Orioles 7, Yankees 1 — “How soon can we get Pettitte out of the courtroom and into the Bronx?” Of the 10 SPs with at least 4 starts who have yet to top a 50 Game Score, two are Yankees.

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— The Pirates scored more than 5 runs for the first time this year. Their streak of 21 straight games of 5 runs or less is the longest to start a season since 1972, when the Brewers went 31 games. (That club ended up scoring 6+ 26 times and finished 9th out of 12 teams in both R/G and OPS+.) Pittsburgh’s streak was the longest in the NL since the 1919 Braves went 23 games.

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Bill “Moose” Skowron passed away on Friday.  Skowron was one of the first baseball players I was ever aware of, going back to when I was maybe four years old.  I don’t think I knew anything about him as a ballplayer, but the nickname was irresistible to a four-year-old. I probably thought he was an actual moose of some sort, though at the time that would, as far as I knew, have meant Bullwinkle or a stuffed animal. Continue reading →

Through 20 games, Jose Bautista is not reminding anyone of the player who terrorized AL pitchers the past two seasons. I was wondering whether any other players coming off a season like Bautista’s had had such a slow start the following year. And, if they did, was that slow start a harbinger of a really down year?

Let’s find out.

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Brandon Inge / PRESSWIRE

Brandon Inge was released by the Tigers and is poised to join the Oakland Athletics. For a while, it looked as if Inge would spend his entire major-league career with the Tigers. At the moment, before he plays a game with another team, you might be surprised to find out where he ranks among players who played for only the Tigers. Continue reading →

— Wade Miley held the Marlins hitless into the 6th inning, picked up his third win and dropped his ERA to 1.29. Joining the rotation after Daniel Hudson went down, Miley has not allowed an earned run in two starts totaling 12.1 IP, 3 hits, 3 walks and 13 Ks. Continue reading →

Bryce Harper debuted last night, and all things considered, it went fairly well for a super-prospect who made the cover of Sports Illustrated at 16. While his Washington Nationals fell 4-3 to the Dodgers in 11 innings, Harper went 1-for-3 with a double and sacrifice fly and nearly threw out a runner at home. Best case scenario, Harper’s first game proves to be a hint of good to come and his rookie season puts him in league with a handful of other iconic players.

Harper is 19. In baseball history, 20 players have had at least 2 WAR in a season at his age. Fourteen of those players have been pitchers, and of the six batters who’ve done it, three are in the Hall of Fame, and another will be shortly.

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On the same night that the 1st overall pick of 2010 made his big-league debut, the 68th pick in that draft, Drew Smyly, earned his first win by holding the Yankees to 1 run on 2 hits in 6 innings, with 7 strikeouts.

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First, Ozzie Guillen torched his relationship with Miami’s ethnic Cuban community (among many others).

Then, Bobby Valentine picked an odd time to casually rip one of his team’s best and most beloved players.

Now, this: Delmon Young was arrested in Manhattan on a misdemeanor charge of “aggravated harassment hate crime” during the Thursday/Friday overnight.

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Thursday night in Chicago, the BoSox raked Philip Humber for 9 earned runs in 5 IP, saddling him with a 17 Game Score. Is that the worst follow-up to a perfect game?

Here are the next starts for the 17 perfect game pitchers since 1918:

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