By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
Josh Hamilton, B.J. Upton and Kyle Lohse were among nine free agents who turned down $13.3 million offers from their former clubs Friday as the annual general managers' meetings ended and team officials headed home for what figures to be a busy month of negotiations.
Ryan Vogelsong and these San Francisco Giants sure have become adept at saving their season.
Jason Motte had a lot more time than usual to get ready, learning the plan before the grounds crew took the tarp off the field. It was nice to get some advance notice before going for the first two-inning save of his career under October pressure.
Kyle Lohse is all about efficiency, about avoiding extended at-bats and letting hitters get themselves out.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy expects Marco Scutaro to be in his lineup card for Game 3 of the NL championship series, two days after St. Louis slugger Matt Holliday plowed into the San Francisco second baseman.
Kyle Lohse is all about efficiency, about avoiding extended at-bats and letting hitters get themselves out.
The crowd lets out a roar as the national anthem ends at Nationals Park, and the hope is that it will not be the last significant one of the day heard by Washington's embattled baseball team.
The beauty of these games we obsess about is that anything can happen. Raul Ibanez can pinch hit for Alex Rodriguez in the bottom of the ninth inning and hit a game-tying home run for the New York Yankees. (And follow that with a game-winning one in the 12th.)
Last Friday, Kyle Lohse took the mound in Atlanta for an elimination game and came away with the win, leading the St. Louis Cardinals ahead to the next round of the playoffs.
After 162 games that earned baseball's best record, the Washington Nationals have to wait. Their National League Division Series opponent hinges on the outcome of Friday's wild card game between the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals.
Here's how the pennant races look with one day to go:
Rather than spraying champagne in every direction, the defending World Series champions talked about holding a subdued party if they squeezed into the postseason.
Rather than spraying champagne in every direction, the defending World Series champions talked about holding a subdued party if they squeezed into the postseason.
In the quiet calm that hovered over Busch Stadium Saturday afternoon, manager Davey Johnson sat in the dugout and looked out at the field. A groundskeeper made minor tweaks to the infield dirt, stadium personnel bustled around. Nothing seemed different about this day.
Allen Craig hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the eighth inning and the St. Louis Cardinals found a bit of missing pop, beating the New York Mets 5-4 Monday and stopping their season-worst losing streak at five.
"It's time to get it done," Lohse said.
Ryan Vogelsong, Giants beat Cardinals 6-1 to force NLCS Game 7 →
"I made up a word. Grindy, very grindy," Lohse said. "Just one of those days where I knew warming up it was not quite coming out the way I wanted it to."
Jason Motte goes 2, makes Cardinals' wait worth it in Game 3 of NLCS →
