Verlander Helps Tigers Salvage Finale Against Red
Sox

post from TigerBlog on 13 August 2009 11:17:14 PM. © TigerBlog

Well, the first three games in this series didn’t go very well but Justin Verlander fulfilled his role as ace by coming up with a shutdown outing against one of the better offenses in baseball. Verlander was throwing 100 mph late in the game and he needed it to strike out eight in eight shutout [...]

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Get that Royals Jersey ready

post from Royals Review on 13 August 2009 11:17:00 PM. © Royals Review

Get that Royals Jersey ready

After the completion of his 50 game suspension for testing positive for steroids, the Braves have released right-handed reliever Rafael Cruz. In 30 games this season prior to his suspension, Cruz compiled a 1-3 record with a 3.45 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP for Mississippi and Gwinnett.

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Michael Vick is an Eagle

post from The Human Review - Sports on 13 August 2009 10:56:00 PM. © The Human Review - Sports

Biggest news of the day comes from Philadelphia where Michael Vick signed a two-year deal to backup Donovan McNabb and be an X-factor in the wildcat and possible trick play situations.We'll just briefly address this by saying that the Eagles now have[...]

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Out-Hit, Out-Pitched, Out-Played ... and Swept -
Cubs 1 Phillies 6

post from ChicagoCubsOnline.com on 13 August 2009 10:42:52 PM. © ChicagoCubsOnline.com

Game One Hundred-Thirteen - Cubs 1 Phillies 6
WP - Cliff Lee (10-9) LP - Ryan Dempster (6-6) Save - None

The Cubs lost their fifth game in a row and finished what Lou Piniella called an important seven-game stretch with a 1-6 record. The Cubs also completed the season-series with the World Champs with a 1-5 mark. They displayed inning after inning how much improvement must be made in order to just catch-up. The Cubs have not won a season series against the Phillies since 2001.

Ryan Dempster began the game on a positive note. Dempster surrendered just one hit the first time through the lineup but that all changed in the fourth inning.

A single by Shane Victorino and a walk to Chase Utley put two on with no outs ahead of Ryan Howard. Howard gave the Phillies a 3-0 lead with a little help from the wind. Howard launched his 27th of the year into the bleachers in left. Two batters later Pedro Feliz added his ninth longball of the year, a solo shot to left ... and with the way Cliff Lee was pitching, a 4-0 lead would be more than enough for the Phillies to leave town with a victory.

Ryan Dempster hung around and completed seven innings of work. Dempster gave up six runs on eight hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. While Dempster struggled, Cliff Lee was sitting down one batter after the other.

The Cubs managed only one run on six hits in eight innings against Cliff Lee. Lee improved to 3-0 in a Phillies' uniform. He walked three and struck out eight. The Cubs lone RBI of the game, a one-out single to center in the fifth by Ryan Theriot that plated Jeff Baker.

Ryan Theriot set a new-career high in RBI with his 46th on Thursday afternoon.

Jeff Baker reached base in all four trips to the plate. Baker finished 2-for-2 with a double, a run scored and two walks.

Justin Berg made his big league debut on Thursday. He walked a batter and gave up two hits in two innings of work with a strikeout. Berg threw strikes (27 pitches, 16 for strikes), a rarity of late for the Cubs' bullpen.

The Cubs could not take advantage of Cliff Lee's control problems in the second inning. Lee walked two and gave up a single to Jake Fox but Ryan Dempster struck out swinging with the bases loaded to end the inning. Lee threw 122 pitches in eight innings, 82 for strikes and dominated the Cubs lineup after the second inning.

With the loss, the Cubs lost a half game in the standings to the Cardinals and will enter play on Friday 4 1/2 back of St. Louis in the division ...

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Chris Sampson optioned to Round Rock, Samuel
Gervacio called up

post from The Crawfish Boxes on 13 August 2009 10:06:00 PM. © The Crawfish Boxes

Chris Sampson optioned to Round Rock, Samuel Gervacio called up

Richard Justice, via Twitter. My condolences to Sampson who should be sent to the DL, not AAA.

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Wrong 'em 'Royo! Stagger Lee Gomes throws three!
Reds win, 7-0.

post from Red Reporter on 13 August 2009 10:01:00 PM. © Red Reporter

More photos » by David Kohl - AP

CAN I GET A DAMN JONNY GOMES SHIRT YET??? (AP Photo/David Kohl)

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Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Jonny Gomes. Gomes went 3-4 with 3(!) home runs and 5 RBI. Just amazing. Bronson Arroyo, though, threw a complete game shutout, giving up only two hits and a walk. Great game for both of them.

Key Plays

Adam Dunn made his return to Cincinnati and got a hit in his first at-bat. Amazingly enough, it was a single.
In the second inning, Laynce Nix hit a double and Jonny Gomes followed that up with a home run. Two batters later, Ryan Hanigan also hit a home run, only his second of the year.
In the fourth inning, Adam Dunn walked. Ah, that's more like it.
Maybe seeing Dunn reminded the Cincinnati outfielders that they were actually allowed to hit. Nix started off the bottom of the fourth with a single, and Gomes hit his second home run in as many at-bats.
Improbably, Gomes homered once more in his next at-bat in the sixth inning. Three home runs for Senor Gomes!
Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips took a look at each other and reminded themselves that they were the leaders of this ballclub. So in the seventh inning, Votto drew a walk, and Phillips drove him in with a deep double. 7-0, Redlegs.
Gomes came to the plate in the eighth to a standing ovation, but unfortunately struck out looking. Hey, just like Adam Dunn!

Other Notes

This is the second time Jonny Gomes has hit three home runs in a game. He also did it on July 30, 2005 against Kansas City. He's the first Red to accomplish the feat since Joey Votto hit three against the Cubs on May 7, 2008.
Hanigan's home run gave him two on the year. Gomes had more than that in just this game.
That was Hanigan's first RBI since June 13.
Bronson Arroyo only gave up two hits, to Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman. Zimmerman's kept alive a 16 game hitting streak.
This was Bronson's second shutout this year, and the fourth by a Reds pitcher this season. Aaron Harang and Justin Lehr have the other two. The Reds only had three shutouts in the past two years combined, and haven't had four shutouts in a season since 1996 when they had five (John Smiley had two, Mark Portugal, Kevin Jarvis, and Roger Salkeld each had one).
As a team, the Reds have 11 shutouts this season, second most in the Majors behind the San Francisco Giants, who have 15.

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Battle weary pitching costs Astros the game:
Astros 2 Marlins 9

post from The Crawfish Boxes on 13 August 2009 10:00:00 PM. © The Crawfish Boxes

More photos » by Alan Diaz - AP

Pretty much the look on my face the entire game.

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Mike Hampton didn't pitch badly, but was forced out of the game with a sore shoulder after 5IP. Coop went to the bullpen and threw a fatigued Chris Sampson into the fray. What was a manageable game became unmanageable.

via www.fangraphs.com

The one positive I draw from tonight's game was Yorman Bazardo's 2.1IP with 2K and 0BB. Bazardo was shelled in his first outing, but Coop took a lot criticism for pitching him on very short rest. With Hampton's shoulder issue, JD opined that Bazardo is a likely candidate to pick up Hampton's next start (Richard Justice echos JD's opinion). I think we all can concur that that's the Bazardo who'll be taking the mound, then great.

We now have to wait for Wandy tomorrow night to try and feel good about the Astros again. I definitely say good riddance to this series

Astros vs Marlins coverage ; Astros vs Marlins boxscore ; FishStripes

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SBG Convention Directions

After the jump there are some maps.Here is Minnehaha Falls Park in a Twin Cities Map.Blown up a little bit, here is where the park is relative to Hiawatha Avenue.Here's where you can get into the park. The lot shown here is a pay lot (as opposed to a patron lot, which requires a [...]

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CC Dominates As Yanks Rout Mariners

(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson & REUTERS/Robert Sorbo )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
R H E NYY 0 2 3 1 0 0 3 2 0
11 15 0 SEA 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
1 3 0

WP - CC Sabathia (13-7)
LP - Ian Snell (2-9)
This one wasn't much of a contest. CC Sabathia was sharp from the start and completely dominated the Mariners over 8 strong innings. He allowed just one run on his only mistake of the game, a solo homer by John Wilson in the bottom of the fifth. On the night he allowed just that 1 run on 3 hits, walked 2, and struck out a season-high 10 Mariners. Of his 105 pitches, 74 found the strike zone.

In CC's last two starts he's thrown 15.2 innings, and allowed 1 earned run on 5 hits, walked 4, and struck out 19. He's also posted his two highest strikeout totals in each of the games - 9 against the Red Sox, and 10 tonight. CC looks like he's getting hotter with the weather, which really shouldn't come as a surprise. Coming into tonight CC was 30-9, with a 3.21 ERA in 48 August starts. Now you can make that 31-9.

On the other side Ian Snell wasn't fooling anyone and the Yankees got on the board early. They scored two runs in the second on a Jerry Hairston Jr. RBI double, and a wild pitch that allowed a run to come in. They then added three more in the third, one coming on a Derek Jeter solo homer to leadoff the inning, and the other two scored on another long ball, a two-run blast by Hideki Matsui. Mark Teixeira doubled in the Yankees sixth run in the fourth and by this point the game was pretty much over. Especially with the way CC was throwing the ball.

Matsui's homer was just the beginning of his big night. He drove in his third run of the game with an RBI single in the Yankees three-run seventh. One inning later he's come up to the plate with one on and two out and launched his second two-run homer of the game. He finished the night going 4-for-5 with 2 HR, 5 RBI, and 4 runs scored.

Six Yankees - Jeter, Matsui, Damon, Hairston, Teixeira and Cano - had multi-hit games. As a team they pounded out 11 runs on 15 hits.

It was a very nice and easy win for the Yanks to open their ten-game road trip.

Justin Verlander and the Tigers shutout the Red Sox at Fenway earlier in the day, so the Yanks lead in the division is back up to 6.5 games. They are also now a season-high 29 games over .500.

AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG Jeter, SS 4 2 2 1 0 2 0 .319 a-Pena, R, PH-SS 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 .267 Damon, LF 4 2 2 0 0 0 1 .289 b-Hinske, PH-RF 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .250 Teixeira, 1B 4 2 2 1 1 0 1 .288 Matsui, H, DH 5 4 4 5 0 0 1 .269 Swisher, RF-LF 3 1 0 0 2 1 0 .242 Cano, 2B 5 0 2 0 0 1 5 .318 Cabrera, Me, CF 4 0 0 1 1 0 5 .272 Hairston, J, 3B 5 0 2 2 0 0 3 .262 Molina, J, C 5 0 1 0 0 1 3 .239 Totals 42 11 15 10 4 6 21

a-Grounded out for Jeter in the 8th. b-Struck out for Damon in the 8th.
BATTING
2B: Hairston, J (19, Snell), Damon 2 (28, Snell, Snell), Teixeira (32, Snell).
HR: Jeter (14, 3rd inning off Snell, 0 on, 0 out), Matsui, H 2 (19, 3rd inning off Snell, 1 on, 1 out; 8th inning off Olson, 1 on, 2 out).
TB: Jeter 5; Damon 4; Teixeira 3; Matsui, H 10; Cano 2; Hairston, J 3; Molina, J.
RBI: Hairston, J 2 (32), Jeter (49), Matsui, H 5 (58), Teixeira (85), Cabrera, Me (46).
2-out RBI: Hairston, J 2; Teixeira; Matsui, H 2.
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Molina, J 2; Hairston, J; Matsui, H; Pena, R.
Team RISP: 4-for-14.
Team LOB: 8.

FIELDING
DP: (Jeter-Cano-Teixeira).

IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Sabathia (W, 13-7) 8.0 3 1 1 2 10 1 3.64 Bruney 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.11
Pitches-strikes: Sabathia 105-74, Bruney 8-6.

MARINERS STATS

PLAYER OF THE GAME (A): CC Sabathia (W, 8 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K)

PLAYER OF THE GAME (B): Hideki Matsui (4-for-5, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 4 R)

Tomorrow's Game

Yankees @ Mariners
Game Time: 10:10 p.m. | TV/Radio: YES, WCBS
LHP Andy Pettitte (9-6, 4.14) vs. LHP Ryan Rowland-Smith (2-1, 3.86)

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Game#115: Yankees at Mariners

Yankees (71-43) vs. Mariners (60-54)Pitching Matchup: LHP CC Sabathia (12-7, 3.76) vs LHP Ian Snell (0-0, 6.14)Yankees LineupJeter SSDamon LFTeixeira 3BMatsui DHSwisher RFCano 2BCabrera CFHairston 3BMolina C Game News & NotesSabathia is 17-2 in August since 2005, having recorded the most wins in the Majors for that month over that span. This will be Snell’s first career start against the Yankees.Nick [...]

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