Nationals blow away Mets  —  Nelson Figueroa knows about bush league baseball.  After all, he's toured the world trying to resurrect his major league career.  —  But not until Monday night did Figueroa witness a truly amateurish display, the Mets pitcher suggested.

Kennedy to return Thursday  —  Yankees' fans will not see Kei Igawa the sequel, at least not any time soon.  —  Ian Kennedy will be called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to pitch Thursday against the Rays.  —  Kennedy will start for SWB tonight in Indianapolis in the first game of a doubleheader …

Gossage: There's no room for Joba's antics in MLB  —  Hall of Famer Goose Gossage has some issues with New York Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain's expressive celebrations on the pitcher's mound.  —  “There's no place for it in the game,” Gossage told reporters Monday during a tour of the Hall of Fame, according to MLB.com.

Twins win again  —  The Twins have taken three out of four here at the Metrodome by virtue of a 7-3 win over the Red Sox tonight.  The Sox scored three in the first inning against Livan Hernandez and never scored again against Hernandez, who went the first six innings to improve to 6-1, and the Twins' bullpen.

Dodgers place shortstop Furcal on DL  —  Club expected to purchase Maza's contract from Triple-A  —  MILWAUKEE — Shortstop Rafael Furcal had to be placed on the 15-day disabled list on Monday when his lower back injury turned out to be worse than the club had believed.

Cabrera turns unassisted triple play  —  Second baseman snags liner, jumps on second and tags runner  —  CLEVELAND — Asdrubal Cabrera has a way of making the amazing defensive play look routine.  —  But this was a bit ridiculous.  —  Shortly after he turned just the 14th unassisted triple play …

On the 100 pitch limit  —  Who decided that starting pitchers were only allowed to throw 100 pitches?  OK, so we can use the eyeball test to see that pitchers usually aren't usually as sharp in the seventh inning as they were in the first.  And there surely must be a point where it would behoove …

INJURED DUQUE MAKING PROGRESS  —  By MIKE PUMA in New York and MARK HALE in Port St. Lucie, Fla.  —  Orlando Hernandez, still rehabbing from a strained tendon in his right foot, threw without a boot for a second straight day in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and indicated he could be throwing off the mound within a week.

Suddenly there are more experts than strikeouts in Ryan Howard's slump  —  They have aligned themselves into three distinct groups: The “Tell Him to Try This” hitting coaches.  The “Get Rid of the Bum” bashers.  The “Just Leave Him Alone - He'll Be Fine” partisans.

Is Clayton Kershaw worth the hype?  —  “Clayton Kershaw's curveball scares children” “Clayton Kershaw's curveball is public enemy number one”  —  Just a couple of the high heaps of praise that surround Dodgers pitching prospect Clayton Kershaw, known by many to be the best pitching prospect in all of baseball.

Homer in 10th gives Texas Rangers 13-12 win  —  egrant@dallasnews.com  —  ARLINGTON - This one should have never been in doubt.  Not when the Rangers fell behind Erik Bedard by five runs in the first inning.  And not when they blew a four-run, ninth-inning lead.

Rays rout Yankees to move half-game out of first  —  Eric Hinske greets Jonny Gomes at home after Gomes scored the game's first run on Dioner Navarro's two-out single during the second inning.  Gomes, who scored three times and had two steals, had singled and stolen second.  —  Times]

Johan Santana, Sandy Alomar, Freddy Garcia and the fiery heap that was once the Kei Igawa bandwagon  —  My apologies for the delay this morning.  Crazy technical difficulties.  —  Anyway, I've been to two of Johan Santana's starts this season, and in both, he labored like crazy against bad teams.