Umpires Gone Wild:

- Scott Rolen was ejected after arguing a called third strike by home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt on a pitch that appeared to be clearly out of the strike zone. It's since been edited away, but at one point someone adjusted Wendelstedt's Wikipedia page; to read: "Hunter is married and has three children. His seeing-eye dog is named Rusty."
- Paul Emmel appeared to whiff on a tag play at the plate in the Rays-Braves game, calling Hank Blalock out trying to score on a wild pitch when it appeared that Tommy Hanson didn't get the tag down on him in time. #HumanElement

Ah, Now That's More Like It ....

- Livan Hernandez: 6.2 IP, 7H, 8ER, 6BB, 1K. Your statistical outliers are flukes destined to crash, mine are inspired gambles that are happening to break out.
- Mitch Talbot: 5.2 IP, 13H, 8ER.

Notables:

- After not starting the first two days of the Jays series in San Diego, Fred Lewis was back in the lineup on Wednesday and went 4-for-5 in the leadoff spot. He played in right field in place of Jose Bautista, who is in the middle of a massive slump.
- After getting only seven strikeouts in his last two starts, Justin Verlander struck out 11 without allowing a walk against the Nats.
- The Mets banged out seven doubles against the Indians, including two by Ike Davis.
- The Pirates committed six errors in their loss to the White Sox. Let's just say that Pedro Alvarez's debut didn't quite meet the same team expectation that the Stephen Strasburg's debut did for the Nats. Five different players committed the errors: Neil Walker, Ryan Doumit, Pedro Alvarez, Bobby Crosby (2), and Javier Lopez.
- Jamie Moyer gave up two solo homers but otherwise throttled the Yankees, allowing just one other hit and one walk.
- Tommy Hanson threw seven shutout innings against the Rays, striking out six while walking only one.
- Scott Baker crushed the Rockies, striking out 12 while giving up two hits and a walk over seven innings.

Save Chances:

- Brian Wilson, converted (18). This was a five-out save for Wilson, who had last pitched on June 12.
- Hong-Chih Kuo, converted (1). Kuo got the last two outs in the eighth, with the tying run on-deck, then pitched the ninth with a five-run lead, serving up a pinch-homer to Chris Heisey.
- Jonathan Papelbon, converted (15). Papelbon came on with a four-run lead, two outs and two on and got the final with a fly out.
- Neftali Feliz, converted (17). He struck out the side, K'ing Dan Uggla, Cody Ross and Michael Stanton. Stanton has 11 walks in his first 30 plate appearances.
- Matt Lindstrom, converted (15). One hit, no runs and no walks or strikeouts.
- Jon Rauch, converted (17). Clean inning, no strikeouts.
- David Aardsma, converted (14). One hit, one strikeout - the strikeout was his first since May 26. That stat courtesy of David Cameron.

Other Closer Outings:

- Heath Bell, pitching for the first time since June 10, had a dreaded closer mop-up appearance, with the expected results - one batter retired, two runs allowed on two hits and two walks.
- Brad Lidge struck out the side but also gave up a run on two hits and a walk.
- Carlos Marmol struck out two in a clean inning.

Non-Closer Outings:

- Alfredo Simon had his first appearance since coming off the DL and was a little shaky, giving up two hits and a walk while allowing one run.
- Evan Meek walked 29 batters in 47 innings last year, but has eight walks in 37.2 innings this year, along with 35 K's and a 0.72 ERA. He allowed one hit in a scoreless inning.
- Sam Demel threw a 1-2-3 eighth inning for the Diamondbacks in his major league debut.

Lineup-o-logy:

- Edgar Renteria came off the DL, but with Juan Uribe hitting so well, there's no place for Renteria to play regularly, at least until Freddy Sanchez suffers his next injury.
- Brandon Wood started at shortstop and Kevin Frandsen at third with both Erick Aybar and Maicer Izturis is out.
- Pedro Alvarez hit sixth against lefty John Danks in his debut.
- Reid Brignac sat with Jason Bartlett coming off the DL; Sean Rodriguez started at second base.
- Conor Jackson batted leadoff for the A's, going 2-for-3 with a walk. Rajai Davis did not play.
- Jason Michaels started in LF with the Astros using Carlos Lee at DH.

Injuries:

- Tim Lincecum was hit on the back of the right shoulder by a line drive and left the game after the sixth inning, though he was set to leave the game after the inning anyhow.
- Maicer Izturis went on the DL on Wednesday with a forearm injury. It's interesting that the Angels moved so quickly with Izturis and not Erick Aybar - perhaps they knew that Izturis' forearm was already bothering him.
- Austin Jackson (back spasms) sat out again and will miss another day or two.
- Tommy Hunter left in the third inning with a right hip flexor injury suffered on a pickoff attempt.
- Jason Bay left with a thigh/quad injury after running out an infield single and colliding with Indians' first baseman Andy Marte.
- Trevor Crowe sat out with a sore right knee. Austin Kearns slid over from left to center, and Shelley Duncan started in left field, where he showed as a fielder he's a good DH.
- Alex Rodriguez (hip) returned, but only as the DH. Kevin Russo started at third.
- Carlos Ruiz sat out with a sore ankle.
- Jake Peavy will miss his next start with a sore shoulder.
- Coco Crisp (chest) began his rehab assignment, but it looks like he won't be back until after the weekend.
- Luke Hochevar went on the DL with a right elbow sprain.

Transactions:

- Yorvit Torrealba was suspended for three games for his home plate argument on Monday where he appeared to make contact with the umpire. He is appealing the suspension.
- Felix Doubront will start in Daisuke Matsuzaka's place on Friday. Doubront is a 22-year old lefty that began the year at Double-A Portland and has thrived at two levels, posting a 2.11 ERA and 54:22 K:BB over 59.2 innings. He'll draw the Dodgers in Fenway.
- Renyel Pinto was designated for assignment by the Marlins after the game, after giving up a moonshot to Josh Hamilton.
- This one hasn't happened yet, but Rays manager Joe Maddon said that Matt Joyce is pounding on the door pretty loudly.

Stolen Bases

- Luke Scott (1); Fred Lewis (5); Raul Ibanez (1); Bobby Abreu (11); Roger Bernadina (5); Angel Pagan (14); Chase Utley (3); Shane Victorino (15); Matt Kemp (10); Dustin Pedroia (5); David Murphy (3); Carl Crawford (23); Juan Pierre (26); Jayson Nix (1); Scott Podsednik (19); Ichiro Suzuki (20).

Caught Stealing:

- Julio Lugo (4); Ivan Rodriguez (2); Ichiro Suzuki (7).

Home Runs:

- Aubrey Huff (11); Juan Uribe (11); Michael Napoli (11); Bobby Wilson (1); Adam Dunn (15); Roger Bernadina (4); Justin Upton (11); Dustin Pedroia (9); Julio Borbon (1); John Buck (12); Vernon Wells (16); Carlos Gomez (4); Shelley Duncan (3); Ryan Howard (11); Jayson Werth (11); Robinson Cano (14); Jorge Posada (9); Andre Ethier (12); Eric Hinske (5); Derrek Lee (8); Brennan Boesch (9); Jose Tabata (1); Manny Ramirez (7); Chris Heisey (4); Kevin Youkilis (13); Josh Hamilton (16).