Source: St.迷你倉沙田 Louis Post-DispatchAug. 19--The Pittsburgh Pirates have lost seven of their last nine games. They have exhausted their relief corps with three extra-inning games in the last six outings.Their lead over the second-place Cardinals has eroded to a single game. The third-place Cincinnati Reds have climbed 2 1/2 games behind the National League Central leaders.The Pirates aren't folding under pressure, as in years previous, but they are wobbling down the stretch. They battled the Diamondbacks for 16 innings Sunday . . . but finally lost to 4-2, after National League MVP candidate Andrew McCutchen failed to deny Adam Eaton his game-winning double.McCutchen dove for the ball and just failed to make the catch. Arizona scored two runs as a result and that was that.This defeat epitomized the recent Pirate frustrations. "The pitchers went out there and did their jobs," McCutchen told reporters afterward. "The offense, we didn't do ours."The Pirates left the bases loaded in the bottom of the 12th, when Russell Martin flied out to end the inning. The Diamondbacks retired them in order in the 13th, 14th and 15th innings.With Pittsburgh out of position players, pitcher Kris Johnson hit for himself with two runners on and two out in the bottom of the 16th inning. He struck out to end the game.Tribune-Review columnist Dejan Kovacevic argued that Pittsburgh GM Neal Huntington must locate an impact hitter on the waiver wire. He wrote:The Pirates' problem can't be isolated as a failure to cash in scoring chances, and not just because advanced analysis powerfully supports that being clutch in baseball is simply doing what you'd normally do rather than some innate skill.No, the problem is that they don't hit much, period. They're 25th in the majors in runs.I'll repeat this figure for anyone who might have missed it in the Sunday column: The Pirates are 63-17 when they score three or more runs.Which apparently was asking too much of this lineup over 16 innings, 53 at-bats that yielded only nine hits -- one for extra bases! -- as well as the requisite 18 strikeouts.They don't hit much, period.And I'll repeat this, too, only it's been found in this space all summer: That must change.PHIL CUZZI STRIKES AGAIN!Tipsheet dares you to identify an umpire worse than Phil Cuzzi. The former replacement ump was at it again Sunday in Wrigley Field, calling a strike on a phantom Donnie Murphy swing and then ejecting Cubs manager Dale Sveum for arguing. Cubs pitcher James Russell also got tossed for chirping at the hapless Cuzzi from the dugout."It wasn't questionable. It was easily the worst check swing call I've ever seen," Sveum told reporters after the Cubs fell to the Cardinals 6-1. "That's why the other umpires are there. To give him help. He said he thought he got it right."Major League Baseball must have guaranteed Cuzzi a lifetime job for his earlier role as a strikebreaker. There can be no other explanation for his continuing employment.AS THE A-ROD TURNSYankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is quite the newsmaker. He is to ESPN what Lindsay Lohan used to be to TMZ -- the story always waiting to happen, for better and (usually) worse.The other players implicated in the Biogenesis investigation accepted their MLB suspensions and bowed out as gracefully. Rodriguez filed an appeal and played on.This decision has earned him ridicule from fans, scorn from opponents and an uncomfortable relationship with his bosses.Here was A-Rod's Sunday:-- Before New York and Boston played, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman chatted with reporters about his interaction -- or lack thereof -- with Rodriguez. "I'm not comfortable talking to Alex about this because we feel we are in a litigious environment," Cashman told reporters during an informal chat with the media before Sunday night's game between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. "Hello and goodbye, that's about it. I'm not comfortable talking to him anymore. I don't want to be distorted."-- ESPN reported that Rodriguez paid for Biogenesis operation Tony Bosch's attorney. Later, A-Rod's people made a wire transfer for nearly $50,000 that Bosch's attorney refused to accept. Notes ESPN: "The second transfer, described by one of Rodriguez's former attorneys as a mistake, is part of Major League Baseball's evidence that the New York Yankees' third baseman attempted to tamper with the league's Biogenesis investigation, several sources said."-- Red Sox pitcher Ryan Dempster came out throwing against Rodriguez, perhaps in response to allegations that A-Rod tried to rat out other big leaguers during the Biogenesis investigation. Dempster missed wit迷你倉價錢 a fastball behind his leg, but then nailed him squarely in the ribs with another fastball in the same second-inning at bat. Red Sox fans egged on Dempster by chanting "You're a cheater!" when A-Rod stepped in. Home-plate umpire Brian O'Nora warned both benches against further shenanigans, but this edict did not satisfy Yankees manager Joe Girardi -- whose angry words and wild gesticulations earned him an ejection.-- Proving he still has the flair for drama, Rodriguez smacked a sixth-inning homer to fuel a Yankee comeback. A-Rod moved within 11 homers of Willie Mays for fourth place on the all-time homer list and the $6 million bonus Cashman would have to reluctantly pay him as his reward, per A-Rod's epic contract.Wouldn't it be crazy if Rodriguez rallied the aging, injury-battered Yankees into the wild card play-in game?ESPN.com's Wallace Matthews offered this take:Now it can be revealed: There is a vast, baseball-wide conspiracy against Alex Rodriguez, and it includes the commissioner of baseball, the front office of the New York Yankees and players like Ryan Dempster.They are conspiring, however improbably, to turn A-Rod into a sympathetic figure, and however unwittingly -- at least in the case of Dempster and whoever else takes it into his own hands to mete out the punishment that baseball's collective bargaining agreement has deferred -- to bring the Yankees together at just the wrong time for the rest of the American League.QUIPS 'R USHere is what some of America's leading sports pundits have been writing:Buster Olney, ESPN.com: "When the Milwaukee Brewers' Ryan Braun accepted his 65-game suspension in an agreement under the drug-testing agreement, there was a strong, angry reaction from other players. Some of that may be because of phone calls Braun made in the days leading up to the decision of his appeal, in February 2012. According to sources, Braun called veteran players around baseball privately at that time to lobby for their support. In the calls -- confirmed by three sources -- Braun told other players that in the preparation for his appeal, some information had become known about the collector of his urine sample, Dino Laurenzi Jr., including that he was a Cubs fan -- with the implication he might work against Braun, who played for a division rival of the Cubs. Braun, who is Jewish, also told the players that he had been told the collector was an anti-Semite . . . After his victory was announced, Braun referred obtusely to Laurenzi Jr. in the statement he made to reporters, in which he raised questions about his positive test."Mike Tanier, Sports on Earth: "On the television schedule, Jets-Jaguars looked like it would be as bad as Sharknado on Saturday night. It turned out to be as good as Sharknado: goofy and sloppy for the most part, but also fun and weirdly compelling. To extend the metaphor, Mark Sanchez was Tara Reid, while Blaine Gabbert was John Heard, the veteran character actor who delivered a delightful performance for the first quarter, then suddenly died. Quentin Coples was the sharknado."Scott Miller, CBSSports.com: "This just in -- the Dodgers have l-l-l. ... Ahem, let's try that again. They've lossss. ... Wait. What? Really. Sunday in Philadelphia. Their 10-game winning streak came to an end, 3-2. The word is 'lost.' Until Ryne Sandberg wrangled his first victory as a major-league manager, last time a team reeled off 42 wins in a span of 50 games, it was just months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Cardinals did it during one scorching span in the summer of 1942. Only two clubs in history have compiled better records over a 50-game span than the Dodgers' 42-8 through Sunday's loss t the Phillies: The 1906 Tinker to Evers to Chance Cubs and the 1912 New York Giants of John McGraw and Fred "Bonehead" Merkle. It is easier to buy Grumpy Cat on the New York Times best-seller list than what the Dodgers have accomplished since June 22, when their 30-42 mark was tied for the fourth-worst record in the majors."MEGAPHONE"I am really happy for him. He has done the work every step of the way to get there. He did not cut any corners and didn't hop on with a buddy at the big league level. He really wanted to learn how to be a manager. He wanted to manage in the minor leagues, and watching his growth every year was kind of fun to watch develop."Cubs second baseman Darwin Barney, after the Phillies promoted former Cubs star and minor league manager Ryne Sandberg to their manager post.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Visit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at .stltoday.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉庫
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