1. Scarlet letter of victory: Mike Leake pitched pretty well for a guy with a shoplifting charge hanging over his head: three runs allowed and six strikeouts in seven innings in Cincinnati's 7-4 victory against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He did get razzed by some fans at Reds Stadium Great American Ball Park:
One fan in the left field stands held up a sign that said, "Mike Leake We Gave You The Bunt Sign Not The Steal Sign!" Another sign said, "Steal Us A Win Leake."
Two fans sitting 10 rows behind the home dugout wore Bengals helmets ? the NFL team had a series of player arrests a few years back.
Bengals helmets. That's some good stuff right there.
Dusty Baker said he thought about skipping Leake's turn, but looked into his eyes and saw they were "gentle to the point of pain and embarrassment." (Oh brother, Dusty.)
Meanwhile, Leake's still not talking about his arrest and booking for stealing six T-shirts from a Cincy Macy's:
"It was nice to go out there and kind of erase some things and pitch," [Leake said.]
2. ZOMG, the Chicago White Sox scored runs: And they stopped a seven-game losing streak, winning 9-2 against the Tampa Bay Rays, after being outscored 11-2 in the first three games of a series at St. Pete.
3. And his blue ox: The Twins wrestled away the major league lead in home runs from Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki after Jim Thome went deep for the 591st time in his career. Minnesota also got a homer from Michael Cuddyer in a 3-1 victory against the Orioles.
4. Song of Rihanna: Matt Kemp, you look fabulous in baby blue. His two-run homer in the 12th gave the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-3 victory against the Braves. Just like they did it in Brooklyn, yo.
5. 7-11! The Boston Red Sox might have wanted this game: Josh Beckett, who has been known to break down for one malady or another, threw 126 pitches in eight innings. The Bosox needed Jed Lowrie's sacrifice fly in the 11th to beat the Angels 4-2. Carl Crawford went 0 for 3 but also managed to pick up some singles.
6. The Central was on the line!: Melky Cabrera ended a splendid four-game series with a winning single in the bottom of the ninth, lifting the Kansas City Royals to a 3-2 victory against the Cleveland Indians. The Royals, who gained a split, scored all of their runs in the final two innings.
7. Grapefruit League mojo: Apparently wearing spring training underpants and caps ? the idea was that of manager Terry Collins ? the New York Mets recaptured some of that Port St. Lucie glory in a 9-1 thumping of the Houston Astros. And a bad thing happened to Hunter Pence in right field.
8. AKA, Larry Bernandez: Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez pitched like the monarch he is, taking a shutout into the eighth of a 1-0 victory against the Oakland Athletics.
9. Powered by pitching: The Philadelphia Phillies aren't exactly killing the baseball as much as they'd like, but they got another sound pitching performance ? this time, Roy Oswalt allowed a hit over six shutout innings ? in a 3-0 blanking of the Padres. Jose Contreras got save No. 5. Mat Latos was all over the place for the Padres, walking five.
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Melissa Joan Hart Bianca Kajlich Giulianna Ramirez Ashley Greene April Scott
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