Felix Hernandez had pitched a great game, until John McLaren decided to squeeze one inning too many out of him.

I know a situation you all hate as much as I do. Your fantasy pitcher/real life hero is absolutely dominating his every fifth day start, only the manager leaves him in too long and he ends up coming to a screeching halt and imploding right before your teary eyes. Well, that’s what happened to Felix Hernandez on Sunday, and I am none-too-happy to see the 5.14 ERA and 1.43 WHIP he contributed to my fantasy staff. Oh I’ll take the 10 punch outs, but man oh man John McLaren, did we really need to send him out there in the 8^th inning with 92 pitches already thrown. I suppose confidence in the Mariners bullpen isn’t at an all time high. After McLaren watched the gang play hot potato with the closer’s role in J.J. Putz’s absence, Putz finally returned and looks about as shaky as his piers. Putz came into the game Saturday in the 9^th inning with a 4 run lead, walked three batters and gave up a pair of runs, narrowly closing out the game while throwing 34 pitches.  How did he manage to wriggle his way out of a loss? Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, plate discipline by Mike Sweeney. While standing in the on deck circle, Sweeney watched Putz load the bases with a 4-pitch walk to Mark Ellis. All the same, Sweeney half-swung at the very first pitch he saw and quickly ended the game. Brilliance. Back to the game Sunday, Felix comes out for the 8^th, walks Jack Hannahan, gives up a double to Ellis, and walks Daric Barton. At this point, Emil Brown managed to drive in two runs on a Luis Gonzales style bloop single. Now, McLaren finally decided to make the call to his motley crew of a bull pen, and Brendan Morrow promptly lets all of his inherited runners score. Lets recap. Felix’s first 7 innings: 4 hits, 2 walks, 10 K’s, no earned runs. Felix’s eigth inning: 2 hits, 2 walks, 4 earned runs, and the loss. Painful. 

Elsewhere in the American league, magnificent pitching was not squandered as C.C. Sabathia and Chien-Ming Wang squared off in a pitchers duel in the land of Cleves. Sabathia showed that his early season struggles are behind him, as he struck out 8 Yankees in 8 innings while giving up just 1 walk and 4 hits. Unfortunately, for Sabathia, one of those hits was a solo home run by Melky Cabrera. As the Tribe was unable to answer, Wang picked up his 5^th win on this young season. Wang also continued a trend of increased K production, striking out 9 batters this afternoon. Many observers have opined that Wang has always had the potential to strike out oodles of batters, but after posting a mere 3 K/9 in 2006 and 4 in 2007, most figured he chose to pitch to contact (it was hard to argue with back to back 19 win seasons). Obviously it vastly improves his fantasy stock if he can add a few K/9 along with his stellar win totals.

Moving to the senior circuit, the most exciting news of the day was made by the Arizona Diamondbacks promoting pitching prospect Max Scherzer. It was assumed he would be the choice to replace recently injured Micah Owings should his injury force him to miss time, but the Snakes called him up before the prognosis on Owings was announced. So either the Snakes wanted to get Scherzer up either way, or Owings ankle injury is serious and they haven’t publicized just yet. Either way, this kid has my full attention, he’s been leaving Triple A hitters puzzled and has struck out a mind boggling 38 batters with only 3 free passes in a mere 23 innings. His role hasn’t been defined yet, but either way, go get him and see what happens.

It wouldn’t be The Grumble if we didn’t have injuries to discuss. First and foremost, Jorge Posada looks as though he’ll make his first ever trip to the disabled list this week, amidst rumors of a torn lesser scapular muscle. His shoulder has been limiting him all of April and it’s finally become too much of a burden to play through. While the Yankees maintain that an MRI showed only a strain, Jorge feels it might be something worse. Either way everyone involved wants to make sure he’s healthy for the rest of the season and so they’ll try to figure out the best way to treat this effectively in the short term in order to maximize his long term production.

Another superstar with a barking shoulder, John Smoltz finally gave up more than 1 earned run in a start versus the Nationals yesterday, and then promptly announced his chronic shoulder soreness was limiting him and hampering his effectiveness. As I’ve maintained all along, this is the downside to owning Smoltz. He’s going to need periodic rest in order to keep his shoulder happy. If he needs to join the ranks of the disabled, it will likely be a short stint, and it will allow him to be one of the top starters in baseball when he is healthy. Prognosis: don’t panic, this is part of owning Smoltz and it must be accepted he’ll miss some time, if you can find an owner that panicking, take advantage of the moment and swipe Smoltz at a perfect buy low opportunity.

Moving on to the NBA, there were a few great games on Sunday. Delonte West hit a huge three to help LBJ and the Cavs take the Wizards to the brink of elimination. Boris Diaw awoke from a two year slumber to help the Suns stave of a first round exit at the hands of the spurs.

In the NHL, the Penguins took a two games to nil lead over the Rangers in front of a brilliant performance by Marc Andre Fluery who barely one upped a superior performance by Henrik Lundqvist. It’s great to see the Penguins doing well, they don’t always have and abundance of amusing athletics at this time of the year. 

In other circles there were whispers of a secret meeting between every NFL team, their management, and the cream of the NCAA crop. Supposedly this event took place over the weekend and had sports fanatics everywhere excited. Well, I’m not one of them! Tune into the Grumble tomorrow to hear my good buddy Seth Frankel wax poetic with his thoughts on the NFL draft. He knows infinitely more about the great sport of oblongball than me, and any attempt I make to steal his thunder would no doubt be met with swift mockery.

One topic I wanted to address this week was the firing of Reds GM Wayne Krivisky. Yet, when I sat down to review his tenure, I opened up a can of nightcrawlers that piqued my analytical curiosity, and found my ambition to review quickly outpaced the time I allotted this write this article. So, head back next Sunday and I promise not one, but TWO report cards, one for newly unemployed Wayne Krivisky, and one for a mystery GM. Though if you read last week’s column, you can probably guess who. Good luck in your leagues this week!