Baseball

During Thursday night's American League Division Series game between the Anaheim Angels and Boston Red Sox, first base umpire C.B. Bucknor had an absolutely horrendous evening. He mangled two obscenely easy calls at the bag, calls that had no business being missed and resulted in erroneous baserunners for the Halos.

Luckily for Bucknor, neither gaffe materially affected the outcome.

On Friday night, the Baseball Gods were not so merciful.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: MARTINEZ'S SCHEDULE START ON SATURDAY WAS POSTPONED DUE TO SNOW. J.A. HAPP IS DUE TO START SUNDAY. MARTINEZ MAY OR MAY NOT START IN THE BALANCE OF THIS SERIES OR BE MOVED TO THE BULLPEN.

The year is 1999 and in the deciding game of the ALDS, Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez enters an 8-8 game in the fourth inning in the contest against the Cleveland Indians.

There have been some rumblings of late that the Detroit Tigers are going to allow Placido Polanco to walk via free agency, turning the keys to the candy store over to Scott Sizemore. 

Minneapolis is a modern Mudville tonight. Gloom hangs like the first snow snow clouds of a bitter upper-midwestern autumn over shell-shocked Twins fans. A mere three outs from stealing the New York Yankees' home-field advantage in their American League Division Series, and holding a seemingly comfortable two-run lead as closer Joe Nathan entered to begin the bottom of the ninth inning, Minnesota blew its golden opportunity. A Mark Teixeira single, followed by a game-tying two-run opposite-field home run by Alex Rodriguez, sent the game to extra innings.

Vicente Padilla will get the nod to pitch Game Three of the NLDS on Saturday against the St. Louis Cardinals as manager Joe Torre chose to go with Padilla over the early season ace, Chad Billingsley.

He also was awarded the start over Jon Garland, who possesses post-season experience and even a World Series championship ring, but Padilla has done yeoman’s work in the final months of the season and has earned the right to toe the rubber.

The early morning rain had faded, but a strong wind remained as I prepared to go to my first Phillies game since Jul. 9, 2008.

A veteran of Opening Day in Philadelphia, my good buddy was meeting me to go to see the opening round game of the Phillies vs. the Colorado Rockies today, Oct. 7 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

I arrived first and attended a pre-game rally, shown above. The Phillie Phanatic was on stage, as well as the band and several young ladies in Phillies gear. The Phanatic shot Phillies gear out of a long-nose funnel gun into the crowd.

This article is the fifth in a six part series discussing the players on the Atlanta Braves' 25-man roster that will be free agents this offseason.

Everything changed in the bottom of the third inning.

When Derek Jeter stepped to the plate with the Yankees trailing 2-0 to the Twins in Game One of the American League Division Series, a lot of questions were racing through the minds of Yankees fans.

Why has our opponent scored first for the ninth time in our last 12 playoff games? Why has Alex Rodriguez failed to pick up a hit in his last 18 postseason at-bats with runners in scoring position and past 28 with runners anywhere on base?

Over the coming weeks, there will be a number of tough decisions made on the north side of Chicago. Now that it appears the ownership issue will be settled soon, the business of baseball can begin again.

One decision that needs to be made is regarding free agent pitcher Rich Harden. Harden, who was acquired at the trade deadline in a move that directly countered the Milwaukee Brewers' acquisition of CC Sabathia, might have been the best Cubs starter down the stretch this past season.

You have to hand it to the Yankees—they are exactly who we thought they were.

Brian Duensing didn't pitch poorly by any stretch of the imagination, but it is not difficult to surrender runs to this potent New York offense. Early on, Duensing was locked in, sprinkling his fastball in among his great breaking balls. He was getting ahead in the count and kept the ball on the ground, doing everything possible for his team.