From around the league, Thursday night:

• Gary Knotts issued five walks to the Blue Jays in just 2 1/3 innings, and Roy Halladay threw a shutout, scattering eight singles and one walk and getting three double plays. The master pitcher conservationist threw 106 pitches in the "effort" (they're still the Tigers).

• Ryan Wagner took his first major league loss for the Reds, as the Phillies stormed for six runs late in the game (against a variety of pitchers, not just Wagner) to win.

• Carlos Beltran smacked his fourth homer of the year in a losing effort (more in the next bullet) to the White Sox. It's been noted that the Royals will probably need an MVP effort from Beltran to have a shot at a pennant this year, but it's not like that's a far-fetched proposition. Beltran is perfectly capable of busting a 400/580 OBP/SLG with his customary strong defense and ridiculously efficient base stealing (he's at 88% success for his career, despite stealing more bags each healthy season since 1999).

• Magglio Ordonez upstaged Beltran last night, though, hitting his own fourth homer in the bottom of the 10th to send the fans home happy. Ordonez is looking for a five-year extension, which seems like a lot of years for a 30-year old outfielder. On the other hand, he's played 150+ games a year with .380/.550 OBP/SLG, strong defense, and some occasional base stealing for the past five years. PECOTA takes all this and predicts him to still be 2.1 wins over replacement in 2008. In other words, if there's any 30-year old outfielder to sign to a five-year contract, it's Ordonez.

• Craig Wilson continued carrying my fantasy team on his back, popping his third homer while playing first base (he's eligible at catcher, though, because of last year). The Cubs won the game, though, behind Carlos Zambrano's strong pitching. The big fault with Zambrano's outing is that it took him 118 pitches to get through six innings, despite not many hits, runs, or walks.

• Montreal managed just three hits against Carl Pavano and two relievers as Florida won another game. Gaudy numbers for the Fish: they got their eighth win; Beaneball favorite Hee Choi hit his fifth homer; and much maligned closer Armando Benitez picked up his sixth save.

• Arizona won a typical 11-10 slugfest in Denver, as Jeromy Burnitz's evil twin played center field (what!?) and hit a triple (what!?). It was Burnitz's first three-bagger since 2001.

• Five runs in the top of the 11th sealed Boston's fate against the Orioles. One of those runs came on Miguel Tejada's first Baltimore home run. Pedro Martinez and Sidney Ponson both pitched poorly, and the list of pitchers (15 in all, nine for the Red Sox) makes it look like the game lasted 17 innings, instead of just having two extra frames. I don't know where the Red Sox got all of those pitchers: maybe the commish changed the rules mid-game and allowed them to call up guys from AAA?

• Scott Podsednik watch: he swiped his seventh bag of the year against the Astros in a win that pulled them to a half game back of Houston (late-year cliches are fun to use in April).

• Seattle finally won again, as Ryan Franklin spun a nice little game against the Angels. Franklin always surprises me when he pitches well, but this is a guy who had a 3.57 ERA (granted, in Safeco) last year over 32 starts. The Mariners just have to hope he's their third or fourth best starter, not second (after Jamie Moyer).

• The sky is falling! Eric Gagne is only striking out 8.3 per nine innings! Oh, lord, what'll the Dodgers do!?