The Women's Semifinals were very night and day this morning at Wimbledon. I was out at an interview but did DVR them and watch them when I returned home. In the first match Petra Kvitova took the first set from Victoria Azarenka 6-1 but Azarenka fought back to win the 2nd set 6-3 to send it to the third and final set. In that set Kvitova regained her form and dominated en route to her first ever Major final winning the third set 6-2. On Saturday Petra will face Maria Sharapova who sent off German wildcard Sabine Lisicki with a straight set 6-4, 6-3 win. Lisicki's magic ran out at the wrong time but Sharapova did look sharp after struggling a bit with her serve early in the first set. The Final will air on NBC at 9 AM on NBC on Saturday, July 2nd. As stated yesterday, the Men's Semifinals will take place tomorrow starting at 8AM on ESPN2.
So I've been hearing rumblings that I'm not giving baseball enough attention, so I will satisfy the masses by dedicating today's post to the MLB.
So let's hit the headlines, yesterday the St. Louis Cardinals released former closer Ryan Franklin who could not regain his form, and today the Boston Red Sox designated OF Mike Cameron for assignment after Josh Reddick has been on fire and Carl Crawford set to return shortly. Luckily no major injuries have occurred over the last few days, just sore feet for Angels INF Maicer Iztruis and Red Sox 3B Kevin Youkilis. Detroit Tigers SP Phil Coke was removed from his starting spot after imploding once again and will move to the bullpen and be replaced by Charlie Furbush.
Yankees, Mets, Phillies, Braves and yes the Padres have been on a roll of late coming into today's games with at least 3 game winning streaks. While the Royals, Mariners, Nationals, and Astros all come into today with 3 or more game losing streaks. The Red Sox too are struggling going 3-7 in their last 10 after sweeping the Yankees in the Bronx. They were a game and a half ahead of the Yankees after that series, now they are 2.5 games behind the Yankees. Offenses have been sputtering all over the majors, not just the Red Sox offense which has scored 1 run two games in Philadelphia and get to face Cole Hamels today at Citizen's Bank Park. Monday has 8 games, 2 of them shutouts (Reds over Rays and Dodgers over Twins). Tuesday had the one extra game than normal and saw 2 more shutouts (A's over Marlins, and Phillies over Red Sox). Wednesday was back to normal, and saw 3 shutouts (Marlins over A's, Angels over Nationals, and Twins over Dodgers), it also had 5 other teams only manage to score 1 run. So we can give some credit to pitchers like Gio Gonzalez, Cliff Lee, and Dan Haren but most of these ineffective offenses are due to lack of clutch hitting and unfamiliarity with the opposing pitcher since it is Interleague Play. I usually am a Pro-Interleague Play advocate but these numbers only help fantasy pitching staffs, baseball shouldn't be always played at 1-0 and 2-1 but somewhere in the 5-4, 6-4 range in my beliefs. We have 11 days until the All-Star Break and what I expect to see in the AL iss the Red Sox righting the ship, the Rangers and Mariners pull away from the Mariners in the AL West, Detroit finally figures itself out and takes control of the Central from Cleveland. In the NL, look for the Mets try to get themselves back in consideration and be 2 games behind the Braves for 2nd in the East, Cincinnati to figure out that it's the class of the NL Central and pull back into the lead over the Brewers and Cardinals and lastly the Giants to really push the Diamondbacks out of the race in the West.
Biggest Winner of the Night: Some great players/teams to chose from today in the NY Mets offense (52 runs in last 4 games, all wins), Dan Haren (7.1 2 hit, 0 R, 1 walk, 6 strikeout win), and Chris Carpenter (complete game 7 hit, 1 run, 1 walk, 5 strikeout win). But I'll give some love to the Marlins who defeated the A's 3-0 last night behind Ricky Nolasco's complete game shutout where he allowed 5 hits, 2 walks while striking out 3.
Biggest Loser of the Night: This has to be Phil Coke, as previously stated he not only got thumped 16-9 yesterday against the Mets, he lost his starting job after said performance. The loss put Coke's first season as a starter at a 1-8 record after allowing 8 runs, 7 earned in 4 innings giving up 10 hits, 2 walks while only striking out 1. And even ESPN added insult to injury with the headline "Flat Coke moved from rotation to 'pen".
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