The American League’s worst defensive team was up to its usual tricks Wednesday as two errors by the Royals led to a four-run sixth inning for Oakland – all the scoring the A’s would need to wrap up a 4-3 win. With the loss, KC has dropped into a tie for last place in the AL Central with the Indians and its play against Oakland (1-6 for the season) is just one reason why this team is once again sitting at the bottom of the division standings.

Where has the Cardinal offense gone? They piled up 46 runs in their eight-game winning streak, but have been shut out in back-to-back games since then — the first time they’ve been blanked in consecutive games in a major league record 2,370 contests.

Things are bad enough already. Keep in mind that just 10 days ago Minnesota was in first place in the AL Central. Now, it’s in third place, 3.5 games back of the super hot White Sox, who are a half game up on Detroit. Hell, even Kansas City, playing better of late, has pulled within seven games of the Twins, as inconceivable as it seems that the Royals could overtake Minny.

Baltimore was actually winning a few games before this most recent downward spiral, so have actually pulled within 15.5 games of the Blue Jays. Hey, I’m trying to be nice here.

Having said that, after a simply pathetic May, Rodriguez looked to be smarting up with quality outings in his first two June starts. Then, he tossed another pair of serious stinkers before his solid start Thursday. The fact that it came against an offense like San Francisco’s, that’s been middling at best, doesn’t exactly swell me with confidence that Rodriguez is out of the woods. I mean, come on. His walks are way up, his strikeouts are way down and his hit rate has soared. There’s just not much to hang your hat on as far as being a hopeful Rodriguez owner goes. The fact that he’s generally been a worse second half pitcher paints an even grimmer picture.

If it wasn’t common knowledge he was hurt, wouldn’t someone have picked him up? I smell something stinky here. Anyone know more about this situation?

Better yet, he hasn’t really sacrificed any power to achieve this. God damn, I hate the Yankees…as if they needed another .300 hitter. Last night, they continued to feast on the Orioles, beating Baltimore for a tenth straight time to move three games ahead of the Red Sox.