Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action with a quick nod to what is ahead.You Oughta Know ...
That not even a little (OK, a lot of) rain could get in the way of the emerging Yankees juggernaut. The Bronx Bombers sat through a two-hour, 43-minute rain delay (40 minutes longer than it took Mark Buehrle to throw his perfect game) and won their seventh straight, beating the A's 6-3 to open up their lead in the AL East over Boston to 2 1/2 games.
It was a nice night for the two big winter additions -- CC Sabathia won his 10th game and Mark Teixeira homered -- and an even nicer night for Phil Hughes, who picked up his first career save.
Hughes kept the game ball, joining one autographed by Rivera that now sits in a glass case in his locker. "I don't know what's more valuable, Mariano Rivera's 500th or my first," Hughes said. "It's certainly a long way since spring training."
From the Trainer's Room ...
Just days after admitting "I suck" in a lengthy rant to reporters, Royals outfielder Jose Guillen was placed on the 15-day disabled list. Guillen had to come out of Wednesday's 9-6 loss to the Angels in the second inning after feeling a pop in his right knee -- an injury Kansas City is calling a knee strain.
Numbers Game ...
The Tigers have scored 14 runs in their last five games, and nine of those runs came in a win Tuesday night over the Mariners. Sandwiched around that outburst have been four 2-1 losses -- two to the Yankees over the weekend and two to Seattle the last two days. Not sure whether that says more about the offense or the pitching?
"If you score one run a game, you aren't going to win," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "I don't care how good your pitching is. You can have three Koufaxes and three Drysdales, you're still not going to win. ...In Their Own Words ...
"Let me make it real simple for you," Leyland said. "Score one run a game, you lose. 99.9 percent of the time probably."
"I was in a panic over my passport. I have no idea what happened to it. If I had to sit there today and think about it, I would have driven myself absolutely insane." -- Cleveland's Chris Gimenez, who was distracted from his lost identification by his first major league start at catcher. Gimenez drove in a run as the Indians beat the Blue Jays 5-4. The Tribe open a series Friday night in Seattle. Hopefully Gimenez makes it over the border with the rest of his teammates.
Advance Scouting ...
If you're the sentimental type, you might want to turn your attention to Toronto on Friday night. Roy Halladay goes for the Blue Jays (7:07 PM ET) against the Rays, who were no-hit (perfect gamed?) by Buehrle on Thursday afternoon. With Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi imposing a July 28 deadline to deal his ace, this could be Halladay's last start in a Toronto uniform after 12 seasons with the club.
