MLB

The Chicago Cubs will look to salvage a series win Sunday, after missing an opportunity to go up two games to none on division foes the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday at Wrigley Field.

Chicago fell behind 5-0 early, but stormed back to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh inning before closer Carlos Marmol gave up a two-run double to the Reds' Drew Sutton in the top of the ninth. It was the Cubs' first loss in their last five games, and dropped them to 41-28 on the season at home.

For years, the pitching staff of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was an embarrassment of riches.

The starting rotation and bullpen rosters over the last decade have read more like the baseball equivalent of a Forbes Fortune 500 list, with names like Bartolo Colon, Francisco Rodriguez, and a healthy Kelvim Escobar throwing hostile takeovers from the mound each night.

That was then.

Reports coming out of New York say that Commissioner Selig and the MLB do not plan to issue any disciplinary action unto New York Yankees starting third baseman Alex Rodriguez. 

The decision was made once the investigation was complete, this coming from “sources” in baseball with intimate knowledge of the situation.

Rodriguez did meet with officials from Major League Baseball’s Department of Investigations and Labor Relations Department in March after he admitted to steroid use. 

The Washington Nationals are on a pace to finish the season at 56-106, four games worse than last year’s woeful effort.

Their wish list for next year, however, is not nearly as long as their record would suggest.

Recently, Michael Silverman of the "Boston Herald" published a list of Boston Red Sox trade deadline and other late July trades under Theo Epstein's stewardship (which you can see here: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/red_sox/view.bg?articleid=11...).

In Silverman's list, he virtualy ranked the deals by the amount of success the team had after the trade. While that may be a big part about looking back past trades, it should not be the only way. This article is correcting some of the errors Silverman had made.

You probably won't agree with all my choices.

Joe Girardi and the Yankees are praying that A.J. Burnett will be able to return to his summer form come playoff time.

After a dominant stretch from June 14 until August 7, in which he went 6-2 and posted a 2.32 ERA, the Yankees' hard-throwing righty has been dreadful on a regular basis. Entering today's game, Burnett had allowed 25 earned runs in 36.1 innings in his six starts following the gem he tossed against Boston on August 7. He was 1-3 in those starts.

The 2009 Toronto Blue Jays have lacked consistency in the cleanup spot.

For the first 55 games of the season, they rolled with Vernon Wells in the number four slot. Then for the next 34 games, Scott Rolen settled in very nicely before he was shipped off to the Cincinnati Reds. Since then, the team has struggled to find success in one of the most crucial parts of the lineup card.

With 23 games remaining in the regular season, it appears it is safe to say the Red Sox will not be the AL East Champions in 2009—that title will almost certainly belong to the NY Yankees. Hopefully, it is the only title the Evil Empire will lay claim to in 2009.

So, the next goal for the Olde Towne Team is making the playoffs.

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To say that Derek Jeter passing Lou Gehrig as the NY Yankees all-time hit leader is much ado about nothing would be completely disrespectful…yet, I am left feeling that all of the fuss that has been attributed to the accomplishment is significantly overblown.

For an inning or two Saturday afternoon, the Chicago Cubs could smell their fifth straight win, which would have tied their season high. Instead, the Cincinnati Reds beat them 7-5 after a two-run rally in the top of the ninth against Cubs closer Carlos Marmol.

The Cubs fell behind early, when three Cubs' errors gave Cincinnati a pair of unearned second-inning runs. Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Ryan Theriot each made miscues during the nightmare inning, and neither of the two runs allowed in that frame by starter Randy Wells were earned.