AL East

Making his first start in nine days, Phil Hughes was dominant for four innings. Perfect actually. He wouldn’t be perfect on this night. In fact, he wouldn’t even get his team a victory, thanks to Dan Johnson.

The Rays designated hitter who spent last season playing in Japan needed two swings to carry his team to their second win in three games against the Yankees.

The Yankees lost 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Rays last night after journeyman Dan Johnson blasted a pair of two-run home runs off of Phil Hughes, and the Yankees offense was held in check by "Big Game"

And now, ladies and gentleman, the Aflac $100,000 Question of the Day: Who is Dan Johnson?

Hmmmm ...

Was he the dude from Miami Vice? Wait, that was Don Johnson.

Okay ...

Wednesday night, the Tampa Bay Rays wrapped up a three-game series at Tropicana Field against the New York Yankees with a 4-3 come-from-behind victory.  The second win of the series puts the Rays back in first place in the AL East by half a game.

Dodgers' outfielder Andre Ethier has reportedly announced that he would "love" to play in Boston, according to Sean McAdam of CSNNE.com. Given the Red Sox' myriad outfield woes this season and Ethier's .851 career OPS, the Boston brass would no doubt equally love to welcome the 28-year-old lefty to Beantown.

Around 9:15 EST Wednesday night while playing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Derek Jeter did something we have never seen him do, and might never expect him to do. Jeter has been an ambassador of the game and is known for being class act for throughout his career, but on Wednesday night...

He acted.

Yankee fans were unhappy—to say the least—on Monday night, when the Yankees surrendered first place to the Rays for the first time since August 3. Tuesday night, the Yankees got first place back, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Amidst all that anger came an interesting thought: what if, by some chance, the Yankees didn’t win the division?

In order to provide themselves with more bullpen depth, the Yankees have recalled LHP Royce Ring from the minor leagues.

Via MLB.com:

"Having previous big league managing experience will be a plus for those under consideration to manage the Marlins in 2011.

"Meeting the criteria is Tony Pena.

"Currently the Yankees bench coach, Pena spent parts of four seasons (2002-05) managing the Royals. In 2003, he was named the American League Manager of the Year.

The Toronto Blue Jays have clearly proven they can slug with anyone in baseball in 2010. They are first in the American League in home runs (225), first in total bases (2,225), and fourth in OPS (.766).

While those are great number, it takes a combination of offense, defense, and pitching to win baseball games. If they Blue Jays are going to get back to the top of the AL East anytime soon, they are going to need some starting pitching.