Ninth heaven

Down a run in the visitor's half of the ninth in Houston, the Pittsburgh Pirates grabbed the lead and then some. After Jose Valverde retired Ryan Doumit to begin the inning, Jason Bay blasted his 20th home run, a solo shot to knot things at three. The Pirates continued to pound away. After a Xavier Nady single, Adam LaRoche ripped his 12th home run for a 5-3 Pirates advantage. After Valverde exited the game, but before Pittsburgh batted around in the inning, Freddie Sanchez tallied a three-run inside-the-park home run.

Pittsburgh scored seven in the inning with Valverde posting six earned runs in 1/3 an inning of work. The Pirates prevail, 9-3.

Longoria goes long

Rays third baseman Evan Longoria went long for the 19th time this season in Tampa's 4-0 win over Oakland. Longoria finished the night 2-5 with a run scored and two RBI.

Fantasy Impact: Longoria is this year's Ryan Braun. His average dropped to .272 around the All-Star break -- and rookies are often slump-prone -- but he's certainly the one to have this year.

Kazmir rolls

No All-Star hangover for Scott Kazmir. The Rays starter, who wasn't supposed to pitch in the midsummer classic but ended up winning the game in the end, went seven innings against Oakland, striking out nine to pick up his eighth win.

Fantasy Impact: Kazmir's fought off arm troubles in recent seasons to become the dominant lefty in baseball. As his ERA drops to 2.80, his stock rises. Finally on a winning team, he's become a fantasy ace.

Pounce on Ponson?

Somehow Sidney Ponson is 6-1. For a guy who allows a high number of base runners (1.58 WHIP entering tonight), Ponson continues to get run support. First he got it in Texas. Now it's coming in New York, as the Yankees scored eight runs in the first three innings against Minnesota in a 12-4 victory in the Bronx. Ponson gave up three runs over 5 2/3 innings, pushing his ERA up to 4.02.

Fantasy Impact: It's hard to endorse Ponson. Since 2005 his WHIP is over 1.50, a tell-tale sign of a guy who is in over his head. Wins, however, may continue to drop in his owners' laps if the Yankees score runs like this. More often than not they will keep Ponson in the game, so if you can afford a guy who won't help you in any other category but victories, why not try Ponson?

Weeks welcomes challenge

Rickie Weeks reacted well to his club's trade for a second baseman. Milwaukee acquired Ray Durham for two minor leaguers on Sunday. Monday night Weeks got the start at second, going 2-5 with a home run (9) and three RBI. The Brewers beat the Cardinals, 6-3.

Fantasy Impact: Weeks is only hitting .219, but speculation has it that Milwaukee brought Durham in for depth rather than to replace their light-hitting second baseman. Keep Weeks active until Durham starts getting more at bats.

Harden vs. Johnson

Quite the pitchers duel in Arizona with the Cubs' Rich Harden and Diamondbacks' Randy Johnson combining for just one earned run and three hits over 14 innings. Harden carried a no-hitter into the sixth, where Alex Romero met him with a solo home run.

The D'backs beat the Cubs, 2-0.

Fantasy Impact: Harden is unlucky not to win after two dominant starts for Chicago. Johnson improves to 7-7 and lowers his ERA to 4.98. The 44-year-old right hander has 99 strikeouts in 105 innings, just the third time he's on pace for less strikeouts than innings pitched since 1990. He's certainly not the power pitcher he once was, but he's good enough to be a part of most rotations in fantasy.

We want a pitcher II

Royals reliever Jimmy Gobble had a bad night (90.00 ERA), but that was nothing compared to Kip Wells, who pulled a Kip Wells Monday night. Wells is notorious for exasperating melt downs, and it doesn't get much crazier than this. The Dodgers tagged him for seven hits and eight runs in just 1/3 of an inning. Seven of the runs were earned, giving him an ERA of 189.00 after 40 pitches.

Fantasy Impact: Wells owned a solid 2.29 ERA but a WHIP of 1.54 in 19.2 innings heading in. This outing raises his ERA to 5.40, which is about right for a 1.54 WHIP.

We want a pitcher

The Kansas City Royals got no pitching tonight. The first three KC pitchers gave up more runs than innings pitched. Starter Luke Hochevar gave up seven runs in five innings, but that was nothing compared to Jimmy Gobble, who gave up 10 runs in one inning of work.

Fantasy Impact: Gobble's ERA soars from 7.99 to 11.31 while Hochevar's climbs to 5.47. The young Hochevar showed some promise earlier in the year, but after this outing it's time to drop him. He offers nothing but an occasional win.

Kershaw returns

The Dodgers have recalled Clayton Kershaw from Double-A Jacksonville. He will stay with the staff for the rest of the year, according to Dodger manager Joe Tore.

"He didn't wallow in his misery [after being demoted]," said Manager Joe Torre. "From our reports, his off-stuff has improved."

Kershaw's strikeout numbers have decreased. They were down once he reached the majors and remained down once he was sent back to Jacksonville. He still dominated his opponents.

Fantasy Impact: If Los Angeles asked Kershaw to go down and work on his offspeed stuff, it looks like he's succeeded. Kershaw can be the type of shot in the arm LA needs to make a run at the postseason.

High tech memorabilia

Not sure this is an article as much as it seems to be a press release, and a poorly written one at that. The last graph, however, strikes me as quiet funny.

Here's how it works: When a fan catches a home run ball, a security guard will link up with the fan and place a unique hologram on the ball. This information will be wirelessly up-loaded to MLB's IBM DB2 9 data server. This way, if the fan decides to sell the ball to a retailer, potential buyers can verify its authenticity immediately online.

Like the guy who catches Barry Bonds' 715th home run is going to stop and get a hologram on his ball when there are 200 lunatics trying to mug him for possession of the spheroid. Ha!

Wood might hit DL

Kerry Wood is expected to hit the DL with his blister issue. That means Carlos Marmol is the Cubs' closer for the immediate future.

Answers on Rios & Hill

Jordan Bastien, who writes for the Blue Jays' site took a couple of questions today regarding Alex Rios' power outage and Aaron Hill's status. I've been waiting for both of these subjects to come up. On Rios and the idea that last year's home run derby ruined his power stroke:

It's hard for me to believe that professional hitters can have their swings forever altered by one night of swinging for the fences. Statistics can be skewed to back up most arguments and this is no exception.

Consider that Philadelphia's Ryan Howard won the Home Run Derby in 2006 and finished with 58 homers that season. The big lefty then went on to launch 47 long balls the following year and Howard currently leads the Major Leagues with 29 home runs. Apparently, he was immune to the problem.

I agree with him that last year's home run derby likely could not alter a professional player's swing enough to stop him from hitting the long ball. Rios might only have a handful of home runs this year, but how could the derby ruin his power ability?

On Hill:

I can tell you that Hill's situation is one that the Blue Jays are definitely worried about. The second baseman was struck on the side of the head during a collision with shortstop David Eckstein on May 29 and Hill has been battling post-concussion syndrome ever since.

Hill is currently rehabbing in Florida, though he's still only able to take part in very light activities. On Saturday, Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi said no one has told him anything to believe that Hill's career could be in jeopardy, but the team isn't dismissing the thought that the second baseman might be done for the year.

Hill's injury recovery is very slow and has to raise a few red flags.