Invent the future

DANGER ROBINSON
Every inning in baseball is almost universally preceded by the first baseman tossing grounders to the other three infielders while the pitcher throws eight warmup pitches. After the final pitch, the catcher throws down to second as if catching a base stealer, and then the inning can begin. Well, at the start of the second inning, Robinson Cano was chatting away with Jeter all through the warmup tosses, and when Jorge was ready to throw through, Cano wasn’t in place. He waved his arms until Cano got in position and then threw down. Before the third inning, once again Cano missed his cue to cover second and Jorge, apparently fed up with waiting, just threw the ball into center field.

TAMPA – Andy Pettitte admitted he did try to back Big Papi off the plate in his second at-bat today which seemed to IRRITATE the Sox slugger.

Pettitte, who hadn’t pitched in 10 days because of elbow soreness, came in tight to Papi’s midsection, but didn’t hit him.

“He’s a great hitter,” said Pettitte. “No doubt I backed him off. You just can’t lay it in over the plate for him. Got to move the ball in and out. Got to hopefully make a hitter feel uncomfortable. He’s a great hitter and you have to hopefully pitch him inside.

“When you’ve got great hitters,” added Pettitte, “you’ve got to throw the ball inside to them. Not balls for strikes because they can handle those balls. You’ve got to show them different looks; move the ball up and down and change speeds on them if you want to get them out and keep them in the ballpark.”