So What's With All The Grand Slams All Of A Sudden?

So how come all the fat pitches with the bases loaded the past few days? Hideki Matsui celebrated his 34th birthday with a grand slam on Thursday to lead the Yankees over the Athletics 4-1; helping Andy Pettitte move into a tie for fourth place on the team career wins list.

Meanwhile, Mike Lowell hit his second grand slam of the season as the Red Sox beat the Orioles 9-2. Wednesday, Dan Uggla had a walk-off slam in Florida's 6-2 win over the Phillies. And on Sunday, the Athletics also had a walk-off grand slam that hit off the fair pole by Mark Ellis in a 12th-inning, 7-3 win over Angels. Am I missing any? Pettitte (6-5) had given up a career high-tying 10 runs on Saturday against Kansas City, coming back to tie Ron Guidry with his 170th victory with New York. He gave up one run and five hits over eight innings. And now the Yankees are ... one game over .500 folks, just seven games behind the front-running Red Sox in the East.

• Just For Fun, He Should Have Charged The Mound. And now here's a different kind of fun with the bases loaded. Atlanta reliever Jeff Ridgway hit Reed Johnson with his first pitch to force in the winning run in Chicago's 3-2 win on Thursday. My suggestion: Burn those gray road unis, Braves. Use the alternate blue jerseys, or simply cancel the rest of your away schedule.

• Wagner Has Obscenity-Laced Dugout Screaming Match With Self. The Mets' reliever also tried to punch himself and missed. It all happened after Johan Santana struck out 10 over seven shutout innings and left with a two-run lead against the Diamondbacks, which Wagner squandered in the ninth. Justin Upton's double against Aaron Heilman (0-3) in the 10th and Miguel Montero's sacrifice fly won it for Arizona, 5-4.

• Your Friday Shin-Soo Choo Update. Injuries? What injuries? Ben Francisco and Jamey Carroll each had four hits to lead the Indians to a 12-2 win over the Twins. Cleveland had 18 hits, including homers by Shin-Soo Choo and Grady Sizemore. And now a list of all the Indians on the DL, set to the tune of We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel: "Victor Martinez, Josh Barfield, Jake Westbrook, Fausto Carmona, Travis Hafner, I can't take it anymore ...."

• Florida: Where Litigation Happens. An aspiring singer is suing a guy in a Sergio Mitre replica jersey who only goes by “Joe” over the rights to Ken Griffey Jr.'s 600th home run ball. Welcome to Florida. Oh, and the same guy may have stolen Dan Uggla's grand slam ball from a woman on Wednesday.

• Simpsons Baseball Quote Of The Week. "For those of you keeping score at home, that's E3. And if you are keeping score at home, your loneliness saddens me."

• Wizard Cat Defensive Player Of The Game. Augie Ojeda, Arizona Diamondbacks. Man, Wizard Cat has just about had it with the constant barrage of ads for Ice Road Truckers on MLB.com. They're grizzled, they drive on ice; we get it. Wizard Cat will now go back to watching his Silver Edition Collection DVD set of Deadliest Catch. Wizard Cat gives Deadliest Catch, six wands.

It's Friday; time for the best of Wizard Cat's mailbag!

• Dear Wizard Cat, May I borrow two of your wands to stick into Frank Caliendo's eyes? Thanks, sassydeerrun

• Wizard Cat - How's your curveball? Does your arm feel okay? How would you like to pitch for the Braves today in Chicago? You can't be any older or worse than any Braves pitcher currently on the roster! — Afino

• Milton Bradley is pummeling Wizard Cat! — Alvarado

• Wizard Cat has been stingy with wands lately. I hope the criticism from the ignorant masses haven't affected WC. — Gizmo From Pismo

• Wizard Cat, I have been seeking some pro bono legal projects as of late. I'll take your case. Let's run those knock-off bastards out of town! — Civil Negligence

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