On Tuesday Josh Beckett returned to the mound and looked like he’d never left. The Detroit Tigers and the Milwaukee Brewers snapped their losing streaks and the New York Yankees continued their slide.

Josh Beckett won on Tuesday against the Cleveland Indians, The win improved his record to 8-0 on the season. Beckett pitched 7 innings and didn’t give-up any runs until the 7^th inning when he surrendered 2 runs. The win allowed the Red Sox to maintain their 11.5 game lead in the American league East over the Baltimore Orioles who have been playing good baseball lately.

Two teams who haven’t been playing good baseball lately are the Detroit Tigers and the Milwaukee Brewers. However, on Tuesday night the Tigers and the Brewers turned things around, for at least a night.

After losing 4 straight games and falling to 2.5 games back in the American league Central, the Tigers finally got a win. They beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 14-2. Jeremy Bonderman got plenty of run support and earned his 4^th win of the season. Bonderman is a perfect 4-0 so far this year.

The Milwaukee Brewers have been on a longer slide than the Tigers but they still enjoy a rather comfortable lead in the National league Central. The Brewers earned just their 3^rd win in the last 10 games. They did so by beating the Atlanta Braves 5-4. The Brewers’ lead in the NL Central is 5.5 games.

It looks like Roger Clemens will be making his way back to New York probably to pitch on Monday.  That should be a boost but will it be big enough? Probably not.

The Yankees lost their 5^th straight game and they now trail the Red Sox by a whopping 14.5 games. Clemens alone can’t make that up. Sure, Clemens should give the Yankees a little boost of confidence but it might not last long.

Clemens is not the pitcher he was even a couple years ago. He is not dominant. And he won’t last much longer then the 6^th inning. It will be interesting to see if Clemens still has what it takes to shut down opposing teams and it’ll also be interesting to see how long Clemens can go in each game.

Perhaps Clemens will be able to prove once again that age doesn’t matter and he’s still able to get outs in bunches. But to be worth the money the Yankees have thrown his way, Clemens better be just about perfect.

Monday was Memorial Day: A day to remember those that gave their life for America.

It’s also the unofficial beginning of summer. From here on out things start to count just a little more.

And as we enter the summer, there are many interesting things that should unfold as the summer passes by and provide the answers to questions.

Barry Bonds should break the record for most home runs in a career. The question is where and when. And there are many other questions as well:

How will Roger Clemens pitch and will he make any difference? The Yankees are fading fast and they find themselves near the bottom of the entire American league. The question may not be whether the Yankees can catch Boston (that seems impossible at this point); or if they can earn a Wildcard berth (that too seems a bit far fetched right now); but the question may be if the Yankees can even finish above .500.

Over the weekend the Cleveland Indians took a major step forward toward respectability. They swept the Tigers in Detroit and now have a 2.5 game lead in the American league Central. They can take another major step forward if they can win the series this week in Boston. The possibility of a sweep fell away when the Indians lost to the Red Sox on Monday. But the question is whether or not the Indians can win the American league Central.

Speaking of the Red Sox, Boston looks like the team to beat in the American league. They nearly have their division sewn up and it’s not even June yet. The question for the Red Sox isn’t if they’ll win the division but if they’ll win it by 10 or more games.

The Milwaukee Brewers seem to be in a bit of a slump right now. But as I wrote a couple days ago, no other team wants to challenge them. At least not yet. So, there are 2 questions here that need to be answered: Will the Brewers win the National league Central and will the team that wins it be over .500?

Finally, it looks like the 2 best teams in the National league might both reside in the National league East. The New York Mets are the best team in the league so far this year and the Atlanta Braves aren’t far behind. The question here is obvious: Who will win the NL East? But the other question is: Will the Braves and the Mets have the two best records in the National league?

It should be interesting to find out the answers to these questions as the summer unfolds. I can’t wait…

Sunday was a day of sweeps in Major league baseball. Some of the bigger sweeps over the weekend included the Angels over the Yankees, the Indians over the Tigers, the Red Sox over the Rangers, the Mets over the Marlins, the Padres over the Brewers, and the Phillies over the Braves.

The games this past weekend helped bring a little more separation in many of the divisions. The AL East, the AL Central, and the NL East.

Before these games, the Detroit Tigers went into their weekend home series with a half game lead in the AL Central. Now, three games later, the Indians are the ones in the lead and, thanks to their sweep, they have a slightly comfortable lead of 2.5 games. These two teams will meet again next weekend in Cleveland.

Though the Angels were able to sweep the Yankees, they weren’t able to widen their lead in the AL West because the Seattle Mariners also swept the Kansas City Royals. However, the Yankees did lose more ground in the AL East.

The Yankees are now 12.5 games out of first place and behind the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox swept the Texas Rangers and they now hold an overall lead of 11.5 games in their division.

The Boston Red Sox bounded back from losing two out of three with the Yankees to sweep the Rangers. Boston will play the Indians this week before taking on the Yankees next weekend. The match-up between the Indians and the Red Sox will feature the American league’s top two teams.

With the New York Mets sweeping the Florida Marlins and the Philadelphia Phillies sweeping the Atlanta Braves, the Mets’ lead in the National league East is now 4.5 games. In fact, the braves are now just a mere 2 games in front of third place Philadelphia in the NL East.

The San Diego Padres swept the Brewers to get themselves into a first place tie with the LA Dodgers. However, the Padres weren’t able to shake loose from the Arizona Diamondbacks. Arizona also earned a sweep (over the Astros) and they are just a game behind the Dodgers and Padres.

Just a couple weeks ago it seemed like there was a log jam at the top of just about every division. But, at least for now, there are clear-cut first place teams in every division except for the NL West.

Does anyone in the National league Central want to win the division?

The Milwaukee Brewers started out the season as the hottest team in baseball and the Houston Astros were at least staying within striking distance of the Brew Crew. However, both the Brewers and the Astros have struggled mightily lately and the rest of the division isn’t any better.

After having the best record in baseball for the first few weeks of the season, the Brewers have now dropped back to being just 7 games over .500. Milwaukee is currently on a 4 game losing streak. The Astros have fallen all the way back to 7 games under .500. They have lost 7 straight games.

The records of all the teams in the NL Central are a combined 29 games under .500. And this is the division that produced the World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals just last year. This year, if this division wants to be anything other than the laughing stock of baseball then they better start playing better baseball.

Meanwhile, over in the American league East the New York Yankees lost the second game of their home series against the Angels. This time it was their hitting that let them down. Chien-Ming Wang pitched well for the Yankees, but he gave-up 3 early runs and that proved to be too much for the Yankees to overcome. The Yanks lost the game 3-1. So, their struggles continue. Pretty soon, if they don’t turn things around, it’ll take a miracle for the Yankees to even earn a playoff berth as a Wildcard team.

Much to the chagrin of the Yankees, the Boston Red Sox won for the second straight game. They beat the Texas Rangers by a score of 7-4. Tim Wakefield broke his losing streak and got the win. The Red Sox will try to sweep the Rangers out of town on Sunday.

On Saturday the New York Mets took a larger lead in the National league East by beating the Florida Marlins and because the Atlanta Braves lost to the Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets now lead the Braves by 3.5 games.

Also on Saturday, the Cleveland Indians continued their hot streak by beating the Detroit Tigers for a second straight day. The Indians now lead the American league Central by 1.5 games and they will go for the sweep of the Tigers on Sunday.

Friday night the two top teams in the American league Central met and the Cleveland Indians got the best of the Detroit Tigers. The Indians moved a half game ahead of the Tigers with the 7-4 win. Cleveland scored two runs in the first, two more runs in the fourth, and one run in the sixth. However, the Tribe was only up a run as the ninth inning began. Then the Indians put up two more big runs and went on to win the game 7-4.

The New York Yankees welcomed the Angels after the Yanks took two of three from the Red Sox during the week. However, the Angels got the best of the match-up and won 10-6. The Yankees continue to struggle with putting together hitting and pitching. One or the other lets them down nearly every game.

Joe Torre did receive a bit of a vote of confidence from George Steinbrenner. Steinbrenner said in an interview that he has no plans to look into getting a new manager. However, Steinbrenner did say that Yankee’s GM, Brian Cashman, is on a hook and the team must turn things around for his job to be safe.

Making things harder on the New York Yankees and George Steinbrenner is the fact that their cross two rivals, the New York Mets, are doing so well this year. The Mets used a five run ninth inning to beat the Florida Marlins 6-1.

Also in the National league, the Milwaukee Brewers lost again. After a tremendous start, the Brewers have cooled off considerably. They lost their third straight game, and their seventh in the last ten, to the San Diego Padres 8-6.

Lucky for the Milwaukee Brewers that no team in their division is any good. The Cubs are still six games back and they lost on Friday. The Astros are losing games left and right. Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Cincinnati are all well below .500. Every single team in the National league Central is under .500 in their last ten games. So, though the Brewers might be disappointed and a little concerned about their recent performance, they don’t really need to worry about losing their division lead. At least not yet.

 The New York Yankees must wish that they were in the National league Central instead of the American league East.

Thursday night was a very special one for the Atlanta Braves’ pitcher John Smoltz. Not only did he earn the win (his 7^th of the season); not only did he beat his old, good friend, John Glavine; but what really made the night special is the fact that it was his 200^th win of his career.

John Smoltz has been a very dominant pitcher his entire career. When the Braves were winning every single season back in the 90s, Smoltz was the centerpiece of the Braves’ pitching staff. Then Smoltz was switched from the starting staff to the bullpen as a closer. And he kept being dominant with over 150 saves.

Now Smoltz is back to the starting rotation and he’s still going strong. In fact, he is 7-2 with an ERA of 2.58.

John Smoltz is definitely headed to the Hall of Fame. He is the first pitcher to save 150 games and win 200 games. And what makes it all great is the fact the Smoltz is a great team player and is willing to do whatever his team wants him to do.

Smoltz’s win on Thursday was by a score of 2-1. He pitched 7 scoreless innings to earn the win. Though he took the loss, Tom Glavine was very good as well giving up just 2 runs in 6 innings of work.

Also on Thursday the Detroit Tigers pummeled the Angels 12-0. Ace pitcher Jeremy Bonderman returned from the 15 Day DL and looked very sharp.

In the 1^st inning Bonderman loaded the bases and looked like he was in for a long day. However, he enticed a double play (home to first) and then got the third out without allowing the runner on third to score. The rest of the night went smoothly for Bonderman. He’s now 3-0 and has an ERA of 3.57.

This weekend the Tigers will play a big series against the Cleveland Indians in Detroit. The Indians have been sharing the top spot with the Tigers in the AL Central all season. Whoever wins the series will begin next week (and probably the month of June) in first place in the AL Central.