Thursday Morning Quick Hitters

The Boston Red Sox used 4 1st inning runs along with a critical hit late to beat the Cleveland Indians 5 – 4. Tampa Bay also won, beating the Baltimore Orioles 11 – 6, so the Rays are still up on the Sox by 3 games for the AL East Division Title.

The Minnesota Twins took the 2nd game in the battle for the AL Central title, beating the White Sox 3 – 2. The Twins are now just 1/2 game back..

The New York Mets blew an opportunity to gain ground on the Philadelphia Phillies, who lost to the Atlanta Braves 10 – 4, by blowing a 4 run lead to the Chicago Cubs and finally losing in the 10th inning 9 – 6. The Mets remain 1 1/2 games behind the Phillies in the NL East and tied for the Wild Card with Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee Brewers gained that tie with the Mets by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4 – 2.

The LA Dodgers opened up a 4 game lead on the Arizona Diamondbacks by slamming the San Diego Padres 12 – 4. The D-Backs lost to the St Louis Cardinals 4 – 2.

Troy Brown will make his retirement official today.

The ax finally fell in Detroit. Matt Millen (Patrick Sullivan applauds somewhere) finally wore out his welcome in Detroit.

The New York Giants suspended Plexiglas Burress for 2 weeks and 1 game. Burress will appeal.

Jason Taylor discusses potentially career ending injury.

Former Nebraska Cornhusker RB Thunder Collins charged with murder.

Beanie Wells and Terrell Pryor to start for the Buckeyes

The Boston Celtics brought their trophy, courtesy TD Banknorth Maine, to Maine yesterday. Don’t forget, the Sports Vortex had Boston Celtics great Jo Jo White yesterday. You can download the interview on the right Talkshoe widget.

Monday Morning Quick Hitters

Vlad Guerrero, who by the way is the best bad-ball hitter ever, and Casey Kotchman helped the California Angels…sorry…just how I roll…sweep the Red Sox out of town. Sox got great pitching from Tim Wakefield again, but as usual, the bullpen gave the game away.

The Yanks continue their resurgence, beating Oakland 2 – 1 in the Bronx yesterday. Andy Pettitte pitched 8 strong innings, out-dueling Justin Duchscherer, to shut down the A’s. A sac fly by A-Rod and a HR by The Stache…aka Jason Giambi scored all the runs the Yankees needed.

The Toronto Blue Jays avoided a sweep at the hands of the Tampa Rays yesterday 9-4. Marco Scutaro and Alex Rios drove the offense as 7 Blue Jays pitchers shut down the Rays. The Rays are still 1 1/2 games up on the Red Sox in the AL East.

The Brewers continued their surge back to contention in the NL Central race, beating the Giants 7 – 4. Ryan Braun’s 5 RBIs (a 2 run double and a 3 run HR) allowed the Brewers to bury the Giants. Right after the game, the Brewers bolstered their league worst batting average for 2nd Baseman (.222) by acquiring Ray Durham from the other locker room.

Oh those former Red Sox untouchables. Brandon Lyon blew a save for the ages, allowing the Los Angeles Dodgers to score 5 runs in the top of the 9th to come all the way back and steal a win in Arizona, 6 -5. Matt Kemp doubled home the tying run and Andre Ethier tripled home the go ahead run. The win ties the Dodgers with the DBacks for the NL West lead. I’ll keep reminding people, the Dpdgers were my sleeper pick for the World Series.

Cleveland knocked off the hapless Mariners 6-2.
Florida beat Philly in 11, 3 – 2.
The Mets beat Cincy 7 – 5 in 10. and The Nationals finish off a sweep of the Braves 15 – 6.

Other News

Greg Norman chokes again allowing Padraig Harrington to defend his Open title and win the 137th British Open.

Jason Taylor finally gets a new home. With Washington Redskin DE Phillip Daniels going down to season ending knee surgery, the Dolphins had what another team needed, a monster at DE. Washington traded a 2nd round draft pick in 2009 and a 6th round pick in 2010 for the perennial All-Pro end. This should end the biggest issue hanging over the Dolphins heads prior to the opening of training camp.

According to Marc Spears, the Celtics have reached agreement with Eddie House and Tony Allen to return to the world champs. Interesting tidbits here are that the Celtics did not have to use any of their mid-level exception to re-sign Tony Allen, and managed to snag Eddie House for a little over 2 mill, leaving about 3.5 million left over for the MLE in case someone else decides to hop on boar for another ring.

Finally…..

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FCC “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in fining CBS for the “Incident” during the Super Bowl 38 (Won by the Patriots, by the way) Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction incident. The court ruled that the FCC wavered from previous application of standards by not holding the incident up to “pervasive as to amount to ‘shock treatment’ for the audience” levels. The court overturned the half million dollar fine levied against CBS and its affiliates. Peter Griffin had this to say when reached for comment.