Think Josh Beckett misses the American League right about now? Over there, pitchers don't have to do all of those annoying little baseball things like swing a bat or run the bases. As we've already seen in interleague play this season, Beckett is clearly not a big fan of doing either.

But now that he's been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, he kind of has to do those things, and to his credit, he actually put a little effort into it during their 2-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night. In fact, in the third inning, Beckett smoked one through the right side of the infield against Lance Lynn. Beckett really put a professional looking swing on this ball and drove it impressively to the opposite field.

Unfortunately, it didn't go for a base hit because Cardinals right fielder Carlos Beltran was playing way in on Beckett and has a really, really strong arm. Once Beltran picked the ball up after two very tidy hops that allowed his momentum to take him towards first base, he unleashed a perfect strike that nabbed the pitcher by one full step for the rare 9-3 putout.

For reasons I shouldn't have to explain, not a lot of attention or interest was directed toward the National League Central "battle" between the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros on Tuesday night. But that changed for a few scary moments in the third inning when Cubs' rookie Anthony Rizzo was involved in a very scary collision with Houston's first baseman Brett Wallace.

The collision happened after Rizzo hit a routine ground ball to second base. Houston's Jimmy Paredes would field the ball cleanly on the backhand, and then made a very high throw to first base that ended up sailing over Wallace's head despite his best attempt at a jump. Unfortunately, as Wallace was coming down from his leap, Rizzo was just arriving at the base and the two came together in a very awkward manner.

Here's a look at the collision from two different angles:

Initially there was concern Rizzo may have caught a kick or knee to the head. Thankfully that was not the case, but he still clearly got the worst of the collision as his momentum carried him quite a ways past the base, resulting in a very hard, painful landing on his back.

If you like a crazy play that has a little bit of everything, you're in luck, because the Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants provided one on Monday night.

It happened with the Rockies hitting in the second inning. Their own starting pitcher, Alex White, had just connected for his first career home run one batter earlier, so it's probably safe to assume San Francisco's Ryan Vogelsong was already in a bad mood on the mound. And his mood would not improve as Tyler Colvin smacked him in the lower leg with a one-hopper ticketed for center field.

After striking Vogelsong, the ball would roll slowly towards the first base line, allowing Buster Posey to scoop it up and make an attempt on Colvin at first. Initially, that part didn't go well either for San Francisco, because Posey's throw deflected off first baseman Brandon Belt's glove. However, instead of bouncing into short right field, allowing Colvin to advance, it hit umpire Eric Cooper and fell at his feet.

Unfortunately for Colvin, his first instinct was to make a dash for second. But fortunately for the Giants, Belt's first instinct was to retrieve the ball and quickly apply the tag on Colvin to record a wild third out:

(MLB.TV)Those begging for expanded replay in Major League Baseball may never get it in the form they're hoping for under the Bud Selig regime, but if there was ever a call to point to that could enhance their odds, it would be the blown call by umpire Jerry Meals on the final play of the Orioles' dramatic 5-4 win over the New York Yankees on Saturday night.

With runners at the corners and one out, Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira, who was making his return to the lineup after injuring his calf back on Aug. 27, hit a slow roller to second base that Robert Andino attempted to turn into a game-ending double play. Teixeira busted it hard down the line in effort to beat J.J. Hardy's relay throw and appeared to be in great shape to do so before going into a head-first slide at first base.

That ill-advised decision slowed Teixeira's momentum down just enough to make the call interesting, and then Meals — who became infamous for blowing a game-deciding call in the Pirates-Braves 19-inning marathon last July 27, robbing the Pirates of a chance to extend the game and in the opinion of some, crushing their season long momentum — made it even more interesting by immediately making a punching motion his right arm to rule Teixeira out.

Game over. Orioles move back into first place tie with Yankees in the AL East. But as replays would quickly show, Teixeira, silly idea or not, very clearly got his hand to bag before the ball made it to Mark Reynolds glove, which means he was safe, which means the tying run should have counted and the game should have continued:

(AP Photos)Sometimes the stars align perfectly. And by that I mean the 162-game schedule happens to put the most talked about and hotly debated story currently in baseball and the most opinionated personality in the game in the same city on the same weekend.

Alright, well, maybe it doesn't happen all that often, but such is actually the case this weekend as Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals host Ozzie Guillen's Miami Marlins. And without hesitation, reporters asked Guillen for his opinion on the Nationals plan to shut Strasburg down after his Sept. 12 start against the New York Mets.

Naturally, Guillen didn't hold back with his response, especially when it came to how the developing story has been covered by the media.

From the Palm Beach Post:

"It's nobody's [bleeping] business what they do with Strasburg. That's between Washington, Strasburg and the team."

Don't forget his agent. I hear he has a little pull, too.

"Those guys made a decision in spring training -- this kid is not going to be there [in late September]. A lot people have different [bleeping] opinions. They're doing this for a reason and it's not my problem.

"It's funny how people are making a big deal about it. Maybe it's TV time…

The Juice is back for its fifth season of fun! Stop by each weekday (and now on Saturdays) for an ample serving of news from the action, plus great photos, stats and video highlights.

Mr. 300: Alex Rodriguez reached another career milestone, connecting on home run No. 300 as a member of the New York Yankees in their 8-5 win over the Orioles. The two-run fifth inning blast upped New York's lead to 7-0 at the time, and also placed him in elite company as only the sixth player to hit 300 homers while wearing Yankee pinstripes. That's something he will revel in at some point I'm sure, but far more important to Rodriguez right now was getting the 'W' and reclaiming the lead in the hotly contested AL East.

'I had no idea I had 300,'' Rodriguez said. ''The only numbers we're worried about right now is Ws. Whatever you are going to do for the year is already done. The numbers are done. We're worried about one thing and that's winning games.''

Errorfest: As bad as things have gotten for the Pirates over the past 20 years, it's been a much longer time since they've played a game as poorly as their embarrassing 12-2 loss to the Cubs on Friday night. In that loss, Pittsburgh committed seven — yes, SEVEN — errors, while only producing two runs on four hits. That's more errors than hits and runs combined for those scoring at home. For perspective, that's their highest single-game error total since committing seven against the Cardinals on Sept. 16, 1985. It's also the first time a major-league team has committed seven since the Braves did it in 2004. Ouch.

What the Pittsburgh Pirates lacked in defense — committing seven team errors for the first time since Sept. 16, 1985 — the Chicago Cubs made up for it in their stunning 12-2 win at PNC Park on Friday night.

That includes one of the most sensational — and downright scary — catches we've seen this season. It happened in the sixth inning with the Cubs already up 7-0. Andrew McCutchen attempted to pull Pittsburgh closer with a blast to left center field. However, Chicago's rookie center fielder Brett Jackson was able to run the ball down, and then secured it while taking a violent face-first crash into the partially padded, partially fenced outfield wall.

Take a look at the incredible catch-and-crash yourself:

Jackson would remain on the ground for several minutes afterward but was able to get to his feet and gingerly walk off under his own power. Thankfully, immediate concerns about a possible head or neck injury were quickly dismissed upon examination, but I was just as concerned he may have cracked a kneecap or a shin after that type of impact. Those injuries were also dismissed, with the official diagnosis coming in as a badly bruised right kneecap.

The Chipper Jones farewell tour makes its final stop in New York this weekend, and we're happy to report the Mets did go out of their way to honor Jones with a special pregame press conference and presentation of his going away present.

So yes, not only will Chipper have a local pub named after him for the next three days, he'll also have the painting pictured below to hang on his wall after New York Mets COO Fred Wilpon presented it to him prior to the series opener on Friday night.

(Mets on Twitter)Artist Charles Fazzino is the man behind the painting, which as you can see acknowledges Chipper's incredible history at Shea Stadium while also hitting on the love-hate relationship between him and Mets fans — note the 'Larrry' sign down the right field line. And what's anything Mets without a Mr. Met appearance. That's an automatic.

Of course the question now that we've laid our eyes on the Mets painting is where will it rank on our list of Chipper's retirement gifts. It's not exactly a surfboard, but it's definitely something unique and creative with several cool touches included, so I'm sure it'll place near the top. Just as I'm sure that Chipper is appreciative of the gesture, regardless of what of we think.