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BASEBALL TONIGHT EXTRA
A historic month for A-Rod
Alex Rodriguez hit two more home runs on Monday but the Yankees lost their fourth straight game, falling on the road to a very strong offensive team in Tampa Bay.
With his two homers, Rodriguez tied the major-league record for most home runs by the end of April, matching the 14 hit by Albert Pujols last season. This month turned in by Rodriguez may end up the most potent in baseball history, but the thing that will likely be more remembered is that the Yankees are struggling. Pujols led his team in April and October, but if the Yankees can't get the pitching necessary to support Rodriguez's monster performance, he may not get a chance to help New York when it counts the most.
HILL'S CURVEBALL KEY TO HIS SUCCESS
The Chicago Cubs are looking not only for starting pitching, but also healthy starting pitching after going through years of hoping for Mark Prior and Kerry Wood to stay healthy. Maybe they have the beginnings of one half of a tag team with Rich Hill. Hill and Carlos Zambrano would be a great tandem, assuming the Cubs want to keep Zambrano beyond this season. Either way, the Cubs are looking for a new tandem in the starting rotation and Hill looks like he could be one part of it.
 Hill I have confidence Hill can stay healthy for several reasons: He has a smooth, clean delivery where he uses a lot of body to help carry his arm. Also, the fact that he was born in Boston and went to school in Michigan I think bodes well for him. Northern pitchers have a tendency not to be overworked and have less cumulative wear and tear. Usually pitchers from the north do not play year-round, so the innings don't accumulate on their arm. When you watch Hill walk around the mound, he seems to have a lot of poise. He also has a clean delivery -- the arching of his back and tilting of his shoulders are things you would see prior to 1968, so in the modern game he has a unique delivery. Prior to '68, the mound was higher, so pitchers could tilt their bodies more and use the hill to unfold their deliveries. You could create more severe angles with your hips and shoulders; Hill has big angles, but is very patient and calm as he delivers the ball and waits long enough for everything to uncoil. His curveball starts on a trajectory that would tell you it's going to end up high because of those angles. But he throws it so slow (72 mph) and with such great rotation that it makes it all the way back to the strike zone, and that's very deceptive to the hitter, a la Barry Zito. Hill's curveball allows him to get away with high fastball mistakes and when he throws a good fastball at the knees, it has a tendency to lock hitters up because they have a tough time picking it up. Hill's curveball is also deceptive to right-handed hitters because it looks like it's going to be high and away, so the hitters usually take the pitch and then it drops into the strike zone. To left-handed hitters, Hill's curve comes at their front shoulder and head and that makes them flinch. A slight uppercut is the way to hit his curveball, almost like in slow-pitch softball. A hitter swinging with shallower arc in his swing isn't going to intersect the path of Hill's curveball very often.
FORWARD THINKING: TUESDAY
• Tigers at Angels, 3:35 p.m. ET: Jeremy Bonderman (0-0, 2.25) has allowed a combined seven runs in four starts (28 IP), but doesn't have a decision yet. Kelvim Escobar (1-1, 3.18) makes his third start after beginning the season on the disabled list with soreness in his right shoulder.
• Yankees at Devil Rays, 7:10 p.m. ET: Chien-Ming Wang, who tied for the most wins (19) in the big leagues last season, makes his first start of the season after starting the year on the DL with a pulled right hamstring. Scott Kazmir (1-1, 5.25) got a no-decision on Opening Day against the Yankees as he allowed five runs in five innings.
 Johnson • Padres at Diamondbacks, 9:40 p.m. ET: Randy Johnson, who Arizona reacquired in the offseason from the Yankees, is set to make his season debut after recovering from back surgery last October. David Wells, like Johnson is 43 years old, gets the start for San Diego. Wells got a no-decision in his last outing, giving up two runs on three hits in seven innings against the Diamondbacks.
NEWS AND NOTES
• The Athletics placed RHP Rich Harden (strained right shoulder) and OF Milton Bradley (strained left hamstring) on the 15-day disabled list. Oakland purchased the contract of OF Danny Putnam from Double-A Midland and LHP Dallas Braden from Triple-A Sacramento to fill the open roster spots. Braden will start and make his major league debut for the A's on Tuesday.
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