Thursday's Spring Training Action

That should be "Action" in quotation marks. But games were played anyway. Here is a run down or the low down, whichever homily you prefer:

- The Cards beat the Red Sox after a brilliant six innings by Beckett and Masterson. The Sox were ahead until McBeth came into the game. Though he didn't kill the Cardinals' King Duncan, he did kill the Red Sox and was the loser. Jason Varitek went 0 for 3 and is now batting .105. But Beckett and Masterson probably wouldn't have thrown shutout innings without him, right? For the Cards, leave it to Mather to win the game with a two run homer.

- The Pirates beat the Twins on Thursday and got another great start from a starting pitcher. This time it was Virgil Vazquez. This seems to be a very literary day. First there is Beckett, then McBeth, and now Virgil. And without leaving Homer out, Mr. Baker, fresh off a new big contract felt generous for the Twins and gave up four of those homers in his five innings of work. Ouch. Doumit, McLouth, Monroe had homers. In fact, Craig Monroe hit three of them. Who do you think has a better glove, Doumit or Betemit? Just asking...

- The Bay Rays won a low scoring game. Shields pitched great for Tampa Bay and Methuselah pitched great for the Phillies. Miguel Cairo had two hits for the Phillies, which goes to show that anything can happen in Spring Training. Kapler hit a homer for Tampa Bay, which will make Josh happy.

- Atlanta beat the Nationals, 6-2. Carlyle, who has the beat this spring and hasn't given up a run, got the win in relief. Brandon Jones was the batting hero for Atlanta and is having a good spring.

- The Marlins made a mess of Tim Redding Thursday night. He pitched an inning and gave up eight runs. Woof. Maybin had another good game for the Marlins as did Hermida. Uggla showed that he was Uggla. Three strikeouts on Wednesday, two homers on Thursday. That's Uggla. Santana did start for the Mets and held his own.

- Oakland beat Arizona today. Doolittle did much for the A's as he hit a pitch hit homer. Oakland got another good start from Mazzaro who got the win and hasn't given up a run this spring. Haran pitched okay for the Diamondbacks, but Rosales lost the game for them with a four run inning. Upton is batting .368 this spring.

- The Royals hammered the White Sox today. They got good pitching from Kyle Davies and Ramirez. The two pitched the entire nine innings. Jacobs went two for three for the Royals. He is going to help them. German wasn't well engineered for the White Sox and gave up four runs without getting a single out.

- Ian Stewart had a good day for the Rockies as they beat the Angels, 6-4. Ortmeier also had a good game at the plate. Kendrick had two doubles for the Angels and is batting .500 for the spring.

- San Diego and the Brewers played to a ten inning tie, 10 to 10. The Padres are scoring runs in surprising bunches this week. Prince Fielder hit his first homer of the spring. Kouzmanoff is having a great spring! Corey Hart hit his third homer of the spring.

- Japan beat Zambrano and the Cubs today. Young pitching sensation, Yu Darvish got the start for Japan and the win. The Cubs left 21 men on base.

- The Dodgers beat Korea, 4-2. Randy Wolf had a good start. Remember Shawn Estes? He might be back! He pitched two shutout innings for the Dodgers and hasn't given up a run yet this spring.

That's the round up. The weeds are dead and it's time for bed.