The E-Ticket Ride That Is Rangers-Devil Rays

Notes on a day in baseball:

• M-I-C (See If The Bat Is Corked) .... Walt Disney's thoughts on performance enhancing drugs were never recorded, so it's unclear what he would have thought of Sammy Sosa's 597th career home run on Wednesday. Sosa hit the blast at Disney Wide World of Sports Park on the Disney World campus in Kissimmee, Fla., making that the 45th park in which he has homered, extending his record. It didn't help the Rangers, however, who fell to the Devil Rays, 11-8, behind Carl Crawford's bases-loaded triple. Sosa's two-run, opposite-field homer off of Casey Fossum (3-3) was his ninth homer of the year. The ball left the stadium, cleared Critter Country and bounced into Mr. Selig's Wild Ride, where it was scooped up by the ever-vigilant custodial crew. We are glad to be reminded that major league games are being played at Disney World, a magical place of fun and adventure for all. Our only hope is that, somehow, Bobby Cox can break the record for career ejections there.

• A Little Chien Music. Meanwhile, Chien-Ming Wang's pitching salvaged an 8-1 win by the Yankees, who split a doubleheader with the White Sox. Hideki Matsui drove in four runs. Wang (2-3) allowed six hits and a run over seven innings. In the first game, John Danks outpitched Mike Mussina to give the White Sox a 5-3 win. It all happened at U.S. Cellular Field, which has fewer fun rides than Disney World, but, on the bright side, the lines are shorter.

• In Other Sosa News ... Jorge Sosa needed about five hours to beat the Cubs, which he did with a seven-inning one-hitter that led an 8-1 win for the Mets. The game was plagued by a 3:07 rain delay. Sosa, by the way, had started the season 4-0 with a 1.13 ERA at Triple-A New Orleans.

• Meanwhile, In Adventureland ... C.C. Sabathia went eight innings and Trot Nixon drove in three runs to lead the Indians to a 7-1 victory over the Twins.

• Ah, Fantasyland. The Washington Nationals, winners of five of their past six, used seven pitchers in a 6-4 win over the Braves. Ryan Church's three-run double in the eighth was the difference.