Cabrera lifts Royals over Indians in 9th (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 21 April 2011 11:59:27 PM. © MLB News Blog

As baseball games go, this was a dandy. There was outstanding pitching, great defense and clutch hitting — especially Melky Cabrera’s walkoff single in the ninth that lifted Kansas City past the Cleveland Indians 3-2. Cabrera rifled a bases-loaded, two-run base hit into left field with one out off closer Chris Perez, who had been [...]

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Cabrera lifts Royals past Indians in 9th (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 21 April 2011 11:37:22 PM. © MLB News Blog

Melky Cabrera rifled a bases-loaded, two-run single into left field off Cleveland closer Chris Perez with one out in the ninth inning Thursday night, lifting Kansas City to a 3-2 victory over the Indians. Perez (0-1), who had been 6 for 6 in save opportunities and was unscored upon in 7 2-3 innings, started the [...]

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Royals Rally to Stun Indians Late, Earn Split

post from Royals Review on 21 April 2011 11:02:44 PM. © Royals Review

The Royals looked lifeless for hours tonight, looked certain to fall three games behind the Indians. There was a furtive rally in the 8th, although it did partially close the gap. Then, to our great surprise, the awaited game-winning rally in the 9th inning actually came. It's always amazing when this happens. Yet another late victory for the surprising 2011 Royals.

The Royals got a better than expected start from Sean O`Sullivan. And this time he wasn't even facing the Mariners! O`Sullivan lasted six innings, scattering five hits and three walks against six hits. Sure, it was just six innings, but you'll take that start every time, from just about anyone.
Louis Coleman made his Major League debut tonight, cleaning up some of SOS's trash and tossing two scoreless innings.
Kila hit a fairly large double to get things started in the 9th.
Why did Chris Getz steal second or especially third down 2-0 in the 8th? I'm especially baffled by the attempt at third. Getz did manage to walk to continue the game-winning rally.
Aaron Crow still has an ERA of 0.00.

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Braves Fall To Dodgers 5-3 In Extra Innings

post from Talking Chop on 21 April 2011 11:02:42 PM. © Talking Chop

Let's keep it PG, boys.

The Braves had multiple opportunities to win today's game and earn a split with the Dodgers, but they just couldn't put everything together to win the game.

Lost in all of the extra innings madness were the fine starts made by Jair Jurrjens and Clayton Kershaw, and they had the opposition fooled for a majority of the game. Jurrjens threw a lot of pitches early on, but really settled in and threw six strong innings and struck out six batters. He allowed just one run on seven hits and two walks. Kershaw was equally impressive, and he was just one out away from a complete game. Before the ninth inning he had the Braves batters completely fooled, outside of Freddie Freeman who rocked a monster home run off the lefty in fifth inning.

Don't look now, but Freddie Freeman is now 2nd on the team in OPS (.837) and of his four career home runs, two of them have come against Roy Halladay and Clayton Kershaw. That's pretty damn impressive.

With the Dodgers up 2-1 in the 9th inning, Clayton Kershaw came out of the dugout once again to finish the game. After two quick outs my Martin Prado and Alex Gonzalez, Chipper Jones singled and Dan Uggla doubled. Freddie Freeman walked after putting together a fantastic 8-pitch at-bat, which loaded the bases for David Ross. After falling behind 0-2, Ross "fisted" a ball into left field to score two runs. With a 3-2 lead in hand, the Braves had a chance to add on to their lead, but Jonathon Broxton struck out Nate McLouth to end the inning.

Craig Kimbrel came in to close out the game, but similar to Kershaw, wasn't able to get that final strike. He walked Jamey Carroll on four pitches to lead off the inning, but then got Aaron Miles to pop out in foul territory. Kimbrel threw a wild pitch to move Carroll into scoring position, but responded with a strikeout of Jerry Sands. With two outs and an 0-2 count on Casey Blake, Kimbrel inexplicably threw a fastball right down the middle. Blake drove it into left field and the Dodgers had tied the game.

Neither team posed much of a threat in the tenth, but the Braves had a chance to take the lead in the eleventh. With runners on the corners, Nate McLouth came up with a chance to be the hero. Instead, he struck out on a slider in the dirt and the threat was ended.

After pitching three times in four days, Fredi Gonzalez brought Cristhian Martinez out for his second inning of work in the twelfth. He retired Casey Blake, but then gave up a double to Andre Ethier, which brought up Matt Kemp. Keep in mind this is the Matt Kemp who has had an OPS of 1.000+ for the entire season. With first base open and Juan Uribe on deck and the pitcher's spot in the hole, we decided to pitch to Kemp and he sent a 1-0 fastball 400 feet to center field. Dodgers Stadium erupted, and the Braves lost their fourth game in the past five days.

The Braves had this game won, but mistakes from both the players and manager Fredi Gonzalez derailed any chance the team had of winning the game.

MVP(s):

Outside of Matt Kemp, it's tough to award an MVP to multiple guys on the losing team, but I'm giving it to David Ross and Freddie Freeman. Ross, who has been underutilized all season long, came up with a huge 2-run single in the 9th which should have won the game for Atlanta, and Freddie Freeman might have played the best game of his career. The kid is locked in right now, and it's a joy to watch him play every night.

LVP(s):

Martin Prado (0-5, BB, 2K), Nate McLouth (0-4, BB, 3K, 4LOB) and Matt Young (0-5) all had forgettable days. Fredi Gonzalez is also an idiot for allowing Martinez to pitch to Matt Kemp. That's just bad managing.

What's Next:

The Braves will make the trip north to face the San Francisco Giants for a 3-game series. It'll be Tommy Hanson against Madison Bumgarner tomorrow night at 10:15.

Comment of the Game:

Fat Dingflyer wins today. We all know David Ross is a Boss.

YES
I'm a former CTU agent, so don't f--k with me!
by Fat Dingflyer on Apr 21, 2011 2:49 PM MST reply actions 13 recs

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White Sox beat Rays to end 7-game skid (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 21 April 2011 10:33:21 PM. © MLB News Blog

A bunch of White Sox players started hitting again, all at once. Omar Vizquel, A.J. Pierzynski, Carlos Quentin and Paul Konerko each drove in two runs and the White Sox stopped a seven-game losing streak with a 9-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night. “That’s the way we expected to play everyday, [...]

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Bay returns, Wright homers in Mets rout (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 21 April 2011 10:18:24 PM. © MLB News Blog

David Wright ended his career-worst hitless drought with a homer and a two-run double and the New York Mets welcomed Jason Bay back to their lineup with a 9-1 romp over the Houston Astros on Thursday night to end a seven-game home winless skid. Bay hit a ground-rule double and later raced around the bases [...]

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Mets 9 Astros 1 April 21, 2011

post from The Mets Report on 21 April 2011 10:16:18 PM. © The Mets Report

The Mets had a confluence of events that finally led to a home win tonight. Jason Bay came off the disabled list, Terry Collins got thrown out, and David Wright started hitting again. Maybe the most important factor of the night was that Chris Capuano had a great start going 7 innings and only allowing ... Continue Reading

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Thome, Baker help Twins split with Os (AP)

Jim Thome hit his 591st career home run and had two RBIs to back a dominating pitching performance by Scott Baker, and the Minnesota Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles 3-1 Thursday night to salvage a split of the four-game series. Michael Cuddyer also connected for the last-place Twins, who came in with a major league-low [...]

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Dodgers exec: Selig move irresponsible (AP)

A newly hired Los Angeles Dodgers executive criticized Bud Selig on Thursday, calling the baseball commissioner’s move to take control of the team “irresponsible.” Vice chairman Steve Soboroff held a news conference during a 5-3 win over Atlanta in 12 innings at Dodger Stadium to assail Selig’s actions.

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MLB to expand playoffs

This is a guest article from Micah Warren of Off The Record Sports Online.

For a long time in Major League Baseball, two teams made the playoffs. And those two teams immediately played in the World Series. For years, this system yielded awful ratings, mainly because television hadn?t been invented yet.

Then of course we expanded to get the NLCS and ALCS and that made things a little better. Still, you could have a great season (San Francisco Giants in 1993) and not make the playoffs. It was kind of stupid.

And we can thank Bud Selig for improving the playoffs and the league as a whole by adding the Wild Card round. Now, if you are losing in your division, you can still make it to the postseason. But, could they expand the playoffs yet again? Seems like they are working on it.

?I would say we?re moving to expanding the playoffs, but there?s a myriad of details to work out,? Selig told the Associated Press. ?Ten is a fair number.?

This means that there would be a full Wild Card round, with division winners getting a bye. Selig said that they are still talking about the number of games in the new round and that this whole process is subject to collective bargaining with the players.

?The more we?ve talked about it, I think we?re moving inexorably to that,? he said.

This would help baseball even more. It?s not just that when they added the Wild Card round the first time, that more teams got in. But think of what it does for all the teams competing for those extra spots. More teams are in it now so more people will follow their teams longer into the season, increasing ticket sales and TV ratings. This would be great for revenue.

--- by Micah Warren, otrsportsonline.com