Chicago White Sox Games back: 5.5 Games remaining: 28 Playoff odds: 12 percent Today the White Sox begin a three-game series against the first-place Detroit Tigers. Talk has centered on A.J. Pierzynski returning from a brief minor league rehab assignment after fracturing his wrist in early August. Pierzynski doesn’t have much history when it comes […]

Cardinals 8, Brewers 4: Albert Pujols came up big — two homers including a grand slam — and the Cards swept the division-leading Brewers. Yes, that’s cool, but some perspective: Even if the Brewers go .500 in their remaining games the Cardinals would have to go 20-5 to tie them. Ten-game deficits are a lulu. Dodgers […]

10 years ago today, Mike Mussina came close, so very close, to immortality. While pitching for the Yankees against their arch-rival Red Sox, Mussina retired the first 26 batters he faced but allowed a single to the 27th batter, pinch hitter Carl Everett. This was not Mussina’s first near miss. Years early on May 30, […]

Forty years ago today, the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates made history on the way to their world championship. That day, as recounted in the book The Team That Changed Baseball by THT’s very own Bruce Markusen, they fielded the first all-minority lineup, featuring nine men who all would’ve been too dark to play in the pre-Jackie […]

Red Sox 9, Yankees 5: I was watching this game until Curt Schilling and Nomar Garciaparra started talking about intangibles and how so-and-so has them “off the charts.” Which, given that they’re INTANGIBLE, what freaking chart could possibly measure them?  And another thing: Schilling talked about the game changing, saying that Dustin Pedroia never would […]

Nationals 9, Braves 2: The Nats continue to be an outrageous pain in Atlanta’s rear end. Before the game, mindful of this and mindful of the fact that Livan Hernandez always kills the Braves, I tweeted the following: “Oh, Livan is going against the Braves tonight? Prediction: 7 IP, 3H, 1 ER, 6K, 0 BB.” […]

10,000 days ago, a very rare career achievement occurred – a baseball player recorded his 4,000th hit. Yeah, obviously it was Pete Rose, during his brief sojourn with the Expos, when he doubled off Jerry Koosmann in the fourth inning on April 13, 1984. If you know much about Pete Rose’s career, you’re probably aware […]

It has finally happened. The Chicago White Sox have announced that Adam Dunn will see his playing time reduced. No amount of hyperbole can adequately describe how dreadful Dunn’s season has been. I like to imagine that when H.P. Lovecraft first created his Cthulhu mythos, he was anticipating the unfathomable alienness of Dunn’s collapse. As […]

Last winter, the free agent pitcher headlines were dominated by the courting of Cliff Lee. Everyone seemed to be following his contract negotiations with the Phillies, Rangers and Yankees. Sure there were other semi-big players on the market, but he was the one to sign. This year there’s not that one big name everyone is […]

White Sox 3, Twins 0: Mark Buehrle threw seven and two-thirds shutout innings. And the game came in at two hours four minutes. Knock me over with a feather. Most underrated pitcher of the past decade? Cubs 7, Giants 0: Great pitching all-around for the Chicago clubs last night. A two-hit shutout for Randy Wells. […]