The slump is over.

A summer long hot streak now appears inevitable.

It took a lot longer than most of us expected, but Albert Pujols has finally settled into his new home, and is nearing the dominant form the Los Angeles Angels emptied the bank for. If you need evidence, look no further than the line drive home run Pujols hit in the Angels 3-0 win over the Mariners on Thursday night.

But the impressive blast held a little more significance than a simple reminder of how consistently beautiful Albert's swing is about to become. It was also a personal milestone and an all-around noteworthy accomplishment, as he became the 35th member of the 450 home run club, and the fourth-youngest to reach the mark behind only Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr. and Jimmie Foxx.

Decent company, we'd say.

(MLB.TV)As we've documented on several occasions this season, Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton is a dangerous man with a baseball bat in his hands. Whether it be an unfortunate fan, or even a defenseless scoreboard some 420-plus-feet away from home plate, you simply don't want to be in the path of any baseball he connects with solidly.

In our continuing effort to keep everybody safe and sound at the ballpark, we're now going to have to revise our warnings, because we have evidence the danger doesn't only exist when the Marlins are hitting.

It now appears Stanton is just as dangerous when he's in the field, and there's a different set of people who reside in the danger zone. Specifically, his teammates. Because as Marlins first baseman Logan Morrison nearly learned the hard way on Thursday night, you don't want to be anywhere near one of his laser throws from the outfield, either.

(US Presswire)On Wednesday night, it was a traditional Dog Day at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago.

On Thursday night, it was D-O-Double-Gizzle Day, as in the world famous rapper and entertainer Snoop Dogg, who stopped by to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before heading off to his scheduled performance at the Horseshoe Casino in nearby Hammond, Ind.

And I must say, I came away impressed with Snoop's dedication to his craft, and the results it garnered. Especially compared to the majority of celebrity first pitches we've seen lately. Not naming names, Gary Sinise.

Not only did Snoop successfully get the ball over the plate and on the fly, he did so while displaying good balance, sound mechanics,  a very deceptive delivery. And of course he gets an A+ for showmanship, concluding the performance with an homage to Usain Bolt and Tim Tebow. 

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

The Magnificent Mesoraco: Devin Mesoraco delivered a timely first on Thursday night. With his Reds trailing 2-1 in the sixth inning, the Reds rookie catcher deposited Kris Medlen's 2-0 pitch deep into the left field seats (just inside the foul pole) for his first career grand slam.

''That's kind of why I paused at the plate at the start,'' Mesoraco said. ''I wasn't sure it was going to stay fair, but it stayed true. It didn't tail. That's a pretty good sign for me as a hitter.''

It was a no-doubter, at least in terms of distance. And once the Reds handed the ball to their bullpen — even with Aroldis Chapman unavailable — the result was also no longer in doubt. Reds win it 6-3, completing their first four-game of the Braves in Cincinnati since 1980, and pushing them into first place in the NL Central.

All about Choo: It's not often that a hitter gets a good piece of a Justin Verlander offering. It's even rarer when a hitter gets all of one, but that's exactly what Indians outfielder Shin-Soo Choo did on Thursday, hammering a first inning solo home run that traveled an estimated 454 feet into Progressive Field's second deck.

Joe Smith emerges, and then retreats. (MLB.TV)The bullpen phones at Progressive Field were fully functional on Thursday afternoon, yet Cleveland Indians manager Manny Acta and his bullpen still managed to mix their signals during their 2-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

The awkward moment occurred while the Tigers were mounting a threat against starter Justin Masterson in the seventh inning. With two men aboard and one out, Acta casually strolled to the mound to discuss strategy, and perhaps gauge how much Masterson had left in the tank as he approached 100 pitches.

Meanwhile, out in the Indians bi-level bullpen stationed in right-center field, the interpretation was that Acta's appearance signified the end of Masterson's afternoon, which is an understandable assumption. It's very rare that a manager's visit doesn't involve a pitching change. But in this case, the signal never came, and reliever Joe Smith, who had jogged down the stairs and made it about 10 yards into the outfield, was forced to make a U-turn and camp out in the lower portion of the bullpen.

Chicago Cubs outfielder Tony Campana had the baseball world buzzing Tuesday night after he sailed through the air to elude the seemingly unavoidable tag of Houston third baseman Matt Downs. Our own Dave Brown even compared the athletic and creative hustle play to something we might see from Superman, or even 2011's most popular underdog, "Super" Sam Fuld.

After watching the replay several times, I'm in agreement that Campana's status should be elevated from regular guy/fourth outfielder to, at the very least, a superhero in training. He's just going to need a cape, a fancy suit and his very own theme song to complete the transformation.

Well, make that a cape and a suit, because the song has already been taken care of by Matt Spiegel — a Chicago sports radio personality who co-hosts from 9-1 every weekday on 670 The Score — who wrote, produced and recorded The Tony Campana Song — a short, but humorous parody set to Barry Manilow's Copacabana.

Fans of the Colorado Rockies haven't had a whole lot to get excited about during their ballclub's league-worst 4-16 month of May. However, when those rare moments have occurred, you can safely bet it was something produced by the bat of Carlos Gonzalez or the golden glove of shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.

On Tuesday night, it was the latter.

Tulowitzki's signature defensive play has always been the incredibly graceful backhand and jump-throw combo from deep in the hole at short. But over the years he's also proven to be just as graceful as his idol Derek Jeter at flagging down balls ticketed for center field. After chasing them down, he often punctuates the play with a standard pirouette and an accurate throw.

On this Tulotastic play, however, Tulowitzki had to combine elements from both, using the pirouette and jump-throw together, to retire Miami's Bryan Petersen and create one of the smoothest defensive gems we've seen in 2012.

That was the good.

(AP)We've seen a fairly high number of security problems at sporting events in recent weeks.

That includes the incident from earlier in the week that ultimately led to a PNC Park security guard losing a finger. Not to mention the fan that ran on the field in Baltimore last month that umpire Jeff Kellogg dealt with himself, or the woman who stumbled onto the court in Denver right in the middle of an NBA playoff game.

Perhaps it was with these episodes fresh in his mind that a Yankee Stadium security guard went above and beyond to deny access to a highly suspicous character wandering around the front gates while chewing on a toothpick on Friday afternoon.

That's one possibility. Another is that this particular security guard hasn't seen a whole lot of baseball over the years, because the person he held in question was one of the more recognizable personalities in the game. That being Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker.

Here's how Baker described the confusing confrontation just prior to the Reds 4-0 loss to the Yankees on Friday night.