Wednesday's first pitch

Leading Off
The Southpaw has to go to confession. After the Phillies' 6-4 loss to the Pirates - The Pirates - on Tuesday, he let loose a series of expletives and put a curse on Brad Lidge and anyone who dares to wear a Brad Lidge jersey.
All season long we backed him. We figured, "Hey, he's Lights Out Lidge, the man who brought the Phillies to The Promised Land." So we owed him a lot of loyalty.
Not anymore.
Not after blowing another save. Not after a season of looking like Adam Eaton had tried to give it a go as a closer.
Our patience has run out.
And we have a ton of patience here at The Southpaw. We're Phillies fans who have never booed a Ryan Howard strikeout special or a patented Jimmy Rollins' first-pitch swinging pop up after the pitcher had walked the Phillies' pitcher on four straight-pitches.
Now we're done.
Somebody has to close.
We give Charlie three choices.
A. Pedro Martinez.
B. Pedro Martinez.
C. Pedro Martinez.
And if he doesn't want to close, ask Pedro Martinez to close.

Regional Roundup

• No matter how much the loss stung Phillies fans, they had to enjoy watching Andrew McCutchen fly around the basepaths and leap into his teammates. Is it time to enshrine Dave Parker in the Hall of Fame?


• Matt Stairs wants to stick around. The Phillies' starting pitcher's have pitched well of late.


• The O's know they need to be economical with their young pitchers. Tuesday's loss was a deflating one.


• Elijah and the Dukes of Wrigley. The Nats have brought back Livan.

Best of Rest

• The Joba Rules don't appear to be working.


• A pennant race is an odd time to reshuffle your lineup. But the Texas Rangers are doing just that.


• Ryan Langerhans, who once gave The Southpaw and Molly the shirts off his back, gave the Mariners a big win.


• The Dodgers have their ace in the hole: Randy Wolf.

Batter's Eye

• As a Phillies fan, Bobby Abreu's lackadaisical style and inability to play up to his potential - look, the guy should have at least four 120-RBI seasons but has never had more than 110; should have scored 120 runs at least five times, but did it once - drove us nuts. If a guy has the speed to steal 30 bases, has an on-base percentage above .400 and plays with a good offense, he should score oodles and oodles of runs, but never put it together.
  However, we admit he's way underpaid.
  His style is suiting the Angels just fine as they push for the playoffs.

Today in history
1939 -- The first major league baseball game was televised as WXBS brought their cameras to Brooklyn's Ebbets Field for a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and the Dodgers.

1947 -- Brooklyn's Dan Bankhead became the first black pitcher in the majors. He homered in his first major-league plate appearance, but didn't fare well on the mound. In 3 1-3 innings of relief, he gave up 10 hits and six earned runs to the Pirates. Pittsburgh won 16-3.

2002 -- New York shortstop Derek Jeter scored his 100th run of the season joining Ted Williams (1939-49) and Earle Combs (1925-32) as the only players in modern history to score at least 100 runs in their first seven seasons. Jeter scored again in the bottom of the eighth as the Yankees routed visiting Texas 10-3.

The Closer
The Colorado Rockies did it again. Not only did they walk off another win against a division rival, but they inched closer to taking over the division lead.
We've seen this before - just two years ago.
As we said yesterday, this race is getting very interesting.
But, if the Rockies keep playing the way they are, it could be over very quickly.