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Nobody wants to believe in the New York Mets, but they beat the Pirates 3-1 on Wednesday and there they are at 24-20 even though they've been outscored by 29 runs on the season. One reason not to believe is the continued struggles of first baseman...

Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks is turning into this year's version of Adam Dunn -- a good player having a historically awful season. He's batting .158/.285/.289 and has struck out 57 times in 179 plate appearances. While he's certainly...

First base: Magical ending. It's only 43 games and crazy things can happen between games 44 and 162, but it's starting to look like one of those seasons for the Dodgers. They're now 30-13 after one of the most exciting wins of the season, rallying fr...

OK, I'll give you Justin Verlander. I'll even give you Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Austin Jackson. But five through 25? I think I'll take the Cleveland Indians over the Detroit Tigers. The Indians beat the Tigers 5-3 on Tuesday, even ...

A few quick thoughts on Lance Berkman, who has a mangled-up knee and will miss at least six to eight weeks, and what this may mean for his Hall of Fame chances. My first thought: Other than sabermetric types who dream about walks and OBP, I don't ...

Leave it to Joe Maddon and the Tampa Bay Rays to find another unconventional way to play baseball: Carlos Pena is hitting leadoff in tonight's game against Toronto. Yes, the first baseman with one stolen base and a .209 batting average. Last week,...

Who is Justin Upton? Is he a good player? An All-Star right fielder? A guy who will be mentioned high on MVP ballots during his good seasons? Or is he going to be that superduperstar? Upton teased us when he reached the majors at age 19 in 2007...

First base: G-G-great. That whole Gio Gonzalez won't pitch as well once he leaves the spacious confines of Oakland idea? I'm starting to think he'll be just fine in the National League. The Nationals kicked off a big week -- road trips to Philly and ...

For a few brief moments on Monday night, it appeared the Cincinnati Reds would slide past the St. Louis Cardinals into first place in the NL Central. The Reds had defeated the Braves 4-1 behind a brilliant effort from Mike Leake and four solo home ru...

In response to Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez complaining about the team's attendance -- the Indians rank last in the majors in per-game average -- I wrote a little bit about Cleveland's attendance in Clearing the Bases. Susan Petrone of "It's ...

Eric Karabell and Mark Simon gathered for Monday's Baseball Today podcast. Here's what went down: 1. Justin Verlander's near no-no and Max Scherzer's 15-strikeout game topped the weekend's pitching performances. Who else had great games? 2. Aro...

Welcome to Sportsnation! On Tuesday, ESPN.com's SweetSpot blogger David Schoenfield stops by to chat some baseball.Schoenfield is a senior writer for ESPN.com and he's been with ESPN.com since 1995 and has served in a variety of roles, including base...

First base: Ninth-inning heat. Sean Marshall actually hadn't pitched that poorly for the Reds, not with 22 strikeouts and three walks in 14.2 innings. But he'd allowed 22 hits thanks to an unlucky .488 BABIP, so Dusty Baker made the move: Aroldis Cha...

Back on May 20, 1984, Angels pitcher Ron Romanick defeated the Yankees with a three-hit shutout, blanking a lineup that included Omar Moreno, Dave Winfield, Don Mattingly, Steve Kemp, Butch Wynegar and Tim Foli. The same day, a Red Sox rookie named R...

I'll never forget walking into the office that May afternoon in 1998 and having excited co-workers ask, "Did you see what just happened?" Kerry Wood had struck out 20 batters. He was 20 years old, making his fifth career major league start for ...

First base: Home-field disadvantage. Owners added the one-game wild-card game in part to reward teams that won a division title. However, they've just taken away some of that advantage by changing the layout of the Division Series from 2-2-1 to 2-3. ...