter every other inning, but makes up for all those base runners by allowing a low average (.224) with runners in scoring position. Lincecum is having a rough July. He's already allowed two home runs on the month, matching his monthly high this season. :-)

The Dodgers and Diamondbacks play the rubber game of their series with Derek Lowe taking on Brandon Webb. Lowe has walked just nine batters in his last 54 1/3 innings. Webb is 6-1 at home despite a 4.28 ERA in Arizona.

Finally, Cliff Lee battles Carlos Silva as the Indians play the Mariners in Seattle. There may not be any base on balls in this game. The two pitchers combined to issue 39 in 243 1/3 innings.

Enjoy!

Find the latest baseball betting odds at Bodog Sports!

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Lannan was a bit wild in the fourth and the fifth, but the Braves got just one run on a Chipper Jones single. The runner stopped at third, but the trailing runner kept coming. The runner had to try to score and made it on a bad throw.

The one two three hitters for the Nationals lead off the third with a single, double, and triple. Kearns hits a sacrifice fly to end the chance at a consecutive cycle. The Nats take a 3-0 lead.

Austin Kearns is batting cleanup for the Nationals tonight. His slugging percentage is lower than his OBA, and his OBA is just .314.

We're at Turner Field in the last row of the upper deck behind home plate. Nice breeze, and not a bad view of the field.

A quick games of the day as I'm off to Atlanta for the annual reunion with my college roommates. We're attending the Braves game. With John Lannan facing Jair Jurrjens it's up there with the best pitching matchups of the day.

The afternoon starts with recent acquisition Sean Gallagher against Joba Chamberlain in New York. Sean pitched the only game the Athletics won against the Angels just before the break.

The Red Sox find themselves in second place this morning after losing big to the Angels Friday night. They'll have a quick turnaround as Josh Beckett and Joe Saunders compete on Fox.

Mr. Complete, Roy Halladay hopes to get better run support than A.J. Burnett did Friday night as he faces Matt Garza and the first place Rays.

The NL Central tightened up a bit last night as the Cubs lost a well pitched game by Ted Lilly 2-1 while the Cardinals won a slugfest against the Padres and CC Sabathia used 110 pitches to complete a 9-1 win against the Giants. Carlos Zambrano faces Wandy Rodriguez in Houston while Ben Sheets goes against Jonathan Sanchez in San Francisco.

Finally, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks are tied after Los Angeles won an extra-innings squeaker Friday night. Chad Billingsley and Dan Haren battle with first place on the line.

Enjoy!

Find World Series odds for all these teams at Bodog Sportsbook.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Phillies trailed the Marlins by three home runs coming into this evening's game, but they hit two to Florida's none as they take the game 4-2. Howard and Jenkins each hit solo shots, and Utley collect two hits and an RBI. The Phillies bullpen continues to pitch well, allowing no runs in three innings of work.

Meanwhile, the Reds get to John Maine for hits, five walks and five runs in 4 2/3 innings of work. That was all the runs the Reds needed as Bronson Arroyo pitched eight strong innings and the Mets winning streak ended 5-2. Maine has now allowed 14 earned runs in his last four starts, lasting a total of 19 innings.

The Phillies regain sole possession of first place, one game ahead of the Mets and 2 1/2 games in front of the Marlins.

A.J. Burnett and James Shields each made one mistake tonight. Shields gave up a home run to Adam Lind and Burnett allowed one to Ben Zobrist. The difference was that Ben's came with a man on base, and the Rays go on to win 2-1. That ends their seven game losing streak. Zobrist now has 13 hits on the season, four home runs and seven for extra-bases.

Three weeks ago I published an essay by James Crabtree on Bob Wood, the author of Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks: The Ultimate Guide to America's Top Baseball Parks. It turns out, Bob writes a blog, The Buddha said "I am Awake." Stop by and say hi.

The Twins have a rookie ball pitcher named Shooter Hunt. If that's not good enough, Shooter is off to an amazing start. In fourteen innings, he's struck out 28 and walked just two without allowing a home run. Opponents have collected just two hits. With two hit by pitches, only 18 of 50 batters have put the ball in play against Shooter.

He's 21 years old. I think he can handle rookie ball. Send him to AA New Britian so I can see him pitch, and then get him to the majors as soon as possible.

Update: Thanks to my friends at Sports Radio 610 for the tip.

Richie Sexson pays immediate dividends as he drives in a run with a single in his first Yankees at bat. The Athletics and Yankees are tied at one in the second.

Ryan Howard continues to make up for his slow start with an amazing July. He plates the first run of the night for the Phillies with a solo home run in the second. The gives him nine home runs in 14 July games and 17 RBI. The Phillies lead 2-0 in the top of the third.

I'll be on Sports Radio 610 in Houston at about 7:25 PM EDT, 6:25 PM CDT tonight.

Bob Lobel provides more information on what is going on between the Red Sox and Manny Ramirez. He was fined six figures for pushing the traveling secretary and didn't like that one bit. Manny's way of answering?

"The thing that most people are forgetting and haven't talked about is the strikeout in Yankee Stadium," Lobel said. "The bat on the shoulder for the three pitches from Mariano Rivera. That was a big [expletive] to the Red Sox after the fine. I'm just telling you ... there are things in the front office that are perceived ... I'm saying that there is a strong feeling that that [three-pitch strikeout] was the message to the Red Sox and it's a strong feeling that that's unacceptable ... there's a feeling that he didn't give it his all, let's put it that way ... I'm just saying the front office has not forgotten that moment. It's akin to Nomar sitting on the bench [in a game in which Derek Jeter dove into the stands at Yankee Stadium in 2004]. It's the same thing. It's an at bat that resonated very strongly in the front office."

I'd say the probability of Manny being around next year just dropped.

Update: Industry sources say the fine was was an order of magnitude lower.

According to industry sources, Ramirez, in addition to apologizing to McCormick, paid a fine of between $10,000 to $15,000, with the money going to an agreed-upon charity. The fine is at the lower end of that range.Reports that Ramirez had been assessed a six-figure fine are not true, and Red Sox officials have not raised the issue that Ramirez's strikeout against Mariano Rivera in a pinch-hit appearance July 6 was in any way related to the discipline administered.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

Marc from Daytona thought that someone from the area should track down people who saw Jackie Robinson train there his first season with AAA Montreal. Marc works at a nail salon, brought this up to his customers, and they directed him to Jerry Murphy. Here's the interview:

Murphy promises to introduce Marc to more people who knew Robinson then, so you might wish to subscribe to the YouTube page.

Dontrelle Willis did not walk a batter in his start on Thursday.

All 30 teams are in action tonight as the All-Star Break comes to an end. Oakland and New York are both in contention in their division and wild card races, but far enough out that every win is precious. They'll send Greg Smith and Mike Mussina to the mound in the Bronx tonight. Smith has been fantastic with men on base this season, allowing a mere .261 OBA and a .275 slugging percentage. A win tonight by Mussina gives him at least 12 wins in 15 of his 18 seasons.

Philadelphia and Florida battle for first place in the NL East as Jamie Moyer and Rickey Nolasco face off in game one of a three game set. These two teams are 1-2 in the majors in home runs, Flordia leading 135-132. The second base battle is more interesting than the pitching matchup. Utley and Uggla are very evenly matched. Both have 25 home runs. Utley holds 53 extra-base hits, Uggla 49. Dan has drawn 40 walks to Chase's 39. Because he missed a few games due to injury, Uggla's OBA and slugging percentage are a bit higher. We may be watching one of the best second base rivalries of all time.

The Dodgers trail the Diamondbacks by one game as they send Hiroki Kuroda against Doug Davis in Arizona. Kuroda uses his great control to keep the opposition in check. He's allowed just 29 walks this season, helping him hold opponents to a .294 OBA. Davis mixed in two bad outing in his first four starts back from cancer treatment, but his his last six starts he's posted a 2.95 ERA. Doug struck out 35 in his last 39 2/3 innings.

Finally, the team with the best run difference in the AL visits the team with the best winning percentage in the AL as Boston takes on LAnaheim. Clay Buchholz takes the mound against John Lackey. Buchholz owns an 8.64 ERA on the road this season. His walks, home runs and strikeouts aren't bad on the road, but he's allowed a .364 BA with runners in scoring position away from Fenway. After pitching lights out in May and June, Lackey was off to a rough start in July. He's given up 23 hits in his last 11 2/3 innings, good for an 8.49 ERA.

Enjoy!

Bodog Sportsbook has all your baseball gambling needs!

Steve Kroner takes a look at some of the odd stats of Jack Cust.

One way to put Cust's season in perspective: When he gets to the plate, it's more likely that the ball won't be put in play than it will be. He has 364 plate appearances. Add two hit-by-pitches to his walk and strikeout totals and you get 183.

He's no action Jackson. He's leading the team in OBA despite a .229 BA. Those types of players can be shut down by good pitching however. If pitchers throw him strikes, he can't walk, and then he just becomes Dave Kingman.

A.J. Burnett wants to stay with the Blue Jays this season:

"It seems like there's only bad things get written. ... I'm always saying that I'm a Blue Jay and my loyalty is to this team and you still see some people writing stuff like my heart's not in it," Burnett said.

"I think I had a quote in the paper last weekend about I still had a Blue Jay on my chest and on my hat. Then a writer wrote, `Yeah, but not in his heart.' And when you got a guy pitching on three days' rest, you got a guy that came in the day after his bullpen to pitch an extra-inning game, take the ball and throw, I don't want people to question that (heart). You know I'm here.

"Just because my name's out there and all this stuff, and I made one mistake talking to a Chicago writer ... I enjoy being a Blue Jay and that's where I'm at. That's where I plan on being."

Burnett mentions in the article how is stats are weird:

I think I've pitched better than my numbers indicate, but I've taken us out of games, too.

Indeed. His FIP is 3.61, 1.35 runs below his ERA. Similar numbers in the second half could lead to a much better record, but it also should make him someone highly sought after in a trade.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Chris Iannetta singled and homered for the Rockies tonight, driving in three runs in a 5-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. He now owns a .380 OBA and a .544 slugging percentage. Is his defense so bad that the Rockies can't afford to have his bat in the lineup every day?

Francisco Cordero fails in his first save attempt after the All-Star break. He gives up a two-run homer to David Wright, allowing the Mets to tie the game at eight, then gave up four more hits in a row to put the Mets up 10-8. That was enough for Baker who goes to Bray to try to get out of the inning with no more damage.

Update: Wagner uses eight pitches to retire the Reds in the ninth, and the Mets move into a tie with the Phillies for first place in the NL East.

Francisco Liriano wants to pitch in the majors.

Greg Genske says his client is frustrated because he has pitched well in the minors for more than a month but remains stuck in Rochester.

Genske says the delay has had an adverse effect on Liriano's service time, which determines when he is eligible for arbitration.

Genske asked the union to look into this, but since when is limiting service time a foul? One and one half games back in the division, the Twins are only hurting themselves if they don't have the best players on their team. If they thought they could win more games with Liriano, I'm guessing he would be up in a hurry.

Jake Peavy allowed four home runs in April. That was his bad month. He gave up four in May and June combined. Coming into this evening, he had yet to give up a home run in July. The Cardinals, however, had different ideas. The hit four solo shots off Peavy on the night to take a 4-2 lead into the eighth. Peavy's season total goes up 50% tonight. Glaus managed two off Jake. Troy seems to be getting his power back. He hit three home runs in April and May, fourteen since, including tonight.

The Orioles out-hit the Tigers 14-9 tonight, but the Tigers picked up three doubles and three home runs as they win 6-5. Five of their six runs scored on the homers.

Baltimore loaded the bases with one out in the top of the ninth, but only managed a sacrifice fly to make it a one-run game.

The Tigers gain 1/2 game on the idle White Sox and Twins and are now 6 1/2 games out of first.

Johan Santana pitched well in a number of games this season in which he didn't get a win. Tonight, he pitched poorly, but the Mets offense erased the chance of a loss. Johan was up 2-0 in the fourth when he gave up back-to-back home runs to Dunn and Encarnacion to tie the game. He gave up a walk and three more hits in the inning, the last a triple, to put the Reds up 5-2.

The Mets, however, scored two in the fifth and two in the sixth to regain the lead. A two run home by Tatis gave them the lead. It's his fourth home run in his last nine games.

Update: Javier Valentin doubles with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh to put Cincinnati back up 8-6. Hielman loaded the bases with two out, and Schoenweis came in and cleared them off.

Paul DePodesta discusses the Tony Clark trade on his blog. He likes the pitcher the Padres received in return:

While primarily a starter in his amateur days at Central Connecticut, the D'Backs have used Evan as a reliever. Standing 6'3" and featuring a 90-91 mph fastball with a big curveball, Evan has posted the following line so far in his pro career: 2.27 ERA, 91 innings, 70 hits, 24 walks, and 123 strikeouts.

Not bad.

Despite denials by Barry Bonds's agent, MLBnewsonline.com is standing by their story that the Yankees are working on a deal for Barry Bonds:

MLBnewsonline.com publishes news and other confirmed facts, but also is a conduit for ephemeral rumors which may or may not pass the traditional authentication test that might be imposed by mainstream media. At this time, the Bronx Bomber's source has not backed away from his assertion, and until such time as that occurs we have no reason to retract it, even though it has created a good deal of healthy skepticism.

So we'll wait and see.

The Philadelphia Phillies acquire Joe Blanton from the Athletics for three minor leaguers:

The Athletics get second baseman Adrian Cardenas, pitcher Josh Outman and outfielder Matthew Spencer, all minor leaguers.

I'm not a big Blanton fan. He doesn't strike out many batters. The A's lowered his ERA a bit by pitching him mostly at home this season. In 14 starts in Oakland, he posted a 4.63 ERA. In six starts on the road, he posted a 5.73 ERA. In less than half the innings on road, he allowed the same number of home runs. He's going to a park known as a haven for power hitters, so I don't think he'll do that well in Philadelphia.

The other problem with Blanton is that he blows up in the middle innings. One through three, he allows a .245 BA, but in innings four and five that jumps to .369. Given that he's likely to replace Eaton, however, he'll probably be an improvement.

Adrian Cardenas is a 20-year-old middle infielder with a great OBA. Outman is 23, good K and home run numbers, but does walk a bit too many batters. Spencer is 22 with a OPS over .700 in 484 minor league at bats. Two of the three could turn into useful players for Oakland.

Correction: I misread Spencer's stats. The .700 was his OPS, not slugging percentage. He doesn't look like a great hitter.

My latest post on the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

The Yankees reach an agreement with Richie Sexson, not Barry Bonds. The Yankees plan on using Sexson exclusively against lefties. His line against southpaws this year is .344/.423/.623. I guess this doesn't rule out signing Bonds, the two could platoon at DH.

A reader at Viva El Birdos did some research and concluded that Dan Uggla's performance Tuesday night was the worst ever for a position player.

MLB Rumors runs an anonymously sourced story that Bonds is about to sign with the Yankees. I don't know about this. With Posada still not throwing well, the Yankees need him to DH somewhat. Would they stick Barry in leftfield?

Stay tuned.

Manny Ramirez isn't exactly endearing himself to the Red Sox front office:

"I want to know what's my situation." Ramirez told Bradford, which is a little puzzling when you consider even casual Sox fans know his situation. The club holds two one-year options on Manny's contract, each of which, if exercised, amount to $20 million. If the Red Sox exercise the option for 2009, Ramirez remains in Boston for at least one more season. If they do not, Ramirez is free to sign with a new team.

It's just Manny's situation being Manny's situation.

"I want no more (expletive) where they tell you one thing and behind your back they do another thing," Ramirez said. "I think I've earned that respect for a team to sit down with me and tell me this is what they want, this is what they want to do."

John Henry's response is here.

Manny is still a very good hitter, but he's no longer a .600 slugger. Despite the big off-season workout regimen, Manny's averages are very similar to 2007, an off-year for Ramirez. Given the inflation in salaries recently, a .390 OBA/.500 slugging could very well be worth $20 million a year, but if would be a lot easier to exercise the option if Manny wasn't accumulating some negatives.

Jim Moore wants the Mariners to consider trading Ichiro:

Nothing against Ichiro, but isn't it time to blow this thing up and start over? Realizing they had no shot at an NBA championship, the Sonics dealt Ray Allen to Boston and began a process that will someday turn Oklahoma City into a perennial contender.

When you blow things up, you don't hang on to your best player, especially one who will be 35 in October. You don't let the player's popularity get in the way. If you're truly serious about winning, you forget about the marketing consequences, understanding that a successful team is more essential to long-term fan appeal.

I agree. The fans will hate it, but if Seattle is really serious about rebuilding, Ichiro is their most valuable commodity, assuming they want to make Felix Hernandez the center piece of the rebuilt team. His contract is very reasonable and he's signed through 2012, so you can actually trade him for value. I would guess Seattle could get two top prospects and two low prospects for the great combination of hits and defense.

David Ortiz playing in Pawtucket may be the biggest thing ever at McCoy Stadium:

David Ortiz will be in Pawtucket for the next four days, and Joe McDonald reports: "Nothing can compare to [it]." Says PawSox vice-president Bill Wanless: "As soon as the news began to filter out, the buzz grew and the momentum kept building. We've had some big ones, but this one ranks up there as the biggest." Which is really saying something.

All four games of the series are sold out, even though all of them will be televised -- the first three on Cox Cable in Rhode Island, Sunday afternoon's on NESN -- and only a limited number of standing-room tickets are available for each game. Can't get there? Don't have Cox? Check in right here. We'll be blogging live from McCoy.

This should be a big weekend for the Providence Journal's Projo Sox Blog, one of the best in the business.

Anthony Witrado details the trials and tribulations of Prince Fielder's season. I thought this was an amusing turn of a phrase:

"Things" like distractions swirled around Fielder to this point in the season. The first came when he announced he had become a vegetarian starting in February. He was hounded with interview requests all of spring training and through the first month of the season because of it.

Then came the contract beef.

Reminds me of this:

Aunt Voula: What do you mean he don't eat no meat?

[the entire room stops, in shock]

Aunt Voula: Oh, that's okay. I make lamb.

David Steele didn't like what went on during the All-Star game because of the over-reaction to the 2002 tie:

And this, we're being reminded in the days afterward, was a "classic." Unlike that disgrace in 2002, when it didn't count, when no pitcher's season (and thus his team's) was potentially ruined by overwork in an exhibition game, when we didn't have to endure late-inning managerial strategizing, and when we went to bed at a decent hour. How did we ever live through that nightmare?

Just file this one away under Things In Sports We Were Convinced Had To Change, But Really Didn't. Right next to the college football bowl system. That, too, seemed archaic, until we got a look at the alternative (the Bowl Championship Series).

He seems very concerned with George Sherrill:

Let's hope, meanwhile, that Orioles closer George Sherrill's answer won't be, "I blew out my arm in the middle of the best season of my life." In which case, Dave Trembley might tell his grandkids, "That was the beginning of the end of my managerial career."

On second thought, All-Star ties just aren't that big a deal. So Bud, pal, chum, this thing you fixed a few years back, can you go ahead and unfix it?

Of course, Sherrill had a pretty easy 2 1/3 innings. He threw 25 pitches, a level he's reached or exceeded four times during the regular season. He wasn't exactly overworked.

Steele does make a good point about how the reaction to the tie might have been more driven by Selig's befuddlement than the actual result.

Tim Lincecum is fine after his hospital stay. It seems he was suffering from dehydration:

"I saw him this morning. He's fine," Chris Lincecum said upon returning to his Seattle home from New York on Wednesday night. "I ate breakfast with him. He looked better than me."

The pitcher's father filled in some of the details of his son's illness, saying, "He had major-league dehydration. It was a combination of flying in from the Chicago game, a delayed flight. He didn't land until 1 in the morning."

Derrick Goold takes a look at how Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter are recovering from their injuries.

The All-Star break keeps getting longer as only four games are on tap tonight. It's not like the old days when players had to walk uphill through the snow to play triple headers on Thursday!

Johan Santana tries to help the Mets continue their winning streaks as they face the Reds and Johnny Cueto. Santana's five shutout innings before the break allowed him to break a streak of six starts all lost by the Mets, despite a 2.48 ERA by Johan. He allowed three runs or less in four of those contests. The Mets offense is better now, scoring 54 runs in their nine game winning streak.

Cueto's problem his year is the home run ball. He's allowed 20 home runs this season, 35.8 per 200 innings. He has excelled in one situation. Opponents are 0 for 7 with the bases loaded with one RBI and three strikeouts.

The Cardinals try to gain ground on the idle Cubs as they host the Padres and Jake Peavy. Since the start of the 2007 season, Peavy holds the lowest ERA in the majors among pitchers with 300 innings, 0.3 runs better than John Lackey. Kyle Lohse takes the hill for the Cardinals. With an 11-2 record, Lohse is in double figures in wins for the third time in his career, and three wins away from tying his career high of 14. With just two losses, he's in good shape to end five straight seasons of double digit losses.

Enjoy!

Get all your MLB baseball odds at Bodog Sportsbook!

The All-Star pulled in better ratings this year:

The first nine innings of Tuesday night's 15-inning marathon on Fox drew a 9.3 fast national rating and 16 share, the network said Wednesday. That's up 11 percent from the 8.4/15 in 2007.

If you missed tonight's show, you can hear the recorded version here. It's also available on demand at TPSRadio.

My latest SportingNews.com column looks at how many saves Francisco Rodriguez is likely to accrue the rest of the way. In doing so, I come up with a formula for predicting team saves from winning percentage and the average margin of victory.

The Marlins are asking the Tigers about the availability of Ivan Rodriguez, but so far the Tigers are saying no.

Kudos to the Detroit Free Press for linking to the original article!

The Baseball Musings Radio Show comes your way via TPS Radio tonight at 8 PM. The show is on a new broadcast platform, UBroadcast.com. They do require you to download their player, but it's easy to install and they don't appear to push ads at you with it. TPS Radio is on channel 100. You'll be able to chat as always, so I hope you'll tune in.

As always, the show will be available as a podcast shortly after the broadcast finishes. If you have any topics you'd like to hear discussed, please leave a comment.

Terry Francona will receive medical treatment today:

"My body is falling apart at times," added Francona. "I've had a ton of numbness and weakness in my left arm. I've got to get it taken care of, because we've got a lot of baseball left to play." The Sox resume play Friday night in Anaheim against the Los Angeles Angels.

Numbness and weakness on the left side is something to be taken very seriously. Coupled with his scare in 2005 and his continuing circulatory problems, I wonder if Terry has serious heart issues. No matter the cause, here's hoping the treatment helps.

Murray Chass started a blog. Of course, it's not a blog.

This is a site for baseball columns, not for baseball blogs. The proprietor of the site is not a fan of blogs. He made that abundantly clear on a radio show with Charlie Steiner when Steiner asked him what he thought of blogs and he replied, "I hate blogs." He later heartily applauded Buzz Bissinger when the best-selling author denounced bloggers on a Bob Costas HBO show.

It would be nice if Chass actually new what the term blog meant. There seems to be some confusion as to the meaning of the word blog. Blog is short for Web Log, a collection of posts usually arranged with the most recent in time first. For some reason, some people think the individual posts are each separate blogs. No, they are posts, columns, articles, whatever you like. The collection is the blog.

So Murray, like it or not, you have a blog of columns. Welcome to the new media!

Hat tip, AOL Fanhouse.

Update: Just to piss off Chass, I've added his RSS feed under "Baseball Bloggers."

John Royal managed to get photos of 41 of the 42 statues placed around New York City for the All-Star game.

Update: Here's a gallery of all 42.

Peter Abraham gives Terry Francona his due:

Meanwhile, whether Yankee fans want to hear it or not, Francona deserves your acclaim. He took Jeter and A-Rod out of the game in the middle of innings so they could get applause from the crowd. He used Mo exactly right. He was respectful as he could be to the tradition and history of the Yankees. He helped make the game what it was for the home team.

"I can't say enough about how great Terry has been through this whole thing," Girardi said.

Not that this would ever happen, of course, but when the Red Sox come to the Bronx in August, fans should let Francona know they appreciate what he did.

Terry is a class act. He's at the top with the best managers of people in the game.

In case you think the players don't care about the All-Star game, I give you Justin Morneau:

"The starters had it easy," Morneau said. "Five innings, they were out of there. Every at-bat, it seemed like we had a chance to win the game late. It was pretty intense. Guys were snapping after making outs. You could tell guys wanted that game pretty bad."

Bud Selig would not talk about the possibility of a tie in Tuesday's All-Star game:

"It will not happen again," Selig said of a tie. "We've added players to the roster. We've done things. There have been a lot of questions about all that, but I really believe that the things that we did [helped]. I mean, if we hadn't done them, tonight there's no question there would have been a problem. But we did. And, look, it worked out.

"We were going to play the game to the end. That was the contingency, we were playing to the end."

Francona had a more realistic take on the subject:

"You can't expect a 15-, 16-inning All-Star Game. And if it does, there's nothing wrong with a tie in my mind. It's not like the Milwaukee game where you go [11] and it's a tie. I mean, if you go 16 innings and no one comes up and wins an All-Star Game, you can chalk it up to a tie and be pretty happy with a tie. It's not like it could have been prevented."

There should be a contingency in place. The team with the higher OBA in the game gets home field in case of a tie, or more total bases, or even just more hits. This doesn't need to be known to anyone. In fact, the right thing to do might be to come up with four tie breaking stats, and every year draw them in a random order and keep it secret so the players can't try to game a tie. They shouldn't play the game differently because they are tied in extra innings. However, some way of awarding home field based on the stats in the game needs to be worked out, even if it happens only once every forty years.

The Dodgers lose Takashi Saito to an elbow injury:

General manager Ned Colletti said it is difficult to replace a closer.

"As far as trading for a closer, it's a lot like trying to acquire a shortstop - it's a premium position and most teams don't carry an excess," Colletti said from the All-Star game in New York.

Manager Joe Torre said Sunday that Jonathan Broxton would be the team's closer until further notice. But Torre was unsure who would take over for Broxton as setup man.

Am I missing something, or doesn't Hong-Chih Kuo post numbers nearly identical to Saito? Since Kuo pitches mostly in the sixth and seventh inning, wouldn't it be less upsetting to the set roles of the bullpen to move Hong-Chih to the closer spot and find someone else to work the sixth? It should be easier to acquire a third or fourth reliever than a closer.

It was a long game to watch, but there were plenty of exciting moments. Good pitching, scoring threats, errors, a home run, stolen bases, close plays, the game had it all. Everyone got to play, I believe.

That's 11 wins and one tie for the AL in the last twelve games.

Update: Drew wins the MVP.

Lidge comes in for the bottom of the 15th and two of the first three batters single. That puts men on 1st and 2nd for Drew.

Update: Drew works the count 3-2. After fouling off a pitch, Drew takes a pitch in the dirt and the bases are loaded. So far this situation has resulted in forces at the plate for the AL.

Update: Michael Young hits a fly ball to medium right, but Corey Hart makes a poor throw and Justin Morneau scores from third. The AL wins 4-3, and once again the AL Champ will host four games of the World Series. This helps the Rays and Red Sox and hurts the Cubs if any of those teams make the final round.

The NL hits two long balls in the top of the fourteenth, but both are caught by J.D. Drew. The AL gets their sixth chance to walk off with a win.

Update: Webb starts the bottom of the fourteenth. He was not supposed to pitch this game. Given that it's now Wednesday, I guess he has two days rest.

Update: Webb strikes out two as he retires the side in order.

Update: Kazmir comes out to pitch the top of the fifteenth inning. He's the last pitcher for the AL, and since he pitched Sunday, he won't be able to last very long. Does the AL forfeit if they can't field a team?

The NL gets the leadoff man on, but that's it. It seems a lot of batters are reaching base, they just can't reach the plate.

Update: Another poor play by Uggla puts a runner on first with one out. Can the AL bring Drew around to score?

Update: Drew steals a base with two out.

Update: Doesn't matter as Quentin strikes out. To the fourteenth!

Carlos Guillen hits the first pitch of the bottom of the twelfth deep in leftfield, doubling off the wall. A few more feet and this game would be over.

Update: Sizemore pulls the ball and gets Guillen to third with one out.

Update: Longoria strikes out.

Update: Cook walks Morneau to pitch to Kinsler.

Update: Kinsler grounds out. Thirteen, anyone?

A walk and a sac bunt that's beaten out put the first two on for the NL in the 12th. Another bunt puts runners at second and third, and Tejada is walked to load the bases, bringing up Uggla, who hit into a DP last time up.

Update: Uggla strikes out.

Update: Sherrill comes in and strikes out Adrian Gonzalez to end the inning. Lots of clutch pitching in this game.

Soria gives up a single, but that's it as the NL fails to score in the eleventh. I wonder how long they can go before they run out of pitchers?

Update: Webb goes down to the bullpen. The AL has runners on first and second with one out. Kinsler also reached, but was thrown out stealing.

Update: Young singles up the middle, and Navarro tries to score. McLouth makes a perfect throw, and Martin makes a perfect block and tag. The ball came in right where Martin needed to make the tag.

Update: Guzman throws out Quentin to end the inning. The AL had three runners thrown out at the plate in the last two innings. Because Francona used up the bench early, he couldn't pinch run for Navarro.

A bad night for Uggla as he follows the double play with an error to put the winning run on first for the AL with none out.

Update: Quentin hits a hard ground right through Uggla's legs. I almost might not give Dan an error on that one because it was hit so hard. However, if it goes between your legs, it's always an error. He may end up the MVP for the AL. First and third, none out.

Update: The NL loads the bases intentionally, and gets a force at home for the first out.

Update: They get a second force at the plate. The AL gets one more chance this inning.

Update: Morneau hits a slow roller to Tejada. Miguel makes a nice throw to first for the third out. The AL blows a great opportunity to win the game.

Rivera pitches in the tenth. He starts the inning with a strikeout, but singles by Martin and Tejada put runners at first and third. He gets Uggla to ground into a double play, however, and the game goes to the bottom of the tenth still tied at three.

Ryan Dempster strikes out the side in the ninth, and we go to extra innings. Terry Francona used all his position players, so they're in for the duration. The NL may be limited in pitchers as Webb isn't supposed to pitch, and Lincecum is in the hospital. Is there another Selig Special on the way?

Update: Of course, if the game ends in a tie, who gets home field in the World Series?

Mariano Rivera comes on with a man on first and one out. He goes to a 3-2 count on Ludwick, and gets the strike'em out, throw'em out double play. The AL now gets the chance for the walk-off win.

With two out in the bottom of the eighth, Hurdle replaces Brian Wilson with Billy Wagner. Sizemore singles and gets the first meaningful steal of the night for the AL. Longoria follows with a ground rule double to tie the game. Without the steal, Grady only gets to third. Wagner gets the blown save, and we go to the ninth tied at three.

Miguel Tejada leads off with a single off Jonathan Papelbon, which makes the taunting of the Red Sox closer even worse. Miguel steals second and goes to third on an errant throw. Adrian Gonzalez hits a sacrifice fly to plate the run and give the lead back to the NL 3-2. That steal attempt worked to the NL's advantage.

Justin Morneau and J.D. Drew combine to tie the game at two. Morneau doubles leading off the bottom of the seventh. Then with two out, J.D. Drew, in his first All-Star at bat, homers to right to plate himself and Justin. Edinson Volquez is the first NL pitcher to get tagged for runs tonight.

Hurdle is conserving his pitchers. Haren just finished his second scoreless inning. The NL has used three hurlers so far. Francona had Lee pitch two innings, but everyone else went just one. If there's a tie, the NL is in better shape.

The AL is also running, stealing their fourth base in the sixth (they've also had one picked off). It's a nice demonstration of how stolen bases don't help much if the pitcher gets the hitters out.

Ramirez and Utley single leading off the sixth, putting runners on first and third. Lance Berkman takes Duchscherer to deep center to drive in Hanley with a sacrifice fly to put the National League up 2-0. Pujols singles to center, and Duchscherer is the first pitcher tonight who is not fooling anyone.

The AL put two runners on against Dan Haren in the bottom of the fifth. Ichiro strikes out. Jeter battles to 3-2, the third ball very close to a taken strike three. Derek grounds back to the box, however and the NL still leads 1-0.

Matt Holliday takes Ervin Santana the other way, homering to right in the top of the fifth to break the scoreless tie. The solo shot puts the NL up 1-0.

Carlos Zambrano pitches his second scoreless inning. Bradley reached on a Hanley Ramirez error, but Carlos picks him off first. Still no score.

Update: We have our first position substitution as Grady Sizemore goes into center and Hamilton replaces Manny Ramirez in left.

Albert Pujols hits a line drive hard off the wall at the foul line in right. Ichiro is right on it and throws Albert out at second. However, from the replay, it looked like Albert was safe. Roy Halladay throw the fourth shutout inning for the American League.

Correction: It was Pujols, not Belle.

Saunders and Zambrano pitch the third. Each allows a base runner, but there's still no score. This is shaping up like 1986.

Ben Sheets walks two, but retires the three Red Sox batters he faces, striking out Manny and Youkilis. Still no score after two.

Chipper Jones singles off Cliff Lee, but he strikes out his third batter of the game and walks off the field with two scoreless innings. The AL will go to the bullpen in the third.

Ben Sheets gives up a bad-hop single to Derek Jeter but strikes out Josh Hamilton and gets A-Rod to foul out to the catcher. The pitchers look like they are in control early.

Cliff Lee retires the side in order, striking out the first two batter in the first. Pitching to Hanley Ramirez and Chase Utley, Lee appeared to be using their power against them, getting them to swing hard at off-speed pitches.

They're doing a nice job this year of mixing in the starters with Hall of Famers at the various positions. They just introduced Brooks Robinson, Mike Schmidt, George Brett and Wade Boggs at third. Three of those four played for one team during their careers. Banks, Yount and Ripken did the same at short.

Update: That was quite good. Fox usually has too many bells and whistles, but that was very dignified.

Update: They drove Steinbrenner out to deliver balls to Berra, Ford, Jackson and Gossage who will throw out the first pitches. The four of them gave each gave George a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Steinbrenner didn't get out of the cart.

For a media that crucified Barry Bonds over the last few years, they sure are anxious for a team to sign him. Hideki Matsui may need surgery on his knee, and this quote by Cashman is the latest adding to the bonds hysteria:

"I would say any rampant speculation on us involving a player of that magnitude would be extremely premature," Cashman said. "I would caution everybody to not misunderstand that since I'm not saying no to it, that that means, `Oh my gosh, that that might be happening down the line.' It's not something we're focused on at this point. We're focused on getting Hideki Matsui back rather than, you know, what we're going to do if he's not back."

Tim Lincecum caught what looks like the flu and is in the hospital. Having pitched Sunday, he wasn't likely to play tonight. Of course, any absence from the Giants hurts San Francisco's chances of a comeback in the NL West.

There's going to be a seminar for women to learn about baseball at Shea Stadium on July 26th. Sounds like fun, and you'll learn to score.

A game, that is.

Click for a larger view.

Alyssa Milano will no longer date baseball players:

ALYSSA MILANO has sworn off dating baseball players, because they are too childish.

The actress admits she is a huge fan of the sport, and even dreams of being a star slugger.

But, after dating Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Brad Penny and Atlanta Braves star Tom Glavine, she's determined to court more mature men, like her current mystery beau, known only as "David".

All I can say is she has good taste in first names.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim not only hold the biggest lead of any first place team, they are tied with the Cubs for the best record in baseball. The Cubs own the highest run difference (Runs Scored-Runs Allowed) in baseball, so it's not surprising they have the best record. The Angels, on the other hand, have out-scored their opponents by just 21 runs, more in-line with a 50-45 seasons, seven games worse.

The Angels are one of the few teams this season that excels on the road. Their 31-18 record is the best in the majors. The offense is about the same, scoring about 4.3 runs per game both home and road. The pitching, however, is posting a 3.45 ERA on the road, the best in the majors. Some credit here goes to Ervin Santana, who is 8-1 with a 3.44 ERA away from Anaheim after a horrible performance away last season.

So the Angels are a good road team that is over performing at home. They own a 26-20 record in Anaheim despite being outscored there. I like that combination for continued success. With Guerrero's bat heating up since the start of June, runs should be a bit easier to come by. I'm guessing by the end of the season their run difference is much more in line with a first place team.

I like this idea for sprucing up the All-Star game:

Here's another way to liven up those late innings. There's little riveting about the winning league getting the home-field advantage in the World Series. Give the winning league's fans 10 percent off on all stadium food, beer and programs for the next month and you better believe there will be some serious fan energy off which the players will feed. Folk heroes, which the All-Star Game doesn't make anymore, could be born.

It might even increase attendance!

Bugs and Cranks wonders why there are no more Dicks in baseball. Interestingly, the dirty version of the name goes back well over 100 years.

Brad Lidge was tipping his pitches, and he found out through an unusual source:

It was 2007 and he had just given up some runs late in a game, a habit that ultimately led to an offseason trade from the Astros to the Phillies. The hitter pulled the frustrated righthander aside and let him in on the dirty little secret that had been circulating around the National League.

Lidge was tipping his pitches.

When he held his glove high at the start of his delivery, he was throwing a fastball. When he kept the glove low at the waist, he was preparing to unleash his trademark slider.

While the exact motives of that opposing hitter will, like his identity, remain unknown, the moment served as one final epiphany in Lidge's major league enlightenment.

So much for the story line that Pujols's home run ruined Lidge mentally.

Chipper Jones loves Shea Stadium and would like a piece of the place:

"I was like, 'You've got to hook me up - whether it's a seat, whether it's a sign, something that I can put in Shea's room,'" Jones said. "I'm going to try to get him up here this summer and walk him around before they tear it down.

"I hit my first major-league homer there," he continued, referring to a blast 13 years ago off Josias Manzanillo. "The Mets and the Braves have had so many epic battles over the years. It's just been a special place. It's been a place where I've really enjoyed playing. It just made sense. I love the name."

I guess the success makes up for the constant chants of, "Larry!"

Chase Utley has a potty mouth.

Update: Everyone is apologizing.

I'll be making my weekly appearance on 1010XL in Jacksonville, FL at about 7:35 AM EDT this morning.

Before the final round of the home run derby starts, a fan gets to call a shot to try to win a car. Hamilton didn't get the ball out of the park, and now it's Morneau's turn to take his one swing.

Update: Morneau doesn't get it out of the park either. No car for a lucky fan. Morneau goes first, and the scores are reset to zero.

Update: Morneau hits five. That might hold up if Hamilton wore himself out in the first round.

Update: Hamilton is hitting line drives, and has just two in five outs.

Update: He's up to eight outs with just three home runs.

Update: The crowd came to their feet to help, but he makes the ninth out.

Update: Hamilton hits a grounder for the last out. Morneau wins the contest 5-3. Everyone is going to remember the shots in Hamilton's first round, however.

Congratulations to Justin Morneau for winning the marathon, not the sprint.

Lance Berkman hits six to bring his total to 14. That's half of Hamilton's first round.

Update: ESPN is interviewing Reggie Jackson. I thought he was banned from the network after he offended everyone in a Baseball Tonight production meeting before the 1997 World Series.

Update: Morneau just hit his 15th to knock Berkman out of the competition.

Update: Morneau finishes with 17.

Update: Braun hits some shots, but falls short. It will be Hamilton and Morneau in the finals. Hamilton is batting, and he's hit another four with two outs.

Josh Hamilton hits his first home run to the back of the bleachers in right-center. I'm actually more impressed with those shots than the upper deck jobs. His second is off the back of the wall there, even farther toward center. A fantastic shot.

Update: He hits another one even farther to center. That's two over 500 feet. He might end up hitting the MasterCard sign.

Update: He hits the ninth of the round. He's getting the most distance and the most homers.

Update: He hits 25. He didn't even hit that one well (at least compared to the others). It was a line drive just over the wall.

Update: He just hit his 17th to the back of the black. He came very close to teh MasterCard sign on that one. This is like watching McGwire at Fenway in 1999.

Update: He just tied Abreu's first round record. His 24th home run goes deep into the black seats in centerfield.

Update: He finishes with 28, 20 more than any other hitter tonight. Since the first two rounds are totaled, he might need to hit in the second round. Just an amazing performance. I love his 71 year old pitcher. Clay Counsil got quite a work out.

Ryan Braun made five outs before he started hitting home runs, but he's now at seven with one out to go. He's hit shots from right-center to the upper deck down the line. He finishes with seven and moves on to the second round. Josh Hamilton will need seven to advance, six puts him in a three-way tie for the fourth spot.

Justin Morneau is hitting monster shots. In addition to upper deck shots, he's hit two to the back of the alley in right center between the grandstand and the bleachers. He hits eight to move on in the competition.

Lance Berkman is putting balls in the upper deck. The way to hit home runs tonight appears to be to get a lot of loft.

Update: Lance ends up with eight to take the lead. That knocks Longoria out. Five went into the upper deck, and the last was just short of the black seats in centerfield. A young man leaned over and caught it.

Chase Utley moves into third with five home runs, most of them late in the sequence.

Mark Strittmatter is catching for the home run derby tonight. My good friend Jim Storer just called to let me know Mark used to play for the New Haven Ravens. At one point, he was called to the majors, the game was rained out, and Mark was sent back down. He did get a cup of coffee in the majors, but went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. He's currently the bullpen coach for the Rockies.

Evan Longoria only hits three home runs, but two were down the line into the upper deck. One thing I like about tough home runs parks is the derby goes a lot quicker.

Grady Sizemore hits three of his first five out of the park, and none were cheap shots. The first was into the stands in the right-center alley, and the third was into the upper deck down the line.

Update Grady now has three into the upper deck.

Update: Sizemore finishes with six, all impressive shots.

Dan Uggla hits six home runs to start the home run derby. The balls he smacked went a long way. Most were down the line, rows back or in the upper deck. Not bad for a righty at Yankee Stadium. He hit one to center, but most he pulled down the line, which is what you want to do if you're a righty here.

According to his agent, Barry Bonds is willing to essentially play for free, but no one is interested.

Update: It seems Barry Bonds's agent never called the Royals.

The latest Blog Poll looks at the National League Award winners if the season ended now.

USA Today lists the top five opponents moments at Yankees Stadium. I would put Gossage vs. Brett #1.

The lineup analysis for the National League is here. The lineup Clint Hurdle constructed scores 7.428 runs per game. Wow. The best lineup has Chipper at the top of the order and scores 7.647 runs. It has the two Cubs at the bottom, except Soto bats eighth and Fukudome bats ninth. The worst lineup puts Braun in the leadoff spot and scores 7.049 runs per game. I wouldn't mind that every game.

The AL lineup pales in comparison. The lineup as constructed by Francona scores 6.359 runs per game. The best lineup has Terry's top two hitters, Ichiro and Jeter, at the bottom of the order with Jeter batting 8th and Ichiro 9th. Still, that lineup scored 6.639, way below the worst NL lineup. The worst lineup for the AL scores just 6.121 runs per game.

This is a very good sign for the NL gaining back home field advantage in the World Series. We'll see if it hold up, or if the NL folds like they did in interleague play.

The starting lineups for the All-Star Game are out. Both look pretty scary. The National League looks like it has more power. The only non-slugger in the lineup is Fukudome. The AL has a few, Ichiro, Jeter, Mauer and Pedroia, although all can certainly do a good job of getting on base. At first glance, I'd have to give an edge to the NL. I'll run them through the Lineup Analysis tool later and see how many runs they should score.

Ben Sheets gets the nod as the NL starter in the All-Star Game. It seems all the other great candidates pitched Sunday. Not that there is anything wrong with Sheets starting, but don't the other NL teams want to win home field advantage? Webb, Hamels and Lincecum all made starts on Sunday. If you want people to really think this one counts, then teams should treat it like it does.

Terry Francona named Cliff Lee the All-Star Game starting pitcher. Given that Justin Duchscherer pitched yesterday, it was a fairly easy choice.

I didn't buy into starting Mariano Rivera. He should pitch the end of the game, not the beginning. However, if Mussina had been picked for the team, I could see him getting the start in front of the home town fans, and for his career achievements.

Nate DiMeo pens an article for Slate titled, "Derek Jeter vs. Objective Reality." He's asking why there is a disconnect between what fans think of Jeter's defense and what statistical research shows. There's another question he asks as well:

If the sabermetric case against Jeter's glove has long been closed, why do the sabermetricians keep opening it? In an e-mail, Tom Tango joked that Jeter comes up again and again "because he gets far more girls than his fielding talents should allow." And there's probably something to that: The stat guys want to kick a little sand back at the press-box bullies--all of whom seem to have Word macros for phrases like "nerd writing in his mother's basement"--who lazily swallow the myth of Jeter's fielding prowess.

But the better answer is that Jeter's defense is at the heart of the conflict between sabermetrics and traditional baseball fandom. A recent article by Baseball Prospectus' Dan Fox poses the age-old question, "[W]hat would Sir Francis Bacon, the English philosopher and statesman, have thought of Jeter's defense?" Fox, who recently announced his departure from the blog world to join the front office of the Pittsburgh Pirates, looks back to Bacon's notion that people tend to think that memorable incidents define the whole. So we see Jeter flip the ball to Posada or emerge bloodied after leaping into the stands to catch a Trot Nixon foul ball and think "great fielder." Bacon, like today's statistical innovators, would seek out objective scientific data to understand the larger truth about Mr. Jeter. These data show that--yes, Sox fans--Jeter totally sucks.

I would note, too, that the case for OBA was made in quite the same way. Sabermetricans talked and talked about OBA for years before people started to pay attention. It was probably Sandy Alderson who helped move it into the main stream. I remember an ESPN broadcast where Gary Thorne suddenly started praising OBA because Alderson talked about it in an interview.

At some point, a GM will say something like, "We signed him as a free agent, because despite all the errors our probabilistic models show he turns lots of tough hits into outs." Then these models will start gaining acceptance.

Thanks to Nate for a link to the Probabilistic Mode of Range.

Dave Ricketts, long time catchng coach for the Cardinals, passed away Sunday:

Some called him Dave, most called him Mr. Ricketts, and Yadier Molina, sitting at his locker after the Cardinals' victory Sunday, said he "was like my dad."

"I'm here because of him," Molina said. "He made me into a catcher. I wasn't a catcher when I got here. I learned a lot from him. He was like my dad, there for me since I was 17. He meant so much to me."

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

In my opinion, the most likely impact pitcher for a trade is A.J. Burnett. The only problem is that Burnett hasn't been pitching well this season. He changed that Sunday afternoon.

Pitching a scheduled start on three days rest for the first time in his career, the mercurial Burnett finally hit the right notes.

He was near perfect for eight innings, shutting out the Yankees and allowing only four hits. More importantly, Burnett's control - a variable commodity - was dialled in. He walked one and averaged only 11 pitches per inning.

Burnett's control was "probably the best I've seen all year," catcher Rod Barajas said afterward. Capitalizing on a four-run fourth sparked by Marco Scutaro's three-run home run, the Jays took the final game before the all-star break 4-1.

With Burnett, the strikeouts and home are always good (he allowed 17.8 HR per 200 innings for his career). It's the walks that make or break his season. Suitors will remember this game when they come calling for a trade. I still think the Phillies are a likely place for him to land, as they've missed out on Sabathia and Harden.

The White Sox are rearranging their starting rotation, moving younger pitchers Floyd and Danks ahead of veterans Vazquez and Contreras. With 68 games left, there are three extra starts available. If the team stays on rotation the rest of the way, Floyd and Danks get two of those starts. That's a good move on the part of Chicago.

Grady Sizemore likes his chances in the home run derby due to the short rightfield porch at Yankee Stadium:

"I may be a little more pull-conscious, but other than that, I'm not going to change my approach," said Sizemore.

Along with bringing bench coach Jeff Datz to pitch to him for the derby, Sizemore said he would try to use the fact that his left-handed swing is an advantage at Yankee Stadium. The right-field fence there is 11 feet closer to home plate than at Progressive Field.

If Berkman hits lefty (and why wouldn't he?) there will be five left-handed batters in the derby. My guess is this is why A-Rod isn't competing. It will be difficult for a right-hander to win this competition.

Chipper Jones went 0 for 2 Sunday to lower his average to .376. The probability of his hitting .400 gets a bump down, making the odds about 1 in 18,000. Here's the latest graph of the probability of Jones hitting .400.

The Day by Day Database is up to date through the All-Star break.

CC Sabathia does it all for the Brewers today, pitching a complete game victory and hitting a home run. It was the 20th complete game of his career and the third home run, the second this season. Sabathia's control was back as he walked just one while striking out nine, throwing 122 pitches. He finished he ninth with a win in doubt, as he had to wait for a Craig Counsell sacrifice fly to defeat the Reds 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth.

The Tampa Bay Rays lose their seventh in a row, falling 5-2 to the Cleveland Indians. They drew seven walks in four innings against Cleveland starter Jeremy Sowers, but only managed two runs. The Tribe's bullpen then pitched five perfect innings that allowed Cleveland to come back against Scott Kazmir.

Meanwhile, Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched six scoreless innings against Baltimore despite walking five batters. Boston held on for a 2-1 win as Jonathan Papelbon nearly blew the save, allowing three hits and one run. The Red Sox win and the Rays loss propel the Boston into first place by 1/2 game, although the Rays are still one game up in the AFILC.

Correction: It's the AFILC, not the AFLIC. It stands for the All F'in Important Loss Column.

Here's some pictures from the futures game today. Click on the pictures for larger images.

Che-Hsuan Lin generates the first offense in a while with a two run homer in the 7th. They should name a stadium after him. :-)

Brett Anderson of the Athletics just executed two pickoff caught stealings in one inning. A lefty, he may be the heir to Andy Pettitte and Bruce Hurst.

Andrew McCutchen just led off for the USA. He's standing at the plate wearing number 24, and he looks just like Rickey Henderson. He's even playing leftfield.

We've arrived at Yankee Stadium, and very few are around for the futures game.

I'm off to the Futures Game at Yankee Stadium with my good friend Jim Storer. I'll have photos later in the day.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

Red ace Aaron Harang gets placed on the disabled list due to a right forearm strain. It was clear something was wrong as four of his last six starts were poor.

Scott Kazmir tries to end the Rays six-game losing streak that cut their AL East lead to 0.5 games. Kazmir hasn't been going very deep in games lately. In his last five starts, his longest outing was 5 2/3 innings. He'll face Jeremy Sowers who comes into the game with a 7.81 ERA. With a low strikeout and walk rate, a lot of balls are put in play against Sowers, and that's resulting in opponents hitting .356 against him.

On the day before the All-Star break, three great pitching matchups are on tap. Brandon Webb faces Cole Hamels in Philadelphia. Webb goes for his 14th win of the season. Webb is tough on the road with a 7-3 record and a 2.47 ERA. Hamels is second in the NL in innings pitched this season, averaging over seven innings per start. His strikeouts drop during day games. He Ks 4.6 batters per nine innings during the day, 8.9 at night. The Phillies need the win as both the Marlins and Mets are just 1/2 game out of first place.

Tim Lincecum tries to end the Giants losing streak as he faces Ryan Dempster and the Cubs. Lincecum is off to a rough start in July, allowing two home runs in 12 innings and a 5.25 ERA. Dempster tries to stay undefeated at home, where he's collected all ten of his wins. If the Cubs make the later rounds of the post season, I bet they arrange things to start Ryan in games 2 and 6.

Finally, the Angels and Athletics play the rubber game of their match as Joe Saunders faces Justin Duchscherer. Saunders owns the second best road ERA in the American League, 2.23. Duchscherer own the best home ERA in the league, 1.23.

Enjoy!

Find all your baseball betting needs at Bodog Internet Sportsbook!

Chipper Jones went 3 for 4 Saturday night to raise his average to .378. The probability of his hitting .400 gets a bump, making the odds long but below 1 in 10,000. Here's the latest graph of the probability of Jones hitting .400.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Kevin Youkilis is batting 6th tonight, his most common spot in the Red Sox lineup. He took advantage of all the batters on base in front of him to drive in six so far this evening. He collected a grand slam, a single and a sacrifice fly to plate the runs. The Red Sox are all over the Orioles tonight, 12-1 in the top of the ninth.

Bobby Murcer died today.

The Yankees said Murcer died Saturday due to complications from brain cancer. He was surrounded by family at Mercy Hospital in his hometown of Oklahoma City, the team said. "Bobby Murcer was a born Yankee, a great guy, very well-liked and a true friend of mine," owner George Steinbrenner said. "I extend my deepest sympathies to his wife Kay, their children and grandchildren. I will really miss the guy."

Murcer was diagnosed with a brain tumor on Christmas Eve 2006 after having headaches. He had surgery that week in Houston and doctors later determined the tumor was malignant. Determined to be around his beloved Yankees, Murcer returned to the broadcast booth last year and briefly this season.

I started watching the Yankees in 1969. Murcer was a star of that team and became one of my favorites. I remember listening to a game (back then, only three of four a week were on TV) when Murcer hit three home runs and drove in five against Kansas City. After the third homer, the announcer said the score was Murcer 5, Royals 0.

My thought go out to his family and friends.

Adam Eaton came into the game with the worst Major League ERA since the start of the 2007 season among pitchers with at least 200 innings in that time. He did nothing to lower that 5.87 ERA, allowing eight earned runs in 3 2/3 innings. Most pitchers lately have been feasting on NL West teams, but Eaton get eaten alive by the Diamondbacks as they win 10-4. The win takes Arizona back to the .500 mark.

Pedro Martinez left the game against the Rockies after allowing one hit and no runs over four innings. He only threw 66 pitches, so the fact that he left indicates some kind of injury. I've heard nothing on the broadcast as to what it might be, however.

New York leads 3-0 in the bottom of the ninth, and the hit Pedro allowed is the only one Colorado collected.

Update: The Mets win 3-0 on a combined one-hitter. New York now owns an eight game winning streak, and this was their third shutout of the streak. With the Phillies losing big in the bottom of the ninth, the Mets could by 1/2 game out in a few minutes.

Alex Rodriguez hit his 537th home run of his career against Toronto this afternoon, breaking the tie for 13th place with Mickey Mantle. Next up in twelfth place is Mike Schmidt at 548. The Yankees offense worked well today, defeating Toronto 9-4. Jeter, A-Rod and Gardner each drove in three runs.

Rich Harden demonstrated both his strength and his weakness for the Cubs today. He threw 96 pitches in 5 1/3 innings, allowing no runs while striking out ten. Despite the Giants putting on eight batters via a hit or walk, the strikeouts do a great job of preventing those runners from advancing.

The weakness, of course, is that Harden only lasted 5 1/3 innings. That puts pressure on the bullpen, and Carlos Marmol allows five runs in the ninth to allow the Giants to tie the game at seven. The fewer innings a starter pitchers, the more likely a reliever having a bad day will come in to give away a victory.

Rich Harden makes his Chicago Cubs debut this afternoon against the San Francisco Giants. Unfortunately, since it's an early afternoon start, it won't be on National TV. Harden pitched one of his better games against the Giants, lasting six innings without allowing a run and striking out nine. In interleague play, Rich went 3-0 in four starts, pitched 26 2/3 innings, allowed 12 hits, two runs, one homer, walked six and struck out 33. No wonder the Cubs wanted him pitching against the National League! He'll face Kevin Correia. Although he throws from the right side, right-handed batters are crushing Kevin, slugging .541 against him. This neutralizes his effectiveness against lefties, who are just slugging .309.

Five games back are the Brewers, who face Cy Young candidate Edinson Volquez. Edinson's strikeouts are starting to slip. He's only K'd six in his last three starts, covering 15 2/3 innings. The Brewers send out Seth McClung. Since the start of June, McClung's gotten a better handle on his control, walking 14 in 39 1/3 innings.

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

Check out the latest baseball odds at Bodog Internet Sportsbook!

Chris Volstad made his second appearance and first start for the Marlins Friday night and nearly threw a shutout. He entered the ninth with less than 100 pitches thrown. He gave up a leadoff single, then with two outs allowed his fifth hit (all singles) to score a run. That put him at 100 pitches exactly, and Gregg came on to get the final out.

His minor league numbers are a bit Maddux like.

Stat	Maddux, career majors	Volstad, career minors
K per 9 IP	6.08	6.20
BB per 9 IP	1.81	2.42
HR per 200 IP	13.9	10.5

Okay strikeouts, low walks, low home runs. Few strikeouts and walks allow these pitchers to be efficient, and the low home run numbers means fewer runs allowed, also keeping them in games longer. Chris is just 21, so there plenty of time for both good and poor performances. He's certainly off on the right foot.

The trade for Sean Gallagher showed dividends Friday night as he defeated the Angels in his Athletics debut 9-2. Sean pitched seven innings, striking out seven and walking three. In his 13 starts for the Athletics, Harden completed seven innings just three times.

The A's offense had a good night, collecting ten hits off Jon Garland, chasing him after 2 2/3 innings. They now sit four back of the Angels for the division and three back of the Red Sox for the Wild Card.

The Padres shutout the Braves 4-0 behind seven strong innings by Jake Peavy Friday night. Chipper Jones went one for four, and the probability of his hitting .400 is plummetting with his batting average, now down to .373. Here's the latest graph. It's down to .000044, or about 1 in 22,700.

In their last eleven games, the Braves have scored one run or less six times. As you can see, there are a number of Atlanta players flirting with the Mendoza line in that period.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Tampa Bay Rays fall to the Indians 5-0 as Cliff Lee pitches six shutout innings. He lowers his ERA to 2.31. The Rays spread out their eight hits, getting one each in innings two through nine. They've now lost five in a row, scoring just seven runs in the five games. They've also been shut out twice. Luckily for them, both Boston and New York lost tonight.

Rick Ankiel hit well tonight, going 3 for 3 with a home run as the Cardinals shut out the Pirates 6-0. The centerfielder drove in half the St. Louis runs, two of them coming on the long ball. The home run set a milestone for Ankiel as well. He's now hit more home runs (33) than he allowed as a pitcher (32).

The Mets, despite issuing nine walks, hold the Rockies to one run as they win their seventh in a row 2-1. Oliver Perez walked six and struck out seven in six innings of work, and only allowed two hits. The Mets bullpen walked three more and struck out four, but only allowed one hit. The Rockies were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position and left ten men on base, and despite all the walks, their only run came on a solo homer.

The Mets pitching has been outstanding during the streak, allowing just nineteen runs and throwing two shutouts. In the one bad game they threw, allowing nine runs, the Mets scored ten. New York scored 44 runs in the seven games.

Roy Halladay shuts out the Yankees on a two-hitter as Toronto triumphs 5-0. Rodriguez and Jeter get the only hits for New York, while Halladay issues a walk and hits two batters. He also struck out eight.

His seventh complete game equals his 2007 total, and is two away from his career high of nine set in 2003. Roy's ERA drops to 2.71.

It's the second time the Yankees were shutout in their last eight games. Over that time, they've scored just 20 runs.

Ryan Howard stays hot, leading off the second inning with his 28th home run of the season. That gives Ryan eight home runs in his last 10 games. He has 16 RBI to go with the eight dingers. He also extends his hitting streak to 14 games. Chase Utley carried the team early, Howard is carrying the team now.

Clay Buchholz has a rough first inning in his return to the majors. He gives up two hits and three walks, leading to two runs. His control was very bad as he threw 18 of 29 pitches for balls.

The Giants score a run in the ninth but fall to the Cubs 3-1. San Francisco has scored seven runs in their last five games.

The Soxaholix wonders if I'll be live blogging race walking during the Olympics.

BM: Shan Zhang cooly steps into place. BMThey're starting to walk.

BM: [Update] They're all bunched up but still walking.

BM: [Update] They are still walking, man, these cats look so, I don't know, Olympian with their walking.

BM: [Update] Walking continues apace.

BM: [Update] They're all bunched up but still walking.

BM: [Update] OMG it looks like the Latvian is about to break from the pack.

BM: [Update] The Latvian has broken away!!! He's walking away with this thing!!!!

Race walking is one of those quirky sports that makes the Olympics interesting. Given that there is baseball, however, I'm much more likely to stay up over night to blog that. There's crew of course. I'm familiar with that, and can write sentences like, "That coxswain is really getting those men to stroke!" and, "The bow just caught a crab!"

Matt Cain and Jason Marquis throw seven inning shutouts. Both allowed just three hits. Cain issued one more walk (3 to 2) but also struck out more batters (9-4). Both pitchers are lifted for pinch hitters in the seventh.

For Cain, it's his second short shutout of the season (at least six innings, no runs) although he's had two other outings in which he allowed no runs in less than six innings. It's the first for Marquis.

Update: Aramis Ramirez hits a three-run home run down the line in left to break the 0-0 tie in the bottom of the eighth. That's the sixth home run given up by Tyler Walker this season, working in his 36th inning.

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

The Washington Nationals aren't paying rent, using the excuse that the stadium in incomplete. I love The Nationals Enquirer take on this:

We have to ask: Is "Major League Baseball team" on the Lerner's "punch list" of incomplete items at Nationals Park?

David Atkinson notes in an E-Mail the anniversary of Earl Weaver taking over the Baltimore Orioles:

Before I head off into Never-Never Land for a couple weeks, I'd like to wish congratulations and happy anniversary (on this board, at least) to legendary manager Earl Weaver, who directed his first game as Orioles skipper on July 11, 1968. There are lots of strange and interesting things about Earl's career, he is quite a character. I hope some of you have read his autobiography.

One particularly odd thing that I have noticed in recent years is that despite Earl's type-AA personality and the fact that he's smoked enough Raleigh cigarettes in his life to fill the Grand Canyon (I don't think they even make that brand anymore, do they?), he somehow has managed to outlive a surprising number of his former players. Just off the top of my head, without looking anything up, I can name Pat Dobson, Dave McNally, Elrod Hendricks, Curt Blefary, Mark Belanger, Don Buford, and Pat Kelly. Who else have I missed? And that's only counting players who had a significant role, not journeymen who passed through briefly or guys who just had a cup of coffee in the bigs.

There were lots of amusing incidents in Earl's career. One funny one was the time the Orioles were playing the Twins, and Earl ordered an intentional walk to Dan Ford (because he mistakenly thought that Larry Hisle was up), only to have Hisle, the next batter, bang out the game-winning hit.

Anyone else have fond Weaver memories?

Toward the end of Earl's career, the Red Sox called up a Harvard grad named Mike Stenhouse. The guy could not hit, but he was a walk machine. For his career, he hit .190 with a .308 OBA. In his brief stay with Boston in 1986, he was 2 for 21 with 12 walks, an .095 BA but a .424 OBA. At the time, OBA wasn't as universally recognized as it is today. Earl understood it, however, and when there was talk of letting Stenhouse go, Weaver said that Mike could lead off for the Orioles. Stenhouse went on to have a career as a broadcaster for Pawtucket.

Arizona and Philadelphia cling to slim leads in their divisions as they face off in a three-game series leading to the All-Star break. Doug Davis and Kyle Kendrick start the action tonight. Davis was up and down in his first four starts after returning from cancer treatment, but he's posted a 2.67 ERA in his last five starts, going fairly deep into games. I especially like his 31 K and 12 BB in 33 2/3 innings. Kendrick's excellent record is as much a result of his support as his pitching. He's number one in the NL in run support per nine innings at 7.60.

Tampa Bay tries to end it's four-game losing streak, but need to get by Cliff Lee of the Indians. James Shields takes the mound for the Rays. Shields, however, is one reason Tampa Bay doesn't perform well on the road. His ERA goes up nearly four runs this season away from The Trop. Lee, for some reason, hasn't pitched much in Cleveland this season. Only six of his seventeen starts came at home, where he enjoys a 1.84 ERA.

The Yankees travel to Toronto as Joba Chamberlain faces Jays ace Roy Halladay. Joba hasn't shown the control he had as a reliever, but his 2.57 starter ERA is rather impressive. Halladay upped his K rate in 2008 compared to 2007. He struck out 5.5 per 9 last season, 7.4 in 2008, a increase that led to a lower ERA.

Finally, the Athletics get another chance to gain on the Angels before the all-star break. They send Rich Harden replacement Sean Gallagher against LAnaheim's Jon Garland. Gallagher looks like he was hurt a bit by his defense, as his FIP is about 40 points lower than his ERA. Oakland has the best DER in the American League (although the Cubs DER was also very good). Garland does very well against the top of the order, allowing just a .206 BA in the first inning with a .289 OBA and a .265 slugging percentage.

Enjoy!

Find the latest baseball betting odds at Bodog Sports!

Hanley Ramirez capped a five-hit night with a home run to defeat the Dodgers 5-4 in eleven innings.

Ramirez, the starting shortstop for the NL in next Tuesday's All-Star game, was 5-for-6 and raised his average to .317. The Marlins' leadoff hitter singled his first three times up and doubled in his next at-bat. His 23rd homer of the season came off Brian Falkenborg (1-2)

I still wonder if the Ramriez trade was the right move for Boston. Beckett's had one great year. Lowell's been terrific, but would Youkilis at third have been so bad? Hanley is likely to be smacking the ball around long after Lowell's career is over. Given the results in Boston, no Red Sox fan is going to complain I can imagine a Boston roster with Ramirez being just as potent and possibly a bit less expensive.

Update: The Marlins have to be happy with Josh Johnson as well. In his first start in a year, he pitched five innings, walking none and striking out six.

It seems Jorge Posada and Joe Girardi disagree on how much Jorge should be catching:

Posada said that Girardi knows how he feels about playing behind the plate, but it seems that when the Yankees play speedy teams such as Boston or Tampa Bay, the manager's preference is to keep Molina's arm on the field. Asked if he thought he would get the nod behind the plate based on the opponent, Posada barked: "I don't know. Ask him. I have no idea."

Presented with the same question, Girardi was non-committal about his plans.

"It's more how he's continuing to improve, then you look at matchups and that's how you make up your lineup," Girardi said. "When you want to get both righthanded bats in the lineup, you're not going to DH Molina or put Molina at first. You would probably go the other way. You look at everything involved and then you make your decision."

This same thing happened when Posada was young and Girardi was the defensive catcher. Torre often started Girardi's glove instead of Posada's bat. For example, Girardi started games 3 and 4 of the World Series in 1998, despite the Yankees losing the designated hitter in San Deigo. During the season, Posada caught the bulk of the games.

The Los Angeles Times publishes a story on how scorekeeping fans are disappearing. However, this quote surprised me:

Eisenberg has embraced a time-honored task that requires a fan to pay reasonably close attention to an entire game -- in an era when the stadium-going experience is full of reasons not to. There are long lines at the bathroom or the beer stand, distractions on the scoreboard and in the stands, and, at least among Dodgers fans, a long-standing tradition of leaving early.

And the attentiveness requirement isn't the only impediment. There's always the danger of ridicule.

"People laugh at me, and they look at me really strange and they say, 'Why do you keep score? What are you going to do with that?' " said South Pasadena resident Kelly Wallace, who keeps score at approximately 30 Dodgers games a season.

When I attended game regularly, I always kept score. Some people would ask what I was doing, but they were always interested, not condescending. Often, people would ask what happened earlier in the game. I actually became a resource for the fans around me.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Rangers just tied the Angels at 10 with a two-run homer by rookie catcher Max Ramirez. It's been an up and down game for Texas as they got off to a 4-3 lead, they gave up seven unanswered runs. Kendrick hit two homers for the Angels, driving in three. Texas, however, was not finished. They answer the Angels with six runs of their own, four coming in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game. Hamilton homered and drove in two, giving him 91 RBI in 93 Texas games.

Jeremy Guthrie pitches a great game, lasting seven innings, giving up four hits and two runs. The Orioles pen, however, can't hold the 5-2 lead as the Blue Jays score two in the eighth and two in the ninth to sweep the Orioles 6-5. Adam Lind finished off a three hit night with a walkoff single. He came into the game with a .215 batting average.

This kind of game was typical for Guthrie last season. One of Baltimore's strength's this year was a bullpen capable of holding a lead, but Sherrill especially couldn't handle the Jays tonight. The sweep moves Toronto into a tie for fourth place.

The American League may have dominated the National League this season, but the Pirates won the last interleague game tonight. They hold the Yankees offense down as they take the game 4-2. The Yankees scored two in the seventh to tie the game, as Bobby Abreu singled with the bases loaded and two out, all four batters reaching with two outs. The Yankees had to pinch hit for Mussina in the process, and McLouth took Veras deep in the bottom of the inning for the winning margin. The Pirates go to 28-20 at home.

It looks like the Phillies are the leading suitor for A.J. Burnett.

We've Got Heart continues their Women in Baseball series with a profile of Pam Gardner, President of Business Operations for the Houston Astros.

Do you know what I love about the picture of Manny on his cellphone in the Green Monster? He's framed by the word "LOST."

The Reds unloaded at Wrigley today. Six Reds combined for seven home runs as the Cubs fall 12-7. Adam Dunn hit his 24th, and he's just three off the National League lead. The Cubs managed one long ball, but nine hits and five walks allowed them to score seven runs. All five Cubs pitchers gave up at least one home run.

The Athletics are known for their solos. Down 2-0 in the bottom of the ninth, Cust leads off with a home run, then Kurt Suzuki hits a two-out solo shot to tie the game. Emil Brown capped off the game with a solo home run of his own in the eleventh for the win. Both starters pick up short shutouts as Dickey goes seven innings and Smith pitches six.

I was being driven back from the auto repair shop this morning, and the radio was playing "Sunglasses at Night." I thought, I'll have to do a Corey Hart post today. Luckily, Hart homered this afternoon, helping the Brewers to an 11-1 victory over the Rockies. It was the 15th homer for Hart, bringing his slugging percentage up to .510 for the season. Fielder hit his second triple of the year, matchng his career high, and Gabe Kapler knocked out three doubles as the Brewers picked up a total of seven extra-base hits in the game.

Justin Morneau connects in the top of the eleventh inning to give the Twins a 7-6 lead over the Tigers. Minnestoa was down 6-2, but scored four over the last three innings of regulation to tie. Joe Nathan pitched out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the ninth, and now Morneau picked up his fifth hit of the game for the lead. Punto and Span, at the bottom of the order, are a combined 7 for 8 with two walks.

Matt Guerrier was in line for the win, and allowed one hit, a double in the 11th inning. The Twins pull a big comeback to take the game 7-6. The Tigers have a great chance in this four-game series to gain ground in the wild card race, but now the best they can do is pick up two games.

Barry Zito can't repeat the control of his last outing as he walks six in five innings of work. He only allows three runs, two earned, so he doesn't pick up his 13th loss of the season. It also may not have been all his fault, as Maine walked five and both pitchers were complaining about the strike zone.

Fernando Tatis was the offensive force for the Mets this afternoon. He knocked out two doubles and a home run, diving in four as the Mets take the game 7-3. He's been playing regularly since Manuel took over, and raised his slugging percentage from .333 to .459.

I'll be interviewed on WNST, 1570 AM in Baltimore at 5:30 PM EDT. I'll also make my weekly appearance on Sports Radio 610 in Houston at 7:25 PM EDT, 6:25 PM CDT.

The Seattle Mariner released Richie Sexson today. Sexson was in the last year of a four year contract that pays him $14 million this year. The Mariners are on the hook for the rest of that money.

Sexson's strength as a hitter was power.

Richie Sexson

Stat	Through 2006	2007-2008
Batting Average	.269	.210
On-Base Average	.350	.303
Slugging Pct.	.526	.392

He went from a good power hitting first baseman to someone who would barely survive as a middle infielder. So was the contract a mistake by the Mariners? I don't think so. His first two years in Seattle were pretty much what they should have expected. He was 30 when the Mariners signed him, so they should have expected a decline. In fact, from 2005 to 2006, he did go down, but at a rate expected for someone on the downside of the peak hump. If he continued to fail at about a 10% rate, the Mariners would have received four decent to good years and then look for someone else. But as sometimes happens to 32 year olds, the end came suddenly. Seattle gave him every opportunity to find his stroke, but it never came back.

Maybe there's a hitting coach out there that can see a flaw in Richie's swing. If so, a team can sign him cheap and take the risk. More than likely, however, Richie's career is over.

A number of people sent in requests for links today.

WhereIStand.com takes a mid-season look at the accuracy of reporter predictions.

David Gassko and Mitchel Lichtman are teaching a Sabermetrics class at MIT on Sunday. It's open to the public.

Ryan Howard hit his 26th home run of the season to give the Phillies a 2-0 first inning lead over the Cardinals. The shot allows Howard to pass his teammate Chase Utley for the major league lead in home runs. After hitting five in June, Howard has six dingers in ten July games.

Update: Howard goes deep again in the 6th. If he keeps this up, he won't want to stop for the all star break. The Phillies lead the Cardinals 4-1 in the sixth.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution posts a very short interview with Chipper Jones critiquing the Braves (emphasis added):

Now we're at a stage where we're at that transition, having to deal with a lot of young pitchers coming up and going through their growing pains, and we've got a lot of young hitters in the lineup who haven't, um, grasped what it's like to be a hitter every day in this league. And we're struggling as a team because of it.

I wonder if Chipper is talking about making adjustments, and specifically about Jeff Francoeur?

My latest look at the NL East is up at MetsBlog.com.

It appears Mark Mulder's career is over:

Opening a 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, the Cardinals lefthander walked from the field after managing one out, a strikeout of shortstop Jimmy Rollins, followed by two walks. The same pitch that struck out Rollins caused Mulder pain so severe he could not throw any of his last eight pitches from the same angle or with the same force.

...

The Cardinals are expected to put Mulder on the disabled list today and promote lefthanded prospect Jaime Garcia from Class AAA Memphis. Mulder is scheduled to have an MRI today in St. Louis; the procedure may be little more than a formality for a pitcher who has needed two shoulder operations and has had four unsuccessful rehab assignments since earning his last major-league win in June 2006.

Mulder did put together six great seasons. At the end of 2005 he was 97-50, a .660 winning percentage. While he was never much of a strikeout pitcher, he walked less than three batters per nine innings and allowed 19.5 HR per 200 innings. It's just another example of how fragile pitchers can be.

The problems of building a Wiffle ball field in Greenwich, CT. The neighbors have legitimate complaints, but I love this quote from one of the teens who built the field:

The regular players, mostly high school boys but including Tara Currivan, 15 (who swings a mean bat and brings lemonade to the field), and Scott Atkinson, 13, seem a little befuddled by the whole thing. "They think we're a cult," said Jeff Currivan, 17. "People think we should be home playing 'Grand Theft Auto.' "

I hope they find a compromise that allows them to continue to play.

Hat tip, Instapundit.

The Mets try to make it three shutouts in a row as they finish up their series with the San Francisco Giants. John Maine gets the ball for New York. Maine is coming off an off start against Philadelphia in which he only gave up one hit over 5 2/3 innings, but it was a three-run homer. Maine is not an efficient pitcher, as he's only completed seven innings once this season. He'll face Barry Zito, coming off his best start of the year. His one walk, ten strikeout game against the Dodgers moved his K/BB over 1.0.

The Yankees and Pirates finish up interleague play with a make-up of a rain out in Pittsburgh. Mike Mussina goes for his 12th win against Paul Maholm. Mike is 5-1 on the road, walking just four in 36 innings pitched. Maholm is posting a 2.74 over his last seven starts. He's allowed nine home runs in that stretch, all solo shots.

Finally, two teams battling for their division leads do battle in Los Angeles. The Marlins welcome Josh Johnson back to the team. Johnson hasn't pitched in the majors in over a year. His rehabilitation assignments produced good and bad news. In 21 1/3 innings he struck out 16 and walked three, but he also allowed 12 earned runs. With the return of Anibal Sanchez a few weeks away, the Marlins are coming close to reuniting their 2006 rotation. He'll face Chan Ho Park, who is lights out at Dodger Stadium. Park owns a 0.62 ERA at the park this season, striking out 28 batters in 29 innings and allowing a .194 opposition BA.

Enjoy!

Find World Series odds for all these teams at Bodog Sportsbook.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The first hit in the Braves/Dodgers game comes in the bottom of the fifth when James Loney leads off with a double. Seems hits are tough to come by early in games in this series.

Update: Lowe still has a no-hitter through six.

Update: Actually, he's perfect.

Update: Kemp gets the second hit of the game in the bottom of the sixth, a solo home run that puts Los Angeles up 1-0.

Update: Blanco leads off the seventh with a single. No no-no tonight.

For the second night in a row, the Mets shutout the Giants. That 18 scoreless innings in a row for the Mets, and 18 innings without a run for the Giants. San Francisco picked up just three hits in each game, although they improved tonight, drawing three walks to none on Tuesday. The Giants are now scoring 4.03 runs per game.

The Arizona Diamondbacks fall one game under .500 as the Nationals win the game 5-0. It's another poor outing for Micah Owings, who allows three runs in 5 2/3 innings. The Dodgers can tie the DBacks for the NL West lead with a win over Atlanta.

John Lannan pitched six shutout innings for the Nationals. He'll probably garner some Rookie of the Year support, pitching well for a bad team.

Miguel Cabrera hits a walk off, two-run homer to help the Tigers defeat the Indians 8-6. That's three home runs in two games for Miguel. Cleveland pounded Detroit starter Eddie Bonine for nine hits and five runs in 3 2/3 innings, and go up 6-0 on the Tigers after four. Detroit, however ties the game with five runs in the seventh as Betancourt gives up a three-run homer to Matt Joyce. That's ten straight losses for Cleveland, and they've score five or more runs in five of those defeats.

Mark Mulder walks two batters and leaves the game against the Phillies after recording just one out:

The Cardinals said Mulder had left shoulder discomfort and will be evaluated on Thursday.

Mulder, coming back from two shoulder operations, made his first start since September and hasn't won a game in 25 months. The former 20-game winner struck out Jimmy Rollins to start the game, then walked Shane Victorino and Chase Utley.

It seems to me the Cardinals rushed Mulder back a bit. I wonder if this means the Cardinals are more likely to trade for someone like A.J. Burnett. Burnett gave up one run through the first five innings against the Orioles tonight, but then allowed six in the sixth. That's not helping his trade value.

The Phillies break their scoreless streak with a run in the 5th, and lead the Cardinals 1-0.

If you missed tonight's show, you can hear the recorded version here. It's also available on demand at TPSRadio.

Scott Olsen freed himself from his winless streak with eight solid innings of work against the Padres this afternoon. Olsen went eleven starts without a win, accumulating an 0-3 record and a 5.31 ERA. Given that number, it's not surprising. He only allowed one run on a solo shot by Hairston as the Fish go on to a 5-2 win.

With customization of jerseys, I wonder how many of these we'll see at the All-Star game?

Thanks to Pete Morisseau for the graphic and idea.

After two consecutive one-run wins, the Red Sox pound the Twins 18-5 this afternoon at Fenway. Boston knocked out 23 hits, 10 for extra bases. The pitches were so phat the Red Sox only drew two walks in the game.

Beckett gave up all five runs in five innings of work, but the Red Sox bullpen shutdown the Twins the rest of the way. The Twins came into the series with their pen as a strength, but they lose two games and put this one out of reach.

With the Yankees sweeping the Rays, the AL East gets a bit tighter. Boston is now 2 1/2 games out of first, and the Yankees four game behind the Sox. Once again, the top of the division depends on which team is home and which is on the road.

Derek Jeter walks in the tenth, and Bobby Abreu hits one of the right-center gap for a double and a walk-off win for the Yankees, 2-1. From what I saw of the game, the strike zone looked very generous. I saw called strikeouts on high pitches and outside pitches, and 19 batters went down by the K in the game, the two bullpens combined for seven one hit innings, the one hit settling the game. Rivera comes into the tie and pitches two good innings, his only mistake a walk. So much for not being able to pitch in non-save situations.

The Red Sox hit into an apparent triple play, but the umpires reversed the call, deciding Span didn't make a clean catch of the ball. I don't think this is worded properly, however:

The call was reversed once replays showed Varitek's fly ball bounced into Span's diving glove.

I haven't heard that umps are allowed to look at replays.

Bob Sikes notes that Ryan Church's concussion history goes back to 2005.

Tied at one, the Yankees get a man to third with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but Cabrera strikes out and Molina pops out to end the inning. The Rays are batting in the tenth.

Another non-denial of interest in Bonds turns into interest in Bonds.

The Baseball Musings Radio Show comes your way via TPS Radio tonight at 8 PM. The show is on a new broadcast platform, UBroadcast.com. They do require you to download their player, but it's easy to install and they don't appear to push ads at you with it. TPS Radio is on channel 100. You'll be able to chat as always, so I hope you'll tune in.

As always, the show will be available as a podcast shortly after the broadcast finishes. If you have any topics you'd like to hear discussed, please leave a comment

My latest post at MetsBlog.com is up.

Are the Athletics giving up on the season?

Trading a pitcher of that caliber raised immediate questions about where the A's are headed the rest of the season, and whether the front office had concluded that any hope of contending had slipped away.

"It's more an indication that we've got a lot of guys injured and we're selling, not buying," said A's closer Huston Street, whose name also surfaces in trade rumors. "That said, since the beginning of the year, we've exceeded expectations, and for the guys remaining, we're going to work to continue to do that."

One of the first things Beane mentioned when discussing the deal was Oakland's recent spate of injuries (Eric Chavez, Bobby Crosby and Keith Foulke went on the disabled list in the past week). He described the deal as not a step back, "but a step forward for the next four or five years. ... We've always viewed it as where we're headed, not necessarily where we are."

Harden's health is often a concern, and there was speculation in the wake of the trade that his dip in velocity the past two starts, when his fastball was down 4 to 5 mph, might have spurred the trade. If Harden were to blow out his arm in his next start or two, the thinking went, the A's would get nothing for him, and he has been on the DL six times in the past four years. An A's source said that did not factor into Oakland's thinking, but the source did confirm that Gaudin was included to provide insurance for the Cubs in the event that Harden were to land on the DL again.

Harden's trade value was as high, and Beane tends to pull the trigger in those situations. I don't think this trade takes the A's out of the race, but it doesn't make them a better contender, either.

The Giants send Jonathan Sanchez against the Mets and Johan Santana at Shea this evening. Sanchez and Lincecum are a combined 18-6. The rest of the San Francisco staff holds a 21-45 record. The duo ranks third and fourth (Sanchez) in the majors in K per 9 innings. Santana is 0-4 in his last six starts despite a 2.48 ERA.

Johnny Cueto draws Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano as the Reds try to tame the Cubs offense. Cueto walked two and struck out eight in six innings against Chicago earlier this year. He's also pitching well lately, allowing six runs in his last four starts. Zambrano made a success return from the disabled list his last time out, throwing six shutout innings against the Cardinals.

For the second day in a row, the Rangers start a pitcher making his Major League debut. Mike Ballard hosts Jered Weaver. Ballard has a high minor league ERA, 4.69, despite low walks and home run totals. That makes me wonder if he played in a high scoring league. Weaver got off to a rough start this season, but he's been pitching well since the middle of May.

Enjoy!

Bodog Sportsbook has all your baseball gambling needs!

Thomas Boswell explores the low television ratings for the Nationals. At the end of the column, however, he makes an important observation:

"The fans we have are ample and highly appreciated. We are going to build this franchise for the long haul and do it right the first time," said Kasten, knowing the Nats' farm teams have the second-best combined record in the minor leagues.

Good minor league records often translate into future major league success. If they win, people will watch.

Brian McCann belted two home runs as the Braves found their bats last night, defeating the Dodgers 9-3. The Braves catcher also scored two runs to bring his season total to 39. That's low for someone with a good OBA, .363. Since he tends to bat lower in the Braves order, there's little pop coming up to drive him in.

Chipper did not take part in the offensive outburst, going 0 for 4 with a walk. That drops his batting average to .379 and the probability of his hitting .400 to .00012, as seen on the latest graph of the probability of Jones hitting .400. That gives him about a 1 in 8300 chance of hitting .400 for the season. Chipper would need to go 10 for 10 to get back to .400 quickly.

Update: Somewhat more realistically, Jones would need to hit .500 for about 15 games to get back to .400. A 30 for 60 stretch gets Chipper back to .400. That's a tall order.

Home Run Derby notes that the Barry Zito Fathead is on sale. They also suggest a new model to increase demand. :-)

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Justin Duchscherer continues to make a great case for a Cy Young award. He throws a complete game two-hitter, shutting out the Mariners 2-0. He faced three over the minimum as a Kurt Suzuki error led to a third batter reaching. Duchscherer only struck out four, but 72 of his 105 pitches went for strikes. The shutout lowers Justin's ERA to 1.78, best in the AL. He's pitched at least seven innings in each of his last six starts, allowing just six runs.

The win pulls the Athletics to five games behind the Angels.

A.J. Pierzynski drives in two runs with one sacrifice fly. I can't wait to see that replay. Did Gathright fall down on the play, or was Alexei Ramirez just real fast? The two runs break a 5-5 tie in the top of the eleventh.

Update: The Royals scored two in the bottom of the inning to force a twelfth.

Matt Harrison made his major league debut for the Texas Rangers this evening and defeats the first place Angels. Harrison pitches seven innings, allowing five hits and two runs, walking just one. In over 600 minor league innings, Harrison averaged just over two walks per nine innings. If comes anywhere near that control in the majors Texas should have a successful pitcher.

The Rangers score just enough runs, taking down the Angels 3-2.

Aaron Harang walks seven and Ryan Dempster walks four in the Reds Cubs game. Harang has great control and Dempster is pretty good, which makes me wonder if the home plate umpire was squeezing the pitchers tonight. The Reds are trailing 7-1 in the top of the ninth, and so far, 14 walks total in the game. Did anyone see the game? Were the pitchers wild, or was the ump tough?

Update: The Reds score two runs in the ninth but the Cubs win 7-3.

Hardly anyone watches the Nationals on TV, and tonight's game is a good example of why. The Nationals generate just six hits, only one of them for extra bases and can't score off Brandon Webb. The Diamondbacks bullpen then throws three perfect innings to finish off the Nats 2-0. Despite Odalis Perez getting tossed early, the staff still pitched more than well enough to win, but the Nats just can't generate runs. It's the 11th time they've been shut out this season.

Scott Kazmir struck out nine and walked just one tonight, but he only lasted five innings. The Yankees were able to work his pitch count up to 97 and score two runs off the Rays ace. Meanwhile, Andy Pettitte controlled the Rays offense for eight innings, giving up just four hits, no walks and no runs. The Yankees take down Tampa Bay 5-0, five players picking up two hits each. Tampa's lead is down to three in the AL East, and the Yankees inch a little closer in the division as well.

Early in the season, Kazmir was going deeper into games, keeping his pitch count low. In his last five starts, however, he hasn't gotten out of the sixth inning before he reached his limit. This was a problem Scott had previous to this season, and it may spell trouble for the Rays down the road.

CC Sabathia leaves the game after six innings with a 4-3 lead over Colorado. It wasn't Sabathia's best performance as he allowed five hits and five walks. He gives up three runs, only two earned, and turns the game over to the pen.

For the second night in a row, the Red Sox squeak by the Twins, this time by a score of 6-5. The Twins blow a 5-2 lead in the 8th. Manny Ramirez once again gets a big hit, a three run homer to tie the game. Youkilis doubles and Moss singles him home to set up the Papelbon save. The Red Sox extend their lead over the Twins to 2 1/2 games in the wild card race.

The home run was a rare one for Manny, as only six of his 17 this season came in Fenway.

Mike Pelfrey pitches seven shutout innings and the Mets bullpen pitches two perfect innings as the Giants fall 7-0. Schoeneweis and Smith threw 15 pitches combined to dispatch San Francisco in the 8th and 9th. The Giants did not draw a walk in the game and picked up just three hits. If they have any visions of competing in the NL West, they need to find at least one more bat.

Carlos Delgado also homers off Lincecum, his second home run allowed on the road. Seven of his sixteen home runs came since Jerry Manuel took over as manager.

Miguel Cabrera goes four for four with two homers as the Tigers pound the Indians 9-2. He came into the evening with a .471 slugging percentage and raised it to .495. Miguel has now collected ten his in his last five games with four home runs. This is what the Tigers expected when they made the trade in the off season.

Cole Hamels makes two mistakes resulting in solo home runs to Ankiel and Ludwick. That was more than enough as Joel Pineiro throws 6 1/3 shutout innings and the Cardinals go on to a 2-0 victory. Of Hamels last fourteen runs allowed, ten were driven in by homers. He's now given up 17 on the season.

CC Sabathia walks two batters in his first inning of work for the Brewers, but does not allow a hit. He had some control issues in his first four starts of the season, but since then he only walked more than two in a game once. He doesn't allow a run despite throwing 11 of 19 pitches for balls.

Update: The first three batters reach against Redman, the last on a three-run homer by Ryan Braun. Run support is there early for CC.

Carlos Beltran his a three-run homer off Tim Lincecum in the first inning. Lincecum rarely gives up a home run; that's only the sixth he's allowed all year. It's also just the second allowed with men on base, and the first he's given up on the road. The Mets maintain a 3-0 lead in the top of the fourth.

If you want to know what's wrong with the Yankees this year, look at the OBAs of the starting lineup this evening. Only two players have OBAs over .350. It used to be that the Yankees might have one player under .350. The bottom four in the order are all under .300. Giambi is out due to a lefty on the mound, and Damon and Matsui are hurt, but this lineup makes clear the lack of depth on the team.

Ryan Church goes back on the disabled list due to lingering effects of his concussion. I'm really afraid this is turning into a Mike Matheny situation.

A huge trade goes down between the Cubs and the Athletics. Rich Harden goes to Chicago with Chad Gaudin for four players:

The Cubs answered the Brewers acquisition of CC Sabathia, picking up Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from Oakland on Tuesday for Sean Gallagher, Eric Patterson, Matt Murton and Josh Donaldson.

The right-handed Harden is 5-1 with an 2.34 earned-run average and 92 strikeouts over 13 games for Oakland, bolsters a Cubs rotation that just got saw the return of Carlos Zambrano.

Wow. My first reaction is that the A's didn't get enough, but I'll have to explore that further.

Update: The Athletics obviously recognize Murton's ability to get on base. While that's something that's needed on this season's Cubs team, the A's offense sure can use it. Same with Eric Patterson. He's a middle infielder who has a decent OBA in the minors. Gallagher is very young, and his minor league strikeouts, walks and home runs are great. Basically, he's someone who can take over the ace roll with a little more maturity. Donaldson is a catcher with minor league stats much like Patterson.

The question I'm trying to answer for myself; was this the A's giving up on the season or trying to improve for this season? Murton, Patterson and Gallagher can help this season. If Sean can come close to replacing Harden, without the threat of injury, I can see this deal improving the A's now. I'm always amazed when I look at a Beane deal at how it always looks better than I expected.

Obviously, Harden answers the Sabathia trade very well. He doesn't go as deep in games as CC, but the Cubs now send out three aces with Zambrano, Dempster and Harden. It's like having Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz from the mid 1990s. It looks like a great move for both clubs.

FanHouse notes the lack of viewers for the Nationals games:

The Nats have lost 43.5% of their viewers this season and rank last in baseball in viewership. Just 9,000 households in the D.C. market tune into games which results in a 0.39 ratings share, numbers which could easily be mistaken as people who leave their TVs on to keep their cats company. For comparison, the Royals are 28th in households (the Blue Jays weren't included) at 28,000 while the Angels draw a 1.24 share.

Why would anyone want to watch a team where the only all-star was Cristian Guzman. Is Jim Bowden the only GM to screw up the opening of two ballparks?

The latest Blog Poll is up, this week looking at the potential AL award winners.

The Cardinals and Phillies are each fighting for a playoff spot as the Cardinals visit the Phillies. Joel Pineiro faces Cole Hamels. Pineiro has allowed six of his eight home runs on the road, not a pleasant thought as he faces the Phillies heart of the order at CBP. Hamels remains on a roll, posting a 2.31 ERA in his last six starts. Eight of the twelve runs he allowed came on home runs.

The Yankees always seem to be playing a series they need to sweep, and never seem to accomplish the feat. They open a two-game set with the Rays, 8 1/2 games out of first place. In a battle of lefties, Scott Kazmir takes on Andy Pettitte. The improved Rays defense can be seen in Kazmir's hits per 9. In 2007, he allowed 8.5 H/9. This season it's down to 6.6 H/9. Pettitte's ERA at home this season is about 1.5 runs higher than on the road, despite his other stats being about equal. His home runs allowed at Yankee Stadium tend to come with men on, while on the road they tend to come with the bases empty.

The Minnesota Boston series continues with another good pitching matchup as Nick Blackburn battles Jon Lester. After a rough June, Blackburn started July with seven shutout innings. Lester did him a couple better with a shutout of the Yankees his last time out.

Of course, the biggest game tonight is the premier of CC Sabathia in Milwaukee. My latest SportingNews.com column pegs his contribution for the rest of the season at an increase of two wins for the Brewers. He gets a good shot at winning his first start as Mark Redman takes the mound for Colorado. Mark owns a 7.05 ERA this season, but pitched well against the Marlins in his return from AAA.

Enjoy!

Get all your MLB baseball odds at Bodog Sportsbook!

Peter Abraham notes Hank Steinbrenner's comments on injuries and makes this observation:

Remember back in spring training when the big story was how Joe Girardi's workout program would keep the Yankees healthy this season? So much for that. Well-intentioned as it was, injuries just happen sometimes no matter what you do. Guys get weird fractures or run into walls or get hit by pitches. All the sprints in the world in Tampa can't change that.

It's also done nothing to keep Jeter and Abreu's bats fresh. If those two are hitting closer to their career norms, the Yankees would be in much better shape right now.

I'll be posting daily for MetsBlog.com, rounding up news in the NL East. My first post is here. Thanks to Matt Cerrone for the opportunity!

The Phillies failed to acquire CC Sabathia due to the lack of a power hitting prospect.

Now that Sabathia is gone, that leaves the Phillies looking at Plan B.

"There was Sabathia and then a big drop," Gillick said.

Maybe Gillick can make a deal with his old team in Toronto. They have pitching and can certainly use some offensive help.

Hiroki Kuroda one hit the Braves Monday night in an extremely well pitched game. He faced one over the minimum and used just 91 pitches to dispatch the Braves. Given the recent history of the Braves offense, that's no surprise.

Over their last thirteen games, Atlanta's offense played in a deep funk. As a team, they are hitting .213 with a .284 OBA and a .333 slugging percentage. Those numbers get most individuals sent back to the minors. Their situational hitting is even worse, with just 18 hits in 101 at bats with runners in scoring position.

Interestingly, Teixeira, Jones and Blanco are hitting well during this period. So well, in fact, that in order for the team to post such low averages, everyone else is terrible. Jeff Francoeur was sent down, but McCann, Johnson, Kotsay and Escobar are pretty terrible right now as well.

This probably makes a trade of Teixeira more likely. With the Braves falling fast and Mark heating up, now appears to be the time to trade the hitter for some prospects who can fill in the offense over the next couple of seasons. The problem is, about the only contender that can use help at first is the Athletics, and they tend not to trade for free agents. The other bay area team, the Giants, can also use some offense. Playing for now rather than building for the future is the kind of move Sabean has made lately. It should be an interesting month of speculation.

Do you think that Maddux and the Padres offense are ever going to be good on the same day again? The Marlins win 3-1 last night, with Maddux giving up two runs, one earned, in six innings of work. His record should be better than 3-7.

I'll make my weekly appearance on 1010XL in Jacksonville, FL at approximately 7:35 AM EDT.

Oakland recently called up Wes Bankston to play first base. He went 2 for 3 Monday night including his first major league home run. The shot tied the game at three as the Athletics went on to a 4-3 win over the Mariners. Bankston is 9 for 23 in his six games with four extra-base hits. So far, his major league career has been much more impressive than his minor league career.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Kuroda gets a grounder and two fly outs and stays perfect through six. Loney made a nice backhand play on the grounder leading off the inning. Kuroda is up to 59 pitches, and now has a 3-0 lead.

Update: He's through seven.

Update: Teixeira breaks up the perfect game leading off the eighth.

You may not want to go to bed if you are on the east coast. Hiroki Kuroda has six strikeouts through four innings and retired all twelve batters he's faced.

Update: Two ground outs and a fly out retires the Braves in the fifth. Kuroda is still perfect and he's thrown just 48 pitches. No score in the game yet, however. Campillo has allowed just one hit through four.

Update: Nomar hits a home run into the Dodgers bullpen for a 2-0 Los Angeles lead in the bottom of the fifth. That may be enough for Kuroda tonight.

The Phillies were down 10-1 in the middle of the sixth, but hit three home runs, one in the sixth, seventh and eighth to cut the lead to 10-7. They get two on in the ninth, and a Pedro Feliz single and a throwing error by Beltran plate both. That's all they get however as Werth flies out to end the game and Billy Wagner gets a shaky save. New York takes three out of four and move 2 1/2 games behind the Phillies in the NL East.

Chase Utley hit his major league leading 25th home run in the fourth inning. Howard and Burrell also went deep as the heart of the Phillies order now has 71 home runs.

The Rockies are up 4-0 in the top of the eighth, but there are two men on who shouldn't be there. Koshansky made an error on first on a roller down the line that he just couldn't pick up. After a wild pitch, Counsell popped up, and the ball dropped between three infielders for a single. Buchholz just walked Hardy to load the bases and bring up Braun.

Update: Braun hits a ball up the middle, but it hits the mound and bounces to the shortstop for a double play. Milwaukee scores one, but on that ball the luck goes against them. As Meatloaf might say, "Two out of three ain't bad."

Update: The double play saves the lead as Fielder homers to straight away center to close the score to 4-3. That's it for Buchholz.

Update: Corpas gives up a single but gets out of the inning with the lead.

Update: The Rockies hold on and win the game 4-3. The Brewers start the Sabathia era with a loss.

The Pirates defeat the Astros in a slugfest, at least where the starters were concerned. Hernandez and Drumatrait allow all seventeen runs in a combined 7 1/3 innings of work. The two bullpens combine for 9 2/3 innings, allowing one hit and two walks while striking out nine. The Pirates win 10-7 and move ahead of Houston into fifth place in the NL Central.

The Twins and Red Sox are scoreless in the seventh. Each side just missed a home run in the seventh. Nick Punto hit the wall in the corner in right for a triple. Two more feet of carry on the ball and it's gone. Crisp just hit one to the wall in front of the bullpen, and Span made a great catch for the out. The Twins also hit two line drives in the top of the inning, both caught, and one turned into a double play.

Update: Pedroia doubles off the Green Monster and Manny drives him in with a single in the 8th for the only run of the game. Papelbon pitches a perfect ninth for the save, and the Red Sox win at home once again. They gain on the Rays and put some distance between themselves and the Twins. Both teams put ten men on base via a hit or walk, and the Twins added one more with a HBP. Manny's was the only hit for either team with runners in scoring position as the Twins went 0 for 5 and the Red Sox 1 for 8.

Luis Mendoza allows eight runs in 1 1/3 innings to raise his ERA to 7.54. If he keeps pitching like that, we'll have a Mendoza line for pitchers. The Angels lead the Rangers 8-0 in the bottom of the second.

Sabathia wants writers to drop the periods in CC. I'll just continue to call him Milliliter.

David Wright drives in one run in the first and two in the second as the Mets get off to a 5-0 lead on the Phillies. If he can keep that pattern going, he'll drive in 45 runs in the game. :-)

Mustaches for Giambi.

Jeff Suppan goes on the disabled list, opening up a spot for C.C. Sabathia. I suspected the Brewers would send McClung back to the bullpen where he pitched more effectively this season, but Suppan and Bush have higher ERAs, and Suppan wasn't showing Bush's improvement.

Dan Wheeler gives up two home runs in the 10th inning as Buck and Aviles go back-to-back and the Royals prevent a sweep, winning 7-4. Wheeler had only allowed four home runs all season, and only one in Tampa. Fourteen of Aviles's hits have gone for extra bases. He doesn't get on that much, but he has some pop.

Carlos Pena homers in the bottom of the ninth to tie the Royals at three. After the two teams combined for five runs early on, they went five innings without scoring.

Pena isn't living up to last season's stats, but home runs like that make it a lot easier to take. Ten of his 13 home runs came with the Rays trailing or tied.

Update: Longoria gets in scoring position but fails to score. The Rays are an amazing 1 for 19 with runners in scoring position in the game.

Alex Belth visits Ray Robinson and gets a first hand look at his scrapbooks from the early 1930s. Alex provides great pictures with the story.

With three players going on the disabled list for the Braves, Jeff Francoeur is back from the minors. He had seven hits in his three games in the minors. I guess the demotion was the wake-up call he needed.

An error on a stolen base and a Longoria single plate two runs for the Rays in the first inning as they take an early 2-0 lead over the Royals. Longoria has reached base by a hit or a walk in his last 20 games, raising his OBA from .332 to .355.

Update: DeJesus triples in two in the second. I guess that's a double triple. He's doing a great job getting on base this year and even has some pop with 25 extra-base hits. His only weak spot as a lead-off hitter is that he's been thrown out on five of eleven stolen base attempts.

Update: Teahen must be fast. He scores from first on a single by Gload to give KC a 3-2 lead in the third. Did anyone see the play?

You can see the news conference on MLB.com.

Update: Melvin is thanking everyone in the organization. He basically said that without building up the minor league system, they would not have been able to make the trade.

Update: C.C. T-Shirts will be ready.

Update: They're not saying who are the possibilities for the fourth player, yet to be named.

Update: WaitingForNextYear wonders how long the Indians will suck this time.

Update: Shapiro is speaking now in Cleveland.

Update: Mark says they want to bid for Sabathia if he becomes a free agent.

If you're a reader who lives in Massachusetts, you should take a look at SmallGovernmentAct.org. They've put a question on the November ballot aimed at ending the income tax in the state.

According to Baseball Digest Daily, the Brewers will hold a news conference at 12 PM EDT, 11 AM CDT. Here's the latest on the players involved from the Plain Dealer:

The Indians received Class AA outfielder Matt LaPorta, Class AAA pitcher Zach Jackson, Class AA pitcher Rob Bryson and a player to be named from the Brewers. Sources said the player to be named -- which could be Class AA outfielder Michael Brantley or Class A third baseman Taylor Green -- is the second key player to the deal from the Indians perspective.

I'm also wondering if the Indians will resign Sabathia once the season is over. The Orioles did that with Sidney Ponson a few years ago. That way, the Indians get some prospects and keep their pitcher.

The Mets try to make it three out of four against the Phillies as Pedro Martinez faces Adam Eaton. Pedro looks finished. His 6.4 K per 9 is well below his career average, and the opposition is hitting .325 against him. The Mets rolled the dice well against Eaton this season. In two starts against New York, Adam allowed seven runs in eleven innings. This could turn out to be a slugfest.

The Twins come into Boston trailing the Red Sox by 1/2 game in the wild card race. They'll send Scott Baker against Daisuke Matsuzaka. Baker has a tendency to give up home runs on the road, as eight of his eleven game away from the Metrodome. His low walk total, however, keeps them from doing much damage. Eight were also solo shots. Dice-K pitched well in his last two starts, allowing just one run, but lasted just five innings in both games. He's walked eight in those two starts, forcing his pitch count high quickly.

The Angels head to Texas with a 7 1/2 game lead over the Rangers. The four game series gives the Rangers a chance to climb back into the AL West race. Ervin Santana faces Luis Mendoza. Santana upped his strikeouts and reduced his home runs allowed, leading to the best ERA of his career. Mendoza's control as a reliever didn't translate to the rotation. He struck out six and walked none in seven relief innings. As a starter, he's walked nine and struck out four in 14 1/3 innings pitched.

Enjoy!

Find all your baseball betting needs at Bodog Internet Sportsbook!

The Red Sox and Yankees splitting four games this weekend turned out to be good news for both the Rays and the Twins. Both teams boast winning streaks of at least five games, so were able to gain ground and extend leads on the big two. The Rays now lead by five games in the AL East, seven games in the AFILC. The Twins are just 1/2 game behind Boston for the wild card. At this point, it's possible that neither Boston nor New York make the playoffs. That would certainly be a shock.

Joe Posnanski notes the Rays don't like useless stats much. While the Rays hold a run the bases day, they show baseball cartoons on the big screen. One of them have super hero Rays chasing down Dr. Stat:

But, believe it or not, that's not the hilarious part. No, the hilarious part is this: The villain they were trying to catch was someone named "Dr. Stat." No, really. It seems that Dr. Stat -- and I'm quoting from the cartoon now -- wants to "use his knowledge of useless statistics to destroy the game."

Yes, I'm completely serious here -- I saw the thing twice. This Dr. Stat them appears on the Superfriends monitor, and he asks them who was the highest paid umpire in 1888. The Rays, of course, don't know, and they make it clear to him that it is a stupid and pointless question. Dr. Stat then says, "Wrong answer," and he says as punishment he will point his stat ray direction at Tropicana Field in order to make it impossible for people to enjoy the games.

OK, timeout here -- what is a stat ray? How would that work? I should ask the guys at Baseball Prospectus if they have one. A stat ray. How great is that? I wonder what would happen if we would point the stat ray at some of my baseball writing friends. I'd love to aim it at my buddy Rick Morrissey up in Chicago, just to see what happened. Would he explode? Would he start talking about VORP and Eqa? I need to get me one of them.

Anyway, the cartoon Joe Maddon, realizing that this stat ray could destroy what the game stands for, started burning copies of the book Moneyball. No, wait, that's not right. No, what he did was turn his Rays into superheroes and send them after Dr. Stat. They landed in Dr. Stat's lair, and Dr. Stat being a fairly uncreative and unimaginative villain type sent some robots after them. I have no idea why he thought this would work, nor do I know what robots (and I mean they were the most boring looking robots you ever saw) had to do with his love of meaningless baseballs statistics. Maybe if they were, like, robots who invented new run matrixes, that would have made sense. But, in all honestly, wouldn't it have been more realistic if Dr. Stat had sent, I don't know, Pete Palmer and Voros McRacken after the heroes? The Rays would try to come after them, but they would be helpless against the power of linear weights and DIPS.

Some of those useless stats predicted the Rays would have a pretty good year.

The other half of the column notes that Grady Sizemore is no longer a leadoff hitter. His ability to both get on base and hit for power make him more of a number three hitter. With both Martinez and Hafner injured, moving Grady down in the lineup might help the team.

No, here's what we are saying: Eric Wedge doesn't seem to adjust very well. He seems to think that Grady is still the player he was two years ago. He seems to care a lot about keeping his players comfortable. He seems content to keep things as they are even when they are not all that sensible. I have absolutely no idea if the Indians would score more runs, fewer runs or precisely the same amount of runs to the 10th decimal point if Grady hit third (or second or fourth or whatever). I don't know, and as mentioned a time or two, I don't care. I just care that the Indians have a manager whose team came within one game of the World Series and is now buried in last lace, a manager who is hitting the American League home run leader leadoff and Ben Francisco third.

I put the lineup used by the Indians on Sunday into the Lineup Analysis Tool, and it has Sizemore batting second. That makes sense as his high OBA does best at the top of the order, but his power needs to be behind some others who get on base. However, the difference between the best lineup and the Sunday lineup is just 0.12 runs.

My guess is the best Indians lineups have Sizemore batting ahead of a slugging Hafner and Martinez. Unlike Soriano, Sizemore does a great job of getting on base. As long as there are slugger behind him, he's fine at the top of the order. Right now, however, Joe is right. Grady should be at least moved down to the two hole.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Paul Hoynes says the Indians are still talking about getting Alcides Escobar, although other reports indicated the shortstop would not be included.

The key to the deal is outfielder Matt LaPorta. He could be playing left field for the Indians by next July. The sticking point has been the two other prospects the Indians would receive in the deal. The Indians preferred one of them to be shortstop Alcides Escobar, third baseman Taylor Green or outfielder Michael Brantley. Escobar and Brantley are with LaPorta at Class AA Huntsville.

Update: Tom Haudricourt at JS Online comes up with the other players in the trade:

A source familiar with the Brewers' trade for Cleveland lefty C.C. Sabathia just told me that the other players going to the Indians with Matt LaPorta are minor-league pitchers Zach Jackson and Rob Bryson and a fourth player, perhaps minor-league third baseman Taylor Green.

The fourth player currently is listed as "to be named later" but it is believed the Indians want to look more at Green, with the idea of moving him to second base.

Zach Jackson had two stints in the majors, and his minor league strikeouts are unimpressive. His walks and home runs allowed are fine, however. Bryson, however, is very young and has already struck out 143 batters in 109 innings.

A-Rod's wife is going to sue for divorce:

Cynthia Rodriguez, 35, who wed the Miami-bred slugger in 2002, claims the marriage is over because of Rodriguez's extramarital affairs. The couple own a waterfront home in Coral Gables.

So it's not just Madonna. I would have thought the stripper in Toronto would have been enough.

Joe Torre started only one of his old veterans today, Angel Berroa at short. The top four in the order were Kemp, Ethier, Martin and Loney. They combined to go seven for sixteen, driving in all five Dodgers runs as they down the Giants 5-3. This may be what the team looks like in the future, and it doesn't look too bad. Los Angeles stays 1/2 game behind the Diamondbacks in the NL West.

Randy Johnson handled the San Diego Padres just fine today as he struck out 10 and walked none over 6 1/3 innings. Johnson gave up three hits, however two of them were for extra bases. Randy's given up 105 hits on the season, 41 of them for extra bases. The Diamondbacks are now 1 game under .500 and maintain their lead in the NL West.

Fernando Tatis saves Billy Wagner complete embarrassment by hitting a two-run homer in the top of the twelfth inning to give the Mets a 4-2 win. Joe Smith needs no help as he pitches 2 1/3 innings for the win, finishing the game so there's no save. The Mets take two out of three from the Phillies and now trail by 3 1/2 games in the NL East.

The Braves knock out four straight singles in the bottom of the seventeenth, the last by Mark Teixeira plating the winning run for a 7-6 victory over the Astros. Chipper Jones went three for five with four walks to raise his average to .388. That takes the probability of his hitting .400 to .00038, as seen on the latest Chipper Jones graph.

Jon Garland picks up his first complete game of the season, holding the Toronto Blue Jays to just one run on six hits and no walks. So far, Garland's ERA is going up and down with the months. He started with a 5.94 mark in April, followed by a 1.78 ERA in May. In June, it rose to 4.17 and he starts July with an even 1.00.

The Angels extend their lead in the AL West to six games.

Peter Gammons just reported during the ESPN game that the Brewers are trading straight for Sabathia, without the condition of signing him. It appears that Milwaukee is pulling out all the stops in an effort to win a championship this season.

Alex Rodriguez homers off Tim Wakefield to start the Yankees second inning, giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead. The homer is A-Rod's 536 career shot, tying him with Mickey Mantle on the all-time list. Alex reached that level four years younger than the Mick.

I wondered how the crowd would react, and despite the news on the gossip pages, Alex received a huge cheer and came out for a curtain call. Number 13 is now 13th on the all-time list.

The Tigers defeat the Mariners 2-1 in fifteen innings when Marcus Thames hits a sacrifice fly after Miguel Cabrera starts the inning with a double. The Mariners staff issued nine walks, but the first run for the Tigers came on a Raburn homer leading off the fifth.

The Mariners lost when they ran out of pitchers, and Jamie Burke, a catcher took the mound. He didn't do too badly, just giving up one hit, but the one run the Tigers scored was enough to give Burke the loss.

In a game long delayed by rain, the Mets and Phillies are tied at two in the eleventh inning. When the game was first stopped in the eighth, the Mets led 1-0. They added a second run when the game resumed in the top of the ninth, but Billy Wagner gave them back with a two-run homer to Jayson Werth in the ninth, one strike away from ending the game. Wagner blows his sixth save of the season.

According to the Brewers Blog at JS Online, the Brewers reached an agreement to trade for C.C. Sabathia.

All I know so far is that top prospect Matt LaPorta is in the deal. I was told two lower-level minor leaguers also are included. The Brewers refused to include another top prospect such as Alcides Escobar or Mat Gamel.

Look for Sabathia to make his debut for the Brewers Tuesday night at Miller Park against Colorado.

Wow. The Indians didn't even wait to see if there was going to be much bidding over the next three weeks. I'll have more in a few minutes.

Update: I was just looking at LaPorta's minor league numbers. What's impressive is his home run rate, 32 in 411 minor league at bats. That's one every 12.8 at bats. He's also getting on base at a .395 clip. What I don't like is that he's pretty far along on the offensive side of the defensive spectrum, as he's played left, first and DH in the minors. We'll see what kind of prospects the other two players are.

The Brewers now match Zambrano and Dempster with Sheets and Sabathia. That should make for an exciting NL Central race.

The Astros and Braves are tied at six in the middle of the fourteenth. At the end of the top of the 13th, Ausmus foul tipped a ball that clanged off McCann, and eventually he caught it. Brad argued, as he said it hit McCann's equipment first. The broadcasters checked the rule book, and it is a catch if it hits the glove or hand of the catcher first. They looked at the replay and thought it hit the shoulder pad of the chest protector first, but I think it grazed the bare hand, so the umpires got it right.

The Marlins avoid a sweep at the hands of the Rockies by taking game four of the series 10-5. Cody Ross drove in half the runs with three hits, missing the cycle by a triple. Aaron Cook follows his complete game shutout with one of his worst performances of the year, allowing seven runs in 7 1/3 innings.

The series makes one wonder if the humidor is broken as the two teams combined to score 79 runs in the four games, an average of almost 20 a game.

The Chicago Cubs go into St. Louis and take two out of three games with a 7-1 win this afternoon. Chicago scored off each of the four pitchers the Cardinals used today, while the Cubs only mistake was Sean Marshall's gopher ball to Ryan Ludwick. The Cardinals had a chance to move into first if they swept, but by dropping the series Milwaukee is now ahead of them by .001 in winning percentage.

The Rangers hung on to defeat the Orioles by a whisker, taking the game 11-10. The Orioles out-homered Texas 4-1, but it wasn't enough to overcome an 11-5 lead. David Murphy, whose power is keeping him in the Rookie of the Year hunt, homered and drove in three for Texas.

The Rangers now trail the Athletics by 1 1/2 games for second in the AL West, and are 5 1/2 games out in the wild card race. Texas recorded wins in nine of their last 14 games.

J.J. Hardy has been dyn-o-mite lately, hitting two home runs today to bring his July total to six. He hit six through the first three months of 2008. He also doubled, making him 15 for 25 on the month with nine extra-base hits. The 11-6 win over the Pirates gives Milwaukee a 5-1 record in July, and they've outscored their opposition 39-23, over two runs per game.

The Boston Globe lists the players up for election to the 32nd spot on the roster. I would suggest Longoria and Burrell, but Giambi is a perfectly good choice. If you are still upset about his steroid use, however, Longoria is a great alternative.

The White Sox hold off the Athletics in the ninth to pull out a 4-3 victory. John Danks goes 6 1/3 innings, out-pitching Rich Harden for the win. Danks walks two and strikes out nine as he gives up two runs. He's now struck out 86 and walked just 31 in 107 innings this season.

Harden gets his first loss of the season. He walked four and struck out four today as he wasn't as sharp as usual.

The White Sox maintain their lead of the Twins, who defeated the Indians and Cliff Lee 4-3.

Chipper Jones homered and tripled today to give him 1/2 a cycle. Like Pedroia the other day, he looks like he's going for the reverse cycle as he homered, then tripled. The two for two brought his batting average up to .389.

Despite the hits, the Astros lead 5-3 in the fifth.

The Cincinnati Reds finished a four game sweep of the Nationals, extending Washington's losing streak to five games. The 6-5 victory gives the Reds 17 runs in the four game series versus just 10 for the Nationals. All the games were close, with two decided by one runs, the other by two and three runs.

Edinson Volquez continues to struggle with this control, walking three and striking out three in six innings of work. He has a 6.32 ERA in his last three starts.

Cliff Lee faces only his second bases loaded situation of the year in the seventh inning against the Twins. With one out and a 3-1 lead, he gives up a single to Punto to score one. With the bases still loaded, he walks Span. That's his second walk of the game and only the 19th of the season. He then ends the bases loaded situation with a ground out that scores a run. In all four situations with the bases loaded this season, Lee gave up a run on a sacrifice fly, single, walk and ground out. The Twins finish the inning with a 4-3 lead.

The All-Star teams were named this afternoon. On my radio how this week, I discussed who I though should be the starters.

I disagreed with the following positions.

NL Catcher -- Martin instead of Soto.
NL First Base -- Pujols instead of Berkman.
AL Second Base -- Kinsler instead of Pedroia.
NL Outfield -- Pat Burrell, Carlos Beltran, Ryan Ludwick.
AL Outfield -- Carlos Quentin, J.D. Drew.

I picked a leftfielder, centerfielder and rightfielder rather than just lump outfielders together. I don't really have a problem with Soto, Berkman or Pedroia. Manny and Soriano, however, just aren't having great years. I can see Ramirez getting a pass for his great career, but it looks like Cubs fans were stuffing the box for Soriano.

Update: I see the only one of my picks that didn't make the team at least as a reserve was Burrell.

Ryan Church can't play for the Mets today:

Ryan Church is not playing today. He's still feeling it from the migraines. He's not supposed to be out in the sunlight because the sensitivity to his eyes can trigger another one.

I don't know if these are concussion related, but his head is clearly not 100% at this point.

Brad Lidge comes off the roll of potential free agents as the Phillies sign him to a three-year, $37.5 million contract. Lidge already equaled his save total from last season without blowing a save.

Is it a good deal? For two years in Houston he was lights out. He blew just eight saves in 2004-2005, posting an ERA around two. Over the next two seasons, however, he blew 14 saves and saw his ERA go way up, mostly due to more home runs allowed. Through it all, however, he maintained his superior strikeout rate, and this season cut down on his walks as well. Most impressively, he's yet to allow a home run, despite playing half his games in Philadelphia. If he keeps pitching like the 2004-2005 Lidge, this will be a very good deal by the Phillies. It's also a good business move to reward success.

It's a Day for Cy Young contenders as four worthy candidates take the mound. Rich Harden faces John Danks in Chicago. Rich Harden is a few starts away from qualifying for the ERA title, but his 5-0 record and 2.25 ERA should put him in the mix once he reaches that threshold. He striking out more than nine per nine innings and three times more than he walks. Danks is posting a 2.50 ERA, not bad given that his home ERA is two runs higher than his road number. Even though his record is just a game over .500, Danks deserves serious consideration for the award.

Cliff Lee takes his 2.26 ERA against the surging Minnesota Twins. The Twins are scoring 6.3 runs per game over their last 22, including 21 in the last two games against Cleveland. Lee held Minnesota to two hits over eight innings the only time he faced the team this season. The league is hitting .308 against Minnesota starter Glen Perkins, so it's a chance for the Indians offense to bust out.

In the NL, Edinson Volquez toils for the Reds against the Nationals. He's coming off two short outings in which his walks equaled or exceeded his strikeouts. Collin Balester comes off a successful major league debut in which he allowed one hit and one run over five innings of work.

Finally, we get to see if Randy Johnson can turn things around. He faces the Padres, a poor offensive team. Johnson's strikeouts are high, but so are his hits allowed. He's fooling batters, but not every at bat. San Diego's starter Josh Banks is showing great control, walking one batter every four innings. He's limiting the opposition's power, even away from PETCO.

Enjoy!

Baseball Primer Newsblog links to this article on the Rays thought process on the upcoming trade deadline. They're looking for a player who fits on the club, not to make a big splash. The comment is great:

That sounds much more business-like than baseball-like. Somewhere, TLR is frowning.

There is something to be said for making a splash, however. That's the difference between an orderly retreat and a rout. Waterloo is an example of the latter. The French army became so demoralized at some point that they lost their cohesion and troops just ran away. A Tampa Bay team solidly in first place that picked up a star might cause their opponents to give up on first place in the AL East and concentrate on the wild card.

The Mariners defeated the Tigers Saturday night 3-2. That win gives Seattle a 10-5 record under Jim Riggleman. The offense was sputtering under John McLaren, but they appear to have come to life under the new manager.

Mariners Offense

2008	McLaren	Riggleman
Runs/Game	3.86	5.00
Batting Average	.252	.286
On-Base Average	.308	.349
Slugging Percentage	.374	.401

The power isn't there, but the team is doing a much better job of putting batters on base. When the bases keep getting filled, runners tend to come around to score. It also doesn't hurt that the team is hitting .301 with runners in scoring position under Jim.

As you can see from looking at individuals, Sexson's 14 walks are making up for his continued lack of power. Ichrio is knocking out hits at a high rate, 23 in 15 games. Ibanez, Beltre and Clement are supplying the power. While there still appears to be no complete hitter on the club, most players are doing something useful.

There's progress on the pitching side as well. Although they're not going deep in games, Bedard, Dickey and Washburn all pitched well under McLaren. The rotation is 6-4, but with an excellent 3.40 ERA under Riggleman. Unfortunately, the Angels are 9-5 in that time, so while the Mariners no long have the worst record in the majors, they've only gained 1/2 game in the standings.

With Toronto 7-7 under Gaston and the Mets 9-9 under Manuel, Seattle is the only club so far where the manager made a difference.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

For one night at least, Barry Zito pitched well. His control was great tonight, striking out 10 Dodgers in seven innings of work. More importantly, he walked just one. How much of this was Zito figuring out his problem or facing a rather weak Dodgers lineup, only time will tell. Barry did give up two runs, but the Giants score twice in the bottom of the seventh to take a 3-2 lead and put Zito in position to win. With the Diamondbacks falling to the Padres, a Dodgers victory puts Los Angeles in first place.

Update: Molina drives in two more and the Giants lead 5-2 in the bottom of the seventh.

Gavin Floyd earns his tenth win of the season with this third short shutout. He goes 7 1/3 innings against Oakland, allowing just three hits and three walks. He's been struggling a bit lately. In his last three starts he gave up just eight earned runs, but he's also allowed that many unearned runs.

The White Sox win 6-1 as five of their nine hits go for extra bases.

Andy Sonnanstine wins his tenth game of the season against three losses as the Rays down the Royals 3-0. More impressively, Tampa Bay is now 14-4 in Andy's starts. That's a very good record for a 4.31 ERA. The Rays play a lot of close games when Sonnanstine pitches and are 8-1 in one and two run games when he starts. If he give the Rays 5 innings allowing three runs or less, there's a very good chance Tampa Bay walks away with a win.

Ben Zobrist hit his third home run of the season tonight. That's as many as he hit in his two previous seasons combined. He also tripled, and is slugging .815 in 27 at bats this season.

The Braves fall 6-1 to the Astros as Chipper Jones goes 0 for 4. The probability of his hitting .400 drops to .00020, or 1 in 5000. As you can see from the latest graph of Chipper's probability of hitting .400, the last time he got this low he did bounce back.

The Braves keep sliding, however. They've lost six of their last seven games and stand six games under .500.

David Bush posts the fourth good start in a row for a Brewers pitcher. He goes eight innings, allowing one run and no walks while striking out seven. He doesn't get the win, however, as the Brewers don't score their second run until the bottom of the ninth, when Fielder singles in Weeks to win the game.

The Brewers rotation started turning things around on May 11th. Up until that point, the starters were 7-12 with a 4.89 ERA in 36 games. Since, they are 26-13 in 51 games, posting a 3.51 ERA. The rotation has done a good job in that time of reducing their walks and home runs allowed.

Mariano Rivera and Kerry Wood both got themselves into trouble in the 9th inning this afternoon. With the Yankees leading 2-0, Rivera allowed the first four batters to reach base, his second hit by pitch of the inning loading the bases with one run in and none out. He comes back, however, to strike out Crisp, pop up Varitek, and then strike out Lugo to end the game. The Yankees offensive woes continue, but Mussina, Veras and Farnsworth allowed just four hits while walking one and striking out seven.

Wood wasn't as lucky as Rivera. The Cubs led 4-2 in the bottom of the fourth. Like Rivera, the first four batters reached, three on walks, then last intentional. That also pushed across one run. Wood gets a force at the plate and a pop up for two outs. Then Ankiel delivers a single to center, and the Cardinals split the first two games by a score of 5-4. Wood blows his fifth save in 27 opportunities. The three walks are 1/4 of all he's issued this season. Like in the Yankees game, Lilly and two relievers combined for seven strikeouts and one walk.

The Cubs try to extend their lead over the Cardinals as Ted Lilly faces Kyle Lohse. Ted is having a very typical Lilly year in terms of his ERA and batting average allowed. He is throwing more pitches per start. Lohse found a great home in St. Louis, posting a 2.77 ERA at home vs. 5.13 on the road.

Greg Smith faces the White Sox for the second time. He held them to one run in seven innings of work back in April. Gavin Floyd takes the mound for Chicago. He's allowing a .176 BA at home.

Enjoy!

Find the latest baseball betting odds at Bodog Sports!

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Marlins lead Colorado 17-16 in the eighth inning. So far there are 8 homers and 13 doubles for 21 extra base hits out of 34. The Rockies hit six of the homers and are losing.

I'm sitting on Fairfield Beach thinking about live blogging the fireworks. I don't know how interesting it would be to write Oohh, Aahh time after time.

The Daily News is having lots of fun with the A-Rod/Madonna story, but I thought this quote from the comments was priceless.

Maybe she could use the kabbullsh1tt on him to hit with runners in scoring position

Jeff Francoeur returned to the minor leagues after being booed by Braves fans:

Francoeur was booed at home Thursday night when he went 0-for-4. He hit .206 in June and is 1-for-12 in three games this month.

"It seems I can't catch a break, or when I feel I start to roll I just can't get things to keep rolling my way," Francoeur said.

The Braves hope Francoeur can relax at Double-A Mississippi and sharpen his mechanics. The plan is for Francoeur to rejoin the team following the All-Star break.

Francoeur has always been an out machine, with a career OBA of .313. He's only drawn 96 walks in 1884 career at bats. In 2007, it looked like he made progress, drawing 42 free passes. With both his batting average and power abandoning him this season, the few walks he draws don't help much. I really wonder if pitchers finally figured out how to exploit Jeff's tendency to swing at pitches. Why throw a strike to a batter who doesn't care to take a ball?

On the 25th anniversary of Dave Righetti's no hitter, the Red Sox visit New York for another July 4th battle. Josh Beckett takes the mound for the Red Sox. He's only allowed one home run in his last five starts, giving him a 2.38 ERA in June. Darrell Rasner tries to fill Righetti's shoes for the Yankees. He was tough to hit in May, allowing a .209 BA, but hitters figured him out in June, when they hit .341 against him.

The Phillies dispatched the Braves, and now the Mets get a chance to make a move in the NL East. New York send Johan Santana against Brett Myers fill-in J.A. Happ. Johan is basically posting the same numbers he did in 2007, but once again with a weak team behind him, an ERA in the low three is only good for a .500 record. Happ has impressive minor league numbers, but failed to impress in his one MLB start in 2007, also against the Mets. He struck out five, but gave up seven hits in four innings.

Finally, the Cubs get Carlos Zambrano back just in time to visit St. Louis. The Cardinals trail Chicago by 2 1/2 games as they open a three game series. Zambrano's need for rest was apparent from his 5.68 ERA in May. He'll face long time reliever turned starter Braden Looper. It will be a contrast of styles as Zambrano tries to power through the Cardinals lineup while Looper uses his control and defense to try to stop the Cubs.

Enjoy!

Find World Series odds for all these teams at Bodog Sportsbook.

Johnny Cueto pitched seven strong innings as the Reds defeated the Nationals 5-3 Thursday night. It was his fourth good outing in a row. Unlike earlier in the season, Cueto seems to be able to pitch without his best stuff. Two of the games were like his most recent, high strikeouts and low walks. The other two, however, he only struck out two and walked three. Still, over the last four games he's only walked seven, an improvement of one walk per nine compared to the beginning of the season.

Johnny's also cut way back on his home runs allowed. Earlier in the season he was giving up about two every nine innings. Last night's shot by Dukes was the first Cueto allowed in his last four starts. A 2.13 ERA over that time indicates Cueto may be adjusting to the majors. If this trend continues, Harang, Volquez and Cueto give the Reds a fine 1-2-3 at the top of the rotation. It may not make much of a difference this season, but if Jocketty can find some offense, Cincinnati can win with those three at the front of the rotation.

Joe Buck on the popularity of baseball versus football:

Joe Buck was discussing baseball on Colin Cowherd's ESPN Radio show this week, specifically comparing it with the NFL and talking about how pro football's popularity is partially tied into how watching one game a week fits into the lives of most people. And those people apparently include Buck himself.

He was talking about sports in general, but the context had lots to do with baseball when he said: "As far as sitting down and watching sports, it's just not part of my day. Watching Bachelorette is."

Sure, he was probably kidding about The Bachelorette - now, if you had said Rock of Love, dude, we're right with you - but it was not exactly the kind of attitude you might have expected from Fox's voice of baseball.

It seems to me Buck is trying to promote Fox's once a week broadcast. You like football once a week, you'll like baseball once a week.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

Happy Independence Day to all my US readers! I hope you enjoy the day with family and friends.

Justin Duchscherer keeps improving his Cy Young chances, giving up two runs over seven innings as the Athletics down the White Sox 3-2. Chicago got to him early with a lead-off homer by Wise and another run in the first, but Cust tied the game with his 14th homer and Murphy hit his third for the difference in the game. It's the eighth straight start for the Duke in which he allowed two run or less.

Javier Vazquez pitched a complete game loss, striking out 10, but gave up one home run too many. His home runs allowed are starting to approach his career norms.

Garrett Olson joined a very small group of pitchers tonight. He allowed a home run to Tony Pena. Shawn Chacon, Jose Contreras and Jamie Moyer accomplished the feat in the past. Since the start of the 2006 season, Pena has the fourth lowest slugging percentage of any player with at least 700 plate appearances, .321. I'm actually surprised it's that high. Three other Royals knock out multiple hits as the Royals take the game 10-7.

Hank Steinbrenner's rant lasted just one game, as Jon Lester shuts down the Yankees as the Red Sox take the game 7-0. It's Lester's second shutout of the season, the other coming on his no-hitter. The Red Sox lefty, however, does have three other games in which he pitched at least six inning while allowing no runs. He threw just 104 pitches, allowing five hits and two walks as the Yankees offense goes cold again.

The game went bad for the Yankees in the first inning. It was going to be a typical Pettitte inning. Two Red Sox hitters reached base, but with one out Andy induced Manny to hit a ground ball to Cano at second. It looked like the double play would get New York out of the inning unscathed, but Jeter threw away the ball on the relay. He didn't get much pressure, it was just a bad throw. That allowed the only run the Red Sox needed to score, and it was four nothing by the bottom of the second.

Boston extends their lead over the Yankees to five games in the wild card race.

The one part of Tim Lincecum's game that needs improvement is his control. He's pitched a few games this year where it's been very good, walking one with high strikeouts. This afternoon, he went seven innings against the Cubs, walking one and striking out eight, picking up his 10th win in an 8-3 San Francisco victory. What's impressive about Tim's control tonight is that it comes against the Cubs, a very selective team. Chicago averages 4.0 walks per game.

For the third time this season, Cole Hamels reached the 120 pitch mark. He came within one out of a shutout, but a double by McCann after Chipper Jones doubled leading off the inning meant no shutout and no complete game. Tom Gordon recorded the last out for the 4-1 Phillies win. Hamels's ERA drops to 3.22.

Chase Utley retakes the National League lead in home runs, hitting his 24th tonight. After his hot start, Chase had only hit two dingers in his previous 25 games.

Chipper Jones went 1 for 4 and lowered his batting average to .389.

Update: The latest graph showing the probability of Chipper Jones hitting .400 is up. His probability drops to .00041. With Jones's average falling, the other Braves aren't doing much to pick him up. They've scored seven runs in their last four games.

The Diamondbacks offense saved their best for last. Down 5-0 in the bottom of the ninth, the DBacks send seven batters to the plate against three Brewers pitchers. All seven reach base, the last being Connor Jackson who follows a Hudson double with a two-run single that plates two and gives Arizona a 6-5 win. Mota, Shouse and Torres combined to allow six hits and a walk, including two doubles. Arizona only had five hits before the ninth.

The win keeps the Dodgers 1 1/2 games back and returns the DBacks to the .500 level. The Diamondbacks offense may be coming back as they've scored six runs in four of their last six games.

A small home run controversy in Arizona. Mike Cameron hits a ball over the fence down the leftfield line. The leftfielder and the DBacks bullpen points foul. The umpire called it fair. The replay showed the ball was in front of the foul poll the whole time. The umpire, however, said it scraped the foul pole, and there was no clear replay that showed it didn't.

Given the original angle of the ball and where it landed, I can believe the ball hit something. It landed farther away from the pole away from fair territory than if it didn't hit anything.

Webb has not allowed two home runs and five runs in the game. He only gave up six homers all season coming into today.

The Dodgers win again, taking down Houston 5-2. The young hitters played well. Ethier and Loney homered, and DeWitt drove in two. Loney hit for a high average in June, but hit only one home run. Los Angeles could use him picking up his power.

The Diamondbacks are losing 3-0 in the sixth. An Arizona loss puts the Dodgers 1/2 game out of first place in the NL West. Dodgers are 10-5 over their last 15 games.

The Arizona Diamondbacks send out their ace to try to climb back to .500. Brandon Webb faces Manny Parra of the Brewers. Parra tends to give up long balls on the road, with the opposition hitting seven home runs in 34 1/3 innings. Webb is coming off a month in which he failed to average six innings per start.

The Yankees get a chance to gain on the wild card leader as Boston comes into town for a four game series. It starts with a battle of lefties as Jon Lester takes on Andy Pettitte. Except for his last start, Lester is on a roll. In his last nine starts he posted a 2.97 ERA, allowing just three home runs. Pettitte was roughed up by Kansas City early in June, but he's been lights out since. In his last four starts, Andy posted a 1.00 ERA and only allowed 19 hits in 27 innings.

With the Giants making a 4:05 PDT start, the east coast gets to see Tim Lincecum in prime time as the Cubs' Sean Gallagher stands in opposition. Gallagher is another pitcher who gets pounded on the road. He's yet to allow a home run at Wrigley this season, but the six hit off him on the road led to a .488 away slugging percentage allowed. Lincecum is just the opposite. All five home runs hit off him came in San Francisco.

Atlanta gets one more chance to gain ground on Philadelphia as Cole Hamels visits Jair Jurrjens. Both boast eight wins and low ERAs. Hamels is extremely effective against right-handed batters this season. Lefties are hitting .211, righties .212, and lefties have a higher slugging percentage. Jurrjens is coming off a great June in which he posted a 1.63 ERA.

Enjoy!

Bodog Sportsbook has all your baseball gambling needs!

Ian O'Connor notes Brian Cashman saw the Rays coming:

The words of the prophet are written in black and white and scheduled to be preserved in the archives of the Tampa Tribune. In the September 28, 2007 editions of that newspaper, Brian Cashman warned of a gathering American League East threat.

...

"They have, obviously, as good a group of young position players as anyone in the game. Pitching is coming into their system that a lot of people like, too. They're not far. If a couple of things go their way, it could happen a lot sooner than people realize.

"It's not going to be a situation where they add 10 wins next year and 10 more the year after that. It's not going to be slow. When it happens, it will happen quick. Now. That growing stuff is behind them now. It's going to come fast."

He must have ESP(n).

Rafael Furcal won't be coming back after the All-Star break:

Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal will have surgery on Thursday to relieve pressure on a disk in his lower back and could be out at least eight weeks, manager Joe Torre said.

Even with the great number Furcal posted early this year, Dodgers shortstops own a .244/.316/.373 line. That's not great, but take away Furcal and it's just awful.

It's on the gossip page, not the sports page. A-Rod and his wife are breaking up.

The Diamondbacks fell to the Brewers Wednesday night by a score of 4-3. Base running mistakes early may have cost them the game:

But those were outweighed by the ugly moments. Take the first three innings, in which the Diamondbacks racked up seven hits but scored only two runs against Brewers starter Seth McClung.

"We didn't take advantage of a lot of opportunities," manager Bob Melvin said. "We had a lot of hits early on, good at-bats, we just couldn't push across a crooked number or a couple of guys at a time."

Part of the problem was that they ran into a pair of outs on the bases. In the first, Stephen Drew was thrown out while trying to stretch a double into a triple. An inning later, third-base coach Chip Hale gambled when he sent Young home after a ball kicked off the glove of Brewers second baseman Craig Counsell. But Counsell recovered and fired home to nail Young easily.

The lack of offense hurt an otherwise fine first start of the season by Yusmeiro Petit. He allowed just one run over six innings on two hits, but the bullpen could not hold a 2-1 lead.

The Diamondbacks are in quite a prolonged slump. They have not won three games in a row since May 16 but are still leading the division despite slipping one game under .500.

Worst Records, May 17 - July 2, 2008

Team	Record	WPct
Diamondbacks	15-28	.349
Indians	15-28	.349
Nationals	16-27	.372
Astros	16-26	.381
Padres	17-26	.395

The starters have a 4.31 ERA in that time, but it looks like in many games they pitched well enough to win. The pen, although a culprit in last night's game, has a 3.84 ERA during the period.

The offense is making the biggest difference, however. Before the slump, the Diamondbacks were scoring 5.44 per game, 2nd in the NL and the majors. Starting May 17th, Arizona is only putting up runs at a rate of 3.47 per game, third worst in the majors and the NL. As you can see here, there are a number of below .300 OBAs on the team during this period, including what should be three big bats for them, Upton, Young and Drew.

With the Dodgers defeating the Astros 4-1 Wednesday night, the Diamondbacks lead in the NL West is down to 1 1/2 games.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Rays hold on for a 7-6 win over the Red Sox. Boston had a threat in the 9th, but Upton recovered from a bad start on a long fly ball off Youkilis's bat to make a great catch in deep center, and then the Red Sox tried to hit and run twice with Lowell on first and Varitek at the plate. On the first one, Jason pulled the ball foul. On the second one, the captain swung and missed, and Lowell was out at second. Varitek ended up striking out to end the game. The Red Sox are now 3 1/2 games back. They are going into New York for a four game series, four games in front of the Yankees for the wild card.

Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell each hit their 21st home run of the season as the Phillies buried the Braves 7-3. That drops Atlanta six games back. The Phillies now have three players with over 20 home runs, and have a very good chance to end up with three over 40.

Chipper Jones went 1 for 4 tonight with a walk and a home runs. His batting average falls to .391. The Chipper Jones graph is up to date. His chance of hitting .400 is now 0.00058.

Hank Steinbrenner complained about the Yankees offense, so they scored 18 runs tonight as they defeat the Rangers 18-7. Giambi hit a grand slam and A-Rod hit career number 535, moving him past Jimmie Foxx and one behind Mickey Mantle. Every time Hank complains about the team, it seems to have a positive effect. I don't think he'll be keeping quiet any time soon.

The Rays come into the bottom of the seventh down 4-1. The first six men reach, the last a bases loaded by Longoria that plates two and gives the Rays a 5-4 lead. Boston is going to their third relief pitcher of the inning.

Matsuzaka lasted five innings, and I was surprised to see Okajima pitch the sixth. DelCarmen and Hansen suffered the meltdown here. Aardsma is in to try to stop the bleeding.

Update: Aardsma and Lopez get two outs, but Bartlett, who started the inning with a double, singles in two more and the Rays lead 7-4. I think this was a situation in which the Red Sox needed to bring in Papelbon in this inning. Once the bases were loaded, the game was in the balance, and the Sox needed their best pitcher on the mound. That didn't happen.

Daniel Cabrera and the Orioles defeated the Royals 5-2 this evening, Cabrera going the distance. He walked none while allowing seven hits. It's his second complete game of the season, the other also coming against the Royals. The Royals are a good team for a somewhat wild pitcher like Daniel, since they don't draw many walks (last in the AL). Cabrera's walked just one batter in 18 innings against the Royals. Since they don't draw walks, they don't go as deep in counts, giving him a chance to finish the game.

If you missed tonight's show, you can hear the recorded version here. It's also available on demand at TPSRadio.

I was watching the Red Sox/Rays game while doing my radio show. Pedroia hit a home run in the first, then I noticed him triple, and he just doubled. If he singles in his next at bat, he'll have accomplished the cycle in reverse. That would be pretty cool.

The Red Sox lead 4-1 in the top of the fifth, so Dustin should have a couple of chances to get the single.

Update: Pedroia flied out in his fourth at bat.

The Angels defeat the Athletics 7-4 to extend their lead in the AL West to 5 1/2 games. The Athletics missed a golden opportunity, catching the Angels in an offensive funk, but only turning that into one win.

Juan Rivera broke a 3-3 tie with a two-run homer in the sixth. It was his first home run of the season. Juan was having a break-out year in 2006. At age 27 he was slugging over .500, but injuries limited him to just 45 games over the last two seasons, and he's only managed three home runs.

My latest column at SportingNews.com looks at why the AL dominated the NL in interleague play.

Odalis Perez pitches a great game, allowing one run through 6 2/3 innings. While he was pitching in the middle of the seventh, however, the rains came and Perez left with one man on base. After the umps started the game again, Manning was on the mound and gave up a two-run homer to Amezaga. The middle relief on this team is just horrible. The Nationals are batting in the top of the ninth trailing 4-2.

Update: Gregg finishes off the Nationals and the Marlins comeback for the 24th time this season. They're one game back of the Phillies pending the outcome of tonight's contest.

The Twins take down the Tigers 7-0 taking two of three and prevent the Tigers from gaining on them in the AL Central race. Nick Blackburn continued his great control, walking one batter in seven innings while striking out four. Over his last five starts he's walked two and struck out 17.

Two of the Twins pick-ups this off season had big days. Both Gomez and Young collected three hits, Young with two doubles and Gomez with one. Young is trying to continue a good June, while Gomez tries to get back to his May numbers.

I received this in the mail:

On behalf of Lionsgate, we are pleased to present the official trailer for THE PERFECT GAME, based on a true story about a rag-tag team of boys from poverty-stricken Monterrey, Mexico who defy extraordinary odds to become the first foreign team to win the Little League World Series - doing so in a perfect game, the only one in championship history.

The Baseball Musings Radio Show comes your way via TPS Radio tonight at 8 PM. The show is on a new broadcast platform, UBroadcast.com. They do require you to download their player, but it's easy to install and they don't appear to push ads at you with it. TPS Radio is on channel 100. You'll be able to chat as always, so I hope you'll tune in.

As always, the show will be available as a podcast shortly after the broadcast finishes. If you have any topics you'd like to hear discussed, please leave a comment.

Paul DePosdesta is downright giddy in describing the Padres' international signings:

Before noon eastern time, the Padres had locked up five of the top international prospects from around the globe for a total of nearly $5,000,000. Those commas are in the proper places.

Let's allow that to sink in for a second...

Feels good, doesn't it?

He goes on to describe the abilities of these young men in detail, giving Padres fans something to look forward to in five years.

Odalis Perez retired the first nine Marlins this afternoon. What's really amazing is that he only threw 23 pitches to accomplish the feat, striking out two along the way. Either the Marlins want to get out of Washington as fast as possible, or they decided the best way to get to Perez is to swing early.

Update: The Marlins are being a bit more selective in the fourth. Cantu singles with two out for the first fish safety of the game. The Nationals lead 2-0.

Correction: Odalis, not Oliver. After five years you'd think I'd have them straight.

Scott Kazmir doesn't give the Mets much of a chance of making the playoffs:

"It turned out to be a blessing," said Kazmir, the first-round pick from 2002. "If that doesn't happen, I don't pitch in the majors as soon as I did. If that doesn't happen I'm not on this team, sitting in first place and hoping for October."

Of course, if the trade doesn't happen, maybe the Mets aren't one game under .500 wondering who will manage the team next year.

I did not know someone could fracture a testicle.

Mark Ecko agreed to donate Barry Bonds's 756th home run ball to the Hall of Fame. Still no word if the asterisk was ever applied.

The Orioles are trying to break their Sunday losing streak with a promotion:

I don't know if it will work, but the team is instituting a "We win, you win" promotion. If the Orioles win this coming Sunday against Texas, fans will be offered limited free tickets to a future game.

If nothing else, it should put a few more fannies in the seats.

The Oakland Athletics signed a prize Dominican pitcher due to their success developing pitchers:

Dominican prospect Michael Inoa has agreed to a minor league contract and a $4.25 million signing bonus with the Oakland Athletics, said the 16-year-old from Santo Domingo.

Inoa and his parents turned down more lucrative offers from the Cincinnati Reds and the Texas Rangers due to Oakland's positive results developing young pitchers. The Reds offered a $5 million signing bonus and a major league contract, while the Rangers offered $5.2 million, according to Inoa.

"After careful thought, my parents and I decided that Oakland has a better pitcher development program, and that will be more important for my career in the long haul," said Inoa, who became eligible to sign with any major league ballclub on Tuesday at the strike of midnight.

At sixteen, he's already 6' 7" and 210 pounds. He's going to be a monster on the mound. It's good to see he's thinking about his future income. If he turns into a good pitcher with the Athletics, he knows he'll get a chance to sign a Barry Zito like contract at some point. His determination that Oakland gives him the best chance of that allowed Beane to get him below market. It's all about process, even in signing free agents.

Two games feature outstanding pitching matchups in division races. This afternoon, Dana Eveland takes on Joe Saunders in the rubber game of the Oakland-LAnaheim series. Eveland's strength rests in his home runs allowed, three in 97 innings pitched. His walks are becoming a worry, however, as he issued more free passes than strikeouts in June, walking 20 in 30 2/3 innings. Saunders pitches his best outing of the season against Oakland at the end of April, eight shutout innings allowing four hits and one walk while striking out five.

Tonight, the Red Sox try to salvage one game of this series against the Rays as they send Daisuke Matsuzaka against Scott Kazmir. Dice-K returned to form in his second start since coming off the disabled list, allowing two hits and no runs against Houston. On the season he remains tough to hit, allowing a .206 BA. If batters can be selective against Matsuzaka, teams can put runners on base with walks and hope one of those rare hits comes after a couple of those.

Kazmir is lights out at home this season. Opponents are hitting .153 against Scott, and he's allowing a slugging percentage (.242) lower than his OBA allowed (.243). That's an OPS less than .500 against Kazmir at Tropicana Field.

Enjoy!

Get all your MLB baseball odds at Bodog Sportsbook!

The Athletics and Angels received seven good innings of pitching Tuesday night. Ervin Santana allowed just two runs over seven innings for LAnaheim, while Rich Harden and Brad Ziegler did the same for Oakland, striking out eight along the way. Shields pitched the eighth for the Angels and allowed a home run to Mark Ellis, putting the A's on top 3-2. The A's countered with Embree in the bottom of the ninth. Alan is an interesting pitcher, in that his walks and strikeouts are good, but opponents still hit him. Once more, batters tend to hit Embree for power, as twelve of the 33 hits against him have gone for extra bases. He allowed a double, single and home run in his half of the eight as the Angels scored three to take the game 5-3. Garrett Anderson turned out to be the hero, hitting a two run shot that proved to be the winning margin.

Rodriguez picked up his 33rd save in the ninth and continues to move toward the record. As long as the Angels keep the scores close, he'll keep racking up the saves. The worst thing that could happen to his chances is the Angels offense starting to score six runs per game. LAnaheim won't play as many close games in that kind of run environment.

Is Randy Johnson done? Tuesday night's game didn't go well for Arizona as they fell 8-6 to Milwaukee and sent two players to the disabled list. Johnson, however, pitched very poorly. On the positive side, he struck out six in 3 2/3 innings. Everything else was bad. Three walks, three homers and seven earned runs allowed eight of thirteen batters who put the ball in play earned hits.

Johnson acknowledged afterward that he doesn't have the velocity of his younger days, but more disturbing is his lack of location. Few of his pitches are going where he wants them to go.

"If you have velocity, that's a luxury; but if you don't have location, that's a necessity and I haven't had any of that," Johnson said. "I've had a month worth of poor games, and I'm disappointed, that goes without saying. You just have to try to regroup and look forward to your next start."

Manager Bob Melvin said Johnson "left a lot of balls over the middle of the plate. He wasn't able to get the ball inside like he normally does. It was not one of his better games. They hit some sliders, they hit some fastballs. Got on him early. Couldn't stop the bleeding."

Johnson, at seasonal age 44, may simply be too old to pitch successfully in the major leagues. He's undergone back surgery twice in recent years, and as much as he'd like to compete, maybe it's time to walk away from the game. Johnson was once unhittable, and now the league is batting .294 against him despite a high strikeout rate. It seems Randy either fools hitters completely or not at all. He's not a productive player at this point.

The Diamondbacks are once again at .500, and the Dodgers are just 2 1/2 games out of first.

It looks like Matt Cain decided the only way he can win a game is to pitch a shutout. He held the Chicago Cubs scoreless for eight innings Tuesday night, allowing two hits and three walks while striking out ten. He needed to pitch that well, as the Giants managed just two runs off Jason Marquis for the game.

Even with Cain's great performance, Wilson came close to blowing the game. A leadoff triple in the ninth by Derrek Lee and two singles turned the contest into a one-run game. The Giants scored just enough to win.

The Giants have scored 65 runs in Cain's 18 starts, an average of 3.6 runs per start. That's below their poor 4.0 runs per game as a team.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.

The Mets defeat the Cardinals 7-4 tonight as David Wright and Carlos Delgado each pick up three hits. Wright knocked out a double and a homer while Carlos hit two doubles. Since Manuel took over on June 17th, both are hitting for power and driving in runs. A more offensive Delgado should help the team down the stretch.

Cliff Lee and John Danks stayed even for eight innings tonight, each allowing one run. Danks slightly outpitched Lee, allowing two fewer hits and winning the strikeout battle 8 to 3. Neither picked up the decision, however, as the game went into extra innings. The Indians scored a run in the top of the tenth, but Joe Borowski couldn't close out the game, allowing a solo homer to Alexei Ramirez. Borowski has now blow four saves in ten opportunities, and the Indians sink farther in the AL Central.

Correction: Ramirez's home run was a solo shot. Wise and Cabrera strung together a single, steal and single to win the game. All three hits came with two out.

Aaron Cook goes the distance tonight as the Rockies defeat the Padres 4-0. For Cook, it's the eighth complete game of his career, but his first shutout. Cook blew through the Padres, using just 79 pitches, 58 for strikes. That's one of the lowest numbers I've seen in a long time. The Padres had five batters reach on hits as Cook walked none, but two of those were erased with double plays. It was, in fact, a Maddux like performance.

The Rangers hold the Yankees offense at bay for the second game in a row, winning 3-2 when Rivera gave up a run in a tie game in the ninth. Since they defeated the Mets 9-0 on Friday night, the Yankees have scored just seven runs in four games. Both teams picked up nine hits tonight, but Texas out walked New York 7-2. The Rangers were just 4 for 19 with runners in scoring position, the Yankees 2 for 10.

Texas is now three games over .500 and very much in the playoff race.

Lew Wolff requested to go on the Angels broadcast. In the top of the third, he's praising the Angels organization, saying Angels Stadium gives fans the best experience in baseball. Lew is traveling around to ballparks to get an idea of what works and what doesn't for the Athletics new park, and he has high praise for what Arte Moreno has done in Anaheim. I can't say I've ever seen something like this before.

The Phillies bats came to life tonight as they knocked out 14 hits and two home runs against the Braves to take the game 8-3. Victorino and Burrell each went deep to plate three of the runs, and six Phillies picked up two hits each. Kendrick made a good start, and the bullpen pitched great again, shutting out the Braves over the last three innings.

Chipper Jones went one for three with two walks. His average drops to .393.

Update: The Chipper Jones graph is up to date. His chance of hitting .400 is now 0.0006.

Where would the Dodgers be without Russell Martin? He's three for three tonight with a walk, picking up a double and a homer. The Dodgers lead Houston 6-4, and Russell either scored or drove in five of the runs. Of the starters in the lineup tonight, Martin has both the highest OBA and the highest slugging percentage. He just needs a triple for the cycle.

Update: Furcal may not be coming back any time soon.

The Tampa Bay Rays down the Red Sox one more time, extending their lead in the AL East to 2 1/2 games by a score of 3-1. Matt Garza pitched seven strong innings, overcoming three errors to allow just one unearned run. The bullpen, however, just blew away the Red Sox. Howell and Balfour combined to face ten batters over two innings and struck out five.

Tim Wakefield pitched well enough to win, but the offensive support just isn't there. The big guns of Drew, Ramirez, Lowell and Youkilis managed just one walk and one sacrifice fly in twelve plate appearances.

Collin Balester made a successful major league debut tonight, pitching five innings against the Marlins for the Nationals. He allowed just one hit and one run, walking three. His pitch count was high, but he's in-line for the win as the Nationals lead 6-1 in the seventh.

Halos Heaven presents a photo essay on Kelvim Escobar's rehabilitation assignment.

For the second day in a row, the Tampa Bay starter retires the Red Sox in order the first time through the lineup. Garza's through 39 pitches through three innings and struck out three. The Rays lead 1-0, scoring without the aid of a hit in the first inning on a walk, error and wild pitch.

Update: Ellsbury gets an infield hit leading off the fourth, and ends up on third after Navarro throws the ball down the rightfield line. A Drew sacrifice fly ties the game at one in the middle of the fourth.

Chipper Jones is back manning third base for the Braves tonight. He's 0 for 1 so far.

The Phillies demoted Brett Myers to AAA today:

"I can't say enough about Brett's willingness to accept this assignment," said general manager Pat Gillick. "He understood and is eager to get back on track again. He is struggling right now, but he is a quality major league pitcher who we are going to need in the second half of the season."

Under Major League Baseball service time rules, Myers, with 5-plus years in the majors, had the right to accept or decline the assignment.

Myers is on a pace to challenge Blyleven's single season home runs allowed record. While Philadelphia is a good park to connect for a long ball, Myers gave up home runs at a higher rate on the road.

It makes you wonder if the Phillies should have left him in the pen. I would think he'd be more valuable as a starter.

There's an excellent interview with Davey Johnson at Big League Stew. Most of it centers on the Olympics, but they also touch on Willie Randolph's firing. This disappointed me, however:

Q: If Omar Minaya called you after the Olympics and said, "Davey, we need you back, we need you to turn this thing around ... "

DJ: First of all, it's not going to happen. I respect Omar Minaya as a good general manager, but I haven't had a working relationship with him ... but as far as do I want to pursue a career in the big leagues again? No.

I'm really looking forward to managing the Olympics (team) and if it turns out I could manage the World (Baseball) Classic (team) I would be happy.

I love the game of baseball. I know I'm good at what I do. I know every club I've been with, I've left them in better shape, and they managed to mug it up right after I left, change the direction that I had them going in.

That's too bad. I would love to see Davey in a big league dugout again.

Here's a story about the Phillies touched by cancer and how the organization raises money to fight the disease.

Lyflines conducts an audit of the Red Sox performance in June.

John Paciorek joins Dugout Central with a salute to Ted Williams on the sixth anniversary of Ted's death.

Do they really expect us to believe that A-Rod would date Madonna? If you are going to date an older, once hot woman, aren't you better off with Rosanna Arquette? I mean, Madonna is so old, she dated Jose Canseco before A-Rod was drafted. Maybe Alex is this generation's Richard Fish.

The Hall of Fame will not display the ball Barry Bonds hit for his 756th home run.

"The owner's previous commitment to unconditionally donate the baseball has changed to a loan. As a result, the Hall of Fame will not be able to accept the baseball," the Hall said in a statement.

"Should the owner choose to unconditionally donate the ball to the museum at a future date, we would be delighted and of course, accept his offer," it said.

Good.

The revolution in the AL East continues tonight with the Red Sox sending Tim Wakefield against the Rays Matt Garza. Wakefield is posting his lowest ERA since 2002, when he spent most of the season in the pen. As a pure starter, this is the lowest his ERA's been since 1995, his first season with the Red Sox. Garza's June was his best month of the season in terms of strikeouts and walks. He fanned 26 while walking just seven in 31 1/3 innings.

At the other end of the standings, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati battle for last in the NL Central with Zach Duke taking on Edinson Volquez. Batter put lots of balls in play against Duke, but in the last two months, fewer are falling for hits. Volquez is quite the opposite. With high strikeout and walk totals, few balls are put in play, and the opposition is hitting just .202 against him.

Does anyone think Cliff Lee might be Cleveland's trade bait instead of C.C. Sabathia? Lee's trade value may never be higher as he tries to stop the White Sox and John Danks. John's home runs allowed are down from 40.3 per 200 innings in 2007 to 12.9 per 200 in 2008. That's 2/3 fewer long balls over the same amount of innings.

That Athletics try to shave another game off the Angels lead as Rich Harden faces Ervin Santana. Rich only pitched 16 innings on the road this season, but has yet to allow a home run away from home. Santana's walks jumped in June. We'll see if a selective A's team can take advantage of that.

Enjoy!

Find all your baseball betting needs at Bodog Internet Sportsbook!

Chad Cordero's shoulder forces him to miss the rest of the season:

Cordero will have surgery on the shoulder, which has been bothering him all season. The date for the procedure has not been set.

Cordero has pitched in only six games, allowing one run in 4 1/3 innings. Jon Rauch has been serving as the closer in Cordero's absence.

Despite last night, Rauch has pitched well for the Nationals. The problem is, instead of having a 1-2 punch at the end of the game, Washington just has the 2. There's really nothing backing up Jon in the bullpen. So unless the starters can go eight innings, there's there danger the setup men are going to get lit up.

Metstradamus is waiting for the Mets version of Shawn Chacon and Manny Ramirez:

But when it happens, it's going to be huge. And make no mistake, when you pour an underachieving team into a pot and mix it with a bitter fan base and let a relentless media horde turn up the heat to about 450, it's going to happen. Only question is when. Maybe after this Cardinals series, which ... with Tony Armas Jr. starting tomorrow, and the unhittable albatross from last September Joel Piniero ... is already shaping up to be a disaster. But the explosion is coming.

Make sure your disaster kit is ready. :-)

The Padres find a second baseman who can hit, and he's a 30-year-old rookie. Edgar V. Gonzalez put up good minor league numbers for a long time. It's amazing no one found a place for him sooner. Kudos to the Padres for realizing he might be useful after five organizations failed to call him up.

The Oakland Athletics defeated the LAnaheim Angels 6-1 last night, cutting the lead in both the AL West and the Wild card to 3 1/2 games. The Oakland battery starred last night. Greg Smith pitched a complete game, using just 101 pitches to stop the Angels on four hits. It's the second complete game for the rookie, the other an eight inning loss to the Angels. When few pitchers collect one complete game in a season, Smith's total of two is impressive.

Of course, both CG were against the Angels, the team tied for the most CG against in the majors:

Most Compete Games Against, 2008

Team	CG Against
Angels	8
Royals	8
White Sox	5
Twins	5
Mariners	4

The Angels philosophy is to put the ball in play. That makes it a bit easier for the opposing pitcher to be efficient. Smith took great advantage of that last night.

Kurt Suzuki knocked out two hits last night and scored a run, including a double. He's had an up and down season, but he's hot again and back at the top of the order:

Kurt Suzuki, 2008

Month	OBA	Slug Pct
March-April	.367	.330
May	.245	.277
June	.435	.543

Overall Kurt now holds a .348 OBA and a .375 slugging percentage. At those levels he's a useful offensive catcher. At his June levels he's a superstar.

With Aramis Ramirez away on a family emergency, Mark DeRosa took over at third base and inherited Ramirez's power. Mark hit two home runs, including a grand slam and drove in six runs as the Cubs rolled over the Giants 9-2. Barry Zito continues to look like he's done as he walked five in five innings, bring his total for the season to 53 in 85 2/3 innings against only 50 strikeouts. He's well on his way to 20 losses unless the Giants pull the plug.

I'll be making my weekly appearance on 1010XL in Jacksonville, FL at about 7:35 AM EDT this morning.

The Day by Day Database is up to date.