Did I mention I'm a little annoyed the Yankees didn't sign Aroldis Chapman?

In case you didn't hear, MASN fired Rob Dibble earlier this week.

The Dodgers are an...interesting franchise these days.

I can usually forgive umpires for most blown calls, but the complete lack of professionalism some of them display is totally unacceptable.

I also have no idea how the Padres have had the season they've had.

This. Is. Awesome.

That’s right, the Nationals were down by 10 runs and Morgan was still trying to score runs. Everyone knows that this violates sacred baseball rule 12(b); when a game gets to a certain (undefined) level of out-of-handedness, both teams must stop trying to score runs and get the game over with as soon as possible. Nevermind that the Marlins weren’t holding Morgan on, so he could easily take those bases, or that he wound up scoring on a sacrifice fly, no, none of that matters. Morgan refused to stop trying to win the game, and for that he had to have a message sent to him.

Look, I don’t want it to come off like I’m defending Morgan, but this is totally ridiculous. It’s bad enough that we expect teams that are winning by large margins to stop playing, it’s absolutely absurd to expect the same of teams that are losing. Aside from the fact that it goes against the basic ethos of competition, it’s completely out of line with the game of baseball in particular. After all, baseball doesn’t have a clock governing length of play, you have to record 27 outs to put the other team away. Whereas in football there comes a point where the time on the clock makes it impossible to mount a comeback, that’s never the case in baseball. Unlikely as it may be, you can score any number of runs at any point, even down to your last out. So there’s simply no reason to expect any team to stop trying to win, let alone in the 5th inning. It’s even dumber to have a culture that encourages hurling a pitch at someone because half-way through the game they haven’t stopped trying to win.

As I said before, baseball really needs to put a stop to this. It’s one thing to use the beanball to “protect” your players, it’s another to use it to enforce an arbitrary and stupid set of social norms within the game. Even more so when you have a major league baseball player openly saying is team threw at a player because he had the audacity to not meet the expectation that he stop trying to win the game. Nyjer Morgan deserves to be suspended for the rest of the season. The guy has been awful this year, is almost certainly going to be non-tendered by the Nationals, and will probably have to sign a minor league deal if he wants to stay in baseball next year. For some reason, he’s decided to take his last month or so in the big leagues to go completely postal. Tuesday night’s play at the plate aside, the guy is totally out of control, and is showing total disregard for everyone else at the park, players and fans alike. The commissioner’s office should drop the hammer on him and, frankly, the union should probably support the action. After all, those other players on the field are union members too, and if Morgan has decided he likes running over catchers for the hell of it, the union should obviously take their interests to heart as well as Morgan’s.

But it’s also time for baseball to put a stop to this stupid culture of machismo and “unwritten rules,” and there’s no better time to do it than now. After all, the Marlins have already admitted Morgan was thrown at for his baserunning exploits, so there’s no ambiguity at all here. The commissioner’s office should issue a firm statement that, in light of Helms’ statement, both Volstad and Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez are eating lengthy suspensions and hefty fines and, again, the union should support it. All those players getting thrown at because they didn’t run around the bases fast enough for a pitcher’s liking after a home run or showed a little too much emotion at some point are union members, and the union should be looking out for their safety. I know the players are generally knee-deep in this culture, so the union probably doesn’t want to rock the boat too much if their members don’t generally support the idea, but it would serve the MLBPA’s legacy well to be forward-thinking here.

Burnett kept the Athletics scoreless through three, but struggled in the top of the fourth.  Kurt Suzuki lined a double to right to start the inning.  Kevin Kouzmanoff then connected with a homer to right, making the score 4-2.

Rajai Davis hit a ground-rule double to left center in the top of the fifth.  He stole third, his 40^th steal of the season, with Coco Crisp up, and scored on Crisp’s ground out. Oakland had pulled to within one, as the score sat at 4-3.

The score stayed the same as both teams scattered a few hits, but were unable to score as the game moved along.  In the bottom of the eighth, Lance Berkman pinch hit for Nunez and drove a double to center.  Jorge Posada replaced Francisco Cervelli at the plate and was called out on strikes.  Posada pointed out to the umpire that the pitch had been in the other batters’ box, but the man in blue immediately booted the veteran backstop from the game.  Posada was fired up, but the Yankees got him out of there and were probably relieved to have just brought Chad Moeller up for the expanded rosters.  Jeter grounded out to end the Yankees threat and Mariano Rivera came in to protect New York’s one run lead.

Rivera gave up a single to Daric Barton, but otherwise it was business as usual for the Yankees’ closer.  He kept Oakland from scoring and picked up his 28^th save with the Yankees 4-3 victory.

Bronx Cheers:
Robsinson Cano: Robbie went 0-4, stranding four runners on base.

RISP: The Yankees had plenty of opportunities to get some breathing room, but they were 1-9 with runners in scoring position.

Curtain Calls:
Mark Teixeira: Tex’s bat stayed hot, as the Yankee first baseman went 3-4 with three RBIs.

Curtis Granderson: Grandy went 2-4 with a run scored.

A.J. Burnett: A.J. wasn’t at his best, but he made a big improvement over his miserable August.  He went six innings, giving up three runs on six hits.  He walked just two hitters and struck out eight as he picked up his 10^th win of the season.

Bullpen: Joba Chamberlain, Boone Logan, Kerry Wood and Mariano Rivera combined to keep the A’s scoreless over the last three innings, preserving the New York win.

In The On Deck Circle:
The Yankees are going to try to complete the four-game sweep of the Athletics this afternoon when their old foe Dallas Braden steps on the mound at Yankee Stadium.  Braden is coming off his second shutout of the season, having held the Rangers to just four hits on Saturday.  Meanwhile, the Yankees’ big ace, CC Sabathia, will try to bounce back from a disappointing outing in Chicago.  He picked up the win, but gave up five runs on nine hits.  First pitch is this afternoon at 1:05pm.

"The question is whether (Brian) Cashman and the others think this is the start of a decline," he said. "And if so, are they going to factor it into the negotiations or just pay him for being the face of the franchise all these years? Knowing Derek, he'll say all the right things, but he won't give an inch based on his numbers this season."

The second former teammate essentially agreed.

"It's up to (the Yankees)," one former player said. "Knowing Jeet, he's not going to let an off-year, if it turns out to be an off-year, play a role in what he thinks he should get paid. He just doesn't think like that. He'll be more convinced than ever that he'll come back and hit .330 next year."

Jeter may be the ultimate team guy, but two former teammates believe that when it comes to getting paid, his pride will demand that he get something approaching A-Rod money, regardless of what he hits this season.

Complicating matters is the Alex Rodriguez contract, which has another seven years worth $209 million, plus those potential milestone home-run bonuses.