The most popular stories from the FanFeedr editors.
There is no doubt that Oklahoma City is jacked for the Thunder in the NBA playoffs. Fans have painted their cars with Kevin Durant’s face on it.
And now they have their anthem to rally behind! Are you ready for “Blue and Orange” by The Lost Boys ft Michael Garner?!
Who said Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the world?
If so, where is the Lakers anthem?
Hmm………
(Yahoo Sports) Yeesh. It sounds like even the great Stephen Strasburg isn’t impervious to feeling the burn a little more than is usually preferable.
In a somewhat mysterious episode on Tuesday afternoon, Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson told the team’s beat writers that Strasburg’s poor pitching performance was due in part to some “Hot Stuff” that “got to the wrong place.”
Some of you might say, wow, what a ridiculous prank to pull on the young phenom Stras before he takes the mound to hopefully continue what has been a fantastic start to his season.
Clearly, you don’t realize what was happening here.
You see, a guy we all know well here in Boston, Rocket Roger Clemens, used to love that Icy Hot/Hot Stuff shit. Used to love it so much in fact that he would lather it all over his twig and berries before every start. You see, Rocket never wanted to feel “comfortable” on the mound. He wanted to be on edge and pissed off. Well people, throw a little Icy Hot on your bag and tell me if you become irritable. I think it should do the trick. This animal used to lather up his genitals and snort and squeal as he ran to the mound like a wild pig running from the peeps about to slaughter him to make some bacon.
In conclusion, what we have here was simply a teammate rubbing a little Hot Stuff in Stras’ jock to test his toughness level. It obviously was in honor of the great Roger Clemens as he battles for his reputation in his perjury case. A sign of brotherhood. An act of solidarity. “We love you Rog.” We know you’re good Stras, but can you sling it like Rog as your private parts are on fire? We want even more out of you! Come on! You never want to be comfortable on the bump! You need to be on edge, foaming at the mouth like a rabid f*cking dog.
Anyway, Stras didn’t have the success that the Rocket used to when he heated up his southern region. The Nats lost 6-1.
Follow me on Twitter @Chuck_Hanf & be sure to check out my FanFeedr feature column, Chuck’s Two Cents, as well as my coverage of the New England Patriots
Having completed a 6 game home stand versus Tampa and Seattle, the New York Yankees took the road on Monday May 14th for a short, four-game road series in Baltimore and Toronto. The Yankees depart having won 4 and lost 2 and winning both series. Over the weekend they moved up from 4th place to 3rd place in the American League Eastern Division standings and have a 19W:15L record.
The Baltimore Orioles are currently 22W:13L and in first place in the American League East. They just completed a weekend series with Tampa. When the Rays arrived, they were tied for first place with the Orioles. But Baltimore won 2 of 3 games over the weekend to take sole possession of first place.
This is the third series of the season between the Yankees and O’s. During the first week of the season, the Yankees swept the Orioles in the first 3 game series in Baltimore. But, when Baltimore visited New York at the end of April, the O’s took 2 of 3 for a series win. This is a two game series and the game 1 starters are right hander Jason Hammel for the Orioles and righty Ivan Nova for the Yankees. Two lefties, Wei-Yin Chen and C. C. Sabathia go in game 2. .
Sabathia heads the Yankees starting staff and is 5W:0L in 7 starts. He is pitching to a 3.38 ERA. Due to the season ending injury of Mariano Rivera, the Yankees closer situation is in flux. In the last few games, David Robertson, Rafael Soriano, and Boone Logan have all recorded saves. Derek Jeter still leads the Yankees offense and comes into the series batting .372. Robinson Cano, Raul Ibanez, and Nick Swisher have been consistently contributing to the offense; Alex Rodriguez shows some signs of getting his bat on track; but Mark Teixeira is still struggling.
Chen and Hammel are leading the Orioles starting rotation—together they have 7 wins and 1 loss in 12 starts. There closer Jim Johnson is 11 for 11 in save opportunities. The Orioles offense is led by center fielder Adam Jones. He enters the series batting .291 and leads the team in hits, runs scored, home runs, and RBI.
Game 1 Summary: Monday, May 14th Yankees 8 Orioles 5
Hammel, a power pitcher, was making his eighth start of the season and had a 4W:1L record. He was pitching to an excellent 2.09 ERA and extremely low .98 WHIP. Hammel had not give up more than 2 runs in any of his seven prior starts and batters were hitting less than .200 against him. Hammel’s one loss was to the Yankees in a start in New York on April 30th. In that game, he pitched quite well and gave up just 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings. However, on that day Hiroki Kuroda, Dave Robertson, and Mariano Rivera limited the O’s offense to 5 hits and 1 run.
Nova had an excellent 4W:1L record, but has achieved that based on poor pitching stats. Most of his 6 starts have been characterized by a large number of base runner. In fact he has given up 51 hits in just 37.2 innings. Against Hammel today he needs to keep the Orioles’ batters off the bases.
The Orioles were on the scoreboard before Nova recorded an out. He gave up a double and single to Xavier Avery and J. J. Hardy, respectively. Then with one out he surrendered a run scoring double to Adam Jones. The O’s were up by two runs after 1 inning of play.
On the other hand, Hammel looked to be off to smooth start, but the Yankees caught up with him with 2 runs in the 4th and 1 in the 5th to take a 3 to 2 lead. The key hit in the 4th was Nick Swisher’s 2-run double and in the 5th Curtis Granderson hit his team leading 12th home run.
The O’s went ahead in the bottom of the 5th when Nova surrendered a run scoring triple to Avery and a 2-run homer to J. J. Hardy. But, the Yankees tied it up in the top of the 6th with 2 runs (1 unearned) of there own. Hammel loaded the bases without recording an out. Then Luis Ayala came on in relief. The first batter he faced grounded a ball to first based, but an error on the play allowed the two lead runners to score.
Hammel had an uncharacteristic start in which he gave up 4 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings. Nova, who was hit in the leg with a batted ball earlier in the game, twisted his ankle when he ran off the mound to field a high hopper in the bottom of the 6th. Click here to view the play on which he was injured. Nova went 5.1 innings and gave up 5 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks. The game was tied 5 to 5 when both Hammel and Nova left the game.
Five Yankees relievers, Clay Rapada, David Phelps, Boone Logan, Cory Wade, and Rafael Soriano, shut down the O’s offense on just 3 hits the rest of the way. On the other hand, Orioles’ reliever Luis Ayala gave up a game winning 2 run homer to Mark Teixeira in the 8th. He received both a blown save, his second, and the loss to make his record 1W:1L. Phelps got the win for the Yankees—his 1st win in 2 decisions.
Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira both had a very good game with their bat. Rodriguez went 3 for 5 and scored 2 runs, while Teixeira had 2 hits in 4 at bats, scored 3 runs, and drove in 2. Robinson Cano continued his hot hitting. He was 2 for 5 and scored 2 runs. The Yankees number 2 through 5 batters—Granderson, Rodriguez, Cano, and Teixeira—scored all 8 of the Yankees runs. Finally Derek Jeter singled in the top of the 3rd for his 3,143 hit, which put him in sole possession of 16th place on the all-time hits leaders list. Click here to see Jeter hit this single up the middle off Hammel.
After the game, Nova was diagnosed with a sprained ankle and he is questionable for his next start. Also, Raul Ibanez was removed from the game after being hit on the elbow with a pitched ball in the 9th. His status is not known. Also after the game Manager Joe Girardi informed the press that David Robertson had ribcage soreness and was not available to pitch.
Click here to see the detailed box score for the game.
How the Runs Scored
Bottom 1st Orioles (2R, 3H) Xavier Avery (LF), who was called up from the Norfolk Tides (AAA) over the weekend, led off and hit a drive up the right-center field gap for a doubled. This was his first major league hit. He scored the O’s first run when number 2 batter J. J. Hardy (SS) grounded a single up the middle. Click here to view a video replay of Hardy’s RBI single. With one down, Hardy came home when cleanup hitter Adam Jones (CF) lashed a Nova fastball off the left-center field wall for a double. Click here to see Jones get his team leading 22nd RBI.
Top 4th Yankees (2R, 3H) Leading off the top of the 4th Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano hit back to back singles to right and then both of them crossed the plate when Nick Swisher lined Hammel’s 1-2 delivery to the right-center field wall. Click here to see a video replay of Swisher’s game tying double.
Top 5th Yankees (1R, 1H, 1BB) With 2 down, Curtis Granderson crushed Hammel’s 2 ball, 1 strike pitch deep to right and onto Eutaw St. plaza to put the Yankees ahead 3 to 2. Click here to view a replay of Granderson’s solo home run.
Bottom 5th: Orioles (3R, 2H, 1BB) Robert Andino (2B) led off with a walk and scored on Avery’s triple to the right field corner. Click here to view a video replay of Avery’s second hit of the game and first major league RBI. Then, Avery came home when J. J. Hardy drove Nova’s 2-1 pitch deep into the left field stands for his 9th home run of the season. Click here to see a replay of Hardy’s homer that put the 0’s up 5 runs to 3.
Top 6th Yankees (2R, 1H, 3BB, 1E) To start the 6th, Hammel gave up a double to Robinson Cano and then walked Teixeira and Swisher to load the bases with no outs. Luis Ayala came on in relief. The first batter he faced, Raul Ibanez grounded a ball to O’s first baseman Chris Davis. The ball deflected off Davis’ glove and went into short right field for an error—both Cano and Teixeira scored on the play. Click here to see the Yankees score 2 unearned runs to tie the game at 5 to 5.
Mark Teixeira (Photo by: Rob Carr/Getty Images North America)
Top 7th Yankees (2R, 2H, 1BB) Leading off against Ayala, Alex Rodriguez lined a single to right and then scored on Teixeira’s homer to right. Click here to view a video replay of Teixeira’s 2-run homer that put the Yankees ahead 7 to 5.
Top 9th Yankees (2R, 2H, 1BB) With 1 down, Mark Teixeira hit reliever Dana Eveland’s pitch to right field for a double. Then Eveland intentionally walked Swisher to get to left batter Raul Ibanez. However, he hit Ibanez with the first pitch he threw to him to load the bases. Then he gave up a sacrifice fly to Eric Chavez that scored Teixeira with the Yankees 8th run. Click here to see Chavez knock in an insurance run for the Yankees.
Stars of the Game
Pitching:
Boone Logan (LHP), Cory Wade, and Rafael Soriano (RHP) held the lead for the last 2.1 innings without allowing a base runner. They struck out 5 of the 7 batters they faced. Logan and Wade got holds and Soriano the save.
Batting:
Mark Teixeira went 2 for 4 and reached base on a walk in a fifth at bat. He hit a double and home run. He drove in 3 runs including the game winning run and scored 3 of the Yankees 8 runs.
Fans of Bundesliga 2 team Fortuna Dusseldorf invaded their pitch two minutes before the game had finished. Premature invasion.
Going into this game Dusseldorf were tied 2-2 with Hertha Berlin in a promotion playoff where the team who finish third last in Bundesliga 1 play the team who finish third from top in Bundesliga 2.
Germany’s premier ref Wolfgang Stark was forced to abandon the game for 21 minutes while the pitch was cleared of enthusiastic Dusseldorf fans who couldn’t contain their excitement at being 2-1 up and thus winning 4-3 on aggregate. This wasn’t the first incident in the game as it was also held up in the first half when Berlin fans threw flares on to the playing area after Fortuna took the lead.
A narrow one-goal lead with only two minutes left was enough to encourage the home fans to take their celebrations from the stands and to the pitch. The Dusseldorf players had no hesitation in heading straight to the locker rooms and getting out of harm’s way. 20 minutes later and the pitch was cleared, the game went on for one more minute until the final whistle was blown. Fortuna Dusseldorf were promoted to Bundesliga 1 and another pitch invasion occurred, the second one in an under an hour.
Berlin officials are adamant that due to the narrow lead that Dusseldorf held, their fans invaded the pitch to intimidate Hertha Berlin’s players rather than celebrate. Either way, it was quite the spectacle.
Follow me on Twitter: @PaulFarrell1895
