It was not as unlikely as the earthquake that rocked the D.C. area Tuesday, but a rare home run by Sean Burroughs helped power the D-backs past the Nationals, 2-0, in front of 17,029 at Nationals Park.
The win snapped Arizona’s six-game losing streak and capped a wild day that saw a 5.8-magnitude earthquake snarl traffic and prevent the team bus from arriving at the ballpark until about 1 hour, 45 minutes before the scheduled start of the game.
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“I was basically looking dead red fastball, ...
The old “stick the pitcher in the outfield for one batter” move! Wright went to…err, right.
Wesley Wright pitching for Houston W Wright relieved F Rodriguez.
C Gonzalez fouled out to catcher D Carpenter relieved W Wright W Wright in right field
T Tulowitzki grounded out to shortstop
J Shuck in right field W Wright relieved D Carpenter
T Helton struck out looking.
“Position player on the mound” alert: Skip Schumaker pitched the ninth: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 K, 1 BB, 1 HR (to Aaron Miles, TLR’s former mopup man)
Clayton Kershaw won his National League-leading 16th game and Rod Barajas homered twice in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 13-2 victory over the fast-fading St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.
Kyle Lohse (11-8) was rocked for a season-worst eight runs in three innings, an impossible deficit against the 23-year-old Kershaw, who struck out eight in six ...
Yankees right-hander Mark Prior has been scratched from his scheduled minor league appearance because of shoulder discomfort.
The converted reliever was slated to pitch in a Gulf Coast League game on Tuesday.
Prior has struggled with shoulder injuries and his last major league appearance came in August 2006. The 30-year-old went 18-6 with a 2.43 ERA in 30 starts for the NL Central champion Chicago Cubs in 2003.
Prior has made six appearance with the Yankees’ ...
The Felix Pie era in Baltimore appears to be officially over.
The talented but mistake-prone outfielder was designated for assignment today and replaced on the Orioles’ 25-man roster by Matt Angle.
Pie, 26, was batting just .220 with seven RBIs in 85 games, while also struggling defensively… In 268 games for the Orioles over the past three seasons, Pie has batted .259 (182-for-704) with 14 homers and 67 RBIs…
Angle will assume the fourth outfielder role. The ...
After a promising start to the return of minor league baseball here 13 years ago, a persistent dark cloud has settled over the Bears and their cozy ballpark near the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. In recent years, the team has changed ownership several times, gone into bankruptcy and emerged to an almost nonexistent fan base and grim financial reality.
The Bears are more than $800,000 in arrears on rent to Essex County and have provided little in ticket and sponsorship revenue due the ...
“Let me say one more time, loudly…R…A…....Dickeee!”
R.A. Dickey was holding court before Friday night’s Mets- Brewers games at Citi Field. He was talking about why he recently joined Twitter, his upcoming climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the manuscript for his memoir that is due out next April, and how throwing the knuckleball is about relationship and perfection. I asked Dickey if he could have imagined two years ago his position in the game today. “The human narrative is just a neat ...
...The Oakland A’s announced today that they have sent third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff and cash to the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later or cash considerations.
Kouzmanoff, who was supposed to be a steadying presence at third base and provide power to Oakland’s light-hitting lineup, was traded to Colorado Tuesday after spending much of the 2011 season at Triple-A Sacramento.
Kouzmanoff, acquired in a trade in January 2010, began this season as ...
Shock waves from an earthquake on the East Coast made the press box sway slightly and sent some fans toward the exits during the first game of a doubleheader between the Indians and Seattle Mariners.
As the Mariners were batting in the fourth inning Tuesday, the press box high above home plate and the third-base line moved left and right and continued for nearly 30 seconds. Fans sitting in the upper deck at Progressive Field noticed the unusual movement, and weren’t sure what was happening.
Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and Nyjer Morgan are on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated, the first time since 1987 the magazine has featured an all-Brewers cover.
The story by Lee Jenkins is headlined “Living the High Life,” with the subhead “How T-Plush and Two Wallbanging MVP Candidates Are Mixing a Strange Brew in Milwaukee.”
Great… now we’re gonna lose 2/3 of our outfield and our first baseman. Just in time for the playoff run, too!
It’s from fangraphs and I can’t get a cut and paste, but basically some kid call Bautista a slur, and Bautista tells the kid to stop hating, and that he’s a douche.
Speaking of Bautista, here’s something to smile about:
June 5, 2000: Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 20th round of the 2000 amateur draft. Player signed May 19, 2001.
December 15, 2003: Drafted by the Baltimore Orioles from the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2003 rule 5 draft.
June 3, 2004: Selected off waivers by the Tampa ...
Anyone with even a passing familiarity with the 2011 New York Yankees knows they have one of the best offensive attacks in the league. They are edging out the Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers for the most runs scored in baseball this season, and it’s hard to find a true weakness in the lineup to exploit. The Yankees hit at home and on the road, against lefties and righties, against fly-ball pitchers and ground-ball pitchers. With apologies to the late great Dr. Seuss, this team would score ...
Me? I’m following Aaron Harang’s 12 - 3 season…just to see if he returns that potion to Throckmorton’s Curio Shop on time!
September is around the corner, that time of year when baseball fans pretend to care about that little sport called football. The pennant races and wild-card chases don’t look too dramatic right now, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of reasons to remain excited about the final five-plus weeks.
5. Michael Young’s pursuit of his second batting title.
With five weeks remaining in the season, Granderson hasn’t just worked his way into the MVP conversation, he’s emerged as the favorite.
“With five weeks to go, I’d say he’s the front-runner,” one voter said. “But it’s a very close race.”
Granderson leads the league in runs, RBI, total bases, triples and extra-base hits, is second in home runs and slugging percentage and third in OPS. He also ranks in the top 12 in stolen bases, walks and on-base percentage, ...
The one where a New York Met successfully does not take a poop on the field.
After Evans walked, and no batter appeared, home plate umpire Mike DiMuro strolled toward the bench. The crowd began to boo. The public address announcer waited.
Where was Pagan?
“I told the trainer, I have to go to the bathroom,” Pagan said.
Turns out, the center fielder felt a rumble at the end of the fourth. It arrived suddenly, and with great force. Pagan said he informed trainer Ray Ramirez, and ran to the ...
Although BVWAJ (Bobby Valentine Who’s A Jerk) is certainly no blip.
We’ve noted before that Heyward is swinging more and accomplishing less. (His batting average and on-base percentage tell us that much.) We’ve also noted that this is the truly baffling part. Unlike, say, Jordan Schafer, who has struck out a lot at every level, Heyward arrived in the majors bearing the stamp of a young player who knew the strike zone and could work a count.
In recent weeks, the Brewers have been celebrating big hits by raising both arms in the air, a gesture that Prince Fielder says it began with his kids imitating characters from the animated movie, “Monsters, Inc.” Fielder did it after driving in both of his runs in Sunday’s win over the Mets.
Lately, even some routine singles have become cause for celebration. Is Roenicke OK with that? Not really.
But before going to players with a request to tone things ...
“accuracy - not flakiness” Handles for sale! Get your red hot handles!
Skill-Interactive Earned Run Average (SIERA)
Skill-Interactive Earned Run Average estimates ERA through walk rate, strikeout rate and ground ball rate, eliminating the effects of park, defense and luck. How is it calculated you ask?
Your ball’s got a little machine
You’re the ball-strike machine.
Jorge Posada stepped up. And this was the at-bat that sparked this blog post. [Joakim] Soria’s first pitch was way off for a ball. His second looked to be about three or four inches outside—and the umpire called it a strike… Soria then threw a nifty little pitch—MLB defined it as a slider, but it looked more like a very tight curveball—at the knees on the outside corner for strike two. That was one heck of a pitch.
In the name of the crappiest team that has ever trod this earth…
I come to the conclusion that it’s a fair deal for both sides. The Royals paid [Jeff] Francoeur his market value, more or less.
And with all that, I don’t like the deal.
The first reason for my skepticism is this: why now? Why hand out a multi-year deal in the middle of the season? This wouldn’t bother me so much if the Royals didn’t have an official policy of not negotiating contracts during the season. I mean, just ...
Once upon a time, it was the killer bees that were going to get us all. Moths? Not so scary.
A moth got stuck deep in Holliday’s right ear Monday night, forcing the St. Louis Cardinals slugger out of a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
With two outs in the top of the eighth inning, Holliday walked off the field holding his ear. Cardinals trainer Barry Weinberg tried to assist the All-Star left fielder as he headed toward the dugout.
“He had a moth fly into his ear, deep into his ...
And with the Tigers’ 5-2 win over the Rays, Verlander (19-5) reached the cusp of becoming Detroit’s first 20-game winner in 20 years.
The Tigers, meanwhile, maintained their command atop the AL Central. They improved their lead over the just-swept Indians to 5 1/2 games after Cleveland lost to Seattle on Monday night.
Verlander gave up his lone run on his fourth pitch of the night, a 95 mph fastball tagged by his former Tigers teammate Matt Joyce for his 17th home run of the year. From there, ...
At Fangraphs, Pedroia ranks second in all of baseball in WAR, behind only Toronto’s Jose Bautista. That high standing is due to how loftily Fangraphs rates Pedroia’s defense at second base, since he ranks ninth in the offensive component of WAR, behind teammates Ellsbury and David Ortiz.
Not only is he listed as the best in the game at his position, Pedroia is also credited with saving more runs defensively than all but one player in baseball. ...
At the time, the right calf strain that sent Derek Jeter to the disabled list on June 14 appeared as though it would simply delay his chase for 3,000 hits by three weeks.
Two months later, the time off looks like a blessing in disguise.
In addition to getting healthy, Jeter used the time off to work on his swing with instructor Gary Denbo at the Yankees’ training complex in Tampa, Fla.
. . .
Since coming off the disabled list on July 4, Jeter has batted .339, reaching base at a .392 clip ...
Jayson Werth hit a three-run homer, Ross Detwiler took a four-hitter into the seventh inning and the Washington Nationals beat Arizona 4-1 Monday night to extend the Diamondbacks’ losing streak to a season-high six games.
Henry Blanco homered for the Diamondbacks, who have scored only seven runs in their last six games. Mired in its longest skid since a seven-game run in July 2010, Arizona now leads second-place San Francisco by just one game in the NL West.
...
Nationals RHP Stephen ...
“We have six guys who can pitch in a pennant race, period,” Cashman said. “A.J. Burnett is having his typical terrible August. For whatever reason, he can’t pitch in August, I don’t know why. It is what it is. August is obviously not an effective month for him.”...Cashman added that Burnett “is not our No. 2 starter,” but hasn’t pitched poorly enough to be treated like “Oliver Perez.”
Anchor Brian Kenny is leaving ESPN and becoming a TV free agent.
Kenny will host his final SportsCenter in early September, confirmed ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys. “Brian did great work for us. His contract was up and he found a new opportunity,” Soltys said Monday night.
Given his experience covering Major League Baseball, the veteran anchor/host could be a good fit with rival MLB Network, which has been competing with ESPN for TV talent and ...
