Baseball

Phil Hughes was absolutely dominant on Wednesday night against the Oakland Athletics. He had his best stuff of the season, possibly his career, last night as he came ever so close to no hitting the A's.

Hughes' control was terrific. His stuff was electric. The young pitcher took a no-hitter into the eighth inning before giving up an infield single to Eric Chavez on a ball hit up the middle that went off Hughes' forearm. Hughes could not find the ball in time and Chavez was on with the A's first hit of the night.

On Wednesday night, Phil Hughes made his second start of the season against the Oakland A's and was looking for an even stronger performance from his first start.

Any stronger of a performance, and you would have thought that it was Ron Guidry and not Hughes pitching on the mound.

In case you fell asleep before or during the game and think I am exaggerating, I am not kidding because Hughes in fact, was that good Wednesday night.

You hate to take joy in someone else’s pain, but in this case, I just might.

The news that Los Angeles Angels catcher Jeff Mathis fractured his wrist means that Mike Napoli might finally get his shot to be the full-time catcher in Anaheim. Fantasy owners, rejoice!

I say "might" because it seems that Angels manager Mike Scioscia would rather put himself behind the plate instead of Napoli. Scioscia must think Napoli is the worst defensive catcher he has ever seen because that is the only excuse he has for not playing Napoli so far this year.

Originally posted on Midwestropolitan .

Last year I got into a debate with a couple of guys from work.  The night before, I had just watched the end of a Cubs game and witnessed one of the lamest things I had ever seen/heard.

The Cubbies had just pulled off a victory and I started to hear 1970s folk music playing.  I literally thought there was an audio problem with the broadcast.  I realized pretty quickly that it wasn't a mistake, and the annoying sound was coming from Wrigley Field.

Brett Gardner continues to produce, at least against right handed pitching.

In last night's win for the New York Yankees against the Oakland Athletics, Gardner was 2-3 with a walk and a run batted in. What is more, the RBI came with two outs in the ninth. The Yankees held a precarious one-run lead after Phil Hughes had taken a no-hitter into the eighth inning, and Gardner's RBI added an insurance run.

Gardner was less impressive in the opening game of the three-game series in Oakland on Tuesday night when he went 0-3 against a left handed pitcher.

Don't look now Red Sox fans and Yankees fans, but you've got some competition. The Tampa Bay Rays are back.

Baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint. Two weeks do not make a season. But, watching the Rays first two weeks, one would have to say they have that look. That look of a team on a mission. They are pitching. They are hitting. They are playing defense. They are confident that they are going to win no matter the situation.

With a late-inning rally the Nationals were able to pull past the Rockies last night to win 6-4 and improve their season record to 8-7.

Please tell me this is April Fools Day.

Look, the Cubs have done a lot of dumb things in their history, but moving Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen may be the craziest thing they have done since the "College of Coaches."

For those of you not up to date on Cubs history, the College of Coaches was the brainchild (or brain-dead decision) of then-owner P.K. Wrigley back in 1961, and consisted of rotating eight coaches as managers.

Listed below are points and counterpoints debating whether the Cubs demoting Carlos Zambrano is a good idea.

Earlier in the day I wrote about former Yankee pitchers Edwar Ramirez and Chad Gaudin getting their rings yesterday and I wrote that the Yankees really haven’t let everyone know when they’ll be getting their rings.

I certainly wasn’t foreshadowing anything, but earlier today Xavier Nady got a nice surprise when the Yankees general manager Brian Cashman showed up at Citi Field before the Cubs, Nady’s current team, took on the Mets and gave him him his ring.