Baseball 12Bet Guide

Carpenter, whose throwing session Friday was canceled, left the team’s camp Friday morning to get a second opinion, according to the newspaper. He returned a few hours later but did no throwing.

Prior to camp, there was some concern about how Carpenter’s workload in 2011 might affect him this season. Including the postseason, Carpenter, 36, threw 273 innings in 2011.

In 34 regular seasons starts last season, Carpenter was 11-9 with a 3.45 ERA. He started six times in the postseason, including twice on short rest and three times in the World Series. - http://aol.sportingnews.com/

After 19 seasons in the majors -- 17 of them with the Boston Red Sox -- knuckleballer Tim Wakefield announced his retirement from baseball Friday afternoon.

"This has been the hardest thing I've ever had to do, so it's with a heavy heart that I stand here today," Wakefield said, pausing to regain his composure. "And I'm saddened to say that I have decided to retire from this wonderful game of baseball."

Wakefield's announcement came at a 5 p.m. ET news conference at JetBlue Park, the team's new spring training facility.

"I'm very grateful I've been able to put this uniform on for such a long time and to win two World Series for this great city and I can finally say it's over," the 45-year-old said.


Wakefield walks away with 186 victories with the Red Sox, just six short of the team record shared by Cy Young and Roger Clemens. He recorded his 200th career victory late last season.

Wakefield had said toward the end of last season that he wanted to return for his 18th season with the Red Sox, but as the winter wore on it became clear he was not in Boston's plans.


The team extended him an invitation to spring training but did not guarantee him a roster spot. Had Wakefield accepted, he likely would have competed for the fifth spot in the rotation.

The Red Sox extended a similar invitation to captain Jason Varitek, who has spent the past 15 years with the team. It remains unclear whether the soon-to-be-40-year-old catcher will take them up on the invitation, sign elsewhere or retire. - http://espn.go.com/

The Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers prepare to battle in the 2011 ALCS, and this is the best possible series that anyone could have hoped for. However, for Rangers fans, this is the scariest matchup they could have imagined.Texas will once again be relying on two of the newest players on the roster, free-agent prize Adrian Beltre and trade surprise Mike Napoli. Both men have to be ecstatic for their good luck because their former teams—the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels—are sitting at home watching the games now. Meanwhile, Beltre tied a postseason record with three home runs in the same game while Napoli finished the ALDS with a .357 average.
he Rangers came into the playoffs with a lot of great pitchers closing out the season. What is shocking is, of the four starters, the one who was the biggest question mark had the best game, and that is Colby Lewis. After a lackluster regular season, he made it through the most innings of any pitcher in his start, pitching five while giving up one run in Game 3. Ace C.J. Wilson took the Game 1 loss while Derek Holland and Matt Harrison fell a little from their final month's stats.

MLB (Major League Baseball)

 12BET:Chris Carpenter threw a complete game three hitter and out pitched his good friend Roy Halladay, as the Cardinals move onto Milwaukee for the NLCS with a 1-0 win over the Phillies. Both pitchers matched up
Before the game the Rally Squirrel made an appearance, and maybe that is all the Cardinals needed as Chris Carpenter throws a 3 hit complete game masterpiece and the Redbirds are moving on to the National League
If he is forced to miss the NLCS, Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suspects that Tyler Greene will replace him on the roster. Schumaker, who batted .283/.333/.351 with a .685 OPS during the regular season, went 6-for-10 during the NLDS.
 By Sean Gregory, Special to SI.com Chris Carpenter tossed a three-hitter and the Cardinals beat the Phillies 1-0 to advance to the NLCS. Rafael Furcal greeted Roy Halladay with a leadoff triple and scored on Skip Schumaker's double. And that was it.Chris Carpenter tossed a three-hitter to outpitch old pal Roy Halladay in a duel for the ages and the St. Louis Cardinals edged the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0 Friday night in the deciding Game 5 of their NL playoff series.- by http://today-hot-news.com

Powered by four home runs -- including Ryan Roberts' grand slam and Chris Young's two blasts -- the Diamondbacks evened their Division Series with a 10-6 victory over the Brewers. In the first two games of their Division Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Arizona Diamondbacks scored five runs and collected exactly one hit in 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position.That was in Milwaukee, and they lost both games.In their next two games, the Diamondbacks scored 18 runs and pounded out nine hits in 20 at-bats with runners in scoring position.That was in Phoenix, and they won both games, including Wednesday night's Game 4 triumph, 10-6.
 The past is informative, but does not predict the short-term future with any precision at all. Just as the Diamondbacks seem to have forgotten about the horrors in Milwaukee, the Brewers will surely forget their nightmares in Phoenix.

 Yomiuri Giants