Latest Softball News
MLB qualifying offer price rises to $21.05 million from $20,325,000
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of a qualifying offer for this year's major league free agents rose to $21.05 million from $20,325,000 last offseason, a $725,000 hike that represented a 3.6% increase. The figure is determined by the average of the top 125 major league contracts this...
Royals pitcher Cole Ragans warms up for Yankees by playing catch in Central Park
NEW YORK (AP) — Cole Ragans started his AL Division Series with a walk in the park. On Sunday, the Royals left-hander took a 11-minute stroll from the team's hotel in midtown Manhattan and played catch in Central Park on the Heckscher Ballfields, just as so many amateur baseball...
Berti turns dazzling unassisted double play in professional debut at first as Yankees lose in ALDS
NEW YORK (AP) — Jon Berti looked like a Gold Glove winner in his first professional game at first base. Forced to use backups following Anthony Rizzo's injury, the New York Yankees started Berti at first base in Monday night's 4-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals that evened their AL...
Mets' Iglesias after key slide: `I don’t think the game has treated me fair'
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jose Iglesias changed the tune of the Mets' season, after nearly 1 1/2 years spent languishing in the minor leagues. His personality and Latin pop song helped shake the Mets out of their early funk, and he slid headfirst into a starring role in New York's return to...
In new role, former catcher Buster Posey plans to bring Giants back to respectability, winning
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In recent weeks and months, Buster Posey began to ponder the possibility of taking on something he insisted he'd never do in joining the baseball operations department for the Giants. The star catcher said he wouldn't do it upon retiring three years ago. Yet...
MLB pitchers threw fewer complete games but dominated batters this year
NEW YORK (AP) — There were a record-low 26 complete games in the major leagues this season — four fewer than Catfish Hunter threw in 1975 — and the big league batting average dropped to .243, among the five-lowest figures since 1900. Pitchers threw just 16 individual shutouts,...
Josh Lowe, Taj Bradley lead Rays to 2-1 victory over Red Sox
BOSTON (AP) — Josh Lowe hit an RBI double and scored a run in the seventh inning as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox 2-1 on Friday night. Right-hander Taj Bradley (8-11) got the win, going six scoreless innings while giving up three hits and a walk with seven strikeouts...
MLB's .300 hitters become endangered species in era of dominant pitching
NEW YORK (AP) — A .300 hitter has become an endangered species, a victim of increased velocity as 100 mph heaters are no longer rarities. “When I got in the league, I’d still see a lot of guys throwing 89, 91,” Baltimore Orioles All-Star slugger Anthony Santander said. ...
Athletics bid emotional farewell to Oakland Coliseum that they called home since 1968
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Mark Kotsay treated this moment, this daunting day, like the World Series he has never had as a player or manager. Kotsay fought tears, just like so many others Thursday, as the Oakland Athletics bid an emotional farewell to their beloved Coliseum they've...
Frazier's pinch-hit, 2-run single lifts the Royals to a series sweep of the Nationals
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Kansas City Royals completed a series sweep with a 7-4 victory over the Washington Nationals on Thursday. Pinch hitter Adam Frazier’s one-out, line drive hit to left field in the top of the ninth drove in two runs, breaking a 4-all tie and guiding the Royals...
