(@TBTimes_Rays)

Yes, a piece of fruit has reached that level of superstardom where regardless of when or where it shows up, it immediately becomes the center of attention.

Honestly, I don't know how this stuff happens. I just go along with the flow.

Anyway, Saturday was photo day for the Tampa Bay Rays, which for closer Fernando Rodney meant it was the perfect day to reintroduce the public to his "magic plantain" that he debuted during the World Baseball Classic in March.

So that's exactly what he did, and now it will be forever immortalized as it could be seen holstered in Rodney's pants before, during and after the team photo was taken.

OK, so we don't actually know if it's the same plantain he introduced in March. For all we know this one actually could have been flown in from the Dominican Republic just for the photo shoot. That said, we do know with complete certainty that Rodney had a plantain holstered and then later showed up it off to the media gathered at Tropicana Field. That alone is enough to get people talking.

The Juice returns for season No. 6! It's almost eligible for free-agency! Stop by daily for news from the action, along with great photos, stats, video highlights and more.

A wild game at Tropicana Field ended with one clutch swing of the bat by Evan Longoria. Trailing 7-6 with a runner on and two outs in the ninth, the Rays third baseman connected for his fifth career walkoff home run (the most in Rays history) off Padres closer Huston Street to extend the home team's winning streak to four.

And we do mean dramatic, because it seemed like Tampa Bay had the game well in hand with a 6-2 lead and Jeremy Hellickson rolling right along into the seventh inning. That all changed, however, when San Diego loaded the bases and then pinch-hitter Jesus Guzman delivered his first homer of the season — a grand slam — to tie it up. The Padres then reloaded the bases against reliever Jamey Wright and grabbed the lead on a walk to Carlos Quentin.

That held until the ninth, right up until Street walked Ben Zobrist with two outs and then Longoria followed with his magic to send Rays fans, and especially manager Joe Maddon, home happy.

Here's more from the Associated Press:

'It would have been among the top three worst losses of the year,'' said manager Joe Maddon, who was uncharacteristically perturbed about another blown lead.

''That's not going to happen very often,'' Maddon said. ''We were fortunate Longo was in the right spot, fortunate that Zo gets it as a hitter. You had all this talent coming together at that particular moment. But you can't go to the dance playing like that. When you get leads, you've got to put the other team away. I'm not happy with that. That's inappropriate. That's got to stop.''

Shelby Miller embraces Adam Wainwright following Saturday's game. (AP)Two things have become abundantly clear over the past 24 hours.

1. The St. Louis Cardinals starting rotation is rolling right now with Adam Wainwright and Shelby Miller serving as the bookends.

2. The Colorado Rockies are in the midst of one awful, maddening, team wide hitting slump that seems to be getting uglier by the day.

Now, what happens when you put those two ingredients together?

History, of course, as Miller completed a one-hit shutout of Colorado's punchless lineup on Friday night (retiring the last 27 batters he faced in order) and then Wainwright followed it with a two-hit shutout of his own on Saturday (retiring the first 13 Rockies in order) as the Cardinals cruised to a 3-0 win.

When put together, Cardinals pitchers retired 40 consecutive Rockies batters between Eric Young Jr.'s single leading off the game on Friday and Todd Helton's one-out walk in the fifth inning on Saturday. That tied the MLB record for most consecutive batters retired by one team versus the same opponent. That was originally set by the Texas Rangers back in 1996 when they set down 40 straight Detroit Tigers.

The Cincinnati Reds pulled out a tightly-contested 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night. They would have never done it without the presence of Brandon Phillips, who contributed in spectacular fashion with the glove and the bat during a critical seventh inning swing of fortunes.

With the Reds holding on to a slim 3-2 lead in the top half and Milwaukee mounting a scoring threat, Phillips pulled off the one of the more creative and exciting double plays you'll see.

At the time, the Brewers had runners at first and second with one out and the dangerous Ryan Braun at the plate. Braun would chop one just over the mound that Phillips had to field at the second base bag with his momentum carrying him towards third. In one incredible motion, Phillips snags the bouncer with his barehard, which is ridiculous in its own right, but he also has the presence of mind to plant his knee on the base to stop his momentum and record the force out, and then fires across his body to complete the double play at first.

Just an incredibly heads up and athletic play that very few second baseman have the ability to pull off. Not to mention perfectly timed considering the score and situation.

(@maxbatbaseball)They say good things, bad things and all things tend to come in threes. That has proven to be true for Major League Baseball this week, and unfortunately for Bud Selig and company they’re talking all three right on the chin.

Of course I’m referring to the botched replay review in Cleveland on Wednesday night that put umpire Angel Hernandez under the microscope, the misapplication of Rule 3.05(b) on Thursday night that resulted in a two-game suspension for umpire Fieldin Culbreth, and now comes MLB’s decision to enforce their banning of labeled pink bats not manufactured by Louisville Slugger during this year's Mother's Day games.

Yahoo! Sports Jeff Passan covered the controversial bat story in-depth in a piece written on Friday night. In it, he clarifies MLB’s reason for enforcing the ban. It turns out they reached an exclusive rights deal with Hillerich & Bradsby, the parent company of Louisville Slugger, to manufacture pink bats designed to bring awareness to breast cancer in exchange for “a sizable donation" to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The agreement guarantees the famous bat company’s image will always stand out from the others during MLB's Mother’s Day game, so it was certainly a worthwhile investment for them.

(USA Today)There's no doubt Bryce Harper is as tough they come.

If for some reason you need a little evidence to back that up, look no further than last Tuesday when he remained in Washington's 8-1 loss to the Braves despite bruising his left side in a collision with the Turner Field wall.

The ailment did end up costing Harper half a game last Wednesday, but his name never disappeared from manager Davey Johnson's lineup card. Even when I said Harper's chances of playing last Thursday should be considered slim, he was out there.

His performance never dipped, either, and by the time the new week began, the injury had all but succumbed to Harper's immense pain threshold.

Of course I'm only building Harper up in this manner because he actually missed Friday's 7-3 win over the Chicago Cubs with an ingrown toenail.

Yeah, I know, dust off your favorite ingrown toenail, hangnail, (insert other perceived soft injury here) joke and get it ready for the comments. But before you post it, you might want to check out the photo Harper tweeted of his toe following a procedure on Friday night.

Warning: You'll cringe and your big toe will immediately start throbbing.

(AP)As the Philadelphia media gathered in the visitor's clubhouse prior to the Phillies battle with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night, they were summoned to the dugout by Roy Halladay.

Halladay, who is scheduled for surgery to remove bone spurs and repair a frayed labrum and partially torn rotator cuff in his pitching shoulder next Wednesday, wished to get a number of things off his chest concerning his injuries and his decision to continue pitching, mostly ineffectively, through discomfort dating back to last season.

[Also: MLB punishes umpires after blown relief pitcher decision]

According to Ryan Lawrence of the Daily News, Halladay spoke uninterrupted for four minutes and delivered what he described as a heartfelt apology to the fans for his recent performance. He also apologized for his forthcoming absence from Philadelphia's rotation.

Here's an excerpt courtesy of Lawrence:

The latest episode of "Weird Baseball" takes us to Tropicana Field, where the Tampa Bay Rays right-hander Alex Cobb pulled off one of the more unusual pitching feats you'll see by striking out four San Diego Padres batters in the third inning of Friday night's series opener.

I say unusual, because it's not necessarily rare. In fact, the last time a Rays pitcher pulled it off was Aug. 25, 2011, when Jeremy Hellickson did it against the Detroit Tigers. Tony Cingrani of the Cincinnati Reds also turned the trick back on April 28, so we've seen it happen with some degree of frequency lately, but certainly not in the manner Cobb did it.

Here's what makes it different and historic: Cobb only faced four batters in the inning — Will Venable, Chase Headley, Carlos Quentin and Yonder Alonso — and struck them out in order. That achievement is not a first, either. However, the fact that Cobb still managed to allow a run in the inning is something that has not happened in baseball since at least 1916, which is when gamelogs were first kept.

As Matt Snyder of Eye on Baseball points out, there have been several occurrences in which one (all four batters in an inning strikeout) or the other (pitcher allows run in same inning as four strikeouts) have happened, but never have they occurred in the same inning. And that's not a bit surprising considering all of the craziness that had to take place for it to happen on Friday.