Top News:
Tracy Connor / NY Daily News:
A-Rod on 'roids for years, new book claims … Alex Rodriguez may have bulked up with steroids as early as high school - and was suspected of juicing while playing for the Yankees, a bombshell new book reports. — Although the slugger insists he dabbled in steroids only while with the Texas Rangers …
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Dylan Hernandez / Los Angeles Times:
Tim Lincecum shuts down Dodgers — Juan Pierre can't catch a two-run triple hit by Bengie Molina to give San Francisco a 2-0 lead in the first inning. The Giants never trailed in the 9-4 victory over the Dodgers. — Giants' Cy Young winner holds L.A. scoreless until the eighth inning
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Ken Gurnick / MLB.com:
Torre has Pierre bat ninth vs. Giants — Dodgers manager puts speedster before Furcal instead of pitcher — SAN FRANCISCO — Dodgers manager Joe Torre, taking a page from St. Louis manager Tony La Russa's playbook, batted outfielder Juan Pierre ninth in Wednesday night's lineup against the Giants.
Boston Herald:
Red Sox-Rays scouting report — AT TROPICANA FIELD — TONIGHT - RHP Josh Beckett [stats] (2-1, 6.00 ERA) vs. RHP Matt Garza (1-2, 4.97). TV - NESN, MLB Network. Radio - WRKO-AM (860). 7:08 p.m. — TOMORROW - RHP Justin Masterson (2-0, 2.70) vs. RHP Andy Sonnanstine (0-3, 7.78).
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sox1fan.com
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Michael Silverman / Boston Herald:
Red Sox bullpen tiptoes tightrope — + Recent Articles + Recent Blog Entries + Email — CLEVELAND - Last night, a quartet of Red Sox [team stats] relievers kept the Red Sox alive with four innings of scoreless work in a 6-5 10-inning win. — None of them was perfect, but each of them did what was necessary.
Discussion:
Red Sox Monster
Phil Rogers / Chicago Tribune:
So far, Jim Hendry's off-season moves look bad — Chicago Cubs miss Mark DeRosa — Mike Norton, a Tribune subscriber living in California, makes good points. He also has a nice sense of history. — Our kind of guy. — “Having followed the Cubs pretty closely since 1954 …
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GoatRiders of the Apocalypse
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Paul Sullivan / Chicago Tribune:
Chicago Cubs blanked 10-0 — Arizona Diamondbacks dominate — PHOENIX — After the Cubs ended their trip Wednesday with a 10-0 loss to Arizona, manager Lou Piniella offered the story line for inquiring media. — “The whole story,” he said, “outside of the fact we gave up 10 runs, is we didn't score any.”
Nick Cafardo / Boston Globe:
Smoltz setback not considered serious — CLEVELAND - John Smoltz has been shut down for what looks like a “10-14” day period according to a team source. — The veteran righthander was backed off from throwing late last week and then was scheduled to throw batting practice on Thursday, but that was scratched.
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Mychael Urban / MLB.com:
Ellis, Garciaparra placed on DL — Infielders among four A's injured in Tuesday's game — ARLINGTON — Having tied the club record by using the disabled list 22 times in 2007, the A's eclipsed that dubious mark by three a year ago. — Now they're on a pace that could set the record again.
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Mark Bowman / MLB.com:
Vazquez victimized by big inning in loss — Braves starter roughed up in fifth as series slips away — ATLANTA — While Javier Vazquez couldn't explain how he garnered such results with a rather impressive performance, the Braves were left to wonder how they managed to lose a series during …
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Talking Chop
Adam Rubin / Surfing the Mets:
Marlins 4, Mets 3: Manuel ruffling feathers, but why? — Jerry Manuel's affable personality gives him a lot of admirers, but Wednesday's late-game managing really dumbfounded me. — Manuel had an explanation for why he dispatched Omir Santos to pinch-hit for Ramon Castro with the bases loaded and two out in the ninth.
Ben Goessling / Washington Times:
Nationals finally get some relief — The amount of tinkering the Washington Nationals have had to do to get to this point - to earn a road victory that required nothing more than a simple, clean effort - is almost unfathomable. — Their go-ahead RBI came from an outfielder who played himself …
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Blogging Baseball
Jonah Keri / Sports Illustrated:
Separating early MLB fact from fiction … We hold these truths to be self-evident. The [Florida Marlins] Toronto Blue Jays are this year's Tampa Bay Rays. David Wright is a bum. Yankee Stadium is the new Coors Field. — We're just over three weeks into the MLB season …
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Jason Beck / MLB.com:
False alarm halts Tigers-Yanks game — Emergency alert sounds at Comerica in bottom of eighth — DETROIT — Most of the current Tigers weren't around during the first few years of Comerica Park, when one of the stadium's kinks included an emergency alarm system that was a bit sensitive.
Associated Press:
Swisher homers twice to help Yankees hold off Tigers — DETROIT (AP) — The New York Yankees might've found their groove in the Motor City. — Nick Swisher hit two homers and Joba Chamberlain gave up a run in seven innings, leading the New York Yankees to an 8-6 win over the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday night.
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Yahoo! Sports
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Hal McCoy / Dayton Daily News:
‘Cincinnati, YOU have a problem’ — As Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker talked to the media after Tuesday's 8-3 loss to the Houston Astros, a member of the media relations department laid a copy of the stat pack on his desk - a box score, play-by-play and up-to-date statistics.
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