When 'pens succeed, playoff wins follow

Since the dawn of the division-play era in 1969, teams that have pitched well out of the bullpen have had far more success in October than teams that haven't.

Rivera, Nathan lead '10 relief rankings

Eric Karabell reviews each team's bullpen situation this year and previews the closer situations for 2010.

Polanco, Guillen homer on consecutive pitches from Indians rookie Carrasco

Placido Polanco and Carlos Guillen homered on successive pitches and Brandon Inge also went deep, lifting the Detroit Tigers to an 8-5 win over the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night.

The PULSE: Saturday 1-4 ET on ESPNEWS

...PULSE SATURDAY, JUNE 11 INCLUDE ... Peter Gammons - ESPN baseball expert Brian James - ESPN.com NBA Insider Todd Jones - Florida Marlins pitcher Hank Goldberg- Handicapping the Belmont Dick Enberg- On his new play about Al...

Ordonez ends 40-game homer drought in Tigers' win

Magglio Ordonez ended a career-long, 40-game drought without a home run by connecting for the go-ahead shot, leading the Detroit Tigers over the Chicago Cubs 6-5 Thursday for their seventh straight victory.

...Todd Jones [TGR founder/producer, at left]and Tanner Hall, hamming it up before another heli bump. Everyone...

A hero for the streaking Ichiro

...seasons. The others: Dennis Eckersley (11 games) in 1992, Troy Percival (11 games) in 1996 and Todd Jones (15 games) in 2005. • Ryan Howard has hit two grand slams this season off the...

Baddest Jump Ever

...base area, where an ambulance transported him to the Wenatchee, WA, hospital. According to TGR's Todd Jones who accompanied Hall to the hospital, Tanner fractured his tibial plateaus in each leg and might...

Fantasy World: The comeback kids

"Young with upside" is the great seducer of the Fantasy World. Look no further than ESPN's average draft results, where Justin Upton (he of the 1-for-...

Relief Efforts: Injury landed Trevor Hoffman in bargain bin

Eric Karabell says that, when potential saves are on the line, it's important to look everywhere, including the disabled list.

Tigers pitchers try to rewrite their script

If the Tigers are going to return to the precipice of greatness, they'll need everything they can get from Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman and Joel Zumaya.

Count on Tigers being in the mix in AL Central

...better than the '08 rotation. I feel similarly about the bullpen. Brandon Lyon is better than Todd Jones, and Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney are hopefully healthy. The pen should be better, we can...

...Left to right: Adam Dowell, Travis Rice, Bluebird's Willie McMillon, Bryan Iguchi, and TGnaR's Todd Jones and Corey Gavitt. (Photo: Jesse Brown

Team USA ready this time

...was about to turn into their own little international embarrassment. "We thought we'd crush everybody," Todd Jones, a member of Team USA's star-studded 2006 bullpen, recalled Monday. "So we were all...

Pressure on A-Rod will only get worse as season gets closer

AP Photo/Jeff Roberson The WBC will be the easy part for Alex Rodriguez. The pressure will hit when he gets to New York. BEING ALEX RODRIGUEZ By...