Game Recap

The San Diego Padres defeated the Seattle Mariners 4-3 Thursday afternoon in the rubber match of a three-game series. The Padres (29-36) were able to avoid a three-game sweep with the mid-day sun beaming down on the crowd of more than 25,000 at Petco Park.

The visiting Mariners (32-24) got out to an early lead when Ken Griffey Jr. jolted a ball deep to left-center field to plate Mike Carp for the 1-0 lead. Young Brandon Morrow started his second game since returning from the DL for the Mariners.

Talk about a slug fest. The Yankees mopped up their downtown rival Mets on Sunday, June 14. The final score was 15-0 in favor of the Bronx Bombers, a win that could prove monumental for their team morale.

Inconsistencies early on and the inability to defeat their hated rival Red Sox may linger in the minds of the Yankee players and coaches, but this win should help raise their spirits.

Remember the good ol' days, Houston Astros fans, when Houston contended for the N.L. Central crown and when playing the Texas Rangers meant taking two of three games?

Those days are long gone.

In fact, Houston is on the verge of finishing the season without winning a single game against the Rangers. Last night, they lost, 5-4, when the Rangers pushed a run across in the ninth inning.

They just didn't have another one in them.

A day after the Yankees completed their 22nd come-from-behind victory, the Bombers stranded the tying run at third in the ninth to fall 3-2 to the Washington Nationals.

Robinson Cano, who tied a career-high with four hits on Tuesday, stepped to the plate with the game on the line Wednesday. All he needed to do was hit a lazy fly ball to the outfield to score the speedy Bret Gardner to tie the game. But on the ninth pitch of the at bat, he bounced into a 6-4-3 double play to end the contest.

The Chicago players say that they try to approach this series the same way that they would any other, and I'll try to do the same old White Sox recapping I've always done.

With that said, no one can deny the added feeling of fire in their bellies when they watch the White Sox and the Cubs go at it.

Perhaps John Danks is no different. Having been sub-par this season, at least as far as expectations were concerned, the southpaw came out to Wrigley Field sporting his A game, as did the rest of the Sox pitching.

Who needs home runs?

The Yankees failed to go yard at home for the first time since May 6 but played nearly flawless small ball to beat the Washington Nationals, 5-3, on Tuesday.

New York was 3-for-4 in moving runners over to third with less than two outs and a perfect 3-for-3 in scoring those runners.

With two on and nobody out in the second, Hideki Matsui did his job by grounding out to first to advance the runners.  Robinson Cano, who had four hits in the game, then scored on a sac fly by Melky Cabrera.

The Phillies mostly had one goal going into todays afternoon finale, do not get swept. Well, Philadelphia did its job. The Phillies beat Josh Beckett and the Red Sox 11-6 at Citizens Bank Park.

The Phillies broke away from the Sox with a massive six-run seventh that snapped a 5-5 tie. Slumping shortstop Jimmy Rollins hit a tie-breaking home run in the seventh, the blast snapped his 0-for-16 hit-less streak.

After another shutout and loss on Saturday to the Twins, the Cubs on Sunday made a change and called down to Triple-A Iowa for help. The Cubs didn't recall Jake Fox or another minor league player for offensive support, but rather the Iowa Cubs' hitting coach.

Von Joshua, who has been a hitting coach since 1984 and with the Iowa Cubs for the last four years, was once the MLB hitting coach for the Chicago White Sox.

The Mets came into Friday night’s game with the Yankees in a tough spot. The Yankees had just been swept by the Red Sox and were now 0-8 on the season against them. They had to be hungry, and for the Mets, they had lost a couple of close games against the Phillies that many thought they should’ve won. It was going to be a true test, and until the bottom of the ninth inning, they had passed the test with flying colors.

If only Luis Castillo had used two hands.