The Yankees and A's played a thriller last night, taking it all the way to the 12th inning. Unfortunately, the ending was less than thrilling, as the Yankees pulled out a 4-3 victory when Lenny DiNardo hit Jose Molina with a pitch with the bases loaded.

Joba Chamberlain looked impressive again, giving the Yankees 6 solid innings. Robinson Cano had 4 hits in the win.

Sean Gallagher, acquired from the Cubs in the Rich Harden deal, pitched pretty well for the A's, holding the Yanks to 2 runs in 5 innings, and striking out 7. But it wasn't enough, and DiNardo was charged with the loss in the 12th. Yankees reliever David Robertson pitched a scoreless 12th to gain his first career MLB win.

Pat Burrell hit 2 HR's for my fantasy team for the Phillies in a losing cause, as the Marlins won, 9-5. John Baker had 4 RBI's for the Marlins, and Cody Ross singled, doubled, tripled and scored twice. Jorge Cantu also contributed big, with 4 hits for the Fish.

The Rays are trying to show the world that they're not just a flash in the pan, and are prepared to make a run for the AL East all the way into October. After losing 7 straight before the break, they've reeled off 2 in a row, and pulled back ahead of the Red Sox to lead the division. Last night, they beat the Blue Jays 6-4, as Matt Garza mowed down Toronto batters for 7+ innings, and Evan Longoria hit his first career grand slam. The Jays managed 4 runs in the 9th off of Trever Miller and Al Reyes, but Dan Wheeler came in and shut the door, earning his 4th save of the season, since replacing the injured Trevor Hoffman.

----- Other Games -----
AL:
Angels 4, Red Sox 2 - Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez collected his 39th save
Indians 9, Mariners 6 - Shin-Soo Choo: 3-5 with a HR, 3 RBI
Twins 14, Rangers 2 - Justin Morneau: 2-4, HR, 5 RBI, Matt Harrison (Rangers SP): owned. 5 IP, 9 hits, 8 ER. Kinsler, Young and Bradley went 0-12 combined.
Royals 9, White Sox 1 - Mike Aviles, John Buck, Billy Butler, 3 RBI each
Orioles 11, Tigers 10 - O's win it on Adam Scott's walk-off HR in the 11th

NL:
Cardinals 6, Padres 5 - Padres own a 5-game losing streak, longest current losing streak in baseball
Reds 7, Mets 2 - Mets lose 2nd straight, after winning 10 in a row
Nationals 8, Braves 2 - Willie Harris, Christian Guzman and John Lannan led the way for the Nats
Astros 4, Cubs 1 - Wandy Rodriguez allowed only 1 run in 6+ innings... on a HR to Cubs SP Carlos Zambrano
Rockies 7, Pirates 1 - Scott Podsednik: 4-5, 3 doubles, 2 runs
D-Backs 3, Dodgers 2 - Dan Haren: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 7 K, 2 BB

----- Other news/notes -----

Francisco Liriano really REALLY wants to pitch in the bigs again. Can't say I blame him.

Beware of the Mexicutioner.

Melvin Mora will probably never do this again. No one else will, either, for that matter.

Big John McCarthy asked Fedor Emelianenko who he would like to fight, after Fedor dismantled Tim Sylvia. His response? Randy Couture. When asked if he would like to fight Fedor, Couture responded with an emphatic "yes". This is a dream matchup for MMA fans all over the world.

Neither of them are among the biggest fighters in the Heavyweight division in terms of size. But they've both beaten a true giant of MMA, in Tim "The Maine-iac" Sylvia. I've never been impressed with Sylvia as a fighter, and I think that most of his wins were due to him being absolutely enormous, and fighting to NOT lose, instead of fighting to win. But Couture and Fedor both looked very impressive against Sylvia, and have shown over and over again that they are possibly the most cerebral fighters in all of mixed martial arts.

For the fight to happen, Couture has to clear up some baggage that still exists with Dana White and the UFC. His contract expires on October 11, so if the fight can happen, it will likely happen soon after that. M-1 (Fedor's previous organization) had been trying to coordinate a co-promotion with the UFC to make the Couture-Fedor dream matchup happen, but White refused, likely because it would help M-1 gain more publicity, which White feels can only hurt the UFC. White and the UFC have been on a mission lately to crush all other competitors, doing everything they can to scoop up top fighters, and even schedule events on the same night, such as last night's UFC Fight Night, which was scheduled to be aired concurrently with Affliction Banned, which featured the Fedor-Sylvia main event.

Mark Cuban also tried to bring Fedor and Couture together on his organization, HDNet Fights, which has also been slowly gaining an audience, as Hi-Def TV and MMA are both growing exponentially.

Now that Fedor has signed with Affliction and Couture has thrown his support behind the same organization, it looks like it is only a matter of time before we get to see two of the best fighters in the world square off.

If Fedor and Couture get their way, the fans will be in for a huge treat.