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So we finally won a game. Sparks pitched decently, the bullpen had mixed reviews (at least Valverde pitched a clean inning). The top of the lineup is hitting a little better, and Hairston shows every sign of making Brenly's decision-making process difficult when Alomar and Kata come back by hitting the crap out of the ball.

Casey Daigle got sent down to the minors yesterday and lefty reliever Nance got called up in his place. Not quite sure why we need three lefty relievers unless this means Stephen Randolph is going to get Daigle's spot in the rotation. At this point, I guess it's either him or Andrew Good. I don't have a preference between the two -- either is worth a shot.

Finally, speaking of Steve Sparks, I finally got around reading an article in the May 17th New Yorker magazine -- "Project Knuckleball," by Ben McGrath (again, no link available). It's mostly a puff piece (though an entertaining one) on Red Sox knuckleballers Tim Wakefield and Charlie Zink. The piece would make the layperson think, "Gosh, there should be a couple knuckleballers on every squad!" There are a couple passing references to Sparks, who is referred to as having "enjoyed less success than Wakefield, shuttling from team to team." The shame about Sparks this season is that as a knuckleballer, he should have been able to eat up a lot of innings but hasn't been able to thus far...