I don't think I have anything constructive to say about this one. The Rockies sure do look like a different team on the road. Six strikeouts against Mark Redman is just not very good. And as for Byung-Hyun -- I suppose there's little chance of his relaunching his career as an outfielder like Rick Ankiel. On to the news!

Clint Hurdle leaves game early to attend to sick daughter. Best wishes to Clint and his family. Jamie Quirk, the Royals are watching...for one day, anyway, Espy and Apodaca will run Sunday's game in tandem.

Jamey Wright is second all-time among active righthanders in pickoffs, to Roger Clemens. That ought to win you a few bar bets.

Pirates fans find reasons to keep coming to games. They have decades of history and five championships, what's our excuse?

Curses for every team from SI's Jacob Luft. For the Rockies: the altitude. Oh, c'mon, you can do better than that. How about the curse of Jim Leyland? The curse of Dan O'Dowd? Armando Reynoso? I don't know, I'm grasping at straws here. But there has to be something better than the altitude.

This is interesting (registration required): A head-to-head comparison between the Cubs and White Sox telecasts from yesterday's game. It's fascinating how tentative new Cubs guys Len Kasper and Dan Plesac are in contrast to veteran Sox announcers Hawk Harrelson and Darrin Jackson. When Freddy Garcia was late to the bag on a grounder to Paul Konerko in the bottom of the second, Plesac credited Neifi Perez for "winning the race." But DJ had it otherwise: "That's Freddy's job to be there, simple as that."

Speaking of Chicago, I'll be travelling back there next weekend to visit family and I'm going to try taking in the Friday afternoon Rockies-Cubs game. Look for the one guy at sold-out Wrigley wearing purple stripes, that'll be me.