MLB

In this day and age, more and more teams seem to live and die by the home run.

Speedy guys will always bunt and turn singles into doubles—which is exciting don't get me wrong—but the actual art of hitting seems like it has been lost in the ever-changing game of baseball.

Guys like Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, and Babe Ruth all had a gift. They were hitters who were masters of their craft. The question is, are we losing that craft?

Just two years ago, the Arizona Diamondbacks were in the NLCS, and were favored to make the World Series. They were a team filled with a lot of young talent, who gelled and would have played for the title had they not run against the crazy winning streak of the Colorado Rockies.

Now, the Rockies and Diamondbacks are competing to be the worst team in baseball.

Roy Halladay earned his league leading eighth victory this afternoon in a 8-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox, putting the Jays up 3-0 in the four-game set.

The game did not start off well for Halladay, as he gave up a double to speedy leadoff hitter Scott Podsednik and was down 2-0 before the Jays were even allowed to hit.

The Jays were able to get a run back in their half of the first when Alex Rios deposited a high fastball into the left field seats for his fifth home run of the season.

Clayton Kershaw was wild on Sunday. At times, he struggled with his control and had thrown over 100 pitches by the eight inning. Yet, after seven innings, he still had not allowed a hit.

While not having the best contro,l Kershaw still pitched an effective game. So effective that many at LandShark Stadium were preparing to witness history.

First of all, calm yourselves. I am in no way speaking of Hall of Famer Vin Scully. 

Instead, while Vin was enjoying the last day of a week long vacation while the team was on the road in the East, new Dodger broadcaster Eric Collins and commentator Steve Lyons (pictured above) provided the play-by-play of today’s Dodgers/Marlins game on Channel 9 in Los Angeles.

Sunday, Dodger manager Joe Torre sent Clayton Kershaw to the mound to face the Fish.

For seven innings, Kershaw allowed no hits.

One of the most talked about things in the game of baseball in this day and age is the pitch count that pitchers now adhere to. What makes this such a topic for debate is that 10, 20, 50 years ago, the number of pitches a pitcher threw in a particular game wasn't a huge factor of concern.

Back in the day, if a pitcher got to the seventh inning and just gave up the lead, he would likely be removed from the game for that reason, not because he had reached or was close to a certain amount of pitches.

Team (Current Record|Last Week's Ranking)

1. Toronto Blue Jays (25-14|1)

What a team you have when both your offense and pitching are top five statistically. The Blue Birds lead the MLB in runs (223), hits (408), total bases (647), and RBI (211). They're also second in extra base hits (142) and batting average (.290). The pitching staff is also impressive, leading the American League in quality starts (21) and batting average against (.243). Playing at Boston this week will be a test to see whether this team is for real or not.