Fan News

It seemed as if Pat Burrell had done it again, but this time, he needed help.

The San Francisco Giants trailed the Chicago Cubs in the finale of a four game series, 3-1.

Pat Burrell led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a home run to left-center field. Pablo Sandoval followed with his first home run in his last 46 games to tie the game.

Sanodoval was happy and relieved that he finally had broken his streak of 178 at bats without a home run.

Remember Forrest Gump?  If he wasn't fictional, he would have a blast watching the Phillies. We are, "like a box of chocolates—you never know what you're gonna get." And that is the way it goes for Phillies fans.

Last night, Stay Puff Marshmallow Man, Blanton, delivered in innings two through five.  As expected he did not perform in the first or the sixth (Uncle Charlie, why did you not pull him after the fifth?) He allowed four runs on eight hits and four walk.

The San Francisco Giants couldn't have had better timing. They completed a trade for Jose Guillen of the Kansas City Royals, just in time for the first game of a three-game set against the NL West-leading San Diego Padres.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports broke the news via Twitter this morning, confirming a report from ESPNDeportes.

Everyone has perfect 20/20 hindsight. I know I do.

Some think the sweep job the Cards did was in retaliation to Brandon Phillips' name calling and some are in agreement that he should have kept his mouth shut.

If he is attempting to become public enemy No. 1, he took the correct fork in the road. After his "hulkish" posturing after leveling Nationals catcher Will Nieves, he drew the ire of Pudge Rodriguez and many Washington fans.

The Atlanta Braves heard some really bad news yesterday when they learned that 3B Chipper Jones will miss the remainder of the season because of a torn ligament in his left knee. Jones hurt the knee fielding a ground ball in Tuesday night’s game against the Houston Astros.

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.)

In the winter before the 2005 season, Carl Pavano met with at least a half-dozen teams as he shopped his services in a Pavano Derby of sorts. As we all know, the Yankees were the unfortunate winners of that derby and the fans proceeded to suffer through four years of his “services.”

Via Wikipedia:

The Black Aces is a book written by former Major League pitcher James “Mudcat” Grant about the only African American pitchers who have won at least 20 Major League Baseball games in a single season.

The Yankees were facing the Royals with CC Sabathia on the mound, so you knew it was going to be a good night, and it was, as the Yankees got a good start and just enough offense to win 4-3.

Here are some notes:

It’s déjà vu for the Cubs.

The one-run game has haunted the Chicago Cubs as they lost another, 8-7 to the San Francisco Giants on Thursday afternoon.  They have been defeated 30 times out of their 42 one-run games this season.