Joe West's Nightmare:

- Did the NYY-BOS game end yet? You can debate whether it was appropriate for Joe West to share his opinion about the pace of games, but common sense suggests that the Yankees and Red Sox really do milk it for all it's worth when they play each other. This game took 4:09 to complete, and that's not counting the 59-minute rain delay at the start.

The End of the Line?

- Trevor Hoffman coughed up another one against the Reds on Tuesday, this time in brutal fashion, not retiring a single batter. Scott Rolen's game-tying homer was the seventh allowed by Hoffman this year. Forget whether he gets to 600 saves this year - I wonder if the Brewers can legitimately roll him out there the next time they have a save chance, period? Are you speculating on Hoffman's replacement? Where are you investing your FAAB dollars? Or are you better off avoiding this situation due to the politics of removing an all-timer from the role and the mediocrity of the potential replacements? I might throw a FAAB buck or two at Carlos Villanueva, but I'm underwhelmed even by him.

Role Change:

- Ryan Rowland-Smith has been moved out of the Mariners' starting rotation, with Ian Snell taking his place.

Notables:

- Zack Greinke's fatal flaw was not getting Luke Scott out all night, leading to him having to give way to the Royals' awful-as-usual bullpen. Blake Wood was the latest to blow a Greinke lead before the Royals had a chance to get the game to Joakim Soria. The manager may change, but the bullpen remains the same.
- Roy Halladay threw 132 pitches in his complete game loss to the Pirates, giving up two runs on nine hits and a walk, striking out six.
- Manny Parra went four innings in his first start of the season, allowing one run against the Reds on four hits and four walks, striking out three.
- Josh Johnson's seven shutout innings (2H, 2BB, 9K) was underpublicized in light of Hanley-Gate.

Save Chances:

- Jonathan Papelbon, converted (10). Papelbon allowed one unearned run thanks in large part to Marco Scutaro's second error of the game. He also allowed a hit and a walk, striking out one.
- Octavio Dotel, converted (8). Perfect inning, one strikeout.
- Neftali Feliz, converted (11). Two strikeouts in a perfect inning.
- Ryan Franklin, converted (9). Clean inning, no strikeouts.
- Andrew Bailey, blown (2). This is one of those lame "blown saves" - Bailey came into the eighth with one out and runners on the corners - he got a fly out from Mike Sweeney, but that scored the tying run. In situations like that, really the departing pitcher deserved way more blame for the blown save, but because scorekeepers have to remain so rigid to the save rule, the blown save goes on Bailey's ledger.
- Brian Wilson, "converted" (10). Wilson's appearance almost falls under the "Manage By the Save Rule" header. He came into the game in the 12th inning after the Giants scored three runs in the top of the inning, allowing two runs on Scrappy Eckstein's double. He nearly didn't get the chance - a long fly ball by Nick Hundley off of Dan Runzler in the 11th inning just barely went foul.

Other Closer Outings:

- Bobby Jenks pitched the ninth inning in a 6-2 game, striking out two while allowing a hit in a scoreless inning.
- Alfredo Simon got five outs and got the win when the Orioles scored in the bottom of the 10th. He gave up a hit and a walk, striking out one.
- Mariano Rivera got the loss, giving up two unearned runs in the ninth in a tie game. The foundation for this outing was set by Marcus Thames' error in right field. Thames started in RF instead of DH because of Nick Swisher's biceps injury.
- Billy Wagner got the win after throwing a scoreless ninth inning in a tie game.
- Brian Fuentes pitched for the first time in eight days - the last outing was the brutal blown save against the Rays. He threw a perfect eighth with the Angels trailing by a run.
- Heath Bell gave up two hits but avoided allowing a run in his one inning of work in a 4-4 tie in the ninth.

Non-Closer Outings

- Clay Hensley threw another scoreless inning and struck out a batter, giving him a 29:6 K:BB in 21.2 innings.
- Joba Chamberlain has had two disaster outings in a row following his strong start to the season. But for David Ortiz posing after a ball hit to the wall and getting thrown out at second, it could have been even worse.
- Dan Bard threw two pitches, getting the final out in the eighth inning, to wind up with the win.
- Mere hours after the Cubs said that they'd stretch out Carlos Zambrano to have him convert back to starting, they instead had him pitch the ninth to protect a four-run lead, to avoid using Carlos Marmol.
- The wheels have fallen off Rafael Betancourt, who gave up three runs in 1.1 innings against the Cubs.
- Darren O'Day was a fantastic waiver wire claim by the Rangers last year, and he's at it again this year. O'Day's scoreless inning on Tuesday came with two strikeouts and netted him a win, lowering his ERA to 0.60 in the process.
- Tyler Clippard picked up his third loss in eight days, giving up a solo homer to Ryan Ludwick and three walks in his inning of work.
- Mike Adams gave up a game-tying homer to Andres Torres in the eighth inning, his first homer allowed this season.

Lineup-o-logy:

- Gordon Beckham was benched in favor of Omar Vizquel at second base - and he would have been benched yesterday but for the rainout. Vizquel went 2-for-5 with an RBI while batting second.
- Chris Heisey picked up a token start in place of Drew Stubbs in center, batting leadoff.
- Jason Donald was called up to replace the injured Asdrubral Cabrera and started at shortstop, batting ninth.
- Ben Francisco got just his fourth start of the year in left field and then was yanked for a pinch-hitter in his final at-bat.

Tough Days:

- Carl Pavano was smoked by the Jays, giving up six runs on 10 hits, five of those for extra bases, over four innings.
- Staked to a 7-3 lead in the fifth inning, Jered Weaver couldn't get out of the bottom of the inning, ultimately allowing seven runs and three homers over 4.2 innings.
- David Wright went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and then let the game-winning run score on his throwing error.
- C.J. Wilson had his first bad start of the year, allowing seven runs in 4.1 innings against the Angels, allowing two homers in the process.

Injuries:

- Nick Swisher missed a third game due to his biceps injury. He was replaced by Marcus Thames in right field, with Juan Miranda starting at DH.
- Bud Norris was hit on the back of his pitching arm by a line drive. He stayed in the game for a couple of innings after the injury, but wasn't all that effective, giving up six runs on seven hits and three walks over 4.1 innings.
- With Jim Edmonds going on the DL, the Brewers are down to their third string center fielder in Jody Gerut. Carlos Gomez should return from the DL shortly.
- Carlos Guillen's rehab assignment (and hence trial run at second base) will begin this weekend at Triple-A Toledo.
- Adam LaRoche got hit on the knee by a pitch and later left for precautionary reasons.
- J.P. Howell (shoulder) had a setback on his rehab assignment and now has an appointment with Dr. James Andrews. Look for the Rays to trade for a lefty reliever at some point this summer.
- Baseball's answer to the Princess and the Pea, J.D. Drew, departed with a sore left calf and tight right hamstring.
- Josh Beckett left with a recurrence of his back spasms, a departure that drew the protest from the Yankees because it came with the second visit to the mound from a Red Sox coach that inning, before any indication that there was an injury.
- Rod Barajas was a late scratch with a stomach virus.
- Freddy Sanchez (shoulder) will come off the DL prior to Wednesday's game against the Snakes.

Stolen Bases:

- Casey McGehee (1); George Kottaras (1); Jay Bruce (4); Andruw Jones (7); Brennan Boesch (1); Kelly Johnson (3); Justin Upton (7); Ben Zobrist (7); Carlos Pena (2); B.J. Upton (11); Miguel Olivo (2) - unfortunately, he hurt his neck in the process, sliding with his face; Kosuke Fukudome (3); Tyler Colvin (1); Howie Kendrick (4); Julio Borbon (6); Ichiro Suzuki (11); Josh Wilson (2); Gabe Gross (1); James Loney (6).

Caught Stealing:

- Rickie Weeks (2); Andruw Jones (1); Cody Ross (1); Jason Kendall (2); Cesar Izturis (4); Torii Hunter (3); Ian Kinsler (3); Nelson Cruz (2); Albert Pujols (1); Rajai Davis (2); Nick Hundley (3); Matt Kemp (8).

Home Runs:

- Ryan Braun (7); Joey Votto (9); Scott Rolen (8); Aaron Hill (4); Vernon Wells (11); Lyle Overbay (4); Edwin Encarnacion (2); Johnny Damon (3); Cameron Maybin (2); Dan Uggla (10); Corey Patterson (2); Luke Scott 2 (8, 9); Kevin Youkilis (7); Juan Miranda (1); Ike Davis (4); Jeff Francoeur (5); Troy Glaus (6); Todd Helton (1!); Torii Hunter (6); Juan Rivera (5); Michael Young (4); Ian Kinsler (1); Vladimir Guerrero (8); Wil Nieves (1); Felipe Lopez (2); Ryan Ludwick (6); Rob Johnson (2); Andres Torres (2); Carlos Lee (4); Casey Blake (4).

Managing by the Save Rule:

- The Mets lost another game on the road with the opposing team scoring in their final at-bat without Francisco Rodriguez getting into the game. He had pitched twice in a row coming into Tuesday's game, the first of those two outings a "get work" outing with the Mets trailing the Marlins by two runs. Pedro Feliciano got the loss, while Jenrry Mejia was on the mound when the Braves scored the run.
- Similarly, the Royals never got Joakim Soria into the game in their 10-inning loss to the O's. Bryan Bullington, just called up by the Royals, got the loss in the 10th inning. Soria had pitched the previous two days.
- David Aardsma never got into the Mariners' 10-inning loss to the A's. He last pitched on Friday in a save sitaution, and before that on May 8. Hey, at least Sean White and Kanoka Texeira got in their work!

Damage Mitigation:

- Rick Porcello didn't have a good day, giving up four runs on eight hits and three walks, but was able to extend his outing seven innings to limit the damage after letting those four runs in by the fourth inning. Included in the damage was the first inning when the White Sox loaded the bases with no outs but scored just one run.