Archives for July 2009

DeWayne Wise hit a game-ending RBI single in the ninth inning to give the Chicago White Sox a 3-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Thursday night. Nick Swisher tied it in the top half with a solo shot to left after the Yankees fell behind 2-1 in the seventh thanks to some shoddy defense. With the Red Sox's victory, New York's lead in the AL East dropped to 2 1/2 games.

After a miserable 1-6 road trip, the White Sox also got an RBI double by Gordon Beckham in the third inning as Chicago won for just the second time in eight games. Jim Thome singled with one out in the ninth off Yankees reliever Phil Hughes (4-3), who had not given up a run in his last 16 appearances. Paul Konerko followed with a single, advancing pinch-runner Scott Podsednik. Yankees reliever Phil Coke entered and retired A.J. Pierzynski. Wise, who came in as a late defensive replacement, followed with a liner to center that scored Podsednik easily from second and ended Hughes' scoreless streak at 25 1-3 innings.

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Add the names of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez to those that have been leaked from the list of 104 players who tested positive for the use of performance-enhancing drugs during Major League Baseball's 2003 survey testing. And the big question now on the minds of many observers -- ironically, in the wake of supposedly anonymous identities getting leaked by unauthorized, unnamed sources -- is, what will happen with the rest of the names?

"Can somebody in baseball, please -- we're all begging people -- get that stupid list out and move on?" White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said on Thursday night in Chicago. "This is ridiculous. This is embarrassing. This is a joke. Whoever is there is there, get them out and that's it.

"Every week we've got to come up with this thing. It's getting old. We all know the list is out there. It's like, who's going to be next? I think we should do it. Believe me, if that list is going to be out there, it's not going to be any problem for baseball. Maybe people will be upset, disappointed. But there are already a few names out there. Maybe they need to talk about it. Maybe we need to talk about this every week to get people's attention, but it's not the right way to get attention."

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Curtis Granderson led off the game with a home run and connected again in the second inning, and Justin Verlander equaled a career high by striking out 13 as the Detroit Tigers beat the Texas Rangers 13-5 Wednesday night.

The Tigers scored in each of the first seven innings and matched a season high with 19 hits.
Miguel Cabrera, who had four hits and four RBIs, and Marcus Thames also homered for Detroit. Andruw Jones homered twice for Texas.

Verlander (12-5) tied for the major league lead in wins. He boosted his AL-leading strikeout total to 172 while pitching seven innings.

The AL Central-leading Tigers improved to 5-8 since the All-Star break and scored more than three runs for just the fifth time in the span. Detroit stopped Texas' six-game home winning streak.
Texas pitching coach Mike Maddux made six trips to the mound, including five in the first four innings, to try and settle down his pitchers.

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Michael Cuddyer's two-run homer in the sixth inning pushed Minnesota past Chicago 4-3 on Monday night, pulling the Twins' record back to even and sending the White Sox to yet another defeat at the Metrodome.

John Danks (8-7) allowed two earned runs and six hits over seven innings after missing his last start due to a finger blister, but that wasn't enough to keep the Sox from their 12th loss in the last 14 games at Minnesota's soon-to-be-vacated dome.

Glen Perkins (6-6) was a little bit better than Danks over seven innings of his own, letting Matt Guerrier and Joe Nathan finish the game and bring the Twins' record to 50-50 with the AL Central race thickening. When the day began, Detroit was in first, Chicago was two games back and Minnesota was four games behind.

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Perfect again into the sixth inning against Minnesota, Chicago White Sox ace Mark Buehrle wound up with a loss despite a record-setting performance.

Coming off the 18th perfect game in major league history, Buehrle retired the first 17 batters on Tuesday night to set a record with 45 outs in a row before the Twins rallied for a 5-3 victory over the White Sox.
Buehrle (11-4) lost what would have been his second straight perfect game and his no-hitter with two outs in the sixth. He wound up allowing five runs on five hits in 6 1-3 innings.

He'll have to take a big league record as a consolation prize. He surpassed the mark of 41 straight set by San Francisco's Jim Barr in 1972 and tied by teammate Bobby Jenks, a reliever, in 2007.
Nick Punto had a two-run single and Brendan Harris added an RBI-single in Minnesota's four-run seventh inning to move the Twins (51-50) into a tie with the White Sox for second place in the AL Central.
Buehrle breezed through the first 5 2-3 innings as he chased history. No pitcher has ever thrown two perfect games in a row, but the crafty lefty was on track to do just that when he walked Alexi Casilla on a close call with two outs in the sixth.

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Tony Bernazard, the team's vice president of player personnel, was dismissed after getting into a heated argument with All-Star closer Francisco Rodriguez, challenging Double-A players to a fight and berating a team employee over a seating mix-up.

Then the news conference took a bizarre turn when the focus shifted to Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News and stories he wrote, documenting problems in the club's minor-league system. "You got to understand this: Adam for the past couple of years has lobbied for a player-development position. He has lobbied myself, he has lobbied Tony," Minaya said.

Rubin asked Minaya if he was alleging that he conspired to get Bernazard fired. "No, I'm not saying that," Minaya said. "I am saying, in the past, you have lobbied for a job." Rubin vehemently denied Minaya's allegations.

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Josh Willingham hit two grand slams and tied a franchise record with eight RBIs, powering the Washington Nationals to a 14-6 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night. Willingham became the 13th player to hit two grand slams in a game and first since Boston's Bill Mueller hit one from each side of the plate on July 29, 2003, against Texas. Willingham's eight RBIs were the most in Nationals history and tied the franchise mark, accomplished last by Tim Wallach for Montreal against San Diego in 1990.

No, Rickey Henderson did not speak in the third person during his Hall of Fame induction speech Sunday. So many people around the game had wondered if he would. But Henderson's 14-minute speech very much had a Rickey feel anyway.

His words may have been scripted and he spoke slowly, but the content didn't change. In other words, you can't ever take the Rickey out of Rickey. Wearing a loud cream-colored suit, Henderson took the 21,000 people gathered on the grass outside Clark Sports Center on his path from his childhood in Alameda, Calif., to becoming baseball's stolen-base king. And it was an entertaining speech, even if he later regretted unintentionally leaving out a few important details. Such as, say, the names of his daughters.

"As most people say, I talk faster than I think," he said. "I was trying to slow my speech down and not make a mistake. But when you have a clip on the pages and one gets stuck, you're wondering what was on that page, what that page was all about. But at the same time you've got to continue to give your speech.

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Paul Konerko hit a two-run homer in Chicago's four-run first, Gordon Beckham added a solo home run the next inning and the White Sox coasted to a 5-1 win Sunday night over the Detroit Tigers and avoided a sweep.

Clayton Richard (4-3) allowed only a run on five hits over eight innings to help the White Sox salvage a four-game series that started with them tied atop the AL Central with Detroit. The Tigers lead Chicago by two games and the Minnesota Twins by four.

Rick Porcello (9-7) gave up five runs and five hits over 5 1-3 innings. The rookie has allowed 19 earned runs in his last four starts after giving up 16 earned runs in the previous 10 outings.
Porcello got off to a rough start, loading the bases with two singles and a walk. Jim Thome followed with a fielder's choice to drive in the first run and the second one came on Adam Everett's throwing error on the play.

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The Chicago Cubs scratched Ted Lilly from his scheduled start today against the Cincinnati Reds because of a sore shoulder that could land the team's only All-Star on the disabled list. Citing team sources, the Chicago Tribune reported that Lilly probably will be placed on the D.L. today because of shoulder tendinitis. The team was awaiting results of an MRI exam Friday.

The Cubs are hoping it's not more serious because a tear in the biceps area would force him to undergo arthroscopic surgery that would jeopardize his season.  Lilly is 9-7 with a 3.59 ERA. He started feeling soreness in his left shoulder Monday, when he allowed nine runs in four innings in a 10-1 loss at Philadelphia.

Texas Rangers left-hander Matt Harrison is expected to undergo surgery to alleviate pain in his shoulder. Harrison has been diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, which affects the nerves that pass through the shoulder into the neck. The surgery would remove a rib on the left side of his upper chest.

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