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A violent thunderstorm and the threat of tornadoes stopped the Texas Rangers-Chicago White Sox game in the fourth inning on Tuesday night and authorities went even farther with their precautions, evacuating fans from the stands at Rangers Ballpark.

With civil defense sirens blaring because the Arlington area was under a tornado warning, fans were directed away from seating areas — many through the ballpark's dugouts — and were reportedly funneled to underground tunnels inside the park.

Officials probably did not want to take any chances, considering the recent destruction in Joplin, Mo. and elsewhere because of tornadoes.

Hail the size of golf balls came down after the grounds crew put the tarp on the field.

Watch the hail come down

Reporters on the scene (and folks watching on TV) tweeted ominous photos of clouds, precipitation coming down and fans filing through any open exit.

Thankfully, the line of storms yielded no tornadoes. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News wondered where

docmortonSome weekday evenings, the Stew looks at a few approaching games that will be worth monitoring Feel free to discuss the night's happenings in the comments below.

Braves at Pirates, 7:05 ET He's a Doc Halladay impersonator by day, a troubadour musician by night. Catch groundball pitcher Charlie Morton (5-1, 2.62 ERA) as he tries to continue his early run of success against the Braves team that included him in a package for Nate McLouth a few years back. A win puts the 22-24 Pirates back to within a game of .500.

Rays at Tigers, 7:05 Over the past two seasons, Tampa Bay has been perfect game'd by Mark Buehrle and Dallas Braden, no-hit by Edwin Jackson and near no-no'ed by Brandon Morrow. In news that could end up being related, Justin Verlander takes the hill for the Tigers tonight.

Marlins at Giants, 10:15 Is it too early to label something as a potential playoff preview? Of course it is. Still, this series between two of the NL's best teams should be a good one. Ricky Nolasco has

acta524

Holy smokes, Stewies, has it been way too long since our last Create-a-Caption contest. As an apology, please accept this picture of Cleveland Indians manager Manny Acta taking a break from winning the AL Manager of the Year award to argue with umpire Rob Drake during Monday night's win over the Boston Red Sox.

So have at it, amateur Internet copy editors of the world. How should this caption read?

Click below for winners from our last C-a-C featuring a basketball-loving Sammy Sosa: {YSP:MORE}

Sammy Sosa feeling the Heat in Miami

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1st — Tf1. "'You borrow a guy's blood and urine for one measly decade, and you're stuck buying him courtside tickets for life."

2nd — Joe Mama. "I've got to get the number of this guy's dermatologist."

3rd — Curt S. "Is this the guy in charge of casting for Scarface II? Between my new haircut and nearly unbuttoned shirt, I should be a shoo-in!"

HM — Fan. "I think I'm gonna get a nose like that."

btb1Remember those kids who used to clean out the "please take one" candy dishes of the neighbors who couldn't be home for trick-or-treating on Halloween?

Yeah, they apparently all grew up, moved to Wisconsin and became fans of the Milwaukee Brewers.

In what is simply a silly but greedy story, several fans reportedly ruined the Brewers' big "Where's Bernie?" promotion on Tuesday morning by showing up early at the city's lakefront to find the 1,000 "lawn jockey" statues of team mascot Bernie Brewer that had been hidden in different locations. Once there, the gluttons did further pre-dawn damage to Wisconsin's friendly reputation by scooping up multiple statues before the promotion had even started.

Sounds like the type of people who wouldn't share from their bag of cheese curds ...

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: {YSP:MORE}

btb2Under the rules, fans were told to arrive at 7 a.m. and take one of the ornaments [...] But in what Brewers spokesman Tyler Barnes said were isolated cases, some

thome524Michael Rand of the Star Tribune's always-excellent "RandBall" took time Tuesday morning to lament that Monday night should have been all about Jim Thome and the two titanic taters he launched at Target Field after returning from the disabled list.

Writes Rand:

It should have been a pure celebration focused squarely on the fact that a 40-year-old man can step off the disabled list and turn a three-run deficit into a party with two mighty swings of the bat — one producing a 465-foot blast to right, the other proving that a Twins left-handed hitter can, indeed, hit a home run to left.

Alas, the rest of the Twins were either unwilling or unable to go along with that storyline as they blew a late three-run lead to lose 8-7 in 10 innings to the Seattle Mariners. The defeat changed the frame and focus of the postgame biopsy.

"Ultimately, it's all about winning," Thome later told the reporters who asked about his big day at the plate.

I hate to break it to both Rand and baseball's leading

corey_helmetFor the first five weeks of the baseball season, no-hitter alerts went out nearly every day, with Francisco Liriano and Justin Verlander accomplishing the feat just four days apart in early May. Recently, the no-hitter front has quieted down, but in its place a wave of dominant offensive performances has come.

On Monday night, Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Corey Hart became the fourth person over the past 12 days to hit three home runs in a game. He also tied a franchise record by driving in seven runs in the Brewers' 11-3 victory against the Washington Nationals.

This three-homer thing is catching on:

• Carlos Beltran also did it at Colorado on May 12.

• Jose Bautista, who hit his league-leading 19th home run Monday night, hit three in Minnesota on May 15.

• Jason Giambi became the second-oldest player to do so, at Philadelphia on Thursday.

As with any performance of this nature, there's a unique circumstance involved somehow. For Hart, it was that he entered this game without a home

AJ524

It looks like we can strike "Secret Service agent" from the list of possible post-baseball gigs for Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski.

Clint Eastwood's "Frank Horrigan," Pierzynski was decidedly not during Monday night's 4-0 loss to the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas. Placed in the line of fire on a sixth-inning foul pop-up by Adrian Beltre, Pierzynski was unable to make the play as the ball came crashing down into the owners box containing former President George W. Bush, team president Nolan Ryan and their wives. {YSP:MORE}

The ball bounced without harming anyone but I mean, still, A.J ... their lives were in your hands, Dude! (Everyone together now: "This is our concern, Dude.")

In Pierzynski's defense, the play was a difficult can of corn to haul in as he had to wrap himself around the protective screen in order to even make an attempt. And it wasn't until the play was over that he realized the play had put him in a prime position to hail the chief.

From the Associated

pujols_pointNine innings, nine items to get you going. Ladies and gentleman of the Stew, take a sip of morning Juice.

1. Took him long enough: After 26 games and 119 plate appearances without going into a home run trot — the longest drought of his career — St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols went deep against the Padres in a 3-1 victory Monday night. Eyewitnesses claim Pujols hit two other balls harder, but they were merely long outs at PETCO.

Watch Albert get phat

Albert's still not right; He's batting .268/.340/.421 with eight homers, but manager Tony La Russa says opponents are pitching Pujols like he's batting .350, so look for him to get hot, I guess.

Scott Miller at CBS Sports put together an amusing list of occurrences since Pujols previously went yard April 23. Most notable: The Cardinals went 16-10 and Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista hit 12 homers. TWELVE-UH.

2. Well, they didn't waste any time: After long absences due to injury, Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz returned and each hit a