Roy Halladay  secured his 200th career victory pitching  eight strong innings against the Miami Marlins to win 2-1. Halladay  allowed five hits, walked one and lowered his ERA from 14.73 to 7.63. The Marlins rank last in the major leagues in runs scored and home runs and were playing without Giancarlo Stanton who was out for the third  straight game with a bruised left shoulder. Ryan Howard had three  hits ...

Jordan Zimmerman went six strong innings and Jayson Werth's home run and three RBI was enough for the Nationals to finish a sweep of the Marlins with a 6-1 victory. Widely considered the best and worst NL teams respectively headed into this season, the series was no surprise as the Nationals outscored the Marlins, 11-1, in the series. Miami's only run came on a Justin Ruggiano long ball. Philadelphia 2 - At ...

Gio Gonzalez  hit his second career home run and tossed six shutout innings to help the Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins 3-0. Gonzalez (1-0), a 21-game winner in 2012 who finished third in NL Cy Young Award voting, allowed only two hits, along with five strikeouts and two walks.  It was the second consecutive shutout for Washington.  Stephen Strasburg shut out Miami on opening day. Atlanta 9 - Ph ...

After two World Series titles raised the expectations of the Boston Red Sox and their wunderkind GM Theo Epstein, the Red Sox Way, as it's sometimes called, abandoned its steady approach to organizational depth in favor of win-now, Yankees-style spending. Those win-now contracts currently reside on the L.A. Dodgers' ledger. Similarly, Epstein now resides in Chicago. The free agent binge contracts handed to ...

 The Pirates have the 9th-highest local viewership of MLB's 30 teams The Pittsburgh Pirates project to have a 2013 Opening Day payroll somewhere around $65 million, according to Pirates Prospects. While that would classify as the richest Opening Day roster in club history, it doesn't necessarily point to a more spend-happy front office. It's a product of the growing MLB revenue sharing pie. As the phrase go ...

Baseball players get paid. Period. North America's only major team sport to operate without a salary cap has often been derided for the uneven playing field created by its lack of payroll parity, but you'll hear no complaints coming from its player's union. Perhaps that's why Major League Baseball—in the midst of a lockout-shortened 2012 NBA season, a training camp-less 2011 NFL season and a 2013 NHL season ...

Justin Upton of the Arizona Diamondbacks has been the subject matter of more trade talk this season than just about anyone else. Trades and rumors of trades are always prevalent at this time of year in Major League Baseball.  Rumors of Upton's departure from Arizona began in earnest a few weeks ago. And those rumors seem to have a life of their own. Upton was booed after an 0-5 performance at a home game, a ...

MILWAUKEE -  The St. Louis Cardinals rallied for three runs against Milwaukee Brewers closer John Axford and beat the Brewers 3-2. Axford gave up three hits and walked to in two thirds of an inning, throwing 36 pitches only half of them for strikes. It was the sixth blown save of the season for Axford. Lance Lynn pitched well for the Cardinals giving up one run in seven innings of work and striking out 10. ...

[caption id="attachment_3161" align="alignright" width="300"] Justin Upton has surprisingly become the center of MLB trade rumors, but will the cost of a former MVP candidate scare GMs? (SD Dirk - flickr)[/caption] At just past the halfway point of the MLB season and with the July 31 trade deadline looming larger every day, only 11 of the league's 30 teams currently have a record below .500. Call it parity, ...

The NL Central Division leading Cincinnati Reds were dealt a blow today when they found out former MVP Joey Votto will be out due to "minor" knee surgery, according to the Reds Twitter feed . Votto was having another banner season in 2012, batting .342 with 14 home runs and 49 rbi. The Reds are finding themselves to be in a tight race with the Pittsburgh Pirates for the NL Central and without Votto's produc ...

Cole Hamels won his 11th game of the season yesterday at Coors Field pitching eight innings and allowing just one run while striking out seven. A smallish crowd of 25,685 for Coors Field,  that watched was joined by what most would consider a large crowd of scouts from other teams. After his performance, it's not likely that any interest in trading for his services will wane. Coors Field is not exactly a pi ...

MILWAUKEE -  The  Milwaukee Brewers know that if they are to get in the race for a playoff spot they need to beat the teams in front of them in the National League Central division. So far, so good. In the rubber game of a three-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates Yovani Gallardo struck out a career-high 14 Pirates batters in seven innings and the Brewers beat the Pirates 4-1. Gallardo gave up just four ...

The trade rumors that have been swirling about Justin Upton since his controversial statement regarding the Arizona faithful appear to have some legitimacy behind them. [caption id="attachment_3061" align="alignright" width="239"] Justin Upton has been told he may be traded (photo by Justin Up Fan Club flickr)[/caption] According to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers has told ...

MILWAUKEE - The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-4. Andrew McCutchen hit his fourth home run in the last three games and the Pirates remained tied for first place in the National League Central. For McCutchen it was his 20th home run of the season. In his last 28 games McCutchen is hitting a red hot .447 with 10 home runs and 30 RBIs. Kevin Correia  gave the Pirates six innings, scattering fo ...