April 21

With no sense of history, the Red Sox continue to have a highly embarassing week while celebrating Fenway Park’s centenary. Today, they take a 9 – 0 lead over the Yankees, only to collapse totally, coughing up 15 unanswered runs to lose the game. 14 of the runs come courtesy of a bullpen that has been horrendous since the season started. With his team trailing 9 – 1 in the 7th, Nick Swisher gets the Bronx Bombers rolling with a grand slam off Vicente Padilla; Mark Teixeira adds a three-run shot before the inning ends. But that only serves to set up a nightmarish 8th inning, during which three other relievers give up 7 more runs as manager Bobby Valentine is booed heartily every time he comes out of the dugout to make a pitching change. With two-thirds of their starting outfield on the disabled list, the reeling Sox make a trade after the game, acquiring CF Marlon Byrd from the Cubs in return for P Michael Bowden and a player to be named later.

Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association come to an agreement on paying pensions for major league players active from 1947 to 1979 who failed to qualify for benefits at the time. Until 1979, players needed to have completed four full years of major league service to qualify for a pension, leaving hundreds short. Since 1980, benefits accrue from the first day a player spends in the majors. 904 players will receive payments thanks to the agreement.

Chad Huffman has a career day with the Columbus Clippers in a 19 – 3 rout of the Louisville Bats in the International League. Huffman belts three homers and drives in 10 runs in the contest, setting a team record for runs driven in in a game; he drives in at least one run in each of his six plate appearances, including a bases-loaded walk, a run-scoring ground ball out and a single off Johnny Cueto. On a rehabilitation assignment from the Reds, Cueto is the starter and loser, giving up 8 runs in 1 2/3 innings, but the three homers come off three different relievers who succeed him on the mound.

Philip Hughes of the Yankees justifies the decision to return him to the starting rotation, pitching a no-hitter for 7 innings before Eric Chavez of the Athletics bounces a ground ball towards the mound to open the 8th. The ball hits Hughes’s left forearm and lands for a single in front of the pitcher. The Yankees win the game, 3 – 1.

The Dodgers let their bats do the talking in pounding the Reds, 14 – 6, in Cincinnati. Los Angeles bangs out 18 hits, with Rafael Furcal leading the way with a 3 for 5 performance; Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier add homers for the benefit of Hiroki Kuroda. Reds pitcher Aaron Harang benefits from a rare reversal of a call by the umpiring crew in the 4th. Batting with the bases loaded and 2 outs, he hits a low liner to Ethier in right field. Ethier traps the ball, but first base umpire Tim McClelland declares a catch and the inning over. After protests from manager Dusty Baker and first base coach Billy Hatcher, the umpires confer and reverse the call, giving Harang an RBI single that ties the game 4 – 4 at that point.

Roy Halladay continues to be outstanding for the Phillies. Today, he pitches his first shutout in the National League, disposing of the Braves, 2 – 0. He is now 4-0, 0.82 for the season.

The Cleveland Indians turn double plays in six straight innings in disposing of the Kansas City Royals, 8 – 7. Aaron Laffey is the beneficiary of this sparkling defensive performance, helped by Grady Sizemore’s three-run homer in the 4th inning. Kansas City rallies for 4 runs in the 8th, until Jensen Lewis forces Miguel Olivo to hit into the club-record-tying sixth twin killing of the night. Kerry Wood allows a two-run homer to David DeJesus in the 9th, but still picks up the save.

Andy Pettitte picks up the win and Mariano Rivera gets the save when New York defeats Oakland, 5 – 3, in the first night game played at New Yankee Stadium. It is the 57th time that Rivera has saved a Pettitte win, tying the Oakland Athletics duo of Bob Welch and Dennis Eckersley of the late 1980s and early 1990s for the highest total in major league history.

Kansas City names the Kauffman Stadium Press Box after Hall of Fame writer and former Royals board member, Joe McGuff. The 1984 J.G. Taylor Spink Award Winner died in February at the age of 79, after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease).

Morgan Ensberg of the Houston Astros homers in his franchise-record sixth straight game, hitting a two-run shot to lead Houston over Pittsburgh, 3 – 2.