Saturday, July 22, 2006

More HB

-The Yankees got a much needed 5-4 comeback win over Toronto Saturday to snap their three-game slide. Trailing by a run in the seventh, they rallied for two on a pinchhit Jason Giambi double and a Derek Jeter bases loaded walk to go ahead. Scott Proctor, Kyle Farnsworth and Mariano Rivera made it stand up with splendid relief work to give Chien-Ming Wang his 11th win. The second-year Taiwan native is the most underrated starter on the staff. He's not fancy and doesn't strikeout many batters but gets the job done by throwing strikes. While it's true Wang allows his share of hits, he's still able to get the double play ball when he needs it. In an experienced rotation, it's the 26 year-old who can be trusted to take the ball every fifth day and pitch deep into games. If the Yanks do qualify for their 12th consecutive postseason, it will be in large part due to Wang.

-Meanwhile, Alex Rodriguez DH'd for the first eight innings, striking out all four times. After a rarity when Joe Torre pinchran Jaret Wright for Giambi in the ninth, A-Rod came in to play third as part of a doubleswitch with Andy Phillips, who moved back to first. In a day where he struggled at the plate, the 2005 AL MVP caught a popup for the final out of the game. We're just guessing that he'll be back in the field later today for all nine innings as the Bronx Bombers look to split the four-game set in Toronto.

-The Mets continued to roll, improving to 21 games over .500 with a 4-3 win over Houston at Shea. The big blow came from Xavier Nady, who slugged a three-run homer for his 14th of the season. Carlos Delgado knocked in the deciding run with a sac fly. The best news for the Amazin's was that El Duque rebounded from a tough first inning to go seven, allowing three runs and fanning eight. Duaner Sanchez pitched a scoreless eighth before Billy Wagner closed it out for his 20th save. If the Mets can get the kind of performances they received from Duque and John Maine the past two days along with the continued progress of rookie Mike Pelfrey, there's no reason to trade for another starter.

-Out of curiosity, we looked over Cards' slugger Albert Pujols' situational numbers to see how they stacked up against David Wright. Wright checks in with very good numbers- Runners On: .359, 9 HR, 67 RBI, RISP: .379, 5 HR, 57 RBI, RISP w/2 out: .373, 3 HR, 26 RBI. MVP calibre, right? Not so fast. Here's Pujols- Runners On: .361, 15 HR, 67 RBI, RISP: .457, 8 HR, 53 RBI, RISP w/2 out: .375, 1 HR, 13 RBI. One word comes to mind. Incredible.

-Wildest game of the night. Tampa Bay edges Baltimore 13-12. In this game, both teams batted around for huge innings. Trailing by three in the fifth, the Devil Rays got two two-run homers from shortstop Julio Lugo in a 10-run inning to go ahead 10-3. They added three more in the sixth to lead by 10. Game over? Wrong. The Orioles responded the next inning with a nine run outburst to cut it to 13-12. That was as close as they got. Brian Meadows was able to close it out for Tampa.

-In a losing effort, ex-Cub Corey Patterson went 5-for-5 with two RBI's and his 32nd stolen base. Did we mention that Chicago unloaded the centerfielder in January for prospects Nate Spears and Carlos Perez? The same team traded Sergio Mitre plus prospects Renyel Pinto and Ricky Nolasco to Florida for Juan Pierre. After a dreadful start, Pierre is up to .277 with 36 steals. It's just that the guy he replaced has four less swipes and 20 more RBI's. Nothing against Pierre. He's not going to drive in a lot of runs. But don't the Cubs look silly for giving up on the 26 year-old Patterson? It might explain why they're the Cubs.

-Speaking of the Cubs, they lost 7-3 to the Nationals to fall 22 games under .500. Their 37 wins are only two more than Pittsburgh and three better than MLB worst Kansas City. Well at least they unloaded awful reliever Scott Williamson to San Diego for Class A pitchers Fabian Jimenez and Joel Santo. Not a bad return for a reliever who had over a 5.00 ERA. What was Padres GM Kevin Towers thinking?

-How bad is basketball at MSG? The Knicks were pathetic this past season. Now you can add the WNBA's Liberty as well. They dropped their franchise worst 10th straight game, losing to Seattle 91-54. Seattle are called the Storm. Well, they literally stormed the Liberty off the court by 37 in what was New York's largest margin of defeat. Embarrassing stuff. The Liberty were once again without pretty injured star Becky Hammon. Hey. You have to notice that. Their 4-19 record is second worst in the league which makes me wonder if putting together a winning basketball team is optional at the Garden. To think that they've aired these ridiculous commercials during the season with fans talking about how it's pure ball. Maybe in the past that was the case. Those commercials are almost as sad as the Knicks ones. I didn't really think that was possible. You got to feel for Bob Wischusen, who has been calling these games. The bad news is it won't get much better for the reliable play-by-play man when he calls Jets games this Fall. He'd probably rather vacation in Siberia.

-In her first tournament back in six months at Cincinnati, Serena Williams made it all the way to semifinals before falling to Vera Zvonareva Saturday in straight sets. That just won't cut it in this comeback. She could need a wild card just to get into the U.S. Open next month. It will be interesting to see if she can make some progress in the coming weeks.

-An all-American final between James Blake and Andy Roddick is as good as it gets for the RCA Championships in Indianapolis. Hopefully, it would be an exciting match.

-Tiger Woods takes a one-stroke lead into the final round at the British Open over Sergio Garcia, Chris DiMarco and Ernie Els. His perfect 10-0 PGA record when leading after 54 holes will be severely tested. Should make for an intriguing day at Royal Liverpool.

-Devils' center Scott Gomez could find out how much he gets from arbitration later today. I'm most interested though to see how his reward stacks up against Buffalo's Daniel Briere.

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