For the final a.m. in baseball's regular season, let's rise and shine together to recap the most recent diamond doings. Roll Call starts in Oakland, where Athletics manager Bob Geren paid tribute to his bullpen by eliminating the middle man — which, in this case, happened to be the starting pitcher — and simply handed the ball to his relief corps. Sounds innocent enough, but ...

Game of the Day: Angels 5, Athletics 3

Welcome to the future: The A's scratched right-hander Edgar Gonzalez for their season finale and replaced him with rookie left-hander Brad Kilby(notes) — rookie reliever Brad Kilby —  who pitched two scoreless innings against the AL West champions. Kilby was followed by six more relievers, none of whom went more than 1 1/3 innings apiece. Nothing was wrong with Gonzalez, other than his 0-4 record with a 5.26 ERA. Geren said he simply was making a gesture of gratitude to the A's bullpen.

From MLB.com:

"The bullpen has been a strength all year, and we'd like to finish our season on a positive," Geren said. "So we're going to go with our best guys. You might see anywhere from five to eight pitchers today, depending on how that game goes."

Moneybull: Fiddlesticks! I think general manager Billy Beane (above, not Frankenstein) is up to something. The idea that Geren is doing this just to be nice to his relief pitchers is preposterous. This is Beane's handiwork.

First, everybody on the A's had to learn to spell OPS. Then, nobody was allowed to steal second base. After only a limited amount of success with those axioms, Beane is moving on. I bet the radical fundamentalist A's general manager is experimenting with a new style of game management, one which entirely bypasses the expensively bad starting pitcher in favor of something like what the A's did Sunday.

Paying a staff of middle relievers is a lot cheaper than locking up New Mulder, New Zito and New Hudson to long-term contracts.

That's a non-starter: This idea will catch like Johnny Bench. In 10 years, you watch: The typical baseball team will have three regulars in starting rotations with the other two spots filled out by everyone else on the pitching staff — which will have up to 15 guys on it. Major league rosters will expand to 27, which will be fine with owners, because the extra spots will be taken by rookies and other low-paid middle relievers rather than better-paid, but bad, starters. A "quality start" will devolve into three innings and one earned run.

Like a mad gene splicer, Beane is speeding up the evolution of relief pitching. We thought it was Antonio Alfonseca's(notes) sixth finger, but that was a ruse, a distraction. This experiment is just the first stage, people! Wake up! Brad Kilby was only the first! They're here already! You're next! You're next, You're next...!

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Feelin' Rundown (one of us, one of us, one of us):

Tigers 5, White Sox 3: Rookie Ricky Porcello ain't scared of no Twinkies.

Twins 13, Royals 4: ... And we'll see you tomorrow afternoon!

Mariners 4, Rangers 3: Asked why he might not return, Ken Griffey smiled and thought of home in Orlando, Fla.

"I've got a 15-, 13- and 7-year old," he said. "Other than that, I have no reason not to."

Nationals 2, Braves 1 (15 inn.): The Nats season is finally dead, dawg.

Cubs 5, D-backs 2: Mark Reynolds(notes) finishes with 223 strikeouts. With a little work, 300 is possible.... Cubs trail the Cards by just seven in the all-important losses column with none to play for the Cubs.

Brewers 9, Cardinals 7 (10 inn.): I can't believe Tony La Russa is old enough to get the senior discount at IHOP. Get the hamburger club.

Mets 4, Astros 0: Marty, let's hop in the DeLorean, go back to May and warn the Mets to run away and hide before every single person in the Borough of Queens goes on the disabled list. They'd never believe us, Future Boy!

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1-2-3 (we're outta here):

Phillies 7, Marlins 6 (10 inn.): Cairo vs. Rockies.

Red Sox 12, Indians 7: Angels in 3 1/2.

Dodgers 5, Rockies 3: Brad made manager!

Giants 4, Padres 3 (10 inn.): Panda HR FTW.

Orioles 5, Blue Jays 4 (11 inn.): No mora Melvin.

Reds 6, Pirates 0: No trusty Dusty.

Yankees 10, Rays 2: Holy Jeebus, A-Rod.

Related: Morning Juice