Pitch

Car dealers have found a new way to profit from people with money trouble: leasing them hand-me-down vehicles. The deals are pitched to customers as the cheapest way to drive a used car off the lot, with the added benefit of an easy escape for those who can't keep up with the payments. Few customers are told about the advantages on the other side of the trade. Leases can allow dealerships to sidestep interest rate caps, and there are fewer financial disclosures rules than with a conventional car loan.

When Tampa Bay's Alex Cobb was struck in his right ear by a line drive off the bat of Kansas City's Eric Hosmer on Saturday, he became the fifth pitcher since September to be hit in the head by a batted ball. Cobb was hospitalized overnight and will be out at least a week. And though Angels reliever Kevin Jepsen says every pitcher is aware of the risks when he takes the mound, that doesn't make the replays any easier to watch. "It makes you cringe," he said. "It's tough. " Jepsen is fortunate never to have been hit, but he says it's not hard to understand why it's happening so frequently.

In these troubled economic times, it's not hard to understand why people might want to protect their life savings by purchasing a hard asset like gold or silver. At least, that's the pitch of Monex, the big Newport Beach investment firm, which bills itself as "America's trusted name in precious metals investments" and assures clients that it's "committed to customer service. " So let's take a look at the experiences of some customers who say their trust in Monex was misplaced.

Maybe it's the warm weather. Or the extra-long days. Or maybe, as Tommy Hanson says, the Angel pitcher's success in June is as inexplicable as it has been unnoticed. "I had no clue," said Hanson, who was unaware he hasn't lost a June game since 2010, a streak he unwittingly kept alive Saturday by pitching the Angels to a 6-2 win over the New York Yankees. "I think after the first couple of months you kind of get locked in," said Hanson, who gave up two runs on five hits in 6 1/3 innings, striking out a season-best eight batters.

This report has been corrected. See below. A fierce brawl erupted in the ninth inning of a World Baseball Classic pool-play game Saturday in Phoenix after a bunt single by Canada appeared to infuriate players from Mexico, which eventually lost the game, 10-3. Run differential is a main component in breaking ties after pool play, so it's not uncommon for teams to try to run up scores in WBC preliminary games. Canada had a six-run lead when Chris Robinson bunted for a single off Mexico reliever Arnold Leon.

PHOENIX - His face is shadowed under an oversized baseball cap. His gaze is often averted to the ceiling or floor. His handshake is distant, his voice is small, his sentences trail off into awkward silence. The first impression of Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke is that, despite having just signed a $147-million deal with a team in baseball's second-largest market, he simply wants to run away and hide. It is a daily act of courage that he does not. "I didn't think there was anything wrong with me," he said Friday.

As he did 30 years ago, Fernando Valenzuela will take the mound at Dodger Stadium on opening day. From the very place he started a phenomenon that radically altered the country's cultural and sporting landscape, Valenzuela will throw the ceremonial first pitch before the Dodgers face the San Francisco Giants on Thursday. Fernandomania will return to Los Angeles -- but with a notable difference. When he winds up to throw the ball, Valenzuela won't look skyward the way he used to. "I can't do it if I think about it. I would fall down, especially if I'm wearing street shoes," he said, laughing.

R.A. Dickey's major league career was going nowhere -- and had been for years -- when he made a last-ditch decision to learn how to throw a knuckleball. When done correctly, the floating, darting pitch is one of the most difficult to hit in baseball. But it is also one of the most difficult to throw. “I knew what I was going to be up against in some regard when I embraced this pitch,” said the Mets pitcher, who was awarded the 2012 National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday.

As I learned in the fourth grade when my first crush told me oh-so eloquently to "Get lost, creepo!," not everything you go after in life will work out as planned. Now, at the ripe, old age of 28, nothing has reminded me of that schoolyard lesson more than when I recently pitched my first show to a TV network. After working in TV and film for the past seven years, from an intern to a production assistant to the writers' office, I decided to move from New York to Los Angeles. I'd been out here eight months when, during a meeting, I ran an off-the-cuff show idea by development executives.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A lingering lower-back issue and a reluctance to push Zack Greinke past the 110-pitch range were among the factors contributing to Manager Mike Scioscia's controversial decision to remove the starter in the ninth inning of Saturday night's game against the Royals. The Angels had a 2-0 lead when Scioscia pulled Greinke in favor of closer Ernesto Frieri, who within a span of four pitches gave up a two-run home run to Billy Butler and a walk-off homer to Salvador Perez for a gut-wrenching 3-2 loss.

Rocket fuel Roger Clemens would have smiled at the highlights from last week's fight night at Dodger Stadium. Not at the punching and shoving, mind you, but at the first bean ball - the one that hit Yasiel Puig in the face. Puig had hit .500 in his first eight games in the major leagues, with four home runs and 10 runs batted in. The Dodgers' phenom might have been a little too comfortable for Clemens, who probably would have welcomed him to the majors by buzzing him with a fastball, high and tight.

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES UCLA vs. LSU Where: TD Ameritrade Park, Omaha. When: Sunday, 5 p.m. PDT. Records: UCLA 44-17, LSU 57-9. TV: ESPN2. Update: UCLA's nip-and-tuck pitcher Adam Plutko (8-3, 2.35 earned-run average) will try to extend his postseason success. Plutko, a junior, is 5-0 with an 0.82 ERA in six postseason starters during his career. LSU counters with sophomore Aaron Nola, who is projected as a first-round pick in 2014. Nola is 12-0 with a 1.68 ERA and has struck out 117 batters in 118 innings.

The Dodgers didn't throw at the Diamondbacks on Wednesday night and the Diamondbacks didn't throw at them. The benches never cleared and no punches were exchanged. But the brawl from the previous night at Dodger Stadium was still on their minds as Arizona piled up 20 hits in an 8-6, 12-inning victory. "I don't think it ends there," reliever Ronald Belisario said before taking the loss. BOX SCORE: Arizona 8, Dodgers 6 (12 inn.) Manager Don Mattingly also implied that the situation could escalate later in the season, as he sounded more concerned about administering vigilante justice than he did about the consequences of doing so. As it was, the Dodgers already lost Yasiel Puig from the starting lineup, as the rookie outfielder sat with a strained right shoulder he presumably sustained in the fracas.

Yasiel Puig didn't get a hit or make a spectacular throw on Tuesday night, but he might have changed the Dodgers' season. Less than three weeks ago, the Dodgers were said by their own manager to lack toughness. But there was no questioning their resolve in a 5-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium. Puig was hit in the face by a 92-mph fastball by Ian Kennedy in the sixth inning, sparking an old-fashioned brawl in the seventh and setting the stage for an emotional comeback in the eighth.

Dairy farmer Ron Koetsier's 1,200 cows produce roughly 90 tons of manure daily, and for the last three decades, he has tried unsuccessfully to turn the stinky dung into energy to power his 450-acre farm in Visalia. He installed a nearly $1-million renewable energy system in 1985 that used the methane from manure to create electricity for his farm. In 2002, he replaced that system with newer technology, but he hit a snag when air-quality standards called for expensive retrofits to reduce air pollution; he eventually shut down the system in 2009.

The question might start being asked. Has the college baseball landscape in Southern California shifted? UCLA can make a case for that after a 3-0 victory over host Cal State Fullerton at Goodwin Field on Saturday night that retired the third-ranked Titans for the season and sent the Bruins to the College World Series in Omaha. This could be a watershed moment. Fullerton has dominated the area baseball scene, winning four national titles, since moving to the Division I level in 1975.

It's not that Ervin Santana needs another pitch. He did just fine with a fastball, breaking ball and changeup last season, finishing 17-10 with a 3.92 earned-run average and 169 strikeouts in 33 starts. But the 28-year-old right-hander began experimenting with a split-fingered fastball in September and is gaining enough confidence in it that he plans to take it into the season. "Why not?" Santana said. "It's there. My fingers are long enough to throw it. Every year, you do something different.

The Angels appear to be plenty deep in their starting rotation. Going deep into games has been another matter entirely. In their first turn through the rotation, Angels starters averaged only 5 2/3 innings, with no pitcher lasting longer than six innings. "We wanted to do a lot better," said Joel Pineiro , who along with Jered Weaver were the only starters to log quality starts of at least six innings and three earned runs or fewer. "But we're all right. It's five games into the season and we're going to start turning things around."

This Yasiel Puig craziness is getting so out of hand, Friday night the Dodgers managed their first walk-off victory of the season. Without a hit. While Puig the Amazing was busy working on his legend with his fourth home run in five games, the Dodgers edged the Braves, 2-1, in 10 innings when pinch-runner Skip Schumaker scored from third on a wild pitch. BOX SCORE: Dodgers 2, Atlanta 1 All routine and everything. Ramon Hernandez led off the bottom of the 10th with a base hit and took second on reliever Anthony Varvaro's first wild pitch.

Rarely has one college team had two such dominant pitchers. UCLA was a handful with Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer as starters in 2011. Cole was the first overall pick in the major league draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bauer was taken No. 3 by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Cole has progressed steadily through the Pirates' organization, and appears on the verge of a major league debut. He has a 5-3 record with a 2.91 earned-run average at triple-A Indianapolis. He has thrown 19 consecutive scoreless innings after holding Durham scoreless for seven innings Wednesday.