Intentional Walks

Sorry I am not posting as much as I should but I am currently moving to a new house this weekend and there is a ton of stuff to be done beforehand. Now, to get to some of the sports stuff.

-Royals relief pitcher Vin Mazzaro allowed 14 runs in 2.1 innings as Kansas City fell to the Indians 19-1 on Monday.

-The Yankees losing streak is now at 6 after A.J. Burnett blew the lead in the 6th inning last night. Nothing is going right for the Yankees. Wild pitches, poor throws, poor defense, an almost complete lack of hitting, yeah it is ugly. This is the longest losing streak of the Joe Girardi era.

-The Red Sox are now over .500 for the first time this season after coming back against the Orioles last night. As bad as the Yankees are playing, the Red Sox are the complete opposite right now.

-How far has Jason Bay's stock with the Mets fallen? He was asked to bunt to bring up Daniel Murphy and Justin Turner. Wow.

-Jon Niese, Mets relief pitcher, hit a triple last night, in the same inning that Marlins relief pitcher Burke Badenhop drove in what turned out to be the game winning run.

-Arnold Schwarznegger admitted that wife Maria Shriver left him after learning that Arnold fathered a child with a staffer. So, I guess the steroids didn't affect his package.

-Michael Dunn, former Yankee prospect, struck out 5 Mets in 2 innings. He now carries a 1.96 ERA and .98 WHIP. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Dunn, a lefty reliever who was included in the Javy Vazquez/Boone Logan trade, is just a bit better than Boone Logan at this point.

-The Mets have no luck. They started winning so what happens? They lose Ike Davis to injury, Carlos Beltran to pink eye, and David Wright to a stress fracture in his lower back. If I am Jose Reyes I am wrapping myself in bubble wrap.

-The Yankees have only one more win than the Mets.

-The Nationals and Yankees have the same amount of wins.

-Prior to last nights game, the Tampa Bay Rays had not scored more than 5 runs in a home game this year. They scored 5 runs in the 6th inning alone last night as they came back to beat the Yankees.

-Last week Melky Cabrera homered against the Yankees. Last night Johnny Damon homered against them. Coming up, Hideki Matsui as the Revenge of the 2009 Yankees continues.

-Alex Rodriguez is hitting .180 over the last 23 games. He has not hit well since an issue with his oblique.

-Hector Noesi has spent 14 days on the Yankees in two separate call-ups this season and has not faced a single batter. Umm, why is he on the team then?

-So I guess it is safe to say that the Blue Jays' Jose Bautista is for real. He only has 63 homers in his last 162 games. The guy is like Albert Pujols from a couple of years ago. Just a monster.

-Kyle Farnsworth got the save against the Yankees last night, setting them down 1-2-3 last night.

-Cliff Lee walked 6 Cardinals last night to raise his season total to 13. He walked only 18 men all of last year.

-If Shane Battier doesn't re-sign in Memphis the Knicks should go after him. The stats aren't superstar quality but the guy is a leader and plays both offense and defense. Just sayin'.

Well, break out your umbrellas people. It is like an episode of "The Killing" out there, raining and gloomy. Enjoy the sports today if there is any you wanna watch, or isn't rained out.

Line Drives

A few quick hits on some baseball happenings around the leagues.

-It appears as if top Mets pitching prospect Jenrry Mejia is going to undergo Tommy John surgery after suffering a complete tear in his medial collateral ligament in his right elbow. If he does have the surgery, the 21 year-old will be out until next year. He is going to head down to Alabama and get a second opinion from leading Tommy John surgeon Dr. James Andrews before opting for surgery.

-The Phil Hughes saga continues. He is slated to see more specialists.

- Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell was fined an undisclosed amount and was suspended two weeks after making threatening remarks and making threatening gestures towards fans while in San Francisco on April 23rd. McDowell, apparently, did something similar last season. This time, he made homophobic remarks about three men while making sexual gestures with a baseball bat and his hips. When McDowell was rebuked for his behavior by Justin Quinn, who was attending the game with his wife and kids, McDowell asked Quinn, "How much are your teeth worth," while making a gesture with the bat. Real class act that Roger McDowell.

-The Cleveland Indians are 19-8 going into Monday's action. They are, by far, the surprise of baseball. The question is, can they sustain this over a season? Well, no. Winning at a .704 clip is hard on the best of teams, in fact almost impossible. What the Indians can do is build confidence, and cushion a lead that currently sits at 4.5 games over second place Kansas City. Yeah, you read that right. The Royals are in second place with a15-13 record. It is doubtful the Royals will be able to sustain over the season, much less into June, so the Indians, who are doing everything right on the field and are bolstered by a healthy and productive return from Grady Sizemore, should be able to build up enough of a lead to push them as the season progresses. It would not be surprising if the Indians made the playoffs at this point. The White Sox have been putting up no offense and when their offense scores a few runs their pitching burns them and the Twins are a shell because of injuries.

-What is with all the O's in Colorad-O? Ubald-O. Tul-O, and CarG-O. Last week's SI had a great story on the three O's. It also dawned on me that Colorad-O was also home to Carmel-O before he was traded, and the Broncos starting QB is now Tim TebOw. Weird.

-Minnesota is having one of the worst seasons I can remember. They have a run differential of -64. No other team is even in the negative 40's.

-Last season the Pirates only won 4 series on the road. They already have won 4 this year.

-Jose Bautista of the Blue Jays leads the American League in batting average and home runs but is 24th in RBI's. Adam Lind, on the other hand, is tied for second in the AL with 22 RBI's. Bautista also leads MLB in walks and OBP. In fact he has almost twice as many walks as K's, 30-16. Go figure. Maybe the dude is for real.

-Vladimir Guerrero has not walked at all this year. It's May.

-Josh Johnson of the Marlins, has an ERA of 0.88, a WHIP of 0.77, is 3-0, and has allowed only 18 hits in 41.0 IP. That is just ridiculous.

-Dustin Moseley, former Yankee, now has a win to go with his 1.63 ERA. Yeah, the same Dustin Moseley.

-Matt Garza of the Cubs is leading the Majors in K's with 51. Seems he likes Wrigley.

-Rafael Soriano is tied for the MLB lead in holds with 8, but sports a 6.57 ERA. Hmmm. No other relievers in the Top 10 have an ERA over 2.61.

-Alfonso Soriano leads MLB with 10 homers. But he only has 20 RBI's.

-Lance Berkman has a .398 AVG, is tied for 4th in MLB with 8 homers and is tied for 4th in RBI's with 23. I can only imagine what the Yankees record would be with him hitting from the DH spot instead of Jorge Posada.

-Peter Bourjos of the Angels leads MLB with 4 triples but has been caught stealing more often than he has been successful, 4-2.

-Two Detroit Tigers lead the majors in strikeouts, Austin Jackson is leading MLB with 37 with teammate Ryan Raburn nipping at his heels with 36. Mark Reynolds only has 25 so far so...WOW.

-Adrian Gonzalez of the Red Sox only has 1 home run so far, but is tied for second in doubles in MLB with 10.

That's it for now. Be safe out there and enjoy your nightly games.