Top News:
Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:
Sosa Is Said to Test Positive in 2003 — Sammy Sosa, who joined with Mark McGwire in 1998 in a celebrated pursuit of baseball's single-season home run record, is among the players who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the drug-testing results from that year.
Discussion:
Unfiltered, The Biz of Baseball, Angels Unplugged, MLB, Josh Q. Public, LA Times Sports Blog, Boston Globe, Full Court Press, Midwest Sports Fans, Can't Stop The Bleeding, Ken Davidoff's baseball …, Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, sox1fan.com, VFTB, The Cubdom, SPORTSbyBROOKS, Bleed Cubbie Blue, GoatRiders of the Apocalypse, Deadspin, The Sommer Frieze, Yahoo! Sports, Hardball Times, MetsBlog.com, MLB FanHouse, River Avenue Blues, Texas Rangers and Camden Chat
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Peter Abraham / The LoHud Yankees Blog:
Game 64: Nationals at Yankees (updates with Girardi audio, Veras DFA'd and now Slade Heathcott audio) — YANKEES (36-27) — Pitching: LHP CC Sabathia (5-4, 3.68). — NATIONALS (16-45) — Guzman DH — Johnson 1B — Zimmerman 3B — Dukes CF — Dunn LF — Kearns RF — Gonzalez SS
Discussion:
Pinstripe Alley, The Yankee Universe, Heartland Pinstripes, Yahoo! Sports and The Fowl Balls
Associated Press:
Wakefield's arm, Ortiz's bat propel Red Sox past Marlins — BOSTON (AP) — Tim Wakefield's ninth win moved him another spot closer to the AL lead, and the Boston Red Sox think it might finally be the 42-year-old knuckleballer's chance to make his first career All-Star team.
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MLB.com:
Sox proving they are East's best — Boston shows mettle by winning nine of 12 vs. top teams — PHILADELPHIA — The Evil Empire has been inhaling strong fumes from Red Sox Nation exhausts for a week now. That's how long it's been since Boston knocked the Yankees out of first place …
David Lefort / Boston Globe:
Smoltz to make Sox debut next Thursday — John Smoltz's first start in a Red Sox uniform will come against the Nationals next Thursday, June 25, in Washington D.C., the pitcher and club confirmed before tonight's game at Fenway Park. — Smoltz, who has won 210 games and saved 154 more during …
Stephen Oh / Yahoo! Sports:
AccuScore: Playoff shifts after week 10
AccuScore: Playoff shifts after week 10
Discussion:
BBTF's Baseball Primer …
Dom Amore / Hartford Courant:
Posada, Yankees Pitchers On Same Page? — NEW YORK — Again and again, Joba Chamberlain shook his head. Jorge Posada wanted fastball, Chamberlain had fallen in love with his slider, especially on a full count. — Chamberlain threw his pitch and walked home a run.
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Rhett Bollinger / MLB.com:
Youkilis moves up in All-Star balloting — First baseman slides ahead of Teixeira in tight race — While the Red Sox currently have the lead in the AL East over their rival Yankees, they also have the lead in projected American League All-Star starters, along with the upstart Texas Rangers.
Peter Abraham / The LoHud Yankees Blog:
Congrats to Chien-Ming Wang — Chien-Ming Wang and his wife Chia-Ling are proud parents. Justin Jesse Wang arrived this morning in NYC. He checked it at 7 pounds, 12 ounces. — J.J. Wang is a good name. Sounds like a shortstop maybe. — My Taiwanese friends say that in their culture …
Dejan Kovacevic / PBC Blog:
Morning links: Dude singing on that video — I put out the word last week, seeking the identity of the young man who produced this song about the Nate McLouth trade ... (Please visit the site to view this media) — ... and I ended up hearing from Jesse Andrews himself:
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Associated Press:
Pujols goes deep again as Cardinals crush Verlander, Tigers — ST. LOUIS (AP) — Albert Pujols hit his fifth home run in five games — and the longest homer at Busch Stadium this season — and Adam Wainwright worked seven strong innings to help the St. Louis Cardinals rout the Detroit Tigers …
Discussion:
Yahoo! Sports
Jon Heyman / Sports Illustrated:
Surgery still a possibility for Peavy … While the hope and likelihood remains that Padres ace Jake Peavy can return in a month or two, surgery on his badly injured right ankle hasn't entirely been ruled out. — If he does need surgery to repair the torn tendon injury, Peavy's season would be over.
R.J. Anderson / FanGraphs Baseball:
Ervin Santana to the DL? — As if the Angels hadn't been through enough already, Ervin Santana will miss tonight's scheduled start with right forearm tightness. Santana has already missed time this season with an elbow injury that left him out until mid-May.
Richard Deitsch / Sports Illustrated:
Artie Lange Goes Wild … NEW YORK — Artie Lange began his assault in the green room. It was 30 minutes before his segment on Joe Buck Live at the Equitable Center Theater in midtown Manhattan and Lange was searching for victims. First up was Brett Favre.
Discussion:
Deadspin, Fang's Bites, The Big Lead, AwfulAnnouncing, Watchdog, USA Today and SPORTSbyBROOKS
Bart Hubbuch / Mets Blog:
Game 62: Mets at Orioles — (UPDATED) BALTIMORE — The Mets will try to put the memories of Sunday's 15-0 shellacking in The Bronx behind them here tonight when Mike Pelfrey takes the mound against the Orioles in the team's first visit to Camden Yards since 2001.
Discussion:
The 'Ropolitans
Associated Press:
Houston Astros' Ivan Rodriguez ties MLB record for games caught — ARLINGTON, Texas — Ivan Rodriguez tied the major league record for games played as a catcher Tuesday night, when he caught against his original team. — Rodriguez, now with the Houston Astros, caught his 2,226th career game against Texas …
Associated Press:
Ackley, UNC pile on hits in 11-4 victory, oust Southern Miss — OMAHA (AP) — Dustin Ackley went 5 for 6 and became the College World Series' career hits leader, and North Carolina tied a CWS record with 23 hits in an 11-4 victory over Southern Mississippi on Tuesday.
Joe Capozzi / Florida Marlins news, analysis …:
Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez apologizes for tirade — Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez made his first order of business in his pre-game media session Tuesday to apologize to reporters for what he described as “my tirade” after Sunday's game in Toronto. — “I know you guys are trying to do your jobs and everything,” he said.
Discussion:
Unfiltered
Bernadette Pasley / MLB.com:
Relive Yanks' great pitching performances — New 6-DVD set chronicles historic perfect games, no-hitters — As balls continue to fly out of the new Yankee Stadium at a record-setting pace, the old Stadium, the House That Ruth Built, sits across the street in scaffolding while workers take it apart, brick by brick, beam by beam.
Tom Verducci / Sports Illustrated:
What lies ahead for 'Baseball's LeBron' … In his first playing day after being celebrated on the cover of Sports Illustrated as The Next Big Thing in baseball, Bryce Harper, all of 16 years old and a high school sophomore at Las Vegas High School, drew a standing-room only crowd of 800 people …
Discussion:
It is about the money, stupid