Baseball In The Daytime: 8-1-07

As we come back down from the excitement of yesterday's trading deadline and look forward to the madness of September and October, we're left with August. And the first games of August take place this afternoon.

One will happen under a roof while the sticky Gulf Coast summer lingers outside. The Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Devil Rays take the field at 1:10 Mountain time, with starting assignments going to Josh Towers and Jason Hammel. Guh. The Jays have actually been playing some ball of late, taking eight of their last 12. That converts to 9 of 15 when you use the metric system. Find this bad boy on XM 181 and DTV 734.

The other is in the sunshine and on the grass, just like me in college. The Tigers visit the Mausoleum and the A's for a scheduled 1:35 game on XM 179 and DTV 735. For some reason Detroit is still a game up in their division, and by "some reason" I mean "Cleveland stinks right now." Nate Robertson tries to right the Good Ship Leyland opposite Dallas Braden.

And yes, if you're asking, I think the Red Sox getting Eric Gagne is good news. It's much more of a security-blanket thing than a true impact addition, as the Boston bullpen has been a strength this season. But now the workload on Hideki Okajima can be lessened, and an injury to Jon Papelbon would not put Sox fans on suicide watch. And all they gave up was Kason Gabbard, a middling minor league outfielder and a teenage Dominican project. And the Yankees didn't get shit. All in all, a damn fine day for Theo.