Well, that was ugly with a capital U.

Watched Game #65 against the Tigers yesterday, hoping for John Lannan and the boys to start things off with a curly W in Motor City, but the Tigers chowed down on what John was serving. Patrick Reddington at Federal Baseball has the ugly details.

Things went a little better down on the farm: two wins, one loss, and a rainout for the P-Nats.

Chris Needham is disgruntled, and understandably so. The Blog Formerly Known As Oleanders & Morning Glories (Nationals Baseball for short) has a good post about John Lannan's problems this season. Nationals Review concurs: it's all about the ground balls.

Via Nats Triple Play, more proof that the brain damage at the Washington Post isn't confined to the editorial page. We know that Thomas Boswell can read and (occasionally) understand baseball statistics. How hard is it for him to understand that the pitchers who last are the power pitchers, not the finesse nibblers and the pitch-to-contact guys? We've known this since the 1980s: the guys who bring the heat like Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Bob Feller last a lot longer than the guys who don't. You can look it up, as the saying goes. Fortunately, I think Stephen Strasburg is a lot smarter than Thomas Boswell, and will be striking people out long after the latter has been packed off to the local Home for the Terminally Confused. Judging from this column, actually, Boswell hasn't got that long to wait.

On the other hand, Tom Verducci presents some good reasons why this has been very much a pitchers' year. (h/t Baseball Musings) Also via Baseball Musings, Royals thrash the Astros, scoring a season-high 15 runs. Blind pigs, acorns, etc.

Aaron Gleeman thinks Mike Lowell might be the right answer to the Twins' gaping hole at third.