wainwright-bobblehead-dayThe Rangers and Marlins are both 3 1/2 games out of their respective wildcard races, but Florida is getting about as much attention as a Jeff Torborg autograph show. Worth noting.

Cards 2, Nats 1: On his 28th birthday and bobblehead day, Adam Wainwright won his fourth straight, earning his league leading 16th win. He allowed three hits over six innings, but needed 109 pitches to do so, which is surprising considering most good pitchers would need just 60 pitches to breeze through six innings in the soft NL. As for the bobblehead, it’s a vast improvement over the Manny Ramirez doll, which looked more like Kid Rock with dreads.

Giants 9, Rockies 5: Edgar Renteria reportedly spoke up in a team meeting last week after a crushing 14-inning loss. “I told them, ‘Play ball,”’ Renteria recalled. What a speech. Whatever, last night he hit a go-ahead grand slam that put the Giants in a tie for the wildcard lead with Colorado. He finished with five RBIs and after the game revealed he’s actually 42 years old. Matt Cain gave up more runs (4) than is his last two starts combined.

picture-11Royals 3, Mariners 0: Zack Greinke is back in his early season groove. After giving up a harmless two-out single, he retired the final 22 batters for the complete game win. That’s his sixth complete game of the season. Ichirco, who did not play, needs just 16 hits for yet another 200-hit season. He’s done it every year he’s been in MLB. Ridiculous.

Dodgers 3, Reds 2; 12 innings: Clayton Kershaw struck out 11 and gave up two runs over seven innings. L.A. went ahead in the 12th on a sac fly from Matt Kemp. The most stunning nugget of information to take away from this game is that Arthur Rhodes has an ERA of 2.72.

picture-131Twins 5, Rangers 3: This is why Texas isn’t making the playoffs. After coughing up a 3-2 lead in the eighth, they had the bases loaded against Joe Nathan in the ninth, with no outs, and failed to score. Not a playoff team.

Yankees 8, White Sox 3: Chicago leaves New York after being outscored 23-5 in the three game set, which included being 1-hit by Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin on Saturday. Now that is inspiring. Meanwhile, the latest Joba rules have the Yankee starter limited to throwing tennis balls to a black lab during pregame warmups.

Phils 3, Braves 2: For the second time in a row, Brad Lidge was actually “Lights Out Lidge.” Expect a disaster in his next appearance.

picture-12Tigers 4, Rays 3: Justin Verlander went eight innings and gave up three runs via the long ball, but thanks to a rare three-run shot off the bat of Plácido Polanco in the bottom of the eighth, he won his 15th. With Verlander, the Tigers would make me very nervous in a five game series.

Red Sox 7, Blue Jays 0: The Red Sox got six scoreless innings from… Paul Byrd? Quite an effort by the Toronto bats. Roy Halladay fell to 13-8 on the year. He could really use a new jersey. Boston is hot, they’ve won six of seven. I’d be shocked if they didn’t get the wildcard.