Kuzul

Tampa Bay Rays teammates Kevin Kiermaier and Daniel Nava had a good laugh during the eighth inning against the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night.

After catching a fly ball off the bat of Twins second baseman Brian Dozier, Kiermaier slammed right into Nava, leaving them both on the turf. Thankfully, they got right up and even shared a high-five while laughing. Somehow Kiermaier held on to the ball, ending the inning.

However, the smiles didn’t last, as the Rays fell 5-3 in the contest.

[MLB]

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NEW YORK — The best team ever didn’t win.

No, that’s not right. By definition, the best team ever is one that won.

However, the “BEST TEAM EVER!” didn’t.

It was the 2011 Boston Red Sox, and we know it now as the team that collapsed in a mess of beer and fried chicken. But the day before Opening Day, we knew it as the team the Boston Herald called the “BEST TEAM EVER!”

“I thought we were good,” Terry Francona said Thursday. “And we were good, until the middle of September. We were on pace to win 100 games.”

They didn’t win, and it cost Francona his job as manager (and allowed him to move on to Cleveland, where he still looks much happier than he did in Boston). They didn’t win, because in baseball, the team we’re all sure is going to win often doesn’t.

Ask the Washington Nationals.

Bryce Harper got all the attention on the first day of spring training this year by asking, “Where’s my ring?” But the truth is most of us saw the Nationals as a superteam with an unbelievable rotation back then. Now we see them as a group that has been anything but super for four-and-a-half months and spent a day under .500 just this week.

Or ask the Detroit Tigers.

When they added David Price to a rotation that already included Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander last July, we couldn’t stop talking about how a team with three Cy Young winners was going to be unstoppable in October. Then they got to the playoffs and didn’t win a single game.

What is it about baseball? How do these superteams always end up proving themselves so un-super?

One thing is it’s not easy to win a World Series, even if you put together an incredible team.

“It’s really not,” CC Sabathia agreed.

And his superteam won.

They were the 2009 New York Yankees, and the year before, they had closed the old Yankee Stadium by missing the playoffs for the first time since 1993. Determined not to let that happen again in the first year in the new park, they spent $161 million on Sabathia, $180 million on Mark Teixeira and $82.5 million on A.J. Burnett.

They were the kings of the winter…and then they were the kings of the summer and fall, too.

“That team was really close for a team considered a superteam,” Sabathia said. “I don’t know if that was all according to plan, but sometimes you just get lucky. [General manager Brian Cashman] did a good job of [finding] pretty good guys, along with good talent.”

Sabathia has been on other talented teams in his 15-year career, and he has played with a lot of other groups of pretty good guys. That 2009 group is the only one that won a World Series, though.

Sometimes, you’ve got to get lucky.

We never like to say that, because we always want to think that the best team wins. We always want to think that if a superteam doesn’t win, it’s because of some fault it had or because it wasn’t so super in the first place.

Year after year, we’re asking the questions, because year after year, a superteam falls short of super.

Take the 2011 Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phillies won the 2008 World Series and made it back to the World Series with the team that lost to Sabathia’s Yankees in 2009. A year later, they won a free-agent battle with the Yankees over Cliff Lee, adding him to a rotation that already included Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels. Then they traded for Roy Oswalt to give them four aces.

How do you lose with four aces? The Phillies did.

They won 102 games in the regular season, but Halladay lost 1-0 to Chris Carpenter in Game 5 of the Division Series, and the St. Louis Cardinals went on to win the World Series. The Phillies thought they were pretty super in 2010, too, but they lost that year’s National League Championship Series to the San Francisco Giants, who won the World Series.

The Giants won the World Series that year, and won it again in 2012 and in 2014. They didn’t make the list of superteams, because they’ve never been a team we’ve thought of as super in April or July.

They’re a team we only think of as super in October, and when you think about it, that’s a lot more important.

The 2012 Los Angeles Angels never got there.

The Angels went to the playoffs six times in eight years from 2002-2009, but when they missed in back-to-back seasons, owner Arte Moreno went to the free-agent market for Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson. The Angels also added Mike Trout, who was the Rookie of the Year and almost the Most Valuable Player. They traded for Zack Greinke at midseason.

They didn’t even make the playoffs, winning 89 games and finishing third in the American League West. They got off to a bad start, in part because they had a terrible bullpen, and even after they added Ernesto Frieri in a midseason trade, they watched Frieri turn back-to-back brilliant Greinke starts into losses in September.

At least they were in a pennant race. The 2013 Toronto Blue Jays never even got that far.

The Blue Jays, determined to end a postseason drought that had extended since 1993, made two huge trades in the winter. They got Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson from the Miami Marlins, and they got Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey from the New York Mets.

On Opening Day in Toronto, the excitement was back. It didn’t last. The super Blue Jays never spent a day in first place. They finished 14 games under .500 at 74-88.

“In baseball, you can set up your roster in April, but if you have pitchers go down, it’s tough,” said Francona, whose 2015 Indians were never considered super and have had a disappointing season. “You’ve not only got to be good, but you’ve got to be situated to deal with things.”

The 2011 Red Sox were good, but they certainly couldn’t deal with everything that came their way. They did have pitching injuries to go along with the beer and fried chicken, and by the end of September the Boston Herald was saluting them with a very different cover, caught here on Twitter:

Not every best team ever goes down so spectacularly, but recent history has shown us that not many of them win, either.

Sabathia is right. Even when you’re super, it’s not easy to win it all.

It’s really not.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball. 

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Alex Rodriguez padded his record for most grand slams in MLB history Tuesday night when he crushed the ball just right of center field for a go-ahead blast.

It was the 25th grand slam of his career and gave the New York Yankees a 5-4 lead over the Minnesota Twins in the seventh inning of an 8-4 win. Rodriguez is now two grand slams ahead of Lou Gehrig, who ranks second all-time with 23.

And in case you missed it, #BAEROD is now definitely a thing:

[MLB]

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New York Yankees pitcher Bryan Mitchell was in the middle of a scary scene Monday, when a line drive off the bat of the Minnesota Twins‘ Eduardo Nunez struck him in the face. 

He has been diagnosed with a “small nasal fracture,” according to Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. 

Continue for updates.

Mitchell Leaves Game Under Own Power

Monday, Aug. 17

Mitchell took the liner off his face in the second inning of Monday’s 8-7, 10-inning win. Bryan Hoch of MLB.com described the scene:         

MLB.com provided video of the injury:

Jack Curry of the YES Network added a terrifying caveat to the play:

Mitchell was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital for further evaluation right after the injury, per Hoch. 

Nunez commented on the play after the game, per Brendan Kuty of the Star-Ledger:

Entering play Monday, Mitchell had a 3.72 ERA and 1.35 WHIP in nine appearances for the Yankees. He lost his only start of the season prior to Monday against the Chicago White Sox on Aug. 1, but his versatility and ability to serve as a spot starter will be valuable if he’s healthy, as the campaign enters the stretch run.

New York is in the midst of a stretch of 16 games in 16 days and is not off again until Aug. 27. Mitchell joined the staff so the Yankees would have six starters during this period, but the fact that he left in the second inning could prove taxing for the relief corps.

Fortunately for the Yankees, Masahiro Tanaka pitched a complete game Saturday, so at least the bullpen was well-rested coming into Monday’s contest. That won’t be the case after it pitched nearly an entire game following Mitchell’s exit.

New York is in a battle for the American League East crown with the Toronto Blue Jays and needs all the pitching it can get with less than two months remaining in the season. The potential loss of Mitchell will put even more stress on the remaining arms as the year progresses.

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The New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays opened a three-game series Friday with everything on the line, and they finished it Sunday with nothing settled.

That’s how it’s going to be in the American League East: back and forth, tit for tat, right down to the wire. Simply put, we’re watching the best division battle in baseball unfold.

For a while, it looked like the Jays might fly away with it.

Toronto went all-in at the trade deadline, acquiring All-Star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and ace left-hander David Price, and they ripped off an 11-game winning streak that included a three-game sweep of New York at Yankee Stadium.

Suddenly, there was a new juggernaut in town. And it was worth wondering if the Yankees would ever recover.

Over the weekend, the boys in Pinstripes gave us their answer.

New York took the first two games at Rogers Centre, including a thrilling 4-3 comeback Friday, to reclaim first place.

Then, on Sunday, they sent touted rookie Luis Severino to the hill with a chance to return the sweeping favor and deliver a staggering blow.

Toronto, however, had an answer of its own. Backed by a two-run homer off the bat of Jose Bautista and a solid outing by right-hander Drew Hutchison, the Blue Jays notched a 3-1 win and trimmed the Yankees’ lead to half a game.

Just how close is this race? FanGraphs puts the chances of the Yankees winning it at 47.8 percent. The Jays? They’re sitting at 48.0 percent.

So it’s a statistical dead heat, a veritable coin toss—back and forth, tit for tat.

The Jays can mash, but so can the Yankees; the two squads rank first and second in MLB in runs scored, respectively.

The Jays added Price to bolster their rotation. The Yankees boast a shutdown bullpen headlined by Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances. 

If you’re looking for a tipping pint, it could be that the Yankees are leaning—hard—on veterans with injury histories like Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran to make the offense hum. And their starting five is counting on continued health from Masahiro Tanaka, he of the ticking-time-bomb elbow.

Skipper Joe Girardi, though, has made a point to give his aging core a breather whenever possible.

“Joe has done a real good job with everyone here being able to find some days to give us a break, keep everyone fresh,” Beltran said, per Billy Witz of the New York Times. “This time of the year, you have to come ready to play. It doesn’t matter the situation. I know everyone’s banged up, a little sore, but we cannot be thinking about that.”

On the flip side, the Jays are no wide-eyed neophytes, as manager John Gibbons explained to SportsNet.ca’s Shi Davidi.

“We don’t have a bunch of young kids riding that emotional roller-coaster,” Gibbons told Davidi. “These guys have all been through it before.”

As a franchise, however, Toronto hasn’t been through it for a long time.

In this case, “it” is a postseason berth, something the Blue Jays haven’t secured since 1993, the longest such drought in North American professional sports.

Even if many of Toronto’s top players—guys like Russell Martin, Josh Donaldson and Price—have playoff experience, there’s no denying the added pressure the Jays must feel to bust their ignoble streak.

As ESPN.com’s Wallace Matthews noted, while the Yankees’ once-comfortable division lead has evaporated, “the edge is still there, the team is still in first place.”

For how long? Time and, more to the point, the seven remaining games between Toronto and New York will tell.

The two squads tangle in a four-game series beginning Sept. 10 in the Bronx, followed by a three-game set beginning Sept. 21 north of the border.

That flurry of head-to-head action could resolve the matter, but here’s betting it’ll drag on till the end.

This is how A-Rod summed things up to Witz: “Keep working hard. Five, six-hundred at-bats, you’re going to go through ups and downs. Like the stock market.”

Only in this case, the situation’s even more volatile—and the future’s even harder to predict.

All statistics and standings current as of Aug. 16 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

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David Price and his cannon arm are enjoying the life with his new team. The Toronto Blue Jays are in command of a wild-card spot in the American League right now with help of an 8-2 run in their last 10 games.

The team is getting hot at the right time. 

Price is probably a couple of strikeouts away from Drake dropping his name in his next track, and to top everything off, he’s PED-free. At least, that’s what he let MLB know on Twitter. 

From time to time, MLB will “randomly” drug test players, and Price’s number was called Saturday. But there’s no need to wait for the results, because Price already let us all know that he’s drug-free, baby!

[Twitter]

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Momentum is such a fickle thing in Major League Baseball.

While the narrative and storyline that comes along with it feed the public’s interest and make for good radio, column and bar-stool fodder, the truth is momentum in that sport shifts from day to day, inning to inning and even batter to batter. All the momentum in the world—negative and positive—can be altered by one misplaced pitch, a swat of a hanging breaking ball or the twirling of a gorgeous complete game.

The Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees and all their fans now know that after Masahiro Tanaka delivered his outing of the season in a complete-game, one-run, five-hit, eight-strikeout gem Saturday. With that 4-1 victory at Rogers Center—again in a playoff-like atmosphere—the Yankees have proved the runaway train that was once the Blue Jays will not disappear into the distance with the American League East title.

And if Tanaka can return to the pitcher who resembled a budding ace in 2014, he would suddenly give the Yankees a front man for their rotation and someone who can match up with Toronto ace David Price. Tanaka also provides New York with desperately needed depth in a rotation that seemed to be in flux entering this critical weekend series.

“He was great,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons told reporters of Tanaka. “He was on, he was hitting his spots.”

“My mindset was I wanted to go as deep into the game as possible,” Tanaka told reporters through a translator. “I’m just really satisfied that I was able to do that.”

This was the best outing of Tanaka’s season. The 26-year-old Japanese right-hander had shown only flashes this year of what made him the Yankees’ $155 million import and future ace. He lived up to the billing last season by posting a 2.77 ERA and 3.04 FIP in 20 starts before a partial UCL tear shelved him for the final 65 games. 

In Tanaka’s previous 16 starts this season, he had a 3.79 ERA and 4.18 FIP. His strikeouts were down, his strikeout-to-walk ratio was down, and his 102 adjusted ERA showed he was an average pitcher. That mediocrity is part of what made the non-waiver trade deadline such a disappointment for Yankees fans, and it is the reason the team had to call up top pitching prospect Luis Severino when Michael Pineda went on the disabled list earlier this month.

While that was happening with the Yankees, the Blue Jays went out and landed Price, bullpen help and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki at the deadline, which made them look like the most complete team in the American League for a span of 15-plus games. It would have been 16 had Blue Jays reliever Aaron Sanchez not served up a go-ahead home run to Carlos Beltran on Friday, spoiling a great outing by Price.

But that momentum is such a fleeting beast.

The Blue Jays rode that two-week stretch to the top of the AL East, erasing an eight-game deficit in 14 games to go up a half-game in the division. At that point, the narrative suggested the Blue Jays were world-beaters and the Yankees were suckers for not nabbing a front-line starter in July.

Going into this weekend in Toronto, the series winner would have the advantage entering the season’s final seven weeks, although it’s still a long schedule when you play almost daily. But if the Yankees did not want to be bombarded with questions about what their problems were and if they could envision themselves catching a team as hot as the Blue Jays, they had to do something.

“Up to this point, I think today was one of the most important games that I’ve pitched in,” Tanaka told reporters.

And he delivered his best of the year, giving the Yankees hope that this is the Tanaka they can expect through this playoff push and once they get to the postseason.

Masahiro Tanaka: first NYY pitcher to throw CG of 9 innings at Rogers Centre since Andy Pettitte on April 22, 1998 pic.twitter.com/zUWBhJmxG9

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 15, 2015

Pineda, who went on the DL with a strained forearm, is expected back at some point this month so long as no setbacks happen. Severino has been impressive in two starts on a relatively short leash. And Ivan Nova is a wild card the Yankees can hardly afford to play with all the chips in the middle of the table.

This is why it’s so significant that Tanaka again looks like the ace of the rotation. When he is right, he undoubtedly gives New York the kind of arm that can go pitch for pitch with the likes of Price, Johnny Cueto and Dallas Keuchel, the other aces of the league.

The Yankees might not have pulled off a blockbuster trade for a starting pitcher, and they might have lost one to the DL for a brief time. But if Tanaka becomes as dominant as he was in 2014, that return to form is as valuable as any ace on the market would have been.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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The New York Yankees have had trouble finding consistency at second base all season.

There have been small sparks of offensive production and defensive flair from both Stephen Drew and Brendan Ryan here and there, but overall, second base has been the biggest flaw in New York’s starting lineup this year.

While an infield upgrade would be nice for the Yankees, bringing in Chase Utley in 2015 is not the answer.

It’s been quite the whirlwind month for the Yankees. These games are finally beginning to really matter.

The Bombers woke up on July 29 with a seven-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East. By Wednesday, Aug. 12, they were a half-game back.

That lead has since been rectified after the Yankees beat the Jays 4-3 on Friday night in what could only be described as a playoff-atmosphere game being played in August.

The 11-game winning streak that Toronto put together since signing David Price and Troy Tulowitzki led to some fans wondering why the Yankees remained mostly dormant during the trade deadline. New York’s only acquisition was reeling in Dustin Ackley, who played in just two games before landing on the disabled list.

With glaring holes in the starting rotation and trouble finding consistency at second base, it was a little surprising to some that the Yankees remained quiet. However, there’s still a little time to bring in a player or two.

General manager Brian Cashman helped out the pitching situation by calling up Luis Severino from Triple-A and stating that the 21-year-old has no innings limit to Ryan Hatch of NJ.com. Severino has had two solid starts so far in the big leagues against the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians, in which he gave up one and two earned runs, respectively.

However, second base still remains a problem.

Stephen Drew belted a home run and scored a career-high four times in an 8-6 win against Cleveland on Thursday, but is still batting just .195 with a .263 OBP in 97 games this season.

He does have 15 home runs, which is more than the likes of Evan Longoria, Matt Kemp and the last superstar to play second base in New York, Robinson Cano. However, production has been lacking in between each home run.

Brendan Ryan hasn’t fared much better, batting .237 in his last 12 games.

So, by name alone, you would think Chase Utley would be a great pickup to help bring some life back to New York’s middle infield. And you wouldn’t be wrong—if it were seven years ago.

When the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series in 2008, Utley hit .292 that season with 104 RBI. He didn’t slow down the following year, belting more than 30 home runs for the third time in four seasons and leading Philly back to the Fall Classic.

Oh, he had five home runs in that World Series defeat against the Yankees, though Utley is just 6-for-24 at Yankee Stadium during the regular season.

If New York were going to get that Utley, there would be no question to try to bring him in. Of course, that Utley most likely would be staying in Philadelphia.

Instead, the current Utley is a shell of his former self, hitting just .196 in 70 games before Friday. He had more home runs in that ’09 World Series than he does now and is looking at career lows in just about every category since his rookie season.

Utley is and will forever be a beloved player in Philadelphia. His number will be retired and a street will probably be named after him. However, the Yankees have had their fair share of nostalgia while dealing with players from the past several years—they need production now.

Because of Utley’s past, the Phillies might try to bring in a big-name prospect in return for him, but New York has stood firm when it comes to its younger players.

Philly could certainly try to improve its case for a decent return after Utley went 4-for-5 on Friday night to push his average over .200. He now has 11 hits in 22 at-bats since returning from the disabled list last Friday. Funny how that can happen when a player is on the trading block.

Before being traded, Utley has the final say of which team he can be dealt to because of his 10-5 no-trade rights, which come after playing 10 years in the big leagues and five straight years with the same club.

The 36-year-old has also made it clear that he only wants to play for teams who will guarantee him playing time, as ESPN’s Buster Olney noted:

But as far as playing time is concerned, Cashman made it clear that he’s all-in on Drew at second base. Since he would remain on the team, there would be no place for Utley, according to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch:

Because of that, the Yankees’ best option appears to be in riding things out, much as they did during the trade deadline. Once the roster expands in September, New York can call back second base prospect Rob Refsnyder, who’s batting .275 in Triple-A.

As for Utley, the Los Angeles Angels, Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants seem to be the top three suitors. According to the San Francisco Chronicle‘s Bruce Jenkins, the Giants have even made an offer:

But according to USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale, Utley has narrowed his choices down to two:

It can be argued that Utley was one of the best second basemen of his generation. Now, the argument is if he has anything left in the tank to help out a ball club. For the Yankees, the answer is no.

All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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For the most part during Friday night’s contest at Rogers Centre, the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays had the New York Yankees in the same place they had them last weekend: right where they wanted ’em.

That is until, all of a sudden, there was a loud bang. And right now in the aftershock, it’s clear that what’s left of the AL East race is going to be all sorts of fun instead of a one-sided romp.

If you missed it, the Blue Jays were leading the Yankees by a 3-0 score heading into the eighth inning Friday night. But then there were back-to-back one-out singles by Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann, and an RBI ground-rule double by Chase Headley. In came Aaron Sanchez to relieve starter David Price, and stepping to the plate to pinch-hit was Carlos Beltran.

On a 1-2 count, he proceeded to do this:

That, folks, is a go-ahead three-run dinger. And quite an unlikely one at that.

For one, the Blue Jays bullpen had been riding a 25-inning scoreless streak right up until Beltran’s blast cleared the fence. For two, Katie Sharp of River Ave. Blues notes that Beltran’s not in the habit of crushing hard fastballs like that:

For three, that was only the second pinch-hit homer of Beltran’s 18-year career. But then again, credit goes to him for knowing the score.

“You’ve got to be prepared, because you never know when the manager is going to use you in a game,” Beltran said after the contest, via Billy Witz of the New York Times.

Regardless of how unlikely that homer was, it definitely happened. And with a 4-3 lead in their hands, the Yankees turned to Dellin Betances in the eighth and Andrew Miller in the ninth. Though Miller made it interesting, they both did their jobs to seal the deal.

And just like that, the AL East race no longer has the Blue Jays at the head of the pack. They went from eight back to a half game up in a span of just 15 days, but now it’s the Yankees who are back on top by a half game.

Of course, this is a lead that could be gone for good as soon as Saturday. And maybe it will be. But for now, it stands as an excuse for the Yankees to make like O-Ren Ishii and ask: “You didn’t think it was gonna be that easy, did you?”

To fully appreciate the comeback the Yankees pulled off, we need to understand just how doomed they seemed to be. 

It wasn’t just that they were getting beat by a formidable opponent. They were getting beat by an opponent whom they knew all too well to be formidable. When the Blue Jays and Yankees hooked up last weekend in the Bronx, Toronto allowed New York just one run en route to win Nos. 6, 7 and 8 in its 11-game win streak.

Oh, and there was also the fact that David Price was on the mound. This would be the same David Price who held the Yankees to just three hits in seven scoreless innings in a 6-0 victory last Saturday. And yes, this is also the same David Price who has a shot at a second Cy Young in four years.

Double-Oh, there was also the reality that Price was going up against a cold offense. The Yankees entered Friday’s contest having scored just 17 runs over their last eight games, seven of which resulted in defeat. Opponents held them to one or fewer runs five times in that span. 

Triple-Oh, there was also how the setting the Yankees were attempting to wake up in was no normal setting. A crowd of 46,689 showed up at Rogers Centre, and Wallace Matthews of ESPN.com was one of many to note that nobody was mistaking the stadium for a library:

According to FanGraphs, at one point victory was a 95.4 percent certainty for the Blue Jays. That’s a big number, to be sure. But most who were watching the game would have put the number closer to 100 percent. The Yankees were capital-D Doomed.

Until, of course, they weren’t. But though that was surprising in the moment, should we be so surprised in retrospect?

There’s no question the Blue Jays are the flavor of the month in Major League Baseball, but let’s not pretend like they took the AL East lead from a sinking ship. The Yankees went into Friday night’s contest as losers of six of eight, yes. But before that, they had won 19 out of 27.

And if any team was going to come back and win a game like that with a clutch bomb and late-inning relief pitching, shoot, why not the Yankees?

The home run has been New York’s primary means of attack all season long, as only the Blue Jays and Houston Astros have hit more dingers than they have. The same goes for late home runs, as the Yankees rank third in MLB in dingers hit from the seventh to ninth innings.

Then there’s that late-inning duo. With a combined 1.60 ERA and 157 strikeouts in 101.2 innings this season, there may not be a more dominant relief duo in the game than Betances and Miller. If the Yankees can get a lead to the eighth inning, it’s pretty much over.

This is the formula that’s been working for New York all season: Get a lead via dingers, and then use Betances and Miller to nail it down. The Yankees proved it still works on Friday night.

And there are few reasons to think it can’t keep working in the final weeks of the season. The only real gripe to be made about New York now is that its starting pitching doesn’t measure up, but that’s not news. The Yankees rotation has been volatile from Day 1, but homers and relief pitching have been more than good enough to pick up the slack.

With the Yankees lineup, Betances and Miller still at full strength, that’s as good a bet as any to continue.

Mind you, none of this is to suggest that the Blue Jays should be shaking in their boots after losing Friday’s game. It’s only one loss, and one loss after 11 straight wins doesn’t look so bad.

But make no mistake: The picture has changed. The Yankees don’t get to be called the team to beat just because they’re in first place. But the odds do reflect how the AL East now looks like anyone’s race. Per FanGraphs, the Blue Jays’ 48.7 percent chance of winning the division puts them just a hair ahead of the Yankees and their 47.2 percent chance.

In other words: Buckle up. Thanks to Beltran’s clout, the AL East race just got a hell of a lot more interesting. And with a little under two months to go, it figures to stay that way.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and Fan Graphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell announced Friday that he has been diagnosed with lymphoma. 

WEEI tweeted out the news directly from Farrell:

WHDH-TV in Boston passed along the manager’s full statement:

Per Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald, Farrell will begin chemotherapy Tuesday at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and bench coach Torey Lovullo will manage the team for the remainder of this season.

Farrell described the lymphoma as “localized and highly curable,” per NESN. 

“We’re going to give him the support, like he gives to us, always,” said David Ortiz, per the team. 

Ortiz added more on Farrell and how he heard the news, per John Tomase of WEEI:

Pretty much all of us were in shock. When they mention the word cancer, it’s something that doesn’t matter what it comes from, it’s going to impact you. We’re going to give John the support that we can give him so he can get through this and be back next year, back to normal.

Hopefully everything goes well for him. We’ve got a big family around here and definitely when it comes down to health issues, you want to make sure that everything goes OK. The organization has taken a lot of responsibility on that, to make sure that John gets through it, the way it’s supposed to be.

Another of Farrell’s players, Dustin Pedroia, added, per the team: “Your heart just stops. Obviously, anybody in that room would do anything for John. We know he’s going to get through this, and we’ll all get through it together, and do anything to help him out.”  

Farrell added about his club, “When they show that support, it’s meaningful.”

Earlier in the week, Farrell missed Tuesday’s game against Miami after undergoing hernia surgery. The manager said the lymphoma was first detected during that surgery, according the NESN report.

Farrell started his coaching career as Boston’s pitching coach in 2007, winning a World Series with the club in his first season, before taking over as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2011. 

After he spent two years in Toronto, the Boston brass brought Farrell back to the Red Sox as manager prior to the 2013 campaign. He helped lead the franchise to a surprise World Series title in 2013, winning 97 games in the regular season after 69 victories in 2012.  

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