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Barry Zito’s resurgence continued Wednesday, as he took a shutout into the eighth inning against the Marlins. Four straight singles followed to score a run and knock him from the game with the bases loaded, no outs, and Hanley Ramirez at the plate, but Sergio Romo wriggled out of Zito’s jam. Not only is Zito…

Minnesota finished a three-game sweep of Detroit this afternoon and now leads the AL Central by 3.5 games. Alex Avila took Jon Rauch deep in the ninth inning for the Tigers’ fourth homer of the day, cutting the Twins’ lead to 5-4, but the replacement closer retired the next three batters to convert his eighth…

UPDATE: Mariano Rivera may have wanted to pitch today, but the Yankees turned to Boone Logan and then Alfredo Aceves to close out a 7-5 victory in a messy ninth inning. With a scheduled day off tomorrow, Joe Girardi apparently wanted to give Rivera extra rest before the series against Boston begins Friday. * *…

Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Freddy Sanchez will begin a minor-league rehab assignment “no later than Tuesday” of next week. Sanchez has been playing extended spring training games in Arizona, but manager Bruce Bochy speculated that he’ll need about 30 at-bats on the rehab stint before potentially rejoining the Giants. Acquired…

Last month, after failing to land spot on the Cubs’ bench, Kevin Millar retired and took a job with MLB Network, saying: Working with the guys at the MLB Network is the next best thing to actually being in a clubhouse. I’m really excited to get started and have some fun. In the three weeks…

Back in 2008, when he was 24 years old, Kila Ka’aihue hit .314 with 37 homers, 104 walks, and a 1.085 OPS in 124 games between Double-A and Triple-A. Two years later the Royals may finally be giving him a shot, with Ka’aihue joining the roster yesterday in place of the injured Rick Ankiel after…

After eight consecutive scoreless appearances Fernando Nieve finally gave up a run last night. Two of them, in fact, blowing a two-run lead in the eighth inning by serving up back-to-back homers to Joey Votto and Scott Rolen. New York went on to win anyway, but Nieve’s incredibly heavy workload figures to catch up with…

After hitting .215 with a lowly .561 OPS through 22 games, Yunel Escobar was placed on the disabled list Tuesday because of a strained groin. Atlanta called up 24-year-old prospect Brandon Hicks from Triple-A to take his roster spot, but he’s little more than a utility man after putting up terrible numbers in the minors,…

Cole Hamels nearly gave the Phillies’ bullpen a night off Tuesday, out-dueling Adam Wainwright while taking a shutout into the ninth inning of a 1-0 game. Back-to-back doubles tied the game, at which point Charlie Manuel brought in Brad Lidge to get out of the jam … and he actually did. Lidge got three outs…

Over the weekend agent Darek Braunecker made headlines and drew criticism for saying he “wouldn’t anticipate” Cliff Lee re-signing with the Mariners, with my main beef being that there’s just no need to say stuff like that six months from free agency and immediately after Lee’s first start. Lee apparently agreed, because he quickly tried…

What happens when you’re supposed to be tuning up for a return to the majors with a rehab start at Double-A and instead you cough up five runs without making it out of the first inning? Well, in the case of Chris Young and his injured shoulder the Padres have ordered “further testing.” “I think…

As expected, the Nationals officially promoted Stephen Strasburg to Triple-A today. Strasburg struggled in his final Double-A start, but finished his time there with a 1.64 ERA, .165 opponents’ batting average, and 27/6 K/BB ratio in 22 innings. Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post speculates that Strasburg is now “roughly one month away” from the…

Sunday afternoon Wilson Ramos went 4-for-5 against the Indians to become the 12th player in baseball history and the first since 1998 to have four hits in his MLB debut. For an encore he went 3-for-4 with two doubles last night versus the Tigers, becoming the eighth player to ever collect three or more hits…

Reports last week had Carlos Beltran “not close to returning” from knee surgery, but yesterday the All-Star center fielder told the New York Daily News that he at least plans to begin running by early next week. Physically, I’m in good shape. I feel strong. When I’m hitting, I feel like I’m hitting good, with…

Apparently all he needed was a matchup against his former team (or maybe it was the punchless lineup), because Rich Harden turned in his first impressive start of the season Monday night in Oakland. He shut out the A’s for seven innings, allowing just two hits while striking out nine and walking zero. In his…

Monday afternoon Ubaldo Jimenez received NL Pitcher of the Month honors for April and then immediately started building his case for May with a career-high 13 strikeouts in seven innings of one-run ball against the Padres. He also threw 120 or more pitches for the third time in four starts and 115 or more pitches…

Padres right-hander Chris Young has been on the disabled list with a strained shoulder since throwing six shutout innings in the second game of the season and his first rehab outing was a mess yesterday at Double-A. Young couldn’t make it out of the first inning, allowing five runs on two hits and four walks…

Surprisingly picked by Joe Torre as the Dodgers’ Opening Day starter, Vicente Padilla not so surprisingly allowed 18 runs in 21.2 innings before landing on the disabled list with a nerve problem in his forearm. Torre indicated yesterday that Padilla is unlikely to rejoin the rotation before June: He is feeling better, but I don’t…

Just in case you thought Ozzie Guillen was the only member of the White Sox’s coaching staff who likes giving expletive-filled quotes, here’s pitching coach Don Cooper on Jake Peavy and the rest of his staff struggling: You can talk about a whole lot of stuff–mechanics, this and that, and the other things–but it’s time…

With the Astros in the midst of their second six-game losing streak of the young season, MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart has some details on just how horrendous Houston’s lineup has been so far. Some of my favorite tidbits … * Houston has scored 72 runs in 24 games, which is 13 fewer runs than the second-worst…

Joe Mauer is out for at least a few days with a heel injury, so the Twins called up 22-year-old prospect Wilson Ramos from Triple-A and he went 4-for-5 against the Indians yesterday in his big-league debut. Ramos ranked No. 3 on my list of the Twins’ top prospects heading into the season, but was…

Last night Jim Tracy did something I’ve been begging managers to do for years, which is use his best reliever in most important spot regardless of whether it involved a so-called “save situation.” Tracy brought in closer Franklin Morales with a four-run lead, one out, and runners on the corners in the eighth inning, in…

Jimmy Rollins began a running program last week, but said Sunday that his strained calf remains sore and speculated that he won’t be ready to come off the disabled list for at least two more weeks. I’ve had pulled muscles, strained my groin and missed a game. Something like this where it felt like somebody…

Ben Sheets was awful again Sunday afternoon against the Blue Jays, allowing nine runs while failing to make it out of the fourth inning. Here’s what he said afterward: My breaking ball is absolutely getting walloped every time I throw it. I wouldn’t say my location has been this bad maybe since my rookie year.…