Dodgers - Reds Preview as Kershaw preps to throw from mound

CINCINNATI -- The Los Angeles Dodgers have placed a National-League leading 26 players on the disabled list this season. Slowly but surely, they are getting healthy.

Clayton Kershaw pitching to Bryce Harper earlier in 2016 Season

Good news abounded on Friday. Right-handed starter Bud Norris and left-handed reliever Adam Liberatore were reinstated from the DL and ace Clayton Kershaw will take a significant step forward in his rehab from a herniated disk on Saturday when he throws 20-25 pitches off the mound inside Great American Ball Park.

"I'm always cautiously optimistic," manager Dave Roberts said on Friday. "With all the things we've incurred, we still find a way."

The news wasn't as good on the field Friday as Norris allowed six earned runs in 3 2/3 innings in his return in a 9-2 loss to Cincinnati.

The Dodgers had won nine straight against the Reds. They'll be looking to start another streak when Brett Anderson takes the mound Saturday hoping to improve on his season debut on Sunday when he allowed five runs and five hits in one inning of an 11-3 loss to the Pirates.
Anderson will make his third career start against Cincinnati. In his two prior starts against the Reds, Anderson went 2-0 with a 2.13 ERA with just three earned runs given up in 12 2/3 innings. Cincinnati batted .224 against him in those outings.

The Reds will counter with left-hander Brandon Finnegan who will make his 25th appearance and start of the season on Saturday. He'll face the Dodgers for the second time in his career.
Finnegan's last start at Dodger Stadium was a memorable one.

On May 23, Finnegan allowed one run and five hits through eight innings of a 1-0 loss. It was the first complete game by a Reds left-hander since Lance Davis beat the Tigers on July 16, 2001, at Cinergy Field.

Finnegan, who was acquired last July in the trade which sent Johnny Cueto to the Kansas City Royals, has endured some hard luck this season.

He was matched up against Kershaw in the aforementioned start in May. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning on April 11 only to have it broken up with two outs then eventually lost the game. Finnegan also was the Reds' starter on April 21 when Jake Arrieta no-hit them at Great American Ball Park.

Fortunes for Cincinnati have turned around. Since the All-Star break, the Reds are 20-12 and have won eight of 10 series. They own the second-best record in the major leagues since the break.

"I understand that it was a tough first half and now it's exciting to come to the ballpark knowing you have a chance to win," said Reds manager Bryan Price. "Nobody wants to be at the bottom (off the standings). The overriding feeling in the first half, besides getting the pitching together, was we're just a couple of pieces short. This is the way we envisioned the second half going."

myCR3W® Inc. Sports CR3W®

Mets Manager Terry Collins Savoring the rare Appearance, his first in 45 years, of the World Series

Amen, Classic example. Let's go DODGERS CR3W

Yu Darvish loses a "no-no" with 1 out remaining to Big Papi, Rangers drop Red Sox 8 - 0

So close again: Rangers' Darvish loses no-hit bid with out to go

Anthony Andro

+FOX Sports Southwest


ARLINGTON, Texas – Boston's David Ortiz took the official scorer off the hook Friday night in what would have been one of the most debated no-hitters in big league history.

His ninth inning single with two outs off Texas ace Yu Darvish ended Darvish's bid for a no-hitter and made a controversial seventh-inning error by Texas outfielder Alex Rios a non-factor in Darvish's no-hit bid. It didn't take away from a brilliant performance by Darvish in an 8-0 blanking of the Boston Red Sox.
The hit by Ortiz to right field in the teeth of the Texas shift marked the second-consecutive year Darvish has lost a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning.

It was fitting that it was Ortiz who ended the no-no bid as he was part of the controversy in the seventh inning. It was his two-out blooper to right that fell in between Rios and second baseman Rougned Odor, without either of the players touching the ball.

It took official scorer Steve Weller a couple of minutes to make the error call. While that was happening Darvish walked Mike Napoli before getting Grady Sizemore to fly out to right to keep the no-hit bid intact.

Darvish, who struck out 12 before being lifted after allowing the Ortiz single, took some of the blame for the error because he fell behind 3-1 to Ortiz. He had no problem with the final result.

"This is my second time I experienced this but if I keep pitching like this someday I'll get it," Darvish said. "I'll keep doing what I'm doing and I'll probably have the world record of almost a no-hitter. I don't think it was the best game that I threw but it was against Boston and I think I pitched well against them."

Darvish was perfect through six innings and that carried over to start the seventh as he got a fly ball from Dustin Pedroia and a grounder from Shane Victorino.

That's when Ortiz looked like a lazy fly ball that no one caught. Rios took full responsibility for the play.

"We had the shift on and I thought that he (Odor) was a little closer to the ball than I was,
said Rios. "At the end, it's my responsibility to call him off and it's a shame that I couldn't help him achieve a great pitching performance tonight. I should have taken control of that ball. It can be called an error, yeah. We were camped under the ball, so it can be called an error."

Odor said he couldn't hear Rios because of the crowd noise at Globe Life Park.

Texas manager Ron Washington thought the play should have been made too.

"My take on it is it should have been caught," said Washington, who declined to say who he thought should have caught the ball.

Weller cited Rule 10:12a1 in the rule book for his decision on the error call. He believed Rios called off Odor on the play. He checked with the Elias Sports Bureau who agreed with his decision.

"Again, this is a judgment call," Weller told a pool reporter. "In my judgment, when the ball goes up in the air, I felt like the second baseman or the right fielder under normal effort could've clearly caught the ball. I don't think there's a lot of argument about that. Under the rule, 10.12a1, it clearly states that a fly ball that lands — that's allowed to hit the ground, that in the judgment of the official scorer under normal effort could be caught — you're to award an error on the play."

Ortiz said he had no problem with the play being ruled an error but after he broke up the no-hitter with a clean hit, he believes the call in the seventh should be changed too. 

"Ok, I know I hit a ball that was supposed to be caught," Ortiz said. "You know guy throwing a no-hitter, we all understand, but it comes down to the rules of the game… that's a hit. That's the rule that we all know and that's rule that the game have for more than 100 years. "

Darvish worked around an eighth-inning leadoff walk to keep the no-hitter going, finishing the inning with his 12th and final strikeout.

He was replaced by Alex Ogando after the single and Ogando completed the major-league high eighth shutout for the +Texas Rangers. That's not up for debate regardless of how the seventh inning played out.

Darvish was philosophical about the night because he felt like he had given up a hit to Ortiz in the seventh.

"It was a 3-1 count and I had to throw a fastball in that situation," Darvish said. "As soon as he hit it I thought it was going to be a hit. Obviously I was a little bit disappointed but I was already ready to give up a hit so it didn't matter."

SO CLOSE! AGAIN! Yu Darvish loses a no-no with one out to go. The @Rangers defeat the #RedSox 8-0. http://t.co/vt0GSG7x4Z
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) May 10, 2014

+Texas Rangers +Boston Red Sox +MLB +David Ortiz 

Pineda, Pine tar Suspended 10 games, Pine tar probably gonna be gone awhile longer

Pineda suspended ten games for pine tar use

Contributions by Daniel Pfeiffer

+New York Yankees 

+Examiner.com 

Joel Wickerman

New York Yankees right-handed pitcher Michael Pineda was suspended for ten games on Thursday, one day after he was caught possessing a foreign substance on his person in his start against the Boston Red Sox. Pineda has decided not to appeal, which means the suspension will begin immediately and the Yankees will be forced to carry a 24-man roster for the duration of his suspension.

The 25-year-old pitcher was spotted with a brown substance smeared on his neck by Red Sox manager John Farrell, who brought it to the attention of the umpiring crew. Upon investigation, the substance was determined to be pine tar, and Pineda was ejected in accordance with +MLB rule 8.02 (b).

During a post-game interview, Pineda admitted what everyone watching on television already knew.

“In the first inning, I could not feel the ball and I didn't want to hit anybody so I put (pine tar) on,” Pineda admitted, declaring that he would learn from the mistake.

More: Pineda ejected after using pine tar in Yankee loss

However, it is unknown why Pineda did not learn from a previous mistake. The pine tar incident from Wednesday comes just two weeks after Pineda was spotted with a substance on his pitching hand while playing against the same +Boston Red Sox team. Because it was not brought to the attention of the umpires, no disciplinary action ever came of the issue.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman voiced his disappointment in Pineda on Thursday, indicating that the team had multiple conversations with the young right-hander since the first incident.

“I’m surprised that we as an organization are in this position,” Cashman noted when talking to reporters. “There have been enough conversations. And obviously there will be more now, or there have already been more now, even in-game when he was ejected from the game. I think after the last go-around with the same team, clearly there were a lot of conversations about this. There are no secrets there.”

Despite the ten-game suspension, Pineda will miss just one start due to off days built into the Yankee schedule. Though nothing is official, it is expected that David Phelps, who lost out to Pineda for the final spot in the rotation, will receive a spot start

Yankees Pineda Ejected this time for "Foreign Substance" After last Suspicion Resulted in Nothing

Yankees’ Michael Pineda ejected from loss to Red Sox after pine tar discovered on neck

Home plate umpire Gerry Davis came out to the mound at Red Sox manager John Farrell’s request and checked Pineda’s uniform. Davis ran his finger over the brown spot on Pineda’s neck and immediately ejected him.

BY ANTHONY MCCARRON 

+New York Daily News

COREY SIPKIN

+New York Yankees starter Michael Pineda appears to be bad at cheating. Pine tar is clearly visible on his neck here. When discovered by umpires in the second inning, he is ejected.

BOSTON – After giving up two runs in the first inning Wednesday night, Michael Pineda returned to the Fenway mound for the second frame with brown goop slathered on the right side of his neck, setting in motion a series of events that likely will push the Yankees’ 5-1 loss to the +Boston Red Sox into Rivalry lore.

Yankees Pineda on Pine Tar, "My hands get sweaty."

Pineda, now a “man of (foreign) substance” two times over, was ejected after plate umpire Gerry Davis dabbed his finger in the glistening stuff on Pineda’s neck at the request of Sox manager John Farrell. Pineda likely faces a suspension that could be as long as eight or 10 games, though +MLB officials won’t decide on the penalty until they’ve digested the umpires’ report.

And Pineda’s not the only one who could be in trouble. Yankee manager Joe Girardi moved an unmanned +ESPN camera after it turned to capture video of a dejected Pineda walking down the dugout tunnel toward the clubhouse with an athletic trainer and pitching coach Larry Rothschild. Girardi held the camera away, all of it caught by another camera angle. That could be subject to discipline, too.

Beyond the likely penalties, this storyline could keep reverberating through Rivalry games this season – now that the Red Sox have checked a Yankee pitcher, do Girardi and Co. retaliate by asking umps to look at any suspicious blotch on a Boston pitcher, just for the potential annoyance factor? Both Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz have been suspected in the past. 

COREY SIPKIN/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

COREY SIPKIN/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

In the first inning with catcher Brian McCann (l.) Pineda appears to have a clean neck, but in inning two, the substance appears just behind the right ear.

The whole grand theater is a sequel of sorts to what happened at the Stadium April 10. That cold night, Pineda beat Boston but was spotted with similar brown goo on the palm of his right hand. The Red Sox did not protest, but Farrell and several his players suggested Pineda should be less obvious if he was going to use something to improve his grip on the ball.

Pineda was not disciplined for the first offense, but Joe Torre, MLB’s VP of baseball operations, talked to Yankee GM Brian Cashman about the matter. Pineda claimed it was dirt on his palm.

Though it’s technically against baseball rules, pitchers generally use something to help them get a grip on the ball on cold nights – it was 53 degrees at first pitch at Fenway, with winds gusting at 24 miles per hour – and nobody says anything because they don’t want their own pitchers checked, too. Hitters say they’re happy that pitchers actually know where their 90-plus mph pitchers are headed.

Before Wednesday night’s game, Farrell said he expected “if it’s used, it’s more discreet than the last time.”

It wasn’t. It was just in a different place.

Farrell likely asked Davis to examine Pineda because it was the second time television cameras easily spotted Pineda using something. With Grady Sizemore batting with a 1-and-2 count and two out in the second, Davis came out to the mound and checked Pineda’s uniform and the ball, felt the brown substance and ejected the pitcher.

David Phelps replaced Pineda and struck out Sizemore to end the inning, one of the few Yankee highlights on a dismal evening that included three errors.

Pineda, who entered the game with a 1.00 ERA, had been wildly successful in his first three starts, a bright rotation surprise. Pitching with a clean neck in the first inning, though, the Red Sox scored two runs off him, a scoring burst that started with Sizemore’s leadoff triple. In his abbreviated outing, Pineda (2-2) allowed four hits and two runs in 1.2 innings.

It’s worth wondering how the Yankees let Pineda go to the mound with a foreign substance so apparent on his neck. And why would he do it again after being caught last time? Couldn’t he and the Yanks have found a better hiding place? Maybe Girardi and his coaches didn’t know he was using it Wednesday night. 

COREY SIPKIN/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

A foreign-substance free John Lackey dominates the Yankees over eight innings.

They do now. And now they’ll have to figure out how to deal with the fallout, as well as the potential rotation problems a suspension for Pineda will cause. They are already down a starter with Ivan Nova on the disabled and Pineda could be banned for two starts, meaning they’ll be using their seventh starter of the season.

There is precedent for suspensions as long as eight or 10 games – In 2012, +Tampa Bay Rays’ Joel Peralta was slapped with an eight-game suspension for having pine tar on his glove. The +Los Angeles Angels’ Brendan Donnelly was hit with a 10-game ban in 2005 for having a foreign substance on his glove and the +St. Louis Cardinals’ Julian Tavarez was suspended for 10 games in 2004 for doctoring baseballs. 

Pineda will surely face a suspension one way or another. Joel Peralta got 8 games in 2012.
— Mark Feinsand (@FeinsandNYDN) April 24, 2014

How long will Pineda get?

--------

Yankees SP Pineda Issues Apology

(+USA TODAY Sports)

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/pine-tossed-yankees-pineda-ejected-red-sox-game-pine-tar-neck-article-1.1766894#ixzz2zljzKvee

Fenway Honors Boston Strong and Those who were Attacked a year ago at Boston Marathon

On eve of marathon, Fenway Park recalls victims, celebrates 'Boston Strong'

Sam Gardner

+FOX Sports

Bob DeChiara / +USA TODAY Sports 

A video tribute honoring the one-year anniversary of the Boston marathon tragedy is played on the center field video screen before Sunday night's Red Sox-Orioles game at Fenway Park. 

BOSTON -- On the eve of the first Boston Marathon since a pair of explosions killed three people and injured hundreds more near the finish line of the 2013 race, the +Boston Red Sox paid tribute to those impacted by the attacks with a heartfelt pregame ceremony that brought tears to the eyes of an impassioned crowd at +Fenway Park.

Backed by a live performance by the +UMass marching band and the Boston Pipers Society and with a giant American flag covering the Green Monster in left field, the team honored Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell and Lingzi Lu -- the three spectators killed by the explosions last April 15 -- as well as fallen MIT police officer Sean Collier, who was killed in the aftermath of the blasts.

"The Green Monster is Fenway, and to come in and see that American flag draped over it, it took my breath away," said Woody Harrell, 66, of Corinth, Miss. "€œSeeing all the sports teams pulling together and supporting the marathon and supporting the victims, that was really something. ... And to be here on Easter with this whole triumph over death, tying that in with last year and turning back fear, it was just very powerful."

While the bands played "Highland Cathedral," a group of first responders who were on duty as last year's events unfolded entered the field from the first-base line to be honored. Moments later, a cavalcade of marathon survivors wearing matching Red Sox jerseys with Boston's 617 area code on the back emerged from the left-field corner.

The group of survivors was led onto the field by Jeff Bauman and Carlos Arredondo, the subjects of one of the most iconic images to come from the scene along Boylston Street, but also included dozens of other victims and their families, including Celeste and Sydney Corcoran and Marc Fucarile, who married his fiancee, Jen Regan, at Fenway Park on Thursday.

Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Boston Marathon victim Jeff Baumann and good samaritan Carlos Arredondo (hand on cowboy hat) walk onto the field as part of pregame ceremonies at Fenway Park.

"Just seeing the people who were there at the finish line, the people who you saw on TV and made it real last year and were obviously affected -- it was nice to just give them that moment," said Matt Cloutier of Salem, N.H. "Here, where we're so close to where it actually happened, I thought it was really touching."

As fans along the outfield wall held up large canvases with messages of good will from supporters from each of the 50 states and every major league team -- including a team-signed banner from the +Baltimore Orioles, Boston'™s opponent Sunday -- another group of marathon participants, volunteers and fundraisers from One Fund Boston emerged from behind the center-field wall to be recognized.

"€It was amazing, it was awesome -- very moving," said Steve Stoddard, a board member for One Run for Boston who was on the field for the ceremony. "It was wonderful to see the closeness. We knew each other because we'd been working together to make people feel better and help them out, so that's really what it was all about, and that was a huge closure for us."

Even more awesome, though, was the scene behind the scenes both before and after the ceremony played out.

"Everybody who was on the field felt the warmth from the crowd, and that mimicked the feeling that we all had -- the love, the warmth," Stoddard said. "If you could have seen the stage underneath center field, what you would have seen is people from a thousand different backgrounds, a thousand different places and everybody had nothing but a smile, a hug and a word of encouragement. That's what it was all about to all of us.

"Whether it was the UMass band, the state police bagpipe band -- whoever it was, everybody sat there hugging. Everyone was just in such a jovial mood, and it felt like everybody was back."

With the procession stretching from the left-field line across to the right-field line, the two teams then took to their respective base paths, standing at attention as the national anthem boomed from the bands in center field. And after David Ortiz caught the first pitch from Jim Gallagher, president of One Fund Boston -- which raised $80 million for marathon victims -- the family of Lingzi Lu, making their first appearance at Fenway Park since Lu's death, stood near home plate and urged the players and crowd to "play ball."

Jim Rogash-Getty Images North America

Family members of Lingzi Lu, who died during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, respond to the Fenway Park crowd.

"Our passion for our town and our compassion for our people has only made us stronger," Red Sox PA announcer Henry Mahegan said in his address to the crowd. "We have been lifted by an outpouring of love from all over the world."

In a fitting ending to a perfect night, the Red Sox rallied for a 6-5 win over the Orioles, with Dustin Pedroia scoring the game-winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. But for those touched by the pregame festivities and those running in Monday's race, the score was mostly an afterthought.

"It's been 39 years, but after last year, I had to come back," said Harrell, who ran Boston in 1975 and is back for the first time since. "Boston is just very special. It's my marathon just like it's everyone's here. And to be back and reclaim it and be part of what's going to be the biggest celebration of long-distance running, it's an honor and I'm just real tickled to do it."

Taking back Boston -- it was the theme Sunday night and will be the theme Monday as more than 36,000 runners embark on the quest from Hopkinton to Boylston Street. Marathon weekend has been "Boston Strong" personified, but after a year of mourning and a year of healing, you'd expect nothing less.

"If something bad happened to your sister or your brother, if something like that affected them, how would you feel?" Cloutier said. "I think that's how everybody, universally, felt (last year), and that's why the city came together, because we were all family that day."

Added Stoddard: "We're resilient, we're strong and nobody is going to mess with us, but at the end of the day we're going to take care of our own. Our own are what's most important, and that's really what Boston is all about."

You can follow Sam Gardner on Twitter or email him at samgardnerfox@gmail.com

ICYMI: @UCLATrack_Field great Meb Keflezighi won today's Boston Marathon. http://t.co/OWuMecf7j9 pic.twitter.com/MyO4IMmzXq

— Pac-12 Networks (@Pac12Networks) April 21, 2014

Braves set American Flag on Fire, by Accident

By Houston Mitchell

As a scheduled part of their home opener, the Atlanta Braves set off fireworks before their game against the New York Mets on Tuesday. As an unscheduled part of their home opener, the fireworks set fire to the American flag that flies above the Braves Vision video screen in center field.


"It happened because of new pyrotechnics," Braves spokesperson Beth Marshall said. "For the first time, they put pyrotechnics on Braves Vision. One of the pyrotechnics flew at the flag and lit it on fire." Marshall added that the material of the flag is flame retardant, so it went out on its own.

Post by Julie Paulk.

Yankee Staff get out of its Sticky Situation, with the help of Michael Pineda

The bottom line is it wasn’t pine tar that made Pineda mostly unhittable for six-plus innings on Thursday night. After all, from spring training on, his slider has been his best pitch, with such tight spin that hitters fail to recognize it, so it’s not as if this was something new.

h/t +New York Daily News

MARK BONIFACIO/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Who knows what's on Michael Pineda's hand, but it probably isn't the reason he shut down Boston.

It’s the most accepted form of cheating, if you will, in baseball. And that’s if Michael Pineda actually was using pine tar to get a better grip on the baseball.

He said he wasn’t. He said it was just dirt on his hand that became the talk of Thursday night’s Yankees-Red Sox game.

It looked like something a little stickier, based on the images presented on TV and then the Internet. But in any case, David Ortiz claimed to know nothing about it after Pineda shut down the Red Sox for six-plus innings in a 4-1 victory.

And when he was told Pineda may have been using pine tar, Ortiz made it clear he didn’t care.

“Everybody uses pine tar,” he said. “It’s no big deal.”


That’s surely an overstatement. And it is against the rules, so let’s not pretend otherwise. Though it is not grounds for ejection, but a warning, according to the rule book.

And certainly you shouldn’t be dumb enough to actually put the pine tar on display on your pitching hand, if indeed that’s what Pineda did.

But in any case, Ortiz pretty much summed up the feeling among players and managers: that pitchers use it on cold nights to help get a better grip on the ball, but pine tar doesn’t significantly alter the pitches themselves.

It’s not considered to be in the same league as scuffing the ball with sandpaper or doctoring it with a slippery substance — both ways of making the ball sink or sail or move unnaturally.


If it was, the Red Sox would have brought it to the attention of the umpires. They didn’t, which is standard practice these days apparently because the use of pine tar is such an open secret.

The Red Sox, in particular, weren’t about to protest after Clay Buchholz, their starter on Thursday night, was accused last season of doctoring the ball with something more slippery than pine tar.

So the bottom line is it wasn’t pine tar that made Pineda mostly unhittable for six-plus innings on Thursday night. After all, from spring training on, his slider has been his best pitch, with such tight spin that hitters fail to recognize it, so it’s not as if this was something new.

And after all the sound and fury on Twitter, that’s really the beauty of this night for the Yankees.

ROBERT SABO/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Michael Pineda (l.) fist bumps Derek Jeter in the third inning.

More and more they can believe that, two years after shoulder surgery, Pineda looks very much like the guy they thought they were getting in that trade of Jesus Montero to the Mariners in January of 2012.

His fastball is touching 95 and even 96 on occasion now, which means his arm strength is practically what it was as a rookie with Mariners in 2011, when he topped out at 97 mph.

More significantly, he seems to have a feel for pitching that allows him to read swings and change speeds accordingly, keeping hitters off balance. On Thursday, for example, his changeup was nearly as effective as his slider.

All of this means the Yankees could well have the deepest starting rotation in baseball, depending on what CC Sabathia gives them at the front end.

It’s not considered to be in the same league as scuffing the ball with sandpaper or doctoring it with a slippery substance — both ways of making the ball sink or sail or move unnaturally.

The Yankees are still going to be careful with Pineda, however. The minute Joe Girardi saw signs of fatigue, in fact, when Pineda gave up a home run and single in the seventh, he took him out with the right hander’s pitch count at 94. On this night that was no easy decision either, considering that Girardi had something of a bullpen crisis on his hand.

Indeed, with David Robertson on the disabled list, and Shawn Kelley and Adam Warren unavailable because of their recent work load, Girardi was minus his top three bullpen options.

Yet he still decided it wasn’t worth the risk of pushing Pineda too far. And it worked out for him, as Cesar Cabral and David Phelps buzzsawed through the Sox lineup for the final nine outs, making it look easy.

Phelps got the final seven outs, and here is where the Yankees’ gamble of using converted starters in their pen this year seems to be paying off, having relievers who can go multiple innings.

Of course, there is a bigger gamble the Yankees are taking by going with so many untested arms in their pen. Indeed, it’s fair to ask why a team that spent nearly $500 million to ensure a return to the playoffs didn’t sign at least one proven reliever to help fill the void left by Mariano Rivera.

For now, however, Phelps and Warren are giving the pen the boost it needs, so we’ll see. The Robertson injury has raised the stakes on the Yankees’ gamble, but suddenly it’s starting to look as if the Yankees have more pitching than expected.

On this night, that meant Pineda got the help he needed to finish off a gem. From his relievers, not his pine tar.

LINK to +MLB Network highlights video and original reference

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/harper-pineda-helping-yankee-staff-sticky-situation-article-1.1753083#ixzz2yarSQCov

Yankees' Pineda on pine tar controversy: 'My hands get sweaty'

By BOB NIGHTENGALE

William Perlma/THE STAR-LEDGER via +USA TODAY Sports

NEW YORK — It was the controversy that ended in a dud.

Even in New York.

New York Yankees starter Michael Pineda, who dominated the +Boston Red Sox in a 4-1 victory Thursday night, was spotted by the Red Sox’s broadcast team on NESN with a substance on his hand that appeared to be pine-tar.

Surely, he was cheating.

Only Pineda said it was nothing more than dirt.

“My hands get sweaty,” Pineda said. “It was dirt.

“I don’t use pine tar.”

+New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi insists he didn’t see anything unusual. Let alone illegal.

“I really don’t have anything to say on the subject,” Girardi said. “He pitched great, and we’re glad to have him.”

Pineda yielded just four hits and one run in six innings during his Yankee Stadium debut.

Red Sox manager John Farrell said the he became aware of something on Pineda’s hand in the fourth inning, but by the time he got notified, it was too late.

“It was not there,” Farrell said, “by the time I was aware of it.”

Pineda’s hand apparently was wiped clean, and no one from the umpiring crew was asked to check Pineda.

“That was never brought to our attention,” said umpire crew chief Brian O’Nora. “No one said a word.”

When it was mentioned that the TV cameras showed a brown substance on Pineda’s hand, O’Nora said it made no difference.

William Perlma/THE STAR-LEDGER via USA TODAY Sports

“I can’t comment on it because we’re on the field,” O’Nora said, “and the Red Sox didn’t bring it to our attention. So there’s nothing we can do about it.

“If they bring it to our attention, then you’ve got to do something.But they didn’t bring it to our attention.”

The Red Sox players, in fact, said they were completely unaware of the budding controversy until reporters asked about it after the game.

“Everybody uses pine tar in the league,” Red Sox DH David Ortiz said. “It’s no big deal at all.”

Red Sox catcher A.J. Pierznyski also said that he was unaware that anything funny was going on until notified later by reporters.

“I didn’t see it, sorry,” Pierznyski said. “He threw a good game, and that was it.”

The Red Sox, of course, were accused of doctoring the baseball themselves last season. Clay Buchholz, who started Thursday for the Red Sox, was accused by +Toronto Blue Jays TV analyst Jack Morris last season of throwing spit balls. Jon Lester was shown on TV during the World Series with a green substance on his glove in Game 1, which he later said was rosin. The +St. Louis Cardinals never complained.

Stay tuned.

The Yankees and Red Sox play 18 more times again this season, with another game scheduled Friday night at Yankee Stadium.

** The video and pictures are not the right of Sports CR3W **

Masahiro Tanaka allows a home run to the first batter he faces in MLB

By TED BERG H/T: For the Win

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The +New York Yankees invested $175 million this season in Japanese free agent starter Masahiro Tanaka. Tanaka made his major league debut Friday night against the +Toronto Blue Jays, and got a rude greeting from stateside baseball.

The first batter Tanaka faced, Blue Jays outfielder Melky Cabrera, blasted a home run to right-center field on the third pitch of the right-hander’s career (GIF via Larry Brown Sports):

Tanaka recovered to retire the next three Blue Jays in order, for his +MLB career, and finish the first, striking out both Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion.

Cabrera hit only three home runs in 88 games in 2013.

Tanaka, who led the Yankees with 26 strikeouts this spring and had a 2.14 ERA, said he would “be amped up a little bit” heading into his first start.

After the solo shot, the Blue Jays tacked on two more runs in the second inning before Tanaka shut them down for five straight frames. He struck out eight with no walks to earn the win in the Yankees’ 7-3 victory..

Said Tanaka about his debut: “I feel honored that I’m getting this sort of attention. For me, it’s just going up on the mound and trying to get outs.”

H/T: +USA TODAY Sports +Larry Brown Sports 

Frightening scene in MLB preseason as Aroldis Chapman takes line drive to left eye, cheek area, Cincinnati Reds Closer

+Cincinnati Reds give reports and from +SportsCenter confirms that their is no signs of damage to the head or central nervous system. Sounds of the scene sound like, many feared for his life from the sight of it. Scary stuff. Get well Aroldis Chapman! God Bless!

What Could Have Been, Wilson with the Rangers, not NFL

Russell Wilson got to show off his 'solid to average-plus' baseball arm during infield practice. (USATSI)

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The Rangers imported $344 million worth of contracts in Prince Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo this winter, but there was little doubt about who the star of the day was here Monday: a former Single A second baseman who batted .229 in the Sally League and other minor-league outposts.

"We love you Russell," shouted one of many fans on the back field there to witness Super Bowl-winning quarterback Russell Wilson, a Rule 5 Rangers pickup, stretch and work out with Fielder, Choo, Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus and the rest of the World Series hopefuls. It's a brief feel-good story (Wilson is in camp only for a day) centering around a player who was once very serious about his baseball playing, and maybe never got it completely out of his system.

Even when the Rangers made the surprise selection of Wilson this winter, general manager Jon Daniels said he held "maybe a one percent" thought that he could possibly one day appear in a game as a Texas Ranger. This wasn't that day.

The fans who showed up in Seahawks jerseys and other Seattle garb and various assorted football followers had to be satisfied with infield practice, which Wilson performed ably. When he came in to make a barehanded play, the fans let out a big cheer. When he called off Fielder for a pop fly, the other infielders happily mocked Prince.

"He looked good, he looked real good," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "It's in him, it's in him. Baseball is definitely in him."

Wilson agitated to pinch run in the game vs. the Indians, but the Rangers, appreciative of the Seahawks' approval to borrow their superstar, said no. Andrus teased Wilson for not taking up Washington's invite to "take some hacks." (That also was not part of the deal.) And Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, here to assist Rangers pitchers, gently tried to coax him to throw a few off the mound.

"You're too smart to be a position player," Maddux told him.

Wilson is smart, all right, but the biggest reason he's here to is to bring a message of how far attitude and work ethic can take a person. As a baseball player, his makeup was "off the charts," said Joe Mikulik, who managed him at with the Rockies' Single A club in Asheville, NC, and is now managing in the Rangers' system.

"The guy is a champion," Washington declared. "Anybody who is a champion has something to offer to every walk of life."

In this case, Wilson once walked this difficult walk. While Wilson batted just .229 his two seasons of A ball with the Rockies, everyone involved now believed he would have found a way to the big leagues. Somehow, some way.

Wilson is recalled by scouts as someone who was an extraordinary person and leader, a great athlete (big surprise there, huh?), someone with good but not blazing speed ("he wasn't a burner," one scout said), a decent arm but not stellar (baseball throws are different than football, but while one scout said his arm was "nothing special," another called it "solid to average-plus") and a bat that needed developing.

In 315 minor-league at-bats, Wilson had five home runs but 118 strikeouts, not shocking considering his short baseball résumé. Beyond all that time spent honing his football ability, the right-handed hitter only played against lefty pitchers his final season playing at North Carolina State. One scout recalled that he needed work with pitch recognition, no surprise since most of his days were spent throwing a football and learning to run an offense, first at North Carolina State then at Wisconsin.

"He had a chance, but it was going to take a lot of at-bats, maybe 1,500 to 2,000 at-bats," one scout said. "Ultimately, he didn't have the time."

Given more time, many have little doubt he would have made it. He could play all over the diamond, and his desire would have carried him to the bigs, many believe.

"He would have found a way," Mikulik said. "The last two, three weeks, he was showing more quality at-bats, driving the ball into gaps, cutting down on strikeouts to the point where you would say, 'OK man, he's getting it.'"

At one point Wilson went to the Rockies and asked what his chances were, and they told him they would have a better idea after three or four more years of swings. But Wilson was on a faster track in football. Though he was only a third-round pick of Seattle, he won the starting job as a rookie, then quickly became a star, then a Super Bowl winner.

"I could tell he was on a mission," recalled Mikulik.

Wilson once seemed similarly focused on baseball. Rockies executive Bill Geivett recalled Wilson coming at 11 a.m. before night games to work on his bunting.

"He's probably the hardest working kid I've ever seen," Geivett said.

Even when he was struggling at the plate, Mikulik recalls he was the one shouting encouragement toward others from the bench.

Baseball was once a great love of Wilson's, and even today, he will slip in a sly suggestion that it isn't completely out of his blood, even after establishing himself as an NFL star at age 25. He told a gathering of Rangers ownership Sunday night regarding his baseball career, "It's probably never going to happen," before adding, with a smile, "... but you never know."

Wilson is believed to have been kidding about that. But as for the Rangers, they got more than their $12,500 (the price of a Rule 5 pick) worth in terms of encouragement and advice for their minor leaguers (Wilson was slated to talk to them Monday afternoon) and publicity.

"We wanted to be associated with the best," Daniels said.

We probably never will know whether this former fourth-round pick of the Colorado Rockies ever could have been good enough to play among the best in baseball. But there was no one here daring to bet against it.

H/T +CBS Sports Network - Original here:

Derek Jeter Announces He Will Retire after 2014 Season

NEW YORK (AP) -- To Derek Jeter, it was just another day to get ready for spring training.

On a minor league field at the New York Yankees complex in Florida, he took batting practice, fielded grounders and chatted with teammates. And then he drove away in his Mercedes, offering no hint that the countdown to his retirement had already begun.

Hours later, Jeter alerted the sports world: This will be his final season.

"I know it in my heart. The 2014 season will be my last year playing professional baseball," Jeter posted Wednesday in a long letter on his Facebook page.

"I have gotten the very most out of my life playing baseball, and I have absolutely no regrets," the shortstop wrote.

While it was no secret the team captain was getting close to the end of his brilliant career as he neared 40 -- especially after injuries wrecked him last season -- Jeter's announcement caught many by surprise.

In fact, some people wondered whether his account had been hacked. But it was quickly confirmed that one of the greatest players in the history of baseball's most storied franchise was serious.

A 13-time All-Star shortstop who led the Yankees to five World Series championships, Jeter was the last link to the powerful Yankees teams that won three consecutive crowns from 1998-2000. Longtime teammates Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte retired after last year.

"Derek Jeter is Mr. Yankee of his era," Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner said. "He was the face of one of the greatest teams ever."

Jeter was limited to 17 games last season while trying to recover from a broken left ankle sustained during the 2012 playoffs. He hit only .190 with one homer and seven RBI.

"Last year was a tough one for me. As I suffered through a bunch of injuries, I realized that some of the things that always came easily to me and were always fun had started to become a struggle," Jeter wrote. "The one thing I always said to myself was that when baseball started to feel more like a job, it would be time to move forward."

"So really it was months ago when I realized that this season would likely be my last. As I came to this conclusion and shared it with my friends and family, they all told me to hold off saying anything until I was absolutely 100 percent sure," he wrote.

"And the thing is, I could not be more sure," he wrote.

His agent, Casey Close, said Jeter wanted to declare his intentions before the Yankees start spring training later this week so that his future status wouldn't be a distraction.








AROUND THE HORN

Leading off: Ken Rosenthal
Batting second: Jon Paul Morosi
Batting third: Rob Neyer
Cleanup hitter: Ex-major leaguer Gabe Kapler
Key dates: Don't miss a thing in 2014
FOXiest fans: Go ahead ... take a gander

The Yankees open camp for pitchers and catchers on Friday. Jeter has said he's healthy and ready to go -- at 39, his next birthday is in June.

"Derek called me this morning to tell me that he planned to retire following the season," Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said.

Said Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, a former Jeter teammate: "I'm excited for him. It's kind of nice to see him go out on his own terms."

Jeter is the Yankees' career hits leader with 3,316. He's ninth on the all-time list; a 200-hit season would put him in fifth place.

Jeter is a lifetime .312 hitter in 19 seasons, with 256 home runs and 1,261 RBI. He has scored 1,876 runs, stolen 348 bases and is a five-time Gold Glove winner.

Added up, his numbers put him among the greats in Yankees history, with fans often invoking the names of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle when mentioning Jeter's legacy.

But No. 2 is defined by so much more than his numbers. His backhanded flip in the playoffs, his diving catch into the stands, his speech to close old Yankee Stadium and his home run for career hit No. 3,000.

An October presence for so many years -- Jeter is a career .321 hitter in seven World Series -- he also became Mr. November in 2001. His winning, 10th-inning homer came shortly after midnight in a Game 4 that began on Halloween.

Jeter was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1996, the season the Yankees won their first World Series since 1978 and re-established themselves as a major force. He was the MVP of the 2000 World Series.

"He made me a better player and a better person," longtime teammate Jorge Posada said. "I'm so proud of our friendship and I love him like a brother. Derek was a true champion."

Commissioner Bud Selig said during his tenure, "Major League Baseball has had no finer ambassador than Derek Jeter."

A staple for so long in the Yankees' lineup, Jeter missed the first 91 games last year. He felt pain in his right quadriceps when he returned July 11 and again went on the disabled list.

Jeter came back for three games but strained his right calf. In early September, he was done for the year.

The Yankees will open the 2014 regular season on April 1 in Houston. Their final game is scheduled to be at Fenway Park, against the longtime rival Boston Red Sox.

New York's final regular-season home game is set for Sept. 25 against Baltimore. After Jeter's announcement, StubHub said the ticket demand zoomed to make that night the highest-selling game of the 2014 season. Before Wednesday, it wasn't among the top 50 in sales.

Rivera said a year in advance that he would retire, and was saluted everywhere he played last season. Jeter is sure to get a similar farewell tour.

"I wish everybody does it like that," Rivera told ESPN radio. "I think that would be the right thing for him to do."

Jeter wrote that he wants to pursue business and other interests "in addition to focusing more on my personal life and starting a family of my own."

"And I want the ability to move at my own pace, see the world and finally have a summer vacation," he said.

"But before that, I want to soak in every moment of every day this year, so I can remember it for the rest of my life. And most importantly, I want to help the Yankees reach our goal of winning another championship," he said.

Here's the full statement from his offical Facebook fan page: