The Pennant Race - 8/8

Brian Giles won't be going to the Boston Red Sox. The veteran Padres outfielder blocked a potential deal that would have sent him from one coast to the other.

The Yankees and Red Sox gained on Tampa when the Rays couldn't hold a one run lead in the 9th inning last night against the Mariners. After the M's tied it up in the 8th, Raul Ibanez sent the fans home happy with a walk off home run.

The A's went from 2 over .500 to 8 under after losing their 10th straight last night. A.J. Burnett won his career-high 14th game. Hard to imagine that someone with his stuff has never won more than 12 games in a season before.

Another Manny Ramirez home run, his fourth, was the difference in the Dodgers' 4-1 win over the Cardinals. That moved them to within 1.5 of the Diamondbacks after the NL West leaders fell to Atlanta 6-4.

The idle Twins gained a half-game on the White Sox after Chicago was pounded by Detroit 8-3. One has to wonder what Jimmy Leyland is doing with Justin Verlander. He's your prized possession, yet you let him throw 130 pitches last night to save the bullpen. What happened was a 5-3 game that turned into a romp.

The Rockies should have been sellers at the deadline. They're now 13 games under .500 after being swept in a twin-bill by the Nationals. They trail the DBacks by 8 games.

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The Pennant Race - 8/7

The Phillies came into today leading the Marlins by 2.5 and the Mets by 3. All three were involved in action this afternoon, with the Phillies and Marlins going head to head.

The Mets pen blew another lead for Johan Santana, but David Wright saved the day with a walk off 2-run home run for a 5-3 Mets win. Meanwhile the Marlins shut out the Phillies 3-0, after getting a big boost from rookie starter Chris Volstad.

Manny Ramirez homered this afternoon for the fourth time in 24 at-bats as a Dodger.

The Red Sox claimed Brian Giles off of waivers and have 48 hours to swing a deal. Where exactly Giles would play remains to be seen.

The Phillies claimed lefty set up man Scott Eyre off waivers from the Cubs and sent minor league pitcher Brian Schlitter (watch the typos) to Chi-town to complete the deal.

The Phillies have reportedly passed on free agent Freddy Garcia, feeling the veteran right-hander couldn't help them this year.

Chad Bradford made it through waivers and was dealt from the O's to the Rays for a player to be named later.

The Rockies were awarded Livan Hernandez after claiming the right-hander off of waivers from the Twins. The two teams couldn't work out a deal so the Twins decided to let him and his contract go.

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Yankees vs. Padres - June 17

The Yankees begin a 3-game series this evening with the San Diego Padres at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees are 3-2 in interleague play thus far, with all the wins coming against the Astros and the two losses against the Mets. The Padres, under second year manager Bud Black are playing better of late after a bad start.

The Padres have been perennial NL West division contenders since the new millennium, but they started this season with an 11-17 April. The dropped 7 of their first 8 games in May and were 23-34 at the end of the month. But after a 3-game losing streak start this month they've won 8-11 to get back to 9 games (31-40) under .500 and 6.5 games back of the Diamondbacks in the NL West.

The Padres starting rotation was supposed to be among the best in the NL and all of baseball lead by Jake Peavy, Chris Young, and Greg Maddux. But both Peavy and Young, who was hit in the face by an Albert Pujols line drive, have missed significant chunks of time due to injury. Peavy recently returned and picked up a victory. Guys like Randy Wolf and Josh Banks have recently stepped up to help the Padres start to turn things around.

On offense, Adrian Gonzalez is quietly having one of the best seasons in baseball. He's hitting .293-19-62 with 25 walks. His OBP/SLG is .358/.555/.913. Shortstop Khalil Greene hit 27 HRs and drove in 94 runs last year, but has struggled this season, with just 6 home runs and 27 RBI in 69 games. Second year 3rd baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff is putting up numbers similar to his rookie year (.275-18-74). His play has allowed the Padres to move stud prospect Chase Headley to left field. Headley is expected to get his major league call up tonight.

Brian Giles is the biggest name at the plate, but his numbers aren't reflective of his ability. His power continues to decline (4 home runs in 67 games) and there are rumors he could be moved.

The Padres bullpen has not performed as well it has in the past, though in a typical Trevor Hoffman season, there are plenty of big saves and plenty of blown ones.

* * *

The Yankees last faced San Diego in 2004 when the Yankees took 2 of 3 at the Stadium. The Yankees lost the opener 10-2 after Mike Mussina had to leave after 3 innings with a groin pull. The All-World trio of Felix Heredia, Paul Quantrill, and Gabe White (whose mustache would fit in today) got lit up.

The Yankees took the second game 3-2 behind good ol' Johnny Lieber's 6 innings. The angry old man, Gary Sheffield, drove in 2 runs against one of his many former teams. The Yankees came back not once, but twice to win the finale 6-5 in 12 innings. Hideki Matsui and Kenny Lofton hit back to back 2-out home runs in the 9th off of Trevor Hoffman (remember what we said) to tie it. Then down 3 runs in the 12th the Yankees came back again. A walk by Bernie Williams, a double by Derek Jeter. Alex Rodriguez's ground out drove in one run and it was 5-3. Sheffield's single put men on the corners for Jason Giambi who delivered an RBI single to center to cut it to 5-4.

Then manager Bruce Bochy sent for a guy we all hated in NY, Jay Witasick or Witasuck as he was known. He delivered as usual. Jorge Posada tied things up with a double, and after an intentional walk to Matsui, Ruben Sierra brought home the winning run with a sac fly.

Of course the most famous meeting of the two teams was the 1998 World Series when the Yankees finished off their magnificent season with a series sweep.


Pitching Probables

Tuesday: Randy Wolf (5-3, 3.83) vs. Andy Pettitte (6-5, 4.64)

Wednesday: Jake Peavy (5-3, 2.64) vs. Darrell Rasner (3-4, 3.64)

Thursday: Josh Banks (2-0, 1.29) vs. Joba Chamberlain (1-2, 2.48)


Yankees vs. Wolf

Damon 1-6
Jeter 0-3
Moeller 3-6 1 HR 2 RBI
Joe Girardi may want to grab a bat. He was 3-9 against Wolf.

Padres vs. Pettitte

T.Clark 5-28 1 HR 3 RBI
Gerut 1-3
Giles 3-13 1 RBI
Gonzalez 1-5
Greene 2-10
S. Hairston 3-9 1 HR 2 RBI
Iguchi 0-2

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