Baseball

I look forward to a potential American League Championship Series matchup with the Angels in the same way I anticipate turning 40 and having my wife tell me I need a fully invasive prostate exam.

To clarify, I dread the future worse than Chris Russo.

The Yankees beat the Angels at their own game on Monday in the Bronx, manufacturing the go-ahead run thanks to the infinitely valuable Brett Gardner and a helping hand from Chone Figgins, who was more skittish at third than Tom Brady in the pocket against the Bills.

The Minnesota Twins' fading playoff hopes took another hit Tuesday when it was announced that All-Star first baseman Justin Morneau will miss the remainder of the season.

Morneau has been battling back pain for weeks, but a CT scan and an MRI on Monday revealed that he has a stress fracture in his lower back.

Over the next few seasons, some of baseball's brightest young stars will become free agents for the first time.

And while baseball fans like myself are excited to see how much money these young stars will get on the open market, simply thinking about a new contract must be a scary thought for the mid-level teams who simply do not have the salary structure to take on huge contracts.

After getting destroyed by some of the best teams in the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays finally found a team they could beat—the Baltimore Orioles. They didn't make it easy, rallying from an early 4-1 deficit to pull off an 8-4 win.

David Price overcame a four run first inning to pitch seven strong innings for Tampa Bay and secure his 8th victory of the season.

Reid Brignac not only powered the offense for the Rays, but made the defensive play of the game robbing a base hit. Brignac went 4-for-4 with a home run, a single, two doubles and three RBI.

With the Giants quickly slipping out of contention, a cloud of grief is rolling into the hills of San Francisco like the city's trademark fog.

After four years of losing records and finishing towards the bottom of the anemic NL West, the Giants emerged as contenders this year when their pitching became, more often than not, good enough to compensate for their abysmal hitting.

But with a 27-27 record since the All-Star Break, the Giants have descended back to relative mediocrity. They've maintained their great pitching, with a team ERA of 3.35 over the past 30 days.

Last Monday, the Tigers enjoyed a well-deserved Labor Day like many of us: They enjoyed a day off.

They had just swept the defending American League champion Tampa Bay Rays for their sixth consecutive victory. The bullpen had performed terrific, while the Tigers batters found timely hitting and pushed the runners home whenever they were in scoring position.

Detroit led the AL Central Division by seven games, and the big question for the manager was how to squeeze six starting pitchers into five rotation spots.

Where's the do-over button when you need it?

Right when it appeared Kevin Millwood would finally pitch to the level of his contract, bad stuff has begun to happen. The Rangers ace has quite simply run out of gas.

Since the All Star Break Kevin Millwood has pitched awful, with a 5.32 ERA and just two wins in nine starts. Before the break he was 9-8 and had an ERA of 3.46. He has just two wins in two months. It may only be luck Millwood managed to keep his ERA down earlier this season.

With his most recent bad starting pitching performance, AJ Burnett has proceeded to scare the bejesus out of New York Yankee fans across the country.

It is a relief that NFL football started yesterday (Sunday the 13th) because instead of Jets and Giants football talk over the radio and TV airwaves, it would have been more of the up and down, Jekyll and Hyde AJ Burnett talk.

Let's get the obvious and painful truths out of the way.

The Twins have been five-and-a-half games back and hovering at .500 for what seems like all season. They haven't gotten into striking distance of division-leading Detroit and probably don't deserve to be playing in October.

But one fact that many Twins analysts, fans and especially the Tigers need to fear is that they're still in it.