Around the Horn - 4/22

Short schedule in the AL with just 2 games being played. The Red Sox completed a 4-game sweep of the Rangers with an 8-3 Patriots Day win. Former Red Sox Kason Gabbard threw 2 scoreless frames for the Rangers, but had to leave with back spasms and the Sox lineup jumped all over the Rangers pen. David Ortiz continued to come out of his slump with a pair of doubles and RBI. Clay Buchholz tossed 6 shutout innings for his first win of the year.

Armando Galaraga improved to 2-0 in the Tigers 5-1 win over the Blue Jays and Shaun Marcum. Hot hitting Edgar Renteria homered.

Big series at Wrigley in the NL, Mets vs. Cubs. It started out with a good pitching match up as well, John Maine against Carlos Zambrano. Z's Cubs lead 2-1 in the 8th when the North siders blew the game open against a struggling Aaron Heilmann. Felix Pie capped the inning off with his first major league home run off of Jorge Sosa. Harry Caray would have been yelling CUBS WIN...7-1.

The Marlins still sit atop the NL East after a 10-4 win over the Pirates. The fish banged out 16 hits, including 2 by light hitting pitcher (redundant?) Mark Hendrickson. Hanley Ramirez, Josh Willingham, and Dan Uggla each went deep.

The Dodgers pounded the Reds 9-3. Rafael Furcal lead the game off with a home run and LA rolled from there. Nomar Garciaparra and James Loney knocked in 3 runs each.

The Braves won again, their fifth straight, 7-3 over the struggling Nationals. Tim Hudson picked up the win and drove in 2 runs.

The Cardinals blew 2-0 and 3-2 leads, but Skip Shumaker's single in the 9th gave them a 4-3 win over the Brewers.

The Astros pounded the Padres 10-3. Miguel Tejada may be older, but he's also heating up. A 4-hit, 3 RBI, 3 run scored game put him at .342.

Micah Owings joined teammate Brandon Webb at 4-0 when the Diamondbacks topped the Giants 4-2. Orlando Hudson, Eric Byrnes, and Mark Reynolds each homered.

Chase Utley homered for the 5th straight game and also thwarted a Rockies rally with his glove in the Phillies 9-5 win. Pat Burrell and Jayson Werth also went deep for Philly.

News and Notes - UPDATED 2:05 p.m. EDT

ESPN the Magazine has an intriguing story on a big time family feud between Edgar Renteria and Orlando Cabrera. (Gracias to the The Big Lead for that one)

The Indians placed Jake Westbrook on the 15-day DL with a strained intercostal muscle (that has nothing to do with the Panama Canal) and called up outfielder Ben Francisco.

Mark Mulder's rehab process is getting slower than expected, pushing the Cards' left-hander timetable back further.