It was a crazy night in baseball on Friday night as the MLB schedule saw lots of walk-off home runs.  It’s not too late to get MLB tickets to see exciting pennant race baseball the rest of the way.  Here’s a little tidbit of the games most exciting endings:

Yankees 2, Red Sox 0 in 15 innings – Alex Rodriguez hit a walk-off 2-run home run against Junichi Tazawa and the Boston Red Sox in the bottom of the 15th inning.

Padres 6, Mets 2 – Mets Closer Francisco Rodriguez blew a 2-1 9th inning lead.  The Padres scored 5 runs of K-Rod in the 9th inning, winning it on Everth Cabrera’s walk-off Grand Slam.

Mariners 7, Rays 6 in 12 innings.  After the Rays took a 6-5 lead in the top of the 12th inning, the Mariners topped the Rays on Ryan Langerhans 2-run walk-off home run.

Braves 9, Dodgers 5 in 12 innings.  The Braves tied the game at 5 on Garrett Anderson’s RBI single off of Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton in the 9th inning.  In the 12th inning, the Braves took the lead for good on a Yunel Escobar RBI single and a 3-run home run by Ryan Church.

Reds 10, Giants 5 – The Reds scored 2 runs in the 8th inning to tie the game at 5, and then piled on 5 runs in the 9th inning to pull off the improbably 10-5 win over the wild card-leading Giants in San Francisco.

Lots of fun games to watch – gotta love these pennant races!

In the latest leak surrounding the 2003 MLB drug tests, it is now reported that Boston Red Sox teammates David Ortiz & Manny Ramirez were among the 104 MLB players that tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs back in 2003.  While Manny being on the list is not surprising at all (he just finished serving a 50-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy this year), if you’ve ever seen “Big Papi’s” physique, it is shocking to believe that Ortiz was using.

Alex Rodriguez was “outed” back in February as one of the “Evil 104″ that tested positive and Sammy Sosa was the next name leaked back in June.  At this point, someone just needs to approve the release of all the names to put an end to this charade.  At the time of the testing, none of the players were in violation of any MLB rule against using performance-enhancing drugs, so the fact that players tested positive is irrelevant.  The source of the leaks should be “outed” as well – the person or persons is/are in violation of explicit confidentiality provisions protecting the results of the testing and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for violating such terms.

For the latest news on the report, click here!

At least Big Papi hit a game-winning 3-run HR in the 7th inning of today’s Red Sox win over the A’s at Fenway Park.  You da man Big Papi!!!

The American League defeated the National League 4-3 in the 2009 MLB All-Star Game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.  The AL is now 12-0-1 since its last defeat back in Philadelphia back in 1996.  The last time the NL didn’t lose was at Miller Park in Milwaukee in 2002 when the two leagues tied 7-7 after 11 innings.

The AL jumped on NL starter Tim Lincecum right off the bat with a single by Ichiro Suzuki and a HBP by Derek Jeter.  After a Joe Mauer groundout that forced out Ichiro at 3rd base, Derek Jeter scored the game’s 1st run on a fielder’s choice error by home town hero Albert Pujols at 1st base.  Jason Bay then followed with a single to center field that loaded the bases, and the AL scored another run on a Josh Hamilton fielder’s choice groundout.  Hamilton avoided getting doubled up at 1st to allow Mauer to score.

The NL scored all 3 of their runs in the 2nd inning and took a 3-2 lead.  After 2 quick hits, the NL put together 4 straight hits off AL starter Roy Halladay to take the lead.  David Wright and Shane Victorino singled, and home town Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina delivered an RBI single to center field that allowed Wright and Victorino to score after a Hamilton throwing error.  Prince Fielder then pinch-hit for Lincecum and put the NL ahead with an RBI double to left field that scored Molina.  But the NL offense disappeared the rest of the way, as 22 of their final 24 batters failed to reach base.

The AL tied the game in the 5th inning off of Chad Billingsley on a Joe Mauer double that scored Derek Jeter.  With the game tied at 3 in the bottom of the 7th inning, the Tampa Bay Rays Carl Crawford made a specatacular catch by pulling back Brad Hawpe’s shot to deep left field that would have been a home run.  The next inning, Detroit Tigers Curtis Granderson tripled and scored the winning run on an Andruw Jones’ sacrifice fly.

The AL pitching said it all on Tuesday night.  From the 3rd through the 7th innings, Mark Buehrle, Zach greinke, Edwin Jackson, Felix Hernandez and Jonathan Papelbon each worked perfect innings.  After getting the 1st 2 outs of the 8th inning, Joe Nathan allowed a walk and a hit to put the go ahead runs on base.  But he was able to strike out Phillies slugger Ryan Howard to end the threat.  And Mariano Rivera worked a perfect 9th inning to preserve the win for the AL and home field advantage for the AL in the 2009 World Series.  No one had more than 1 of anything except for Jeter – he scored 2 runs despite never getting a hit.

Carl Crawford was named the 2009 All-Star Game’s MVP for his spectacular catch that saved the game at the time for the AL.  Crawford became the 1st non-pitcher to win the MVP Award without having an RBI or scoring a run.

Couple of side notes – President Barack Obama honored former Cards great Lou Brock before the game and threw out the 1st pitch – in a Chicago White Sox jacket – to current Cards great Albert Pujols.  Obama became the 5th sitting U.S. President to throw out the 1st pitch at an MLB All-Star Game (the NL had won each of those previous games up until last night).  Former Cards great Stan Musial – one of the games’ greatest hitters of all-time – was also honored before the game.

The 2010 MLB All-Star Game will be played at Angel Stadium, the home field for the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles.

It looked like the Mets were going to pull off the upset against the best team in the NL on their home turf, but just like that, the Ryan Church was called out on an appeal play at 3rd base in the top of the 11th ining and the Mets defense deserted reliever Brian Stokes in the bottom of the inning to cost the team the win.

Top of the 11th – With 2 outs Ryan Church singled to left field and appeared to score on Angel Pagan’s triple to the give the Mets the 3-2 lead.  However, Dodgers Manager Joe Torre appealed the play and the 3rd base umpire called Church out for failing to touch 3rd base.  Not good.

Bottom of the 11th – Brian Stokes issued the dreaded lead off walk to Mark Loretta.  Xavier Paul then reached on an erros when Pagan interfered with center fielder’s Carlos Beltran’s view of the ball on a routine fly ball – 2nd and 3rd nobody out.  Not good.  Manager Jerry Manuel ordered the intentional walk to Juan Pierre and Stokes induced Rafael Furcal into a short flyball out to left field.  When Orlando Hudson hit a weak groundball to 1st baseman Jeremy Reed, it looked like the Mets would get out of the inning, but Reed threw a horrible ball towards home plate and Loretta scored with the winning run.

After beating the Giants on the 1st 3 games of this 7 game road trip, the Mets lost the finale to the Giants on Sunday and the 1st game of the 3-game set in L.A.  The Mets will rely on John Maine and Livan Hernandez to try to salvage the last 2 games of the L.A. series.

Manny Ramirez has been suspended by Major League Baseball – effective immediately for violating the league’s ban against performance enhancing drugs.  The suspension will last 50 games – the minimum games suspension for a 1st time offender of the drug policy.  Manny claims that his doctor prescribed him a drug to treat an existing medical condition, and that that drug caused the violation of the MLB drug policy.

Whatever…

Jayson Stark has a great piece on why we should not forgive Manny – check it out!

Oh yeah – another steroids user is making his 2009 debut tonight for the Yankees – these 2 should be forced to live together in a 10 by 10 room for a month without any windows.  See how they look and act after that…