The bad news for the Bombers was that home plate umpire Lance Barksdale failed to notice Alex Rodriguez tagging Texas’ Gerald Laird a good two feet before the latter touched home plate.

On the bright side, however, A-Rod got to shove his hand between someone’s legs.

It was just two weeks ago that I was able to watch former Met Victor Dias patrol the outfield for the Oklahoma City Redhawks. Today, Diaz hit a pinch-hit grand salami off the Yankees’ Sean Henn in the Rangers’ 14-2 win. It was a heck of a stat padding day for Texas, Mark Teixiera (4 for 5, 3 doubles, 3 RBI’s) in particular.

On the matter of making one’s numbers look gaudy against lame competition, Jack Cust and Dan Johnson each hit a pair of homers in Oakland’s 17-3 pasting of Kansas City this afternoon. Even if Jim Rome hadn’t been on vacation, I’d still have prefered to watch the mop-up duel between KC’s Zach Greinke and the A’s Lenny DiNardo.

The Blue Jays claim B.J. Ryan has undergone successful Elton Tommy John surgery. And there’s no reason not to take anything Toronto tells the press at face value.

Former Met Jeff Keppinger has been called up by the Reds to take the roster spot vacated by the demoted Edwin Encarnacion. The move comes a day after Double E made a pair of throwing errors in Cincy’s 3-2 loss to Houston. On Thursday, Adam Dunn was 3 for 4, including a 3 run HR of Matt Albers in the Reds’ 9-5 victory.

I hate to say it, but I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll be seeing the Atlantic League debut of Jeff Weaver sometime between now and mid July. Wevie Stonder I suffered his sixth loss of the season this afternoon, serving up long balls to Magglio Ordonez and Bradon Inge in Detroit’s 7-3 torment of Seattle. Incredibly, Weaver’s 5 IP, 6 earned runs allowed stint lowered his ERA to a modest 14.32.