It's Clubberin' Time!

The Twins lost to Houston yesterday. It was a combination of ineffective starting pitching (though an error cost the Twins a couple of runs) and the bullpen being a bit tired and blowing the game late. "Alvis" Presley ( the Morneau swap) continues to impress. He had two more hits and THREE RBI. He's batting nearly .400 since the trade.

More interesting than a Twins loss? Boston clubbed the Detroit Tigers 20-4 last night. In a battle of division leaders, Detroit looked completely defenseless. Boston had EIGHT homeruns including two from Big Papi himself. Now, any team can do something like this once in a while, but it looks like Boston is already in full play-off mode. I'm actually looking forward to the play-offs this year even without the Twins in contention.

What's getting baseball comissioner Bud Selig all riled up? New York Yankee fans originally wanted nothing to do with A Rod coming back to the Yankees. The idea of Bud trying to suspend him surprisingly pleased many of them. But something weird has happened since the initial suspension idea. A Rod has rejuvenated the Yankees. Just before Alex came back, the Yankees were having a horrible season. They were more than 10 games back in the wild card race playing .500 ball. Most thought the Yankees had no chance of making the playoffs this season...

...but with A Rod swinging a hot bat, especially late in the games in clutch situations, the Yankees now find themselves just 2 1/2 games back of Tampa Bay in the wild card race with 25 games to play. Yankee fans are on fire and everyone is now cheering the much maligned Rodriguez. Bud's plan to suspend the current active home run leader has backfired. If he manages to still suspend Alex before the season is over, Yankee fans will start screaming for Bud's head on a stick. The Yankees, with A Rod back in the lineup, have managed to become THE Yankees again.

Speaking of the Yankees, Mariano Rivera is having yet another amazing year. He got his 40th save of the season earlier this week. That's now NINE seasons with at least 40 saves. He's looking so good that Yankees management is practically begging him to come back for at least one more season, even though he announced his retirement earlier this season. Rivera still says this is his last year. But after a couple of months off and another big contract offer from the Yankees, I'm not yet convinced we will not see him again next year. He may be old, but he's still got it.