AL East

Sliding Into Home deserves the credit for this one. Here is a video of the incident that took place between Alex Rodriguez and Dallas Braden that ended in Braden erupting at A-Rod because he walked across the back of the mound on his way back to first base on a foul ball.

The Toronto Blue Jays began their 2010 season on a high note, starting 5-1 before coming back to the Rogers Centre for their home opener against the White Sox.

Insurance claims agents stand by. Baltimore, Boston, and Chicago are in need of disaster relief.

A tornado known as the Tampa Bay Rays has just laid waste to three stadiums in three different cities. Like a huge wrecking ball, the Rays have been demolishing anything in their path.

It doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon.

Yesterday was indeed a weird day for the Yankees. First there was Alex Rodriguez ’s run-in with Oakland pitcher Dallas Braden after he stepped on the mound returning to first after a foul ball, then there was a triple play, and all of this happened in just barely over two hours.

Yes, a Yankee game lasted only two hours and seven minutes. Oh, and to make things weirder, the Yankees lost with CC Sabathia on the mound.

There are very few things the ultra-versatile Ben Zobrist can't do.  Later today, the list gets smaller. Scratch signing a long-term contract extension off the list, as Zobrist will sign on the dotted line keeping him with the Rays through 2015.

The former utility player had a breakout season last year, hitting .297, with 27 HR, and 91 RBI.  Questions abound as to whether that was a career year or if he could replicate the success.

Count the Rays as believers.

He is not the savior, and he was never a prodigy, but he was a talented right-handed pitcher who had a popping fastball and killer, knee-buckling curve.

The fact that Phil Hughes carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning of last night's game on the road, against an American League West opponent in his second start of the season, seemed familiar to Yankee fans.

Things are going as well as you could ever hope for the Yankees this season.

They have won each of their first five series this season, the first time they’ve done that since 1926, and are sitting in first place with an 11-3 record.

They also have their ace, CC Sabathia , on the mound today as they try to go for their seventh win in a row.

Here are some notes and quotes.

Brett Gardner continues to produce, at least against right handed pitching.

In last night's win for the New York Yankees against the Oakland Athletics, Gardner was 2-3 with a walk and a run batted in. What is more, the RBI came with two outs in the ninth. The Yankees held a precarious one-run lead after Phil Hughes had taken a no-hitter into the eighth inning, and Gardner's RBI added an insurance run.

Gardner was less impressive in the opening game of the three-game series in Oakland on Tuesday night when he went 0-3 against a left handed pitcher.

Don't look now Red Sox fans and Yankees fans, but you've got some competition. The Tampa Bay Rays are back.

Baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint. Two weeks do not make a season. But, watching the Rays first two weeks, one would have to say they have that look. That look of a team on a mission. They are pitching. They are hitting. They are playing defense. They are confident that they are going to win no matter the situation.

Earlier in the day I wrote about former Yankee pitchers Edwar Ramirez and Chad Gaudin getting their rings yesterday and I wrote that the Yankees really haven’t let everyone know when they’ll be getting their rings.

I certainly wasn’t foreshadowing anything, but earlier today Xavier Nady got a nice surprise when the Yankees general manager Brian Cashman showed up at Citi Field before the Cubs, Nady’s current team, took on the Mets and gave him him his ring.