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NY Daily News:
Harper: Yankee failure starts with A.J. — ANAHEIM - A.J. Burnett was at his dazzling best Thursday night as long as he was losing by four runs. When it really mattered, however, he didn't look at all like the guy the Yankees saw as a big-game pitcher when they gambled $82.5 million on him last winter.
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Jim Caple / ESPN:
Yankees miss chance to close out series — A two-run lead with nine outs to go wasn't enough as Angels rally to force a Game 6 … ANAHEIM, Calif. — Stacks of unopened champagne bottles and a growling media waited for the Yankees outside their clubhouse following Game 5.
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New York Times
Bridget Wentworth / New Jersey Online:NY Yankees can't afford to give struggling Nick Swisher another at-bat
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ESPN, It's About The Money, The Pinstriper, The Bronx View Yankees Podcast … and Deadspin
Dan Rosenheck / Bats:
Scioscia Will Need a Quick Hook in Game 6 — After rallying for three runs in the seventh inning against the apparently mortal Phil Hughes and holding on by a thread in the ninth, the Angels will head back to New York for Game 6. The Yankees will start Andy Pettitte, a reliable veteran …
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Matthew Pouliot / Circling The Bases:
Bumbling Scioscia can't blow Game 5 — The ALCS victory was theirs for the taking even after an awful first inning, but the Yankees couldn't reach out and grab it. Instead, the series will head back to New York for a Game 6 on Saturday. The end result came in spite of the efforts of one Mike Scioscia …
Melissa Segura / Sports Illustrated:
Padres to hire Hoyer as GM … The San Diego Padres will name Jed Hoyer as their new general manager later today, a front office source tells SI.com. — Hoyer, 35, most recently served as the Boston Red Sox's senior vice president and assistant general manager.
Rebecca / This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes:
It's all about the leverage (or why Mariano should have pitched the 7th) — Leverage is a funny word. A loaded word, if you will. — For one thing, it's more or less responsible for the financial collapse of America. — In baseball parlance, leverage refers to an on-field situation …
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Joseph Pawlikowski / River Avenue Blues:If a closer is a team's best reliever, then why isn't he used …
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Bottom9 Baseball
David Brown / Yahoo! Sports:
Giddy Halos fan takes a dive into the waterfall at Angel Stadium — Why is this guy all wet? Not because Angel Stadium has a pool. No, he's dripping with “holy” water because he went for a frolic in the ballpark's rocky waterfall. — Because an Angels' four-run lead over the Yankees …
Adam McCalvy / MLB.com:
Sheets planning big return in 2010 — Former Brewers righty has high school number retired — MILWAUKEE — Former Brewers right-hander Ben Sheets returned to his Louisiana high school last week and saw his No. 15 uniform retired. Sheets intends to be wearing it again in 2010.
Mark Bowman / MLB.com:
Hudson, Braves talking about extension — Right-hander optimistic that he can stay in Atlanta — ATLANTA — Tim Hudson and the Braves have started negotiating the contract extension that could enable the right-hander the opportunity to continue pitching in Atlanta.
MLB.com:
2009 Players Choice finalists announced — Pujols, Mauer highlight potential award winners — The 2009 Players Choice Awards will be announced exclusively next week in five daily segments of ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike in the Morning show. — Players in both leagues voted in mid-September …
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FishStripes
Jose De Jesus Ortiz / Houston Chronicle:
Astros close to making decision on manager — As owner Drayton McLane heads into the weekend, Phil Garner, Manny Acta and Brad Mills remain the lone finalists to replace Cecil Cooper, and the Astros' owner expects to have a decision by early next week. — “We're just trying to think through this,” McLane said.
Tony Massarotti / Boston Globe:
All about the money — The most promising aspect, going forward, is that the Red Sox have money to spend again. And even if the Red Sox elect to spend it all this winter, the even better news is that they project to have just as much financial flexibility during the winter of 2010.
Chico Harlan / Nationals Journal:
Strasburg hit hard in second AFL start — Stephen Strasburg, making his second professional experience, dealt for the first time in years with the experience of getting rocked. In Thursday's Arizona Fall League game between Strasburg's Phoenix Desert Dogs and Phoenix Javelinas …
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