Baseball

It was a game that could have easily gone either way, but it was a game that should have gone the Blue Jays' way. Brian Tallet had the game in the palm of his hands, but he let it slip away as the Jays lost the rubber match of their series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Filed:June 28th, 2009

Well, it's official. The Cubs won't be getting the band back together, with the Cardinals instead acquiring ex-Cub Mark DeRosa in exchange for Chris Perez.

NOTE: Stats and records updated thru Sunday afternoon, June 29.

1. Los Angeles Angels (40-32)

Out of the top five teams in the majors, (Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees, Angels, Tigers), the Angels are the hottest team, no doubt.

They are the only team to have won seven of their last ten games, and are currently on a four-game winning streak. They just took over the AL West lead by a half-game over the slumping Texas Rangers.  

The Giants, now without Barry Bonds, will need to find a new way to fill the seats and, in doing so, fast.

With their tremendous winning streak of late, the Colorado Rockies have been generating a lot of discussion. Is this team as good as the 2007 club that rode a lucky streak into the World Series? Or are they destined to fade down the stretch?

Many pundits are inclined to believe the latter, and why shouldn't they? After all, this is the Rockies we're talking about, right? What reason do we have to believe they're going to be able to keep this up?

Friends, the Colorado Rockies are much better than you think they are.

As a lifelong baseball fan and supporter of the game (I make it to at least 10 games a year), I feel the only people that owe me an apology are the owners for providing crappy, overpriced food at the stadiums and charging $15 for parking (thank you Mr. McCourt).

Today will be the second installment of Tigers by the Numbers, where I will profile a current or former player that wore each uniform number. If you missed the first edition, my profile on uniform No. 1, Lou Whitaker, can be found here.

Today we will look at No. 2. Charlie Gehringer shared many similarities with Whitaker: they both played second base, they both hit left handed, and they both earned their way onto this list. Without further ado....

For the first time all season, the San Francisco Giants used their sixth starting pitcher. After numerous poor performances by Jonathan Sanchez, the Giants brought up Triple A starter Ryan Sadowski to at-least temporarily take over the last spot in the rotation.

After losing the first two games of the series, the Giants were putting their hopes on the rookie to avoid the sweep.

In the top half of the first inning the Giants offense went down quickly, giving Sadowski little time to shake off the nerves going into his big league debut.

Brad Penny came into this game hoping for a good start. Through the season so far, he has done well, but the numbers have not yet been anything extraordinary. He pitched against Tommy Hanson in this game, who had already put together an impressive 3-0 record and got the start.

Brad Penny did get that good start, but it wasn't enough. The offense that stood behind him no longer sparked, as the team did not score until the ninth inning.