Archive Posts

 To new Orioles Manager Buck Showalter, baseball is a game of adjustments. The way Showalter sees it, the Orioles have spent too many seasons - 13 to be exact - adjusting the batting lineups and starting rotations for the rest of the American League.

"We got some things we can bring too," Showalter said before Monday night's game against the Chicago White Sox. "We've been making people make adjustments to some things we're doing now. We want to be more proactive than reactive."

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An obscure baseball stadium in northern California is becoming a real-life field of dreams for Eri Yoshida. In just three months, the 18-year-old has pitched herself into sporting history and the affections of some of the most fickle baseball fans in the world.

This year Yoshida became only the third woman in history – and the first from Japan – to play in the US male professional baseball leagues. Despite struggling to adapt to the rigours of the game at that level, Yoshida is being hailed as a pioneer for equality in sport while earning the respect of hard-nosed pundits for her performances on the mound for the Chico Outlaws in the minor Golden Baseball League.

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Slugger Barry Bonds will stand trial on federal perjury charges in March. Bonds' legal team, federal prosecutors and U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston agreed during a brief hearing Friday to begin the trial on March 21. They also hashed out a schedule to file legal documents and to hold pretrial hearings to shape what the jury will see and hear during the three-week trial.

Bonds' initial February 2009 trial date was delayed at the last minute when prosecutors appealed the judge's ruling excluding vital evidence. The prosecutors ultimately lost that appeal and have decided to go ahead with the trial anyway. The former San Francisco Giant has pleaded not guilty to charges he lied to a grand jury in December 2003 when he denied knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs.

Pedro Martinez's phone has been ringing during the last two weeks. Several major league teams - the three-time Cy Young Award winner won't say which ones - called with offers to pitch. He was flattered by the invitations but turned them all down.

"Very tempting," he said Thursday during an interview with The Associated Press, "but I have already committed to my kids for the rest of the year and going on vacations, and made plans already with the family.

Martinez signed in July 2009 with Philadelphia, his fifth team in a big league career that began in 1992. He went 5-1 with a 3.63 ERA in nine starts down the stretch and reached the World Series for the second time.

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Rookie Domonic Brown drove in three runs, Kyle Kendrick pitched six effective innings and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Florida Marlins 7-2 Wednesday night. Raul Ibanez added two RBIs as the Phillies won for the 11th time in 13 games. After a 58-minute rain delay at the start, the Phillies took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on RBI singles by Ross Gload and Brown. Kendrick (7-4) kept Philadelphia ahead, allowing two runs.
Brown, the Phillies' top prospect, matched his major league RBI total coming into the game. He also had a sacrifice fly and a run-scoring grounder.

Gaby Sanchez went 4 for 4 with two doubles and an RBI. Fellow rookie Mike Stanton hit his 10th homer for the Marlins, who have lost three straight. The Marlins had an opportunity to cut into a 5-2 deficit in the eighth as the first two batters reached base against Ryan Madson, who then retired the next three hitters. Second baseman Dan Uggla's throwing error on Brown's potential inning-ending, double-play grounder helped the Phillies score twice in the ninth.

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More than a dozen young Hollywood stars, including Zachary Levi of "Chuck," Clark Duke of "Greek" and Naya Rivera of "Glee" have joined forces for a public service announcement in support a cause that's recently become close to my heart--innovative cancer research.  Alex Gordon hit a leadoff double and scored on Greg Blanco's groundout in the ninth inning, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics 3-2 on Tuesday night.

Gordon also homered, while Mitch Maier and Yuniesky Betancourt added two hits apiece for the Royals, who snapped a four-game losing streak to the A's. Newly acquired reliever Jesse Chavez pitched two scoreless innings for the win before Joakim Soria worked the ninth for his 30th save in 32 chances. The Royals bounced back after getting shut out by Oakland's Trevor Cahill a day earlier and have won four of five following their five-game losing streak.

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Jered Weaver outpitched Cliff Lee with seven sharp innings in a matchup of the AL's strikeout and ERA leaders, and the Los Angeles Angels took the rubber game of the series with a 4-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on Sunday.

The Rangers' lead in the AL West was shaved to eight games by the three-time defending division champs, who avoided falling at least 10 games out of first place for the first time since the end of the 2003 season.

Weaver (10-7) allowed an unearned run and four hits and struck out seven to increase his league-best total to 162. The right-hander, making his fourth start against the Rangers this season, was coming off a pair of hard-luck losses - one of which came at Texas when Lee beat him 3-2.

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Alex Rodriguez filed an objection to aspects of next week's auction of the Texas Rangers, saying he and other former players may not get the millions owed them.

Rodriguez is due $24.9 million in deferred compensation six years after he was traded to the New York Yankees, and he tops the list of the unsecured creditors in the Rangers' bankruptcy case.

Rodriguez's concerns will not be an issue if the team is sold to a group led by Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan and sports attorney Chuck Greenberg, who are Major League Baseball's preferred buyers. Their $575 million bid includes paying the full $204 million owed to A-Rod and other unsecured creditors.

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San Francisco Giants closer Brian Wilson has been fined by major league baseball for wearing orange cleats during Tuesday's 6-4 win over the Florida Marlins.

The shoes, a gift from Nike presented to Wilson at the All-Star game, apparently violated the league's dress code. It was the first time Wilson has worn them in a regular season game.

"They all have to have the majority of your team's color on the shoe you wear," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said Wednesday. "I was aware of it. It's going to be up to me to make sure these guys stay in uniform. I agree with it. We'll make sure his shoes are acceptable."

Wilson was already on top of it. He sat in front of his locker before Wednesday's game against the Marlins and used a black marking pen to color in a portion of his cleats. "The magic doesn't come from the shoes," Wilson said.

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Felipe Lopez hit a tie-breaking solo homer in the 11th inning to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 4-3 on Sunday night and avoid a weekend sweep. Lopez drove a 3-2 pitch from Brian Schlitter (0-1) over the right-field wall for his sixth homer of the season to put the Cardinals back in the NL Central lead, a half game ahead of Cincinnati.

The big hit came one day after Lopez was scratched from the starting lineup for reportedly arriving late to the ballpark. It also made a winner of closer Ryan Franklin (5-1), who pitched two innings.

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