![\"ThisWeekMLB\"](\"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/wp-content\/ThisWeekMLB.jpg\" "\\"ThisWeekMLB\\"")
It was always unlikely that this week’s news would be half as exciting as last week, when we learned of the 50-game suspension of Manny Ramirez, but nevertheless there’s always something going on in Major League Baseball, even if it can’t top yet another drug scandal.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brian Wilson & Casey Blake tried to create their own controversial headline, however tame it may seem when compared to the Manny Ramirez incident. Apparently, the Los Angeles Dodger’s third baseman, Casey Blake, ‘mocked’ a gesture<\/a> that San Francisco Giant’s closer Brian Wilson makes at the end of every successful game. Yep. That was your story. There’s no love lost between the California rivals, and more painful for Dodgers fans was their team losing their three game series 2-1 to their San Francisco rivals.<\/p>\n Remaining in the NL West, the Diamondbacks and the Padres have seen troubling weeks, notching up more losses than wins. Arizona have only managed a couple of wins for new manager AJ Hinch, while San Diego have shown very little of their early form. The Manny-less Dodgers have picked up their form again and remain six games ahead of the Giants, who are currently suffering<\/a> at the hands of the New York Mets.<\/p>\n In the AL West, though the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have seen some better results lately, including a series win over the Red Sox, it’s the Texas Rangers who remain the team to beat. Texas are now 22-14, still 3.5 games up over the Halos, and power-hitter Josh Hamilton<\/a> has finally returned from injury to make their offense all the more stronger. Seattle have continued to struggle, losing a series at both Minnesota and Texas.<\/p>\n In the AL Central though, things have started to get even closer. The Kansas City Royals found themselves in a six-game losing streak. Star pitcher Zack Greinke lost<\/a> his first game of the season last weekend, though he’s still performing admirably at 7-1 with a minimal 0.60 ERA. The Detroit Tigers, despite being swept in a topsy-turvy<\/a> three-game series by the Minnesota Twins, still find themselves top of the division. The aforementioned Twins had a good homestand (6-1), but find themselves once again in trouble against a surging Yankees line-up on the road.<\/p>\n The race also remains tight in the NL Central with just one-and-a-half games separating the Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, and Cincinnati Reds. While St. Louis have seen their early form dwindling, their divisional rivals have all seen hot streaks, making the race at the top a close-run thing, while both Houston and Pittsburgh continue to drift. The Reds have gone 9-6 in May, bringing them into contention once more.<\/p>\n Finally, we head out east. In the AL East, Toronto continue to prove they might be genuine contenders. Despite the powerful Boston Red Sox nipping at their tails, the Blue Jays remain an American League-best 25-14. In Red Sox land, the big story has been Big Papi. Yet to hit a home run all season, the form of David Ortiz<\/a> (just a .208 average) has continued to concern Red Sox manager Terry Francona, who’s even taken to benching<\/a> Big Papi for two games with Seattle until Boston returns home. The New York Yankees meanwhile continue to improve slowly, even beating out the mighty Toronto in a three-game series 2-1. Alex Rodriguez marked his return to Yankee Stadium with a walk-off<\/a> home run in the bottom of the 12th inning against the Twins on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n But it’s a couple of teams of the NL East who’ve had the most to talk about in the last week. The 2008 World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies not only got to visit<\/a> Barack Obama in The White House, but saw out-fielder Jayson Werth<\/a> steal his way around the bases, including a steal of home, against a stunned Dodgers on Tuesday night. Werth had a record-setting day with four stolen bases in the game, including three in the seventh inning. Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals, who usually make the news for the wrong reasons, saw a lot of focus on Ryan Zimmerman’s hitting streak<\/a>, which finally ended at 30 games. At the top of the league, the New York Mets have had an exceptional May so far, winning 12 of 15 games, including a 6-2 homestand at Citi Field.<\/p>\n Well, that wraps up another eventful week in the MLB. Back next week with more news from the Majors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was always unlikely that this week’s news would be half as exciting as last week, when we learned of the 50-game suspension of Manny Ramirez, but nevertheless there’s always something going on in Major League Baseball, even if it can’t top yet another drug scandal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[553],"class_list":["post-2835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2835"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4792,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2835\/revisions\/4792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}