Baseball

Prior to blowing out his elbow in 2010, Kris Medlen was 5-0 as a starter. Since his return to the starting rotation this year, Medlen is 6-0 in seven starts. An 11-0 record over the last two seasons as a starter is pretty impressive. But, just how impressive is Kris Medlen?

The newest member of the Philadelphia Phillies' 2,000-hit club is a very hard player to define.  Jimmy Rollins is, and is not, a lot of things.

"J-Roll" has been the Phillies' undisputed leadoff man for the significant majority of the past 12 seasons, the last five of which saw his team make the playoffs and included a pennant and a World Series title.

Headed into Tuesday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays, the New York Yankees held a one-game lead in the American League East over the Baltimore Orioles. With a 21-9 record since the beginning of August, the O’s are one of baseball’s hottest teams, especially after taking two of three games from the Yankees last weekend.

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitching staff has fallen on tough times recently. But there are reasons to believe that a turnaround is on the horizon, in spite of all that’s occurred over the past two weeks. In that time, the Dodgers have lost two of their most important pitchers to injury, possibly for the rest of the season.

We all know that 2012 is now a lost season, but it isn't over yet. The Cleveland Indians are two games up on the Minnesota Twins for the worst record in the American League going into Tuesday night's game against the Detroit Tigers.

Buster Posey has been a grinder for the San Francisco Giants this season, and a player who deserves the National League MVP Award.

Since he broke into the big leagues in 2010, where he batted .305/.357/.505 and ran away with the Rookie of the Year Award, Posey has been an instrumental part of the Giants lineup.

Going into Tuesday's action, the Oakland A's have found themselves losers of their last three games and six of their last 10.

They're trending downwards at the wrong time of the season.

In what has been a surprising season to say the least, Oakland sits 5.5 games behind the Texas Rangers for the lead in the American League West and just a half game out of Wild Card contention.

Of course, yesterday they owned one of those Wild Card playoff berths.

John Axford recorded 46 saves in 2011, which began a streak of 49 in a row—second most all-time. Axford's magical run ended this year and it has been a struggle for him to even record a save. Axford has done so poorly that he even cut off all his hair to remove the jinx on his performance.

It didn't work.

Five years ago on Aug. 7, Barry Bonds hit home run No. 756 for his career, taking over baseball's all-time home run record from Hank Aaron. 

It is Jonathan Papelbon, not Cliff Lee, whom the Phillies should be trying to move via waiver trade this month.