Dave Duncan in 2011. (USA Today)When Dave Duncan elected to step away from his duties as St. Louis Cardinals pitching coach following their miraculous postseason run to the World Series championship in 2011, it wasn't to join his longtime colleague and friend Tony La Russa in retirement.

As was always the cause for Duncan, he was simply putting his family first.

In August of that same year, his wife, Jeanine Duncan — who's also the mother of former major leaguer Chris Duncan and current minor leaguer Shelley Duncan — was diagnosed with a Stage IV glioblastoma.

Without hesitation, Duncan took a leave of absence to be by her side as she went through the initial tests and treatments. He did return for the postseason with her blessing. In fact, she was in attendance for their Game 7 triumph over the Texas Rangers in the World Series. But it was his decision to step down for good following the season so he could be with his wife every step of the way throughout her courageous battle.

Sadly, Jeanine Duncan lost that nearly two-year long battle on Thursday night when she died at all too young age of 64.

On Friday, the Cardinals, Duncan's employer over the final 15 years of his remarkable coaching career, acknowledged her death and honored her life with the following statement:

(USA Today)In the very latest Biogenesis development this week, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has reportedly added former Ryan Braun lawyer, David Cornwell, to his legal team ahead of his anticipated disciplinary battle with Major League Baseball over his connection to the controversial clinic and its founder Anthony Bosch.

ESPN New York was the first to report the news on Friday night. Here's an excerpt of their story which better explains Cornwell's current relationship with A-Rod and his past history with Braun.

Sources told ESPN.com's Darren Rovell that Rodriguez has hired attorney David Cornwell of Gordon & Rees in Atlanta to assist him with the Biogenesis case. Cornwell is well known for representing athletes on players rights issues and recently represented Ryan Braun in his successful appeal of a positive test, which was thrown out due to the handling of his urine sample.

Sources said Cornwell has been working with Rodriguez for about a month and that he is not currently working with Braun on his role in connection with the Biogenesis case. Cornwell could not be reached for comment.

Rodriguez may not be commenting publicly, but he's certainly speaking loudly with his actions. He's ready for a battle, and he's aligned himself with one of the best in the business at analyzing the details and mapping out a plan of attack to keep his clients out of hot water.

The Juice returns for season No. 6! It's almost eligible for free-agency! Stop by daily for news from the action, along with great photos, stats, video highlights and more.

The legend of Yasiel Puig grows. In only his fifth major league game, the 22-year-old outfielder connected for his fourth home run — a game-tying solo shot off Paul Maholm in the sixth — to complete the home run cycle. Yes, less than a week into his career, he already has a solo, two, three-run and grand slam to his credit. That makes for a remarkable, even historic stretch since he's only the second player since 1900 to homer four times in his first five games. The other was Mike Jacobs with the New York Mets in 2005.

Of course the most concern for Los Angeles was the fact they scratched out a run to get the game squared up. The team's then played three more scoreless innings leading into the 10th. That's where the Dodgers put runners at the corners against Anthony Varvaro. Skipper Don Mattingly then elected to pinch-run Skip Schumaker as the lead runner. That paid off almost immediately, as just a couple pitchers later Varvaro uncorked a wild pitch that original runner Ramon Hernandez would not have scored on, It squirted just far enough away for Schumaker to get in though, so the Dodgers stole it 2-1 in 10.

Cardinals gain separation in NL Central: The St. Louis Cardinals improved their major league best record to 40-21 with a commanding 9-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds. They also extended their lead in the Central division to a season-high four games over both Cincinnati and Pittsburgh thanks to Adam Wainwright's seven outstanding innings. Wainwright now owns nearly one-quarter of their win total with nine.

(AP)The amount of success many pitchers have enjoyed following ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction, which is more famously known as Tommy John surgery, over the past 10-15 years is pretty remarkable when you think about it.

Unfortunately, though, as routine as the operation has seemingly become thanks to the improved knowledge of the injury and consistently brilliant work of doctors such as the late Dr. Lewis Yocum and Dr. James Andrews, it’s not a universally successful operation. There are still cases where the injury simply doesn't heal as it should, or the athletes — most frequently pitchers — are unable to regain their previous form.

We were served a sobering reminder of that fact on Friday when several sources, including Yahoo! Sports Jeff Passan, reported that Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Daniel Hudson had suffered a re-tear of his right UCL.

Hudson suffered his original tear on June 26, 2012 — a moment he'll always be reminded of — and underwent Tommy John surgery performed by Dr. Yocum in July. It's typically an injury with a 12 month timetable attached to it, so Hudson was about six weeks ahead of schedule when he returned for his first rehab start on Tuesday. According to Passan, all signs were very encouraging for Hudson early. In fact, he was reportedly hitting 95 mph on the radar in the first inning and impressing scouts in attendance.

However, when Hudson took the mound for his second inning, he felt his arm tighten up. He was immediately removed and re-examined, with the unfortunate result being the reported UCL tear.

Lost amongst the historical highlights of Wednesday's monumental extra-inning clash between the Chicago White Sox and Seattle Mariners was a very fine exhibition of persistence and concentration by Seattle first baseman Kendrys Morales.

It happened in the eighth inning with the game obviously still scoreless and Chicago's Jeff Keppinger at the plate. On a 1-2 pitch from Mariners' starter Hisashi Iwakuma, Keppinger floated a popup down the right field line and into Safeco Field's foul territory that Morales, second baseman Nick Franklin and right fielder Endy Chavez all pursued.

As it turns out, Morales, the least athletic defender of the bunch, was the guy with the best angle, and he ended up running the baseball down as he neared the sidewall at a pretty good clip. However, as the ball landed in his glove, he was unable to put the squeeze on it due to his momentum and he sort of juggled it in the direction of the stands.

For the full second or so that the baseball hung in the air, it felt like a lost cause for Morales. But he never gave up on it, and at the very last second was able to snatch it out of the air before a fan could grab it or it could hit a seat. He then tumbled head first over the wall near a railing, but held on tightly this time to record the final out of the inning in pretty spectacular fashion.

The Juice returns for season No. 6! It's almost eligible for free-agency! Stop by daily for news from the action, along with great photos, stats, video highlights and more.

For the Colorado Rockies, it's always an uphill battle to prove they can not only hit on the road, but win games consistently away from Coors Field. It becomes much easier, however, when Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki are both healthy enough to put the entire offense on their backs. We saw a good example of that Wednesday night as Colorado's dreaded 3-4 combo teamed up to hit five home runs in a 12-4 beatdown of the Cincinnati Reds.

It was Gonzalez who did the majority of home run damage, connecting for a solo shot in the first, a 458-foot three-run blast in the fourth and a two-run roundtripper in the eighth. Tulowitzki, on the other hand, had a more complete offensive game with two home runs and three singles as he tied a career-high with five hits. For good measure, Todd Helton added his sixth home run to help round out Colorado's merciless 20-hit attack.

Here's a little more on the Rockies performance courtesy of Joe Kay from the Associated Press:

The Rockies hadn't hit six homers in a game since they had that many against the Marlins on July 4, 2008, according to STATS LLC.

''When we get some guys hitting in our lineup at the same time, it's a dangerous lineup,'' manager Walt Weiss said. ''Two really good players in the middle of our lineup were swinging the bat well tonight.''

Unfortunately for Cincinnati, the result here was just the tip of the iceberg on an all-arould rough day. Their scheduled starter, Johnny Cueto, had to be scratched early in the afternoon with a right lat injury. He was later placed on the 15-day DL. 25-year-old Pedro Villarreal was called up for the spot start and ended up taking the ugly loss.

As we noted on Wednesday night, the Chicago White Sox topped the Seattle Mariners in a wild 16-inning game despite Kyle Seager's dramatic, game-tying and history-making grand slam in the 14th inning.

Just to bring you up to speed quickly on the historical significance of Seager's blast, it was only the third extra-inning grand slam since 1945 that did not give a team the lead, and the first ever to tie a game. That's remarkable enough to think about, but then consider this game had been scoreless for the first 13 innings, and was suddenly 5-5 heading to the 15th. That's something else that has never happened in MLB history. Not once.

It should go without saying from this point forward, the grand slam was monumental. However, there is one cringeworthy image attached to it that remains fresh in the mind of many, mine included, and that's of an adult fan barreling over a very young child in clear view of the camera on his way to grabbing the souvenir.

Barreling may actually be too gentle of a term. The poor kid actually got steamrolled, and it's entirely possible it was his own father who did the steamrolling.

(AP)The beautiful thing about baseball is you never know which game will provide a rare milestone or a moment that has never been seen before.

For example, I don't think anyone who attended the White Sox-Mariners game at Safeco Field last April 21 could have imagined witnessing Phil Humber throw only the 21st perfect game in Major League Baseball history.

By the same token, I doubt the 20,139 who showed up to watch those same two teams play Wednesday afternoon in Seattle could have imagined the unique type of history they were about to witness on this day, either. Actually, I should say the history those who actually stuck around for the entire 16 innings witnessed. Those who left after, say, 13 innings, pretty much missed everything there was to see.

Allow me to explain further: For 13 innings, the Chicago White Sox and Seattle Mariners played completely scoreless baseball, which in and of itself is pretty unique. The White Sox then exploded for five runs in the 14th inning, and seemingly had the game iced away when the baseball was turned over to closer Addison Reed.

A funny thing happened, though. Reed had one of those off innings that closers tend to have in non-save situations, which means before you knew it Seattle had the bases loaded with the tying run coming to the plate. The first hitter to take a crack at tying the game was Jason Bay. Reed eventually put him away with a filthy slider after a lengthy battle for the second out. That brought up third baseman Kyle Seager, and with one swing, a tremendous amount of history was made.