MLB

Although it was not at the San Diego Marlin Club’s weigh station on Shelter Island, the Padres were all smiles after landing two of three from the Marlins in Miami.

Fueled by a five-run fifth inning, the Friars picked up Kevin Correia and edged out a 6-4 victory. 

After sweeping Arizona and San Francisco at home, Wednesday’s matinee gave the Padres a 4-2 road trip.

Is April too early for a division race?

As a Miami Dolphin last year, New York Jets linebacker Jason Taylor mentioned Jets fans taking the "cl" out of class when it comes to talking about them. Now, he has to find a way to win them back.

Maybe he can go say that about the Yankees, but this is not a good idea for a guy that is trying to make a new impression in this region.

So this baseball guy will say it for Taylor: Taylor's statement of "cl" can be applied to the Yankees.

This is not simply a reaction to the post by Bruce Levine, who is wrong more often than he is right. There seems to be legitimate buzz around the Cubs organization about bringing up young stud Starlin Castro.

But it doesn't necessarily mean the end of Ryan Theriot as a Cub, for they may simply move The Riot to second base and play Castro at short.

Regardless of what they do with Theriot, one thing for sure is that they won't bring up Castro to sit on the bench. He will not come up until manager Lou Piniella can guarantee him regular playing time.

Before the ink could dry on Ryan Howard's five-year, $125 million contract extension, speculation already was running rampant in Milwaukee on how the deal for the Phillies' first baseman would effect Prince Fielder.

Word had already leaked out that Fielder would likely start his contract talks based on the eight-year, $184 million deal signed by Joe Mauer. Fielder would offer no such "hometown discount" like Mauer did for the Twins.

In the 2010 season, some teams have the most dominant pitchers of the game. If MLB had to go against any kind of other league out of the United States, which pitchers would you take? The one with the pinpoint control? The hottest pitcher in the league? These would be my picks: the best starting pitchers for a rotation.

(Note: these are not ranked)

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The San Francisco Giants had a series sweep of the two time defending National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies all wrapped up with a bow on top.

Tim Lincecum had dominated the Phillies all day long and with one out in the ninth inning, he had 11 strikeouts and zero walks.

Without walking a single batter until giving Shane Victorino the free pass in the ninth, Lincecum had thrown just 106 pitches.

And Giants manager Bruce Bochy pulls the best pitcher in the game?

Are you kidding me?

The Yankees were presented with their World Series rings on Opening Day with former Bombers Jerry Hairston Jr. and Hideki Matsui on hand to get their rings.

Melky Cabrera and Eric Hinske, now with the Braves, got theirs from Hairston; Chad Gaudin and Edwar Ramirez, now with the A’s, got theirs when the Yankees went to Oakland; and Xavier Nady, now with the Cubs, got his when GM Brian Cashman brought it to Citi Field.

In Tuesday night's New York Mets game against the reeling Los Angeles Dodgers, Hisanori Takahashi came in relief of Oliver Perez, tossing 3.1 innings of two-hit, one-run baseball, while striking out five Dodgers.

Takahashi has the looks of a strike-out machine, fanning 21 hitters in 14.1 innings. While allowing only 11 hits, he has also issued 10 free passes, all good for an ERA of 3.77.

It used to be that a trip to Denver and Coors Field meant baseballs would leave the stadium like a squadron of F-16 fighter jets. With the introduction of baseballs being stored in a humidor the runs per game dropped dramatically putting the stadium on par with many others in Major League Baseball by negating the effects of dry air at altitude.

Coming into this season, Oliver Perez was one of the bigger question marks for the Mets' rotation, and after four starts he’s more of a question mark than ever.