To say that Phillies starter Roy Halladay had a rough game on Sunday might be an understatement. The Phillies fell 14-2 to the Marlins (Halladay's second straight start in a 14-2 loss), and the former Cy Young Award winner's line was hideous: 2 1/3 innings, four hits, nine runs, one home run, four walks, two hit batters, and four strikeouts. Put it all in a blender, and you get a cool game score of 13. After the game, Halladay admitted he has been dealing with shoulder soreness for his last two starts, and will be seeing Dr Lewis Yocum for an opinion on his shoulder. If this really is the beginning of the end, it's a sad way to go out.

PIC OF THE DAY

Shin-Soo Choo meets the wall. (David Banks-USA TODAY Sports)

Game of the Day: Royals 6, White Sox 5 (ten innings). Trailing 3-1 through six, the White Sox couldn't touch Kansas City starter Wade Davis. But Davis exited to begin the seventh, and Chicago struck against Royals reliever Tim Collins. Collins allowed a pair of singles and a double to make it a 3-3 game before he was relieved by Aaron Crow. Crow then let Alejandro de Aza to score on a wild pitch to put the Sox in front, and an Alex Rios homer extended their lead to two. But in the ninth with closer Addison Reed on the hill, Billy Butler hit a two-run double, bringing in Chris Getz and George Kottaras to tie the game. The teams went into extras, and Brian Omogrosso fell into a trap after allowing a leadoff single to Lorenzo Cain. With two outs and Cain on second, he intentionally walked Getz to put two on and two out for the slow of foot Kottaras. But then, Omogrosso walked Kottaras on five pitches, with the Kansas City catcher never moving his bat. Alex Gordon then smashed a walkoff single to give the Royals the win.

The Indians beat the Twins7-3 on Saturday night. OK, there's nothing too ordinary about that...except for the winning pitcher for Cleveland: former Rays and Angels starter Scott Kazmir. Kazmir legitimately pitched well on Saturday, and his win was his first in three tries this season. Perhaps more importantly, it was his first win since September 19, 2010 with the Angels (ironically, against the Rays). Now, two and a half years later, Kazmir is back in the win column after a depressing fall from grace.

PIC OF THE DAY

Cheese Chester rushes past Teddy Roosevelt in a dual pierogi/presidents race during the Nationals-Pirates game in Pittsburgh. (Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)

Game of the Night: Giants 10, Dodgers 9 (ten innings). To call this game "crazy" would probably be an understatement. The Giants led 5-0 after the second, and 6-1 after the fourth, but Los Angeles proceeded to score seven runs in the fifth to jump ahead 8-6. The Giants made it 8-7 on an Andres Torres homer in the bottom of the inning, and tied the game after Buster Posey scored on a wild pitch in the sixth. The teams traded runs in the seventh, and the game went into extra innings. A Giants catcher ended up being the hero again, and it wasn't Posey - no, it was Quillermo Quiroz, who hit a walkoff homer to left off of Brandon League to give the Giants their second walkoff win in as many nights.

St Louis Cardinals closer Jason Motte will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, and will be out for the rest of the regular season. The 30-year old Motte tied Craig Kimbrel for the National League lead in saves last season with 42, and struck out 86 in 72 innings while posting a 2.75 ERA.

The bullpen shakeup for the Cardinals continued on Friday, with pitching prospect Carlos Martinez getting recalled from AA Springfield and reliever Mitchell Boggs (who was the Cardinals closer to start the season) getting demoted to AAA Memphis. Last month, Ian wrote about the Cardinals' relief options with Motte out of commission. But with Boggs getting demoted for Martinez, Mark Rzepczynski getting sent down for little known Seth Maness, things get a little more hazy for the Cardinals. They're now heavily relying on two elite prospects in the bullpen, with Martinez joining flamethrower Trevor Rosenthal in the pen. The closer's job has been seized by Edward Mujica, who is a perfect 7/7 in save opportunities this year.

But for as good as Mujica has been thusfar this year, striking out 13 and walking just one in 12 innings, he's been incredibly fortunate thusfar in 2013 with a .207 BABIP and an unreal 96.8% strand rate. While he's always possessed elite control, Mujica's strikeout rate is on another level right now, and the 15.3% whiff rate that the 28-year old has managed this year is also a career-best. 

The NL Central has been more plucky than anyone imagined this season, with the Cardinals on top of the division but ahead of the fourth place Brewers by just 3.5 games. But despite that, the Cardinals have lost just one series within the division all season (dropping two out of three at home to the Pirates last weekend), and they're still holding strong despite everything that has gone wrong for them so far this year. 

Like TOC on Facebook

Follow TOC on Twitter

Friday was not the best night for the American League East. Not only were the Rays the only team in the division to win on Friday night, they were the only team to score a *run*. The Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, and Blue Jays were all held scoreless in losses, and the four teams totaled juts 20 hits too. Talk about having a bad night...

PIC OF THE DAY

Chase Headley nails Martin Prado with a takeout slide, and desperately sees if the throw hit its mark (Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports)

Game of the Night: Mets 7, Braves 5 (ten innings). This was a great game to watch as a neutral fan, and an absolutely excruciating one to watch as a fan of either team. The Mets took an early 3-0 lead, but Atlanta fought back and took a 4-3 lead in the seventh. Of course, that didn't stop Marlon Byrd from tying the game in the eighth with a solo homer off of Eric O'Flaherty. In the bottom of the eighth, Atlanta jumped back on top after Evan Gattis hit a solo homer off of Brandon Lyon. Then in the ninth, with Craig Kimbrel on the mound, David Wright hit a monstrous solo homer to tie the game up once again. The Mets broke through for good in the tenth against Jordan Walden, and Jeurys Familia shut the door in the bottom of the inning to finish off a crazy Mets win.

At 17-11, the St. Louis Cardinals sit atop the NL Central and are tied with Atlanta and Colorado for the best mark in the National League. There is one major weakness with the Cards, though -- their bullpen has been an absoloute disaster in the absence of Jason Motte. Their relievers are putting up the worst ERA (5.90), highest opponent OBP (.359), highest opponent SLG (.454) and third-most blown saves (6) in the National League.

The current bullpen is lacking in good options, reinforcements are needed, and that's why top prospect Carlos Martinez is being promoted straight from Double A.

Mitchell Boggs acted as the team's closer to start the season, but lost it in less than a month to Edward Mujica. After another multi-walk (and this time, no-outs-recorded) outing Thursday night in Milwaukee, Boggs has now lost his roster spot to Martinez.

The Boston Red Sox are 20-8 and on top of the baseball world after a disastrous 2012 season under Bobby Valentine. The team revamped themselves this offseason, and a new manager was brought in: former Boston pitching coach John Farrell. The Sox won their 20th game last season under Bobby Valentine on May 20th, and collapsed in the second half with a 26-50 record.

In Massachusetts, fans are in love with the new look Sox led by Farrell. In fact, only 1% of people disapprove of Farrell, according to Public Policy Polling, the third most accurate polling firm in November's presidential election.

John Farrell has a 1% disapproval rating with Massachusetts voters. Pretty sure that's a first for anyone in our polling

— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) May 3, 2013

That's pretty noteworthy. A 1% disapproval rating is stellar. But just how good is it, really?

To put John Farrell's 1% disapproval in context- George Washington's is 3%, Mother Theresa's 5%, Gandhi's 9%, Santa's 13%

— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) May 3, 2013

Holy crap. Less people disapprove of John Farrell in Massachusetts than the first president of the United States, the most admired person of the 20th century, a non-violent peace advocate, and one of the most beloved fictional characters in history. Great company, indeed.

Like TOC on Facebook

Follow TOC on Twitter

Two nights after Tim Hudson won his 200th career game, Jake Westbrook of the Cardinals won his 100th career game, as St Louis held on to beat Milwaukee 6-5. We were actually deprived of the exact same historical moment for Ervin Santana, who also came into Thursday sitting on 99 career wins and got the start. But his outing against the Rays ended through three and a half innings thanks to snow in Kansas City, and he'll have to wait until next week to pick up his milestone.

PIC OF THE DAY

Game of the Night: Tigers 7, Astros 3 (14 innings). Hey look, another long game. A Victor Martinez single tied the game at three in the eighth inning, and then, the two teams fell into an abyss of zeroes. Detroit had chances in the 11th, 12th, and 13th innings, but finally broke through in the 14th, when Don Kelly singled home the go-ahead run after both Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder were intentionally walked by Dallas Keuchel to load the bases. After Kelly singled, Jose Cisnero replced Keuchel on the hill, and allowed a two-run double to Matt Tuiasosopo and a sac fly to Jhonny Peralta to extend the Tigers' lead to four. Luke Putkonen successfully finished the game off, and the Tigers earned a hard-fought win in Houston.

Prior to the Red Sox-Blue Jays series finale in Toronto on Thursday night, former Blue Jays pitcher and current commentator Jack Morris accused Boston starter Clay Buchholz of throwing spitballs during Boston's 10-1 win on Wednesday night.

Jack Morris, a former World Series hero and a Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster, said Thursday that he watched video after Wednesday night's game between the Jays and Red Sox and came away convinced Boston pitcher Clay Buchholz is throwing a spitball.

Morris said he didn't notice it during Wednesday's telecast.

"I found out because the guys on the video camera showed it to me right after the game," he said. "I didn't see it during the game. They showed it to me and said, 'What do you think of this?' and I said, 'Well, he's throwing a spitter. Cause that's what it is."  

During the outing, Buchholz shut down the Jays, allowing only two hits in seven shutout innings, striking out eight and walking three. Red Sox manager John Farrell, who managed the Jays last year, shot down Morris' theory, as did Buchholz.

Not a lot of people are buying into the Colorado Rockies as a legitimately good team, but they do apparently have one player who thinks they are for real. After spending the off-season saying that he was only interested in signing with a contender, Roy Oswalt has jumped about the Rockies bandwagon, inking a minor league deal with the club.

For Oswalt, this smacks of desperation. Even if he truly believes that the Rockies can continue to lead the NL West, there is a very short list of pitchers in this league that would choose to go to Colorado if they had other options on the table. As a 35-year old coming off of a season where he posted a 5.80 ERA in 59 innings with Texas, one can assume that Oswalt wasn't exactly being bowled over with better offers.

It is hard to see how this move is going to pay big dividends for the Rockies, but you can't really blame them for picking him up, if only because he is another pitcher with a pulse that they can throw into their rotation at some point. And there is little doubt that Oswalt will get a chance as the Rox rotation building plan appears to be nothing more than "throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks." This is how you end up with Jon Garland and Jeff Francis in a rotation.

The one thing that Oswalt has going for him that other Colorado pitchers don't is that he has demonstrated an ability to still miss some bats, fanning a batter per inning last season. Whether that translates to the altitude at Coors Field remains to be seen, especially since Oswalt has resorted to using his off-speed pitches more and more the last two years.

On the other hand, Oswalt allowed a .316 BABIP in 2011 and .378 BABIP in 2012, so this probably isn't going to work out well for either side, but at least they are giving it a try. At worst, Colorado can try and trick another name brand pitcher to sign with them down the line because, "Hey, Roy Oswalt thought we were cool!"

Like TOC on Facebook

Follow TOC on Twitter