Ballbug: Gonzalez, Rockies Pound Marlins in 12-5 Win (Associated Press)

Associated Press:

Matt Cain goes 8 strong innings, Giants beat Braves 7-5 — ATLANTA - Matt Cain snapped his three-game losing streak with five-hit ball over eight innings, and the San Francisco Giants barely avoided another loss to Atlanta in the final at-bat, holding on for a 7-5 victory over the Braves on Wednesday night.

Discussion: Yahoo! Sports, McCovey Chronicles and Talking Chop

Helms returns to Braves with minor league deal — ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves are bringing back infielder Wes Helms, signing him to a minor league deal less than a week after he was released by the Florida Marlins. — The Braves said Wednesday that Helms will report to Triple-A Gwinnett …

Discussion: Talking Chop

Paul Newberry / Associated Press: Giants reeling from injuries, last-inning losses

Ben Nicholson-Smith / MLB Rumors:

Mariners Acquire Ruffin To Complete Tigers Deal — The Mariners announced that they have acquired Chance Ruffin from the Tigers to complete the trade that sent Doug Fister and David Pauley to Detroit for Casper Wells, Charlie Furbush, Francisco Martinez and a player to be named on July 30th.

Discussion: CloserNews, Lookout Landing, Bless You Boys and Yahoo! Sports

Morneau's two-run single in ninth helps Twins beat Tigers — DETROIT — Justin Morneau's bases-loaded single in the ninth inning gave the Minnesota Twins a 6-5 victory over the first-place Detroit Tigers on Wednesday night. — With the game tied at four, Rene Tosoni led off the top of the ninth with a single off Jose Valverde (2-4).

Harvey Araton / New York Times:

Plenty of Time Left to Regret Rodriguez's Contract — The swollen ice wrap around Alex Rodriguez's right knee looked like it might burst and spray popcorn around the room in all directions. He sat down and kept his leg erect, but couldn't keep a straight face when someone asked if he physically felt 100 percent.

Discussion: WasWatching.com, BBTF's Baseball Primer … and Bats

Discussion: Bronx Baseball Daily, HardballTalk and River Avenue Blues

Mike Vorkunov / New Jersey Online:
Alex Rodriguez gets sour reception in rehab game with Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Yankees

Discussion: WasWatching.com and Sliding Into Home

Carrie Muskat / MLB.com:

Sammy to Big Z: Hold off on retirement talk — Former slugger wants players to know life after baseball ‘not easy’ — CHICAGO — Sammy Sosa knows all about life after baseball, and planned on reaching out to Carlos Zambrano to remind him that once you retire, “it's a whole different ballgame.”

Discussion: Eye on Baseball

Discussion: HardballTalk

Associated Press:

Gordon and Butler hit home runs and Royals beat Yankees — KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Alex Gordon hit a three-run home run, Billy Butler added a contested solo shot and the Kansas City Royals survived a harrowing ninth inning to beat the New York Yankees 5-4 Wednesday night and avoid a three-game sweep.

Discussion: Boston Herald

Discussion: Pinstripe Alley and baseballmusings.com

Associated Press:

Valdez delivers clutch hit to lead Phillies over D'backs — PHILADELPHIA — Wilson Valdez went up to the plate looking for a sacrifice fly and got a lot more. — Cliff Lee threw seven impressive innings, Valdez hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the seventh, and the Philadelphia Phillies …

Discussion: Hardball Times and Yahoo! Sports

Associated Press:

Gonzalez, Rockies Pound Marlins in 12-5 Win — DENVER (AP) — Aaron Cook pitched effectively into the eighth inning and Carlos Gonzalez' three-run homer highlighted a powerful offensive display that sent the Colorado Rockies to a 12-5 victory over the Florida Marlins on Wednesday night.

Discussion: Purple Row, BBTF's Baseball Primer … and Associated Press

Jim Callis / Baseball America:

Teams Spend $236 Million On '11 Draft — MLB teams combined to spend $227,969,050 on draft bonuses in 2011, and a total of $236,019,050 including additional guarantees in major league contracts for Danny Hultzen, Trevor Bauer, Dylan Bundy, Anthony Rendon and Matt Purke.

Discussion: MLB Daily Dish, HardballTalk and MLB Rumors

Barry Petchesky / Deadspin:

Who Owns “Evil Empire”? The Yankees Launch A Proxy War For Control — Bridgehampton, N.Y., out on the East End of Long Island, is Red Sox territory. The bars along Main Street are decked out in red and will only show Yankees games if there's nothing else on. TVs receive the Hartford network affiliates.

Discussion: HardballTalk and River Avenue Blues

Steven Miller / MLB.com:

Strasburg allows five runs in third rehab start — HAGERSTOWN, Md. — Stephen Strasburg knew he needed to face some adversity in his Minor League rehab starts, even if he might not face the level of competition he will see once he returns to the Nationals' rotation in September.

Discussion: Yahoo! Sports and Federal Baseball

Aaron Gleeman / HardballTalk:

Brian Wilson has sore elbow examined by Dr. James Andrews — San Francisco's injuries keep piling up. — Yesterday the Giants placed setup man Sergio Romo on the disabled list with elbow inflammation and now closer Brian Wilson is unavailable due to elbow problems of his own.

Discussion: Yahoo! Sports, baseballmusings.com and FakeTeams

Dom Cosentino / Deadspin:

Torii Hunter Gets Trapped In An Oxygen Chamber, Pisses In a Bottle, Tweets — In need of a little rejuvenation after the Angels' 7-3 loss last night to the Rangers, Torii Hunter entered a clubhouse oxygen chamber, thinking that would do the trick. It's not known what happened next …

Discussion: Angels blog and Eye on Baseball

Fox Sports:

THOME HITS NO. 600 — Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since August 2005. He appears weekly on MLB on FOX. Follow him on Twitter. — WNBA — Boxing — IRL — F1 — NCAA WBK — Horse Racing Air Racing … Thome's mark should not be overlooked

Discussion: Deadspin, Sox #1 Fan dot com, Plain Dealer and Toeing the Rubber

Discussion: MLB Rumors