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Joey Logano picked up his first win of the of the NASCAR season as he won last Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Speedway, but the win will not count towards the post season for Logano and his #22 team. On Thursday NASCAR issued an L1 level penalty to Team Penske’s No. 22 team for a rear suspension violation discovered during teardown. The penalty carries multiple consequences, which includes making  Logano’s win at Richmond on Sunday encumbered. What the encumbered win means is that Logano cannot use the Richmond win as consideration for an automatic playoff spot. Should Logano still make the postseason, the five playoff points that come with a victory would not apply for Richmond. The official race record will still list Logano as the winner. Additional penalties are a $50,000 fine and two-race suspension for crew chief Todd Gordon, and the loss of 25 driver points and 25 owner points. Team Penske announced it would not appeal the penalties.

There was also a penalty accessed to Richmond 3rd place finisher Denny Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing #11 team, but it was nowhere near as stiff as Logano’s. During a post race check Hamlin’s car was found to have a unsecured lug nut on one of the tires. Hamlin’s crew chief Mike Wheeler was handed a $10,000 fine after one lug nut was found to be improperly secured.

Tomorrow the Monster Energy NASCAR series has the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Talladega is a restrictor plate race; so that has to bring everyone to the thought of this race being the one that the retiring Dale Earnhardt Jr. can get a win a qualify for “The Chase”. Earnhardt Jr. is still one of the best if not the best restrictor plate racer in the Monster Energy Series and he’s always a good choice to win at Talladega, but he didn’t have a great practice session yesterday; so we’ll have to see how he does in qualifying today.

While we’re on the subject of racing; the race for the triple crown starts with the running of the 143rd Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs today. The favorite to win right now is Classic Empire who has 4-1 odds and is being ridden by Julien R. Leparoux. There are also two horses who’s odds are close to Classic Empire’s at 5-1. You can get McCracken or Always Dreaming at those 5-1 odds. Irish War Cry is the only other horse with betting odds under 15-1 as he’s currently at 6-1. So betting wise it looks as though it’s a four horse race.

Now I’ll be the first to tell you I know absolutely nothing about horse racing or how to bet on it, but I’m picking Girvin to win today. Girvin is currently at 15-1 odds and is being ridden by Mike E. Smith. Girvin will start the race out of gate #7 and let’s face it; how can I not pick a horse who’s named after former NBA star George Gervin.

The Baltimore Orioles won their game Friday night 4-2 over the Chicago White Sox, but when it came time to close the game out the Orioles where without closer Zach Britton who wasn’t in their bullpen last night. Not Britton was just activated from the disabled list on Tuesday. Britton went on the disabled list on April 18th with left forearm strain and it appears as though Britton may have had a recurrence of the injury. Britton did pitch a scoreless inning Tuesday night and then again Thursday night, but was unavailable last night due to the injury flare up. Britton underwent an MRI on his pitching arm and Baltimore’s manager Buck Showalter said “There’s some talk about the next step to take with him.” Brad Brach assumed the closer role for the Orioles last night just like he did when Britton was on the disabled list. Brach entered Friday nights game with a three run lead and got the save despite allowing a run on two hits to the White Sox in the 9th inning.

With an odd set of circumstances behind it the Orioles lost their starting pitcher in last nights game after he record two outs. Wade Miley made the start for the Orioles against the White Sox last night and threw just 12 pitches as he was hit by line drives off the bats of consecutive White Sox hitters. Miley gave up three hits, but no runs in what was the shortest start of his career at 2/3rd on an inning. Miley left the game with what the Orioles are calling a left wrist contusion. White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu was the first player to hit Miley with a line drive as he hit a ball that caught Miley on his pitching hand. Baltimore’s trainer came out and examined Miley, but Miley convinced him that he was okay and was allowed to stay in the game. Then two pitches last White Sox outfielder Avisail Garcia hit a liner back up the middle that caught Miley in the back of his left leg. Miley walked off the field under his own power as Gabriel Ynoa came out of the Orioles bullpen to retire the side with no runs being allowed. It was reported that the baseball Abreu hit had an exit velocity of 103 m.p.h. while the baseball Garcia hit was clocked at 102 m.p.h.

Now I played a lot of baseball growing up and now I watch way too much baseball and I’ve never seen a pitcher get hit in consecutive at bats like that. Please leave me a comment and let me know if you every seen this happen in a baseball game.

There was another odd set of pitcher injuries last night in the Seattle Mariners/Texas Rangers game. In the 11th inning of what turned out to be a 3-1 Texas win in 13 innings the Mariners lost two pitchers to injury on consecutive batters. Jean Machi was removed from the game with two outs in the Top of the 11th after walking Carlos Gomez. Evan Marshall came out of the Seattle bullpen and was given all the time he needed to warm up since Machi left the game do to an injury. On the second pitch Marshall threw to the Rangers Joey Gallo he screamed in pain grabbed the back of his right leg and went down. Marshall ended up having to be helped off the field and was diagnosed with a hamstring injury. Mariners manager Scott Servais told reporters after the game that Machi had a nerve issue in his right thumb that made it difficult to feel the baseball.

Now there have been a ton of pitcher injuries early this season, but these are two of the oddest set of injuries I’ve ever seen.

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