Miscues land DeRosa, Fontenot on bench  —  CINCINNATI — The day after the Cubs allowed the Reds to beat them on nothing but unearned runs, the players who made the errors were on the bench, and manager Lou Piniella promised a new and improved look on defense.

DeWitt does an inside job for Dodgers  —  Inside-the-park homer is the difference against Mets.  Stiff back sidelines Furcal, but it's not supposed to be a long-term problem.  —  No attempt was made on the Dodgers' bench to conceal excitement this time, the players and coaches leaping …

No punishment expected over White Sox dolls  —  Officials from commissioner Bud Selig's office contacted the White Sox on Tuesday to discuss the team's controversial display of two inflatable dolls in their clubhouse over the weekend in Toronto, but no punishment is expected to be handed down …

Texas Rangers ' Broussard losing time at first  —  egrant@dallasnews.com  —  SEATTLE - The descent for Ben Broussard has taken only five weeks.  He's gone from everyday first baseman to a platoon and now to the bench.  —  The only step left might be a ticket out of the Rangers organization.

Wrapping up Ian Kennedy … A lot of what Kennedy said after the game focused on the fact that he felt something like this coming.  He felt better his last two starts and after sending the side down in order the first two innings on Thursday, he thought that would be the start that broke him out of his funk.

Texas clobbers M's pitching in 10-1 romp  —  Baseball is a nine-inning game.  —  But not the way the Mariners and Rangers play it.  With them, three innings is plenty.  —  Mariners starter Miguel Batista couldn't find the strike zone with a global positioning system and was out of Tuesday's 10-1 loss …

Zito returns to Giants' rotation  —  Left-hander will start against Pirates on Wednesday  —  PITTSBURGH — Barry Zito's move to the bullpen proved to be largely uneventful.  Next, he and the Giants will learn whether it was effective.  —  On Tuesday, Giants manager Bruce Bochy named Zito …

Tonight's The Night  —  It's Time.  —  Way back in October 2004, I started writing the blog, not really knowing what to expect, and certainly not expecting that it would get to be as big (relatively speaking) as it is, nor would it have given me some of the opportunities it has.

Wakefield's turn to pitch in as Sox blank Tigers  —  DETROIT - Their birthdays are 12 days apart.  Well, that and 18 years.  —  So, when 23-year-old Clay Buchholz is asked whether there was anything about 41-year-old Tim Wakefield - the way he dresses, the music he listens to …

Omar sees Pedro's progress  —  LOS ANGELES - GM Omar Minaya visited Port St. Lucie Tuesday, where he had a chance to watch Pedro Martinez throw a bullpen session as well as see reliever Matt Wise pitch Tuesday night.  Assistant GM John Ricco said Martinez's most recent throwing session …

Injured Marlins making progress  —  Willingham could be back as early as next week  —  MIAMI — The Marlins are hopeful that left fielder Josh Willingham will be ready for game action within the next week.  Whether that is realistic remains to be seen.  —  More will be known in the next few days.

Question: What do you Want?  —  What's amazing to me is that if the Mets win this afternoon, they will have gone 3-3 on a West Coast road trip against the two hottest teams in the National League, all while being three games over .500 and an inch from first place all with roughly 80 percent of the season left to be played.

Give some credit to early architects of D-backs, Rays  —  They play on opposite ends of the country and in different leagues and have vastly different track records.  But the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Rays are also alike in many ways.  They're expansion cousins celebrating …

Are the Salt Lake Bees Worth All the Buzz?  —  As just about every minor league fan knows by now, the Salt Lake Bees of the Pacific Coast League (Triple-A) have been very, very good this season.  The club was 23-2 in the month of April.  The Bees have had a little tougher going in May with a 2-4 record …