With the return of Brian McCann to the lineup on Monday and Jason Heyward still on the disabled list, the Atlanta Braves have been experimenting with catcher Evan Gattis in left field. His glove has been a bit suspect in left this week, but on Wednesday, he showed off his cannon of a right arm. 

The Reds had the bases loaded and none out, and Donald Lutz hit a routine fly ball to left field. Gattis made the catch, and Brandon Phillips (an excellent runner) tagged up from third in an attempt to score. Gattis took a step, and uncorked an absolutely unreal throw to the plate. Catcher Gerald Laird caught the ball slightly up the third base line (on the fly, mind you) and tagged out a diving Phillips. The throw beat Phillips to the plate by a good 10-15 feet, and the legend of Gattis continues to grow each day, even with his OBP dropping below .300 in recent days.

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For those familiar with the career of Fernando Rodney, you likely spent all of 2012 waiting for the wheels to come off. They obviously never did as Rodney went on to set a new ERA record. What was so shocking about that season wasn't his microscopic 0.60 ERA, it was how he did it. Despite a career walk rate of 4.88 BB/9 entering the 2012 season, Rodney stumbled across some sort of wizardry that turned him into a comman pitcher as he walked just 1.81 BB/9 in 2012. That and an aberrant .220 BABIP allowed led to Rodney's magical season.

Well, it looks like the clock has struck midnight on that magic and Rodney is turning back into the pumpkin that allowed Tampa to scoop up Rodney for a mere $2 million after he unceremoniously lost his closer job in Anaheim and was subsequently run out of town on a rail the year before. The sample is small, but through 10.2 innings of work this season Rodney has seemingly reverted to the same player that the Halos couldn't wait to get rid of after 2011. He has already walked 9 batters, good for a 7.49 BB/9, after issuing just 15 free passes in all of 2012. His BABIP allowed has also rebounded back .276 which is a full 56 points more than 2012 but actually seven points below his career BABIP.

This isn't a case of one bad early season outing tainting either. Rodney has made 11 appearances this season and in just one of those games has he not allowed at least one walk or hit. He has also walked two batters in an outing three times already after doing so just twice in all of 2012. To his credit, Rodney is still missing bats at an increased rate, fanning 10.13 per nine this season which is actually better than his 2012 rate which itself was already above his normal strikeout rate for his career.

What this boils down to now is a basic Occam's Razor argument. Which is more believable: that Rodney became an elite closer at age 35 and is now just having a bad month or that 2012 Rodney was a fluke and Rodney is now reverting back to the same control-challenged reliever he had been every other season of his career? As the walks keep piling up, the answer is pretty obvious.

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The Kiss Cam: one of the staples of mid-game entertainment at ballparks across the country. Last Friday during the Colorado Springs Sky Sox-Fresno Grizzlies game in Fresno, the Grizzlies broke out the Kiss Cam during the game. 

The first couple they showed didn't kiss despite the girl prodding her companion to alert him that they were on the jumbotron. He was on the phone (at a ballgame? Really?) and blew her off as the crowd reacted negatively. After cycling through a few more couples, the Kiss Cam returned to the first pair. The woman was rebuffed a second time to a much larger negative reaction from the crowd. Finally at the end of the segment, the camera returned to the couple, and the gentleman (and I use that term loosely) once again shot down his lady.

Finally, the girl just couldn't take it anymore. She stood up, dumped her drink all over the guy, and walked out. Perhaps the best part was the quizzical, confused look on his face as the girl walked up the aisle away from him as he sat there, covered in what looks like beer. The girl then gets a high five from the Grizzlies mascot on the concourse, and the man walks up the aisle with his tail tucked between his legs.

Moral of the story: if you're on Kiss Cam, just indulge your companion and give them a peck. Otherwise, you might end up covered in a beverage. Even if this was staged (which the circumstances make seem very plausible), it's still pretty hilarious.

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After last night's horrific injury during, the Blue Jays-Rays game, Toronto pitcher JA Happ is in "good condition" and "good spirits", and could be released from the hospital today. The Tampa Bay Times has the statement from Happ.

"I'm in good spirits. I definitely appreciate the support of the baseball community. It's been overwhelming, the messages and kind words I've been getting. I just want to thank everyone for that. And I look forward to getting back out there soon.''

The Blue Jays also released a couple of tweets about Happ's condition, stating that he suffered a head contusion and laceration to his left ear and that the team anticipated his release from the hospital later today.

When Happ initially got hit by the line drive on Tuesday, flashbacks to Brandon McCarthy and Juan Nicasio each ran through my mind. McCarthy got hit in the head by a line drive last season and needed emergency brain surgery, and Nicasio got hit in the summer of 2011 and ended up fracturing his neck. Thankfully, it looks like Happ's injury isn't nearly as severe as either of those two injuries, and hopefully, he'll be back on the mound soon for the Jays.

[Tampa Bay Times]

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What can I say about Matt Harvey's performance last night that hasn't already been said? In the Mets' 1-0, ten inning win over the White Sox, Harvey allowed one hit over nine shutout innings, striking out 12 without a walk. Say what you want to say about the White Sox offense, but Harvey's performance was one for the ages.

PIC OF THE DAY

Miguel Tejada (of all players) making a diving stop (Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports)

Game of the Night: Reds 5, Braves 4. Atlanta jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning in this one, and led 4-2 going into the eighth. Brandon Phillips hit a sac fly against Eric O'Flaherty to cut the lead to one, but with Craig Kimbrel facing the bottom of the Reds lineup in the ninth, things looked bleak for Cincinnati. After retiring the first two hitters in short order in typical Kimbrel fashion, pinch hitter Devin Mesoraco hit a solo homer to right center to tie the game and hand Kimbrel his second blown save of the week. Four pitches later, Shin-Soo Choo homered of his own to left center, giving the Reds a walkoff win and handing the Braves a very tough loss.

This is one of the most bizarre home runs I've ever seen. In the second inning of the Marlins-Padres game on Tuesday night, Padres outfielder Will Venable hits a fly ball to right field off of Marlins starter Alex Sanabia. Miami right fielder Marcell Ozuna settles down to make the catch in normal depth in right field as San Diego's announcers prepare to call the fly out...only the ball doesn't land in Ozuna's glove. It instead lands over the right field fence for a home run. Even Venable himself didn't realize the ball was going to be out, slowing his trot once he reached the first base bag and coming to a complete stop before starting his run around the bases.

I have no idea what happened on this play, but it's pretty bizarre.

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In Tuesday night's Blue Jays-Rays game, Toronto starting pitcher JA Happ was hit in the side of the head by a line drive off the bat of Rays outfielder Desmond Jennings. Happ was taken off the field on a stretcher with his head immobilized, and he offered the crowd a wave of his hand as he left the field.

Video of the incident is below the jump, but I must warn you that it's graphic.

Closer controversies can full of intrigue, like the Reds' decision to return Aroldis Chapman to closing duties. They can also be stupid and kind of sad, like the mess at the end of the Milwaukee bullpen right now. And then there are closer controversies that are just the worst, which is in the case in Boston.

As the owners of the best record in baseball, the Red Sox don't have a lot of problems, but their closer position is a problem and it is a doozy. Ironically, the Boston front office has gone out of the way to try and make their closer situation a strength but instead it has ended up becoming both a weakness and a constant concern.

Before 2012, they traded for Andrew Bailey who is an All-Star when healthy. Well, he wasn't healthy and barely pitched for the Red Sox at all in 2012. Recognizing the error of their ways, the Sox once again took to the trade market and acquired an All-Star closer in the form of Joel Hanrahan. Hanrahan was seen as a hedge against Bailey as Hanrahan had no real history of health problems. He did however have some alarming indicators in his peripheral stats, like a spike in walk rate, home runs allowed and FIP, that suggested Hanrahan might be in for a decline in production. You'll never guess what happened next.

Timing is everything in life. No team in baseball knows that better than the Texas Rangers who are off to a 20-12 start, giving them the second-best record in the American League. Considering their success in recent years, there is no doubt that the Rangers are good, but are they really as good as their record suggests or are they just the beneficiaries of some really good timing?

At worst, Texas is just a big bunch of bullies. Through the first 32 games of the season, they have played all of three games against a team that currently boasts a winning record; that would be a sweep of the Boston Red Sox, who have the best record in baseball. The rest of the time they have been roughing up known cellar dwellers like the Cubs, Mariners, Twins and Astros as well as a trio of early season disappointments in the Angels, Rays and, to a lesser degree, the White Sox. That all adds up to the Rangers having the third easiest strength of schedule played thus far this year.

This is not their fault, obviously, so we certainly shouldn't look down on Texas for doing what good teams do and pummeling inferior competition. What we can do is wonder if their cream puff schedule might not be masking some real weaknesses on the Texas roster. Most notably, their rotation, which looks terrific right now but could actually just be benefiting from playing against a slate of lineups that range from truly miserable to average at best, save for the Red Sox.

For the Philadelphia Phillies to compete in the NL East with the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves, the general presumption was that starting pitching would have to shoulder the burden. 

Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels — arguably the best starting top three in MLB — would have to pitch at their best for the Phillies to contend. That became an even greater responsibility when general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. failed to add an impact hitter to the team's everyday lineup. 

But now that Halladay is on the disabled list with a shoulder injury (please pardon that pun in the first paragraph), where does that leave the Phillies' chances this season? 

Halladay was placed on the 15-day disabled list with shoulder inflammation. But the fear is that this could be a longer-term injury for the right-hander, who will turn 36 years old next week. As my colleague Jaymes Langrehr detailed in an earlier post, Halladay has been demonstrating signs of concern for at least the past year.