MySports Today

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!

White Sox GM Kenny Williams thought he had made a deal for San Diego Padres’ ace Jake Peavy a little over a month ago.  But Peavy rejected the trade.  Right after that, Peavy went on the DL with a strained tendon in his right ankle, but Williams never gave up his pursuit of the former Cy Young winner.  And right before the trading deadline on Friday, Williams’ efforts paid off with a steep price (Clayton Richard and Aaron Poreda are involved in the deal).  Peavy made 13 starts for the Padres in 2009, going 6-6 with a 3.97 ERA.  He is expected to be ready to pitch by the end of August, but the White Sox will proceed cautiously with their new “ace”.

Clayton Richard has been coming into his won of late.  In his last 2 starts against the Rays and Tigers, Richard pitched 8 innings allowing just 1 ER in each game.  Aaron Poreda is considered to be the White Sox best minor league pitching prospect, and he has shown how good he can be in 10 appearances during the 2009 MLB schedule.  Poreda has a 2.45 ERA, giving up 9 hits and 8 walks in 11 innings of relief work.  The White Sox also gave up young pitchers Dexter Carter and Adam Russell in the deal.

Assuming Peavy is healthy, you have to think that the White Sox should have what it takes to overtake the 1st place Detroit Tigers in the AL Central race.

Jonathan Sanchez of the San Francisco Giants threw the 1st no-hitter in MLB in 2009, when he defeated the San Diego Padres 8-0 in front of the home crowd on Friday night.  Sanchez threw a remarkable game – striking out 11 batters while issuing no walks.  He needed only 110 pitches and the only Padres player to reach base was Chase Headley who reached base on Juan Uribe’s fielding error on a ball hit to 3rd base.  That prevented Sanchez from throwing the 1st perfect game in the big leagues since Sanchez’s current teammate – Randy Johnson – did so with the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Atlanta Braves.

A couple of interesting notes surrounded the circumstances behind the no-hitter.  First of all, Sanchez had recently been demoted to the bullpen and had pitched out of the pen for the 3 weeks preceding last night’s start.  When randy Johnson went on the DL earlier this week, the Giants gave Sanchez the spot start to fill in for the iunjured Johnson.

Second, Bengie Molina was supposed to catch for Sanchez on Friday night, but his wife went into labor before the start of the game.  Back-up catcher Eli Whiteside got the nod instead and entered the history books by calling Sanchez’s no-hitter.

Third, Giants’ ace – and best pitcher – Tim Lincecum – took a no-hitter into the 7th inning the night before against the Padres, but couldn’t get the job done after Tony Gwynn, Jr. singled to lead off the 7th inning.  Sanchez had what it took on Friday night, throwing 77 of his 110 pitches for strikes.  Sanchez also had Rowand to thank, as he made a leaping catch of Edgar Gonzalez’s deep fly ball to center field for the 1nd out in the 9th inning.

The Giants gave Sanchez all the run support he would need with a 4-run 2nd inning.  The Giants tacked on 3 more runs in the 5th inning on a Pablo Sandoval 3-run HR.  The Giants final run of the game came home on Aaron Rowand’s RBI single in the 8th inning.  While Sanchez kept the Padres hitless, the Giants stroked 12 hits and scored 8 runs, 1 of their highest offensive outputs of the 2009 MLB schedule.

Sanchez’s dad was able to watch the no-hitter from the stands, and Jonathan had this to say about his accomplishment:  “Right now I’m just going to go home and hang out with my dad.  I was pumped that he was here watching the game.”

Congrats Jonathan – you deserve it!