Elsewhere 100 years ago...

* The Milwaukee Journal says Toledo is a great baseball town and Columbus, Ohio isn't.

* Immediately to the left of this article, the Pittsburgh Press says Buffalo and Toronto played a 19 inning International League game on June 11, 1912. Both starters (Fred Beebe and Dick Rudolph) threw complete games and it took three hours and 40 minutes to play all 19 innings.

* In New York, one half of baseball's first celebrity couple is gravely ill. Mike Donlin's wife Mabel Hite, vaudeville and Broadway star, underwent emergency surgery for what was eventually diagnosed as intestinal cancer. She passed away in October 1912.

The weird thing about Hite's death was that when she died, Donlin was appearing in a vaudeville sketch in Ohio. According to Mabel's New York Times obituary, he had spent most of his time at her bedside as she deteriorated, but was acting when she passed away. Just sort of odd, which I guess is par for the course with Turkey Mike.

This is not a good Birthday Team, and the defense isn't going to do anybody any favors. Akerfelds could get his ERA up near Kool FM territory with Godzilla playing center.

C/Manager: Red Dooin
1B: Ryan Klesko
2B: Otto Knabe
3B: Jack O'Brien
SS: Mets Keith Miller
LF: Joe Hornung
CF: Hideki Matsui
RF: Matty McIntyre

SP: Kyle McClellan
SP: Gerry Arrigo
SP: Scott Aldred
SP/Great Nickname: Darrel Akerfelds
SP: Lou Schettler
RP: Jim Strickland

Umpire: Dutch Rennert
Negro Leagues Greats: Sol White, Willie Foster
Not that one: James Moyer
Giggity: Dong Wang

Vlad may have given up his comeback attempt w/ the Jays

one half of baseball's first celebrity couple is gravely ill.

John M. Ward and Helen Dauvray for one (or is it two), predate Donlin-Hite.

Gah, you're absolutely right. I stand corrected. Nice catch.

BBTF has got to be one of the very finest fact-checking organizations on earth.

Indians acquire Esmil Rogers from Rockies for cash.

At first, I thought it was a good deal. Then I realized the Indians were paying for him instead of getting paid to take him.

Game of the day (yesterday): Angels 3, Dodgers 2. You don't necessarily expect much from the best game of a 4-game day, and the first three were pretty milquetoast. This one, however, was terrific.

The Angels loaded the bases in the first against Chris Capuano, courtesy of singles by Torii Hunter and Albert Pujols and a walk to Mark Trumbo, but Howie Kendrick defused the rally by hitting into a double play. Anaheim starter Garrett Richards walked Dodger leadoff man Dee Gordon in the bottom of the first, then gave up a ground-rule double to Elian Herrera; Gordon scored the game's first run on a groundout, and after a walk and a flyout, Herrera came in from second on an errant pickoff throw by Richards. The Angels put two more on in the second, then loaded the bases with two out in the third; both times, they failed to score.

That changed in the fourth. John Hester led off with a walk; Richards hit into a forceout and then was promptly picked off of first, which made Mike Trout's ensuing home run into a solo shot. The Dodgers put two runners on in the fourth before a double play ended the inning, and had two more reach in the fifth, only to see one of the more amusing play descriptions of the year bail Richards out: Single/runner struck by batted ball and is out (Gordon out at 3B). That's always a fun one - imagine someone getting their 3000th hit like this, or better yet, losing a no-hitter because a baserunner gets hit by an easy grounder.

Anyway, that brings up the sixth inning, which Erick Aybar led off with a double. After Hester and pinch hitter Kendrys Morales failed to advance him, Mike Trout singled to drive him home with the tying run, taking second on the throw. Trout then stole third, but was left there to end the inning. The teams traded occasional baserunners from there - two-out walk by the Dodgers in the sixth, leadoff walk for the Angels in the seventh wiped out on a DP, leadoff single and two-out steal of second by the Dodgers in the eighth - but no further scoring took place until the ninth, when Trout drew a one-out walk, stole second, and scored the go-ahead run on a hit by Pujols. The Dodgers drew a walk and a hit batter from Ernesto Frieri in the bottom of the inning, but left both runners on.

In terms of larger commentary on the game... I don't really have any, except that Mike Trout is awesome and people (not people here, because we seem to mostly already be aware of his existence) should pay more attention to him. Harper seems to be getting 90% of the press among the two rookies right now, and baseball would be better served by pushing both of them equally, rather than just one.

Game of the day (last year): Rays 7, Orioles 5 (11). Tampa started quickly against Baltimore's Jeremy Guthrie, with Johnny Damon leading off the game with a single and scoring two outs later on Evan Longoria's double. The Rays put two more runners on in the second, but Guthrie retired Reid Brignac and Damon to strand them; Baltimore picked up a leadoff double from Matt Wieters against Rays starter David Price in the bottom of the inning, eventually progressing to put runners on second and third with two out before the inning ended. Tampa put single runners on in both the third and fourth innings, but Guthrie kept his team within a run until the fifth, when Damon and Ben Zobrist hit back-to-back doubles. Longoria added an RBI single, pushing the lead to 3-0; with Price on the mound and not having allowed a baserunner in two innings, things were looking promising.

The shine started wearing off when Mark Reynolds led off the bottom of the fifth with a home run. It diminished further when Brandon Snyder and Nick Markakis singled ahead of Adam Jones's two-out ground-rule double, pulling Baltimore back within one. And it disappeared entirely when Wieters led off the sixth with a single, and Reynolds homered for the second time in as many innings to give the Orioles their first lead of the game.

Having survived six innings and been presented with an unexpected lead, Guthrie was pulled for Jim Johnson, who promptly gave up Zobrist's second double of the game, followed by a two-out, game-tying single by Casey Kotchman. Price was also yanked for JP Howell, who tossed a perfect seventh; Johnson rallied to hold the Rays scoreless in the eighth. Joel Peralta entered to try and preserve the tie in the bottom of the inning, and gave up one-out singles to Wieters and Luke Scott; Scott's hit moved Wieters to third, and Scott stole second behind him. Reynolds struck out, but Peralta then issued back-to-back walks to Robert Andino and Snyder, forcing in the go-ahead run.

The top of the ninth saw Baltimore bring in closer Kevin Gregg, who promptly gave up a one-out triple to Zobrist. After a walk and a popup, Kotchman stepped to the plate, and once again delivered a 2-out, game-tying single. Tampa Bay's Cesar Ramos pitched a perfect ninth, sending the game to extras; after Koji Uehara kept the Rays scoreless in the tenth, Ramos pitched a second 1-2-3 inning in the bottom half. Jeremy Accardo came in to pitch for the Orioles in the eleventh, and Zobrist bruised his fourth Oriole pitcher of the day, this time with a leadoff double. After a groundout moved him to third, Zobrist came home on a hit by Longoria, who in turn scored from first on Kotchman's double. Kyle Farnsworth pitched the bottom of the eleventh, working around a two-out single to nail down the victory.

Quite a game we have here - Zobrist had four extra-base hits without a homer, scoring after all four of them, and totalling .565 WPA, which managed not to lead the team (Kotchman had .601). It's the #16 game of 2011 so far, 98th percentile. And on the season, it moves the Rays' excitement ranking to... still in last, although not by as much as they had been. Given the eventual ending to Tampa's season, I find it rather amusing that they're the least exciting team of 2011 through 2+ months.

Colby Lewis is perfect through 5

At first, I thought it was a good deal. Then I realized the Indians were paying for him instead of getting paid to take him.

Do they have to outright him (or otherwise pass him through waivers) to send him to the minors? He really needs to figure out how to do something different...get a reliable offspeed pitch I mean, not get another job (though that will happen soon if he doesn't pitch better).

Do they have to outright him (or otherwise pass him through waivers) to send him to the minors?

Yeah, he's out of options. I know he's got a plus fastball and the physical tools to be a useful pitcher, but I just don't understand the fascination with letting guys like this learn in the majors, especially on a team that thinks it can contend right now.

If someone wants to claim him and give up a bazillion runs while they wait for him to figure out how to pitch, good luck to them. I'm not totally sold on the idea that he's even a good AAA pitcher right now.