Gonzalez, Padres snap skid

Losers of eight straight, the Padres finally got it right in Denver tonight. Edgar Gonzalez hit his first home run since June 11th, and then hit a second homer to cap off a seven-run 9th, going 4-5 with three runs and three RBI in a career game for him. San Diego wins, 15-8.

The Padres put up their 15 runs on 22 hits, as seven different players had multi-hit games including Edgar's little brother Adrian.

Fantasy Impact: Adrian Gonzalez hasn't homered in a week, but he's still hitting the ball well. Edgar was a fill-in for the injured Tadahito Iguchi. Now he's hitting .325 and has three homers in 123 at bats. Although they look very similar despite despite a near four-year age gap, Edgar will never been confused with his brother. Adrian's hit 21 home runs this year and is a fantasy stud. Like the Padres, pick up Edgar for the time being as a hot stop gap.

Pirates batting pitcher eighth

The Pittsburgh Pirates are making batting the pithcer eighth an National League Central trend. The Cardinals started the trend when they played their backup catchers, followed by the Brewers trying it with catcher Jason Kendall hitting ninth. Now the Pirates will bat shortstop Jack Wilson last.

Cordero done for year

The Natinoals' Chad Cordero is out for the year. Jon Rauch inherits the job full-time, which he's handled quite well to this point, notching 16 saves in Cordero's absence. He doesn't get a lot of chances, however, playing for Washington.

Fantasy Impact: Rauch is allowing less than a base runner per inning. That's a good recipe for earning saves. He's no worse than a second-tier closer, and probably one of the best at that.

Ram out

The Cubs' Aramis Ramirez is gone for at least the next three games attending to a family matter in his native Puerto Rico. Chicago is on the road for four games in San Francisco, meaning Ramirez will miss all but Thursday's game at this point.

Fantasy Impact: He's too valuable to pass on in weekly leagues. Ramirez is arguably the most productive third baseman this side of Alex Rodriguez. David Wright also comes to mind.

A.L. dominance

After Sunday play interleague play has resulted in the American League outperforming the National league 149-102 this year for a .594 winning percentage. If the A.L. played the N.L. over a 162 game schedule the Junior Circuit would got 96-66.

The A.L. finished play togday with a 8-6 win total over the national league for a winning percentage of .571. The lower winning percentage for today did impact the A.L.'s overall winning percentage just a touch, but averaged out over 162 games it was not enough to lower the 96-66 record.