ie Freeman, Atlanta BravesNL CY Young

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NEW YORK -- The last time Masahiro Tanaka lost a regular season game, Mark Teixeira was a reliable slugger in the heart of the Yankees batting order. Since August 2012, Teixeira has hurt a wrist and hamstring, missing most of last season and half of the first month of this season. Hes back looking like his usual bashing self -- just in time to help Tanaka on Saturday. Teixeira homered for the fourth time in his last five games and drove in three runs as the Yankees rallied past the Tampa Bay Rays 9-3 and stopped a season-high, three-game losing streak. "You want to put up numbers. You want to put up those home runs, and you want to drive in runs for your team, and when you start seeing that, then it makes you feel better about where you are physically," Teixeira. "Its been a struggle the last year coming back from this injury, but so far the results have been good this year." Teixeira reached 30 homers and 100 RBIs in each of his first three years with the Yankees before dropping to 24 homers and and 84 RBIs in 123 games in 2012. In 14 games this season, he has five homers to tie for the team lead and has 10 RBIs. "I never doubted him," manager Joe Girardi said. "I said all along he was a guy who could be 30 and a hundred for us." Tanaka extended his regular-season unbeaten streak to 40 starts, and Kelly Johnson hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the sixth inning off Josh Lueke (0-2), who also gave up a run-scoring single to Teixeira and a sacrifice fly to Alfonso Soriano in a two-run seventh. Tanaka (4-0) gave up solo homers to Desmond Jennings and Wil Myers around an RBI single by Ryan Hanigan, falling behind 3-0 by the fourth and looking shaky by the standard set over his first five big league starts. "I think I was able to get my rhythm back as I got deeper into the game," Tanaka said through an interpreter. New Yorks offence did the rest. Teixeira hit a two-run homer in the fourth, and Jacoby Ellsburys RBI single in the fifth tied it at 3. Signed by the Yankees from Japans Rakuten Golden Eagles during the off-season, Tanaka allowed three runs and eight hits in seven innings, striking out his last two batters to give him five or the day. "He just grinded it out," said Tampa Bays Matt Joyce, who struck out attempting to bunt for a hit in the first inning. "He was a little frustrated with himself at times. You could tell. And he just kept working through it." Tanaka is 32-0 in regular season games since losing to Seibu on Aug. 19, 2012. He did lose Game 6 of last years Japan Series. Jake Odorizzi retired the first nine Yankees in order, then allowed New York to go 4 for 8 with two walks before he was replaced by Cesar Ramos. Opponents are batting .140 (7 for 50) against Odorizzi in his first time through the batting order, .442 (19 for 43) his second time through and .500 (9 for 18) the third. Ellsbury led off the fourth with a single to start the Yankees offence, and Texeira followed with his shot. Brett Gardner added a two-run single in a three-run eighth inning. New York stranded two or more runners twice in the first five innings after doing it it four times Friday, including three times in extra innings during a 14-inning loss. NOTES: Girardi said the 12-pitch at-bat by Yangervis Solarte ending the third may have helped the Yankees break through against Odorizzi by making the young right-hander work and show his repertoire. ... The Yankees selected the contract of RHP Alfredo Aceves from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre early Saturday. ... James Loney had three hits, keeping alive a hit streak over his last 13 games at new Yankee Stadium. Myers has hit in all 12 of his games at the ballpark. ... Sundays game is a matchup of left-handers, New Yorks CC Sabathia (3-3) vs. Erik Bedard (0-1). ... Ellsbury had three hits, two runs and a steal. Cheap NFL Jerseys . 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Spieth again showed game well beyond his 20 years with a 9-under 63 on the North Course, giving him a one-shot lead over Stewart Cink going into the weekend at the Farmers Insurance Open.TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips answers three questions each week. This week, topics cover the Blue Jays rotation, the futures John Gibbons and Alex Anthopoulos, protecting pitchers and a bonus question on his predictions for the MLB playoffs. 1) With J.A. Happ heading to the DL, the Toronto Blue Jays have announced a starting rotation of R.A. Dickey, Drew Hutchison, Mark Buehrle, Brandon Morrow and Dustin McGowan. Should the Blue Jays feel confident with that group or even this early in the season, should they be looking outside the organization for an upgrade? Or should they have kept a prospect like Aaron Sanchez or Marcus Stroman with the big club? The Blue Jays are starting the season with exact rotation they should be using. Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman both need more development but at some point they may be called upon to help. Certainly there are big questions for three-fifths of the starters but there is definitely upside. RA Dickey is just a year removed from his NL Cy Young Award and is predictable and dependable. I cant believe I am saying that about a knuckleballer but it is true. Mark Buerhle is a more than serviceable innings-eater who gives his team a chance to win start after start. After these two though the questions are significant. Brandon Morrow has suffered injuries in each of the past two seasons after looking like a number one starter at times in 2012. Dustin McGowan is throwing in the mid-nineties and is working on a curve ball to go with his devastating slider, but he has thrown just 46 2/3 innings since 2008 because of recurrent shoulder injuries. Drew Hutchison hasnt pitched in the Major Leagues for the past year and a half due to Tommy John surgery but prior to that he looked like he could be a long-term answer for the rotation. Before the season begins players, front office personnel and fans close their eyes and dream about what could be. I can close my eyes and see RA Dickey commanding his dancing knuckler that will baffle hitter. I can envision Buerhle getting a ton of grounders and working quickly getting the powerhouse offense back in the dugout and scoring a ton of runs. I can picture Brandon Morrow rifling his fastball by the games biggest sluggers and logging a ton of strikeouts. I can imagine McGowan and Hutchison fulfilling the potential that they once had as well. It could happen just that way. But it probably wont. My experience is that the more questions you enter with the more things that will likely go wrong. There is a bunch of unpredictability in this rotation. Depth will be important. It is safe to assume that health will be an issue at some point because it has been an issue in the past. Esmil Rogers and Todd Redmond may make starts if necessary. But Alex Anthopolous is going to have to keep working the phones to look for upgrades. Early in the season other clubs arent typically trading good pitchers but he will need to be ready for when they do become available. So when you close your eyes and dream just hope it is not a nightmare. 2) Is manager John Gibbons on the .... seat with the Blue Jays? If the team is slow out of the gate again this year, will he be replaced? Are his and Alex Anthopouloss future tied together (if one goes, the other follows him out the door)? I dont think John Gibbons is on the .... seat during the season this year. I know there were big expectations last year but the collapse wasnt Gibbons fault. The starting rotation just fell apart on him as Morrow and Josh Johnson got hurt and Ricky Romero imploded. Jose Reyes injury crushed the offense early in the season and more injuries followed. The expectations are less this year than a year ago. It certainly behooves the Jays to get off to a good start so they can start to believe in themselves but Gibbons cant pitch for his team and the staff will be the key. I have never been a believer that managers and general managers are tied at the hip. The manager needs to look at the GM as his boss. Clearly Gibbons was brought back to the Jays because of his relationship with Anthopolous but if Anthopolous thinks a change needs to be made he will have to make it. If ownership gets to a point where they believe the roster is flawed and they decide to make a decision on the general manager it is unlikely Gibbons would survive a change in regime. Anthoplous can possibly survive the firing of Gibbons but I dont believe Gibbons would survive the firing of Anthopolous. As it stands today both the manager and general manager are on firm ground as they should be. They just need to be honest with themselves and their bosses about what the expectations are with the roster they have. The owners can hope to be competitive in the tough AL East but if they expect to win it then both Anthopolous and Gibbons are in trouble. This is a roster for which you can hope but not expect great things. 3) With Reds starter Aroldis Chapman and Rays starter Matt Moore both being hit in the head by comebackers to the mound in spring training, is it time for Major League Baseball and/or the players union to implement mandatory pitcher protection? It seems that pitchers have become more annd more vulnerable over the past few seasons.ddddddddddddnbsp; Fortunately, we have avoided major catastrophe but we shouldnt be shocked if a pitcher were to be killed by a hit ball. We have just been lucky so far. I am a firm believer that we should never wait for someone to be killed to make a change. Baseball already did that once. Base coaches wear helmets now because a minor league first base coach was hit in the head by a line drive and killed. If protecting pitchers is being considered then protect them. Lets not wait for a tragedy. It is currently optional for pitchers to wear the new protective headgear that was developed by MLB for this year. The feedback so far is that the hats look funny and are not overly comfortable. MLB needs to keep refining the protective hats to make them functional. This needs to be a priority for the Players Association as well. Protective hats for pitchers need to be made mandatory at the minor league level initially. Let the kids get comfortable with them so by the time they are big leaguers it is commonplace. Once the hat is advanced enough make it mandatory for major league pitchers to wear. There is no clock in baseball but we need to put a clock on this. Every pitch thrown puts a pitcher at risk. Please hurry. 4) With the second and third opening days approaching for Major League Baseball it is time to make predictions. Here is how I see the American League:AL East AL Central AL West 1) Boston Detroit Oakland2) Tampa Bay* Kansas City** LA Angels3) Baltimore Cleveland Texas4) Blue Jays Minnesota Seattle5) New York Yankees Chicago Houston * first Wild Card ** second Wild Card AL CHAMPION: Oakland As defeat Detroit AL AWARDS AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera, DetroitAL MVP: Justin Verlander, DetroitAL Rookie of Year: Yordano Ventura, Kansas CityAL Manager of Year: Ned Yost, Kansas City Here are my predictions for the NL:NL East NL Central NL West1) Washington St Louis LA Dodgers 2) Atlanta** Milwaukee SF Giants*3) NY Mets Cincinnati Arizona4) Philadelphia Pittsburgh Colorado5) Miami Chicago San Diego* first Wild Card ** second Wild Card NL CHAMPION: Washington Nationals defeat Dodgers NL AWARDS NL MVP: Freddie Freeman, Atlanta BravesNL CY Young: Stephen Strasburg, Washington NationalsNL Rookie of Year: Gregory Polanco, Pittsburgh Pirates Manager of the Year: Mike Matheny, St Louis Cardinals WORLD SERIES CHAMPION: Washington Nationals defeat Oakland As LET THE GAMES BEGIN…..PLAY BALL!!! 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