FanHouse Rays

It hasn't been the greatest week for Cubs manager Lou Piniella. Not only is he feeling the heat of the Chicago media with the Cubs scuffling, but he's also gotten into an argument with Milton Bradley in which he called his right fielder a "piece of [expletive]." Regardless of whether the exchange should have ever left the clubhouse or not, it's not exactly the type of thing you want the world to know about.

All of this was done after a recent poll by Sports Illustrated in which Major League players were asked anonymously which manager in baseball they would least like to play for, and which one they'd most like to play for. Guess which one Sweet Lou emerged "victorious" in.

J.C. Romero can't seem to catch a break. He spends a Manny-esque 50 games banned from baseball for violating the substance abuse policy even though he was following the rules, and nobody really knew what was going on, so they just suspended him anyway. Then he gets accused of physically assaulting a man for making disparaging remarks about said suspension after a Phillies/Rays game on Thursday. The fan, "Robert Eaton," claims that he was tossed around after asking Romero to get him some juice. That's always happening to me, too. My Mom is so mean!

Romero never got the man the juice, and now he's probably going to pay for it by getting suspended again. That's called an assumption, folks, we here at The Internet™ are great at those. One thing we're not good at is accurate reporting, so I will stop here and inform you that the transcript from that night's events has been logged and reported here for posterity. Form your own opinions. Personally, I think J.C. Romero should've gotten the Alabama Jam.

Said transcript is after the jump.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That Sunday was a good day to steal home in the major leagues. With an assist from Carlos Zambrano, who airmailed a pitch to the backstop as Dewayne Wise attempted to suicide squeeze, Chris Getz was credited with a steal of home in the White Sox's 6-0 victory over the crosstown rival Cubs. Zambrano followed by plunking Wise, pushing the oft-heated interleague rivalry close to fisticuffs.

Later in the afternoon, the Angels' Gary Matthews Jr. pulled off a straight steal of home in Los Angeles' 12-8 win over the Diamondbacks.

"I got a good jump and pulled it off," Matthews said. "The key was getting a big lead. They're definitely not expecting it with two strikes. If there was a right-handed hitter up there, I wouldn't have even tried."

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Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That Mike Napoli is one of the best power hitters you've never heard of. Napoli, the Angels catcher, blasted his 10th homer, a tie-breaking 428-foot shot in the ninth inning to lead the Angels to a 2-1 victory over the Diamondbacks. Later in the day, when the Rangers lost, the Angels moved alone into first for the first time all season.

The last time the Angels played in Arizona, in 2006, Napoli hit a 470-foot homer that is the third longest ever hit at Chase Field. Napoli has 56 homers in 890 big league at-bats. His ratio of one homer per 15.9 at-bats in the highest in big league history for any catcher with at least 50 homers, according to Stats LLC.

"He's got sick pop. He's got the most pop on this team by far," Angels starter John Lackey said. "I was actually in the clubhouse, telling the people about the one [in 2006]. People were up there eating [in the restaurant where Napoli's ball landed]."

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Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Marlins and Tigers are on fire.

Exactly two weeks ago, Florida was eight games behind Philadelphia. Since then the Marlins have gone 9-3, all in interleague play, to close within a game of first place. The hot streak includes four one-run wins and Thursday's 11-3 victory that sealed a sweep of the Orioles and ran Florida's win streak to five.

During this 12-game stretch, Hanley Ramirez has batted .400 with three home runs (one of them a grand slam Thursday) and 19 RBI while Cody Ross has hit .400 with five homers and 12 RBI.

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Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That talk about maple bats has died down since last year, but the problem is still there. For proof, look at what nearly happened to Red Sox shortstop Nick Green during Wednesday night's game. The Nationals' Elijah Dukes shattered his bat on a swing, with the pieces of the bat and the ball heading simultaneously toward Green.

Green managed to avoid both. The ball got into the outfield for a hit, but the threat to Green was apparent when the shattered barrel of Dukes bat stuck in the ground like a stake near Green.

"It's scary to see a bat go flying that far," pitcher Jon Lester said. "I thought they did some research this offseason to try to figure that stuff out, but obviously we've still got a long ways to go. You've got to take cover. It's a tough play to make when you've got a bat head flying at you looking to take your head off."

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Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That on the right night the minor leagues can be awfully interesting, even for someone who doesn't care at all about minor league baseball. Manny Ramirez batted leadoff Tuesday night for the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes, playing four innings and going 0-for-2 in his first rehab game since being suspended 50 games for a violation of Major League Baseball's drug policy.

Ramirez faced former Brewers starting pitcher Manny Parra in both at-bats. Parra, now pitching for the Nashville Sounds, is trying to work his way back to the majors as well after a woeful couple of months in the Milwaukee rotation. He went 3-8 with a 7.52 ERA in 13 starts there before getting demoted, but he was the hard-luck loser against Albuquerque, tossing seven innings of one-run ball. The Brewers could use another effective starter, that much is certain.

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Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

The NL Wild-Card Race
Team	W	L	GB
Brewers	37	32	-
Giants	37	32	-
Rockies	37	33	1/2
Cubs	34	32	1 1/2
Mets	35	33	1 1/2

You Oughta Know ...
There are now five teams within 1 1/2 games of the NL wild-card lead.

San Francisco on Monday lost to Oakland for the first time in the past six Bay Bridge Series meetings to fall into a tie with idle Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, the Mets beat the Cardinals and the Rockies took advantage of six (!) wild pitches to beat the Angels, so both picked up a full game.

So Colorado is a 1/2 game back, and the Mets and Cubs are 1 1/2 out.

It bodes for a fun race. A year ago today, only three teams were within five games of the NL wild-card lead and Tampa Bay had a three-game lead on the AL side.

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When Akinori Iwamura was carried off the field after Florida's Chris Coghlan slid into him hard at second base in late May, it was feared the Rays would be without their second baseman for the remainder of the season. During Iwamura's surgery on Monday, however, doctors found only a partial tear of his left ACL.

That mean arthroscopic, rather than reconstructive, surgery, and the Rays are reporting that Iwamura could rejoin the team in six-to-eight weeks. That lines up nicely with a potential push for a return trip to the playoffs, although one wonders how much Iwamura would actually get into the lineup when and if he will get a clean bill of health then.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Rays seem to be putting it all together. The reigning American League champions left New York with a series victory over the Mets thanks to a big Sunday afternoon from B.J. Upton, who homered and had four hits. Tampa Bay is now 12-6 in the month of June and two games back of the Yankees in the AL wild-card race.

Upton has played a big part in the surge after slumping for the first two months of the season. The center fielder came into June hitting .204, but he's hitting .329 this month.

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