New York Yankees

With three home runs and five RBIs in Saturday night's game against the Royals, Alex Rodriguez has put himself right into the middle of the American League MVP race this year.

A-Rod smacked his first home run of the night in the sixth inning to break a 1-1 tie, giving the Yanks a 2-1 lead. It was also the first of three Yankee home runs in the inning, as Jorge Posada and Curtis Granderson would go back to back.

He hit a two-run shot the following inning to straightaway center field, bouncing off the hitter's back drop.

New York Yankees Marcus Thames has been the talk of the town lately—and for good reason.

Thames has come up big for the Yankees as he led the team in victory over the Texas Rangers Cliff Lee, this past Wednesday night.

The switch-hitter went 3-5 with two hits, a homer, and two RBI. Thames had the game-winning single in the top of the ninth inning that put the Yankees on top.

Jose Canseco may want to think of writing a new book or do something extraordinary in order to get out of the current streak of bad luck that he has hit. When Canseco was in his prime, he would date models and drive some of the world's most expensive cars. Nowadays, it seems like he can't even afford a nice home.

Last night the Yankees bullpen went a combined 3.2 innings without allowing a run. At a certain point this season that would have been a major achievement for them, but lately it has been par for the course for them.

Get this, over the last 30 days the Yankees bullpen has had a 2.35 ERA, good for the best in the American League.

Leading the way has been David Robertson who has grabbed the eighth inning role and hasn’t given up an earned run since July 2. That’s 15 straight appearances without allowing a run.

The Yankees sat through two rain delays before they lost to the Kansas City Royals by a score of 4-3.

It’s like deja-vu all over again! 

When the Yankees acquired Graig Nettles in a trade with the Cleveland Indians, they had no idea of how good a player they were getting.

Coming in at 6'0" 180 lbs, Nettles was hardly a player you would expect to have nearly 400 career home runs. Nevertheless, by the time he retired he held the American League record for most home runs by a third baseman.

He hit the majority of those home runs while in Yankee pinstripes, slugging 250 of them during his 10-year tenure in the Bronx.

Back in the day, there was a pro wrestler who went by the moniker of The Genius. You may remember him.

As you could guess, The Genius' entire shtick was centered around his (supposed) immense level of intelligence. He wore a academic cap and graduation gown to the ring and mocked the audience with derogatory poems about the area in which their civic arena was located.

Via Baseball Reference:

Mariano Rivera is 40 years old, still pitching extremely well, and is first in baseball history in ERA+. Among active pitchers, he’s ranked first in ERA, WHIP, H/9IP, K/BB, HR/9IP, WPA, and fielding percentage. (Go ahead and carefully re-read that last sentence.)