Oh, the possibilities!

The National League boasted three 1-0 games Wednesday night, and it led to some interesting information on David Pinto's thought-provoking blog, "Baseball Musings."

Since 1957, of the 104,429 games played in the major leagues, 2,225 resulted in a 1-0 score, meaning there's about a 2 percent chance of a 1-0 duel breaking out any time you watch a game.

The posting went on to talk about the relationship between scoring and a 1-0 game. A 1-0 game was most likely in 1968 (when pitching dominated) and least likely in 1999 (lots of home runs), according to Pinto's findings, which included two charts that only someone with a Ph.D. in mathematics could love.

But looking at it more simply, the six teams involved in 1-0 games Wednesday night used a total of 18 pitchers. The last time there were three 1-0 games in the National League - Sept. 1, 1976 - the six teams used nine pitchers, three of whom went the distance.

An unwanted buzz at the ballpark

Houston's 7-2 victory in San Diego yesterday was delayed for 52 minutes in the top of the ninth inning when a swarm of bees took over part of left field at Petco Park.

A beekeeper was called to the ballpark and sprayed a chair and a ball girl's jacket that had attracted the bees. Padres president Tom Garfinkel said a few thousand bees had attached themselves to a queen bee.

"The umpires made the right call to stop the game," he said. "There's a couple thousand bees there. If they decide to swarm on a person, whether that's a player, an employee or obviously a fan, we could have a real situation."

The return of Manny

Harry Maker is looking forward to tonight's return in San Diego of Manny Ramirez to major-league play after the Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder completed a 50-game suspension for violating baseball's drug policy.

No, Maker is not a Dodgers fan. He's known in San Diego as "Harry the Heckler," someone who likes to get on the opponent from his seat in left field.

Oh, you mean Ramirez is a leftfielder? Bingo!

"It's going to be a lot of fun," Maker told the Associated Press. "I was hoping that we could have at least one slugger in the game that wasn't tainted. Now Manny has disappointed me, and he's going to have to pay for it. I am not going to let up all weekend long."

Noteworthy

St. Louis infielder-outfielder Mark DeRosa received an injection in his strained left wrist and was expected to miss the Cardinals' games last night and tonight. The former Penn quarterback is 2 for 27 since June 20 and 0 for 9 since St. Louis acquired him from Cleveland. . . . The Pittsburgh Pirates released outfielder Craig Monroe, who had been designated for assignment after not hustling during a June 16 loss to Minnesota.

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Contact staff writer Joe Juliano at 215-854-4494

or jjuliano@phillynews.com.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.