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Paul Hagen: It's still early: Mets-Phillies interesting, but not critical
* Tony Gwynn Jr. hit his first major league home run last Friday for the Padres. That makes him and Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn Sr. the first father-son combo to hit their first big- league blast for the same team since Ruben Amaro Sr. (Sept. 12, 1961) and current general manager Ruben Jr. (April 8, 1992) did it for the Phillies.
* Attendance is down nearly 5,000 a game in Arizona. And the 12 smallest crowds in San Diego's Petco Park history came during the first 39 home dates of this year.
* The Brewers play in a stadium with a retractable roof. But they had to issue bobblehead rain checks after flooding at Miller Park ruined nearly 7,000 Jason Kendall dolls that were to have been given away.
On deck
CHEERS:
For the Orioles. Losing to the mighty Red Sox, 10-1, going into the bottom of the seventh Tuesday night, having already endured a long rain delay, nobody could have blamed them for just wanting to get it over with.
Instead, they scored 10 runs against the bullpen with baseball's best ERA to win, 11-10. That's the biggest comeback in history by a last-place team against a first-place team.
"It was like the baseball gods were talking to you, that you were going to win the game," Aubrey Huff said. "It was just a weird feeling. You can't explain it."
JEERS:
For Jeremy Jeffress. The Brewers' top pitching prospect was suspended for 100 games this week after a second positive test for a "drug of abuse," believed to be marijuana. But it's even worse than that. While serving his first 50-game suspension, he also flunked an in-house test administered by the Brewers.
One more and he'll receive a lifetime ban. And while nobody is minimizing how crippling addiction can be or ignoring that it can be considered an illness or lacks empathy, the Brewers are rightly unhappy with this development.
Assistant general manager Gord Ash said Jeffress, 21, has received "ample support and education" and added: "It's tough to be shocked anymore, but it's certainly surprising ... he's going to have to make a decision on understanding that, in order to be a major league player, he's going to have to comply with the rules."
BY THE NUMBERS:
14.82: Strikeouts per nine innings by Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton, highest ratio in the majors.
20: Times Seattle's Ichiro has had at least 40 hits in a month, after having 44 hits in June.
100: Years ago tomorrow that baseball had its first fireworks show. It was at the just-opened Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, which later also featured the first infield tarp and the first padded walls.
UP NEXT:
Manny Ramirez returns to the Dodgers' lineup tonight after serving his 50-game suspension for using a performance-enhancing substance. And they can use him, even though they still have the best record in baseball. After averaging 5.7 runs per game in April and 5.4 in May, they scored just 3.5 runs per game in June.
Manny being Manny, of course, this doesn't come without a little added drama. He skipped what would have been his final minor league tuneup at Class A Inland Empire on Tuesday, apparently because the 11 a.m. starting time didn't fit into his schedule.
