In Thursday night's Orioles-Blue Jays game at Rogers Centre, Baltimore left fielder Nate McLouth experienced a trifecta of wackiness in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Toronto center fielder Colby Rasmus hit a fly ball down the left field line that McLouth got a beat on and grabbed while running. Without time to stop his momentum, McLouth fell into the stands up the left field line, but held on to the ball (unless you're willing to believe the Blue Jays fans who vehemently pleaded their case to the umpire). After McLouth got up and prepared to throw the ball back into the infield, a fan in the left field seats in the outfield threw a beer at McLouth, narrowly missing him.

The fan would be found and ejected from the stadium, and McLouth was no worse for the wear after his great catch. But difficulties would arise later in the sixth when Orioles pitching walked the bases loaded, only to see Edwin Encarnacion hit a grand slam off the left field foul pole to drive everyone home.

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During Wednesday night's Red Sox-White Sox game, Boston pitcher Koji Uehara was AMPED after pitching a 1-2-3 eighth inning that included a pair of strikeouts. He started dishing out high fives to his teammates.

Mike Napoli? You get a double.
Dustin Pedroia? You get one with the glove.
First base coach Arnie Beyeler? You'll get one too.
Will Middlebrooks? You're struggling at the plate, but what the hell, you can have one.
Shane Victorino, who isn't even playing thanks to a hamstring injury? YOU'LL GET ONE IN THE FACE!

No one can say the Baltimore Orioles aren't afraid to make a bold move to stay competitive in the AL East. 

Well, I suppose I might have said that during the offseason when the O's didn't add an impact hitter or pitcher to capitalize on the success of their improbable run to an AL wild-card playoff spot.

But manager Buck Showalter and general manager Dan Duquette are willing to take a risk with the young talent on hand in the Orioles' organization. The latest example of this is the decision to call up pitcher Kevin Gausman from Double-A Bowie and start him against the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday (May 23). 

Gausman was Baltimore's first-round draft pick — fourth overall — last year out of LSU. Baseball America ranked him as the Orioles' No. 2 prospect behind phenom Dylan Bundy.

In eight starts for the Baysox this season, the 22-year-old right-hander compiled a 2-4 record and 3.11 ERA. But his 49 strikeouts and five walks in 46.1 innings are likely why the Orioles feel he's ready to make the jump from Double-A to the majors. 

We don't delver into the college baseball scene too much, but this video was too funny to *not* post. Post-game interviews are generally full of the same old questions and cliches, and more often than not, they'll end with a pie to the face or an ice water/Gatorage bath.

Well, the Cincinnati Bearcats have more fun with post-game interviews. Aside from the typical pies and water dumps, the Bearcats also goof around in the background of the interview. In the above video, you can see some examples of their shenanigans, which include the following.

-One player sitting on top of another's shoulders as they walk in the background
-Two players carrying a pole, with another player dangling off of it
-A joust involving two players in catching gear
-A pair of players air swimming, being carried by teammates
-A player being carried by four teammates like he's a pharaoh, with four other teammates fanning him with rakes

This is some pretty hilarious stuff, and a reminder that baseball is meant to be fun instead of being serious 100% of the time. Hats off to the Bearcats players for their creativity, and hats off to the Bearcats coaching staff for not taking things too seriously. Cincinnati's season ended on Saturday with an 11-5 win against Notre Dame, finishing with a 24-32 record on the year.

[FTW]

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I'm always going to be ridiculously impressed by fans who catch balls with their hat (which always has seemed to be some sort of impossible task for me), and this one in Atlanta yesterday is another fantastic play to add to the ledger. In the bottom of the fourth inning of the Braves' 8-3 win over the Twins, BJ Upton homered to left field against Vance Worley. This fan proceeded to catch Upton's homer with his hat, casually flipping it off of his head and using it almost like a net to grab Upton's fourth homer of the year. He received fist bumps and high fives from the Turner Field crowd for good reason: that's no easy task.

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We all expeted the NL West to be a tight race this year, but we expected it to be between the Giants and Dodgers. But this morning, there's a three-way tie at the top of the division, and the Dodgers aren't involved. The Giants, Rockies, and Diamondbacks all have 26-21 records, and are 4.5 games up on the fourth place Padres. Each of those three teams are playing .500 ball in May too, with the Rockies bringing up the rear at 10-10. It'll be interesting to see if the race stays tight over the rest of the season, or if someone pulls away. I have a feeling that no one team will separate itself from the pack, but it'll be interesting to see what goes down.

PIC OF THE DAY

Ruben Tejada and Ike Davis collide while David Wright looks on in horror. Meet the Mets, indeed. (Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports)

Game of the Day: Blue Jays 4, Rays 3 (ten innings). This game was deadlocked at two runs apiece through four, and remained that way until the ninth. In the ninth, James Loney singled in Evan Longoria to give the Rays a 3-2 lead. Fernando Rodney came in for the save, and allowed a game-tying solo homer to Jose Bautista, blowing his fourth save of the season. In the tenth, Aaron Loup set the Rays down without much chaos, and Cesar Ramos started the inning for Tampa on the hill. He allowed an infield single to Colby Rasmus, and Emilio Bonifacio bunted him over to second. He moved up to third on a Munenori Kawasaki groundout, and after Mark DeRosa walked, Kyle Farnsworth came in to pitch to Bautista. After falling behind 0-2, Bautista poked a single to right to score Rasmus and give Toronto the win.

Fred “Crime Dog” McGriff hit 493 home runs, amassed 2,490 hits and was a five-time All-Star during his 19-year Major League Baseball career for six teams. Despite his standout numbers -- seven straight 30-home run seasons from 1988 to 1994 -- the lanky first baseman might have been better known among baseball fans for his appearance in the long-running late-night commercial for Tom Emanski’s Defensive Drills video.

McGriff, 49 and now living in his hometown of Tampa as he enjoys retirement, looks as long and lean as he did in his playing days. I caught up with the Crime Dog in Rochester, N.Y. where he was getting ready to take the field in the Pepsi MAX Field of Dreams legends game.

Don Mattingly is probably going to get fired. Columnists both national and local are calling for his head as the uber-expensive LA Dodgers continue to struggle, currently residing at 18-26. The thrust behind Mattingly getting the axe isn't so much his lack of managerial ability, though a case can certainly be made, so much as there is a need for everyone to find a $216 million scapegoat.

Ever the competitor, Donnie Baseball isn't going to let himself get done like that, so it appears that he has decided to jump into the scapegoating business himself and the target he selected is none other than starting right fielder Andre Ethier. Or should we call him former starting right fielder Andre Ethier because Ethier is not in today's lineup and Mattingly's reasoning behind his benching sure make it sound like a long-term arrangement:

Mattingly on sitting Ethier: "I’m putting out my lineup that I feel is going to be the most competitive and going to compete the hardest."

— Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) May 22, 2013

And just to hammer the point home, it was also mentioned that the Dodgers are currently considering promoting top outfield prospects Joc Pederson and Yaisel Puig.

We're past the quarter mark of this season. 25% of the way into the year, there are several players that are playing pretty well, and some that are playing...not so well. While there is still 3/4 of the season left, we thought it would be pretty cool to take a look at the teams and players that are at least flirting with historical achievements thusfar this year, and what the odds were for history being made.

120 losses: Miami Marlins/Houston Astros
Both of these teams were expected to be bad this year...but historically bad? I'm not so sure of that. Through 46 games, the Astros and Marlins have identical 13-33 records, good for a pathetic .283 winning percentage. Over a full season, that's a 116 loss pace. Is it possible for either team to hit the 120 loss mark set by the 1962 Mets? To reach 120 losses, the Astros and/or Marlins would need to play at a .250 clip (or worse) over the rest of the season. No team played that poorly in April, and only the Brewers (4-15) have played that bad in May, though the Astros did reel off an impressive 8-46 (.148) stretch in July and August last season. The problem for both teams in reaching the "milestone" is that they're both likely going to be improving in the second half. The Marlins should be getting Giancarlo Stanton back in the next couple of weeks, and that should at least bump up  their offense a bit. As for the Astros, we're reaching the point where they're cutting veterans loose and starting to play more young players that might have a lick of potential in the future. That's something that could go either way for them, but they can't exactly be any worse...right?

Odds: 8:1 (Marlins), 5:1 (Astros)

"Mike Trout is a flash in the pan," they said. "Mike Trout's 2012 was a fluke," they said. "Mike Trout is going to really regress in 2013," they said. And through April, "they" were right, as Trout hit just .261/.333/.432 with two homers and four steals in April. A month later, Trout's overall statline has been pushed to .293/.373/.558 with nine homers and nine stolen bases. Trout has also boosted his fWAR to 2.3 after that rough April, and is now fourth in the AL in the stat. On Tuesday, Trout had possibly the finest game of his pro career in the Angels' 12-0 smashing of the Mariners when he hit for the cycle. Yeah...maybe that sophomore slump talk was completely wrong.

PIC OF THE DAY

Wilin Rosario has apparently been traded to the A's, because he's got the Bernie lean down pat. (Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports)

Game of the Night: Braves 5, Twins 4 (ten innings). Atlanta led 3-2 after four, but it was after that where their new-look bullpen would come into play. In the eighth, Luis Avilan put the first two men he faced on before getting a pop up and being replaced by Cory Gearrin. Gearrin then promptly allowed a pair of RBI singles to put the Twins in front 4-3. In the ninth, Minnesota closer Glen Perkins got the first two outs pretty quickly, but the legend of Evan Gattis continued to grow, and the backup catcher hit a pinch hit homer to tie the game. In the bottom of the tenth, the Braves got a two out double from Jason Heyward, and after an intentional walk to Justin Upton, Heyward scored on a broken bat single by Freddie Freeman to give the Braves an improbable win.