Hump Day Dump Day

Luis Atilano pitched...adequately...last night, giving up six hits and one earned run in 5.1 innings for a game score of 57, which is sorta kinda a quality start. With the offense chipping in for four runs (including Josh Willingham's 100th career dinger), and the bullpen holding the lead (pay no attention to the shaky Matt Capps performance in the ninth!) it was good enough for a second Curly W against the Royals, and with Strasburg taking the mound tonight, a lot of folks are no doubt thinking sweep. Mark Zuckerman certainly is. We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, Patrick Reddington does his usual excellent job on the recap over at Federal Baseball. Jorge Castillo at the WaPo also notes that last night was another milestone, this time for Pudge Rodriguez, who marked his 2434th game last night, making him the Puerto Rican with the most games played in the major leagues, ahead of legendary outfielder Roberto Clemente. Pudge already has the record for most games played at catcher, having passed Carlton Fisk last June.


Harper at Nationals Baseball is unhappy with Ian Desmond, whose offense for the season has slipped to .254/.289/.386 for an OPS of .675, worst of the starters except for Nyjer Morgan. On the other hand, he's still fielding better than the league average, so I don't think he needs to worry about being sent down any time soon. Steven at FJB isn't too happy either, but he's annoyed with Riggleman for bringing in Capps when Tyler Walker would have done just as well.

Brian at Nationals Farm Authority has the farm team roundup and a quick summary of the California/Carolina Leagues' All-Star Game.

Meanwhile, over in the O's farm system, the Baysox lost to Reading 7-5; in the Atlantic League, the Blue Crabs held on to beat the Newark Bears 3-2.

Back in the land of the Metrodome, Aaron Gleeman serves up some notes on the Twins.

And that's it for Wednesday.