Yankees end Angels' big streak

Anyone who has been following the Angels (as myself and my eager college student son have been) will know that the team has pulled off an eight win streak that included the two most recent games with the Yankees in the series. Angels were poised to continue the streak to nine and sweep the series with one of baseball's biggest teams, but it turns out they just didn't have it in them.

Early in the final game of the series, the Yankees took points that the Angels couldn't match, try as they might. That isn't to say they didn't try, though, as the game was a close 6-5 for the Yankees, edging by with just one more point as the game came to a close.

"Both teams have a day off Thursday. Los Angeles will host AL West rival Texas in a three-game weekend series, while New York wraps up its nine-game trip with a weekend set in Detroit." -Yahoo! MLB News

A Better Boston: Red Sox Go Positive

It seems that the steady recovery for Boston's recently beaten baseball franchise is actually going pretty well -- they have now climbed to over .500 in the win-loss ratio, with their 25th win (as opposed to their 24 losses). Besides the players, who else had a big role in rallying the Red Sox to their recent victory?

It would be easy to let that success fall in the claims of Bobby Valentine, the new manager of the Boston Red Sox, and with good reason. Valentine has been at the head of the Red Sox revival, leading the team to enough wins to put them just three and a half games behind first place in the AL East division. Under Valentine, both the veterans and the students of the sport have improved their game, making them tough contenders for the season.

"Prince Fielder slugged a home run in the sixth and added an RBI in the seventh to pull Detroit within 5-3 but David Ortiz hit a solo blast in the bottom of the seventh to extend Boston's lead.

Ortiz went 3-for-4 with two doubles in the absence of team mate Dustin Pedroia, who suffered a thumb injury on Monday.

Daniel Bard tossed 5 1/3 innings to get the win for Boston, and Alfredo Aceves handled the ninth for his 12th save of the season.

Rain held up play for 38 minutes in the eighth inning before Boston resumed their march to victory."

-Yahoo! MLB News

Pitcher Oswalt agrees to a year for the Rangers

News on the official Texas Rangers website reports that the Rangers franchise has signed a one-year agreement with pitcher Roy Oswalt, former Phillies player. Oswalt has been an All-Star pitcher three times in his major league career, so it is clear he is no novice. An educated master of the sport, one might say. I'm sure the Rangers will find him great for the team.

Though his former team from Philadelphia did show interest in keeping Oswalt, it appears the Rangers chose to go with him instead. Whether or not the Phillies intended to make an offer, or if the Rangers simply bought the pitcher out, is unknown.

"The deal, reportedly worth as much as $5 million, could help the Rangers reach the World Series for the third year in a row. The two-time defending American League champions lost to San Francisco in 2010 and St. Louis in 2011.

Several clubs had shown interest in Oswalt, including the Philadelphia Phillies, for whom he went 9-10 last season with a 3.69 earned-run average in 139 innings over 23 starts.

In 11 major league seasons with the Phillies and Houston, Oswalt is 159-93 with a 3.21 earned-run average."

-Yahoo! MLB News

Angels' Pujols and Haren smash the Mariners together

Just tonight (Thursday, May 24, 2012), the Mariners were delivered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Angels. If you have been following their games, then I am sure you know why: Albert Pujols excellent hitting, and Dan Haren's incredible pitching.

Pujols almost stole the limelight from Haren tonight as he pulled three hits, one of which was his 450th career home run. Of course, Haren kept most of his thunder from being stolen by striking out a career-high 14 batters during the game. Watch out!

"He makes good hitters look pretty bad including myself, he has in the past," says teammate Pujols. "He is pretty amazing when he keeps the ball down."

During the game, Haren happened to also seal his 1,500th career strikeout, making the night quite eventful for both of the Angels players. Naturally, they only had good things to say about each other, but on their somewhat less-eventful wins-loss ratio, Haren remarks, "I'm happy obviously to win a game. I forgot what it felt like."

Hopefully, he won't have to forget again.