Blue Jays: Mark Buehrle to Yahoo on walk-up music lengthening games: “You see guys … listen to their song for 20 minutes.” … J.A. Happ made his first appearance last week since April 23. He pitched out of the bullpen three times after starting the season on the disabled list because of a back injury. “He stepped up,” manager John Gibbons said. “He was a little rusty in the beginning, but he kicked it in and did a good job.” Happ was 12-4 with a 2.93 ERA and finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting for the NL champion Phillies in 2009. He was traded along with two minor-leaguers to Houston for Roy Oswalt on July 29, 2010.
Orioles: The team has been struggling recenlty to score with runners on base. “We are hitting the ball hard, just nothing to show for it,” right fielder Nick Markakis told the Baltimore Sun. “You are going to have streaks like that. You aren’t going to go out there and score six runs every day. You are going to have your struggles. And we got to find ways out of it.”
Red Sox: John Henry and partners take credit for dynasty in Business Week. No love for Terry Francona or Theo Epstein. … The Red Sox held a pregame birthday party on the field for Wally their mascot. Mr. Met (New York Mets), the Oriole Bird (Baltimore) and Blades (Boston Bruins) were three of a handful of mascots on hand.
Rays: In a game against the White Sox, Desmond Jennings became the first player to tag up and score from second since August 2012. … The Tampa Bay Times reported manager Joe Maddon always says there is something extra special about winning an extra-inning game on the road. “I think it speaks to the character of the team,” Maddon said. “Because when you don’t score in the top of an extra inning, there’s almost like this impending doom kind of a feeling because all they have to do is score one run and it’s their last at-bat. So you have to keep fighting to that next moment until finally you do break through.” Add in you are usually using second-tier relievers and backup position players, and there is also a sense of the entire team contributing, he told the newspaper.
Yankees: Masahiro Tanaka had a 2.27 ERA in April, while rest of the rotation combined for a 4.98 ERA. … Reggie Jackson got together with Albert Pujols, the newest member of the 500-homer club, while the Yankees were taking batting practice recently. The 67-year-old Hall of Famer, currently a special adviser in the Yanks’ baseball operations department, hit his 500th home run at the “Big A “ Sept. 17, 1984, while playing for the Angels. … Deter Jeter has had slumps before and has broken out of them with resounding conviction. But now he is within two months of his 40th birthday, raising questions about whether he can bust this slump as he has all others. Jeter seemed to dismiss the notion that he was past being able to do so. For him, it is a race to stay productive through the end of September and, the Yankees hope, October. “I saw some reports in the media yesterday that I’m getting old now,” he said. “So I guess I was young for the first 20 or so games, old for the last four or five. So I’m going to try to get young again.”
