THE MORE THINGS CHANGE...

...the more they stay the same.  So a brief flurry of runs in one game was merely a nasty trick perpetrated on us by the Yankee "offense."  If you just looked at the box score from last night's game against the Orioles, you would be fooled into thinking that the Yanks scored three runs. They didn't. The Orioles simply played around with them, throwing the ball around the way we used to do when we played ball against our 7 and 8 year-old kids. After the score read 3-0, you could almost see Baltimore pat the Yanks on the head and say, "Wow. you did good!"  Then they proceeded to beat the hell out of us.

Pineda comes back on Wednesday, Tanaka in about three weeks, but it's not pitching the bombers (notice: small b) need, it's offense. Pitchers go out there with the idea that giving up three or more runs means a loss. They are pitching under pressure all the time. Nobody can do that. The Yanks needs hitters - a few of them.

A couple of weeks ago, the Detroit Tigers pulled off a major trade and got David Price from Tampa. Add him to a rotation that contained two recent Cy Young Award winners and a pitcher with a 12-3 record and the whole American League was trembling in fear - except, of course, the Oakland A's. Since then, two members of  the rotation have gone on the DL, Porcello looks like the league has caught up to him, and neither Scherzer or Price have been all that dominant. Yesterday, they dropped into 2nd place behind the Kansas City Royals. 10 days ago, they had a 5 game lead over these same Royals and sportswriters were already comparing pitching match-ups with Oakland. Not any more. Baseball is a funny game, but no one's laughing in Detroit.

A few days ago, the Phillies traded Roberto Hernandez to the Dodgers. Hernandez once went by the name of Fausto Carmona, which brings new meaning to the phrase, "...a player to be named later."

***THEY SAID IT***
"The Detroit Tigers brought in a “Duck Dynasty” cast member to pitch the bottom of the — no, wait, that was Joba Chamberlain. The beard fooled me again."  -- Brad Dickson
"A New York strip club has offered Derek Jeter a retirement gift of free lap dances on his last day. Which beats the stupid cake I got."  -- RJ Currie

"Washington, D.C., emerged No. 1 when Forbes came out with its rankings of “the coolest cities in America. That’s like Good Housekeeping naming the snowboarder of the year.”  -- Jimmy Kimmel

"Golfer Chris Wood completely split the seat of his pants en route to his first-round 66 at Valhalla on Thursday. In other words, they tried to hold a PGA Championship — and a skins game broke out."  -- Dwight Perry

" Rory McIlroy said this weekend that breaking up with Caroline Wozniacki “has been for the better in terms of my golf.” So maybe before he was nervous about being with an athletic woman who might have much better aim with a golf club than Elin Nordegren?"  -- Janice Hough

"The NBA may raise its minimum age. The commissioner got the idea after two 2014 draftees took the stage in their Cub Scout uniforms."  -- Brad Dickson
"According to a University of California study, 65 per cent of NBA players pass gas on court. Except Kobe Bryant, who never passes anything."  -- RJ Currie

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