Javier Vazquez Makes Yankees Win Over Orioles

New York Yankee righthander baseball player Javier Vazquez was public enemy Number 1 in his own house. He was treated better while walking the streets of New York than he was at Yankee Stadium. Javier Vazquez said fans told him they supported him and his resume spoke for itself.

On Tuesday night, the embattled veteran was finally shown the love at Yankee Stadium as he had his fastball blazing (he was in the low 90s) and his offspeed pitches dancing in a gem of a performance that sent a sigh of relief throughout the Yankees organization.

In his first start at home since a May 1 implosion against the White Sox, Javier Vazquez (4-5) was brilliant, allowing four hits while striking out a season-high tying seven and walking just one over seven innings in a 3-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. He also pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning.

“I don't even remember the last time I started here It feels like a while. Obviously, I want to pitch good here. Everybody knows that. I'm working on that. I think it was important to throw a good game here, I feel better. I feel like my mechanics are there. I'm throwing much better pitches than I was early in the year. I have better command. My location was much better. It doesn't matter how hard I throw it. That (location) is the key for me.'' said Javier Vazquez.

Javier Vazquez rebounded from a shaky start last week in Minnesota by striking out seven, allowing four hits and one run, and pitching out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh. In the bottom half, the Yankees scored two unearned runs to make him the pitcher of record, and Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera ensured his win by pitching two spotless innings.

“Obviously, I want to pitch good here,” Javier Vazquez said. “That’s something that everybody knows. I’m working on that.”

In his last outing, Javier Vazquez took a giant step backwards when he was rocked by the Twins, giving up eight hits and five runs in 5 2/3 innings. He needed a strong outing on Tuesday night to solidify his place in the rotation, and he delivered.

New York Yankees all-star baseball player Javier Vazquez was rolling along until he gave up a a solo homer to Corey Patterson (he struck him out the first two times at bat) in the sixth inning to tie the score, 1-1. Then, he ran into trouble in the seventh. The Orioles loaded the bases with one out on two hits and an intentional walk.

But Javier Vazquez struck out Adam Jones swinging and got Julio Lugo to hit into a fielder's choice to end the inning. The Yankees scored two unearned runs on a throwing error by third baseman Miguel Tejada with two outs on a ground ball by Alex Rodriquez to take the lead for good.

“I wanted to stay (in the game) and I'm glad Joe let me finish that inning.'' said Javier Vazquez. “That was huge. ... I think (the strikeout of Jones) was the key pitch there. He's a dangerous hitter and I threw a pretty good pitch (an 87-mph fastball).''

Yankees manager Joe Girardi insists he saw this type of performance coming. After a rough start to the season -- losing four of his first five decisions, Javier Vazquez held the Tigers to two runs over seven innings on May 12, earned a victory against the Red Sox in relief on May 17 and shut out the Mets over six innings on May 21 before his meltdown against the Twins.

“He was great (Tuesday night), Four hits, he attacked the zone all night, I thought he used his fastball very effectively. This is kind of what we thought we were going to get from him. Everybody is going to run into bumps in the road. But we've been really encouraged by the way he has been throwing the baseball. He has strikeout stuff. He has groundball stuff. There's a lot of things that Javier can do. He has three different off-speed pitches, he can sink it. He can four-seam it. I thought he used everything effectively, but he was really good with his fastball.'' said New York Yankee Manager Joe Girardi

Eri Yoshida: The Knuckle Princess From Japan

Since landing on American terrain earlier this year, nothing about baseball has fazed 18-year-old Japanese pitching sensation Eri Yoshida much. It's off the field that has been the real challenge. Eri Yoshida has coped with the language barrier, has by all accounts become "one of the guys" in the clubhouse with her Chico Outlaws teammates, and has held her own against some former big-league hitters.

But judging by the awkward gaze she flashed at the gobs of lasagna on her plate in an instructional league clubhouse earlier this year, American eats might just take some getting used to. The moment the lasagna was served was captured on a YouTube video.

"It's cheap, and quantity is much more than we get in Japan," Eri Yoshida said of American food through a translator after making her U.S. debut on Saturday.

But if she has her way, the 5-foot-1, 115-pound Eri Yoshida will be seeing a lot more lasagna. Heralded as the "Knuckle Princess" by the Japanese media, Yoshida became the first female to pitch professionally in two countries when she debuted for the Outlaws in the independent Golden League against the Tijuana Cimmarones. 

Baseball princess Eri Yoshida made her debut for the Chico Outlaws of the independent Golden League on Saturday night, the first appearance by a woman in American professional baseball since Ila Borders in 2000.

Eri Yoshida allowed four runs in three innings against Los Cimarrones de Tijuana, and she was hit hard at times; one 70-mile-per-hour fastball was crushed for a two-run homer. But she retired 7 of the first 10 batters she faced before tiring. And in her one plate appearance, she drove in a run by bouncing a bases-loaded single to right field

Eri Yoshida got off to a much better debut than Borders did in her first game in 1997, when she failed to retire any of the three batters she faced for the Saint Paul Saints of the Northern League. Borders pitched four years in independent leagues, ending her career in 2000.

After former San Francisco Giants infielder Ivan Ochoa led off the game for the Tijuana Cimarrones by bunting for a single, drawing jeers from the crowd, Eri Yoshida settled down and kept Tijuana off-balance with a sidearm knuckleball that usually registers in the 50 mph range.

It is a world away — and halfway around the globe — from where Eri Yoshida grew up, in Kawasaki, an urban city on the outskirts of Tokyo. Spurred by the interest in Eri Yoshida, the Outlaws are streaming all of their home games live on the Internet this season. About 25 media outlets were credentialed for the game.

While this might seem like a gimmick, it appeared to work as the Outlaws drew 4,400 fans to the game. Eri Yoshida learned to throw the knuckleball as a young girl by watching Wakefield. She taught herself the pitch and never had any formal coaching for how to throw the knuckler until meeting her idol during spring training in Florida earlier this year.

Mike Marshall said he has no doubt Eri Yoshida has the makeup to handle this historic challenge. He said the biggest factor in determining how far she will be able to take it will be how much stronger she gets in the next few years.

"There's going to be a draft here in a couple weeks and there's probably only a handful of 18-year-old high school kids who are going to get drafted who could come here and play. Men, Look at the rosters. You have Double-A, Triple-A, big-league guys. This isn't affiliated rookie ball; this isn't affiliated A-ball. This is way up there. These are 25- to 35-year-old men she's playing against." Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mike Marshall said.

Despite the disparity in age, experience, gender and cultural upbringing, Eri Yoshida is fitting in well with her new team. Manager Garry Templeton, an admitted skeptic when he first saw her pitch this winter, said the players missed her when she didn't make a season-opening road trip to Mexico.

He said Eri Yoshida has been taken to kangaroo court, where she was fined a dollar, like all newcomers to the court. The only special treatment she gets is separate locker room facilities to change in and her own hotel room on the road.

"They're protective of her," Garry Templeton said. "She blends in well. She's just a ballplayer. They see her as a ballplayer, not as a girl."

San Francisco Giants Win Over Washington Nationals

Baseball player Edgar Renteria's flare to left won't look like much in the box score, but the way the Giants offense had been going, it might as well have been a 550-foot blast into McCovey Cove. The fifth-inning single brought Todd Wellemeyer home, snapping a streak of 24 consecutive scoreless innings. The Giants had gone 25 at-bats with a runner in scoring position without a hit, but Renteria's knock opened the floodgates.

San Francisco Giants tacked on three more in the inning, and snapped a five-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the Washington Nationals at AT&T Park on Tuesday night.

Todd Wellemeyer more than held up his end on the mound. The right-hander had been in danger of losing his spot in the rotation but looked sharp against Washington, allowing two earned on four hits in six innings.

Todd Wellemeyer (3-4) improved to 3-1 with a 3.03 ERA at home this season. He ran into trouble in the seventh and left with a run in and two runners on, but relievers Sergio Romo, Guillermo Mota and Brian Wilson combined for three hitless innings of relief.

When the Giants wasted a leadoff double by Andres Torres and stranded Renteria on third in the fourth inning, there appeared to be no end in sight to a scoreless streak that started in the eighth inning of Friday night's loss to the A's.

But after three games of hitting hard shots in all the wrong spots, the team caught a break in the fifth inning when Wellemeyer's soft fly ball landed just inside the line in right. Torres followed with a single up the middle, setting up Renteria, who is 4 for 10 since returning from the disabled list.

Mired in a five-game losing streak, manager Bruce Bochy has repeatedly stressed that all it would take was one or two guys to get the whole lineup going.

Renteria's single did the trick.

Freddy Sanchez followed with a two-run double to right, and Pablo Sandoval brought him home with a double to deep center.

For the second straight game, Bochy made big changes to the lineup in search of a spark. Torres was moved to the leadoff spot Sunday, and for Tuesday's series opener, three players were on the move in the field. Juan Uribe was back in the starting lineup at third base, which moved Sandoval to first and Aubrey Huff to the outfield for the first time since 2006.

"There's no getting around it, we're having a tough time putting runs on the board, so we're trying different things to see if they can get going," Bruce Bochy said before the game. "It's really the same guys, but we mixed it up to hopefully get the offense going.

"That's our biggest issue and we know it."

The Giants pulled out of their collective slump, and as an added bonus, the new-look defense didn't lead to any problems. Huff told Bochy that he felt comfortable playing left field, and he looked it.

The first ball of the game was hit right at him, and he later made a nice running catch on the warning track. Sandoval was also tested right off the bat, but he had no problems coming up the line and applying an inning-ending swipe tag when Renteria's throw sailed wide in the first.

With San Francisco Giants nursing the lead late, Huff was replaced in left and Sandoval and Uribe returned to third and short, respectively.

The Giants have just one error in their past 11 games, and their 17 errors on the season are the fewest in the National League.

Red Sox Wins Over Angels 5-1

It's like a rite of passage for the Angels' top young relievers, a baptism by Fenway fire. It happened here to Troy Percival, to Brendan Donnelly, to Scot Shields, to Francisco Rodriguez, and it happened Tuesday night to Kevin Jepsen, whose rare meltdown during a four-run eighth inning led to the Angels' 5-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox.

Kevin Jepsen had been the team's best reliever this season, with a 1.64 earned-run average in 14 games, but the right-hander walked as many batters in the eighth inning Tuesday night — three — as he had all baseball season. That set the table for Jeremy Hermida's tiebreaking, opposite-field, three-run double, a fly ball that left fielder Juan Rivera appeared to have a chance of catching after a long run to the corner before pulling up in front of the wall.

Jeremy Hermida's hit laid to waste a superb start by Angels right-hander Ervin Santana, who gave up one run and seven hits in 7 innings, and sent the Angels to their fifth straight loss and their first 0-5 start to a trip since 2003.

"Right now," Manager Mike Scioscia said, "it stings."

The Angels were stymied by Boston left-hander Jon Lester, who gave up one run and five hits in eight innings, but with the score tied, 1-1, they loaded the bases in the eighth when Howie Kendrick and Mike Napoli singled, Brandon Wood bunted the runners up, and Erick Aybar walked.

But Jon Lester, with his 120th pitch, got Bobby Abreu to ground to second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who tagged Aybar and, as he fell to the ground, shoveled a 20-foot toss to first for an inning-ending double play. walked Kevin JepsenVictor Martinez and Kevin Youkilis to open the bottom of the eighth, and J.D. Drew singled to left to load the bases.

It appeared Kevin Jepsen might escape the jam when David Ortiz, with the infield in, grounded sharply to Howie Kendrick. The second baseman threw home for the force, and Mike Napoli fired to first for a rare 4-2-3 double play.

But Adrian Beltre walked on four pitches to load the bases, and Hermida, who bats left-handed, lofted a fly ball to left. Juan Rivera, who was shaded toward the gap, about 95 feet off the line, had a bead on the ball but turned his back at the last second to play it off the wall. The ball bounced a foot in front of the wall, scoring three runs for a 4-1 lead. Mike Lowell's RBI double off Scot Shields made it 5-1.

"I ran hard, I thought the ball was going to hit the wall, I got real close, but I was too far toward the gap." Juan Rivera said.

The seats down the line in Fenway Park block the view of the corner from the third base dugout, and neither Scioscia nor bench coach Ron Roenicke, who positions the outfielders, saw a replay.

"It's hard because the wall is so high, if the ball is going to hit off the wall you want to stay off of it," Ron Roenicke said. And because the wall is only 310 feet from home, "you don't know how much to pinch in that corner."

Any time there's a fly ball to left, "You kind of hold your breath,I had trouble finding the strike zone with all three pitches, and that limited me to the fastball, I tried to battle, but you put yourself in a bad position when you walk the first batter. That gives them the upper hand." Kevin Jepsen said, which is exactly what the Angels probably did while Jepsen was pitching. Of his 32 pitches, 13 were strikes. His ERA ballooned to 4.63.

Red Sox Superstar Josh Beckett's $68 M Deal

Red Sox Superstar Josh Beckett could have easily waited until after the season, become a free agent and perhaps scored more years and more dollars than the four-year, $68 million extension he formally signed with the Red Sox on last Moday April 5, 2010.

Josh Beckett and other Red Sox starting pitchers John Lackey and Jon Lester who signed through 2014. However, the fourth Red Sox pitcher Clay Bucholz who is not eligible for free agency until after the 2014 baseball season. Josh Beckett is a sensible and loyal man who just wants to be treated fairly. And that's why he, without hesitation, gave up free agency to re-sign with the Red Sox for a second time. Back in August, 2006, Beckett signed a three-year, $30 million deal plus a fourth-year option for $12 million.

"This is a very special place and I think that everyone who has had a chance to play here knows that, the people who haven't had a chance probably know that through other people that have. I think this organization, they just do everything they can to make our jobs as easy as possible and from people I've talked to, there's not a whole lot of organizations out there that really do that. Whether it be in between starts or roundtable meetings, there's just a lot of things that go on here that make it a very ideal situation for a baseball player." Said the Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett.

Josh Beckett's contract was finalized the day after he struggled against the Yankees on Opening Night, giving up 8 hits and five runs over 4 2/3 innings. The Red Sox went on to win the game, 9-7. He will take the ball next on Sunday in Kansas City. 

 

Josh Beckett who will turn 30 on May 15, is 65-34 with a 4.07 ERA in 123 starts for the Red Sox. He is 106-68 with a 3.81 ERA in his career, which began with the Florida Marlins in 2001. He had an October for the ages in 2007, going 4-0 with a 1.20 ERA to lift the Red Sox to a World Series championship. Beckett was similarly heroic in leading the Marlins to a World Series title in '03, firing a shutout against the Yankees on three days' rest in the Series-clinching Game 6. 

 

Josh Beckett was acquired by the Red Sox in November 2005 in a blockbuster trade that also brought Mike Lowell to Boston. Hanley Ramirez, now one of the best all-around players in the game, went to Florida in that deal. 

 

"I think that's what we're all striving for every year, It's a very difficult thing to attain. I would say that with this organization, I think we have a chance to win a ring every year. I've only been on one team here [2006] that didn't make the playoffs. I haven't been on one team here where I didn't think we could win the World Series at the beginning of the season. That's pretty remarkable to think ... this is my fifth season here now, and at the beginning of each year, I really had a strong feeling that we could win the World Series.” Josh Beckett added now with 2 World Series rings already tucked away, Beckett would love to add some more to his collection.