Fan News

Here’s a look at the unheralded players who played well yesterday.

Homer Bailey, Cincinnati Reds
Bailey gave up three hits in six scoreless innings to improve to 2-2 with a 4.92 ERA.

Michael Brantley & Justin Masterson, Cleveland Indians
Brantley went 2-4 with two runs, a HR, and three RBIs to raise his average to .203. He is 7 for 17 in his last four games. Masterson gave up one run in six innings, but did not factor into the decision.

At the beginning of the 2010 season, hopes and dreams in Dodgertown were filled with very high expectations.

Not only did the Los Angeles Dodgers expect to return to the playoffs, but many thought that this could also be the year that the Blue Crew would return to the World Series for the first time in over 20 years.

However, with just over one-quarter of the season remaining, Los Angeles has been on a turbulent roller coaster ride and finds itself in an almost impossible position to even make a run at the wild card spot in the playoffs.

Kevin Slowey threw seven no-hit innings before being lifted from the game.  Tim Lincecum struggled once again.  Mike Stanton continued to rake.  Let’s look at these stories and all the rest from yesterday’s games:

American League:

A very eventful week around the majors. A brawl ensued in the Queen City after Reds 2B Brandon Phillips used some not-so-kind words to describe the rival Cardinals.

The pushing match that landed a seven game suspension for Johnny Cueto and a shouting match between both managers was pretty interesting considering  there are six former Reds on the Cards and five former Cards on the Reds.

by shlepcar

...

I grew up in Minnesota and as a kid attended many Twins games at the old Met in Bloomington from 1977 through 1981.

I remember clearly, and somewhat sadly, being at the game in 1980 in which Twins center fielder Ken Landreaux’s 31-game hitting streak came to an end.

For most Chicago White Sox fans, the 2010 season was over a long time ago. Eleven months ago, in fact.

To be perfectly precise, the 2010 MLB season ended for many Chicago White Sox fans October 11, 2009—the day the Minnesota Twins played their final game in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

I talked it over with many a Sox supporter during the offseason: the artificial turf would be gone, which meant all those ground balls the Twins hit for singles would be outs.

What can Brown do for you? For the Pirates, they can certainly do a lot; the Buccos finished off their horrendous six game road trip, mailing in the final game. 

To describe the play of the franchise over the past three games doesn't even reach the disparaging label of "going through the motions." Houston fans raved about how they wish they could play the Pirates every game, as the Pirates finished their final series with the Astros by finishing a dismal 0-9 in Houston.

Jon Niese hasn't gotten much run support lately, and the Mets will try to turn that around tonight.

Each of Niese's last two starts have been identical: pitch great ball, and get a no-decision for the effort. In both starts against the Phillies and Rockies, he went seven innings and allowed one run.

Both times the Mets bullpen blew a one-run lead in the eighth. It hasn't only been Niese not getting run support lately, but he's been the biggest culprit. He's only 7-5 this season and he should have at least 10 wins if not more.

With the the final game of the weekend's Giants-Padres series now played, and Giants find themselves 3.5 games out of first place in the NL West with 43 games left to play.

All season long, people have doubted whether the Padres would be able to hold onto their lead in the division, and with the Padres taking two-of-three from in the most recent match-up, the Giants now have some work to do if they hope to be playing in October.

It’s been awhile since the last article in this series. I’ve been busy lately, but I’m dead set on finishing it up, and I only have this and one more to go.

One thing that seemed to spark some confusion was the subject of the last article. I had a few people asking why I didn’t include certain players.

Well, throughout each of my articles, I’ve been trying to cover any player who might have a chance at the Hall of Fame by position; with pitchers, though, there were too many to compress into one article.