AROUND THE HORN

***MATSUI COMES THRU AGAIN***
Wait a minute. He's wearing the wrong uniform. Sorry, Yankee fans. Phil Hughes and the Yanks got blasted 10-2 last night. Luckily, the Yanks have only one more game against the Angels.

***IT'S REALLY HARD NOT TO DO THIS***
Pitcher Jonny Venters was suspended for throwing 2 consecutive pitches at Prince Fielder in a game. Have you seen Fielders size lately? It's got to be very difficult to throw a pitch toward home plate WITHOUT being accused of throwing at Fielder.

Extraneous thought: Can you picture the Giants Pablo Sandoval at third and Fielder at first at the same time? It brings new meaning to the phrase, "anchoring the corners of the infield."

*ESPN CALLS IT "TANTRUM TUESDAY"***
Seven guys were tossed from games yesterday. Apparently, this close to the end of the month, umpires were concerned that they weren't going to reach their quota. I think they'll make it.
The Chosen Seven:
John Russell, Pirates
Clayton Kershaw & Joe Torre, Dodgers (an obvious 'Toss one, get one free' deal)
Joe Girardi, Yanks
Bob Schaefer, Dodgers, again (a bonus ejection)
John Farrell, Red Sox
Coco Crisp, A's
All got the thumb for 'arguing', except Coco Crisp, who was booted for having a silly name (at least that should have been the reason)

In Girardi's case, he came out to argue an 'out' call at first base and was arguing calmly with the first base umpire when the home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman showed up. Giradi asked him what HE was doing there and pointed him in the direction of home plate. Dreckman wasn't doing a very good job behind the plate, so maybe he thought a change of scenery would help. (It didn't)
Ah, and now the Dodgers plight. When the manager, Torre, and the bench coach, Schaefer, were both ejected, that left none other than manager wanna-be, Don Mattingly, in charge. Don showed he needed more seasoning in the ninth inning, with this little gaffe.
With the bases loaded in the top of the ninth with one out and the Dodgers clinging to a one run lead, Don went out to talk to his ace closer, Jonathon Broxton. After he was done, he turned and walked off the mound, stopped and went back to talk again. Oops, Don, that's a no-no. Leaving the pitching mound ends a visit. Giants manager, Bochy, called it to the umpire's attention and Broxton was forced to leave the game. The next pitcher gave up three runs and the Dodgers went down to defeat. Mattingly claimed afterward that he knew the rule (I'll bet he didn't), but said he didn't realize he had left the mound. Yeah, right. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

***FROM GREG COTE, MIAMI HERALD***
The 10-story mural of LeBron James was removed after it was pelted with rocks: "Perfect. Because what says futile outrage more than throwing rocks at a cement wall?"

CP-