Baseball

Fresh off a sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays to finish off a successful homestand, the Texas Rangers took to the road to close out a memorable first half. Tied with the Angels and looking at Seattle closing in on them, the Rangers needed to have a good road trip.

Major League Baseball announced Sunday that Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia has withdrawn from Tuesday's All-Star Game to be with his wife, who is in the hospital.

This gave American League manager Joe Maddon of the Tampa Bay Rays the opportunity to right an egregious wrong.

Maddon was given a free pass to add Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler to the All-Star Game.

In fact, adding Kinsler seemed liked the most logical option as well. Replace a second baseman with a second baseman, it just makes good sense.

Over the last two decades, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game has transitioned from being simply a game to being a multi-day extravaganza where the game itself is simply one component. For that reason, the game has at times seemed to be anti-climatic, but has still produced some great memories.

After the National League dominated the competition throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including a stretch of 19 victories in 20 games, the rolls have completely reversed in recent years.

The White Sox head into the All-Star break at 45-43, 3.5 games back of the division-leading Tigers, and you know what? For where this team was earlier in the year, that's really not bad. Until this weekend's predictable series at the Metrodome, the White Sox had not lost a series since June 8-11 against Detroit.

Four games—that's how far back the Marlins are off the Phillies at the All-Star break.

It's also how many games the Marlins will play against the Phillies in Miami to start the second half. 

For the Marlins to be contenders, they need to win this series.

Splitting simply will not be enough.

Four games is hard to make up, especially with the Phillies playing the way they have as of late. The Marlins have the best chance of making up ground when the two teams go head-to-head.

On balance, the Yankees had a successful first half.

They hit a bunch of home runs, had some nice comeback wins, received extended stretches of quality pitching, and managed to overcome injuries to key players. Because of that, they are comfortably above .500 heading into the All-Star break.

But things aren't exactly as they seem.

As the Cubs finish the first half of the season (figuratively) with a Sunday double header against the Cardinals, it's time for fans to pause, take a deep breath and look forward.

Part of that pause is looking at where the team has been, though. Though the Cubs have played more than half of their games, the All Star Break is the time to evaluate the team, the division, and the season.

How have the veterans done so far? What kids have contributed? What options are there for changes?

Filed:July 12th, 2009

Chicago Cub Carlos Zambrano (Cubbie Nation/file photo)

He sings. He dances. He tells jokes. He beats catchers with his bare hands. Oh, and he pitches pretty well, too, and knows to hit. The latter two were on display Sunday, as Zambrano carried the Cubs to a 7-3 win over the Cardinals in Game 1 of their day/night doubleheader.

The Los Angeles Dodgers (56-32) played their final game before breaking for the All-Star game. They took two out of three from the Milwaukee Brewers (45-43) over the weekend and capped off the first half with a 7-4 win on Sunday afternoon.

The offense kept on rolling for the Blue Crew as James Loney went 2-for-4 with two RBI, Brad Ausmus hit his first home run of the season, and All-Star second baseman Orlando Hudson homered from both sides of the plate.

Some guy named Manny Ramirez also went 3-for-3 with two doubles.