Well, the Cubs lost yesterday too, so we're still two games back entering a 3 game series with the Fish tonight. Come and get your Mug.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score
BDD Recaps
BP Postseason Odds: 85.1 wins and a 22.6% shot at winning the Central.

If you haven't yet, go vote in this week's Fan Opinion Poll. And even if you have voted, go check out the results, which show a pretty interesting one week shift in Ned Yost's approval rating.

I'd never heard Scott Olsen called "Mr. Furious" before, but he's starting for the Marlins tonight, and Bugs and Cranks called him that, so I'll go with it.

The Junkball Blues thinks Rickie Weeks is on an upturn. That'd be nice.

The Official Site reports that Chris Capuano has begun a throwing program in his effort to avoid his second Tommy John surgery. Best wishes to him, but after a full ineffective year WITH the appropriate ligaments and whatnot, I can't imagine him coming back to be effective without them.

It must be a slow news day: Bugs and Cranks is pulling out old baseball cards featuring Troy O'Leary and Matt Mieske.

Today's Brief Alphabetical Morning (BAM) Injury Reports are sponsored by the letter C and the number 2:

Rangers C Adam Melhuse has a bruised hand and could head to the DL.
Mets C Brian Schneider has an infected left thumb and will be placed on the DL.

Related to the Melhuse injury: I took a friend to the Iowa Cubs/Oklahoma Redhawks AAA game in Des Moines last weekend. She didn't really know much about baseball, but was a big fan of Jarrod Saltalamacchia, based purely on his very large name. Sometimes you take what you can get.

Maybe they've been watching the Brewers: The A's tried out a lineup with nine right handed hitters last night against the Twins. It seemed to work. It certainly worked better than anything Ryan Howard has tried in April.

The market for closers grows as we speak: Gaslamp Ball is ready to pull the plug on Trevor Hoffman.

Former Brewer notes: The Mets have DFA's Brady Clark, and the Nats have sent Ray King back to AAA.

If either of them (or you) are looking for work, The Twins are hiring an administrative assistant. Job duties include receiving AND opening mail. I frequently struggle with the second one.

That's all for today. If you've got something to throw into tomorrow's Mug, drop it in the comments.

Drink up.

Yovani Gallardo made his second rehab start today.  The game was shortened by rain, but he got his work in.  You can see the box score here.  He was actually pitching against a decent lineup--Jason Ellison, Nelson Cruz, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Chris Shelton, etc.  If I get bored later I might run the numbers and see how that lineup compares to what we saw from the Giants last weekend.

Anyway, good results from YoGa.  5.1 innings, 6 K's, 1 BB.  2 runs on 7 hits, though with rehab starts, I always pay more attention to the K/BB numbers than anything else.  I don't know whether, or how long, he would've kept pitching, but those 5.1 innings are all the Sounds got to throw.

This next round through the rotation of Bush, Villanueva, and Parra will be worth watching closely, as it may well determine who stays.  The fact that Gallardo is lined up with Bush is interesting in itself.

UPDATE: I got bored.  Here's how the Redhawks lineup compares to that of the Giants.