Game Recap

On Friday the Minnesota Twins acquired Brian Fuentes from the Los Angeles Angels.

On Saturday Fuentes earned his first Twins' save against the Seattle Mariners. For Fuentes it was his 24th save of the season.

For the Minnesota Twins, Fuentes gives their bullpen a proven closer—that makes three proven closers since Joe Nathan injured his pitching shoulder in spring training.

Former two-time CY Young award winner Tim Lincecum is currently suffering through a five-game losing skid.

The San Francisco pitcher's downward spiral is taking all possible playoff hopes of this team with him.

The Giants are currently six games back of the NL West leading San Diego Padres with only 31 games left in the season.

Lincecum is stuck on his worst stint of his career, after a 6-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.

The Baltimore Orioles don't have much to play for during the remainder of the 2010 regular season, except for the role of spoiler. They may have just crushed the playoff dreams for the Los Angeles Angels.

Brad Bergesen threw eight stellar innings and Luke Scott provided the lead run with a run scoring single in the sixth, giving the Orioles their fourth straight win over the Angels, 3-1.

NEW YORK-- Once again the Mets had an opportunity to gain ground in the playoff race, and once again they lost a winnable game at home to the Marlins.

The Mets had one of the best rookie pitchers in baseball on the mound tonight, and the Mets were cruising both offensively and on the mound through the first three innings. 

After the first three innings of the game, the Mets had four runs and seven hits, and the Marlins had no hits.

Deja vu can be defined as the experience of feeling sure that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously.

I had an extreme sense of deja vu during tonight's Mets game against the Florida Marlins. Jose Reyes singled to right field in the second inning during the Mets' rally. Soon after, time was called, and I saw trainer Ray Ramirez approach Reyes at first base.

Reyes took an awkward swing on his base hit, and it appeared Ramirez was just checking in on him.

In Wednesday’s series finale with the San Francisco Giants, the Reds looked like they were going to beat them as if they stole something.

Joey Votto, Jonny Gomes, and Ryan Hanigan all homered to stake Homer Bailey to a 4-0 lead in the first inning. It looked like payback time for the boys from the Queen City.

Votto hit another homer in the third inning, his 31st of the season, to cap a four-run inning and the Reds were on top 8-1.

Top Five Stories Yesterday

1. Sidney Rice reveals he had hip surgery on Monday and he may miss the first half of the 2010 season.

2. Texas evens its series with Minnesota coming from behind twice to beat the Twins 4-3.

3. Bobby Bowden revealed he was essentially fired at the end of last season by the administration at Florida State in promoting his new book.

Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco. I hope the Cincinnati Reds have not left their confidence there.

Regardless of today’s outcome, the San Francisco Giants have shown some serious flaws in the Cincinnati Reds pitching staff.

In two games they have been outscored by the Giants 27-7 and have given up 35 hits in the 16 innings the Giants have batted.

(Sports Irreverence from The Other Tip of the Goldberg)

All of us Phillies fans should have been happily dusting off our Whitey Ashburn impressions and laughing at the madcap turn of events of last night’s 16-inning bizarro thriller versus the Astros at Citizens Bank Park. Only, the game did not end happily—a 4-2 loss to a mediocre team at home is not my idea of a happy ending.

I truly thought it was gonna be hard for the Giants to best Monday's performance. I was wrong....they are now tied for first in the NL Wild Card.