Anger Management:

- Carlos Zambrano is undergoing a treatment program for his anger issues and won't be back until at least after the All-Star break. Remember when players like Zambrano were just called "fiery?" (On a quick tangent, this is my favorite anecdote concerning the word "fiery.") Hell, his manager, Lou Piniella, had quite a temper as a player. Look, I get that Zambrano needs to reign it in and what he did in the dugout was out of line, but I think this is a massive overreaction by the Cubs and that generally they butchered this situation badly, from Day 1 this season. Their public statements have been far too sanctimonious and smack of how they handled Milton Bradley last year (and yes, Bradley should bear more of the blame than the Cubs for how that blew up, but they were far from blameless). I blame GM Jim Hendry more than Piniella for their current mess. He's the one that put this current squad together and put them in the contract bind that they're in, with Zambrano as well as a number of other bad contracts.

Does Anyone Want to Win This Game?

- The Cubs-Pirates game was chock-full of FAIL. Tyler Colvin misplayed Andrew McCutchen's line drive to right into a triple when it could have been caught with the right break. The Cubs' run scored on a bad throw home by Pedro Alvarez from third base, this after a collision between Bobby Crosby and Lastings Milledge on a pop-up set up the scoring situation. Finally, Ryan Doumit nearly didn't score from second on Jose Tabata's go-ahead double, breaking back to the bag instead of tagging up, then nearly getting tagged out at the plate without sliding.
- The Diamondbacks found a new and creative way to blow a two-run lead in the ninth. With men on first-and-second and none out, they summoned Aaron Heilman (why not have him start the inning if they were going to bring him in anyhow?). The Cards were willing to give away the out, bringing in Adam Wainwright to pinch-bunt. Instead, Heilman pounced on it (good) and threw it away at third base (bad). One run scored and the Cards all of a sudden were down one, with runners on second and third with no outs. Heilman was able to induce one groundout to shortstop against Randy Winn, then got another grounder to Adam LaRoche, who threw the ball away at home trying to prevent the tying run. Wainwright, still in the game after bunting, scored from second to give the Cards the win. As an added bonus, Winn turned a Mark Reynolds fly ball into a homer (a la D.J. Laynce Nix against the Braves earlier this season).
- The Giants hit into five double plays, including a silly one late. In a 2-2 game in the 7th inning, with Pablo Sandoval on first and Aaron Rowand on third and nobody out, Edgar Renteria hit a fly ball of medium-to-shallow depth in right field. Andre Ethier made the catch and fired in. Aaron Rowand bluffed going and stopped, but Pablo Sandoval broke for second. The throw was cut off and Sandoval was captured in a rundown for the second out, with Rowand not breaking for home.

Ricky Nolasco Watch:

- 2HR, 0BB. For the season, 19 HR allowed, 18 BB allowed. Is it possible that he's getting too much of the plate? He got the win anyhow against the Mets, striking out nine in seven innings in the process.

Taking the Brandon Wood Career Path:

- Dayan Viciedo has started just twice in 11 days since his callup, getting all of nine at-bats. Why exactly was he called up? What a waste. Juan Pierre was the DH for the White Sox. I can't think of a better indictment of their roster.

Notables:

- Ricky Romero only had two strikeouts, but held the Tribe to two runs over seven - to get the loss. Jake Westbrook outdueled him, giving up just one run over six innings. Despite leading the majors in homers by a significant margin, the Jays are only a middle-of-the-pack offense, mostly because of their hacktastic ways - their .307 OBP is third-worst in the game, ahead of only Pittsburgh and Houston. Fred Lewis had their lone walk on Monday, against eight strikeouts for the team.
- R.A. Dickey was due for a correction, and as far as corrections go, this one wasn't too bad - five runs in five innings, five hits and a walk against three strikeouts.
- Stephen Strasburg said that he mostly abandoned his breaking pitches against the Braves while getting the loss. While it's true that this wasn't Strasburg's best outing, the wire story on the game vastly underplays the role Ian Desmond's error had in the Braves' five-run seventh inning, the only inning where they scored. If he doesn't bobble a potential double play ball off the bat of Troy Glaus, the Nats might get out of the inning unscathed. The first run scored on a sac fly after that. Of course, the sequence of events might have completely changed had they converted the GIDP, but it was the game-changing event nonetheless. Desmond now has 19 errors on the season.
- Johnny Cueto held the Phillies to one run over eight innings despite not recording any strikeouts. Joey Votto went 3-for-4, reaching base for the 36th consecutive game.
- Paul Maholm followed his "public apology" game by holding the Cubs to one run over eight innings, walking none.
- Anthony Lerew held the White Sox to one run over six innings to get his first major league win.
- The Royals scored just three runs despite getting 17 baserunners.
- The Tigers jumped all over Francisco Liriano for four runs in the first inning before he retired a batter. It could have been even worse - at that point, they had 1st and 3rd, no out. But Brandon Inge struck out and Gerald Laird grounded into a double play. At least Laird redeemed himself with a homer to give the Tigers a late insurance run. Inge went 0-for-5 with three K's.

Save Chances:

- Kerry Wood, converted (7). Wood struck out the side against the Reds on Sunday and had two more K's on Monday night against the Jays. He did give up a single and threw a wild pitch, but prevented the tying run from scoring to preserve a one-run win.
- Octavio Dotel, converted (15). Struck out the side, allowing one baserunner on a HBP. Dotel vs. the 2010 Cubs - 14K, 3BB, 2H, 1ER in 7IP with six saves. Dotel vs. the rest of the MLB universe: 22.2 IP, 23H, 25:14 K:BB, 15ER, 9 saves.
- Joakim Soria, converted (19). Soria walked a batter and hit another, but got away without allowing a run.
- Jose Valverde, converted (18). Valverde came on to get the final five outs of the game after Joel Zumaya's horrific injury, striking out three and lowering his ERA to 0.53.
- Aaron Heilman, blown (4)|STAR| - really 2, given that the first two didn't come in the ninth inning.
- Hong-Chih Kuo, converted (2). Thanks to Jonathan Broxton throwing a ton of pitches the last two days, Kuo got the chance. He gave up a hit and a walk but worked out of it without allowing a run. He's got a 1.11 ERA with a 30:8 K:BB in 24.1 innings.

Other Closer Outings:

- Carlos Marmol gave up the go-ahead run on Jose Tabata's double, though the run was charged to Andrew Cashner, who put two runners on before giving way to Marmol in a tie game in the ninth.
- Huston Street finished the game with a four-run lead, giving up one hit while ending it on a strikeout.

Non-Closer Reliever Outings:

- Jonny Venters threw two scoreless innings in relief of Tim Hudson's gem, striking out two to give him 38 K's in 34.1 innings so far.
- Robinson Tejeda threw another scoreless eighth inning, setting the table for Joakim Soria.
- Brandon Lyon struck out all four batters he faced.

Lineup-o-logy:

- Hitting seventh, Matt LaPorta went 2-for-3 with a walk and a double.
- With Jason Heyward on the DL, the Braves outfield starters were Eric Hinske in LF, Gregor Blanco in CF, and Melky Cabrera in RF.
- Matt Kemp didn't start for the second consecutive day. Joe Torre's quote on Kemp is submitted here without comment: "We're trying to get on a little bit of a run," Torre said. "We're trying to build on something right now." Russell Martin also got the night off.

Injuries:

- Jason Heyward's thumb injury was diagnosed as a bone bruise, and he was placed on the 15-day DL.
- Chase Utley jammed his thumb sliding into second base early in the Phillies' loss to the Reds and left in the ninth inning.
- Placido Polanco sat out a third game in a row with his elbow injury, one for which he received a cortisone shot on Sunday. Remember, the shot does nothing to heal the injury, but only masks the pain.
- After hearing Joel Zumaya's injury compared to Dave Dravecky's, I'm glad I've missed the replay of it so far. Tom Browning. John Smiley. Tony Saunders. There's plenty of examples of just pitcher injuries to make you wince, let alone other players or other sports.
- Magglio Ordonez was a late scratch with an oblique injury.
- Chris Carpenter took a line drive off the forearm early in his start but stayed in the game. Watch his status going forward.
- Ryan Ludwick (calf) and David Freese (ankle) both sat out the game.
- Todd Helton got the night off (again), this time with lower back stiffness, with Melvin Mora starting at first base.
- Bobby Crosby left with concussion-like symptoms after colliding with Lastings Milledge on a pop-up to right field.
- John Grabow left with a sprained knee.
- Jason Donald (wrist) sat out a third game in a row. Anderson Hernandez started at shortstop.
- Angel Pagan (side) missed his fifth straight game. Jesus Feliciano went 0-for-4 while starting in his place.

Stolen Bases:

- Chris Coghlan (8); Jose Tabata (5); Ronny Cedeno (7); Ryan Theriot (15); Austin Jackson (13); Danny Worth (1); Micheal Bourn (23); Rickie Weeks (5); Carlos Gonzalez (11); Rafael Furcal (12); Andres Torres (14).

Caught Stealing:

- Orlando Cabrera (1); Bobby Crosby (2); Alexis Rios (8); Scott Podsednik (9); Mike Aviles (4); Miguel Cabrera (3); Casey McGehee (1); Casey Blake (3); Pat Burrell (1).

Home Runs:

- Jason Bay 2 (5,6); Chris Coghlan (5); Cody Ross (7); Michael Stanton (2); Scott Rolen (17); Raul Ibanez (6); Carlos Quentin (13) - eight of those homers have come in June; Gerald Laird (2); Jim Thome (7); Michael Bourn (1); Ryan Braun (11); Adam LaRoche (12); Mark Reynolds (18); Dan Haren (1); Carlos Gonzalez (11); Ryan Spilborghs (8); Seth Smith (11); Miguel Olivo (11); Scott Hairston (8) - he was inches away from tying the game late with a second homer, instead settling for a double off the wall; Casey Blake (8).

Debuts:

- Bill Bray pitched in the majors for the first time since his elbow injury in 2008, giving up two runs in mop-up duty.

Transactions:

- Craig Stammen will start on Tuesday for the Nats. They haven't yet announced who will get sent down.
- Kris Medlen will stick in the rotation, with Kenshin Kawakami moving to the bullpen upon the return of Jair Jurrjens from the DL.
- Bud Norris came off the DL to pitch five innings, with mixed results. He gave up nine hits and five runs (four earned), but also had a 6:1 K:BB.
- Blake Hawksworth will get another start for the Cards on Thursday.