The Weekend Takeaway
The list of players and positions below was the Yankees’ starting lineup from game one of four against the Blue Jays, which took place in the Bronx on Thursday night.

The Thursday Takeaway
Shortly after allowing four runs in five innings in his regular-season debut, Jarrod Parker told reporters, “I didn’t have anything to go to. I’m not going to be very successful when that happens.” Unfortunately for the Athletics, it seems to be happening again and again.

Parker’s 5 1/3-inning, six-run clunker in last night’s 10-2 loss to the Orioles marked his fourth poor effort in five starts and bloated his ERA to 8.10. He has coughed up 37 hits and issued 13 walks in 23 1/3 total innings, resulting in an unsightly .366 batting average against and a 2.14 WHIP. The A’s could hardly have foreseen such a stumble from a 24-year-old coming off of a strong first year in the majors. Parker compiled a 3.47 ERA in 29 starts in 2012, and his 3.38 FIP suggested that the success was not a mirage. Meanwhile, the gradual improvement in his K:BB, which peaked at 27-to-6 in an excellent September, made Parker a popular breakout candidate before Opening Day.

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The Wednesday Takeaway
Three things used to be certain about April: showers, Tax Day, and Mat Latos slipping into an early rut. The first has washed away a plethora of games in the early going. The second came and went, as usual, on April 15. The third? After the right-hander blanked the Cubs for seven innings in a 1-0 Reds win, that might not be so certain any more.

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The Tuesday Takeaway
It didn’t take long for the Braves, who arrived in Colorado with the bitter taste of three consecutive losses at the hands of the Pirates in their mouths, to wash the skid away and begin a new string of wins. Both teams entered Tuesday’s doubleheader with a 13-5 ledger, tops in the National League, but after snagging both ends of the twin bill, Fredi Gonzalez’s squad is back to looking like the class of the senior circuit.

If the awards voting for the 2013 season were held today, Justin Upton might take home the hardware in unanimous fashion. With nine homers already under his belt, the right fielder took full advantage of the thin air at Coors Field on Tuesday, smacking a round tripper in both games to extend his major-league lead. Meanwhile, although the elder B.J. Upton is batting a far more pedestrian .160/.229/.320, he had a hand in enhancing the significance of his brother’s fifth-inning blast.

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The Monday Takeaway
It’s hard to believe, after the Brewers’ 7-1 win over the Padres last night, that Ron Roenicke’s team was once 2-8. Hard to believe, because before Milwaukee’s recent surge, no team that lost eight of its first 10 games had ever bounced back to win at least its next seven. Now the Brewers are 10-8, riding on the longest active winning streak in the majors and the franchise’s best run since August 2008.

The keys to Milwaukee’s sudden success? Improved starting pitching, ninth-inning stability, and the red-hot bat currently wielded by center fielder Carlos Gomez, none of which were present during its 2-8 start.

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The Weekend Takeaway
Remember when, as Opening Day approached, the Dodgers’ roster was teeming with surplus rotation options—when beat writers were wondering which of the extra starters would be traded, when one of those spare arms was anxiously awaiting his assignment, and when manager Don Mattingly was intrigued by the length and versatility that converted starters could offer in relief?

The most salient stories out of Camelback Ranch at the time surrounded Clayton Kershaw’s extension talks, Aaron Harang’s possible ticket out of town, and Chris Capuano’s potential conversion into a swingman. Weeks earlier, some questioned whether Hyun-jin Ryu, in whom general manager Ned Colletti had invested $36 million over six years, was in good enough shape to merit a spot in the crowded starting five.

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The Thursday Takeaway
When the Giants last finished a season with a rotation ERA north of 4.00 and outside of the league’s top 10, the year was 2008, Tim Lincecum was in his first full season, and the organization had not yet won its first world championship in San Francisco. If that streak is to live on through 2013, however, Bruce Bochy’s starting five already has work to do.

Following Thursday’s 7-2 loss to the Brewers, in which Matt Cain was charged with seven earned runs over six innings of work and saw his ERA rise to 7.15, the Giants’ rotation ERA stands at 5.07. Barry Zito, who did not allow an earned run in either of his first two starts, coughed up nine in 2 2/3 frames in the series opener, bringing his ERA for the season to 4.86. Ryan Vogelsong’s seven-inning, three-run effort in the middle match pared his ERA down to 5.89. Tim Lincecum, who did not pitch at Miller Park, sports a 5.63 mark. Put that all together, and, were it not for Madison Bumgarner’s 1.77 ERA, the quintet’s aggregate figure would shoot up to 5.99, and the team’s record might be well south of 9-7.

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The Wednesday Takeaway
Game two of three between the Tigers and Mariners began with a strikeout—by Felix Hernandez of Austin Jackson. Few first at-bats have ever proven to be a better harbinger of the dozens still to come.

By the time Brayan Pena endured a collision with Justin Smoak to secure the final out in the bottom of the 14^th inning, the teams had combined to strike out 40 times, three shy of the major-league record. The Angels and Athletics teamed up to set that record on July 9, 1971, in a 20-inning contest that featured a whole lot of whiffs and only one run. Given the 37 additional at-bats that they were afforded, the Tigers and Mariners would likely have smashed it. 

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The Tuesday Takeaway
What happens when two teams play a baseball game 30 minutes after the conclusion of another baseball game, in which neither starter recorded a sixth-inning out? What if both of those games are played in freezing conditions, just hours after snow was cleared off the playing surface, and with temperatures dropping rapidly as the nightcap wears on? Oh, and just for good measure, what if, after burning through their bullpens in the matinee, both managers are forced to turn to their relief corps in the fifth inning of game two?

What happens is a four-hour-and-19-minute-long mess, in which the teams combine for 17 runs, 25 hits, and five errors. Thirteen pitchers are asked to throw 391 total pitches. The winning team’s star All-Star left fielder calls it “the best worst night ever.” The home team’s mascot pulls double duty after assisting the grounds crew. And one of the visiting team’s beat writers begins to lose his mind while wondering why viewers are still tuned in to a game they are not being paid to watch. 

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The Monday Takeaway
Fans of efficient pitching were treated to the epitome of their preferred craft last night, when Cliff Lee and Bronson Arroyo went head-to-head in game one of a three-game series between the Phillies and Reds. The control artists both came into the evening with sub-5.4 percent walk rates since the beginning of the 2009 season, ranking among the league’s 15 stingiest qualifying starters over that span, and even in the bandbox that is Great American Ball Park, they did not disappoint.

For six swift innings, Lee and Arroyo traded zeros, the former aided by an incredible catch by center fielder Ben Revere, the latter by a moderately generous strike zone enforced by home-plate umpire Jim Joyce. Lee needed only 67 pitches to record his first 18 outs; Arroyo fired 70. And, as expected, to that point in the ballgame, neither of them issued a walk.

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The Weekend Takeaway
B.J. Upton is 7-for-43. Jason Heyward is 4-for-39. Brandon Beachy, Freddie Freeman, Brian McCann, and Jonny Venters are on the disabled list. And Kris Medlen, whose stunning 120-to-23 K:BB effort last summer deflected questions about Atlanta’s rotation depth, issued six walks and notched only four strikeouts in his first two starts of the year.

So, the Braves are sinking, watching their playoff odds erode as the Nationals fortify an early National League East lead, right? Not exactly.

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The Thursday Takeaway

Carlos Quentin called it “unfortunate.” Don Mattingly called it “ridiculous.” It was the result of the 88^th pitch of Zack Greinke’s start, a 3-2 offering in a 2-1 game, which tailed inside into Quentin’s upper arm, stirring the season’s first benches-clearing brawl.

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