MySports Today

Derek Jeter had 3 hits in the New York Yankees 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays at the New Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night.  The 3rd hit of the night tied Lou Gehrig’s record for most hits by a New York Yankees player.  Pretty amazing accomplishment for a franchise with such a storied history.  Plus, in a day and age where players change teams so often with free agency, it’s amazing that Jeter has remained a Yankees since the day he first stepped foot in to the major leagues.   Gehrig held the hit # @ 2,721 for more than 70 years – WOW!  Jeter had this to say about the honor: “I really didn’t know what to do because we were losing at the time and I didn’t want to disrespect Tampa. I never dreamt about all of this…He’s one of the classiest people to ever play this game.  It’s just kind of mind-boggling to have my name next to his.”

45,848 fans were in a attendance to see Jeter tie the record. They gave him a 2-minute standing ovation, and several Rays players even stood up in their dugout to cheer on Jeter.  The Yankees are running away with the best record in baseball in 2009.  The Yankees have a 91-50 record and are 9 games ahead of the Boston Red Sox for 1st place in the AL East.  The Angels and the Cardinals are the next closest teams with 84 wins each.  Congrats Derek – you are a class guy and you deserve it…

The Yankees and Red Sox will resume their bitter rivalry with a 3-game weekend series at Fenway Park this weekend.  After the Red Sox won the 1st 8 games of the series in 2009 – with sweeps in April, May and June – the Red Sox sent the reeling Red Sox to a 6th consecutive loss just 12 days ago when the Yankees swept the Red Sox in a 4-game weekend set at the New Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.  The Yankees outscored the Red Sox 25-8 in the series, as only 1 of the games – a 15-inning 2-0 marathon on Friday night – was really close.  That sweep pushed the Red Sox back further in the race for the AL East, and the Yankees still have a commanding 6 1/2 games lead for the division title.

The pitching match-ups favor the Yankees right now.  Brad Penny v. Andy Petitte on Friday night; A.J. Burnett v. Junichi Tazawa on Saturday afternoon with the FOX game of the week; and CC Sabathia v. Josh Beckett on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball.  With those match-ups, you gotta think the Yankees will win at least 2 of the games, but I guess anything is possible.  If the Red Sox don’t get off to a good start on Friday night, it could be a long weekend for Red Sox Nation in Boston…

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!

The Yankees were flying high after Hideki Matsui’s walk-off home run on Monday night gave the Yankees a big 2-1 win over the Orioles.  It was the Yankees 4th win in a row after the All-Star Break and at 55-37, the Yankees were in a 1st place tie with the Red Sox in the AL East.  The Red Sox had lost 3 of their 4 games after the break, and the Yankees took advantage of the opening.

It should be an interesting stretch run the last 2+ months of the season.  Kate Hudson seems to like the performance of her beau Alex Rodriguez – she’s been taking in Yankees games of late and seems to be bringing the team a lot of good luck…

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.

The 2009 MLB All-Star Game is set for tonight at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.  The National League will try to win its 1st All-Star Game in 13 years – it is the longest unbeaten streak in All-Star history.

Reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants will take on Roy Halladay of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Here’s how the lineups look:

AL – Ichiro Suzuki RF (Seattle Mariners); Derek Jeter SS (NY Yankees); Joe Mauer C (Minnesota Twins); Mark Teixeira 1B (NY Yankees); Jason Bay LF (Boston Red Sox); Josh Hamilton CF (Texas Rangers); Michael Young 3B (Texas Rangers); & Aaron Hill 2B (Toronto Blue Jays).

NL – Hanley Ramirez SS (Florida Marlins); Chase Utley 2B (Philadelphia Phillies); Albert Pujols 1B (St. Louis Cardinals); Ryan Braun RF (Milwaukee Brewers); Raul Ibanez LF (Philadelphia Phillies); David Wright 3B (NY Mets); Shane Victorino CF (Philadelphia Phillies); & Yadier Molina C (St. Louis Cardinals).

On a side not, President Barack Obama will throw out the ceremonial 1st pitch to St. Louis’ own Albert Pujols.

Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers defeated Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers int he Home Run Hitting Contest on Monday night.

The 2009 MLB All-Star Game is set to start at 8:05PM and will be televised on FOX.

We all kind of suspected it, but our suspicions were confirmed when the NY Times reported that Sammy Sosa was one of the players that tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs back in 2003.  The Yankees Alex Rodriguez is the only other player that has been linked to the 2003 positive PED test results.

Sosa went from a skinny outfielder to a muscular hunk of a ballplayer during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.  Sosa is the only player in major league baseball history to hit 60 or more home runs in 3 different seasons.  While the release of Rodriguez’s name and Sosa’s name has raised other issues – the test results were to remain anonymous under an agreement between MLB and the players union – it is a shame to finally have confirmation that Sosa used PED’s to enhance his play on the field.  Sosa played for the Cubs from 1992-2004 and was the main draw for Cubs fans during that time.  He is the Cubs all-time home run leader with 545 home runs.

During the Cubs-White Sox cross-town classic this week at Wrigley Field, Cubs Manager Lou Pinella and White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen both commented on the Sosa outing and the test results.

Pinella had this to say:  “It’s a shame that baseball keeps going back to the past.  Baseball is doing a good job today of cleaning up all these issues.  That’s what we should be focusing on.  I don’t know how this news gets out.  In my case, I wasn;’t here, and I wish that we would just focus on today and what the sport is doing as opposed to what happened in the past.”

Guillen had this to say:  “It’s very, very sad how names start to come out.  And every week baseball has to deal with these names.  And whoever is leaking the information, whoever got the rights to the information, they should right away say something and get it over with, because it’s put everyone in baseball, not just Chicago people, everyone in baseball, dealing with this situation they shouldn’t be dealing with any more.  We got enough time to clean this thing.”

Only 2 of the 103 players that tested positive during the 2003 testing have been identified.  At this point, if names are going to be leaked out 1 by 1, we should really just get it over with it and have all the names disclosed.  It’s ridiculous that all of the focus is on Sosa and Rodriguez because someone broke the law and violated the terms of the confidentiality of the testing.  The person leaking these names should be forced to disclose the source, so that the source can be properly punished for violating the terms of the testing.  We doubt this will ever happen, but until someone makes a fuss over this, we’ll continue to get information piecemeal over time.  Not good for baseball, for the players or for us, the fans.

The Yankees defeated the Rangers 11-1, pounding out 19 hits along the way.  Alex Rodriguez went 5 for 5 for the Yankees, with 4 RBI’s and 2 runs scored.  Overall, the Yankees pounded out 19 hits and 3 walks against 3 Rangers pitchers – Matt Harrison, Kris Benson & Warner Madrigal.

Phil Hughes pitched a gem for the Yankees – 8 scoreless innings of 3 hit, 1 walk ball.  He also had 6 K’s and Manager Joe Girardi pulled him after 8 innings because he had racked up 101 pitches.

With the win, the Yankees moved into sole possession of 2nd place in the AL East, just 1 game behind the Red Sox.

The Yankees are glad to have A-Rod back.  A-Rod delivered a game-ending walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th inning on Saturday afternoon to give the Yankees a 6-4 win over the Twins.  It was the 2nd game in a row in which the Yankees had a walk-off hit to end the game – Melky Cabrera’s single in the bottom of the 9th inning on Friday night off closer Joe Nathan gave the Yankees the come-from-behind 5-4 win.

The Yankees led for most of the game until the Twins took a 4-3 lead in the 8th on a Justin Morneau HR and a Brian Brescher RBI double.  But the Yankees came right back in the bottom of the inning on Mark Teixeira’s RBI single.  Teixeira was 4 for 4 on the day with a HR, 4 RBI’s and 2 runs scored.  In the 11th inning, Teixeira struck again – this time with a lead off walk from Craig Breslow.  A-Rod then finished Breslow off with his cruching 2-run HR to deep left field.  Mariano worked 2 scoreless innings in the 9th and 10th, and Alfredo Aceves picked up his 1st win of the 2009 campaign with a scoreless top of the 11th inning.

The Yankees have won 4 straight games and are now 19-17 on the season.  The Yankees trail the 1st place Toronto Blue Jays by 4.5 games in the AL East and go for the sweep of the Twins on Sunday with A.J. Burnett on the bump.

A-Rod was all the Yankees needed to end a 5-game skid.  A-Rod crushed the 1st pitch he saw on his 2009 season for a 3-run home run that put the Yankees up 3-0 in the 1st inning.  That would be all that CC Sabathia needed as he cruised through a complete game 4-hitter.  Sabathia needed only 112 pitches to earn his 2nd victory of the season.  Sabathia walked 1 and had 8 K’s.  But the big story was A-Rod who had been rehabbing his hip injury for the last week in the minors.  A-Rod had this to say about his 1st game of 20009 – “It was awesome.  It was just nice to get to the ballpark, give the guys a hug and do what I do best.”

Let’s see if this is the catalyst the Yankees needed to get their season back on track…