Three teams suffered gut punch losses after building up decent leads - the Rangers, Phillies and Cardinals all said "DO NOT WANT" despite the best efforts by the Red Sox, Braves and Diamondbacks to hand games to them respectively. The Reds did their best to gack away another game too, but the Dodgers insisted - "no, please, you take it."

Notables:

- Homer Bailey has allowed at least one run in the first inning of every start so far. After that he settled down until the sixth inning, when the Dodgers started to tee off again. By that point, he had thrown 110 pitches. That cost him the win, though, as it narrowed the score enough so that Nick Masset could blow the rest. Bailey's 68/52 strikes/balls ratio from Wednesday is worrisome.
- Last year the Rockies (and Dexter Fowler in particular) made waves by stealing eight bases against the combo of Chris Young and Nick Hundley in one game. Tonight, the Rangers upped the ante by swiping nine bases against the turnstile combo of Tim Wakefield and Victor Martinez. The Red Sox catchers have thrown out just one runner in 31 attempts so far. A lot of that is Wakefield, obviously (opponents are 11-for-11), but Martinez has historically had his problems throwing out runners, too. It's worth noting that the Rangers were 18-for-18 against Red Sox catchers last year. By the way, Wakefield walked five batters (and the Red Sox walked nine overall - difficult to do against the Rangers), hit a batter, committed a balk and threw two wild pitches.
- David Bush became the first Brewers starter to have an effective outing this season, throwing seven shutout innings against the Pirates despite walking four. This marked the first time an opponent scored fewer than four runs in a game against the Brewers.
- Jorge De La Rosa was more effective at the plate (2-for-3 with a bases clearing double) than on the mound (5 IP, 7H, 4 BB, 4 ER, 6K), but benefited from an eight-run third inning to cruise to the win.
- Vernon Wells hit his seventh homer of the year while going 3-for-4. More on him in Charging the Mound this week.
- Mike Pelfrey now has thrown 19 consecutive scoreless innings. He has struck out six in each of his last two starts. Meanwhile, Carlos Zambrano was also dealing in this game, striking out nine in his six innings of work.
- Jose Reyes went 4-for-5, tripled, stole his second base and knocked in two runs.
- Kevin Slowey struck out nine while walking none and giving up five hits in eight strong innings against the Indians.
- John Danks allowed a solo homer to Carl Crawford in the first inning, then allowed just one more hit in his eight innings of work, striking out nine in the effort.
- Ryan Ludwick went 3-for-4 with two homers and three RBI. However, he also got caught on the "fake-to-third, throw-to-first" play with one out, runners on first-and-third and Albert Pujols up in the fourth inning, killing what ended up being the Cardinals' last rally of the evening. In fact, after Pujols drew an intentional walk in that inning, the Cardinals failed to put another runner on base.
- Mat Latos shut out the Giants on four hits and a walk over seven innings, thus outdueling the more dominant Jonathan Sanchez, who allowed just one run on one hit, striking out 10. The one runner that scored was Chase Headley, who continued to have a big homestand, with three stolen bases on the evening.
- Jason Vargas allowed just one run over seven innings against the slumping O's, giving up three hits and two walks while striking out five. He and Doug Fister are both making a strong case to stay in the rotation when Cliff Lee comes back. Ian Snell better start performing well.

Save Chances:

- Kevin Gregg, converted. I'm not prepared to live in a world where Kevin Gregg doesn't suck, but that's the case so far. One hit and one strikeout in a clean inning on Tuesday.
- Francisco Cordero, converted. 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. He looked especially nasty in striking out Russell Martin to end the game.
- Bobby Jenks, converted. Jenks looked dominant in the outing, hitting 96 mph with movement. The one hit he allowed was an infield hit by Carl Crawford.
- Ryan Madson, blown, badly. Madson allowed back-to-back homers to Troy Glaus and Jason Heyward to blow a 3-0 lead, costing Kyle Kendrick the win, after an out-of-the-blue eight shutout innings. The Phillies' bullpen has a lot riding on the healthy return of Brad Lidge. It's not difficult to envision them trading for a reliever before the deadline. Want an under-the-radar reliever to look for Lidge insurance? Start tracking Scott Mathieson's outings at Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
- Matt Lindstrom, converted. Lindstrom gave up a run on two hits, including a single in a long at-bat by Wes Helms. He was regularly throwing 95-96 mph, topping out at 98, but he also demonstrated in this game the lack of a good offspeed pitch to throw off opposing hitters' timing.
- Heath Bell, converted. Bell allowed a hit and a walk, but escaped a first-and-third with one situation by inducing a pop out and then striking out John Bowker to end the game.
- David Aardsma, converted. One hit, one strikeout.
- Chad Qualls, converted. 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts.
- Fernando Rodney, converted. Rodney allowed an infield single, but closed out in fine fashion by K'ing Brandon Inge.

Other Closer Outings:

- Francisco Rodriguez pitched for the first time since warming up nine times on Saturday. He struck out two in a scoreless inning, but also walked two and needed 26 pitches to get through the inning.
- Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth in a tie game and was rewarded for his scoreless inning when the Red Sox rallied in the bottom of the inning for the win.
- Franklin Morales pitched a scoreless inning in a non-save situation, allowing one hit while striking out two.
- Billy Wagner pitched a scoreless 10th inning to get the win, striking out one.
- Mariano Rivera came on in a 7-3 game with one on and nobody out after a Damaso Marte walk and got a strikeout before inducing a game-ending double play. No save, but no drama either.

Non-Closer Outings

- Frank Francisco - The good news? Francisco was hitting 96 mph. The bad news? He wasn't hitting his spots - he walked two (one intentionally) and gave up two hits, including the game-winner by Darnell McDonald.
- Tyler Clippard - Have I talked up Clippard in this space yet? Probably so, but he was a silver lining for the Nats, striking out two in a perfect inning. He's got an 0.93 ERA and 11:4 K:BB in 9.2 innings so far.
- Scot Shields - Brian Fuentes' return is important to the Angels not because of what's happening in the ninth inning, but what's happening in the seventh. Shields and Jason Bulger aren't pitching right now, and in the case of Shields, it's arguable that he's not the same pitcher that he was two years ago. He walked three on Tuesday, and saw all three of those runners score on Miguel Cabrera's Abreu-aided double.
- Juan Gutierrez - Gutierrez finally righted the ship on Tuesday, throwing two scoreless innings with two strikeouts in the process.
- Joba Chamberlain struck out three of the four batters he faced, inducing a weak grounder to the fourth.

Lineup-ology:

- Willie Bloomquist got the start at third base with the Royals facing lefty Dana Eveland, and went 3-for-4 with a walk while batting second. Is this going to be a regular platoon, with Alex Gordon sitting out against lefties? I certainly hope not, but it's going to be difficult for Trey Hillman to not go that route against the next lefty that the Royals face.

Tough Days:

- Chad Billingsley - It's garbage when a pitcher's own throwing error takes him off the hook in terms of having a run earned, but that's what happened with Billingsley on Tuesday. He lasted just three innings, giving up seven runs (four earned) on seven hits. Three of those hits were extra-base hits. I'm officially worried about what's happening to him.
- Charlie Morton - 1 IP, 6H, 6R (5 ER), 3 BB. Morton has allowed six or more runs in all three starts so far. We had Bernie Pleskoff on last week on RotoWire Fantasy Sports Today, and we briefly talked about Morton. He said that scouts frequently drool over his stuff, but then shake their heads when they watch him start to nibble with it, eventually getting hit hard. The Bucs are going to have to find a way for Morton to channel his stuff without getting strafed too badly.
- Ryan Doumit - Meanwhile, Morton's batterymate went 0-for-3 with a walk to drop to .200 on the year, with just two extra-base hits. The 4-5-6 combo of Garrett Jones/Doumit/Jeff Clement is really scuffling right now.
- Scott Olsen - Couldn't retire a batter in the third inning, allowing six runs on seven hits and a walk.
- Nick Masset - Masset was a big success story last year, but he had his second blow-up outing of the season on Tuesday, allowing four runs while retiring just one batter. His start understates the fickle nature of relief pitchers.
- Ben Zobrist - Zobrist went 0-for-4 to drop to .228 on the season, with a 4:16 BB:K while hitting out of the three spot. The Rays' great start has obscured some of their individual struggles at the plate, between Zobrist, Dioner Navarro (0-for-2 with a walk) and Jason Bartlett (0-for-4).
- Gio Gonzalez - Gonzalez earned his departure in the fifth inning on Tuesday, issuing his fourth and fifth walks of the game. But Craig Breslow didn't do him any favors, immediately plating the runners on an A-Rod missile shot.

Late Injuries:

- Mike Gonzalez (shoulder) is getting a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews.
- Nelson Cruz left in the ninth inning with a cramp in his left hamstring.
- Andy LaRoche has missed three games in a row due to back spasms and Bobby Crosby was a late scratch with left shoulder stiffness. As a result, Delwyn Young got the start at third base.
- Jeff Mathis has a broken bone in his right wrist and will be out 6-to-8 weeks. He was getting 75|PERCENT| of the playing time behind the plate before the injury. Michael Napoli will get the majority of the starts behind the plate, though he was still batting ninth on Tuesday.
- Milton Bradley left with tightness in his calf; given the cold temps in Seattle, it makes all the sense in the world to take him out. Of course, given his historical fragility, it would make a lot more sense to stick him at DH and let him do his thing there, but with Griffey/Sweeney in Seattle, that option isn't available.
- Mark Ellis left after aggravating his sore hamstring. Adam Rosales replaced him.
- Mark Reynolds walked three times and hit a massive homer to put the Diamondbacks ahead for good, but is also dealing with a sore quadriceps.
- Mark DeRosa's hamstring injury kept him out of the lineup for the Giants. With DeRosa and Aaron Rowand out and Fred Lewis in Toronto, the Giants' starting outfield was John Bowker, Eugenio Velez and Nate Schierholtz. They went a combined 2-for-10 with a walk.
- Franklin Gutierrez was back in the lineup after leaving late on Monday with a tight groin.

Mitigating the Damage

- Dan Haren was originally listed in the "tough days" section while I was taking notes during the games, having allowed seven runs (and three homers) over the first four innings. But while the negatives were there, Haren stenched the bleeding, threw two more innings to keep the soft underbelly that is the Arizona bullpen out of it until the seventh, and went 4-for-4 at the plate to boot. The numbers still sting, but unlike Gavin Floyd on Sunday, Haren mitigated the damage.

Taking the to Opportunity Wax Righteous with Indignation

- Rarely am I one to grouse about the "little things" when a player supposedly dogs it. Usually it's the big things that win ballgames. And that was the case with the Rangers - Red Sox game, but there was a moment that annoyed me. Adrian Beltre was up with the winning run on third base in the ninth against Frank Francisco, took an ugly swing and popped it up between first and the pitcher's mound. Though it was clearly in fair territory, Beltre didn't run it out, and in fact started loping to the dugout before it was caught. Because the runners were on first-and-third, the infield fly rule did not apply. Had Rangers first baseman Chris Davis been able to both see Beltre not run and grok the situation at hand, he might have been able to let it drop on purpose and try to complete the double play. With the winning run on third base, it would have been risky, but a fairly slow runner in Mike Lowell was on first. I didn't get a chance to see, however, if anyone was close to covering first to account for this possiblity.

Debuts

- Darnell McDonald homered to tie the Red Sox - Rangers game in his first at-bat with the team, then had the game-winning single off the Green Monster with the bases loaded to win it in the bottom of the ninth. He should retire right now, it's not going to get any better than this. Of course that would leave the Red Sox in a huge bind with Mike Cameron and Jacoby Ellsbury both on the DL.
- Bryan Anderson had his first major league start behind the plate for the Cardinals and got his first major league hit. Two years ago, he was a bigger prospect than he is now, but he stagnated at Triple-A and then suffered a shoulder injury last year.

Managing By the Save Rule

- Darren Oliver and Frank Francisco completed the Rangers' collapse against the Red Sox, giving up a combined three runs in the final two innings. Neftali Feliz never got in the game, and hasn't pitched since last Wednesday. At least he'll be fresh for his "get work" outing tomorrow. Also worth noting in that game was that Josh Hamilton butchered a routine fly ball with two outs when the Rangers were up 6-2, making it a 6-4 game (on a play where it looked as if the Rangers got hosed on the second of those runs).

Daily Opportunity to Slag Carlos Lee

- Lee had a hit on Tuesday, which is rare enough, but he now has gone 52 at-bats without an RBI. Lance Berkman plated two runs in his first game off the DL.